"How long have I been in this state?"

"Good to hear from you again Ezra." Nathan smiled. "And the answer kind of depends on what state you're asking about. Been in the hospital near a week, but the first few days you were pretty much out of things. I'd say it's about two days that you've been waking up – and then falling asleep again."

"If memory serves, I was shot?"

"In the back. Didn't come near your spine, so don't start down that road. It is gonna take you a bit of time to bounce back from this one though. You don't need the details now, but I promise, you are going to be fine.

"Or you will be if we can keep Chris from tearing a piece of your hide." Vin had moved in closer. "He's not too thrilled with you playing hero – again."

"How unlike me. Might I impose on one of you to refresh my recollection of what transpired?"

Nathan had his cell phone out and held up a hand to Ezra to wait. "Chris, you can let the others know he's awake. And talking. Yeah, it's a bit rough, and he still looks tired, but he's asking questions." He listened for a minute, then grinned. "Fancy as always. Look, try to get everyone to hold off a bit longer before crashing in. Oh. OK." He hung up.

"They going to come tonight?" Vin asked, fairly certain he knew the answer.

"Already on their way. Chris asked if Ezra's vocabulary was up to par and they were out the door without waiting for an answer. You OK with visitors Ezra? Ezra?"

The soft snore he got as response came as no surprise.

7-7-7-7-7-7-7

The timid knock at the door astonished him. No one ever seemed to ask permission before barging in. Ezra opened his eyes, surprised to find the room empty. As far as he could recall, it was the first time that had happened. He tried to call out to permit entry, but a hoarse gasp was the best he could manage. The tapping was repeated, and his second effort to summon the visitor had no more success than the first. At a loss for what to do, he was pleased to see the door open tentatively.

"Mr. Standish? Are you awake?" The woman barely whispered. Ezra was fairly sure he could get more volume than she demonstrated. He looked as her as he cautiously raised a hand to wave her over. The face was familiar, but he couldn't quite place from where. There was no sense of threat or danger from her. Anyone that timid about entering had no intention of doing harm.

"Oh, I am so glad you're awake. Mr. Larabee called to let me know, and I think I just about fainted with relief. I've been praying for you, and if you knew me better, you'd know that isn't something I generally do."

"And do I know you madam?"

She seemed surprised at first, then smiled shyly. "Only in passing. They told me you might not remember to much of what happened."

Before he could respond the door burst open with no warning knock. That was more like it. "Sorry Ezra, I expected to be here before Miss Eddington arrived. Where's Buck?"

"Should I know?"

After looking around as if expecting the man to appear from nowhere, Chris stated the obvious. "He must have had to leave for a minute. Probably with a nurse. Well Miss Eddington, now do you believe me?"

"You were right. He doesn't seem to know who I am."

"Nonsense. We had a far too brief acquaintance under less than ideal circumstance in the bank. Forgive me for not recognizing you immediately. Dreadful faux-pas on my part."

"Under the circumstances, I don't think I will hold it against you." She chewed nervously on her lower lip, unable to bring herself to make eye contact.

Chris looked for a way to break some of the tension in the room. "Miss Eddington has been calling us every day to check up on you."

"Please call me Sylvia. I think we have spoken enough to be that informal. And yes, I've made quite a pest of myself I'm afraid."

"These gentlemen are known for their patience, providing you are on the right side of the law. And are not me."

She looked back and forth at the men before taking a deep breath and speaking. "I have spent almost every waking moment of the last week, and probably most of my sleeping ones as well, trying to figure out how to say what I want to say to you, and I still haven't figured it out. Thank you seems insufficient, and nothing else seems to fit."

"You shouldn't have troubled yourself with such matters."

"Troubled myself? Mr. Standish, you saved my life. I should have been the one outside. I should have been the one they – they shot." She struggled to keep her voice from shaking. "You switched places, and I will never be convinced you didn't know what was going to happen." She swiped a tear angrily from her cheek.

"You give me far too much credit. I simply saw the opportunity to attempt to communicate with Chris and the others, in hopes of hastening our rescue. I can assure you my motivation was to escape our captives, not to sacrifice myself."

A look passed from Sylvia to Chris that clearly said neither believed that.

"With all due respect Mr. Standish –"

"Please – Ezra."

