Early the next morning, even before the sun had risen, Ezra woke gasping from another nightmare. Where am I? He thought confused. Oh yes, Buck and JD's place, I must have fallen asleep. Looking around he noted the clock on the VCR telling him that it was only 4am. He needed to go home, he had to get ready for work, and given the mood Chris was likely to be in he had best be on time. Quietly, so as not to disturb his teammates, he slipped out of the apartment and headed for home. Once he arrived at home he showered, and dressed for work. Knowing that there was still a bit of bleeding, he chose a black suit to cover any leakage, he coupled it with an emerald green shirt, which made his eyes pop. Normally he would have added a tie, but he found it impossible to tie one with only one hand and he refused to use that tacky clipon one the guys had gotten him the last time he had dislocated his arm. Looking at the clock he noted that it was still very early, but he decided to get to work early, as he knew he needed to write that report and he was not looking forward to it. Sighing he grabbed the bag with his medication and headed for the door.
Stepping off the elevator onto the twelfth floor Ezra balanced the prescription bag, along with the cup of coffee and muffin he had gotten on the way in his good hand. Ezra made his way to his desk by the early morning light seeping through the office windows. Ezra didn't think he had ever been the first one in the office before. Usually he was the last to arrive. Setting the coffee and muffin on the desk, he shoved the prescription bag in a drawer. He knew if he left the bag out Nathan's curiosity would get the better of him and though the pain meds were easily explained, Ezra really didn't need him finding the HIV meds before he could explain. The doctor had told him that he should take the meds two times a day, roughly twelve hours apart if possible. He knew he had taken the first one a bit early last night, but he did not plan on getting up at 5AM every day for the next four weeks just to take a pill, so he decided to push the time back a little today, so he could get on a regular schedule. Something more like eight and eight or nine and nine, made more sense with his habits. While he waited for his computer to power up Ezra forced himself to eat his muffin, so that he wasn't taking pain pills on an empty stomach. His stomach rebelled after only a few bites, and he found himself kneeling on the bathroom floor emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet. His already sore abdominal muscles protested as he stood up and made his way to the sink. After rinsing the vile taste out of his mouth he slowly made his way back to his desk to start working on his report. An hour, and two more trips to the bathroom, later the excruciatingly detailed report was finished, and the man he had been dreading seeing all weekend had arrived.
Special Agent Chris Larabee walked into the ATF Team Seven office, and looked around. He was surprised to spot his undercover agent, already at work. He watched as Ezra stood up and retrieved some papers from the printer. "Ezra, my office now." He growled. The agent simply nodded. "Perfect timing Mr. Larabee. I just completed my report on Friday morning's events." How early did he get here if he already finished his report? Chris wondered.
Ezra made his way to the office and stood in front of Chris' desk. "Want to tell me exactly what happened?"
"The short version is I went in without waiting for backup, Danielson made me, he attacked me," he heard his voice hitch slightly at that and hated himself for it. "He tied me up and got away."
"So basically you got what you deserved for going in without backup. Allowing a suspect to get away in the process."
Ezra flinched at that, but calmly replied "Yes, I got what I deserved."
"I'm assuming your report contains the long version?" Ezra nodded. "Well we can't change what happened, but I don't think IA is gonna be happy about it. I'm not too pleased myself." Then suddenly switching topics he asked "Did you dislocate your shoulder again something?" he motioned toward the sling.
"Actually Danielson broke it when he attacked me." Chris' eyes narrowed, "So how long before it heals?"
"Roughly six weeks, in a sling."
"That mean you're on desk duty till then?"
"Unfortunately yes, I do have a note from my surgeon stating I am not to perform any strenuous physical activity for at least the next six weeks. And in our line of work, that means desk duty." He said it so casually that Chris almost missed it.
"Surgeon?"
"Yes, it was a bad break and I ended up needing the shoulder replaced."
Chris narrowed his eyes at this information, then seemed to push it aside.
"Go ahead and get back to work, I'll holler if I have any questions after I read you report." Ezra made a gesture as though he was tipping his hat, and then left to go back to his desk. He knew Chris would 'holler' soon enough, when he had read the report, but after that comment about 'getting what he deserved' Ezra had been unable to bring himself confess what had happened. It had been bad enough writing it down, and he knew he was going to have to repeat the story many more times today.
