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azombiewritesTitle: The Betrayal
Rating: PG
Warnings: Strong Language, violence and drug use.
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven
AU: ATF
Main Characters: Ezra, and the rest.
Summary: Team Seven believe that Ezra Standish has betrayed them.
Disclaimers: The guys are owned by CBS, MGM, Trilogy Entertainment Group, and The Mirisch Corp.
Notes: Lenny Hoskins is my creation. I don't have any medical knowledge- forgive any mistakes.
Spoilers: None
Status: Complete
Total Word Count: 96,713
Eyes continued to look at watches as the minutes gratefully turned into slow agonising hours. Tension had begun to fill the room, each man becoming irritated by something someone else was doing. Fingers tapped, legs paced the length of the crowded room, pages of magazines were constantly turned as eyes ignored the words and pictures, and bodies stood up then sat down again in an agitated manner. An angry word or a look would stop the annoying movements or sounds.
When Dr Falex finally walked through the door to the waiting room, six hours had passed. He still wore his surgical gear, the cap that covered his thin blond hair was soaked with sweat, and the green surgical top was stained with sweat and dark stains that they knew was Ezra's blood.
Lenny got up quickly and stood in front of the Doctor, his stance full of determination, he stared into the bright blues eyes that looked back at him. "Well?"
"Why don't you sit down Mr . . . " The Doctor gestured to the empty chair that Lenny had just been occupying.
"Why don't you tell me how Ezra is?" Lenny tried to hide the fear that he was feeling from the men who surrounded him.
"The bullet that entered his chest missed his heart," he used his hand to indicate an area just above the heart, "it reflected off one of his rib bones, breaking it in the process, the bullet grazed his left lung then exited out through his back. The lung filled with blood and collapsed, we drained the fluid and stitched the tear stopping the internal bleeding. So far that's okay, there shouldn't be any serious complications to that, the lung may collapse again but that won't be life threatening." Doctor Falex sat down in one of the spare chairs and waited for Ezra's friends to do the same. "The head wound though is a different matter. The bullet fractured his skull," this time he pointed to the left side of his skull, just above the temple, "there was fluid build up and swelling on the brain. Like the lung we had to drain the fluid so the swelling can reduce."
"Is he going to make it?" Chris asked for everyone.
"At the moment he's in a coma Chris." He slowly looked around the room then back to Chris who's eyes were now turned downward. "Chris, Ezra's not breathing on his own, he's hooked up to a machine that's breathing for him."
"Is there any brain activity?" Nathan held his breath as the shocked expressions looked towards him.
"There is brain activity, we checked that already but we'll have to wait to see if he wakes up before we'll be able to determine if there's any brain damage."
"Is he going to make it?" Lenny repeated the question that the Doctor was yet to answer.
"If he doesn't start breathing on his own . . . ," his own expression showed remorse, "he won't make it."
"And if he does start breathing?" Nathan continued to ask the questions, he knew everyone else would be in a state of shock, he also had a better understanding of what the Doctor was saying.
"Then it would be a matter of waiting to see if he comes out of the coma."
"How long are you willing to keep him on the machine?" Everyone knew what Nathan's question meant.
"As long as we believe there's a chance that he'll come out of the coma, we'll keep the machine breathing for him." Falex assured him.
"Do you think that he'll come out of it." Chris asked him when he got his lungs working again.
"As I said there is brain activity, so the odds are in Ezra's favour, there small odds at the moment but at least he has a chance." Doctor Falex tiredly pushed himself out of the chair. "They're taking him to ICU now, Julie's going to come down and get you once he's settled." He was about to head to the door when he remembered something. "The marks on Ezra's forearms, he wasn't a drug addict at some point was he?" He thought he had better explain after seeing the expressions that crossed the faces in front of him. "We did blood tests that came up clear but I need to know it he had been one at some stage, if he was we'll have to be careful with the pain medications that he'll need if he wakes up."
"No, Ezra's never been on drugs, the needle marks were part of his cover, he was working undercover when this happened." Lenny explained to him.
"Okay, that's good." He felt awkward that he had to ask but he needed to know. "I've got other patients to see but I'll be back up to ICU shortly to check on Ezra."
"Thanks Doc." Chris's eyes returned to the carpet between his boots, he knew exactly how many speckles of colour were in the small area but he continued to count them.
________________________________________
"You can all go in for a couple of minutes but after that only two can stay with him at a time." Julie instructed them as they rode the elevator to the ICU. "We've put him close to the entrance so those of you who aren't in there can still see him from the doors."
"Thanks Julie." Chris forced a smile to cover his rugged features.
"That's okay, we know how you guys feel about each other." Julie frowned at Lenny when he snorted at the remark.
They stepped off the elevator and headed to the door that lead to the patients who were in a critical condition, Julie opened the door for them but they hesitated. Lenny though didn't, he pushed past them and walked to the bed that was going to keep his young friend a prisoner while he remained in this condition. He stood at the foot of the bed and looked down at Ezra. The first thing he saw was the thick tubing that led from the mouth piece to the machine that was doing his lungs work for them. His eyes moved to the bandage that was wrapped around his forehead, the bruising still managed to spread out from underneath it, giving the impression that he had two black eyes, the colouring a strong contrast to the white bandage and pale colour of Ezra's skin. The small bandages had been removed from the injuries that Chris had inflicted, the wounds were already beginning to heal.
"I know Ezra looks bad but he isn't in any pain." Julie assured Lenny as she came up to his side.
He didn't look at her, his gaze moved to Ezra's chest where the wires had been placed to monitor his heart rate, a smaller bandage peaked out from under the thin blanket that had been placed over Ezra. He stepped around the bed and moved closer to Ezra's left side, he sat down in the chair that had been made available for them and picked up the near lifeless hand with his own. He squeezed it once hoping that Ezra felt the comfort he was offering. He used his right hand to wipe the hair from Ezra's forehead while he spoke to him.
"Ezra, it's Lenny." The tears fell from his eyes, he wasn't afraid to show them, the others hadn't come in yet, they were allowing him some time alone with Ezra before they entered the room. "I'm here with your kid and so are your friends, I know you don't think they are at the moment but they care about you more than you realise Ezra. You should give them another chance and yeah I know what you’re thinking Ezra. Your lying there giving me one of your smart mouth comments and I agree with you, I'm not going to forgive them but hell, I don't even know them, I don't have to forgive them I mean that Larabee, he's a real asshole. Don't know why your respect that guy but you should forgive them Ezra and I'm going to make sure you do. I'll do the hitting and shouting for you, you just do the listening and forgiving." He continued to wipe the hair that was no longer there while he listened to the machines that told him Ezra was still alive. The oxygen machine made it's normal terrifying sound as it moved up and down, forcing the oxygen into his lungs and drawing out the carbon monoxide, the heart monitor continued to beep in a steady rhythm.
Chris couldn't help but smile at the words that Lenny had spoken to Ezra, he had been standing close enough to the FBI Agent to hear what he was saying, and he nodded to the men behind him to come closer. Each of them took in Ezra's appearance. They had all taken turns spending time in this hospital but none of them had been as close to death as Ezra was, he actually looked like death. Chris could hear JD's jerking breaths coming from behind him and knew he was about to lose control of his emotions.
"You and Lenny stay with him first Chris, we'll wait outside." Josiah gently pushed him towards the other empty chair. "I'll go and phone Maude and then do the Hospital paperwork."
Lenny quickly wiped his eyes when he heard the voices behind him, he looked up to see Chris sit down in the chair opposite him, and he watched as he placed his hand over Ezra's and kept it there.
"Do you think he'll forgive us?" Chris asked Lenny.
"Depends on how hard you're willing to try to gain his forgiveness." Lenny growled at him over Ezra's inert form.
Chris nodded in agreement, the silence then hung heavily around them as each turned their eyes to Ezra's slack features.
________________________________________
"We should be trying to get away from Denver Jack not stay in it." Glading tried to convince his cohort. They had just met up in one of their regular meeting places, a booth in a rundown bar, they could see the front door and were sitting next to the exit that led to the back door. If someone entered the bar, they could leave before they were seen.
"I don't know that Standish is dead yet and until I'm sure I'm not going anywhere." Collins knew that he had done a stupid thing by shooting Standish when there were people watching, the other Agent had also used his name in the coffee shop. He had been made and all because he had been stupid.
"What if he's not dead?" Glading was worried, getting two FBI Agents killed was one thing but to kill one of the Magnificent Seven as they were known was another. If Ezra Standish died, his friends wouldn't stop until he and Collins were in the same state.
"Then he will be because I'm not going anywhere until he's dead. He went through a lot of trouble to flush me out and I'm going to return the favour." Collins confidently announced.
________________________________________
Chris hated the sound of the machine that was breathing for Ezra, each time the noise echoed in his mind it forced the reality of Ezra's death into his thoughts driving out any hope that his friend would survive. He looked into the slack features of the man that lay in the bed in front of him, there was no movement at all from the prone figure and he wondered if there ever would be again. Making sure that he was careful of the IV tubes, Chris turned Ezra's arm so his forearm faced upwards. He carefully ran his finger along the needle marks, touching each one.
"Why did he have to be so convincing?" He looked over the still form into Lenny's light blue eyes and noticed for the first time how much they were like Vin's.
"Why did you have to be so brutal?" Lenny threw back at him, he lifted the hand that was still held firmly in his grip so Chris could see the healing torn flesh around Ezra's wrist.
"Because it was easier than admitting to something that I wasn't ready to accept." Chris didn't want to go into it with Lenny, he wasn't sure the man would understand.
"You want to explain that." Lenny laid Ezra's arm back down on the bed but didn't let go of his hand.