"With all due respect Ezra, and forgive my language, but you are full of bullshit."

"We've told him more than once his eyes should be brown, not green." Buck entered the room in time to add his opinion.

"To imply my actions were anything other than self-serving is to slander my reputation, and I will not tolerate it."

Laying a hand on his friend's shoulder, Chris brought an end to the debate. "Give it a rest Ezra. What you did falls under the category of above and beyond the call."

"It is nothing more than any of you would have done, had the situation called for it."

"Strange how we don't seem to find ourselves in that sort for situation nearly as often as you do." Buck grinned to take a bit of the sting out of the observation.

Chris gave the patient a soft glare. "Which I am pretty was the point I was making before any of this started. "

If Ezra had felt up to it, he would likely have stood in quiet indignation at Chris's claim, despite the evident truth. "It isn't as though I actively seek out misfortune."

"You don't have to. It seems to have a homing device set on you."

Sylvia could tell from Ezra's discomfort that this conversation was not something he wanted to have with guests present. He probably didn't want to have it at all, but that wasn't something she could control.

"I'm going to leave to you get some rest. I would like to visit again, when you are feeling stronger, if you don't object."

"Only a fool would turn down the opportunity to enjoy the company of such a charming companion. I shall be counting the hours."

"I would suspect days more than hours, but I will be back. And Mr. – Ezra. Thank you."

Buck waited until the door had closed. "You've got yourself a real fan there Ezra. Pretty too."

"You have all no doubt been misleading her with fanciful tales of my supposed heroic moments."

"Knock it off Ezra. Everything we told her, which wasn't much 'cause we know how much you value your privacy, was the God's honest truth. Can't help the conclusions she reaches based on what she witnessed herself."

It wasn't the first time the matter had been debated, and likely wouldn't be the last, but Chris was damned if he was going to let Ezra's self-effacing BS define what had happened on that day. As much as he would have loved to dress him down over what had happened, there was no way he could do so without being hypocritical. His agent had done exactly what he would have, what any of them would have. The reality was, he admitted to himself, that it was much easier to be the one making the sacrifice than it was to watch a friend do it.

Ezra seemed to sense that there was no point to the discussion and decided to save the efforts for some other time. He was certain the opportunity would appear. Right now, he had more pressing concerns on his mind. Most elements of what had transpired to land him here had come back to him, and he realized that one particular detail had been studiously avoided whenever the subject was discussed.

"I can only assume that we have been less than successful in tracking down the mastermind of the operation, despite what I know must have been a Herculean effort by all involved."

Chris glared at Buck who held his hands up in denial. "Don't look at me. I haven't said a word."

"Nobody has, which is precisely why I know it to be fact. Clearly we have encountered a formidable opponent in this man – or woman?"

As much as he would have loved to forestall this conversation until Ezra was out of the hospital, or at least feeling stronger than he was now, Chris knew this side of the man to well. He wanted answers, and there was no way to avoid giving them to him with creating a situation.

"It's a man Ezra. We know who, just not how to find him. He'd kind of a ghost – just disappeared."

"JD's been running himself ragged searching for trails on line, and the rest of us were using up every contact and favour we had. Even Travis."

Ezra was mystified. "With such a concerted effort, his capture would seem to be inevitable. After all, it is not like we could have two such super-villains on our most wanted list. The inability to locate Barring-" he froze in mid-thought and looked at the two men who were refusing to meet his eye. "No. That is stretching credibility to its extreme. Are you seriously telling me that bastard is behind this? If you can't find him, how can you be sure?"

Well, this was going to be fun. "He told me."

"You spoke to him. Was there a reason you didn't arrest him at the time, or is his apparent vendetta against me insufficient motivation?"

"Steady hoss." Buck could see Ezra's face reddening and was worried about what this shock was doing to his still fragile health. Unfortunately, that wasn't the spin Ezra put on things.

"Forgive me for taking umbrage at your inability to confine a man who seems to have my demise as his goal."

A look from Chris stopped Buck from voicing his response. "Ezra, I get you're pissed off, and I don't blame you. Do you think you can calm down enough to keep the medical teams from charging in here to sedate you?"

There was no verbal response, but Chris could watch the change. It was the same technique employed when Ezra needed to lose himself in an undercover role. It shut him down, and that was not what they needed right now.

