Magical Cats and Sewer Rats

by Mods

Part I

"Vin, sit still and relax," Nathan cautioned. "This will be over in a minute if you don't move around so much."

"It's itchin'," Vin complained, tight-lipped.

JD opened the door carefully and peeked in.

"How's it going?" he almost whispered not to disturb Nathan too much while the man put the finishing touches to Vin's face.

"According to Vin, I've done nothing but torture him." Nathan turned around and smiled at the young agent. "What do you think?"

JD gave Vin's face a critical look. He was whiter than a sheet with a red, smiling mouth that unfortunately did nothing to soften the grumpy look on his face. The eyes that were rimmed with black streaks glared unhappily at Nathan and JD.

"Looks good." JD nodded and gave Nathan a sunny smile. "You just need to smile a bit, Vin. Don't want to scare the kids, do ya?"

"Where's Chris?" Vin asked accusingly, having no intention to comply with JD's suggestion.

"He's not coming in today, he'll meet us at the hospital later," Nathan answered. "He's got an appointment with the dentist. Something about removing an old wisdom tooth that's been giving him trouble."

"He should be here," Vin declared. "This is his fault."

Technically it was in reality Mary Travis that had started it by asking Chris to help out with entertaining some of the sick little kids in the hospital, but it was Chris that had agreed to volunteer the services of his whole team the next time they had a day off - without asking the team in question first.

Vin had tried to stay clear of the whole affair but he had an enormous problem with saying no when Chris asked him outright to participate as a favor to him.

It had in fact been downright impossible for him to say no and so he had said yes. That didn't mean he had to like it and an unhappy Vin was a grumpy Vin.

"I don't know why we have to do this here instead of at the hospital."

"We thought this would save time, Vin," Nathan said. "We have to be at the hospital in an hour."

Saving time was only one factor that had made them decide to put on the costumes at the office instead of waiting until they got to the hospital.

Both Nathan and Josiah had gotten into their clown outfits earlier, but then they had volunteered from the beginning to be clowns along with Buck. Getting Vin into costume however was about as easy as trying to give Cuervo a bath and it demanded a LOT of persuasion and even downright bribing.

"Why can't Buck do this?" Vin said with a suspicious tone to his voice as Nathan perfected his outfit with a rainbow-colored curly wig. JD had to bite his lip in an effort not to laugh hysterically at this sight.

"I told ya," JD said in a choked voice. "Buck hurt his knee, he's on crutches right now."

"That's very convenient, ain't it?"

"Well ... actually-" JD started but was interrupted by Buck who opened the door and carefully navigated his way into Chris's office.

"Buck should do this," Vin grumbled and shot him a look full of suffering. "He's always clowning around anyway, he doesn't even need an outfit."

"Hey!" Buck protested cheerily from the background. "I resemble that remark!"

Nathan and JD both laughed at this and even Vin couldn't help but smile some.

"So what happened to you, Buck?" Nathan asked.

"I slipped in the shower," Buck declared. "Otherwise I'd be happy to be a clown instead of you, Vin."

"What about Ezra then?"

"You are reaching, Mr Tanner," Ezra said as he entered the room and made a dramatic turn so his black silk cape billowed like a cloud around him.

"You know my role. I'm Ezra the Magnificent." He reached out and plucked the Ace of Spades from the empty air behind Vin's ear and presented it to him with a bow.

"And I'm Ezra's assistent," JD piped up as he held out a black tophat and a pair of white gloves to Ezra who promptly started to produce a wide variety of different items from the empty hat.

"The kids are gonna love this," Buck smiled while Vin just grunted an affirmative. "Aint't gonna kill'ya to clown around for the kids, Vin. I thought you liked kids. You're always talking about them down in Purgatorio."

"That's different," Vin said.

"In what way?" Buck asked.

"Because when I talk to my kids I don't need to wear an undignified, itchin', ludicrous, uncomfortable contraption like this clown suit!"

Having uttered this uncommonly long sentence and gotten some of his frustration out Vin felt a bit better until he heard Buck say, "Something's missing. Oh, I know.... Here - have a nose."

Buck transferred a red clown nose from his pocket and put in on the tip of Vin's nose. The other agents all stood back and admired their handiwork.

"There. Picture perfect," Buck said and smiled. They all smiled and Vin knew when he was beaten.

"Think of it this way - at least no one will recognize you now," JD said as the group walked over to the elevators. Right at that moment a pretty secretary named Jessica walked by. Buck's continued attempts to get the less than impressed girl to go out on a date with him had been a great source of amusement for the rest of the group for the past three weeks.

"Nice outfit, Vin," Jessica said and smiled back at Vin before she disappeared around the corner.

Vin gave JD a look cold enough that the rest of them were surprised that the kid didn't get frostbite. Vin was the first one in the elevator and he moved pretty fast considering the stupid shoes they had made him wear.

"Well, " JD tried again. "At least it's for a good cause."

Vin gave him another glare.

"Ahum," JD coughed and squirmed uneasily. "I'll be quiet from now on."

Buck leaned down slightly, smiled and whispered into his ear,
"Good choice, kid. Good choice."

+ + + + + + +

Josiah and Nathan opted to drive ahead in Nathan's car while Buck,Vin and JD for some unfathomable reason (or at least it seemed so to Ezra) all decided to cram themselves into Ezra's precious Jaguar.

"I don't know what you're so riled up about, Vin," Buck said as he banged his crutches against the interior one extra time just to see Ezra wince.

"All good comic acts come in threes," Buck continued.

"Like who?" JD asked sceptically from the backseat as Vin kept his silence beside him.

"The Three Stooges... uhm ... well ... " Buck floundered for a second before continuing triumphantly " - the Marx brothers; Groucho, Chico and Harpo."

" -and Zeppo and Gummo. There were five of them." JD pointed out the flaw in Buck's example.

"Zeppo and Gummo?" Buck repeated incredulously and gave JD an irritated look. "Well ...you only remember three of them anyway," he tried to salvage his reasoning.

"Uhm, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy ... uhm..."

JD waited for 30 seconds before it was evident that no more examples were forthcoming.

"There's just two in those, Buck. Where did you learn to count?"

"Oh shut up!" Buck declared heatedly. JD should help him against Vin, not point out how lousy his examples were. "You come up with something then. All I'm saying is that three is a good number, a magical number. It makes sense to have three clowns, and if I hadn't hurt my knee I'd have been happy to-"

"We know," the other three occupants of the car interrupted him in perfect chorus.

"Why, oh why, did y'all have to come in my car?" Ezra wondered aloud as silence finally settled to a degree.

"I had to go with you," JD insisted. "We're an act - a team. I'm the assistant to Ezra the Magnificent, remember?"

"And I always go with JD," Buck said.

"Yeah," JD confirmed and added, "And when we were at the hospital last night he saw this pretty nurse and now he's hoping to see her again."

Buck grinned sunnily and replied, "I ain't denyin' it. She was as pretty as that new little filly that Chris just bought."

"I sincerely hope you're not going to use that line on her," Ezra said, torn between feelings of amusement and disapproval.

Vin stayed silent but when he noticed that they were all watching him he shrugged and said,
"Well, I just had to go."

What did they want from him? Vin wondered. He certainly wasn't about to go to the hospital on his Harley or even in the Jeep while looking like this. And three clowns packed into Nathan's car was one too many. People might think they were driving around looking for a bank to rob or something. If a man was dressed as a clown he had to think about things like that.

But the next second his thoughts turned away from his temporary profession as his eyes swept over the surroundings.

"Ezra, slow down," Vin said suddenly and stared out the window.

"What?" Ezra asked but immediately complied.

"That guy over there in the red bandanna... " They all looked and easily spotted the young kid as he weaved in and out of the crowd on the sidewalk.

"I know him," Vin said as he focused all his attention on their target. "He recently moved into Purgatorio and he's a bad one. Calls himself Loner but his real name is Jaxon - with an x. Caught him trying to sell stuff to my kids. Had to warn him off."

Vin warning someone off nearly always meant they stayed warned off but this kid walked around as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"I've been looking for a connection between him and two yahoos that sells guns from out of the back of a van. Since they're mobile they're always long gone by the time the word gets to us."

"I know about them," Buck said and his eyes got cold. "I've seen the results of their trade, one kid gunning down the other with a Mac 10. I'd really like a piece of these guys."

"Then we should put a tail on this bad seed and see where we end up," Ezra declared and the other three agreed.

They followed Jaxon for some time from the car and Vin soon noticed that they were getting closer and closer to Purgatorio. Sometimes they were ahead of him, sometimes they were trailing behind until they crossed into the outskirts of Purgatorio where a thin buffer zone between this part and the slightly better parts of the city was located. This zone was nearly exclusively made up of some blocks of abandoned buildings and the locals called it the Labyrinth because it was so easy to get lost in there. Everyone, from the high officials to the former residents, agreed that something needed to be done but no one could decide if they should just tear the houses down and let it be or spend some more money and renovate some of them. While the higher powers tried to make a decision the less than law-abiding citizens found an excellent opportunity to make their deals there, unseen by the law who had no way of controlling everything that went on in the many backways and alleys.

The kid walked on, oblivious to the attention the four men gave him. Jaxon suddenly took a right turn and disappeared into an alley that was too narrow for the Jaguar to follow.

"We're gonna lose him in there," Buck cautioned.

"We'll have to follow him on foot," Vin said without letting Jaxon out of his sight. Buck was right, if they lost him in there it would all be over.

"I'll go and check it out," JD said with his hand already on the handle but Vin stopped him.

"No, I'll go. It's my case, my responsability."

"Vin, you can't," JD protested and Vin turned on him and said angrily, "What do you mean I can't-"

"Shoosh now, kids!" Buck interrupted their squabbling. "Quit clowning around back there!" Then he added as an afterthought, "Uh - sorry, Vin."

