Fic: Behind The Scenes, Chapter 9 (CSI, Ryan / Eric, Nick / Greg, Hawkes)
Title: Behind the Scenes, Chapter 9
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: Six months later. Some things have changed, some things are exactly the same.
Sequel to Soaps R Us:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 (NC-17) Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Epilogue
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 (NC-17) Chapter 5 (NC-17) Chapter 6 (NC-17) Chapter 7 (NC-17) Chapter 8
“Anyone here?” Ryan knocked on the door and walked into Hawkes`s office.
Hawkes was leaning back in his chair with his eyes half shut. He gave Ryan a blank stare and then seemed to snap back into reality.
“Morning. When did you get back?”
“Just couple hours ago. I had to get my schedule for the week, so Eric’s getting some groceries and he’ll pick me up in an hour.”
“How was the honeymoon?”
“Great.” Ryan grinned, but the grin faded quickly. “Everything okay here? We heard about Don.”
“He’s… recuperating. I think.”
“You think?”
“You didn’t hear that part?”
“Greg just said he had some kind of an accident.”
“Car accident.”
“Is he still in the hospital?”
“No, he moved to Nick’s place.”
“Why?”
“What do you think? He dumped me.”
“Sorry.” Ryan paused for a minute and took a good look at Hawkes. “You look awful.”
“At least I know that was an honest opinion… I haven’t been sleeping much.”
“Well… can’t say I didn’t see that coming, but I hoped it wouldn’t.”
“You saw this coming?”
“Come on, you two were fighting all the time.”
“People fight, that’s normal.”
“Yeah, but the only way that can last if the good outnumbers the bad. Did it?”
“For me, yeah. I have no idea about Don, but… I didn’t see it coming. I thought we were fine, and we would make up like we always do.”
“You want my opinion?”
“Why not, I’ve had everyone else’s… People walk in, make me feel like the bad guy and then they march out again.”
“This won’t take long. Make a clean break or try to fix it. Hovering between on and off is the most painful phase.”
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“One week away and my mailbox is full.” Ryan leafed through a stack of mail.
“Why didn’t you just cancel it while we were gone?” Eric mused and opened the fridge. “Is this still good?”
“I couldn’t cancel it because I was kidnapped from work, and no, take-out does not last for a week. Throw it away.”
“Can we just order a pizza, pick a movie and make out on the couch?”
“For once I have no desire to start food from scratch.” Ryan admitted. “Pizza’s fine, no mushrooms and double salami.” Ryan picked up his ringing cell phone and snapped it open. “Wolfe. Hey. Yeah, he’s here. Wait a sec.”
He put the call on the speaker and Greg’s voice boomed out.
“Eric? Can you both hear me? I don’t wanna repeat this time after time.”
“We’re listening.”
“I was gonna tell you about this when you came to the studio, but you left so soon I didn’t catch you. Anyway, I got a call this morning from the officials. “Remember Ecklie?”
“The letter writing nutcase with the baseball bat?” Eric stated. “Yeah, what about him?”
“He’s out.”
“What do you mean he’s out?” Ryan asked. “Didn’t they just deny his appeals?”
“They did, and they didn’t release him. He escaped.”
“From a maximum security institution? How is that possible?”
“Don’t ask me. His shrink took a group of them for a supervised hike outside and somehow he got away without the guards noticing. The supervision wasn’t that tight because they all had those surveillance anklets.”
“So they can track him down, right?”
“No.” Greg sighed. “They traced the anklet to his sisters house. They’re both gone.”
“She’s helping him?”
“That’s what it looks like. They’ve checked her accounts and ATM use, they are somewhere in L.A.”
“Why would he come back?” Ryan wondered. “He has to know he can’t come anywhere near the studios without somebody recognising him.”
“How am I supposed to know what that creep is thinking, they locked him into an asylum for a reason!” Greg exclaimed. “I just wanted to let you know. Keep your eyes open till they catch him.”
“Greg?” Eric bit his bottom lip nervously. “Did he get any better in there or…”
“According to the cop I talked to, he was loosing his sense of reality. He couldn’t really differentiate real life from his delusions.”
“Is he dangerous?”
“He’s been locked up for a year. Whatever he has in mind, he has had more than enough time to plan it well.”
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Hawkes tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. The darkness had come and now his car was hard to see between the lights of the streetlamps. He looked down at his watch.
He had been sitting in front of the apartment building for twenty minutes. Just as he was about to get out of the car the front door opened. Don walked out with a strange man in tow. The pale light of the streetlamp didn’t show much of him. He was shorter and lighter than Don, with almost blond hair and glasses.
Hawkes waited till they had driven away. He started his car and headed to the nearest bar.
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“Can’t you do that tomorrow?” Eric asked and eyed Ryan’s twitching back.
“No, I can’t.”
“Cant you at least put them in the washer?”
“No.” Ryan sunk the shirt into the sink and scrubbed it under the water. “When I get nervous, I need to channel it to something.”
“So you wash our vacation clothes. By hand.”
“I would have scrubbed the floors, but we’re out of pine detergent.”
“Is this about that creep?”
“No, I’m nervous because the neighbours let their cat jump on our balcony, it got in and starved behind the radiator. Of course I’m nervous about that.”
“We don’t have a radiator.”
“Last time there was a lunatic on the loose I ended up in the hospital and Greg and Dawson were held at gunpoint. And that was after three people had died.”
“Ecklie can’t get anywhere near us. Or anyone from the studio. The security people will make sure of that.”
“I know, I know.” Ryan ran his wet hand across his forehead. “That’s just me. Give me the smallest reason to get agitated and I will.”
“It’s kinda cute.” Eric smirked. “Let’s go to bed, I’ll make sure you’ll relax.”
Ryan considered for a minute, and then pulled the plug from the sink.
“Okay.”
“And do something to your hands before you come to bed, they’re like misshapen prunes.”
“I’ll go one step further.” Ryan picked a bottle of hand lotion from the cabinet. “You can do the honours.”
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The world seemed to alternate between twisting green shapes and multi-coloured fog. Hawkes hang on to the wall and managed to step into the bathroom. He leaned against the counter and tried to focus his eyes. For a minute his mirror image made sense, then it turned into a twisted caricature. He tried to calculate how much he had drunk, but his mind was equally foggy. A nagging voice in the back of his head kept repeating something was wrong, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
His legs gave up and fell down to the cold tile floor. The looseness of his feet was spreading to his arms and he could only stare at the ceiling. Somewhere a door was closed and locked with a sharp snap. A pair of hands grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him into one of the stalls.
Chapter 10