Author: Cha-Cha
Disclaimer: I do not own the show or characters so please don't sue.
A/N: This is a little angsty, with my usual happy ending of course! I'm not sure I could write anything else! Chris and Buck are the main focus.
'I guess this is it pard, the one thing we failed at.' Buck groaned, a feeling of regret and despair blossoming in his chest. They had both known it was coming, ever since that damn memo had arrived, but they had both hoped this time they would do better. It was bad enough to lose it once, but twice... There was so much more to lose this time, and lost it, they had.
'I know Buck, I know.' Chris sounded just as defeated. 'I guess we'll just have to go to plan B, it isn't as though we won't see them anymore.'
'I know, but it won't be the same after leaving the ATF and just running a horse ranch.' Buck leaned back into the sofa that had been placed against the wall while facing Chris in the chair opposite that had been pulled out from behind his desk to make the conversation more intimate, both ignoring that they were still at work, relaxing in Chris' office, their attention focused on the conversation.
'Safer though.' Chris and Buck shared a look and snorted, their whole lives they had lived on the edge, risking their lives again and again, first in the SEALs, then later in the police force, and more recently in the ATF.
'What do we tell them?' Buck finally asked, breaking the silence that had descended over them.
'Is it chicken of me to say I don't want to tell them anything.'
'If it's chicken, you ain't the only one in here.'
'You know, I told Ezra not to run out on us, never thought we'd be the first to run.' Chris rubbed his face briskly, as though not believing what he was saying.
'Is it running of we were chased?' Buck quipped, his joke not quite making it, but Larabee seemed to appreciate the gesture. 'It's not as though we didn't try.'
'We just weren't smart enough.' Chris added with a sigh.
'Yeah, couldn't do it the first time, still can't do it nearly 20 years later.' Buck shook his head. 'We have to make sure they'll be okay, we can't leave them flapping in the wind.'
'We need to choose a new leader.' Chris agreed. 'That's something I never thought I would say.' He shook his head in disbelief before leaning his head back, rolling his neck as though trying to get out the kinks.
'It can't be anyone though, I mean you're a pretty hard act to follow.' Chris snorted and stared at his friend in disbelief.
'Could barely keep up with the paperwork. I dread to think what I would have to do if anyone had actually disobeyed me.'
'Chris, they kept with you because they respected you, because you're a good leader. I'm replaceable; anyone could do what I do.' Buck shrugged his shoulders, not really caring about his statement.
'That isn't true Buck. You are not replaceable, you keep the team together, you are the glue, you keep things light even in the worst of times. I'm more worried about the hole you'll leave.'
'They'll cope. They did before we were here, they will after we're gone. They've changed in the time we've known them.' Buck reminded is long time friend. Chris could only nod. It was true. They'd all gained more confidence, Ezra and Nathan especially, JD had gained the experiences he needed to get him through the job and life without losing his innocence in the process. Josiah had found people who could accept all his eccentricities, especially regarding his omens. Vin had finally found somewhere he could belong and stay, not always having to watch his back from people who wanted to set him up to fail.
'Yeah but are any of them ready to lead the team?' Chris leaned forwards, folding his arms on his knees as he closed the gap between them.
'JD's too young and not enough experience, Vin would hate it and leave in a few weeks. Nate's got enough on his plate at the moment, and Josiah wants less responsibilities not more.' Buck rattled off the reasons for the rest of the team, it had obviously been something he had been thinking about for a while.
'That leaves Ezra. They'd destroy him in a week.' Chris stated flatly, looking angry at the situation. 'I'm not allowing those bigoted, narrow minded, pencil pushing morons to destroy the confidence and trust we've worked to build in him.'
'Please, don't hold back about what you really think of them.' Buck snorted, and Chris in a rare moment gave a sheepish grin. 'I agree though, in a few years, he'll make an excellent leader, and his past'll be forgotten, but just not yet.'
Silence descended between them as they thought on the situation they found themselves in.
'What about Mark from Team 9? He get along with everyone, and then in a few years he can pass the reins over to Ezra, Mark would be up to retirement age by then.' Buck put forward one of the agents who had always been a second in command for Team 9 as long as they had known him, but he had become a good friend and source of backup whenever Team 7 had needed it. Chris nodded, agreeing with his long time friend.
The two men slumped back, feeling as though they had aged several years in a few hours as they realised that their career with the ATF was finished due to bureaucratic nonsense.