"JD, I don't want you out there alone," Buck continued, getting back to the subject.

"I have to go alone," JD pointed out. "You guys don't wanna hear this but you kinda stand out right now. I'm the closest one to looking normal."

And unfortunately that was true as they could all plainly see when they looked at themselves and then at each other.

Buck looked at Vin and Ezra and two things became obvious. None of them liked the idea, but they also didn't have much of a choice.

"What do you say?" Buck asked quietly and Ezra and Vin both nodded an affirmative.

"All right, kid. All right," Buck reluctantly agreed. "We'll drive around the corner and follow a parallel route. You go out and scout around some and we'll provide the back-up."

+ + + + + + +

JD walked down the alley, trying to act casual and careful to stay some distance away from the man he was tailing. Normally his grungy look wouldn't have stood out much but today of all days he'd tried to look his best for the kids and so he didn't quite look like he belonged in this abandoned part of the city where the criminals ruled. He just had to find a way to make his squeaky clean look work to his advantage.

Ahead of him he could see Jaxon turn the corner into a narrow abandoned street. JD hadn't seen even a glimpse of Ezra's car since he'd started to follow Jaxon and felt very alone all of a sudden but he had no choice, he had to follow.

He risked a glance around the corner and looked straight into the barrel of a gun. JD swallowed hard and looked up over the barrel into Jaxon's cold eyes.

"What do you want with me?" Jaxon asked."Why're you following me?"

"I-I-I w-want to buy a gun," JD stammered nervously as he tried to make himself appear smaller and younger than ever before. He let his eyes project that he wasn't a threat to anyone.

"What's a guy like you want with a piece?" Jaxon said as he looked with contempt at JD's clothes. He obviously thought that JD was some kind of geek and JD didn't mind as long as Jaxon never considered him for an undercover cop. He had to play the completely harmless angle just right so Jaxon wouldn't get the idea to search him and maybe find his badge...

"They're hassling me at school. I heard about you...." It wasn't a complete lie. JD had seen recent reports about someone trying to sell guns to high school kids and the description matched Jaxon's looks. Jaxon didn't seem to suspect anything. He seemed rather pleased to find that he had a reputation and JD got the impression that he wasn't overly bright.

JD cowered some more and waited for Jaxon to take the bait.

"I can get you one," Jaxon said slowly and lowered his gun. "You got cash?"

Bingo! JD had to stop himself from smiling as he answered, "I got the money."

Jaxon put away his gun at the same time as a large, white van drove into their street and stopped close to where they were standing. Oh no, the gunrunners. Now what?

Ahead of JD the street seemed to go on forever but on each side the monotony of the row of abandoned buildings was broken by small alleys at regular intervals, all leading off into the unknown. JD knew full well that there was little shelter to be found back where he had come from. Open doorways and broken windows gaped at him all along the sides of the buildings. His best bet was to try for one of these and see if he couldn't lose them in one of the houses.

Cool. Stay cool. JD told himself and swallowed hard as the two men got out of the van.

Luckily he didn't have to think up any elaborate plan because suddenly Ezra's Jag came towards them from the other direction and it stopped right near JD and Jaxon so it in effect shielded them if anything were to happen.

The two gunrunners retreated until they were a little closer to the van and watched in complete silence as the doors opened and Buck and Ezra both got out of the car. Vin stayed behind as a shadowy figure in the backseat. They all sized each other up in complete silence for a few seconds to see if there was cause to start anything immediately. The gunrunners drew back a bit until they were near the van and Buck and Ezra stayed behind the open doors of the Jag, ready for whatever would happen next.

"Who are you supposed to be - Mandrake the magician?" one of men suddenly asked as he took in Ezra's formal black suit and cape. The other one nearly fell down laughing when he heard his partner say this.

Ezra and Buck looked at each other. It was obvious to the agents that their appearances had a disarming effect on the suspects. They simply didn't take the ATF agents seriously which was a very good thing if they were to avoid a shoot-out.

"It's one of those hidden camera shows," the still laughing gunrunner said. "It is, isn't it?

"No, boys," Buck said and gave them a smile that was just a bit more ferocious than humorous. "We've just come to collect the youngster here before he does something he'll regret later."

"Hey there, Uncle Buck," JD said with a straight face as he slowly walked over to the car. The three older agents took a deep breath of relief as JD was once again safely with them.

The second gunrunner walked a little closer to the Jag, bent down to look into the car and immediately spotted Vin still in the backseat. He blinked in surprise before he turned back to his companion with a wide smile on his face and stated,

"Hey - there's a clown in there. It is the candid camera."

Jaxon took a step closer to the car and peered into it. For a second Vin and the boy stared at each other before Jaxon connected all the dots and got the picture. Vin groaned in dismay as he could see recognition spreading over Jaxon's face and he knew what was coming as the boy opened his mouth and loudly exclaimed, "That guy isn't a clown! He's a cop !"

Time stretched out into eternity as Ezra and Buck both whipped up their guns and declared in chorus, "Freeze!"

"Federal agents!" Ezra added.

"You're all under arrest!" Buck declared.

The smiling gunrunners jaw fell and he gaped for a short second before he burst into a new round of laughter, "That's a good one," he said while his companion quickly dived into a nearby doorway. Ezra fired a warning shot into the air but the man was already under cover.

"They're for real, you idiot!" the gunrunner shouted to his laughing companion as he pulled up a gun and fired at Buck and Ezra. Buck realized that this change in locations put him in an extremely vulnerable position and he threw himself forward and to the side into a narrow side alley. He collected his crutches, pulled himself to his feet and peeked around the corner but found that while he was now under cover the same could be said for the gunrunner. The angle made it impossible for Buck to get even a glimpse of the gunman but he could cover the rest of the street just fine.

*So much for JD saying no one would recognize me,* Vin thought as he crouched down in the backseat and carefully made his way towards the door.

The second gunrunner had decided to take cover near the van and was now starting to lay down fire while Jaxon just crouched down in a doorway and put his arms over his head in terror as the bullets started to fly.

Out of the corner of his eye Buck could see Vin take one step away from the car and then suddenly fall to the ground as if he had been pole-axed.

"Vin! Are you hit?" Buck called worriedly.

"No..." a muffled voice declared slowly from behind the cardoor. "I just tripped over these damned shoes."

Vin quickly unlaced them and kicked them off before he crawled behind the back of the car over to the other side where there was slightly better protection. There was something odd with the way he carried himself and JD studied him carefully to see what it was that was so different about him when he suddely realized that Vin was empty handed.

"Where's your gun?" he asked incredulously and if it had been at all possible to see under all that make-up he could have sworn that Vin blushed with embarrassment as he answered,
"I forgot to take them with me when you were all nagging me to get into costume and dragged me off to the hospital."

"Vin-" JD gaped. "You always have your guns handy."

"Well, I don't this time!" Vin hissed back.

He could picture it in his mind clearly, the whole ATF building snickering behind his back as they heard all the details. Maybe he should just stand up and get shot right away. That would be nothing compared to the torment of having his story told as the highlight of every office party for years to come.

Vin had never felt so frustrated in his life. Could this day get any worse?

"If you'll allow me to remedy this unfortunate situation," Ezra unexpectedly came to his rescue. "I have a spare gun in my car. You can borrow that."

Ezra reached into the car, pressed a small knob under the cd-player and a hidden compartment suddenly sprung out containing a handgun placed in soft padding. If ever he was in trouble and in need of a weapon he could reach the gun with ease from the driver's seat, even if someone had him in a choke-hold. Vin looked on appreciatively, checked the clip and weighed the gun in his hand.

"Nice, very nice, Ezra," he grinned.

Ezra gave him a brief smile. "Just a little extra insurance, it pays to be prepared," he said. "I had that little surprise installed last month."

"Well, it sure comes in handy today. Cover me," Vin said and relocated to the other side of the car to get a better angle. With two well-placed shots he managed to blow out the front tires of the van so the gunrunners couldn't escape in that.

The smiling gunrunner crawled behind the van and into the same building where his companion was holed up. He made no further attempt to join in the gunfight and Vin and Ezra concentrated on zeroing in on the remaining threat.

A crashing sound made Buck look to the side and then the smiling gunrunner came tumbling out of a nearby window and landed almost on top of Buck. Instantly Buck swept out with one of his cruthes and neatly felled the man who gave a shout of surprise and dropped his gun before he was laid out on his stomach in the alley. Buck quickly arranged his crutches so that he could pin down the suspect with one crutch positioned between the shoulderblades and the other at the lower back. The guy squirmed but when Buck put some weight on the crutches it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to break free.

"Give it up," Buck said. "I've got a gun on you and you are under arrest!" The man quieted down some but didn't look too happy about it.

"Watch it! There he goes!" Ezra called as the other gunrunner took the opportunity while they were distracted to break away and disappear down an alley. Jaxon followed immediately on his heels.

"I'll get him!" JD called and disappeared down the alley in hot pursuit of Jaxon before anyone could raise any objections.

"That kid!" Vin said and banged his hand against the side of the Jag in frustration. "That guncrazy s.o.b. will kill him! I'm going after them."

"I'm with you," Ezra declared instantly after seeing that Buck had the situation well in hand. They both sprinted off in the same direction they had seen JD go.

"Wait now! Hey! Where you all... " Buck protested as they all ran by him but his voice trailed off when he suddenly found himself alone with the remaining suspect.

"Oh, shoot!" he muttered. His companions had all scattered like smoke in the wind and left him with quite a problem. Buck couldn't balance his crutches and cuff the suspect and point the gun at him all at the same time.

