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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
"What have you got for me Agent Larabee?" Judge Travis asked him as he sat down in his large leather chair that was placed behind and even larger mahogany desk in his office. He watched his face and inwardly smiled at the bruises hoping that in the long run they weren't going to cause Agent Standish any more pain.
"Nothing." Chris had spent a second day questioning Standish and as the day before he had refused to answer any questions and if he did they related to his own mother and each time, he mentioned his mother his need to hit him became stronger. The man was now settled in his cell for a third night with Nathan who had volunteered to stay with him. Nobody had argued with him they didn't want to stay with a someone who had betrayed them and they had no understanding as to why Nathan did.
"He's not going to talk." Lenny added who sat in the chair that was next to Chris.
"Do you want to spend another day questioning him Chris?" Travis asked him and felt relieved by the answer that was given to him.
"No, we'd only be wasting our time." Chris admitted. "The only thing we can do now is release him and keep him under surveillance and hope that he approaches the people that he sold the information to or maybe they'll seek him out."
The Judge pretended to take a moment to think. "Okay, do that in the morning and keep me up to date on what happens." He watched as Chris nodded and stood up to leave. "Chris." He waited until he had his full attention. "Just because Standish is out on the street does not mean that you can use the opportunity to beat the shit out of him." He saw the shock that Chris felt at his language but ignored it and continued with what he was telling him. "If I hear anything that suggests that you or any of your men have done that you will lose your jobs. Understand?"
"Yes Sir." Chris turned away from him and left the room, he didn't wait for Hoskins.
When Chris shut the door, the Judge turned his eyes to Hoskins. "Do you think Ezra will be okay out there?"
"He'll be fine, all he has to do is wait for this second agent to approach him. Once he's done that, I'll bring Ezra in. Then Larabee can do his job." Lenny shrugged his shoulders. "That's the easy part, the hard part will be sorting out the friendship and trust that has been destroyed because of this operation."
"I'm not sure Ezra will be willing to do that." Travis told him. "Not after what Chris and Buck did to him and I wouldn't blame him. I don't want to lose him though, he's a good man and he's the best undercover agent that I have ever come across."
Lenny coughed into his hand. The Judge ignored him, he knew Lenny was better but he wasn't going to tell him that, he wouldn't hear the end of it if he did.
"I better go downstairs then and somehow let Glading know that Ezra is going to be released tomorrow." Lenny commented. He pretended to be hurt by the lack of acknowledgement in regards to his own undercover skills.
"I'm sure you'll manage Lenny." Travis smiled at him. "Ezra would have taught you a trick or two."
"You really know how to hurt a guy don't you." Lenny scowled at him.
"Speaking of hurt." Travis stood up and walked around the table and sat on the corner of the desk. "Lenny make sure he's okay after this is over, he's going to need you."
"I think you should be more worried about Larabee." Lenny smiled as he stood up, the smile didn't reach his eyes though because he knew that Judge was right. Ezra was going to be hurting when this was over and he was going to need him to help him get through it.
"I'm serious Lenny."
"So am I Judge." Lenny left the room and closed the door behind him, he leaned against it and closed his eyes. "So am I Judge." He repeated with more assertiveness, he was going to make Larabee and the others pay for what they were doing to Ezra. He pushed himself away from the door and headed towards the holding area to start the next phase of the operation.
________________________________________
Nathan watched as Ezra tried to find a comfortable position on the cot, he finally gave up and lay on his left side. His eyes hadn't strayed from Ezra's face for the last hour, there was nothing to indicate that he was trying to hide anything from him. Nathan knew that something was going on and he didn't think that Ezra would admit to it if he asked him but he had to try.
"What's going on Ezra?" Nathan asked him carefully.
"You're not stupid Nathan and you’re not blind." Ezra scowled across the room at him. "You can see what's going on."
"Then tell me why." He waited for an answer but he didn't get one, Ezra had closed his eyes. "Talk to me Ezra."
"I can't Nathan, not now." He opened his eyes and looked at Nathan. "Later, ask me again in a few days, I'll tell you then." He allowed his eyelids to close again, he expected his friend to keep questioning him. Friend, he still had a friend among the group. Nathan still believed him to be a drug addict and an informer but he wanted to help him. This show of help confused him and when it was all over, he was going to ask Nathan his own questions. He wanted to know why he was taking care of him when he knew that Nathan had never really trusted or liked him and why he was the only one willing to stand by him and help him.
"Okay Ezra, I'll leave it for now." Nathan settled back and watched as Ezra drifted off to sleep, he was surprised that he could sleep when he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms, his mind told him that Ezra must be exhausted but that nagging thought crossed his mind again but he was too tired to understand it completely. He dragged himself out of his chair and moved towards the bed, he placed his hand against Ezra's forehead to find that his fever and finally left him. Nathan carefully pulled the loose jacket up on his right arm and took a closer look at the needle marks, he knew they were real, he hoped that they were fake, even silently prayed that they would peel off but they didn't. He wiped the loose hair back from Ezra's forehead and looked closely at the slack features. "You're going to tell me Ezra and then you’re going to let me help you."
________________________________________
Ezra was once again jerked from his sleep, it hadn't been the sunlight or Nathan but the noise of the door to his cell slamming shut. He opened his eyes to find that three of his former colleagues had come to collect him, he smiled at thought. Chris, Vin and Josiah stood just inside the room not voicing their request that he get up and follow them. Ezra ignored them and rolled onto his side. He saw the empty chair and wondered where Nathan had gone. His line of sight was blocked by Josiah's form.
"Come on Ezra, get up." Josiah ordered him.
"No." Ezra's voice was slurred, he wasn't fully awake. He turned his head so he could look up at the larger man who stood over him, his expression giving the man a challenge even with the drooping eyelids that wanted to close again.
Josiah took it, he leaned down and grabbed Ezra by the arms and pulled him from the bed, he saw him wince against the pain in his side. Josiah pushed him towards Vin and Chris who took an arm each and led him out of the room.
"How's the nose Mr Larabee." Ezra couldn't help but smile at the bruises that had formed on Chris's face, the dark colouring making his skin seem paler than it really was.
"Better than your ribs." Chris shot back at him as he elbowed Ezra's right side. He smiled at the grunt of pain that came from the southerner.
Ezra was surprised when they dragged him to the front desk, pushing him against it with more force than was needed. He had been expecting another day in the interview room. His green eyes fell on Henry Glading and he wondered why he was here at this time of day. Glading placed a clipboard in front of him.
"Sign this." Glading pointed to the area on the page where he wanted Ezra's signature.
"Sign what?" Ezra asked him.
"Your being released." Chris informed him.
"What do you mean I'm being released, what happened to the law. I'm supposed to have a bail hearing. You can't just arrest me then let me go." Ezra looked around at them and saw Lenny standing near the elevator doors, he watched as he nodded towards him and then disappear into the elevator after its doors had opened.
"You were never legally arrested Standish. Sign it and get out." Chris pushed the clipboard closer to him.
"If I haven't been arrested then I'm not signing it, I'm just going to leave."
"Do what you want Standish and believe me when I tell you this." Chris grabbed Ezra's jacket lapels and pulled him towards him. "If anybody dies or gets hurt because of the information you sold I'm going to come after you and when I catch you, I'll kill you."
"Not if I kill you first Larabee." Ezra smiled at him and then pushed him away from him. He turned around and headed towards the doors, he expected someone to grab him and drag him back to the desk but no one did. He made it to the glass doors and pushed them opened. He wanted to look behind him to see if they were following him but he wouldn't allow himself to.
Ezra walked through the underground garage towards the ramp that led to the outside world, he could hear his footsteps echoing off the cement walls, he didn't hear anyone else's. He walked up the ramp and out into the sunlight, he squinted his eyes against its brightness and when they adjusted to the natural light he looked around at the passerby’s and parked cars looking for the men who would be following him. He spotted them easily but made sure that they knew they hadn't been made.
Buck and JD were supposed to be two of the best when it came to surveillance but Ezra was better when it came to marking a tag. He had seen the foam coffee cup that lay on the road next to the passenger side of the car, he knew that it was something that Buck did. People had complained about the mess that he left in the ATF's cars and vans so he had begun to drop his rubbish outside of the car. It was a dead giveaway but only to Ezra because he knew Buck's habits. He walked away from them towards the subway. He had every intention of losing them and he knew it would be easy.
________________________________________
Nathan had woken to find that Ezra was still sleeping soundly, he didn't want to wake him so he left him as he was, and he sat quietly watching him as he had the night before. During the night the nagging thought continued to plague his mind and every time he thought he had it, it was gone again before he could understand it's meaning. He decided he had to do something and if Ezra wasn't going to tell him then he would have to do his own investigating. He quietly pushed himself out of his chair and stepped towards the door. He froze in midstep when he heard Ezra shift on the bed, he waited with his breath caught in his throat as his friend rolled onto his side and settled his head back down into the pillow. He opened the door and stepped out into the corridor. Once the door was closed and the locked engaged, he let out the breath that he had been holding.
He made his way up to the seventh floor that held their offices, he was going to search Ezra's again to see if he could find something that he may have missed the last time he looked for evidence as to why Ezra had resigned. He needed to find out what was going on and he knew that when Ezra was released tomorrow that he may not have the chance again. He knew that he would disappear without a trace and he wouldn't be able to find him.
He stepped off the elevator and walked along the quiet hallway, he didn't think that there would be anyone around, they had all been spending their days down stairs either with Ezra or watching him. He looked into the other offices to find them empty. When he reached Ezra's he opened the door and stepped in, he looked around at the bare walls again, he sighed at the thought of Ezra not making it homely and now knew why, he hadn't expected to stay, he must have known that he was going to be caught one day.
Nathan sat down at the desk and began to look through the drawers again. It was the same as last time, there was nothing. He was about to give up when the phone rang, he was going to ignore it but something told him to pick it up and when he did he was shocked. Like Ezra, he had thought that Maude Standish never got out of her bed at this time of the day.
"Mr Jackson is that you?" The voice on the other end of the line demand.
"Yes Mrs Standish." Nathan licked his lips nervously.
"Is my son there? I need to talk to him." There were no pleasantries from the woman so Nathan didn't bother to supply any.
"No he isn't."
"Do you know where I can find him, I've been trying to get him for days now but he won't answer his phone at home and I haven't been able to get an answer at that office of yours either." He could hear the anger in her voice but he didn't want to tell her what had happened to her son over the phone.
"Mrs Standish maybe you should come out here in person . . . " He didn't get any further.
"He is sick isn't he, I knew it." There was a pause on the other end but Nathan didn't take advantage of it, what Maude had just said peaked his curiosity. "I found out from a friend that Ezra has been seeing my Doctor in Denver for at least two months now, she said that she had seen him in the waiting room on six occasions while she was there. I rang the Doctor but he wouldn't tell me anything until I threatened to sue him but all he would tell me was that he was getting vitamin shots." She stopped talking and when she spoke, again Nathan could hear the fear in her voice. "He is sick isn't he Nathan?"
