FIC: "Holding on to a lie," Part 8/? (Colby/Charlie, Alan, Amita, Don, PG-13)
Title: "A strange illness"
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 8/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, Alan, Amita, Don.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Charlie becomes obsessed with the numbers, and that upsets Colby.
Feedback: I love feedback. Every comment is a cup of coffee that keeps me posting. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own the original aspects and any OCs.
Beta: The always amazing
irena_adler .
Previous chapter: Part 7 - "What patience means" (Charlie/Colby, Alan, Amita, PG-13)
Holding on to a lie
Part 8: “A strange illness”
When it was eleven o’clock and Amita and Charlie were still at the table discussing their equations, Colby was absolutely sure that she wouldn’t leave tonight.
He had been forced to have dinner and take a seat beside her. Even if she hadn’t place herself between him and Charlie, she had to be making some kind of move. No one gets this better, so focused in work, so soon.
The worst part was that Charlie wasn’t paying any attention to him. It was ok that numbers absorbed his ability to see what was going on around him, but it wasn’t ok at all that he had seemed to have forgotten his lover while talking to his ex-girlfriend.
And the worst part that even Alan seemed to have noticed that. Now, he and Colby were seated on the couch, having a drink. They were looking at Charlie and Amita talking and laughing at the table, when Alan said, “This means nothing, Colby, really.”
“He seems to be having fun.” He was sad and a little annoyed. He hated not being able to bring such interesting issues for Charlie to concentrate on, he hated not being a brilliant scientific mind. “Maybe that’s what will make us break up, eventually,” he mumbled while running his fingers over his cold beer.
“What do you mean?” Alan asked.
“What?” Please, don’t tell me I said that out loud. He shook his head and looked at his beer, but soon he found himself staring at his lover and Amita one more time.
“You know,” Alan continued after a minute, “love is what ultimately keeps two people together, no matter their social class, their economic status or their religion… or even their different skills and interests.”
Looking at Charlie’s father’s warm eyes, Colby could tell what he meant. Charlie’s good at math and I’m good at physical challenges. Maybe we’re different when it comes to that, but I’m not thinking for a moment of giving up on him. Perhaps we complement each other that way. “Thank you, Mr. Eppes,” he whispered, smiling.
Alan nodded and took a breath. He was such a wonderful father, as well as Charlie was such a good son. To some extent, Colby had started to consider that man somehow a father. Not that he’d ever replace his passed away dad, of course; but on earth, Alan was the closest person to a father figure Colby had.
And Alan had let him do the dishes. It was obvious that he had given Colby something to do trying to make him relax while Charlie spent some time with Amita in front of him, but still, the gesture was very much appreciated.
“Ok,” Alan suddenly muttered, and he got up.
“Ok, what? Do you need me to do something?”
“No, no. Just… stay here, Colby.”
Colby stared at the next scene in amusement. There was Alan approaching his son at the table, putting a hand on his shoulder and saying with a serious tone of voice, “Charlie, can I talk to you for a moment?”
The mathematician’s face turned into a surprised expression. “What? Oh, sure, Dad…”
Now Charlie visibly swallowed and turned to Amita. “Would you excuse me for a minute?”
“Sure,” she answered while entering more information into her database at her laptop, like she didn’t mind that Charlie wasn’t there.
But Colby got the feeling that she was lying. You came here and interrupted our dinner. Don’t try to pretend you don’t want Charlie to ignore me and stay with you all night. He decided not to focus on her anymore, and he watched Charlie and Alan instead. They were going towards one of the corners of the living room.
Strangely, the agent was very grateful that the Army had made him learn how to read people’s lips. From his place, he could see the two men’s mouths move, and he could know exactly what they were saying.
“Charlie, do you see what you’re doing?” Alan muttered, looking upset.
“What am I doing, Dad? And who am I doing it to?”
“Colby. You’re ignoring him.”