He knew he couldn't stay like this forever, holding the guy pinned down with his crutches. He already felt like a bug collector trying to wrestle down the world's largest cockroach. What should he do? If he put away the gun the guy would, at best, just bolt as soon as Buck let up on the pressure on the crutches.

"Oh, what the hell," Buck said. He kept the gun in one hand, let his cruthes drop and sat down on his prisoner before the guy had a chance to react.

Buck cuffed him and watched carefully that the man could breathe all right. The guy cursed him but Buck paid him no mind as he reached for the cellphone and called for someone to come and transport his suspect away. As long as the guy had air enough to curse him Buck knew he was all right.

"&%#\'a4 you and your &%\'a4#*^&%\'a4 camera!" the suspect hissed.

"Sorry, pal, no camera present," Buck calmly replied. "But I know of a place where you can get your picture taken from all sorts of angles. They have a special kind of finger paint there too. Your day won't be a total loss."

He smiled as he heard the faint sound of approaching sirens. Good, just a few minutes more and then he could get rid of this guy and go look for JD.

"In fact I hear it's quite entertaining," Buck continued. "Wish I could be there to share it with you but I got me a stray calf I've got to rope in, so you'll have to excuse me."

"&%\'a4& you!!!!!!" The suspect spat out at Buck who just gave him a cold grin back.

"You have the right to remain silent -" Buck quoted and leaned back a little more heavily on his supect as he added, "- yep, indeed you do. And if I were you I'd start just about now!"

Huh. Criminals today... no manners whatsoever.

+ + + + + + +

Jaxon and JD seemed to have disappeared into a sidealley but Vin and Ezra could still clearly see the fleeing gunrunner up ahead. Vin gave Ezra a brief handsignal before splitting off into a paralell alley where he would hopefully be able to intercept the man further on.

Ezra continued the chase until he lost sight of the man for a moment when they ran into yet another alley. Those who had named this place the Labyrinth obviously knew what they were talking about.

A quick glance around told him it was empty except for two old drunks in a cardboard box. One of them sat up straight and stared at Ezra's formal black suit and white shirt. Suddenly the man gave up a shout and pointed at Ezra with the hand that was also holding a bottle in a brown bag.

"Hey!" The old drunk waved his arms and splashed some cheap wine on the arm of Ezra's suit. Ezra looked down at the stain in dismay for a second before his brain switched back into surveillance mode and he realized that the man he had been following seemed to have disappeared without even a trace.

"Hey, a penguin!" the wino said excitedly. " A real live penguin!"

Ezra looked around the alley in confusion. Penguin? What ...? The old drunk couldn't mean... him? He was quite sure that he had never been so insulted in his whole life.

"Hey, Joe," The other wino said between hiccupps. "What's that clown doing over there?"

Joe turned, spotted Vin come running from the other direction and almost jumped up and down with excitement as he said, "Hey, a clown! A real live clown!"

"Did you see where he went?" Vin called as he came to a halt. Ezra just shook his head as he tried to catch his breath.

"No, he was ahead of me and then he was suddenly gone. He must have gone into one of these derelict buildings."

"Okay. We'd better stay together from now on, Ezra."

"Right."

After the two ATF agents had disappeared into the nearest building Joe turned once again to his friend.

"Didn't I tell you this was a good corner? I think that if we just wait here then the rest of the circus'll come by too."

They drank to that and waited in silence for the rest of the show to begin.

+ + + + + + +

Buck scratched his head and tried to decide if he should go left or right when the alley he had been following suddenly split into two new ones. A patrol car was already searching for traces of his lost companions but that was about all the manpower that could be spared in this area for the time being so Buck had decided that he couldn't just sit still and wait for them to come up with a lead on where JD had disappeared to. The kid could be in trouble out there without him. Judging by experience he probably was in trouble. When he would get ahold of JD again he'd set him down and have a little talk about running off like that and leaving his partner behind.

Every time the kid did something like this Buck swore he got a dozen new grey hairs.
He stopped his silent reasoning for a second, counted the number of times that JD had been in trouble and ran his hand self-consciously through his hair. That kid owed him plenty and Buck would tell him that when he found him.

Once he knew he was okay.

+ + + + + + +

Vin and Ezra slowly made their way through the building since they had decided to search through each floor successively. They had just moved into a large stoorage room of some kind filled with debris and unmentionable refuse. Ezra carefully navigated his way around a doorway leading to an empty room and looked over to see Vin mirror his actions on the other side of the room. Suddenly his foot encountered something and he looked down.

"Oh no," he said with apprehension.

Vin turned around slightly and gave him a questioning look.

"What?" he asked quietly.

"I just stepped in - " Ezra looked down at his shoe in disgust. " -something."

Vin didn't even bother to hide his wide grin and Ezra looked at him in definite annoyance.

"These shoes cost me $300!" he said defensively and got even more annoyed when Vin just gave him an even wider grin.

"That's the danger in havin' expensive clothes." Vin said as he went back to searching for their fugitive. "Me, I couldn't care less if something happened to this suit."

"Yes, well." Ezra said and quickly glanced into another empty room. "I wouldn't want anyone to step in the same thing I just did. So if I were you I'd look out, especially since you are at this moment sans footwear, my friend."

"Why Ezra," Vin laughed softly. "Didn't know you cared..."

And at that precise moment everything went wrong because one minute Vin was there and then there came a crashing sound and when Ezra looked over in alarm all he could see was a cloud of dust rising from behind a pile of rubble.

Ezra could feel his heart hammering away in his chest in panic as he rushed over towards the spot where Vin had stood just seconds before. There was a gaping hole in the floor and the dim light made it seem as if it stretched to the center of the earth itself.

"Vin! Vin are you all right?" Ezra called down into the darkness with rising terror in his heart. "Vin?"

The only sound that answered him was the howl of the wind as it swept through the abandoned building. No creature stirred and no human voice answered him.

There was just silence.

+ + + + + + +

JD focused all of his attention on the kid in front of him and was no longer aware of his surroundings. He was almost close enough to make a grab for Jaxon's jacket when the boy suddenly turned the corner and came up against a wire fence. Quick as lightning he started to make his way up the high fence and his desperation gave him the strength to pull himself up towards the top by way of his hands while he was struggling to find a foothold that would give him leverage enough to get over the fence to the other side.

JD grabbed on to one of Jaxon's legs and tried to wrestle him back down to the ground. Jaxon struggled violently against JD's grip and a bunch of papers fell out of his pocket and surrounded them for a minute in a whirl of white as the wind caught the papers before it let them slowly sail towards the ground.

For a minute it seemed as if JD's weight would do the trick and make Jaxon fall but a desperate kick hit JD in the stomach and he couldn't hold on. Lost in pain he landed hard on his back on the street with his breath knocked out of him. For a moment he lay there with his eyes closed as he struggled painfully to draw breath. Underlying the sound of his own ragged breathing and the pulse pounding in his head he could faintly hear footsteps that were fading quickly as Jaxon got further and further away. JD raised his head briefly and confirmed with his eyes what he already knew in his gut.

He was alone. The alley was empty.

He had failed.

+ + + + + + +

"Vin?" the tentative question echoed mockingly back at him from the hole in the basement floor. Ezra swallowed hard.

He'd made his way down from the room to find that Vin had fallen through two flights of stairs down what seemed to be some sort of old shaft. The only thing that made Ezra believe that Vin might still be alive was the fact that something had ripped up a hole in the thick concrete at the bottom of the shaft and therefore Vin's broken body was not on display here but lost somewhere down in the compact dark. As long as he didn't see it he could fool himself that Vin might have landed on something softer than concrete. Ezra looked over the edge of the hole in the basement floor and realized that he hadn't a clue what to do next.

He had rapidly come to the conclusion that it had to be the ancient sewers down there that ran for miles underneath the city in a haphazard fashion. The old sewer system was severely underdimensioned and no longer in use but there were still storm drains and manholes leading down into it all over the city. Ideally he would have had a rope and a flashlight with him so he could make his way down directly into the hole but since he had neither he didn't want to chance it. If he tried jumping down into the hole there was always a risk that he might injure himself before he got a chance to alert the others and what if Vin was lying down there in the dark and Ezra just happened to step all over him...? No, that would never do. He just had to find the right spot to access the sewers and then try to find a way over to where Vin had to be.

Sneezing his way through a couple of dusty basements in nearby buildings he finally came across a rusted door that opened with a squeak to reveal a ladder attached to the wall. The only place it could possibly lead to was down into the sewers. Ezra climbed down and landed in front of a second door that he had to wrestle with for a few minutes before he managed to get it open.

Swirls of dust floated towards him and the eerie stillness of the long forgotten tunnels enveloped him the second he stepped into the sewers. He shivered in the raw air.

It really was dark down here.

Ezra had to wait for his eyes to get accustomed to the darkness and tried to get his bearings by picturing the layout of the buildings and streets above him. Finally he decided on a direction. Ezra set off into one of the tunnels and tried not to think on what might be lurking under the surface of the water around his feet. Bad enough that he could barely walk a few steps without bumping into the wall with his shoulder as he slipped on something slimy on the floor.

"Vin!" Ezra called and wished with all his heart for an answer this time. Far ahead of him he could see a pale jagged oval in the ceiling of the tunnel that told him he was on the right track. The faintest of lights trickled down from the building above and revealed a man-sized shape partially covered by debris that consisted of cardboard, bricks and bits of concrete.

"Vin?" Ezra asked in trepidation. It came out a bit more loudly than expected in the silent air.

Vin looked dead. Oh Lord, Vin looked dead. But just as panic was about to grab Ezra's heart and squeeze it hard, Vin suddenly raised his head slightly and said in his soft drawl,

"I'm fine.Quit hollerin'"

"Thank God." Ezra let out a deep breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding.

