By Mimi

Rating: I'm not sure about this but I'm going to give it a PG-13 for violence and language.

Characters: Chris is the main character, but all seven have an active part in the story. There is also an OFC, not a Mary Sue, if you don't normally read OFC's please give her a chance.

Universe: ATF

Disclaimer: Do you think if they were mine I'd abandon them the way they have been. They belong to the alphabet people and I hope they don't mind me borrowing them for a while. Several people need to be thanked, Mog for creating the universe, great job! My husband for being the sounding board for this story and Winnie for the great beta job she did. Without the encouragement of my hubby and Winnie I would have never gotten through with this! Special thanks to Winnie for naming this baby!

Feedback: Sure, just remember that this is my first Mag 7 piece. If you don't like, just say so, but don't run it into the ground, please?

 Synopsis: Chris is the object of an Internal Affairs investigation. The Seven must try to clear him while coping with his female replacement.

Buck Wilmington swore that his heart skipped a beat when he saw the tall blonde step off the elevator. He watched her as she strode across the reception area, stopped and spoke with Angie at the front desk. His eyes never left her as she headed down the hall towards the office of Orrin Travis, the assistant director of the Denver office of the ATF. He quickly sized her up as being 35, about 5’10 with short blonde hair. He couldn’t see her eyes as they were hidden behind sun glasses. By his estimate she was a size 12, tall, and she was dressed all in black, a female Chris Larabee. From the full length, black leather coat to her black heeled boots, she had that Larabee attitude and Buck Wilmington was in love, for the first time that day. Never one to miss an opportunity he grabbed a file from the in basket on his desk , casually stood and as only he could sauntered out to Angie’s desk.

"Hello darlin’, suppose you could do me a little favor?"

Angie Easterly looked up from her computer into the sparkling blue eyes, looked back down and continued to type, "Her name is Elizabeth Everly, until yesterday she was the ASAC in Las Vegas. All I know is the judge was expecting her. He’s in a rotten mood and I’m just trying to stay out of his way. Anything else?"

"No, darlin’, that just about sums it all up. Married?"

"No ring."

"Thanks, Angie." With that he returned to his desk, Several minutes passed before he looked up to see Ezra Standish staring down at him.

"What, Ezra?"

"Well, Mr. Wilmington, would you care to enlighten me as to the particulars of the recent visitor to our humble office?"

Buck just looked at the undercover agent and grinned before replying in a seemingly innocent voice, "Why Ezra I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"Cut the.." Ezra’s retort was halted by the abrupt opening of Chris Larabee’s office door. The SAC of the Denver office of the ATF walked through the office and headed out to the hallway. Reaching the desk of Josiah Sanchez he stopped and talked for a moment and then headed on out. The other six members of the ATF’s infamous Team 7 watched as he walked purposefully down the hallway leading to Assistant Director Orrin Travis’ office. The same hallway that only moments before had been occupied by the mysterious blonde. Ezra continued to attempt to pump Buck for information about the leggy blonde that had invaded the seventh floor of the Federal Building, but little was gained. Giving up for the time being Standish returned to his desk and the paperwork he was trying to organize for Grand Jury the following week.

Time passed and the six men continued on, unaware of the storm brewing down the hall. But minutes turned into an hour and then another thirty minutes went by. The six men began to pass worried looks around, finally giving up all pretense of working. It wasn’t unusual for the Senior Agent in Charge to be summoned to the Assistant Director’s office. What was unusual was for the unknown female ASAC to be there and for the meeting to last this long. The first hint of the impending disaster came when voices could be heard emanating from inside Travis’ office. The voices grew louder and one by one each of the six men stopped what they were doing and all began to looked expectantly down the hall. Suddenly the door of Travis’ office swung open allowing the words to be heard plainly.

"Chris, don’t do something you’ll regret. Wait and let’s see what happens. Don’t go out there and get yourself in deeper." Plainly Travis was pleading with Larabee, but he was cut off by the female agent’s voice,

"Larabee I’ll want to talk to you before you leave the building, get a statement and..."

All six men were stilled by the booming voice of Chris Larabee, "Lady, the only thing I’ve got to say to you is ‘fuck you and your anonymous informant’ anything else you’ve got to say to me can be said to my lawyer."

With that the man in black strode back down the hallway and into the deathly quiet office. He looked straight ahead, not glancing at any of the men, he slammed the door of his office grabbed his black leather jacket and strode back out.

Wilmington stood and started towards him but was stopped by the look thrown his way. Buck Wilmington had seen that look before and had hoped to never see it again. It could only be described as murderous.

Far back in the corner of the spacious office sat Vin Tanner. He’d quietly watched the proceedings and studied the man who radiated anger. Tanner watched as Larabee punched the elevator button several times and then walked to the stairwell door. He grabbed the handle and slung the door back and disappeared into the stairwell. Tanner and Wilmington looked at each other, Josiah Sanchez and Nate Jackson just sort of gazed in the direction of the elevator while Ezra and J.D. Dunne sat disbelieving of the scene that had just unfolded before their eyes.

"What in the world was that all about?" asked the youngest member of Team 7.

Vin Tanner looked at J.D. and then surveyed the others before answering.

"I don’t know, but it’s not good. Did you all notice Chris wasn’t wearing his gun and badge when he left?"

The other team members all sat in stunned silence when hit with Vin’s observation. Each man wondered what had happened behind the closed doors of Travis’ office. The shrill ring of the telephone broke the silence. Buck glanced at his phone intending to let his voice mail pick it up until he saw that it was Director Travis’ secretary calling on the internal system.

"Wilmington."

"Buck, this is Rose. Judge Travis would like to meet with Team 7 in the conference room after lunch at 1:30."

"Sure, Rosie, what’s up?"

"Buck, I really can’t go into it, but please make sure that everyone is there and be sure to tell Ezra to be on time. I don’t think any of you all want to push the Judge today."

"Okay Rosie, but I wish you’d give me a clue as to what to expect."

"I’m sorry Buck, I just can’t talk about it. And by the way, the Judge asked me to tell you not to contact Chris until he’s talked to you."

"Yeah, sure." With that Buck put the phone down and looked to the other members. "That was Rosie, the Judge wants to see us at 1:30 in the conference room, and he said not to talk to Chris until then."

"That must mean Chris will be at the meeting, right?" J.D. questioned.

Nathan Jackson walked over to the younger man and reached out and touched his shoulder, "Probably J.D." The twisting in his own stomach told Jackson that the meeting would be short of the Team leader.

No one really felt like eating and everyone wanted to make sure that Ezra wasn’t late, something he was well known for, so they ordered lunch to be delivered. No one really ate their lunch, Vin just sat and stared out the window. Josiah and Nate quietly read, Buck pretended to do paper work while Ezra and J.D. worked the crossword puzzle in the daily newspaper. Time seemed to drag until finally 1:20 rolled around. As one they stood and filed out of the office and down the hallway to the large conference room. Travis hadn’t arrived yet and the seven sat in their customary seats. Noticeably vacant was the seat at the end of the table towards the hall door. That was Chris’ seat, always had been. Even when Chris was a rookie agent before he made SAC he sat in that chair. No one ever questioned it, they all respected it, even the other team leaders. Chris Larabee was the alpha of the alpha males in the testosterone filled Denver office. It wasn’t that he bullied everyone into submission, they just all naturally looked to him. He was the heir to the throne, everyone in the Denver office expected that when the assistant director stepped down that Larabee would be tapped to take over.

At precisely 1:30 a haggard looking Orrin Travis entered the conference room. The usual smile of greeting was lacking from his tired features. He walked quietly to the head of the table and without preamble announced that Chris Larabee had been relieved of his duties and was on administrative leave without pay until further notice, pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation. The six men sat in stunned silence for a few moments before they all erupted at once. Travis shushed them and picked up the phone at his right hand. He pushed the button for his secretary and the others present heard him tell her to send in Everly. Without delay the blonde entered the room. Standing just inside the door she surveyed the room and gauged the climate, deciding that it was hostile, but not deadly she walked straight to the vacant seat at the end of the table across from Travis. All eyes were on her as she pulled the chair out from the table and began to sit down.

Still stunned from Travis’ announcement they sat in silent disbelief until J.D. croaked out,

"That’s Chris’ seat."

Stopping she looked at the youngest of Team 7. The debate could be read in her face. Once again she surveyed the faces of the men at the table before pushing the chair back in and moving further down the table to sit at Travis’ side.

"This is Elizabeth Everly. She’s the ASAC from Las Vegas and she has been assigned here until, well until further notice. She will assume command of Team 7 immediately. I expect for you all to fully cooperate with Agent Everly while she’s with us. As for the internal affairs investigation, that will be handled out of the DC office. Agents from Washington will arrive tomorrow and begin interviews. I’m sure I don’t have to tell any of you that withholding information or hindering this investigation could mean not only suspension or termination, but also prosecution. We’ve all known Chris a long time, some of you longer than others, but there have been some serious allegations made against Chris. I would recommend that you be very circumspect in your dealings with him pending the outcome of the investigation. Dismissed."

The six men filed out, all looking shell shocked. There was an eerie quiet surrounding them until they closed in on their office. They all gathered around Josiah’s desk looking for some solace, some clue as to what had just happened.

As the men talked among themselves Buck Wilmington walked to his desk and picked up the phone. Dialing Chris’ cell phone he waited impatiently until he heard a ring, but instead of hearing another he was greeted with the infamous "error 202", "the cellular customer your are attempting to reach is either out of range or the unit is turned off." He quickly disconnected and dialed the number to Chris’ ranch, after the fourth ring the answering machine picked up. Slamming the phone down Buck turned to the others and announced his intentions of going to the ranch to look for Chris.

Josiah was the first to intervene, stopping Buck with his quiet response. "Buck, why don’t you give Chris a little time. He’s probably licking his wounds right now and we need to find out more about what’s going on so we know how to approach him."

"Yeah Buck and you heard what the Judge said, that was a warning..." Buck didn’t allow JD to finish before he lit into him. In no uncertain terms the younger man was informed that Chris Larabee was Buck’s oldest friend, that he hadn’t walked out on him when he tried to drown himself in whiskey after the murder of his wife and son and he certainly wasn’t going to turn his back on him now. Further discussion was forestalled by the approach of Elizabeth Everly. The heated atmosphere suddenly became noticeably frosty.

"Gentlemen, I understand that these are strained circumstances, but I’m also aware that we are all professionals and will conduct ourselves as such at all times. It’s my understanding that you, Agent Sanchez are the designated executive officer for Agent Larabee" Josiah nodded, and Elizabeth continued, "I’d like to see you in my office. Please bring any files that you feel I need to be brought up to date on."

Rose approached with a stack of files and stopped at the entrance to the large office occupied by Team 7. Everly looked at her and motioned her in, Rose sheepishly glanced around the room and then told Everly that she’d pulled the team’s personnel files and asked where she wanted them. "Put them in my office, I’ll look them over and return them when I’m finished. Thanks Mrs. Adams"

Turning her attention back to the men she opened her mouth to continue but was cut off by the soft voice of Vin Tanner. Elizabeth looked at him and then asked him to repeat what he’d said.

"I said it ain’t your office, it’s Chris’" The tension built as she stood almost statuelike staring into the deep blue eyes of the team sharpshooter.

"No, it’s not, not anymore. It may be his after this is all over, but right here, right now, it’s mine and it will be mine tomorrow and the day after and until I go back to Las Vegas, if I go back to Las Vegas and you, Agent..."

"Tanner" Vin supplied.

"You Agent Tanner, need to remember that, and if you can’t remember that I can arrange for you to take some time off until your memory is better, or you can transfer to another office. I understand there are several openings in Buffalo and one or two in Miami, if you prefer warmer weather. And while we’re at it, let’s just clear the air. I didn’t ask for this assignment, I have plenty to keep me busy in my own district. I’m just like the rest of you, I get orders and I follow them . They don’t ask me how I feel about them they just expect me to do the job, and do it well. Now if any of you think you can no longer do the job that you were hired to then you need to either turn in your leave request, your transfer request or your resignation and I don’t particularly care which it is! The last time I checked there were 2549 people on the roster to be ATF agents, I’m sure that any one of them would be glad to fill your slot. Are there any further questions?" Without allowing time for any of the six to speak, she continued. "Good, let’s roll. Sanchez, you’re with me." With that she turned and walked straight to the closed door of Chris Larabee’s office. Upon reaching the door, she stopped as if gathering courage. Taking a breath to steady herself, she opened the door and walked in with Sanchez following. As she walked around to the back of the desk, and began to sit in Larabee’s well worn black leather chair, she motioned for Josiah to close the door and be seated.

Josiah watched as the young woman seemed to wilt slightly and then drew herself back up to her full height. She glanced around her taking in the masculine furnishings before lighting her gaze on the man in the seat before her. "Agent Sanchez, you’re the profiler of the team and I need your insight, your take on the team itself. I need you to tell me if the team is going to self destruct without Chris Larabee here to hold it together."

Josiah looked into the green eyes of the woman behind Larabee’s desk. Silence reigned through the office and as he faced her, weighing her, processing body language, the tone of voice, the look in her eyes, not the one on her face, because her face was masked behind an invisible wall.

"Chris Larabee."

"What?" she asked him.

"I said Chris Larabee, you’re Chris Larabee. I don’t mean really, I just mean you’re a female Chris Larabee. You could be his twin, you look like him, you walk like him and chew butt like him. I’ll bet you even live like him. You drive a truck..."

"Wrong, I drive a Blazer."

"Full size, black, your closet is full of black clothes, you’re driven and you love tequila, Patron, silver."

"How did you know?" her eyes almost betrayed the surprise she felt.

"Because I know Chris Larabee and after all that’s what I get paid to do, know people. And just like Chris you’ve suffered a great loss, but you do a good job of hiding the pain."

Elizabeth sat momentarily stunned, how could this man know so much about her? How could he read the loss, was it still that plainly written across her features? She thought that she’d bid goodbye to that pain when she’d buried her husband. She remembered that when they’d placed his coffin in his grave, she’d begged to open it just once more, so that she could just tell him goodbye. She’d not said it to him that day, he’d let her sleep as he rose and readied for the flight to Washington. He didn’t know then that it would have been their last chance to tell each other of their love. Shaking herself, she came back from that faraway place where they were once again together.

"Well Agent Sanchez.."

"Please call me Josiah."

A slight nod of her head indicated her acknowledgment, "Josiah the reason I wanted to talk to you was not about me, but about the team. I need to know who’s who and what their individual function is to the team." With that she reached for the top file folder and laid it in front of her on the desk. She carefully opened it, almost as if she were afraid of what it held.

"Vin Tanner."

"Brother Vin, I could say that you and he have already drawn the lines for that game. Vin is our counter-sniper. He takes his job and our safety very seriously. He’s been wounded several times. Never married, lives alone in Purgatorio, not the best part of Denver. Ezra won’t even park his car there, he just honks the horn for Vin to come out. Quiet, unassuming, gets the job done."

Looking through the file Elizabeth flipped through several pages before closing it and looking into the eyes of the former priest. "What about his relationship with Chris Larabee?"

"They’re close."

"How close?"

"What are you asking me Agent Everly?"

"I’m asking you if Vin Tanner’s loyalty to Chris Larabee will interfere with his ability to do his job, even if doing his job means helping to prosecute Larabee."

Josiah reeled from the blow her words delivered. Taking a few moments to sort his thoughts the office again grew silent. Finally his steel blue eyes met her clear green ones across the desk. Josiah straightened in the chair and returned her blow with a flurry of words.

"There is no question of Vin’s loyalty and integrity, nor is there a question about the loyalty and integrity of any of the agents of this team, especially that of it’s leader. I don’t know what charges have been leveled against Chris, but I can assure you that they are not true. There’s not a more honest, loyal, truthful, dependable man on the face of the earth than Christopher Larabee."

"That remains to be seen Agent Sanchez." she said softly." But let’s continue, on to Agent Standish."

Josiah noticed that she had reverted to the more formal address. Calming himself in order to continue he told her about the undercover agent and his unique ability to assume an identity as needed. He told her of Ezra’s exploits over the past three years since joining the team. He left out his shadowed past with the FBI in Atlanta and the murky story that had caused the young man to become a pariah amongst his peers and led to his eventual transfer to Team 7.

When he finished with his assessment of the Southerner he looked at Elizabeth. She looked up from the folder in front of her and once again stared deep into the steel blue eyes of Josiah Sanchez.

"And what about the fiasco in Atlanta? Or did you think that was something that I didn’t need to concern myself with?"

"It’s not worth the time spent discussing it. The allegations were unfounded and the agents who leveled them were nothing more than jealous slackers."

"I see." She closed the folder and moved it to the right side of the desk. Picking up the next folder in the stack, she flipped it open and sat reading it for a few moments before saying the name without looking up.

"Nathaniel Jackson?"

"Nate, a good agent, good investigative skills, but also held dear to us for his emergency medical skills. He’s the one who patches us up till the 47’s get on the scene."

"John Dunne?"

"Ah yes, our youngest member. He goes by JD, he’s a computer whiz. We don’t need OIR, we have JD. Most of the time you don’t want to know where the information he gives you comes from. He’s young, but learns fast. Very dedicated to his job..."

"And Chris Larabee, too?"

"Agent Everly, all of us in the team are loyal to Chris. None of us have family, we are our own family and Chris has been the big brother who’s kept us together. He’s the one who sits by our hospital beds until we’re healed. He’s the one who opens his home to us on holidays, our birthdays and whenever we feel the need. He’s the one who put this team together. He rescued each and everyone of us from some hell that we’d created or had been pitched into."

"Even you Josiah?"

"Especially me. I had lost purpose, wasn’t using the skills I was blessed with. I was hiding my light under a basket. And then I got a call from Chris asking for help, saying he needed me. It had been a long time since anyone said they’d needed me. The thing is, I needed him, and the rest of the team more than he needed me."

"Last , but not least, Buck Wilmington." Effectively cutting off further revelations from Josiah she trudged on to the last of the team.

"Agent Wilmington is our transportation specialist and our equipment technician. He also assists Agent Dunne as our Technical Services Officer."

"I believe he is also Larabee’s oldest and best friend?"

"You could say that. Buck and Chris go way back. They went to basic police school together. I believe that for a while Chris was Buck’s sergeant on the PD. Buck and he were traveling together when Chris’ wife and son were murdered. A point that has never escaped Brother Buck. He may forgive himself one day, but not anytime soon. Probably only after Chris forgives himself and that may never happen."

"Josiah, I appreciate your candidness. I know this is a difficult situation, for all of us. I hope you feel like you can work through this, that you can continue on with your duties as executive officer." Rising from the chair she extended her hand to Josiah, who stood and clasped it. He noticed the firm grip and the direct look, eye to eye, not backing down an inch. As he turned and walked from the room he wondered if Chris Larabee had a sibling that he wasn’t aware of, because Josiah was convinced that Elizabeth Everly was a younger, female, very female, Chris Larabee. Shaking his head he slowly returned to his desk.

Five pairs of eyes watched him as he walked across the office, they all caught the slight shake of his head indicating they shouldn’t talk. The remainder of the afternoon drug by, the office noise kept to a minimum, the silence broken only by the ringing of the phone and the click of fingers tapping out on keyboards. The glances that were passed amongst the five were furtive. Buck kept trying to reach Chris, but continued to get the answering machine and the electronic error message telling him that Chris’ cell phone was still cut off. As five o’clock rolled around the men of Team 7 quietly closed up shop. By unspoken mutual agreement they all left minutes apart, each headed individually to the respective vehicles parked in various locations in the underground garage of the Federal Building.

Upstairs Elizabeth Everly stood and began to inspect the office that she would temporarily occupy. It was furnished in dark mahogany woods with black leather couch and desk chair. The chairs facing the desk were dark charcoal grey cloth with leather trim and matched the chairs to the small table in the corner. The bookcases were filled with manuals, law books, videos and books. Judging from the selection she surmised that Larabee’s tastes ran the spectrum. There were books of war and military history on the same shelf with antique volumes of Tennyson and Shakespeare. But what surprised her the most, a single book, nestled among the others, totally out of place in the cold office, a well worn copy of "Guess How Much I Love You". Reaching for it she started to pick it up, but changed her mind, not knowing why, just a thought that maybe, that was just too much of an invasion of Chris Larabee’s privacy.

She turned to the large wall that was covered with framed certificates and photos. Awards and commendations hung next to Chris’ college and FBI Academy diplomas. Graduation photos and personal ones as well, most with the other members of the team, but in the center of it all, almost enshrined, a picture of a woman and a small boy. The woman appeared to be in her late 20’s, red hair, beautiful, probably the most beautiful smile Elizabeth had ever seen. The woman appeared to glow and the little boy, blonde hair, green-eyes full of all the things little boys are full of, and something else. While the photos were taken in a studio and the poses were almost formal, there was such a life force present in the two that it was almost as if you could feel them in the room with you. She broke away from the riveting force in the photograph and continued her survey of the room.

She went back to the desk and sat down. Leaning back in the chair she closed her eyes and tried to think of how and why a man who had achieved so much could throw it all away. When she’d started in the job, her first training officer had told her that everyone had their price. He’d said that the important thing was to not sell yourself too cheaply. He’d told her that you had to figure that you were going to get caught and since you were a cop, you would go to jail. So you had to multiply your salary times the number of years you’d have to serve and then add in the number of years it would take to get a job. And then he told her not to forget to allow enough for sleeping pills, because you’d never be able to sleep again, but you’d save money on mirrors, because you wouldn’t be able to look into one again.

Once again her thoughts turned to Chris Larabee. As she looked at a picture of him and Buck Wilmington in uniform, she hoped that he’d set his price high enough.

Two million dollars could buy a lot of sleeping pills.

M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7M7

One by one the vehicles arrived at the parking lot of "Las Palmas". Ezra was the first to arrive and he headed straight for their usual table. It was in the back, one had to walk all the way through to get to it. It was set up with three on each side and a single chair at the head facing the bar. As he threaded his way through the tables he signaled to the bartender to start a round. Mason Greer was the bartender/bouncer who also helped Inez manage the establishment that catered to the local law enforcement community. Team 7 was well known to Greer, to the point that he knew what drinks to prepare even before the rest of the team showed up. Two Bud Lites, for Josiah and JD, Dos Equus Gold for Vin Tanner, Corona and a lime for Buck Wilmington, Ezra was the Crown Royal and ginger ale with a lime squeeze and Chris Larabee was the Crown, neat, and depending on what kind of day it had been, a double. Greer finished the tray of drinks as the rest of the team came into the bar. Seeing the looks on their faces, he put the tray down, took the glass of Crown Royal and added another shot to it.

Inez came out from the kitchen area and took the tray of drinks over to the table. Setting each drink in front of the men she noticed the lack of their usual joking and kidding. Why even Buck was not his usual self. When she placed the drink at Chris Larabee’s place all conversation came to a halt. Feeling as if she’d stepped on a grave, she backed away a step from the table.

"Inez, darlin, Chris won’t be comin’ tonight." Wilmington told her

"Is anything wrong? Is he all right?"

Once again the quiet descended like a pall on the usually merry group. It was Nathan who spoke up telling her that Chris had just gone home early and wouldn’t be driving back into town to join them. Still feeling as if there was a mystery, Inez left the group alone and returned to the bar.

"What the hell happened back there today? Am I wrong or has Chris been accused of doing something wrong?" JD asked.

"We’d all like to know the answer to that," Nate replied and looked to the rest of the team.

"Well they’re crazy if they think they can just send Chris home and put that blonde bimbo in his place."

"That blonde bimbo, as you have referred to, is currently the Senior Agent in Charge of our team and as such can send you, or me, or any of us to the house any time she wants." Buck shot back as he sent a warning glance to JD.

Not picking up on the look JD continued on a tirade until finally he noticed that none of the others were joining him. "Well are you all just going to sit back and let this happen? Come on guys, we have to do something. We can’t let Chris go down."

"JD, we don’t even know what Chris has been accused of. How can we do anything until we find out what’s going on? Until we find Chris, or until such time as the bureau chooses to inform us, we can just sit back and do what we do best, gather intelligence." JD looked at Nate feeling slightly chastised by the words the medic had spoken.

