Outtakes: Numb3rs

by hiddenmoments

A place for all the bits and pieces that happen outside the published chapters of whatever I end up writing. 25/3/13: Maybe We'll Buy You A Cape: Some fun with Nikki and her teammates before she joins the LA office, pre-The Daily Grind. 1/4/13: Taking One For The Team: Mike and Ana's first proper, and somewhat fateful, meeting during Part II of Billy and Don's Awesome Adventure.

1. First

Set somewhere in the last chapter of There Were Nine. Just a little Colby, Liz and more pairing than there ever was in the actual series.

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First

Colby is all raw, jagged edges and desperate terror the first time they fall together. Liz holds to him as tightly as she can, fingertips leaving bruises, because it feels as though if she releases just a little of her hold on him, even just for a moment, he will fly apart into a million pieces.

She can't face the thought losing this, him, too, so she holds impossibly tight as they press together so closely that neither are sure where they end and the other begins. Colby's mouth beneath hers tastes like a heady mix of grief and loss and a bitter kind of hope and her skin against his feels searing and icy at the same time.

When that last barrier is breached their edges begin to blur and her breath hitches against the salty skin of his throat. Somehow, as their edges shimmer and fade and redefine themselves around each other, for the first time it hurts just a little less to breathe.