"Didn't figure you for a prayin' man." Vin said in a weak voice as he let his head drop back down to rest on a piece of cardboard.

"There are occasions." Ezra said as he moved the final feet that separated him from Vin. He leaned down over Vin who was stretched out across one of the low heaps of rubble that blocked the tunnel. He was laying at such an angle that his head was slightly lower than his feet and barely an inch above the surface of the shallow water that covered the tunnel floor. Vin's left leg was completely covered with rubble and larger pieces of heavy concrete.

"Nice to know you care so much for me." Vin said as Ezra checked him out for any broken bones.

"I don't." Ezra said nonchalantly. "I was just thankful that I had been spared the task of telling Mr Larabee of your unfortunate demise. That means that he'll have no excuse now not to reimburse my suit and my shoes. They will certainly be ruined after this little adventure."

"You're all heart, Ezra." Vin said dryly.

"Well, I have a reputation to uphold."

"Not to mention a wardrobe." Vin muttered.

"That too." Ezra conceded with a short laugh. " I think you'd better lie still, your spine could be injured. Or you could have a concussion. Or maybe internal bleedings."

"I know the drill, " Vin interrupted him. "I should by now, Nathan's had me go through it enough times. All I need is to get out of here. I've already checked my injuries ten times over since you took your own sweet time getting down here."

"Oh, really? Then tell me how many fingers am I holding up?"

Ezra knew it was a futile question since could barely see his own hand in the dark, let alone his fingers and Vin couldn't help but snort.

"Yeah, like I could see that in this faint light. Look Ezra - it's just bruises, cuts and bumps. Nothing much."

"I thought all you cats with seven lives could see in the dark." Ezra countered with before continuing. " And I'd rather see for myself, thank you, since I'm rather attached to my hide and the others would have it if they found out that I let you walk around with internal injuries and your head split open."

Vin did seem coherent and pretty much his usual self but since they all knew how the man could clam up when he was injured Ezra ran his hand over Vin's head to check for gaping wounds anyway. Vin had a large bump on his forehead but otherwise seemed okay. Ezra got quite a shock when Vin's whole scalp fell off his head and into Ezra's hands before he realized a split second later that it had to be the clown wig and not Vin's real hair.

Ezra removed Vin's red clown nose and made a move as if to throw it away but Vin quickly said,

"Save that - I want it as a reminder to never agree to be a stand-in clown again." and Ezra put it in his pocket without a word of objction.

"What do you mean 'cat with seven lives'?" Vin said to distract himself as Ezra carefully prodded and poked at his many bruises.

"I think you must have used up at least two lives out of the magical nine in that fall. Well, grant you I'm not a physician but we've all had experience of seeing the aftermath of you having been mauled by the lesser elements of this fair country and I can't see that you have any broken bones or bleeding wounds. Are you certain you're all right?"

"I'm sure." Vin assured him. " My head's not scrambled and I can feel my arms and legs and fingers and toes all right. I can even move some but my left leg hurts like hell and it's trapped under that big block of concrete. Tried to shift it on my own but I can't at this angle. You have to help me with that."

"I will. But first you have to tell me.... " Ezra's voice trailed off and Vin had to prompt him with a soft-spoken,

"What?"

"I thought you were dead." Ezra said bluntly. " That fall... How...?" He trailed off again.

"I was stupid, there was some cardboard over the hole and I never saw it. I stepped right on it and just fell. Landed on some boxes on the next level. They folded under me and followed me down and cushioned my fall. Told you - just some cuts and bruises."

Ezra was silent for a long time before asking,
"Ever considered a career in gambling? A man as lucky as you would win a fortune in Vegas."

There was a note of nostalgia and longing in his voice that made Vin laugh again.

"Ezra, don't make me laugh," he groaned as all the bruises along his back protested the movement.

"Don't move." Ezra said in alarm and was not at all mollified by Vin's statement a second later that he was fine. Instead he quickly set to the task of freeing Vin from the concrete slabs that had effectively trapped his leg. They were heavy, Ezra could barely make one of them move at all but he persisted and it slowly shifted with a grinding noise.

Suddenly Vin gave a short cry of pain and Ezra immediately halted his action. It didn't take him long to realize that the change in positions had made the other concrete slab shift as well and press harder onto Vin's injured leg. He carefully made sure that the slab sank back to it's original position without causing further damage.

"Sorry." Ezra muttered in defeat. What else could possibly go wrong today? If only he had a lever of some kind.... that way he could ensure that the concrete wouldn't crush Vin's leg as it shifted.

A flash of lightning suddenly exploded across the heavens above. Ezra couldn't see it but he could hear the thunder rolling and knew they were in trouble. The rain came down, drenched the city streets and flowed down into the drains and further on to surge around the two agents.

"I just had to ask!" Ezra muttered angrily to no one in particular.

"Ezra," Vin warned him. "The storm drains."

"I know."

"This place could be flooded soon. You should get out of here."

"That is not an option." Ezra said as calmly as he could.

He had come to an agreement with himself long ago. The seven was the group that would redeem him. He wasn't so cynical that he didn't at least acknowledge the opportunity to change the patterns of his life when he had been offered this job.

It had turned out so much better than he had expected. He didn't dare to say anything because he was afraid he would screw up like he always had before and it would turn out to be just a mirage - he didn't dare to say it but in his thoughts they had become his friends. How could he ever think of facing the rest of the group again if he left Vin to drown down here? He just couldn't.

"Ezra-"

"I said - that is not an option." Ezra searched around in the dark until his hand caught hold of a long and sturdy piece of wood.

"Fine. " Vin said quietly when he saw that Ezra was not to be swayed. "I still say you should go and just leave me here."

"So noted," Ezra said as he bent down and positioned the piece of wood underneath one of the concrete blocks.

"While I do admire your display of bravery-" he told Vin as he put his weight on it. "- I think it is misplaced this time. No need to worry. Just give me a moment and I'll have you free faster than you can say-"

Crack!!!! The sound of destruction sounded through the tunnel as a faint echo of the thunder above.

Ezra looked down in disbelief at the piece of wood that had just broken off in his hand.

"Now can I worry?" Vin asked with an edge of tension in his voice.

Ezra could find nothing to say to that and so he was silent. The rain kept pounding on the street above and the water was starting to rise much faster now. When the storm drains would start to overflow they would fill these narrow tunnels in no time. It was already starting to happen. If they thought they had been in trouble before it was nothing compared to the trouble they were in now.

Part II

Josiah looked down at the small girl who shyly stretched out her hand and touched his red nose. She pressed it quickly and then snatched her hand away and giggled.

Josiah laughed with her and tucked her in, careful of the multiple IV lines attached to her hands. Seeing the faces of the sick little children light up as he and Nathan re-enacted classic tales and generally clowned around was indeed a gratifying sight. He saw Nathan walk over to their balloon stash and decided to join him and take a breather as it was time for medications for some of the kids.

"Seeing a smile like that makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?" Nathan said softly and Josiah nodded.

"That it does, brother," he agreed. "Makes me wonder if I haven't chosen the wrong profession."

"I don't know about wearing this suit every day.... " Nathan said slowly." ... but I know someone who'd be happy to see me do something like this instead of busting gunrunners."

"Rain, huh?" Josiah nodded. "Have the two of you talked about the possibility of you leaving our group?"

"No... not exactly talked." Nathan said slowly and the corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled. "She's -uhm- most persuasive in other ways... but... well... she does have a point and you just can't argue with Rain when she's right. She won't ask me to leave but I know she'd be happier if I was in a safer line of work"

"Right as Rain." Josiah grinned. " I see. But you wouldn't be thinking about leaving us anytime soon, now would you?"

"What, and let you guys take care of all your cuts and bruises by yourselves?" Nathan laughed. " Not if I can help it. I'd just go around and worry about what would happen to you all when I'm not there. Rain knows that too."

"Speaking of our friends." Josiah turned serious. "Why aren't they here?"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that myself...." Nathan said. He hoped the others were just delayed trying to coax Vin out of the car and that his gut was wrong when it tried to convince him that it could just possibly be something more serious.

"Where's the wizard?" A five-year old boy with a cast on his arm tugged on Nathan's baggy pants. "I want the wizard."

"Well, sorry little fellah." Nathan said as he carefully picked the pint-sized menace up in his arms. " It looks like he just magicked himself away before he even got here."

*And he'd better have a darn good reason for worrying me like this.* Nathan thought and wondered once again what had happened to their four missing compadres.

+ + + + + + +

Ezra searched desperately through his pockets for something - anything - he could use to free Vin. Coins and cards trickled through his fingers and disappeared down into the dark water but he never gave them a second thought. He pulled out a hidden staff - no good, it was too weak. As he threw it away it transformed in midair into a colorful bouquet before it landed next to a rat who gave a squeal of surprise and quickly moved away to a safer spot.

Next Ezra nearly gave himself a heart attack as he pulled out a rubber pigeon so lifelike that it seemed to flutter with panic in his hands. He swore and threw it away. All he had left was an endless row of silk handkerchiefs all tied together and reinforced by a sturdy but invisible fishing line.

Nothing, there was nothing. They were literally ...

Ezra searched for an expression to correctly assess their situation. Up the creek without a paddle didn't do it for him, it was too clean. He had to settle for the cold reality of being 'down the smelly sewer without a lever' instead.

Not only was the water starting to rise on the floor, it was also starting to rush out of a broken pipe directly over Vin's head. Vin spat and tried not to breathe in the deluge but he was hard pressed to find a way to keep his face out of the way of the pouring water.

Struck by a sudden burst of inspiration Ezra snatched up Vin's discarded wig and stuffed it up the pipe that was spewing water down Vin's face. Luckily it held off pretty well and the flow slowed down to just a tiny trickle. Good, that bought them some time. Not much, though. The water level was still rising at an alarming rate and the water was cold.