"I'd rather explain it to Ezra if he'd let me." Chris told him. "He's the one that deserves the apology, not that it's going to be enough to make up for what I did."
"He'll let you, I'll make sure that he does, but I'll be there with him Larabee, to make sure that you don't hurt him any more than you already have." Lenny's confident words told Chris that the FBI Agent wasn't threatening him, he was making a promise.
Chris nodded in agreement, Ezra had suffered enough already, he looked back at the pale features that were covered in bruises. His own hands had inflicted those bruises on Ezra's face, he knew they would heal but it was the emotional trauma that concerned him, and it was going to take a lot more to heal the damage his friends had caused. They had used physical force to show their anger but he knew that it wouldn't have hurt as much as the hatred they had shown in their expressions and vocalised in their words. His guilt-ridden thoughts turned to Lenny, he knew the man had to be close to Ezra, his eyes followed his thoughts to see the concern and worry that filled the older man's eyes.
"Lenny?" He ignored the angry expression. "How long have you known Ezra?"
"Ten years." His eyes took on a glazed look while his mind remembered distant memories.
Chris waited but Lenny's continued silence told him that he wasn't willing to say anymore. "How close are you?"
"Ezra loves me like a brother but he won't admit it, even after ten years, but I know exactly how he feels about me, he can't hide anything from me, never could." Lenny couldn't help but smile down at Ezra's expressionless face, he stroked his forehead with loving affection.
"And you?"
"Me?" Lenny's surprised expression quickly moved back to Chris but his eyes began to fill with moisture so he turned them back to Ezra, the sight of the tubes caused the tears to fall once again. "Ezra's the younger brother I never had."
Chris kept silent and gave Lenny the time he needed. Until Ezra improved there were going to be many of these awkward moments. They both turned to the sound of the door opening to see Josiah coming towards the bed. The normally quiet man stood beside Lenny and placed his hand on Ezra's lower thigh and squeezed it gently, hoping that the pressure would be enough to bring him back to them. He knew it was a false hope but he had to do something, he wasn't able to just stand there and stare at the man who looked more like death than life.
"Maude's in France." He informed them while his eyes continued to look at Ezra's inert form, he watched his chest rise and fall in rhythm with the machine that breathed for him. "I left a message with her answering service."
"That's going to make things a lot easier for everyone." Lenny sighed in relief while he used his free hand to dry his eyes.
Chris and Josiah gave each other a strained smile, they silently agreed with Lenny's admittance. They knew Ezra had a difficult relationship with his mother. Each time she flew in to visit, Ezra's mood became sombre, he closed himself off completely to everyone, and they didn't understand why he acted this way towards his mother until her third visit. Ezra had been injured during one of his undercover operations and Maude had blamed him for what happened, saying that it was his own fault because he was an FBI Agent instead of the person she had brought him up to be. The visit had ended in an intense argument and it had taken two weeks for Ezra to get back to his normal allusive character.
"She must have been worried though to be ringing from France to see if he was okay." Josiah commented trying to break the silence that had once again filled the small area.
"Believe me, Maude has never cared about Ezra, she must've been phoning for her own selfish reasons." Lenny argued with him. "If Maude was here now she would be blaming all of this," he waved his hand above Ezra's upper body, "on Ezra, telling him it was his own fault that this happened."
The small area of the ICU became silent once more, allowing the noise coming from the machines that crowded the bed to echo in each of their minds, reminding them how close to death Ezra was. Josiah rubbed Ezra's leg in one last gesture of hope then walked away from his bed leaving the two rivals alone again.
________________________________________
"Lenny is going to stay with Ezra while we take turns." Chris informed the group of men who had gathered around him in the small waiting area outside the ICU.
"Because Hoskins says so?" Buck asked angrily.
"No! Because I say so!" Chris kept his voice down, he didn't want Lenny to hear their discussion but he did allow the anger to show on his rugged features. "He's known Ezra for ten years, their close and I'm not going to separate them." He looked over his shoulder through the glass window and watched Lenny for a few moments, his head was down allowing Chris to see Ezra's face. "Lenny stays with him."
"That's going to make it hard for the rest of us to sit in there with him." Vin commented.
"You're not here to make conversation with Lenny and if you can't deal with him being in there while you’re sitting with Ezra then you can stay out here." Chris informed them. "Look, none of us know what Lenny's really like . . . "
"I know exactly what he's like." Buck interrupted Chris. "He didn't give any of us a chance during this operation, he didn't trust us and neither did Ezra. You heard what he called us, incompetent assholes."
"And we are, if we did our job right and trusted Ezra he wouldn't be lying on his death bed right now." Chris agreed with Lenny's observations of their abilities. "Besides why should Ezra trust us." Chris quickly moved closer to Buck until he was standing face to face with his old friend. "I gave him a concussion Buck, you gave him two cracked ribs. We haven't given him any reason to trust us and I wouldn't blame him if he didn't want anything to do with us if he survives." He hung his head and took a deep breath before looking back at the group. "You should be grateful that Lenny's allowing us to sit with him because he has every right to stop us."
"Ezra's not going to die." JD whispered more to himself than his friends, he moved away from them and walked into the ICU to take up his vigil of Ezra's comatose form.
"Chris is right." Josiah had seen the tears in Lenny's eyes when he had told them about Maude. "Lenny cares about Ezra, he should stay with him."
"That's an order." Chris had seen the hesitant expressions on Buck and Vin's faces.
Buck was about to continue the argument but the sound of the elevator doors opening stopped him from speaking his mind. Judge Travis stepped through the doors before they fully opened and walked towards them. His understanding eyes turned to each man, he saw the mournful expressions they held, he walked to the window which allowed him to see into the ICU, he could see Lenny and JD sitting at Ezra's bedside, he saw the tubes that led to one of the many machines beside the bed and understood it's meaning. The machine was keeping Ezra alive, he didn't need to ask them how Ezra was doing, and the sight before him told him everything he needed to know.
"There's brain activity," Chris had read the Judge's thoughts and stepped up to the window, he watched Ezra's face but spoke to Judge Travis, "Doctor Falex said that if he doesn't start breathing on his own he won't make it."
"If he does?" Travis turned his head to look at Chris, he could no longer gaze upon Ezra's machine breathing form.
"Then we wait for him to come out of the coma." Chris informed him.
________________________________________
Lenny jerked awake, a small gasp escaping from his dry throat, he blinked his eyes in confusion and once they were able to focus he could see Ezra lying in the bed, the tubes still attached to the mouthpiece, he could also hear the heart monitor that told him Ezra was still alive. He looked down at his watch and frowned, he'd been asleep for three hours, it was the first time he had slept in four days.
"You okay Lenny?" Nathan asked him from the other side of the bed, he was worried about the FBI Agent, he hadn't eaten much in the four days they had been here and the three-hour reprieve he had just woken from wasn't enough to keep him going. The older man needed to keep his strength up but he refused to eat a decent meal or sleep and only left Ezra's side when he had no choice.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Lenny wiped the sleep from his tired eyes, he was surprised to see Nathan there. Buck had been sitting in the other chair when he fell asleep, he was grateful that the angry stare was gone. After everything that happened Buck and Vin now tried to take their anger out on him, he didn't care, he would take anything they threw at him, because the anger was no longer aimed at Ezra and once he knew that Ezra was going to be okay then he would display his own anger. "Ezra?"
"No change." Nathan informed him. "Doctor Falex was here earlier, checked him over, his pupils are still unresponsive."
Nathan watched him carefully, Chris had told them how close Lenny and Ezra were, it was also written all over the older man's face each time he looked at Ezra. They were family, much like the members of Team Seven had become, and Ezra though was the black sheep of the family, at first he had refused to become part of it, not allowing the others to get close to him for reasons the rest of the team were yet to figure out. The southerner kept himself and his feelings behind a wall that he had built around himself trying to make them think that he didn't care but they knew he did, when one of the others were hurt they could see it in his eyes, and his body language spoke volumes but he still refused to voice his concerns.
It had taken two months before a friendship had finally begun to develop between Ezra and the others, Vin had been the first one to start breaking down the wall, Josiah, Buck and JD were next. Nathan knew he had kept himself at a distance because he was yet to fully trust the southerner and he knew that Chris mirrored his concerns. But even after the friendship had started to grow Ezra still refused to show any emotions, he continued to hide everything behind his calm facade they had begun to call his poker face.
"Lenny can I ask you something?" Nathan decided to voice his thoughts to find out if they had any hope of getting closer to Ezra.
"Sure." Lenny was glad of the distraction, Nathan was the only he was able to have a conversation with, neither of them held any anger towards each other.
"How long did it take you to break down Ezra's wall?"
"You mean the one he uses to stop people from getting close to him so they can't hurt him?" Lenny smiled but his eyes still held the sadness he felt.
"Is that why he won't let us in, he thinks we'll hurt him?" Nathan frowned down at Ezra and thought he saw a movement that went against the rhythm of the machine.
"That's one reason, he's been hurt by people all his life, he built the wall to protect himself against that pain, he doesn't want it to happen again. He also uses it to hide his feelings, his mother taught him to hide everything ever since he was a child, told him that people would think he was weak if he showed his emotions and that they would take advantage of him, the woman has a lot to answer for." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath before he continued. "Took me five years before I could get him to fully trust me and open himself up to me, now he'll tell me anything and everything." Lenny followed Nathan's gaze, curious as to what he was looking at, he saw nothing different. "He hasn't let anyone else get that close to him."
"Do you think we might have a chance with him?" Nathan turned back to Lenny when he didn't see anything to confirm his hopes.
