A/N: No copyright infringement intended.
Sherry's hot tears soaked Ezra's shirt, but he didn't care, he would willingly sacrifice a ton of expensive shirts if it would take away the anguish Sherry was experiencing. He knew for the moment the worst may be over, but come morning, when Vin didn't walk through that door, her sorrow and torment would be back. He really hoped she was strong enough to survive it without descending into a depression, or giving up on life. He fervently hoped that her love for Vin would overcome her sense of loss. He also hoped her love for him, could keep her going through the days.
Ezra could tell when Sherry finally drifted off to sleep, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Chris' voice drifted over quietly, "she finally out?"
"Yes" Ezra shifted Sherry to a more comfortable position, but never let her out of his arms. He held her tight all through the night, fearful that if he let go for a moment, she would shatter into a million pieces.
The first rays of dawn, peeked through the windows. "Well, this is a first, I rarely see the sun rise, start the day" the conman said jokingly in a whisper to himself. When he looked down at Sherry, her lashes were resting gently against her face. She looked so peaceful and beautiful. Ezra tightened his hold on her gently. It felt so right with her in his arms, he fantasized about waking up everyday with her beside him. He felt her arms tighten around him.
"Vin, he's gone" she said as a flat statement, not a question.
"Yes" Ezra replied. Chris had woken up at the sound of her voice. He looked around for Vin, hoping that he had returned, knowing that it wasn't going to happen.
"He left me,… he left me,… he left me…" she repeated, in a daze.
"sssh, no he didn't, he just stepped out for a little while. In the mean while, Cherie, you are going to stay with me, until he comes back" Ezra decided. Sherry didn't react to his statement. She just sat there, on the couch, tightly squeezing Ezra, like he was her life jacket and she was drowning.
"Its like before"
"Before what?" Chris asked
"Before when I thought he had died on some overseas mission and I was all alone" both men could hear the suffering and torment reflected in her voice. She may be calm on the surface, but inside she was in agony.
"We'll he's not dead, and you are not alone, got that Sherry?" Ezra punctuated his comment with a gentle shake to Sherry's shoulders. She didn't even react, it was like she was barely processing anything. She had shut down. At least she was responding to questions.
Chris' phone rang, he swiftly answered it, he stood and walked a ways away from Sherry so she wouldn't here him talking.
"Talk to me JD"
"The tracking device I placed on Vin's truck says he's in Wyoming, possibly heading towards Montana."
"Did you hide it good? For all we know, he could have found it and stuck it on a big rig"
"Yeah, I thought of that, so I place two of them, both are saying the same location"
"Great thinking, keep an eye on him"
"Yes sir Chief"
Chris turned and nodded to Ezra, who had avidly been watching Chris' conversation on the phone. At the nod, he breathed out in relief. Sherry had been oblivious to the exchange, still just holding on to him for dear life.
Just then, Josiah came in through the door. Following closely on his heels was Buck. He took in the scene in the apartment, the damaged stuff, the trance like state Sherry was in, and knew instantly what had happened. He marched over to Ezra and squatted down in front of him. "How you doing there pard?" he asked Ezra softly
"OH, you know, not too bad, how about yourself?" Ezra drawled, as if a hurricane named Vin Tanner had not recently passed through the apartment and he didn't have a woman clinging to him in shock.
"Must say, I've had better mornings. Here let me take her, you gather up her stuff and we're getting out of this place" Ezra wasn't the closest to Buck, but if there was anyone he felt comfortable handing Sherry off to, it was this man. He knew women, he knew what they needed, how they operated, what made them tick. Ezra passed Sherry over to Buck without question. Buck stood up with her in his arms, he pressed her face into his neck and cradled her. He turned and strode through the apartment into the hallway, to make sure she didn't see the activity inside.
Josiah took over cleaning up the worst of the mess, Ezra grabbed Sherry's small bag of stuff, and Ezra and Chris exited the apartment. Chris would have a cleaning crew come over and put the place to rights, under his direct supervision of course. There was some brief debate on how to transport her, she wouldn't fit in Ezra's jag, not while being held by Buck. So it was decided, Buck would climb in Chris' truck, Chris would drive, Ezra would follow in his car, and someone would come back for Buck's truck. Sherry didn't make a peep during this entire exchange. She just held on to Buck like she had been to Ezra, she didn't even lift her head from his neck, but her hot tears soaked another shirt. Once they arrived at Ezra's house, he parked in the garage and opened the door to let everyone in.
"Put her in the guest bed" he directed. Buck tried to put her down, but she wouldn't let go. He didn't want to force her, "Aw, guys, a little help here" he looked helplessly at Chris, who looked baffled by the situation. Not exactly comforting when your go-to guy, the one guy present who has been married, is confused. Ezra was downstairs organizing things there, so Chris came over and gently pried Sherry's arms off of Buck, and rolled her into the bed. She just curled up into the fetal position on her side and started shaking uncontrollably. Buck looked at Chris, Chris looked back, both men unsure of what to do to help her with her grief. Chris tried to put a comforting hand on her arm, but she didn't respond. Letting out a sigh, Buck sat down beside her on the bed. She let herself be rolled over and gathered against his side. Chris let out a sigh, not used to feeling ineffective in a situation. It was a feeling he did not like. Sherry stopped shaking as soon as Buck sat beside her.
