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Looking for Love	By : IrenaAdler Category: M through R > NUMB3RS Views: 2208 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own NUMB3RS, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Part 12 � Leaving, returning, and a confession

/�To that one safe
place �/

Don woke up three and a half hours later, feeling a fair
amount better.� Maybe he could manage - go
home and unburden Will from caring for this demanding stranger.� Don looked around.� Will was sitting on the other side of the
bed, watching TV with the sound turned off and the closed-captions on.� He was fiddling with a stray strand of hair.� Sitting up, Don smiled at Will.

�You look like you�re feeling better,� Will said, setting down the TV remote.�

�Yeah,� Don said, �You may get rid of me today.�

Will raised his eyebrows, and pointedly didn�t mention that
Don couldn�t even shower by himself a few hours ago.

�Is my car still at the club?� Don asked.

�I doubt the DEA towed it,� Will responded
neutrally.

�Good,� Don said.�
�You can drop me off there.�

�Don, are you sure�� Will started then bit off his words
and nodded.

Don swung his legs over the side of the bed and frowned down
at his pile of clothes.� He was not
thrilled at the idea of getting into his usual form-fitting jeans and t-shirt.� Will silently stood up and went to his
dresser.� After a moment, he handed Don a
pair of baggy sweatpants and a �Pomona
College� t-shirt.� Don nodded his thanks and Will helped him get
into the borrowed clothes.� Will put Don�s own clothes and things into a bag.

�Pomona College,
eh?�� Don asked.

�Yep,� Will said, kneeling down to put on Don�s shoes.� �Got myself a pointless but extremely interesting
Bachelor�s in Sociology there.�

Will stood up again and Don followed suit.� He was pretty stable on his feet, though the
shoes seemed to hit every bruise perfectly.�
�Isn�t that one of the Claremont Colleges?�� Don asked, not wanting to seem like a total
idiot.

�Yeah,� Will said, surprised.� �Most people haven�t heard of it, even though
it�s right here in LA county.�

Don shrugged and picked up his keys, wallet, and cell
phone.� �Charlie is always talking about
some Harvey Med place there.�

�Harvey Mudd,� Will corrected him.

�Yeah, that.�� Then
Don needed to concentrate on walking.

In the next room, he took a pause to look around him at
Will�s house, or at least as much as he could see from his position leaning
against the wall.� So far he�d only seen
the bedroom and the bathroom.� He was
standing in a medium-sized living room, with bookshelves, a stereo and a couch
that did look old and uncomfortable.�
Down the hall were three more doors.�
He could see a computer desk through the open door of one and the second
showed a jumble of books, painting supplies and just miscellaneous stuff.� The third was a bathroom.� The kitchen was in the other direction.� It was a small house but probably worth a lot
in the crazy LA real estate market.� How
could Will have afforded this house on a DEA salary?� Maybe he had an additional source of funds �

Don chided himself for his suspicious thoughts.� Talk
about pre-judging.� Will probably had the house for the same reason his father had their nice
house � his family had been in the valley before the housing market went
insane.

Will was standing behind him, letting Don look and catch his
breath.� Don got himself moving again and
made it all the way by himself out the front door to Will�s car, a Ford
Explorer.� Don had been lucky that Will
didn�t drive an Accord, as his unconscious body never would have fit in
back.� I was lucky in a lot more ways than that.

Will unlocked the car and Don climbed in.� Just the act of getting in and sitting down
took more energy than Don could imagine.�
Still, he kept his head up and made a show of looking around.� Will�s house was stucco with a Spanish tile
roof and stood on a small lot in an older neighborhood.� His front yard was well-kept with a big oak
tree, several camellia bushes, and a low-water groundcover.� Don remembered his father saying that you
could tell a lot about a person by how they kept their yard.� This yard said its owner was organized, slightly
obsessive, and environmentally conscious.�
Or he just had a good gardener.�
Don was building a picture of Will in his mind like he did for a victim �
or a suspect.�

Don realized that they weren�t moving and looked at Will.

�Your seatbelt,� Will said.

Don nodded and grimaced as he pulled the seatbelt over his
damaged body.� He closed his eyes and
tried to breathe deeply, though that sent the seatbelt scraping over the burns
on his chest.

