FIC; Nothing in life is free (2/4)

[iloveanyonebutu.livejournal.com]

Title: Nothing In Life Is Free (2/4)
Rating: Kinda NC-17ish for this chapter, but not really.
Pairings: Colin/Ryan, Dan/Ryan, Greg being awesome.
Summary: It isn't a secret that Ryan 'spoke up' on Colin's behalf to get him a seat on the show. What is a secret was what that meeting involved; when Colin finds a tape everything changes.
Warnings: Dub-con/blackmail sex, angst, angst and more angst. No Beta. Um kinda AU because the wives? Yeah, they don't exist...
Word count: For this chapter; 2,398.
Disclaimer! Yeah, I forgot to put one on the last chapter, but I'll put one on this one just in case. The show isn't mine. The people aren't mine. The situations aren't real. You know the drill :)

A/N: Dear reviewers is it too early in our relationship to say 'I love you'? Because I do :) You are all awesome people!
The next chapter may take a while; mostly because I have a scary amount of work, and partially because there are sections I hate and am re-writing; so think Saturday at the earliest. Anyway enough of me; onto the fic!

 

Smirking, he turned his attention back to the TV. The door to the office was opening and Colin leaned forward slightly in anticipation; promising himself to turn the tape off as soon as he saw who the ‘lucky lady’ was.

Who he didn’t expect to see was Ryan.

 Ryan looked young still; not that age was so noticeable on him, but he lacked the self confidence he had gained in later years, and his hair was longer, falling just below his ears. Colin smiled fondly at the image displayed on the screen – Ryan loathed taking photographs so he didn’t have many of him, of them, and sometimes Colin regretted it. He liked to look back on the few that they had and remember the memories behind each snapshot. Maybe he wouldn’t return the tape like he had originally planned.

His attention snapped back to the screen when he heard Ryan’s voice.

“Look, Dan, please! He was just nervous – and even nervous he was amazing - you’ve got to admit that. You have to call him back, he’ll make this show. Just give him a chance!” Ryan’s voice sounded strained like he was repeating words he had said many times.

“And I’ve already said, Ryan, that there just isn’t room on the recording schedule for your fuck-buddy. He was average at best; and Hat Trick won’t fund us if the ratings drop.”

Colin watched Ryan visibly bristle; he could almost see the insult form before Ryan bit it back. He also saw the brief flash of sadness behind his eyes. When they both became regulars on WLIIA UK, they were still clinging firmly to the assumption that the other only wanted to be friends. It would likely had stayed that way had Greg not given up on them figuring it out for themselves and decided to use the high-school cliché of locking them in an office with a bottle of vodka, and the friendly advice of “resolve the sexual tension al-fucking-ready; it’s throwing off my mojo and I’m starting to hate you both”. They did and hadn’t minded calling Greg “the relationship cupid” after he had insisted that he found a new calling in life.

“God, Dan the rating won’t drop and you know it. It was a good recording; the audience in the studio was into it, I’m sure the audience at home will be too. And we aren’t fuck buddies.”

“Uh huh. Well he’ll just have to get the plane back to Canada; the studio can’t keep funding his stay here. I heard he wasn’t doing so well over there; and I’m sorry about that. But there really isn’t anything I can do.”

Colin was an easy-going guy. In fact people told him that he was forgiving to a fault, but he wasn’t a saint so, yes, occasionally he lost his temper and most of his friends/colleagues/occasional strangers in bars knew to get the fuck out of his way when he did. After hearing Dan’s last pronouncement he was wavering dangerously on the boundary between blinding anger and the quickly fading interest to see where the conversation would lead. No, Colin wasn’t doing that well at the time of the first Whose Line recording, but he wasn’t doing as badly as the disdain in Dan’s voice made it seem. He felt his anger levels rise another notch.

On the tape Ryan’s expression was a cross of guilt and annoyance.

“He’s not doing that badly!” Colin silently cheered. “And I know there is something you can do. For God’s sake you’re in charge of casting! What do you want me to say to change your mind? Because I swear that at this stage in time I will do anything to get him back on the show.”

Something flashed across Dan’s face that the grainy quality of the tape made impossible to interpret. The next sentence was cold in its contempt.

“Then beg.”