'Drinks?' Chris suddenly offered, standing up and grabbing his jacket that he had left in the back of his chair.
'Hell yeah, we need them.' Buck immediately agreed. It was unspoken they would go back to Chris' house and that Buck would sleep over.
'JD, are you sure you heard them correctly?' Nathan queried the younger man as he finished spilling out his tale.
'I'm certain, Buck and Chris are leaving the ATF and going to get Mark from Team 9 to take over 'til he retires, then Ez's going to be Team Leader. I didn't get all of it, but I got the main bits,' JD rushed it out. He had been forced to go back to the office after forgetting his mobile, and had accidently heard his roommate and boss talking in the office. Hearing they were about to finish, he had hastily exited the building and hurried back to the Saloon where the others of his team had been waiting for him before quickly filling them in.
'As much as I appreciate being considered for the position, I believe it is imperative that we discover the real reason they are trying to run out on the team.' Ezra commented in an offhand manner, although those who knew him could see there was some pride that he had been chosen for the position. JD's brow crinkled though when Ezra mentioned the word run.
'I don't think they want to leave, Buck said they were being pushed.'
'Could be Chris has covered us one too many times.' Vin offered another thought.
'Or Buck was with the wrong woman.' Nathan sighed despondently. No one looked happy at any of the suggestions or at the lingering question of why.
'Why don't we just ask them?' JD piped up, his face brightening
'What if it's an age thing?' Josiah put in his thoughts. 'It would explain why it's both of them, maybe they were being pushed to one side and didn't like it. It's not as though I'm in a position of power so they haven't done the same thing to me, and it would explain the embarrassment of telling us.' A thoughtful silence descended over the five men as the idea took root.
'That's just discriminating though, and they aren't that old, they're still fit.' Nathan protested, starting to become angry at the situation.
'I believe I have enough contacts that we could put pressure on the ATF to make them see that there is a much more reasonable outcome whereby Mr Larabee and Mr Whilmington are allowed to retain their positions as they are now.' The gold of Ezra's tooth glinted in the slightly darker room as he began to grin.
'Yeah, if we present them a case, we can get them to fight it and we all get to stay together,' JD's excitement was infectious as a plan was slowly put into motion.
'God, how much did we have last night?' Buck groaned, his voice more like a croak. Shifting, he pulled the blanket he had grabbed the previous night up over his head in an effort to block out the sun. From the other sofa, he heard a similar pitiful moan, but Chris did no more than that. Must be getting old, Buck thought to himself, he couldn't remember it hurting this much in the past, then again, they had been cutting back quite a bit for a while, no need to tempt Chris to going back to his overindulgence in alcohol as he had done after Sarah and Adam had been killed.
'We old?' Chris' voice finally croaked, it was eerie how well they knew each other. Buck snorted softly, wincing when his head pounded a little more. No other words were needed as Chris already knew his long time friend was feeling the exact same he was.
Neither knew how long they had been lying there before Chris remembered none of the horses had been fed or let out for the day. Slowly and carefully, he extradited himself from the blanket, squinting at the harsh light. Running a hand through his already spiky hair, he stumbled into his bedroom, grabbing a handful of clothes and began trying to drown himself in the shower.
After getting dressed, he made the strongest coffee he could, gulping it down before making himself a second and slowly sipping that one, feeling slightly more human, though the throbbing in his head was still there. Chris poured out another mug of the extra strong coffee and shuffled back into the living room and sat on the sofa Buck was huddling under.
'Here, it helps.' Larabee forced Buck up, pressing the mug into his hands. The normally cheerful man almost inhaled the liquid. Chris stood back up and seeing that Buck was starting to move, began on a few of his easier chores. The others could wait until after lunch.
Returning to the house, Buck had managed to shower and change as well, and was now sat at the table in the kitchen, his head in his arms.
'Better?' Chris asked, his voice still quiet.
'Still feels like I'm dying.' Buck muttered. Without another word, Chris fetched the aspirin from his bathroom cabinet, and handed two to his friend before dry swallowing two tablets himself. Sitting down, they allowed the morning to pass in silence.
The doorbell ringing didn't cause as much pain as they had expected, the worst of the hangover was now over, but it still made both of them jump. No one had been expected that weekend.
Buck quirked his eyebrows at Chris. Chris glared back. Buck gave a small grin and gave a small shake of his head. Chris growled before getting up for the door, knowing Buck could be even more stubborn than him sometimes.
