Any Other day part 3
"What do you mean you can't find her?" Chris yelled in frustration.
"That booth was suppose to be rented out to the Denver chapter of the Boys and Girls Clubs," Nathan explained calmly. "But they know nothing about a fortuneteller, they said they had a haunted house set up instead."
"I was there, Nathan," Buck insisted. "I know we went into that booth." He ran a hand roughly through his hair and glanced at his watch. It was getting late and any minute now they would need to head downstairs to suit up and get out to the site of the raid.
"Well," Nathan sighed, sitting on the corner of his desk and crossing his arms. "There's no record of her from last night. We came up with nothing." He turned so that he was facing Chris. "JD's scouring the phone books and the net to see if he can find any other information."
Listening to his teammates, Ezra sat dejectedly at his desk, staring at the leather blotter. They'd been searching for hours and they couldn't find her. All they had was a first name and even that was probably false. He could describe her, have a sketch drawn up, but what good would it do? How long would he have to live with the visions- until they found her? What if they couldn't find her? His heartbeat sped with his thoughts. The panic growing inside was well hidden from the others but he knew they still were watching him closely.
"And until then we're just out of luck or something?" Chris asked sarcastically.
The ugly man in the battered top hat sat high on his horse and was talking to the gambler. "…I think he'd like your coat, Mister."
"And you'd like a face. Guess we're both out of luck." Ezra watched himself respond and then gasped when the man struck, sending his green clad counterpart to the ground with a solid blow.
"Somebody get his coat."
"Ezra!" Josiah was shaking him. Recovering instantly, he pushed the large man away and rolled his chair out of reach, bouncing it back against the wall closest to his desk.
"You back?" Nathan asked softly.
Wiping a hand over his face, Ezra managed a nod.
"That was freaky," JD admitted. "You just sort of stiffened up, almost looked like you weren't breathing."
"What was it this time?" Buck asked.
Standish looked up to see everyone watching him carefully, none of them having anymore doubt about the intensity of the visions. "I saw myself again," he said honestly. "An incredibly unsightly man on a horse was demanding the jacket I wore and I refused. He hit me."
"Hit you?" Chris asked. "For a coat?"
"Did you feel anything?" Nathan wondered.
"Only surprise…anger." Ezra shrugged, unable to explain the scene any better than he had. He tensed his shaking hands into fists and then relaxed them again, seeking vainly to regain control.
Josiah was talking again. "I don't like it, Chris."
'Like I do?' Ezra thought to himself.
"I don't think we should leave him alone. They seem to be getting worse. What if they're some kind of sign that something is going to happen…to him?" Josiah questioned.
Aislinn's last words flashed through Ezra's mind. "Be warned lest your cynicism blind you to the truth when it's revealed."
"Can you find someone to stay with him?" Chris asked.
Frustrated, shaken and angry, Ezra rose to his feet and pushed past the other men. "When you are finished discussing what should be 'done' with me," he said acidly, "page me. I might answer."
He was halfway to the door when Buck caught his arm and pulled him back. "You're not leaving this way," Wilmington whispered gently. "We're just trying to help."
"What if you can't?" The question slipped out before Ezra could stop it. Immediately he pushed the walls back up, stuffing his emotion aside and shielding himself.
Buck's hand slid up his arm and around the back of his neck, squeezing once before steering him back to the others. "We'll find a way," he assured.
"We need to get ready to go," Nathan commented, hating to bring it up but they had a tight time line for the night.
"I need to go with you," Ezra said, knowing he was probably provoking Larabee.
Chris shook his head. "I already said no. I can't have you endangering the entire operation."
"Chris."
"No, Ezra." Larabee's voice rose in volume.
"At least let me ride along with Josiah in the surveillance van," Ezra requested again. He didn't know why he was pushing, the last thing he wanted was to put anyone in danger but he needed to be at the raid. He'd promised Vin, and he intended to keep his word. "That way Josiah could keep an eye on me as well."
Chris sighed heavily and looked at his watch. Ezra knew they were running short on time and he hoped that would work in his favor. "Please," he added in a last ditch effort to persuade his boss. "The last thing Aislinn said to me was a warning."
"What kind of warning?" Josiah asked.
Ezra shrugged as he looked up at the profiler. "A cryptic one. She implied that my cynicism could keep me from seeing whatever was being revealed."
"Cynicism?"
"Revealed?"
Chris and JD asked together.
Biting his bottom lip, Ezra nodded. "She knew I'd been fabricating my answers, that's why I'm not sure I was actually hypnotized."
"So, seeing yourself in all of these visions could be some kind of warning that something might happen to you?" Buck asked.
"He also saw me and Chris." JD pointed out.
"Who is really in danger then?" Nathan looked as frustrated as Ezra felt.