The answer seemed to get to Charlie’s brain very fast, because he looked at his lover, who was still seated on the couch. Of course, Colby drank his beer and looked somewhere else so Charlie wouldn’t know he was catching his talk with his father. It didn’t seem to be appropriate in a normal situation. But this isn’t normal. At all. I’m sitting here, don’t you see?
Now Charlie took a look at his watch and his eyes went wide open in astonishment. “Oh, god, it’s eleven o’clock. We’ve been working on the equations for like three hours.”
“Why do you think I dragged you over here, son?”
Alan’s worried face obviously made Charlie start to get uncomfortable about the conversation. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“Because I thought you were smart enough to notice it yourself,” his father replied. “Charlie, Colby’s been sitting there all night, waiting for you to give him some proper attention.”
“Yeah…”
“Amita’s important to you, I get that. She’s important to me, too. But there’re other people in your life, you know; and if you want this new relationship to work (and I’m sure that’s the case), you need to start rearranging your priorities.”
It was evident that the mathematician was a little annoyed by having his father giving him a speech, because Charlie put his hands on his face and said, “Dad, I already know that. What I need to do is fix this!”
His voice had raised enough for his lover and Amita to clearly hear what he was saying. She looked at Colby with what seemed to be an ashamed expression, and then she started to pick up her stuff and putting them into her bag.
“I’m going home, Charlie, I’m sorry that this took so much time from you. It really wasn’t my intention to stay this long, I can finish this by myself,” she stated while she closed the books she and her ex-boyfriend had been using.
It seemed that Charlie was debating himself between helping her some more and have his dinner with Colby, even if it was almost midnight. “Amita…” he muttered in confusion while he watched her grab her belongings.
Charlie looked so worried about her that Colby started to think that maybe he should let him help her and go home. This isn’t what I wanted, but if you’re happy discussing numbers with her, that’s ok. I’ll give you some space if that’s what you need, and I’ll do it for you more than for her. She won’t be able to make us break up. Luckily, Alan’s words were still fresh inside his head.
“You know, maybe I’m the one who should go home, since it’s late,” he suggested, getting up from the sofa.
“Colby…” Charlie muttered, looking at his lover, then and Amita, and finally fixing his eyes on Colby again. “Colby, we can work this out.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Colby said, and he went to grab his jacket. “We’ll talk tomorrow…” Suddenly, something caught his attention. “Mr. Eppes, are you ok?”
Everybody turned to Alan, who was leaning his back on the wall, like he was using it for support. Charlie, Colby and Amita were soon around him, holding his arms, because he was definitely losing his energy and about to faint.
“Dad, are you all right?” the mathematician desperately asked.
“I’m… I’m fine… I just felt so tired all of a sudden… just like I did a few hours ago, before going to the grocery store…”
“You should rest,” Amita muttered, and she seemed to be very worried.
“Yeah, you should,” Colby agreed, and he was the one to help Alan to get upstairs, into his bedroom and into his bed again. “There you go, Mr. Eppes.”
“Ah… I don’t understand…” Alan said while Amita and Charlie put the sheets and a huge blanket over his body. “I’ve taking my medication… I should be fine by now, but I’m so terribly exhausted…”
“I’ll bring the pills, where are they?” she suggested.
“Oh… Now that I remember, I left them at the garage… I was cleaning up, and…” Now talking seemed to be hard for Alan. It was like he was losing his breath.
“Dad, don’t try to talk, ok? Just rest, we’ll take care of everything,” Charlie told him, and then he turned to Amita. “Hurry up, please.”
She disappeared and headed towards the garage; Colby and Charlie observed Alan for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out what was going on with him. Or at least that’s what the agent was doing, because suddenly the mathematician left the room.
Surprised by that, Colby followed him and found him right outside, covering his face with his palms. “Charlie…” Let me help you. Please, let me help you.
“I treated him bad. I knew he was just trying to help me, you know. I knew he was trying to tell me that I’m a crappy boyfriend… or whatever I am to you, right now.”