After the round of drinks was finished the five of the six men rose to leave. "You coming Bucklin?" JD asked.

"No, kid I think I’ll stick around for a few minutes. I’ll see you guys tomorrow."

Each paid for their drinks and left going their own separate ways. Back inside the bar Buck Wilmington again tried to reach Chris by phone. Finally giving up he rose and left the bar. Climbing into the blue Crown Vic he headed for the interstate and home. When he came to the split instead of heading east towards his condo, he went west, out into the county, away from the bright lights of the city. As if the car was on autopilot it unfailingly made the route to the 80 acres that Chris Larabee called home. Buck was halfway down the drive before he actually realized where he was. He had been driving and remembering. Remembering the struggle to pull Larabee out of bottle when Sara and Adam were killed.

He remembered the look of rage on Chris’ face when their murderer had been brought into booking. It was just by accident that he’d been there when Paul Gates was arrested. Chris had come in to headquarters to take care of some paperwork that needed to be handled for his extended leave. No one had expected him that day, least of all the two homicide detectives that had caught Gates and brought in him for questioning. Buck had driven Chris to headquarters and was standing in the middle of the squad room when he overheard the voices of the two detectives outside in the corridor. He heard them tell someone that Gates had admitted killing Chris’ family and the only regret he’d said he’d had was that Larabee wasn’t in the car along with his wife and son. Buck looked at Chris, as did everyone else in the room. All color drained from Chris’ face. Before Wilmington could reach his friend, Chris had torn off across the room. He slammed the door open so hard that the large pane of glass shattered The sound was sharp, several officers in the area drew their weapons thinking that a shot had been fired. Before anyone could react Chris had jumped Gates and had him down on the floor. Buck managed to pull the crazed man off of the handcuffed prisoner, but it had cost him a black eye and a busted lower lip. Chris had continued to flail away before coming to his senses enough to realize that it was his best friend he was beating, not the man who’d taken away from him the other half of his heart. The look on Chris’ face that day was one he never hoped to see again. And up until today he hadn’t, not once, not through the trial, not through the sentencing, not until Chris had stormed out of Travis’ office today.

Buck pulled up to the darkened house. It was a little after nine o’clock, way too early for Chris to be in bed. Getting out Buck went to the front door and knocked, but there was no answer. He walked around to the back of the house and looked through the glass into the garage. Seeing Chris’ black Dodge Ram he knocked again before cautiously opening the back door and stepping into the garage. He tested the door that connected the garage to the living area and finding it locked went to the tool chest where Chris kept a spare key. Using the key to gain entry, Buck went to the key pad for the security system and keyed in the numerical code to reset the alarm. It was an easy code to remember, a day neither would ever forget, it was Adam’s birthdate.

As Buck walked from the utility room to the kitchen he called out to Chris, not wanting to surprise his fellow agent and be greeted with the business end of Chris’ Glock. But there was no response. After checking each room, except for Adam’s he gave up and headed out of the house to the barn. He knew there was no need to check Adam’s room. After Adam and Sara’s funeral Buck found Chris asleep on Adam’s bed. When he woke him up, Chris had told him to get out of the room. Buck withdrew to the den along with what was left of Chris’ family, his father-in-law and a distant cousin, James Curran, a naval officer. Chris had come out of the room and had never allowed anyone else to enter it. Buck knew that Chris never went in the room either, he’d told Buck he just wasn’t ready. Buck didn’t think he’d ever be ready.

Reaching the barn Buck stepped inside to the smell of fresh hay. He could see that the horses were already fed and watered. The barn had eight stalls, four of them were occupied by members of the team’s horses. Buck’s grey was housed next to Vin’s horse. Ezra’s and JD were also there. Josiah kept his at his place and Nathan’s was at his fiancée Rain’s grandfather’s spread. But tonight, Chris’s black was missing. Buck checked the tack room and found that Chris’ saddle was also gone.

Debating what to do, Buck finally decided that he’d wait at the house, there was no telling where Chris went and it would be impossible to find him in the dark. Buck returned to the empty house and settled down in the den waiting for his friend to return.

What seemed to be moments later he was waking up, but rather than minutes, it must have been hours later as the sun was coming up. Buck looked at the clock sitting on bookshelf and seeing that it was 6:00 headed back to the barn. Pony’s stall was still empty. With a sigh Buck went back and scribbled a note to Chris. Locking up the house and setting the alarm he drove off, headed to his condo for a quick shower and change of clothes before going to the office.

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Chris Larabee woke feeling stiff and old, which was a far cry from the angry man who had fallen asleep the night before. After leaving Travis’ office the day before he drove around for an hour or so before heading to the ranch. There he’d thrown together a few essentials, some food, several bottles of water and a bedroll and had headed to the barn. He’d saddled up his horse and ridden off to find some solitude, somewhere he could think, stop the spinning; try to sort things out, and not have to deal with "the Seven". But this morning, the anger was replaced by a numbness that threatened to completely overpower him. If not for the aches and pains from sleeping on the ground, Chris figured he’d probably not feel anything, and maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He sat up and restarted the small campfire. He let his mind slip back to the previous day, back to the Judge’s office and that horrible moment when he realized what was coming.

When Travis introduced Elizabeth Everly to him, it had never occurred to him that there was anything unusual in her presence, not until Orrin had looked at him and told him that there was a problem. It really hit when the female agent looked at Chris and asked to see his weapon. Chris knew then that there was something wrong, something very wrong. He’d used that tactic himself before to relieve an agent of his weapon prior to advising him of his Garity rights. It was a way of disarming someone without them realizing what was happening, but Chris knew exactly what was coming. Instead of making the weapon safe and handing it over he looked at Travis and asked about the problem. Everly stood at that point and told Chris that she must insist that he hand over his gun and badge. He remembered standing and stepping into the blonde and telling her that he outranked her, that she didn’t have the authority to relieve him of his commission. It was then that Orrin had spoken and up and quieted the two scowling agents with his simple statement that he did have the authority and he was relieving Chris of his command. Stunned Chris fell back into the seat.

"Why, Orrin, what in God’s name is going on here? What’s this all about?"

"Chris, Elizabeth is here to assume command of Team 7, you are hereby officially relieved of duties and are being placed on Administrative leave, until further notice. This is pending the outcome of an investigation into charges of wrongdoing on your part." All the while saying this Travis was sliding the official suspension notice across his desk towards Chris. Larabee sat unmoving, almost frozen in place until Elizabeth again asked for his weapon and badge. Chris slowly stood and removed the black leather paddle holster which held his Glock. When he began to remove the weapon from the holster Elizabeth’s hand went to her gun, Chris looked up, shocked that she thought that he was capable of the action she seemed to anticipate.

"Just going to make it safe, relax."

Chris dropped the magazine into his left hand, laid it on the desk and then ejected the round out of the chamber and locked the slide back. He then laid the gun on the desk and reached to his side and removed the badge clip from his belt. He stood there in front of the two people, but for all he knew he was totally alone, he stared at the badge and then laid it on the desk beside the gun. The other two occupants of the room visibly relaxed. Elizabeth reached over and shoved the weapon and badge towards the Judge who took them and placed them in his desk drawer.

"Now, if you don’t mind I’d like to know what the fuck this is all about."

"Chris," the judge began, "Elizabeth was sent here by headquarters in Washington after they received information that you, well, that you’ve accepted, some money from certain individuals who are involved in the selling of illegal weapons and shipping them to countries and organizations that have been banned from doing business with the United States. Iraq for one, and Cuba and several others."

"WHAT! Judge you know that’s preposterous! How? I can’t believe that you’d think, that you or anyone else would... How much money have I supposedly taken?"

Travis looked at Elizabeth indicating for her to answer the question.

"Two Million dollars is the sum the informant told us about."

"Are you people crazy? I don’t have two million dollars."

"That’s not true Mr. Larabee, you see after Washington received the information they subpoenaed your bank records and you do have two million dollars. To be exact you have two million, four hundred thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars. That we know of, and as of nine o’ clock this morning all of your assets have been frozen."

Chris reeled from the numbers thrown out by Everly, not knowing where she came up with the information, but knowing that she was convinced that he did, in fact, have the money.

"Agent Larabee, I’d like for you to make yourself available tomorrow, to answer questions..."

Elizabeth never finished the statement.

Chris Larabee stood and like a whirling black cloud stormed from Orrin Travis’ office flinging back over his shoulder the words that all those who happened to be on the seventh floor of the Federal Building heard, "Lady, the only thing I’ve got to say to you is ‘fuck you and your anonymous informant’ anything else you’ve got to say to me can be said to my lawyer."

Chris shook himself trying to bring himself back from that horrible moment, but he wasn’t sure if it was possible. He knew he had to head back. He needed to find out exactly where he stood, get some idea as to what evidence they had, and find out where in the hell he’d come up with two million dollars. But the first thing he needed was a shower. Rising up and putting our the campfire, Chris saddled his horse and headed back to the house

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It was a strangely quiet group of men that arrived at Team 7’s office that day. Nate came in only to find that Josiah was already there, with coffee already brewed, indicating that he’d been there for some time. Nate was followed by Buck Wilmington who had hurried through his morning routine hoping to allow some extra time to try to reach Chris. JD arrived next and went immediately to Buck’s desk to find out if Buck was successful in reaching the missing leader. The four men all were huddled together, if four men of that size could really huddle. When Vin Tanner arrived at the office his eyes wandered to the closed door of Chris’ office.

"Hey Vin, we haven’t heard from Chris, did you happen to hear from him?" JD’s obvious concern for the missing man was evident in the worried tone of this voice.

"No, kid I didn’t. My guess is Chris is holed up somewhere licking his wounds, trying to find out who the enemy is and what kind of game they’re playing. He’ll show up when he’s ready."

Buck and Vin shared a glance, that told each other when Chris showed up, they’d both be there for him. The opening of the elevator door caused the five men to all look up. Spotting Elizabeth stepping from the elevator they began to break up and head for their respective desks.

"Good morning gentlemen, glad to see you all made it." These words were spoken before seeing the vacant desk of the undercover agent. "Is Agent Standish working on a deal and I just haven’t been informed or is there another reason for his absence?" The tall blonde’s left eyebrow rose about an inch as she spoke.

"Ezra keeps his own hours, he’ll be in later." JD told her, the edge to his voice evident, bordering on insubordination.

The eyebrow raised further, and a withering glance was thrown at the youngest member of the team.

"Agent Dunne, if you..."

But she was cut off by Josiah, who had read the signs and saw that JD’s anger was about to land him in hot water with the still untried newly appointed supervisor.

"Agent Everly, you wanted me to bring you up to date on the ongoing investigations, I have those files ready for you and we can go over them anytime you like."

Elizabeth stood still glaring at JD, who was beginning to feel like he’d seen that look somewhere before, by someone standing at just that spot, who looked, amazingly enough just like she did. Josiah rose and stepped towards Elizabeth drawing her attention away from JD. She looked at the man who now stood between her and the rest of the men. Realizing the man’s purpose she acquiesced and turned and went into Chris’ office. Josiah followed her and closed the door.

"Agent Everly, I don’t know if anyone has asked you this or not, and I don’t mean to pry into your personal life, but are you, do you happen to be related to Chris?"

Josiah watched the pretty blonde’s face and was quite surprised to see a smile, that grew into a laugh. A delicious, silvery, feminine laugh, something totally at odds with the almost masculine pantsuit and shoes that the woman was attired in.

"No, Josiah, I’m not, although I have to admit, Director Travis asked me the same thing. Are we really that much alike?"

"Yes, remarkably so and it throws me everytime."

What she would have said next was left unspoken as there was a knock on the door. Walking back around the desk and brushing by the large agent she opened it and was greeted by two men in dark suits, obviously the two expected IA men down from DC.

"Agent Everly?"

Yes? And you are?"

"I’m Agent Jerrolds and this Agent Millsaps, we’re here to conduct the on-site investigation of Agent Larabee."

David Millsaps had been in Internal Affairs out of headquarters in Washington for almost four years now, Mark Jerrolds his partner had only been for two. But Millsaps had transferred to Washington from Denver around the time that Chris took over Team 7. Most of the men assigned to the Denver district knew Millsaps and all thought he was exactly where he belonged, in IA, because he always seemed to take such pleasure in someone else fucking up. Probably because he had been so good at it himself when he was a field agent. He hadn’t been well like when he was in Denver, but he was accepted as one of the guys.

"Please come in." Looking at Josiah she told him that they would continue their conversation later. Sanchez left closing the door behind him. Buck and Vin were deep in conversation at Buck’s desk when Josiah re-entered the squad area. Looking all the world like two kids caught up in mischief they visibly relaxed to see that Josiah was by himself. The older man headed in their direction, looking around to see if Ezra had yet arrived.

"Have you reached Chris yet?"

"No, the cell’s still turned off and his answering machine is picking up at the house." Wilmington’s concern was obvious in his voice.

"Where’s Nate?" Josiah asked.

"Went to pick up Ez at the motor pool. Ezra had to drop off that UC vehicle to have the bird-dog replaced. When I checked it out yesterday it wasn’t transmitting properly and I didn’t want to risk losing him."

"What do Dumb and Dumber want in there?" the blue eyed counter-sniper asked.

"They just said they were here for the on-site, guess that means interviews and such."

"Well maybe we can find out just what the hell is going on. I feel like I’m having a bad dream and nobody told me what’s scaring me." Buck rested his head in his hands with his elbows on the desktop.

As JD walked back into the squad room from the outer office the door to Larabee’s office opened. The two agents along with Elizabeth stepped out into the room.

"Agent Dunne, please go with Agents Jerrolds and Millsaps, they have some questions for all of you."

"Is that an order?" the young man asked.

"Not at this time, but I can make it one, if I need to. Do I?"

JD looked past her to see Josiah give a slight nod, indicating that JD should go along with the agents.

JD huffed, but followed the two men down the hall to the interview room. The remaining three men went back to their desks.

"Agent Dunne, please be seated and make yourself comfortable. I’m Mark Jerrolds and this is David Millsaps. We have a few questions to ask you. Before we do I’d like to advise you that you don’t have to answer these questions, however, your refusal to do so could result in your being suspended and even terminated."

"Go ahead, I don’t have anything to hide, and neither does Chris Larabee." JD’s posture and tone screamed his anger at the situation.

"Agent Dunne, you’ve been assigned to Team 7 for how long now?"

"A little over a year."

"And in that year have you ever been privy to Agent Larabee’s personal financial arrangements?"

"No, I mean, I know Chris is pretty frugal, but I don’t know how much money he has if that’s what you’re asking."

The older agent, Millsaps, who appeared to be the lead leaned down and peered across the table at JD, "That’s exactly what we’re asking. Does Agent Larabee appear to live outside his means?"

"Chris, no way. Chris doesn’t seem to spend money at all. I mean he does most of his own work around the ranch, he doesn’t date a lot, he goes out with us guys sometimes but that’s about all. I mean, gee he lives a pretty quiet lifestyle. Why? Where are you guys going with this?"

"Does Agent Larabee gamble?"

"What? Gamble, you mean like casino’s and such?" seeing the nod from Millsaps, JD responded, "no, I mean he’ll bet with us on a football game or a hockey game, but we don’t bet more than fifty bucks on any one game."

"Any other expensive habits that he may have?"

"Look I’ve played along with you guys so far, but I’m beginning to think maybe you’re just fishing for something and I don’t want to be the bait."

"Agent Dunne, JD, can I call you JD? Let’s just get this over with and drop the bullshit. Do you have any knowledge of Chris Larabee accepting bribes to facilitate the smuggling of illegal weapons outside to United States to it’s enemies?"

Stunned JD leaned back, before sitting straight up in the chair. "Chris? You think Chris took money? Are you people crazy? Chris Larabee would put his own family in jail if they broke the law. I mean you know who this man is don’t you? You know he was a SEAL, and he’s been Agent of the Year twice. I mean good grief, they killed his wife and son and you think Chris took money from some of these sob’s? You’re so far off base, hell you’re not even in the right ballpark."

His outburst was interrupted by the door opening and Elizabeth stepping inside the room. Looking around, her glance took in JD’s flushed, angry face and the two other agents looks. Surmising that the interview had already taken place, she told JD he could return to his office. Millsaps and Jerrolds exchanged glances before the older of the two stood and thanked JD for his help. A blank look flitted across the young man’s face before he rose and walked dazed back to the squad room. As he entered he started towards Buck’s desk but observed that the man was on the phone. Taking his seat at his desk, JD turned to his computer and began to type furiously.

Back inside the room a very quiet, very angry Elizabeth Everly looked at the two men from Washington, "Don’t you ever question one of my men again without my presence or my permission. Is that understood?"

"I thought you knew we were going to interview him, you told him to come with us."

"Don’t pull that crap with me Millsaps! You know damn good and well you were supposed to wait for me to get in here! Don’t let it happen again. Understood?"

"Sure." with that the two men began reviewing their notes. Elizabeth continued to stand in the center of the room watching them before finally turning and leaving the two men alone.

The pinging of the elevator heralded the arrival of Nate and Ezra. As they entered the squad, the phone in Ezra’s pocket began to ring. Answering it, he turned to look at Buck and gave him a thumb’s up signal. Buck, who was still on the phone nodded his head and continued on. Josiah watched curious as to what the two were up to, then noticed that Vin was also watching the by-play between the two men. Deciding that someone needed to take the situation in hand Josiah approached Buck. Standing in front of him he signaled for Buck to end his conversation. Buck told the person on the other end he had to go and he’d get back to them as soon as he heard anything else.

After Chris showered he dressed and went to the truck. Getting in he happened to catch sight of a reflection in the woods off to his right. The sunlight was reflecting off of a shiney object, Chris’ guess was the lens to a pair of binoculars. So, they had him under surveillance. "Well," he thought, ‘they can follow me all they want , but I won’t make it easy on them.’ Gunning the Dodge he took off across the ground, in the opposite direction from the drive. Stopping only to shift into four wheel drive Chris headed off through the pasture as if he was going to the back acreage of the ranch. About a half a mile from the house, he made a series of turns and crossed a creek, went up a small embankment and came out onto a blacktop road. Shifting back into two wheel drive Chris roared off, the surveillance team blissfully unaware that their quarry had neatly left them in his tracks. The two men assigned to watch Larabee were supplied with aerial photographs of Chris’ ranch that showed that there was only one way in and out of the property. They hadn’t allowed for Chris and the fact that the man always had a contingency plan.

Reaching downtown Denver Chris drove to a small park where he pulled the truck to a stop at the duck pond. Parking in the last space nearest the tree line he turned hit the electric door lock and waited. Several minutes went by before a figure emerged from the tree line and got into the passenger side of the vehicle.

Vin Tanner looked at the man in the driver’s seat, stared was more like it, trying to discern how much effect this mess was reeking on the older man. The lines in his face were more pronounced, the strain showing in the deep green eyes.

"Hey cowboy, what have you gotten yourself into now?"

Staring straight ahead Chris sat silent and stonefaced before answering the other man.

"Hell if I know. One minute everything’s fine and the next minute the Judge is accusing me of taking money."

"How much?"

"You’ll laugh, two million."

"What?"

"Yeah," turning to finally look at Vin, he repeated. "Two million, and they say I’ve got it. They’ve frozen my bank accounts, my credit cards, hell I can’t even buy gas. I stopped on the way to ranch yesterday and my Texaco account has been closed. Vin, I’ve got to find out what’s going on, I need to get some information! Can you help me?"

"You have to ask?"

With an almost smile, Chris Larabee felt the load lighten just a little bit, maybe he wasn’t out there alone after all.

"Shit Chris, we’re all here, you know that, otherwise Ez and Nate wouldn’t have been to the bank already and got you some cash. Figured you’d need some after what leaked out of the Judge’s office yesterday."

"Vin I can’t..."

"Look Cowboy, right now you’re in a bad spot and if it was me I’d feel the same way about taking money from they guys, but you’d tell me that that’s what friends are for and that it’s not like they’s giving it to you. You’ll pay ‘em back."

Accepting defeat Chris took the bills and told Vin to thank Ez and Nate for him and assure them they’d get their money back.

"Vin, I need to know what evidence they have."

"Got JD working on that. He’s trying to find it as we speak. Bucklin is about to vapor lock if you don’t turn your goddammed cell phone back on though. Chris you have to stay in touch with us, you can’t just go off on your own. You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I’ll get through it."

"Keep in touch cowboy."

"Yeah, and Vin tell everyone I said thanks."

"Tell ‘em yourself when you come back in from the cold."

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After leaving Chris Vin had returned to the office to find JD barely able to contain himself. Obviously the young man had discovered something, but it would have to remain with him until after closing up shop. The men had all agreed that they couldn’t talk around the building, especially not knowing just how far the two agents from IA would go to obtain information. For that matter, Elizabeth was still an unknown source to them. Ezra was busy on the phone working out the details for an undercover meeting that was to take place that afternoon. While there was no buy planned, it still called for the full team to be there for surveillance. Buck and Nate had already loaded two UC vehicles for the operation. Once Ezra gave the go ahead they would brief and deploy. After the meeting concluded they had agreed to meet at an area shopping mall to discuss the newest information about the evidence against Chris. Still concerned that their leader was not in closer contact with them, they all were somewhat distracted from the present assignment.

Shortly after 1:00 Ezra told Josiah the meeting was on. Sanchez ushered everyone into the briefing room and prepared to get underway. The whirlwind that blew through the door of the briefing slowed long enough to send a sharp glance around the room before telling Josiah to continue, that she’d just sit back observe for the time being. It was strange enough for the team to be planning a meet without Chris, but to include Elizabeth had totally slipped their minds. Josiah looking slight abashed continued on with the assignments. Finishing he looked to Elizabeth to see if she had anything to add.

Standing and moving to the front of the room she complimented them on the setup Then she surprised them all by looking to Josiah and saying in a very determined voice, "Josiah, you’re with me" and then to the rest of the group, "Let’s roll." Team 7, incomplete, and lead by an outsider left to do what they did best, in spite of the turmoil surrounding them.

Two hours later they returned to the office for debriefing. After reviewing the video tape of the meet Elizabeth gave her approval for Ezra to continue the investigation.

"Agent Standish, I know you’re very experienced with undercover work, I don’t know what your arrangements were with Agent Larabee, but here are my rules. One, you contact me every morning and every evening. Two, you don’t DO anything of any importance without running it by me first. You can set up deals, but do not, repeat do not, consummate any operations without my prior knowledge and approval. No more than three days are to go by before I see you face to face. Try to meet with one of us at least once a day, but wait no more than two. Understood?"

As usual Elizabeth didn’t wait for an answer, assuming that approval was automatic.

"Gentlemen, good job, now get out of here, paper work will wait till tomorrow morning. Standish, be on time since it will be your last day in here for a while, at least appear to play by the rules. JD, can I see you for a moment. The rest of you are dismissed."

The others filed out of the briefing room leaving JD apprehensively awaiting the storm he thought was coming.

"Agent Dunne, I need to apologize to you. Millsaps and Jerrolds should never have interviewed you without me being present. I should have gone with you and I apologize that I wasn’t there. There was a misunderstanding between Agent Millsaps and myself. I would never leave you to face something so serious without backup, even if I am unproven."

Extending her hand to him, she looked him in the eye and said, "accept my apology?"

Reaching to grasp her hand he returned the look, but then glanced down as he replied,

"Accepted."

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Elizabeth Everly swiped the plastic key card through the electronic lock and entered the hotel room she was calling home for the time being. Not knowing whether she was going or staying was a real inconvenience now, but would have to suffice until Washington finished up it’s case against Chris Larabee. She set the bag of food down on the small table that took up the far side of the room. Flipping on the TV she took off her shoes and jacket and fixed a glass of ice. Opening a bottle of diet coke she sat down and started to eat the dinner she’d picked up on the way back from the office. Earlier in the day, she’d gone through Larabee’s files. She’d felt funny at first, but buried her qualms under the heading of dedication. Everyone hated to think that a fellow officer had gone bad, but no one hated a bad cop more than another cop. Larabee’s computer was taken from the office the night after Larabee had been suspended so Elizabeth couldn’t access those records. But in searching the hard copy files he left in his office she’d come across a copy of his personnel folder and several folders marked "personal". Under normal circumstances Elizabeth would never have pried into a fellow agent’s personal matters, but when Chris Larabee accepted a two million dollar bribe, it threw a lot of the rules out the window. Opening the first file she studied it while she ate. Several hours later, after closing the last folder Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. Looking at the clock she realized that she’d been buried in the folders for the past three hours. It was now close to eleven. Quickly making a decision she walked to the phone, picked it up and dialed the number to the Denver office.