"No Maude he's not." Nathan took control of the conversation. "He was getting vitamin injections?"
"Yes he . . ." Nathan didn't hear the rest of the conversation, he had hung up the phone. "SHIT!" He ran out of the office and kept running until he reached the elevator. He pushed the down button but it was slow to respond. He ran to the stairwell and took them three at a time. He burst through the doors and into the holding area to find Chris and the others standing in a group near the interview room, Chris was yelling into the phone but Nathan ignored him. He ran to the group and took the phone from his bosses hand and again hung up on the caller. He didn't stop to think about taking the conversation that he was about to have with them into a private room.
"Nathan! What the hell are you doing?" Chris turned on him, Nathan was going to be the perfect excuse to allow him to let out his anger. Buck had just informed him that they had lost Standish.
Nathan took a moment to catch his breath. "He's working undercover. . ." He pointed to his own forearms. "I was just talking to Maude on the phone, Ezra's been getting vitamin shots for the last two months, that's where the needle marks came from. He's been seeing her Doctor."
"Nathan what the hell are you talking about?" Chris demanded. "Vitamin shots don't leave scars."
"Ezra has to be working undercover." He threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "He's not a drug addict, the needle marks have to be from the vitamin injections. If he's undercover he would have made sure they left marks."
"Nathan he shot up in here himself." Chris ran his hand through his hair. "Even you said he was high on heroin."
"Maybe he didn't have a choice." Nathan remembered something. "You said that he threw up that morning. First time users throw up and suffer from nausea afterwards. He did feel sick for a few hours after didn't he."
"What about the information he sold Nathan, we caught him red handed." Vin reminded him.
"I don't know, maybe it was all set up for our benefit, there has to be a reason why we weren't told about it, for some reason he was trying to convince us that he was a user and that he was selling information." Nathan tried to explain but he could see that his efforts were a waste of time.
"But he was going through withdrawal symptoms, look at the way he's been acting Nathan." Chris growled at him as he roughly took his cell phone back.
"Ezra's an undercover agent Chris, he's the best at what he does. He would be very convincing. But the question is why he was trying to convince us that he was a drug addict and an informer."
"Maybe he was trying to convince someone else." Josiah spoke softly, afraid that his words would tell them the truth. That Ezra was working undercover and if he was then they would have a lot to answer for.
"Were going to see the Judge. Ezra being undercover would explain why he was coming down on us so hard for the way we were treating him." Chris stopped moving before he even started. "The way I was treating him. Oh God what have I done."
"We don't know it's true yet Chris. Let's find out first and then deal with it." Vin assured him. He knew they would all have to deal with it if it was true, he still had his doubts as he was sure everyone except Nathan did.
"Why don't we just go and ask Ezra?" Nathan wanted to know.
"Because we let him go and Buck who was following him just lost him." Chris explained.
"Aw hell." Nathan muttered under his breath.
They all walked silently to the elevator, no one noticing that Henry Glading no longer stood behind the front desk, he had slipped away as soon as Nathan had informed Chris that Ezra was working undercover.
________________________________________
Debbie looked up from her computer terminal and saw the six determined men who stood over her, each of them holding an expression that was full of different emotions. She could see a mixture of remorse, anger and sadness. Debbie frowned causing the light lines on her brow to show on her otherwise perfect complexion. Her bright eyes turned to Chris Larabee as he took a step closer to her, she had to strain her neck so she could continue to look up into his cold blue eyes but they were no longer cold, she could see that something had replaced the usual coldness. Debbie could see that he was full of regret. 'They know.' It was the only explanation to the way they were acting.
"The Judge is in there with Agent Hoskins." Debbie got up from her desk and walked away. "I wasn't here when you came in." She told them over her shoulder before she closed the double doors behind her.
Chris didn't bother knocking on the thick wooden door, he opened it and stepped into the office with three of the remaining five members of his team ready to back him up if he needed them. He knew that there would no longer be seven, there was nothing that was going to make up for what they had done, for what he had done to Ezra. The man was very convincing but he should never had treated him with so much anger or hatred, he had beaten him when he was unable to defend himself. He knew Ezra would never forgive him for what he and the others had done.
Judge Travis raised his eyes from his paperwork and saw Chris standing in the open doorway, he saw the expression on his face and his first thought was that something had happened to Ezra. Lenny who was watching the Judge saw the look of dread on his aging features and turned to see what he was looking at. His anger rose as he clenched his fists.
"Why weren't we told that Ezra had gone undercover?" Chris asked them. His mind had been going over everything that had happened, his finger finally finding the reason for his anger, for the way that he felt about what had happened. He realised that he knew all along that something was going on, that there was a reason behind it all but his anger had quickly taken control and didn't allow any other thoughts to voice their opinions, he wouldn't admit to what he had actually been feeling. He had pushed it away and allowed the anger to take control because that was more believable than the other feelings that he had. Now that the anger was gone, these other thoughts began to speak up, telling Chris that he was wrong, they explained everything to him. If he had listened to them, in the first place none of this would have happened. Chris's whole body filled with dread, it joined the guilt that was already flowing through him. He knew why he believed that Ezra had betrayed them, he had wanted to believe it, he understood his own feelings but he knew that Ezra wouldn't.
"What makes you think that Standish is working undercover?" Travis calmly asked him, he had been able to hide the surprise that he felt and saw that Lenny had hidden his just as well but he could see the underlying anger that was building in him.
"Maude phoned and from what she told Nathan we know he's undercover." Chris hadn't moved forward, the guilt was tearing through him in much the same way as the pain of a bullet wound would.
Lenny watched the Judge carefully, he could tell that he had made a decision to include these men in on the operation but before he did, he wanted to do something that he had needed to do since the first time he saw Ezra's battered body when he had been thrown into the corridor of the holding area.
"Judge?" Lenny got his attention. "Would you mind if I say something to Larabee first?"
Travis frowned at him but he didn't say no, he nodded his head hoping that what he was going to say didn't start an argument, he was wrong.
Lenny stood up and slowly moved towards Chris, his face lacked any expression but instead held a facade that would have made Ezra proud. He stopped and looked into Chris's eyes, he ignored all the emotions that he saw in them, the emotions were too late, the damage of his anger had been done. Lenny was so quick that Chris didn't have time to react. He felt the fist that slammed into his jaw before he saw it, he fell back into the arms of his friends who were still standing behind him.
"That's only a taste of what I'm going to give you when all this is over!" Lenny spoke with vehemence.
Chris pushed himself away from his friends and wiped the thin line of blood that flowed from his split lip. "I'll take that as confirmation that Ezra is undercover." Chris growled back at him, his own fists were clenched but he held them at his side. This man was giving him what he had given Ezra, he was showing the anger that he'd felt at his treatment of Ezra.
"And a promise Larabee! You hurt him, not only physically but emotionally and I'm going to make you pay for that." His eyes took in all the men that stood behind Chris. "All of you are going to pay." Lenny turned away from him and went back to the leather chair, he didn't sit in it but instead sat on the corner of the desk, he now wanted to see everything that was going to show on the faces of Ezra's former friends.
"Why don't you sit down Chris." Judge Travis used his arm to usher him to the empty chair, he ignored what Lenny had just done, knowing that Chris had gotten off lightly but it would be a different matter when it was all over. "We'll explain everything now that contact has been made."
Chris slowly walked towards the chair and sat down heavily into it. He felt his men move forward and stand behind the two large chairs, neither one of them willing to sit in the other empty chair that faced Hoskins angry travelling gaze.
"Agent Hoskins approached me two months ago asking if Ezra could be used in an undercover operation." He saw Chris's quick glance towards the man who sat on his desk and noticed the returning stare didn't flinch. "We have an agent within this building who has been selling information causing the death of two FBI agents."
"Shit." Vin spoke quietly but they heard him clearly.
"Shit is right Mr Tanner." Lenny's angry light blue eyes turned to him. "Ezra was willing to put everything on the line to find out who this person is and he has, he's lost just about everything doing it."
The Judge nodded to Lenny asking him to continue with the explanation of what had transpired during those first two months.
"I had an informer who gave me this information but he died before he could give me a name or a description. The Judge and I decided that the only way to flush him out was to make him think that another agent had also gone bad." Lenny continued.
"Why Ezra?" Nathan asked him.
"Judge Travis told me that you would react to the situation and your reaction would make Ezra's cover even more convincing. It was going to be a reaction that would convince the crooked agent that Ezra had also gone bad. We then hoped that he would contact Ezra, maybe offer him some work." Lenny didn't elaborate on the last statement, he was going to leave that until last. He didn't mention the rumors of Ezra being on the take when he was with the FBI that would have also helped his cover, he knew that these would men would question his innocence.
"He assumed we would react to the situation?" Josiah asked.
They all looked towards Lenny who had replaced his anger with an expression of pure disgust. "He didn't assume anything Mr Sanchez, Ezra was adamant that you would believe his cover that you wouldn't question it and none of you did. He told me that you would be angry but he didn't expect the hatred or the beatings to be so bad." The last statement was aimed at Chris.
"How else were we supposed to react." Vin spoke up, he decided to defend what they had felt towards the southerner thinking that they had a right to feel the way they had. "Did he think that we were going to give him a hug and tell him that we were sorry and that we would help him. We thought he betrayed our friendship and trust."
"You're not stupid Tanner, you know that's not what he expected." Lenny got off the table and took a step closer to Vin. "All of you lived up to his expectations but what he couldn't foresee, like I already told you, was how bad the beatings were. When I spoke to Ezra the day before you arrested him, he told me something that I didn't take seriously." He turned away from him and leaned on the armrest of the chair that Chris sat in and placed his own visage inches within the man in front of him. "He asked me to make sure that there would be a Doctor in the holding area because Chris at some point would try and beat the shit out him." He enjoyed the grimace that flickered across Chris's face.
"He expected the beatings." Josiah was shocked, he wasn't the only one.
"He anticipated that Chris would use physical force but he was shocked by the excessive amount of it in his arrest. Larabee beat him after his hands were secured behind his back giving him a concussion in the process." Lenny could feel the Judge tense up at his words. "Wilmington kicked him until his ribs cracked when he was under the influence of heroin that he didn't expect." Lenny pushed himself away from Chris's chair, the anger was leaving him, and all he felt now was sorrow.
"He cried after that, wanted to know why we were treating him the way we were." Nathan confessed to the room.
"They Jackson." Lenny assured him. "You gave him the friendship that he deserved, you stood by him."
"When we arrested him. That was all part of his cover?" Josiah asked him as he tried to bring the conversation back to the reason why Ezra went undercover.
