Part VI

JD walked in behind Buck and the others, his steps slowing as he entered the main room of the converted warehouse. The ceiling vaulted to nearly twelve feet overhead. The spacious floor area had been filled with couches and easy chairs, all centered and turned to face an entertainment area with a TV and something that looked like a DVD player and other assorted items. A wide doorway opened up several feet beyond the living area. He leaned to look inside and found a smaller area with some of the same kind of seating, but with equipment that looked like a stereo and stacks of CDs housed in the shelves alongside. A huge aquarium stretched against one side, casting undulating reflections of blue waves across the walls. Turning back to the main room, he noticed iron steps leading up to another level.

"Bedrooms are upstairs, along with some other storage and stuff."

He turned to look at Buck. The older empath smiled widely and slapped him lightly on the arm. "Kitchen's over here and there's a room with most of our equipment just on the other side. Come on, I'll show you."

"Ah, a part of civilization I've sorely missed." Ezra gazed into the room that held the CD player and aquarium. JD watched him smile to himself, then walk inside. From the humming he heard and clacking of plastic cases, he figured the shapeshifter had a long rest period in mind, sitting and listening to music. He didn't blame him.

"JD? You coming?"

His attention centering back on Buck, JD nodded. "Sure, Buck." He followed him into the kitchen and listened as Buck explained where everything was located. Nothing stuck, he knew he wouldn't remember a thing the older man told him, but standing still with the feeling of being at home was enough for now. He'd figure out the details of where to find the saucepan when he needed it later.

After the kitchen, Buck led him into the equipment room. It held everything from weight instruments to surveillance paraphernalia, though he wondered why they'd need things like that with someone like Vin around.

Walking out of that room, Buck headed for the stairs. "It'll be nice having another empath around to train with."

JD smiled at Buck's enthusiasm. "I'm just glad we're all together here -- now."

"Same here, kid." Buck grinned and clapped him warmly on the shoulder before stepping away. "Just don't get all mushy on us." The older man grabbed the rail and started up the stairs. "Come on up and I'll show you which room will be yours."

JD smiled at Buck's retreating back. Abruptly, memories flooded into his head and he shut his eyes against the onslaught. Catching his breath when emotions joined the images flickering through his mind, he became lost in the darkness of his thoughts.

JD suppressed a shudder as he drew near the lab. Waves of emotion roiled toward him and he rode them like foam on the ocean. *Just keep calm and everything will be okay.* "Yeah, right," he mumbled quietly to himself. "And pigs fly."

With a shove meant to send him sprawling, Peek pushed him way. JD spread his arms, keeping his balance, and managed to stay on his feet. Peek laughed, glancing at the others, inviting them to join in, then turned his shoulder and he and the others shifted into a tighter group, shutting him out. JD was left standing alone. He glanced nervously toward the two-way mirror set in one wall, knowing Evans watched from behind it and would do nothing to help him if Peek and the others suddenly turned more abusive. A heatwave of mistrust and anger swelled from the other men and bled through his weak defenses.

With a jolt that he felt through his bones, JD found himself standing in the warehouse. A refrigerator purred contentedly in the background. Muted light refracted through the large aquarium pulsated against the wide doorframe and the stately sounds of a symphony played quietly from the den where Ezra sat in darkness, recovering from his confinement. He was here with his new friends, not in some weird experiment with men he couldn't trust to turn his back on, much less watch his back in a dangerous situation.

Despair shivered through him then was gone, locked away in one of the many storage closets he kept in his mind. Ignoring the brief pull of more morose memories, he turned to climb the stairs that Buck had recently ascended, unaware of Vin watching him from the kitchen doorway, missing the expression of grief on his new friend's face.

Buck stood waiting for him in the hall.

"Thought you got lost for a minute there." He pointed to one of the doors that lined the long, wide hall. "You can have this one. There's already a bed and chest of drawers inside. We can get anything out of storage you need."

"Thanks." Opening the door, JD peered into the nearly empty room. He felt Buck beginning to move away from him and quickly shifted back from the door. "Hey, you know, I think I've heard of you and Mr. Larabee before."

"Chris, his name is Chris." Grinning to show no offence, Buck gently pushed JD into the room and pointed a stare at the bed, an unsubtle hint that the younger empath needed rest. "Oh yeah? When?"

Sitting on the edge of the bed to take off his shoes, JD continued, "During a connection I had while I was training with Dr. Evans."

"Just Evans. Don't give him the respect of calling him by title."

"Oh." Dipping his head to hide the blush heating his face, JD finished with his shoes and scooted back on the bed.

"Sorry, kid, you don't know the history we have with that bastard."

JD pressed his spine against the bed's backboard. Crossing his arms around his legs, he swallowed hard with a sudden wave of hatred and pain that rushed at him from Buck.

"Me and Chris, we've known each other a long time. Met while working for the ATF and figured out pretty quick we both had some kind of powers that we were trying to keep secret." Buck smiled.

"How'd you find that out?"

Shaking his head, a rueful expression twisting his mouth into a grin, Buck shrugged. "He had a vision, knew I was gonna get hurt by walking into a situation we were covering, and he told me about it. I told him he was nuts."

JD sat up straighter. "Did he punch you out?"

Buck looked up, eyes crinkled with amusement. "For that? No, Chris ain't like that. He may come off like a bear, but he's a pussy cat underneath all that fur."

