Title: That Way Again
Fandom: Magnificent 7 (ATF)
Characters: Ezra/Chris
Summery: Ezra loves Chris with all of his heart but he is falling apart after years of being treated as an afterthought. Now he has another reason to rethink everything.
Warning: SLASH and MPREG If you don't like either please do not read this.
Author's Notes: I do not own the Magnificent 7 or have any claims on it if I did there would be a lot more slash and it would be called the Gambler's Show. I am not writing this story for any type of profit. I also do not have any rights to the song that inspired this story That Way Again by Lee Brice. Please do not sue me as I am a poor teacher with nothing in the bank unless it's the first of the month and enormous student loans.
Ezra felt so embarrassed about breaking down in Orrin Travis' office but it had been a long few days or well years to be honest. Blinking the tears out of his eyes Ezra calms down enough to start talking about why he came up here. "I am sorry to have to come to you with these forms but unfortunately some people cannot seem to stop and listen anymore. The minute I told him that I couldn't go undercover for the case he quit speaking to me. I just can't take the risk especially with my past history. It seems I might need to resign from the ATF as this situation is harming team 7."
"Ezra… " Orin begins but before he could go on the phone rang. Orrin picked it up and handed it to Ezra after hearing Buck Wilmington panicky asking if Ezra was there. "Patrick is here and they are about ready to come to blows. I can't get them apart." Buck hurries to tell Ezra.
As Ezra hears this he jumps out of his seat and without a word runs towards Team 7's offices. He burst in the door and heads straight towards Chris' office. He ignores the other team members telling him to leave them along and throws the door fully open. He takes inventory of what is being said and yells at them to stop but they are too busy arguing. Hearing Patrick asks if Chris is trying to kill me and then Chris telling him not to be ridiculous. Ezra had heard enough. "Christopher Patrick Larabee enough! Chris if you lay one hand on him in anger I will shoot you so help me God!" He yells at them. They both stop to look at him. "Patrick go out there and wait with your Uncle Buck. This is between your father and me. You are not to get in the middle of this no matter how much of a jackass your father is being." Ezra says glaring at Chris with a very firm voice that Patrick knew meant no nonsense. Patrick glares at his father for a minute but turns around and goes out of the office but stays near the door next to his Uncle Buck who is standing with the rest of the team. Patrick guesses that the rest of the team is wondering what is going on since from what he has been told no one knows his parents true relationship except for his Uncle.
Ezra and Chris glare at each other until Chris finally breaks. "Your son is acting crazy saying I am trying to kill you and I can't believe he had the stupidity to come in here yelling at me…"
Ezra's anger and hurt gets stronger by the minute. Breaking into Chris' little hissy fit Ezra starts to tell him off screaming at first. "My son actually has a heart and can care about people unlike you. A spy in this office who I am sure we can both guess who called my mother who then called Me then when she could not convince me to fly back to Georgia called Patrick. You have not listened to me about 'work' matters since I tried to explain why I cannot go undercover. No you will not stop me this time. The stress would probably kill me and I am going to do everything in my power to not have another miscarriage you fucking asshole. I am so sorry that I was on bed rest that day and wasn't in the car to be killed like my daughter and son. You always seem to forget that they were my children to. You are not the only one who lost them. They were MY babies I carried them; I nursed them not you. You treat me like shit and one of these days your son is probably right you will kill me through your actions. I never should have taken this job or been stupid enough to have believed you when you came to Georgia."
Ezra shakes his head with tears in his eyes tired of the whole situation. He looks at Chris a moment then turns around and walks out of the Chris' office seeing everyone including his son standing there. Ezra tries to smile at his son and look like his heart is not breaking all over again. Buck takes a step forward to go into the office but Ezra puts his hand up. "Don't it's not like he's going to listen this time any more than he has listened in the past. I just don't know if this can be fixed anymore and I am slowly killing myself trying to fix this…" Ezra tells him. Seeing all the questioning looks he motions everyone towards the elevators after getting everyone to agree to an early lunch. As they wait for the elevator Buck puts his hand on Ezra's shoulder and gives it a light squeeze. "Pard, it's not up to you to fix something that is not your fault. You've tried anyone else would've given up a long time ago." Buck tells him.
After everyone is sitting down at a table in a restaurant that they normally don't frequent Ezra can see all the looks bring passed around. He waits for everyone to order including an extra lunch that no one but two people notice and then looks around at the table. "What would you all like to know about the conversations that you overheard today gentlemen?" Ezra inquires of the others.
