Fred Hernandez toyed with his two-way radio, courtesy of the Denver ATF team. It was a temptation. It was a violation of regulations. It was an honor bound duty. He stared at the silent communicator. To call or not to call. It really wasn't a question.

Around him, men paced angrily, stood stoically, heaved laden boxes of evidence into waiting canvas-sided trucks, an entire convoy of them. The prisoners had been taken away some time ago, airlifted out by a very nasty FBI contingent. Territories had been trespassed and agencies were in high level 'discussions.' It was only the fact that an entire cell of active terrorists had been identified and captured that allowed Fred to continue working the case. He smirked at the fibbies that pontificated just yards away, sharing theories with a cluster of early media point men. This was quickly turning into the kind of circus that he and his men didn't need.

His own small team had done the preliminary interrogations. Well, the first ones that counted. No one was talking about the ATF team's own questionable turn at the prisoners. The thing was, they'd gotten a final head count. And, nine men were missing. Dressler himself was nowhere to be found and eight of the Palestinian terrorists were absent from the camp when he and Larabee's team had captured it.

Most of his men were already on their way to the nearest airport on a transport that had landed before the FBI convoy and air contingents hove in.

He'd had to do a bit of interesting tap-dancing until some former judge up in Colorado, now an Assistant Director of the ATF units there, intervened. Fred had no idea how AD Orrin Travis got involved originally, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Christopher Larabee knew the answer to that one. Thanks to Travis, the ATF was quickly fading into a forgotten partner to the action.

Fred Hernandez had drawn in his resources again and produced a backwoodsman by the name of Panther Pete. Pete knew this area as well as any, hunting mountain lions and wolves for a living. Fred raised an elbow high into the air as he rubbed at the back of his neck. Where do we find these guys anyway?

Pete tracked the sign that Vin Tanner, one of Larabee's men, had found. So far, Pete had located Dressler, dead, and seven other men, also dead. From the sign, he told Hernandez that two, maybe three men had been involved and fled afterwards. Of the original terrorist splinter group, one remained unaccounted for and Fred's tracker said the man's tracks disappeared, like those of the men under attack, into a small stream near the location of the bodies. Pete had reported that he had not yet found sign to show where any of those men re-emerged.

The man, Panther Pete, made no comments on the perpetrators who took out the dead men. But Fred had no trouble making a guess that was really a certitude and said nothing aloud. Seems like Chris Larabee's missing men could defend themselves pretty damn well.

Fred reminded himself that the terrorists were from desert-like country themselves and would be right at home in these arid and semi-barren surroundings. The missing man was probably still on the trail of Larabee's own missing teammates. Hernandez felt a headache coming on. One finger tapped unconsciously at the two-way radio that he'd been contemplating as if it was Yorrick's skull.

"Sir?" Hans Gartner, one of the FBI agents remaining with their cleanup crew, stood in front of Hernandez, looking anything but respectful.

"Mr. Gartner?"

"Agent Gartner." Hans sniffed and touched his carefully knotted tie, looking pointedly at Fred Hernandez's rather scruffy looking, slept-in clothing. Hans raised his hands and smoothed back already perfectly slicked black hair. "We do have this in hand now. If you and what's left of your party would like to leave?"

Fred shifted his weight, heel digging into the sandy ground under his added pressure, and forced a full-wattage smile at Gartner. "Agent Gartner, if you are certain your men can tidy this all up?"

If the other man could read the false bonhomie, he gave no sign, simply preened again and nodded sharply. "Of course. In fact, let me remind you, if the FBI had been informed of this cell in the beginning, we could have stopped the kidnapping of federal agents and prevented the plotting activities of these criminals on our nation's soil."

Seizing the moment, Hernandez nodded silently and gave a hand motion to his second in command and single remaining agent here. His assistant was consulting with the returned Panther Pete, and waved back. The two stood over by a small, borrowed helicopter, little better than a traffic bug, with one large Plexiglas-bubble and four seats. The pilot was another borrowed resource, though not as colorful as Clem Fortnight. He was, as his tiny helicopter suggested, a local traffic reporter for a radio station. Fred sighed.

Leaving the prick, 'Agent' Gartner, behind, Hernandez wended his way through the remains of the camp to where his men stood beside the small helicopter. He could see the pilot still inside at the controls. Stopping past all the activity and out of immediate over-hearing range, Fred finally lifted the two-way to his lips and clicked the transmit switch to 'ON'.

"Chris!" JD's alarmed shout interrupted Chris Larabee as he spoke with his retrieved agents. Everyone turned to look upstream to where Dunne was bounding back, Tanner right behind him but angling up the near hillside in a swift, purposeful lope.

Larabee rose to his feet, feeling a new tension at Dunne's anxious expression. He snapped out, "Report."

"Fred just called in." JD came to a staggering halt in front of the gathered men, quickly braced by Sanchez with a large hand on the boy's heaving shoulders. JD held out the small walkie-talkie that he'd had clipped to his waistband. "I told him we had Buck and Ez. His men report that at least one terrorist is still on the loose, maybe heading our way."

"CLEM!" Chris spun around and shouted even though his throat mike would reach the pilot they'd left behind. He understood instantly why Vin had taken the hill and was already disappearing over it in the direction of the Huey.

"Right here, boss." Fortnight's voice was clear and unafraid. "Figure there's a wild bogie out there, huh?"

Everyone except Ezra and Buck could hear him. Those two simply watched and waited, still huddled together on the ground beside Nathan Jackson.

"Yeah." Chris moderated his tone in slight embarrassment. "Tanner is coming over the hill, heading to your position. Get out of the bird and dig in, find cover."