"Yes it was." Travis answered him while he kept his eyes on Chris, he noticed that he had become quiet, he wasn't asking the questions like he thought he would be.
"And the heroin that he took in his cell." Vin growled at Lenny. "What about that?"
"He didn't have a choice, it was offered to him as a test." Lenny replied, his anger was building again. Tanner still wasn't convinced, he had thought that Larabee would be asking these questions but he wasn't saying anything. "If he didn't take it then his cover would have been blown and we wouldn't find out who the second Agent was."
"Second?" Chris finally spoke up.
"Ezra found out that there are two Agents who have gone bad." Travis answered him. "There is also another reason for this operation Chris."
"The agent that we're after put out feelers for a contract on someone's life." Lenny spoke before the Judge could continue, he wanted to give out this information but he didn't go into details yet, he wanted to drag it out. He could tell that Larabee was feeling a lot of guilt, he was going to make sure that he felt even more.
"Who's life?" Josiah's baritone voice broke the silence that suddenly filled the room.
"Ezra planned on reacting to Chris's anger . . . "
"He did that yesterday." Vin interrupted him.
"And I deserved it." Chris didn't hold any anger towards Ezra for what he did, he now knew that he did it as part of his cover but he also knew that there would have been anger behind the punches that he had inflicted on him.
Lenny ignored the interruption and continued. "hoping that this guy would believe that he would want to get him back for what he did." Lenny paused for the effect, all eyes were on him but his eyes stayed on Larabee's face. "Ezra hoped that he would offer him the contract on Larabee's life."
"There's a contract on Chris's life?" Vin was shocked.
"There you go being deaf again." Lenny grimaced at him. "He's only put feelers out, he's looking for someone to offer the contract to." Lenny explained.
"So Ezra's doing this because he thought the guy would ask him to do it?" Vin wanted to know.
"Yes he is." Travis kept his anger under control, Vin was questioning everything but now that he knew that Chris's life was in danger he believed everything that he had been told.
"Judge." Chris could tell that he was controlling his anger and it took a few moments before he turned towards the sound of his voice. "You said that he made contact. Does he know who the agents are?"
"Only one. Henry Glading, he was the one who supplied Ezra with the heroin and . . ." Travis explained but his next words caught in his throat when he saw the expressions that overcame the men who were listening to him.
"What?" Lenny spoke calmly even though he didn't feel calm, a sudden dread had taken over every nerve ending in his body.
"I told the guys about Ezra in the corridor near the interview room." Nathan whispered but his voice echoed in the silence that hung like a shroud.
"And?" Lenny couldn't breathe, his chest was constricted, and he knew what he was going to say.
"Glading was behind the front desk, he must have heard us." Chris told him knowing what it meant, if Glading and the other agent got to Ezra, first he was a dead man.
"SHIT!" Lenny began to walk around in circles, Ezra would have no idea that his cover had been blown by his own people, and if he was contacted by the other agent, he would walk blindly into a trap. He gained control of himself as he listened to Larabee bark orders to his men.
"Josiah, Nathan go to his apartment just in case he went back there. Vin contact the appropriate authorities, have them put an APB out on Ezra and his car, tell them his cover's been blown and to inform him of that if they do find him and have them put one out on Glading. When you do that, phone Buck and find out where it was that he lost him and tell him what's going on." Chris turned to Hoskins. "Lenny your with me, were going to go to Glading's house, see if we can find something."
Lenny didn't argue with him, there wasn't time for that. He kept every emotion that he was feeling under control but only just. He followed Larabee and his men out of the large office and to the elevator. No one spoke, they each knew the implications of what had happened, they knew that Ezra could now loose his life as well as the friends that he thought he'd lost.
Judge Travis walked behind them and watched as they entered the elevator, when the doors closed across the morbid expressions he turned to his secretary. "Debbie could you please phone the hospitals in Denver, ask them if anyone with Agent Standish's description was brought in to their emergency room." He ignored her shocked expression as she picked up her telephone book, it was only a few seconds before she started dialling. The Judge didn't move from his position next to the desk that was half the size of his own. He listened to each phone call and was relieved each time Debbie shook her head indicating that Ezra had not been brought into the hospital that she was speaking to. He was still listening when she began to nod her head during her conversation with the fourth hospital on the list, her head continued to nod as the tear slowly fell from her moist filled eyes.
________________________________________
It had only taken Ezra ten minutes to lose Buck and JD, he had to smile, and he could easily imagine the look on Chris's face when Buck informed him that they had lost him. He noticed his second tail five minutes after he left the ATF building, he had to double back after losing Buck so the other person who was following him could pick up his trail again. He didn't want to lose them because he knew the only way for the rogue Agent to contact him was to follow him, Ezra didn't have a phone and he wasn't going to go back to his home or his car. The man couldn't take the chance that Ezra didn't go underground never to be found again.
Ezra stopped in front of a quite coffee shop, he looked inside the window and found it to be nearly empty, he could see the reflection of the man following him but couldn't make out his features because he was standing with his back to him, he was watching Ezra's reflection in a window shop. Ezra smiled to himself and walked into the cafe, he made his way to one of the many empty booths at the back, and he looked around as he sat down to wait. There were only two other customers and a plump waitress behind the counter, the pink uniform was tight enough to allow the material between to buttons to spread open showing the brown slip that she wore beneath it.
The overweight waitress made her way to his booth and he ordered a cup of coffee. He smiled at the heavy made up face but she turned away from him revealing a man standing behind her.
"Come to arrest me have you Agent Collins?" Ezra grimaced up at the tall man. He knew Jack Collins, had even thought that he was a good agent, he hid the surprise that he felt behind a calm poker face.
"No." Collins looked down at the battered visage of Ezra Standish. "I came to offer you a job."
Ezra frowned at Collins as he sat down across from him, the fluorescent light that hung on the wall behind him reflected off the steel-rimmed glasses that hung low on Collins's nose making it hard for him to look into the green eyes that were similar to his own.
"I resigned from the agency." Ezra told him as he watched the waitress place his coffee on the table, she pushed it towards him causing it to spill onto the plate that it rested on, she walked away again without wiping the spillage up.
"Now there's a woman who loves her job."
"It doesn't have anything to do with the agency." His voice grated on Ezra's nerves, the high-pitched tone could be very irritating. "And you can make a lot of money if you accept it."
Ezra raised his eyebrows in interest. "Money?"
"A lot, enough to keep your drug habit going for a long time." Collins watched his former associate carefully, he could see that he was fidgeting with his clothing. He knew the man that sat across from him was on the take when he was with the FBI and was now in the same kind of work that he was, he had been selling information. The only difference between them was that Ezra had a drug habit and he was caught.
Ezra nodded in understanding. "You're the mutual friend that Glading told me about. Don't suppose you have any more on you?"
"Sorry, I don't have a habit." Collins grinned at him.
"So why did you get it for me?" Ezra looked at his coffee and saw a film of dust floating on the top.
"You needed it." He shrugged at him.
"I don't need money." Ezra told him as he looked back up from his coffee, his gaze turned to the counter and he tried to get the attention of the waitress.
"What about payback against Larabee?" Collins saw that Ezra was now totally absorbed in what he was saying.
"How?"
"Are you interested?" Collins placed his forearms on the table and leaned forward.
"Depends on what type of payback it is." Ezra sat back against the booth's read vinyl seat.
"His death." It was a simple statement and it took all of Ezra's skills not to flinch. "I want you to kill him."
"What makes you think that I would want to kill him." Ezra began to fidget even more. "And why would you want him killed?
"Let's just say that you and I are in the same business. Larabee is a liability and you also said that you wanted to kill him." He saw Ezra's confusion. "Henry overheard you."
"You've been selling information too?" Ezra smiled at him.
"You can say that." Collins waved off the waitress before Ezra could complain about his coffee.
"How much?" He leaned forward knowing that his body language would tell Collins that he was interested.
"I thought you didn't need money." Collins sat back, mirroring Ezra's former position.
"I lied." Ezra smiled.
"Why don't we get you fixed up, figuratively speaking and then we can make an agreement." He stood up just as his cell phone began to ring.
Ezra didn't wait for him he needed some fresh air after being in such a close proximity of a traitor.
"Collins." He listened for a few moments as he watched Ezra leave the coffee shop, he stood in the sunshine for a moment and then started walking away. He quickly made his way to the door. "Are you sure Henry." He opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, he turned to the direction that Ezra had taken. "No it's too late, I've already spoken to him, and told him what I wanted." He cut Glading off and pulled his gun from his shoulder holster.
"Standish!"
Ezra turned around and saw the expression on Collins's face first, it told him that his cover had been blown, he then saw the gun just as it fired. The first bullet hit him low in the left shoulder, the second fractured his skull sending him into oblivion.
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Chris kept his speed over the legal limit, he pulled around the cars that were slowing them down and pressed angrily on the horn at the ones he couldn't pass.
"You didn't answer my question Hoskins." Chris risked a glance at the man in the passenger seat of his Dodge, he saw the fear that mirrored his own.
"What question is that Larabee?" Lenny didn't look at him, he kept his eyes forward.
"Why weren't we told that Ezra was undercover?" He repeated the question that he asked in the Judge's office when he had first entered the room.
"Ezra's the best at what he does," he looked across at Chris and saw him nod in agreement, "I didn't have to worry about him, but you and the rest of Team Seven might not have been convincing enough and the only way to make it convincing was to not tell you."
"Did Ezra agree to that?" Chris swore as he pulled the Dodge around a car that had stopped suddenly.
"No, he wanted to tell you but I asked him not to." Lenny jumped when he heard his cell phone begin to ring, he looked at Chris and slowly pulled the phone out of his inside coat pocket. His hand was shaking as he placed the phone next to his ear. "Hoskins." Chris slowed the car when he saw the colour drain from Lenny's face, his black leather jacket giving his now pale features a ghostly white colour. "Where are they taking him?" He turned to Chris.
"Denver Memorial Hospital. Now!" He went back to the conversation.
Chris didn't need to be told twice, he knew it was Ezra. He glanced into the rear view mirror and saw that there were no cars following him. He jerked the wheel to the left and continued to turn it until the Dodge was facing the opposite direction, his foot reapplied pressure to the accelerator. He listened to the one sided conversation that Lenny was having.
"Did they say how he is?" He grabbed hold of the side of the seat to stop himself from sliding into Chris's lap when the Dodge spun around. "Oh no." He put his hand over his eyes as he continued to listen to what the Judge was telling him. "Yeah I'll let you know Judge." Lenny hung up the phone and carefully placed it back in his pocket, he wanted to throw it at something, mainly the man who sat in the driver's side.
"Well?" Chris demanded.
"The Judge had Debbie start phoning the hospitals in the area. The Memorial said that they were bringing him in. One of the medics on the scene recognised him, you guys must spend a lot of time there. He told the emergency nurse who he was when he called it in just before Debbie spoke to her." Lenny slammed his fist against the dashboard.
