Title: Kidnapped
Word count: 2709
Author: Freekydisaster
Characters/parings: Don/Colby
Rating: PG-15
Warnings: Not any on this post.
Spoilers: Any espoused from season one to present could be talked about.
Summary: When Don is kidnapped, Colby realises that he can't keep his feelings quiet anymore.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the NUMB3RS characters.
Beta: Chymom
Author notes: This in response to the NUMB3RSallday challenge challenge lines were from Man Hunt. Season One. Episode Thirteen.

DON: Keep your head down
COOP: I'll do that.

***

The day started out normal for an L.A. FBI team. The team leader, Don Eppes, hadn't arrived at the office yet so Colby and David both settled at their desks which were under a mountain of paperwork. After a few hours of work, their minds were starting to wander away from them. However that was soon set to change.

"Colby, David!" The desperate pleas of both their names from Charlie caused the two mentioned men to snap out of their thoughts. The young curly haired mathematician stopped at Colby's desk, panic clearly written on his face as he tried to catch his breath. It was apparent that he'd ran the whole way up to the office and he'd obviously not thought about using the elevator.

"You realise we have an elevator?" Colby quipped sarcastically and wasn't surprised when Charlie didn't pick it up and merely shook his head.

"The elevator would have taken too long." Charlie reasoned out causing the two agents to now feel even more curious to why he was there, the paperwork they had been working on being neglected as they fully turned to look at him.

"Charlie, what's wrong?" Megan asked from her perched spot on the end of her desk, a cup of coffee in her hand. Charlie looked at her in acknowledgement to her question but the three agents could still tell that he was too caught up in catching his breath to be answering the question. Charlie also knew that he wouldn't be able to explain what was wrong; it'd be easier to show them hence the reason he had came rather than phoning.

After another minute or so, he stood up straight and held out an opened brown envelope for anyone to see. Colby's desk was the central point to where they were all standing so he moved over and placed the contents neatly out so that each item was on display. The two other agents rose from their positions and stood behind Charlie, their eyes widening at the sight of photographs of a naked Don tied down. There was a gag over his mouth and from the date on the corner of the photo, they had been taken three days ago.

"Who would do this?" That was when a piece of paper fluttered to the floor and Colby bent down to pick it up, his expression grim as he turned it round to show them that it read a simple name of "Francis Beaumont." A gruelling case of slave trading that the team had worked on for months before finally getting a break due to Charlie's fantastic use of some theorem that not a single member of the team could remember. The case had been a particularly hard one, it had hit Don and the rest of the team quite hard. However, Don had seemed to react the worst. His actions became snappy towards his own team and when he'd been left to handle the men that had committed the crimes; he'd been colder than he usually would. Charlie had also once found Don staring at the photos of the children, his face showing a mixture of emotions that were disgust, sadness and just pure horror. Charlie had never mentioned anything because he knew that was how Don would probably want it. They'd managed to arrest and sentence everyone involved, the "slaves" were given the right amount of counselling and help they were need before finally being sent back home.

"Why now?" Colby asked gruffly as he saw that Charlie was shaken up with emotions. He wanted to move over and wrap his arms around the younger man in a gesture of assurance but felt that it'd be a little weird. It was normally Don or Megan that were the ones to console Charlie. He did, however, raise his hand awkwardly and press it against the man's shoulder.

"I don't know. We arrested everyone involved so who did this and why use that name?" David demanded to know as he stared at the photographs still.

"Could it be a family member?" Charlie whispered and they all looked at him. "Beaumont received the death penalty, didn't he? The family could be out for revenge?"

"So why didn't they take you?" Colby asked out loud the question they were all thinking even though they all turned to glare at him for saying it. "I don't mean it like that," he tried to excuse, "but if you're going to go for that whole 'an eye for a eye or a tooth for a tooth' shit then surely Charlie is the smarter choice?"

"Don didn't arrest him." Megan pointed out causing everyone to look at her as she grabbed her coat. "You did Colby."