Either the ride to the club wasn�t far or Don blacked out on
the way.� He was definitely not up to
taking care of himself yet.� Will pulled
up next to Don�s car and looked like he wanted to say something but pursed his
lips and remained silent.� Don looked
over at the building that housed The Chamber.�
A flash of rage shot through him, then left him
more exhausted than before.

�Will,� Don asked meekly, �Can I drive my car back to your
place and � stay with you a little longer?�

Will smiled.� �Absolutely.�� Think
you can find it again?�

�I�ll follow you.�

�Okay then, I�ll try not to lose you.�

Don nodded then climbed out of Will�s car and into his
own.� He shook himself, trying to summon
some energy and alertness.� Will pulled
out of the parking lot and he followed closely.

Don was soaked in sweat and trembling by the time they
reached Will�s house.� He parked next to
Will�s car in the driveway and sat there for a long moment.

�Don?�� Will asked,
coming around his car to Don�s.

�Not quite � full-strength yet,� Don said.

Will opened the door and unbuckled Don from the seat and
peeled Don�s fingers from the steering wheel.�
He helped Don into the house and to a chair in the front room.� Don took a deep breath and turned to Will,
about to say something self-deprecating, when he saw the expression on Will�s
face.� Will looked tense but determined
as he shut the door behind them.

�Don, I need to talk to you,� Will said.

Don sighed.� Here it comes.� The demands and the
blackmail.� Don automatically
checked to make sure that he was closer to the front door than Will was and
that Will didn�t have his gun.� At least not one I can see.�

Will crossed the room and sat down on the edge of the couch
then jumped up and began pacing the room.

Don waited, trying to ready his body for flight.�

�I feel like I�ve been lying to you,� Will said at
last.� �Letting you think that I�m some
sort of Good Samaritan, and that I would have taken home any Fed I saw in that
place.� I hope I would have, but I don�t
really know.� But I didn�t hesitate with
you.� It actually scares me how little I
stopped to think with you.�

Okay, so it�s
something only I have access to � Or he wants to have control of the lead FBI
agent in the office.� Don moved to
the edge of his seat.�

Will didn�t seem to notice.� He was still pacing back and forth, not
looking at Don.� �God, I don�t know where
to start,� Will said.

Don asked flatly, �What is it you want?��

�Want?�� Will blinked at him.� �I
don�t want anything.� Okay, that�s not true.� There�s a great deal that I want, I just �� Will bit his lip
and shook his head.

Using a classic interview technique, Don said, �Start at the
beginning.�

Will threw himself down on the couch, not looking at
Don.� �The beginning?� The beginning was your brother�s kidnapping.�

Don stiffened.� This
was all about the Russian mob?

�I was one of a whole army of law enforcement officers and I
really doubt you noticed me, you were so incredibly intense, focused.� I noticed you though, oh yeah.�� Will gave a humorless smile, still not
meeting Don�s eyes.� �You were ready to
tear apart the world to get back your brother and your agent.� I was supposed to be listening to your
instructions but all I could think of was that you were the most passionate,
most gorgeous man I�d ever seen.�

Don�s thoughts short-circuited and his jaw dropped.�

Will glanced up at him, then away.� �Yeah.� Ridiculous, isn�t it.� I�m thirty-three years old. Too old to have crushes.�

�You �� Don stammered then stopped, utterly at a loss.

Will ran his fingers through his hair and pulled out his
hair tie.� �I found out more about you
after that, and everything I heard said that you were totally straight.� But I also learned more about you � your
history, your intelligence, the respect people have for you.� Just my luck, nothing I found out about you
helped me get rid of this absurd crush, only made it worse.� I�d never seen you laugh or really even
smile, and, God, I wanted to.� But you
were straight, totally straight, so I just told myself to forget about it.�

Don felt the need to grab on to the arms of the chair.� Will �
liked him? �Don wondered why he hadn�t
see it earlier as a lot of things fell into
place.� God, I�ve been as obtuse as Charlie.� That expression he�d seen a few times on Will�s
face last night.� Will had seen Don laugh
at last and been happily surprised.

�When I saw you at Titan,� Will
continued, �I first thought you must be undercover.� I really wanted to talk to you, if I could
without blowing your cover.� So I, umm,
followed you into the bathroom ��

Don flushed, remembering what had happened in that bathroom.