"How bad is he?" Chris wasn't going to ask him if Ezra was dead.
"Two gunshot wounds, one to the chest and one to the head." Lenny could see the hospital in the distance through his blurred vision, he looked behind him when he heard a siren. "This must be him."
The ambulance sped pass them and Chris roared out of the traffic to pull in behind it, he matched their speed and followed them to the emergency department of the hospital. Chris parked the car at an awkward angle, he got out and ran after Lenny who was already running towards the ambulance. They reached their destination just as the back doors were opened. Arms pushed them out of the way as the nurses and Doctor made their own way to the patient.
Chris and Lenny stood frozen in time as they watched them pull the gurney out of the ambulance, they saw the medic that was straddling Ezra while he applied CPR to man underneath him. Ezra's shirt had been torn open, the glove-covered hands of the medic were soaked in blood, and so was Ezra's face and chest, the rough bandages that had been wrapped around his head and chest only soaking up so much.
Chris pushed Lenny into the same direction that the gurney had taken, neither of them hearing the instructions that the Doctor was yelling to the nurses that surrounded him, all they could hear were their own guilt ridden thoughts and fears. They knew that CPR was only used when someone's heart had stopped.
Two nurses stopped them from following Ezra into the emergency room. "Mr Larabee, you know you can't go in there." The older nurse gently pushed him back towards the waiting room but Chris wouldn't go.
"We'll stay here, were not going anywhere." He looked through the plastic doors and saw the gurney disappear behind a set of swinging doors.
"Think you can manage to fill out the usual forms?" Nurse Julie Henshaw asked him as she placed a comforting hand on his arm. "If not we can do it later."
"Later." Chris whispered.
Nurse Henshaw walked through the doors to follow the gurney and the man who was fighting for his life, she looked over her shoulder at the two men who stood side by side. She knew from what she had been told that Agent Standish's chances of survival were very slim.
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While the medic continued to apply CPR a nurse pulled Ezra's head back and gently forced the breathing tube down into the chamber that led to his lungs. She taped the tube to his face to hold it in place then attached a large bag to it and squeezed on a regular basis to give the patient the oxygen that he was no longer able to breathe into his lungs on his own, he now needed help to stay alive. The medic who had been keeping Ezra's heart beating got off the gurney to allow the Doctor to do his job.
"Get me two units of A negative stat!" Doctor Falex yelled at one of the nurses who then ran from the room, he knew the man who was near death, he had treated him on more than one occasion, he was worried that this would be the last. "Julie, call x-ray and tell them were going to need a Cat Scan and a chest x-ray, then surgery, we need an operating room asap, and tell them we'll also need a neural surgeon." He looked at the other nurses who were busy cutting the clothing from Agent Standish and placing the appropriate IV tubes in his arms. "We'll take him up as soon as we stabilise him."
________________________________________
"The Doctor hasn't come out yet." Chris didn't look at Lenny. "That has to be good news. Doesn't it?" He didn't expect an answer, he was talking more to himself than to the man who stood beside him.
"Chris!" Vin called to him as pushed through the doors of the emergency entrance, he had seen his friend standing in front of the clear doors that led into the emergency area. He saw the slumped shoulders and then the glazed eyes as he turned around at the sound of his voice.
"Ezra's not . . . " His voice trailed off.
"We don't know, he's still in there." Chris turned back to his scrutiny of the doors that led to the room that Ezra was in. "Where are the others?"
"They'll be here in a minute." Vin turned around and saw Buck and JD running to the entrance, he went to meet them.
"Vin! What happened? Is he okay?" JD spurted out as he looked over Vin's shoulder towards Chris.
"They don't know JD but from the look on Chris's face, it can't be good." Vin explained what he knew which wasn't much.
"Aw Hell!" Buck groaned. "He can't die Vin, not after what we did, he can't die thinking we hate him."
JD placed an arm around Buck's shoulders, which was difficult because the man was taller than him.
When Josiah and Nathan arrived a few minutes later, Vin told them the same thing. Each of them stood behind Chris and Lenny, the longer the Doctor took the better they thought things would be for Ezra. Another ten minutes passed before they saw Ezra being wheeled from the emergency room, the medic no longer straddled him but they did see the oxygen bag that was still being squeezed as it pumped air into his lungs. They stepped back when one of the nurses came towards them.
"Chris." Julie used a soft voice, she smiled encouragingly at him and at the men who stood beside him. She looked at Lenny then back to Chris.
"Julie this is Lenny Hoskins, he's . . . " Chris halted, he wasn't sure what Lenny was to Ezra.
"I'm a very old friend." Lenny assured her.
"I'm not going to lie to you Chris, his chances aren't good. They're taking him up to x-ray now and then surgery. One bullet missed his heart, his left lung has collapsed causing fluid to build up in it, and the other bullet may have fractured his skull." She took his hand trying to give him some comfort. "There's nothing you can do standing here so why don't you go to the waiting room. I'll keep you informed."
"Thanks Julie." Chris watched as she disappeared back into the emergency hallway, he hadn't failed to notice that she wore clean scrubs, she had taken the blood soaked ones off before she came out to see them. He turned around slowly and managed to make his way to the waiting room, the others following him so they could take up residence to wait once again.
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Chris couldn't control the strong torrent of emotions that were following through him, he looked around the comfortable room at the men that would be mirroring the feelings that he felt, all except Lenny. Chris knew his emotions would be stronger and they would include anger towards the rest of the men in the room, he had gotten the impression the FBI Agent was close to Ezra, that he had managed to gain a strong rapport with the southerner that they had yet to succeeded in obtaining. Chris was sure Lenny blamed them and he didn't disagree with him.
Chris's own anger was also rising. He wanted to turn that anger towards Ezra, if only he had told them what was happening, they would have backed him up but he knew he was only pointing the blame in the wrong direction. He wanted to be angry at someone who couldn't fight back, someone who couldn't scream into his tortured mind that all of this was his fault and he knew beyond any doubt that it was. The blame for the operation going wrong would sit squarely on Team Seven's shoulders, he would make sure that none of it was aimed at Ezra, he had done nothing wrong, and his friends had turned on him and then blown his cover. His mind began to go over the reasons for his reaction to Ezra's convincing undercover roll.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the waiting room door opening, he wouldn't look up from the floor, and someone coming so quickly could only mean one thing. Ezra had died, they weren't able to save him. The words that came from the male voice caused the one tear to fall from his left eye. The small drop of moisture fell to the carpet landing between his boots, he concentrated on the area of the carpet that soaked up the tear, causing it to disappear, denying that it had ever fallen from the strong leader. The tear had shocked him, he didn't think that he would actually cry over the death of Ezra Standish but then when he thought about his reaction to Ezra's cover he understood his emotions. He wasn't going to push the strange feelings that had come to the surface away like he had before, if he had accepted them, in the first place none of this would have happened.
"Agent Larabee." The police officer didn't get a response from the man who's eyes were downcast, he looked around the room at the other men, some of them he knew but others were still just names to him. "If I could talk to you for a moment please."
"Chris it's okay." Buck knew what his old friend was thinking, they had all thought it but Chris was the only one who hadn't looked up when Sergeant Herbot walked into the waiting room.
Chris lifted his emotion-filled eyes to the room, he saw the uniformed officer standing before him and relief flooded through him causing his throat to constrict, a small sob escaping. He quickly gained control of the emotions that were making him feel uncomfortable.
"Miles." Chris stood up on shaky legs, he took the smaller man's hand and shook it with a firm grip, he knew the officer from a previous case that Herbot had taken part in.
"I just came from the scene, thought you guys would want to know what happened." Herbot adjusted his gun belt as all eyes turned towards him.
"Don't you mean that you came to see if it would be a murder investigation." Lenny growled up at him from the chair that he sat in, his light blue eyes didn't look at the man he spoke to, he couldn't tear his gaze from the double doors that led to the emergency rooms.
"Lenny . . . " Chris began.
"That's Agent Hoskins to you Larabee." Lenny retorted.
"Agent Hoskins." Josiah's quiet but firm voice gained the attention of the angry but frightened Agent. "This is not the time or place. Ezra wouldn't want us at each other's throats."
"I'll comply with that request Sanchez, there will be plenty of time for blame later." He smiled at the large man who had moved towards him and now stood over him.
Herbot coughed into his hand and he had everyone's attention once more. "We have witnesses to the shooting, one of them saw the shooter." He stepped back from Chris, he didn't allow the anger that the man held in his eyes to scare him, he knew it wasn't aimed at him.
"What happened?" Chris's voice was but a mere whisper but it clearly carried his anger.
"Standish was in a coffee shop on Station street, he was on his own at first but someone joined him," he continued to read from his notebook, "apparently they spoke for a few minutes. Standish left first, the other man stayed behind to answer a phone call, he then hurried out after him, called his name and then shot him twice." He closed his small book and put it back into his pocket.
"The phone call would have been from Glading." Lenny looked over at Nathan. "Must have told him that Ezra was undercover."
"We got a description but . . . " Herbot continued as he ignored the sudden tension in the room.
"But what?" Chris interrupted him.
"But it may not be needed, we got a name from the waitress." Herbot smiled, his grey moustache seeming to grow on his dark face.
"How the hell did you get a name?" Vin was surprised the rogue Agent was that stupid.
"Ezra." Lenny informed them. "Ezra gave it to her."
"Herbot, do you want to give us some more information!" Chris was getting frustrated.
"The waitress was taking Standish's order, when she walked away he spoke to the man that was standing behind her. She remembered what he said because she thought there was going to be trouble." Herbot saw the anger rising in Chris so he quickly finished. "He said, 'come to arrest me have you Agent Collins'."
"Jack Collins, glasses, green eyes?" Vin asked Herbot.
"The description includes eyeglasses, also that he was tall and thin. Eye colour wasn't mentioned, no one was that close to him." Herbot confirmed. "I've already contacted your boss and he's making all the arrangements. An APB is already out on him and this Glading guy you told us about earlier."
"Why would Collins be so stupid as to shoot Ezra in front of witnesses?" JD spoke up from seat near the door.
"He obviously reacted instead of thinking." Chris smiled, he remembered what Hoskins said, and Ezra had managed to give them a name. "Thanks for letting us know Miles."
"Sure, no problem." He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "How is he?"
"He's hanging on Miles, he's hanging on." Chris told him as he made his way back to his chair to continue the waiting game. He didn't see Officer Herbot nod his head or notice that he had left the room.