***

They realised that whoever had taken Don had wanted Don found due to the simple fact that they'd made it clear in the photos that they were back at the same warehouse where they'd kept the people they'd kidnapped. Colby didn't know if it was an elaborate plan or if they were actually that stupid. He found himself backed up against a wall next to David, his breathing heavy as he wrestled with the weight of the safety gear. He had no idea why it was bothering him today or why Megan's comment back in the bullpen had.

He had made the final arrest so why was Don naked and in chains in an old warehouse that could probably fall down at any moment. RUNNING his hand over his tired face before noticing that Megan was staring at him. He turned away wishing that she'd stop looking at him as if she knew some deep dark secret of his. She seemed to think she knew everyone inside out just because she was the profiler of the team. Colby guessed that it was the profiler in her that made her so annoying at these moments when it was clear that she was just trying to figure out why Don was taken to get back at him.

He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his body as he moved towards the window, his hand tightening on the gun that he held. Peering into the window, he froze. He could see a naked Don struggling against his bounds, his efforts being ignored by his captor. The worst thing was Colby felt turned on by the scene. He had always known that he liked Don but he had never thought the idea of a vulnerable Don could actually do this to him. He found himself moving slightly as if trying to stamp out the thought.

"Keep your head down." David hissed at him and as the captor turned, Colby had been thinking the same thoughts and as David said them, he froze slightly before ducking down out of sight.

"I'll do that." He reassured his partner before clicking the safety off on his gun. "Better to be safe than sorry because I couldn't get a good glimpse at the captor." He explained at David's raised eyebrows. David realised this meant that they had no idea if there were bombs or any other type of device involved, David swore before talking into his headset and warning everyone.

"This is how we play it. We take the men down while you go over and make sure Don is okay?" David instructed to Colby and the younger man wanted to protest but at once again, David raised his eyebrows so Colby shut his mouth and nodded his head in agreement while silently thinking that David was a tyrant when he was in charge. "We'll go in first." He gave the command to everyone to go in and as everyone filed in, Colby stayed behind a few moments before moving into the warehouse and moving over to Don.

He knelt down beside his boss and removed the gag from his mouth, "Are you alright?" He asked as he undid the ropes that held him.

"I've been better." Don coughed taking some much needed oxygen. Colby untied the bounds and wasn't surprised when Don muttered,

"Can I borrow your jacket?" Colby nodded his head in agreement and shrugged out of his jacket for Don. The kidnappers had wanted Don to be found because they knew he'd suffer from embarrassment at being found like this. "I want to go home now. Is that okay?" Colby nodded and helped pull up his boss. As Don rose from his laid position, Colby got his first glimpse of the abuse they had done to Don. There were dark bruises starting to form on his body and there were dark red welts as if they'd whipped him with a belt or something from the shape. Colby winced in pain as he heard Don groan lightly as he pulled on the jacket.

***

Back at the bullpen, David sighed as he walked out of the interrogation room. He saw Charlie stood over by his desk and he walked over to him. "You were right. The guy is Francis Beaumont's brother and he was after revenge for what happened to his brother. He was working alone and from the way he acted in the interrogation room," David found himself remembering how the guy had started to cry, "I don't even think he realised what he was doing or what to do afterwards."

"It was a spur of the moment thing?" Charlie found himself asking thinking that it was an unusual set up for that. It had been to calculated and appeared to planned for the young guy not to understand what was going to happen.

"He took the photos which led us straight to him, Charlie. Do you really think the guy's a genius?" Colby asked gruffly from his desk and Charlie turned to look at him deciding that maybe Colby had a point but could someone really be that stupid?

"The most important thing is that Don is now safe again and he won't get hurt again?" Charlie asked and even though both men couldn't promise that, they both smiled at the younger man before returning to their desks mumbling something about paperwork.

***

It had been a week since they'd found Don. In his statement, Don had said that he'd been locked in the warehouse for at least three days from how many times he had seen the sun set and rise through the dirty windows. He made it clear that he had no idea why he was the one out of the team kidnapped.

