FIC: "Holding on to a lie," Part 3/? (Colby/Charlie, David, PG-13)
Title: "A friend in need"
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 3/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, David
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: When Colby gets to David's apartment, he finds a disturbing surprise.
Author's note: This is set after "The Connections Series" and "Not thinking about you."
Feedback: I love feedback. I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own the original ideas used and my OCs.
Beta: The adorable
quirky_circe.
Previous chapter: Part 2 - "There she was" (Colby/Charlie, Alan, PG-13)
Holding on to a lie
Part 3: “A friend in need”
“Why is she doing this?” Charlie muttered when Colby returned to the kitchen. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t ask me, I don’t want to even think about it.” It was a relief to Colby that his lover didn’t seem to be pleased with the idea of Amita coming to his house when he wasn’t there. “But let’s face it, she’s a friend of the family. Your father has become close to her, she was your girlfriend for more than two years, four if you count the flirting ones…”
“Colby…”
Colby suddenly found himself in Charlie's arms, embraced in one of the sweetest gestures the mathematician had shown him that day. He soaked in the lovely nearness of his figure against his, the soft caress of Charlie’s hands over his back.
“I don’t want you to feel like she still has some kind of power over me,” Charlie said, kissing Colby’s shoulder. “Because she doesn’t. At least not the same way you do.”
A pleasurable shiver ran down Colby’s body. After five years of loneliness, receiving this kind of love was beautifully overwhelming. He took a deep breath and when Charlie looked at him, he held his gaze. “Yeah… I guess that could be true.”
Charlie immediately responded, cupping his lover’s face. “No, it is true. Can you see how I feel? Can you really see it?”
“Yeah…”
“I’m not going anywhere, Colby.”
Like it had done several times before, that kind of nice, confident tone of voice made Colby feel that everything was going to be OK. Slowly, he nodded and then he saw Charlie leaning over his shoulder to see if someone was watching them. “What?”
The next thing Charlie did gave Colby the answer to that. A soft, tender kiss on his lips let him know what his lover meant.
“I just wanted to give you a little proof that I’m all in.”
It was impossible for Colby not to melt to the words that had just escaped from Charlie’s mouth. He could only hug him back, trying to thank him for being so sure about what they had, even if they had Amita around again.
“Still, she’s acting weird,” Colby muttered when he and Charlie separated a little. “She’s denying what happened. Going back to her old job is good, but it’s not normal that it’s happening so quickly.”
Charlie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s what worries me. Do you think David might know something about why she’s taking things so fast?”
“Yeah, probably. In fact, when we saw Amita today I had the idea of going to see him and ask him about that. I haven’t seen him in the last couple of days.”
“I think that would be good.” Charlie smiled, and ran a hand over his lover’s arm. “And then we could meet again.”
“Um… sure.” Colby smiled at the way Charlie basically pleaded him to get together again, to be together all the time.
“OK, then.”
Soon, Charlie had already walked Colby to the door. When the agent got in his car, his lover leaned over the window and squeezed his shoulder lovingly. “I’ll miss you.”
Colby couldn’t help smiling while he turned on the engine. Then he said goodbye to Charlie and focused on getting in touch with David. While he drove, no particular destination in mind, he dialed his number and waited for an answer.
“Sinclair.”
“David…” Colby snapped, because his friend’s voice sounded unexpectedly weird. “Are you OK, man?”
David hung up.
Colby jumped in his seat and immediately drove to David’s apartment, trying to get there as soon as possible. If his partner had suddenly ended the call, it had to mean that something bad had happened to him.
When he got to David’s apartment, Colby left his car and, running like a desperate man, approached the door. He rang the right bell several times, but no one answered.
He needed to get in. Using his badge and demanding people open the door for him looked like a good idea, but that wasn’t necessary. A man who was carrying a little girl in his arms agreed to let him pass, probably because Colby looked so worried he thought something bad was going on inside.
Thanks to that man’s help, Colby took the elevator and when he got out of it, he pointed his gun firmly at anything that moved. “Don’t worry, it’s under control,” he assured an old lady who was opening up the door of her apartment and seemed to be in shock because of the presence of a federal agent.
Nothing happened on his way to David’s door. But when he was there, in front of it, Colby swallowed. There was just too much silence.
“David?”
There was no answer, just like when he had rung the bell.
After taking a deep breath, Colby managed to control the shiver that was running down his spine and kicked down the door.
Despite his worry, he still turned around and told the people who were looking at him to calm down. He also asked them to stay away from him, just in case something came up. Everybody started to leave, but they stopped at Colby's startled oath.
