The Delicate Brothers - ACT 1 (10/17)
Title: The Delicate Brothers - ACT 1
Author: ladygray99
Rating: NC17
Chapter 10/17
Series: Whitman
Characters/Pairings:Charlie/Colby, Don/OFC, Alan/OFC, Ian/OMC/OFC, Megan/Larry, Tarry Lake, David Sinclair, Matt Li.
Word count: 2,816
Warnings/Spoilers: Threeways, spankings, shaving, sexual discipline, gross descriptions of crime scenes, masturbation, medical stuff related to pregnancy and childbirth, original characters.
Summary: Life progresses, life happens, life perseveres, and life is better with someone by your side.
Notes: Master Notes for Story. This is mostly Megan's baby shower and a lot of Don and Anne talking.
Beta: None, feel free to point out typos of which there are many I am sure.
Chapter 10
David accepted the cup of tea from his grinning boss. Mattie must have had another first. David could always tell because Don would come in with coffee or doughnuts or something for everyone and have a stupid grin on his face.
"Okay, what has you grinning today?" David asked cutting to the chase.
Don spread his arms wide. "My son is not brain damaged."
David was a little confused. "Okay? I thought you got all those MRIs done after he was born?"
"We did. Last night Mattie said his first words right on schedule, not even adjusting two months."
"Since there's a lot of money going around on this one, what was his first word?" Colby asked.
Don looked a little sheepish. "Shoo."
"Shoe?" David was trying to hold back laughter.
"Well I think it was more shoo as in shoo fly 'cause that's what Sasha was singing to him when he said it."
"Shoo?" David repeated.
"But his second word was Da and he was actually looking at me when he said it." Don added quickly.
"Congratulations."
"But, to return to my original point. He can speak, walk, pick up small things with his thumb and fore finger, recognize himself in a mirror, make eye contact, return smile, and he sleeps through the night. Developmentally speaking all I have left to do is teach him how to throw a curve ball and sign him up for college."
Colby gave Don a pat on the back. "Congratulations."
David knew he couldn't give Don too much grief. The doctors' had given Don and Anne all kinds of warnings about possible brain damage and developmental problems but they also said that the worst ones would make themselves known within the first couple of years.
Don sunk into his own chair looking terribly pleased with himself.
"So when's the next one showing up?" Colby asked probably as a joke.
Don sipped at his coffee. "Couple years, maybe."
David choked on his tea a bit. "Seriously?"
Don shrugged. "Well," Don dragged out the word. "It hasn't been that bad."
"Um... You do remember your two months in NICU right?"
Don just waved his hand. "We've already got that bit taken care of. Won't be a problem next time."
David and Colby looked at each other. "Colic Don, colic."
"And croop." Colby added.
"Teething."
"Stomach flu."
"I'm sure it's easier the second time around." David and Colby leveled identical looks at Don who obviously hadn't realized what he'd just said. "Okay, Charlie was a special case."
"We're going to remind you of this moment, Don."
"We're not trying yet. We're still just thinking about it."
"Okay, but in a few years when you come in here with baby puke on your tie again don't expect any sympathy from us."
~
David braced himself. He was heading into no man's land. At least he had backup. Colby was with him, along with Don, and Matt Li.
"Okay gentlemen," Don said crisply. "You all have your lists and we have one hour. And I recommend you all get at least one receiving blanket. Megan has no idea how many of those she's going to go through." And with that Don pushed open the doors to the baby store.
Megan's krav maga class and Larry's grad students were arranging a joint baby shower and Don and Anne were hosting it since they had the largest place, and since Megan didn't really have that many female friends the men in her life found themselves on the invite list. It was possibly a little early for a baby shower. Megan still had almost three months to go but she was due mid-January and no one wanted to think about trying to have a baby shower in between all the holiday parties and general chaos.
