Fic: Heard it throught the Grapevine, Chapter 5/5 (CSI Miami, Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko)
Title: Heard it throught the Grapevine, Chapter 5/5
Fandom: CSI Miami
Pair: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always welcome.
CSI Miami Main List
Chapter 1/5
Chapter 2/5
Chapter 3/5 (NC-17)
Chapter 4/5, Part I
Chapter 4/5, Part II (NC-17)
“It’s Alexx.” Ryan informed and closed the blinds on the kitchen window. “Her car’s on the street.”
“What do we do now?” Eric fretted and he almost spilled his coffee. “We’re gonna have to let her in.”
“Tell her the truth I guess. Unless you don’t want to-”
“The whole lab already thinks we’re an item. Reality is weirder than made up rumours.”
The doorbell rang again.
Eric approached the door like a sheep walking to the slaughterhouse. He opened the door and an aggravated ME walked in.
“Morning, boys.” She took a long look at Eric, then Ryan and then Eric again. “Eric… I assume you apologised like I told you.”
“Yeah.” Eric admitted and couldn’t keep a small grin away from his face. “Over and over again. Almost twenty-four hours.”
“I would suggest a change of clothing before you go to work, but why bother.” She stated and accepted the cup of coffee Ryan had poured for her. “And Eric?”
“Yeah?”
“If the other part of that rumour ever comes true, I’ll make you suffer.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.” He nodded solemnly. “And Alexx?”
“What?”
“You could look a bit more surprised.”
“No. When someone is so out of touch with what’s going as you were around Ryan, there has to be something going on underneath.”
“How the hell did you know about it? Even I didn’t know about it!”
Alexx and Ryan shared an amused little look, and Eric decided to withdraw all further questions.
-------------------------
“What do we have here…?” Ryan leaned against the doorframe and enjoyed watching Cooper squirm against the wall. “Eric?”
“I’m not sure, but neither are the ladies of the lab.” Eric nodded and smirked widely. “Danny boy… have you noticed anything weird going on?”
“You mean besides the fact that we’ve been doing it for a year, and you’ve been cheating on me left and right?” Ryan smirked. "I think that`s one of the biggies."
“Guys, it was just a joke!” Cooped lifted his hands up to signal surrender. “How was I supposed to know she would tell it to the whole lab?”
“What do you think?” Eric turned to Ryan. “Is he honest?”
“He’s gotta be. Just look at how he’s shaking.”
“Yeah, he looks like we’re gonna beat him up.”
“And then take him to Alexx`s morgue and start the post while he’s still barely alive.”
“Do you think we should do that?”
“Could be messy…” Ryan pretended to ponder the issue. “Maybe not. Too much paperwork.”
“And I would never hit a woman.” Eric agreed. “Not even one, who still has her nuts intact.”
“Right, maybe we should tell him about that.”
Both men turned to Cooper, grinning like two escaped mental patients. Cooper shivered with unspecified horror, and waited.
“We both had to take yesterday off.” Ryan started. “We weren’t feeling that good.”
“But it got a lot better.” Eric added.
“It did, and when we had handled some more urgent matters… several times…. We decided that violence is too harsh for you.”
“So we recruited Valera to do some of our dirty work for us.”
“And she was more than happy to do it. By the way…” Ryan pulled an envelope from his pocket and gave it to Cooper. “We ran into that blond from prints and she asked us to give you this.”
“What is it? A letter bomb?” Cooper opened the envelope. Inside it was a pretty card with few lines scribbled the back. “Congratulations on your brave decision. It must have been a tough issue for you, but all of us girls are rooting for you. When you’re ready to show off at work, call me. I know a great place where they sell shoes in larger sizes.”
“So that’s what it was.” Ryan chuckled. “I have to admit, I kinda guessed.”
“Me too. Should we explain it to him, or let him figure it out by himself?”
“We’re not that cruel." Ryan pointed a free chair and send Cooper a glare that didn`t allow objections. "You better sit down for this, Coopie.”
Cooper sat down and the swivelling chair almost run away under him.
“You probably already figured out that we know how you’ve been trying to get a date.”
“By eliminating the competition.” Eric accused, but his voice didn’t have much heat in it, just amusement. “So we decided that the best revenge is an eye for an eye. In this case, a rumour for a rumour.”
“Would you like to know why we’re so merciful?” Ryan asked. “That’s because your little stunt actually made some things clear between us, so we can’t really hold it against you.”
“Yep.” Eric agreed and gave Ryan a little peck on the lips. “And that realisation was wilder than any lab gossip.”
“You two…?” Cooper eyes were wide as saucers. “You gotta be kidding, guys. This is part of the joke, right?”
“Nope.” Ryan stated and picked up the card form the table to take a look at it. “Pretty kitty, isn’t it? Anyway, you probably want to know why she mentioned shoes.”
“That would be because you’re gonna undergo some snip-snipping soon. You’ve already started the hormone treatments.” Eric informed. “And there’s note from you on the notice board asking people to call you Danielle, to make the adjustment easier.”
“And that when you get to the point where you start wearing ladies clothes in public, you will not accept any kind of looks down your cleavage, no matter how big your future implants are.” Ryan added. “Valera got the ball rolling yesterday, so you can go and tear the note off if you want. Everyone has probably seen them by now.”
“Now that we’ve done our duty here, I could eat something.” Eric said cheerfully. “Lunchtime?”
“Sounds good to me.” Ryan agreed. “And Cooper… one more thing. Whatever you do, stick to pants. You don’t have the legs to wear skirts.”