Swinging the door open, Chris didn't get the chance to say anything before the rest of his team bustled in, each carrying books, papers and in the case of JD and Vin, plenty of snacks that looked as though they had brought enough food to stock an army.
'Hi Chris, is Buck here? I'm pretty certain he said he would be here and I think I saw his car outside, so is he here?' JD rushed out in an even more rambling sentence than he normally gave. In fact, he sounded just like he did when he went most of the night without sleep because he'd been caught up in a video game. Chris had thought Buck had managed to break the youngest member of their team of that habit. It really was too early for this Chris could already tell.
The greetings from the others were not as enthusiastic, but even slightly hung over the blond haired man could tell they were excited about something, even Ezra.
'No, please do come in, make yourselves comfortable,' Chris muttered to himself as he swung the door shut, the other men already half way to the kitchen before following them in and retaking the seat he had been slumped in most of that day.
Without saying a word the papers were strewn across the table as the men sat down, grins filling their faces.
'Brothers, we just want to say we understand why you didn't want to talk to us about why you have to leave the ATF, but it really isn't anything to be embarrassed about.' Josiah began causing Buck and Chris to immediately sit up and take notice of the conversation.
'Excuse me?' Chris interrupted, his cold glare roved around the table, but it didn't seem to intimidate any of them. 'How do you even know we were going to leave?' He demanded. JD cleared his throat nervously.
'I don't believe that is very important gentlemen, I believe the important thing is that we can help with the problem.' Ezra smoothly took over, shuffling a few papers.
'You can?' Buck looked slightly sceptical, and Chris wasn't much different. How did they know? Buck thought furiously to himself, and why weren't they more scathing about the problem? After all, they had all managed what he and Chris had failed at twice.
'It's okay cowboy, it's just politics.' Vin added in his piece, making politics sound as though he should be making a contribution to the swear jar.
Chris shook his head, how could they be so understanding? They were supposed to be top ATF agents and they couldn't even complete the course. They had, in effect lied, as they had never actually told them the truth that they had dropped out after the first year, and instead joined the navy.
'It's just ageism, and we've been up half the night, but we're pretty certain we can make them back down.' Nathan finished.
'Thank you but-' Buck cut himself off as he replayed the last sentence. 'Ageism?' Buck looked perplexed as he looked around the table before finally meeting Chris' eyes and exchanging a shrug, neither knew what they were talking about.
'Yeah, they're trying to make you step down from team leader and Chris' second in command because of your age,' JD explained, feeling slightly puzzled why he had to explain, why would it be a surprise to them?
Buck, typical to his nature sat stunned for half a second before bursting into a loud bellowing laughter that surprised the concerned men. Chris on the other hand glared even harder.
'You're saying you think we're old?' The blond haired man demanded, his voice low and cold.
'Of course not Mr Larabee, we're saying that the agency thinks you are.' Ezra contradicted his boss.
'This is priceless, absolutely priceless!' Buck wheezed out, trying to catch his breath.
'Since you seemed to have found out, we're leaving because you need a degree to work in the ATF, and neither Buck or I hold one, not because we are old!' Chris gritted his teeth as he forced the words out, feeling his face turning red at the admission. Buck, who had finally managed to calm himself nodded in agreement.
'We dropped out and joined the Navy, then the SEALs and you pretty much know the rest.' He added as an explanation.
'But they hired you knowing you didn't have one? Why does it suddenly matter now?' JD demanded, not understanding what had changed.
'New boss, stricter rules.' Buck sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
'Surely they' d give you a chance to get one, I mean you've both got the best records in the department-' Nathan tried to defend his friends but Chris gently cut him off.
'They did.' No one looked any wiser at the words. 'We were told we either had to have a degree or were studying for one.'
'We failed again.' Buck gave a sad smile. 'We were never the brightest of any class, and the work was very difficult, still is. Guess you really can't really teach an old dog new tricks.' Buck and Chris both winced at his use of old, but the saying still held true.
'We've never gotten the best grades, even in high school; I don't even know how we managed to get into College.' Chris shook his head as though trying to get rid of the thought. 'We gave it a go for a few months, but our grades never improved.'
'Still haven't. We're getting the lowest marks in the class; all of them are either just about a pass or fail.' Buck's voice got quieter as he failed to meet anyone's eyes. Chris looked down at his hands as though they were the most fascinating thing in the room. There was a dead silence in the kitchen as everyone was lost in their thoughts.