"I'll stay here, until Ez can relieve me. Go see what is taking that man so long" Buck asked. Chris moved downstairs, to find no sign of the southern man.
"Where'd he sneak off to?" Chris asked Josiah, who had just arrived.
"He said he had an errand to take care off, be right back"
Chris exclaimed angrily, "What is so damn important that he has to high tale it out of here? That woman needs him, and he just ups and disappears? Of all the fool things…he didn't leave a note, or call one of us"
Nathan rushed into the house, in full Medic mode, "where is she?" he demanded. Chris knew better than to get in his way, he complied with the question immediately.
"Guest room, top of the stairs, first door on the right." Before he had finished the statement, Nathan was flying up the stairs.
Chris and Josiah waited downstairs. Nathan emerged about half an hour later, with Buck tailing him. "She's in shock. I gave her a sedative, it should help her sleep, but I want to keep an eye on her. She needs fluids, if she is crying to the extent I have been told, she will become dehydrated very quickly. And she needs to eat. I checked that cut on her neck, it won't need stitches if she is real gentle with it and doesn't tear it open, it should heal with minimal scaring. You did a really good job with those butterfly closures Chris. Pulled the ends of that wound together tight"
"Well, I learned from the best" he said in acknowledgment of Nathans superb medical expertise, which had come in handy on too many occasions for the agents in the ATF.
Just then JD bust through the front door carrying his laptop. He didn't greet anyone, just headed to the kitchen table and sat down, totally engrossed in what he was watching.
"He's just crossed into Montana"
"Think he will stop before he hits the Canadian border?"
"I don't rightly know, where Brother Vin will stop, but at least he's in gods country, perhaps he can find the peace he craves" Josiah replied.
"As if border patrol or lack of a passport would stop him" Buck replied proudly. "He's a member of ATF Team 7, we don't need no stinking passes" he grinned.
Coming in through the garage door was Ezra, he was carrying a medium sized animal carrier with him.
"Where the hell have you been?" Chris demanded narrowing his eyes and staring menacingly. Ezra just glared right back unaffected by the "Larabee death glare".
"I went to collect Sherry's pet from her house. If anything happened to the poor old thing, it may just finish her off. I called you, you didn't answer, so I sent you a text message, didn't you get it?"
Chris angrily grabbed out his phone, "of course I didn't get it, I would have known if you had called…Oh" his voice dropped off, blinking silently on his phone *one missed call* and *one new message* "Damn, I forgot I turned it onto silent last night and in all of the chaos today, never switched it back."
Ezra just shook his head in frustration. "Can someone please help me get this cat settled in? I have more pet paraphernalia to bring in. It amazes me that one small animal could have so many accoutrements."
"Here give me the cat" JD called out, he had just turned away from his computer. Ezra happily complied; he turned and with Chris went out to his car to bring in the last of the pet supplies. They lugged in wet food, dry food, a heating pad, cushion, litter box, litter, and toys. Piling all of the stuff on the counter, the men began sorting through it all.
"Hay Ace, where do you want to set up the kitty toilet?" Buck asked with a snigger
"Put it in the downstairs bathroom" Ezra decided.
"What's with all of the baby food?" Chris asked.
Ezra chuckled, remembering when Sherry had surprised Vin with her explanation for the baby food. JD had been there as well and he knew the story. That day had been so much fun, relaxing, and hilarious. The expression on Vin's face was priceless. Ezra chucked again.
"It for her baby" JD said with a wicked grin, remembering the events of that day at Sherry's house.
"Am I missing something? Does Sherry have a child?" Buck asked in confusion
"Naw, the cat, it is for the cat, the cat is so old, it won't eat much else" JD said taking pity on his friend, Buck still looked puzzled by a cat eating baby food.
"So Chris, hows your head feeling? Heard that Sherry tossed you but good on yur back side." JD teased
"This I got to hear" Buck exclaimed
"How did you find out about that, you weren't even there?" Chris asked with iritation.
"Oh a little birdy told me"
"Little birdy my ass, I bet it was a 6'3 birdy profiler with overly sharp eyes" Chris muttered, as his hand went up unconsciously to rub the back of his head. Nathan zeroed in on Chris. "Here, let me check that head. I bet you were going to try to slink away without telling me, weren't you?" he demanded.
Chris put up his hands in surrender and allowed himself to be checked out by the medic, while his friends and brothers teased him mercilessly.
"Perhaps we should all look into taking some martial arts classes, to improve our self defense in the field" Chris muttered...
Ezra slipped out of the room, he left the others in his kitchen and went upstairs to check on Sherry.
Please be kind in your reviews! Not Betaed,
Still waiting to see if the team can hold everything together without one of their own … but on an interesting turn of events, now Sherry is living at Ezra's house, who'd have thought he'd unbend enough to share personal space with someone? Wonder how this will turn out?
PS… the bit about the cat is drawn from my own 21year old cat, she stopped eating cat food and the only thing I found she would eat is the meat baby foods…vet said it was fine, and I figure might as well feed her what ever she wants at this point in her life
How was this chapter? I would be interested in your thoughts, if you liked it, how it can be improved, positive constructive advice, Thanks