Disclaimer - i own nothing. Sorry its been a while, i don't really have an excuses. so heres an extra longish chapter
Hidden Past
Colby rolled over in his lethargic state realising it was a bit dark in his hospital room, and the walls weren't white any more. He sat up and looked around the room and quickly realised that he was in a double bed in one of Charlie's spare rooms. He let out a groan and flopped back into his soft surroundings. He wasn't really in any pain, just a tingling sensation – like pins and needles coursing throughout his body. He rolled over, closer to the edge of the bed, throwing his legs over the side; forcing his abused body into an upright position. He groaned again and dropped his head into his hands; he was confused and unsure of what to do. He had always imagined that Kirkland would be the one to debrief him at the end of the mission and set everything straight. Obviously that wasn't going to happen. Now his son didn't have a home or anything of value, anything to his name. Internal Affairs had cleared out his apartment and Colby had the feeling they wouldn't be too kind to his possessions thinking he was a traitor and all.
He stood up and realised someone had dumped a duffle bag by the end of the bed on the floor. Deciding that it was for him as there was no one else in the room he grabbed it off the floor and dropped it onto the bed. When he unzipped it he realised there was a lot of his clothes stuffed into it; jeans, t-shirts, jumpers, socks, underwear and shoes. There was also a thread worn bear that he knew had been on his bedside table, it had belong to Colby, who gave it to Ryan when he was born. When Ryan was 11 he declared it childish and returned it to Colby sitting it on his bedside, declaring it an antique. He pulled it out of the bag holding it at arm's length expecting it carefully. He shrugged and placed it onto the bed before pulling out a clean-ish pair of trousers and a t-shirt to change into.
Jack watched as Charlie explained something about maths to Ryan – who amazing to almost everyone was managing to understand it and come up with less confusing annotations that what Charlie was throwing at him.
"So it's like deciding whether to bail before the wave hits you or while the wave hits you; deciding which ones less likely to drag you to the bottom?" Ryan asked Charlie from his perch on the arm of the couch beside Charlie.
"Almost, with a lot more probability mixed in and you have to have set readings beforehand." Charlie replied flicking over the page, talking to Ryan whilst marking his students work ignoring the bemused and confused looks they were getting.
"David, did you get any of that?" Jack muttered to David who had abandoned his section of the paper in favour of messing around with his phone. David looked at Jack and shook his head.
"I lost them at 'Probabilistically speaking' about 10 minutes ago." David joked; he looked up as he heard footsteps on the stairs knowing it was Colby. Alan had retired to the kitchen to make enough food to feed an army. Colby smiled at them as he bounced off the last step and walked into the living room, dropping into the seat that Alan had vacated.
"Having fun guys?" He joked realising Charlie was marking work and had evidently been talking about maths recently judging by Jack's face.
"It's been riveting." Jack said back nodding towards Ryan, "Someone might be able to pass math class now he's had some lessons with the 'Master'."
"I've never failed math class." Ryan shot back at Jack only for Colby to pull a face.
"You scraped by by one mark. That's not exactly ideal." Colby said raising his eyebrow at his son.
"Yeah, well, it was one time okay? I'm doing better now." Ryan moaned throwing his head back in a typical teenager's response to being moaned at about school.
"You know I could probably give you extra exercises to make sure you're getting everything," Charlie said winking at Colby.
Ryan groaned and jumped off the couch, "I hate you guys." He said jokingly before heading towards the kitchen before they could bring up the subject of school again. "I'm going to see if Mr Eppes needs any help." He smiled as he heard laughter echo out from the lounge behind him.
Charlie had abandoned his work in favour of watching a basketball game with David, Jack, Colby and Ryan – who had been kicked out of the kitchen for 'repeated offences' and been threatened with no pudding if he continued to call Alan, Mr Eppes. Ryan had somehow squeezed between Colby and Jack but was more lying across them with Charlie and David sitting in the armchairs. Charlie and Jack were cheering for the Lakers while Colby and Ryan and David were cheering for the Knicks. David was cheering for his home team while Colby and Ryan were just cheering for the team that wasn't from LA. After the first 10 minutes Jack switched seats with David after he found Colby and Ryan were team tagging him, trash talking his team. By half time it was almost as if Colby had never done an undercover stint. David and him were comparing players and teasing Charlie and Jack every time their team scored only to get it back as soon as the Lakers scored against them.