The men who were standing followed Chris's lead, they returned to their seats to wait for news on Ezra's condition. They knew the normal procedures would be put in place. Alerts would be sent out to the Airports, Bus Terminals and Train Stations, the police had APB's out on both of them but until they were caught, Ezra's life was still in danger.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five
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
"What have you got for me Agent Larabee?" Judge Travis asked him as he sat down in his large leather chair that was placed behind and even larger mahogany desk in his office. He watched his face and inwardly smiled at the bruises hoping that in the long run they weren't going to cause Agent Standish any more pain.
"Nothing." Chris had spent a second day questioning Standish and as the day before he had refused to answer any questions and if he did they related to his own mother and each time, he mentioned his mother his need to hit him became stronger. The man was now settled in his cell for a third night with Nathan who had volunteered to stay with him. Nobody had argued with him they didn't want to stay with a someone who had betrayed them and they had no understanding as to why Nathan did.
"He's not going to talk." Lenny added who sat in the chair that was next to Chris.
"Do you want to spend another day questioning him Chris?" Travis asked him and felt relieved by the answer that was given to him.
"No, we'd only be wasting our time." Chris admitted. "The only thing we can do now is release him and keep him under surveillance and hope that he approaches the people that he sold the information to or maybe they'll seek him out."
The Judge pretended to take a moment to think. "Okay, do that in the morning and keep me up to date on what happens." He watched as Chris nodded and stood up to leave. "Chris." He waited until he had his full attention. "Just because Standish is out on the street does not mean that you can use the opportunity to beat the shit out of him." He saw the shock that Chris felt at his language but ignored it and continued with what he was telling him. "If I hear anything that suggests that you or any of your men have done that you will lose your jobs. Understand?"
"Yes Sir." Chris turned away from him and left the room, he didn't wait for Hoskins.
When Chris shut the door, the Judge turned his eyes to Hoskins. "Do you think Ezra will be okay out there?"
"He'll be fine, all he has to do is wait for this second agent to approach him. Once he's done that, I'll bring Ezra in. Then Larabee can do his job." Lenny shrugged his shoulders. "That's the easy part, the hard part will be sorting out the friendship and trust that has been destroyed because of this operation."
"I'm not sure Ezra will be willing to do that." Travis told him. "Not after what Chris and Buck did to him and I wouldn't blame him. I don't want to lose him though, he's a good man and he's the best undercover agent that I have ever come across."
Lenny coughed into his hand. The Judge ignored him, he knew Lenny was better but he wasn't going to tell him that, he wouldn't hear the end of it if he did.
"I better go downstairs then and somehow let Glading know that Ezra is going to be released tomorrow." Lenny commented. He pretended to be hurt by the lack of acknowledgement in regards to his own undercover skills.
"I'm sure you'll manage Lenny." Travis smiled at him. "Ezra would have taught you a trick or two."
"You really know how to hurt a guy don't you." Lenny scowled at him.
"Speaking of hurt." Travis stood up and walked around the table and sat on the corner of the desk. "Lenny make sure he's okay after this is over, he's going to need you."
"I think you should be more worried about Larabee." Lenny smiled as he stood up, the smile didn't reach his eyes though because he knew that Judge was right. Ezra was going to be hurting when this was over and he was going to need him to help him get through it.
"I'm serious Lenny."
"So am I Judge." Lenny left the room and closed the door behind him, he leaned against it and closed his eyes. "So am I Judge." He repeated with more assertiveness, he was going to make Larabee and the others pay for what they were doing to Ezra. He pushed himself away from the door and headed towards the holding area to start the next phase of the operation.
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Nathan watched as Ezra tried to find a comfortable position on the cot, he finally gave up and lay on his left side. His eyes hadn't strayed from Ezra's face for the last hour, there was nothing to indicate that he was trying to hide anything from him. Nathan knew that something was going on and he didn't think that Ezra would admit to it if he asked him but he had to try.
"What's going on Ezra?" Nathan asked him carefully.
"You're not stupid Nathan and you’re not blind." Ezra scowled across the room at him. "You can see what's going on."
"Then tell me why." He waited for an answer but he didn't get one, Ezra had closed his eyes. "Talk to me Ezra."
"I can't Nathan, not now." He opened his eyes and looked at Nathan. "Later, ask me again in a few days, I'll tell you then." He allowed his eyelids to close again, he expected his friend to keep questioning him. Friend, he still had a friend among the group. Nathan still believed him to be a drug addict and an informer but he wanted to help him. This show of help confused him and when it was all over, he was going to ask Nathan his own questions. He wanted to know why he was taking care of him when he knew that Nathan had never really trusted or liked him and why he was the only one willing to stand by him and help him.
"Okay Ezra, I'll leave it for now." Nathan settled back and watched as Ezra drifted off to sleep, he was surprised that he could sleep when he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms, his mind told him that Ezra must be exhausted but that nagging thought crossed his mind again but he was too tired to understand it completely. He dragged himself out of his chair and moved towards the bed, he placed his hand against Ezra's forehead to find that his fever and finally left him. Nathan carefully pulled the loose jacket up on his right arm and took a closer look at the needle marks, he knew they were real, he hoped that they were fake, even silently prayed that they would peel off but they didn't. He wiped the loose hair back from Ezra's forehead and looked closely at the slack features. "You're going to tell me Ezra and then you’re going to let me help you."
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Ezra was once again jerked from his sleep, it hadn't been the sunlight or Nathan but the noise of the door to his cell slamming shut. He opened his eyes to find that three of his former colleagues had come to collect him, he smiled at thought. Chris, Vin and Josiah stood just inside the room not voicing their request that he get up and follow them. Ezra ignored them and rolled onto his side. He saw the empty chair and wondered where Nathan had gone. His line of sight was blocked by Josiah's form.
"Come on Ezra, get up." Josiah ordered him.
"No." Ezra's voice was slurred, he wasn't fully awake. He turned his head so he could look up at the larger man who stood over him, his expression giving the man a challenge even with the drooping eyelids that wanted to close again.
Josiah took it, he leaned down and grabbed Ezra by the arms and pulled him from the bed, he saw him wince against the pain in his side. Josiah pushed him towards Vin and Chris who took an arm each and led him out of the room.
"How's the nose Mr Larabee." Ezra couldn't help but smile at the bruises that had formed on Chris's face, the dark colouring making his skin seem paler than it really was.
"Better than your ribs." Chris shot back at him as he elbowed Ezra's right side. He smiled at the grunt of pain that came from the southerner.
Ezra was surprised when they dragged him to the front desk, pushing him against it with more force than was needed. He had been expecting another day in the interview room. His green eyes fell on Henry Glading and he wondered why he was here at this time of day. Glading placed a clipboard in front of him.
"Sign this." Glading pointed to the area on the page where he wanted Ezra's signature.
"Sign what?" Ezra asked him.
"Your being released." Chris informed him.
"What do you mean I'm being released, what happened to the law. I'm supposed to have a bail hearing. You can't just arrest me then let me go." Ezra looked around at them and saw Lenny standing near the elevator doors, he watched as he nodded towards him and then disappear into the elevator after its doors had opened.
"You were never legally arrested Standish. Sign it and get out." Chris pushed the clipboard closer to him.
"If I haven't been arrested then I'm not signing it, I'm just going to leave."
"Do what you want Standish and believe me when I tell you this." Chris grabbed Ezra's jacket lapels and pulled him towards him. "If anybody dies or gets hurt because of the information you sold I'm going to come after you and when I catch you, I'll kill you."
"Not if I kill you first Larabee." Ezra smiled at him and then pushed him away from him. He turned around and headed towards the doors, he expected someone to grab him and drag him back to the desk but no one did. He made it to the glass doors and pushed them opened. He wanted to look behind him to see if they were following him but he wouldn't allow himself to.
Ezra walked through the underground garage towards the ramp that led to the outside world, he could hear his footsteps echoing off the cement walls, he didn't hear anyone else's. He walked up the ramp and out into the sunlight, he squinted his eyes against its brightness and when they adjusted to the natural light he looked around at the passerby’s and parked cars looking for the men who would be following him. He spotted them easily but made sure that they knew they hadn't been made.
Buck and JD were supposed to be two of the best when it came to surveillance but Ezra was better when it came to marking a tag. He had seen the foam coffee cup that lay on the road next to the passenger side of the car, he knew that it was something that Buck did. People had complained about the mess that he left in the ATF's cars and vans so he had begun to drop his rubbish outside of the car. It was a dead giveaway but only to Ezra because he knew Buck's habits. He walked away from them towards the subway. He had every intention of losing them and he knew it would be easy.
________________________________________
Nathan had woken to find that Ezra was still sleeping soundly, he didn't want to wake him so he left him as he was, and he sat quietly watching him as he had the night before. During the night the nagging thought continued to plague his mind and every time he thought he had it, it was gone again before he could understand it's meaning. He decided he had to do something and if Ezra wasn't going to tell him then he would have to do his own investigating. He quietly pushed himself out of his chair and stepped towards the door. He froze in midstep when he heard Ezra shift on the bed, he waited with his breath caught in his throat as his friend rolled onto his side and settled his head back down into the pillow. He opened the door and stepped out into the corridor. Once the door was closed and the locked engaged, he let out the breath that he had been holding.
He made his way up to the seventh floor that held their offices, he was going to search Ezra's again to see if he could find something that he may have missed the last time he looked for evidence as to why Ezra had resigned. He needed to find out what was going on and he knew that when Ezra was released tomorrow that he may not have the chance again. He knew that he would disappear without a trace and he wouldn't be able to find him.
He stepped off the elevator and walked along the quiet hallway, he didn't think that there would be anyone around, they had all been spending their days down stairs either with Ezra or watching him. He looked into the other offices to find them empty. When he reached Ezra's he opened the door and stepped in, he looked around at the bare walls again, he sighed at the thought of Ezra not making it homely and now knew why, he hadn't expected to stay, he must have known that he was going to be caught one day.
Nathan sat down at the desk and began to look through the drawers again. It was the same as last time, there was nothing. He was about to give up when the phone rang, he was going to ignore it but something told him to pick it up and when he did he was shocked. Like Ezra, he had thought that Maude Standish never got out of her bed at this time of the day.
"Mr Jackson is that you?" The voice on the other end of the line demand.
"Yes Mrs Standish." Nathan licked his lips nervously.
"Is my son there? I need to talk to him." There were no pleasantries from the woman so Nathan didn't bother to supply any.
"No he isn't."
"Do you know where I can find him, I've been trying to get him for days now but he won't answer his phone at home and I haven't been able to get an answer at that office of yours either." He could hear the anger in her voice but he didn't want to tell her what had happened to her son over the phone.
"Mrs Standish maybe you should come out here in person . . . " He didn't get any further.
"He is sick isn't he, I knew it." There was a pause on the other end but Nathan didn't take advantage of it, what Maude had just said peaked his curiosity. "I found out from a friend that Ezra has been seeing my Doctor in Denver for at least two months now, she said that she had seen him in the waiting room on six occasions while she was there. I rang the Doctor but he wouldn't tell me anything until I threatened to sue him but all he would tell me was that he was getting vitamin shots." She stopped talking and when she spoke, again Nathan could hear the fear in her voice. "He is sick isn't he Nathan?"