Nathan is the first and fairly rudely points at Patrick and asks. "Who is he? What is he doing here?" Ezra gives Nathan a disbelieving look and answers. "First he can talk he picked that skill up about twenty one years ago and second his name is Christopher Patrick Larabee. He was named Christopher after his jackass of a father and Patrick, which is what he goes by for my father but in addition it is also my middle name. He is here I am guessing to yell at his father and probably to try and convince me to move back to Georgia near my extended family. Next?"
"How long have you known Chris for?" Vin asks at the same time JD is trying to ask a question to. "I thought the only kid Chris had was Adam?" Ezra takes a deep breath and looks around the table to four questioning stares.
"I have known Chris since I was 15…" Ezra starts to explain but glares at Buck who is trying to laugh and cough at the same time. "A few weeks one way or the other is not a big deal Bucklin… I was just shy of 15 just having graduated from high school a month before when I met Chris. I lost all of my common sense apparently after laying eyes on him falling head over heels in love with him though back then he wasn't such a jackass. I convinced Maude to sign so that I could marry that Jackass when he asked me as you can marry with parental consent at 15 in Georgia. Patrick was born right before I turned 16. I had my daughter Maddie ten months later and then I had Sarah nineteen months after that when I was 18 and Adam 10 years later when I was 28. Chris had to go to work early the day of the car bombing and I had been put on bed rest two weeks before due to it being a high risk pregnancy, between Patrick and Adam I had eight miscarriages. Sarah offered to drive her little brother to school that morning and they took my car instead of hers. A day after the funeral I went into preterm labor and the baby a little boy named Liam was born; he only lived eight days. About two years ago it got pretty bad and it was bad enough that Maude talked to one of my dad's old partners who flipped to the federal level and he called in some favors. Those favors had me put on a long term assignment back in Atlanta for 4-6 months. I…" Ezra stops as he feels the hair on the neck stand up and a few seconds later he feels a hand on the back of his neck in a caress. Chris tries to pull Ezra up with him resisting for a few seconds before caving in then Chris sits down and pulls Ezra down to sit on his lap Ezra rolling his eyes at his husband. He can see the questions in his husband's eyes and nods to confirm what he had implied earlier. Ezra smiles a little when he feels a hand sneak in under his shirt to rest on his stomach which was not as flat as it had been a few months ago.
"I lasted less than five months before I was there to beg him to come back home to Denver. I should have told everyone up front about Ezzy and me but the Judge was going out on a limb to allow us to be on the same team…" Chris starts telling but Ezra laughs at him. "No one is going to think you're showing favoritism to the team member you treat the worst Christopher Adam. I have told you that and so has your best friend but you are too damn hard headed to listen. It might just be better if I didn't work on Team 7 with you." Ezra says. Everyone including his husband shouts no but Ezra ignores then and goes on. "I can always go back to working in the Denver FBI Field office you know I still get calls frequently with them wanting me back over there. I could also go back to teaching though schools start just as ungodly early as we do. Besides for some time it is a moot point as I am sure I will have my activities curtailed very soon by my doctor." At this point the waitress comes to deliver the food and sets both lunches down in front of Ezra which causes Chris to kiss him then squeeze him even tighter for a moment. "Damn all-knowing fussy southern bell you know one of these times you are not going to be right." Chris tells him. "It's been over twenty years you possessive Indiana hick and I think my record speaks for its self. Besides if you hadn't of gotten your head out of your ass and shown up I would have had Buck drop it off to you at the office so you could eat it wherever you chose to spend the night since the locks at the ranch were changed this morning." Ezra responds back with a smirk.
"What right do you have to change the locks on his ranch? You can't just do whatever you want. Conning some poor fool of a locksmith isn't right!" Nathan says in his normal holier than thou voice. Before either Ezra or Chris can respond Patrick starts to tell Nathan off showing that he inherited his temper honestly. "Is your brain really that incompetent to not be able to use basic common sense? Rights, he damn well has the legal right to change the mode of entrance into a domicile that he owns. The only time he cons someone is in the times where there is a need for public interest. I am aware that you have met my lovely grandmother and I am very much aware of how she portrays herself which is very misleading at times but my mother is 3rd generation law enforcement. Most of those prized skills that he uses he learned from officers in the APD and what few he didn't learn there he picked up at the FBI. Do you really think such a decorated officer of the law would go around really conning people?" Nathan looks at him in shock and then glares at Chris and I as if to ask if we are really going to let our son speak that way but after getting no help from us looks back as Patrick. "Why would he care about that Ranch anyways he hates to get dirty? And what do you mean decorated officer? Everyone knows that the FBI was investigating him for corruption and taking bribes." Nathan tells Patrick speaking as if he was talking to some dense child.
