Disclaimer: The Magnificent Seven and characters are the property of MGM Television, The Mirsch Corporation, Trilogy Entertainment Group and CBS. No profit has been made off of this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
To Those Who Wait
Chapter 1
Part 1
The shrill beeping of the alarm clock suddenly burst forth into the dark room. The bright red lettering mocking the room's lone occupant with the early 5:15 a.m. hour, "You've got to be frigging kidding me. I just went to sleep. There is no way in Hell that it can be 5 a.m. already." Buck groaned flopping over onto his back and angrily flipping the blankets back.
"5:15 actually, Now drag your lazy butt out of bed and let's get a move on." J.D. replied as he let the door bounce off the wall and flipped the over head light on. "Oh and take a quick shower. You stink." He added as he waved his hand in front of his nose and screwed up his face.
"You can be replaced." Buck growled; flopping an arm over his eyes to block out the compassionless light. He briefly contemplated calling in to work sick and going back to sleep.
J.D. shook his head and chuckled, "You leave me no choice." He climbed up onto the end of the bed and proceeded to jump up and down; almost bouncing Buck out of bed.
Buck jumped to the floor and stood there looking at J.D. with a perplexed look on his face. His hair was standing up in all different directions and his Smiley face boxers were twisted round. "What are you; 5 years old?" Buck grumped and staggered into the master bathroom; slamming the door shut behind him.
"You're out of bed aren't you?" J.D. crowed and ran downstairs to make sure he had packed everything he would need today at the office.
He and Buck had gotten along so well when he joined up with Team Seven that Buck had offered him a place to stay at a reduced rate. The arrangement had helped Buck supplement the mortgage payment on his condo and gave J.D. the opportunity to save some money toward a place of his own.
Fifteen minutes later, Buck was coming down the stairs straightening his tie. "You ready to hit the road?" he asked as he fished his keys out of the bowl sitting on the credenza.
"As I'll ever be." J.D. slung his back pack containing his laptop over his shoulder, flipped the light off in the room; and followed Buck out into the early morning darkness. He looked out at Buck's cherry red '57 GMC waiting under the halo of the amber colored parking lot lights. "It is too early to be heading into work."
"Yeah well at least we don't live almost an hour from the office like Chris does. He probably got on the road before 5 a.m. I do not envy him." Buck frowned; he unlocked J.D.'s door and moved around to the other side of the truck to get in. He turned the ignition over and listened to the comforting purr of the engine.
J.D. turned on the radio and started his normal channel surfing. This morning he started with Hard Rock, listened for all of two minutes and switched to Techno. After bouncing to the music for a few moments he flipped to another Rock station. Every time Buck thought the young man had settled on a station he'd switch it up again. After about the tenth station Buck was starting to grit his teeth.
"Either pick a station and stay with it or turn it off. I'm too tired to deal with this crap today." Buck griped as he pulled out into traffic.
"Hey it's not my fault you stayed up late to watch the John Wayne marathon. You knew that we had court early this morning." J.D. pointed out as he looked at the passing houses that were just starting to show signs of life in the early morning hour.
"How could I forget? Chris has been running roughshod over everyone; making sure all the paperwork's in order and everyone's testimony is correct." Buck stated as they sat at the intersection, watching the opposite traffic move through the light. "Come on, this is a freaking long light." He huffed, impatiently tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
A short time later, as they pulled in to park, J.D. noticed Vin, sitting in his Jeep sipping at a large coffee. His tie was loose around his neck and his shoulder length brown locks had not yet been pulled back. "Mornin' boys," Vin greeted as he hopped out of the Jeep to join the two on their trek to the elevators.
"Don't you look chipper this morning?" J.D. commented and pushed the elevator up button rocking on his heels and yawning as they waited for the car to arrive.
Vin threw his now empty coffee cup into a nearby trash can and stretched his shoulders as far back as they would go. "Should be, been up for several hours already; had to run out to Chris's place to tend to the horses."
"Why did you have to go all the way out to Chris's place? I would have thought he would have taken care of that before he came in." J.D. wondered as the elevator dinged to announce its arrival and the doors slowly slid open.
"Well he could have, if he had gone home last night. The hard head pulled an all-nighter. I had to bring him a change of clothes and stop by the convenience store for a bottle of antacids." Vin smirked and swung the garment bag over his shoulder.
"Wonderful, just wonderful," Buck muttered as he stepped onto the elevator behind Vin and J.D. and pushed number eleven. "I'm looking forward to working with a sleep deprived, gut aching, walking attitude on steroids today."
"You know he always get's like this when Judge Paxton is hearing one of our cases," J.D. commented as he watched the floors ping by, "Judge Paxton and Chris are like oil and water, they just don't mix."
As the elevator slowed and opened on twelve, the three passengers disembarked to the sound of a door slamming forcibly somewhere on the floor. "Gotta be either Chris's office or the supply closet, last week they installed automatic closers on all the other doors to prevent that. Supposedly, someone reported to Travis that too many doors were being slammed and it was creating a hostile work environment." Vin chuckled as they started toward the bull pen.
"Yeah, well they don't have to work in that environment; they've just got to listen to it." J.D. laughed as he set his bag down on his desk.
Buck grabbed his coffee cup off his desk and made his way back to the break room. As he entered the room he noticed that there was only enough coffee left in the carafe for maybe a half a cup. "Thanks, Chris, really appreciate that. Is it so hard to make a pot, when you get down to just the dregs?" He reached up and yanked the cabinet door open and snatched out a filter, coffee and the scoop. He set the lot down on the counter and slammed the door with a resounding "thwack!" He prepared a new pot after washing what was left down the drain; leaned against the counter to mindlessly watch the dark brew run into the pot below. It was definitely too early in the morning for this nonsense.
Part 2
"Hey Chris, got your suit and the antacids. You need anything else?" Vin asked as he bravely poked his head around the door to Chris's office. What he saw brought him up short; Vin had to blink, he'd never seen the office this disorganized. Chris was sitting at his desk typing furiously on his computer; manila folders and reports scattered across the table top and balled up bits of paper littering the floor. There were at least ten Styrofoam cups laying randomly around the office with varying levels of coffee in them; and if the office looked disheveled Chris was even worse, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, the hem of his dress shirt un-tucked, his mangled tie lying abandoned on the credenza behind his desk. To top it all off his hair was standing up in all different directions and he had red rimmed eyes. "Uh, okay I'll just hang this behind your door," Vin remarked as he hung the garment bag up and set the antacids on the desk next to Chris's hand, "You look like you could use these." he remarked as he looked down at Chris and waited for some type of response. None appeared to be forth coming. Vin huffed and crossed his arms over his chest; and waited, and waited. "Thanks, Vin, appreciate you driving way out of your way to take care of the animals, pick me up some clean clothes, so I don't look like a hot mess in front of the Judge, and antacids to counteract the swill I've been destroying my stomach with all night." Vin declared sarcastically as Chris continued to work without even looking up at him. "Hello! Larabee, A 'Thank you, Vin' would be nice." He uttered standing there with his hands on his hips, waiting for some type of acknowledgment.
Chris stopped typing, pushed away from his desk, stood up and came around to where Vin was standing; grabbed Vin's arm and pushed him back out the door, closing it firmly in Vin's sputtering face.
"This does not bode well for our day." Buck muttered as he sat down at his desk after having witnessed Vin's ejection from Chris's office. "I mean if he's not even talking to you, we're in some serious trouble."