Fic: In Love & War, Chapter 1 (Numb3rs, Don / Martin, David / Ian)
Title: In Love & War, Chapter 1
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord,
David Sinclair / Ian Edgerton,
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
Don sat down on the edge of the desk and leaned down across the motley of papers.
“Do I need to shoot Sinclair?”
“No, and don`t lay on my papers.” Martin stated. He leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh. “I can’t believe it.”
“What?”
“David. And myself.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t believe I was so wrong about the whole thing. He works for the FBI, I was so sure he would understand why things went the way they did.”
“How’s Bobby?”
“I sent him home early.” Martin picked a paperclip from the cup on the desk. “I thought I was a pretty good judge of character.”
“You are.” Don assured. “And David will come around when he’s had time to get used to the idea.”
“Maybe.”
“You really need to work on that stuff now?”
“No.” Martin tossed the bent paperclip into the trashcan. “Not till next week, but I needed something to calm me down.”
“And paperwork calms you down?”
“You’ve known me long enough to know that.”
“Yeah, I can still remember how peaceful you were when you were doing my taxes.” Don smirked. He slid off the desk and stepped behind Martin`s chair to rub his shoulders. “You’re all tense.”
“Yeah…” Martin leaned against the touch.
“And you did the four-letter Don thing when you came home.”
“I did what?”
“That thing when you make my name sound like a four-letter word.”
“Do I really do that?”
“When you’re really annoyed. You give me that look and say "Don"… usually when you want me to shut up.”
“Well…” Martin tried to suppress a smirk. “It works.”
“I still don’t know how you do it. Are you gonna have some more alone time with your papers or do you wanna do something else to relax?" Don run his fingers across the tickly skin just above the man`s collar. "I could give you a helping hand... and other helpful parts.”
“I think I’ll let the papers get some rest.” Martin pushed himself up from his chair and headed out of the study. “I’ll go get my gear.”
“How much gear do you need for that?”
“You don’t think I’d go to the gym in a suit?”
“Gym?” Don repeated. “We’re going to the gym?”
“Just kidding.” Martin laughed. The last of his frown was gone, and he was grinning widely. “I’ll get changed, you’ll handle the popcorn.”
“Can I pick the movie this time?” Don asked and followed him out of the sudy, closing the door behind them. “Last time you picked a movie I ended up watching a two hour documentary about Phoenician pottery.”
“That wasn’t a movie, that was on TV. And Die Hard will still be waiting for you on the shelf, even if you see some other movies on the side. He won’t take it personally.”
--------------------------------------------
“Is that a mushroom?” Don kept poking his food with his fork. He was still dressed is his bathrobe, his hair sticking to every possible direction. “Are you sure this is breakfast food?”
“Yeah, it’s called boerenomelet. It’s basically a normal omelette with mushrooms, bell peppers, leek, peas and some baked onion.” Martin poured himself a new cup of coffee and opened the newspaper. “It’s a Dutch recipe.”
“Are you sure this is edible?”
“There’s onions, peas, peppers and mushrooms. You eat all of them in different foods, you can eat them in an omelette.”
“Fine…” Don took a forkful and chewed slowly. “This pretty good.”
“I told you.”
“Speaking of food, you wanna go get some early lunch later?”
“You’re not going to work?”
“I am, but I don’t need to be there till noon. They’re doing the final evaluations about our sensitivity training today. We all get to have a chat with a shrink to determine how much of that crap actually sunk in.”
“How long will that take?”
“They’ve reserved one hour for Granger, David and Megan. And three hours for me.”
“How can it take three hours?”
“No idea. That sensitivity trainer asked us to give her some honest feedback about her course and I did what she told me to do.” Don hid his grin behind his mug. “It’s her own fault she couldn’t handle it.”
“Nice to see the training had a positive impact on you.” Martin handed him the newspaper. “Lunch sounds good, I’ll be working from home anyway.”
“You don’t wanna sit behind the big desk?”
“I get to sit behind my desk more than enough, same with airplanes. If I got a choice I’ll avoid both of them. It’s a lot more comfortable to work on the couch.”
“Why can’t I chase bad guys on the couch…?” Don swallowed the last piece of omelette and tried to resist the growing urge to belch. “Any more of that?”
“In the pan.”
Don got up just as the doorbell rang.
“I think that’s my doctor coming to preach about my cholesterol levels…” He groaned and walked to the front door. As soon as he opened it, David marched in.
“Sorry, I know it`s early-”
“Shouldn’t you be going to the office?”
“Where is he?”
“Who?”
“Your better half.” David waved a thick envelope in his hand. “I need someone to explain this to me, because it can’t be what I think it is. Ian`s on his way too, he drove Caroline to school.”
“What’s going on?” Martin wandered into the living room.
“This.” David shoved the papers to his hand. “We got that this morning. Tell me in plain English. What the hell is this?”
“Wait a minute.” Martin took his glasses from their casing and sat down on the couch to scan through the stack of papers. A crease appeared between his eyebrows, his face turning serious.
“Well?” David demanded.
“I think you already know most of this.” Martin looked up from the papers.
“Are you being sued or something?” Don intercepted. “One of you, clue me in here.”
“Caroline’s biological mother is trying to contest the adoption. She claims she was coerced to give up her parental rights.”
“And it took eight years for her to figure that out?”
“This is…” Martin leafed through the pages. “Usually when a parent has been away from child’s life for a long time, they try to establish visitation rights first, they’ll try to establish even some sort of contact. This is basically going straight for the jugular.”
“She can’t just change her mind.” David stated. “Right?”
“That’s a tricky question. Didn’t you say she was involved with drugs at the time she gave up Caroline?”
“Yeah, the paediatrician said it’s a wonder it didn’t cause any defects.”
“Do you know what happened to her after she gave her up for adoption?”
“She was in foster care for almost a year, then she went into a surrogate family. Then we adopted her.”
“I meant the mother. She must be clean by now, or she wouldn’t seriously try to get her back, the case workers would demand testing all the way. Where has she been?”
“I don’t know.”
“I could call some favours.” Don offered. “Check her background.”
“No, I know a guy. He used to do background checks for my old firm.” Martin commented. “If there’s any dirt to be found, he’ll find it.”
“How much time do we have?”
“They’re trying to set up a preliminary hearing as soon as possible, to settle a temporary custody arrangement for the duration of the process, go through the case workers for this and so on. The judge will appoint a social worker to evaluate Caroline, home environment, the mother-”
“How long will that take?”
“Impossible to say, but the temporary decision will be a clear thing. Caroline doesn’t even know her, they won’t take her away from familiar surroundings.”
“You think she has a chance to really get her back?”
“There’s a lot of negativer factors against her…” Martin had continued scanning the few remaining pages. “I think she has another motive for this besides getting her back.”
“What do you mean?”
“I need to make some calls first.” He got up and grabbed his cell phone form the coffee table. He handed the last page to Don. “Check the names.”
“Should they tell me something?”
“Probably not, and I hope my memory’s wrong.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Then…” Martin sighed deeply. “This can get really a lot worse.”
Chapter 2