T is for Trickery
Spoiler Warning: Kind of spoilers for the S3 finale, but not really.
A/N: So I wrote this before S4 started..so maybe this was totally wishful thinking, but I was having a hard time seeing Colby as a traitor, so...yeah.:) As usual—I don't own anything.
Written for the 2007 Alpha-Fic Challenge
"Traitor." "Turncoat." 'Treason."
Colby shuddered. It was cold in his cell, but it was colder still in his heart and soul. He'd heard those words and many uglier ones more times than he could count since this whole thing began. Of course, it had hurt the most coming from the lips of fellow agents. Like the two who had 'accidentally' shoved his face into the wall on the way to his cell this morning. Again. Their sneers and vicious attitudes were almost more than he could take. But he had to suck it up. He had a job to do.
Word of his betrayal had spread like wildfire. While the guards and other officials regarded him with disdain and obvious hate, Colby had noticed a few prisoners had begun to take interest in him, and for that, he was pleased. Not that he got much of a chance to talk to them. He was in isolation 23 hours a day, unless he was being questioned. He only had that one hour to make the other inmates believe he was truly what the rumors said he was: a traitor to the United States Government, guilty of treason.
There was just one thing about that…it wasn't true.
1010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010
When Don had first approached him with the assignment, Colby hadn't thought it would be this hard. Even when he was given several chances to back out, he never gave it a thought. He could do this. His country needed him. As the day of the launch of the plan drew closer, however, he found himself becoming more and more apprehensive. First of all, only three people would know the story wasn't true. While that was safer for security, it was suddenly not as encouraging as it had first been to Colby. There was a good reason: the less people who knew what was really going on, the better. "Loose lips sink ships," as his uncle used to say. It still didn't make him feel better.
When he had been arrested, Colby wasn't prepared for the way his team would react. Sure, he had known that no one but Don would know the real truth, but he'd expected that Megan and David would at least suspect something else was going on. They didn't, apparently. And Don—Colby never knew his boss was such a great actor! When he was being questioned by his boss, Colby had covertly looked for any signs of encouragement, but there had been none. He'd played his part well, and so did Don.
The following weeks were a blur of interrogations, some more physical than others. In time, he had met his one contact on the inside, the head of the prison, Bill Markenson. It was his job to see that Colby's story was spread to the appropriate people and to make sure that no gung-ho guard killed Colby. Colby was really glad that he also did his job well.
Finally, two months into his incarceration, Colby had finally obtained the information he had been sent in to get. A dangerous gang with ties to al-Qaida had been planning to escape and detonate a bomb in LA during a visit by the president. Don, Colby, and Markenson had known the gang was planning something big, but this was far beyond the scope of what they thought was happening. Colby was able to get the information to Markenson, the plan had been uncovered, and the terrorists transferred to Gitmo.
The door to Colby's cell swung open and a guard that Colby had grown to hate walked in. His normal sneer was firmly in place as he grabbed Colby and expertly smashed him against the wall. Colby saw the blow coming and averted his face so he wouldn't hit the wall head-on. This was becoming a normal routine. Feeling his hands being handcuffed ridiculously tight behind his back, he held back a gasp of pain and allowed himself to be led out of the cell.
He knew better than to speak, even to ask where he was being taken. This particular guard had deemed Colby his personal punching bag, and delighted in pretending that any attempt to communicate was an attack and 'punishing' him for it. When questioned, he always claimed self defense, and taking Colby's record, he was always believed, and kept on as Colby's personal tormentor.
Despite his growing headache from his close and personal encounter with the wall, Colby was clear headed enough to realize that he wasn't going the way he normally did to be questioned. He wasn't quite sure whether to be worried or not. Finally, he was standing before a door and told to wait. The guard didn't allow him to lean against the wall, so Colby stood waiting, and he let his mind wander slightly. Surely, with his assignment completed, he'd be released, right? That had been the plan, but what if something had gone wrong?
In the three days since he'd handed over the information to Markenson, no indication had been given that he would be allowed to return to his life. He had panicked more than once. What if something had gone wrong? What if he was stuck here indefinitely? He thought back to the beatings and other 'accidents' that had happened in the short months he had already been in prison. He was strong, but he didn't know how much more of this he could take. It wasn't even the physical things that were weighing on him. It was the mental torture. He longed to let it be known that he wasn't a traitor. He longed to shun this mock life of treachery that he'd lived for nearly three months and go back to being Agent Colby Granger, good guy. Would that ever happen?
In the midst of his thinking and recollections, the door opened and a familiar voice ordered him inside. Colby complied automatically. Could it be? He stumbled past the threshold and nearly lost it as he saw who stood in the room. He tried to hold back the tears when he saw his team: Don, Megan, David, even Charlie in front of him. He immediately looked to Don for confirmation, and was given it when David walked up and unlocked the handcuffs that still held his hands behind his back. Colby immediately found himself in a tight embrace as his partner welcomed him back. Megan was next, Charlie gave him a firm handshake, and Don clapped his shoulder as he grinningly announced that the team was complete again. Colby smiled and looked around at his team, his friends, his family. Had it been worth it? No doubt about it.
The End