"You’ve reached the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. If you know you’re party’s extension you may dial it now."

Punching in the extension to the operations center she waited for the answer.

"Operations, ID please."

"Everly, unit 1216, ID 80972, I need to be patched through to Agent Sanchez’s station R."

"Hold on please." the voice disappeared to be replaced by that god awful music so often played on waiting lines. Moments later the deep voice of Josiah Sanchez answered.

"Josiah, I need to talk to you. I know it’s late, but it’s important."

"Who is this?"

"It’s Elizabeth. Look Josiah, it’s important. It’s about Chris. I found some files in his office today and was going over them. Do you know anything about an investigation called, ‘Peacekeeper’ ."

The revelation that her call somehow involved his friend drove the last vestiges of sleep from Josiah mind. Sitting up in the bed and rubbing his hand over his eyes he only asked her when and where.

"Peacekeeper? No I can’t say that I do. Why?"

"First thing tomorrow morning get started on it, find out anything and everything you can. I’m emailing some info to you, it will be on your computer when you get in tomorrow."

"Certainly, but where will you be?"

There was a lengthy pause before she answered, " I have to sit in on the interviews tomorrow with the team. As your supervisor I have to be present for the first round, after that, well the complexion of the investigation may change and I may not be able to be present."

What she said and what was implied sank in and Josiah finally spoke up asking her just what was going on. Another pause and then the blonde pushed ahead, throwing herself in the direction she hoped wouldn’t lead her down the path to an early forced retirement and the end of a promising career.

"Josiah, this may not be secure. Meet me. Room 716, the Hilton downtown."

It only took a moment for Josiah to agree and tell her he’d be there as soon as possible.

Getting out of bed and dressing quickly Josiah stopped to call Buck Wilmington. On the second ring the phone was answered by the man who was Chris Larabee’s best friend. Josiah told him of the call from Elizabeth. Buck whistled softly into the phone, "What do you think she means?"

"I’m not sure, but I’m certainly going to find out."

"You know Josiah, maybe you ought not meet her by yourself. What if it’s a set up? After all, what makes you think you can trust her?" the Wilmington asked.

"Because you can trust Chris and this woman is so much like him. I would think that you would see it."

"Well now, the only thing I’ve seen from her has been her pushing herself into Chris’ office, his chair, and his job. Now she’s trying to pull you in with her!"

Josiah could scarcely believe what Buck was implying. "I’ll forget that you said that brother, and just mark it up to the stress we’ve all been under. I’ll call you when I leave her, let you know what happened."

Hanging up the phone Josiah said a quick prayer for patience, because it was all beginning to unravel.

On the other side of Denver Vin Tanner lay on his back staring up at the ceiling, pondering the blackness that had engulfed him both mentally and physically. the darkness of the room was welcome, it fit his mood perfectly. His thoughts assailing the peace he normally felt since becoming a part of the infamous Team 7. He wondered where’d he be right now if it hadn’t been for the intervention of one hard headed, single minded, arrogant, ballsy ATF agent named Chris Larabee. He remembered the sheer force of Chris’ personality the first time they met. It had almost physically bowled him over, much like the steamroller effect Chris seemed to have on many people. Only with Vin, it had been pulled back and instead of rolling over him and crushing him, it had enveloped him almost like a warm breeze. Chris and he had connected that first meeting and the connection continued to grow stronger over the past three years. When Vin thought about all that he had gained from his friendship with Larabee he realized just how much he would have missed out on if not for the instantaneous bond that had developed between them. While he was close with Ezra and Josiah and the rest, it was nothing like his relationship with Chris. What worried him was that he was pulled to Elizabeth Everly just the same way he’d been pulled to Chris. At first Vin thought it was just her looks, after all she was extremely attractive. But it was something more than that. Even if he saw her as a threat to his best friend, he still felt this pull to her and he couldn’t afford to make a misstep now. Any mistake now could cost too much, it could cost Chris Larabee his career, and his reputation and when it comes down to it, what’s a man without his reputation? Sleep snuck up on him and tossed him into a fitful dream state.

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Elizabeth, though expecting the knock, was slightly startled by it. Looking through the peephole she saw Josiah Sanchez anxiously waiting for her to open the door. Josiah entered the room and did a quick, almost automatic survey. Josiah was pointed towards the table and chairs by the window on the far side of the room. Sitting down he calmly waited for her to begin telling him what she’d found. He noticed that spread out on the table were several folders and the contents of several envelopes.

"First, let me tell you that while I know what Agent Larabee has been accused of, I was told not to divulge that information to anyone, especially the members of his team. DC isn’t sure that you can be trusted, so I’m putting my job on the line for you." Elizabeth chewed on her bottom lip, trying to decide whether or not to trust the man in front of her. Josiah read the emotions as they slipped across her face and knew also the moment she decided to lay it all out to him.

"Chris Larabee has been accused of taking two million dollars from an international weapons cartel, to feed them information, look the other way and sabotage government investigations..."

"Chris wouldn’t do that,"

"Look Sanchez I don’t know Chris Larabee, I know of his reputation, but I also know that all men have their price tag and their breaking point. I understand that Chris may have reached his breaking point several years ago, that his family was murdered and he may have gone rogue on us since then." Seeing the continued disbelief in his eyes she continued. "Josiah, they have him on video tape. The account executive for the broker identified Chris from a photo line-up. He opened the accounts in the name of Adam Connelly Larabee, he used his dead son’s social security number. What more proof can you ask for?"

Stunned, Josiah looked into the green eyes of Elizabeth Everly and knew that she truly believed that Larabee was guilty. Sanchez didn’t know how to explain to the woman that Chris had gone through the gates of hell, but that he had come back through them in one piece. He didn’t know how to put into words the strength, courage, honor and integrity of Chris Larabee, she’d just have to find out for herself.

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Driving home from his meeting with Elizabeth Josiah reviewed the story over and over. It had to be a set up, but who and why, and most of all, how were they going to prove it? Dialing Buck’s home phone he was not surprised when Buck answered on the first ring.

"Hello."

"Buck, set us up, tomorrow morning, 7:00, usual, have everyone there, it’s bad."

Buck surmised from the clipped tones and few words that Josiah wasn’t sure they weren’t being monitored. Responding in kind he merely answered okay and hung up. He quickly relayed the information to the other five men. After making the arrangements he settled down to bed, not to sleep, but to worry.

It was 1:00am before Chris Larabee returned to the ranch, he’d driven for hours before stopping and just sitting, staring trying to decipher the turn of events of the last days. Two million dollars, where in the hell did they think he had two million dollars stashed? How could Judge Travis believe that he’d take money? How was he going to clear himself? He knew he needed a lawyer, he just wasn’t sure he wanted to take that step, it just made everything seem so real. Not like it wasn’t now, hell, he couldn’t afford a lawyer, the only money he had was what Vin had brought him and he couldn’t live off of them forever. No, he needed to hire an attorney to see about getting his bank account released where he’d at least have living expenses. As he entered the house the phone began to ring, checking the caller ID and not recognizing the number he let the machine pick it up.

Wiping his hand across his face he sank onto the bed, kicked off his shoes and laid back, staring straight up at the ceiling. It had been a long time since he had missed Sara so much, but he’d give anything, right this minute to have her here, just to lay in her arms and let her love him, just to draw strength from her, to be wrapped in her warmth. Instead he turned over onto his side and curled up trying to block out the pain, but not wholly succeeding.

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The day dawned bright and sunny, at odds with the dispositions of the six men who by design had altered the normal route to meet at an obscure diner to discuss Josiah’s newfound information. After relaying the story that Everly had told him he sat back and watched as each of the men digested the information.

"Okay now that we know what we’re up against, we can start to tear it down." Josiah looked at each man as they gave tacit agreement.

JD was jotting down notes, ready to head to work to his computer to try to gain access to files which might offer them a direction.

"Buck, can you think of anyone that Chris has pissed off bad enough to pay out two million to get him out of the picture?"

"Hell I know a lot of people he’s pissed off that much, he’s pissed me off that much, it’s just I don’t know anyone that would PAY that kind of money. I mean after all he pissed someone off bad enough to pay Paul Gates to kill his family."

Vin nodded his agreement and then added that it would be cheaper to put a contract out on him.

"But whoever is doing this doesn’t want him dead. They want him humiliated, dragged down. This is more than anger, they want him more than out of the way." Josiah said, all the others agreeing.

"Well we’d better get in to the office. JD is IA through with you? "

"As far as I know. But I think I’ll go use another computer, I’m not so sure they’re not monitoring ours in the office. I may be gone for a while, I’ll call you guys if I find anything." As he stood and walked towards the door he looked over his shoulder at Buck and said, "Hey Buck catch my bill for me, I’ll pay you back this afternoon."

Laughing at the look on Buck’s face they all rose to leave. Ezra’s cell phone rang and after a brief, terse conversation he turned to Josiah, "Tell Agent Everly that I’ve gone to meet my informant. If all goes well I should be back by lunch and have a deal set up." Josiah nodded knowing that the best thing they could do would be to continue on as if nothing had happened. To do otherwise might put them under tighter scrutiny than they already were.

"I’m going to check on Chris. He’s still got his cell phone off and the machine is still picking up at the ranch. Just want to make sure he’s all right." Tanner told them.

"Vin, you need to come on in to the office." Stalling for time, trying to decide how to tell him, Josiah tried the direct route, "It’s your turn in the ring with IA this morning."

Seeing the angry look on Vin’s face Nate quickly stepped in to try to stop the storm that was about the explode, "Look Vin just keep your cool, use it against them. Try to find out more information that will help Chris, look at it as if you’re doing the interview not IA."

The stormy expression on Vin’s face remained, but the storm never broke. Silently he turned and left the diner, walking to his jeep, he peeled out of the parking lot and headed towards the Federal Building.

Nathan and Josiah shared sighs and walked to their vehicles. Stopping in the lot they caught sight of a dark blue Crown Victoria speeding down the street. The car was non-descript, too non-descript, so much so that it was obviously an unmarked unit, much like one the pool cars. A pool car that would be checked out by a visiting agent from say, DC, here on an IA case. Glad they told Vin to go to the office rather than Chris’ they set off in that direction themselves.

When Chris awoke it was almost nine am, he didn’t normally sleep so late. But you couldn’t really call what he’d done sleep, it was that half state between sleep and awake and everytime he’d drift almost over the line he’d wake again. So he rose, not rested. Hoping that a shower would return him to some state of alertness he limped down the hall to the bath. His leg was giving him fits this morning, the result of an old gunshot wound from when he was on the PD. It had healed fine, but occasionally would flare up. The bullet had caused a break in the bone between his knee and hip. He was sure that the hell bent for leather ride he’d taken, not to mention sleeping on the ground couldn’t have helped, and with the tension, well a long, hot shower was just what he needed. Stepping into the stream of water he felt his muscles begin to relax.

Outside the bath the phone once again began to ring, the caller ID showed the same number as the night before.

When Chris finished in the bath he went to his bedroom closet. Reaching into the back he pulled a well worn leather suitcase from the floor and set it on top of the freshly made bed. Packing his clothes and toiletries he zipped the bag shut. He carried the bag into the den and got his black leather coat from the closet. He pushed the rest of the clothes to the side and revealed a movable panel in the back of the closet, opening the panel he stared at the front of a medium sized wall safe. He quickly opened the safe and pulled out a packet of papers. Removing an envelope from the stack he opened it and took a not inconsiderable amount of money from the envelope and returned the rest to the safe. He closed the safe and returned the panel and clothes to their places and shut the closet door.

Leaning against the door, he looked upward and softly said, "Sara, forgive me." He’d found the money when looking for Sara’s insurance policy after her death. He never knew about it until then and swore he’d never use it. Sara had taken a part time job at a day care center about eight months before her death. He never understood why, but if it made her happy, well that was fine with him. When he found the envelope in the safe it had all become abundantly clear. He and Sara had gone to an auction one day and Chris had bid on a beautiful stallion. The horse had gone for more than Chris could afford.

Sara knew that Chris was looking for a good stallion to breed to his Champion mare. She decided that Chris would have the stallion and so she went to work and saved her paychecks. Cashing the checks she put the cash in the envelope in the safe with a picture of the stud she’d pulled from the AQHA magazine that came to the house. He stuffed the bills down into his pocket, picked up the suitcase and walked out into the once bright day. It had grown overcast and the temperature had dropped considerably. Starting up the Ram he’d headed towards town glancing occasionally into his rear view mirror, watching the white Ford Explorer as it mirrored his moves. It never fell far enough back to drop totally out of sight, but never so close as to arouse suspicion, or at least to anyone other than a cop. But Chris knew they were back there, and that’s exactly where he wanted them.

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"He’s going to the airport. We’re parking now, I let Hopewell off at the terminal to try to pick him up when he comes in, find out what airline. Do you want us to pick him up or what?"

"Yeah, I think at least pick him up and bring him for questioning, that’ll put a stop to him leaving town long enough for us to get a warrant. Bring him down here, I should be through with Tanner by then."

Chris Larabee watched as the Jeep followed him to short term parking Chris parked and headed towards the Terminal. Seeing the dark haired man in the grey jacket head across the parking lot Chris hurried down the escalator to the lower level where he quickly went to the Budget Rent a Car pick up area. He approached the desk and was greeted by a smiling attendant. The transaction took less than ten minutes and Chris paid cash up front a weeklong rental of a Lincoln Navigator. He was out of the airport parking area before the two agents following him realized that he’d not entered the Terminal Concourse. Separating they began to search the area and then returned to the parking lot where they found Larabee’s Dodge still there. They returned to the Terminal and continued to search before finally placing a call to the Denver office.

"We lost him. He didn’t get to the ticketing area."

"How in the hell, nevermind. Check the car rental agencies. See what you can come up with and come on back here."

Hanging up the phone Mark Jerrolds straightened his tie before entering the office where Vin Tanner and Elizabeth Everly sat waiting for him. Tanner was fuming and Elizabeth was pretty hot herself. Jerrolds had kept them waiting for over thirty minutes. When he stepped through the door and smiled his insincere smile, well that was the last straw for both of them.

"Who in the hell..." Tanner began only to be interrupted by Everly

"Agent Jerrolds I certainly hope that you have a good reason, a damn good reason to keep a SAC and an agent sitting on their asses for the better part of the morning while we both have work to do, important work. Work which the United States Government pays us to do, just as it pays you to do a job. A job which you obviously haven’t been doing since we’ve been sitting here waiting for you to do it for the last half hour. Now I’d recommend that if you have some questions for my employee you get them asked and let us get the hell out of here. I have an undercover officer who is about to brief us on a important assignment. Have I made myself perfectly clear?"

Jerrolds was stunned. He had expected Tanner to be good and nervous by now, that was part of the reason he had been late, but it never occurred to him that Everly would be so hostile.

If he was stunned Vin Tanner was stuck dumb. By God, she sounded just like Chris! It was all Vin could do to not gape at the blonde agent. He flashed a triumphant look at Jerrolds who stammered a quick apology.

"I think maybe we need to re-schedule this as I need Agent Tanner back at work immediately. Next time be on time or I’ll write it up as insubordination to a superior officer."

Elizabeth stood and briskly walked from the room. Tanner noted the inflection on the "superior" and smiled a smile to himself. Still sitting in the chair, he jumped to his feet when Elizabeth looked at him from the doorway and told him to come they had work to do. Following Elizabeth as she headed back to Team 7’s wing he reminded himself that this woman had shoved her way into Chris’ job and Chris’ office, she was the enemy. Or was she?

As Vin and Elizabeth returned to the office he scanned the room, and caught sight of JD, who was nearly bouncing in his seat. Going to the younger agent’s desk he looked around before tapping JD on the shoulder and motioning for him to leave. The two men left separately and met up across the street from the building in a coffee shop. JD immediately began to tell Vin what he’d found..

"The information that Elizabeth gave Josiah panned out. There is an account with First Security Group in the amount of 1.3 million and then there is a savings account at First Nations Bank with the rest. Both accounts are in the name of Adam Connelly Larabee and were opened about a year ago. The social security number on the accounts is Adam’s. The account exec at First Security is a Gary Harper and the VP who is set up as the admin on the Nations account is a guy named Dean Crawford. The accounts have been relatively dormant since they were opened, but there have been deposits and withdrawals made. Vin, if this is a setup someone’s gone to an awful lot of trouble to pull it off."

Vin looked at the young agent, "You’re not starting to doubt Chris are you?"

"No, I’m just saying that someone has gone to a lot of trouble and expense. Who hates Chris that much?"

"The same people who hired Paul Gates to kill his family. You’d better get back to the office. We don’t want Jerrolds to come looking for us."

JD stood and left the coffee shop. Several minutes later Vin was standing to leave when his cell phone rang. Recognizing Chris’ number he answered hurriedly.

"Hey, are you near a pay phone?"

Knowing the voice he quickly responded and was given a phone number. Writing it on the palm of his hand he walked to the pay phone in the back corner of the coffee shop, near the restrooms and dialed the number.

"Hello."

"Hey cowboy, you really get into this covert shit don’t you?"

Chris Larabee laughed for the first time in days. "Yea Vin, maybe I should have stayed in the service, I must be cut out for it. Have you got anything for me?"

Vin proceeded to relay the information that JD had just told him. Chris carefully wrote it down and told Vin to thank JD for him.

"Vin, I think it’s better if I don’t contact any of you anymore until we get this straight. They’re watching me pretty close. I’ve lost them for the time being, but I don’t know how long that will last. I’m pretty sure they’ll be keeping a close eye on you all too. I can’t chance getting you caught up in this, it’s too dangerous."

"Look Chris, we’re already in it. You can’t get back to one by yourself, you need us now more than ever." Vin was starting to get desperate, he knew what was coming next and was trying to stop it before it happened.

"Vin, look, I’ll check in, but you guys need to stand down, let me handle this. Please, I don’t want anyone else hurt because of me. Can you understand this?"

Knowing he was fighting a losing battle Vin gave in, but he knew that would be a promise that he’d end up breaking and just hoped that the blonde would forgive him when the time came.

"Keep in touch cowboy."

"I will, Vin, watch your back."

"That’s my line bud." With that the phone went dead. Tanner was chilled by a sense of foreboding as he returned to the office.

Across town Larabee fired up the Navigator and drove straight to the offices of First Security Group. Entering the building he went to the directory located near the elevator. Finding the name he was looking for he caught the next elevator car to the 18th floor. When the elevator stopped and Chris stepped off, he was struck by quietness of the floor. Walking to the reception area he was somewhat taken aback when the woman at the desk looked up at him with a tear stained face.

"May I help you?" she asked between sniffles.

Yes, I’d like to see Gary Harper, my name is Larabee.."

"Oh yes, Mr. Larabee, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you, it’s been a while. Mr. Harper.."

The woman stopped and began to cry in earnest, no more sniffling, this was an all out crying spell.

"I’m sorry, it’s just that Mr. Harper was killed this morning."

Chris stood frozen in place as he processed the information. "What do you mean he was killed?"

"He was involved in a car wreck this morning. His car ran off the road and struck a bridge. He was killed. Oh, I’m sorry I don’t mean to cry so. Can I get someone else for you Mr. Larabee?"

Chris continued to stand staring at the woman.

"Mr. Larabee, are you all right?"

"Yes, I just... Do I know you? Or maybe the question should be do you know me?"

"Well of course I know you. Mr. Larabee, you’ve been a client here for a year now."

"Tell me exactly who I am, I mean my full name."

"Allright, your name is Adam Connelly Larabee." the woman was beginning to grow concerned, having never been faced with a somewhat confused, almost dazed client. She looked around to see if there was anyone close in case, well she didn’t know what she thought he might do, but he was definitely making her uncomfortable.

"Where did Mr. Harper’s wreck occur?"

"Out on state route 49, you know the part that comes down off the ridge? Mr. Harper lived up on the ridge and was on his way into work when it happened."

Thanking her Chris left. On the elevator on the way down he still reeled from being hit upside the head with his supposed identity. When he reached the Navigator he called the Denver office of the highway patrol, asking for the traffic section he waited while the call was transferred.

"Traffic, Sgt. Anderson, can I help you?"

"Steve, this is Chris. Look I need to know the particulars on a fatality that happened this morning, out on 49."

"You must mean the Harper fatal. Only it’s not a fatal, we’ve turned it over to homicide. Brake lines were cut. Weird thing is we had another one just like it out on the south end of the county. Only this guy was a banker, name of..."

"Dean Crawford"

"Yeah, how’d you know? Hey Chris, what’s going on here? Is there something I should know?"

"When I find out I’ll let you know."

Anderson continued asking, but he was talking to dead air, Chris had disconnected the call and sat staring straight ahead wondering what the hell was going on, and feeling like somehow he was responsible for the death of the two men he’d never met.

Chris called the ranch and when the answering machine picked up he remotely activated it. There were the usual hang up calls that had been coming in for the last few days. He figured Jerrolds and Millsaps thought he was stupid enough to answer if he was at home. There was a message from Buck to call and then there was a message from Chandler Moss. Chris momentarily froze at Moss’ voice. He quickly jotted down the number and dialed it. The phone was answered on the second ring by a pert sounding woman. When Chris asked for Moss the woman said that he was unavailable, but when he gave the young woman his name, she quickly told him to hold and put him through to the powerful man. Chris was convinced that Moss was selling weapons to several third world countries lead by men with unpronounceable names.

"Mr. Larabee, this is Chandler Moss. First, I appreciate your returning my call."

"Cut to the chase Moss, what do you want?"

"Where are you calling from? Or rather, are you on a secure line?"

"Look Moss I don’t have time for this bullshit, what the hell do you want?"

"Larabee, I need to see you, I’ve got to talk to you, but not on the phone."

"What could you have to say that would be worth me meeting you?"

"Larabee, I know you’re in trouble and I know how you got there and... I know who killed your wife and son."

Moss was met with silence. There was a stillness that reeked of anger and tension. Chris Larabee waited, he knew there was more air to breathe he just couldn’t find it right now. Chandler Moss’ statement had sucked him into a vacuum. Finally after several moments a barely contained Chris responded, "Where and when?"

Moss breathed a sigh of relief before answering, "In an hour at the roadside park Highway 6 and Route 391, there’s a picnic area in the back. Larabee, this is just you and me."

"I’ll be there." Chris hung up the phone and started up the Navigator. Flipping open the console he removed the .40 caliber Beretta and chambered a round. He slipped off his black leather jacket and put on the shoulder holster, holstered the weapon and then put the coat back on. Pulling out of the parking lot he’d been stopped in he headed for the meeting with Moss. It took him almost forty five minutes to get to the site Moss had named. After arriving, but before going to the picnic area Larabee scouted out the area. At one time it was a popular roadside park, but as the interstates were built the popularity of roadside parks diminished. This one was all but abandoned. Seeing no reason to be alarmed Chris parked the Navigator near the middle of the park in a wooded area, pulling it into the woods. He walked to the picnic area constantly surveying the surroundings. Shortly a silver BMW 750 pulled up and parked, looking around Chandler Moss evidently felt comfortable that Larabee was alone and exited his vehicle. Chris let him walk up to the table and sit before speaking. "Tell me."

Moss studied Larabee’s face for a moment before he began. "Look Larabee, I never thought it would go so far. If they find out I’m talking to you they’ll kill me, just like they killed your family." Moss noted the sharp intake of breath at the mention of Chris’ family, but he’d started now and wanted to get it all out into the open before he changed his mind. He’d carried around this burden for way too long. Moss stood and began to pace back and forth in front of the table. "I need to you to promise me that you’ll help me, I can’t go to prison. I’ll have to be relocated."

