Author's note: This book is AU - alternate universe. Please keep this in mind when reading. It does contain some mentions of child abuse. It is rated T for safety. I hope you all enjoy this book. I also promise that physical, hand-to-hand whumping will come later for all of the team members. This takes place in early season four, after "Trust Metric" and after David and Colby have become slightly better friends.
Hopefully you all enjoy this! :) A little toast of Colby whumping for you.
## Break ##
Colby Granger swallowed hard as he stared at the paper. It felt like his life was shattered. He looked up at the woman sitting across from him at the desk. "You're lying," he finally said as he put the paper back down on the wooden desk. He was about ready to vomit. There was no way that what the children's services worker told him was true; there was no way she'd found out his past within a week when he'd spent years working on it.
Linda Edwards glanced at him over the rims of her glasses. She moved over her coffee cup and motioned towards the file. "Colby, when you told me you wanted me to find your family, I didn't expect complete denial of the truth."
"You did a blood test – a DNA test – without my permission?" Colby asked, spitting at out the words in random intervals. He wasn't sure if he was close to tears or close to blowing up, but either way, he was about to start shaking. He had to get out of there; he had to go move; to go punch something. He sub-consciously checked his watch. He wasn't due into work for another hour. He didn't have to leave yet.
"I wanted to be absolutely sure I was right before I told you this, because I know you work with your brothers," Linda responded. "I didn't want my evidence to be false, and then have complications for you because of it."
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that," Colby responded as he buried his face in his hands. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd been an orphan – his mother had abandoned him when he'd signed up for the army on his eighteenth birthday and his father had committed suicide when he was fifteen. To find out he had another family, who could have kept him from going through the foster system twelve different times, to keep him from… Colby swallowed hard and bit down his anger. It wasn't fair to take it out on Linda.
"Colby, I'm sure this is hard for you—"
"Hard for me? You have no idea how hard for me this is. I can't tell Don this, he'll kill me!" Colby took a breath and tried to calm himself down. "Linda, you don't understand. Alan, I guess – my dad, right? I have him listed as next-of-kin because I don't have any other kin – at least, none who will claim me. I never thought…"
Linda sighed as she handed Colby the copy of the file. "Colby, maybe there's more to the story then you know. Whatever you decide to do now is up to you, but I do have the information there for you," she responded.
"Thanks for getting it. I mean – I needed to know, you know?" Colby asked as he took the file. "I just…" he looked at the file and a small thought fluttered into his heart. I just don't know what to do now.
"You're not sure you can handle the truth," Linda finished for him. Well, almost, Colby thought. "Colby, I understand you're in a bit of a predicament. You work with both of your brothers and have been working with them for two years now. You know your father. The problem is – you just didn't know he was your father. I understand that you may be feeling betrayed, hurt, and even angry – I get that. The information is yours, to do what with you wish. I will totally understand if you chose not to tell anyone anything." Linda smiled at him. "If you need anything else, just let me know."
"Thanks," Colby responded as he stood up and shook her hand. "It feels nice seeing you under better circumstances." Linda had been his caseworker ever since he was six and had seen him mostly when he was bruised and bloody. It felt nice to see her when he could form coherent sentences.
"Anytime, Colby. And if you want to talk to me about how that turned out, you just let me know, okay?" she asked, flashing him a smile.
"Yeah, sure," he responded as he opened the door and sub-consciously glanced at his watch again, feeling glad for the diversion from work.
He wasn't Colby Granger. He was Colby Eppes. He was the third Eppes brother. His entire life had been a lie.
##
"You seem distracted," Megan Reeves finally said as she leaned over Colby's desk and watched him type away at the keyboard.
"Yeah," Colby responded, giving the agent a mock glare, "Because there's a pretty woman hanging over my desk trying to interrupt my work. Why don't you go bug David, or something?"
"David has the day off," Megan reminded him as she attempted to peer at his report.
Colby rolled his eyes. "Lucky guy."
"No, seriously, you seem like something's bugging you. What's wrong?"
Colby slammed the file shut so that she couldn't see it. "Damn it, Megan, can't a guy keep secrets around here?"
Megan raised her eyebrow at that. Something was bugging Colby. "What are you hiding from us?"
"Nothing I can tell you," Colby responded with a growl. He glanced up at Megan. "Then again, maybe I can tell you. How well can you keep a secret?"
She flashed him a grin. "Some would say our job is a secret."
Colby just shrugged and handed her the file. "Read the second page."
She did so, flipping open to the second page. She frowned at the DNA match. "Who tested your DNA against Don's?"
"Don't ask," Colby responded with a shrug. "I'm hoping it's a hoax. I'm running it through again myself."
"Now that I know is a lie, because we have to have special permission to even use the blood lab," Megan replied, handing back the file to Colby. "Do explain yourself, oh young one."
"Shut up," Colby moaned as he placed the file back down on the desk. He glanced around the corner. "Is Don here?"
Megan frowned at Colby's random topic change. "No, he left about an hour ago to go pick up Charlie. Why?"
Colby breathed a sigh of relief, and then dropped the bombshell. "Good. Because I just found out that I'm related to him."
