FIC: In the Arms of the Wicked, 9 (Charlie/Colby, Larry, OMC, PG-13)
Title: "Meaningful, little fractions"
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 9/?
Characters: Charlie/Colby, Larry, OMC.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Egyptian symbols keep a lot of secrets.
Feedback: Yes, please. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The fantastic twins_m0m.
A/N: Thanks to harknessgirl and Lily G again for their assistance.
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Part 9: "Meaningful, little fractions"
“So, I suppose you talked to Colby,” Larry said as he circled Charlie’s desk, limping as usual. The other man mimicked his actions. They were both analyzing the possible meanings of the new data found by David and Colby before they went to the hospital.
“Only a little bit,” Charlie responded as he took a piece of paper full of calculations and read it as he kept his merry-go-round trip around the desk.
In front of him, also still walking, the physicist joined his hands. “That can be measured at least in an estimate number, I believe.”
Charlie left the paper on the desk again but continued his trip around the desk. “I think we spoke for about a minute…” He stopped in his tracks as he described Larry what he remember about his extremely brief conversation with his lover.
Wrinkles that he’d never get rid of; signs of the appointment that had just taken place; sometimes, things kept terrible hours, turning themselves into horrible reminders of a time of desperation.
“I’m here.”
The voice and the endless hope in the eyes of that man were all that it took for Charlie’s world to come apart. He had fought the tears with an incredible willpower; there was no need of a show in the hospital room.
Words had rolled off his tongue as he repressed a little sob. “I know.” But the utterance of them led to a state of peace that Charlie wasn’t ready for, after feeling his nerves crash down. He tried to breathe slowly, enjoying the too brief moment of calmness, until Colby went towards him and leaned on the trolley that was beside his chair. Charlie wondered what he was going to say and do, but didn’t ask. Things would come the way destiny intended.
“I’m not sure where we’re going with this… or with anything, really, but I want you to know that you can count on me.”
Charlie didn’t respond at that second; he kept watching the emptiness of the white room and how cold and scary it seemed to be. Colby would always be there for him, he knew that. But what he wanted from him was so much more than a simple friendship. Even if that was good enough for them, it hurt so much.
“We could… I don’t know; get some coffee someday, maybe? So we could talk?”
“Maybe,” Charlie whispered. “Yeah, maybe.” He could hear Colby take a deep breath immediately after.
Colby didn’t say a word. He stood there, waiting, barely smiling, until Charlie finished putting on his shirt and jacket and arranging his hair. The mathematician was about to leave the room, when his lover put a hand on his shoulder.
Colby still remained silent. When Charlie turned around, the green-eyed agent handed him the briefcase he had forgotten to grab. Absently, Charlie reached for it and, without intending to, he touched his lover’s fingers.
Such simple contact with warm, smooth skin was clearly underestimated. One touch and Charlie was already facing an entire range of feelings he had never had towards anyone before.
It was always Colby, and no one but him.
“And then we left,” Charlie concluded. “You know Larry, I was so worried about people finding out about Colby and I, about how much that could damage our careers…”
“Ah…”
“But now… Now I don’t care. I mean, I do care because I love my job, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth keeping it at the risk of losing Colby.”
Larry looked deep into Charlie’s eyes and took a breath. “Mmm… I remember that conversation we had at the monastery about the five percent…”
“Five percent…” The number seemed to mean overwhelmingly little in that moment. Sometimes Charlie even wondered if he had been chasing a ghost ever since he had decided to ignore it. But he was aware of how shifty and confusing his mind has been - one day he wanted Colby back, the next day he wasn’t sure if he deserved him.
“It was path of self-discovery that I witnessed there, Charles, and your eyes in that moment - they were full of truth and affection towards the person you care for the most, no matter what physical features are the material representation of his soul.”
“Really?” Charlie asked, a little bit of joy reaching his heart.
“Yes. In strictly subjective terms, I think I could say that I’d swear it on Einstein’s brain.”
The answer, besides awkward, wasn’t exactly positive. “Einstein’s brain was cut into pieces and analyzed to see how different he was from the rest of men.”
“And it revealed meanings that had been abandoned hundreds of years ago. For example, we could mention the connection between the brain’s weight and intelligence.” Larry walked around the room. “Ah, the human race… Men always go back to the ancient practices and theories, no matter how old they are, in an endless search of the truth.”
Charlie took a deep breath, as Larry always found a way to surprise him with his peculiar view of the world. “That reminds me of Dr. Farrow… Didn’t Don say he was on his way here?”
