JD Dunne was tired of the rain. He hadn't experienced a spring this soggy since he left his native Boston three years ago. It had been cool and stormy for the last few weeks, ever since five of the town's regulators returned from a mission to find a missing boy. One of his fellow peacekeepers, Vin Tanner, had taken ill on the trip, and two others, Chris Larabee and Ezra Standish, had been injured. The nasty weather had given the three men time to rest up and recuperate because there simply wasn't much else to do.

Unfortunately, the wet weather keeping everyone cooped up brought around a nasty spring cold, and JD became one of the unfortunate ones to catch it. It had been about a week since he had come down with the illness, and he was starting to feel better. Buck Wilmington and healer Nathan Jackson took care of him during the worst days, and he was currently sitting in Buck's rented room re-paying the favor and staring out the window at the rain. Buck came down with the same virus just a couple of days earlier. He brought Buck some of Inez's chicken soup and was waiting for his tall friend to finish his lunch.

Chris Larabee, leader of the seven, shook the rain off of his hat and walked through the batwing doors of the saloon to see four of his men sitting at Ezra Standish's table playing poker and having lunch. Larabee had just come from the telegraph office where he had received a wire from Sheriff Bob Hawkins. Hawkins was the sheriff in a small town a couple day's ride southwest of Four Corners. Chris, Vin, Ezra, Nathan, and Buck dropped off three prisoners to him on their way back from rescuing a young boy named Sam Miller. Chris and Ezra were captured trying to take a prisoner, Russell Storm, to Yuma, and once captured discovered that the boy was being held there as well.

Initially, they figured that Hawkins was being paid off by Storm's father, Daniel, and that he would release the men and "look the other way." That turned out not to be the case at all, and the Sheriff made sure that the imprisoned men were tried and punished. He had kept in touch with Larabee and the regulators in Four Corners ever since. Sheriff Hawkins reported a couple of weeks earlier that the Storm compound had been abandoned, but there had been no word on where the group had gone...until now.

A friend of Hawkins', who lives up north, informed him this week that a gang matching the description of Storm's killed two people: a sheriff in Colorado territory and a man trying to protect his family and homestead from the gang. When Larabee read that, it made him feel sick to his stomach. He knew they shouldn't have left without capturing all of Storm's men, but they had three injured or ill men and a little boy to get to safety. They had been too out-numbered, but that didn't make Chris feel any better about it. The death of two good folks could have been prevented if they had put the gang away three weeks earlier.

Vin Tanner looked up from his stew to see Chris standing in the doorway. The tracker could feel the tension coming from the darkly-dressed gunslinger and knew he wasn't bringing good news. One-by-one, the other men slowly looked from Tanner to Larabee with a similar realization.

All eyes were on Chris by then, so the blond-haired man took a deep breath and approached the table to tell them the news.

"I shoulda shot 'em all when I had the chance," Vin responded after Chris read the telegram. Realistically, though, Vin knew he couldn't have shot 20 men without getting himself or one of the others injured or killed.

"I wanna go after 'em," Chris said quietly, looking at the four faces to judge their reactions.

"I'm in," replied Vin.

Although the weather outside was awful and he was only just now able to rise in the mornings without feeling sore, Ezra surprised everyone by saying, "count me in as well." The gang had held him prisoner, abused him, and more-or-less starved him for 3 days. He was reminded of the experience every single morning when he looked in his closest, and he was ready to exact some revenge. Storm's men had stolen his shirt, boots, and his favorite red jacket.

"You know me, Chris, I'm always up for a good fight," smiled Josiah.

"I agree they need to be put away," said Nathan. He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud, but he had his doubts that the seven would be able to bring in the entire gang without serious casualties...on both sides.

"I'm thinkin' that I take four men: myself, Vin, Ezra, and Josiah," Chris continued. "JD and Buck are sick, so Nathan should probably stay here."

"I'd feel better if you had more help, Chris," countered Nathan. "Buck and JD aren't that sick."

"They aren't going to be able to take patrols or be full strength for a while; need someone dependable to watch the town until they're better."

Nathan sighed, "alright, but promise me you'll pick up some local folks to help you – Sheriff or deputies or whatever – once you find the gang." Nathan did not want to think about these four men having to face off with 10, 15, or more gang members alone.

Chris' green eyes met the healer's brown ones, and Larabee shook his head in affirmation that he understood and appreciated those concerns.

"I'll wire Hawkins back and let him know our plans. Get supplies ready to head out first thing tomorrow morning." Chris left the saloon, and the remaining men did their best to finish lunch with their now-lessoned appetites.

After sending the telegram, Chris stopped by Buck's room to see how he was doing and let him and JD know about the next day's plan.

"How're you feelin' big dog?" Chris asked as he looked at his old friend's pale face.

"Like shit, Chris, thanks for askin," smiled Buck. He was still a mess; his voice was rough, and his cough sounded terrible. Thankfully neither he nor JD ran a fever, so it was simply going to take time to get the big man back on his feet.

"Vin, Josiah, Ezra, and I are plannin' on going after the Storm gang. They killed a couple of folks up north of here," Chris just came out and said it, expecting Buck to argue about not being able to go.

Buck stood up out of bed in his long johns and towered over his old friend.

"You four can't take on that whole gang, Chris," pleaded Buck, but clearly acknowledging he himself didn't feel well enough to go by saying, "at least take Nathan with ya."

"Need somebody to watch the town while you and JD recover. Nate can do that and keep an eye on how you're doing."

"I'm mostly better, Chris, let me go with you," said JD. Damn the timing of things: the minute that JD stood up to plead his case further, he broke into a coughing fit.

Chris tilted his head, looked down at JD, and said, "I think it's best if you stay here and let yourself fully recover, JD. You'll be a big help to Nathan with Buck and the town too."

Chris turned to leave and looked at the two ill peacekeepers and said, "take care boys. We shouldn't be gone more than a couple of weeks."

"Be careful, Chris," Buck sighed as he sat down on the bed.