Holding on to a lie, Part 1/? (Charlie/Colby, PG-13)
Title: "Return of a fallen angel"
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 1/?
Characters: Charlie/Colby, Don, Larry, Amita
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: There are people who just shouldn't come back, but they do it anyways, with mysterious purposes.
Author's note: This is set after "The Connections Series" and "Not thinking about you."
Feedback: I would be so happy if I could get to know what you lovely readers think. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own the original ideas used and my OCs.
Beta: The amazing
irena_adler.
Next chapter: Holding on to a lie, Part 2/? - "There she was" (Colby/Charlie, Alan, PG-13)
Holding on to a lie
Part 1: “Return of a fallen angel”
“So when this curve becomes parallel to this other one, then you’ve found a way to apply the theory to an actual case of rape,” Charlie explained, while he threw his hands in the air, and then he continued writing more numbers on the blackboard. “This could also help me to solve this impossible problem that I’ve been working on for years… It’s not P vs. NP, but it’s close. I don’t think it’ll be as hard as that, therefore I guess I’m going to give it a try. There’re some deviations of a very famous algorithm that was formulated two hundred years ago and that has taken over the mathematicians’ mind for years, and-“
He stopped. He focused on Colby’s eyes, watching him from distance. His lover was sat on the desk, his desk at CalSci, the desk that Charlie sometimes had fantasies about.
Colby’s green eyes were distracting, as well as what he might be thinking about. However, Charlie managed to say, “Sorry… I’m boring you, am I? I shouldn’t have started talking about those curves, I usually can’t stop…”
The other man left the desk and went towards him. “Nah, that’s all right. I like to hear you talk.”
Charlie took a deep breath, because his lover was smiling and that always made electricity run through his whole body. He just wanted to grab Colby and kiss him right in that moment, but they were at the university and they were supposed to keep their relationship a secret. No one but their loved ones should know about the deep connection they shared.
It was such a quiet afternoon, and Charlie was there with the one he loved the most. And he knew that Colby liked to hear him speak, no matter how boring math sounded to him. The mathematician smiled widely; Colby did too, and they both blushed.
They had just gone back to their places, Charlie to the backboard, Colby to the desk, when Don entered the office. “Hey, guys.”
“Don,” his brother muttered, while Colby nodded to say “hi.” “Is everything ok?”
“Yeah, yeah…”
“Is there a case?”
“Um… no. Nothing you can work on, anyway.”
“Ok…” It wasn’t common that Don came to CalSci if he didn’t have a case, unless he had something important about a family matter to talk to Charlie about. “Then, what brings you here?”
This time it seemed to take Don a second to find the right words to say. “Dad’s feeling sick, and well… he’s making me a little crazy.”
“Why? He’s never been like that.”
“Well, of course you think that, you’re not answering your phone!”
In that moment, Charlie remembered that, given the fact that this morning was supposed to be very quiet, he had decided to turn off his cell phone. If there were any cases, the FBI team could let him know about it by sending him an e-mail. There were ways to contact him that didn’t require him to interrupt his long talk with his lover.
“Oh, sorry about that,” he apologized while he pulled out his phone from his jacket, “I was kind of busy.”
When Don turned around to look at Colby, he made an awkward little gesture that made Charlie think that he was imagining what the distraction could be. He smiled and when he turned on his phone, he found that he had lots of missing calls. “Wow, he called me seventeen times, and it’s only eleven o’clock,” he announced, checking his watch.
“Exactly! And I always answer my calls, because of course, I have to, he’s asking me to do everything!”
“Ok, ok… What does he need?”
“I think the question is what he doesn’t need,” Don corrected his brother.
Suddenly, Colby’s laughter came from behind him, and it drove Charlie and Don’s attention to him. “Sorry,” Colby muttered, “I just can’t imagine Alan chasing you both so you do the laundry and clean up the house.”
“We work, Colby. And we love our Dad, but he just has a cold. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but he’s been driving me nuts all morning!” Don paused and then he turned back to his brother. “I had to go home and do the laundry two hours ago. And I had to go clean up the bathroom half an hour ago.”
