"You folks have 5 minutes until you get to witness the next execution. I am sure Mr. Rubenstein and Mrs. Talbot would prefer to forego this part of the plan."

"The bus in on the way. There is a lot of traff-"

"Spare me the excuses. Four minutes until the doors open again." He slammed down the phone.

"OK, in three minutes we tell them the bus is here. It's just up the block now. Once he opens up the door we let loose electronic hell and move in. SWAT is in position to fire teargas in, and the second team is ready to blow the back door."

"Locals OK with us taking over the operation?" Buck didn't really care that much about the answer, unless it meant someone might challenge them at the last minute.

"The second they shot Ezra, this became an ATF case. Morton is smart enough to go along without needing to be told that." Chris looked as his men. "JD, you ready to jam the signal."

The young man looked decidedly nervous but made a valiant effort to hide it. "Just waiting for you to say go. I can do this Chris."

"Never had any doubts."

They had debated the plan again in the limited time they had once everything else was in place. The instant the door was opened, the signal would be incepted. JD had played with the frequency, and if all went to plan, not only would the link go down, but there would be a blast of noise from the feedback. With luck, the thieves all had earpieces like the one Ezra had been wearing, making the shock even stronger – more than enough to give the SWAT team the chance to get inside and take care of business. It was also the one of the biggest sticking points to the plan. Ezra might still be wearing his earpiece.

"What will it do to him, Nathan? Hurt like he is?"

"Can't say Buck. The jolt sure as hell isn't going to help him any."

That had been a key part of the debate, until Josiah pointed out the obvious. "He'd say go for it. He walked out of that bank knowing this might happen. If it will save the hostages, it's what he'd say to do."

"More than that Josiah." Chris would have preferred to not be supporting the claim, but knew it was true. "It's what he did say to do. He's been using what's left of his strength to get this info to us. We owe it to him, to them, to do what we have to."

They finally, reluctantly, agreed that while it was a thin plan at best, in the limited time they had it was the best option they could devise.

Josiah didn't want to risk that the phone might not be answered, since these guys were not expecting their demands to be met. He reached for the megaphone a bellowed out the news.

"Bus is here. Don't do anything. The bus has arrived." There were several tense moments during which Chris was sure no one breathed. He knew he didn't. The blinds finally moved slightly, then fell back into position. Josiah stared down at the phone, willing it to ring.

All actions outside came to a stop at the first sign of action at the door. The blinds swayed slightly as the lock was released. A few seconds later the door swung open. That was the moment a high-pitched electronic shriek echoed through the bank, clearly heard by all those outside. Everyone in the building instinctively reached to cover their ears, and fifteen seconds of only barely controlled chaos followed.

At the instant he could see there was no one blocking his shot, the SWAT officer stationed nearest fired the first teargas cannister into the building, followed by another one through the front window. The shattered window shredded the blinds that had blocked Vin's view of the interior. He instantly drew a bead on one of the criminals inside and took him out with a single shot as the perp struggled to raise his weapon against one of the hostages. The gunman who had been at the door was momentarily blinded by the flash of the canister being fired and was taken down quickly by a charging Buck Wilmington. The only sound he was able to make was a shriek of pain as he hit the ground with his arm being violently twisted behind him. Buck wasn't certain due to the noise deadening earplugs he had on but was fairly sure the shout had been proceeded by the snap of a bone. The electronic noise had stopped after about 5 seconds, but the effect lingered enough to give the hostages the distraction they needed, despite their own discomfort, to swarm the final member of the trio, taking full advantage of the confusion to add a few well aimed kicks and punches as they piled onto him. The cops had some difficulty in coming to his aid, not that they were in any hurry to do so.

Ezra was aware enough of his surroundings to know something was going on, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. The pain had subsided to a point if was more of a nuisance than anything else. Just a sensation of discomfort that kept the overall numbness slightly at bay. His latest effort to move his fingers had been futile. At least, he thought it had. He simply couldn't tell anymore.