“Hey, tha-”
“I didn’t realize I had spent like three hours with Amita, don’t you see? I should have noticed that! What does that say about me, what does that say about what I feel for you?” The mathematician crossed his arms and looked at the floor.
“It’s ok, don’t worry about it,” Colby muttered while he caressed his lover’s arm. That doesn’t matter anymore, what matters right now is Alan’s health and that you’re not happy. “Numbers always do that to you, it’s nothing personal. It’s just you being you; actually, it’s one of the things I like the most about who you are.”
That definitely left Charlie speechless. His eyes were focused on Colby, his expression was sad and thankful, and it took him a few seconds to give the other man an answer. “Thank you,” were the only words his mouth said. “But nothing you say can change the fact that I was ignoring you.”
“I said it’s ok…”
“No, it’s not. You don’t deserve that, and I hate it that I…” Charlie muttered, and he ran his palms over his face again. “And as if that wasn’t enough, I made my father get mad at me. Now he’s in bed and I don’t know what to do…”
“Well, let me help you. Tell me what I can do for you, for Alan.” Now Colby put both hands on Charlie’s shoulders and kissed his forehead. He could hear his lover take deep breaths, trying to calm down.
“We should call his doctor. And we should call Don, too.”
“Yeah. Do you want me to tell your brother to come?”
Charlie simply nodded.
“Ok. Go with your father, I’ll call Don.”
Slowly, the mathematician got into the room with a sad look on his face. After seeing him disappear through the door, Colby took out his cell phone and told Don the news.
“What? Dad almost fainted? Is he ok?” Charlie’s brother snapped as soon as he heard them. “I’ll be there ASAP.”
And when the phone call ended, there it was Amita walking towards Colby, the little bottle of pills in one of her hands, a glass of water in the other. Soon, Alan was taking his medication. The agent watched him do it while Amita and Charlie encouraged him to rest for as much as he needed. “The pills will be good for you, Mr. Eppes,” she repeated over and over. “I bought them in a naturist shop, my mother told me about how effective they are. It might take them some time to work, but they will make you feel better, eventually.”
She decided to stay, and when Alan fell asleep, she offered herself to make some tea. Being left alone, Colby and Charlie stared at the mathematician’s father again.
“He’s breathing well,” the agent muttered.
“Yeah… I hope he’s ok soon.”
“He will be. Did you call his doctor?”
“I did it when you were calling Don.”
Speaking of the devil, Don entered the room in that very moment. “How is he?” he asked, and he knelt beside the bed. “He’s sleeping. Is that good?”
“He was very tired. He could barely stand up,” Colby let him know.
“I see,” Don said. He got up and put both hands on his hips. “That damn cold… It should have been gone by now!”
Looking at the bottle of pills, Colby had an idea. “You know, maybe we should make these get tested, just in case there’s some prohibited substance in them.”
“Yeah, yeah. That would be a great idea, Colby. Why don’t you take care of that? I’d like to stay here a little longer.”
“Don’t worry, I got it.” Colby’s statement sounded serious, just like it should be. He took the bottle of pills and said. “I’ll take them to the lab right now.”
Right after he had gone out of the room, he felt Charlie’s hands embracing him. It was a pleasure to have his back pressed against the mathematician’s warm torso. Instinctively, Colby held the hands that were roaming his chest and waited for his lover’s voice to rise.
“Thank you. I mean it,” Charlie whispered.
“You don’t have to thank me,” the agent said, and he turned around to face the other man. He never let his hands go. “I do it because I want to… because I care about you.”
He didn’t complain when Charlie reached for him and kissed him deeply. “Well, thank you, anyways.”
Smiling, they separated and Colby watched his lover get into Alan’s room one more time. Then he walked down the stairs, passed by Amita, who was going up.
He stopped for a moment to watch her confident walk; everything she did seemed to hide a dangerous meaning, but he didn’t know exactly what it was. Someday, I’ll find out what’s going on with you. And when that happens, I’ll know what you did to David, too.
