Part 1

Denver CO
March 29

Chris Larabee stepped inside AD Travis' office. "You wanted to see me, Judge?"

It had been several years since Orrin Travis had left the Bench to accept an Assistant Director position with the ATF, but to Chris Larabee, as well as to most of the law-enforcement community in Denver, he'd always be "the Judge."

"Chris. Come in, have a seat."

Larabee obeyed, slipping into one of the two leather visitor chairs in front of the massive cherry wood desk.

Travis leaned back in his seat, studying the man in front of him. He shook his head. "Aren't you getting any sleep, Larabee?"

His characteristic half smile quickly crossed Chris' face, and just as quickly vanished. "Been a bad couple of weeks," he said evasively.

Travis nodded, raising his eyebrows. He knew how fiercely protective the leader of Team Seven was over his men, his family. And the last two weeks had been, to put it bluntly, hell. "I see that Mr. Standish has returned to duty. He's fully recovered, I trust?"

Chris nodded. There was no humor in the grin this time. "To hear him tell it there was nothing ever wrong with him. But his doctor released him. All the tests show no residual cardiac damage. Nathan's keeping an eye on him, just the same."

"That was a terrible business," Travis said, watching Larabee keenly.

The younger man's jaw clenched and familiar lines of tension creased his forehead and around his mouth. "Yep," he said curtly. "Ezra's in a meeting with the Assistant DA assigned to the case today. Berman, his name is."

"Ira Berman," Travis nodded. He still had a lot of friends in the DA's office and he'd been perturbed that a case of such magnitude-with federal charges in addition to local ones-had been assigned to such a relatively young ADA. "He's supposed to be quite brilliant." He paused, studying Larabee closely. "I stopped by the hospital to see Buck yesterday."

The ice-green eyes darkened briefly. Not for the first time Travis wondered how Chris Larabee could have any back molars left, he clenched his jaw so tightly. "He said you'd been by."

"What do the doctors say?"

Chris took a deep breath, let it out, took another. "It's going to be a long haul. He's stable enough now, but...a lot of things could still go wrong. And Buck..."

"Buck doesn't enjoy being a 'patient'?"

"Patience isn't one of his virtues." Chris hesitated, and Travis got the idea he wanted to say more, but didn't. The silence stretched between them.

Finally Travis broke it. He handed Chris the manila folder he'd been studying when Chris had entered the office. "You have a new assignment," he said simply.

tbc...