Behind Don, Colby nodded, in a gesture that meant that he was proud that he had anticipated that. Charlie giggled and that made Don ask, “What? Is that funny to you?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean…”
“I’d like to see you fulfill Dad’s requests, buddy. I haven’t seen you at home much this weekend. I understand why you’re not there,” Don said, and he looked at Colby, because Charlie and he had spent most of the weekend together, “but I can’t take care of Dad all by myself with my work and everything, I need you to help me.”
“Fine, I’ll do it. If there’s no case I could help you with, then I could go home and try to comfort Dad.”
“I could go with you,” Colby stepped into the conversation again, going towards the Eppes brothers, “if you’d like me to, of course.”
Charlie’s smile became even wider. “I would be more than happy if you’d help me to take care of my Dad.”
Colby smiled too, and then Don said, “Ok, now that we’ve got a deal, maybe I can go to work on a case for a while in peace.”
“But Don, what’s so bad about helping your father?” Colby wanted to know, while he grabbed his stuff and his jacket, and Charlie grabbed his papers and his laptop.
The answer was quick and sincere. “Because, like I said two times already, he’s making me insane! He’s not in bed. When I was cleaning the bathroom, he stood at the door, telling me that there were spots here and there!”
“You’re kidding,” the mathematician muttered, laughing, and when Don shook his head, he added, “Oh god, I have to see that. It’s so weird!”
They had just left the room, laughing and making jokes, when someone passed them by. The three of them froze.
And they turned around.
There she was.
“Amita…” Charlie muttered.
The woman that had passed them by stopped walking. Her long, dark hair rested on her shoulders and she was wearing casual clothes. She looked just like the Amita everybody knew.
She slowly turned around and went towards them without hesitation. “Oh, sorry, guys. I didn’t see you.”
Charlie, Colby and Don looked at each other. Charlie knew that all of them wondered what to say, and why the hell she was acting so normal when everybody knew that she was supposed to be in India, according to what David had said.
“Weren’t you in…” the mathematician started to say, and it was difficult for him to put the words together, because the shock of seeing his ex-girlfriend again had been very overwhelming.
“I was at my apartment, where I live,” Amita responded, like she had no idea why Charlie was acting so weird.
It was all so confusing. Colby intervened and stated, “But I went there looking for David, and one of your neighbors, an old lady, she told me that you had left to India.”
All of a sudden, she started to laugh. “What? No, that would be crazy. Yes, I locked up my apartment, and I thought I wanted to leave, but then I actually considered the idea and I realized that it was better for me to stay here.”
“Please, tell me that you’re getting some help,” Don suggested. “I mean, after all that’s happened, the least you could do, just in case, would be seeing a therapist or something.” He seemed warm to the idea of Amita coming back.
Charlie thought that maybe it was better for her to stay and see a professional who could help her to get over the pain of the kidnapping and all the changes her life had been through lately.
“I’ll accept any help the FBI offers in terms of a psychological treatment, Don,” Amita muttered.
After that, Charlie could take a deep breath and imagine that everything would be ok for her soon. “I’m glad you’re trying to get back on track.”
This time she held his gaze and muttered, “I’m not trying, Charlie, I’m already back on track. I’m here to see if I can convince CalSci’s board to let me start working again. I need the thrill of making experiments, building up devices, giving classes. I need to feel like things can go back to normal again… even if I know that they’re different and that some stuff isn’t going to change.”
When she said that, she looked at Charlie, then at Colby, then back at Charlie. The mathematician had understood the message. She had to concentrate on the things she had always been attached to so that would make her forget all the pain Charlie had caused her after leaving her for Colby.
“I’m sorry, guys, I have my meeting with the board now. I’ll see you later.” Amita left them pretty much speechless, and the three men followed her with their eyes while she walked to the end of the hallway.
“I had no idea that I would see her again,” Charlie whispered.
“Me neither,” Colby said, and he seemed to be holding a lot of thoughts to himself. Charlie would try to figure out what he was thinking about later, because right now he was completely astonished by Amita’s return.
“Well, at least she’s trying to get better, you know,” Don argued. “I think that’s the best thing she could do. We were all worried about her going to India without having dealt with the situation here.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Colby’s response sounded a little sarcastic. He started to walk around, his hands on his hips, his cheeks blushing.