"You did have one, I don't know anymore though." Lenny leaned forward and looked into Nathan's gentle brown eyes. "We speak to each other whenever we can, we visit each other when our jobs allow it. Ezra told me all about you guys, said that he finally thought he found a place he could call home and friends that he could see himself getting close to . . . " He shrugged his shoulders. "He knew that it would take time and a lot of effort on his part but then this situation came up and he had to pull himself away from all of you. I hoped that he was right, he's too much of a loner, he needs friends, other people that he could confide in but after what I saw, I mean the way they treated him Nathan." He rubbed his eyes hoping to rid them of the sleep that wanted to take him back to its embrace. "I told Chris I'd do what I could to help but I don't if it's what Ezra would want."
Nathan smiled as he saw another movement that went against the machine. "Well Lenny, I think we might have a chance to find out!" He stood up quickly and pushed his chair out of the way while at the same time pulling the blanket back. He placed his large right hand against Ezra's bare chest next to the small bandage that had been changed only an hour before and the other hand against the slack right cheek, covering half of Ezra's face and waited.
"Nathan what's going on?" Lenny also stood, the hope catching in his throat caused his voice to break.
"Push the buzzer Lenny." Nathan noticed that Lenny didn't hesitate, the man trusted him.
Nathan ignored the nurse who ran to the bed to find out what the emergency was, she moved closer to the patient after pulling Lenny out of the way. She glanced at the slack face then up at the large man leaning over him, her eyes moved downward again and she also saw the movement.
"I'll get the Doctor." She spoke quietly but her voice was firm.
"Nathan?" Lenny called him, he didn't get response but he heard him talk to Ezra and the air froze in his own lungs.
"Come on Ezra, try and take another one." Nathan began to wipe the unbandage area of Ezra's forehead with his hand, his eyes moving from his face to his chest and back again. "Come on Ezra you can do it!"
Lenny watched as the nurse ran back to the bed with the Doctor behind her, he also felt movement beside him and turned to see Chris standing next to him, his eyes moved back to the bed and his heart broke when he heard the choking noises coming from Ezra.
"Turn the machine off." The Doctor ordered the nurse. He expertly detached the tubes from the mouthpiece while Nathan lifted Ezra's head and pulled the pillow out of the way, he laid his head back down while Ezra struggled to breath around the tube that was blocking his airway.
Lenny continued to watch as the Doctor quickly but gently removed the tube from Ezra's throat and everyone heard the deep intake of breath, which was released, and another one was taken.
Nathan turned towards his friends, a huge smile covering his face. "Ezra's breathing on his own."
Lenny let go of the breath that he was holding, he felt someone slap him on the back but he didn't look to see who it was, he wanted to sit back down in his chair next to Ezra but the Doctor wasn't finished. He spent a few minutes monitoring Ezra's breathing and heart rate and then checked his pupils.
"Nathan's right, Ezra's now breathing on his own." The Doctor informed them.
"He's going to make it then?" JD asked him.
"His chances have improved but he's still in a coma. We'll monitor him closely for the next twenty four hours and if his condition hasn't deteriated we'll move him out of the ICU into a room on the general ward." He turned to the nurse and began giving her instructions as they walked back to the nurses’ station.
Lenny moved back to the chair and sat down, he picked up Ezra's hand and began to stroke his forehead. He ignored the men that stood around the bed and leaned closer to Ezra, he started to talk to him hoping that he would hear him.
Chris listened to Lenny, his words causing a smile to grow on his own face. Lenny was encouraging him to wake up so he could help him take care of his so-called friends, he knew that he was hoping his words would make Ezra angry enough to wake up, it was something that he would have done himself. He turned to his friends and ushered them out of the ICU. He knew that it was going to be a long twenty four hours and he silently prayed that Ezra wouldn't suffer any complications, once he had gotten through those hours it would then be only a matter of time until he woke up.
________________________________________
Glading shifted in his seat and felt his sweat soaked shirt pull away from his back, he leaned back into the seat only to still feel uncomfortable, and he glanced sideways at Collins and watched as the small droplet of sweat ran down the side of his face. Glading hated summer, it made his receding hairline even worse, the remaining red hair on his scalp became even thinner when it was wet, and he subconsciously used his hand to wipe it across the bald spot. He shifted his eyes nervously to the rear-view mirror and lowered himself even further in the seat when he saw a woman in a nurse’s uniform walk towards the car. Glading's body moved but his damp shirt stuck to the seat, it pulled the damp material from the waistband of his pants causing his flesh to rub against the vinyl, and he froze at the squeaky noise his skin made as he forced it down the back of the car seat.
"Will you please sit still!" Collins growled at him but he kept his green eyes glued to the front doors of the hospital.
"Someone is going to see us." Glading warned him, he leaned forward and pulled his shirt back down.
"No one is going to see us." He lifted his glasses from his face and wiped the sweat that had built up around his eyes.
"We can't get to him in there, they won't leave him alone for a minute, and they’ll catch us first." Glading began to complain again, he couldn't understand why they had to keep sitting in here in the heat of the car when they could be sitting on a beach somewhere.
"It's been more than a week and they haven't left yet, that means Standish is still alive." He turned his hate-filled eyes sideways so he could look at Glading's profile. "I'm not going anywhere until that man is dead! He ruined my career and he's going to pay for it with his life!"
"And how are you going to get to him when there's seven men who won't leave his bedside?" Glading rolled down the passenger window only to find that there wasn't enough of a breeze to give him a reprieve from the summer heat.
"He has to leave the hospital at some point, and so do his friends." They had been watching the hospital for three days now and were yet to see a member of Team Seven. Judge Travis and other ATF Agents had made an appearance, bringing them the everyday necessities the team needed to help them get through their vigil of their fallen comrade. "I have plenty of time to wait."
Glading looked more closely at Collins and wondered why he had ever let him talk him into this, sure, he paid him a lot of money but what good will it be if he were himself killed or spent the rest of his life in jail for killing a Federal Agent. He began to think of a way to get himself out of the mess that he had allowed his greed to get him into.
________________________________________
Nathan gently slapped the handsome face that had turned to the side, allowing his head to fall onto his left shoulder, giving Nathan an advanced warning that he was waking up, the face grimaced at the touch and a hand lifted to stop Nathan from hitting him again. Nathan looked over his shoulder at his friends, Chris seemed to be the only one that was enjoying the scene before them.
"Time to wake up." Nathan smiled down at the figure that had slept for eleven hours, he began to shake his shoulder trying to bring him out of the deep healing sleep he'd been in.
The man groaned and turned over onto his side, his hand trying to push Nathan away at the same time. Chris moved forward and hit the leg that hung over the bed, this gave them the desired result they were after. He jerked awake and sat up, he eyes darted around the room in confusion, then focused on the inert form that still lay in a coma.
"What happened?" Lenny looked up into Nathan's eyes.
"You fell asleep." Nathan told him.
"Asleep, I don't remember falling asleep." The forehead frowned in concentration, the last thing he remembered was drinking a cup of coffee then nothing. "What the hell did you give me?" Lenny demanded to know.
"You needed to sleep Lenny, it's been a week, and you were exhausted." Nathan explained, he stepped away from the second bed in the hospital room when Lenny jumped off it and made his way back to Ezra's bedside.
"If Ezra woke up while I was asleep there'll be hell to pay." Lenny growled at the group.
"He hasn't woken up yet." Chris informed him.
Lenny sighed and rubbed his eyes, he took a few moments and watched his friend carefully, the wounds on his cheek and forehead were nearly healed and the gunshot wound was now covered by a small bandage but he still hadn't woken up from the coma.
"How long was I asleep for?" He sat down heavily in the chair and picked up Ezra's hand.
"Nearly twelve hours." Nathan smiled carefully, he wasn't sure how Lenny was going to react. "I asked Doctor Falex to give me something that I could put in your coffee." He winced when Lenny glared at him.
"Don't do it again Nathan, I won't forgive you so easily next time." The older man warned him. That meant it had now been three days since they moved Ezra into this room, the forlorn expression that covered his face echoed the dread that began to fill his heart.
"You were making yourself sick Lenny, what good would you be to Ezra if he woke up to find you in a sick bed." Nathan gathered all his courage together and glared back at him.
"He's not going to wake up." Lenny gave in to the inevitable. "If he was he would have woken up by now."
Nathan moved forward and put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't give up on him Lenny, Ezra's a fighter, always has been."
"He hasn't exactly got anything to fight for anymore, I know he won't take his job back, he's lost his friends." Lenny knew he wasn't fully awake and he was allowing his emotions to get the better of him, he tried to fight them but he had been holding them back for a week and they took advantage of his weakened state. "Why won't he just give up, I can't stand to see him like this anymore." He threw Ezra's hand back onto the bed and leaned back, he covered his eyes and allowed the tears to fall. He felt Nathan squeeze his shoulder again but this time in sympathy, he shrugged him off and placed his head on the bed, his forehead resting on Ezra's arm.
"He still has you Lenny and us even if he doesn't know it, were not going to give up on him and neither should you." Chris reminded him. "Ezra will wake up, just give him some time, even you should know how stubborn he is about waking up when he's not ready.
Lenny laughed and nodded in agreement, it was something the two of them had in common, and they both hated early mornings. He lifted his head and wiped his eyes with his shirtsleeve. "I'm sorry, I don't usually get this emotional in front of people."
"You and Ezra seem to have a lot in common." During the last week, Chris had seen characteristics that Lenny shared with Ezra, he silently groaned at the thought of now having two of them to deal with.
"Disliked each other on sight." Lenny remembered the first time they had met. "He was a smart mouth maverick who was willing to risk his life to get the bad guy."
"So nothing's changed then." Chris smiled, it had also been his first impression of the southerner but he found out with on the job experience that it was the way Ezra worked and if he risked his life, it was usually to save someone else's.