There was David, seated on the bed, looking completely lost. His clothes were a complete mess, all of them ripped and wrinkled. He had a bottle of vodka in his hand, and a dozen others spilled over the floor. Most of their content had been poured onto it, staining the beautiful carpet.
Thankfully, David had been drinking, but not that much; if he had, he would have been dead by now.
“Everything’s OK. Just… go back to what you were doing, don’t worry,” Colby told the people outside before stepping into the apartment.
“What’s going on?” he asked David, but his friend didn’t even look at him.
Imagining that David would like to talk in private about the reasons he was doing this, Colby closed the door again and went towards him. “C’mon, man. Tell me.”
David simply took another sip of his vodka.
“David.”
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Colby got closer to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder, but when he did it, the other man jumped on the bed and got away from him.
“Don’t. Just… don’t,” David muttered, lifting one hand. His eyes were red, as well as his cheeks. It looked like the alcohol had already hit his system, and hard.
“Give me that bottle.” Moving fast, Colby tried to grab the vodka, but David didn’t let him.
“Don’t cha dare touch it.”
They stared at each other, breathing heavily. Why was David acting like that? Why was he getting drunk, what reason could he have? Colby didn’t take his eyes off of him while he stepped aside and gave his friend a little more space.
“I’ve never seen you like this. In fact, I’ve never seen you drunk!” he stated.
“So what? It seems that you don’t know a lot of things about me,” David responded.
“Wha-” Now, what the hell was that supposed to mean?
“You don’t know everything, Colby. You just don’t.” Instantly, David started to giggle, a little bit of vodka escaping his mouth and sliding down his chin. He wiped his sleeve and became serious. A second later, he was laughing hysterically.
“What? What’s so funny?” Colby asked. Maybe if he pushed a little, his friend would tell him what was going on with him.
“Me! I’m… a freakin’ idiot!”
Colby stared at David, watching him fall of the bed, laughing like a maniac. “Ok, give me that bottle. I mean it, now, David.”
“And I say for the second time… Nah.”
This time, Colby really went for the bottle. Without hesitation, he used his entire body to get it. But of course, David wasn’t going to give it to him willingly, so they started a fight.
It was messy because David was out of control due to the alcohol, but still, Colby was able to get him sprawled on the bed, laughing and kicking.
“Stop it,” he demanded, but his friend wasn’t cooperating, even when he had his arms and legs held by the other man’s strong hands.
Smiling, David said, “Ha… You don’t know… You don’t know!” and he started to laugh all over again.
That had become annoying now; but Colby could feel that David wasn’t trying to escape from him, so he decided to release him. He knelt beside the bed, watching him stare at the ceiling.
“David… This doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered, looking at the bottle of vodka he had taken from his partner.
“I’m OK…”
“Yeah, right. Look at this place, look at you.” Everything was out of its place inside the apartment. Clothes, food, newspapers. “How long have you been here, like this?”
David didn’t say a word; he just kept looking in another direction.
Colby took a deep breath, and he entwined his fingers together, finding the right words and a gentle tone to talk. “Look, you gotta talk to me, man. I’m here, maybe I can help you. I don’t like seeing you like this."
“You can’t help me… No one can…”
“I know that you think that, because I thought the same thing when I was dealing with the Charlie situation last week. Do you remember that? Do you remember when we were in the car, and you forced me to talk?” Colby whispered. “Well, I’m the one who’s forcing you to get whatever problem you have out of your system, now.”
It seemed that his speech had gotten into David’s brain, because suddenly, his friend’s eyes were on him, red and a little swollen. It was terribly painful for Colby to see him like that. He had never thought he’d find David so vulnerable and depressed.
But still, David was mumbling something. “Amita, she…” His voice broke, and he was visibly devastated when pronouncing those words.
“Amita?” Colby repeated, astonished, anxious to know what she could have to do with David’s state. “What did she do to you?”
“She…”
Unfortunately, David passed out before Colby could get his answer. The green-eyed agent took a deep breath, watching his partner sleep quietly. It would help him cleanse the vodka from his body and organize his thoughts a little; maybe it’d help him start to deal with whatever that was bothering him, so he could tell Colby about it, someday.
But still, Colby was very worried about his friend. He needed to know what was going on with him, needed to help him carry his pain; because after all, David had helped him to do that before, keeping their friendship no matter how much time Colby had been working for the Chinese.
So Colby sat on the floor, his back against the corner of the bed, David sleeping on it behind him. He ran his palms over his face, tired from all the stress he’d been through during the last fifteen minutes.
He glanced at his watch; twelve o’ clock. Perhaps he could stay a little longer with David, keep him company, so when he woke up, he’d find a caring someone who wanted only the best for him.
