Vin was nervous. Not only was he going to be meeting with the MisPer agents this morning, they had also arranged for him to meet his mother. He was so glad to have his pack around him! When Josiah brought JD in from the airport and Nathan brought Rain back from her shift at the hospital his pack was finally complete. Well, almost, but Buck had just started to court Inez and Casey wasn't sure she would be joining the pack in this life time. Vin didn't blame her for being skittish. He knew it was hard on those who didn't remember what he and the Seven did. She couldn't know how well she'd fit in or the fact that she was already loved by all of them as a sister, except for JD who was still so in love with her that he practically worshiped the ground she walked on.
JD had been so vocal and excited when he arrived that he reminded Vin of the sixteen year old greenhorn he had once been. Vin had learned everything that had been going on from their search for him to his meeting Casey at MIT. He had been upfront with her about who he was and that he'd been sent to check up on her. He'd told Vin that he would have gone anyway, but without permission from Miz Nettie he wouldn't have approached her.
Vin shook his head. He was woolgathering, shying away from thinking about the meeting he was about to walk into. Josiah opened the door to the FBI office and led the way to the MisPer office. Chris was right behind him and the rest of the seven followed. Jack and Danny followed the large group, watching with interest as the sheer presence of the men had people intimidated into clearing the hallway ahead of them. It was helped by the fact that the men following Josiah were walking in an arrowhead formation with Larabee at the tip.
Danny was struck by the way Vin just blended in with the others. There was no hesitation, no gaps, nothing to indicate that less than 48 hours before these men hadn't seen each other in over thirty years, perhaps even longer than that although Vin wasn't willing to talk about his last life that much. It was like watching a pistol slide into a custom made holster. You couldn't even tell if the man was nervous or not. He wasn't sure if he was irritated or impressed with his friend's composure. A little bit of both, he decided as he watched from the background while Josiah did the introductions.
"John Henry, head of Houston's Missing Persons Unit, these are the Seven. Chris Larabee, Buck Wilmingon, Vin Tanner, Ezra Standish, Nathan Jackson and JD Dunne." Vin wasn't paying any attention to the introductions, all of his attention was on the honey blond woman sitting in the interview room on the other side of the office. Knowing that Chris would stop anyone from going after him and that Jack and Josiah would take care of the boss here, he went straight to the room and went in.
Margaret Tanner looked up as the door opened and in walked a mirror image of her dead husband James. "Vincent?" she asked even though it could be no one else. She had to reach up to grab him and pull him close but that too was a reminder that this was her husband's son. "Oh Lord, I've missed you so much!" she sobbed.
"I missed ya too, Ma. Mor'n you c'n ever know." Vin gasped out. "Hope I ain't a disappointment ta ya."
"No matter what, ya'll never be a disappointment to me!" Margaret declared firmly. "Now let's go out and ya can introduce me to the people ya came in with."
"Ya'd best know the worst first," Vin was firm. He needed to know how she was going to react. This was more important than he could explain, even to the others. This wasn't just his mother of this life. If she had been just that, like Josiah's parent's changed each life, then he could have accepted the Fitzgerald's more easily. This was the same woman who had who had born him in his first life and every life there after. "I'm Gamma in a Two Blood pack, Ma. Those men out there are most of my pack. The other two are my boss and partner from New York. We're Four Corners Pack, the same pack that was placed under the Curse of the Seven."
"You're one of the Seven?" Margaret exclaimed. "James loved that story! He used to wish he could run into one of you. He thought it would be wonderful to work on a case with all of you. You may not know this but he was a patrol officer for the Houston Police Department before his death. He was hoping to make it to Detective. He told me all about the Curse. I think it's wonderful." She hugged her grown son once again, not being able to get enough of holding him.
The Pack looked on from the bullpen, then as one they turned to look at Chris. He would be the one to decide, although the outcome was pretty much given. He grinned at them, which was enough to make the more timid agents in the office find something urgent to do elsewhere. "She's Pack," he stated more than made it a declaration. There had been no doubt she would be welcomed if she accepted Vin. The hug she had given him the second time and the wary look on the tracker's face had told them the story of what was happening in the room. They were more than happy for their pack brother, he had mourned his mother hard for many years.