David looked around at the large store filled with little things in pink and blue and yellow. And women, outside of their team there wasn't a guy in sight. David looked down at the extensive list of things that apparently babies and new moms need. Some of the larger things had already been taken care off. Larry's students had clubbed together for a cradle. Charlie was getting the the stroller/car seat set. Don was getting Larry some kind of sling contraption that would let him carry the baby and write on a chalk board at the same time. Colby told him that Charlie and Mattie had even field tested it for just that ability.
A very brave sales girl approached David and Colby with a polite smile. "May I help you?" she asked.
David held out the list. "We've got to get something for a baby shower?"
"Do you know if it's going to be a boy or a girl?" The young woman asked.
"I got twenty buck on it being a girl." Colby said.
"So it's probably going to be a boy."
"Well, we have plenty of gender neutral baby clothes and toys."
"Um... Actually I was thinking the baby bag? Those are important, right?"
"Very important, right this way." The girl lead them over to a wall of large bags that were pink, blue or yellow and a surprising number had bunnies on them.
David looked at Colby. "What do you think?"
"Seriously man, can you picture Megan carrying anything with a bunny on it?"
David cringed and looked around.
Colby turned to the sales girl. "Okay, look, Megan, the mom to be, she's an FBI agent. Good tactical skills, brutal in the interrogation room, one of the best shots in the office, she teaches krav maga, I've seen her drop kick guys twice her size. Got anything that says 'yes I have a baby but I can still kick your ass into next Thursday?'"
The shop girl nodded. "I know just what you're looking for. Follow me."
David found himself lead into a far corner of the store and tucked into that corner were baby bags made of various shades of leather or wool. They looked more like oversized, tasteful, hand bags. The little sign advertised them as being for the corporate mother.
David picked up a light brown leather bag. "What do you think?" He asked Colby.
"I think it matches her shoulder holster."
David flipped the bag around a few times checking out the pockets and zippers. There was a small zipped pocket on the outside with some sort of extra thick lining in it. "What's this one for?" he asked the sales girl.
"It's a discrete pocket for the dirty dippers."
David put the bag over his shoulder and let his arm naturally hang down. His hand fell right to the pocket. He opened the little pocket up and slid his Glock in. He looked at Colby. "It fits perfect."
"I'm sure it wasn't meant for that." The sales girl said quickly sounding quite flustered.
"This is LA, you never know."
David retrieved his gun, looked at the price tag and felt his heart stop. Colby leaned over and made a small choking noise.
"Go halves with you?" Colby asked.
"You won't be getting a Christmas present."
"I'll live. It's for Megan."
David took the bag off and handed it to the sales girl. "We'll take it. Oh, we also need receiving blankets?"
~
The closest thing Anne had had to a baby shower was a shopping spree with Charlie two months after Mattie was born. In a way that was why she had volunteered to host Megan's, to experience the whole thing, even if it was second hand. In the end she realized it was pretty much just like throwing any other party just with cheap pink champagne and pink and blue cupcakes.
Most of the cupcakes had been eaten when they moved onto the present opening bit. On the level of cool presents one of Don's tech guys had found a beautiful solar system mobile that was made out of some sort of acrylic so the planets looked like blown glass or crystal. It played one of the calmer bits of The Planets. Anne had privately slipped Megan one of the more comfortable brands of breast pumps she'd found. She also offered to do a family portrait after the baby was born and had hair.
Megan opened a large gift from David and Colby and pulled out a very cool looking leather baby bag. Anne was a little envious. She'd always considered herself a little hip and Mattie's battered blue bag was definitely not hip.
Megan's krav maga class had gone practical and several of them had clubbed together for a hospital grade counter top, bottle sterilizer. One of her student's claimed that it could do a very nice steamed Asian chicken and veg once the baby didn't need it anymore.
The baby sling Don had got for Larry seemed to be a big hit. It was going to be interesting to see how Larry adjusted to being a parent full time. Even though Anne was used to working at home there had been a few hard moments there where she realized a mini person, who was more or less a stranger, prone to screaming, and couldn't speak her language was completely running her life. She had never been so glad to have cut her old friends completely out of her life in those moments, because if anything could have tempted her back onto junk it would have been the month Mattie decided to have colic, followed by a month of croup.