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 8/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, Alan, Amita, Don.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Charlie becomes obsessed with the numbers, and that upsets Colby.
Feedback: I love feedback. Every comment is a cup of coffee that keeps me posting. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own the original aspects and any OCs.
Beta: The always amazing
irena_adler .
Previous chapter: Part 7 - "What patience means" (Charlie/Colby, Alan, Amita, PG-13)
Holding on to a lie
Part 8: “A strange illness”
When it was eleven o’clock and Amita and Charlie were still at the table discussing their equations, Colby was absolutely sure that she wouldn’t leave tonight.
He had been forced to have dinner and take a seat beside her. Even if she hadn’t place herself between him and Charlie, she had to be making some kind of move. No one gets this better, so focused in work, so soon.
The worst part was that Charlie wasn’t paying any attention to him. It was ok that numbers absorbed his ability to see what was going on around him, but it wasn’t ok at all that he had seemed to have forgotten his lover while talking to his ex-girlfriend.
And the worst part that even Alan seemed to have noticed that. Now, he and Colby were seated on the couch, having a drink. They were looking at Charlie and Amita talking and laughing at the table, when Alan said, “This means nothing, Colby, really.”
“He seems to be having fun.” He was sad and a little annoyed. He hated not being able to bring such interesting issues for Charlie to concentrate on, he hated not being a brilliant scientific mind. “Maybe that’s what will make us break up, eventually,” he mumbled while running his fingers over his cold beer.
“What do you mean?” Alan asked.
“What?” Please, don’t tell me I said that out loud. He shook his head and looked at his beer, but soon he found himself staring at his lover and Amita one more time.
“You know,” Alan continued after a minute, “love is what ultimately keeps two people together, no matter their social class, their economic status or their religion… or even their different skills and interests.”
Looking at Charlie’s father’s warm eyes, Colby could tell what he meant. Charlie’s good at math and I’m good at physical challenges. Maybe we’re different when it comes to that, but I’m not thinking for a moment of giving up on him. Perhaps we complement each other that way. “Thank you, Mr. Eppes,” he whispered, smiling.
Alan nodded and took a breath. He was such a wonderful father, as well as Charlie was such a good son. To some extent, Colby had started to consider that man somehow a father. Not that he’d ever replace his passed away dad, of course; but on earth, Alan was the closest person to a father figure Colby had.
And Alan had let him do the dishes. It was obvious that he had given Colby something to do trying to make him relax while Charlie spent some time with Amita in front of him, but still, the gesture was very much appreciated.
“Ok,” Alan suddenly muttered, and he got up.
“Ok, what? Do you need me to do something?”
“No, no. Just… stay here, Colby.”
Colby stared at the next scene in amusement. There was Alan approaching his son at the table, putting a hand on his shoulder and saying with a serious tone of voice, “Charlie, can I talk to you for a moment?”
The mathematician’s face turned into a surprised expression. “What? Oh, sure, Dad…”
Now Charlie visibly swallowed and turned to Amita. “Would you excuse me for a minute?”
“Sure,” she answered while entering more information into her database at her laptop, like she didn’t mind that Charlie wasn’t there.
But Colby got the feeling that she was lying. You came here and interrupted our dinner. Don’t try to pretend you don’t want Charlie to ignore me and stay with you all night. He decided not to focus on her anymore, and he watched Charlie and Alan instead. They were going towards one of the corners of the living room.
Strangely, the agent was very grateful that the Army had made him learn how to read people’s lips. From his place, he could see the two men’s mouths move, and he could know exactly what they were saying.
“Charlie, do you see what you’re doing?” Alan muttered, looking upset.
“What am I doing, Dad? And who am I doing it to?”
“Colby. You’re ignoring him.”