Lenny lifted his damp eyes to look more closely at Chris, he was beginning to understand why Ezra respected him so much but the acknowledgement did nothing to ease his anger at the situation that Ezra was put in, he still intended to pay the man back for the physical and emotion abuse that he had given his young friend.
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Ezra groaned - well he at least thought he groaned - when the sound of the alarm began to break through his sleep clouded mind. He tried to lift his arm so he could throw the clock against the wall, he was looking forward to hearing it break into half a dozen pieces then fall to the floor so it would join the other ones that had previously been broken. He began to relax again so he could go back to sleep but the sound continued to vibrate within his mind causing him to become irritated. He seemed to remember breaking the clock earlier, he was about to break it again when he remembered his clock was actually set to the radio position, he hated waking up to the buzzing sound, not that the awful racket they called music these days was any better, what was with the crap JD listened to. He would have to educate the boy in the finer points of music that didn't damage a listener's eardrums. But he realised that it wasn't a buzzing noise he heard, it was more like a beeping sound, he rolled over onto his side - or so he thought - before falling back to sleep.
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"Eat it!" Nathan placed the tray of food next to Ezra's unmoving legs.
"How do I know you haven't put something in it to make me sleep!" Lenny's disgusted look told Nathan what he thought about hospital food.
"You don't!" Nathan retaliated, he was really becoming tired of the aggravation this man was causing him, and he was nearly as bad as Ezra.
"Then I'm not going to eat it!"
"If I didn't know any better I would say you and Ezra were brothers." Nathan threw his hands into the air in frustration. "Did you teach him how to be stubborn or was it the other way around?"
Lenny smiled at him and realised the man was serious, his smile dropped from his face, he looked around the larger man at the small group of men who were smiling at him, then back at Nathan, his mouth opened then closed again.
"Yep, your just like him." Nathan muttered under his breath.
"I'm sure Ezra would take that as a compliment." The smile returned to Lenny's face.
Guns were quickly pulled from their holsters when the door to the room was pushed open, tensed muscles relaxed when they saw the pizza deliveryman. There had been no sightings of Glading or Collins and the group of men were now not only waiting for Ezra to wake up but were also protecting him, there would only be one reason the two rogue agents were still in Denver, they wanted to make sure they finished the job they started.
"Um, sorry guys but I couldn't handle the food in this place anymore." JD admitted as he stepped forward to take the pizzas from the young man's hands, he handed him some money then pushed him back out of the room.
"Now that I would eat." Lenny licked his lips, the smell alone was enough to make him feel hungry.
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'Good Lord.' He waited for answer, thinking that he spoke aloud but he didn't receive one. The incessant sound of the beeping was beginning to drive him mad, he wanted nothing more than to tear whatever it was from the wall and shoot it. He now had all intentions of buying Buck a decent alarm clock. He knew he was in the cesspit that Buck and JD called an apartment, which else would eat pizza for breakfast. He frowned but his forehead didn't show the movement. 'Why am I here in this cesspool?' he thought for a moment and felt the headache that was pounding in his skull. 'Must have a hangover, doesn't explain why I'm here though.' He fell asleep again while trying to figure a way out of his predicament.
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"His pupils are responding." Doctor Falex happily informed the group of men who stood around the bed, they had been waiting for ten days to hear those words.
"He's waking up?" Lenny couldn't believe what he was saying, he wanted to but doubt nagged at his mind.
"Yes Lenny, he's waking up, it might still take him a couple of days but he's coming out of the coma."
"You're sure?"
"He's a Doctor Lenny," Nathan rolled his eyes at him, "of course he's sure."
"He's coming out of the coma?" Lenny asked again, he couldn't stop the smile from showing on his face.
"Doctor, wasn't there something you had to do?" Chris asked him and smiled at the mouthed thank you.
Nathan stepped closer to Lenny after the Doctor had left. "Lenny!" he waited until he had his attention, he didn't want to ruin the good news but he had to make sure that Lenny was still aware of the potential brain damage the bullet may have caused.
"What?" Lenny saw the serious expression and knew what Nathan was about to say. "I won't think about that until he wakes up Nathan, I can't think about that, not yet." He sat back down in the chair and squeezed Ezra's hand, he now knew that the affection was going to be returned, and it was now just a matter of time.
Nathan stepped back, he felt the same but refused to push the thoughts away. Ezra had a quick intelligent mind and none of them wanted to see it dulled by a gunshot wound.
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'Will someone turn that damn noise off!' Ezra yelled then frowned when his voice didn't sound in his own ears. 'I'm not deaf, I can still hear that beeping noise.' He tried to sit up but his limbs were too heavy. 'Maybe it's more than a hangover.' He grimaced at the pain that continued to pound in his head, it was becoming more irritating than the noise that wouldn't stop. 'I'm in hell, there is no other explanation.' He frowned in concentration and this time his forehead mirrored the movement that was in his mind.
"Ezra?" Lenny whispered in his ear, he had seen the frown that crossed his pale features, and was nearly brought to tears by the movement.
Ezra heard his name being called as the voice fought its way through his mud-filled mind but he fell asleep again before he could ask them why they wouldn't turn that irritating noise off or give him something to stop the pain that continued to torment him.
"Did you see that Nathan? He frowned." Lenny looked across Ezra's sleeping form at Nathan, his returning smile told him that he had seen it. "Chris?" He was to happy to be angry but he knew that emotion will return later, he wasn't ready to forget what they had done to Ezra.
"I saw it Lenny." Chris turned and looked at the others and saw smiles that he knew would be just as large as his.
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"Ezra!" Doctor Falex waited patiently for a response, it had been three days since his pupils responded to his examination, he should have woken by now but he knew Ezra, the man was being lazy, he wanted to sleep. "Ezra!"
Ezra heard the voice but didn't recognise it so he continued to ignore it, he just wanted to sleep, he was tired and the hangover he had was not helping.
"Ezra!" Lenny spoke loudly in his ear and was rewarded with a grimace. "Wake up Ezra!"
He knew that voice and the tone it held told him he was in trouble, he turned his head away from the voice and hoped that it would go away. He became aware of the beeping sound, it was still there, and the noise was becoming a constant source of torture.
"Ezra wake up!" Lenny raised his voice, if it wasn't for the serious expression on Falex's face, he would be enjoying himself.
Lenny watched as Ezra turned his head back towards his voice. He could see that he was struggling to open his eyes, they slowly fluttered open, giving him a glimpse of the green eyes that hid behind the eyelids but they quickly disappeared again.
"Ezra will you do as your told!" Chris growled down at him, he had moved into the position the Doctor had just vacated.
Now he knew he was in trouble, if Lenny and Chris were mad at him, he must have done something wrong. He frowned again as a memory tried to force it's way to his consciousness, he didn't do anything wrong, they did.
"Ezra!" Lenny watched as the eyelids lifted again, the normal bright eyes were dull and full of confusion, they stared back at him for a few seconds then closed again.
He finally managed to open his eyes to see a blurred figure standing over him, he tried to blink his eyes to clear his vision but they wouldn't open again, they stayed closed, it felt like someone had glued them together. 'Probably Buck.' he thought to himself, it was something only he would do. He turned his head back to the beeping noise, God he hated that sound. His mind went back into a peaceful oblivion before he could voice his protest against the noise that he thought would never end.
"I'll come back in a few hours and we'll wake him up again." Falex saw Lenny's concern. "Don't worry it's normal, it'll get easier to wake him up and he'll stay awake longer each time."
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He woke up again to the beeping noise, now he was angry, why were they doing this to him. This time he was going to voice his anger, he didn't care if he hurt Buck's feelings, he shouldn't have bought an alarm clock that only beeped. 'Will you turn that damn noise off!' But all he heard was the word 'noise' and even then, it was only a hoarse whisper.
"Ezra? It's Lenny." He moved closer to Ezra's face, he saw the frown that turned into an angry grimace.
". . . noise . . ." Ezra tried again and failed miserably, he was becoming more agitated.
"Ezra?" Lenny didn't understand what he was talking about, maybe the Doctor was right and there was brain damage.
". . . hate . . . it."
"Ezra, what are you talking about?" Nathan used his firm voice and Ezra turned his head towards him.
". . . noise . . . hate . . . it." Ezra forced his eyes to open, but the heaviness caused them to shut again, he waited a moment then opened them again, they fell shut before he could focus on Nathan's voice. ". . . beeping . . . hate . . . it."
Nathan looked at Lenny and saw the confusion that also filled his mind, his eyes saw the heart monitor behind him and he realised what it was Ezra was saying.
"It's the heart monitor Ezra." Nathan explained to him.
". . . no . . . alarm . . . clock." He opened his eyes again and saw the dark figure hovering over him. ". . . Buck's . . ." He allowed his eyes to close again, they were too heavy. ". . . cesspit . . ."
"Ezra thinks he's at my place?" Buck moved closer to the bed, the worry filling his thoughts.
"Nathan is there brain damage?" Lenny asked him, his fear sounding in his voice.
"I don't think there's brain damage, I think he's just confused, his speech was fine, it wasn't slurred and I could see the confusion in his eyes." Nathan assured them.
". . . Lenny . . ." Ezra turned towards his friend's voice and felt the warm hand on his face, he smiled underneath it. ". . . noise . . ." He allowed the darkness to take him back because he knew the beeping sound wouldn't be there.
"I'm here Ezra, I'm not going anywhere." He felt more than saw the smile that Ezra expressed and he finally allowed the tears that had filled his eyes to fall, one of them hitting Ezra's face, he wiped it away with his thumb. He had recognised his voice, he now knew he was going to be okay physically but he still had a long way to go, they still had to repair the emotional damage and find the man who shot him.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six
Master Fan Fiction List
Rating: PG
Warnings: Strong Language, violence and drug use.