"No Maude he's not." Nathan took control of the conversation. "He was getting vitamin injections?"
"Yes he . . ." Nathan didn't hear the rest of the conversation, he had hung up the phone. "SHIT!" He ran out of the office and kept running until he reached the elevator. He pushed the down button but it was slow to respond. He ran to the stairwell and took them three at a time. He burst through the doors and into the holding area to find Chris and the others standing in a group near the interview room, Chris was yelling into the phone but Nathan ignored him. He ran to the group and took the phone from his bosses hand and again hung up on the caller. He didn't stop to think about taking the conversation that he was about to have with them into a private room.
"Nathan! What the hell are you doing?" Chris turned on him, Nathan was going to be the perfect excuse to allow him to let out his anger. Buck had just informed him that they had lost Standish.
Nathan took a moment to catch his breath. "He's working undercover. . ." He pointed to his own forearms. "I was just talking to Maude on the phone, Ezra's been getting vitamin shots for the last two months, that's where the needle marks came from. He's been seeing her Doctor."
"Nathan what the hell are you talking about?" Chris demanded. "Vitamin shots don't leave scars."
"Ezra has to be working undercover." He threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "He's not a drug addict, the needle marks have to be from the vitamin injections. If he's undercover he would have made sure they left marks."
"Nathan he shot up in here himself." Chris ran his hand through his hair. "Even you said he was high on heroin."
"Maybe he didn't have a choice." Nathan remembered something. "You said that he threw up that morning. First time users throw up and suffer from nausea afterwards. He did feel sick for a few hours after didn't he."
"What about the information he sold Nathan, we caught him red handed." Vin reminded him.
"I don't know, maybe it was all set up for our benefit, there has to be a reason why we weren't told about it, for some reason he was trying to convince us that he was a user and that he was selling information." Nathan tried to explain but he could see that his efforts were a waste of time.
"But he was going through withdrawal symptoms, look at the way he's been acting Nathan." Chris growled at him as he roughly took his cell phone back.
"Ezra's an undercover agent Chris, he's the best at what he does. He would be very convincing. But the question is why he was trying to convince us that he was a drug addict and an informer."
"Maybe he was trying to convince someone else." Josiah spoke softly, afraid that his words would tell them the truth. That Ezra was working undercover and if he was then they would have a lot to answer for.
"Were going to see the Judge. Ezra being undercover would explain why he was coming down on us so hard for the way we were treating him." Chris stopped moving before he even started. "The way I was treating him. Oh God what have I done."
"We don't know it's true yet Chris. Let's find out first and then deal with it." Vin assured him. He knew they would all have to deal with it if it was true, he still had his doubts as he was sure everyone except Nathan did.
"Why don't we just go and ask Ezra?" Nathan wanted to know.
"Because we let him go and Buck who was following him just lost him." Chris explained.
"Aw hell." Nathan muttered under his breath.
They all walked silently to the elevator, no one noticing that Henry Glading no longer stood behind the front desk, he had slipped away as soon as Nathan had informed Chris that Ezra was working undercover.
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Debbie looked up from her computer terminal and saw the six determined men who stood over her, each of them holding an expression that was full of different emotions. She could see a mixture of remorse, anger and sadness. Debbie frowned causing the light lines on her brow to show on her otherwise perfect complexion. Her bright eyes turned to Chris Larabee as he took a step closer to her, she had to strain her neck so she could continue to look up into his cold blue eyes but they were no longer cold, she could see that something had replaced the usual coldness. Debbie could see that he was full of regret. 'They know.' It was the only explanation to the way they were acting.
"The Judge is in there with Agent Hoskins." Debbie got up from her desk and walked away. "I wasn't here when you came in." She told them over her shoulder before she closed the double doors behind her.
Chris didn't bother knocking on the thick wooden door, he opened it and stepped into the office with three of the remaining five members of his team ready to back him up if he needed them. He knew that there would no longer be seven, there was nothing that was going to make up for what they had done, for what he had done to Ezra. The man was very convincing but he should never had treated him with so much anger or hatred, he had beaten him when he was unable to defend himself. He knew Ezra would never forgive him for what he and the others had done.
Judge Travis raised his eyes from his paperwork and saw Chris standing in the open doorway, he saw the expression on his face and his first thought was that something had happened to Ezra. Lenny who was watching the Judge saw the look of dread on his aging features and turned to see what he was looking at. His anger rose as he clenched his fists.
"Why weren't we told that Ezra had gone undercover?" Chris asked them. His mind had been going over everything that had happened, his finger finally finding the reason for his anger, for the way that he felt about what had happened. He realised that he knew all along that something was going on, that there was a reason behind it all but his anger had quickly taken control and didn't allow any other thoughts to voice their opinions, he wouldn't admit to what he had actually been feeling. He had pushed it away and allowed the anger to take control because that was more believable than the other feelings that he had. Now that the anger was gone, these other thoughts began to speak up, telling Chris that he was wrong, they explained everything to him. If he had listened to them, in the first place none of this would have happened. Chris's whole body filled with dread, it joined the guilt that was already flowing through him. He knew why he believed that Ezra had betrayed them, he had wanted to believe it, he understood his own feelings but he knew that Ezra wouldn't.
"What makes you think that Standish is working undercover?" Travis calmly asked him, he had been able to hide the surprise that he felt and saw that Lenny had hidden his just as well but he could see the underlying anger that was building in him.
"Maude phoned and from what she told Nathan we know he's undercover." Chris hadn't moved forward, the guilt was tearing through him in much the same way as the pain of a bullet wound would.
Lenny watched the Judge carefully, he could tell that he had made a decision to include these men in on the operation but before he did, he wanted to do something that he had needed to do since the first time he saw Ezra's battered body when he had been thrown into the corridor of the holding area.
"Judge?" Lenny got his attention. "Would you mind if I say something to Larabee first?"
Travis frowned at him but he didn't say no, he nodded his head hoping that what he was going to say didn't start an argument, he was wrong.
Lenny stood up and slowly moved towards Chris, his face lacked any expression but instead held a facade that would have made Ezra proud. He stopped and looked into Chris's eyes, he ignored all the emotions that he saw in them, the emotions were too late, the damage of his anger had been done. Lenny was so quick that Chris didn't have time to react. He felt the fist that slammed into his jaw before he saw it, he fell back into the arms of his friends who were still standing behind him.
"That's only a taste of what I'm going to give you when all this is over!" Lenny spoke with vehemence.
Chris pushed himself away from his friends and wiped the thin line of blood that flowed from his split lip. "I'll take that as confirmation that Ezra is undercover." Chris growled back at him, his own fists were clenched but he held them at his side. This man was giving him what he had given Ezra, he was showing the anger that he'd felt at his treatment of Ezra.
"And a promise Larabee! You hurt him, not only physically but emotionally and I'm going to make you pay for that." His eyes took in all the men that stood behind Chris. "All of you are going to pay." Lenny turned away from him and went back to the leather chair, he didn't sit in it but instead sat on the corner of the desk, he now wanted to see everything that was going to show on the faces of Ezra's former friends.
"Why don't you sit down Chris." Judge Travis used his arm to usher him to the empty chair, he ignored what Lenny had just done, knowing that Chris had gotten off lightly but it would be a different matter when it was all over. "We'll explain everything now that contact has been made."
Chris slowly walked towards the chair and sat down heavily into it. He felt his men move forward and stand behind the two large chairs, neither one of them willing to sit in the other empty chair that faced Hoskins angry travelling gaze.
"Agent Hoskins approached me two months ago asking if Ezra could be used in an undercover operation." He saw Chris's quick glance towards the man who sat on his desk and noticed the returning stare didn't flinch. "We have an agent within this building who has been selling information causing the death of two FBI agents."
"Shit." Vin spoke quietly but they heard him clearly.
"Shit is right Mr Tanner." Lenny's angry light blue eyes turned to him. "Ezra was willing to put everything on the line to find out who this person is and he has, he's lost just about everything doing it."
The Judge nodded to Lenny asking him to continue with the explanation of what had transpired during those first two months.
"I had an informer who gave me this information but he died before he could give me a name or a description. The Judge and I decided that the only way to flush him out was to make him think that another agent had also gone bad." Lenny continued.
"Why Ezra?" Nathan asked him.
"Judge Travis told me that you would react to the situation and your reaction would make Ezra's cover even more convincing. It was going to be a reaction that would convince the crooked agent that Ezra had also gone bad. We then hoped that he would contact Ezra, maybe offer him some work." Lenny didn't elaborate on the last statement, he was going to leave that until last. He didn't mention the rumors of Ezra being on the take when he was with the FBI that would have also helped his cover, he knew that these would men would question his innocence.
"He assumed we would react to the situation?" Josiah asked.
They all looked towards Lenny who had replaced his anger with an expression of pure disgust. "He didn't assume anything Mr Sanchez, Ezra was adamant that you would believe his cover that you wouldn't question it and none of you did. He told me that you would be angry but he didn't expect the hatred or the beatings to be so bad." The last statement was aimed at Chris.
"How else were we supposed to react." Vin spoke up, he decided to defend what they had felt towards the southerner thinking that they had a right to feel the way they had. "Did he think that we were going to give him a hug and tell him that we were sorry and that we would help him. We thought he betrayed our friendship and trust."
"You're not stupid Tanner, you know that's not what he expected." Lenny got off the table and took a step closer to Vin. "All of you lived up to his expectations but what he couldn't foresee, like I already told you, was how bad the beatings were. When I spoke to Ezra the day before you arrested him, he told me something that I didn't take seriously." He turned away from him and leaned on the armrest of the chair that Chris sat in and placed his own visage inches within the man in front of him. "He asked me to make sure that there would be a Doctor in the holding area because Chris at some point would try and beat the shit out him." He enjoyed the grimace that flickered across Chris's face.
"He expected the beatings." Josiah was shocked, he wasn't the only one.
"He anticipated that Chris would use physical force but he was shocked by the excessive amount of it in his arrest. Larabee beat him after his hands were secured behind his back giving him a concussion in the process." Lenny could feel the Judge tense up at his words. "Wilmington kicked him until his ribs cracked when he was under the influence of heroin that he didn't expect." Lenny pushed himself away from Chris's chair, the anger was leaving him, and all he felt now was sorrow.
"He cried after that, wanted to know why we were treating him the way we were." Nathan confessed to the room.
"They Jackson." Lenny assured him. "You gave him the friendship that he deserved, you stood by him."
"When we arrested him. That was all part of his cover?" Josiah asked him as he tried to bring the conversation back to the reason why Ezra went undercover.