One of the last little gifts to be opened was a book of baby names with meanings and histories. One of Larry's students picked it up and started randomly reading out names. It it quickly became a game of explaining why each name was horrible and grossly inappropriate to someone.
"Amy." The student read out.
"My ex-wife's lawyer." One of Megan's students said.
"Arthur."
"Serial killer." Don said.
"Anthony."
"Stoner ex- roommate."
"Carl."
"Also a serial killer."
"Beatrix."
"One of my ex's," Charlie said.
"Cindy."
"My ex-wife."
"Charlotte."
"I like that one." Charlie said.
"You would."
"Crystal."
"No!" Every federal agent, Charlie, and Larry snapped at once.
Larry's student nearly jumped out of her skin. "Okay. Um... David?"
"That's the best name yet," David said.
"I out rank you." Don pointed out. "Donald is a good name."
"Sure, if you're a duck." Charlie said. Don tossed a wadded up napkin at him.
~
Don pinched the bridge of his nose as he sank into his bed. "I know champagne is a guaranteed headache but I think that pink coloring has made it worse somehow."
"Your liver just isn't what it used to be." Anne informed him as she came out of the bathroom. Don took a second to leer at his wife even if she was in a flannel night shirt. It was on his daily to do list to keep his marriage in good shape; spend at least a few minutes talking, spend at least a few minutes listening, be sure to say 'I love you', and look at his wife in a sexual manner even if he was too tired to do anything about it. Anne crawled into bed next to him. "So what's wrong with the name Crystal?"
"Hunh?" Don's head was still a little champagne fuzzy.
"All of you feds practically jumped down that poor kid's throat when she suggested the name Crystal. Even Charlie and Larry snapped."
On the list of cases Don never wanted to explain to his wife Crystal Hoyle was pretty high up there. "Oh... um... just a bad case a few years back."
"Just a bad case?"
Don knew he could say he couldn't talk about it but really that was an excuse he'd rather use for things he actually couldn't talk about. He'd known too many guys who'd tanked their marriages by never talking about the bad cases at home and after a while they all became bad cases.
"Crystal Hoyle, 34 year old high school history teacher takes her 18 year old lover Buck Winters on a cross country killing spree, heading to LA 'cause Crystal's got some old mistakes she wants to clean up. They rode into town with Ian on their tail and... It got bad. We grabbed Buck, Crystal grabbed Megan, some lines got crossed that... well that shouldn't have been crossed and in the end Megan got cut up, I put a bullet in Crystal's head, and Buck got 250 years, consecutive."
Don's head was still aching and was a little surprised to feel Anne take his hand. "So which bit of all that do I need to worry about eating you up 'cause any one of those things could have been from a dozen cases."
Sometimes Don was amazed how well Anne seemed to understand the job, especially for a civilian. "Ian was standing right next to me when I took the shot. He was fourth best shot in the country at the time and I pulled the trigger first 'cause I wanted revenge. Pure and simple. I killed someone out of revenge."
"It makes sense to me." Anne said quite calmly.
"Tell that to the shooting review board. Nothing official came down but they weren't impressed."
"You treat your team like family. Someone hurt your family."
"Yeah, well if that was the only line crossed..."
"What else happened?"
Don stared into the abyss for a bit. "We needed information out of Buck, had to find Megan. Stubborn, stupid, eighteen, thought he was in love, and I just lost patience."
Anne sat up a bit and looked down at Don. "You hit him?"
"No!" Don said quickly. "I've never touched a suspect." Don shook his head knowing that it was a thin defense. "I guess I did something worse. I walked out of the room and left him alone with Ian for five minutes."
Don could make out Anne's deep scowl even in the dim light.
"Don't get me wrong. I trust Ian with my life. I trust Ian with my team, I'd trust him to take care of you and Mattie if something came up but when a life's on the line he can be... morally fluid and results orientated."