"I don't know." Standish closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Maybe no one, maybe I'm just weary and my imagination is…" his voice faded and he dropped his hand heavily back to his side. "I just need to be there." He didn't look up from the floor, knowing he couldn't hide his fear at the moment. Everything in his life revolved around maintaining control and now he had none, not even over his own mind.
"You'll ride in the van." Chris finally broke the silence, "and you will –stay- in the van," he ordered.
Three hours later, Ezra sat beside Josiah in the cramped, stuffy van. Monitors showed only the front and back exits of Mitchell's Garage but thanks to Vin's earlier handy work they could at least hear everything that was being said inside. Chris, Nathan, Buck and JD were set up strategically around the building while the Denver City Swat team had been called in for back up.
Ezra listened intently to each member of his team do a routine check in and then turned his attention to the sound of Keith Rounds giving last minute instructions, and focusing on Vin's responding voice. The large garage doors had just opened to let the contact, Lance Garber, drive into the building when Rounds asked Tanner, "How well do you know Garber, Vince?"
He stared at Buck and Ezra, frowning when he stopped less than a foot in front of them, somehow knowing they were going to confront him.
"We might have a problem." Buck said seriously.
"Some disturbing rumors are circulating regarding your relationship with the man in question." Ezra added.
He did his best to stifle the instinct to defend himself. "I expected as much."
Buck looked directly at him. "How well do you know him, Vin?"
"Oh my god." Ezra jumped for the van doors but Josiah grabbed him.
"Chris said you stay in here," Sanchez reminded harshly. "You go out there now and you can blow the whole thing, Brother."
Ezra struggled to pull away. "You don't understand; it's not me."
"I don't care, you can't go out there." Josiah's attention was divided between him and the monitors.
"In the visions, Josiah." Ezra pulled hard, knocking the larger man off balance and freeing himself in the process. "In the visions, I'm Vin." He burst out of the van, and hit the pavement running as the metal doors slammed open and drowned out Chris' order to move in.
Ezra was oblivious to the action around him; driven by the impending fear that was left from the last vision. He had to get to Vin. The sounds of automatic weapons firing filled the cold night as he ran directly into the chaos. He pulled his gun as he searched the area for Tanner. He found him on the far side of the garage, struggling to subdue Rounds while one of Rounds' henchmen was coming up fast behind him.
"Vin!" He screamed, trying to raise his weapon and signal the sharpshooter to the danger behind him but the rest of his warning went unvoiced.
He turned and suddenly an arm snaked around his neck, pulling him roughly against the bars. He struggled, trying vainly to get a breath of air but the arm tightened mercilessly. His vision began to fade. He tore frantically at the arm, grabbing the other arm that reached for him, he snapped the wrist and was immediately released but the darkness was already there, offering no escape.
"Come on, Standish. You stubborn son of a bitch, open those eyes so I can kick your ass." Larabee's voice cut through the haze and Ezra blinked rapidly, trying to focus his blurred vision. "Great." Chris tossed up his hands in mock frustration, relief teasing his voice. "Now you decide to follow orders."
Ezra tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness and at least two sets of hands held him in place. "Vin?" he tried to ask but pain pierced his throat, cutting him off and intensifying when he was hit with a bout of coughing.
"Easy," Nathan said, checking his vitals.
"Stand back, please." A deeper strange voice interrupted as Ezra gasped frantically for air. He closed his eyes as a paramedic gently eased an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. He gagged, his throat feeling like it was blocked…it hurt to breathe.
"What happened to him?" someone asked.
"Don't know he just collapsed."
"Someone strangle him?"
"No, why?"
"Look at his neck."
Gradually the voices melded together and faded.
Yawning, Ezra shifted on the hard hospital bed in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. His back twinged and he bit his lip, as he settled back against the pillows once more. It'd been a long, disjointed night and morning with very little rest as doctors and nurses had filed in and out of his room as often as he'd slipped in and out of awareness. They'd checked the irregular bruising on his back and his swollen throat, debating for hours on the best course of treatment while he laid there concentrating on breathing and not panicking. He'd been doing well until someone had mentioned a ventilator and then all he remembered was trying to get away.
Finally, he'd heard Chris' voice, loud, threatening and not directed at him. Someone had grabbed his hand and whispered in his ear. He couldn't recall what had been said but the voice had been enough to keep him calm. His breathing had improved sometime after dawn and he'd grown increasingly more aware of what was happening around him. He'd wanted to go home, but of course the doctors insisted he stay at least until they were positive there'd be no further complications. If he could talk he would have told them that they were the only complications he could foresee causing any problems.
The door to his room opened and Ezra winced as he turned to see who was entering.