"Ezra .. help me." Vin struggled to raise the upper part of his body away from the water. Ezra leaned back against the wall and propped Vin up against his own shoulder.

"I need to go and get help." Ezra reluctantly stated what they both knew.

"Yeah," Vin calmly agreed. As soon as Ezra shifted away from him he had to struggle to stay upright and Ezra quickly moved back to support him.

"I can make it. You should go now, Ez." Vin said, but Ezra didn't answer. He couldn't leave without knowing that Vin would be able to at least keep his head above water

If only there was something Vin could hold on to... maybe something in the rubble. Ezra's thoughts suddenly went to the handkerchiefs in his pocket. Maybe they weren't so useless after all.

"I've got an idea," he said and rose to tie one end of the line to the pipe above Vin's head. He tested it, wrapped the line several times around Vin's body and felt optinmistic that it might work. He'd probably have to cut the line in order to free Vin again, but it would hold. For the first time since he had come down into the sewers Ezra felt a glimmer of hope.

Vin grabbed a tentative hold of the line and found it much easier to stay upright this time. He began to put a little weight on it and found that it was able to take it. With some help from Ezra he wrapped the line a few times more around his body and and secured the end by wrapping them around his hands before he leaned back against the wall again.

"Thanks Ezra," he said quietly and Ezra gave his shoulder a quick squeeze in response.

"I'll be back soon," Ezra said. " Don't fall asleep."

A sudden thought made him stop abruptly and turn back for a minute. Taking off his black cape he swept it around Vin's shoulders. It wasn't much of a barrier against the cold water but it was something.

"Ezra... Wait." Vin pleaded as long shudders ran up and down his spine. " This cold is numbing my mind. Give me something to focus on. A word, a rhyme - just something."

For the life of him Ezra couldn't seem to come up with anything but then a line from a song or a poem suddenly started playing in his head and the words just flowed off his tongue without a conscious thought in between.

"A jellicle cat is a magical cat," Ezra said and Vin looked up with a weary expression.

"A jellicle cat is a magical cat," he repeated and grinned slightly. "You listen to 'Cats' lately, Ezra?"

"No and I have no idea if that is even a correct quote," Ezra admitted. " In fact, I'm pretty certain it's not, but that's not important anyway. It's simple enough to remember. Just keep repeating it and hold on to the line. And don't fall asleep."

"Okay, " Vin nodded and tried to keep his teeth from chattering. "A jellicle cat is a magical cat. A jellicle cat is a magical cat. I won't let go."

"Good. Keep repeating that. I'll be right back." Ezra moved away and was immediately swallowed by the dark.

*A magical cat... I won't let go. I won't let go.* Vin wrapped his hands a little tighter around his lifeline and watched as the swirling waters rapidly engulfed more and more of his body. There was nothing he could do now but wait.

+ + + + + + +

JD sat up slowly and took a deep breath before getting back on his feet. He bit back a groan of discomfort as he bent down and reached for Jaxon's scattered papers. There were row after row of small numbered squares with perforated edges on each sheet and every single one of them contained a small drawing, cartoonish in nature. It looked very much like some kind of weird stamps or the type of fake tattoos that came with bubble gums. JD gathered the papers together and promptly cut himself on the razor sharp edge of one of the thin sheets.

"Ow." He stuck his forefinger in his mouth and sucked on the small papercut he had gotten. Underlying the coppery tang of his blood was a funny sweet and sour taste he couldn't identify. It must come from the glue residue that was on the back of every paper. The sheets were becoming sticky now as a light drizzle started to fall and he couldn't avoid getting some of the glue on his hands.

JD retraced his way back to the car through two smaller alleys and had just turned into a third one when he suddenly stopped and looked carefully at his surroundings.

Strange how he hadn't noticed before that the buildings around him were all leaning at that weird angle. And they moved around too .... It was enough to make his head spin and he had to sit down, except when he sat down it seemed that the ground was moving also. He lay down and spread out his arms and legs to hold on to the asphalt. Nope. Still moving.

Buck turned the corner at that point and nearly had a heart attack when he spotted JD flat on his back on the dirty street.

"JD!" he called anxiously as he hobbled as fast as he could on his crutches towards the youngster. "What happened? Are you all right, kid?"

"Oh hi, Buck." JD said and giggled. " Hi - hey I think I'm high ....hi-high ... geddit? Hehehe." Buck ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. Oh, boy. What in the world had happened to JD? Was the kid drunk ?

So ... maybe this wasn't as bad as Buck had first thought, but it wasn't good either. He looked at the papers that were still clutched hard in JD's hand. It reminded Buck of samples of LSD that were sometimes distributed at rave parties in a similar fashion. Small, harmless-looking paper squares you could lick and get a trip for your troubles. No, this wasn't good at all.

"C'mon, sit up now." Buck grabbed ahold of JD's arm and tried to drag him to a standing position but almost ended up sprawled on the asphalt himself when he overbalanced. It was impossible for him to manage his crutches and JD both at the same time, the kid would have to get to his feet by himself.

"JD. C'mon, kid," he coaxed. "You don't wanna lay on the ground like this. Lets go and sit on them steps over there." He pointed his crutch towards a doorway in one of the abandoned buildings. Right nearby he noticed two old codgers in a cardboard box who followed his every move with great interest.

"No." JD said stubbornly.

"Ah, c'mon now, JD," Buck tried again. "It's starting to rain. It's gonna get wet and cold. We're gonna get wet and cold. You don't wanna stay here. Listen to ol' Buck now and go sit over there where there's some shelter from the rain."

"Sit. Stay." JD complained without moving an inch. "You can't order me around. M'not a dog."

"Maybe not, but you sure is part mule!" Buck snapped as he lost his temper for a minute.

"Go sit over there!" he ordered. "I don't want no arguments from you. Now do it!"

JD slowly shifted his body around onto his side but when he tried to sit up he quickly rolled over onto his stomach instead.

"Boy, the sky is dark." He remarked as he studied the surface of the street.
"Why's it so dark?" He twisted his neck until he could peer up at Buck. Buck sighed.

"It's rainin', JD," he explained, trying to go slow and patient this time. "But most of all it's because you're lookin' at the asphalt. The sky's the other way."

"Oh. Okay." JD said and tried once again to sit up, this time with more success. Getting to his feet - well - that was another matter. Buck was reminded of Bambi's first steps out on the icy lake as he watched JD straighten up on shaky legs and take his first unsteady steps.

"There you go," Buck gently encouraged JD until they could finally take shelter in a nearby doorway. The two winos applauded their endeavours. Buck rolled his eyes and deliberately turned his back on them so he could concentrate on JD instead.

He looked the kid over carefully but he didn't seem to have as much as a bruise, just a small cut on his finger that wasn't even bleeding anymore. Buck figured that as long as JD was conscious and somewhat coherent he wasn't in immediate danger.

Lucky thing they had found some shelter because now a bolt of lightning crackled and thunder rolled across the sky. Buck and JD retreated a little further into the doorway as the rain came down on the city as if it wanted to wash the whole of it away.

Buck looked down at the papers still clutched in JD's hand. A portion of them were starting to loose their shape. JD's testimony would take them some ways to putting Jaxon away when they finally got ahold of him but would it be enough? If this rain continued the papers would soon be reduced to pulp and the evidence would be lost.

"Wish we had something to put that in." Buck muttered as he tried to remember how to get back to Ezra's car. Not that it would do them much good since Ezra still had the keys and they would do well to stay under shelter until the downpour became a drizzle again.

"Oh, I have one." JD stated cryptically several minutes later. He squinted to avoid getting rain in his eyes as he looked up at the sky.

"One what, JD?" Buck asked, totally mystified since he had been thinking about how to contact the patrol car he knew was cruising around out there.

"An ev-... " JD stumbled over the word. " ...uhm - evi- something. You know."

"An evidence bag?"

"Yeah, that's the word." JD said absent-mindedly and nodded. Once he started the motion he couldn't seem to stop doing it. Buck found it nearly hypnotic to watch and had to shake his own head to clear it and get back to the present.

"JD ... " Buck said. "This was our day off. Why do you walk around with evidence bags in your pocket on your day off?"

JD stopped nodding and looked at Buck as if he had suddenly been confronted by what could only be the most stupid being alive.

"Hello? " JD said sarcastically before he continued, "I always have some with me."
JD explained it slowly to Buck, talking in short, simple sentences as if he was talking to a very young child. "Always. Every day. In case I need it. Like today."

Buck didn't know what to say to that. Somehow such a simple thing as carrying around evidence bags on the off chance that they'd be needed one day really brought it home to him how deeply dedicated the kid was to doing a good job. More than that - how JD was dedicated to earning the respect of his fellow agents.

Buck cleared his throat and blinked against the rain that had somehow got into his eyes. He busied himself with carefully transferring the papers into several of the largest type of evidence bags that JD had produced out of his pocket.

A strange, metallic scraping sound made its way into JD's consciousness and he looked around to locate its source.

He sat up straight and stared at the manhole cover that seemed to be moving on its own a short distance away in the street behind them.

"Buck, look... a prarie dog." JD exclaimed in wonder and when Buck turned around he could see the back of someones head stick up out of an open manhole. Suddenly it was gone and then the head reappeared and the man looked around so Buck could get a glimpse of his face. It was Ezra.

Ezra looked around with apprehension but thankfully there were no cars ready to run him over. He had been unable to find the place where he gone down into the sewers and realized that he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere but luckily he had found another ladder leading up to the street and here he was now. He was filthy and his shoulders ached from pushing the heavy manhole cover up and out of the way but none of that mattered when he spotted the most welcome sight of Buck limping towards him with a wide grin on his face.

