Disclaimer: Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and others own the characters of "Walker Texas Ranger". Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation and no copyright infringement is intended. This is a fan fiction intended for entertainment purposes only and I am not making any money from it.

Chapter 17: The Meet

Trivette wished he had a stick of gum to chew. It would have abated his boredom. He was sitting in his usual seat in Walker's truck, watching the front door of the meeting place where Gage would be meeting with Kingly. At least, that is what they all were hoping.

"So, you think this will work?" He asked his partner.

"It'll work," Walker replied. His gaze fixed on the building before them.

"Of course, it will," said Sydney, her head poking out between the two front seats. "Your contact told you that some guy was selling some identities and he personally helped set up this meet. It has to be Kingly."

"I just hope he decides to show up. He's slipped through our fingers one time too many," Trivette said, unable to hold back the negativity.

"How did he agree to a face to face meet? Don't a lot of these transactions occur on the internet?" Sydney asked. "He's going to be suspicious

Trivette was surprised that Sydney wasn't more optimistic. This case was definitely getting to all of them, except Walker. He cleared his throat and turned to look at Sydney. "We were able to convince him that Gage didn't trust the internet. It helps that a few months back, the FBI had busted a whole group of people selling identities online."

"Lucy and Darryl believe it will work," Sydney stated.

He thought that the chances of catching Nicholas Kingly. The man had slipped through their fingers many times and he didn't know if it was luck or skill, but the odds were against them.

"Don't worry, we'll get him this time," Walker replied.

He nodded his head, always amazed that his partner could practically read his mind. He never knew how his partner did it, sometimes he wanted to know and other times, he did, but this time, he didn't want to know.

Darryl sat with his partner in his partner's car, watching the back door with the chipped, dull-gray paint.

"So, why do you hate Vice?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

He could feel the corners of his mouth tighten. "I really don't think this is the time to talk about it."

"We got time," she pointed out and waited for him to answer. "I could just look it up but I figured that you would rather tell me."

He turned his head and looked at her. "You really mean that, don't you?" He knew that she would never betray his privacy like that and it was more of the fact that she could sense that it was something that was bothering him.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I will admit I'm curious but I know that it is something that you need to talk about." She looked him right in the eye. "You have a lot of anger about it."

He sighed deeply, knowing that she was right. She had the same way of figuring out his need to talk about something like his grandmother did when he was a kid.

He was about to start when they heard Gage say the safety word that let them know he was in trouble.

Lucy opened her door. "Let's go."

Darryl followed suit, withdrawing his weapon and following his partner to the door, knowing that the Rangers would be bursting through the front door.

Darryl didn't recognize three men when they entered the room. He could see Trivette, Walker and Sydney on the other side of the room, but it was at that moment that one of the unknown men decided to pull out an automatic weapon.

The detectives and the Rangers took cover, just in time.

"Where's Gage?" Darryl asked, as he peeked out from behind a column.

"He's at your 2 o'clock," his partner replied as she went and fired a couple of shots before ducking back to cover.

He heard her mutter underneath her breath and he knew that she hadn't been able to take down any of the shooters. He took a deep breath and shot off a few of his own. He managed to take down the man who had been the first to fire.

It felt like it had been hours, sitting in the layer of dust, firing off shots and making certain not to harm their friends, when in reality it was about five minutes. He heard two other bodies fall to the ground and Lucy confirmed it was the two unknown men.

He wondered where Kingly was hiding or if he had managed to escape when he saw Kingly heading toward his partner's back, a gun pointed in her direction. "Lucy! Look out!" He yelled as he jumped out from behind a barrel and fired at Kingly.

His distraction did exactly what he wanted it to, to take Kingly's attention off his partner, but Kingly turned his attention and his gun toward him. He saw Kingly pull the trigger and felt something hot slam into him. He groaned when he made contact with the ground.

He blinked to get the disturbed dust out of his eyes, but he didn't see where Kingly went.

He heard someone scurrying near him and he tightened his grip on his gun.

"Darryl, you ok?" Lucy asked.

He dropped his gun and put his hand on the bullet wound, he felt the warm blood trickling through his fingers. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he said as he removed his hand from his shoulder, showing the wound to his partner.

She sighed. "You're about that, but Malha is not going to be happy with me."

"Yeah. So, did we get him?"

She smiled. "I don't know. I came to check on my partner.

"Could you help me up, please?"

She nodded as she grabbed onto his arm and helped him to his feet.

"You ok?" Trivette asked as he holstered his gun and came up to them.

"Yes, I'm fine, Jimmy. Did we get Kingly?"'

"Yes, Walker and Gage chased after him. He managed to knock Gage down, but Walker got him."

He felt a smile spread across his face. "Good," he replied and then he winced when a shot of pain went through his shoulder when he moved it. "Lucy and I are going to head to the hospital."

"Are you sure you don't want an ambulance?" The Ranger leaned toward him and whispered, "I've seen Lucy drive."

He saw his partner cock an eyebrow at Trivette and he thought she probably would've folded her arms across her chest if she weren't holding onto his arm. He held back a laugh and thanked Trivette, but told the Ranger that he would make it.

Lucy helped him to the car. After she had given him a towel to hold against his shoulder, he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He was glad that the shoulder wound was all he had but he regretted that he wouldn't be there when the Rangers would talk to Kingly about what he had done.