Just as he was ready to surrender to the encroaching darkness he felt his body vibrating. Almost humming. In all of the tales he'd heard of fading to he afterlife, that had never been a part of the process. Light and music, yes. Vibrations no. Before he could dwell on the confusing detail as muffled squealing assaulted him. Even though it made no sense, the sound seemed to be coming from inside him, coursing through him.

He couldn't tell how long it lasted, but when it ended, the confusion around him was even more apparent. He heard gunshots and shouting. There were screams and shrieks and a cacophony of utter chaos echoing in his head. He tried to move, to turn to see what was going on, but his body refused to cooperate. He couldn't tell if that was due to an inability to move, or simply the lack of any strength to do so. Summoning what little fight he had left in him, he struggled to stay awake at least long enough to find out which side won.

It was difficult to fight the impulse to run back to Ezra, but Chris knew Nathan was with him, and had to let that be enough for the moment. He scanned the room for any indication the confrontation was still not over, but seeing nothing that triggered his instincts, he allowed himself to bring it down a notch. He removed his own plugs and took the three quick steps needed to bring him next to Buck, who was in the process of snarling out his prisoner's rights.

"Make sure he can hear you properly, and that he understands them Buck. No lawyer is going to get this bastard off on a technicality."

"How's Ezra?"

The question caused the suspect to turn his head in surprise. "Ezra – you know that arrogant jerk?"

Buck pulled at the cuffs, resulting in another sharp gasp of pain. "That arrogant jerk happens to be a federal agent, and one of the best friends I've got. You the bastard who shot him?"

"Don't answer that." Chris warned, still worried about making sure they had the case they needed.

John sneered. "What, somebody killed your little playmate? What a shame."

Buck pressed him firmly against the wall. "You do understand that you are about a dozen kinds of dead right now don't you?"

"Nathan hasn't said anything, but I heard him calling for the medics, so he's hanging in." Chris finally allowed himself a quick look outside.

"Go. Check on him." Buck moved to haul his prisoner outside. "I promise not to kill this guy yet."

The addition of the last word was enough to cause Chris to look back at his long-time friend. Convincing himself that Buck wasn't entirely serious in the threat, he jogged back to Nathan's side. He had to swallow hard to choke back his reaction when he got there.

"Nathan?" he gasped out the question in without daring to speak it.

"Weak. Barely breathing. He's coughing up blood."

The medics had already gently rolled Ezra to his side, confirming the bullet wound and placing pressure on the sight. Nathan initial relief at seeing only a small amount of blood pooled below disappeared with Ezra's first cough. The oxygen mask was spattered with blood flecks. When a second, stronger cough coated the interior Nathan realized that blood had been settling into his lungs. He was drowning in it.

"Ezra, can you hear me?"

"Standish, answer the man."

A rapid fluttering of eyelashes was the only response they got. It took several seconds for the movement to stop, and Chris was looking into rapidly glazing eyes. "You did good Ezra. You hear me? We got them all Ezra. It's over."

"Hostages?" The gasped word was followed by another series of violent coughs and gasps of pain.

Chris glanced over to the building where people were already beginning to be escorted out.

"Everybody is fine Ezra. No, keep your eyes open and look at me."

The medics pushed Chris away to have better access to their patient. Reluctantly, he allowed them to do so. "You keep fighting Standish. You aren't allowed to give up – you understand?"

There was no answer. Ezra's body tensed as pain arched through him when the medics shifted him, going slack a second later.

"Ezra? You hear me?" Nathan prodded carefully, trying to get a response.

"He's not breathing – we need to move him now." Nathan cleared back to allow the experts to take over, stepping next to the rest of the team who had collected near by. His planned briefing was cut short before he was able to start.

"No, oh God no." Josiah was closest and was able to grab the woman running toward Ezra. "No."

"Easy. Slow down. You can't get to him now ma'am. Let them work."

She gasped out, fighting to catch her breath as she sobbed. "It should be me. That should be me."

It took more force than it should have to turn her away from staring as Ezra was loaded onto a stretcher and rushed to the ambulance. "I understand you're upset, but you can't blame yourself. We know Ezra, and I can bet he did what he could to make sure they picked him to be the spokesman. You can't blame yourself for the luck of the draw."