Anne gave a snort. "What did he do?"
"I don't know. I just know I got the information I needed in five minutes and Colby gave me dirty looks for a month. But we got Megan back so..." Don shrugged again. "We've all got at least one howling demon on our records. Mine's named Crystal Hoyal. I get to the other side she's going to be the first ghost in line for a pound of my flesh, I can guarantee it."
"Well, she's got to get through me first."
Don reached up and brushed aside a bit of hair that had fallen into Anne's face. "I'm sorry. This is why agents usually just get involved with other agents. So we don't have to dump all this on an unsuspecting civilian world."
"I've got my demons too, Don."
"I know." He pulled Anne in for a hug and a bit of a cuddle. "You know one of the reasons I flipped out about Charlie and Colby when I first found out was that I didn't want Charlie involved with an agent. I mean he was already putting up with my shit I didn't want him to have yet another person in his life with all that baggage."
"I hate to say it but Charlie's got some baggage of his own."
"Yeah, but I didn't know that at the time. I just though he did math and liked girls."
Anne snickered against Don's chest. "Well they both seemed to have managed."
"I don't know how they do it some days. I mean if I were Charlie I don't think I could handle Colby's baggage and I don't even know what it is."
"Well it can't be that bad then."
Don shook his head. "Actually, it's probably worse. When I got Colby they gave me access to his Army record. Second Lieutenant Granger, stationed here and there, a little time in Afghanistan, CID, purple heart. Nothing fancy. Well after all the shit goes down with the Chinese, and Colby's a big ol' hero, I look at his file again. Now it's Captain Granger, purple heart and bronze star, CID and to this day I can't access any more than the top page of his file. Completely classified which means whatever he was doing someone somewhere doesn't want anyone to know he was doing it."
"What do you think it was?" Anne asked.
"I don't know. I do know that if you get 20 beers in him he starts apologizing for something but he won't say what and at 21 beers he passes out. Truthfully, at the end of the day, I don't think I want to know."
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Author: ladygray99
Rating: NC17
Chapter 10/17
Series: Whitman
Characters/Pairings:Charlie/Colby, Don/OFC, Alan/OFC, Ian/OMC/OFC, Megan/Larry, Tarry Lake, David Sinclair, Matt Li.
Word count: 2,816
Warnings/Spoilers: Threeways, spankings, shaving, sexual discipline, gross descriptions of crime scenes, masturbation, medical stuff related to pregnancy and childbirth, original characters.
Summary: Life progresses, life happens, life perseveres, and life is better with someone by your side.
Notes: Master Notes for Story. This is mostly Megan's baby shower and a lot of Don and Anne talking.
Beta: None, feel free to point out typos of which there are many I am sure.
Chapter 10
David accepted the cup of tea from his grinning boss. Mattie must have had another first. David could always tell because Don would come in with coffee or doughnuts or something for everyone and have a stupid grin on his face.
"Okay, what has you grinning today?" David asked cutting to the chase.
Don spread his arms wide. "My son is not brain damaged."
David was a little confused. "Okay? I thought you got all those MRIs done after he was born?"
"We did. Last night Mattie said his first words right on schedule, not even adjusting two months."
"Since there's a lot of money going around on this one, what was his first word?" Colby asked.
Don looked a little sheepish. "Shoo."
"Shoe?" David was trying to hold back laughter.
"Well I think it was more shoo as in shoo fly 'cause that's what Sasha was singing to him when he said it."
"Shoo?" David repeated.
"But his second word was Da and he was actually looking at me when he said it." Don added quickly.
"Congratulations."
"But, to return to my original point. He can speak, walk, pick up small things with his thumb and fore finger, recognize himself in a mirror, make eye contact, return smile, and he sleeps through the night. Developmentally speaking all I have left to do is teach him how to throw a curve ball and sign him up for college."
Colby gave Don a pat on the back. "Congratulations."