Twenty minutes later Buck and JD had arrived, but were oddly subdued. Ezra felt their eyes on him, but he ignored them. Due to having been unable to keep anything down, Ezra had not yet had a pain pill, and he was becoming painfully aware of his injured shoulder. Just as Nathan, Josiah and Vin arrived in the office Chris opened the door to his office. "Ezra, could I have a word?" the barely restrained anger in his voice was evident. Ezra nodded, and hid a wince as he stood up and made his way to his Chris' office. "Shut the door." Chris commanded as Ezra entered. Ezra obliged, and turned to face him. "Ezra, are you alright?"
"I assume you read my report?"
"Yes, then I read it again thinking I had missed something. Why didn't you tell me earlier? For that matter, why didn't you say something on the phone Friday morning?" Chris' asked quietly, using the voice he used on frightened horses. Ezra sighed, "At the time of our phone conversation, I was still in shock, and surrounded by agents from team six. I had not even decided whether to report the …incident…or not." His voice choked slightly. "And if you remember both on the phone and a few minutes ago, you were rather busy reprimanding me for not catching Danielson." A hard edge crept into his voice. "I got what I deserved, remember?"
Chris winced as his words were thrown back in his face. "Ezra, I didn't mean it. I was just angry that Danielson got away." Ezra knew it was true, and the fight drained out of him.
"He hurt me Chris." He whispered. The senior agent couldn't find any words, he walked around the desk and slowly reached for the smaller man, and drew him into his arms. Ezra flinched, but then he leaned into the strong arms, silently tears streamed down his face, he buried his face in Chris' and he allowed Chris to lead him to the couch. After several minutes he pulled back, and lifted his head. Wiping his eyes he said, "When he was done, he told me I was 'magnificent just like they said'. Someone must have tipped him off, but almost no one knew. Add to that that only certain people refer to us as the 'Magnificent Seven'." He left the rest unspoken, but Chris was starting to put it together. Someone had leaked to Danielson that they were on to him, and that an undercover agent, specifically one of the Magnificent Seven was going to be at the train station. "We'll catch the bastard Ezra don't you worry."
Ezra smiled weakly. "I told him you would, you know. Just before. You called my mobile phone trying to get ahold of me, I was already tied up, but he took the phone and smashed it, but not before he read the caller ID, and he asked who you were, I told him you were the man who was going to stop him."
"So you told him Chris Larabee was gonna shut him down huh?" Ezra's grin widened at this, and Chris caught a glimpse of gold. "Well not exactly, you're not listed in my phone by your name, being undercover it could be dangerous if someone stole my phone and saw the names of ATF agents in my contacts."
"So what did the caller ID say?" Chris was curious now.
"Bad Element." Ezra grinned unrepentantly. Chris gave him a mock glare. Ezra sobered.
"Chris? Can we not tell the others yet? I mean I know we have got to tell them something," he gestured to the sling, "but could you not mention you know, the… rape… just yet?" green eyes met blue ones pleadingly.
Chris let out a sigh "Ok Ez, if that's what you want." Ezra just nodded, he was starting to feel sick again. Suddenly he dove for the trashcan beside Chris' desk, and started retching. He had no food left in his stomach, and only bile came up. Quickly Chris moved to kneel beside the agent. Slowly he rubbed small circles on the younger man's back until he stopped heaving. Miserably Ezra looked up at Chris. "I apologize."
"Ez, you don't need to be apologizing for being human. Here, lay down on the couch, and I'll take care of this." Too worn out to argue Ezra did as he was told. "Do you need anything?" Chris asked solicitously.
"Would you mind terribly bringing me a bottle of water, and my pain medication? It's in the bottom drawer of my desk." Empty stomach or no he needed a pain pill badly.
"Sure thing Ez." Chris picked up the trash can and left. Feeling secure in the knowledge of the six men in the other room Ezra allowed himself to close his eyes while he waited for Chris to return.
Chris made his way through the office to the small bathroom, where he disposed of the trash can liner, and rinsed the can. That accomplished, he headed to Ezra's desk. Five pairs of eyes watched him, but he ignored them and opening the bottom drawer he found the prescription bag. Seeing the small white bag Nathan Jackson, the team's medic, perked up. "Is Ezra okay Chris?"
"He got injured on a case Friday, and he needed a pain pill." Chris tried to shut down the medic with that, but whenever one of the team was injured Nathan was like a dog with a bone, "What happened? What case? Maybe I should look at him." Knowing Nathan was the last person Ezra was going to want to see right now Chris turned and looked straight at the medic. "He went to the hospital. He'll be fine, he just needs a pain pill." And a lot of time he thought to himself. Turning he went into the small kitchen, and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. He turned and found Buck had followed him.