“What?!”

“You said you’d do anything – well I want you to get on your fucking knees and beg. Maybe I’ll change my mind.”

“You can’t be serious!”

Dan’s expression said otherwise. If Colin was furious before, then it was nothing compared to what he was feeling now; his smile turned feral when he imagined what Ryan would say in response. However instead of Ryan tearing Dan another hole as he had expected, he watched as Ryan slowly lowered himself down to his knees. Colin was so shocked that he forgot he was angry – Ryan never did anything Dan said, and he most certainly didn’t beg; even as a joke; to see him do so now was terrifying.

“I’m begging you to let Colin on the show. Please.” The words were forced through clenched teeth and sounded so insincere that even the most gullible of people would not have believed them.

“Ah-ah-ah” Dan wagged his finger at Ryan, chastising him in the tone of voice an owner would chastise an errant puppy; “I know you can do better than that! Come on – I watch you go up on that stage and act your heart out. Do it here.”

Ryan’s expression was murderous, but he started again with marginally more enthusiasm;

“Please, Dan, I’m begging...”

Dan interrupted before he managed to finish; “And one more thing – that earlier cock-up will cost you. Take off your shirt.”

Ryan was on his feet in an instant; “no way Dan. No fucking way. I’m not some blonde bimbo of a secretary you can just press-gang into doing what you want! I’m leaving.”

“Go ahead – you must realise however that the second you step foot outside this office, Colin won’t be the only one without a job.”

Ryan turned around. “You can’t fire me – I’m one of the best performers on the show!”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Dan smirked “I can replace anyone on the line-up on a whim. Don’t give me cause.”

Colin watched Ryan pause and turn. His hands were clenched into fists so tightly his knuckles were showing white.

“If I do this – will you let me and Colin keep our jobs?”

“We’ll just have to see how well you do, won’t we?”

Colin watched Ryan’s hands tremble slightly as they reached for the buttons of his shirt. He couldn’t watch this anymore; nevertheless he needed, physically needed to see what happened. To see what sort of death he should start planning for Dan. That he was going to kill Dan was obvious, but the level of suffering before said death was going to vary. Colin pressed fast-forward - that way he could still see what happened, without spending agonising moments lingering on each scene. He watched the flickering figures play out a macabre scene.

He watched Ryan’s shirt fall to the ground.

He watched Ryan snarl something at Dan.

He watched Dan backhand Ryan hard across the face.

He watched Ryan grab his shirt and start to leave.

He watched Dan sneer something at Ryan’s back.

He watched Ryan’s face lose its colour.

He watched Ryan get back on his knees.

He watched Dan unzip his trousers.

He watched Ryan’s eyes.

He watched Dan pull Ryan up to his feet and back him into his desk.

He watched Ryan struggle fruitlessly.

He watched.

He watched.

He watched.

***

When Ryan found out about the tape he did the only thing he could.

***

Long after the tape had faded to static and the light grew dim outside of Colin’s room, he finally moved from his spot in front of the TV. He didn’t know who to call, or what to tell them. He had to talk about it with Ryan, but how would that conversation go?

“Hey Ryan, guess what? I know that you got blackmailed into sex by our bastard of an executive producer, who then filmed a secret sex tape –thanks for getting me the job?”

He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t tell Drew – the likelihood would be that he would genuinely kill Dan, and as much as Colin wanted that to happen, he also didn’t want Drew to go to prison. Eventually Colin decided that there was only one person he trusted enough to confide in, and that was the person who knew them both from the beginning. Colin picked up the phone and called Greg who arrived ten minutes later looking distinctly harried and more than slightly worried.

“What is it Colin? You sounded awful on the phone.”

Colin had no idea how to tell Greg about what he had witnessed, but he certainly didn’t want to show him the tape. The less people saw that, the better.

“Right, well, you know back in England, when I messed up my first episode and everyone thought I wasn’t coming back but then I did? Well I just found out why that happened. And I don’t know what to do.”

Greg’s face went from concerned to horrified. By the time Colin finished speaking he looked ten years older and tired right down to the bone.

“Ah. How did you find out?”

“You knew?!”

Greg, if it was possible, looked even worse.

“Yeah. I mean Ryan came to me straight afterwards – he was... fucked up. Who told you? Because I am going to kill that fucker!”

