Fic: Behind The Scenes, Chapter 11 (CSI, Flack, Hawkes, Danny, Ryan / Eric)
Title: Behind the Scenes, Chapter 11
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 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Don waited by the door while Hawkes turned on the lights in his apartment. “Your doc said you should get a lot of rest.”
“I’m okay. Come in.”
Don stepped in and closed the door. Several moving boxes were waiting on the floor.
“Sorry I haven’t had time to pick those up. It’s kinda hard with one hand.”
“They can wait there.” Hawkes approached him. “Or they could stay for good.”
“Sheldon-”
“Just listen to me. I’m falling apart, I can’t handle this. I… I think I finally got what you meant. When you said you can’t deal with this. You meant that you had to keep us together by yourself. That’s what you were thinking, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“I can fix this.” Hawkes`s voice was etching closer and closer to a whimper. “Tell whatever his name is to leave and stay here.”
“That’s doesn’t fix anything-”
“I’ll fix it. Stay here and I’ll fix it.” He grabbed Don’s cheek and pressed their lips together. Sense of familiarity took over and Don answered the kiss. His healthy hand wandered across Hawkes`s chest and gently pushed him away.
“You have no idea how much I want to stay.”
“Well, nothing’s stopping you!”
“Except that we’ve done this before and it always ends the same way. The truce lasts few weeks and then we start the whole merry-go-round all over again.”
“This is not like that-”
“Sheldon.” Don squeezed his shoulder, pressing his forehead against Hawkes`s. “We can’t do it over and over again.”
He let go and walked out. Hawkes didn’t move for few minutes. He stood in the middle of the foyer. He ran his fingertips over his lips and closed his eyes. Memories flooded back like a slideshow, each and every moment.
----------------------------------------------
Don opened the car door and slumped down to the passenger seat.
“For a while I thought you were gonna stay the night.” Danny commented. “What’s going on there?”
“I don’t know. We always break up, make up, make out and break up again.”
“Kinda repetitive.”
“Yeah.”
“So why are you still thinking about it?”
“Bad good times - bad times ratio. A lot of bad times and not so much good times.”
“Then why did you stay together for a year?”
“Because…” Don couldn’t help grinning. “Because the good times were pretty damn good.”
“Nick’s place?”
“What?”
“You wanna go back to Nick’s place and get some sleep or something else?”
“What else?”
“I spent a long time in New York, I’ve been waiting to check out some old haunts. There used to be this all-night diner that had the best pancakes-”
“Manny’s?”
“The one and only. Wanna make the night a little longer?”
“Okay.” Don agreed. “But I’ll need some coffee to stay awake.”
“My dates never fall asleep. At least not in the middle of the date.”
----------------------------------------------
“Turn off the light…” Eric rolled over and buried his head under his pillow.
“Go back to sleep, I’m just reading.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“You’re not going to work in the morning, you have nothing to worry about.”
“It’s almost three…”
“And you woke me up to tell me we have crisis meeting in the morning due to some explosives and screwed up schedules. It’s not exactly easy to go back to sleep after that. Except for you.”
“Can’t you read somewhere else?”
“You woke me up, now you’ll pay for it.”
“I’m just the messenger!”
“And I can’t sleep.”
“At least you didn’t start washing clothes to relax like you did when Greg called about Ecklie.”
“Ecklie… You think the whole explosion thing has something to do with Ecklie?”
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Now I can’t sleep at all.”
“Can’t you do something that doesn’t require lights? Like… crocheting, or yoga or something…” Eric peeked his head out from under the pillow and shot a hostile glare at Ryan`s book. “Whatever that is it can’t be that interesting.”
“It’s called Stains in the new Millennia: How to remove oil stains from a Persian rug.”
“Sounds totally fascinating.”
“It’s boring as hell, but it’s not working. Normally I can overrun anxieties with boredom, but I think I need a bigger dose. You got any of your old boobie-magazines somewhere?”
“You threw them out when you moved in.”
“I forgot that…”
“How bout War and Peace?”
“I read it in college when I got too hyped waiting for my test scores.”
“Did it help?”
“No, it actually got interesting when the war started.”
“Lord of the Rings? That will put anyone to sleep.”
“Never talk about it like that when I’m listening or I’ll kick you out of the bed.”
“Wait, I got an idea.” Eric leaped out of bed as quickly as his half-sleepy state allowed and rushed out of the bedroom. He came back a minute later with a newspaper. He gave it to Ryan and got comfy under the covers.
“Read that and you’ll be out like a light.”
“Death announcements and obituaries?” Ryan tilted his eyebrows. “That`s really morbid… But it might actually work.”
----------------------------------------------
“Sorry. This wasn’t exactly the night I planned.” Don said and paused in front Nick’s apartment building. “Hospital trips and all.”
“Not your fault, besides I planned the evening.” Danny smirked. “This was definitely different from a normal date. Do you call a guy the next morning, after you take him to the hospital and to meet your ex?”
“I have a policy: I always call the next morning.”
“So if you call me, it’s a social obligation?”
“No.”
“Do I get a good night kiss?”
“You already got one.”
“How bout a good morning kiss? It’s closer to four than three.”
“If you’re here now, I can’t call you in the morning.” Don teased. “Which one do you want?”
“The good morning kiss.”
Don considered it for a minute. He pulled Danny close and gave him a good morning kiss.
Chapter 12