"Doc told you no quick moves for awhile," Nathan reminded, earning a scowl.
"And no talking," JD chimed in, grinning as the look was redirected towards him.
Josiah laughed but passed Ezra the small whiteboard and marker he'd picked up for him on the way in.
"Very amusing," Ezra scrawled, flipping the board around so they could all read it.
Chuckling, Vin parked himself on the foot of the bed. "How you feeling?"
Ezra opened his mouth to speak but caught himself and wrote 'Better' on the board. He watched as the group settled in the chairs that they'd snuck into the room before they'd been kicked out for a few hours to get rest. His nurses had rolled their eyes at the crowded mess but didn't change anything, knowing it would be a futile effort. Cleaning off the board with the eraser that Josiah provided, Ezra wrote something and then showed the board to Chris.
"What happened?" Chris read.
"You got away from me and went running into the middle of a gunfight without a vest," Josiah growled. Ezra raised an eyebrow and touched a fist to his chest circling it clockwise a few times. Sanchez smiled. "Apology accepted." He nodded, neither noticing the confused looks around them.
"It was a miracle you didn't get shot," Nathan muttered, but Ezra ignored the reprimand in the comment and pointed emphatically at Vin.
Tanner smiled, "JD heard you scream my name. He rushed the guy just after he'd gotten a strangle hold on me."
The room grew quiet as Ezra's eyes widened and he gently touched his own neck. He'd seen his reflection earlier in the day and knew he had a brilliant red and purple bruise across the front of his throat.
"Yeah, Ez." Vin's voice fell to a whisper, acknowledging the connection.
"That's not all," Buck pointed out. "When he tackled the big guy, they struggled and JD ended up stabbed. If it wasn't for his vest he'd be out of commission for awhile himself."
Dunne tapped his shoulder and shrugged as Ezra's met his. "Right here." The exact spot where he'd been stabbed in Ezra's vision.
Ezra let himself sink further back into the pillows as he tried to process the enormity of everything they were telling him. He picked up the whiteboard and wrote quickly. 'Aislinn?'
"Still haven't found her," Chris answered, before Standish could show the others. "Called the convention coordinator this morning and the set up crew…no one else seems to remember her or her booth. Have you had anymore dreams of visions?"
"None," Ezra instinctively spoke and then grimaced at the harsh pain that resulted. Josiah picked up the cup of water on the bedside table and offered it to him but he just frowned and waved it away, his frustration was clear as he wrote again. 'No one attacked me??' He already knew the answer but he had to ask anyway.
"No." Buck shook his head. "No one touched you. You came running in, screaming at Vin and then just dropped to the floor. You moved around a bit like you were struggling and then went still."
"We thought you'd been shot," Josiah admitted, the tremor in his voice betraying the fear he'd felt.
"How did you know I was in danger?" Vin asked.
'I was you' Ezra wrote.
"You were me?" Vin looked confused.
"In the visions, you mean?" Chris leaned back in his chair.
Ezra made a fist and motioned like he was knocking on a door.
"What's that?" Buck looked at Josiah.
"He said yes." Sanchez translated.
Vin sought eye contact with Ezra. "When you can talk again, I want to hear all about these visions." He ignored the noncommittal grunt he got in response and rested his hand on Standish's leg to communicate his support.
"So, does this mean that Ezra was really Vin in a past life?" JD pulled one foot up into the chair so he could rest his chin on his knee.
Chris barked out a laugh when Standish reacted as if the thought horrified him. Vin slapped a leg and was rewarded with a kick when he answered. "That's a little too scary to think about."
JD frowned. "Yeah…Well…How do you explain it then? The full moon? Halloween? A crazy lady who disappears from the planet?" At the questioning looks he went on. "Come on, Ezra saw me, Chris and himself…and Buck?" He was surprised when Ezra pointed at Wilmington. "Plus there's the whole thing with me getting stabbed and him getting strangled, explain that." He dropped his foot to the floor again.
Ezra watched the youngest member of the team, wishing he could give answers…wishing he had answers.
"I don't know that we can explain it, JD," Josiah admitted.
"So what? We just chalk it up to fate? I mean you're always saying we're destined to be together, is this just fate's way of showing us that?"
"Could be." Josiah smiled mysteriously.
"Seriously?" JD looked at the others. "You think that's it?"
Nobody spoke for a moment, each man contemplating the thought before Buck cleared his throat. "Any other day and you know I'd say that was all a load of hooey, Kid." As JD looked up at him, he gestured toward Ezra's neck. "But when I see something like that, and this…" He reached out and traced his fingers lightly over the spot where the knife had almost embedded into Dunne's shoulder. "I know damn well this wasn't just any other day. Whatever it was, I'm damn thankful for it."
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Coming soon--the sequel "Brothers"