sorry for the slight delay in posting-had to work today and the inlaws are in town!

Brothers part 3

Ezra was positive he now fully understood exactly what it meant to feel like a truck had hit you. Where his body didn't throb in pain…it was frighteningly numb. He was surrounded by darkness again, the kind of black that choked him with its presence, suffocating him as if it lived.

Standish swallowed hard, pushing the panic away and forcing himself to recall the dimensions of the room. He tried to move, remembering the small workbench somewhere across from him, but cramps and spasms wracked his body and he cried out as he fell back in a heap. He gasped, the pain taking his breath away. God, he hurt.

He needed to focus. Focus on anything other than the pain and darkness. Ignore the blood he could feel dripping down his neck and the agony of his injured arm as it continued to swell.

Vin.

Was Vin still safe? Had this Rounds kid realized his mistake? Ezra couldn't help but be thankful for Rounds' lack of intellect. Not that he enjoyed being in his current position, but maybe Rounds had made other mistakes, too. Mistakes that would lead Chris and the others to him, because one thing that Standish had no doubt about… The team was looking. They would find him.

The basement suddenly filled with light and as he squinted against the harsh change and listened to Rounds' heavy footsteps down the stairs, he prayed the others wouldn't be too late.

"How about the Rainwright case?" Nathan called out. His voice sounded like a bellow in the silent office.

Tanner thought for a minute, raking his fingers through already mussed hair. "No," he finally answered. "That kid had dark hair."

Buck leaned back in his chair and turning it from side to side. "There's got to be something we're missing." They'd been through almost all of Vin's cases and still were coming up empty-handed.

Josiah and JD had questioned security but no one recalled seeing the undisguised kid, or Ezra, leave the garage.

"What about Aislinn?" JD ventured.

"What about her?" Vin asked almost defensively.

"Maybe she's the key to figuring this out?"

"But how do we find her again?" Buck wondered.

"We don't." Vin shrugged and stared at his computer screen. "She'd come to us if she could do anything else to help."

"What was that case anyway?" Nathan stood up so he had a clear view of the sharpshooter. "The one at Halloween when she hypnotized Ezra or whatever it was."

"Rounds case," Chris answered, coming out of his office.

"Anyone check on that yet?" Josiah asked.

JD nodded. "Keith Rounds is still in prison. Not even scheduled for a parole hearing for another five years."

Quiet filled the office again as they struggled to think of what to try next.

"Any hits in the system yet?" Tanner questioned Chris softly.

Larabee had been running their suspect's picture and stats through the computer looking for a match in prior records.

Chris shook his head. "Not yet."

Tanner glanced at the office clock. Ezra'd been missing almost ten hours. With no ransom demands and nothing to go on but a fuzzy picture and cryptic warnings from a fortuneteller, Vin knew they were running out of time.

He thought of Aislinn again, trying to remember her exact words to him. There had to be something there he was missing.

"You need to help your brother." Her words rang through his mind. He could feel her hand on his chest, reminding him that…though the men he worked with might not be brothers by blood…they truly were brothers to him in his heart.

Brothers by blood. Brothers.

"Shit!" He stood quickly. "Brothers." He looked at the others as if they should already understand.

Chris did and was already heading into his office.

"Brothers," Vin said again. "Does Keith Rounds have any brothers?"

Ezra watched as Rounds walked over to the workbench and then back to him.

"Time to sit up," Rounds said grabbing Ezra by the hair and pulling him upright. Standish bit back a moan, gasping instead as he was propped against the wall. The room seemed to tilt and twirl about him.

"Ready to play?" Rounds sat on the floor in front of him, legs crossed as if they were about to have a friendly chat. A gun rested in his lap.

"What are we playing?" Ezra croaked. He didn't realize how thirsty he was until he tried to speak.

Rory didn't seem to notice his difficulty in speaking, instead he picked up the gun. "Just a little game I know." He spun the chamber and Ezra frantically tried to remember if he'd seen Rounds load the gun. "Feeling lucky today?" the kid asked. He leaned forward, pressing the cold barrel into Ezra's forehead.

Ezra tried to take a deep calming breath, but it hurt too much. Metal bit harshly into his skin and his heart raced. Chills swept through him as sweat ran down the back of his neck. He did not want to die this way.

Rounds pressed harder. "One. Two."

Ezra closed his eyes, thinking of his team. They were his friends…his family. They were everything to him.

"Three."

Please God don't let Vin ever find out Rounds meant to kill him.

Click.

Ezra jumped and Rounds began to laugh.

Click. Click. Click. Rounds pulled the trigger again and again, each time jabbing the barrel viscously into Ezra's already battered head. "Bet you thought you were a goner, didn't ya?" Rory laughed, though inwardly torn between being impressed and angered by Tanner's resolve under pressure.

