Fic: In Love & War, Chapter 4 (Numb3rs, Don / Martin, David / Ian)
Title: In Love & War, Chapter 4
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
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
When the lights of Martin’s car hit the kitchen window, Don rushed to the door and pulled it open. The first thing he saw was a pair of feet under the car door, Martin was busy collecting his things form the passenger seat.
“Where were you so late?”
Martin jumped up and almost hit his head on the car roof. He pulled out with his briefcase under his arm and walked to the door.
“Don’t try to claim I missed dinner, because you never cook by yourself unless I’m out of town.” He gave Don a light kiss and walked in.
“I was worried.”
“I had a lot of meetings and then I went to help Charlie with his blackboards.”
“I didn’t know you’re good at math.”
“Not math, the blackboards. Colby and I moved the blackboards, Charlie wanted to rearrange the garage.”
“You were carrying them?” Don stated, trying to keep his tone neutral. “Are you sure that was a good idea?”
“Last time Charlie tried to carry them, he almost dropped a big one on Colby’s foot. He’s not meant for manual labour.”
“And you’re feeling okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I mean… no sprains or anything?”
“No, just a sore neck, but that has more to do with sitting behind a desk for most of the day.”
“No numbness in limbs?”
“Numbness? No, why do you ask?”
“Just wandering.”
Martin gave him a worried look. He placed his palm against Don’s forehead.
“What are you doing?”
“You look a little flushed. Well, you don’t have fever.”
“I’m fine. Just fine.” Don assured.
“Really? Because I know you well enough to know when you’re not telling the truth.”
“I always tell the truth. Most of the time. Or sometimes.”
“Did David tell you what happened when we went to meet the judge? Is that why you’re asking odds?”
“Yeah. And you didn’t even tell me! You just walked in like everything’s normal!”
“I got back two minutes ago, when would I have had the time to tell you?”
“And you were driving and picking up heavy stuff!”
“Don! Listen to me.”
“And I found this and then I really got worried-”
“You found what?”
Don pulled a printed page from his pocket and handed it over to Martin.
“How to detect a heart attack.”
“It says-”
“Don.” Martin pressed his hand over Don’s mouth to silence him. “I appreciate that you worry about me, but I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong with my heart.”
“You don’t know that.” Don mumbled through the fingers.
“I do know that. I had a full check-up before we went to Sweden, remember?”
Don pulled the hand off his face.
“Yeah, but they talked about the silent killer-”
“That’s a heart attack. That thing today had nothing to do with my heart.” He took a step closer and wrapped his arms around Don’s waist. “I know what it is and I’ve lived with it for my entire life. I’m fine.”
“What do you mean entire life? What-”
“I’ll tell you later, but right now I want to go take a shower and change, and food would be nice too.” He took Don `s hand and pulled him to the kitchen. “You start cutting the veggies, I’ll be back in five minutes.”
“Should you be going up the stairs? And what veggies?”
“I haven’t had time to go shopping, so whatever we got in the fridge. I’ll start the dinner when I come back.” He pulled Don closer and pressed their bodies together. “And stop worrying.”
-----------------------------------
“Need help?” David peeked his head into Caroline’s room. “Or are you done?”
“Almost. Ms. Sharp said page twenty-three.”
“You want help?”
“No.” She went back to her reading, her hand tapping her a pencil against the small notebook. After few minutes she looked up at David. “Are you Ian breaking up?”
David crouched down next to her kiddie-size table, and resisted the urge to tell her one more time to call Ian something else than his first name. During the time she had lived with the couple, she had never called Ian anything else than Ian. David had gained the daddy-status after four months.
“No.” David denied. “Why do you think that?”
“You’re all weird. And he’s away a lot.”
“That’s his job. We had some problems, but we solved them.”
“Okay.”
“And now we have some other problems, but it’s not between me and Ian, and it’s not something you need to worry about. You understand that? We’ll handle it.”
“When?”
“I don’t know how long it will take.”
“Before next week?”
“Probably not.”
“Ian said we’ll go to the Zoo, if I get a good grade from my test.”
“What test is it?”
“Biology.”
“You need help with that?”
“No.” She paused and the pencil tapping started again. “Are we still going to the Zoo?”
“Yeah, we’ll go to the Zoo.” David smiled and got up. “When you’re finished, I got hot chocolate and warm sandwiches waiting.”
“With that red stuff?”
David had to grin. Caroline was a smart girl, and ahead of her classmates in many ways, but some words were still too hard for her to pronounce, ketchup being one of them.
“Yeah, with the red stuff.”
-----------------------------------
“I’m starting to remember why I prefer beer.” Don stated when Martin returned from upstairs. He took another sip from his glass and winced. “This is awful.”
“That’s cooking sherry, it’s not meant for drinking.” Martin picked up the bottle and checked the label. “Why did you dig this up?”
“We’re out of beer, and I wanted something to relax. This was the only thing with alcohol I could find.”
“There’s beer in the basement, the fridge was too full.”
“You should have told me.” Don dumped the content of his glass into the sink. “How can people drink this crap?”
“Normally people don’t, that’s for cooking, normal sherry is for drinking. Two different things.” Martin took a look at the half chopped vegetables placed haphazardly on the cutting board. “Come here.”
“What?”
“Come here.” Martin pulled him between himself and the cutting board and placed the knife in his hand. “Good steady hold, keep the last half inch of the blade against the board. Start slowly.”
“If you’re planning some kinda seduction scene here like in that movie, it would probably be better to do it without knifes.”
“That was Ghost, and this has nothing to do with pottery wheels. When you got the right technique, it’s easier to make all pieces the same size.”
“What does it matter?”
“They cook evenly.” Martin put his hands on top of Don’s and helped him get started.
“Can you do that trick where you take a sharp knife and slice stuff in the air?”
“I can, but I won’t. That’s too messy.” Martin let go and took a step back to observe. “You don’t need to keep speeding up, slow and steady is good.”
Don continued chopping, and took a quick look at the man pulling stuff from the fridge. Martin had changed into a T-shirt and a pair of snug jeans, and his damp hair was dripping down the back of his shirt.
“Are you really okay?”
“Yeah.” Martin pulled out a bottle of white wine from the cupboard. “I found some smoked fish, it should go nicely with the veggies, but we really need to go shopping tomorrow.”
“What do I do with these now?”
“Wok’s under the counter.” Martin took two wine glasses and filled them. “Two or three teaspoons of peanut oil.”
“And where’s-”
“-the peanut oil. Next to the olive oil.”
Don located the wok and measured few teaspoons of oil on it. He was about to snap the stove on when he heard a small crash.
One of the glasses was laying on the floor in pieces. Martin leaned heavily against the counter, his hand clutching his chest. His face had contorted, and his breathing was reduced to small gasps.
Don tried to grab him before he fell, but it was too late. He collapsed to the floor.
“Hold on, I’ll call an ambulance.” Don pulled his phone from his pocked and crouched down next to him. “Hold on.”
He dialled the number and waited for response. Martin let out a small growl, arching his back off the floor trying to breathe. Suddenly his body slumped and his face turned blank.
Chapter 5