Part 7 afternoon
O'Grady had his team well hidden and strategically placed throughout the Larabee grounds.
Nathan and Josiah quietly entered the empty kitchen from the outside door.
The two ATF agents ignored the open bags of chips and salsa, and spoons partially glued in the syrupy mess at the bottom of ice cream bowls. An empty Gatorade bottle rested near a half full plate of chips.
Nathan picked up the bottle examining it before dropping it in the daisy decorated trash can. Must have been Sarah's waste basket.
Josiah circumvented the table and headed into the living room.
"Josiah before you come in can you bring the chips?" JD asked without turning around sitting in front of the couch.
"Oh and some Ice Cream?" Vin leaned forward in an over stuffed chair munching on peanuts, "There's some Carmel sauce in the door of the frig."
Josiah scrutinized his teammates for a moment before ignoring them and heading for the couch, "Shouldn't you boys be working on something?"
Buck gazed up from his lazy boy chair. His feet still dangled over the edge even with the chair. "Just got a call from Kelly," Wilmington stretched raising his arms over his head and cracking his back, " Papa Schwans got himself killed in prison just a little under forty five minutes ago…knife in the back….not ten minutes ago they found Mike JR. dead in his car in the garage."
JD swung around and look up at Josiah and then Nathan, " Tried to make it look like a suicide…"
"But the bullet hole in the back of his head kind of blew that theory," Vin finished. He thumbed the volume up on the football game.
"Any of you thought to share that information with the rest of us?" Jackson leaned over the couch and stared at Standish. The undercover agent slept facing the back of the couch wrapped in a blanket.
"We just did," JD pointed out with a questioning tone.
"He's got you there brother," Josiah lifted Standish's feet from the last cushion of the couch and sat down.
"Plus, Chris figured it would do Jim and his men some good to be out in the weather a little longer," Vin popped another peanut in his mouth.
"They did laugh at him in his hour of need," Josiah counseled as he angled Standish's heels away from anything vital.
"You might want to be careful where you place his feet," Chris pointed out as he limped in from the direction of the hall. Buck tossed Sanchez a protective pillow.
"How's he doing?" Nathan asked counting the number of respirations in a fifteen second time span.
"Woke up, kicked our butts, drank some Gatorade and is doing what he does best," Vin answered switching stations as the half time show began.
"Sleeping," JD filled in, "Vin, turn it back."
Josiah ignored the others and looked to Chris. "What are you going to do?"
The simple question came loaded. Larabee gazed down at his undercover agent and shook his head. Three days, Ezra, had been missing, three days drugged, blind folded and held against his will. Right now he needed security and to be surrounded by friends.
Chris sighed, "Keep him here for awhile." The leader of team seven gazed at his other agents. He, alone, would not be enough. Ezra was a capable agent in his own right, independent and tough as the rest of his teammates but this incident would knock the wind out of him for a while.
"Might be best if some of you decide to st…." One wouldn't be enough to instill the kind of safety and security that would be needed to overcome such an obstacle. No matter how tough the agent, how independent or strong willed. Three days under someone else's mercy was a long time. Three days of not being able to defend yourself or care for yourself would be a life time. Hell, Ezra didn't even know how long it had been….for him it was chunk of his life masked from him.
"I'm here," JD cut off Chris before Larabee could finish the question.
The room rang with 'Me too' and 'count me in.' Eyes swung and settled on Standish for a moment before refocusing on the TV.
"He's going to get ornery," Jackson warned the others with a knowing look. Not because Standish was the only one who could garner an attitude but because as a team they could be rough and disagreeable as individuals. Not to mention the pack mentality that developed on more than a few occasions.
Josiah sat back resting his head against the back of the couch. Lord help them.
"I figure tomorrow I'll take him over to see Tim Rogers. He said he'd been wanting to learn a few tricks about five card stud." Chris sighed once again silently thanking the Psychologist for his generous donation of time. The man was friend first. Nothing made it to a permanent record but the agents walked away, after a time, feeling whole again.
