First Degree Burn
Title: First Degree Burn
Fandom: NUMB3RS
Pairing/Characters: Colby, David
Rating: PG
Summary: Missing scene from Atomic No.33. What takes place before Don arrives at the compound after the fire.
Big thanks to my wonderful beat, VanishingP2000 over on fanfiction.net
First Degree Burn
“Hey, how’s your hand?” Colby asked as they walked away from Craig and Audrey, having just informed Craig that they couldn’t save his father.
“Hunh?” David said, raising and eyebrow quizzically at his partner.
“Your hand. The one that you used to turn a metal doorknob in a burning building a few minutes ago,” Colby replied and David glanced down at his hands noting the angry red doorknob shaped mark there. From the corner of his eye he could see Colby wince slightly as he caught sight of the mark as well.
“Ah, right,” he said as he continued to look bemusedly down at his hand. Shouldn’t he have been able to feel that?
“Come on. Let’s get you over to the medics, get you some ice at the least. Well, not ice, but cool water or something,” Colby said, grabbing David’s arm and steering him towards the ambulances that had just pulled up in front of the compound.
“See, I knew we should have waited for the fire department,” David muttered as he allowed Colby to guide him over to a medic and told the medic that David had burnt his hand. The medic then took over, pushing David down onto the back of the ambulance and bending down in front of him, studying his hand carefully as Colby hovered behind him.
“Well, it doesn’t look too bad, but it’ll be sore for a couple of days. I’ll clean it and put some aloe on it and I can give you a cool pack for your hand- which is basically a cold pack that’s a bit thawed because you can’t put ice on burns. Well, technically you can, but it just won’t end well,” the medic said and David nodded. The medic disappeared into the back of the ambulance as Colby looked critically at David.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. It actually doesn’t even hurt,” David grinned up at him.
“Oh, trust me, it will. Enjoy the numbness while it lasts,” Colby advised him with a ‘been there, done that’ expression and David titled his head slightly and studied Colby, though he decided it was better not to comment further. Dwayne was still a mostly taboo subject with him and Colby, though for different reasons. David still hated Dwayne for what he’d done to their entire team- Dwayne had been the primary force behind Colby’s deception of the team and therefore the cause of a great deal of pain for all of them. Colby was still trying to outrun the things that he had done while undercover and David knew that he still felt guilty because Dwayne had, essentially, sacrificed his own life for Colby’s when he had shot Lancer. So David let it drop.
“I guess it’s a good thing I had enough sense to use my right hand then, hunh? Means I can still shoot,” he said lightly and Colby smirked, but his reply was forestalled by the medic reemerging from the ambulance, thawed ice pack, aloe and antiseptic in hand. He placed the ice pack and aloe on the bumper next to David before pouring some of the antiseptic onto a gauze pad and gently wiping the burned area on David’s palm. David hissed slightly as the gauze rubbed up against the burn and he noted that Colby had a damn good point- those few moments of not feeling any pain were to be cherished.
“Sorry,” the medic said apologetically as he finished disinfecting the injury and picked up the aloe, applying a thin layer of it to the burn. David managed to bite back the hiss of pain this time, but Colby saw his jaw twitch. “Okay, there you go. Now, just put the, uh, cool gel pack on your hand for a bit which should help it feel a bit better. And try not to, you know, get into any bitch slap fights for a few days,” the medic said and Colby tried and failed to bite back his laugh. David also failed in his attempt to glare at Colby because he was unable to keep the smile off his face.
“Got it. Thanks,” David said as he stood up, balancing the pack on top of his hand as he and Colby wandered back over to the entrance to the compound to wait for Don.
“So you’re good?” Colby asked and David resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“Yes, mom, I’m fine,” he quipped and Colby snorted.
“I’m not your mother. If I were your mother you’d be bundled up in that ambulance on your way to the hospital and I’d be flipping out. So clearly I’m not your mother. I just want to make sure that you’re still in working order,” Colby grinned.
“Okay, fine, whatever. You’re still hovering,” David said, rolling his eyes slightly.
“Look, David, you were right, we should have waited for the fire department, but I decided that running into a burning building was a good idea. If you’re hurt, it’s my fault,” he said leaning up against the side of a fire truck and coughing slightly. It was a miracle that they both weren’t doubled up in the back of the ambulance coughing with medics shoving oxygen masks on them. Colby chalked this up to good lungs and dumb luck.
“Who’s the more foolish: the fool or the fool who follows him?” David quipped and Colby snorted.
“Star Wars. Nice. But that doesn’t change the facts,” Colby said and David sighed.
“Let me rephrase that: you did what we were trained to do: help people. My idea, while safer, wasn’t actually the better idea,” David threw back and Colby opened his mouth to respond, to tell David that it was still a stupid idea, but he doubted this would end up as anything other than an annoyingly circular argument, so he decided against further comment. They stood in silence for a few minutes before Colby spoke again.
“So your hand’s okay?”
“Yeah, Colby. My hand’s okay,” David smiled over at Colby reassuringly as Don’s black Suburban screeched to a halt among the fire trucks and ambulances.