"Hey Ezra, you old prarie dog." Buck said and laughed.

Ezra stiffened. Prarie dog? Prairie dog ?

Behind Buck he could spot the two old inhabitants of the cardboard box further down the alley. One of them actually waved at Ezra like he was greeting an old friend.

Ezra clenched his jaw. He still hadn't forgotten about that man calling him a penguin and now his fellow agents called him a prarie dog. Well, that did it. Another slight to his person and he would do something inapproriate.

Ezra crawled out of the manhole as gracefully as he could manage under the circumstances. For a second he contemplated hitting Buck but a gentleman wouldn't take advantage of a temporarily crippled man. He meticulously straightened out his grubby black suit while counting to ten before he gave Buck a look that effectively wiped the smile from his face.

"Ah - am - not - in - a - good - mood." Ezra stated slowly and punctuated every word. His rich southern accent had never been more obvious.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Buck's good humor had disappeared immediately when he saw how serious Ezra looked.

"Vin fell through several floors in an abandoned building. He's trapped under some debris down in the sewers."

"Damn. I'll call-"

"There's no time." Ezra interrupted him. "Water is overflowing from the storm drains. If we don't manage to free him very soon I fear he'll either drown or freeze to death. I could really use help down there. Maybe JD-"

"No can do. Sorry." It was Buck's turn to interrupt Ezra. " I don't know how it happened but he's on something. Jaxon left behind some stuff with some substance on it and JD was exposed to it in some way."

"Can nothing go right today?" Ezra vented his frustration to the skies before he turned back to Buck. "Will he be all right?"

"I don't think there's any immediate danger but we need to get him out of here.Vin too. Both of them. Heck - all of us. JD and I aren't much help but we'll do what we can. What do you need?"

"I came up here to try and find something to use as a lever. I think I can shift the concrete slab enough to get him free but I need something strong, preferably some metal pipe - I don't know..."

Ezra's voice trailed off and he looked very defeated as he wondered where in this wasteland he should start his quest for a probably non-existant tool. Buck stared intently at Ezra as his mind tried to come up with something.

"Take my crutch," he said suddenly.

Ezra blinked and replied, "What?"

"To use as a lever." Buck explained. "It's strong- it's durable and it's light. Try it! Now, Ezra!"

Ezra quickly gripped the crutch and disappeared down the manhole again without wasting another word.

"Wait Ezra!" Buck called after him and Ezra's head reappered again.

"What?" He asked and watched as Buck asked JD a question and the kid shrugged and searched through his pockets. JD handed Buck something and Ezra waited impatiently as Buck hobbled towards him with great difficulty now that he only had one crutch.

Buck was shaking his head and muttering,

"That kid. Can't find a thing on his desk or in his room but his pockets are organized and as full of stuff as Mary Poppins magical bag ..."

He carefully handed Ezra a swiss army knife and a mini-flashlight and said,

"You can probably use these. Don't lose them down there or JD'll have your hide when he remembers you borrowed them."

Ezra nodded and then he was gone again. Buck hobbled back to where JD was sitting and looked hopefully at the kid.

"You wouldn't happen to have a cellphone on you, would you JD? I seem to have left mine back at the car."

"Where did the prarie dog go?" JD asked forlornly as he handed Buck his phone.

"He went home, JD. Now shush. I gotta call for back-up."

Buck pressed a key and waited for the cellphone to answer with a happy little chirp. Instead the battery warning blinked and it died, he could almost hear the death rattle. He nearly threw the phone in the trash on the street but stopped himself at the last second when he realized that he would have to reimburse it if it got lost and that meant a whole lotta paperwork and a lecture from Chris.

Was it Friday the 13th today? It must be because in all his life he'd never had such bad luck. Murphy's law seemed to be in full effect and all he could do was wait.

He wanted to go out immediately and flag down the patrolcar he had sent out to search for the others but there was no way he could leave JD alone and what if they needed an ambulance for Vin? No, the best thing to do right now was to wait.Wait and hope that the back-up would somehow just magically find them here in the heart of the Labyrinth. Wait for Ezra to come back with Vin so they could all get out of here. It was driving him up the wall. He didn't even have much of a clue where they had left the car so even if the cellphone had been working he wasn't sure that he could have directed anyone to their location, anyway.

Buck looked over at the two guys over in the cardboard box. If Ezra wasn't back soon he'd have to chance it and get out and take JD with him. Maybe he could ask them for directions.

"Hey, old timers" Buck called. "Which is the quickest way out of here'n back to the street?"

He could see them conferring amongst themselves for a short while and then they both pointed. One of them pointed at the alley where Buck had come from, the other one pointed the opposite way.

"Well, that was sure helpful." Buck muttered. He was obviously stuck here until Ezra came back. He gave a half-hearted wave in thanks back at the old men. One of them gave him thumbs up.

"Didn't I tell you," Joe whispered to his compadre. " This is the best show I've seen in years."

His friend nodded solemnly. It sure was.

+ + + + + + +

Ezra waited for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness down in the sewer. He decided to spare the flaslight until he really needed it but he couldn't help but feel a bit desoriented as he set off in the direction where he'd left Vin. At least he hoped it was the right direction.

He was quite relieved when he recognized the shadowy lump patiently holding on to the brightly colored handkerchiefs as Vin.

"I sure hope that's you, Ez." Vin's soft drawl greeted him." Cause if you're an alligator you're a little too big for my liking."

"Fear not Mr Tanner. You are way down on my list of preferred gourmet meals and I can assure you that a nice, expensive restaurant is more to my taste than these surroundings."

"That's good to hear but these rats down here don't seem half as picky as you. They've been eyeing me all the time you've been gone."

"Uhm, yes. I can see that." Ezra replied and shuddered as a rat the size of a well-fed cat ran right over his left foot. "Well - there's just no accounting for taste these days."

He turned on the mini flashlight and the rats squealed and fled out of the reach of the light. Ezra looked carefully at the slabs trapping Vin and bent down, placed the crutch where he deduced it would do most good and put his weight on it. Slowly but surely the concrete shifted just enough so that Vin could finally pull his leg out of the trap.

"Are you free?" Ezra asked and simply let go of the crutch when he heard Vin reply 'Yeah,' in a pained voice.

The crutch disappeared underneath a concrete slab but Ezra paid it no mind as he got his first good look at Vin's injuries with help from the flashlight.

He carefully stroked Vin's hair away from his forehead and probed gently at the large goose-egg swelling over the right eye.

"How does this feel?" he asked.

"It hurts." Vin said succintly and Ezra nodded.

"It should," he replied. "That's the worst bump I've ever had the misfortune of seeing with my own two eyes."

"Look Ez..." Vin said as Ezra searched over his scalp to make sure he didn't have any gaping cracks in his skull. "Unless you're gonna read my fortune by way of the lumps on my head, I suggest you cut me loose from this line so we can get out of here now."

"Frenology was never a favorite hobby of mine," Ezra assured him as he took off his coat so he could cut away a clean section of his shirt with a little help from JD's swiss army knife. He cut off the section of the line where it was tied to the wall so Vin could be free but he didn't waste any time trying to extricate Vin from the the elaborate way it was wrapped around his body. Blood was flowing freely from a bad cut on Vin's leg and Ezra wrapped it as carefully as he could with the white cloth. Vin just hissed in pain but didn't say a word.

Vin's leg was turning black and blue where it had been trapped by the concrete and Ezra didn't like the look of it, although he doubted it was broken. If Vin was lucky he'd be on crutches for a while without any lasting damage. That thought however did nothing to help their current situation since it was clear that Vin neither could nor should put his weight on that leg.

Ezra retrieved his coat, put JD's knife and flashlight in his pocket and slung Vin's left arm over his shoulders. They started to make their way towards the open manhole with Vin hopping on one foot but they had only gone a few feet before they realized it would probably take them at least a year to get there at the pace they were going. They were constantly stumbling over debris in the dark and struggling against each other and the swirling water in the narrow tunnel.

"This unfortunately seems not to be working as well as expected." Ezra said and Vin simply answered, "No."

Next they tried a fireman's carry, again without much success as Vin's wounded leg kept bumping into walls. Vin flinched from the pain and that unbalanced their precarious arrangement and almost brought Ezra to his knees in the muck.

"This isn't working either." Ezra said and Vin replied, "Nope."

They remained indecisively in the dark and smelly sewer for a moment and rested and thought on their options.

"Piggyback." Ezra reluctantly concluded.

"Okay." Vin agreed tiredly, having no desire to stay any longer than necessary down there. Dark, enclosed spaces was something he stayed as far away from as he could under normal circumstances.

Ezra must be getting tired too - the increasing brevity of his sentences were evidence of that - but he nonetheless managed to hoist Vin up on his back and advanced towards their goal once again. Vin held on as if his life depended on it and concentrated on trying not to be sick all over Ezra's black suit. With every step he could feel Ezra falter a little and breathe a little heavier.

"Bet you wish I was JD right now." Vin muttered, knowing he was far from a light burden.

"Not at all." Ezra politely replied but he did sound a bit breathless from hauling Vin around like a sack of potatoes. "JD would no doubt ramble on incessantly on some irrelevant topic. That is something I can do without right now."

"Bet you're real glad I'm not Buck then." Vin continued. He could see a faint light ahead of them now and an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

"How so?" Ezra asked in a faltering voice as he staggered a little under Vin's weight.

"Well, he's a lot heavier than me and more than a foot taller than you, Ez."

"What!? More than a -? He most certainly is not!" Ezra declared angrily and hoisted Vin higher up on his back again as he stomped off towards the faint light. "An inch or two - maybe. You're obviously delirious Mr Tanner and I fail to see how this discussion is in any way relevant towards making the way out of our current predicament any easier."