The others nodded in agreement. It would be a good idea. The informal Rogers was one of the best around. Chris had seen him during those dark times after Sarah and Adam. Vin had fallen into his care after an undercover assignment on the streets. Funny thing, Vin got Rogers name from Ezra. Going full circle again.
Larabee leaned against the back of the couch noticing the game being played on the television, his mind focused only on the bodies in the room.
"JD, even though Scwhans is dead," Chris pulled his eyes from the TV to Dunne.
JD swiveled around and faced Larabee. His swollen eye and ghoulish bruises made the agent appear so much younger, vulnerable. However, under the bruising and cut skin lay a steadfast loyal friend, a tough honest Federal agent.
"I want you sticking close to Ezra for the next day or so," Chris held the young agent's earnest stare, "I'll take'im in tomorrow but I want you around." A security blanket. Something familiar.
They had all noticed how Standish muttered for JD in his sleep as the drugs wore off, how he looked to the younger agent when things moved too fast or unpredictably. Chris was sure that as the sedatives dissipated and the fear that came with disorientation disappeared, the dependency Standish showed to JD would also fade. For the time being, both JD and Ezra benefited from the close proximity.
The side door opened and O'Grady popped his head into the room, "Kelly just gave us the word…my guys and I are heading out." He paused and looked to Chris, as the leader of team seven crossed the room, "unless you want us to hang around a little longer…."
Larabee shook his head slowly, "Nah, Jim, we got it handled," Chris held out his hand and shook O'Grady's, "Thanks, though."
"Not a problem," Jim dropped his voice for a moment and jerked his head in the direction of the couch, "how is he?….He weren't lookin' to sharp earlier this morning."
Chris sighed and nodded, "He's doin' alright…." Larabee laughed quietly, "Hell, know'n Standish he'll milk this 'til Labor Day."
Jim O'Grady laughed in agreement and slipped back outside. The closing door muffled the sound of a steady rain.
Larabee sighed and faced the room. He needed more chairs. "Vin git your lazy ass out a my chair."
"Not yours today Cowboy," Vin tossed another peanut into the air and caught it with an open mouth, "Toss Ez off the couch, Hell, I wouldn't mind watchin'im kick your ass again."
Larabee eyed the sharpshooter for a moment trying to devise a plan that would get Tanner off his lazy butt. In the mean time, Chris dragged a studded leather over stuffed chair into the haphazard semi-circle that his team created in front of the television.
He would wait until after the football game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
two nights later
Ezra's eyes shot open. Anxiety knotted, twisting in his chest. He swiveled his gaze left and right wildly searching the inky blackness for hybrid demons that existed only in his nightmares. His breath came in short pants and sweat matted his hair and stuck clothing to his skin.
Terror paralyzed him. Any kind of movement might attract unseen attention. They would drug him again, hide him some place his team mates wouldn't be able to find him.
He kept still. Frozen.
After a moment, he recognized the room. Larabee's house, the guest room. Buck and JD camped in the Living Room, or was it Nathan and Josiah perhaps Vin? A combination of someone stayed in the next room, Chris down the hall. Larabee's house.
He was safe. He was OK. No one could reach him in here. He was safe. He chanted this over and over in his head. Schwans was dead, nothing to worry about anymore. His heart did not slow down its rapid pace.
Diablo lay at the foot of the bed and crawled on his belly to rest beside the undercover agent.
Standish dropped a cautious hand onto the dog's massive head as he slunk back down to the safety of the mattress. A slight tremor shook his hand and un-rational fear kept his feet securely wrapped under the blankets. He closed his eyes repeating over and over that nightmares were not real, no one or nothing stood in wait in the shadows, no demonic eyes watched him through the creases in the closet door or bathroom. Nothing lurked behind the shower curtain waiting for him to drop his guard.
Foolish, un-based fears that had no soundness in the light of day.
With a quivering in take of breath, he settled back down on the damp pillow and closed his eyes. He was grown man, a federal agent for Goodness Sakes….
Safely under the security of the blankets, he continued to pet the dog. His breath slowed, his eyes eventually grew heavy and exhaustion seeped in, forcing blind fear to the side. He dozed off with Diablo's grizzled black head under his palm.