The answer seemed to get to Charlie’s brain very fast, because he looked at his lover, who was still seated on the couch. Of course, Colby drank his beer and looked somewhere else so Charlie wouldn’t know he was catching his talk with his father. It didn’t seem to be appropriate in a normal situation. But this isn’t normal. At all. I’m sitting here, don’t you see?
Now Charlie took a look at his watch and his eyes went wide open in astonishment. “Oh, god, it’s eleven o’clock. We’ve been working on the equations for like three hours.”
“Why do you think I dragged you over here, son?”
Alan’s worried face obviously made Charlie start to get uncomfortable about the conversation. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“Because I thought you were smart enough to notice it yourself,” his father replied. “Charlie, Colby’s been sitting there all night, waiting for you to give him some proper attention.”
“Yeah…”
“Amita’s important to you, I get that. She’s important to me, too. But there’re other people in your life, you know; and if you want this new relationship to work (and I’m sure that’s the case), you need to start rearranging your priorities.”
It was evident that the mathematician was a little annoyed by having his father giving him a speech, because Charlie put his hands on his face and said, “Dad, I already know that. What I need to do is fix this!”
His voice had raised enough for his lover and Amita to clearly hear what he was saying. She looked at Colby with what seemed to be an ashamed expression, and then she started to pick up her stuff and putting them into her bag.
“I’m going home, Charlie, I’m sorry that this took so much time from you. It really wasn’t my intention to stay this long, I can finish this by myself,” she stated while she closed the books she and her ex-boyfriend had been using.
It seemed that Charlie was debating himself between helping her some more and have his dinner with Colby, even if it was almost midnight. “Amita…” he muttered in confusion while he watched her grab her belongings.
Charlie looked so worried about her that Colby started to think that maybe he should let him help her and go home. This isn’t what I wanted, but if you’re happy discussing numbers with her, that’s ok. I’ll give you some space if that’s what you need, and I’ll do it for you more than for her. She won’t be able to make us break up. Luckily, Alan’s words were still fresh inside his head.
“You know, maybe I’m the one who should go home, since it’s late,” he suggested, getting up from the sofa.
“Colby…” Charlie muttered, looking at his lover, then and Amita, and finally fixing his eyes on Colby again. “Colby, we can work this out.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Colby said, and he went to grab his jacket. “We’ll talk tomorrow…” Suddenly, something caught his attention. “Mr. Eppes, are you ok?”
Everybody turned to Alan, who was leaning his back on the wall, like he was using it for support. Charlie, Colby and Amita were soon around him, holding his arms, because he was definitely losing his energy and about to faint.
“Dad, are you all right?” the mathematician desperately asked.
“I’m… I’m fine… I just felt so tired all of a sudden… just like I did a few hours ago, before going to the grocery store…”
“You should rest,” Amita muttered, and she seemed to be very worried.
“Yeah, you should,” Colby agreed, and he was the one to help Alan to get upstairs, into his bedroom and into his bed again. “There you go, Mr. Eppes.”
“Ah… I don’t understand…” Alan said while Amita and Charlie put the sheets and a huge blanket over his body. “I’ve taking my medication… I should be fine by now, but I’m so terribly exhausted…”
“I’ll bring the pills, where are they?” she suggested.
“Oh… Now that I remember, I left them at the garage… I was cleaning up, and…” Now talking seemed to be hard for Alan. It was like he was losing his breath.
“Dad, don’t try to talk, ok? Just rest, we’ll take care of everything,” Charlie told him, and then he turned to Amita. “Hurry up, please.”
She disappeared and headed towards the garage; Colby and Charlie observed Alan for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out what was going on with him. Or at least that’s what the agent was doing, because suddenly the mathematician left the room.
Surprised by that, Colby followed him and found him right outside, covering his face with his palms. “Charlie…” Let me help you. Please, let me help you.
“I treated him bad. I knew he was just trying to help me, you know. I knew he was trying to tell me that I’m a crappy boyfriend… or whatever I am to you, right now.”