"I said tell me, that’s all you’re gonna get from me until I hear it."

"All right, but don’t you fuck me Larabee, I’m putting my life on the line."

And he did, because in the instant following his statement Chandler Moss was dead.

Chris dove for cover under the table and crawled towards Moss’ body. Grabbing the man by the arm Chris tried to drag him, but was only able to get him partially under the table. Moss was bleeding profusely from a chest wound and there was a trickle of blood running from his mouth. With sad eyes he looked at Chris and died. Realizing that the man was beyond help Chris began to look for a way out. The shot that killed Moss came from behind him and to the left. The Navigator was to his right. If he could just get from the table to the woods behind him he could move through the trees and head out. Chris didn’t know how many there were, Chandler had been hit by the only shot, and he didn’t know what their locations were or where their vehicles were. The only choice for him that he knew of and that was to get the fuck out of there.

Getting out of there was exactly what was on the minds of the Jennie Dawson and Lee Platt. The two college students came to the abandoned roadside park to be alone. They both lived in college dorms and wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of school. The parks were too crowded so the young couple had sought out the solitude of the usually empty picnic area. They had heard the raised voices of Chandler Moss and Chris Larabee and had tried at first to ignore it, but as the voices became louder they had gone to investigate. Staying hidden in the brush they were shocked when the shot rang out and the dark haired man had pitched forward into the blonde. From their location all the two students were able to see was the two men, they didn’t see a weapon, but they assumed it was hidden from their view by the dark-haired man. The shot came from behind Larabee and as far as the two knew Larabee was the one who shot the man. Not wanting to be the next targets of the angry blonde the two headed quickly back across the roadside park to their vehicle, hopped in and took off. Inside the vehicle Jennie quickly dialed 911 and told the operator what they’d witnessed.

Scrambling up off of his hands and knees Chris picked out the shortest route from the table to the trees. Chris threw a prayer up to the heavens and started off. The shots began as soon as he stood and ran, but Chris didn’t stop to try to pin down their location his main concern was getting to the SUV and getting out of there. Firing over his shoulder as he ran was not going to allow him to take aim, but at least he laid down some cover for himself. As he headed into the trees he was pitched forward by the force of a round. He lay stunned, face down in the damp earth. He listened to the shots as the assailant continued his assault, feeling the pain begin to radiate outward from his left side. Picking himself up he continued on his journey, this time without the speed from before, but with just as much determination. Also missing was his weapon, which had dropped from his hand when he fell.

Seeing the SUV ahead he trudged on and finally reached his objective. He noticed the firing had stopped. Holding onto the door of the vehicle he hoisted himself into the drivers seat not caring that he smeared blood over the gray leather interior. He knew he needed to hang on until he got back to the main road where he might find help. Instinctively he reached for the cellphone and began to dial the number to the office. As he drove back to the driveway from the woods he prayed that Vin was at his desk. Reaching the driveway he jumped the curb and headed back towards the main road. Looking in his rear view mirror he saw that he was joined by a green Ford Explorer. Chris expected the first round and he was almost prepared when the rear glass shattered, but the pain was beginning to get to him. The blood was flowing pretty heavily from the wound in his lower back and he was starting to feel faint, he knew that he’d go into shock shortly and he needed to let Vin or someone know where he was, fast. Before the third ring of the phone the Ford rammed into him. Chris fought to keep the big SUV under control, the second and third times that he was hit Chris was able to maintain control, but the fourth time was too much. Chris could see the trees coming up to meet him and he had the weightless feeling that he was flying. At the same time Vin Tanner answered the phone on his desk.

"ATF, Tanner." After several seconds he said "hello?", but was still met with just some unidentifiable noises from the other end.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Tanner hung the phone up just as Chris Larabee fell, as if from the sky, to the bottom of a ravine, off the side of the road. Above him two men stepped from the Explorer and watched the debris come to rest. Looking for signs of life and finding none they got back into the Explorer and left. Down below there was just quiet, a stillness, not of peace, but of doom.

In the conference room of the ATF office Team 7 with Elizabeth Everly at the helm held a briefing prior to the buy that Ezra had set up for that evening.

"Agent Everly, I think that it would be best served if you remained in the surveillance van with JD for this assignment. Vin as usual will take high ground, Buck will be on loose perimeter with Nate, if that meets with your approval?" the Southerner looked to the blonde agent for confirmation.

"That’s fine. You will be wearing a body transmitter?" Everly asked.

"Yes, we’ve not bought from these guys before so I’ll wear it unless and or until they get kinky, if that happens I’ll ditch it in the men’s room."

The female agent nodded her approval and stood, "Let’s roll gentlemen," As they reached the garage they split into smaller groups. Elizabeth climbed into the big surveillance vehicle with JD. As they started out she climbed into the back and began powering up equipment. JD nervously watched over his shoulder, not sure that he was comfortable with a stranger operating "his" gear. He took his job very seriously, and in order to do his job the equipment had to be top notch and had to stay in perfect working order. A bad connection could be the difference between his undercover agent going home that night or being in the ER, or worse. Chris never fooled with the equipment, he always left if to JD. When Chris chose to be in the van with JD, he drove and left the electronics to the younger man, but Elizabeth just climbed in and began powering up. JD was not sure which was worse, riding with Chris or Elizabeth playing with his gear. After checking the electronic equipment in the van Elizabeth called Ezra on his cellphone, "Turn on the transmitter and give me test count." she barked into the phone.

"Why certainly Agent Everly." he drawled and hung up the phone. Reaching over to the hidden transmitter he flipped the small switch, "As you requested Agent Everly, counting, test, one, two, three, four, five, five, four, three, two, one. Is that sufficient or shall I recite one of Shakespeare’s sonnets into your lovely ears?"

The musical tones of the telephone cut short any further remarks by the southerner. "Yes?"

"Allright Ez, I read you 10-2, give me a leader and I’ll leave you alone."

Ezra grinned into the night and hung the phone back up and began the tape leader, "This is Agent Ezra Standish of the ATF. Today’s date is September 1, 2001, it’s approximately 5:45 PM and I will be attempting the undercover purchase of a case of automatic weapons from two as yet unnamed individuals. End of lead." After finishing he flipped off the power switch. Seeing the flashing of the brake lights of the van several car lengths ahead him he knew that Elizabeth and JD had copied the lead. Continuing on his way he again ran through the plan for the buy. Several miles away Buck Wilmington, Vin Tanner and Nate Jackson rode together in the department’s Chevy Suburban. Although it was dented and dinged up, it ran like a charm and the inside had received much better treatment than had the outside. But, it was great for UC work as no one would believe that anything that rusty belonged to the government. Inside the three agents discussed the whereabouts of Chris Larabee, and who had gone to such great lengths to bring the man down.

"I’m telling you guys, there has to be more than one involved in this, it’s too complex. I mean who’s going to spend two million dollars? I’ve said it before it’d be cheaper to just kill him."

The other two nodded in agreement. All three were worried about the team leader, none more so than Vin. He felt this responsibility to help Chris. After all if Chris hadn’t gone to the wire for Tanner, he might be in jail now himself. That was a long time ago, but Vin would never forget the debt that he owed Larabee. But, he knew it was more than a debt, Vin owed Chris his life. Vin had been on a downward spiral that would have ended in the young man taking his own life. Chris heard about Vin, his reputation as a sharpshooter, and his problems with adjusting to law enforcement after leaving the military. Chris had stepped into the training center and whisked him away to his team. Then he’d assigned the younger man to work with Josiah. It was he who discovered that Vin’s seeming "stupidity" was actually dyslexia. After having his suspicions confirmed Josiah and Chris made sure that briefings were more "talk throughs" than printed manuals. As often as possible plans were videotaped to allow the counter-sniper to see rather than have to wade through blueprints. The other team members all pitched in to help the blue-eyed shooter, but he rather believed that it was at Larabee’s insistence that they did.

Arriving at the location Vin hopped out carrying his 30-30 rifle with him he quickly made his way to the top floor of the building next to the warehouse where Ezra had arranged for the buy to take place. When everyone was in place, like clock work Ezra and the weapons dealers arrived. The buy went down without a hitch and the team returned to headquarters to complete the paperwork and log the weapons into the evidence room. Arriving back at the office no one was surprised to see the message light blinking on Buck’s telephone. There was hardly a day go by that the rogue ladies man didn’t receive at least one "Urgent" message from one of his female conquests. As the others sat and began to prepare reports on their computers Buck could be heard chatting up someone on the phone.

"Yes darlin, I got your message, and I’m callin you right now. I know, I know, but business before pleasure. We had a UC tonight and just got back in."

"Of course honey, I’ll meet you downstairs in a minute."

"Now darlin, what’s this about a stairwell, you don’t mean your ashamed to be seen with ole Buck now are you?"

"All right, all right sweetie, I’m on my way."

Rising and heading for the stairs, he passed a grim faced Elizabeth Everly stepping from the elevator. Buck started to greet her, but was forestalled by the female agent’s downward look. She had in her hand a piece of paper that held her attention solidly, there was no room for anyone or anything other than the seemingly unobtrusive sheet. She walked past Buck and never looked up, strode through the office of Team 7 and straight through the door of Chris Larabee’s office. All five men looked up as the door of Larabee’s office slammed so hard that the pictures on the wall shook. It was as if Chris Larabee had returned, and in a bad mood.

Ezra went back to work noting the serial numbers of the weapons that were purchased, while JD copied the 8mm cassette onto a VHS tape. Nate was typing up the report for him and Buck, but Vin sat staring out the window wondering what was going on with his best friend. Vin was concerned that Chris had failed to contact anyone recently. He had half expected Larabee to hide out, but never thought that he would carry out his feeling that he needed to distance himself from the others to protect them.

Damn cowboy, can’t you just call and let us know you’re all right? Is that asking too much? Just how’m I supposed to watch your back if I don’t know where the fuck you are?

Two floors below on the stairwell a stunned Buck Wilmington stood looking in disbelief at the sheet of paper the NCIC operator had just handed him. He raised his eyes to her as he asked if it was a joke. But he knew before the words were out, he knew by the concern in her eyes that it was true.

"Katy, call Vin tell him something’s come up. Tell him it’s personal and I’ll get back with as soon as I can. Tell him to cover for me with Everly, that I’ve got something I’ve got to do."

"Sure Buck. Buck, look, I’m sorry, I thought you’d want to know. I put off for as long as I could, but Agents Millsaps and Jerrolds kept asking for their copy and I finally just had to put it out. Everly picked up her copy just after I called you. And look, Buck, for what it’s worth, I don’t think Chris did it."

The ladies man gave her a quick hug and headed down the stairs towards the lower levels rather than returning to his office. In the office Vin Tanner’s phone was ringing. Tanner started not to answer, but saw that it was from the NCIC office and instead reached for the phone.

"Tanner."

"Vin, this is Katherine Elliott in NCIC, Buck wanted me to call you and tell you he needed to take care of something and he had to leave. He wants you to cover for him with Agent Everly. He said you’d understand and to tell you he’d call you when he could."

"Katherine wha..." Vin was interrupted by Elizabeth Everly stepping out of Chris’ office and telling everyone to listen up she had an announcement to make. Vin told Katherine he’d call her back and hung up the phone.

Elizabeth motioned for JD to shut the door. Once the door was closed she asked where Wilmington was. The five men sat looking at each other until Vin quietly spoke up and told her that Buck had had something come up and had left, but that he would be checking in as soon as his emergency was handled. A knowing look crossed her face, but she shrugged her shoulders almost imperceptibly.

"Okay guys, I don’t know any other way to say this other than straight out. There is a warrant out for the arrest of Chris Larabee" she paused while the news sank in to the numbed minds of the five men left in the office. ""He’s wanted for the murder of Chandler Moss."

"No way! There’ no way Chris would murder someone." anger evident in JD’s voice.

"Look I know you all think highly of Agent Larabee, but I’ve been on the phone with Jerrolds and he thinks they have a strong case. The murder took place earlier today at an abandoned roadside park. There were two witnesses who saw Larabee arguing with Moss, then heard the shot and saw Moss fall. The weapon was left at the scene, there were no prints on the gun, but we were able to trace the weapon back to a dealer. His records show that he sold the gun to Chris Larabee four months ago."

"The two witnesses, could they be involved? How did they know it was Chris?" Nate asked.

"They’re college students. They picked Chris out of a photo lineup after we got his name from the gun dealer. Look, I don’t know much more than that. I know how you all must feel..."

"No you don’t, you can’t have any idea. All you see is a chance to make SAC, to walk in here and take Chris’ place and it won’t happen, not ever, I’ll quit first, we’ll all walk out. Chris put this team together and we won’t standby and see him ..."

"And see him what Agent Dunne? What won’t you standby and see? Him railroaded, is that what you were going to say? Fine, if you think he’s innocent, then you get out there and find out who did it! But don’t you sit in here and accuse me of trying to screw Chris Larabee out of his job, his office or his team, do you understand? I’ve taken all of this shit off of you that I intend to." At this she stopped, her green eyes blazing. JD was taken aback by the outburst of anger.

The others sat in silence until Josiah spoke up in his mellow voice calling for peace. " I think we all need to go home and relax. It’s been a long day and emotions are running high right now. We need to just step back and take a few minutes to sort things out." Looking at Elizabeth with the question in his eyes. She answered him by telling the others she would see them at nine the next morning and then turned and walked back into Larabee’s office. The five men all looked at each other. Reading the unspoken directions they headed towards the door leaving several minute gaps between each of their departures and then to the garage . Eventually they all arrived at Las Palmas where they tried to sift through the events of the day. All the while they were there Vin tried unsuccessfully to contact Chris.

At nine o’clock the next morning five of the men of Team 7 were at their desks when Elizabeth Everly stepped off of the elevator. Glancing around the office her eyes alit on Ezra’s desk. Seeing it unoccupied she next looked at Josiah, who in answer to her unspoken question merely stated,

Agent Standish has never been known for his punctuality. I can assure you he will stroll in here nonchalantly with a cup of expensive coffee in his hand within the next hour."

Elizabeth nodded and then glanced at Wilmington’s desk. Seeing the dark-haired agent seemingly hard at work on a case file she continued on to her office. True to form thirty minutes later Ezra Standish appeared, coffee cup in hand. Strolling to his desk he sat down casually, surveyed the somber occupants of the office over his dark glasses, sighed and picked up his phone. Paging his informant he sat back and waited for the man to return his call perusing an old file folder he’d had pulled from archives during the night. He was so intent on the file he didn’t notice when the door to Chris Larabee’s office opened and Elizabeth Everly stepped out and walked to Buck’s desk. Stopping in front of it she waited until Buck finished his phone call, and asked Buck to step into the office with her. Without waiting for an answer she turned and headed back into the office. Buck rose and followed her glancing around to the others his gaze lighting on Vin who shrugged his shoulders indicating he had no knowledge of the reason for the summons.

"Please sit down Agent Wilmington."

Ma’am, please, call me Buck, it’s a lot less formal and we’re not used to a lot of formality around here."

Looking at him to determine if there was anything there other than what was on the surface, she found no reason to suspect that he was being anything other than amiable.

"All right, Buck then. And please call me Elizabeth." Seeing the smile that spread across his face deep into his eyes brought home the realization to Elizabeth that there was a reason that this man was known as a ladies man. Such a simple thing, to give a man leave to call you by your first name, nothing intimate at all, but the pleasure written on his face from the small gesture was strikingly evident. She could see how that smile could charm someone out of, or rather into this man’s arms. In a way she felt sorry for him, she knew what came next would be hard on him, no matter how it ended. Life had a way of slapping you upside the head, even when the lesser of two evils was realized. Not wishing to prolong the interview she continued on.

"Buck, I believe that you’re listed as Chris Larabee’s next of kin?"

She noticed the almost imperceptible paling of his face, the slight increase in heartrate as evidenced by the vein in his neck.

"Why yes, that’s right, why?"

"Isn’t that unusual. I mean for a supervisor and employee to be listed as each other’s next of kin. What about family members? Doesn’t Mr. Larabee have someone in his family to act as such?"

"Well now, Elizabeth, since you’ve been reading up on me and Chris, I reckon you already know the answer to that, but I’ll humor you. Chris’ mama and daddy both died some while back, before Chris got out of the service. Chris was an only child. Chris’ wife Sara and his son Adam were murdered three years ago. That’s all the family Chris ever had. As for me, I had my mama and that was it. She died when I was twenty two. After that Chris and Sara and Adam were my family. Sara treated me just like I was a brother, and after, well after they were gone, we, me and Chris both needed someone and hell I was the only one that would put up with him. And me, hell, he was the only one who could really understand how a man could grieve so for the loss of another man’s wife and child. So there you have it. Now why the question, trying to find out if Chris had family somewhere to run to?"

"No Buck, that wasn’t my motive." Elizabeth sat very still contemplating her next words, finally she looked up at Buck.

"Buck, there’s been a body recovered. Dan Corelli from the ME’s office called a few minutes ago. He knows about the trouble Chris is in and the warrant and Chandler Moss, he did the autopsy on him. Anyway, he got a John Doe in early this morning and when he got to looking, well he thinks, he’s," stuttering before finally going on,

"Damn Buck, he thinks it might be Chris and I need for you to go take a look."

She watched as all the color drained from Wilmington’s face, as he silently processed the words she’d spoken.

"Dan Corelli knows Chris, why can’t he ID this body?"

"The victim’s face was almost totally blown off, two shotgun blasts. And Buck, the hands are missing so we can’t check fingerprints. Look, if this it too much I’ll get someone else to do it."

"No, no, I’ll go. It’s just, well, if it’s all right, I’d like to take Vin with me. I mean, oh hell, I don’t know what I mean."

"That’s fine Buck, I’ll get him. But please, let’s not alarm the others until we know something for sure." With that she left Buck alone in Chris’ office while she went out to get Vin. Buck sat back in the chair, glancing about the room that was so full of mementos of Chris’ life. There were the photos of Sara and Adam, the pictures of the team. It just couldn’t be him, Buck just knew it couldn’t. But down inside of Wilmington was a small voice that kept saying it could. Elizabeth and Vin walked through the door, Vin obviously not pleased about being brought in to the office. He stood by the chair where Buck sat. Rising Buck looked at Elizabeth and then turned to Vin,

"Bud, we need to go down to the morgue. Dan called and he thinks they’ve brought Chris in."

Vin staggered back before catching himself. Looking first at Buck and then to Elizabeth he turned back to Buck for confirmation of the words that he just been thrown at him without preamble.

"Let’s get this thing done, we need to know."

The three left the office. The only words spoken were between Elizabeth and Josiah as she told him they had an errand to run and would be back shortly. The four men in the outside office didn’t miss the pallor of Wilmington’s face nor the scarcely veiled emotions of Tanner’s, but all they could do was sit and wait and try to find the link that would end the nightmare that had become Chris Larabee’s life.

The ride to the morgue took only seventeen minutes and forty six seconds, but to Vin Tanner and Buck Wilmington it was a lifetime. Elizabeth parked the car and watched as the two men climbed out and headed into the building. The directions that they’d given her on the way over were terse and there had been no other conversation. She felt sorry for them, it was obvious that they all idolized Chris Larabee and now it seemed like not only did he have feet of clay, but he was also mortal, which right now looked like it would translate to dead. Waiting in the outer office were Millsaps and Jerrolds. Elizabeth shuddered when she spied them, they almost seemed to enjoy their present assignment too much. She wondered, but was stopped from further thinking about the two IA reps from DC by the entrance of a slightly older man wearing a white lab coat over green surgical scrubs.

"Buck, Vin, it’s been awhile, too long." Reaching out to the men they each shook his hand, Elizabeth hung back and only stepped forward when Buck turned to introduce her to the man.

"Dan, this is Agent Elizabeth Everly, she’s the acting SAC until Chris gets back, Elizabeth this is Dan Corelli, assistant medical examiner and finder of forensic facts extraordinaire."

Smiling Elizabeth clasped Corelli’s hand in a firm grip. Millsaps and Jerrolds stepped forward and asked if it was necessary to have so many present. Sensing the hostility Elizabeth turned and answered, "No there’s not. You two wait here. Agent Wilmington as Larabee’s next of kin has asked that Agent Tanner be present to support him and since I am Wilmington and Tanner’s supervisor I’ll handle this, you two just standby."

Millsap’s face turned bright red at the obvious put down. Jerrolds stood as still as a statue waiting for the blow up to come, but it never did. Surprisingly enough Millsaps meekly nodded in acquiescence. Corelli led the three into a viewing room and then returned a few minutes later with a gurney. Lying on top of the gurney was a body covered by a white sheet, underneath the sheet the body was covered in heavy plastic. While the plastic was clear, it was clouded so that you couldn’t see the body underneath distinctly. Corelli looked to Buck as he reached up and pulled the sheet back, then he grasped the plastic sheeting and waiting for Buck’s approval finally pulled it back. Silence reigned in the room, Elizabeth averted her eyes from the grotesque figure that had once been alive, instead she looked at Buck, and Vin and waited for the words. Tanner looked quickly at the body, and then up at Buck. Buck stood gazing down at the figure, now cold and lifeless. The face was all but gone, the blonde hair was pink from the blood, the ends of the arms had black plastic bags wrapped around to hide the horrible wounds where the hands had been crudely removed. Buck’s right hand came up to his chest, with his left he reached out and grabbed the forearm of Vin Tanner. Elizabeth watched as a single tear formed in his eye and then spilled over. She watched as it rolled down his face building speed until it dropped from his jaw onto the cold floor.

"Chris! Oh my God Chris! Who hated you this much!" An animalistic howl rent the silence in the room and Millsaps and Jerrolds rushed into the room. Buck turned and looked at Tanner, never relaxing his grip of the man’s forearm. Vin stood silently looking first at the body and then at Wilmington his face covered with a look of disbelief. Silently Vin led the overwrought man from the room. Dan Corelli reached up and squeezed Buck’s shoulder as he walked by. Elizabeth thanked Corelli and told him someone would call him later to make arrangements for the body to be picked up. She then followed the two grieving men back to the car. Millsaps and Jerrolds headed for their vehicle, also in silence, but not caused by grief, instead there was more a question of what had gone wrong.

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The ride back to the Federal Building was made in silence. Elizabeth Everly didn’t quite know what to say to the two men sharing the vehicle with her. She knew that Buck Wilmington had been Chris Larabee’s best friend for many years, that the two of them had been through much together. She was told that the only reason that Chris Larabee survived the death of his wife and son was the willingness of Buck Wilmington to march up to the gates of hell and snatch Larabee back. It was said that he drug Larabee kicking and screaming back to life. But this time, it looked like Wilmington had lost him for good.

Looking in the rear view mirror she caught sight of Vin Tanner, another close friend of Larabee’s. Rumor had it that they were almost inseparable, some even thought that maybe the two men were involved in a homosexual relationship, but there was a women or two around Denver who would swear that Tanner was as heterosexual as you could get. As for Larabee’s sexual preference, all she had to go on was that he had been married, fathered a child and appeared from all accounts to have been emotionally devastated by the loss of his wife. There was little talk of any romantic involvement. According to what she was able to glean from Rose, Judge Travis’ secretary, there were hopes at one time that Larabee would fall for the Judge’s daughter-in-law, Mary Travis. Mary had been widowed several years ago and nothing would have made Orrin Travis happier than to have Mary married to the leader of Team 7. Chris and Mary were friends, they even went out a few times, but truth be told, Chris just didn’t feel any chemistry between the two of them. They had lapsed into a comfortable friendship and Mary went on to become engaged to a real estate broker from nearby Aurora.

Upon arrival at the parking garage Everly stopped behind Tanner’s jeep, "Look, Vin, why don’t you take Buck home and I’ll go in and take care of things here."

Tanner and Wilmington both looked at her surprise evident on their faces.

"That’s thoughtful of you ma’am, but..."

"No, please, take Agent Wilmington home. I’ll call later to check on things. In the mean time, try to get some down time, just try to relax. I know this has all been extremely difficult on you both and it’s not going to get any easier for the next couple of days, so just take some time off. Come back when you’re ready."

