Connections:

Chapter 2:

7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777

Cold. Sore. Tired. The next time awareness returned to Vin all he could seemed able to wrap his mind around was the physical sensations, he felt the cold concrete floor under his back, his right leg throbbed and he felt that his running pants were wet where the wood stuck out of his skin, he knew it was bleeding but couldn't tell how badly.

His head continued to pound ceaselessly with his heartbeat which was both painfully distracting and yet, oddly, something he could ignore eventually due to the regularity of the sensation.

The cold and damp feeling of the basement caused him to shiver, a reaction he instantly hoped he would be able to control in the future as the slice of pain where his collarbone was broken caused him to gasp for air and then left him breathless as the pain was so great he wasn't able to actually breathe after that initial gasp. As his world was starting to grey around him from the inability to breathe he finally felt the horrific pain decrease and he was able to draw breath again.

The boys are never gonna let me live this one down, he thought wryly. Can't even take a jog without turning it into a dang search and rescue situation; since nobody is gonna be looking for me, I'd best get myself out of this mess. Kid crying in the basement, sheesh, Buck will be joshing me about that for awhile.

Fumbling with his good arm he managed to reach his cell phone that was clipped to his waistband. For once he'd actually remembered to take it with him when he went for a run, and he knew the battery was fully charged as he'd seen to that before he went to bed the night before and had checked it before taking it with him -- fully charged.

Now, Vin thought, if it managed to survive the graceless fall down the staircase – wait a minute, did I fall?

A blurry vision flashed through his brain of looking back up the staircase and seeing the silhouette of a man, a man that reminded Vin of – Nah, must be dreaming or something. My pa, the no good so and so who run out of me and ma 'fore she died, he's gone. Chris and Josiah did some searching a couple of years ago and got proof. He died about eight years back.

Tanner, focus, your cell phone, call for help.

Unclipping the phone from his waist he flipped it open, all the lights came up, the battery level showed it at full charge. Hitting the call button he began to dial, he got 9–1 – and then the phone beeped, No Service.

Damn, damn, damn. I just had all the bars lit up, Vin thought. Pushing the call button he saw all the bars light up and he began to dial again; just as before he managed to get 9-1 – when the phone beeped, No Service.

Cussing in Spanish Vin tried again…

E7 E7 E7 E7 E7 E7 E7

Ezra was puttering, Ezra never puttered but it was a drizzly Saturday now nearing the noontime hour and Ezra was, in fact, puttering. He had a Mozart CD playing in his multi-disc player, but it was set to single play so instead of randomly switching from CD to CD he was enjoying some of Mozart's middle works. He found it soothing along with the backdrop of the shower that had begun barely 15 minutes ago. It looked to be a somewhat damp and drizzly day but truth be told Denver was in desperate need of some rain.

He leaned back from his desk and sipped his second cappuccino for the day. Decadence is what it was but he decided to enjoy it, he would never tell anyone that his plans for today included writing a letter to Maude, that task had just been completed, and then – What?

Ezra set his mug down and swiveled in his chair to stare at his CD player that had just switched from Mozart to his Beethoven CD of Fidelio, Beethoven's one and only opera. Ezra could see from his chair that the light for random selection was not lit on the player, picking up the remote that he had placed on the desk when he sat down earlier he aimed it at the player and pressed the button for the B CD holder, obediently the CD player stopped, switched decks and once again the sound of Mozart filled the air.

Ah, now where was I, Ezra returned to his idle thoughts, yes, I will never tell that now the only 'task' that lies ahead of me this weekend since I've completed my letter to Maude is to listen to Mozart and anything else that draws my fancy and read; a relaxing weekend, why I may at some point just rest and watch the rain fall. There is nothing more peaceful and pleasant than listening to the soothing drops of ---

What?

Once again Ezra's musings were interrupted by the abrupt click, silence, shuffle and then the sounds of Beethoven's opera, Fidelio, once again filled the air.

Darn thing is malfunctioning, hmmm, top of the line they say, well. Picking up the remote, again, Ezra pressed a button and once again the player obediently stopped, clicked, shuffled the deck and the sounds of Mozart's string quintet once again began to play.

Leaning back Ezra closed his eyes and listened to Mozart and in between heard the soothing sounds of the early fall shower and, breathing deeply, he inhaled the smell of the cleansing rain.

7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777

Rain.

Vin could hear the rain falling, turning his aching head slowly he saw the rain falling through a small window that had lost its glass long ago. He was looking up at the window that was across the basement and watched the drops plunk into the ground and seemingly bounce back up.

Carefully he breathed through his nose; Vin always loved the smell of rain at the beginning of a storm, this time however, instead of the scent of a cleansing rain all he smelled was a musty odor he knew emanated from the damp concrete of the old building.

