Ezra tentatively knocked on the doorframe of Chris's office. When his team leader didn't bother to look in his direction, he cleared his throat loudly. When that still didn't garner any attention, he decided to press ahead anyway. "Uh, Mr. Larabee, I'm afraid we have a bit of a problem."

"If I shoot you, will the problem be solved?" Chris growled without looking up from the case file he was reading. "I'd be more than happy to do that. If not. Get out."

A nervous smile flitted across Ezra's face. "Uh...maybe now isn't the time," he said as he started to back out of the doorway. "I can come back later." As he turned and beat a hasty retreat, he mumbled under his breath, "Or find some other sacrificial lamb to come in here."

"So?" Buck eagerly asked when Ezra was back at his desk. "What did he say? Can he fix it?"

Ezra tried not to roll his eyes at Buck's eagerness. "I wasn't afforded the opportunity to inquire if Mr. Larabee could assist. He threatened to shoot me. It's not on my bucket list to add any more holes to my person this year if it can be helped."

"Aw, c'mon, Ez," Buck cajoled. "You said you'd talk to him for me. You're always bragging about that silver-tongue of yours. Is that all show?"

"Ez-ra," Ezra corrected. "My name has two syllables. How you can never remember that is beyond me. And yes. I did say I'd speak to Mr. Larabee on your behalf. However, I never gave any indication I'd be willing to put my life in danger. He appears to be in surly mood today. I've no desire to worsen it."

"Once Chris finds out what happened, he's gonna be in a whole lot more than a surly mood," Vin pointed out. He gestured to the piles of boxes around the bullpen. "If you think he's not going to notice all of those, you're nuts."

"Fine, fine," Buck said holding up his hands. "I'll try talking to him." Slowly he walked over to Chris's office. He kept throwing looks over his shoulder hoping one of his teammates…one of his friends…one of his brothers would throw him a lifeline.

"Dead man walking," JD said with a barely concealed laugh when Buck walked past him.

"I'm not gonna forget this," Buck complained. He raised his hand to knock on the door then pushed it open before Chris said anything. He pasted as wide a smile on his face as he could as he crossed the threshold. "Hey Chris. Like Ezra said, we got a bit of a problem."

Again, Chris didn't bother to look up from his file. "No, Buck. You have a problem. I just have an idiot…or six of them…who keeps causing them." He looked up and pointed at the door. If you're smart, you'll be out that door and figuring out your problem on your own before I get my gun. If you think filling out the paperwork connected with that is going to bother me today, you're wrong."

Buck held up his hands and backed out. "No problem, Stud. I'll just leave you to…" he gestured to the file on Chris's desk. "I'll just leave you to whatever that is. He turned around and quickly left the office, pulling the door closed behind him.

"Seems you were most successful, Mr. Wilmington," Ezra joked when Buck came out of the office.

Nathan got up from his desk to get the report he'd sent to the printer. On his way there, he tripped over one of the many boxes piled around the bullpen. "Someone's got to talk to Chris. He's the only one who has a chance of getting things cleared up."

"Don't look at me. I've already made an attempt. Besides, if Mr. Wilmington could act like a gentleman, this could have been avoided."

"It was an honest mistake," Buck whined. "Anyone could have made it."

"You keep thinking that, Buck. You might convince yourself…and don't look at me. I'm not going in there," JD said.

Josiah, who'd been silent up until now, got up and went over to Ezra's desk and perched on the edge of it. "Now I know this isn't your doing, Ezra, but if anyone has a chance of finding just the right words to help Buck out of the predicament he's caused for all of us, it's you."

"And just what is in it for me?" Ezra waved his arm taking in the multitude of boxes piled up around all their desks. "It's Mr. Wilmington's shoddy memory...and less than honorable ways...that's caused this situation."

"If it doesn't get fixed, you're going to be in that file room right along with the rest of us," Vin pointed out.

"Fine," Ezra agreed although not graciously. "I will attempt to garner Mr. Larabee's assistance to extricate us from this predicament. "Mr. Wilmington, however, will owe me a bottle of Woodford Reserve's Master Collection from 2009 that I've had my eye on. That's my price for bearding the lion in his den. Take it or leave it."

"You explain this to Chris and get him to intervene, and I'll get you any bottle of hootch you want," Buck readily agreed.

"It's a deal then." Ezra rose from his chair and held his hand out to Buck to shake then made his way to Chris's office. As he did, he heard Josiah start laughing and tried to hide a smirk.

"What's so funny?" Buck demanded.

"You," Josiah responded. "You just agreed to buy him a $900 bottle of bourbon."

"What?!" Buck loudly asked then whirled around in Ezra's direction. "You little weasel. You tricked me."

"Now, now, Mr. Wilmington. A deal's a deal."

"Yeah...well...you haven't done anything yet," Buck sputtered.

"Wait and see." Putting on a confident face, Ezra rapidly knocked on Chris's door before opening it, confidently walking in, and closing the door behind him. "Mr. Larabee, now I know that you threatened to shoot me but there is a problem that would benefit from your attention."