"Well now, Agent Everly, that’s awfully nice of you. I think we could use a few days to kind of sit back and take stock, you know deal with this..."

"Agent Wilmington, Buck, if there is anything I can do, please let me know, and if you feel the need, there is a grief counselor on call for the teams. I’ll get his number and leave it on your voice mail for you."

Climbing out of the car Buck and Vin headed for Tanner’s jeep and Elizabeth drove on to find a parking place.

As soon as she was out of sight Buck began frantically dialing on his cell phone, he let loose with a string of curses when he discovered that he couldn’t get a signal inside the underground garage.

Tanner looked at the man and shoved him towards the jeep then climbed into the driver’s side. Starting the vehicle up, he motioned for Buck to get into the passenger side.

"Now would you mind telling me what the hell is wrong with you?" the sharpshooter exclaimed.

"Nothing, just buying us some time. Buying Chris some time, don’t you see this is a Godsend. This gives us at least three days to find out what’s going on? Three days. Three days, man, without Chris having to look over his shoulder because of some damn warrant."

"Buck, don’t you think they’re going to find out, and then where will we be?"

The tall dark haired man responded quickly, "Hopefully we’ll be sittin’ in Chris’ den drinking a beer watching the Av’s whip the Red Wings. Look Vin, when I went into that room I had no idea if that was gonna be Chris or not. But the minute I saw that it wasn’t, well all I could think of was that it was a way to buy him some time. And I was gonna take it, every minute I could get, to try and clear him, cause that’s what he’d do for me, hell for any of us. Now let’s get going, we’re burning daylight."

"All right Buck, where to?"

"The ranch, let’s see if he left us any clues as to where he was headed and we need to get into his computer so hurry up and get out of this damn garage where I can call JD. SHIT, she’s upstairs right now telling them that Chris is dead!" Buck hit the redial button on the cell phone as he and Tanner cleared the underground facility. Vin quickly pulled into traffic and headed towards Larabee’s ranch.

Upstairs Elizabeth Everly stepped from the elevator car and walked down the hallway to Judge Travis’ office. As she reached Rose’s desk she asked the judge’s secretary to have the four remaining members of Team 7 assemble in the conference room. She also asked that Rose divert all phone calls from their lines to their voice mails. Elizabeth was trying to make sure that Larabee’s team didn’t find out about his death from the newsmedia which by now had probably picked it up. She knew that it wouldn’t take long for the media to get a hold of the news of the murder of someone like Chris Larabee, especially following on the heels of the arrest warrant issued on him. As she entered the Judge’s office she wondered for the nine thousand six hundred and seventy ninth time what in the world she had gotten herself into. Telling Travis about the death of his favorite team leader was no easy task, but it was relatively easy compared to telling his team. While she didn’t relish the job, she also felt that it was her responsibility, as their acting team leader to handle the unpleasant task. She had arranged with Judge Travis to send the team home after she told them, knowing how distraught they would be at the news.

Outside the conference room, in Team 7’s office JD Dunne’s phone continued to ring, it rang four times until the voice mail picked up, and then disconnected. Then Josiah’s began to ring, even as Dunne’s greeting still played. In turn each phone on each desk rang until it was answered by the recorded messages. In the conference room the quiet mutterings ceased when Elizabeth came through the door, one look at her face and the four men at the table knew that whatever news she had to impart, was not good.

"Gentlemen, I know that each of you were very close to Agent Larabee and I know that this will be difficult for you. Agent Wilmington and I have just returned from the medical examiner’s office where Buck made a positive ID on the body of Agent Larabee."

The gasp for air came from JD, the other three men sat stunned. Josiah bowed his head and began a silent prayer, while Ezra sat staring at the blonde at the head of the table. Nathan finally looked down at the table his normally keen vision now blurred by unshed tears. Only JD found the breath to speak, but no one really heard or understood the garbled words gushing forth from the young man’s mouth.

"I am so sorry. I’ve made arrangements with Judge Travis for you all to be relieved of duty for several days. Agents Wilmington and Tanner have already left for the day. Please, don’t ask any questions as I have no answers for you at this time other than it appears that Agent Larabee was murdered, there is no suspect at this time. Feel free to leave whenever you’re ready. I’ve locked down the conference room to everyone else and asked security downstairs to not allow any media reps up on this floor. I’d recommend that you take the stairs in order to avoid any reporters who may have already heard the news. Josiah, could I see you for a minute in my, uh, in the office?"

As Josiah stood and followed Elizabeth from the room to Chris’ office the other three men sat still in their places, each lost deep in his own world. JD, refused to believe that the man he looked up to above all others, the one he thought was larger than life, could be laying somewhere, cold and lifeless, it was just too unbelievable.

Ezra Standish thought of the many times he’d been chewed out by the infamous man in black, but he always knew that each word thrown at him was cloaked in anger to mask the worry about the situations that the undercover agent might find himself in. Larabee had always made sure that Ezra had backup, that Ezra called the shots, that Ezra was, at least on the surface, in control of any UC that he worked. Standish knew that Larabee would never leave him alone in the cold, he would stand with him, shoulder to shoulder. He blinked his eyes, feeling the burning that precluded tears, thinking of the many times when Chris had fought Travis or another team leader or agency backing Ez all the way, only to return to the office and chew him out royally. But it was always done in private, to the rest of the world, he was Chris Larabee’s man and the rest of the world better get used to it.

Nathan thought of the many times that he’d cautioned Chris about not following doctor’s orders, returning to work too soon after being injured, not going to the doctor when he was sick relying only on the medic’s expertise to see him through whatever ailments befell him. The standard reply, "I’m fine" no matter how badly he was bruised or battered. The three men remained in the conference room for several minutes before JD rose and announced that he was going to find Buck, that he knew the big man would need their support. And with that the three rose as one and walked from the room.

Inside Larabee’s office Josiah waited while Elizabeth advised Judge Travis that the men had been told and were leaving the office until further notice. Hanging up the phone she turned to him, "Josiah, I have a favor to ask."

He sat silent, only a slight inclination of his head indicating that she should continue.

"I need for you to look out for the team, let me know if you think any of them need professional help in dealing with this. Would you trust me enough to do that for me?"

"Agent Everly, Elizabeth, what makes you think that I don’t trust you.?"

"Because I wouldn’t trust me if I were in your shoes."

A half smile flitted across his face before he replied that he would let her know if anyone seemed overwhelmed and unable to cope.

"Josiah, I need to know where to, who to have, what funeral home, I think we need to make some arrangements. We don’t want to leave him there, where he is, I mean, after all... Oh Josiah, I ‘m saying this all wrong."

"That’s quite all right, I understand and that’s thoughtful of you. I believe that when Chris’ family was killed he used Donelson and Goodman. I know that Sara and Adam are buried in Greenwood Cemetery. I’m sure they could help, but Buck can take care of that."

"All right, I’ll just have him moved and then leave the rest to Agent Wilmington, but if he needs me to do anything, just let me know."

Rising Josiah thanked her and headed to the garage to his vehicle. As he walked from the elevator descended into the underground garage his cell phone rang, but as he answered the connection was lost.

Some twenty minutes ahead of him already headed to Chris’ ranch were Nathan and JD each in separate vehicles. They’d left the building going to the underground garage and the their vehicles. Nathan and JD were parked close to the elevator, a testament to their arriving at work earlier than Ezra who’d parked on a lower level. Ezra walked to his car alone, the quiet of the facility almost screaming the inner agony that the man felt. Something, some animal was inside trying to claw it’s way out and Standish didn’t know how to release it. He’d never allowed himself to actually feel any kind of kinship to those with whom he worked and now, here in this place he’d come to grips with reality. Not only did he care about these six men, he loved them, as he’d never loved anyone before. He now faced the reality of losing one of them. The one who’d made it all possible, the one person in this world who’d put his faith in Ezra Standish. Chris Larabee had reached down in the murky depths of the cesspool that was Ezra’s life. Pulled him out, brought him back to the light and force fed him hope and confidence until Ezra actually believed himself capable of all that Chris Larabee believed of him. Reaching the dark blue XJS he sat in the driver’s seat gripping the steering wheel with both hands. A thousand thoughts running through his mind, but one in particular, Chris Larabee’s name and reputation were not going to be tarnished. As long as there was breath left in Ezra Standish he would find a way to clear Chris’ name. Having resolved to do so, he climbed back out of the Jag and went back to the stairs and began to climb. After the first flight he made a decision, and walked to the elevator, he would not run and hide. He’d face anyone and everyone and the first person to denigrate Chris Larabee to him would find himself on the floor searching for his teeth. When the elevator reached the seventh floor he got off and walked to his desk. Powering up his computer he started going through case files, newspapers and other online resources available through the federal computer system.

Knowing that Buck and Vin would have gone to Chris’ they all left for the ranch from the office. As they reached the cut off to Chris’ the three men slowed. Making the turn they headed down the gravel road that led to the ranch house. Arriving at the house they were not surprised to see Vin’s Jeep and Buck’s Blazer. Stopping in the rear of the house they were met by Buck and Vin. Expecting to see the two men overwrought with grief, the remainder of the team were somewhat puzzled by the seeming lack of concern. Ushering them into the house the two agents asked about Josiah and Ezra. Nathan told them of Everly’s request to see Josiah and that he would be along shortly. Buck and Vin looked at each other before Buck blurted out the news, "Chris ain’t dead. That’s not his body at the ME’s office. It sure looks a lot like him, but it’s not him."

For the second time that day the men were speechless. Buck explained to them the misidentification. "So you see, we’ve got a little time, but we’ve got to get this straightened out before anybody figures out what’s going on."

Looking at JD, Vin spoke for the first time, "JD we need for you to get into Chris’ computer and see if you can find any clues at all as to what’s going on. Fin out where he might be, or who might be in a position to do this to him. Guys, we figure we’ve got about 48 hours before anyone catches on. Where’s Ez?"

"He was with us on the stairs, but he was parked on a lower level. I would have thought that he’d have caught up with us by now." Nate looked at JD for confirmation.

JD headed towards the office and powered up the computer. Nate and Buck began reviewing old files of Chris’ that were in his filing cabinet in the garage. Vin headed to the barn to feed the horses and get them settled for the night. Hearing a vehicle approach he looked out the door, and observed Josiah exit the trusty Suburban he was driving since his normal Crown Vic was in the shop. Vin headed back to the house to be there when Josiah was told the good news.

"What?" the large man bellowed, "what do you mean he’s alive?"

"Just that, that he’s alive."

"Buck have you lost your mind? Do you know that right this minute Agent Everly is making arrangements to have ‘Chris’ body picked up and taken to the funeral home. And do you know why she’s doing that? Because she didn’t think it was right to leave him at the ME’s office, like no one wanted him. She’s worried sick about all of us, wanting to bring in grief counselors, asking me to keep an eye on everybody to make sure you’re all right. And now you’re going to tell her what?"

"Nothing Josiah, we’re going to tell her absolutely nothing. As far as I know she’s in on it." Wilmington was growing angry now, he felt Josiah was taking sides, the wrong side.

"Buck, she’s too straight to be in on something this evil. She’s too much like Chris to be a part of it. Can’t you see that?"

"No I don’t see it. All I see is that my oldest friend is missing, he’s got a warrant out on him for murder and..."

"Chandler Moss"

Vin, Buck, Josiah and Nate all turned to look at JD.

"Chandler Moss, his phone number is on Chris’ caller ID. It looks like he called several times." JD copied the numbers down, then went into the room where the computer was located. He looked at the list and clicked over to the Internet, logging onto the ATF computer. By remote he entered the numbers as they were returned he printed off the information. Returning to the den where the other agents were located he went over the results. The discussion was stilled by the beeping of Buck’s pager going off. Seeing that the number in it belonged to an old friend at the PD Buck went to the phone and dialed the number.

"West station, Sergeant. Allen."

"Hey Andy old buddy, this is Buck Wilmington here on this end. What can I do for you this fine day?"

"Buck, let me ask you something and if it’s none of my business just let me know and I’m out of here okay?"

Puzzled Buck told him sure, and to go ahead and ask away.

"Well, your boss, Larabee, isn’t his undercover name Charles Zachary?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, look, Buck, I know there’s a warrant out for him. One of our patrol officers, new kid, who doesn’t know Chris, anyway, he kind of wanted to make a name for himself, looking for a promotion I guess. Anyway, he gets the BOLO on Larabee and decides to do a little investigating so he goes out to the airport and gets a list of all the vehicles rented from there in the last couple of days. When I found out what he was doing I told him he needed to get back to his job and leave the investigating to the detectives. So he gets a little upset and storms out of my office and leaves the list. I got to looking at it and found the name Charles Zachary and when I ran the drivers license it comes back to an apartment that I remember you guys using in a UC operation a couple of years ago."

"Look, Andy what did he rent and for how long?"

Sensing that something important was taking place on the phone the rest of the team quickly became silent, all eyes on the tall man who was now writing on a the back of an envelope left on the coffee table.

"All right, thanks, Andy, man I really appreciate this. And, uh, bud..."

"Yeah, I know Wilmington, this phone call never happened."

Hanging up the phone Buck told the others about the rental car.

"What are we going to do about the body?"

The others looked to Josiah. "We can’t let her pick the body up and send it the funeral home and leave everyone thinking that it’s Chris."

"Josiah dammit, can’t you get over that for a while."

"Listen Buck, I think Josiah’s right, I mean after all how far are we going to carry this?" Tanner asked.

"As far as we have to in order to get Chris cleared."

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Chris Larabee knew he wasn’t dead. It didn’t hurt this much when you died, it couldn’t. Slowly opening his eyes he found himself looking at tree limbs, lots of tree limbs and an air bag, that’s what that big white thing was, an air bag, a deflated air bag. The big SUV he was driving took a nose dive into a deep ravine. Chris didn’t have the time or inclination to belt himself in when the ride started so he was thrown forward during the freefall from the roadway. Now he was thanking Detroit for the air bag that had softened his landing. But he didn’t escape without injury. He was having trouble drawing breath, indicative of cracked or broken ribs. He had somehow busted his lip, probably on the steering wheel after the air bag deflated, but at least his teeth were intact. Add to that he was still bleeding from the gunshot wound he’d received back at the roadside park and that would pretty well sum it up.

Chris began extricating himself from the wreckage of the once pristine vehicle. He finally managed to get out and looked at what was left, sighing, he wondered how much this was going to cost him. Then he laughed, to himself, and anyone or anything that happened to be within earshot. What was he worried about, after all, he had two million dollars, right? So why should he be concerned about a measly little fifty thousand dollar SUV? The laugh only succeeded in causing his mid section to hurt from the injury to his ribs. He stood looking up towards the road and then surveyed the terrain around him. In his condition he would never make it up the ravine to the road, his only hope was to try to follow it out through the back. The area was strewn with boulders and heavy undergrowth, it would be slow going, but it was his only chance. Climbing back to the SUV he searched for anything that he could use on his trek. There wasn’t much there, only his jacket, an apple and the remains of a bottle of water. Taking off his shirt he laid it aside while he pulled his black tee shirt over his head. He used it to fashion a bandage for the gunshot wound. Satisfied that he’d done all he could do for the time being he searched for a path that would lead him out of the ravine.

After what seemed like hours, but in truth was only about forty five minutes, he found himself weakened to the point that he had to stop and rest. He was still not sure what exactly had happened, but he knew that Chandler Moss was dead. He didn’t know who had killed Moss although he could guess why. Chris still couldn’t decide whether Moss was telling him the truth when he said he knew who had killed Sara and Adam. Larabee rested for about twenty minutes and then started on his trek again. He was pretty sure that he wasn’t too far from a hunting cabin that he and Buck had used several times. The land belonged to an old friend from the Denver Police Department and they were given free use of it anytime they wanted. He knew that the property backed up to the highway, he just wasn’t sure how far it was to the cabin. He and Buck had always hunted on the front end, preferring to stay as far away from people as possible when shooting.

If he could get to the cabin he could find a way to contact Buck, because right now Chris Larabee really needed a friend and he knew the big hearted ladies man would come, and in tow would be Vin Tanner. It was getting a little harder to breathe and he was slowing down even more, but Chris didn’t notice that, he was focused on finding the cabin and doing it before it got dark and too cold. Right now the temperature was fairly comfortable, but once the sun went down it was going to get cold, fast. While that would help keep the bleeding to a minimum, it certainly wasn’t going to help anything else. If he just had a bottle of Tylenol, maybe two bottles. Always in the back of his mind, no matter how much the pain, always was the thought, did Chandler Moss really know? It ate at him, almost consumed him, and it gave him the will to keep putting one foot in front of the other. If Chandler Moss knew who killed Sara and Adam, then Chris would bet his life that so did Moss’ partner Brock Fulton, and if he did, then Chris would, it was just that simple.

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Elizabeth Everly was startled by the knock on the door, but more so by Ezra Standish bursting through it after the knock had sounded. Looking up she started, "I thought you’d left with the others?"

"I’ve found it!. I’ve found the connection! And now you’ve got to help me! Look I know you think Chris was guilty, but I know him, I know he wasn’t and you’ve got to help me prove it. I can’t do it without you."

"What are you talking about? And Agent Larabee is dead, the investigation is over." Elizabeth asked.

"No, Chris might be dead, but it’s not over. It won’t be over until we’ve cleared Chris’ name. I can’t bury him with his reputation sullied! Why he’d come back from the dead and haunt me, you, all of us."

Looking at the man before her, Elizabeth sensed a desperation in him. A man on the edge, and she wasn’t going to push him over. What would it hurt her to go along with him for a while, after all, she wasn’t so sure... oh well, it didn’t matter anymore. But to appease the man before her she settled back into her seat, "Tell me about it Agent Standish."

Forty minutes later she was still sitting at the desk looking at Ezra Standish, but this time instead of disbelief, it was shock. There in front of her were laid out files, that at first didn’t show links to each other, until you threw in the final pieces of the puzzle, Millsaps and Jerrolds.

David Millsaps had his own ax to grind with Chris Larabee. Larabee and he came on together and both were expected to climb the ladder quickly. Larabee went to the FBI academy, taking Millsaps slot when Millsaps had badly bungled an investigation causing several agents to be seriously injured. After that Millsaps always found a way to blame Larabee for anything that went wrong in his career. When Larabee was promoted and given the SAC slot for Team 7 it was the last in what Millsaps believed to be a long line of injustices heaped on him because of the blonde team leader. Millsaps asked for and was given a transfer to DC and placed in the Internal Affairs office.

Once there he made the acquaintance of two agents from Washington who were accused of accepting bribes from Steve Proctor a weapons dealer from Seattle. Proctor was under investigation for dealing arms to a Chinese firm headed by Chou Chang. Chang had ties to other areas, many in Southeast Asia and there was some talk about a Cuban connection. The ATF and FBI had Proctor and Chang under investigation for years and were about ready to bust the two men when they simply closed up shop and headed for parts unknown. The Internal Affairs case against the two agents went no where, but shortly after the investigation both were transferred one to Nevada and one to New Mexico.

Several months later Chou Chang resurfaced in Lake Tahoe while Proctor set up shop in Rio Rancho. It was about that time the David Millsaps bought a new cabin cruiser which he kept on a lake in Virginia and Mark Jerrolds brother’s garage got crowded with a new Corvette and a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Mark began to spend a lot of time with his brother.

When Millsaps was assigned to Denver he was always one step behind Larabee. Always in his shadow. When Larabee’s family had been killed Millsaps was saddened, but not because of Larabee’s loss. He’d mourned for the beauty that was Sara Larabee, and the fantasy that he’d built around her. The first time he’d seen her he had fallen for her, she was beauty itself to him. Then Larabee had claimed her. Seeing her pregnant with Larabee’s child had just about driven him insane. Watching her grow with Larabee’s child had eaten away at him. He convinced himself that Chris didn’t deserve her and that if he could just get Chris out of the picture that she’d see him and return his love. He needed a way to show her without Larabee around. When the assignment to pick up a prisoner in the Federal Penitentiary in Ft. Leavenworth came about, he convinced the SAC at the last minute to send Larabee and Wilmington instead of him and his partner. Never knowing that forces were at play and the object of his desire would suffer from his scheming. While Chris and Buck were gone a car bomb placed in Chris’ truck had exploded killing Sara and Adam instantly. David Millsaps insane hatred of Chris Larabee locked into place. Millsaps and everyone else knew that the bomb was meant for Chris. No one knew why Sara took Chris’ truck that day. That is until Chris found the money and the envelope in the safe. In the envelope was a sheet torn from a message pad at Sara’s school. The writing on it simply saying the date and a time and words "Inspect stallion at Circle J Ranch 2:00 PM." Chris surmised from the note that Sara was going to the ranch to purchase the stud and surprise him with it when he returned home. Knowing Sara as he did, she would not have taken the trailer or the money until the next day, not wanting James Breton, the owner of Circle J, to know that she’d already made up her mind to buy the horse.

David Millsaps never forgave Chris Larabee for Sara’s death, blaming him for it, and dedicating the rest of his life to finding a way get him back. Even when he saw Larabee turn into a walking dead man from the drinking and the grief, he still swore that this man who had caused him so much heartache and pain would one day suffer as he did. Never did it occur to him that his grief was unrealistic. Once he reached his assignment in DC, Millsaps found the way to pay Larabee back and help himself at the same time. Steve Proctor and Chou Chang also needed to get Chris Larabee and his team out of the way. Chris Larabee had started an investigation into their dealings along with those of Chandler Moss and Brock Fulton. At the time of the investigation Chris wasn’t able to connect the two factions. Moss and Fulton were successful legitimate business men on the surface, but Larabee continually received information that the two were funding some major arms deals in the Denver to Los Angeles pipeline. Chang and Proctor had seemingly been removed from the equation so there was no way to connect the two. When Chang and Proctor surfaced in Nevada and New Mexico Chris began to track them again. Chang and Proctor needed to get Larabee off their tails and approached "their" ATF agents about the best way to achieve it. Chang wanted Larabee dead, but when the ATF agents talked with Millsaps about it, he decided that it would be better to bust the team up and get rid of all of them. The best way to do that, cut off it’s head, Chris Larabee. So the scheme was hatched. Chang, Proctor, Moss and Fulton would each contribute five hundred thousand dollars to "Chris’" accounts. Millsaps would garner the assignment to do the IA and make sure that the money was traced back to a blind corporation that was owned by Cuban weapons dealers. Once the investigation was concluded he would recommend that the team be disbanded since, while, there was no evidence linking the others to the bribes, it was known how close they were and would be in the best interest of the agency for them to be absorbed into different teams. If everything went according to plan Millsaps would have his revenge on Chris Larabee, and make his business associates very happy and very rich.

The deaths of the banker and the stock broker were just collateral damage. They had to be killed or they would know that the man they knew as Adam Larabee, was not Chris Larabee. Then there would be the possibility that they’d be able to identify the "real" Adam Larabee, an actor named Stan McKay, hired not for his acting ability, but for his remarkable likeness to Chris Larabee. McKay’s death was written in stone the day he signed on. Chandler Moss was the weak link. Millsaps still couldn’t decide why Moss had set up the meeting with Larabee. Millsaps didn’t think that Moss would give them up, he was too afraid of Chang and Proctor and too money hungry.

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The night grew dark and cold and Chris Larabee continued to grow weaker. He knew he was going into shock and that he needed to get inside and warm or he might as well give up and die where he was. The pain in his back was mounting, a white hot searing that radiated outward from the bullet hole. He knew that there was an infection starting from the wound. The gun oil, threads from his clothes and the dirt along with anything else that the bullet had passed through on it’s way into his body, all were now buried deep inside. The tumbling the bullet had done once it entered caused more damage than Chris could imagine, slicing through skin and muscle before burying itself deep inside.