David knew he couldn't give Don too much grief. The doctors' had given Don and Anne all kinds of warnings about possible brain damage and developmental problems but they also said that the worst ones would make themselves known within the first couple of years.
Don sunk into his own chair looking terribly pleased with himself.
"So when's the next one showing up?" Colby asked probably as a joke.
Don sipped at his coffee. "Couple years, maybe."
David choked on his tea a bit. "Seriously?"
Don shrugged. "Well," Don dragged out the word. "It hasn't been that bad."
"Um... You do remember your two months in NICU right?"
Don just waved his hand. "We've already got that bit taken care of. Won't be a problem next time."
David and Colby looked at each other. "Colic Don, colic."
"And croop." Colby added.
"Teething."
"Stomach flu."
"I'm sure it's easier the second time around." David and Colby leveled identical looks at Don who obviously hadn't realized what he'd just said. "Okay, Charlie was a special case."
"We're going to remind you of this moment, Don."
"We're not trying yet. We're still just thinking about it."
"Okay, but in a few years when you come in here with baby puke on your tie again don't expect any sympathy from us."
~
David braced himself. He was heading into no man's land. At least he had backup. Colby was with him, along with Don, and Matt Li.
"Okay gentlemen," Don said crisply. "You all have your lists and we have one hour. And I recommend you all get at least one receiving blanket. Megan has no idea how many of those she's going to go through." And with that Don pushed open the doors to the baby store.
Megan's krav maga class and Larry's grad students were arranging a joint baby shower and Don and Anne were hosting it since they had the largest place, and since Megan didn't really have that many female friends the men in her life found themselves on the invite list. It was possibly a little early for a baby shower. Megan still had almost three months to go but she was due mid-January and no one wanted to think about trying to have a baby shower in between all the holiday parties and general chaos.
David looked around at the large store filled with little things in pink and blue and yellow. And women, outside of their team there wasn't a guy in sight. David looked down at the extensive list of things that apparently babies and new moms need. Some of the larger things had already been taken care off. Larry's students had clubbed together for a cradle. Charlie was getting the the stroller/car seat set. Don was getting Larry some kind of sling contraption that would let him carry the baby and write on a chalk board at the same time. Colby told him that Charlie and Mattie had even field tested it for just that ability.
A very brave sales girl approached David and Colby with a polite smile. "May I help you?" she asked.
David held out the list. "We've got to get something for a baby shower?"
"Do you know if it's going to be a boy or a girl?" The young woman asked.
"I got twenty buck on it being a girl." Colby said.
"So it's probably going to be a boy."
"Well, we have plenty of gender neutral baby clothes and toys."
"Um... Actually I was thinking the baby bag? Those are important, right?"
"Very important, right this way." The girl lead them over to a wall of large bags that were pink, blue or yellow and a surprising number had bunnies on them.
David looked at Colby. "What do you think?"
"Seriously man, can you picture Megan carrying anything with a bunny on it?"
David cringed and looked around.
Colby turned to the sales girl. "Okay, look, Megan, the mom to be, she's an FBI agent. Good tactical skills, brutal in the interrogation room, one of the best shots in the office, she teaches krav maga, I've seen her drop kick guys twice her size. Got anything that says 'yes I have a baby but I can still kick your ass into next Thursday?'"
The shop girl nodded. "I know just what you're looking for. Follow me."
David found himself lead into a far corner of the store and tucked into that corner were baby bags made of various shades of leather or wool. They looked more like oversized, tasteful, hand bags. The little sign advertised them as being for the corporate mother.
David picked up a light brown leather bag. "What do you think?" He asked Colby.
"I think it matches her shoulder holster."
David flipped the bag around a few times checking out the pockets and zippers. There was a small zipped pocket on the outside with some sort of extra thick lining in it. "What's this one for?" he asked the sales girl.
"It's a discrete pocket for the dirty dippers."
David put the bag over his shoulder and let his arm naturally hang down. His hand fell right to the pocket. He opened the little pocket up and slid his Glock in. He looked at Colby. "It fits perfect."