He pulled the gun back and reached into his pocket. Carefully he loaded the weapon.

Ezra listened as each bullet slid into the chamber, counting silently and knowing that this time the gun was completely loaded.

"Do you have any brothers?" Rory asked.

The question surprised Ezra and he opened his eyes. Rounds sat very still, looking at the gun in his hands. Ezra thought of how to answer. "Of a sort."

Rounds looked up at him, obviously expecting an explanation.

"They aren't my blood, but I think we're as close as brothers would be," Ezra managed.

Rory frowned. "You're really that tight? I thought you couldn't be closer than blood."

Ezra smiled sloppily. "There was a time," he paused swallowing with difficulty. "When I would have believed that."

Rounds nodded. "How many?"

"Six."

Rory's eyes widened. "And you love them?"

"I do," Ezra admitted.

"What would you do for them?"

Ezra choked on a laugh, then gasped as pain ricocheted through him. He thought of Vin. "Anything."

"Really?"

"Yes."

The basement was quiet save for sound of Ezra's shallow breathing.

Rory swallowed, running his fingers over the gun. "Would you die for them?" he whispered not looking up at Ezra.

"Y-yes."

Rounds looked up and met Ezra's exhausted, pain-filled gaze. "Would you kill for them?"

Ezra didn't close his eyes as Rounds raised the gun. "If it was needed," he whispered.

The kid pointed the gun, holding it away from Ezra's forehead this time but still close enough to do the job intended. The gun wavered and Ezra realized the boy was shaking.

Rory looked into the green eyes staring back at him. Even through the pain he could see so much life there. His arm trembled and the gun suddenly felt like it weighed a ton. He squeezed his eyes closed and thought of Keith. Keith wanted this. He needed to finish this for his brother. He fingered the trigger lightly, opening his eyes again, surprised to find his vision clouded with tears. Tanner continued to simply wait, watching him without any expression. It was as if he'd resigned himself to whatever was going to come next.

Rory pushed to his feet and started to pace, the gun falling at his side. Minutes passed as turmoil ripped at his insides, pulling him back and forth between following through on his brother's order and the reality of taking another person's life.

Ezra watched quietly as Rounds struggled with himself, not daring to move. He thought for sure he'd heard movement above them and now sensed someone watching from the stairs. Rounds was so distracted with his own struggle he was completely unaware that anyone was with them.

Rory's anger grew, anger with himself that he couldn't just do the task and be done with it. He knew he'd hurt Tanner…wasn't that enough? No, Keith wanted the man dead. It crossed his mind for an instant that everything in his life since his parents' death had been about what Keith wanted, but still, Keith was his brother…You were suppose to be willing to do anything for your brother weren't you?

Rounds stopped and took a deep breath, pointing the gun at Ezra again but even as he aimed he knew he couldn't do it. He couldn't kill, not even for his brother. Dropping to his knees, Rory shoved the gun across the floor to the back corner of the room and cried out in frustration at his own failure.

Finally, Rounds looked at Ezra again. "These men, your brothers…" His voice was heavy with emotion. "Would they do anything for you?"

"You even twitch like you're gonna move and you'll find out the hard way," Chris' low angry voice cut through the room.

Rory froze, his eyes wide with fear as he glanced toward the stairs. Three men in full gear squatted on the stairwell aiming their weapons at him.

Ezra closed his eyes.

Vin watched, covering Chris as the lead agent threw Rounds to the floor, grinding the young man's face into the cement and planting a knee in the small of his back. Tanner's relief at seeing the kid in custody was countered by the activity he heard behind him.

He listened as Nathan talked softly to Ezra, trying to reassure him as he took stock of the multiple injuries. "You're okay, you're okay," he heard Jackson murmuring again and again. "We're here."

'Finally,' Tanner thought. It hadn't taken long to find the house, it was still in Keith Rounds' name, but when they'd actually arrived, they had to set up a perimeter and make sure they knew who all was in the building before they could move in. Buck's high tech gear had tuned in just in time to pick up the sound of a gun's chamber spinning…Chris had ordered them in fast and silent.

"JD, get those damn paramedics down here now!" Josiah's booming voice shook the basement.

"Ezra okay?" Buck questioned.

"Ezra?" Rory tried to peer up at the agents. "Who the hell is Ezra?"

"Shut up," Chris shoved Rounds' head down again but the kid resisted.

"That's Tanner," he insisted.

Anger ripped through Vin as the realization struck him and the pieces of Aislinn's conversation suddenly made sense.

"Move," he growled at Chris, who obeyed without comment.

Grabbing Rounds by the back of his neck, Vin pulled him to his feet. Rory cried out as he was spun around and thrown back into the wall. He opened his mouth to protest, but clamped it shut as the barrel of Vin's weapon rammed into the soft flesh under his chin.

"Give me one reason not to blow your head off right here," Vin whispered menacingly.