'Maybe we can help,' JD tentatively offered, not wanting to offend his roommate or boss, but figuring it wouldn't hurt to offer.
'You guys helped me with my degree.' Vin agreed. He had managed to achieve his degree in English a year previously, with the aid of all his teammates giving him support. Although he had struggled with his dyslexia, with the support he had received, he had managed to get a very high mark.
'Yeah, but you had all the talent you needed with your poetry and stuff.' Buck argued gently back, in truth, none of the team had felt they had needed to help that much, all the work had really come from Vin, and they had just given a hand when he'd really struggled.
'Still, we helped with brother Vin's weaknesses and he showed off his skills,' Josiah replied, pointing out the holes in Bucks argument.
'May I enquire as to what you are studying?' Ezra posed the question. Chris cleared his throat nervously while Buck began to look at a different wall.
'History.' Chris quickly answered.
'Why?' JD looked stunned, although no one else looked as though they had been expecting that answer. It was just JD managed to blurt out what all of them had been thinking first.
'Did it at school, figured it wouldn't be much different.' Buck answered that time. It had been his idea when they were looking through the prospectus and his friend had agreed mostly because he didn't really know what to study either; there had been no directions from the higher ups on what their degree had to be in. They had originally thought they could help each other through the rough patches, but the reality had been neither had understood enough to do the work.
'Okay, so step one is to change the course, go for one to do with law, I'm sure you both know more about that then probably even the lecturer,' Nathan grinned feeling there was some hope.
'Step two is to go over the last few essays and see where you're going wrong.' JD began to bounce slightly.
'I believe I shall record these steps for when we begin this plan,' Ezra remarked, pulling out a blank piece of paper and began writing.
'Step three, eat some brain food so we're ready for the afternoon.' Vin gave a small smile as he began to reach for the snacks he and JD had brought.
'Seconded!' JD agreed and started on a different pack. 'We're growing boys!' He added.
'That's what I'm afraid of!' Buck chuckled, patting JD on the stomach; the younger agent brushed off the man's hand with a swat.
'I should have known they wouldn't let us go that easily,' Buck whispered to his long time friend as the two of them stood out on Chris' porch looking over the land, the other members of the team were still in the kitchen arguing over the best sixth step.
'I know.' Chris nodded. 'I'm glad.'
'Me too, wouldn't have been the same without them.' Buck kept staring forwards. 'I think we have a chance now.'
'I'm pretty certain of we don't pass they are going to try and arrest our lecturers so we will.' Chris smirked causing Buck to laugh out loud. He had a feeling the other man was correct.
'Well, I suppose we'll pass if you can keep up old man!'
'Who are you calling old? You're the same age!' Chris growled back.
'But you're older...Grandpa.' Buck immediately ran; Chris was hot on his heels. The other members of their team only shook their heads as they heard the laughter and name calling going on outside, how could anyone say they were old?
Three years later
'We did it!' Buck exclaimed throwing his hat up into the air. Chris gave a smile, but they could all see he was proud of their achievement even if he wasn't as loud as Buck was about it.
'Guess you can teach an old dog a new trick.' Vin commented, parroting back Bucks words.
'Sure, if you have five helpers to get you through the trick,' Buck snorted.
'Watch who you're calling old!' Chris retorted, but there was no heat in the words.
'Whatever you say cowboy,' Vin replied cheekily.
'I hope you feel brothers that this has broadened your horizons,' Josiah began before getting a mischievous glint in his eye that would have looked more natural on the youngest members of the team. 'Maybe you should try and get your masters now?'
'No!' Rang out as the other six members immediately protested, it had not been easy getting to this point, and none of them were eager to start all over again.
'I think these dogs have reached their quota for tricks,' Buck grinned, both he and Chris were grateful for all the others had done for them, and they knew it had not been easy on any of them, but not even they wanted to try that all over again.
'Saloon?' Nathan suggested as he herded them away from the crowds at the graduation ceremony.
'First rounds on me,' Chris directed.
'Second on me,' Buck added, both of them couldn't think of another way of thanking the men without embarrassing everyone involved, so this way was easier.
'I believe the third is on me tonight,' Ezra gave a nod, it would be his congratulatory drink for the men he had come to see as friends over the previous five years.
'I'll get the cab home.' JD piped up, six rounds was going to be a long night, and none of them was going to be up to driving.
The seven men began to walk back to their cars, laughing and playing around, enjoying that they were still seven, and celebrating the achievements of two of their own ( with a little help from five others!)