"Actually, I can. He changed places with me. We had numbers. He had nine, I had one. He switched. Oh God, do you think he knew this would happen? He knew he was going to die?"

"You don't know Ezra all that well." Vin tried with no success to give her a reassuring smile. "He isn't dead yet, and he doesn't like to let the bad guys win. Now, you need to let the medics look you over and talk to the police. We'll keep you informed about Ezra."

"Yes, of course. I – I want to thank him. I –"

JD took her hand and began leading her to join the others. "I can promise you he won't want you making a fuss, but I'm sure he'd like to see you." He watched her being taken into a nearby building for privacy before rejoining the team in time to hear Josiah.

"She was right. He knew what was coming. You could see it."

Tempting as it was to put on a brave face, Nathan knew they were all aware of how bad it looked. "It's bad guys. I don't know that we're in time."

"He's too stubborn to give up." Vin spoke with far more confidence than he felt.

Chris turned Nathan to look at him. "Did he hear me? Does he know that the hostages are alright?" There was no hiding the desperation in his voice.

"I don't know Chris. I can't say for sure."

JD looked at him in confusion. "What difference does it make?"

The bleak answer came from a different source. "Because," Josiah spoke quietly, "Ezra deserves to know he saved them. He deserves to die knowing he saved them."

Vin had moved back to where Ezra had been, eyeing the small pool of blood. He reached down beside it, pointing at something next to the spot.

"He was on top of it. The earpiece must have fallen when he was hit. Muffled the sound for him. Guess that's the first break we got in all of this."

Buck looked at it, then back over to where the suspects were being loaded into a police van. His body was tense with the desire to break something, or someone. The absence of a suitable target was too much to deal with. "Where are they being taken?" he snarled.

"Relax Buck. Like I told Morton – the bastards shot an ATF agent – they're ours." Buck grinned ferally at Chris's words. "OK, let me rephrase that. They are being taken to ATF headquarters. Travis texted me when this started that we don't get to interrogate them."

"Like hell we don't!"

"Not up for debate." Chris countered. "This is going to be done by the book."

"I can do by the book."

Even under the circumstances, the comment got several laughs. "You haven't even read the book Buck." JD chided his best friend. "And if you had the book, you'd use it to beat the guy senseless."

"So we just let this whole thing go. Too bad, so sad? Ezra's gone and that's it, move on?"

"No Buck, of course not." The adrenaline rush was wearing off on all of them, and shock settling in. Chris knew things would be said that couldn't be taken back if things weren't diffused in a hurry. He figured he might as well be the first one to say some of them. "He's not gone, so we all need to drop that crap right off. We are going to have our role in this, but we are going to make sure it plays out right. You can't be a part of that, then walk out of here now. Take some leave and step away, because nobody is going to fuck this up – understood?"

Two men stared each other down for half a minute before Buck glanced away. "Well we sure as hell aren't doing anyone any good just standing here. What's next?"

There was an audible sigh of relief throughout the team. "Nathan, you get to the hospital. You'll be able to translate whatever the doctors tell us about his condition. Josiah, talk to the witnesses. Start with that woman. I want to know what she meant about Ezra switching numbers. If he did what it sounds like, I am going to rip a layer of skin off him when he's strong enough. Then I'm gonna put him in for a medal."

"Can't imagine he'll be too pleased with either response." Josiah smiled as he turned to follow orders.

"Vin, team up with the SWAT guys and find out what you can about what went down when we moved in. Who was where, what they did – you know the questions to ask."

JD was already mentally working on what he knew his assignment would be. "I'm gonna work backwards on tracing that signal. If we can figure out who they were taking orders from…"

"Exactly. In the meantime Buck, see if you can get any leads on the electronic equipment they were using. Where it came from might open a trail. JD can help you with that." Buck nodded before asking the obvious.

"What are you gonna be doing?"

"Convincing the judge that we are calm, professional, and level headed enough to talk to the suspects without killing them."

"Yeah – good luck with that."

M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7

tbc