See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer and Author Notes

Family Blown Apart

Chapter 2

Chris woke up early the next morning. As he stretched the kinks out of his neck, he slowly opened his eyes. They didn't have to be at work until Tuesday. There were benefits for sure when the 4th fell on a weekend. He quietly got out of bed and dressed. The horses wouldn't wait much longer. Tiptoeing down the hall, he was not surprised to smell coffee. No matter how early he woke up and how quietly he got ready, Vin was always awake, dressed, and drinking coffee when Chris got to the kitchen. He grunted in thanks as a hot cup was put into his hands. He took a cautious sip and was rewarded with a slightly sweet and creamy coffee taste. While he liked his coffee black most of the time, there was no way he would drink Vin's coffee without sugar and cream. The sniper brewed coffee that could run neck and neck with battery acid in removing a man's stomach lining.

After the coffee, both men headed to the barn to care for the horses. They entered the house to the smell of bacon and sausage frying and pancakes on the griddle. Chris smiled at the mixture of morning personalities around his table. They went from fully awake like he and Vin to brainless motions with half closed eyes (Ezra). Coffee and food wouldn't wake up his undercover agent, only time would do that. Time... like noon. Chris chuckled to himself as they worked together to clean up after breakfast. When someone suggested a trail ride, he was surprised to see Ezra wake up right in front of him. Guess time with Chaucer woke up the lazy southerner as well.

With the heat of the July sun beating down on them, they kept their pace slow and easy. The sun was at its highest point when they took a break near a small pond on the edge of the ranch. While most of the ranch was rocky grassland, this small part had lovely trees near the pond and the dirt was soft. All the horses were unsaddled and hobbled. The men stretched out under the shade of the trees, letting the heat pass without effort.

"You coming back to Denver with us, Chris?" Buck asked.

"Naw. I'm gonna wait until tomorrow afternoon. Still feeling the need for a bit of quiet."

JD raised up on his elbows. "You sure about that? Tomorrow afternoon is bound to have crazy traffic."

"JD, work starts at 8 am on Tuesday. I don't think it'll make me late to wait to come back tomorrow afternoon."

"I think the kid is worried about how much your vein throbs after a long weekend, Cowboy. Maybe it'll be worse if you have to deal with the holiday traffic," Vin said, his hat lying over his face.

"That vein throbs, as you call it, because a certain undercover agent seems to forget that work starts at 8, not noon, even after a long weekend." Chris glared in Ezra's direction. Ezra gave him a cheeky grin and a two fingered salute.

"Touché, Mr. Larabee. Touché. I shall endeavor to arrive at appropriate time on Tuesday."

Laughter rolled through the little clearing as the men got up, saddled the horses once again, and started the slow ride back to the house.

7*7*7*7*7*7*7

Tuesday morning arrived hot and dry. Burn restrictions were bound to be in affect soon if the heat didn't break, or if rain didn't wet things down a little. Traffic was heavy and congested early in the morning. Vin wasn't surprised to be the first into the office. Rarely did anyone beat him in except when Chris had nightmares all night. He was surprised when Ezra pulled up right behind him.

"Mornin', Ez. Guess you mean to make Chris have a headache by beating him in instead of being late." Vin's grin said that he looked forward to their boss's exasperation. Ezra flashed him that smirk that said he planned on exasperating Chris as much as possible.

Together they rode the elevator to the 11th floor. When Vin asked who was making the coffee, Ezra raised his large to go coffee and headed for his desk. He saw no reason to save the rest of the team from the usual flow of their morning routine even if that included paint removing coffee. Josiah and Nathan arrived together, 10 minutes before 8 am.

"Cuttin' it kinda close," Vin drawled.

"Would have been here sooner but Josiah's Suburban wouldn't start this morning. I had to swing by to pick him up."

Ezra laughed. "Pray tell, what apparatus on your dilapidated vehicle is malfunctioning this time?"

