Title: Assaulted! Series – Part thirty-five
Author: jadvisioness/lilacs_roses
Type: Numb3rs
Characters: Colby Granger, Don Eppes, Ian Edgerton, Tim King, etc.
Pairings: Surprise pairing/s
Beta this section: Laura_trekkie, Rambler75
Genre: AU; crime-drama; hurt/comfort; episode related; romance/ust
Rating: NC17
Warnings: non-con/sexual assault/rape; slash
Spoilers: Mole, Janus List, Trust Metric, whole 'spy' storyline
Summary: Colby's raped in the seventh floor men's room of the FBI. How does the team take it and, more importantly, what happens - to the perpetrator, to the victim and to those close to him?
Feedback: Again, please keep the reviews/comments coming because they really help me stay motivated :) Thanks.
AN: This chapter was very difficult to put together for some reason and didn't end where I wanted it to. So, there's at least one more (chapter) to go. Thank you all so much for the reviews and the support – especially those still reading!
Excerpt from Chapter 33:
By the time the bulk of the agents arrived back in the bullpen on Monday morning, Charlie and the techs were already hard at work and HRT was busy setting up the perimeter for the search area that had been pinpointed as the most likely hiding place for King.
Excerpt from Chapter 34:
And Don would. He would fight. Don wasn't going to let what King did to him, rule his life.
With that resolution firmly in mind, exhaustion finally overtook him and Don fell into blackness so total that when a team of search and rescue finally broke into the building he was in, Don made no response.
[Monday, throughout the morning]
The search teams had been actively reconning and then, as inconspicuously as possible, searching the target area Charlie and the techs had given them. While it took them longer, no one wanted to give King any advance warning of their activities if he was in the area. However, building after building showed them no sign of their subjects until almost noon.
They knew they'd found something as soon as they entered. The place was large, somewhat maintained and most of the team of agents and officers recognized a variety of the equipment. Moving into the building and spreading out, a shout was soon heard as one of them came across the dungeon's sole occupant.
While all of them had been briefed on the investigation, as well as the assumption that both murdered police officers were victims of King, the depravity of Special Agent Eppes' surroundings, his condition and how he was positioned, still shocked those first on the scene.
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Back at the office, images captured by the TAC gear cameras played over the monitors in one of the A/V rooms. As Don came into view, growing sharper and more detailed as one of the search team got closer, those watching reacted.
Charlie paled as he raised a hand to his mouth before closing his eyes momentarily. Swallowing, he looked back to the monitor in front of him. Alan's knees had buckled and he would have fallen to the floor had David not gotten a chair under the older man. Now, sitting by his youngest son, he barely seemed to feel Charlie grasp onto his closest hand through his own shock at what they were seeing.
While David, standing behind the eldest Eppes, seemed stunned into stillness, the sniper beside him radiated an aura of suppressed fury despite his expressionless face and calm bearing.
They watched as the medics that had been on standby moved in to help Don, who appeared completely unaware of his rescuers.
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By the time other personnel had started arriving on the scene, the medics had freed Don from his restraints and placed him on a stretcher. While his obvious wounds had been tended to and he was now covered with blankets and set up with a couple of IVs, the medics were concerned with his non-responsive state and anxious to get him to a hospital. However, with Don unconscious and the CSIs and other personnel who'd begun to process the location trying to find any hint of where their target might be, and coming up empty, HRT was trying to decide where to take their injured coworker.
Moments later it was decided, even though King had already attempted to kidnap Agent Granger from the ICU earlier, that it was better to concentrate their entire protection detail to only one area instead of dividing them up, especially now that they could release some of the personnel who'd helped with the search, to do it.
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As the helicopter left with its precious cargo, along with two search members, King stood looking out a window of a previously searched building with a pair of binoculars, watching the activity around his dungeon.
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As soon as word reached them that the helicopter was on its way, Charlie and Ian headed for the stairwell, both in too much of a hurry to wait for the elevator. Alan, just as anxious but knowing his body wouldn't be at all happy with him if he tried to do all those stairs, headed for the lift. When David came to stand beside him, Alan was… almost glad to have the man willing to accompany him instead of following the other two down the stairs. However, despite David's company, both the ride in the elevator and the car trip to the hospital were fraught with tension and silence. Even Alan's being upset that Charlie had obviously decided to ride with Edgerton couldn't keep his mind from focusing on Don.
Don.
His eldest son had been the kid who thrived on attention from, and friendships with, his peers, growing up and playing baseball, football, noticing girls and all the other things a regular male child did. He'd been stubborn and head-strong, but also had a serious bent for willingly shouldering whatever burden that came his way, imagined or otherwise and, Alan couldn't deny the reality of the hindsight Charlie had provided him with just days ago, that he and Margaret had, however unconsciously, fostered that need to be responsible by essentially giving Don the huge burden of being Charlie's keeper.
They had taught him that he was accountable for his younger, intimidatingly genius brother. That Charlie was allowed, even expected, to not only take the majority of their parents' time and energy, but Don's – not only at home with family, but school and recreation – too.
It had taken Alan far too long to understand, that, despite the willingness to carry all those burdens he'd been given, Don internalized a lot of jealousy, resentment and anger regarding his brother and maybe even him and his mother as well. That he'd chosen to absent himself from anywhere near all of them after high school in order to get his own needs met, something they should have done, said a lot about how badly they'd failed.