Rory stammered. "P-please, I don't understand."

"Allow me to introduce myself then," Vin said, enjoying the sheer panic in the kid's eyes. "I'm Vin Tanner."

Standing outside the closed door of Ezra's hospital room, Vin tried to prepare himself to enter. The others had all taken their turns inside already and, though anxious to see his friend…Vin dreaded it, too.

The good news was Ezra would be okay. The bad news…it would take him a while to recover from his various injuries, particularly the broken arm, fractured ribs and concussion. A wave of guilt washed over Vin. Those injuries had been meant for him.

"You shouldn't feel such guilt."

Vin smiled as he looked at Aislinn. Her hair was pulled back from her face, emphasizing her thinness.

"How do you know I'm feeling guilty?" he asked, challenging her.

Aislinn grinned and smoothed the front of her vintage blouse. "You wear it like a badge," she told him. "It's because of you that he is going to be all right."

"It's because of me that he's even in here," Vin scoffed, waving his hand, angrily indicating the hospital.

Shaking her head, she grabbed his hand in hers and squeezed tightly. "You mustn't take on that responsibility."

"They were after me," he pointed out.

"Then it's their fault he's here…not yours." She released his hand. "If the roles were reversed, would you want him to carry the weight of this burden?" she questioned.

"No," he snapped. "No," he repeated, softer this time.

Aislinn nodded. "Go," she motioned to the door. "He still needs you."

Vin met her gaze. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "I'm not sure why or how…but you did help."

"No," she laughed lightly. "My words just pointed you in the right direction," she said, pointing again at Ezra's door. "Maybe it's time to listen again." She started to walk away when Vin reached out and stopped her.

"Wait, why did you do this?" he asked.

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Why us? Why come to us like this. Twice now you've appeared out of nowhere and saved one of us."

Smiling mysteriously, Aislinn shook her head. "You saved each other," she murmured moving away before he could question her further.

Tanner watched her go, seeming to glide as she turned the corner of the hall. "You didn't answer my question," he reminded her in a whisper.

Finally he turned back to Ezra's door, suddenly overwhelmed with the need to see his friend.

Ezra heard the door and opened his eyes, praying it wasn't the nurse returning with yet another ice wrap. At the moment, he seriously thought he'd do anything for a couple of heated blankets.

"Hey," Vin greeted. "Thought maybe you'd be asleep."

Ezra chuckled and winced. "Too cold," he explained.

"Still icing you up are they?" Tanner pulled the room's only chair closer to the side of the bed and sat down.

"Occasionally," Standish answered.

Vin grew quiet as he got a good look at Ezra's injuries in the harsh hospital lighting. Bruises seemed to be appearing everywhere, most turning a dark black or bright purple. Stark white bandages covered cuts on Standish's neck and chest and his arm was wrapped in a strange looking brace.

"Colorful, aren't I?" Humor laced Ezra's voice. "They're waiting for the swelling to go down before they put me in one of those infernal casts," he continued, seeing where Vin was focused. "Vin?" he prodded when Tanner continued to stare.

Vin blinked and refocused on Ezra's battered face. "I see this and know it was supposed to be me in that bed…not you," he admitted.

"Don't," Ezra's voice softened. "Promise me you won't got there." He reached out, raising a trembling hand just centimeters off the bed, but Vin saw the motion and moved quickly to grasp it with his own.

"Promise," Ezra demanded hoarsely.

Vin squeezed gently. "Okay."

Immediately Ezra visibly relaxed. "Thank you."

Vin wasn't sure how long they stayed that way- comfortable in the silent strength of their friendship when Ezra cleared his throat. "So tell me," he sounded strong again. "How is Lady Aislinn?" He smiled, casually moving his hand from Vin's. "Mr. Wilmington was trying to fill me in but you know how he tends to…embellish."

Vin adjusted his position in the chair and shrugged. "She's a mystery, that one. She was just here," he waved to the door.

"Really?" Ezra raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yup, shows up whenever she damn pleases," Tanner complained.

"Yes, well. Feel fortunate she didn't hypnotize you," Ezra pointed out.

Vin laughed. "I asked her why, why us."

Ezra waited.

"Never answered me, just gave me more mumbo jumbo about how we saved each other." He shook his head.

"She seems to use her words carefully," Ezra observed seriously.

Tanner agreed, "Hmm, told me we were brothers." He looked up when Ezra didn't comment. "That's what led me to you," he admitted. "Was thinking of what she had told me and realized we hadn't checked Rounds' record for any brothers."

"Who'd have thought one idea, one word like that would mean so much?" Ezra murmured closing his eyes as exhaustion and medication began to take its toll again.

Reaching out, Vin laid his hand on Ezra's uninjured arm. "It's a good word," he whispered watching as Standish slipped in to sleep, "brother."

TBC in epilogue...