"You'd be surprised." Vin told him in a strained voice as he watched the light draw closer at twice the speed Ezra had managed earlier.

This way they made good time and Ezra halted suddenly, surprised to find his goal only a few feet away. He paused by the ladder as he played back their conversation in his mind.

Was he really becoming that predictable?

Compare his well-proportioned physique to a big, lumbering ox like Buck and indicate a discrepancy between their heights and he was just off and running without a second thought. Ezra always felt the need to defend himself against anything that would make him seem lacking in any way when compared to the rest of the group. He didn't always give voice to, or even acknowledge, this feeling, but it was there just the same.

Hmm, could the others all read him like a book? He didn't think so, maybe it was just the ever vigilant Vin Tanner. Hopefully it was just this once too. Well, whatever it was Ezra grudgingly admitted silently to himself that he had indeed been had.

"Mr Tanner....I do believe you are too wily for your own good," Ezra muttered with a note of warning in his voice, but there was just the faintest shadow of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He could appreciate a well-executed con - even when it wasn't one of his.

"Sorry, Ez. At least it got us here, right?" Vin said tiredly and blinked at the light pouring from the opening so far away up there. Suddenly a head was blocking out part of the light.

"You boys need a hand?" Buck asked and looked down on them with a welcoming grin on his face.

Vin just nodded and slowly dragged himself up the ladder with Ezra following close behind to make sure that he didn't loose his grip. When they were near the top Buck reached down and grabbed Vin's arms and tried to haul him up that way but his hands slipped on the now slimy clown suit and for a second the three agents could feel yet another disaster looming at the horizon as they could clearly visualize Vin slipping out of Buck's hands and away from the ladder and dragging Ezra down with him.

Suddenly an arm shot out and grabbed a better hold of Vin's clothes and old Joe helped Buck drag Vin out of the hole and onto the street. Ezra gratefully accepted help in getting out of the manhole and they all lay back on the dirty street to catch their breath after their ordeal.

"Much obliged." Ezra panted as he raised his head for a short second to nod to Joe.

"Yeah, pard. We owe you," Buck said as Joe helped him to his feet and gave him his one remaining crutch.

"Oh, don't thank me," Joe said. "It was real entertaining to see you fellas all run around and turn up every which way. It reminded me of those old silent movies with Buster Keaton and the Keystone Cops."

Ezra didn't even bother to comment on that as he got to his feet. A low chuckle could be heard from Vin where he lay with his eyes closed and savoured the feeling of clean rain on his face.

"You got any place to be tonight, old timer?" Buck asked. "Looks like this rain is gonna continue."

"Just here." Joe shrugged and indicated the cardboard box. "The shelters were all full."

"I know of one that should have some room left, it's run by a very nice lady I know." Buck borrowed a pen and a piece of paper from JD and scribbled down the address. "Just tell them Buck sent you. They'll find a spot for you - free of charge."

"Thanks, mr." Joe said happily and walked quickly back to where he had left his friend.

Ezra helped Vin to his feet and leaned him against Buck. He decided that since they each had one good leg, they could help each other.

"I'll go get the car," Ezra said, feeling tired way beyond exhaustion now. "Wait here."

"Ezra, could you-" Buck started to say but Ezra cut him off with a curt, "No."

"I was only gonna say-" Buck said but Ezra cut him off again with a more forceful, "No!"

Ezra started to walk away but stopped when he heard Buck mutter something behind him. It sounded suspiciously like,

"Don't have to be so short with me, I was only trying to-"

Ezra had to use all his willpower to keep going after hearing that and not just turn back and rip away Buck's surviving crutch and let it join its companion down in the sewers. Picturing it in his mind cheered Ezra up quite a bit and he walked more briskly towards where he believed he had left his car. Short indeed!

He would get the car, drive them to a hospital and make sure they were all okay. Then he would go home and sink down into a relaxing bath with a glass of fine wine at hand and just forget this day had ever happened.

+ + + + + + +

JD looked at Ezra and blinked. He hadn't noticed it before but Ezra's skin was all green. And most surprisingly of all was that he hadn't seen that Ezra's eyes were on big stalks that moved and swayed in time with the buildings. Now that JD had discovered this he thought that it looked pretty cool actually.

"Ezra ... hey Ezra. I finally figured out why you talk like you're from another planet. It's because you are from another planet."

"That's very funny, JD." Ezra muttered with a pained expression as he maneuvered a giggling JD into the backseat next to Vin who was wrapped up in a blanket. JD sniffed the air and declared,
"Geez, you two really stink!"

"Well-" Ezra said curtly with his patience running out. "Borrow this then!" and he pulled out Vin's clown nose from his pocket and pushed it firmly on to JD's nose.

JD's eyes crossed as he tried very hard to look at his own nose but he made no attempt to remove the object. Buck wanted to laugh but he didn't dare because Ezra was getting real angry now and he only had one crutch left and didn't want to be stranded in the middle of an alley in the rai....

"Agent Wilmington!" Ezra snapped and interrupted Buck's thoughts. " May I ask if it is your intention to accompany the rest of our little intrepid group or not?"

Buck just nodded and got in the car without argument. Ezra's way of becoming overly polite when he was irritated was a sure warning sign, although unfortunately not enough people discovered this in time. It didn't pay to argue with Ezra when he was in no-nonsense mode because he could run word loops around you that would make your head spin and as a result make you lose whatever verbal faculties you possessed from the beginning.

JD had given up trying to look at his nose and was instead involved in an attempt to unravel the myriad of silk handkerchiefs wrapped around Vin.

"A jellicle cat is a magical cat, " Vin mumbled groggily and yawned. He was getting real sleepy in the warmth of the car and made no effort to cooperate as JD tugged repeatedly on the line. Small rivulets of water were running from Vin's hair where his head rested against the corner window.

Ezra sighed and stepped on the gas. The sooner he could get them unloaded at the hospital and taken care of, the sooner he could change his clothes. JD was right. The two of them were both surrounded by a foul stench that made his eyes water in the closed confines of the car. Buck was already leaning as far away from them as he could come and all but had his head out the open window.

Ezra sighed a second time as he rolled down his own window. He just knew that his upholstery would never be the same after this.

+ + + + + + +

Chris swept into the ATF building and hoped he wouldn't be noticed too much. He knew he didn't exactly look his best with his left cheek swollen to twice its normal size.

He walked briskly to the elevator and then from the elevator into his office with only a handful of meaningful glares to stave off anyone trying to converse with him.

Chris sank down into his chair and enjoyed the silence. You never realized how much noise a dentist's drill could make until it was deep in your mouth and trying to drill a hole straight through your head. His ears were still ringing. First they had kept him waiting forever because of a complicated case of dental surgery that had taken precedence over his appointment. Then he'd found out that they couldn't just yank the darn tooth, they had to drill it out for an agonizing eternity.

He decided to rest up at the office for about half an hour and check some things out before going over to the hospital and see how the team had gotten along with the kids. Chris pushed at his swollen cheek experimentally. Huh, still a bit numb. He could do this. He could survive without taking the painkillers that the dentist had prescribed for him. Willpower would do the trick.

For thirty-five more minutes he lived with this illusion until the local anaesthetic abruptly wore off and he realized that someone was trying to take out a part of his jawbone with the help of a chisel. He quickly swallowed one of the huge pills before reading the label and noticing the warning that said he shouldn't drive while taking these pills. Oh, great! That meant either a taxi or the bus then, neither an alternative that suited him at this point in time when he could hardly speak and felt like an extra from a monster movie.

Maybe he should skip the visit altogether. It was pretty late already and he could hear all about it tomorrow. He would just check to see if there were any messages and then he could go home, put an ice pack on his face and take it easy.

He picked up the phone and listened in silence to the messages left on his voice-mail. Buck had done what to his knee? Vin and JD were where ? They had arrested someone? A joint operation to be scheduled- Drugs? What the-????

He groaned and almost banged his head against his desk in frustration. This was supposed to be their day off. You just couldn't leave them without supervision for a minute.

Chris rose quickly and stumbled a step. Hmm, this medicine left him a bit loopy. Maybe he had dreamed all that had just happened. He made his way out of the building, not so much glaring at everyone this time as just ignoring them.

Coming out on the street the first thing he noticed was that there wasn't a taxi in sight. Five minutes later he was still waiting for one to come by and decided on the bus instead.

The bus was packed with people and he had to stand up the whole way over to the hospital. Trapped between an old man who coughed constantly and an obnoxious child who insisted on standing on his foot, Chris had plenty of time to think of what he would do to his team if it turned out not to be a bad dream after all.

+ + + + + + +

"Uuuhhnnnn ..... my head." JD whispered tentatively and groaned at the sound of his own voice.

He vaguely remembered being prodded and poked at and asked a lot of questions and then he must have fallen asleep. That must also mean that he was awake now, right?

For a second he had no idea where he was. In fact - for a second he had no idea who he was either. He found it hard to think when his head was throbbing and his stomach was heaving.

Oh yeah, he remembered now ... his name was JD and he was really, really, really sick.

"That should teach you." A voice boomed loudly somewhere above him and JD promptly fell off his chair in reaction. Someone lifted the cold soothing thing that was his only comfort away from his head. Ice pack. It was called an ice pack. He had to remember that if he needed to ask for it. JD squeezed his eyes shut against the glaring light but not before he could clearly identify Buck who peered down at him and shook his head sadly.

"Kids today...." Buck said as he helped him back into the chair. "Got no sense. Got no stamina. It's a sad thing. Very sad."

JD dared to open his eyes for a second so he could locate his ice pack and plant it firmly back on his forehead. Oh, that just felt so good. He shut his eyes again.

"Go away," he croaked.