"Ezra came over to my and JD's place last night." Buck stated. "I don't know exactly what's up but something's wrong, more than just losing Danielson." The ladies man shook his head grimly "Did you know he had to drive himself to the hospital. He was obviously injured, he's got the stitches to prove it, but no one called an ambulance, just left him to deal with getting to the hospital by himself. He spent the entire weekend in the hospital, he just got out yesterday afternoon. He probably isn't even supposed to be here." Ezra had failed to mention that he had needed to drive himself to the hospital, probably in extreme pain from being raped, and having a broken arm, and Chris' anger reignited, only this time it was not at the undercover agent, but on his behalf. Shoving aside his anger, Chris just gave Buck a look telling him they were not finished with this conversation and stormed out of the break room and back to his office.
Hearing Chris enter the office Ezra stirred and started to sit up. Chris moved to his side, and put an arm under the smaller man's shoulders to lift him into a half sitting position. Using his free hand Chris opened the small prescription bag. "Ezra there's three different pill bottles in here, which one do you need?"
"One of each." Ezra sighed at his helplessness but allowed the older agent to pull out the bottles. Ezra propped himself on his good arm so that Chris could use two hands to open the bottles. "How did you even get these open with one hand?" Chris wondered aloud.
"It did entail a bit of work." Ezra replied dryly, remembering his struggles the night before.
Slowly Chris handed each pill to Ezra as he read the labels. "Pain pill. Antibiotic. What's this one?" he held up the third pill. Ezra let out a breath, "It is a medication to help prevent HIV." At Chris' sudden intake of breath Ezra continued "It is standard procedure for all sexual assault victims because of the risk. The way they explained it at the hospital, if I take those regularly, for the next four weeks, it will decrease my risk of contracting HIV if Danielson was HIV positive."
Chris nodded and handed the pill to Ezra wordlessly. The thought that that criminal might have given his undercover agent a disease angered him, but he pushed it down and concentrated on helping Ezra. Assisting the undercover agent sit up again, he handed him the bottle of water and Ezra swallowed the pills. Chris helped Ezra lay back down on the couch, then stood up. "You rest he told the agent. I'll wake you when IA calls. Ezra nodded wearily, and closed his eyes. Chris walked to the door and turned off the lights. Gathering the papers he needed, Larabee headed out the door, into the bullpen. He looked at the five sets of eyes watching him. "Conference room now." Was all he said. The agents quickly made their way to the conference room without the normal complaints and joking. Chris took a breath and started to explain. Giving the basics, but leaving out the exact nature of the attack on Ezra he told them what had happened. "JD, see if you can find out which checkpoint Danielson crossed into Canada. Buck, get the leader of team six up here now! The rest of you see what else you can find on Danielson." Chris barked the orders and the men quickly left to obey. They all knew that as much as Chris was hard on them, he would not stand for one of his agents to be mistreated.
An hour later, Chris had just finished bawling out the leader of team six for forcing an agent to drive himself to the hospital with a head injury and broken arm, when he received the awaited phone call from Internal Affairs. Quietly Chris returned to his office to fetch Ezra. Standing in the doorway he watched the sleeping man wrestle with a nightmare. "No, no please stop!" the pleading tone in the agent's voice clenched Chris' heart. Slowly approaching Chris leaned over and laid a hand on Ezra's shoulder, intending to wake him from the dream. In hindsight that was probably a very bad idea. The sleeping man reacted violently, coming awake swinging, Chris caught a hard right to the jaw, knocking him backward, as the smaller agent sat bolt upright panting and shaking. "Chris?" the voice seemed small and scared.
"Yeah Ez, it's just me. Guess I shouldn't have touched you." Ezra looked around him confused for a moment, the Chris watched as it dawned on him what had happened. "Oh no, are you alright?" Chris nodded tenderly working his jaw
"You got a solid right there Ez. I'll get some ice and I'll be fine. I came in here to get you, Internal Affairs called, they're ready for you."
Ezra took a shaky breath. "Alright I will present my person to them immediately." Seeing the look on his agent's face, just before he regained control of his emotions Chris asked softly
"Ez, do you want me to come with you? I know I can't be in the room, but I can wait outside the door for you." Ezra seemed to consider for a moment, then shook his head. "No need to trouble yourself on my behalf Mr. Larabee, I am certain I can handle an Internal Affairs review without too much difficultly." He grinned ironically "It is not as though I have never dealt with them before." That said Ezra headed upstairs.