"Yes it was." Travis answered him while he kept his eyes on Chris, he noticed that he had become quiet, he wasn't asking the questions like he thought he would be.
"And the heroin that he took in his cell." Vin growled at Lenny. "What about that?"
"He didn't have a choice, it was offered to him as a test." Lenny replied, his anger was building again. Tanner still wasn't convinced, he had thought that Larabee would be asking these questions but he wasn't saying anything. "If he didn't take it then his cover would have been blown and we wouldn't find out who the second Agent was."
"Second?" Chris finally spoke up.
"Ezra found out that there are two Agents who have gone bad." Travis answered him. "There is also another reason for this operation Chris."
"The agent that we're after put out feelers for a contract on someone's life." Lenny spoke before the Judge could continue, he wanted to give out this information but he didn't go into details yet, he wanted to drag it out. He could tell that Larabee was feeling a lot of guilt, he was going to make sure that he felt even more.
"Who's life?" Josiah's baritone voice broke the silence that suddenly filled the room.
"Ezra planned on reacting to Chris's anger . . . "
"He did that yesterday." Vin interrupted him.
"And I deserved it." Chris didn't hold any anger towards Ezra for what he did, he now knew that he did it as part of his cover but he also knew that there would have been anger behind the punches that he had inflicted on him.
Lenny ignored the interruption and continued. "hoping that this guy would believe that he would want to get him back for what he did." Lenny paused for the effect, all eyes were on him but his eyes stayed on Larabee's face. "Ezra hoped that he would offer him the contract on Larabee's life."
"There's a contract on Chris's life?" Vin was shocked.
"There you go being deaf again." Lenny grimaced at him. "He's only put feelers out, he's looking for someone to offer the contract to." Lenny explained.
"So Ezra's doing this because he thought the guy would ask him to do it?" Vin wanted to know.
"Yes he is." Travis kept his anger under control, Vin was questioning everything but now that he knew that Chris's life was in danger he believed everything that he had been told.
"Judge." Chris could tell that he was controlling his anger and it took a few moments before he turned towards the sound of his voice. "You said that he made contact. Does he know who the agents are?"
"Only one. Henry Glading, he was the one who supplied Ezra with the heroin and . . ." Travis explained but his next words caught in his throat when he saw the expressions that overcame the men who were listening to him.
"What?" Lenny spoke calmly even though he didn't feel calm, a sudden dread had taken over every nerve ending in his body.
"I told the guys about Ezra in the corridor near the interview room." Nathan whispered but his voice echoed in the silence that hung like a shroud.
"And?" Lenny couldn't breathe, his chest was constricted, and he knew what he was going to say.
"Glading was behind the front desk, he must have heard us." Chris told him knowing what it meant, if Glading and the other agent got to Ezra, first he was a dead man.
"SHIT!" Lenny began to walk around in circles, Ezra would have no idea that his cover had been blown by his own people, and if he was contacted by the other agent, he would walk blindly into a trap. He gained control of himself as he listened to Larabee bark orders to his men.
"Josiah, Nathan go to his apartment just in case he went back there. Vin contact the appropriate authorities, have them put an APB out on Ezra and his car, tell them his cover's been blown and to inform him of that if they do find him and have them put one out on Glading. When you do that, phone Buck and find out where it was that he lost him and tell him what's going on." Chris turned to Hoskins. "Lenny your with me, were going to go to Glading's house, see if we can find something."
Lenny didn't argue with him, there wasn't time for that. He kept every emotion that he was feeling under control but only just. He followed Larabee and his men out of the large office and to the elevator. No one spoke, they each knew the implications of what had happened, they knew that Ezra could now loose his life as well as the friends that he thought he'd lost.
Judge Travis walked behind them and watched as they entered the elevator, when the doors closed across the morbid expressions he turned to his secretary. "Debbie could you please phone the hospitals in Denver, ask them if anyone with Agent Standish's description was brought in to their emergency room." He ignored her shocked expression as she picked up her telephone book, it was only a few seconds before she started dialling. The Judge didn't move from his position next to the desk that was half the size of his own. He listened to each phone call and was relieved each time Debbie shook her head indicating that Ezra had not been brought into the hospital that she was speaking to. He was still listening when she began to nod her head during her conversation with the fourth hospital on the list, her head continued to nod as the tear slowly fell from her moist filled eyes.
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It had only taken Ezra ten minutes to lose Buck and JD, he had to smile, and he could easily imagine the look on Chris's face when Buck informed him that they had lost him. He noticed his second tail five minutes after he left the ATF building, he had to double back after losing Buck so the other person who was following him could pick up his trail again. He didn't want to lose them because he knew the only way for the rogue Agent to contact him was to follow him, Ezra didn't have a phone and he wasn't going to go back to his home or his car. The man couldn't take the chance that Ezra didn't go underground never to be found again.
Ezra stopped in front of a quite coffee shop, he looked inside the window and found it to be nearly empty, he could see the reflection of the man following him but couldn't make out his features because he was standing with his back to him, he was watching Ezra's reflection in a window shop. Ezra smiled to himself and walked into the cafe, he made his way to one of the many empty booths at the back, and he looked around as he sat down to wait. There were only two other customers and a plump waitress behind the counter, the pink uniform was tight enough to allow the material between to buttons to spread open showing the brown slip that she wore beneath it.
The overweight waitress made her way to his booth and he ordered a cup of coffee. He smiled at the heavy made up face but she turned away from him revealing a man standing behind her.
"Come to arrest me have you Agent Collins?" Ezra grimaced up at the tall man. He knew Jack Collins, had even thought that he was a good agent, he hid the surprise that he felt behind a calm poker face.
"No." Collins looked down at the battered visage of Ezra Standish. "I came to offer you a job."
Ezra frowned at Collins as he sat down across from him, the fluorescent light that hung on the wall behind him reflected off the steel-rimmed glasses that hung low on Collins's nose making it hard for him to look into the green eyes that were similar to his own.
"I resigned from the agency." Ezra told him as he watched the waitress place his coffee on the table, she pushed it towards him causing it to spill onto the plate that it rested on, she walked away again without wiping the spillage up.
"Now there's a woman who loves her job."
"It doesn't have anything to do with the agency." His voice grated on Ezra's nerves, the high-pitched tone could be very irritating. "And you can make a lot of money if you accept it."
Ezra raised his eyebrows in interest. "Money?"
"A lot, enough to keep your drug habit going for a long time." Collins watched his former associate carefully, he could see that he was fidgeting with his clothing. He knew the man that sat across from him was on the take when he was with the FBI and was now in the same kind of work that he was, he had been selling information. The only difference between them was that Ezra had a drug habit and he was caught.
Ezra nodded in understanding. "You're the mutual friend that Glading told me about. Don't suppose you have any more on you?"
"Sorry, I don't have a habit." Collins grinned at him.
"So why did you get it for me?" Ezra looked at his coffee and saw a film of dust floating on the top.
"You needed it." He shrugged at him.
"I don't need money." Ezra told him as he looked back up from his coffee, his gaze turned to the counter and he tried to get the attention of the waitress.
"What about payback against Larabee?" Collins saw that Ezra was now totally absorbed in what he was saying.
"How?"
"Are you interested?" Collins placed his forearms on the table and leaned forward.
"Depends on what type of payback it is." Ezra sat back against the booth's read vinyl seat.
"His death." It was a simple statement and it took all of Ezra's skills not to flinch. "I want you to kill him."
"What makes you think that I would want to kill him." Ezra began to fidget even more. "And why would you want him killed?
"Let's just say that you and I are in the same business. Larabee is a liability and you also said that you wanted to kill him." He saw Ezra's confusion. "Henry overheard you."
"You've been selling information too?" Ezra smiled at him.
"You can say that." Collins waved off the waitress before Ezra could complain about his coffee.
"How much?" He leaned forward knowing that his body language would tell Collins that he was interested.
"I thought you didn't need money." Collins sat back, mirroring Ezra's former position.
"I lied." Ezra smiled.
"Why don't we get you fixed up, figuratively speaking and then we can make an agreement." He stood up just as his cell phone began to ring.
Ezra didn't wait for him he needed some fresh air after being in such a close proximity of a traitor.
"Collins." He listened for a few moments as he watched Ezra leave the coffee shop, he stood in the sunshine for a moment and then started walking away. He quickly made his way to the door. "Are you sure Henry." He opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, he turned to the direction that Ezra had taken. "No it's too late, I've already spoken to him, and told him what I wanted." He cut Glading off and pulled his gun from his shoulder holster.
"Standish!"
Ezra turned around and saw the expression on Collins's face first, it told him that his cover had been blown, he then saw the gun just as it fired. The first bullet hit him low in the left shoulder, the second fractured his skull sending him into oblivion.
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Chris kept his speed over the legal limit, he pulled around the cars that were slowing them down and pressed angrily on the horn at the ones he couldn't pass.
"You didn't answer my question Hoskins." Chris risked a glance at the man in the passenger seat of his Dodge, he saw the fear that mirrored his own.
"What question is that Larabee?" Lenny didn't look at him, he kept his eyes forward.
"Why weren't we told that Ezra was undercover?" He repeated the question that he asked in the Judge's office when he had first entered the room.
"Ezra's the best at what he does," he looked across at Chris and saw him nod in agreement, "I didn't have to worry about him, but you and the rest of Team Seven might not have been convincing enough and the only way to make it convincing was to not tell you."
"Did Ezra agree to that?" Chris swore as he pulled the Dodge around a car that had stopped suddenly.
"No, he wanted to tell you but I asked him not to." Lenny jumped when he heard his cell phone begin to ring, he looked at Chris and slowly pulled the phone out of his inside coat pocket. His hand was shaking as he placed the phone next to his ear. "Hoskins." Chris slowed the car when he saw the colour drain from Lenny's face, his black leather jacket giving his now pale features a ghostly white colour. "Where are they taking him?" He turned to Chris.
"Denver Memorial Hospital. Now!" He went back to the conversation.
Chris didn't need to be told twice, he knew it was Ezra. He glanced into the rear view mirror and saw that there were no cars following him. He jerked the wheel to the left and continued to turn it until the Dodge was facing the opposite direction, his foot reapplied pressure to the accelerator. He listened to the one sided conversation that Lenny was having.
"Did they say how he is?" He grabbed hold of the side of the seat to stop himself from sliding into Chris's lap when the Dodge spun around. "Oh no." He put his hand over his eyes as he continued to listen to what the Judge was telling him. "Yeah I'll let you know Judge." Lenny hung up the phone and carefully placed it back in his pocket, he wanted to throw it at something, mainly the man who sat in the driver's side.
"Well?" Chris demanded.
"The Judge had Debbie start phoning the hospitals in the area. The Memorial said that they were bringing him in. One of the medics on the scene recognised him, you guys must spend a lot of time there. He told the emergency nurse who he was when he called it in just before Debbie spoke to her." Lenny slammed his fist against the dashboard.
