Fic: Soaps R Us, Chapter 6 (CSI/CSI NY/CSI Miami, Ryan / Eric, Flack / Hawkes)
Title: Soaps R Us, Chapter 6
Pairing: Nick Stokes / Greg Sanders,
Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko,
Don Flack / Sheldon Hawkes
Rating: PG
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Summery: Daytime soap Lights of Vegas has a new head writer. Life and fiction don’t always mix nicely, and the line between the two can be very narrow.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
CSI Las Vegas Main List CSI Miami Main List CSI New York Main List
Ryan opened his door looking like he had just woken up. His hair was sticking up and his had wrapped a pale blue bathrobe around himself.
“Delko?”
“Good, you’re awake.” Eric shoved him aside and marched in.
“I usually am when some inconsiderate jerk comes ringing my doorbell just before midnight.”
“Nice place.”
“Pick your next words very carefully or I’ll call the cops to pick up an intruder.”
“Five years ago.” Eric shoved the picture into Ryan’s hand. “And don’t try to tell me that’s not you.”
“Why would I deny that?”
“I know we left together and I know Nick picked me up from the street, but I wanna know what happened between them.”
“How often do you do stuff like that if you can’t even remember it?”
“I was drunk!”
“Not too drunk to call your buddy to pick you up.”
“You knew that?”
“I heard the whole thing. I pretended to sleep so you wouldn’t come back for a second helping.”
“What do you mean?”
Ryan ran his hand through his hair. He seemed to be somewhere between anger and exhaustion.
“I’ve rehashed it over and over again, I’m not going to do that again.”
“Well, we’re gonna rehash it anyway because I need to know!”
“You need to know?” Ryan gave him a sharp glance. “You meet an impressionable kid who thinks you’re the best thing ever, get him drunk and take advantage of him. And you need to know? I would love not to know about it. About that night and about you.”
“What happened?” Eric repeated. “I’m not leaving till you tell me.”
“Like I said.” Ryan sat down on the couch with a frustrated sigh. “I saw you on the show, I wanted to meet you and Greg took me with him to the award show. I asked for your autograph.”
“I remember that part. Then what?”
“You had someone’s flask with you and you kept saying I had to keep up with the boys. When you wanted to come back to my place I couldn’t believe it.” He paused and let out a small chuckle. “I actually thought I was the luckiest guy alive.”
“You mean I….” Eric didn’t want to finish the thought. “I was drunk.”
“Yeah, you were drunk. And I was too drunk to fight. I just waited for you to stop. When it was over I kept my eyes shut and tried to be still so you wouldn’t come back.”
“It was… I don’t know what it was. I did a lot of dumb thing back then but I’m not-”
“There’s a line between having a lot of one night stands and having a one night stand that requires a trip to the ER.” Ryan stated dryly. “They wanted to call the police.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to tell anyone what a fool I was.”
“Was it… Was I….” Eric wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask. “Was it really that bad?”
“That night…” Ryan leaned back against the couch cushions and closed his eyes. “I went from happy… to on top of the world… to scared out of my mind. And finally feeling like a dumb kid who didn’t see the signs.”
“Why didn’t you… Why didn’t you tell me?”
“When? Back then or when we met again?”
“Any time!”
“What would you have done?”
“I…” Eric hesitated. “I don know. Make it up to you.”
“How?”
“I… don’t know.”
“That’s your answer for everything, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t mean-”
“You can’t make it up to me.” Ryan gritted his teeth. “You can’t replace what you took from me.”
Eric blinked. It took a minute till the full meaning hit him.
“You were….”
“I’ve had enough.” Ryan got up from the couch. “You know where the door is.”
“Wolfe, I really didn’t know. I didn’t even recognise you at first-”
“I don’t care.” Ryan walked to the front door and opened it. “Get out.”
Eric didn’t know what to say. He walked out and Ryan closed the door behind him. Eric leaned against the wall of the corridor, and slowly slid down to the floor. He pulled knees against his chest and wrapped his arms around himself.
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Hawkes banged his head against the steering wheel again and again. He was snapped out of his thoughts by a sharp knock on the car window. He rolled the glass down and a familiar set of blue eyes leaned down to meet his.
“Car trouble?”
“No, I’m sitting in my car in an empty parking lot in the middle of the night because it’s so much fun here.”
“What kinda problem?”
“What am I, a mechanic? It doesn’t move.”