"The ignition coil again. Engine shut off every time I put it in gear." Josiah shrugged. "I'll replace it this evening."

At that moment, JD burst into the office. "I'm not late!"

As the clock said exactly 8 o'clock, JD's comment was accurate.

"JD, Chris isn't in yet. We can keep quiet you slid in right under the wire. Buck, however, is on his own." Nathan grinned at the relief on JD's face.

"Speaking of Mr. Wilmington, where is he at?" Ezra asked.

"We both overslept. Since he pushed me out of the way to take a half hour shower, I rode my bike in. He won't risk Lady in this traffic."

Buck finally arrived 20 minutes later.

"JD! You are lucky you arrived in one piece! You are going to break your neck riding that monstrosity"

"My bike is not a monstrosity. It's a finely tuned machine that works better in heavy traffic than your truck!"

The other four men retreated to the break room as Buck and JD started their daily bickering. As they stood in the break room around the coffee pot, it finally occurred to them that Chris hadn't made it in yet.

"By chance, did he communicate with any of you other gentlemen a change in arrangements to not come into Denver until this morning?" Ezra asked, his language at odds with the worry in his eyes.

"Nope."

"Not to me."

"Aw, hell. Somethin's gotta be wrong. He didn't call me either."

The break room door suddenly opened. Buck and JD looked around.

"Where's Chris? He never lets us argue this long," Buck said, taking a good look around to the others.

Josiah grabbed his cell to try calling Chris as Vin searched his office for possible clues as to why he would be missing. Buck tried calling Chris at the ranch while JD sat down at Chris's computer and hacked into his email. Nobody got any answers. With his poker face firmly in place, Ezra started making phone calls to his snitches. Nathan headed up to Judge Travis's office to report that the leader of Team 7 was missing.

7*7*7*7*7*7*7

Chris opened his eyes slowly. The light seared his eyes as if he'd been on a drinking binge again, however he did not have a headache. Instead his brain felt like it had been stuffed with cotton. There was a distant buzzing sound from above him. Squinting in pain, he looked up to see what sounded so far away was actually fairly close: a single florescent light that was flickering. He dropped his head back down as a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm him. With a groan he surrendered back to the darkness he had just fought out of. When he came around a second time, the room seemed lighter through his closed eyes. He kept his eyes firmly shut instead of opening them as well as kept his head still. This helped keep the nausea at bay and allowed him to start to wake up mentally. As he got his wits about him, he remembered bits and pieces of the last time he was actually awake.

Early in the afternoon on Monday, Chris had loaded up what he needed for the week in Denver. The small studio apartment that he used during the work week wasn't spacious but it certainly was better than trying to avoid traffic into Denver every morning. Sometimes, he dealt with the traffic so he could have open space in which to deal with the emotions that still rode him hard when anniversaries came around. But July wasn't a bad time for memories for him. He headed back off to Denver. A good portion of the start of his trip was on winding local roads. As he rounded a corner, he saw a car with its hood up on the shoulder of the road. Two young women stood looking at the engine, appearing to be very worried.

"Need a hand, ladies?" Chris asked, getting out of his truck behind their car.

"That would be great. We got lost and pulled over to look at the map. When we tried to start the car, it wouldn't turn over."

Chris smiled at them as he started checking the battery and connections. There didn't seem to be anything obviously wrong. He leaned farther into the engine to see what else might be wrong. He heard a small pop and then the world went fuzzy and black. Now that he was waking up he figured that those women had drugged him and put him in this room. What he couldn't figure out was why he was still alive. Most criminals would have taken great joy in ending the leader of the most successful ATF team in the country. He knew the government wouldn't ransom him. He also knew his team wouldn't let him die. Fools would hunt his kidnappers down and rescue him. Of course, that didn't mean that any of them would get out of this without a trip to the ER. Since there was no one around to give him answers at the moment, Chris passed time by making a mental list of what he was available to him to get out of this predicament by himself.