After all, a friend in need was a friend indeed.
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 3/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, David
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: When Colby gets to David's apartment, he finds a disturbing surprise.
Author's note: This is set after "The Connections Series" and "Not thinking about you."
Feedback: I love feedback. I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own the original ideas used and my OCs.
Beta: The adorable
quirky_circe.
Previous chapter: Part 2 - "There she was" (Colby/Charlie, Alan, PG-13)
Holding on to a lie
Part 3: “A friend in need”
“Why is she doing this?” Charlie muttered when Colby returned to the kitchen. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t ask me, I don’t want to even think about it.” It was a relief to Colby that his lover didn’t seem to be pleased with the idea of Amita coming to his house when he wasn’t there. “But let’s face it, she’s a friend of the family. Your father has become close to her, she was your girlfriend for more than two years, four if you count the flirting ones…”
“Colby…”
Colby suddenly found himself in Charlie's arms, embraced in one of the sweetest gestures the mathematician had shown him that day. He soaked in the lovely nearness of his figure against his, the soft caress of Charlie’s hands over his back.
“I don’t want you to feel like she still has some kind of power over me,” Charlie said, kissing Colby’s shoulder. “Because she doesn’t. At least not the same way you do.”
A pleasurable shiver ran down Colby’s body. After five years of loneliness, receiving this kind of love was beautifully overwhelming. He took a deep breath and when Charlie looked at him, he held his gaze. “Yeah… I guess that could be true.”
Charlie immediately responded, cupping his lover’s face. “No, it is true. Can you see how I feel? Can you really see it?”
“Yeah…”
“I’m not going anywhere, Colby.”
Like it had done several times before, that kind of nice, confident tone of voice made Colby feel that everything was going to be OK. Slowly, he nodded and then he saw Charlie leaning over his shoulder to see if someone was watching them. “What?”
The next thing Charlie did gave Colby the answer to that. A soft, tender kiss on his lips let him know what his lover meant.
“I just wanted to give you a little proof that I’m all in.”
It was impossible for Colby not to melt to the words that had just escaped from Charlie’s mouth. He could only hug him back, trying to thank him for being so sure about what they had, even if they had Amita around again.
“Still, she’s acting weird,” Colby muttered when he and Charlie separated a little. “She’s denying what happened. Going back to her old job is good, but it’s not normal that it’s happening so quickly.”
Charlie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s what worries me. Do you think David might know something about why she’s taking things so fast?”
“Yeah, probably. In fact, when we saw Amita today I had the idea of going to see him and ask him about that. I haven’t seen him in the last couple of days.”
“I think that would be good.” Charlie smiled, and ran a hand over his lover’s arm. “And then we could meet again.”
“Um… sure.” Colby smiled at the way Charlie basically pleaded him to get together again, to be together all the time.
“OK, then.”
Soon, Charlie had already walked Colby to the door. When the agent got in his car, his lover leaned over the window and squeezed his shoulder lovingly. “I’ll miss you.”
Colby couldn’t help smiling while he turned on the engine. Then he said goodbye to Charlie and focused on getting in touch with David. While he drove, no particular destination in mind, he dialed his number and waited for an answer.
“Sinclair.”
“David…” Colby snapped, because his friend’s voice sounded unexpectedly weird. “Are you OK, man?”
David hung up.
Colby jumped in his seat and immediately drove to David’s apartment, trying to get there as soon as possible. If his partner had suddenly ended the call, it had to mean that something bad had happened to him.
When he got to David’s apartment, Colby left his car and, running like a desperate man, approached the door. He rang the right bell several times, but no one answered.
He needed to get in. Using his badge and demanding people open the door for him looked like a good idea, but that wasn’t necessary. A man who was carrying a little girl in his arms agreed to let him pass, probably because Colby looked so worried he thought something bad was going on inside.
Thanks to that man’s help, Colby took the elevator and when he got out of it, he pointed his gun firmly at anything that moved. “Don’t worry, it’s under control,” he assured an old lady who was opening up the door of her apartment and seemed to be in shock because of the presence of a federal agent.
Nothing happened on his way to David’s door. But when he was there, in front of it, Colby swallowed. There was just too much silence.
“David?”
There was no answer, just like when he had rung the bell.
After taking a deep breath, Colby managed to control the shiver that was running down his spine and kicked down the door.
Despite his worry, he still turned around and told the people who were looking at him to calm down. He also asked them to stay away from him, just in case something came up. Everybody started to leave, but they stopped at Colby's startled oath.