In that precise moment, a head popped out of the door and Dr. Farrow stepped into the room. “Did you just call me, Professor?”
For a moment, Charlie had the unsettling idea that the archeologist had been listening to his conversation with Larry. He had no idea how Dr. Farrow would find a gay relationship between an FBI agent and a mathematician who worked together, but just in case, he hoped the blue-eyed man hadn’t heard anything. “Oh, please, come in,” he said. “We were just saying how good it’d be to have you here, since we kind of need your help.”
“Thanks to the fact that I’ve been reincorporated into the investigation, that will be possible. All right, let’s see what we have here,” Dr. Farrow muttered as he walked towards the desk. He stared intensely at the papers that laid on it and frowned. “Fractions.”
“Exactly. We’ve been analyzing the robberies and according to our calculations, the items that were found at different people’s houses belong to only six of the seventy four sets that were stolen.”
“And from studying those six sets, there’s a commonality between them - only one piece of each of them was buried,” Larry added, pointing to the blackboard. There, the most important information had been written down.
Dr. Farrow kept looking at the pictures. He took one in particular and raised it in the air; then he started walking around the room. “Was there any other commonality?”
“Yeah. The artifacts always had representative figures of Horus and Set, those gods you told to us about the other day.” The memory of the disgusting myth made Charlie queasy. “In fact, given the newest photos and data we received and David and Colby’s research, the most important engraving was the Eye of Horus.” Charlie wondered if Dr. Farrow would start walking in circles just like he and Larry had been doing, but the archeologist suddenly stopped in his tracks and with his back turned to them, said, “The Horus-eye fractions.”
Charlie frowned. “What?” he asked as Dr. Farrow approached the blackboard, grabbed a piece of chalk and started writing something he couldn’t fully understand in an Egyptian context.
Without a warning, Larry threw his hands in the air. “Oh, I see what you’re saying, Christopher!” he exclaimed; he awkwardly walked towards the archeologist and muttered some things to him as the other man kept writing on the blackboard.
The image managed to disturb Charlie a little bit. Was that the way he and Larry looked like when they were working together? Was that the way they interacted? Similar questions started to pop inside his head, until Dr. Farrow turned around and repeated, “The Horus-eye Fractions,” with a serious look on his face. He and Larry stepped aside the writings and Charlie got closer to the blackboard.
As soon as Charlie read what had been written, the emotion of having found something important filled his heart. “Are you saying that those fractions we came up with by analyzing the stolen sets are actually a representation of the Eye of Horus?”
Dr. Farrow nodded, and a little breathless, he started waving his hands. There was an explanation coming, and Charlie was eager to know more. “These fractions were commonly used in Ancient Egypt - they were even revealed in the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, a mathematics text that was destined to be a source of information and methods for scribes. The measurement from what the group of fractions came from was the hekat, a unit of volume that was about a gallon, which was divided in parts in a progressive way…”
“I remember…” Charlie smiled. “1/2, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64. I know that Mathematical Roll you’re talking about; it contains the solution of the Eye of Horus.”
“Yes. The Eye of Horus, which was a symbol of god’s protection and royal power, took in the fractions and even assigned every one of them different meanings.”
Larry made a step forward, looking very excited. “Smell, sight, thought, hearing, taste and touch. This is such an entertaining way to quench our thirst for a greater knowledge while saving a part of history itself.”
“This has to have some other meaning. This wasn’t random,” Dr. Farrow muttered, landing one hand on his chin.
Focused on what they had just come up with, Charlie nodded. “I agree. I’m going to work on those numbers and see if I can find another commonality I can link to the fractions.”
“Okay, I’ll see if I can make a search of possible meanings. Fractions like these… they’re never quiet. They have so much to say.” With a grin on his face, Dr. Farrow ran out of the office, but before crossing the threshold he turned around. “Hey, about that hiatus in your relationship with Agent Granger,” he said, and Charlie’s breath got caught in his throat, “it sounds like he’s a keeper.” The archeologist leaned an arm on the doorframe and looked into Charlie’s eyes across the room. “Talk to him, that’s all you gotta do.”
Immediately after, he was gone, and Charlie realized that his fears had come true. Even if it seemed that Dr. Farrow didn’t have a problem with relationships between two men, the fact that he knew about Charlie and Colby’s connection didn’t thrilled the mathematician. He coughed, looked at Larry and then took the piece of chalk Dr. Farrow had just left. “It seems that Dr. Farrow likes to go around giving advice when it’s not needed.”
“More like his character tends to offer suggestions when a cloak of silence would be the most appropriate response,” the physicist thoughtfully muttered, as he took another picture and his forehead creased in a moment of deep concentration.
