Obsessive Compulsive Tendencies by Emma DeMarais (Challenge #6 - Obsession)

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Title: Obsessive Compulsive Tendencies
Pairing/Characters: Don, Charlie
Rating/Category: NC17 (Default)
Spoilers: Judgment Call, Identity Crisis, UP
Summary: The Eppes brothers both have habits they don't want to admit to
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ


"Stop it."

"Stop what?"

Don reached over, grabbed the pen out of Charlie's hand and almost slammed it down on the tabletop.

"Can't you ever stay still? Even when you're not writing, you always seem to be playing with a pen or pencil or chalk or something. Is it impossible for you to go five minutes without some sort of writing implement in your hand?"

"I have my hands empty a lot of the time."

"Not when you're sitting down. If you're standing up, walking around? Sure. When you're sitting at a table," Don held up a hand when he saw Charlie about to interrupt, "and not eating or typing, yeah you do have to have something in your hands and it's almost always something to write with."

"Well, I never know when I'm going to get an idea," Charlie said. "But fine. I can go without something in my hands, no problem."

Don glanced down at Charlie's right hand and could already see it twitching at being empty.

"Let's time you then. It's twenty after now, so let's see how long you can sit there and keep your hands completely empty."

"You're on."

Don sat for a minute watching his brother's hands before Charlie started to get flustered.

"Well, we can't just do nothing while you time me! That's stupid! We should at least talk about something!"

"Okay," Don said. "Talk."

Charlie let out a frustrated groan and ran a hand through his hair.

"That time doesn't count, but no more touching your hair. That's like putting something in your hands too."

"What? I just have to sit here with my hands on top of the table, doing nothing?"

"Yes."

"This is nuts."

"No, it's just me proving a point."

"Which is?"

"Megan and I disagreed over your obsessive compulsive tendencies."

"I do not have obsessive compulsive tendencies!"

"Yeah, you do."

"What, she profiled me and said I had OCD?"

"No, she profiled you and said you didn't. I told her she was missing that aspect of you."

"Oh, great. My own brother thinks I'm a nut job."

"No, I didn't say you actually had obsessive compulsive disorder. I just said you had tendencies, that's all. It's not the same."

"So I'm not crazy just eccentric?"

"You said it, not me."

"What about your obsessive compulsive tendencies?"

"Me? I don't have any."

"Oh, I beg to differ! Who has to park in the same place every time and gets bent out of shape when they can't?"

"That's just logical. It's easier to find a car if it's parked in a similar area each time you leave it."

"Don, you forget, I teach logic for a living. Driving around a parking lot for an extra ten minutes waiting for a space in the row you like best is not logical. It's an OCD thing."

"No, it isn't."

"Fine, then let me pick up my pen since that can't be OCD either."

"Oh, no. We made a deal. I'm still timing you on the pen thing."

"Okay, then next time we go somewhere, I’m not just going to time you to see how long it takes you to park, I'm going to count how many open spaces you pass by in order to get one you like." Charlie grinned, as an idea came to him. "And I think I'm going to tell Megan the results so she can add that to her profile of you."

Don raised his eyebrows at him. "You're trying to blackmail me?"

Charlie shrugged his shoulders innocently. "Hey, why should you care if Megan knows your parking habits? It's not like they're OCD or anything."

Don glared at him, then finally let out a huff of air in resignation. "Fine. You don't tell Megan about my parking, I won't tell her about your empty hands thing."

"I do not have a thing, Don."

"Really? Take a look, buddy. It took you three minutes and forty-seven seconds to pick up that pen again."

Charlie looked down to see the pen in his hand, completely unaware he'd even picked it up. He quickly put it down and pulled his hands back into his lap.

"So, it's a deal then?" he said, a bit embarrassed.

"Deal."

They reached across the table and shook hands over it.

Don went back to reading the report in front of him.

"Of course, I could still tell her about your pre-game rituals when you were playing baseball..."

"Charlie..." Don looked up from his report, a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"What?" Charlie pretended not to know what he was implying.

"If you're going to play dirty, I'm going to tell Megan what happened the first time you tried to get your driver's license."

Charlie paled, mortified. "You wouldn't."

"I won't have to if you drop this and get back to work."

Don reached over and handed him the pen.

"Here. Have a pen."

Charlie grinned.

"Three minutes and forty-seven seconds?" he asked. "Seriously?"

"No, I made it up. I got distracted and forgot to look at the time. I have no idea how long it took you to pick up the pen."

"You bastard!"

Charlie threw the pen at Don who ducked, laughing.

"Okay, it's twenty-five minutes after... Let's see how long you last this time..."

=

Comments

[honeyswallow.livejournal.com]

This is great! I laughed a lot.

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it! I find it's not hard to write amusing stories, but it is difficult to get people to actually laugh.

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[spikedluv]

Hee! I loved that Don got distracted. And I can so see him driving around looking for his favorite parking spot, lol!

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I struggled to come up with *any* sort of OCD tendencies for both brothers. The parking thing is *so* Southern California, it could apply to millions of people, so I figured it wouldn't be totally OOC for Don to fall into that trap.