It was weird for Charlie to see him like that, when they were just starting their relationship. After all, only two days ago Charlie had made it clear that all he wanted was them to be together. Why was Colby suddenly acting like he was jealous or mad, like Charlie had appeared to be attracted to Amita again?
Larry’s appearance made the mathematician stop making guesses and Colby stop walking around. “Hello!” He was wearing a lab coat, glasses and gloves, and he had a big smile on his face.
“What are you doing, Larry?” Don asked.
“Oh, nothing dangerous, but extremely entertaining for a physicist like me. We’re separating simple molecules and proteins… All very simple, very old fashioned.” After saying that, Larry laughed in excitement, but he stopped when he saw Charlie’s face. “Charles, is there something wrong?”
There was this possibility that Amita had talked to Larry and let him know that she was thinking about going back to work. So Charlie said, “Did you know that Amita’s back in LA? Or, to be more accurate, that she never left the city in the first place?”
Larry’s shocked expression let Charlie know that he hadn’t heard the news. “What? No, I had no idea… I haven’t seen her, is she here?”
“Yeah. She’s in a meeting with CalSci’s board, trying to make them let her return to her old job.”
“Oh… that’s very… interesting,” Larry muttered, like he was talking to himself, while he ran his fingers over the back of his head in an awkward movement.
“Why do you say that?” was Colby’s answer.
“Yeah, why would you think that’s interesting, besides shocking?” Charlie added.
Now Larry looked thoughtful, like when he was about to make a comparison to a theory. And that’s exactly what he did. “Well, it’s very similar to the return of the fallen angel. Just like Lucifer, she was pushed away from the Heavens she used to live in when she was with you. I just hope she hasn’t come back to claim her lost territory.”
That last sentence made Charlie shiver. He saw that Colby was starting to get worried again because his cheeks were turning into a more furious red than before. But Don didn’t seem to have taken Larry’s words very seriously. He just kept talking to the scientist, asking him about his experiments just for fun, and he was laughing every time Larry pointed out some kind of weird idea that he obviously didn’t understand.
Maybe Charlie was worrying about nothing. Maybe Amita had come back for good. He couldn’t know that for sure, thought. He would have to wait to find out why she had returned to the crowded, noisy, full of crime City of Los Angeles.
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 1/?
Characters: Charlie/Colby, Don, Larry, Amita
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: There are people who just shouldn't come back, but they do it anyways, with mysterious purposes.
Author's note: This is set after "The Connections Series" and "Not thinking about you."
Feedback: I would be so happy if I could get to know what you lovely readers think. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own the original ideas used and my OCs.
Beta: The amazing
irena_adler.
Next chapter: Holding on to a lie, Part 2/? - "There she was" (Colby/Charlie, Alan, PG-13)
Holding on to a lie
Part 1: “Return of a fallen angel”
“So when this curve becomes parallel to this other one, then you’ve found a way to apply the theory to an actual case of rape,” Charlie explained, while he threw his hands in the air, and then he continued writing more numbers on the blackboard. “This could also help me to solve this impossible problem that I’ve been working on for years… It’s not P vs. NP, but it’s close. I don’t think it’ll be as hard as that, therefore I guess I’m going to give it a try. There’re some deviations of a very famous algorithm that was formulated two hundred years ago and that has taken over the mathematicians’ mind for years, and-“
He stopped. He focused on Colby’s eyes, watching him from distance. His lover was sat on the desk, his desk at CalSci, the desk that Charlie sometimes had fantasies about.
Colby’s green eyes were distracting, as well as what he might be thinking about. However, Charlie managed to say, “Sorry… I’m boring you, am I? I shouldn’t have started talking about those curves, I usually can’t stop…”
The other man left the desk and went towards him. “Nah, that’s all right. I like to hear you talk.”
Charlie took a deep breath, because his lover was smiling and that always made electricity run through his whole body. He just wanted to grab Colby and kiss him right in that moment, but they were at the university and they were supposed to keep their relationship a secret. No one but their loved ones should know about the deep connection they shared.
It was such a quiet afternoon, and Charlie was there with the one he loved the most. And he knew that Colby liked to hear him speak, no matter how boring math sounded to him. The mathematician smiled widely; Colby did too, and they both blushed.
They had just gone back to their places, Charlie to the backboard, Colby to the desk, when Don entered the office. “Hey, guys.”