Don walked through the door just in time to see David and Colby high five and cheering as the ball swished through the net on the tv, much to Jack and Charlie's dismay. Megan grinned at her colleagues' behaviour and moved on into the kitchen to find Alan. Don looked at the group's rivalry and grinned at Ryan, the only one who had noticed his arrival. He shut the door a bit harder than necessary making all of them jump. Ryan grinned and laughed as the men around him all jumped.
"Who's playing?"
"Lakers vs. Knicks." Charlie replied absentmindedly turning his attention back to the screen once more.
"Awesome," Don replied dropping his jacket over the back of the chair he then dropped into joining the Lakers side of the room. Megan wonder back through with some beers handing them out among them but gave Colby and Ryan soda.
"Boss' orders." She said to their questioning looks, trying not to laugh at Ryan's over the top puppy eyes, nodding her head in the direction of the kitchen.
"If you don't come now you don't eat." Alan's voice called over the sound of the television. The group all stopped their quiet chatter, looking around the room at each other before springing to action and moving quickly through to the table. Alan had made roast chicken with all the trimmings. The group dropped into various seats around the table, some of them brought in from other rooms to accommodate the extra people.
"Thanks Alan." Ryan spoke up first with triggered a wave of 'thank you's from everyone else. Alan smile pleased Ryan had finally listened to him and motioned for everyone to dig in. Soon enough the topic turned to Colby and work.
"Well the good news is that the directors are being really good about this. They've already paid your hospital bill and cleared you to return to your apartment." Don started.
"The only problem," Megan took over, "Is that all of your stuff will take a while to return." Colby nodded, a mouthful of potatoes keeping him from talking.
"Well until you get your stuff back you're staying here." Alan said strictly whilst passing Jack the apple sauce.
"As much as I loved staying up here I'm heading back to San Diego tomorrow." Jack announced getting everyone's attention. "I know Jefferson will be just piling the paperwork onto my empty desk." Colby smiled and shook his head, remember how much Jack hated paperwork.
"You're more than welcome to stay." Charlie said, but Jack shook his head.
"Vacation time ends sometime next week. If I head back now I can come up a check on you guys again once everything settles down." Jack replied grinning at Colby.
Once everyone was done Alan called a 20 minute break until pudding, whilst everyone else filed into the lounge Colby pulled Jack to one side.
"Thanks for everything man. Looking after Ryan, helping save my ass." Colby said smiling at a man he considered his brother.
"It's cool," Jack said. "I got to spent time with Ryan." He replied happily moving towards the lounge.
"Did you pack my bag by the way?" Colby said pulling him back.
"Uh, no?" Jack said a bit confused. "What bag?"
"The bag full of my clothes; had the old teddy bear in it."
"I think that was Ryan, I turned up and he was waiting for me with two bags, said he grabbed somethings before getting out." Jack replied. "But I think he got in a fight at school, I drove up here and picked him up, got a message from the school, being Ryan's second contact and all, they said he was suspended until further notice."
"What?" Colby cried not believing.
"Yeah headmaster said not to come back until things were sorted out. Ryan hasn't said anything but i haven't pushed the subject." Jack said not looking too impressed. "It took me a while to get up here once I heard but still, I don't think they would have suspended him unless he got into a fight."
Colby nodded at his friend looking over his shoulder to where Ryan sat in the lounge next to Megan. He sure had some explaining to do.
:D there you go. Thanks to Notsing for reminding me about american hospitals. totally forgot you guys have to pay for treatment. Over here in the uk most things are free in my experiance as i've only recently turned 16. Review and let me know what you think.