Chris let out a sigh and closed the folder. "And let me guess. You caused it which can be the only reason you came back and now you need me to get your scrawny neck out of the noose."

Ezra bristled when accused. "I certainly am not the cause it. I don't see why you immediately accuse me." As an after-thought he added on, "And my neck is now scrawny."

"It's Tuesday," Chris said with a shrug.

"That makes no sense. What does Tuesday have to do..."

"Ezra," Chris growled. "Since I'm not going to be able to stop you or any of the others from roping me into this problem, just get to it."

"Ok. Yes. Well...how can I explain this?"

Chris sat back and eyed his undercover agent. It seemed like he was going to be in for one hell of a ride with whatever explanation Ezra was about to give him and decided to let him have enough rope to hang himself.

"Ok. Um...do you remember that episode of Friends where Joey starts dating this incredibly attractive woman and they go back to her apartment? He realizes that he's been there before, but he can't remember the woman and he gets quite insulted because she can't remember him. Actually, though, it was her roommate he'd been with?" At the blank look on Chris's face, he tried again. "Well, it may have been more like the episode where the social worker is coming to interview Monica and Chandler and she tells them she remembers being in the building. She'd been with Joey and he never called her back and then they pretend they don't know him. Or maybe it's more like the one..." He trailed off as Chris let out a shrill whistle.

"What the hell are you going on about?"

"Huh?" Ezra asked almost as if he forgot why he'd come into Chris's office. "Oh...right...the problem."

"Yeah, the problem. And can you please skip the Nik at Night explanation and just get to it?"

"Very well. But you must admit that our Mr. Wilmington does bear some similarities to Mr. Tribbiani." Catching the angry and impatient look on Chris's face, Ezra quickly launched into the problem they faced. "I'm sure you've met the new manager in records, Abigail Pavano." Getting a quick nod from Chris, he continued. "It seems that Mr. Wilmington had a very brief one-night affair with her approximately a year ago. Apparently, for him, it wasn't very memorable as he neither called her the next day nor did he remember her when he was down in records the other day. It seems the fair Abigail did not take well to this...especially since Buck decided to hit on her again."

"So, Buck's got girl troubles. I'm not sure how that involves me...or you for that matter."

"Actually, it involves us all. Once Abigail figured out Buck didn't remember her, she decided to pull all of our files that may have some peculiarity or abnormality and sent it back up to us to correct."

Chris shrugged not understanding how that could be a problem. "So. Fix 'em and send 'em back down."

"I'm not sure you understand, Mr. Larabee. The records department has sent back boxes of files covering every case we've worked on in the last three years. It's a maze of boxes out there. We almost lost Nathan when he went to the printer. We...uh...we were hoping you may be able to intercede on Buck's behalf and have the files removed...without us having to go through each one to find any...abnormalities."

"Every case...for the last three years?"

Ezra nodded. "I think she may have even added some from Teams 1-6."

"This I've got to see," Chris said as he got up from his desk. He pulled open his office door and peeked out, letting out a low whistle when he saw the stacks of boxes. "Looks like you boys are going to busy for a while," Chris said with an evil smile as he closed the door. "That should keep you out of my hair for a while."

"Um...you'll need to sign off on each and every one after review."

"What?!" Chris exclaimed. "I'm going to kill him." He stomped back over to his desk and grabbed the phone as he did, he jabbed a finger in the direction of the door and Ezra took that as his cue to leave.

"So?" Buck asked as soon as Ezra came out of Chris's office. "What did he say? Can he fix this?"

"I've no idea. When I left, he was on the phone. I'm unsure if he was arranging your execution or he was attempting to smooth things over with Miss Pavano."

"I guess we'll know which depending on if Buck or the boxes disappear," Josiah pointed out. "In the meantime, it's probably best we all get to work."

For the next two hours, there wasn't a sound out of anyone as they all applied themselves to catching up with outstanding report and overdue expense sheets. When several workmen came up with dollies and started loading the boxes on them, they got their answer about what Chris's phone call had been about. Fifteen minutes after the last box had been removed, Chris finally came out of his office.

"Buck, I'll expect you out at the ranch Saturday. I've got some fencing that needs fixing and you just volunteered to do it."

"Sure thing, Chris," Buck readily agreed knowing that it was thanks to whatever calls Chris had made that their problem had been made to go away. And at least fixing fences was a lot less expensive than the bottle of bourbon he now owed Ezra.

"Oh...and Ezra," Chris said as he started back to his office. "The next time there's a problem, skip all Friends plotlines to explain it or I just might think you've got too much time on your hands."

"Friends," JD laughed. "You watch Friends."

Realizing he had inadvertently let out his secret while trying to get Buck off the hook, Ezra shrugged. "We all have guilty pleasures...and Mr. Wilmington, I'll expect that bottle on my desk come Monday."