“Don,” his brother muttered, while Colby nodded to say “hi.” “Is everything ok?”
“Yeah, yeah…”
“Is there a case?”
“Um… no. Nothing you can work on, anyway.”
“Ok…” It wasn’t common that Don came to CalSci if he didn’t have a case, unless he had something important about a family matter to talk to Charlie about. “Then, what brings you here?”
This time it seemed to take Don a second to find the right words to say. “Dad’s feeling sick, and well… he’s making me a little crazy.”
“Why? He’s never been like that.”
“Well, of course you think that, you’re not answering your phone!”
In that moment, Charlie remembered that, given the fact that this morning was supposed to be very quiet, he had decided to turn off his cell phone. If there were any cases, the FBI team could let him know about it by sending him an e-mail. There were ways to contact him that didn’t require him to interrupt his long talk with his lover.
“Oh, sorry about that,” he apologized while he pulled out his phone from his jacket, “I was kind of busy.”
When Don turned around to look at Colby, he made an awkward little gesture that made Charlie think that he was imagining what the distraction could be. He smiled and when he turned on his phone, he found that he had lots of missing calls. “Wow, he called me seventeen times, and it’s only eleven o’clock,” he announced, checking his watch.
“Exactly! And I always answer my calls, because of course, I have to, he’s asking me to do everything!”
“Ok, ok… What does he need?”
“I think the question is what he doesn’t need,” Don corrected his brother.
Suddenly, Colby’s laughter came from behind him, and it drove Charlie and Don’s attention to him. “Sorry,” Colby muttered, “I just can’t imagine Alan chasing you both so you do the laundry and clean up the house.”
“We work, Colby. And we love our Dad, but he just has a cold. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but he’s been driving me nuts all morning!” Don paused and then he turned back to his brother. “I had to go home and do the laundry two hours ago. And I had to go clean up the bathroom half an hour ago.”
Behind Don, Colby nodded, in a gesture that meant that he was proud that he had anticipated that. Charlie giggled and that made Don ask, “What? Is that funny to you?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean…”
“I’d like to see you fulfill Dad’s requests, buddy. I haven’t seen you at home much this weekend. I understand why you’re not there,” Don said, and he looked at Colby, because Charlie and he had spent most of the weekend together, “but I can’t take care of Dad all by myself with my work and everything, I need you to help me.”
“Fine, I’ll do it. If there’s no case I could help you with, then I could go home and try to comfort Dad.”
“I could go with you,” Colby stepped into the conversation again, going towards the Eppes brothers, “if you’d like me to, of course.”
Charlie’s smile became even wider. “I would be more than happy if you’d help me to take care of my Dad.”
Colby smiled too, and then Don said, “Ok, now that we’ve got a deal, maybe I can go to work on a case for a while in peace.”
“But Don, what’s so bad about helping your father?” Colby wanted to know, while he grabbed his stuff and his jacket, and Charlie grabbed his papers and his laptop.
The answer was quick and sincere. “Because, like I said two times already, he’s making me insane! He’s not in bed. When I was cleaning the bathroom, he stood at the door, telling me that there were spots here and there!”
“You’re kidding,” the mathematician muttered, laughing, and when Don shook his head, he added, “Oh god, I have to see that. It’s so weird!”
They had just left the room, laughing and making jokes, when someone passed them by. The three of them froze.
And they turned around.
There she was.
“Amita…” Charlie muttered.
The woman that had passed them by stopped walking. Her long, dark hair rested on her shoulders and she was wearing casual clothes. She looked just like the Amita everybody knew.
She slowly turned around and went towards them without hesitation. “Oh, sorry, guys. I didn’t see you.”
Charlie, Colby and Don looked at each other. Charlie knew that all of them wondered what to say, and why the hell she was acting so normal when everybody knew that she was supposed to be in India, according to what David had said.
“Weren’t you in…” the mathematician started to say, and it was difficult for him to put the words together, because the shock of seeing his ex-girlfriend again had been very overwhelming.
“I was at my apartment, where I live,” Amita responded, like she had no idea why Charlie was acting so weird.
It was all so confusing. Colby intervened and stated, “But I went there looking for David, and one of your neighbors, an old lady, she told me that you had left to India.”