“No-one told me Greg. I saw the tape.”

“Jesus Christ. Ryan didn’t even tell me all of what happened. I sort of guessed and assumed from what little he said. I didn’t know there was a tape. You have to destroy it. Shit! Do you think there are copies? Because we’ve got to get rid of them too. Does Ryan know there’s a video?” Greg was babbling and Colin almost couldn’t take in the constant stream of information.  He didn’t know what he expected when he called Greg over, but it wasn’t this. It wasn’t to be shown how Ryan trusted Greg more than him. Colin felt faintly sick at the pit of his stomach.

“I have no idea if Ryan knows about the tape because he never told me that this happened!” Colin’s voice had rose to a shout at the end of the sentence. He didn’t think he had ever felt so angry, upset and betrayed in his life. Why had Ryan done it? Colin knew he wasn’t worth it. Hell, no-one was worth it. And yet Ryan had done it, and then spent years, years pretending that he was OK. Colin didn’t understand how he could stand to be in the same room as Dan, never mind wage the constant battle that Ryan seemed to. He did notice that Ryan had got a lot more vocal in his hatred for Dan since the beginning of Whose Line US; now he knew why. Obviously he couldn’t risk it in the UK, but Ryan at least part owned the US version. It was both his and Drew’s funds that made it possible to continue filming; so Dan didn’t have nearly the same amount of power, because any executive decision that Ryan disagreed with would almost always get vetoed – in terms of production, whatever Ryan decided was best, Drew would back up. They were the ultimate tag-team.

The door to the hotel room creaked and Colin’s ponderings on Ryan and his apparent lack of fear were interrupted by the man himself.

“Hey Col, sorry I’m late! You know what Wayne gets like; and Chip was there too, I barely escaped with my life!”

Ryan tailed off when he noticed the sombre expressions of the occupants of the room and the tense atmosphere that only thickened upon his arrival.

“Well, I have... things to do; you two have a lot to talk about and I better not be here for that discussion.” Greg pronounced before quickly leaving the room. Ryan glanced at Colin who seemed to be looking at anything but him. Ryan feverishly tried to remember if he had done anything that would make Colin angry enough to talk to Greg about it. Such times were rare, and the last involved Ryan getting too friendly with a stripper at one of Drew’s parties. Nothing had happened of course, but it was still enough for Colin to refuse to speak to him for a week. He came up blank; the only thing Ryan could think of was him being late, and whilst he and Colin might have had telepathic levels of ability at reading each other’s minds, Colin certainly couldn’t see into the future. So it must have been something else... finally Ryan gave in;

“Colin? What’s going on?”

It was the question Colin had dreaded. How could he bring it up with Ryan when the man had clearly gone to great lengths to hide the situation from him? Nevertheless he had to try. For the sake of them and their relationship.

“I found out, Ry. I know what you did.”

Ryan’s stomach clenched uncomfortably; there was only one thing that he had never told Colin, but he decided to play dumb. There was no way Colin could have found out. Only Greg and Dan knew; and Dan wasn’t going to say anything, after all his attraction to Ryan was his dirty little secret; Greg, well Greg hadn’t said anything for five years, why should he now? But then, what was he doing in their hotel room?

“What did I do? You’re going to have to be a bit more specific; because I swear to God I haven’t been near any strippers.”

Ryan’s pathetic attempt at a joke fell flat as Colin continued to avoid looking at him.

“I was in Dan’s office earlier today,” Ryan’s heart-rate sped up, “and I found something. Well not ‘something’, it was a tape. And then I watched it. And now I want to know why the fuck you didn’t tell me about what he made you do!”

Colin chanced a glance at Ryan. Ryan’s face had drained of colour and he was horribly still, but it was the complete blankness in his eyes that scared Colin.

“Ryan?”

From somewhere far away Ryan heard Colin say his name. He knew that he had to say something, to explain, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. How could he talk about this with Colin when he had spent the last five years trying to bury the memory of that afternoon as deep as he possibly could? So he did the only thing he could. He ran.

 

(also, does anyone know what happened to www.scenesofwhoseline.com ? because there were some fics on there that were awesome and are now presumably gone which makes me very very sad D: )