�Yeah,� Will said, as if he could sense Don�s discomfort,
though Will never looked up from the hair tie he stretched between his fingers.� �I should have turned around and left, but I
couldn�t.� I wanted to see what you were
doing with one of the Friday Night Blowboys - that�s what other Titan regulars
called so-called straight guys who come in here after work for a quick suck.� I thought, I swear to God, that you were
working some other investigation and I had missed something with that guy.� Since it looked like you were alone, I
thought I�d be your backup and watch the door.�
Then you let him ��
Will cleared his throat.� �I
thought, �Here�s a man who really gets into his cover,� since after your
blowboy left, you didn�t look like you�d actually enjoyed it.�

Don�s lips twisted.�
He had been at Titan on an investigation, but not for the FBI, for
himself.

Will�s eyes flickered up to Don then away.� �I asked around, discreetly, but it didn�t
look like you were on a case. �I found this
extremely interesting and planned to talk to you if I saw you at Titan
again.� But that didn�t happen.�� His shoulders moved in a gesture that was
halfway between a shudder and a shrug.� �Unfortunately,
while you might not have been undercover, I was.� And my investigation led me straight to The
Chamber, as my team thought it would, so I had to go there most nights.

�Then you showed up at The Chamber and you could have
knocked me down with a breath.� I knew
without asking that you were a sub � most men who have to be in control all the
time in their regular lives are subs.� I
was there as a sub myself.� I�ll admit, that I toyed with the idea of revealing that I was a
switch and seeing if I could be your Dom.�

Don blinked.� He found
himself wishing that Will had done that.�
Under Will�s firm but compassionate hands he might have--� Don cut that
thought off.� He didn�t think he�d ever
be able to enjoy BDSM again, after Channing.

As if the name was spoken out loud, Will said, �Then you got
put under Channing, and I knew that that bastard wouldn�t stop until he�d
broken you or you were dead.� I thought,
given the fact that Channing only had one evening to work on you, dead was more
likely.� Will�s mouth twisted.� �I
almost�� Will started angrily then cut himself
off.� He took a deep breath, then
another.

Finally he said, �You shouldn�t feel any obligation or
pressure since I helped you.�� I just
hope you�ll let me know occasionally how you are.�

Will met Don�s eyes at last.�
Will�s face was outwardly calm, but Don could see the tension in his
jaw, the wariness in his eyes.

It was Don�s turn to look away.� Away from those eyes which burned through
him, demanding truth.

�I don�t know what to think,� Don said quietly.� �It�s been such a brutal few days, no, a
brutal month since I �� He held back the words, Tried to force Colby.� �Somewhere I lost track of myself, buried my
emotions so deep that I can�t find them again.�

Will nodded.� �Burying
our emotions is something we learn to do in our sort of work.� I�ll be here if you ever want to call me,
just to talk or anything.�

He expects me to turn
and walk out the door.� Don said,
�I�m not going anywhere just yet.� I�m
not in any shape to.�

Will blinked in surprise.� �You won�t feel uncomfortable staying?�

�Actually,� Don said, feeling a little surprised himself,
�In an odd way, it makes staying easier.�
At least now I have some idea why you�re doing this.� You�re not looking for any blackmail material
or some sort FBI access or info that I�d be forced to give you.�

Will raised his eyebrows then looked thoughtful, as if he
was seeing what his behavior must have looked like from the other side.

�I think you�d have helped any fellow Fed you saw there.�� Don said then added with a small smile,
�Though maybe not taken him home and cooked for him.�

�Maybe not,� Will said with a tentative smile.

Don pushed himself up from the chair.� �So, cook, what�s for lunch?�

Will�s smile moved into his eyes.� �I see.�
You�re just staying for the food.�

�You got it,� Don said lightly and walked towards the
kitchen.� �And while you�re cooking, we
can come up with a � legitimate reason why I have two broken fingers.�

�Sports injury?�� Will
said, getting up from the couch and following Don.

�Basketball maybe,� Don said.� �Though that would damage
my reputation as a stud basketball player.�

�I�m sure it was only because it was you against five NBA
players.�

Don pulled out a chair and sat at the table, dead tired again.� He put his head down on his arms and watched Will get out a pan and open the fridge.�

�Pasta okay?�� Will asked.

�Just make it soft pasta,� Don murmured, sleepily enjoying
the way Will�s hair fell down past his shoulders.�

As Will filled the pan with water, Don had to admit that he
didn�t mind that Will had a crush on him.�
Didn�t mind at all.
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