Don had gone into professional baseball, Alan had finally come to realize, not because it was a good career move but because it filled his eldest son's need to be the center of someone's attention. While Don was good at it, his looks and talent combined gave him the attention of thousands of adoring fans. The experience must have been very heady for someone who'd been so overshadowed by his genius brother.
But, it hadn't been enough for Don, apparently, because he'd retired after a short time. He and Margaret had been so shocked with his announcement of joining the FBI that they hadn't gotten Don's reasons, not for that or for why he'd gone into federal law enforcement either.
Those years between Don being in Fugitive Recovery and his moving back to Los Angeles had been filled with stressed relations and awkward phone calls. When Margaret passed away and Don had decided to stay, Alan had been overjoyed, even if their relationship was tense and almost non-existent. Despite his wanting to strengthen his ties to both of his sons, Alan continually worried about what would happen to his eldest son, about the danger his career put him in.
And now… Now Alan was entering the parking lot for the hospital, where his son was being flown to after being…. he swallowed, stopping the thought. Closing his eyes momentarily, Alan couldn't help seeing the images of his eldest son naked, restrained and spread open for that monster's pleasure and had to continually swallow for a few moments to keep from vomiting.
Don's job put him in far too much danger. And having found out that he was romantically interested in someone that Alan felt was just as bad in his way as the man who'd kidnapped and assaulted his son…. Don's soul, his heart, had obviously been twisted with his work if he could think being with Edgerton would be anything other than dangerous and this side of a death wish.
God, where did I go wrong?
Alan felt the overwhelming need to protect his son. He'd obviously failed at taking care of Don when he was a child and a young man if this is where it took his eldest son. While Don had, so far as they knew, survived this, Alan was going to make damn sure that he never had to deal with anything like this, ever, again.
They had all arrived before the helicopter but were barred from the helipad area and told to wait in the Emergency Room's receiving area. The minutes of tense and awkward milling about silently seemed to drag by until there was a disturbance of a team of medical personnel with a gurney, flanked on either side by men in TAC gear, a brief glimpse of a form bundled in blankets and topped with dark hair, quickly going down the hall and through a set of double doors. The two men who'd arrived with Don then stayed as close to the entrance to the ER proper as possible, challenging anyone who approached for their identification.
News did not come quickly to the anxious group, including Amita, Larry, Liz and Nikki by now, but, when it did, they were told that Don had been taken into surgery and a doctor would give them more information when he was available.
Considering all they had ahead of them for the foreseeable future was more waiting, Ian decided to check on Walker and Colby. Leaving Charlie and Alan with David and the others, he made his way up to ICU. A flash of his FBI credentials to both officers and the attendant at the desk got him buzzed in through the security doors.
Ian strode into the ward, his sniper's gaze taking in everything as he made his way to the farthest cubicles. He glanced briefly into the one housing Colby, nodding to the agent standing at ease just outside the doorway before continuing into Walker's.
Passing the officer on duty there, Ian saw that the lieutenant was being checked on by a nurse. Nodding to her as well, he asked, "How's he doing?"
"Considering the wound, so far, so good. We'll be keeping a very close eye on him though." She answered pleasantly enough.
It's about what Ian thought she'd say, given that he wasn't family or the one holding Walker's medical power of attorney. As far as he knew, the only person who'd be getting anything specific would be the lieutenant's captain.
Walker seemed comfortable and completely out of it. With the drugs he was on, he wouldn't be coherent for a long while.
Since Colby was right next door, Ian didn't have any chance to gather his composure. Barely able to take a couple of steadying breaths, he once again nodded to the agent on protective duty. When Don arrived, one of the men who'd flown in with him would stay, while the other headed back to the office.
Slipping inside, Ian looked the blond over before actually stepping close to the bed and resting against the railing. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes momentarily and swallowed. When he looked to Colby again, he found slightly sleepy and unfocused green eyes gazing back at him.
Ian grinned. "Hey, Granger. It's good to see you awake finally."
Colby blinked slowly in response.
Having no idea what to say to him or where Colby was with regards to his memory or anything, Ian decided to just tell him about the day.
"We found Don. He's in surgery right now. He's been unconscious since one of the HRT groups found him." Colby blinked again and Ian swallowed. "No sign of King. Don't worry though, we've agents on all of you and if he so much as pops his head up I've got my rifle all ready for him."
The blond seemed to frown and his head jerked to the side slightly. Ian had no idea what Colby was thinking or trying to communicate though and it frustrated him. However, before the sniper could do anything else, a nurse walked in and proceeded to check on her patient.
In a repeat from Walker's cubicle, Ian asked, "How's he doing?"
"Considering everything that happened earlier, he's doing very well." As the woman checked the various machines and connections both on Colby's side and the equipment's, she answered, giving Ian a small smile.
Ian let a breath out that he wasn't even aware of holding, feeling some tension and stress leave his entire body.
"Having been in a coma isn't anything to sniff at; he still has a long ways to go but, like I said, he's doing very well." Turning from the sniper to her patient, she continued, "You're gonna be with us for a bit but don't let that upset you," she chuckled slightly. "All you have to do is rest and heal; let us do everything else for the time being."
Colby just blinked at her, although he had moved his head to see her, and the nurse smiled slightly. With a squeeze to his nearest hand, she nodded her head to Ian and headed towards the door.
"Thank you." Ian said over his shoulder, turning back to Colby to see his eyes droop.
The sniper reached down and lightly squeezed the man's nearest shoulder. "You should get some more sleep, Colby."
A breath and a slight movement of the nearest hand and his eyes closed. A moment later and Colby's breathing settled into a sleeping rhythm.
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