Falling into Fervour: Chapter One
Title: Falling Into Fervour - 1/6
Pairing: Colin/Ryan
Overall Rating: R
Chapter Rating: G
Summary: Colin calls and Ryan rushes to his side - it'll always be that way.
Author’s Notes: I wrote this about a year ago and was, at the time, very proud of it. :D I have tweaked it a bit though since then, so “Yay!” for improving. xD
Chapter One
As does every great journey, every great love story, it starts with a phone call. It’s one of those everyday mundane things that you don’t put any thought to. Something that’s grown accustomed to over time.
In this instance however, it’s a particularly significant phone call. The recipient of this call is Ryan Stiles.
“Hello?” he speaks, croaky and hoarse into the receiver. It was currently 8 o’clock on a lazy Sunday morning in Bellingham, Washington. The kids were downstairs watching their usual unhealthy fix of weekend morning cartoons whilst Pat was out. She was at the store, maybe the salon or somewhere routine like that. And Ryan was in bed, just barely waking up to face another blindingly tepid August day. He was due down at the Upfront, his own comedy club later in the afternoon - not to mention some other projects that he had to attend to and Drew Carey yelling at him to get his ass down to California for some scheme or another.
Before all that though, there was the matter of this unwelcome phone call that had interrupted his lie-in. He had a good mind to tell whoever it was to shove off, just so he could get back to the important issue of satisfying his early-morning fatigue. That was before he heard an all too familiar voice speak back to him, one that he hadn’t heard in years.
“Hi, Ryan.”
The meek, warming voice on the other end had an immediate effect on the tall man as he sat up in bed in an instant, partly in shock, partly in elation, partly in confusion.
“Colin? Is that you?” he enquired, voice still croaking.
“Of course it’s me, you goof. Just calling to see how you are. How’s the family? It’s been sometime.” Colin sounded completely at ease, open and relaxed - all this could be conveyed through his voice alone.
“But… you… huh?” Ryan blurted, pulling a face of bewilderment even though no one was there to see it.
Colin chuckled, amused. “Quit stammering. Surely me calling you out of the blue isn’t too surprising.”
Ryan cleared his throat and shifted in bed. “What the hell, Colin? We’ve never called each other at home. Not to mention that we haven’t spoken in absolutely ages.”
“Exactly,” Colin commented cheerfully. “I just want to catch up with you, see what’s changed with my best friend.”
That last part really mystified Ryan. Colin Mochrie calling him his ‘best friend’ wasn’t heard of too much anymore. They had been close once, but since Whose Line had been cancelled, they hadn’t really worked together or seen too much of each other. There was the odd live show with an e-mail here or there, but otherwise, they had been drifting a lot in the status of their relationship. Ryan had always assumed that Colin’s best friend was his wife or someone he had gotten close to in the last 5 years or so. Nevertheless, he appreciated being given that title again by someone he’d known for so long.
“Col, it’s… 8am on a Sunday morning and you want to chat about life now?” Ryan said, briefly checking his bedside clock.
“Whoa, it’s 8 o’clock there? Gee, I’m sorry Ry, I had no idea,” Colin said, sounding genuinely concerned.
“It’s fine… you didn’t know,” he replied around a yawn. “So, er… where do you wanna start?”
Colin was just about to continue when he heard his friend yawn again. It seemed clear to him that Ryan wasn’t in a talkative mood this morning. “Well, I’ll tell you what Ry: Why don’t you come visit me here?”
“Up to Toronto? Really?”
“Sure. I’d kinda like to take you out for a drink or meal or something, it’d be great to see you again. I’ve missed you.”
Ryan immediately felt the familiar warmth inside that appeared whenever Colin got all sentimental with him. He did, after all, have a voice that soothed anyone who heard it and he practically oozed with charm, even when he couldn’t help it.
Colin spoke again, bringing Ryan out of his sweet thoughts. “You’re not too busy, are you?”
“Hmm? Well, yeah, I’ve got some stuff at the club to sort out and Drew needs me in LA for something.” Ryan settled back against his pillows, his eyes closing in comfort.
“Oh,” came the reply, and his eyes shot open again. Colin sounded so quiet and hesitant, possibly even hurt, causing Ryan to gain a small stab of guilt.
“Col, what is it?”
“Nothing, I… I’m fine,” he replied immediately in a relaxed voice that now sounded a little forced. “Can you make it up here anytime soon? I’ll send you my address through e-mail.”
“You don’t need to do that, Col, I already know your address.”
“No, I’m uh… I’m not at my house anymore.”
The wavering tone of Colin’s voice had really begun to scare Ryan. Why wouldn’t Colin be at home? “Colin, something’s wrong, I know it. Tell me, is everything all right?”
“I can’t- not now, Ry, please. Just… promise me you’ll come, okay? I have to go.”
“Wait, Col! Colin…? Shit.”
Colin was no longer there, but had been replaced by a long monotonous tone, similar to the one that would signal someone’s heartbeat stopping in a hospital. Ryan placed the receiver back into it’s perch and fell backwards against the pillows again, sighing. It was hard to tell through the limited clarity of the phone call, but the sudden change in Colin’s attitude had led Ryan to believe that he was on the verge of crying or something. Furthermore, Colin wouldn’t call him out of the blue unless there was something he really needed to tell him.