“Hey, tha-”
“I didn’t realize I had spent like three hours with Amita, don’t you see? I should have noticed that! What does that say about me, what does that say about what I feel for you?” The mathematician crossed his arms and looked at the floor.
“It’s ok, don’t worry about it,” Colby muttered while he caressed his lover’s arm. That doesn’t matter anymore, what matters right now is Alan’s health and that you’re not happy. “Numbers always do that to you, it’s nothing personal. It’s just you being you; actually, it’s one of the things I like the most about who you are.”
That definitely left Charlie speechless. His eyes were focused on Colby, his expression was sad and thankful, and it took him a few seconds to give the other man an answer. “Thank you,” were the only words his mouth said. “But nothing you say can change the fact that I was ignoring you.”
“I said it’s ok…”
“No, it’s not. You don’t deserve that, and I hate it that I…” Charlie muttered, and he ran his palms over his face again. “And as if that wasn’t enough, I made my father get mad at me. Now he’s in bed and I don’t know what to do…”
“Well, let me help you. Tell me what I can do for you, for Alan.” Now Colby put both hands on Charlie’s shoulders and kissed his forehead. He could hear his lover take deep breaths, trying to calm down.
“We should call his doctor. And we should call Don, too.”
“Yeah. Do you want me to tell your brother to come?”
Charlie simply nodded.
“Ok. Go with your father, I’ll call Don.”
Slowly, the mathematician got into the room with a sad look on his face. After seeing him disappear through the door, Colby took out his cell phone and told Don the news.
“What? Dad almost fainted? Is he ok?” Charlie’s brother snapped as soon as he heard them. “I’ll be there ASAP.”
And when the phone call ended, there it was Amita walking towards Colby, the little bottle of pills in one of her hands, a glass of water in the other. Soon, Alan was taking his medication. The agent watched him do it while Amita and Charlie encouraged him to rest for as much as he needed. “The pills will be good for you, Mr. Eppes,” she repeated over and over. “I bought them in a naturist shop, my mother told me about how effective they are. It might take them some time to work, but they will make you feel better, eventually.”
She decided to stay, and when Alan fell asleep, she offered herself to make some tea. Being left alone, Colby and Charlie stared at the mathematician’s father again.
“He’s breathing well,” the agent muttered.
“Yeah… I hope he’s ok soon.”
“He will be. Did you call his doctor?”
“I did it when you were calling Don.”
Speaking of the devil, Don entered the room in that very moment. “How is he?” he asked, and he knelt beside the bed. “He’s sleeping. Is that good?”
“He was very tired. He could barely stand up,” Colby let him know.
“I see,” Don said. He got up and put both hands on his hips. “That damn cold… It should have been gone by now!”
Looking at the bottle of pills, Colby had an idea. “You know, maybe we should make these get tested, just in case there’s some prohibited substance in them.”
“Yeah, yeah. That would be a great idea, Colby. Why don’t you take care of that? I’d like to stay here a little longer.”
“Don’t worry, I got it.” Colby’s statement sounded serious, just like it should be. He took the bottle of pills and said. “I’ll take them to the lab right now.”
Right after he had gone out of the room, he felt Charlie’s hands embracing him. It was a pleasure to have his back pressed against the mathematician’s warm torso. Instinctively, Colby held the hands that were roaming his chest and waited for his lover’s voice to rise.
“Thank you. I mean it,” Charlie whispered.
“You don’t have to thank me,” the agent said, and he turned around to face the other man. He never let his hands go. “I do it because I want to… because I care about you.”
He didn’t complain when Charlie reached for him and kissed him deeply. “Well, thank you, anyways.”
Smiling, they separated and Colby watched his lover get into Alan’s room one more time. Then he walked down the stairs, passed by Amita, who was going up.
He stopped for a moment to watch her confident walk; everything she did seemed to hide a dangerous meaning, but he didn’t know exactly what it was. Someday, I’ll find out what’s going on with you. And when that happens, I’ll know what you did to David, too.