Holding back a shiver he felt trying to run through his body he tried to began to gather his thoughts on how he could best extract himself from this situation.

Tanner, he thought, you're just going to have to get up, climb those stairs and get up away from these concrete walls. He had tried several more times to dial out but each time he tried he was only able to partially complete the dialing of the number when the phone would inexplicably beep and show No Service where service had been only moments before.

Clipping his phone securely to his waistband, Vin decided it was time to slowly, carefully gather his strength and his body and begin the task of getting out of this basement. He closed his eyes and took stock of his body, he thought and felt the position of his feet, legs, arms, back and then began to think of which part of him to move first.

Having made his decision he opened his eyes and began. Taking his left leg he slowly propped it against the base of the stairwell, completing that maneuver with minimal discomfort he prepared himself for the next step which he knew would be quite a bit less comfortable. Bracing his right forearm on the floor and using his left foot as a pivot point he carefully pushed upwards a bit and then rolled onto his right side trying to keep the movement controlled as he didn't want to impale the piece of wood any further into his right thigh.

The second he raised himself upward and simultaneously turned a hot flash of agony erupted along his left collarbone, crying out in pain Vin forced himself to complete the movement and then he collapsed partially on his right side. He felt the end of the wood touch the concrete floor and that sent shock waves through his leg and then through his entire body causing another cry of pain.

Tears of agony streamed down his face as he forced his left leg in front of his right and pressed downward a bit trying to ease some of the pressure on his right leg. Unfortunately the position he was now in was unbearable for his broken collarbone and he not only felt but heard the grinding of the bones as the fracture destabilized more.

Afraid the break would become compound and he would risk additional blood loss and shock by having the bone pierce his skin Vin pushed back with his left leg and right forearm and landed heavily on his back.

The agony brought on anew by the failed attempt to move and now the uncontrolled return to his back left him breathless from the pain, heart racing as his system struggled with the pain and shock, and he wasn't able to control the shiver that once again coursed through his body which only added to his misery.

Vin could feel that he was slipping away from awareness and just before he did he felt a warm breeze gently caress his cheek and was certain he heard a gentle whisper before he slipped back into unconsciousness – You're a Tanner.

B7 B7 B7 B7 B7 B7 B7

"Tanner!"

Buck spun around at the sound of the woman's shriek and the call of a familiar name.

Expecting to see Vin and some lovely damsel in distress he instead saw a streaking yellow blur that barreled past him in full pursuit of a teasing squirrel that waited until the last moment before it dashed up the tree and stared down balefully chattering loudly at the leaping, barking yellow lab.

The sound of running feet caused Buck to turn around again to finally see the 'damsel in distress' as she brushed by him and ran to the dog. As the lab was more concerned with trying to climb the tree, she was easily able to grab his collar and clip the leash to it.

Walking back towards Buck, dragging the reluctant pup, the woman stopped in front of him.

"Sorry about that, sir. I hope you didn't get too startled by Tanner running into you like that. He gets so excited whenever he sees a squirrel and since he's not yet a year old he hasn't yet gotten the message that when I say Wait, I actually mean it."

"That's quite all right, miss, just glad you caught him before he ran out into the street."

"Yes, me too, good thing he gets so focused on squirrels that he just can't seem to leave them be. My name is Vivian and this, well, this is Tanner."

Buck shook her hand gently and then looked down at the dog who was sitting quietly at his mistress' side with his right paw raised. Smiling Buck couldn't help but shake the dog's paw.

"We just moved here from Texas, little town called Tascosa on the panhandle, anyway, there's so much for him to see and do and with all the wonderful trees he just can't help himself. Well, I should be letting you go, I've got my raincoat on and Tanner just loves the rain but you – you're getting all wet. Thanks for being so understanding."

Buck couldn't believe that the lady was gone in a flash. He'd barely had a moment to get over the dog's paw shaking and the girl was gone, truth be, she was about as young as Casey and thus, alas, a bit too young for him – wait a minute. Dang, all this standing in the rain has got me a bit fogged in the head. I am not old, and if she's Casey's age well then that means she can drive and vote and drink and everything so – oh, hell, there she goes.

Buck felt like a fool as he watched the young woman wave to him as she drove past in her battered jeep. He stood there waving until long after she was gone, hmmm, Tascosa did she say? I've heard of that before.

Walking the final few soggy steps to the door to his apartment building he opened the door and stepped inside. Entering his and JD's apartment he realized how wet he really was and heading for the bathroom, dried himself off, changed clothes and then put on a pot of coffee and settled down to watch the college football game that was already underway. Texas A&M was playing and he didn't want to miss it. He had a bet with Vin and he was sure he was going to collect big.

7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777 7777777