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven
AU: ATF
Main Characters: Ezra, and the rest.
Summary: Team Seven believe that Ezra Standish has betrayed them.
Disclaimers: The guys are owned by CBS, MGM, Trilogy Entertainment Group, and The Mirisch Corp.
Notes: Lenny Hoskins is my creation. I don't have any medical knowledge- forgive any mistakes.
Spoilers: None
Status: Complete
Total Word Count: 96,713
Eyes continued to look at watches as the minutes gratefully turned into slow agonising hours. Tension had begun to fill the room, each man becoming irritated by something someone else was doing. Fingers tapped, legs paced the length of the crowded room, pages of magazines were constantly turned as eyes ignored the words and pictures, and bodies stood up then sat down again in an agitated manner. An angry word or a look would stop the annoying movements or sounds.
When Dr Falex finally walked through the door to the waiting room, six hours had passed. He still wore his surgical gear, the cap that covered his thin blond hair was soaked with sweat, and the green surgical top was stained with sweat and dark stains that they knew was Ezra's blood.
Lenny got up quickly and stood in front of the Doctor, his stance full of determination, he stared into the bright blues eyes that looked back at him. "Well?"
"Why don't you sit down Mr . . . " The Doctor gestured to the empty chair that Lenny had just been occupying.
"Why don't you tell me how Ezra is?" Lenny tried to hide the fear that he was feeling from the men who surrounded him.
"The bullet that entered his chest missed his heart," he used his hand to indicate an area just above the heart, "it reflected off one of his rib bones, breaking it in the process, the bullet grazed his left lung then exited out through his back. The lung filled with blood and collapsed, we drained the fluid and stitched the tear stopping the internal bleeding. So far that's okay, there shouldn't be any serious complications to that, the lung may collapse again but that won't be life threatening." Doctor Falex sat down in one of the spare chairs and waited for Ezra's friends to do the same. "The head wound though is a different matter. The bullet fractured his skull," this time he pointed to the left side of his skull, just above the temple, "there was fluid build up and swelling on the brain. Like the lung we had to drain the fluid so the swelling can reduce."
"Is he going to make it?" Chris asked for everyone.
"At the moment he's in a coma Chris." He slowly looked around the room then back to Chris who's eyes were now turned downward. "Chris, Ezra's not breathing on his own, he's hooked up to a machine that's breathing for him."
"Is there any brain activity?" Nathan held his breath as the shocked expressions looked towards him.
"There is brain activity, we checked that already but we'll have to wait to see if he wakes up before we'll be able to determine if there's any brain damage."
"Is he going to make it?" Lenny repeated the question that the Doctor was yet to answer.
"If he doesn't start breathing on his own . . . ," his own expression showed remorse, "he won't make it."
"And if he does start breathing?" Nathan continued to ask the questions, he knew everyone else would be in a state of shock, he also had a better understanding of what the Doctor was saying.
"Then it would be a matter of waiting to see if he comes out of the coma."
"How long are you willing to keep him on the machine?" Everyone knew what Nathan's question meant.
"As long as we believe there's a chance that he'll come out of the coma, we'll keep the machine breathing for him." Falex assured him.
"Do you think that he'll come out of it." Chris asked him when he got his lungs working again.
"As I said there is brain activity, so the odds are in Ezra's favour, there small odds at the moment but at least he has a chance." Doctor Falex tiredly pushed himself out of the chair. "They're taking him to ICU now, Julie's going to come down and get you once he's settled." He was about to head to the door when he remembered something. "The marks on Ezra's forearms, he wasn't a drug addict at some point was he?" He thought he had better explain after seeing the expressions that crossed the faces in front of him. "We did blood tests that came up clear but I need to know it he had been one at some stage, if he was we'll have to be careful with the pain medications that he'll need if he wakes up."
"No, Ezra's never been on drugs, the needle marks were part of his cover, he was working undercover when this happened." Lenny explained to him.
"Okay, that's good." He felt awkward that he had to ask but he needed to know. "I've got other patients to see but I'll be back up to ICU shortly to check on Ezra."
"Thanks Doc." Chris's eyes returned to the carpet between his boots, he knew exactly how many speckles of colour were in the small area but he continued to count them.
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"You can all go in for a couple of minutes but after that only two can stay with him at a time." Julie instructed them as they rode the elevator to the ICU. "We've put him close to the entrance so those of you who aren't in there can still see him from the doors."
"Thanks Julie." Chris forced a smile to cover his rugged features.
"That's okay, we know how you guys feel about each other." Julie frowned at Lenny when he snorted at the remark.
They stepped off the elevator and headed to the door that lead to the patients who were in a critical condition, Julie opened the door for them but they hesitated. Lenny though didn't, he pushed past them and walked to the bed that was going to keep his young friend a prisoner while he remained in this condition. He stood at the foot of the bed and looked down at Ezra. The first thing he saw was the thick tubing that led from the mouth piece to the machine that was doing his lungs work for them. His eyes moved to the bandage that was wrapped around his forehead, the bruising still managed to spread out from underneath it, giving the impression that he had two black eyes, the colouring a strong contrast to the white bandage and pale colour of Ezra's skin. The small bandages had been removed from the injuries that Chris had inflicted, the wounds were already beginning to heal.
"I know Ezra looks bad but he isn't in any pain." Julie assured Lenny as she came up to his side.
He didn't look at her, his gaze moved to Ezra's chest where the wires had been placed to monitor his heart rate, a smaller bandage peaked out from under the thin blanket that had been placed over Ezra. He stepped around the bed and moved closer to Ezra's left side, he sat down in the chair that had been made available for them and picked up the near lifeless hand with his own. He squeezed it once hoping that Ezra felt the comfort he was offering. He used his right hand to wipe the hair from Ezra's forehead while he spoke to him.
"Ezra, it's Lenny." The tears fell from his eyes, he wasn't afraid to show them, the others hadn't come in yet, they were allowing him some time alone with Ezra before they entered the room. "I'm here with your kid and so are your friends, I know you don't think they are at the moment but they care about you more than you realise Ezra. You should give them another chance and yeah I know what you’re thinking Ezra. Your lying there giving me one of your smart mouth comments and I agree with you, I'm not going to forgive them but hell, I don't even know them, I don't have to forgive them I mean that Larabee, he's a real asshole. Don't know why your respect that guy but you should forgive them Ezra and I'm going to make sure you do. I'll do the hitting and shouting for you, you just do the listening and forgiving." He continued to wipe the hair that was no longer there while he listened to the machines that told him Ezra was still alive. The oxygen machine made it's normal terrifying sound as it moved up and down, forcing the oxygen into his lungs and drawing out the carbon monoxide, the heart monitor continued to beep in a steady rhythm.
Chris couldn't help but smile at the words that Lenny had spoken to Ezra, he had been standing close enough to the FBI Agent to hear what he was saying, and he nodded to the men behind him to come closer. Each of them took in Ezra's appearance. They had all taken turns spending time in this hospital but none of them had been as close to death as Ezra was, he actually looked like death. Chris could hear JD's jerking breaths coming from behind him and knew he was about to lose control of his emotions.
"You and Lenny stay with him first Chris, we'll wait outside." Josiah gently pushed him towards the other empty chair. "I'll go and phone Maude and then do the Hospital paperwork."
Lenny quickly wiped his eyes when he heard the voices behind him, he looked up to see Chris sit down in the chair opposite him, and he watched as he placed his hand over Ezra's and kept it there.
"Do you think he'll forgive us?" Chris asked Lenny.
"Depends on how hard you're willing to try to gain his forgiveness." Lenny growled at him over Ezra's inert form.
Chris nodded in agreement, the silence then hung heavily around them as each turned their eyes to Ezra's slack features.
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"We should be trying to get away from Denver Jack not stay in it." Glading tried to convince his cohort. They had just met up in one of their regular meeting places, a booth in a rundown bar, they could see the front door and were sitting next to the exit that led to the back door. If someone entered the bar, they could leave before they were seen.
"I don't know that Standish is dead yet and until I'm sure I'm not going anywhere." Collins knew that he had done a stupid thing by shooting Standish when there were people watching, the other Agent had also used his name in the coffee shop. He had been made and all because he had been stupid.
"What if he's not dead?" Glading was worried, getting two FBI Agents killed was one thing but to kill one of the Magnificent Seven as they were known was another. If Ezra Standish died, his friends wouldn't stop until he and Collins were in the same state.
"Then he will be because I'm not going anywhere until he's dead. He went through a lot of trouble to flush me out and I'm going to return the favour." Collins confidently announced.
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Chris hated the sound of the machine that was breathing for Ezra, each time the noise echoed in his mind it forced the reality of Ezra's death into his thoughts driving out any hope that his friend would survive. He looked into the slack features of the man that lay in the bed in front of him, there was no movement at all from the prone figure and he wondered if there ever would be again. Making sure that he was careful of the IV tubes, Chris turned Ezra's arm so his forearm faced upwards. He carefully ran his finger along the needle marks, touching each one.
"Why did he have to be so convincing?" He looked over the still form into Lenny's light blue eyes and noticed for the first time how much they were like Vin's.
"Why did you have to be so brutal?" Lenny threw back at him, he lifted the hand that was still held firmly in his grip so Chris could see the healing torn flesh around Ezra's wrist.
"Because it was easier than admitting to something that I wasn't ready to accept." Chris didn't want to go into it with Lenny, he wasn't sure the man would understand.
"You want to explain that." Lenny laid Ezra's arm back down on the bed but didn't let go of his hand.
