----------------------------
Date: 04 March 2002
Disclaimers: All characters belong to them as made them...
Warnings: Work in progress. 'nuff said.
------------
In Disbelief
by Sonnevi
------------
"Buck? Vin? You believe me, don't you?"
It was strange, unsettling to see. They trusted Chris with their lives, but this was stretching things a little *too* far. If it was a joke, it stopped being funny quite a while ago.
Vin and Buck looked at each other, and came to silent agreement. Chris needed rest badly. This just wasn't like him at all.
Chris saw where this was leading, and he began to get angry. They didn't believe him. He knew what he knew, dammit! He didn't imagine things.
After a while, though, he couldn't help but doubt, a little. No one else had found corroborating evidence, no one else had been around to back up his claim.
----------
Josiah and the rest of the team pondered over it as Chris slept. "He's so sure..."
"He could've been drunk..."
"Not a drop to be found tonight... he was going to go shopping this week..."
"Lack of sleep?"
"Anniversary?"
"Boredom?"
"April Fools'?"
None of the suggestions felt right. There had been work, yes, but not enough to lose sleep over. Neither was the load too little or so commonplace that they could be bored. None could pin it on the date, as Buck could verify, and it wasn't even close to April Fools' Day. And nobody could accuse Chris Larabee of having an overactive imagination.
"You think we finally drove him crazy?"
That drew a wry smile from most.
Chris would get over this. He had to.
------------
"We believe that you believe," was the careful response.
"It's the truth."
Only silence met that statement.
They depended on Chris to be clear-headed. Even drunk, angry, or in pain, his three most incapacitated states, he was the kind of man who could tell you the who, what, where, and when after the fact, how many bullets were fired, who was hurt, and who was unaccounted for, with an accuracy that hardly ever failed. And when in none of those states, he added a clarity of awareness and thought that could almost be called psychic, the ability to discern trends and gauge moods, deduce the course of action and follow through with the same.
What he claimed was less important than his state of mind. Without him, they were all competent and able, but without the streak of _something_ that made them the best. Would the team have worked if there had been someone other than Larabee? Possibly, but it wouldn't have been the same.
It boiled down to friendship and trust. Things were going nowhere fast this way.
"Suppose it's true..."
"Ain't no *suppose* about it!"
"Can't possibly be!"
"Calling me a liar?"
"You're mistaken, maybe."
"Everyone, please, I said, *suppose* it's true. Work with me at least, all of you."
They all settled down grudgingly.
"As I was saying, suppose it were true, what is there to be done? If it were not true, who would benefit by staging this ruse solely upon Mr. Larabee and how was it done?"
The questioning suited them all. Concrete plans of action surely beat thinking about other things, like their differences in opinion.
The fear that Chris could not lead, had cracked under the pressure....
----------------------------
Author's notes: This is one of those with absolutely no guarantees that it'll reach the end. I haven't even figured out what it was that Chris saw yet! I just got interested in the scene after it was posted as a challenge. We'll see...
Date: 04 March 2002
Disclaimers: All characters belong to them as made them...
Warnings: Work in progress. 'nuff said.
------------
In Disbelief
by Sonnevi
------------
"Buck? Vin? You believe me, don't you?"
It was strange, unsettling to see. They trusted Chris with their lives, but this was stretching things a little *too* far. If it was a joke, it stopped being funny quite a while ago.
Vin and Buck looked at each other, and came to silent agreement. Chris needed rest badly. This just wasn't like him at all.
Chris saw where this was leading, and he began to get angry. They didn't believe him. He knew what he knew, dammit! He didn't imagine things.
After a while, though, he couldn't help but doubt, a little. No one else had found corroborating evidence, no one else had been around to back up his claim.
----------
Josiah and the rest of the team pondered over it as Chris slept. "He's so sure..."
"He could've been drunk..."
"Not a drop to be found tonight... he was going to go shopping this week..."
"Lack of sleep?"
"Anniversary?"
"Boredom?"
"April Fools'?"
None of the suggestions felt right. There had been work, yes, but not enough to lose sleep over. Neither was the load too little or so commonplace that they could be bored. None could pin it on the date, as Buck could verify, and it wasn't even close to April Fools' Day. And nobody could accuse Chris Larabee of having an overactive imagination.
"You think we finally drove him crazy?"
That drew a wry smile from most.
Chris would get over this. He had to.
------------
"We believe that you believe," was the careful response.
"It's the truth."
Only silence met that statement.
They depended on Chris to be clear-headed. Even drunk, angry, or in pain, his three most incapacitated states, he was the kind of man who could tell you the who, what, where, and when after the fact, how many bullets were fired, who was hurt, and who was unaccounted for, with an accuracy that hardly ever failed. And when in none of those states, he added a clarity of awareness and thought that could almost be called psychic, the ability to discern trends and gauge moods, deduce the course of action and follow through with the same.
What he claimed was less important than his state of mind. Without him, they were all competent and able, but without the streak of _something_ that made them the best. Would the team have worked if there had been someone other than Larabee? Possibly, but it wouldn't have been the same.
It boiled down to friendship and trust. Things were going nowhere fast this way.
"Suppose it's true..."
"Ain't no *suppose* about it!"
"Can't possibly be!"
"Calling me a liar?"
"You're mistaken, maybe."
"Everyone, please, I said, *suppose* it's true. Work with me at least, all of you."
They all settled down grudgingly.
"As I was saying, suppose it were true, what is there to be done? If it were not true, who would benefit by staging this ruse solely upon Mr. Larabee and how was it done?"
The questioning suited them all. Concrete plans of action surely beat thinking about other things, like their differences in opinion.
The fear that Chris could not lead, had cracked under the pressure....
----------------------------
Author's notes: This is one of those with absolutely no guarantees that it'll reach the end. I haven't even figured out what it was that Chris saw yet! I just got interested in the scene after it was posted as a challenge. We'll see...