"Don't Ezra. You have every right to your feelings on this. I just want to hear things out, and I think you'll be better with it. Not OK. None of us are OK about any of it. But trust me."

Ezra's face changed immediately. Trust in Chris, in any of the team was no longer an issue in his mind. He remained less than convinced that it was a two-way street, but even that reluctance had faded. After giving himself a moment to focus his control, he nodded to indicate he was ready.

"I didn't talk to him. He left a message that I didn't get until after I got home from the hospital."

"Why were you at the hospital? I was assured no one else had been hurt."

Shaking his head sadly, Chris grinned wryly. "Waiting for word on you Ezra. You kept us on watch a for a while – remember."

"Well that was an unnecessary waste to time."

"Not going to dignify that. Anyway, message was pretty clear. He actually kind of apologized for getting you involved. He didn't know you were going to be there."

"And you believe him?"

"The apology, not so much. But think about it. We didn't know until an hour before you would be there, so how could he."

Rationally, it made sense. At a personal level, it was harder to accept. "I am to believe that fate once again selected me to toy with? How did I ever get so lucky?"

It was Buck's turn to smile. "Because fate knows you can handle it."

"It overestimates me."

"Nah."

Not ready or willing to travel that path, Ezra steered the conversation back to the immediate concern. "So as with his last appearance, Barrington has fade into oblivion?"

"We aren't giving up Ezra." JD was adamant, hearing the faint hint of anxiety as he and the others arrived. "No one can completely disappear in this day and age. Too many cameras and satellites and signals to escape them all. Sooner or later, he's gonna slip up."

'And then what?"

The question was unexpected and left them all at a loss. "We go get the bastard. What else?" Vin answered.

The answer didn't satisfy his concerns. "We hunt him, track him around the world to what end. Clearly the man has a gift for anonymity and disguise. He is a lone traveller with no connections, no societal bonds. He will not be discovered unless he chooses to be."

Chris was struck by how much that characterization could have describe Ezra a year earlier. "Don't build him up to more than he is Ezra. He's just a man. Nothing special."

"A man who has twice tried to kill me, twice come perilously close, and twice disappeared. Now you propose that we give him a third chance. You are familiar with the truism 'third time is the charm'.

"Yeah – how about 'three strikes and you're out'" Buck countered. "He's going down Ezra, not you."

"You don't understand. This man is becoming our obsession. You said yourself the everyone has been exhausting themselves and no doubt stepping well beyond their allowable scope to search him out. He has become our Moby Dick, and I have no intention of being a catalyst to the ultimate fate."

JD scoffed. "He's no Moby Dick. A dick, maybe."

There was less levity in Josiah's response. "So in your scenario, which is Ahab – you or Chris."

"Does it matter. The entire crew was lost."

"What's that matter with you Ez? That was a story, this is reality. Ain't like you to want to let the scum get away with shit."

"Barrington is far from ordinary scum Buck."

Vin couldn't believe how negative Ezra had become. "Precisely why it is gonna take a team like ours to take him down. You know that. We are the best – when we work together."

"Enough." As was normal, Chris's patience wore out first, and his tone silenced them all. "I'm gonna allow for the fact you're still tired and not feeling like yourself, because there is no way the agency's top undercover man backs away from something like this when he is on his game. For the moment, nobody's going after anybody. We keep the feelers out and follow up what we can. When – not it, but when – we get a lead, we track it down and put the SOB where he belongs. Anybody want to tell me this team can't handle that?"

Calling on him to put his faith in the team was a dirty trick but Ezra couldn't deny its effectiveness. All evidence supported the claim; together, it certainly appeared there was nothing they could not overcome. While less than willing to do so, he forced himself to meet the gazes of the six men now staring at him, waiting to see if they were still the best damned team the ATF, or any organization, had ever put together. He wasn't close to feeling as confident as he was about to sound, but he knew with their help, he'd get there.

"Only a fool would challenge and indisputable fact, and while I have been accused of a multitude of sins in my time, a few of which I have actually been guilty of, being a fool is not on that list. The bastard clearly has not concept of the world of hurt which he has brought upon himself."

Chris gave a curt nod of satisfaction. "Damn straight."

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