"What was that?" Buck went on relentlessly. "Did you just say ' Yes, Buck - from now on I'll think twice about running after a drugdealer without back-up' or was it 'Yes Buck, I know I could have been killed and I promise I'll never do anything as stupid as that ever again'?"

JD sighed. For every second he became more and more aware of his surroundings and the fact that Buck was actually speaking in a tone that could only be considered quiet for him. That didn't stop JD from feeling as if someone had buried a red hot poker in his brain and twisted it whenever a sound was heard. He needed to shut Buck up before his head exploded.

Besides... Buck was right. This time.

"I promise I'll never do anything as stupid as that ever again." JD repeated Buck's last option.

"Good." Buck said softly. He patted JD gently on the shoulder and winced in sympathetic pain as the kid could only groan in answer.

+ + + + + + +

Chris stormed into Vin's room and looked at his six agents. Vin was to all appearances peacefully asleep in the bed. He was freshly scrubbed to get rid of the sewer smell and the only proof of his brief interlude as clown was a red nose on the table next to the bed.

Buck was leaning on his one remaining crutch and hovering by JD's side while the kid was stretched out in a chair with the ice pack still on his head. Both of them looked like they had been rolling around in a dirty alley somewhere.

Ezra was standing by the window dressed in borrowed scrubs and sneakers and to top it off there was Nathan and Josiah, still dressed as clowns. Everyone but Vin looked up at Chris with apprehension. His left cheek was swollen to twice it's normal size, giving him the apperance of having just contracted mumps and he looked about as angry as a bee who's perfectly organized hive had just met with an unfortunate accident.

"-en-a-tol-ou-to-...." Chris started with great difficulty.

The five awake agents looked at each other in puzzlement.

"What did he say?" Buck stage whispered to Ezra but it was Vin who answered him without opening his eyes even once to find what was going on.

"He said ' when I told' ya to get to the hospital I didn't mean as patients.' Right, Chris?"

"-igh-." Chris confirmed. "-ow -t - g?"

"He wants to know what happened, how the kids liked the show and when we're getting out of here." Vin translated Chris's unspoken questions in advance before falling asleep again.

Chris nodded and put the full weight of his gaze on Buck as he waited for an explanation.

"Well, you see Chris ..." Buck started without looking Chris directly in the eye. " We didn't mean to leave Josiah and Nathan here without back up, so to speak, although they really didn't need us since the kids all loved them. " Nathan and Josiah both nodded.

"Yes, it all went exceptionally well." Josiah confirmed and Chris looked slightly mollified by this but he soon had Buck pinned down with his eyes again and Buck felt compelled to continue with the story.

"Vin had to take my place as a clown since I hurt my knee and we were all on the way here when we sort of got sidetracked and .... and .... and why don't you continue Ezra?" Buck quickly shoved the responsability for explaining over to Ezra.

"Me?" Ezra looked up with a look on his face like a deer caught in the headlight as he found that Chris had now switched his attention over to him instead of Buck.

"Well, " Ezra cleared his throat. "We came across some suspicious characters involved in violating the law. In trying to prohibit this act Mr Tanner and myself had to search through a derelict building where Vin unfortunately fell through the floor and we ended up in the sewers. Fortunately Mr Wilmington here could lend me his crutch so I could free Vin - but you had a better knowledge of what went on in that alley so why don't you tell the rest of the story, Mr Wilmington?"

"Yeah," JD said gleefully. "The buck has been passed back to you, Buck!"

He almost fell off the chair again as he started to laugh but it quickly turned into a groan instead when his head protested against this strenuous activity.

"JD here...-" Buck spoke loudly directly above JD's head and was satisfied to see JD squirm a bit in response." ...got himself in a spot of trouble and I had my hands full trying to take care of him. He didn't make a lick of sense when he spoke but it took me a while to notice 'cause I thought he was just trying out a new joke on me or something and we all know there's not a living soul on this earth who can get one of his jokes-"

JD groaned again and Buck relented a bit. The poor kid's head was probably killing him.

"Well -," Buck continued in a softer tone of voice. " It seems that one of the characters we were chasing were a drug dealer from Purgatorio and he had with him a batch of an experimental new drug and JD - through no fault of his own - was exposed to this and got a small amount into him."

Chris looked up in alarm and looked at Nathan who hastened to assure him that JD would be fine and didn't even need to stay in the hospital. He had only gotten a small dose of the experimental new drug they had discovered into his bloodstream and the effects were already on the decline. Thanks to Chris's team this new drug could now be stopped before it did some real damage out among the city kids. Nathan was careful to really underline this last point to Chris.

Nathan finished by telling Chris that the cuts on Vin's leg had been stitched and bandaged, his head had been looked at and he'd had his stomach pumped to get rid of the sewer water he'd accidentally swallowed from the broken pipe above his head. Vin was just in a night for observation since he was clearly exhausted after his ordeal.

Chris listened in silence and when they were finished he had only three words to say and he said them carefully and slowly through his clenched teeth.

"Full report. Tomorrow." They understood that all right and wisely took the opportunity to leave that moment

Chris walked over to the bed and looked at Vin who slept on undisturbed. He dragged the chair JD had vacated closer to Vin and sat down to rest a bit. It was nice to wait in silence and know everything would be all right. What a day.

Suddenly Vin sat up in bed and he looked at Chris but without really seeing him.

"Where's the lifeline?" he said hoarsly into the quiet of the room. "A jellicle cat is a magical cat. I won't let go."

He reached out blindly for something and as Chris held out his hand to gently push Vin back against the pillows he was instead caught in a death grip. As soon as Vin had a firm hold on his hand he lay down again, shut his eyes and fell deeply asleep without letting go.

Chris frowned. What was that all about? It was clear to him that Vin must have been talking in his sleep but what on earth was a jellicle cat - could he mean Cuervo? Chris decided that he had probably heard it all wrong. He needed to have a talk tomorrow with Ezra and get the details of what had really happened down in the sewer.

He tried slowly and carefully to free himself from Vin's grip but his friend just kept holding on for dear life. Chris really didn't want to mess with the IV attached to Vin's hand so there was nothing he could do but sit there patiently and look around the room and wait for Vin to wake up and let go of him.

"All right, Vin." He muttered in resignation and took great care to enunciate every word as clearly as he could. "I get the picture. Looks like I'm stayin' a while."

He thought he heard Vin answer, "Fine, Cowboy, " but it was immediately followed by a soft snore so once again Chris decided that he had probably heard it wrong. Had they given Vin drugs? Maybe his ramblings were the result of a sedative or something. Chris wished that Nathan had stayed a while so he could ask him. He vaguely remembered something about how sedatives or painkillers and head injuries didn't go well together but Vin wasn't that bad off so maybe they had given him something. Then again - maybe Vin had always been talking in his sleep.

Chris hoped he wouldn't do it again or the doctors might think Vin had scrambled his brain and decide to keep him indefinitely and then what would Chris do?

His eyes wandered away from Vin and fell on the red clown nose on the table.

He picked it up with his free hand, looked at it, shook his head and put it down again. He sighed. That was the absolutely last time he ever volunteered his team for anything, no matter how harmless the assignment. Next time they could call in some other clowns to do the dirty work.

+ + + + + + +

Out in the hallway Nathan had a look of wonder on his face as the group waited for the elevator.

"How do they do that?" he voiced everyone's question. "Vin's almost unconscious and yet he's the only one of us who understood what Chris was saying."

"It's telepathic." JD said as he moved the icepack to the back of his neck " They're on the same wavelength - or maybe they're from the same planet as Ezra," he continued before he noticed the sour look Ezra gave him when he heard this statement.

The drug was starting to wear off now but JD had what he himself decided must amount to the world's greatest hangover and what the others considered an even greater propensity for acting impulsively and speaking his mind without thinking first.

"Sorry." JD apologized to Ezra and decided to keep quiet. His resolve lasted for all of sixty seconds before the elevator pinged and they all got in.

"I like being a clown but these things are impossible to walk in." Josiah said as he stumbled over his clown shoes for the tenth time.

"How do you think Buck hurt his knee." JD said, again without thinking. " He tripped over his own feet when he tried and fell right there in the living room. It shook the whole house, I almost called Timber!"

"JD!" Buck hissed as the others all started to laugh hard enough to bring tears to their eyes. "Great! I'll never live this down."

"Sorry, Buck." JD apologized but didn't sound very apologetic at all.

"It's too late now." Buck complained and quickly switched the subject. "Hey Nathan, can I catch a ride with you?"

"Yeah, sure." Nathan answered. "Don't you wanna go back with Ezra?"

"No, I don't think even Ezra would want to go back in his own car."

+ + + + + + +

Ezra shivered in the raw air as he jogged out to the parking lot and over to his beloved Jaguar. He looked at the scratches on the paint, frowned as he spotted the bullet holes and groaned in disgust at the odor attacking him as soon as he opened the door to the driver's seat.

He decided to let it air out for a minute or two and walked around the car twice and looked at the damage again with pain in his heart and an actual lump in his throat. She had looked so beautiful yesterday with the sun gleaming on her shining new coat of wax. Today she just looked miserable. It didn't matter, in his eyes she was still a lady and if he had been able to embrace the whole of her, he would have.

"You'll be fine, precious," he said softly as he settled for patting the Jag gently on the hood instead." A little paint on the outside, some disinfectant followed by oil on those lovely leather seats and you'll be as good as new. I promise...."

He took a deep breath and steeled himself as he got into the car. The smell wasn't so bad, really. He could stand it a moment - for the sake of a lady. Ezra let his hand stroke a loving circle around the steering wheel.

"... and a real gentleman always keeps his word," he concluded quietly as he turned the key to the ignition and heard her engine start to purr in answer.

Alone at last.

The End

Sequel: Curse of the Red Nose