The dog swiveled his head at the movement at the entrance of the room. A dark lean silhouette stood near motionless in the dark.
The dog made to stand up.
"Stay Diablo," Chris's quiet command had the Labrador settling back under the lax hand of the southerner. Larabee smiled tightly to himself as he turned to head silently back to his room. He would wait for the next nightmare to strike.
JD slept exhausted on the living room couch. Buck took the floor tonight. The first few nights, JD had been the one to hear nightmares….he had been the one to quietly slip into the room and talk to Standish about everything and anything that came to mind until the trembling stopped. Dunne, had proven to be more tactful than any of them gave him credit. In the late hours of night or the early hours of morning, JD ignored the sweat and fear that rolled from the undercover agent and found conversation in the most outlandish subjects. In those times, Chris had stood quietly in the door way and wondered why JD did not see his own abilities.
Chris headed for his room and stopped at the large shadow of the man leaning against the hall bathroom, "Buck."
"He alright?"
" Yeah,"
"Want me stay with him?"
Chris shook his head 'No', "I think it'd embarrass him." JD's presence seemed tolerated in the early stages, but even now that began to wear on the Southerner in the lighted hours. He seemed to think it foolish to have fears that sprang unbidden in the dark hours and abhorred the thought of needing someone to stay with him until he fell back to sleep. Who wouldn't feel that way?…Chris had to admit, except looking in from the outside, it seemed more foolhardy to refuse a comforting hand.
"Probably…..Diablo with him?"
Chris nodded, "Yeah," amusement laced his answer. Standish would be picking dog hair out of his clothes for a life time. It was well worth the sacrifice.
"What have we got tomorrow?" Their case load had been lightened for the past few days to accommodate the team as it worked to get things back to some as semblance of normalcy….the quiet that reigned in their little section of the Federal building unnerved everyone.
"Still getting the paper trail straightened out on this whole mess….Josiah and JD and Ezra are going to start working on the Esposito firework franchise, You and Vin are going to keep working with Kelly and his team until something concrete comes from this debacle and Nathan and I are heading over to speak with the Judge about the grand jury decision on the Phillips case."
"Back to work as normal," Buck rubbed his belly in a tired fashion.
"Tim said it'd be ok, just keep him in the middle without smothering him," Chris sighed. Both men wondered how long they could expect to enjoy the quiet cooperation they were receiving from Standish.
Buck made to head back to the living room but stopped and turned, "Hey Chris," His quiet voice had Chris turning just before disappearing into his own room, "thanks…for JD…the kid's really…" Dunne nearly glowed with the added responsibility. The others trusted him with their lives and more importantly Standish accepted it without ire.
"He's doin' his job Buck, just as I expect anyone of you to do." Larabee tried to keep his tone stern, almost authoritative.
"Sure Chris," Wilmington shook his head and melted back into the shadows. Buck ignored his old friend's tone and saw what lie below it. He interpreted it as he had been doing for nearly a life time now, second nature.
Wilmington stopped at the threshold the guest bedroom and peered in. He motioned for Diablo to stay. The big dog rolled onto its side and tried to worm his head under Standish's hand. Buck stifled a saddened chuckle. Ezra had yet to have a fit about Diablo's insistent presence.
Wilmington leaned against the door frame and watched as Standish murmured and shift his legs. Another nightmare? A delicate moan rumbled from Ezra's chest. He pulled his hand instinctively closer to his body. Diablo shifted resting securely against the undercover agent's side. In a moment, Standish quieted down, rolled away from the dog and settled back into a sound sleep.
Buck stood a moment longer before leaving the door way. JD and Diablo. What an unlikely pair for witness protection. Buck left and headed back toward the living room. Things would even out, they always did. The biggest obstacle now was knocking JD off his makeshift pedestal. Chris's compliment and choice of jobs had the kid basking in a self confidence that marked his exuberance. Buck grinned. JD did good. Of course, the next step after that, would be to convince Diablo he did not belong on the furniture.
The end.