"I'm sure it wasn't meant for that." The sales girl said quickly sounding quite flustered.
"This is LA, you never know."
David retrieved his gun, looked at the price tag and felt his heart stop. Colby leaned over and made a small choking noise.
"Go halves with you?" Colby asked.
"You won't be getting a Christmas present."
"I'll live. It's for Megan."
David took the bag off and handed it to the sales girl. "We'll take it. Oh, we also need receiving blankets?"
~
The closest thing Anne had had to a baby shower was a shopping spree with Charlie two months after Mattie was born. In a way that was why she had volunteered to host Megan's, to experience the whole thing, even if it was second hand. In the end she realized it was pretty much just like throwing any other party just with cheap pink champagne and pink and blue cupcakes.
Most of the cupcakes had been eaten when they moved onto the present opening bit. On the level of cool presents one of Don's tech guys had found a beautiful solar system mobile that was made out of some sort of acrylic so the planets looked like blown glass or crystal. It played one of the calmer bits of The Planets. Anne had privately slipped Megan one of the more comfortable brands of breast pumps she'd found. She also offered to do a family portrait after the baby was born and had hair.
Megan opened a large gift from David and Colby and pulled out a very cool looking leather baby bag. Anne was a little envious. She'd always considered herself a little hip and Mattie's battered blue bag was definitely not hip.
Megan's krav maga class had gone practical and several of them had clubbed together for a hospital grade counter top, bottle sterilizer. One of her student's claimed that it could do a very nice steamed Asian chicken and veg once the baby didn't need it anymore.
The baby sling Don had got for Larry seemed to be a big hit. It was going to be interesting to see how Larry adjusted to being a parent full time. Even though Anne was used to working at home there had been a few hard moments there where she realized a mini person, who was more or less a stranger, prone to screaming, and couldn't speak her language was completely running her life. She had never been so glad to have cut her old friends completely out of her life in those moments, because if anything could have tempted her back onto junk it would have been the month Mattie decided to have colic, followed by a month of croup.
One of the last little gifts to be opened was a book of baby names with meanings and histories. One of Larry's students picked it up and started randomly reading out names. It it quickly became a game of explaining why each name was horrible and grossly inappropriate to someone.
"Amy." The student read out.
"My ex-wife's lawyer." One of Megan's students said.
"Arthur."
"Serial killer." Don said.
"Anthony."
"Stoner ex- roommate."
"Carl."
"Also a serial killer."
"Beatrix."
"One of my ex's," Charlie said.
"Cindy."
"My ex-wife."
"Charlotte."
"I like that one." Charlie said.
"You would."
"Crystal."
"No!" Every federal agent, Charlie, and Larry snapped at once.
Larry's student nearly jumped out of her skin. "Okay. Um... David?"
"That's the best name yet," David said.
"I out rank you." Don pointed out. "Donald is a good name."
"Sure, if you're a duck." Charlie said. Don tossed a wadded up napkin at him.
~
Don pinched the bridge of his nose as he sank into his bed. "I know champagne is a guaranteed headache but I think that pink coloring has made it worse somehow."
"Your liver just isn't what it used to be." Anne informed him as she came out of the bathroom. Don took a second to leer at his wife even if she was in a flannel night shirt. It was on his daily to do list to keep his marriage in good shape; spend at least a few minutes talking, spend at least a few minutes listening, be sure to say 'I love you', and look at his wife in a sexual manner even if he was too tired to do anything about it. Anne crawled into bed next to him. "So what's wrong with the name Crystal?"
"Hunh?" Don's head was still a little champagne fuzzy.
"All of you feds practically jumped down that poor kid's throat when she suggested the name Crystal. Even Charlie and Larry snapped."
On the list of cases Don never wanted to explain to his wife Crystal Hoyle was pretty high up there. "Oh... um... just a bad case a few years back."
"Just a bad case?"