"How bad is he?" Chris wasn't going to ask him if Ezra was dead.
"Two gunshot wounds, one to the chest and one to the head." Lenny could see the hospital in the distance through his blurred vision, he looked behind him when he heard a siren. "This must be him."
The ambulance sped pass them and Chris roared out of the traffic to pull in behind it, he matched their speed and followed them to the emergency department of the hospital. Chris parked the car at an awkward angle, he got out and ran after Lenny who was already running towards the ambulance. They reached their destination just as the back doors were opened. Arms pushed them out of the way as the nurses and Doctor made their own way to the patient.
Chris and Lenny stood frozen in time as they watched them pull the gurney out of the ambulance, they saw the medic that was straddling Ezra while he applied CPR to man underneath him. Ezra's shirt had been torn open, the glove-covered hands of the medic were soaked in blood, and so was Ezra's face and chest, the rough bandages that had been wrapped around his head and chest only soaking up so much.
Chris pushed Lenny into the same direction that the gurney had taken, neither of them hearing the instructions that the Doctor was yelling to the nurses that surrounded him, all they could hear were their own guilt ridden thoughts and fears. They knew that CPR was only used when someone's heart had stopped.
Two nurses stopped them from following Ezra into the emergency room. "Mr Larabee, you know you can't go in there." The older nurse gently pushed him back towards the waiting room but Chris wouldn't go.
"We'll stay here, were not going anywhere." He looked through the plastic doors and saw the gurney disappear behind a set of swinging doors.
"Think you can manage to fill out the usual forms?" Nurse Julie Henshaw asked him as she placed a comforting hand on his arm. "If not we can do it later."
"Later." Chris whispered.
Nurse Henshaw walked through the doors to follow the gurney and the man who was fighting for his life, she looked over her shoulder at the two men who stood side by side. She knew from what she had been told that Agent Standish's chances of survival were very slim.
________________________________________
While the medic continued to apply CPR a nurse pulled Ezra's head back and gently forced the breathing tube down into the chamber that led to his lungs. She taped the tube to his face to hold it in place then attached a large bag to it and squeezed on a regular basis to give the patient the oxygen that he was no longer able to breathe into his lungs on his own, he now needed help to stay alive. The medic who had been keeping Ezra's heart beating got off the gurney to allow the Doctor to do his job.
"Get me two units of A negative stat!" Doctor Falex yelled at one of the nurses who then ran from the room, he knew the man who was near death, he had treated him on more than one occasion, he was worried that this would be the last. "Julie, call x-ray and tell them were going to need a Cat Scan and a chest x-ray, then surgery, we need an operating room asap, and tell them we'll also need a neural surgeon." He looked at the other nurses who were busy cutting the clothing from Agent Standish and placing the appropriate IV tubes in his arms. "We'll take him up as soon as we stabilise him."
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"The Doctor hasn't come out yet." Chris didn't look at Lenny. "That has to be good news. Doesn't it?" He didn't expect an answer, he was talking more to himself than to the man who stood beside him.
"Chris!" Vin called to him as pushed through the doors of the emergency entrance, he had seen his friend standing in front of the clear doors that led into the emergency area. He saw the slumped shoulders and then the glazed eyes as he turned around at the sound of his voice.
"Ezra's not . . . " His voice trailed off.
"We don't know, he's still in there." Chris turned back to his scrutiny of the doors that led to the room that Ezra was in. "Where are the others?"
"They'll be here in a minute." Vin turned around and saw Buck and JD running to the entrance, he went to meet them.
"Vin! What happened? Is he okay?" JD spurted out as he looked over Vin's shoulder towards Chris.
"They don't know JD but from the look on Chris's face, it can't be good." Vin explained what he knew which wasn't much.
"Aw Hell!" Buck groaned. "He can't die Vin, not after what we did, he can't die thinking we hate him."
JD placed an arm around Buck's shoulders, which was difficult because the man was taller than him.
When Josiah and Nathan arrived a few minutes later, Vin told them the same thing. Each of them stood behind Chris and Lenny, the longer the Doctor took the better they thought things would be for Ezra. Another ten minutes passed before they saw Ezra being wheeled from the emergency room, the medic no longer straddled him but they did see the oxygen bag that was still being squeezed as it pumped air into his lungs. They stepped back when one of the nurses came towards them.
"Chris." Julie used a soft voice, she smiled encouragingly at him and at the men who stood beside him. She looked at Lenny then back to Chris.
"Julie this is Lenny Hoskins, he's . . . " Chris halted, he wasn't sure what Lenny was to Ezra.
"I'm a very old friend." Lenny assured her.
"I'm not going to lie to you Chris, his chances aren't good. They're taking him up to x-ray now and then surgery. One bullet missed his heart, his left lung has collapsed causing fluid to build up in it, and the other bullet may have fractured his skull." She took his hand trying to give him some comfort. "There's nothing you can do standing here so why don't you go to the waiting room. I'll keep you informed."
"Thanks Julie." Chris watched as she disappeared back into the emergency hallway, he hadn't failed to notice that she wore clean scrubs, she had taken the blood soaked ones off before she came out to see them. He turned around slowly and managed to make his way to the waiting room, the others following him so they could take up residence to wait once again.
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Chris couldn't control the strong torrent of emotions that were following through him, he looked around the comfortable room at the men that would be mirroring the feelings that he felt, all except Lenny. Chris knew his emotions would be stronger and they would include anger towards the rest of the men in the room, he had gotten the impression the FBI Agent was close to Ezra, that he had managed to gain a strong rapport with the southerner that they had yet to succeeded in obtaining. Chris was sure Lenny blamed them and he didn't disagree with him.
Chris's own anger was also rising. He wanted to turn that anger towards Ezra, if only he had told them what was happening, they would have backed him up but he knew he was only pointing the blame in the wrong direction. He wanted to be angry at someone who couldn't fight back, someone who couldn't scream into his tortured mind that all of this was his fault and he knew beyond any doubt that it was. The blame for the operation going wrong would sit squarely on Team Seven's shoulders, he would make sure that none of it was aimed at Ezra, he had done nothing wrong, and his friends had turned on him and then blown his cover. His mind began to go over the reasons for his reaction to Ezra's convincing undercover roll.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the waiting room door opening, he wouldn't look up from the floor, and someone coming so quickly could only mean one thing. Ezra had died, they weren't able to save him. The words that came from the male voice caused the one tear to fall from his left eye. The small drop of moisture fell to the carpet landing between his boots, he concentrated on the area of the carpet that soaked up the tear, causing it to disappear, denying that it had ever fallen from the strong leader. The tear had shocked him, he didn't think that he would actually cry over the death of Ezra Standish but then when he thought about his reaction to Ezra's cover he understood his emotions. He wasn't going to push the strange feelings that had come to the surface away like he had before, if he had accepted them, in the first place none of this would have happened.
"Agent Larabee." The police officer didn't get a response from the man who's eyes were downcast, he looked around the room at the other men, some of them he knew but others were still just names to him. "If I could talk to you for a moment please."
"Chris it's okay." Buck knew what his old friend was thinking, they had all thought it but Chris was the only one who hadn't looked up when Sergeant Herbot walked into the waiting room.
Chris lifted his emotion-filled eyes to the room, he saw the uniformed officer standing before him and relief flooded through him causing his throat to constrict, a small sob escaping. He quickly gained control of the emotions that were making him feel uncomfortable.
"Miles." Chris stood up on shaky legs, he took the smaller man's hand and shook it with a firm grip, he knew the officer from a previous case that Herbot had taken part in.
"I just came from the scene, thought you guys would want to know what happened." Herbot adjusted his gun belt as all eyes turned towards him.
"Don't you mean that you came to see if it would be a murder investigation." Lenny growled up at him from the chair that he sat in, his light blue eyes didn't look at the man he spoke to, he couldn't tear his gaze from the double doors that led to the emergency rooms.
"Lenny . . . " Chris began.
"That's Agent Hoskins to you Larabee." Lenny retorted.
"Agent Hoskins." Josiah's quiet but firm voice gained the attention of the angry but frightened Agent. "This is not the time or place. Ezra wouldn't want us at each other's throats."
"I'll comply with that request Sanchez, there will be plenty of time for blame later." He smiled at the large man who had moved towards him and now stood over him.
Herbot coughed into his hand and he had everyone's attention once more. "We have witnesses to the shooting, one of them saw the shooter." He stepped back from Chris, he didn't allow the anger that the man held in his eyes to scare him, he knew it wasn't aimed at him.
"What happened?" Chris's voice was but a mere whisper but it clearly carried his anger.
"Standish was in a coffee shop on Station street, he was on his own at first but someone joined him," he continued to read from his notebook, "apparently they spoke for a few minutes. Standish left first, the other man stayed behind to answer a phone call, he then hurried out after him, called his name and then shot him twice." He closed his small book and put it back into his pocket.
"The phone call would have been from Glading." Lenny looked over at Nathan. "Must have told him that Ezra was undercover."
"We got a description but . . . " Herbot continued as he ignored the sudden tension in the room.
"But what?" Chris interrupted him.
"But it may not be needed, we got a name from the waitress." Herbot smiled, his grey moustache seeming to grow on his dark face.
"How the hell did you get a name?" Vin was surprised the rogue Agent was that stupid.
"Ezra." Lenny informed them. "Ezra gave it to her."
"Herbot, do you want to give us some more information!" Chris was getting frustrated.
"The waitress was taking Standish's order, when she walked away he spoke to the man that was standing behind her. She remembered what he said because she thought there was going to be trouble." Herbot saw the anger rising in Chris so he quickly finished. "He said, 'come to arrest me have you Agent Collins'."
"Jack Collins, glasses, green eyes?" Vin asked Herbot.
"The description includes eyeglasses, also that he was tall and thin. Eye colour wasn't mentioned, no one was that close to him." Herbot confirmed. "I've already contacted your boss and he's making all the arrangements. An APB is already out on him and this Glading guy you told us about earlier."
"Why would Collins be so stupid as to shoot Ezra in front of witnesses?" JD spoke up from seat near the door.
"He obviously reacted instead of thinking." Chris smiled, he remembered what Hoskins said, and Ezra had managed to give them a name. "Thanks for letting us know Miles."
"Sure, no problem." He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "How is he?"
"He's hanging on Miles, he's hanging on." Chris told him as he made his way back to his chair to continue the waiting game. He didn't see Officer Herbot nod his head or notice that he had left the room.
The men who were standing followed Chris's lead, they returned to their seats to wait for news on Ezra's condition. They knew the normal procedures would be put in place. Alerts would be sent out to the Airports, Bus Terminals and Train Stations, the police had APB's out on both of them but until they were caught, Ezra's life was still in danger.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five
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