Fic: White Light, Chapter 20/20 (CSI Miami, Eric Delko / Ryan Wolfe)
Title: White Light, Chapter 20/20
Pairing: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Notes: Inspired by the movie Just Like Heaven
CSI Miami Main List
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 (NC-17) Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 (NC-17) Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19
Five months later
“After those stairs I don’t even need my exercises, that was enough.” Ryan leaned heavily on his cane and walked into the apartment. “Next time I move, I’ll make sure the elevator is working.”
“Yeah, I’m loaded like a mule and you’re complaining.” Eric whined as he staggered inside. The pile of moving boxes in his hands was waving dangerously as he walked. “I don’t expect you to carry these, but can you at least be a bit more sympathetic?”
“You’re the one who asked me to move back in.” Ryan grinned smugly. “Back to my apartment.”
“My apartment now.”
“How many times do we have to talk about this? And you said your buddy would come and help with this.”
“And they are helping, they’re outside unpacking the stuff from the car.”
“When did they show up?”
“During those twenty minutes it took you to walk those stairs.”
“Watch out or I’ll kick you to the couch for my first night back.”
“With that leg? Not gonna happen.”
“That’s right, insult an invalid.”
“You’re an invalid when you wanna guilt me to do something.”
“It works!”
“Yeah, because I can always hide your cane when you get too annoying. Where do you want the books?”
“Living room, you don’t have that many books in your shelf anyway.”
“I got DVDs!”
“In your bookshelf.”
“A shelf is a shelf.”
Ryan hobbled to the living room and slumped down onto the couch. He reached down to rub his legs, groaning deeply. The physical therapy had worked well. Most of his body had snapped back thanks to young age and good basic heath, but his left was still considerably weaker. The doctors had predicted he would walk with his cane permanently, but it didn’t really bother him. Compared to everything that could have happened it only felt like a small nuisance. His uncle had found him a cane with a silver handle, that was shaped like a stylised snakes head. He twirled it in his hand and grinned, imagining himself as a moustache twirling Bond- villain or a debonair gentleman from a bygone age.
“Good thing we got moving men to get your furniture, because you’re books are already killing my back. Couldn`t you leave these to your uncle`s place?”
“Nope, you never know when you need them.”
“Like this…” Eric picked up few of the books from the box. “…Chemistry textbook. You got your degree, you don’t need to study for it anymore.”
“Maybe I’ll wanna refresh my memory.”
“Yeah…” Eric eyed the cover. “Have you though about what you’re going to do now?”
Ryan shot him a dark glare. They had avoided talking about Ryan’s work after it had become clear he would not be able to return to the PD.
“I’m going to put that degree to good use.” Ryan’s expression lightened up little by little. “I already got one job offer.”
“Really? I didn’t even know you’d applied for anything.”
“I didn’t want to think about it before I knew for sure. It’s been few years since I got my degree, and I haven’t done anything like that since then, but in this job working in the PD may actually be useful.”
“So what is it? Teaching or-”
“No, it’s in a lab. Can you imagine me teaching? I would blow a fuse after the first day.”
“It’s in Miami, right?”
“Yeah, and we could actually drive to work together in the morning.” Ryan grinned like a cat that was yanking the mouse by its tail.
“It’s not… tell me it’s not what I think it is…”
“Depends on what you think it is.”
“That research lab where they did those weird experiments with cadavers and… wait, that place burned down… What other labs is there?”
“How bout the crime lab?”
“Yeah, there’s that and… Hey!”
“You’re not at your sharpest today.” Ryan commented. “If I take it, I’ll start next month.”
“What do you mean If? Of course you’ll take it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Weeeellll…” Ryan leaned back and looked unbearably smug. “I don’t want to distract you from your work.”
“You think you could distract me?”
“I know I can distract you. I would distract you right now, but I don’t want to give your friends any more free shows.”
“They already caught us making out on Calleigh`s couch when she was getting ready. Nothing can shock them after that.”
“It was her fault, who takes forty-five minutes to get her face ready? Just be glad we had our clothes on.”
“I never get naked on other people’s couches.” Eric stated virtuously. “I had to pay for a new couch once and that was enough.”
“What did you get on the old one?”
“It was a housewarming party, most of people were already gone, I was drunk and there a was pretty blond with her panties around her ankles. Stuff happened and some stains don’t come off suede no matter what you try.”
“Whose couch was it?”
“I`m not telling, but… What are we gonna do about it?”
“What?”
“You have a couch too.”
“So?”
“When your stuff comes, we’ll have two of everything. Tables, and chairs and stuff like that.”
“What’s your point?”
“What are we gonna do with them?”
“That’s easy. We’ll take this couch to the bedroom and put mine here. We can check the rest of the stuff when it gets here and think what we’ll keep and what we`ll throw away.”
“You wanna have a couch in the bedroom?”
“Yeah.” Ryan grinned and toyed with the handle of his cane. “That way I can kick you to the couch even with my bad leg.”