Shoving the curtain aside, Vin turned on the shower. The pipes seemed to shake the walls, as they rumbled into life, before feeding the water down the line. Looking in the mirror as he waited for the water to heat up, the sharpshooter couldn’t help smiling at the mud that caked his body, face and hair. He was sure he could be mistaken for the missing link; though he chuckled, as thought of the others, at least this time he wasn’t one of the walking wounded.In fact he was the only one to come out of the bust intact.
“Vin will you hurry up. JD’s starting to chew on the arms of your couch.”
“Hold yer water, Larabee, will ya,” Vin called back at the voice on the other side of the door as he stepped into the shower. “Ain’t like JD’s goin’ to be eatin’ anythin’ that don’t come out a straw for awhile anyway.”
Relishing the heat from the shower, and stood under still chuckling as he remembered how the bust went down. As the sharpshooter, he had a good view of what went on down below. He had seen Josiah grappling with a man seemingly of equal strength and size, and had watched amazed as the suspects fist connected with the profiler’s face and sent him down the ground. The grey-haired agent didn’t stay down long and with renewed energy soon had his suspect down. Though Josiah had collected a swollen and slowly blackening right eye for his efforts.
Then there was the youngest of the team. He had seen Buck in trouble with his man, and of course being JD, he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing to help. Swinging into action, he jumped Buck’s suspect, though the moustached agent hadn’t seen the younger agent coming. Buck swung at the suspect’s face just as the man turned, letting JD take the full brunt of Buck’s fist on his chin. While a shocked Buck, caught of guard with his concern for this young friend, found himself without air, as a boot connected with his ribs. Eventually between them, Buck and JD, they got their man, but in the process had acquired a bruised jaw and a cracked rib between them.
Ezra seemed to have got his suspect under control, even had him cuffed, when the man twisted out the Southerner’s grasp, clipping his face with his clenched fists as he did so. As blood dripped down Ezra’s face from the cut above his left eye, the Southerner rushed after his fleeing felon and a with a tackle worthy of any great Pro footballer, brought his suspect to the ground.
Perched on a crate in the corner of the warehouse, Nathan had seen his suspect trying to slip out of the warehouse unnoticed, but the African-American agent wasn’t about to let his man get away. Re-holstering his weapon, Nathan leapt from his unseen vantage point, and though he landed awkwardly, the quickly had his suspect cuffed, though he was sure he twisted his ankle when he landed.
Chris faired no better as his suspect used a block of wood to knock the leader’s weapon out of his hands, but even with one useless arm, Chris was a force to be reckoned with and he too had his suspect under control.
Vin’s target had been somewhat easier on his body. Having to leave his position above, the sharpshooter’s chase had ended outside the building where Vin decided to put an end to it by tackling his perp to ground. They ended up in a ankle deep mud puddle, but at least he was wasn’t bleeding, limping or just plain hurting.
Soaping up his hair, Vin knew he was gloating, but he couldn’t help himself. How many times did he have to suffer through the indignities of Nathan’s medical concerns, and the others ribbing him about being more careful? No, he deserved a little crowing and he was going to enjoy it.
“God Damn it, Tanner, have you gone down the drain or what?” Chris banged on the door. “Some us would like to eat today.”
“Alright, I’m comin’,” Vin, growled back as he stepped back to rinse his hair.
It all happened so fast. His foot connected with the soap that had somehow slipped from its perch and lay unseen behind him. With soap stinging his eyes, Vin’s foot slipped on the soap, losing his balance and falling to his knees, his head connecting painfully with the bath tap. As blood stream from a cut above his right eye, Vin reached up to the cold tap to help lever himself to his feet. Unfortunately his grip turned the cold tap off and Vin was scolded with a rain of blistering hot water.
Yelping, Vin quickly stepped back to get out of the way, when he again made contact with the soap. With blood and soap making seeing near impossible, Vin blindly reached out and felt the plastic of the shower curtain. Suddenly the plastic clung to his body like a second skin, and added to his loss of balance, caused him to put more strain on the curtain. Hearing the tearing snap as the curtain gave way from it’s rings, and unable to stop the sideway momentum, Vin felt himself tumbling over the edge of the bath. Managing to put a hand out in an attemtp to save himself, Vin cried out as he felt the bone snap as he connected with the floor.
“What the Hell?”
Vin lay panting on the floor. The shower curtain wrapped around him like a plastic toga and his injured arm held tightly against his chest. Wiping the blood and shampoo from his eyes with his uninjured hand, Vin looked up to see six pairs of eyes watching him from the opened doorway of his bathroom.
“What?” he growled, as he stared up at his spectators from the floor. “Can’t a man have a shower in peace?”
The End