Full Exposure

By: Judi, KRH, and Lady Angel

"So what are we gonna do?" Buck ran frustrated hands through his dark hair. The two rooms were completely cleared of people now. Buck figured they'd still have a little time before the gallery personnel found out what he and his friends had done.

"I don't know, but we better do it soon. Chris is gonna come looking for us," Nathan said, once more running his eyes over the revealing pictures of his boss and friend. "I hope Mercy General has enough suture material to put us back together when Chris finds us," Nathan said grimly.

"Brother Nathan, you are not helping." Josiah shot his friend a withering look. Nathan glared right back until JD came careening back into the "Chris Gallery".

JD was breathless from running faster than he had ever run before in his life but he managed to get his message out, "He's coming! He's right down the street!"

"You sure?" Vin grabbed JD's shoulders. He had sent JD outside to act as look out.

Dark hair swung into the younger man's eyes as he vigorously nodded. "And he don't look too happy."

"We, gentlemen, are doomed. We are dead men walking. We are--"

"Shut up Ez! I need to think!" Vin knew that they only had a few minutes at most. "Ok, JD, go back outside and slow Chris down as much as you can."

JD nodded and took off again, determined to save his friends' necks as well as his own.

Vin looked at each of his friends, they needed to find something that would distract Chris away from the gallery. . .

Vin's blue eyes flashed.

The sharpshooter turned to his southern partner. "Shoot me."

"Pardon me?" Ezra didn't think he had heard his friend correctly.

"WHAT?" That came from the other three men. Vin ignored them.

"Shoot. . .me." Vin said slowly. Ezra's mental processes hadn't been working too well since Mrs. Travis dropped her bomb.

"What ever for?" The southerner still couldn't understand what Vin was telling him to do.

"We need to get Chris away from here. The only thing that's gonna do that is somebody getting shot."

Vin could see the comprehension dawning in his friends' eyes.

Predictably it was Nathan who spoke first. "No! Absolutely not! That is the stupidest thing we could do! No!"

"It's the only way! Nothing short of that is gonna stop him!" Vin pleaded with the ex-medic.

"Vin, while it is very generous of you to sacrifice yourself, I'm sure we can come up with something else." Josiah deep tones didn't do one damn thing to change Vin's mind.

Vin jutted out his chin, set his face and repeated, "It's the only way."

"Ezra, Buck, talk some sense into him." Nathan turned to his other friends for help, but wished he didn't.

He saw the speculative gleams in both their eyes, "No! There is no way in hell I'm gonna let you shoot him!" Nathan was horrified that the two of them would actually contemplate shooting Vin just to save their butts!

"He did volunteer," Buck pointed out.

"It would only be a flesh wound. Not even worth real stitches," Ezra offered.

"But enough to take me to the hospital or at least back to the office so Nate can patch me up." Vin clarified.

"If you think I'm gonna patch you up after this fool stunt, you better be thinking again!"

The three of them ignored Nathan. They *were* saving everyone's asses after all.

"How are we gonna explain it to Chris?" Vin asked Buck and Ezra. Obviously neither Nathan nor Josiah would be involved in this scheme.

"We were here for lunch, you saw someone trying to steal a photograph, you moved to intercept the miscreant. Unfortunately, he had a weapon and you were shot attempting to apprehend him." Ezra smiled at his own genius.

"Okay, that works. Ez, use that peashooter of yours." Vin smiled back at his partner.

Josiah's eyes widened at the scheme that Vin had come up with and the ready compliance of Ezra and Buck. The older man turned away, shaking his head and wondering how *any* of them had lived as long as they had with the harebrained schemes that one of them was always coming up with.

"Where would you like the bullet?" Ezra calmly asked, pulling out his gun.

Nathan watched in horror as the others calmly continued to discuss their insane plan.

"How about right here? Don't think Junior's had one there before." Buck, trying to be helpful, pointed to Vin's right side.

Nathan couldn't maintain his silence any more, "HELL NO! Not there!"

Both Vin and Ezra turned to the healer and raised their eyebrows.

"Oh, hell, if you're gonna do it anyway, might as well do the least amount of damage possible." Nathan quickly walked over to Vin.

"Here, shoot here." Nathan pointed to the outside of Vin's right thigh, "Just graze him, aim for the seam on his jeans, it should take the brunt of the bullet."

Ezra smiled, nodded at both his friends and took careful aim.