Chris was fighting hard, but he was facing some pretty steep odds. Now reduced to crawling he almost cried in relief as he spotted a dark shadow ahead of him. Hoping that the darkness was the hunting cabin he managed to pull himself up to his knees and struggle to his feet. The last few steps were almost more than he could manage, but the feeling of the blood flowing down his back only spurred him on. He knew that he had to get someplace and rest or he would literally die trying. He grabbed a hold of the handrail that ran up the side of the steps to the cabin porch. Once he reached the porch he prayed that the door was unlocked or at least the key was hidden in the same place as before. But the door was locked and the key was gone. In an act of desperation Chris summoned all his strength and rammed his fist through the window and reached in to unlock the door. He never noticed the jagged tear on his arm from the broken glass, and while it wasn’t deep, it was bleeding, and it should have hurt, but Chris was almost beyond pain. His body was so nearly exhausted from the mental and physical pain of the last days that he collapsed on the floor barely inside the door. Raising himself up on hands and knees he crawled to the sofa in front of the fireplace, pulled himself up he managed to crawl onto the couch. He covered himself with a throw cover that was along the back of the couch. Then he quickly fell into a not so peaceful slumber.

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"Buck, does ‘Operation Peacekeeper’ mean anything to you" JD hollered from the back of the house.

"Yeah it was an old case of Chris’ back when he was in the field as an agent. Why?"

"Well it just keeps popping up in his memos and notes, like maybe he’s still working on it."

The younger agent came out of the computer room and down the hall to the den with the rest of the team.

"Hey didn’t Ez ever get here?" he asked when he noticed the man was not in the room with the others.

Everyone looked around and realized that in fact the undercover agent had not shown up. Picking up the phone Buck dialed Standish’s cell phone number. Ezra answered on the second ring, he sat stonefaced in front of Elizabeth Everly while Buck quizzed him as to his location. Realizing that Ezra was still at the office, Buck questioned him in a way that only required yesses and no’s for an answer. And then Ez took over the conversation. "Buck, I think I’ve found it, the answer, I’m here with Agent Everly and while I understand that you and the rest of the team are grieving I think Agent Larabee’s memory would best be served by clearing his name. If all of you will return to the office I think I know how to make that happen."

"Ez, listen to me. Just be quiet for a minute, now I want you to listen very carefully. Chris isn’t dead."

"What? What did you just say?"

Seeing Elizabeth grow concerned about the tone that the conversation had taken on Ezra lowered his voice a fraction, not trying to hide the conversation, just trying to mask the emotions that threatened to overcome him.

"I said Chris isn’t dead. Look Ez it’s a long story, and I’ll tell you the whole thing as soon as I can, but for right now just play along and pretend that he is, okay?"

"All right, I understand, but you need to get back here. All of you, now."

Hanging up the phone Buck looked around and told everyone to load up he’d explain it all on the way. The five men all climbed into Josiah’s Suburban and headed back into Denver. On the way Buck relayed what Ezra told them. Once again it was a quiet ride made by the men, but this time along with the prayers being said there was a glimmer of hope.

Chris slowly came awake, the dimness of the cabin would have startled him, but he was too weak to register the waning light. Cold, he was cold, shivering, he had to get a fire going in the cabin. Luckily there was plenty of firewood stacked next to the fireplace and there was even a fire laid. All he had to do was get off the sofa and find the strength to get to the fireplace and strike a match. That wouldn’t be hard, would it? Slowly he raised himself up to a sitting position. As he did he felt the wound in his back pull open and the pain slice through him again. He began to mentally compile a list of things he needed to do in the immediate future, get up and start the fire, get in touch with the team, breathe, the last would probably be the hardest. After what seemed forever he made it to the fireplace and got the fire started. As he sat on the hearth he turned over in his head the events of the last days, he looked for the pieces to fit together, but they just wouldn’t. He just couldn’t get things to work, physically, mentally, nothing. It was all unhinged by the pain and the fatigue, the total exhaustion. The only part of him that was warm was his back where the blood was trickling down from the wound. It shouldn’t take long now that the fire was going, at least he hoped it wouldn’t. He was colder than he’d ever been, and he was more alone now than since Sara and Adam had died and all he really wanted to do was just to lay down and die.

Tanner and Wilmington were the first out of the car once Josiah stopped. They headed for the elevator with JD hard on their heels. Nate and Josiah followed quickly but not at the dead run that three dark haired men had maintained. The elevator was just arriving as the Nate and Josiah reached the doors. Climbing into the elevator Tanner punched the button for the seventh floor and then hit it again. As the car started to move up Buck reached over and again hit the button as if he thought the more he pushed the button the faster the car would go. When the doors opened on the seventh floor the men almost seemed to erupt from the car. Rushing into their office they were met by Ezra who stood in the door of Chris’ office. He motioned them into the office and they crowded in. Ezra went to stand behind and slightly to the right of Elizabeth who as usual was sitting at Chris’ desk. Noticing the glare coming from the youngest member of the team she stiffened, Ezra could feel the tightening from where he stood and searched the room for it’s cause. When his eyes alit on JD and he observed the angry stare that the young agent was bouncing off of the blonde woman he moved to defuse the situation.

"We thought it would be best to meet in here. Agent Everly and I are not sure how secure the premises are and we’ve swept this office."

His announcement jarred the men in the office. Not secure? Their office, their building, what the hell was going on and when did she get to be one of the good guys? Everyone began to look around as if to gauge the response of the other team members.

"Gentlemen, Agent Standish seems to have uncovered a conspiracy to not only discredit Agent Larabee, but to also be the ultimate cause for the disbanding of Team Seven. And it appears to involve agents inside the bureau. Agents Millsaps and Jerrolds are both indicated, along with two other agents, one in my district office and one in New Mexico. Pausing she let the words sink in before continuing, "Several years ago Agent Larabee was involved in an investigation into two businessmen, Chou Chang and Steve Proctor. Proctor and Chang were involved in international arms trade, illegal trade and Chris was hot on their heels, until.."

"Until Sara and Adam were killed." The steel edged voice of Buck Wilmington sliced through the room. All eyes turned to look at the big hearted man who had so freely loved Sara and Adam Larabee that when they were died, a part of him was buried with them.

"Operation Peacekeeper." Elizabeth turned to look sharply at JD as the two words spewed from him.

"Where did you hear that?"

"It was in some files at Chris’ house, in his office, I just found it before Ez told us to come in, but I remember Proctor and Chang. There were two other names..."

Elizabeth interrupted the young man, "Yes, and I’ll bet that Chandler Moss was one and Brock Fulton was the other."

"How did you know?" JD questioned.

Elizabeth and Ezra turned to each other and smiled. "Well it was Agent Standish here who unraveled it all."

Ezra took command of the room and explained the intricate conspiracy to discredit Chris. "It started with Chris’ investigation into Chang and Proctor. Actually the wheels were set in motion before that even. In checking around about Agent Millsaps I was able to ascertain from sources here that he has a distinct dislike for Mister Larabee. Buck were you aware of this?"

"No, not unless,... don’t tell me that Millsaps is the guy who had the hots for Sara? The one that screwed up so bad that he lost his FBI academy slot and Chris was the next agent on the list to go?"

"That would be correct Agent Wilmington, or at least that’s what the scuttlebutt around the coffee machine would indicate. But, let me continue, the two agents that were involved with them were investigated by Millsaps and Jerrolds. The allegations against them were not able to be proven, but Millsaps and Jerrolds recommended that a disciplinary transfer be handed down against them. And it was, based on their ‘fraternizing with possible defendants’ one agent was sent to New Mexico and the other to Nevada. What seemed to be discipline turned out to be convenient, because some time later Proctor and Chang moved their bases of operations to those states and specifically the areas where the two agents were assigned. All four agents have maintained low profiles, except that they each lead a somewhat lavish lifestyle on the salary of a federal employee."

Vin’s head shot up at this remark. "Kinda like someone else we know Ez?"

"I’ll have you know that my trust fund...."

At this the other men all began to laugh and bait the blushing undercover agent. Elizabeth watched them and knew then that she wanted this team. She saw in them what Chris Larabee saw, the camaraderie, the caring, the true affection with which they held each other and she wanted that, she wanted to belong to this secret, by invitation only, fraternity. God help her she wanted to lead, The Magnificent Seven as they were called by the fellow teams. She just hated that it was Chris Larabee’s death that had made it possible. With that sobering thought she once again turned her attention to Ezra’s briefing.

"Moss, Fulton, Proctor and Chang all withdrew seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars within a few days of the account openings in the name of Adam Larabee. When I checked the bank accounts of Millsaps and Jerrolds, they each deposited five hundred thousand dollars to hidden accounts about the same time."

At the mention of checking Millsaps and Jerrolds accounts Elizabeth’s head had swung sharply around to stare at the man. A slight shrug of his shoulders, almost an apology, but not quite, was all she got. She mentally made a note to call him on this later.

"On the day that one of the accounts was opened Chris wasn’t even in Denver. He’d been sent to Georgia to assist on a church bombing. That’s what really gave it away. I think Moss panicked and went to Chris, someone followed, probably, Millsaps and Jerrolds and shot Moss. That’s how they got a hold of a gun registered to Chris. They just put it into the database, when you check back on the log, the entry was made from a terminal on the fourth floor down the hall from the office where the Judge put them. When I checked the transaction date on the entry was a day before the shooting, not two years ago like it was made to look."

"But why did they kill Moss?" Nate wondered.

"My guess is he got scared, maybe wanted out. After all, once Millsaps and Jerrolds got here and got to work on Chris the pressure was on from all sides. Moss and Fulton were probably weak links anyway. After all, they just dabble in guns, but they put up a lot of money. So there must be something big coming down the road. Now, my one of my informants has been trying to set me up a major deal for some overseas shipments. Two out of towners and two locals."

"And you think the out of towners are Chang and Proctor and the homeboys are Moss and Fulton?" asked Josiah.

"Yes, and I think they needed Chris out of the way, permanently, not just from the ATF, but out of law enforcement, where he couldn’t touch them. And they wanted the team out of the way too. What better means than to discredit Chris, and thereby throw doubt on us. Have the team disbanded because of the heat and absorbed into different teams. Think how much our effectiveness would be cut."

"Well", chimed Buck, "that all sounds great but how are we going to prove it? How are we going to clear Chris?"

Tanner threw a sharpened glance towards Buck trying to remind him that Elizabeth was still unproven and that she still thought Chris was dead.

"I’m going to move in on Millsaps operation, let them know I’m on to them and that I want part of the take." she said.

This was not the response they men had expected. "But Agent Everly," Josiah was the first to point out the threat this posed, "they’ve already possibly killed several people, what makes you think they won’t kill you."

"You. All of you." Very simply stated, all the trust in the world in their abilities to protect her from danger, to watch her back, just as they watched out for Chris. When her words hit their mark each of the men in the room was rocked by the faith she showed in them, and what had they given in return? Were they deserving of the absolute trust she had in them? Maybe not before those four words were spoken, but from that point on, each man in Team Seven would step up to the line for her.

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"Millsaps, this is Elizabeth Everly. I want to meet with you and Jerrolds tomorrow morning. I have a proposition for you. No, not in the office. Meet me at 7:30 tomorrow morning. There’s a small bakery about two blocks from the building, make it there." After she hung up the phone she looked at JD who gave her a thumbs up, the tape had picked up every word. Rising from the desk she said to the group that was gathered around her, "Gentlemen, I’ll see you all bright and early 6:30 am for briefing. I’d suggest you all turn in early and get plenty of rest, tomorrow looks like a long day."

As the men shuffled out of the office Elizabeth reached out for Buck’s arm, lightly clasping it she asked him to stay behind. "Buck, I’d like to know about the arrangements for Agent Larabee. Some of the men are asking and I don’t know what to tell them. I know that you’ve been, well, that things have been rather hectic, but..."

Buck cut her off, as badly as he wanted to tell her that Chris wasn’t dead, he couldn’t. At first he’d not told her because he didn’t trust her, now if he told her it would destroy her faith in them and right now Buck needed her to believe in him, for Chris’ sake, and his own. Secondly he couldn’t involve anyone else. It was bad enough to have put Vin on the spot like he did, but now the whole team was caught up in it. He’d just have to play out the hand he’d drawn.

"I’m sorry, I know I need to make arrangements and I will, I promise as soon as this goes down tomorrow I’ll go straight to the funeral home and take care of everything."

"Buck, you mean you haven’t met with them at all?"

"No ma’am I guess I’ve just been trying to block it all out. But I promise, I’ll do it tomorrow."

"Buck, if I can help, just let me know. All right?"

"Sure and thanks, I know Chris would appreciate your concern."

When they parted each was saddened, each by the same deception, but both for different reasons.

At 6:30 the next morning the team met several blocks away from the bakery that was owned by Nettie Wells. Mrs. Wells had opened the bakery when her husband had died and left her without a means of support. Shortly after that her niece Casey had come to live with her after Nettie’s baby sister and her husband had been killed in a plane crash. The youngest member of Team Seven had fallen hard for the dark haired Casey who was bound and determined to join the Denver police department as soon as she turned twenty-one. Nettie had taken Vin under her wing when he first went to work for the ATF as he would stop in on his way to work and pick up donuts for his breakfast. She had in turn adopted all of the team and treated each as if they were a treasured child. It had been JD’s recommendation to use Nettie’s bakery for the meet as he could access it prior to the meeting before it opened and wire the booth that Elizabeth would use for the shakedown. The members of the team were surprised to see Ezra pull up at precisely 6:30 for the briefing.

After making final arrangements Elizabeth headed to the bakery. Walking through the door she proceeded to the last booth and seated herself, making sure she was facing the front of the bakery. At 6:45 no one was surprised to see Millsaps and Jerrolds drive through the area checking it out for any traps. The two men left and then returned at 7:30. They entered the bakery and walked to the back booth. Jerrolds slid across the seat and then Millsaps sat down. Not wasting any time, Millsaps abruptly asked the woman across from him what she wanted.

"A cut. I know what you’re up to and I want in."

"I have no idea what you’re talking about Agent Everly." Millsaps responded. Elizabeth could see the color begin to drain from Jerrolds face, aha, she thought, a weak link.

"I know about Chang and Proctor and Moss and Fulton. I know what’s up with Larabee and I want part of the one million dollars. I won’t even be greedy, I only want ten thousand a piece from you two and another twenty five thousand a piece from the remaining three."

"Lady you’ve lost your mind. What makes you think I’ve got ten thousand dollars to give you and if I did, why would I?" Millsaps snapped.

With that Elizabeth rattled off the account numbers to both agents hidden accounts, the names they were in and the amounts of the accounts. "Look, you seem to forget Dan Burton works in my office. I’ve known for quite some time what he was about, but when I was sent here and ran into you two everything just sort of fell into place. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll take my money in cash."

"I still don’t know what you’re talking about." Millsaps insisted as Jerrolds began to sweat.

"What I’m talking about is the gun that is supposed to belong to Chris Larabee. The one that was used to kill Chandler Moss, only it’s not Larabee’s it’s one you took from the property room and falsified the database entry. Don’t deny it I’ve got the terminal log. I can prove that Larabee wasn’t in town when the account at the brokerage was opened. I can show that Burton and Hopewell were transferred to their present assignments at your recommendation and that oddly enough their ‘unsavory’ friends shortly relocated to the same area. Shall I continue?"

"If, just if, what you say is true why wouldn’t I just kill you rather than pay you?" Millsaps asked.

"Because you’ve already killed one ATF agent and there have been several high profile deaths in the community and you don’t know how much evidence I have or where it is."

"Allright, I’ll see what I can do about getting the money together, but it will take time."

"It won’t take that long, you have until five o’clock tonight. What I’m taking is chump change for the people we’re dealing with and you know it."

An angry Millsaps and a very frightened Jerrolds left the bakery. Elizabeth waited until she got an all clear from Nate who was stationed down the street watching for the two conspirators to leave.

"What are we going to do?" Jerrolds asked wiping the sweat from his face.

"We’ll hit Chang and the others up for the money, see what he says and then if he comes up with it, we’ll see. After all she could be useful. If Larabee really is dead and we could get her put in as SAC for his team, it would be better than having them disbanded. She could really put a hurt on the competition for Chang and them, plus keep everyone else off of us."

Instead of going to the Federal Building the two men returned to their hotel rooms where Millsaps phoned Chou Chang. He explained the situation to him and got his read on the possibilities Chang agreed to front the money for himself, when asked how much she wanted Jerrolds was surprised to hear Millsaps answer.

"She wants two hundred and fifty thousand, in cash, by five ‘o clock tonight. We’re here at the Garden Plaza room 603. Yes sir, Mr. Chang, we’ll take care of setting it up."

"Well?" Jerrolds prodded for the answer.

"He’s going for it. And I got us a nice little bonus while I was at it. Chang pays our part, and we hit a payday too. Man, this is working out better than I thought."

Five o’ clock saw Elizabeth in the parking lot of East Gate Shopping Mall at row D4 waiting for the drop off. When the two men approached her she was ready for the play to begin.

"You’re right on time Millsaps. Just think if you’d been on time back a few years ago then you would have gone to the FBI Academy instead of Larabee and who knows maybe then his wife would have ..." Elizabeth never got the chance to finish the sentence, Millsaps cut her off with an angry denial.

"You leave her out of this, you hear me? Sara Connelly was too good for the likes of that bastard. He wasn’t good enough for her, he didn’t deserve her."

"Well she must have thought he was, she had his child, I hear they were one of the happiest couples Denver’s ever seen. Hear it was a real tragedy when she got killed. Guess it couldn’t be helped."

"You don’t know! Just shut up and take your damn money."

Elizabeth and Jerrolds could both see that Millsaps was starting to lose it. His face was red and angry and his tenuous grip on his control was slipping. Jerrolds was starting to sweat again.

Not wanting to push him too hard until she had the whole scheme on tape Elizabeth backed off. "One question Millsaps who opened the accounts? Who was it that looked so much like Larabee?"

"Oh that was just some actor that Moss hired. Down on his luck, needed to make some money, worked out well. By the way, what’s with Wilmington mis-IDing the body like that?"

Elizabeth was glad that she was looking at the ground when he asked the question because it gave her a moment to compose herself. All around her, the men of Team Seven held their breath, waiting for her reaction. Ezra was the most impressed when she fired back barely missing a beat, "You know how stupid that damn Wilmington is, he really thinks it is Larabee. Hell he’s making arrangements for the funeral right now. Dumb ass even went out and ordered this special black casket cause it was Larabee’s favorite color."

The three shared a laugh, while the six men eavesdropping shared the sick feeling of betrayal. Here was this woman who had just walked into their lives a few days ago, putting her life on the line to save the reputation of a man she didn’t know, that she thought was dead and they had betrayed her.

But Elizabeth was going to use that anger. She was ready for the kill and the fierce emotion that was released when she realized that Chris Larabee was still alive was going to be unleashed.

"So, how’d you get through those nights?"

Millsaps looked at her, a questioning look, not knowing where he was being led.

"What do you mean?" he finally asked.

"How’d you get through the nights knowing that Larabee was fucking Sara? Didn’t it just eat you up that he was having her every night and all you could do was dream about it?"

It was as if the world stopped for just a moment. Buck Wilmington closed his eyes and bent his head, Ezra held his breath, Vin Tanner sat wide eyed in shock at what Everly was doing and Mark Jerrolds thought he’d breathed his last breath. David Millsaps began to turn red, as the images came to life in his mind, Sara on her back with Larabee on top of her, the two of them together. But he held on, so Elizabeth pushed some more.

"Man I bet that really got you when she had that kid, should have been yours and hers, not Larabee’s. And then him getting that SAC position! Hell he had everything of yours didn’t he? He had your job! He had your bitch! Did you ever get any of it? Oh no, that’s right she got killed didn’t she? Hell, he couldn’t even take care of her, he let her get blown up didn’t he?"

That was it, the faint grasp that he’d had slipped, David Millsaps vapor locked and the object of his anger was Elizabeth Everly and Chris Larabee.

"It was supposed to be him! She wasn’t supposed to drive his truck! She never drove it! Chang swore she wouldn’t be hurt. Proctor was an idiot, Sara wasn’t supposed to die. It was Larabee that was supposed to die!"

Mark Jerrolds turned to look at Millsaps and caught movement from across the parking lot, it was a wind of fury. Buck Wilmington was bearing down on David Millsaps and nothing and no one was coming between them. Millsaps was a dead man, Buck would see to that. Realizing what was happening Elizabeth grabbed Jerrolds and threw him to the ground, all the while pulling her weapon. When she looked at Millsaps she could see that he’d finally lost total control, he was looking at her smiling, as he raised his weapon and pointed it at her. There were voices yelling from all around them, telling Millsaps to drop the gun, but he never wavered, he raised the weapon, stuck the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

After the scene was cleared Elizabeth returned to the Federal Building with Judge Travis who was called to the scene. They rode the elevator up to the seventh floor together and then went their separate ways. When Elizabeth entered the office all work stopped, they all looked at her, regret in their faces.

Vin started to speak, "Agent Everly, we really appreciate what you’ve done to help clear Chris."

Before he could finish she turned and walked away, into the private office she shared with the ghost of Chris Larabee and closed the door. Several minutes later Josiah knocked and she told him to go away. Elizabeth curled up in the big, black leather chair and cried, very quietly.

Outside Buck Wilmington was again frantically trying to reach Chris. Still no cell service, his daily check of the hospitals and the morgue was again fruitless. Buck and Vin used every source imaginable in their attempts to locate their friend and leader, but met with no success. As dinner time approached Tanner talked Buck into going to eat with him at the China Garden. It was a buffet across town to the west. JD joined them but the others had plans. Ezra had a meeting with an informant working on another undercover deal and Josiah and Nate had decided to eat in and track down some leads in trying to locate Chris.

Tanner was driving and Buck was in the passenger seat. The conversation was more a monologue by JD than a true conversation. As he rambled on the two older men were lost in their own thoughts when suddenly Buck yelled for JD to be quiet. Affronted at being shushed like a child he huffed, but did stop his rambling. Buck reached for the volume control knob on the police scanner and turned it up. Vin looked at him puzzled. Buck picked up the microphone and turned to the Highway Patrol frequency. He identified himself using his ATF call signal and asked the dispatcher to repeat the information she had just dispatched. Again the information was put out over the air.

"What’s the twenty on that vehicle Denver?"

When the dispatcher gave him the location, he looked at Vin and told him to head there, fast. Without question, knowing that an explanation would be forthcoming he headed west.

"That car, that’s the car that Chris was driving. That’s the SUV he rented at the airport."

"How could you know that Buck? They rent hundreds of cars a day, what makes you think that’s the one Chris rented?" Tanner asked. Suddenly he didn’t need an answer, he knew the answer, he just did. Speeding up Vin and his two teammates arrived at the scene just in time to see a wrecker pulling a black SUV from the bottom of a deep ravine. They rushed to where the wrecker driver brought the vehicle to a stop. The first thing they noticed was the blood, the front seat was covered in blood, Chris’ blood. There were bullet holes in the back, and the vehicle had been struck from the rear. The damage to the front of the vehicle had been sustained from the drop into the ravine. The vehicle was obviously a total loss, but what about the driver, was he a total loss also? Buck and Vin scrambled down partly into the ravine before a trooper yelled at them. They stopped momentarily and headed down again, deciding to ignore him when he yelled again for the them to stop.

"There’s no one down there guys. I’ve already looked."

Buck and Vin stopped their descent and started to climb back up. They met the trooper at the edge of the road and began to assault him with a flurry of questions. JD stood quietly by, talking on his cell phone. Someone needed to tell Josiah and Nate, they were the two cool heads these days. Since Chris had disappeared Buck and Vin seemed to be untethered, as if they might fly off the face of the earth at any moment. Until now JD had never realized exactly how strongly Chris Larabee anchored them all to this world and most importantly, to each other.

"We got the call about forty minutes ago. Mom driving down the road with a car full of kids. One of the kids gets sick, so she pulls off to let him hurl and looks down and sees the SUV. When I got here the EMT’s were already on the scene, but there wasn’t anyone to be found. I’ve got dispatch checking the hospital to see if anyone’s come in, but whoever was in it must’ve been hurt pretty bad. And I can’t figure out all that blood, it’s on the back of the seat, seems to me like it should have all been on the dash instead. Anyway that’s where we stand. So now that I’ve answered all you questions, how ‘bout answering mine?"

