Title: Assaulted! Series – Part thirty-six

Author: jadvisioness/lilacs_roses

Type: Numb3rs

Characters: Colby Granger, Don Eppes, Ian Edgerton, Tim King, etc.

Pairings: Surprise pairing/s

Beta/First Reader this section: Laura_trekkie, CerealKiller0, Munchkinofdoom, 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: Always!

AN: This is the last chapter for this book of the series; I'll begin posting the next book at the end of June/beginning of July. Thank you all so very much for the reviews and the support – especially to all of those who still kept reading despite the erratic posting 'schedule'!

Excerpts from Chapter 35:

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.

Ian grinned. "Hey, Granger. It's good to see you awake finally."

Colby blinked slowly in response.

[Monday afternoon]

As Ian left the Emergency Room waiting area, Amita could tell that Alan relaxed considerably. While the majority of them were pretty comfortable around the sniper, she herself was still edgy around him, not knowing him as well as Don's co-workers, but she certainly didn't hold any animosity towards him like Alan. Agent Edgerton was an intense and focused individual; he wouldn't be one of the top agents in the organization or a premiere sniper, if he wasn't. But he was a man of the law. Whatever Alan thought of him, he had to understand that he was one of the good guys, didn't he?

David, Nikki and Liz were huddled together and she and Larry could hear them quietly going over their parts of the investigation so they could get their paperwork together as quickly as possible when they got back to the office. She knew they'd all be camping out in ICU with their boss and coworker for the indefinite future, despite, or rather because, King was still out there somewhere. HRT would be heading back to Quantico, their part in the search completed. While it would be great to have them continue with helping to find their former SWAT leader, they were too valuable to keep just for the capture of a criminal, even one with King's background.

She and Larry were sitting nearest to Charlie; they were still in shock over everything really, struggling to keep their emotions in check in order to support Charlie and his father. Larry and she had spent a lot of time over the last week sitting with Colby; it was wonderful that he was finally becoming aware but that feeling was overshadowed by their worry over what the future held for Don. Would they go from attending to one friend in a coma to having to do the same for another?

The strained atmosphere was broken as a doctor came into the waiting area. "Who's here for Special Agent Don Eppes?"

Alan was out of his seat as fast as his exhausted body could get him, "Here. I'm his father, Alan; how is he?"

As the others gathered around, the doctor motioned them all to sit back down, bringing a chair over to place in front of Alan. "Agent Eppes is actually in relatively good condition considering. He's obviously suffering from dehydration and has a lot of contusions and some scrapes from the car accident he was in on Friday. While his entire torso shows a lot of bruising, the seatbelt and airbags kept him from getting anything more serious from the car accident; the others are from being beaten. He also has a lot of bruising around his head, a product of the accident as well as his kidnapper I'm sure, with some spots where his hair has come loose from his scalp.

"Whatever was used to restrain him has put deep cuts into his wrists and ankles. At this time, from what we saw, he may need some surgery for the wrists; he'll recover, but he'll need some physical therapy to get back his range of motion and strength. Agent Eppes also has a lot of deep bruising on his lower torso and upper thighs that's going to cause a lot of pain for awhile."

The doctor took a breath before continuing, "He has some anal tearing from his abuse." A pause to give the group a moment, "While the area is ripe for infection due to the location, those lesions will heal relatively quickly with the right care, but they will be painful for a time.

"One of my major concerns was that Agent Eppes was still recovering from being stabbed in the chest."

Amita remembered those few times she'd visited Don in the hospital, usually arriving with Charlie, before those weeks at the Craftsman. The stress and worry of Charlie and Alan, and Don to a certain point, during his recovery from his brush with death had been exhausting. She shook her head inwardly, unable to wrap her mind around the fact that she was about to do it all over again so quickly.

"While surgery wasn't really required for anything other than the damage the restraints caused, I wanted to make sure that the stab wound had not been compromised. We ran some scans as well as took a battery of x-rays and everything looks fine there, but we'll be keeping an eye on it for any signs of infection, overt tenderness and the like."

As Amita released a breath she hadn't been aware of holding, she heard a few of the others do the same at the good news.

"My only other concern is for Don's continued unconscious state. I believe that he is physically and mentally exhausted from his ordeal, of course, but that he's also withdrawn into his mind as a safety measure. It's a common thing the brain does to protect itself when the person has suffered significant trauma, whether physical, mental or emotional.

"There isn't any way for us to tell how long he'll remain unconscious or what his mental state will be when he wakes. For now, it's basically a waiting game – the only things we can do, really, are to let him rest, let his body work on healing itself and to be there for him.

"That said, I believe that having family and friends near him while he's unconscious, would help his mind to realize that the trauma is over and it's safe for him to wake up."

It made sense, after all, Amita and the others had already been sitting with Colby in the hope that he'd hear them and wake up. While Don might not be in an accident-induced coma like Colby was, he was still basically shut inside his mind. If Don was, in effect, hiding from King, it made sense that he should come round if he heard his friends and family around him.

"Don should be heading up to ICU shortly. I'll leave word for the nurses that Don's to have company as much as possible after they have him situated and so long as it doesn't interfere with them, Don's health or their other patients."

As the doctor made to excuse himself, there was a round of relief in the form of sighs and loss of tension. Amita watched as Charlie gave his father a small, almost shy, hug of support and while Alan acknowledged it with a slight nod, his mind was clearly elsewhere, his eyes following the doctor back to the double doors behind which his eldest son lay.