"I'd rather explain it to Ezra if he'd let me." Chris told him. "He's the one that deserves the apology, not that it's going to be enough to make up for what I did."
"He'll let you, I'll make sure that he does, but I'll be there with him Larabee, to make sure that you don't hurt him any more than you already have." Lenny's confident words told Chris that the FBI Agent wasn't threatening him, he was making a promise.
Chris nodded in agreement, Ezra had suffered enough already, he looked back at the pale features that were covered in bruises. His own hands had inflicted those bruises on Ezra's face, he knew they would heal but it was the emotional trauma that concerned him, and it was going to take a lot more to heal the damage his friends had caused. They had used physical force to show their anger but he knew that it wouldn't have hurt as much as the hatred they had shown in their expressions and vocalised in their words. His guilt-ridden thoughts turned to Lenny, he knew the man had to be close to Ezra, his eyes followed his thoughts to see the concern and worry that filled the older man's eyes.
"Lenny?" He ignored the angry expression. "How long have you known Ezra?"
"Ten years." His eyes took on a glazed look while his mind remembered distant memories.
Chris waited but Lenny's continued silence told him that he wasn't willing to say anymore. "How close are you?"
"Ezra loves me like a brother but he won't admit it, even after ten years, but I know exactly how he feels about me, he can't hide anything from me, never could." Lenny couldn't help but smile down at Ezra's expressionless face, he stroked his forehead with loving affection.
"And you?"
"Me?" Lenny's surprised expression quickly moved back to Chris but his eyes began to fill with moisture so he turned them back to Ezra, the sight of the tubes caused the tears to fall once again. "Ezra's the younger brother I never had."
Chris kept silent and gave Lenny the time he needed. Until Ezra improved there were going to be many of these awkward moments. They both turned to the sound of the door opening to see Josiah coming towards the bed. The normally quiet man stood beside Lenny and placed his hand on Ezra's lower thigh and squeezed it gently, hoping that the pressure would be enough to bring him back to them. He knew it was a false hope but he had to do something, he wasn't able to just stand there and stare at the man who looked more like death than life.
"Maude's in France." He informed them while his eyes continued to look at Ezra's inert form, he watched his chest rise and fall in rhythm with the machine that breathed for him. "I left a message with her answering service."
"That's going to make things a lot easier for everyone." Lenny sighed in relief while he used his free hand to dry his eyes.
Chris and Josiah gave each other a strained smile, they silently agreed with Lenny's admittance. They knew Ezra had a difficult relationship with his mother. Each time she flew in to visit, Ezra's mood became sombre, he closed himself off completely to everyone, and they didn't understand why he acted this way towards his mother until her third visit. Ezra had been injured during one of his undercover operations and Maude had blamed him for what happened, saying that it was his own fault because he was an FBI Agent instead of the person she had brought him up to be. The visit had ended in an intense argument and it had taken two weeks for Ezra to get back to his normal allusive character.
"She must have been worried though to be ringing from France to see if he was okay." Josiah commented trying to break the silence that had once again filled the small area.
"Believe me, Maude has never cared about Ezra, she must've been phoning for her own selfish reasons." Lenny argued with him. "If Maude was here now she would be blaming all of this," he waved his hand above Ezra's upper body, "on Ezra, telling him it was his own fault that this happened."
The small area of the ICU became silent once more, allowing the noise coming from the machines that crowded the bed to echo in each of their minds, reminding them how close to death Ezra was. Josiah rubbed Ezra's leg in one last gesture of hope then walked away from his bed leaving the two rivals alone again.
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"Lenny is going to stay with Ezra while we take turns." Chris informed the group of men who had gathered around him in the small waiting area outside the ICU.
"Because Hoskins says so?" Buck asked angrily.
"No! Because I say so!" Chris kept his voice down, he didn't want Lenny to hear their discussion but he did allow the anger to show on his rugged features. "He's known Ezra for ten years, their close and I'm not going to separate them." He looked over his shoulder through the glass window and watched Lenny for a few moments, his head was down allowing Chris to see Ezra's face. "Lenny stays with him."
"That's going to make it hard for the rest of us to sit in there with him." Vin commented.
"You're not here to make conversation with Lenny and if you can't deal with him being in there while you’re sitting with Ezra then you can stay out here." Chris informed them. "Look, none of us know what Lenny's really like . . . "
"I know exactly what he's like." Buck interrupted Chris. "He didn't give any of us a chance during this operation, he didn't trust us and neither did Ezra. You heard what he called us, incompetent assholes."
"And we are, if we did our job right and trusted Ezra he wouldn't be lying on his death bed right now." Chris agreed with Lenny's observations of their abilities. "Besides why should Ezra trust us." Chris quickly moved closer to Buck until he was standing face to face with his old friend. "I gave him a concussion Buck, you gave him two cracked ribs. We haven't given him any reason to trust us and I wouldn't blame him if he didn't want anything to do with us if he survives." He hung his head and took a deep breath before looking back at the group. "You should be grateful that Lenny's allowing us to sit with him because he has every right to stop us."
"Ezra's not going to die." JD whispered more to himself than his friends, he moved away from them and walked into the ICU to take up his vigil of Ezra's comatose form.
"Chris is right." Josiah had seen the tears in Lenny's eyes when he had told them about Maude. "Lenny cares about Ezra, he should stay with him."
"That's an order." Chris had seen the hesitant expressions on Buck and Vin's faces.
Buck was about to continue the argument but the sound of the elevator doors opening stopped him from speaking his mind. Judge Travis stepped through the doors before they fully opened and walked towards them. His understanding eyes turned to each man, he saw the mournful expressions they held, he walked to the window which allowed him to see into the ICU, he could see Lenny and JD sitting at Ezra's bedside, he saw the tubes that led to one of the many machines beside the bed and understood it's meaning. The machine was keeping Ezra alive, he didn't need to ask them how Ezra was doing, and the sight before him told him everything he needed to know.
"There's brain activity," Chris had read the Judge's thoughts and stepped up to the window, he watched Ezra's face but spoke to Judge Travis, "Doctor Falex said that if he doesn't start breathing on his own he won't make it."
"If he does?" Travis turned his head to look at Chris, he could no longer gaze upon Ezra's machine breathing form.
"Then we wait for him to come out of the coma." Chris informed him.
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Lenny jerked awake, a small gasp escaping from his dry throat, he blinked his eyes in confusion and once they were able to focus he could see Ezra lying in the bed, the tubes still attached to the mouthpiece, he could also hear the heart monitor that told him Ezra was still alive. He looked down at his watch and frowned, he'd been asleep for three hours, it was the first time he had slept in four days.
"You okay Lenny?" Nathan asked him from the other side of the bed, he was worried about the FBI Agent, he hadn't eaten much in the four days they had been here and the three-hour reprieve he had just woken from wasn't enough to keep him going. The older man needed to keep his strength up but he refused to eat a decent meal or sleep and only left Ezra's side when he had no choice.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Lenny wiped the sleep from his tired eyes, he was surprised to see Nathan there. Buck had been sitting in the other chair when he fell asleep, he was grateful that the angry stare was gone. After everything that happened Buck and Vin now tried to take their anger out on him, he didn't care, he would take anything they threw at him, because the anger was no longer aimed at Ezra and once he knew that Ezra was going to be okay then he would display his own anger. "Ezra?"
"No change." Nathan informed him. "Doctor Falex was here earlier, checked him over, his pupils are still unresponsive."
Nathan watched him carefully, Chris had told them how close Lenny and Ezra were, it was also written all over the older man's face each time he looked at Ezra. They were family, much like the members of Team Seven had become, and Ezra though was the black sheep of the family, at first he had refused to become part of it, not allowing the others to get close to him for reasons the rest of the team were yet to figure out. The southerner kept himself and his feelings behind a wall that he had built around himself trying to make them think that he didn't care but they knew he did, when one of the others were hurt they could see it in his eyes, and his body language spoke volumes but he still refused to voice his concerns.
It had taken two months before a friendship had finally begun to develop between Ezra and the others, Vin had been the first one to start breaking down the wall, Josiah, Buck and JD were next. Nathan knew he had kept himself at a distance because he was yet to fully trust the southerner and he knew that Chris mirrored his concerns. But even after the friendship had started to grow Ezra still refused to show any emotions, he continued to hide everything behind his calm facade they had begun to call his poker face.
"Lenny can I ask you something?" Nathan decided to voice his thoughts to find out if they had any hope of getting closer to Ezra.
"Sure." Lenny was glad of the distraction, Nathan was the only he was able to have a conversation with, neither of them held any anger towards each other.
"How long did it take you to break down Ezra's wall?"
"You mean the one he uses to stop people from getting close to him so they can't hurt him?" Lenny smiled but his eyes still held the sadness he felt.
"Is that why he won't let us in, he thinks we'll hurt him?" Nathan frowned down at Ezra and thought he saw a movement that went against the rhythm of the machine.
"That's one reason, he's been hurt by people all his life, he built the wall to protect himself against that pain, he doesn't want it to happen again. He also uses it to hide his feelings, his mother taught him to hide everything ever since he was a child, told him that people would think he was weak if he showed his emotions and that they would take advantage of him, the woman has a lot to answer for." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath before he continued. "Took me five years before I could get him to fully trust me and open himself up to me, now he'll tell me anything and everything." Lenny followed Nathan's gaze, curious as to what he was looking at, he saw nothing different. "He hasn't let anyone else get that close to him."
"Do you think we might have a chance with him?" Nathan turned back to Lenny when he didn't see anything to confirm his hopes.