Ezra just watches his son burst out laughing uncontrollably, laughing so hard that tears actual run down his cheeks. "I can't believe you are that dense his assignment was to investigate signs of corruption in the Atlanta Field Office. He was second in command of white collar crimes here in Denver if not for Uncle Mac calling so many favors in he never would have been allowed to go on an assignment for that long to Atlanta with him being so high up in the office. Oh and my dad had to bribe him with a place that was large enough for horse before he would agree to the move without major reservations. My mom threatened my dad with all of us staying in Georgia at the Horse Farm with only him coming to Denver if he did not find us a suitable place to reside with enough breathing room and facilities for all the family. You must be one of those people who will fall for anything or are you just so ridged in your viewpoint that you can't take in evidence that doesn't mesh with your first impression? Or do you hate any southerners you encounter?" Patrick asks him looking straight at him with the glare that his father is famous for.
The tension at the table is cut when JD breaks in practically bouncing in his chair. "That's why you've never been scared off by Chris' glare it had already lost its effect on you. How long have you and Chris know each other and been married for?" JD asks real excited to have solved a mystery. Buck laughs correcting JD. "Ez has never been scared of his glare he usually just rolls his eyes at him or tells him that… well… umm…" "I usually tell him that he looks like a 2 year old pouting when he glares which he does at least to me. It might also help that the first time I ever saw him use his glare I was about mad enough to strangle him." Ezra tells JD telling him what Buck didn't want to finish. Ezra looks at Chris and raises an eyebrow at him. Chris just sighs knowing that he is being tested and rests his forehead on Ezra's shoulder but answers. "We met over 23 years ago and were married a few months after we met and our 23rd anniversary was last month on the 16th."
JD's eyes go wide at how long that they have been married but Buck shakes his head and Vin gets a knowing look on his face. "Ez if I ain't mistaken didn't we just celebrate your birthday last month on the 5th?" Vin asks smiling at them glad that a few of his suspicions have been answered for sure. "Nope you're not mistaken Ez's birthday was just last month and yes they did get married eleven days after his birthday. They knew each other for all of six weeks which last I checked wasn't a few months before they got married and then nine months almost to the day after they got hitched that one pops out a few weeks early. I thought that old Chris here was going to faint when our commander showed up in the middle of our drills to tell Chris that Ez had gone into labor. I never did hear someone say but it's not time yet he's still got more than three weeks so many times in so short of a time as that day." Buck fills everyone in with Chris and Ezra glaring at him which doesn't seem to bother Buck at all.
" 36 hours of labor is not what I would constitute a baby just popping out. Trust me on this fact they call it labor for a reason. Adam just about popped out after less than 4 hours of labor heck with him I barely even made it to the hospital in time." Ezra reminds Buck as he steals a bite of Chris' food. Ezra hears Chris sigh behind him partially for the food stealing but also the mumbling about Ezra being so reckless as to have kids so young and about Chris taking advantage from two of their co-workers. After hoping that the mumbling would stop finally Ezra can't ignore it any longer. " , I do not know why you would find it reckless or irresponsible for a married couple to have children when they can financially provide for them. Was Patrick exactly planned, no he was not but we were also not doing anything to prevent him from coming either. I was a high school graduate who even if God forbid something had happen to Chris I could have supported myself and I already had a scholarship to college. Chris did not take advantage of me in anyway do you really think he would be sitting here alive if my mother or a good portion of the APD thought that he was taking advantage of me. All he did was do the same damn foolish thing I did which was to fall head over heels then take a trip to a chapel a few weeks later where he put a ring on my finger. And no he did not marry me because I was pregnant because I did not get pregnant until after we were married. Simply put it was impossible for Patrick to have been conceived before we were married." Ezra informs them tensely before rolling his eyes at his oldest child. "Patrick no matter how hard you wish you did not come about by Immaculate Conception any more than any of your siblings did. Now would you please stop kicking your Uncle under the table he will tell you whatever it is you seemingly want to know when he is ready. Of course if the question is what I think it is whether you are ever going to have cousins the easier person to get the answer out of would be JD."
Ezra watches smirking as Patrick's eyes swing towards JD who turns bright red and Buck who chokes on the sip that he had just taken.