It was that night, Colby found himself standing outside Don's apartment. He didn't know how he'd ended up here. He had been searching his apartment for his favourite jacket because he had been planning on heading over to the gym when he remembered that he'd leant it to Don and the next thing he knew he was at Don's door but too afraid to knock.

The door opened and Colby found Don staring at him, "are you going to stand out here all night or were you eventually going to pluck up the courage to knock?"

"I don't know what you..." but his words were stopped by Don grabbing hold of his tee shirt and pulling him into the house, the door slamming behind him as he forced Colby against the wall WITH DON'S lips crashed against his. Colby made the smallest sound at the shock and tried to fight back, his hands going up to Don's shoulders but he stopped as he realised that he had wanted this for some time but he knew that this could just Don being reacted to what had happened. Don had refused medical advice and no one knew if they had raped him as well as physically abusing him. Colby knew that he didn't want this to happen just so he could replace the pain and Don would probably just hate him from the moment they said their goodbyes later on.

They parted for air and Colby could see that Don's eyes had darkened with pleasure. "I didn't think you were going to respond at first." Don's voice was husky and Colby bit back a moan even though he felt his knees slightly buck.

"Don, what are you doing?" Colby asked as he looked at the man and knew that he wasn't going to do this with a guy that was just trying to prove a point. "I understand that what your captors said could have confused you but..."

"Or they could have highlighted how I felt about you?" Don challenged his moving towards Colby's again, his hands resting on the man's hips as he pushed him back against the wall. He moved himself against the younger man so that he would realise what Don was saying and he smiled as he heard Colby groan.

"Don, you don't want this..." He thought about how many women Don had been with and how Alan was more than sure that Don would eventually settle down with someone like Liz. Don just rolled his eyes before taking hold of Colby's hand and leading him through the apartment towards the bedroom. He pushed the younger agent down on the bed before straddling him.

"Does this feel like I'm not sure?" He then took hold of Colby's hand and placed it against his crotch where Colby could feel the hardness. Colby found himself looking up at Don in surprise. "I know you've been wanting this some time."

"Is that what this is about?" Colby demanded to know using all his willpower to flip Don onto his back to reverse their places. "You want me to admit that it was my fucking fault you got kidnapped because Francis might have worked out that I had a damned crush on you?" He felt pure anger towards his boss at that moment and he could see that Don had also not anticipated this move from the way his jaw had relaxed forming an unspoken oh. "Or maybe you wanted me to confess that what I have is more than a damned crush? Do you want me to tell you that what I feel for you is love?" He couldn't ask any more questions because Don had reached up and pulled his face down to his so that they could kiss.

The kiss was full of anger at first but eventually it settled and became something much gentler. There was love and passion mixed together as their tongues danced lazily for dominance. They broke away and Don smiled at him, "Now that wasn't too hard, was it?"

"You..." Colby found himself biting back any insult as he smiled down at the man that he'd just admitted his true feelings to. "How long have you known?"

"A few weeks now." He answered before smiling coyly, "when I caught your gaze lingering too long on my rear when I dropped my coffee stirrer?" Colby reddened at the mentioned time before laughing. "It just took something as big as the kidnap for me to realise that I needed you too. I laid there thinking about what would happen if they killed me before I had the chance to tell you?"

"Shush," Colby whispered leaning down and taking hold of the older man's lips, his hands running through the dark hair. "You're safe and you've told me now. There's nothing to worry about because we have all the time in the world." He promised before kissing him slower this time and he knew that he meant every word.

"That's good because you're hurting my bad side." Don chuckled lightly and Colby cursed before jumping off of Don and standing at the end of the bed, his bottom lip trapped between his teeth as he watched Don lift his tee shirt to reveal the purplish bruise. "Don't lecture." He warned lightly when he watched Colby open his mouth and Colby grinned sheepishly. "I'm too sore to do anything heavy tonight but will you just lie with me tonight?" The vulnerability was back in Don's voice as if the pain had reminded him and Colby just simply nodded before kicking off his shoes and climbing into the bed, cuddling Don close to him.

It really did take drastic measures for you to realise you loved someone