Title: Resting / Restless, Chapter 1/2            
                                    Fandom: Numb3rs
                                    Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
                                    Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord                                   
                                    Rating: PG     
                                    Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
                                    Feedback: Always Welcome

 NUMB3RS Main List


“Agent Eppes?”
“Yes.”
“Agent Gorden from Internal Investigation. We’ve talked on the phone.”
“Of course. Would you like to come in?”
“Thanks.” Agent Gorden walked in and Don closed the door.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
“No, I was just watching TV. Is this about Cooper?”
“Yeas.”
“I thought the investigation was shelved after his death.”
“It was, but we had to go through all his things before we closed it.” She pulled out something small from his pocket. “I think I had a little accident…. This was left out from the inventory list and our report.”
“A memory stick?”
“We found it from his motel room.” She gave it to Don. “Like you said, the investigation is closed, and it doesn’t matter one way or another. I’m the only one who’s seen it.”

“What’s on it?”
“I think you better see it yourself. I need to get going. Take care.”
“You too. And thanks.”
“Good night.”

-----------------------------------------------------

“She’s asleep.” Colby whispered when he closed the door to the nursery and stepped into the hallway. “Charlie?”

“What?” Charlie came from the bathroom, wrapped in a bathrobe. His hair was dripping and even more curly than usually.
“She’s asleep.”
“Are you sure she didn’t just pretend to sleep?”
“She’s little bit too young for that.”
“No, haven’t you noticed? She does that when you start singing lullabies, just to make you stop it.”
“Really funny....”
“And true. But anyway, I was thinking…. Remember that coffee shop near CalSci?”
“Lou’s place?”
“Yeah, I was thinking we haven’t been there for a while. I used to go there all the time when I was working, but after I cut down my classes I haven’t been there for ages.”
“So?”
“So nothing. I was just thinking. That place has a lot of sentimental value. That’s where we met.”

“I remember.” Colby grinned. “I knocked you on your ass.”
“And then we met there again.”
“And again.”
“And after that we ended up in your bed.” Charlie finished.
“You know…. Lou teased me about it after that first meeting.”
“Because you knocked another customer to the ground?”
“That was an accident. And he noticed me checking your ass when you walked out.”
“That’s understandable.”
“That’s what I thought. He said he had seen you there with some students, so I thought you were a student.”
“So you knocked me to the floor.”
“I did worse than that when I was six years old.” Colby grinned. “I had a crush on the girl who always sat next to me in Sunday school. Used to yank her pigtails all the time and shove her to the sandbox.”

“Little girls with pigtails…. Why is it that every time you talk about Idaho, you make it sound like the whole place is in some permanent time warp?”
“Hey, we’re modern people!”
“Right…. But I gotta admit it’s pretty hot when you play a naïve country boy, just ready to be ravaged.”
“I’ve noticed.” Colby slid his hand inside Charlie’s robe. “You want to play plant-the-potato?”

-----------------------------------------------------

“I went to the store on the way.” Martin informed and went to the kitchen. “You wanna eat right away?”

Don didn’t answer. He was sitting next to Martin desk in the study, and stared at the monitor of his laptop.

“Don?”

He snapped out of his thoughts and pulled the lid of the computer down to hide the monitor. “When did you get back?”
“Didn’t you hear me?”
“No, I…. I didn’t.”
“Something’s wrong, I know that look. What is it?”
“Agent Gorden was here.”
“Gorden?”
“From Internal Investigation. She found a memory stick from Cooper’s motel room.”
“What was on it?”
“She didn’t put it on the official report and-”
“Don.”
“She said it didn’t matter anymore-”
“Don. What was on it?”

Don gulped and nailed his eyes to the desk. “That night when, I got drunk and he…
he took pictures.”
“Pictures?” Martin’s voice had gone from calming to worried.
“With his cell phone. He had them on a memory stick.” Don opened the laptop and turned it around. Martin leaned closer to see the file full of fuzzy cell phone pictures.

“He took pictures. He took pictures when he….” Don’s voice cracked. “I didn’t even know he did that. Like what he did wasn’t enough.”
Martin clicked the window shut and yanked the stick off.
“Don, you’ve made it this far. Keep going forward.”
“Give it to me.” Don took the stick. He marched to the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards. Finally he pulled out a lighter.

Don struck the lighter under the stick. The plastic stated to melt slowly. Little by little the plastic surface twisted into bizarre shapes. He snapped the flame off and placed the stick on a cutting board. He grabbed a meat mallet from the rack.

He started pounding the stick with the mallet and little pieces flew all over the kitchen. Martin grabbed his hand and carefully pulled the mallet away from him.
“Don, that stick’s history.” He placed a soft kiss on Don’s neck. “Take a deep breath.”

TBC