Tucking his chin into his chest, JD made a rude noise. "Yeah, right."

Shaking his head, Buck tapped JD on the knee and laughed. "He's not so bad once you get to know him."

"Why'd you leave the ATF?"

The grin disappeared. Buck folded his hands in his lap and studied them, keeping his eyes hidden. "His wife and son were killed."

"Oh man."

"Yeah." Lifting his head, Buck turned to look out the high window in JD's room. "We figured they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Chris had been the intended target, but we couldn't prove it."

"How'd they die?"

Broad shoulders shrugged. "Explosion."

Sensing Buck wouldn't offer more, JD shifted on the bed and stretched his legs out behind Buck, giving the man time to tell the story when he was ready.

"Wasn't long after that the Agency approached us, and I convinced Chris to join up. He didn't want to; I think he did it just to get me off his back."

Knowing layers of history were hidden in those few words, JD remained silent.

"That's where we met Vin, found out his senses were augmented, and he could control them. Nathan was there, too. You already know what he can do." Lifting his head, Buck grinned softly at JD.

"Yeah. I was lucky he was there today."

"Josiah would say luck don't have nothing to do with it."

"What's Josiah do?"

"Strength. I've seen him lift a thousand-pound block of cement to free someone trapped beneath." Tiling his head back, Buck stared at the ceiling, his voice growing soft as he remembered things JD couldn't see. "He can sense things, too, almost like he can figure out if a person's good or bad."

"Why didn't he sense anything about Evans?"

"Huh?" As if suddenly remembering where he was, Buck blinked at JD, then shook his head. "He wasn't in the Agency. He was a friend of Nathan's and didn't join us 'til later, after we got out."

"Hey, how *did* you get out?"

A corner of Buck's mouth twitched in a grin. "One of the researchers, Orrin Travis, got us out. He realized the Agency had a hidden agenda, and that we were in danger. He found a way, and we got out."

"So, Chris is psychic --"

"And he can control the elements around him, draw on energy and defy gravity."

"Cool!"

"Vin's senses are heightened, Josiah has strength, Nathan's a healer, and I'm an empath, plus I can mind-read a little."

"Now you've got Ezra, the shapeshifter, and me, another empath."

"Yep. And they all lived happily ever after." Laughing at JD's look of disgust, Buck stood up and patted him on the knee. "End of story, Junior, time for you to get some rest."

JD shifted on the bed, stretching out and running his legs over the warm spot where Buck had sat. "Hey, who's Sarah and Adam?"

Nearly to the door, Buck froze. JD watched as he turned with a strange expression on his face. Apparently, the names meant something to him. When Buck didn't answer, JD cleared his throat and continued.

"When I heard your names, through that connection I told you about, I got this huge headache." He touched his temple. "And grief -- like someone mourning and hurting so bad inside."

Buck walked back to the bed and stood quietly, listening.

"Evans had me in a room full of patients, people with -- mental problems and cancer cases; he wanted me to connect with one of them and help them, but I couldn't." For an instant, the panic and anguish that had nearly overwhelmed him in that room rushed back and sent a sharp spike of agony through his head. Grimacing, JD lay back against the bed and closed his eyes. "Instead, I reached through them and connected with someone else. I heard your names through that link, and Sarah and Adam."

Buck's warm hand touched him, spread against his face. "Let it go, JD."

The distant hum through his head flared back to life and the feeling of connection, of knowing Buck and being with him, flowed through him again. His memories, his joy, his pain, spread through the link, lessening the burden on his heart. With a soft sigh, he settled toward sleep. He didn't hear the door close when Buck left.

Vin stretched out his legs, propping his heels on a cushion.

Sitting near him, Chris asked, "How's the leg?"

Smiling and lightly patting his thigh, he answered, "Good as new."

"We're fortunate to have Nathan on our team."

"Yep. And Ezra and JD." Seeing Chris' look of wary disagreement, Vin dropped his feet to the floor and twisted to face him. "You gotta admit a shapeshifter would be a huge asset, Chris."

"Maybe."

"No maybe about it." Knowing he'd won the argument, Vin settled back, spreading his arms along the back of the couch. "And having another empath helps, too. Now Buck has someone he can train with."

"He may be more powerful than you think."

Both men turned to watch Buck as he jogged down the stairs and joined them.

"Why do you say that?" Sitting straighter, Chris waited for Buck to sit down.

"I just found out what happened to your headache this morning."

"JD?"

Buck nodded.

"How?"

Shrugging, Buck shook his head. "I'm not sure. Evans was doing some kind of experiment on him, testing him in a room full of mental patients."

"Up to his usual tricks." Vin's rueful comment drew grimaces from both men.

"JD told me he managed to reach beyond that room and connect with someone else. Said he suddenly got a bad headache."

"So?" Chris leaned away and propped his elbow on the armrest. "That could have been anyone, Buck. You're reaching with this one. I know you like the kid, but I think he's just a average emapth."

Glancing at Vin, Buck turned to Chris. He moved closer, his voice low. "He heard something else that night. He asked me who Sarah and Adam were."

Silence gripped them, held them frozen. No one spoke. Finally, Chris moved. He shifted forward to the edge of his chair and locked his hands together in a tight fist between his knees.

"I was -- I dreamed of Sarah that night." Tight emotion strained his voice. With a deep sigh, tension seemed to abruptly release him,, and he smiled at Buck.

"Looks like we've got some new members to the team."