There was David, seated on the bed, looking completely lost. His clothes were a complete mess, all of them ripped and wrinkled. He had a bottle of vodka in his hand, and a dozen others spilled over the floor. Most of their content had been poured onto it, staining the beautiful carpet.
Thankfully, David had been drinking, but not that much; if he had, he would have been dead by now.
“Everything’s OK. Just… go back to what you were doing, don’t worry,” Colby told the people outside before stepping into the apartment.
“What’s going on?” he asked David, but his friend didn’t even look at him.
Imagining that David would like to talk in private about the reasons he was doing this, Colby closed the door again and went towards him. “C’mon, man. Tell me.”
David simply took another sip of his vodka.
“David.”
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Colby got closer to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder, but when he did it, the other man jumped on the bed and got away from him.
“Don’t. Just… don’t,” David muttered, lifting one hand. His eyes were red, as well as his cheeks. It looked like the alcohol had already hit his system, and hard.
“Give me that bottle.” Moving fast, Colby tried to grab the vodka, but David didn’t let him.
“Don’t cha dare touch it.”
They stared at each other, breathing heavily. Why was David acting like that? Why was he getting drunk, what reason could he have? Colby didn’t take his eyes off of him while he stepped aside and gave his friend a little more space.
“I’ve never seen you like this. In fact, I’ve never seen you drunk!” he stated.
“So what? It seems that you don’t know a lot of things about me,” David responded.
“Wha-” Now, what the hell was that supposed to mean?
“You don’t know everything, Colby. You just don’t.” Instantly, David started to giggle, a little bit of vodka escaping his mouth and sliding down his chin. He wiped his sleeve and became serious. A second later, he was laughing hysterically.
“What? What’s so funny?” Colby asked. Maybe if he pushed a little, his friend would tell him what was going on with him.
“Me! I’m… a freakin’ idiot!”
Colby stared at David, watching him fall of the bed, laughing like a maniac. “Ok, give me that bottle. I mean it, now, David.”
“And I say for the second time… Nah.”
This time, Colby really went for the bottle. Without hesitation, he used his entire body to get it. But of course, David wasn’t going to give it to him willingly, so they started a fight.
It was messy because David was out of control due to the alcohol, but still, Colby was able to get him sprawled on the bed, laughing and kicking.
“Stop it,” he demanded, but his friend wasn’t cooperating, even when he had his arms and legs held by the other man’s strong hands.
Smiling, David said, “Ha… You don’t know… You don’t know!” and he started to laugh all over again.
That had become annoying now; but Colby could feel that David wasn’t trying to escape from him, so he decided to release him. He knelt beside the bed, watching him stare at the ceiling.
“David… This doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered, looking at the bottle of vodka he had taken from his partner.
“I’m OK…”
“Yeah, right. Look at this place, look at you.” Everything was out of its place inside the apartment. Clothes, food, newspapers. “How long have you been here, like this?”
David didn’t say a word; he just kept looking in another direction.
Colby took a deep breath, and he entwined his fingers together, finding the right words and a gentle tone to talk. “Look, you gotta talk to me, man. I’m here, maybe I can help you. I don’t like seeing you like this."
“You can’t help me… No one can…”
“I know that you think that, because I thought the same thing when I was dealing with the Charlie situation last week. Do you remember that? Do you remember when we were in the car, and you forced me to talk?” Colby whispered. “Well, I’m the one who’s forcing you to get whatever problem you have out of your system, now.”
It seemed that his speech had gotten into David’s brain, because suddenly, his friend’s eyes were on him, red and a little swollen. It was terribly painful for Colby to see him like that. He had never thought he’d find David so vulnerable and depressed.
But still, David was mumbling something. “Amita, she…” His voice broke, and he was visibly devastated when pronouncing those words.
“Amita?” Colby repeated, astonished, anxious to know what she could have to do with David’s state. “What did she do to you?”
“She…”
Unfortunately, David passed out before Colby could get his answer. The green-eyed agent took a deep breath, watching his partner sleep quietly. It would help him cleanse the vodka from his body and organize his thoughts a little; maybe it’d help him start to deal with whatever that was bothering him, so he could tell Colby about it, someday.
But still, Colby was very worried about his friend. He needed to know what was going on with him, needed to help him carry his pain; because after all, David had helped him to do that before, keeping their friendship no matter how much time Colby had been working for the Chinese.
So Colby sat on the floor, his back against the corner of the bed, David sleeping on it behind him. He ran his palms over his face, tired from all the stress he’d been through during the last fifteen minutes.
He glanced at his watch; twelve o’ clock. Perhaps he could stay a little longer with David, keep him company, so when he woke up, he’d find a caring someone who wanted only the best for him.
After all, a friend in need was a friend indeed.