"All right. We thought we recognized the vehicle. We’ve been looking for a guy who’s supposed to be down here from one of those cult groups up in Idaho. He rented a vehicle similar to this, so when we heard the call we thought we’d check it out." Buck lied easily to the young trooper, hoping that if he ever found out the truth he’d understand the big man’s motives. Jack Bradford had been on the road for over six years now, long enough to have developed a pretty good sense of when people were lying and when they were being honest. He also was a pretty good judge of character. He knew who these men were and knew that by reputation they weren’t the usual group of Feds. They were highly thought of in the law enforcement community and generally well liked by the officers who knew them. Because of this he let his feelings fall back. He had the suspicion that the agent was lying, or at least not being totally honest. While trying to decide whether to call the man on the statement or to let it slide the blaring of the outside radio speaker on his car made the decision.

"932, Denver to unit 932."

Looking at the mustached man and glancing at the other two, he reached up for the microphone to his portable radio. Answering the dispatcher he was given another call. A county unit was asking for backup in a rural area not too far from his location. There was no decision to make, the call for backup would not go unheeded. "Sorry, guys, I’ve got to go. let me know if I can do anything to help you find your man. Oh, and by the way I was really sorry to hear about your boss and all, if, well if I can do anything let me know."

JD and Vin looked at the ground at their feet while Buck looked the trooper straight in the eye and said, "You’ve already helped more than you can imagine." With that the man turned and walked to his car.

"Let’s go, JD, Vin get in the car, NOW!" The two younger men looked at Buck, but the questions would wait until they were loaded up in the vehicle.

"JD get on the phone and tell Nate to get his shit and get out here as fast as he can. Tell him to head this way and we’ll keep him updated, but to hurry. I know where Chris is."

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When he woke up again he was still cold, colder than before. The shivering hadn’t stopped or slowed down, if possible it was worse. In spite of the cold he could feel the heat from the wound all the way through. He struggled up from the couch and managed to pull himself up onto his feet. He was weaker then before, markedly weaker, but he knew had to keep up his fluid intake. So he started, one foot in front of the other until the legs gave way and then he crawled on the floor, leaving a trail of bloody handprints across the wood. He reached the kitchen and pulled himself up with the aid of a chair from the table. He turned on the faucet let the water run to clear the pipe and then grabbed a glass from a nearby shelf. He rinsed it then filled it part of the way and brought it to his lips. He hadn’t realized just how thirsty he was until now, just as the first drops hit his lips, and washed down over his parched tongue. God, it tasted good, filling the glass again he drank more and felt just the least bit stronger for it. After the third glass a fullness in his bladder reminded him that he’d not made it to the bathroom when he’d gotten here, he’d barely made it to the couch.

Once again he struggled to walk, holding on to counter in the kitchen and then supporting himself as much as possible against the wall as he made his way slowly down the hall. ‘Oh hell’, he thought, ‘why don’t I just piss in my pants and be done with it. It’s not like anyone will get past the blood to let a little pee bother them.’ But being Chris Larabee, he struggled on to the bathroom. When he reached the commode the struggle began anew, this time to stand and open his fly. The zipper seemed bound and determined to not cooperate. Chris stood with his forehead against the wall, holding himself upright by it, not noticing the blood from his head wound leaving marks on the wall. Finally he managed the get the zipper down. When he relieved himself he looked down into the toilet bowl and saw the bloody urine confirm his suspicions that the bullet may have damaged his kidneys. The pain was tremendous, and the simple act of relieving himself had seemed to compound it.

He turned on the faucet in the bathroom sink and reached for awash cloth that was hanging on the rack. He wet it and started the long journey back to the couch. He knew his body’s systems were starting to shut down and that he needed to conserve as much energy as possible. He collapsed onto the couch, and prepared himself. Chris Larabee laid down to die. He wasn’t ready to give up, but he didn’t see a way out either. He had no way to communicate with the outside world. No one knew where he was headed and the cabin was in a remote location. It could be days or weeks before anyone visited the small hunting lodge and found him. Larabee laid on the couch and mentally prepared himself for what was to come. In review of his life he felt like he had accomplished much, but also left things undone, unsaid. Important things. The only peace he knew was that soon he’d be with Sara and Adam. But his heart was heavy at leaving behind his team, his family. Many of the important things that he hadn’t said were to them. He’d never thanked Buck for sticking by him through those horrible months after Sara and Adam’s deaths. There had been many times when Buck went to work sporting a black eye or busted lip thanks to Larabee’s anger at the world. Somehow it found itself expressed in the blacks, blues, yellows and greens of the bruises that came with the physical manifestation of that anger. The anger had taken on a life of it’s own for a while and it had engulfed Larabee, but Buck had always looked beyond it, to see the real man.

He worried about Vin knowing that he was totally alone in this world except for the team and that Vin had such a difficult time opening up to people. Vin was much more comfortable around the horses at the ranch than the riders of those horses. But in the past year or so the young man had allowed himself the pleasure of friendship with Larabee and the other team members. Chris hoped he’d continue to avail himself of that friendship and not back away. He was almost afraid that Vin and Buck would think that he ran out on them. Please God, don’t let them think that became a prayer sent up to the heavens. Odd that when he felt closest to death that his last prayers were not for himself but for those he’d leave behind.

He knew that Nathan and Josiah would deal with his death and help the others to do so. They were both rock steady, that’s why he’d chosen them to be on the team, to be his friends. Josiah would see to the spiritual needs of the remaining team members just as Nathan would see to their medical needs. He would leave his team in good hands.

His thoughts ran to Ezra and the hope that he’d been vindicated in the eyes of the law enforcement community. When he had joined the team it was at the request of an old and dear friend of Chris’. There were serious allegations made against the young agent and the rumors had cost him dearly. While Ezra had proven himself to be honest and conscientious, it didn’t mean that the rest of the world would realize the man’s integrity was truly without questions.

He was sad to think that he wouldn’t be around to see JD reach his full potential, but then a small laugh escaped the once again parched lips, maybe that was something he didn’t want to see. There had already been several trips to the Judge’s office to explain why JD had hacked into another agency’s mainframe and Chris wasn’t entirely sure he could keep coming up with original excuses.

Yes, he’d accomplished a lot in his life, and he could remember a time when he would have welcomed death. It could be said even that he’d courted it, at least that’s what Buck had accused him of on more than one occasion. But that was then, and where now he wouldn’t welcome it, he’d face it like he faced every other confrontation in his life. He would meet it straight on, head up, toe to toe, and eye to eye. Chris Larabee never backed down from a fight or a enemy, not even when the enemy was the Angel of Death.

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If the race went to the swift and the strong then Buck Wilmington was going to win the race. Behind the wheel he steered the vehicle swiftly down a narrow, winding tar and chip road. The other men in the vehicle started to ask questions, but seeing the concentration on his face they wisely held up. JD was on the cellphone giving Josiah and Nate directions as Buck drove them quickly to a location that only he knew. When the tar and chip gave way to gravel the cell service began to come and go. Concerned that Josiah wouldn’t be able to find them JD shouted for Buck to slow down and wait for the other two men. "Buck, look they’re only twenty minutes behind us, stop and wait for them."

Buck glanced over his shoulder at JD and then continued on in his relentless pursuit of some unknown goal, hopefully one that would lead them to Chris.

"JD, goddammit, don’t you understand? Did you see all that blood, Chris might not have twenty minutes to spare!" JD blanched at the thought and once again hit redial trying to raise the medic who was desperately trying to catch up with them.

Buck made a sharp right turn onto a dirt road. Several miles down the road they came to a gate across the road. Vin rushed out of the vehicle and ran to the gate to open it for them to pass through.

"It’s locked." he shouted.

"Get out of the way Vin." Buck gunned the car and rammed into the gate. The chain held, but the post began to buckle. He backed up and again rammed the gate this time the post pulled completely up out of the ground allowing Vin to move it to the other side. Buck drove through and stopped for Vin to get in. Without waiting for Vin to close the door he rushed down the dirt road. In the back JD was telling Nate that it would be the road with the gate torn down, and it shouldn’t be hard to spot.

A few minutes went by before a cabin came into view. Sliding to a stop at the side of the cabin Buck jumped out of the car and ran around to the side steps of the porch. Seeing the broken glass of the window he rushed through the door. Buck Wilmington was not a particularly religious man. Oh he believed in God and the power of prayer, but he didn’t go to church every Sunday and wasn’t known for adherence to certain rules or regulations of organized religion. But he did believe in God and the devil and angels. When Buck Wilmington burst through the door of that cabin on that fateful day he spied the Angel of Death standing over Chris Larabee’s right shoulder, bending down as if to draw Chris’ last breath from him. Vin and JD would forever remember the scream that tore from his throat and would always wonder about what vision that man had seen, but all that their eyes could focus on was the pale man lying so still on the couch.

"NO, GET AWAY FROM HIM! YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM YET! I WON’T LET YOU TAKE HIM!" and with that Buck rushed to the side of the blonde. Vin and JD rushed forward both with a question in their eyes, they looked first at each other and then at the two men before them. Buck knelt down beside Chris before pulling the man upright and clasping him to his chest.

"Please, Chris, please don’t die! Not you too, I couldn’t take it if you left me too. God, please, I’ve not ever asked you for much in the way of help always thought you’d send what ever you thought I’d need. And you did, you sent me Chris, and then you sent us both Sara and Adam. And when you took them back. I never questioned you. When you called my ma home, I knew she was going to her mansion on them golden streets. But please, please don’t take Chris. Take me instead, I’ll go, but not him, he’s a better man than me and all, take me."

Vin and JD stood rooted to the floor listening to the man pour forth his heart, begging the almighty to spare their friend.

"Buck, bout time you got here." the blonde managed to rasp out. A small smile was torn from Wilmington, a smile through tears.

Buck gently laid the man back down on the couch. JD went to the bathroom and began to get some towels while Vin started to heat water on the stove. While the two were going about the tasks that needed to done in order to clean up Larabee and his wounds Buck sat by the side of his friend and kept the death at bay. He clasped Chris’ hand firmly in his as if he could hold on to Chris’ life-force through his grip. When the two other men approached and began to clean the wounds Buck only let go his hand to move to stand at his head a hand on the shoulder of the blonde.

Vin Tanner hurt everytime he looked at the bruises that had formed on Chris’ chest. His face was bruised and there were small pieces of glass still embedded in it from the windshield of the SUV. There was a bad cut over his right eye that would require stitches and the right side of his face was bruised. There were small scratches, almost a rash across his face that Vin guessed to be from the air bag. What scared Vin the most was when he pulled off Larabee’s shirt and saw the angry wound to his back and the jagged tear on the inside of his right forearm. Rolling Chris to his left side Vin saw that the entry wound was red and swollen, not a good sign. He laid a warm wet towel across the man’s back and then began to clean the jagged tear on his forearm. Through all this the blonde laid quietly, barely breathing, just enough to keep him alive. He didn’t speak, barely opened his eyes, but he was still with them. Chris Larabee wouldn’t die today, not if the three men in that cabin had their way about things.

Thirty minutes after Chris had been found Josiah and Nate drove up. Nate rushed to the cabin and after quickly examining Chris turned to Josiah and told him to go back to the last location where there was cell service and call for a medi-evac. When discussion of a landing zone began, it was decided that they would move Chris back to a field up the road a mile or two. Josiah would use the GPS system on the Suburban to direct the medi-evac to the location. It was only ten minutes after they got Chris to the field that the chopper landed. Nate told the flight nurse what actions he’d taken and after they had him stabilized and loaded in the chopper Buck reached for the door to climb in.

"I’m sorry sir, but we’re not allowed to transport anyone other than the injured party." the crew chief told the big man. Buck didn’t miss a beat, he pulled his badge, flashed it to the crew chief and told him that the injured man was a prisoner and that he’d been on the most wanted list for two years. "If you think I’m going to let him get away again, you’re out of your mind. Now either we go together or we don’t go at all. Legally that man is my prisoner, he’s my responsibility, so now move over and let’s get this bird back in the air."

Looking at the injured man and knowing that it was imperative to get him to the hospital quickly the crew chief motioned for Buck to climb aboard. After settling in, Buck said a silent prayer and promised that after this was all over he would really try harder to not lie, quite so much. The crew busied themselves with starting an IV and contacting the hospital, relaying Chris’ vitals and getting down to the business at hand, saving a man’s life.

The flight to the hospital was short and tension filled. The paramedics had their hands full with the wounded man. When they landed Buck jumped out onto the roof and went to aid the ground crew. Chris was taken to the ER five floors down from the landing deck. As the doctors and staff rushed him into a treatment room a clerk grabbed Buck by the arm, "Please sir, you need to come with me. I need some information about the patient." Buck looked first at the small hand that rested on his forearm and followed it back to the face of an attractive woman in her forties. Smiling for the first time in what seemed like days Buck turned on his "animal magnetism switch" and prepared to lay siege to the pretty woman. Only this time it wasn’t to reap the physical rewards he usually sought, this time it was to help Chris. "Sure darlin, what can I do for you?" he asked. His dark blue eyes stared directly into her grey ones.

Well I need his name and information, if you don’t mind?"

"Why of course, but first let’s move away from all these people and this noise, do you have some place private where we can talk?"

Hesitating slightly, she finally nodded, turned and headed to the break room. Buck followed her into the now deserted area and closed the door. "Now you see missy, it’s like this. That man in there is an important witness in a case and we’re hiding him from some awfully mean men. It would be best if we could keep his name a secret so they can’t find him." While he was spinning his web around her he produced his badge and credentials. The woman carefully read them before looking back at him and nodding her acquiescence. "I guess I can put him down as a John Doe for the time being. But you will get his information to admitting as soon as possible won’t you?"

"Of course I will, just as soon as Judge Travis approves it, you know Judge Travis don’t you? This is his case, and he’d be real disappointed if anything happened to this old boy while he’s here at your hospital."

"Well I don’t know the judge personally, but I have heard of him. I thought he’d retired from the bench though."

"No, no that must have been another one of the judges. But you help us out here and I’ll make sure that the judge thanks you personally. Why hell he and I might even take you to dinner if you’d like that." With that he flashed her a killer smile that had her ready to offer him her firstborn child.

"Well I have to get back out there, you can wait in here if you’d rather do that than sit out in the waiting area."

"Thank you but I need to keep a lookout for the rest of my team they should be here in a few minutes." He watched as she walked out and returned to her station at the front of the emergency room. Satisfied that she was in place Buck left the breakroom and headed for the treatment area. It’s hard to imagine that a man as large as Buck Wilmington could sneak into a small treatment area, but he did. He melted back into a corner, as unobtrusive as was possible. When he heard the doctor say they were ready to take him to surgery, Buck made his presence known. "Doc, for the purpose of the chain of custody I need to be there for the removal of the bullet. This is a high profile case and may be tied up for years in the court system. I’m sure that you don’t want to make the court appearances that would be necessary if you were in the chain of custody, do you?"

Thinking of the last time this had happened and the many days spent sitting inside a small room waiting to testify with no television, radio or newspaper the doctor nodded his approval and told Buck to come with him to scrub up. Buck followed along behind, as he passed by the gurney where Chris lay unconscious he reached out and squeezed the man’s exposed arm. "I’ll be right there with you bud, don’t go anywhere without me, ya here?"

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Elizabeth Everly sat staring out the window of her office, no not hers, Chris Larabee’s office she thought. Her mind was locked in place at the moment when she realized that Larabee was still alive. Trying to hide that shock took every bit of concentration that she could muster. She managed to pull it off, but now, having to face the reality was taxing her strength again. She presumed that this must be the way that wives feel when they find out that their husband is cheating on them. She’d never before felt as betrayed as she did at this time. How could she have allowed herself to believe in those men the way she had? She questioned herself continually and never came up with a logical answer. The only answer she came up with was because it felt right. She did what she thought was the thing to do and they had made a fool out of her. Elizabeth buried her face in her hands and sobbed wishing that the tears would wash away the pain. Several minutes later she stopped crying, blew her nose and reached into the bottom drawer of the desk. She had taken it as her own, for the most part leaving Larabee’s things intact, except for the one drawer. Taking out a moistened facial cloth she wiped the mascara from her face before gathering her courage and heading to Judge Travis’ office.

Rose looked up to see the blonde agent coming into the outer office. She could tell by the pink on the tip of her nose and the red rims of her eyes that she’d been crying, but since the woman was obviously trying to hide it Rose didn’t remark on it.

"Rose, I need to see the Judge."

Rose buzzed the judge and let him know that Elizabeth was waiting, disconnecting the line she told Elizabeth the he would be with her in a moment. "Agent Everly, why don’t you have a seat?"

Elizabeth smiled, one of those killer smiles and told Rose she’d actually rather stand, work off some energy. Rose studied the woman who paced quietly from one side of the office to the other. Suddenly as if a flash of light had brightened her clouded sight, Rose saw what the others had seen. This woman was Chris Larabee. She had the some look, the same grace to her stride, in fact she had the same long stride. She paced the office like a caged creature of the wild, just like Larabee did when he was kept waiting to see the judge. With that recognition came the thought, what would happen when these two met, and then the quieting realization that these two would never meet, because Chris was dead. Blinking back tears at the thought of the vibrant life force that was Chris Larabee being snuffed out, Rose saw that the Judge was off the phone.

"Elizabeth you can go in now."

Elizabeth turned and walked into the inner office of Director Orrin Travis, bearding the lion in his den, so to speak. Travis looked like a man that had been through a difficult couple of days, starting with having to relieve Chris Larabee of his gun and badge. Orrin would never believe that Chris was guilty, but in order to prove it there had to be an investigation and now Chris was dead. Orrin wondered what else could go wrong. Two agents dead, and three in custody and now here stood this woman in front of him, to do what? File a report, give him more bad news?

"Elizabeth, I assume you’re here to file your report?" Orrin Travis spoke, his tone flat from the stress of the past days.

"No, not exactly, you see, I haven’t written my report. I don’t think I can, not yet."

"Why is that? Is there something else that I need to know?" Orrin Travis looked sharply at her, wondering what information she was about to impart to him.

"Chris Larabee is alive. Buck Wilmington lied, the body at the morgue was that of a man hired by Chang and his group to help set Chris up."

"What? Chris is alive? Are you sure?"

"Let’s put it this way, the body at the funeral home is not that of Chris Larabee. I can’t find Wilmington, Tanner or Dunne haven’t seen them since before dinner time. Josiah and Nate have taken off for parts unknown, the whole damn team is MIA. And right now you and I have to do some clean up or otherwise Chang and the others are going to win after all."

Elizabeth and Travis discussed the fallout that was sure to hit as soon as the story was made public. The entire team would, at the very least, face departmental disciplinary hearings and most likely be suspended, some maybe even transferred. Wilmington could even face criminal charges.

"So you see Judge Travis, we have to make a cover story. If we can get the director in Nevada to go along with it, we can say that I was sent here because we suspected what was going on. We can say that Chris was never actually suspended that it was all a ruse to flush out Millsaps and Jerrolds and get the evidence on Chang and Proctor for the murder of Adam and Sara Larabee. Millsaps is dead and Jerrolds and the others don’t really know enough to blow the whistle on us."

Orrin Travis looked at the face before him. She was so intent on saving these men, on finding a way for everyone to save face and still make the case.

"Elizabeth, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but we’d have to have someone higher up in Washington to back us up. While I’m sure that Hamilton in Nevada will go along with it, what about the guys at the home office in DC? I don’t have that kind of power to force them to agree to a story like that. Even if it is plausible, and I wish to God it were true, I just don’t think I can swing it."

"But you’ll go along with it? If I can make it happen, you’ll back me on this?"

"Well of course I would Agent Everly, what the guys did may have been wrong, but they were right and they did make the case and no one has suffered because of it. There’s been more suffering because we didn’t know ahead of time."

Elizabeth stood and walked to the judge’s desk, she picked up the phone and punched nine for an outside line. Once she heard the dial tone she punched in the number to an office in Washington D.C.

"Office of the United States Attorney General, may I help you?"

"Yes, please, this is Agent Elizabeth Everly with the ATF, is the Attorney General available?"

"Hold please Agent Everly I’ll see."

Several moments went by before the female returned to line, "hold please while I put you through to the Attorney General."

Seconds later a deep voice boomed into the phone, "Hello?"

Elizabeth smiled into the phone and said, "Daddy, I need a favor...."

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"Judge Travis, I hate to interrupt, but Agent Sanchez is on the phone and he says that it’s urgent that he speak with Agent Everly." Rose’s voice echoed across Travis’ office intercom. Nodding to Elizabeth he handed her the phone.

"Josiah, what’s wrong?" she asked the concern evident in her voice.

"We’ve found Chris, he’s been life flighted to University Hospital. We’re enroute there now."

"I’ll head over there. Who’s with you?"

Josiah told her that he and Nate were together and that Vin and JD were bringing back Buck’s car. When she asked about Buck, Josiah told her he’d explain it all at the hospital. Hanging up the phone she relayed the information to Travis. He told her to go on ahead and that he’d join her as soon as he talked with Ed Hamilton, the Assistant Director in the Nevada area. Elizabeth rushed from the room, anxious to get to the hospital, to be there when the team arrived, and then what, she wondered? Would she finally get to meet the larger than life Chris Larabee? Would he be as hot as the women around the building thought? Would he be as forceful and commanding as some of the men said? And what was it about him that so reminded everyone of her? Then what? Where would she go from here? Kicking herself mentally she focused again on the traffic and trying to get from point A to point B without wreaking too much havoc on the unsuspecting citizens of Denver.

Laughing to herself she hoped that Chris Larabee was a better, or a more defensive driver than she. Pulling to a stop at the ER area reserved for emergency vehicles she threw her ATF placard on the dash and headed to the triage area. She showed the nurse on duty her ID and asked about Chris. After being told that he was in surgery and directed to the surgical waiting area on the third floor she walked through the long corridor to the elevator. When she finally found the waiting area she was surprised to find that Buck wasn’t there. Sitting down she picked up a magazine that was at least three years old and tried to make herself comfortable. After what seemed to be an eternity she was brought back into the present by the ringing of the elevator. When the doors opened it spilled forth the remains of Team 7.

Vin was the first off and headed down to the waiting area at what could only be described as a dead run. The others followed, mostly in a more decorous manner, except for JD who sprinted along behind Vin. Both men drew up short when they first saw her. But Josiah and Nate both smiled and headed towards the area where she was seated. As the four men sat down with her she wondered where Buck and Ezra were, but was stopped from asking after taking a good look at Tanner. ‘My God,’ she thought to herself, ‘the man’s a basket case. You’d think that Larabee was his brother or something.’ And then it hit her, he was, just as sure as if they’d been born of the same mother and father, these two, probably all of them were bonded together like family. Only instead of the bond being of blood, it was of want and need. They each needed the others and they wanted to be together. She was stopped from further perusal of this by the arrival of Ezra Standish. He came down the hall carrying a cardboard drink holder bearing several cups of steaming drinks.

"Coffee, tea and chocolate.." he didn’t get too far before the tray was emptied. The men settled down into an almost normal routine. One that they had developed over the past months from their many trips to this place of healing. But the normalcy wasn’t there because of Elizabeth, she was not quite in sync with their plan, there was something not quite right, she wasn’t Chris Larabee.

Vin watched her from half closed eyes. He sat with his head tilted back against the wall, trying to control his anxiety about Chris’ condition, but watching Elizabeth and Josiah. He heard Josiah telling her about how they’d found Chris and the lie that Buck had told to be allowed onto the chopper with Chris. Elizabeth laughed and said that somehow she could see Buck looking the flight nurse straight in the eye and saying, "Now darlin’ it’s like this, ol’Buck here."

Josiah laughed and told her she’d come to know him well in the short time she’d been around.

Glancing around the room she noted that JD had fallen asleep on one of the couches while Nate and Ez played a friendly game of cards. She stood and removed her long black coat, walked over to JD and draped it over him before walking out into the hallway. As she turned and started down the corridor the elevator once again beeped and when the doors opened Buck Wilmington stepped off . As he entered the small waiting room it registered with Elizabeth that the man was dressed in surgical scrubs.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Buck, how’s Chris?"