"You did have one, I don't know anymore though." Lenny leaned forward and looked into Nathan's gentle brown eyes. "We speak to each other whenever we can, we visit each other when our jobs allow it. Ezra told me all about you guys, said that he finally thought he found a place he could call home and friends that he could see himself getting close to . . . " He shrugged his shoulders. "He knew that it would take time and a lot of effort on his part but then this situation came up and he had to pull himself away from all of you. I hoped that he was right, he's too much of a loner, he needs friends, other people that he could confide in but after what I saw, I mean the way they treated him Nathan." He rubbed his eyes hoping to rid them of the sleep that wanted to take him back to its embrace. "I told Chris I'd do what I could to help but I don't if it's what Ezra would want."
Nathan smiled as he saw another movement that went against the machine. "Well Lenny, I think we might have a chance to find out!" He stood up quickly and pushed his chair out of the way while at the same time pulling the blanket back. He placed his large right hand against Ezra's bare chest next to the small bandage that had been changed only an hour before and the other hand against the slack right cheek, covering half of Ezra's face and waited.
"Nathan what's going on?" Lenny also stood, the hope catching in his throat caused his voice to break.
"Push the buzzer Lenny." Nathan noticed that Lenny didn't hesitate, the man trusted him.
Nathan ignored the nurse who ran to the bed to find out what the emergency was, she moved closer to the patient after pulling Lenny out of the way. She glanced at the slack face then up at the large man leaning over him, her eyes moved downward again and she also saw the movement.
"I'll get the Doctor." She spoke quietly but her voice was firm.
"Nathan?" Lenny called him, he didn't get response but he heard him talk to Ezra and the air froze in his own lungs.
"Come on Ezra, try and take another one." Nathan began to wipe the unbandage area of Ezra's forehead with his hand, his eyes moving from his face to his chest and back again. "Come on Ezra you can do it!"
Lenny watched as the nurse ran back to the bed with the Doctor behind her, he also felt movement beside him and turned to see Chris standing next to him, his eyes moved back to the bed and his heart broke when he heard the choking noises coming from Ezra.
"Turn the machine off." The Doctor ordered the nurse. He expertly detached the tubes from the mouthpiece while Nathan lifted Ezra's head and pulled the pillow out of the way, he laid his head back down while Ezra struggled to breath around the tube that was blocking his airway.
Lenny continued to watch as the Doctor quickly but gently removed the tube from Ezra's throat and everyone heard the deep intake of breath, which was released, and another one was taken.
Nathan turned towards his friends, a huge smile covering his face. "Ezra's breathing on his own."
Lenny let go of the breath that he was holding, he felt someone slap him on the back but he didn't look to see who it was, he wanted to sit back down in his chair next to Ezra but the Doctor wasn't finished. He spent a few minutes monitoring Ezra's breathing and heart rate and then checked his pupils.
"Nathan's right, Ezra's now breathing on his own." The Doctor informed them.
"He's going to make it then?" JD asked him.
"His chances have improved but he's still in a coma. We'll monitor him closely for the next twenty four hours and if his condition hasn't deteriated we'll move him out of the ICU into a room on the general ward." He turned to the nurse and began giving her instructions as they walked back to the nurses’ station.
Lenny moved back to the chair and sat down, he picked up Ezra's hand and began to stroke his forehead. He ignored the men that stood around the bed and leaned closer to Ezra, he started to talk to him hoping that he would hear him.
Chris listened to Lenny, his words causing a smile to grow on his own face. Lenny was encouraging him to wake up so he could help him take care of his so-called friends, he knew that he was hoping his words would make Ezra angry enough to wake up, it was something that he would have done himself. He turned to his friends and ushered them out of the ICU. He knew that it was going to be a long twenty four hours and he silently prayed that Ezra wouldn't suffer any complications, once he had gotten through those hours it would then be only a matter of time until he woke up.
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Glading shifted in his seat and felt his sweat soaked shirt pull away from his back, he leaned back into the seat only to still feel uncomfortable, and he glanced sideways at Collins and watched as the small droplet of sweat ran down the side of his face. Glading hated summer, it made his receding hairline even worse, the remaining red hair on his scalp became even thinner when it was wet, and he subconsciously used his hand to wipe it across the bald spot. He shifted his eyes nervously to the rear-view mirror and lowered himself even further in the seat when he saw a woman in a nurse’s uniform walk towards the car. Glading's body moved but his damp shirt stuck to the seat, it pulled the damp material from the waistband of his pants causing his flesh to rub against the vinyl, and he froze at the squeaky noise his skin made as he forced it down the back of the car seat.
"Will you please sit still!" Collins growled at him but he kept his green eyes glued to the front doors of the hospital.
"Someone is going to see us." Glading warned him, he leaned forward and pulled his shirt back down.
"No one is going to see us." He lifted his glasses from his face and wiped the sweat that had built up around his eyes.
"We can't get to him in there, they won't leave him alone for a minute, and they’ll catch us first." Glading began to complain again, he couldn't understand why they had to keep sitting in here in the heat of the car when they could be sitting on a beach somewhere.
"It's been more than a week and they haven't left yet, that means Standish is still alive." He turned his hate-filled eyes sideways so he could look at Glading's profile. "I'm not going anywhere until that man is dead! He ruined my career and he's going to pay for it with his life!"
"And how are you going to get to him when there's seven men who won't leave his bedside?" Glading rolled down the passenger window only to find that there wasn't enough of a breeze to give him a reprieve from the summer heat.
"He has to leave the hospital at some point, and so do his friends." They had been watching the hospital for three days now and were yet to see a member of Team Seven. Judge Travis and other ATF Agents had made an appearance, bringing them the everyday necessities the team needed to help them get through their vigil of their fallen comrade. "I have plenty of time to wait."
Glading looked more closely at Collins and wondered why he had ever let him talk him into this, sure, he paid him a lot of money but what good will it be if he were himself killed or spent the rest of his life in jail for killing a Federal Agent. He began to think of a way to get himself out of the mess that he had allowed his greed to get him into.
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Nathan gently slapped the handsome face that had turned to the side, allowing his head to fall onto his left shoulder, giving Nathan an advanced warning that he was waking up, the face grimaced at the touch and a hand lifted to stop Nathan from hitting him again. Nathan looked over his shoulder at his friends, Chris seemed to be the only one that was enjoying the scene before them.
"Time to wake up." Nathan smiled down at the figure that had slept for eleven hours, he began to shake his shoulder trying to bring him out of the deep healing sleep he'd been in.
The man groaned and turned over onto his side, his hand trying to push Nathan away at the same time. Chris moved forward and hit the leg that hung over the bed, this gave them the desired result they were after. He jerked awake and sat up, he eyes darted around the room in confusion, then focused on the inert form that still lay in a coma.
"What happened?" Lenny looked up into Nathan's eyes.
"You fell asleep." Nathan told him.
"Asleep, I don't remember falling asleep." The forehead frowned in concentration, the last thing he remembered was drinking a cup of coffee then nothing. "What the hell did you give me?" Lenny demanded to know.
"You needed to sleep Lenny, it's been a week, and you were exhausted." Nathan explained, he stepped away from the second bed in the hospital room when Lenny jumped off it and made his way back to Ezra's bedside.
"If Ezra woke up while I was asleep there'll be hell to pay." Lenny growled at the group.
"He hasn't woken up yet." Chris informed him.
Lenny sighed and rubbed his eyes, he took a few moments and watched his friend carefully, the wounds on his cheek and forehead were nearly healed and the gunshot wound was now covered by a small bandage but he still hadn't woken up from the coma.
"How long was I asleep for?" He sat down heavily in the chair and picked up Ezra's hand.
"Nearly twelve hours." Nathan smiled carefully, he wasn't sure how Lenny was going to react. "I asked Doctor Falex to give me something that I could put in your coffee." He winced when Lenny glared at him.
"Don't do it again Nathan, I won't forgive you so easily next time." The older man warned him. That meant it had now been three days since they moved Ezra into this room, the forlorn expression that covered his face echoed the dread that began to fill his heart.
"You were making yourself sick Lenny, what good would you be to Ezra if he woke up to find you in a sick bed." Nathan gathered all his courage together and glared back at him.
"He's not going to wake up." Lenny gave in to the inevitable. "If he was he would have woken up by now."
Nathan moved forward and put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't give up on him Lenny, Ezra's a fighter, always has been."
"He hasn't exactly got anything to fight for anymore, I know he won't take his job back, he's lost his friends." Lenny knew he wasn't fully awake and he was allowing his emotions to get the better of him, he tried to fight them but he had been holding them back for a week and they took advantage of his weakened state. "Why won't he just give up, I can't stand to see him like this anymore." He threw Ezra's hand back onto the bed and leaned back, he covered his eyes and allowed the tears to fall. He felt Nathan squeeze his shoulder again but this time in sympathy, he shrugged him off and placed his head on the bed, his forehead resting on Ezra's arm.
"He still has you Lenny and us even if he doesn't know it, were not going to give up on him and neither should you." Chris reminded him. "Ezra will wake up, just give him some time, even you should know how stubborn he is about waking up when he's not ready.
Lenny laughed and nodded in agreement, it was something the two of them had in common, and they both hated early mornings. He lifted his head and wiped his eyes with his shirtsleeve. "I'm sorry, I don't usually get this emotional in front of people."
"You and Ezra seem to have a lot in common." During the last week, Chris had seen characteristics that Lenny shared with Ezra, he silently groaned at the thought of now having two of them to deal with.
"Disliked each other on sight." Lenny remembered the first time they had met. "He was a smart mouth maverick who was willing to risk his life to get the bad guy."
"So nothing's changed then." Chris smiled, it had also been his first impression of the southerner but he found out with on the job experience that it was the way Ezra worked and if he risked his life, it was usually to save someone else's.
