The Pain

by Eilleen

Beta: Crow

Disclaimer: I don’t own them…I just play with them.

Author's Note: This can be read as the prologue to Crow's story The Visit. I want to thank Crow for letting me play in her sand box.

Vin Tanner and JD Dunne walk into the office carrying a couple of paper bags. The two of them begin walking around the seven desks emptying them out, making sure that each item went to the right member of the team.

“Here you go Buck. I picked up your favorite burger,” states JD

“Thanks kid,” answers Buck

JD walks over to Nathan’s desk handing him something as well.

Vin places a styro-foam box on the corner of Josiah’s desk, before handing one off to the southerner. “Here you go Ezra.”

Ezra opens the box looking at the contents see that it was from his favorite restaurant. The southerner doesn’t waste any time before enjoying the delicacy’s that is his lunch. After a couple of moments a sudden spark causes him to cringe, the cause being his left molar. This sudden movement doesn’t go unnoticed by Vin who is sitting across from him.

“You okay Ezra?” aska Vin

“I’m fine Mister Tanner,” Ezra replies

Vin continues to watch Ezra, as he continues to eat his lunch and every time the southerner takes a bite he would wince from the shooting pain. After a couple of minutes of watching him do this, he could only think of one thing that would cause him to react like this. Vin stood up and walked over to the Team Leader’s desk that belongs to none other than Chris Larabee, who was finishing up on some paper work before starting on his own meal.

“Is something wrong Vin?” asks Chris, not looking up from his work.

“I think something is up with Ezra.”

The blond looks over at the southerner. Looking for anything out of the ordinary, at least out of the ordinary for the southerner. It took a couple of moments before Chris noticed it, he watches for a bit longer only to see it again. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

“Is it what I think it is?” asks Vin

“Sure looks like it.”

“Ah hell.”

Chris and Vin discuss the plan of attack with the rest of the team doing their best to keep it a secret from the southerner, in case he would try to flee. It didn’t take long before Ezra figures out exactly what was going on and after JD’s attempt to subdue him, it only proved his thoughts. At that point the southerner decided that it would be in his best interests to just head home before the other start to take action against him. He didn’t waist any time making his way down to his car and he couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. The next thing the southerner knew he was being attacked by members of his team that were doing there upmost to try and get him into the back seat of the car. The southerner knew exactly what it was that they were thinking. He had expected that they would figure it out, he just didn’t think that they would wait till the end of the day. Ezra began to kick and punch them, he was willing to do anything if it meant that he didn’t have to go there. He would take on any seriously dangerous assignment if it meant that he wouldn’t have to go there, he was willing even to go to hell. “I’m not going.”

“Your in the hands of the lord Ezra” states Josiah as he was doing his upmost to subdue him

“Your going whether you like it or not” states Buck, in his attempt to help Josiah

“Were all worried about you Ezra” states JD

“I said I’m not going!” Ezra kicks Buck in the shin, before elbowing Josiah in the arm just enough so that he can slip out of his hold. Before Ezra could make another run for it, he was grabbed by Vin and Nathan.

“It won’t be that bad Pard,” states Vin, trying his hardest to hold onto the southerner

“No one’s ever died from going Ezra,” states Nathan

“I don’t care. I’m not going,” states the southerner, as he continues to fight and get away from the team.

Chris is seriously getting annoyed by the way the man always seemed to act when it came to going there. “EZRA THAT’S ENOUGH”

It had taken the team at least an hour before they were able to get the southerner into the car. Only to be placed in between Vin and Buck, while Chris, Josiah took the front. With JD and Nathan in a second car following behind them, in case Ezra found a way to get out of the car. Once they were parked outside the building, it took them a while longer to get him inside. Ezra couldn’t stand the thought of being inside that building, he would really like to run out of it, even though he knew that he wouldn’t get very far.

The End