Don knew he could say he couldn't talk about it but really that was an excuse he'd rather use for things he actually couldn't talk about. He'd known too many guys who'd tanked their marriages by never talking about the bad cases at home and after a while they all became bad cases.
"Crystal Hoyle, 34 year old high school history teacher takes her 18 year old lover Buck Winters on a cross country killing spree, heading to LA 'cause Crystal's got some old mistakes she wants to clean up. They rode into town with Ian on their tail and... It got bad. We grabbed Buck, Crystal grabbed Megan, some lines got crossed that... well that shouldn't have been crossed and in the end Megan got cut up, I put a bullet in Crystal's head, and Buck got 250 years, consecutive."
Don's head was still aching and was a little surprised to feel Anne take his hand. "So which bit of all that do I need to worry about eating you up 'cause any one of those things could have been from a dozen cases."
Sometimes Don was amazed how well Anne seemed to understand the job, especially for a civilian. "Ian was standing right next to me when I took the shot. He was fourth best shot in the country at the time and I pulled the trigger first 'cause I wanted revenge. Pure and simple. I killed someone out of revenge."
"It makes sense to me." Anne said quite calmly.
"Tell that to the shooting review board. Nothing official came down but they weren't impressed."
"You treat your team like family. Someone hurt your family."
"Yeah, well if that was the only line crossed..."
"What else happened?"
Don stared into the abyss for a bit. "We needed information out of Buck, had to find Megan. Stubborn, stupid, eighteen, thought he was in love, and I just lost patience."
Anne sat up a bit and looked down at Don. "You hit him?"
"No!" Don said quickly. "I've never touched a suspect." Don shook his head knowing that it was a thin defense. "I guess I did something worse. I walked out of the room and left him alone with Ian for five minutes."
Don could make out Anne's deep scowl even in the dim light.
"Don't get me wrong. I trust Ian with my life. I trust Ian with my team, I'd trust him to take care of you and Mattie if something came up but when a life's on the line he can be... morally fluid and results orientated."
Anne gave a snort. "What did he do?"
"I don't know. I just know I got the information I needed in five minutes and Colby gave me dirty looks for a month. But we got Megan back so..." Don shrugged again. "We've all got at least one howling demon on our records. Mine's named Crystal Hoyal. I get to the other side she's going to be the first ghost in line for a pound of my flesh, I can guarantee it."
"Well, she's got to get through me first."
Don reached up and brushed aside a bit of hair that had fallen into Anne's face. "I'm sorry. This is why agents usually just get involved with other agents. So we don't have to dump all this on an unsuspecting civilian world."
"I've got my demons too, Don."
"I know." He pulled Anne in for a hug and a bit of a cuddle. "You know one of the reasons I flipped out about Charlie and Colby when I first found out was that I didn't want Charlie involved with an agent. I mean he was already putting up with my shit I didn't want him to have yet another person in his life with all that baggage."
"I hate to say it but Charlie's got some baggage of his own."
"Yeah, but I didn't know that at the time. I just though he did math and liked girls."
Anne snickered against Don's chest. "Well they both seemed to have managed."
"I don't know how they do it some days. I mean if I were Charlie I don't think I could handle Colby's baggage and I don't even know what it is."
"Well it can't be that bad then."
Don shook his head. "Actually, it's probably worse. When I got Colby they gave me access to his Army record. Second Lieutenant Granger, stationed here and there, a little time in Afghanistan, CID, purple heart. Nothing fancy. Well after all the shit goes down with the Chinese, and Colby's a big ol' hero, I look at his file again. Now it's Captain Granger, purple heart and bronze star, CID and to this day I can't access any more than the top page of his file. Completely classified which means whatever he was doing someone somewhere doesn't want anyone to know he was doing it."
"What do you think it was?" Anne asked.
"I don't know. I do know that if you get 20 beers in him he starts apologizing for something but he won't say what and at 21 beers he passes out. Truthfully, at the end of the day, I don't think I want to know."
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