Lenny lifted his damp eyes to look more closely at Chris, he was beginning to understand why Ezra respected him so much but the acknowledgement did nothing to ease his anger at the situation that Ezra was put in, he still intended to pay the man back for the physical and emotion abuse that he had given his young friend.
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Ezra groaned - well he at least thought he groaned - when the sound of the alarm began to break through his sleep clouded mind. He tried to lift his arm so he could throw the clock against the wall, he was looking forward to hearing it break into half a dozen pieces then fall to the floor so it would join the other ones that had previously been broken. He began to relax again so he could go back to sleep but the sound continued to vibrate within his mind causing him to become irritated. He seemed to remember breaking the clock earlier, he was about to break it again when he remembered his clock was actually set to the radio position, he hated waking up to the buzzing sound, not that the awful racket they called music these days was any better, what was with the crap JD listened to. He would have to educate the boy in the finer points of music that didn't damage a listener's eardrums. But he realised that it wasn't a buzzing noise he heard, it was more like a beeping sound, he rolled over onto his side - or so he thought - before falling back to sleep.
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"Eat it!" Nathan placed the tray of food next to Ezra's unmoving legs.
"How do I know you haven't put something in it to make me sleep!" Lenny's disgusted look told Nathan what he thought about hospital food.
"You don't!" Nathan retaliated, he was really becoming tired of the aggravation this man was causing him, and he was nearly as bad as Ezra.
"Then I'm not going to eat it!"
"If I didn't know any better I would say you and Ezra were brothers." Nathan threw his hands into the air in frustration. "Did you teach him how to be stubborn or was it the other way around?"
Lenny smiled at him and realised the man was serious, his smile dropped from his face, he looked around the larger man at the small group of men who were smiling at him, then back at Nathan, his mouth opened then closed again.
"Yep, your just like him." Nathan muttered under his breath.
"I'm sure Ezra would take that as a compliment." The smile returned to Lenny's face.
Guns were quickly pulled from their holsters when the door to the room was pushed open, tensed muscles relaxed when they saw the pizza deliveryman. There had been no sightings of Glading or Collins and the group of men were now not only waiting for Ezra to wake up but were also protecting him, there would only be one reason the two rogue agents were still in Denver, they wanted to make sure they finished the job they started.
"Um, sorry guys but I couldn't handle the food in this place anymore." JD admitted as he stepped forward to take the pizzas from the young man's hands, he handed him some money then pushed him back out of the room.
"Now that I would eat." Lenny licked his lips, the smell alone was enough to make him feel hungry.
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'Good Lord.' He waited for answer, thinking that he spoke aloud but he didn't receive one. The incessant sound of the beeping was beginning to drive him mad, he wanted nothing more than to tear whatever it was from the wall and shoot it. He now had all intentions of buying Buck a decent alarm clock. He knew he was in the cesspit that Buck and JD called an apartment, which else would eat pizza for breakfast. He frowned but his forehead didn't show the movement. 'Why am I here in this cesspool?' he thought for a moment and felt the headache that was pounding in his skull. 'Must have a hangover, doesn't explain why I'm here though.' He fell asleep again while trying to figure a way out of his predicament.
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"His pupils are responding." Doctor Falex happily informed the group of men who stood around the bed, they had been waiting for ten days to hear those words.
"He's waking up?" Lenny couldn't believe what he was saying, he wanted to but doubt nagged at his mind.
"Yes Lenny, he's waking up, it might still take him a couple of days but he's coming out of the coma."
"You're sure?"
"He's a Doctor Lenny," Nathan rolled his eyes at him, "of course he's sure."
"He's coming out of the coma?" Lenny asked again, he couldn't stop the smile from showing on his face.
"Doctor, wasn't there something you had to do?" Chris asked him and smiled at the mouthed thank you.
Nathan stepped closer to Lenny after the Doctor had left. "Lenny!" he waited until he had his attention, he didn't want to ruin the good news but he had to make sure that Lenny was still aware of the potential brain damage the bullet may have caused.
"What?" Lenny saw the serious expression and knew what Nathan was about to say. "I won't think about that until he wakes up Nathan, I can't think about that, not yet." He sat back down in the chair and squeezed Ezra's hand, he now knew that the affection was going to be returned, and it was now just a matter of time.
Nathan stepped back, he felt the same but refused to push the thoughts away. Ezra had a quick intelligent mind and none of them wanted to see it dulled by a gunshot wound.
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'Will someone turn that damn noise off!' Ezra yelled then frowned when his voice didn't sound in his own ears. 'I'm not deaf, I can still hear that beeping noise.' He tried to sit up but his limbs were too heavy. 'Maybe it's more than a hangover.' He grimaced at the pain that continued to pound in his head, it was becoming more irritating than the noise that wouldn't stop. 'I'm in hell, there is no other explanation.' He frowned in concentration and this time his forehead mirrored the movement that was in his mind.
"Ezra?" Lenny whispered in his ear, he had seen the frown that crossed his pale features, and was nearly brought to tears by the movement.
Ezra heard his name being called as the voice fought its way through his mud-filled mind but he fell asleep again before he could ask them why they wouldn't turn that irritating noise off or give him something to stop the pain that continued to torment him.
"Did you see that Nathan? He frowned." Lenny looked across Ezra's sleeping form at Nathan, his returning smile told him that he had seen it. "Chris?" He was to happy to be angry but he knew that emotion will return later, he wasn't ready to forget what they had done to Ezra.
"I saw it Lenny." Chris turned and looked at the others and saw smiles that he knew would be just as large as his.
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"Ezra!" Doctor Falex waited patiently for a response, it had been three days since his pupils responded to his examination, he should have woken by now but he knew Ezra, the man was being lazy, he wanted to sleep. "Ezra!"
Ezra heard the voice but didn't recognise it so he continued to ignore it, he just wanted to sleep, he was tired and the hangover he had was not helping.
"Ezra!" Lenny spoke loudly in his ear and was rewarded with a grimace. "Wake up Ezra!"
He knew that voice and the tone it held told him he was in trouble, he turned his head away from the voice and hoped that it would go away. He became aware of the beeping sound, it was still there, and the noise was becoming a constant source of torture.
"Ezra wake up!" Lenny raised his voice, if it wasn't for the serious expression on Falex's face, he would be enjoying himself.
Lenny watched as Ezra turned his head back towards his voice. He could see that he was struggling to open his eyes, they slowly fluttered open, giving him a glimpse of the green eyes that hid behind the eyelids but they quickly disappeared again.
"Ezra will you do as your told!" Chris growled down at him, he had moved into the position the Doctor had just vacated.
Now he knew he was in trouble, if Lenny and Chris were mad at him, he must have done something wrong. He frowned again as a memory tried to force it's way to his consciousness, he didn't do anything wrong, they did.
"Ezra!" Lenny watched as the eyelids lifted again, the normal bright eyes were dull and full of confusion, they stared back at him for a few seconds then closed again.
He finally managed to open his eyes to see a blurred figure standing over him, he tried to blink his eyes to clear his vision but they wouldn't open again, they stayed closed, it felt like someone had glued them together. 'Probably Buck.' he thought to himself, it was something only he would do. He turned his head back to the beeping noise, God he hated that sound. His mind went back into a peaceful oblivion before he could voice his protest against the noise that he thought would never end.
"I'll come back in a few hours and we'll wake him up again." Falex saw Lenny's concern. "Don't worry it's normal, it'll get easier to wake him up and he'll stay awake longer each time."
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He woke up again to the beeping noise, now he was angry, why were they doing this to him. This time he was going to voice his anger, he didn't care if he hurt Buck's feelings, he shouldn't have bought an alarm clock that only beeped. 'Will you turn that damn noise off!' But all he heard was the word 'noise' and even then, it was only a hoarse whisper.
"Ezra? It's Lenny." He moved closer to Ezra's face, he saw the frown that turned into an angry grimace.
". . . noise . . ." Ezra tried again and failed miserably, he was becoming more agitated.
"Ezra?" Lenny didn't understand what he was talking about, maybe the Doctor was right and there was brain damage.
". . . hate . . . it."
"Ezra, what are you talking about?" Nathan used his firm voice and Ezra turned his head towards him.
". . . noise . . . hate . . . it." Ezra forced his eyes to open, but the heaviness caused them to shut again, he waited a moment then opened them again, they fell shut before he could focus on Nathan's voice. ". . . beeping . . . hate . . . it."
Nathan looked at Lenny and saw the confusion that also filled his mind, his eyes saw the heart monitor behind him and he realised what it was Ezra was saying.
"It's the heart monitor Ezra." Nathan explained to him.
". . . no . . . alarm . . . clock." He opened his eyes again and saw the dark figure hovering over him. ". . . Buck's . . ." He allowed his eyes to close again, they were too heavy. ". . . cesspit . . ."
"Ezra thinks he's at my place?" Buck moved closer to the bed, the worry filling his thoughts.
"Nathan is there brain damage?" Lenny asked him, his fear sounding in his voice.
"I don't think there's brain damage, I think he's just confused, his speech was fine, it wasn't slurred and I could see the confusion in his eyes." Nathan assured them.
". . . Lenny . . ." Ezra turned towards his friend's voice and felt the warm hand on his face, he smiled underneath it. ". . . noise . . ." He allowed the darkness to take him back because he knew the beeping sound wouldn't be there.
"I'm here Ezra, I'm not going anywhere." He felt more than saw the smile that Ezra expressed and he finally allowed the tears that had filled his eyes to fall, one of them hitting Ezra's face, he wiped it away with his thumb. He had recognised his voice, he now knew he was going to be okay physically but he still had a long way to go, they still had to repair the emotional damage and find the man who shot him.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six
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