“That’s simple.”
“Thanks for that expert opinion. Take a hike, I need to call help.”
“I could have told you right away what the problem is but if you can handle it by yourself….” Flack turned to leave.
“Wait.” Hawkes bit his bottom lip. “What is it?”
“Take a look at the meter, genius. You’re out of gas.” Don grinned. “You can say what you wanna say about my IQ, but at least I know when I need to head to the gas station. And yeah, I heard that “IQ of a beetle” comment.”
“It’s impolite to eavesdrop.”
“It’s impolite to about people without knowing how well noise carries through the door. Believe me, brainiac, your voice comes through every time walk past your door and in your case that babbling never stops.”
“Thanks a lot.” Hawkes got out of his car and locked the doors. “I’ll get a cab.”
“At this hour? Around this area? Good luck, you’ll need it.”
“I’ll call someone to get me.”
“Around midnight? Nice to see how high IQ equals good manners.”
“You know what? I’ve had a long day, and I wanna get home. Leave me alone.”
“Leave you alone? You’re not exactly the only person who had a long day and some of us have more to do at work then just sit on our asses and play with a laptop.”
“My jobs more than that!”
“Yeah, right.” Don snapped his car locks open and opened the door. “Are you gonna get in or not?”
“Why?”
“I was gonna do the world a favour and save it from your eternal bitching.”
“I don’t need anything from you.”
“Fine, play the damsel in distress. You`ll have a loooong wait ahead of you.”
Sheldon gave one more look at his own car and let out a deep sigh.
“Okay, but I’ll pay for the gas.”
“If you had done that with your own car you’d be home by now. And don’t touch the radio.”
“Come on-”
“Driver’s choice.”
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Eric looked at his watch. He had been in the corridor for two hours. He hadn’t heard any more noises from the apartment. He pressed the doorbell and waited. When the door opened he was suddenly face to face with a handgun.
“Wolfe….”
“Why are you still here?”
“Put that away. Please.”
“My uncle Ron thought it would be a good idea to learn how to shoot. That was five years ago.” Ryan commented but didn’t move the gun. It was still aimed at Eric. “After all, you can never tell what people are really like.”
“Please. Listen to me.”
“You got one minute. After that I’ll either blow your brains out or get you fired.”
“I said I wanted to make it up to you, but I can’t. I can’t do anything about it. I sat there in the hallway for two hours but I couldn’t leave. I can’t change it or reverse or do anything about it and it’s driving me nuts!”
“Driving you nuts?” Ryan giggled uncontrollably and scratched his temple with the back of the gun. “I went to therapy for two years because of that night. Because I couldn’t trust people anymore, I couldn’t trust my own judgment. I couldn’t walk on the street without always looking over my shoulder. And then I have to see you at the studio five days a week. What do you think? I really should be nuts, so what do you think is stopping me from pulling the trigger?”
Eric couldn’t come up with an answer. The look on Ryan’s face seemed to change every few seconds. Finally his lips curled into a menacing grin.
“Inside. Second door on the left.”
The tone didn’t leave room for questions. Eric walked into the dark room and heard Ryan locking the front door. Footsteps came closer and the lights were snapped on. They were in Ryan’s bedroom.
“Turn around.”
Eric turned around to face Ryan. The gun was nowhere in sight and he let out a small sigh of relief.
“You know what’s the biggest thing in my mind when I think about that night? Not the pain.” Ryan stated in low voice. “Pain goes away, but fear stays. It stays day after day and night after night.”
Something about Ryan’s eyes made Eric shiver. He felt a shiver of fear moving across his body and settling into the pit of his stomach. Ryan lifted his hand and pressed the palm gently against Eric’s cheek. He stroked the skin carefully.
The hand left his cheek and then came back, giving him a sharp slap. Not enough to really hurt, just to sting. A tiny sliver of blood from the corner of his mouth ran down his chin. Ryan leaned against him and slowly licked the dark red blood from his skin.
“It’s true what they say. How bad experiences make you stronger.” Ryan gave him a push and he fell down onto the bed. Ryan followed and pinned him down against the mattress.
“But that’s not the only thing that changes. It can make you a different person.” He ran his hands over Eric’s chest and yanked his shirt open. Eric could hear the tiny sounds of torn buttons falling to the floor. Ryan looked down at him. His eyes were unreadable, but the grin was still on his face.
“Let’s see if you like what you’ve created.”
Chapter 7