Switched 3
Chris was mad; actually he had passed mad 10 minutes ago and was now moving into furious. He was drumming his fingers on the table, a sign his boys were usually adept at recognising. It was usually the point at which the excuses would fade away and the serious grovelling would begin; even his men never continued pushing past this point and they were as fearless as anyone usually ever got around him. The one thing that absolutely never happened when he was this upset was being ignored by whom he was mad at and yet here were 6 men doing just that, 6 men who ought to know better!
Ezra on the other hand was starting to enjoy himself, yes everyone was yelling at him, blaming him as usual, however, even though they seemed to believe that he was Ezra they couldn't seem to help treating him as if he was Chris. He spoke and not only did they shut up, but they actually listened to what he said, no dismissive glances because Ezra was speaking, no mockery… nothing. The body language was different too; everyone was angled around him and just this once were paying absolutely no attention to Chris, who was sat at the table. Something about Chris' posture niggled though, for some reason he started to tense up, couldn't figure out why, all Chris was doing was drumming his fingers. Ezra's eyes widened, he'd placed that niggling worry. Now this could be interesting.
"Boys?" Chris growled
He got no reaction from most of them; they were busy bickering with each other over how impossible the situation was. Ezra looked expectant though and was that a smirk? The boys noticed that all right and followed Ezra's gaze. Even so it took much longer than usual for the penny to drop. Josiah's psychology experience came into play and he got it first, it took the others longer to mentally translate Ezra's body language into Chris speak, but they too got there eventually. They trailed off, but looked more intrigued than worried, except Josiah who was starting to get a very bad feeling.
If they really had switched bodies (Josiah was starting to come round to the idea) then Chris was in a very precarious position, because they were more than just an ATF team, more than a family even; they were more like a wolf pack. Chris' position as alpha had always been unassailable; they might fight him occasionally, but only to a certain point. Except Chris was no longer Chris… Ezra was. By switching places with Ezra, Chris had lost control. Lost his power to frighten and intimidate and it was now to be decided if the seven truly believed in him. If they would follow the body or the soul itself and the choice could well tear the seven apart.
Chris might not have a degree in psychology, but he knew his men better than anyone. He knew they hovered around Ezra because they were worried, he knew the instant when that worry had changed to scared, knew what it was they wanted from Ezra and knew in turn that Ezra would never be able to give it to them. The only thing he didn't know was if he could get them to accept the reassurance that they needed from him, the new him that was, because if he couldn't then things might get messy and he did hate messy. It was past time to remind them who the boss was, and always bloody would be, regardless of whose body he currently inhabited. It was more than past time to stop them ignoring him!
"If I could have your attention for a minute?" he said mildly