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 9/?
Characters: Charlie/Colby, Larry, OMC.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Egyptian symbols keep a lot of secrets.
Feedback: Yes, please. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The fantastic twins_m0m.
A/N: Thanks to harknessgirl and Lily G again for their assistance.
Previous chapter
Next chapter
Part 9: "Meaningful, little fractions"
“So, I suppose you talked to Colby,” Larry said as he circled Charlie’s desk, limping as usual. The other man mimicked his actions. They were both analyzing the possible meanings of the new data found by David and Colby before they went to the hospital.
“Only a little bit,” Charlie responded as he took a piece of paper full of calculations and read it as he kept his merry-go-round trip around the desk.
In front of him, also still walking, the physicist joined his hands. “That can be measured at least in an estimate number, I believe.”
Charlie left the paper on the desk again but continued his trip around the desk. “I think we spoke for about a minute…” He stopped in his tracks as he described Larry what he remember about his extremely brief conversation with his lover.
Wrinkles that he’d never get rid of; signs of the appointment that had just taken place; sometimes, things kept terrible hours, turning themselves into horrible reminders of a time of desperation.
“I’m here.”
The voice and the endless hope in the eyes of that man were all that it took for Charlie’s world to come apart. He had fought the tears with an incredible willpower; there was no need of a show in the hospital room.
Words had rolled off his tongue as he repressed a little sob. “I know.” But the utterance of them led to a state of peace that Charlie wasn’t ready for, after feeling his nerves crash down. He tried to breathe slowly, enjoying the too brief moment of calmness, until Colby went towards him and leaned on the trolley that was beside his chair. Charlie wondered what he was going to say and do, but didn’t ask. Things would come the way destiny intended.
“I’m not sure where we’re going with this… or with anything, really, but I want you to know that you can count on me.”
Charlie didn’t respond at that second; he kept watching the emptiness of the white room and how cold and scary it seemed to be. Colby would always be there for him, he knew that. But what he wanted from him was so much more than a simple friendship. Even if that was good enough for them, it hurt so much.
“We could… I don’t know; get some coffee someday, maybe? So we could talk?”
“Maybe,” Charlie whispered. “Yeah, maybe.” He could hear Colby take a deep breath immediately after.
Colby didn’t say a word. He stood there, waiting, barely smiling, until Charlie finished putting on his shirt and jacket and arranging his hair. The mathematician was about to leave the room, when his lover put a hand on his shoulder.
Colby still remained silent. When Charlie turned around, the green-eyed agent handed him the briefcase he had forgotten to grab. Absently, Charlie reached for it and, without intending to, he touched his lover’s fingers.
Such simple contact with warm, smooth skin was clearly underestimated. One touch and Charlie was already facing an entire range of feelings he had never had towards anyone before.
It was always Colby, and no one but him.
“And then we left,” Charlie concluded. “You know Larry, I was so worried about people finding out about Colby and I, about how much that could damage our careers…”
“Ah…”
“But now… Now I don’t care. I mean, I do care because I love my job, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth keeping it at the risk of losing Colby.”
Larry looked deep into Charlie’s eyes and took a breath. “Mmm… I remember that conversation we had at the monastery about the five percent…”
“Five percent…” The number seemed to mean overwhelmingly little in that moment. Sometimes Charlie even wondered if he had been chasing a ghost ever since he had decided to ignore it. But he was aware of how shifty and confusing his mind has been - one day he wanted Colby back, the next day he wasn’t sure if he deserved him.
“It was path of self-discovery that I witnessed there, Charles, and your eyes in that moment - they were full of truth and affection towards the person you care for the most, no matter what physical features are the material representation of his soul.”
“Really?” Charlie asked, a little bit of joy reaching his heart.
“Yes. In strictly subjective terms, I think I could say that I’d swear it on Einstein’s brain.”
The answer, besides awkward, wasn’t exactly positive. “Einstein’s brain was cut into pieces and analyzed to see how different he was from the rest of men.”
“And it revealed meanings that had been abandoned hundreds of years ago. For example, we could mention the connection between the brain’s weight and intelligence.” Larry walked around the room. “Ah, the human race… Men always go back to the ancient practices and theories, no matter how old they are, in an endless search of the truth.”
Charlie took a deep breath, as Larry always found a way to surprise him with his peculiar view of the world. “That reminds me of Dr. Farrow… Didn’t Don say he was on his way here?”
In that precise moment, a head popped out of the door and Dr. Farrow stepped into the room. “Did you just call me, Professor?”