Ian was still in Colby's cubicle when he became aware of a bed being rolled into the ward with a couple of nurses and the two men dressed in SWAT/HRT gear. Silently, he stood from the chair at Colby's bedside and walked over to the door, watching as Don was taken into the cubicle next door, one of the men positioning himself just outside, while the other used his radio to give a status report to the HRT leader. Turning and going back into the room, Ian watched through the connecting window as the nurses arranged the bed and connected all the medical paraphernalia needed to monitor him.

As they finished, Ian made his way into Don's room, asking what seemed to be the question of the day. "How's he doing?"

Fortunately both nurses were familiar with him, having been there many times when Don and Ian had visited Colby, and gave him more information than they probably should have legally.

The one closest to him answered, "The doctor believes he'll make a full recovery but is concerned about his continued unconsciousness. He thinks having Don's family and friends visiting with him often, telling him he's safe, will get Don to wake up."

"There's a group of people waiting to come in, actually. You're lucky you were here visiting Colby or you wouldn't be allowed in until we've got him settled," the other said with a small smile.

The sniper couldn't help but grin back. He had no idea what Alan would say of his visiting Don without him there to run interference but Ian was willing to bet it wouldn't be good.

As they moved to leave, Ian walked over to the bed and rested his arms on the railing, looking down at Don's battered form. Swallowing, he took a deep breath before he reached down for Don's nearest hand and caressed it, entwining their fingers together. Leaning down on the railing, Ian closed his eyes for a moment before blinking them back open, doggedly pushing back the exhaustion threatening to sweep over him. He needed this quiet moment with Don, a brief respite before Alan and everyone else came in; before Alan could throw his attitude at him again.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a long moment as he heard the group approaching Don's cubicle.

Letting his fingers slip from Don's, Ian stood up to be confronted with a murderous glare from Don's father.

"Agent Edgerton, I'd like a word with you." The man motioned for him to come out of the room.

Ian complied; he didn't want to upset Don, or anyone else for that matter.

Once outside the cubicle, he gave a quick glance around, noticing Charlie wasn't with them. Before he could question anyone about it though, Alan was speaking.

"If I could, I would bar you from the entire ICU but, unfortunately, that's something beyond my power to do. However, I can and am forbidding you to be anywhere near my son. Anywhere near either of my sons, actually."

Ian blinked with silent shock. He knew that he wasn't the only one who was stunned at Alan's ultimatum, but he couldn't concentrate on anything else at the moment; in all honestly, Ian didn't have any idea how to respond at all. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Charlie quickly moving towards them, noting the professor's slight frown before he reached the tense knot of people around his father.

Charlie looked to the small group of agents and friends, then to Ian before turning back to his father, "Dad? What's going on?"

"I'm just letting Agent Edgerton know that he is not wanted near you or Don, Charlie. And that if he feels the need to go against my wishes, he'll be escorted out of the building by hospital security or a police officer."

Charlie's eyes went wide and he glanced to Ian and the others before looking to Alan again. "Dad, don't do this, please. You don't know what Don wants here; Ian's not going to hurt him or me, he's here to protect us, all of us."

"Charlie, I think I know what's best here."

"Dad—"

"As far as I'm concerned, Agent Edgerton is no better than the man who kidnapped and abused your brother, Charlie. I will not have him anywhere near Don."

The professor's jaw wasn't the only one that dropped at Alan's statement and, as for Ian, it was one judgment too many and he recoiled as if the eldest Eppes had physically assaulted him. Before the sniper could do something he would forever regret, he turned on his heel and left the ward and then the hospital building proper.

In the parking lot, Ian moved to his truck. Inside, he stuck the keys in the ignition, hand stopped from turning the engine over as his thoughts whirled around in his mind.

While he knew that, when Don awoke and became coherent, he and his father would be having some type of discussion about everything, that didn't help Ian right now. And, while Don had chosen to give them a chance on Friday, that was before he was kidnapped and tortured by that monster. Would Don go along with his father now, after…? Would Don want anything to do with him after what King had done?

And, no matter what was happening on the Eppes front, there was still Colby.

If Ian was banned from seeing Don, would Alan's prejudices come into play with Colby too? While Don had a huge support network to help with his healing – friends, coworkers, father and brother – Colby's was pretty dependent on those he shared with Don, given that his family wasn't geographically close. If Ian stayed, did he risk Alan's attitude poisoning not only what could be between Colby and himself, but alienating friends and coworkers as well? Ian had learned that relations with Colby's family were pretty strained since the triple agent business and, while he really wanted to be there for the formidable blond, Ian wouldn't jeopardize Colby's health. He'd leave just to keep the peace and hope that he and Colby could get together at some point in the future.

Making his decision, Ian swallowed and then started the ignition, his hands trembling slightly, pulling away from the hospital.

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How does Don react to what's going on when he regains consciousness? Does Ian leave? What about Colby? Where's King and what's he planning on doing now that Colby and Don are in protective custody?

Stay tuned for all the hurt/comfort, angst, anguish, revenge, ust/romance and everything that you can handle in the next book, which I will start posting at the end of June/beginning of July.

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback, the reviews, story/author alerts and everything. This wouldn't have come about were it not for all of you – with a special shoutout to Sky_blue2, of course, because without her prompt, this story wouldn't have even been created.

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