"We’ve been looking for you."

Vin, Ezra and JD all questioned him at the same time. Josiah, Nate and Elizabeth took in the dazed expression on the man’s face and ushered him to the closest chair. Gently guiding him into the seat Elizabeth knelt down in front of the man and shushed the group. Placing her hand on his arm she quietly called his name, " Buck, Buck, look at me, Buck tell me what’s going on."

The dark eyes sought out the soft voice and finally lit on the green tear-filled eyes of the female agent. Buck locked onto her face and seemed to come alive, tears filled his eyes as he raised a small clear plastic bag and held it out to her. It contained the bullet that the doctor had removed from Chris Larabee. Elizabeth took the bag and placed it in the pocket of her dark grey blazer without taking her eyes from Wilmington’s face. The ringing of the elevator burst the bubble of solitude that had surrounded the group and brought Buck back into the here and now.

"I told them I needed that as evidence. That if they didn’t let me in the OR I had to subpoena them to court for chain of custody. Add that to my list of violations, that should just about do me in."

Elizabeth never broke her eye contact with the man, she just smiled and said they’d talk about that later. She and Buck never noticed that Orrin Travis had appeared at the edge of the group.

"Buck," Elizabeth in her quiet voice continued to question him, "Buck, what about Chris, how is he?"

"He’s bad, he’s real bad. I’m scared he’s not gonna make it and I don’t know how to fight for him anymore."

Seeing the tear roll down the side of the big man’s face was more than she could stand. All the pain and heartache of the last few months and years of her life surfaced, but rather than collapse under it’s weight, she dealt with it in her way. She knelt on the floor at Buck Wilmington’s feet. She eased between his knees and straightened up, put her arms around him and held on. She offered him a safe harbor from the storm of emotions that had welled up inside. Recognizing it for what it was, a sincere gesture of comfort, Buck wrapped his arms around her and cried. The group around them tried desperately to afford the two some privacy from passersby and even from themselves while wanting desperately to find out more about their leader’s condition. Elizabeth gently rocked the man until he finally seemed to calm. When he’d collected his thoughts and had himself under control he smiled that smile at her and with a slight grin leaned over and whispered into her ear, "that’s a peaceful place to be ma’am, wrapped in those lovely arms of yours. I ‘preciate your allowing me in and hope that I’ll be able to experience that pleasure again under less stressful circumstances."

Pushing herself away from the tired ladies man, a slight blush to her face, Elizabeth didn’t know whether to be angered or flattered. But when she took in the expression on his face she knew that the offer was sincere. The blush heightened and she stood up trying to regain control. The others watched knowing that some watershed moment had just occurred, but they were not sure exactly what it was. In his mind Vin hazarded a guess that Everly had finally gained the approval of the man who was Chris Larabee’s oldest friend . Wilmington evidently no longer saw Elizabeth Everly as a threat to the leader of Team 7.

The group settled into the room and each passed the time in their own way. There was a television in the corner, but no one cared to watch it. Josiah had left some time ago and said that he would be in the chapel, Nate had accompanied him. Ezra began to pace the hallway, while JD slept on two chairs pulled seat to seat. Buck and Vin each had pulled a chair to the window and sat staring, unseeing into the dark. Elizabeth and Orrin were quietly talking in the corner. Several hours passed with out word and eventually each of the group returned to the room to sit waiting for news. When the doctor finally emerged from the netherworld of the surgical wing they all snapped to, Nate awakened JD and they all sat expectantly facing the doctor.

Facing the group in the waiting room Rick Gerringer tried to pick out the most likely to be Larabee’s next of kin. His eyes lit on the blonde woman standing next to the older man in the front of the group. Advancing into the room he held his hand out as he approached Elizabeth and asked if she was Mr. Larabee’s wife. She was momentarily speechless until finally Buck stepped forward and told the doctor that he was Chris’ next of kin. Seeing the anger on the man’s face dissolve into resignation Buck felt slightly ashamed of the ruse he’d used to stay with Chris for as long as possible, but it washed away to be quickly replaced by rationalization that he did after all need the bullet, it was evidence. Coming back to the present he glanced back at Elizabeth, but her face was unreadable.

"Mr. Larabee is in critical condition. He’s suffering from a serious gunshot wound to his lower back. I’ve taken measures to try to save his left kidney, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes. He has several broken ribs, and some severe bruising to his chest area, there is some bruising to the heart from the wreck. He’s suffered severe blood loss and right now is fighting an infection from the gunshot wound. He does have a concussion, but I don’t think it’s serious enough to cause any major concerns, not with everything else that’s going on. To sum it all up, Mr. Larabee is a very sick man. I think the next few hours will be the most critical. We’ll see how he responds to the antibiotics and if that kidney is going to heal."

"But, Doc, he’s gonna live, right?" Vin asked, his voice full of hope.

Rick Gerringer looked at the face of the man who’d asked him to pronounce a life or death sentence on the patient he’d just been trying to save. Dropping his eyes before answering him, he finally voiced the words they’d all been waiting to here, "Barring any further developments, yes, I think he’ll pull through. But, you need to remember, that cardiac damage may continue to worsen and we may still lose that kidney. Let me warn you, that the kidney is very likely going to have to be removed. We’ll just have to see what develops. Any more questions?"

"When can we see him?" Once again the doctor’s glance was pulled to the quiet man with the flashing blue eyes. Gerringer wondered about this man’s relationship to the patient. Friend? Lover? Relative? Whatever it was, the doctor surmised that the depth of feeling was overwhelming, it cast a pall over the long haired man who waited expectantly for his answer.

"We’re taking him up to SICU and once he’s settled in you visit two at a time for no more than ten minutes total."

"But doc,"

"No buts, we have regulations here and they are designed with our patients in mind. It’s for Mr. Larabee’s sake. And let me tell you all," his gaze resting on Buck, "any further violation of hospital policy will result in your being banned from the premises. Do I make myself clear?"

Collectively they agreed by nods and headshakes and quiet voices. As Gerringer turned and headed back down the hallway Buck raced after him. Pulling up next to him and matching the man stride for stride, Buck apologized for the ruse he’d created to get into the OR with Chris.

Gerringer stopped and began to berate the agent for his actions. As his voice grew louder, Wilmington’s head dropped lower, knowing that he deserved the ass chewing. It was brought to an end by the sharp voice of Elizabeth Everly, "Doctor, I understand your anger, however, Agent Wilmington was correct in his assessment that the bullet would be needed as evidence and I do appreciate your cooperation with this investigation. Buck, Judge Travis needs to see you right now." Gerringer’s face began to turn red and Buck left them standing in the hallway.

"Doctor, Thank you so much for being so understanding about this whole situation. This has been a major investigation. While I’m sure that you don’t currently understand the enormity of the situation I think that once you have time to sit back you’ll realize what a huge favor Agent Wilmington has done for you by keeping your name off of the witness list."

Gerringer was momentarily speechless but finally nodded his head in agreement. Smiling at him Elizabeth thanked him for his efforts in helping Chris Larabee. Saying that she was very welcome he turned and continued on his way. As Elizabeth turned and walked back down the hallway to the waiting room she murmured softly under her breath, "Pompous ass."

True to his word the doctor had left orders that the nurses in SICU could allow Chris to have visitors for ten minutes after he was settled into his room. The seven decided that Vin and Buck would go first and after that Nate and Josiah, if time allowed JD and Ezra would go after that.

While Buck was somewhat prepared for the sight that met him Vin wasn’t. When he stepped up to the glass wall that Chris was behind Vin stopped. He swallowed hard and tears came into his eyes. Finally the two men entered the room. Both almost reverently reached to touch the exposed arm of their friend. He lay on the bed pale, except for the bright purple and blue bruise that covered most of Chris’ chest. It flowed beyond the borders of the bandages that bound his broken ribs and covered the surgical incision on his low on his left side. He lay on a green plastic pad that pumped cooled water to lower his temp. Bags of IV’s were at his head and tubes flowed from his side and under the sheet. The soft rhythmic beating of the heart monitor was comforting in its constancy. Both men were overcome with emotion.

Vin walked around the bed to Larabee’s left side and began to softly stroke the blonde’s face. "You hang in there cowboy, it’s gonna be all right. Just rest now, that’s all you need to do. We’ll take care of everything else. Don’t you worry about nothin, you here?"

Vin looked over at Buck and the two men locked glances, the dark blues eyes of one full of fear, the sky blue eyes of the other filled with determination. And then the one drew strength from the other and he leaned down, "Yeah, you hear that Chris, don’t you do anything except lay there and get well. You let us worry about the rest. And when you’re better, boy have I got someone for you to meet!"

The two men grinned at each other and then looked to the third who lay unmoving in the bed. They walked out and motioned for Nate and Josiah to take their turn. By the time the two men returned from seeing Chris the ten minutes had expired. Discussion in the SICU waiting area turned to who would stay and who would go. A schedule was quickly drawn up dividing the times into four hour increments. Elizabeth and Nate drew the first round and so the others left to try and rest. Each one had been assured that they would be called if there was any change in Chris’ condition. The four hours passed by quickly with no word from the doctor as to any worsening of his injuries.

The two were relieved by Ezra and Vin. Vin was early by fifteen minutes and Ezra late by the same. Visitation time came around and the two men walked quietly into Chris’ room. Vin noticed immediately that the bag that Chris’ catheter was emptying into contained little fluid and most of it was red. Chris’ color was not good and his temp seemed to have risen. The blonde’s hair was now damp making it appear darker which made his already pale skin even more so. Vin began to panic as he watched the man on the bed. What if Chris died? What would they do without him? Feeling his pulse begin to quicken and tears to start forming in his eyes he glanced over at the undercover agent only to see Ezra with tears in his eyes also. The two men stood quietly watching over the third, trying desperately to keep death at bay. When their time was up they returned to the waiting area, neither speaking for quite some time.

"It always looks worse than it is Vin. He’s going to be fine. He will, you’ll see." the undercover agent hoped and prayed to himself that those words were true.

The hours continued to pass and there was little or no change in the injured man’s condition. The vigil outside continued on, each team checking in and out on time. Many times in between the cell phones of the current watchers rang, the other team members checking in. At the end of the second day of their watch Dr. Gerringer approached the two left to stand vigil

.

"Mr. Jackson?"

"Yes, doctor, what’s up? Is there something wrong?"

"I’m afraid that Mr. Larabee’s kidney is not responding to the treatment. It looks like we’re going to have to take some aggressive action in the near future. If I don’t see a change in the next few hours I’m afraid I’ll have to take him back to surgery."

Nate and Josiah looked at each other, then Nate questioned the doctor. "Can Chris make it through another surgery right now? Is he strong enough?"

"Mr. Jackson I won’t kid you, if I didn’t have to I wouldn’t put him back on the table, but if I don’t it may kill him. His situation has slowly deteriorated over the past 24 hours and it’s the kidney that’s causing it."

"When will you decide?"

"Right now, I really think I’d prefer to go ahead and get started prepping him, maybe take him in around10:00 unless there’s marked improvement. I have evening rounds to do and then I’ll be back to reevaluate him, if there’s no change I’ll take him down to surgery then. I’d like for Mr. Wilmington to be here, since he is, after all, Mr. Larabee’s next of kin."

Nathan agreed and told the doctor he’d contact Buck and have him come in. He and Josiah began calling the team members telling each of the impending surgery. One by one each member appeared to stand vigil with the group waiting for the decision on their leader. No one was surprised when Elizabeth joined them. She walked through the doorway and went to the vacant chair between Buck and Josiah. Sitting down she reach over and took Buck’s hand in hers, he turned and looked at her, thanking her with the glance from his dark blue eyes.

Vin stood alone staring out the window, remembering shared times with the man down the hall. He hoped that in the future there would be new experiences to turn into memories, but right now he wasn’t sure. He just knew that he didn’t want his last picture of Chris Larabee to be one of him deathly pale, lying in a hospital bed surrounded by tubes and monitors. He was pulled from his reverie by Dr. Gerringer coming into the room and telling them he was taking Chris down to the surgical floor. The team lined the hallway giving the appearance of an honor guard as Chris’ bed was wheeled to the staff elevator.

Settling back down in the chair JD flipped on the TV and switched over to the 10:00 news.

"Guys, get over here, you’ve got to see this." JD exclaimed.

The rest of the team, followed by Elizabeth rushed to the television. The announcer had already begun a story, but what caught everyone’s attention was a picture of Chris on the screen.

"...Agent Larabee remains in critical condition tonight at a Denver hospital after the shooting. Judge Orrin Travis the Assistant Director of the Denver office of the ATF along with Assistant Director Jack Hamilton of the Nevada desk announced the investigation’s end earlier today at a Washington DC press conference. The arrests took place after Agent Larabee and his team, along with the assistance of Agent Elizabeth Everly of the Nevada office, discovered that the agents arrested had been involved in a conspiracy to sell weapons outside the country. Three agents are under arrest, one has committed suicide. Three other individuals have been arrested and charged with the 1996 murder of Agent Larabee’s wife and son in a car bombing. US Attorney General Philip Anderson praised the work of the team, known in the Denver area as The Magnificent Seven. He also touted the coordinated efforts of the two offices in nabbing the outlaw ATF agents. Attorney General Anderson is the father of the Agent Elizabeth Everly who spearheaded the investigation."

Silence reigned for a moment, as all eyes in the room turned to look at Elizabeth who began to feel decidedly uncomfortable. Finally the glare broke through and the eyebrow began to raise, the frost green gaze canvassing each and every one present.

"Well?" she asked.

Finally Vin spoke up, "Why’d ya do it? You know that’s a fairy tale they just told there. What made you do it?"

"I may be many things Agent Tanner, but a fool is not one of them. What you all did was wrong, I know it and you know it. You used me, the system and your positions as agents of the government to further your own cause, but that cause was just and righteous. No justice would be served by allowing the events of the past week to take on a sinister light. Let’s just say that the way things are reported are the way things would have happened had some people not been pushed to over react to false allegations. Millsaps pushed all the right buttons on all the right people. I just pushed a few of my own to try to even up the score." Finishing up she started through the doors to the hallway before she was stopped by Wilmington’s voice.

"Elizabeth, wait, please." She stopped but didn’t turn around. Buck rushed forward to her. Reaching Elizabeth he looked at her profile then looked down at the floor.

"Elizabeth, I don’t have the words to thank you for what you’ve done. I only hope that you realize that I didn’t do any of this for myself or personal gain, it was all for Chris. You see ever since my mom died Chris has been all the family I’ve had, until Sarah and Adam. Chris, he was man enough to share them with me. When they were killed, well it was just me and ol’ Chris again, but it was different, Chris wasn’t all there. There was this big hole where his heart used to be. I didn’t know how to mend it, couldn’t, but I swore to myself I’d never walk away from him. Me and Chris, we’ve been through some bad times together but we always came through it. When Chris took off that day out of the office and then shut himself away from us, I just saw me losing him all over again and I couldn’t let that happen. I know Chris, I knew he couldn’t have done what they said, but the only way I could prove it was to color outside the lines. I hope you can understand that. I can’t ever hope that you’d forgive me, and don’t know that I could ever expect you to trust me after this, but I do hope that you’ll try to look at me as an honest man, just doing the best he could to help a friend."

Those green eyes, so like Chris Larabee’s looked deep into his soul, then as a tears began to form she stepped back away from him. "Oh Buck, what I wouldn’t give to have a friend like you, like all of you, I hope Chris Larabee knows how lucky he is." With that she walked on to the elevator leaving Buck standing at the door.

Several hours passed before Dr. Rick Gerringer rejoined the group in the waiting room. They’d been joined by Orrin Travis who explained the ruse to the group and told them how Everly was the one to insist on making it happen. He told them how she had ramrodded it through, intent only on saving Chris’ reputation and keeping the rest of the team from facing disciplinary proceedings.

Gerringer looked tired, but he brought them the news that Chris had done amazingly well through the procedure but it would be a while before they knew how things would go. He felt much more confident in his patient’s ability to recover now that the kidney had been removed. He explained that Chris could live a perfectly normal life with just one kidney and that it shouldn’t affect his career at all, other than for dietary restrictions. Allowing that he rested and let it heal completely.

It was two full days before Chris actually was awake enough to know what was going on around him. For the most part during those two days he was in that netherworld somewhere between awake and asleep. He heard the voices around him, he knew he wasn’t alone. He slept, but not a peaceful sleep. It was a drug induced state that brought with it all the fears and uncertainty that bumps into you in the dark. He felt no pain, just a need to wake up, to throw off the thick blanket that trapped him and rejoin the living. It was the dawn of the third day when he finally opened his eyes. Jarred back to reality by the loud snoring of his oldest and best friends.

Buck was sprawled back into the recliner provided by the hospital while Vin was curled up in a smaller cushioned chair. Both were crowded into the private room in the Special Care Ward where Larabee was moved once his fever had broken and his blood count improved. Looking around the room and taking in the sight that met his blinking green eyes Chris tried to call for the men, but found that his voice was barely a whisper. Noticing, for the first time, that his throat was sore made him wonder what all he had missed. He felt the pull of the stitches in his back and side and knew that his face was swollen. His chest hurt, but not as much as the last pain that he remembered before everything was lost from him memory. Moving his hand he knocked the call box off the mattress which caused both sleeping men to come awake. Chris’ gaze was met with brilliant smiles from both men. The two hovered on either side of the hospital bed waiting for the nurse to come in response to their call that he was finally awake.

"Glad to see ya awake cowboy." the blue eyed countersniper said as he looked down into the still tired eyes of the team leader.

"Yeah stud, it’s about time you woke up. Ezra started a pool and I think I’m gonna come out about $300 ahead."

The smile on his face was slight, and then it was gone completely replaced by a frown. Buck mistaking it for a grimace of pain asked if he needed something for pain.

"No, what I need is to get out of here. I’ve still got to clear up this mess."

"Don’t worry about it bud, everything’s been taken care of, it’s all cleared up already." Buck pronounced. Chris looked first at Buck and then to Vin who nodded in agreement before adding, "It’s a long story. We’ll tell you later."

"You’ll tell me now." he responded his strength beginning to return.

When Buck and Vin finished relating the story to him all three men were overcome with emotion. Chris that the deaths of his beloved wife and child would finally be avenged; Buck and Vin with shared grief at the price the man in the bed had paid for being a good and honest man.

"So it’s over?" the blonde asked.

"Yep, signed, sealed, delivered. Chang, Proctor and Fulton have all been arrested and indicted. Jerrolds and the agents connected with him are all under indictment and in custody. They’re trying to cut deals."

"I’ve only been out for three days? How in the hell did you all manage that?"

The two men looked at each other and at the same time answered simply, "Elizabeth"

"You mean that blonde viper from Nevada?"

"One and the same, only Chris, bud, you have GOT to meet this woman, I mean she is so..."Buck stumbled looking for the right word.

"You." Vin supplied. The two dark haired men laughed and nodded while the blonde could only summon the strength to scowl at their laughter. Then the scowl was replaced with a grin, "Aw hell, she can’t be that bad can she?" Larabee questioned.

"Just wait and see cowboy, wait and see." Vin responded.

################

Six weeks later Team Seven looked forward to the return of Chris Larabee. No amount of begging or pleading had worked to be allowed to return early. Chris was not allowed to step foot into the Federal Building until his doctor had approved his return. So bright and early on a Monday morning no one was surprised to see the tall blonde leave a large yellow envelope on Rose’s desk. The envelope contained the keys to the office and the bureau car which was now parked in the parking place of the Denver SAC. Climbing into a taxi that was waiting for her on the ground floor she calmly told the driver to take her to the airport. Elizabeth Everly had committed few cowardly acts in her life, this was one of them. She just didn’t have it in her to tell them goodbye, she couldn’t let them see how much she wanted to stay, to be a part of their world, to be one of them, permanently. After the guys returned to work she was asked to stay on until Chris returned, she gladly accepted not realizing how truly difficult it would be to finally say goodbye.

The six weeks passed way too quickly for her, while it had dragged by to her counterpart. During that time she came to care for each member of the team and even managed to form a grudging relationship with Chris Larabee, the two being way too much alike to ever be very close. But they understood each other and that was important. Both knew that the situation was temporary. Each knew that at some point in the near future they would both return to their former lives, one looked forward to it while the other knew there would be no fulfillment in going back. So that explained why on a bright sunny Denver morning Elizabeth Everly was alone in a cab, headed to the airport to go back to her home in Las Vegas, with tears streaming down her face. She collected herself in the back seat on the way to the terminal, much to the cab driver’s relief. Exiting the taxi she checked her luggage through and headed to the concourse from where her plane would leave. Striding through the airport she was in a reverie when she looked up to see a familiar face several yards in front of her, no make that several familiar faces. There lined up, forming what had the makings of an informal honor guard was The Magnificent Seven.

As she walked up to the first in line Josiah stepped forward, handed her a single white rose and whispered into her ear, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. You, Elizabeth are a true child of God. Thank you for allowing me to know you." With that the big man stepped back.

JD stood next in line, his offering, a yellow rose, with the words, "Thank you for everything." She accepted the flower and reached to hug him.

Nate held out his gift, a large bottle of aspirin, "I know your headaches will be fewer now that you don’t have us to worry about, but just in case, .. Well you won’t be caught without." Touched by the gesture, she wiped away a tear as she hugged the man before stepping down the line to Ezra.

With a flourish the undercover agent presented her with pale pink perfect rose. As he leaned in to say goodbye he brushed his lips against her cheek, no one heard the whispered, "thank you, for listening to me, for believing in what I’d found and having the courage to go forward. If you were only southern I think I’d marry you." He stepped back and winked at her causing a wide smile to form across her features.

"Why Ezra, if you’re not careful I might just tell you the truth about my homeplace. You did know that I was born in Mobile didn’t you?"

"I knew there was a reason I liked you!" the southerner shot back.

Vin stood quietly waiting for her to take the next step down the concourse. "Ma’am, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for Chris, for all of us. Let me just say it’s been an honor to work for you."

"Thank you Vin, you can’t know how much that means to me."

As she started to step away he reached out to her and handed her a folded piece of paper,

"Just a few little words I put together to try and let you know how much, well, how much it meant to me. What you did and all."

Elizabeth glanced at the paper and read the unspoken message. Putting the paper in her coat pocket she told him, "I’ll read it on the plane, but it will be in my heart always."

The sparkling blue eyes of Buck Wilmington smiled at her from the end of the row of men. "Darlin, it has been a real pleasure to work for you, I’d be lyin’ if I said it wasn’t. Now you’re goin’ back to Las Vegas and I’m not gonna be there to look out for ya. So you keep this with you always." With that Buck reached up and put a silver chain around her neck. From the chain hung a silver 40 caliber hollow point bullet engraved with her name.She looked at the ladies man with a question in her eyes. Buck explained, "They say there’s a bullet out there with our name on it, this one is yours, so you keep it around your neck, where you always know where it’s at, that way it can’t hurt you."

By now tears were streaming down her face and she locked her arms around the tall man’s neck. Buck leaned in to the embrace and placed a fervent kiss on her lips.

"If ever I’m in your arms again." he whispered into the small ear pressed against his lips.

She stepped back, looked into the dark blue eyes and asked, "Promise?" His only response was a wink and a slight nod, before he broke into a blinding smile.

Last in line, the man so like her that they could pass for siblings, never so apparent as now when they stood across from each other. Green eyes met green eyes, questions asked and answered without so much as a sound.

"I owe you, more than you’ll ever know."

"No, you’re paid in full." she answered as she glanced back at the men behind her before returning her gaze to the man in black.

"Take care of my boys." she told him as she turned to walk through the security checkpoint.

"Watch your back Liz." Chris shot back at her.

#############

That was the last time Team Seven saw Elizabeth Everly. Eight months later she was killed in a gunfight while attempting to arrest a fugitive. When her personal belongings were handed over to her father at the hospital he was puzzled to find in her badge case some dried flower petals, a well worn piece of paper with a poem and a single aspirin wrapped in aluminum foil. The only piece of jewelry that was removed from her body was a chain. On the chain was her wedding ring and a silver bullet that had her name engraved down the side.

The End