I love that Don bluffs so well after he's distracted. He doesn't even try to fudge, he just pretends he knows the time to the second and Charlie buys it. ;-) Good man that he is, he does confess when challenged. /grins/

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[jestana.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnickersnort* Fabulousness! They're definitely brothers. *grin* I think everyone has their OCD tendencies, they just don't always realize it. *smirk* Bravo!

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I just wish they both had slightly more overt tendencies in canon so I wouldn't have to come up with some on my own. Still, the interaction between the brothers is the core of it - the fun part, and that's as canon as you can get. /grins/

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[jestana.livejournal.com]

We've seen Charlie work on P vs. NP in canon, so that could be one thing, but nothing really mundane. *grin* What drew me to the series to begin with was the family interactions, between the brothers and with Alan. Some of my favorite parts are when Charlie and Don are just being brothers.

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Well, I tend to think of P vs. NP as more of a coping mechanism than an OCD thing. He's a mathematician and it's normal for them to adopt a problem (like Ethan did with the Riemann Hypothesis) and since he's lectured on it, one assumes this is part of his work. However, when things get overwhelming he uses it to escape into numbers so he can deny reality for a while. Since he's only done it twice - both times when he was freaked about loved ones dying - I don't think it's habitual enough to count, IMHO.

And yeah, the brothers are the big draw... ;-)

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[umbralillium.livejournal.com]

*falls off chair laughing*

"Oh, I beg to differ! Who has to park in the same place every time and gets bent out of shape when they can't?"

"That's just logical. It's easier to find a car if it's parked in a similar area each time you leave it."

"Don, you forget, I teach logic for a living. Driving around a parking lot for an extra ten minutes waiting for a space in the row you like best is not logical. It's an OCD thing."

*snorfle!*

"Three minutes and forty-seven seconds?" he asked. "Seriously?"

"No, I made it up. I got distracted and forgot to look at the time. I have no idea how long it took you to pick up the pen."

"You bastard!"

Charlie threw the pen at Don who ducked, laughing.

*laughs* That is totally Charlie and Don! You captured their relationship perfectly!

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Thank you. They're a joy to write, whether it be humor or angst or anywhere in between. The sign of a good TV show is characters you care about and the sign of good characters is that you feel like you can know them...

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[memprime.livejournal.com]

OCD, hmm...? Charlie does seem to have such tendencies on the show. As for Don, I don't know. I love the story though.

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I think that Charlie has a personality that lends itself to obsessive behavior, but as far as specific tendencies go, I just couldn't come up with anything really canon.

Glad you liked it...

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[cat-willow.livejournal.com]

Very funny!

Don's parking space thing could come up in Double Down, when Charlie's explaining how parking lots typically fill up. *Don humming to himself, eyes shifting around: "Do do do do do..."*

Larry's probably pretty particular about where he parks his Model A Ford, but I guess that's more practicality than OCD. He has enough OCD stuff already!

I used to be a compulsive hair twirler till I consciously broke myself of the habit. Now I just re-watch Numb3rs eps and look for slash fic every five minutes. *g* My husband was re-watching (first time and w/o me!) Double Down yesterday, and when I came in he asked, "Now who's that MacNicol guy you like again? And what the hell is Charlie talking about *this* time?" The compulsion spreads. Too funny.

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't even want to think of tendencies among fans! LOL!

I forgot about the parking lot thing. I haven't been rewatching the episodes at all, but I vaguely remember that.

Larry and OCD though... I don't even want to go there... ;-)

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[jelsemium.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was a funny! It's too early in the morning for me to laugh out loud, but I am grinning. Which is unusual since the coffee isn't ready yet. :-D (Talk about OCD tendencies... coffee is mine. ;-) )

I think you really captured the brothers' personalities, and I'm going to pay attention to see if Charlie does need to have a writing implement in his hand.

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Glad you liked it. /hands jelsemium a brownie/

[hack-benjamin22.livejournal.com]

Aw...thats so cute. I have the same problem with my hands, which is why its so amusing to read this. The parking spot thing made me giggle 'cause I can totally see that happening. Good stuff. ^^

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I figured even if there's no canon for these things, I could pick ones that would either make sense or be something general enough that people could relate to it.

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais

[strifechaos.livejournal.com]

I like that you came up with non-canon OCD tendencies. I found them relatable, I've noticed before that I tend to mess with a pen or piece of jewelry if I don't have anything in my hands. Hee.

They add to the character, plus both were very realistic. The chemistry between them was very believable; you've got their characters down well. Awesome stuff here, looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future. *grins* *glomps* *waves*

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

Well, I couldn't think of any canon ones! I just picked what I felt was in line with their personalities and normal enough that readers could identify with it.

As to more of my fic, why wait for the future? Go check out the archive on my LJ. I have a *ton* of fic to read there. If you want a quicker review, just use the tag 'review' and you'll get posts that sum up all of my fic postings with links to each.

Thanks,

Emma DeMarais