All of a sudden, she started to laugh. “What? No, that would be crazy. Yes, I locked up my apartment, and I thought I wanted to leave, but then I actually considered the idea and I realized that it was better for me to stay here.”
“Please, tell me that you’re getting some help,” Don suggested. “I mean, after all that’s happened, the least you could do, just in case, would be seeing a therapist or something.” He seemed warm to the idea of Amita coming back.
Charlie thought that maybe it was better for her to stay and see a professional who could help her to get over the pain of the kidnapping and all the changes her life had been through lately.
“I’ll accept any help the FBI offers in terms of a psychological treatment, Don,” Amita muttered.
After that, Charlie could take a deep breath and imagine that everything would be ok for her soon. “I’m glad you’re trying to get back on track.”
This time she held his gaze and muttered, “I’m not trying, Charlie, I’m already back on track. I’m here to see if I can convince CalSci’s board to let me start working again. I need the thrill of making experiments, building up devices, giving classes. I need to feel like things can go back to normal again… even if I know that they’re different and that some stuff isn’t going to change.”
When she said that, she looked at Charlie, then at Colby, then back at Charlie. The mathematician had understood the message. She had to concentrate on the things she had always been attached to so that would make her forget all the pain Charlie had caused her after leaving her for Colby.
“I’m sorry, guys, I have my meeting with the board now. I’ll see you later.” Amita left them pretty much speechless, and the three men followed her with their eyes while she walked to the end of the hallway.
“I had no idea that I would see her again,” Charlie whispered.
“Me neither,” Colby said, and he seemed to be holding a lot of thoughts to himself. Charlie would try to figure out what he was thinking about later, because right now he was completely astonished by Amita’s return.
“Well, at least she’s trying to get better, you know,” Don argued. “I think that’s the best thing she could do. We were all worried about her going to India without having dealt with the situation here.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Colby’s response sounded a little sarcastic. He started to walk around, his hands on his hips, his cheeks blushing.
It was weird for Charlie to see him like that, when they were just starting their relationship. After all, only two days ago Charlie had made it clear that all he wanted was them to be together. Why was Colby suddenly acting like he was jealous or mad, like Charlie had appeared to be attracted to Amita again?
Larry’s appearance made the mathematician stop making guesses and Colby stop walking around. “Hello!” He was wearing a lab coat, glasses and gloves, and he had a big smile on his face.
“What are you doing, Larry?” Don asked.
“Oh, nothing dangerous, but extremely entertaining for a physicist like me. We’re separating simple molecules and proteins… All very simple, very old fashioned.” After saying that, Larry laughed in excitement, but he stopped when he saw Charlie’s face. “Charles, is there something wrong?”
There was this possibility that Amita had talked to Larry and let him know that she was thinking about going back to work. So Charlie said, “Did you know that Amita’s back in LA? Or, to be more accurate, that she never left the city in the first place?”
Larry’s shocked expression let Charlie know that he hadn’t heard the news. “What? No, I had no idea… I haven’t seen her, is she here?”
“Yeah. She’s in a meeting with CalSci’s board, trying to make them let her return to her old job.”
“Oh… that’s very… interesting,” Larry muttered, like he was talking to himself, while he ran his fingers over the back of his head in an awkward movement.
“Why do you say that?” was Colby’s answer.
“Yeah, why would you think that’s interesting, besides shocking?” Charlie added.
Now Larry looked thoughtful, like when he was about to make a comparison to a theory. And that’s exactly what he did. “Well, it’s very similar to the return of the fallen angel. Just like Lucifer, she was pushed away from the Heavens she used to live in when she was with you. I just hope she hasn’t come back to claim her lost territory.”
That last sentence made Charlie shiver. He saw that Colby was starting to get worried again because his cheeks were turning into a more furious red than before. But Don didn’t seem to have taken Larry’s words very seriously. He just kept talking to the scientist, asking him about his experiments just for fun, and he was laughing every time Larry pointed out some kind of weird idea that he obviously didn’t understand.
Maybe Charlie was worrying about nothing. Maybe Amita had come back for good. He couldn’t know that for sure, thought. He would have to wait to find out why she had returned to the crowded, noisy, full of crime City of Los Angeles.