For a moment, Charlie had the unsettling idea that the archeologist had been listening to his conversation with Larry. He had no idea how Dr. Farrow would find a gay relationship between an FBI agent and a mathematician who worked together, but just in case, he hoped the blue-eyed man hadn’t heard anything. “Oh, please, come in,” he said. “We were just saying how good it’d be to have you here, since we kind of need your help.”
“Thanks to the fact that I’ve been reincorporated into the investigation, that will be possible. All right, let’s see what we have here,” Dr. Farrow muttered as he walked towards the desk. He stared intensely at the papers that laid on it and frowned. “Fractions.”
“Exactly. We’ve been analyzing the robberies and according to our calculations, the items that were found at different people’s houses belong to only six of the seventy four sets that were stolen.”
“And from studying those six sets, there’s a commonality between them - only one piece of each of them was buried,” Larry added, pointing to the blackboard. There, the most important information had been written down.
Dr. Farrow kept looking at the pictures. He took one in particular and raised it in the air; then he started walking around the room. “Was there any other commonality?”
“Yeah. The artifacts always had representative figures of Horus and Set, those gods you told to us about the other day.” The memory of the disgusting myth made Charlie queasy. “In fact, given the newest photos and data we received and David and Colby’s research, the most important engraving was the Eye of Horus.” Charlie wondered if Dr. Farrow would start walking in circles just like he and Larry had been doing, but the archeologist suddenly stopped in his tracks and with his back turned to them, said, “The Horus-eye fractions.”
Charlie frowned. “What?” he asked as Dr. Farrow approached the blackboard, grabbed a piece of chalk and started writing something he couldn’t fully understand in an Egyptian context.
Without a warning, Larry threw his hands in the air. “Oh, I see what you’re saying, Christopher!” he exclaimed; he awkwardly walked towards the archeologist and muttered some things to him as the other man kept writing on the blackboard.
The image managed to disturb Charlie a little bit. Was that the way he and Larry looked like when they were working together? Was that the way they interacted? Similar questions started to pop inside his head, until Dr. Farrow turned around and repeated, “The Horus-eye Fractions,” with a serious look on his face. He and Larry stepped aside the writings and Charlie got closer to the blackboard.
As soon as Charlie read what had been written, the emotion of having found something important filled his heart. “Are you saying that those fractions we came up with by analyzing the stolen sets are actually a representation of the Eye of Horus?”
Dr. Farrow nodded, and a little breathless, he started waving his hands. There was an explanation coming, and Charlie was eager to know more. “These fractions were commonly used in Ancient Egypt - they were even revealed in the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, a mathematics text that was destined to be a source of information and methods for scribes. The measurement from what the group of fractions came from was the hekat, a unit of volume that was about a gallon, which was divided in parts in a progressive way…”
“I remember…” Charlie smiled. “1/2, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64. I know that Mathematical Roll you’re talking about; it contains the solution of the Eye of Horus.”
“Yes. The Eye of Horus, which was a symbol of god’s protection and royal power, took in the fractions and even assigned every one of them different meanings.”
Larry made a step forward, looking very excited. “Smell, sight, thought, hearing, taste and touch. This is such an entertaining way to quench our thirst for a greater knowledge while saving a part of history itself.”
“This has to have some other meaning. This wasn’t random,” Dr. Farrow muttered, landing one hand on his chin.
Focused on what they had just come up with, Charlie nodded. “I agree. I’m going to work on those numbers and see if I can find another commonality I can link to the fractions.”
“Okay, I’ll see if I can make a search of possible meanings. Fractions like these… they’re never quiet. They have so much to say.” With a grin on his face, Dr. Farrow ran out of the office, but before crossing the threshold he turned around. “Hey, about that hiatus in your relationship with Agent Granger,” he said, and Charlie’s breath got caught in his throat, “it sounds like he’s a keeper.” The archeologist leaned an arm on the doorframe and looked into Charlie’s eyes across the room. “Talk to him, that’s all you gotta do.”
Immediately after, he was gone, and Charlie realized that his fears had come true. Even if it seemed that Dr. Farrow didn’t have a problem with relationships between two men, the fact that he knew about Charlie and Colby’s connection didn’t thrilled the mathematician. He coughed, looked at Larry and then took the piece of chalk Dr. Farrow had just left. “It seems that Dr. Farrow likes to go around giving advice when it’s not needed.”
“More like his character tends to offer suggestions when a cloak of silence would be the most appropriate response,” the physicist thoughtfully muttered, as he took another picture and his forehead creased in a moment of deep concentration.