He did have a point though - they hadn’t properly seen each other for some time and it would be nice to see that wonderful face again.
Truth be told, Ryan was being driven more by the fear of something wrong than the desire to see Colin, although, that still was pretty high. Deep down, Ryan knew that he still loved Colin. This love, which went far beyond that of two best friends, had never really been addressed properly between the two, but there was this one time, back in England...
Ryan shook his head vigorously, trying to avoid where that thought was leading. It wasn’t that he didn’t like to think about it (quite the opposite, in fact), but it was more a question of morals. They both had wives and children. They both had these wonderful lives. They were friends now and that was it. Friends that look out for each other.
Look out for each other, thought Ryan, sighing again. He needs me.
~~~
After washing and dressing, Ryan padded downstairs to make some coffee. As he waited for the water to boil, he rubbed his eyes and thought about work, Colin and life in general, sifting each thought carefully before moving onto the next one. That’s when Pat walked through the door, shopping bags in hands, with a warm smile on her face.
“Hey, sweetie,” she greeted, setting the bags down onto the counter. As Ryan approached to help, they kissed, briefly. It was like any other of their kisses: Comfortable and familiar, something that Ryan hadn’t really noticed before.
Sometime later, he sat at the table with his coffee, black and heavy, whilst Pat was busy cleaning. Ryan stared at his drink and saw the ripples begin to form on the surface because his leg was bouncing under the table again, a tell-tale sign that he was uneasy or nervous. Old habits die hard.
“What’s on your mind?” Pat had paused in her work and was looking at him expectantly. It was almost scary how she always knew her husband back to front.
“Oh, nothing,” he replied as his hand found something new to fiddle with, a fork of all things. “Just life and, er… stuff.” He couldn’t think of anything more convincing, all those years of improvisation experience just seemed to disappear for the moment. Although Ryan knew that Pat could see right through him, it looked as if she chose not to pursue it. Instead, she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, resting her head on top of his.
“I’m always here if you need to talk, Ryan,” she said soothingly and kissed his hair before returning to whatever it was she was doing. He shrugged in defeat, figuring that she’d eventually find out anyway.
“Colin called me this morning,” he revealed, taking a long sip of his coffee.
“Oh, what for?” She replied without really taking much notice, continuing to clean the kitchen counters.
“He asked me to uh… go up to Toronto and see him.” Upon hearing this, Pat turned to him and seemed quite bewildered by Colin’s request. “I‘d really like to go, he sounded kinda down, but…” Ryan continued. “I have too much stuff to do here.”
“Well, what did he say?”
Ryan wrung his hand in the air, vague and dismissive. “Something about not being at home and that I should promise to go and visit him.”
“Oh.” Pat’s response was small and somehow knowing as she suddenly stopped moving, and Ryan clicked this instantly.
“What is it?”
“It’s Deb,” she explained. “She called me the other day and told me that she and Colin had had an argument.”
Ryan’s eyes widened. He’d never imagined Colin and Deb having an argument or a fight over anything. It just seemed so unlike the couple he’d gotten to know. “What about?”
“She didn’t say but she sounded heartbroken. Funny how they both call us in the space of a few days, huh?”
“Yeah, it is…” Ryan had gone back to staring at his half-empty coffee mug in deep thought. There was a twisting feeling in his stomach that told him that something was desperately wrong. But, of course, it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together and work that out. “I need to see him, Pat.”
She smiled almost sadly at the pleading tone in his voice. Approaching him, she placed a gentle hand on his broad shoulder. “Go. I insist. I‘ll take care of everything here, Colin sounds like he needs you right now.”
Ryan smiled, stood and embraced his wife, also noting how their hugs had even grown comfortable and familiar.
At that point, Mackenzie walked in and pouted. “Claire’s drawn on the walls again,” she said, sighing. Ryan looked down at his wife; she was grinning up at him with twinkling eyes. “Come back soon.”
~~~
As he drove, images of what might be awaiting him at his destination filled Ryan’s mind. Scenarios of Colin broken, crying and in pain came first followed by a forced vision of his smiling face, surrounded by rainbows and happiness, in the vague but promising idea that nothing was out of the ordinary and that the events of this morning had all been terribly misleading.
This however, did not stop Ryan from beginning his slow but maddening decent into paranoia. He had to dangerously alternate his attention from dialling numbers on his cell phone to concentrating on the road ahead and his driving. He loved Colin - it was all too clear.
Once he’d finished dialling, he pressed the device to his ear quite hard as if Colin was somehow there with him.
The ringing tone stopped and a cheery voice came on. Ryan’s heart skipped a beat through fleeting relief, but it was short-lived when he realised that the cheery voice was actually Colin’s answering machine.
“Hi, sorry I’m not around right now. You know what to do, I’ll get back as soon as I can. Looking forward to it!”
The obvious monotone beep followed.
“Colin, it’s me. I’m on my way right now, okay? I‘ll be there as soon as I can. So just… stay there. All right, I‘ll see you soon.”
Disconnecting the call, Ryan tossed his phone onto the unoccupied passenger seat and focused back onto the road. The tense, upsetting feeling in his belly had decreased but had no way disappeared, and this drove him onwards to Toronto and his best friend.
To be continued...