When Chris turned back, Jackson was helping Buck get Ezra on his feet. Foot, Chris frowned. Before he could say anything, Nathan had shoved his nearest shoulder into Standish's belly and flipped the man easily up onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Buck looked a bit disappointed, but picked up Jackson's satchel and kit instead.

"Alright, we do this by the numbers." He eyed his men, they were all tired but looked alert. "JD, point. Josiah, right flank. Buck?"

"Left flank, got it." Wilmington tossed Jackson's stuff to the man who caught it one-handed and hooked it over his free shoulder. He stole a quick look over at Ezra.

"Nate?" Chris bit out.

"Right up the middle." Jackson's placid response had the others smiling. Ezra, hanging upside down was busily checking the load on a pistol he'd purloined from Nathan's stash. He knew how to keep his weight centered to prevent himself from over-tipping Jackson so he was leaning out precariously over Nate's spine, but he wanted to be ready to watch the man's back and keep an eye on Buck, on the others. He raised his head stiffly and twisted his neck until he saw Buck Wilmington. Their eyes met for just a moment. Silently, promises were made and then Buck moved out and Ezra relaxed down onto Nathan's back.

"I'll be right behind you." Chris Larabee felt fully confident that he and his men could handle this. Taking the two-way up to his mouth, he keyed in transmit and greeted the man from the CIA. "Hey, Fred. Hear trouble's coming our way?"

Fred relaxed at the sound of Chris Larabee's voice. The man instilled confidence. Even though Fred was probably of higher rank among federal agents, he admitted to himself that Larabee was one of those born leaders that you just naturally followed. He spoke quickly, wanting to make sure that no time was wasted, sure that Chris would know what to do once he understood. "Yeah. We caught up to the shoot-out your wandering boys put on." He grinned good-naturedly at Larabee's snort, then continued quickly, "Seems that they missed one, though, and he's still unaccounted for. Took off with Dressler to catch up to Standish and Wilmington, only he doesn't know that's who they are."

"Fred?" Chris was getting frustrated, Hernandez might be a good man, but he was taking way too long to say whatever needed saying.

"Name might be 'Ali'. Anyway, he thinks he's on the trail of the Mosher boys."

"Shit." Larabee looked over to where Buck was tightening his earpiece, courtesy of JD earlier. Keying his mike, Chris spoke, "Buck? Ezra? We've got a wildcard out here somewhere hunting you two."

Wilmington's head shot up and his eyes flew to where Standish was draped over Nathan Jackson's shoulder. At that moment, Nate half-swung around, calling gruffly, "Ezra! Stop fighting me! I can't carry you if you start trying to shove yourself around up there!"

"Put me DOWN, Mr. Jackson." Ezra's voice, carried on the mike system now, sounded sharply in everyone's ears.

"Ez, calm down. We still got to get out of here." Buck moved back toward his partner.

"Everyone stops now." Chris didn't shout, but only with intense will-power. He hit the switch on the walkie-talkie again. "Fred, thanks. We owe you again. We'll be alert. See you in Denver?"

"You never know. Fibbies aren't too happy with me right now, gotta go. Watch your backs. Hernandez out." Fred closed down the radio and tucked it back into the small leather holster on his belt. Time to pick up his marbles and head for home.

Chris shoved the radio into a vest pocket. He eyed his men, all moving again, but low to the ground now and much more alert. Ezra had subsided on Nathan's shoulder after Buck's short command. Chris smiled. Looks like they got somewhere in spite of everything if Ezra's taking orders from Buck without complaint. He moved up closer to Ezra and Nathan, eyes moving constantly, ready to block any attack from the rear. He dipped his chin and spoke to the team. "Let's move it, boys," he flashed a feral grin, "with some attitude."

Vin topped the hill and skidded down the far side, ending up shoulder to shoulder with Clem who'd found cover at the foot of the hill near some stunted trees. "How you doing?"

Fortnight had both long bony hands clamped around the butt of his forty-five, the nose aimed at the dirt at his feet, but poised to rise. He tipped his head to the side and tossed a vivid grin at Tanner. "Doing just fine, thank ya." He sniffed the air. "Could use a joint about now."

Vin could hear the reminiscent longing in the older man's tone. He shook his head, those days of maryjane were long over on the job, but back in Clem's time, might have been different. "Sorry, no can do."

"And that's a damn shame." Clem kept his eyes squinted as he scanned the area, catching sight of Tanner joining in.

Vin swept the terrain with easy moves of his head, eyes picking out landmarks, mind quickly assessing and comparing shapes and shadows with each sweep, looking for the inconsistency, the change. There!

"Got him!" Tanner flattened, rifle bore coming in line with his unmoving head, eyes fixed on the head of a man, barely visible among boulders near the mouth of the river. "He's waiting for you guys, right before the lake, low, at your two o'clock."

"Everyone got that?" Chris' voice came on.

The others quickly chimed in. Nathan settled Ezra to the ground and then crouched low and ran ahead. Chris came up even with a rising Standish and shoved him down again with a firm hand on his shoulder. "Not this time, Ezra. Stay there."

Buck spared a look back to see Larabee moving past Ezra, and Ezra climbing onto all fours, intent on following, a pistol gripped in one fist as he began to crawl forward. Damn it, the man was a hazard to himself! Wilmington wasn't about to leave Ezra out there. He slowed and veered towards the center of their pattern.

"JD, drop back, copy?" Chris didn't want his man to be exposed to the shooter before the rest of them were there to help.

"Chris, I think I can sneak closer under his sights." Dunne was already down on his stomach and trying to emulate Vin Tanner's ability to ooze over rough ground.

"No." Chris' bark was just above a whisper. "Dunne, maintain your position."

"Yes, sir," came back with a sigh.

By now, Josiah, on the right flank had moved up hill slightly and was paused at the final bend of the waterway before the lake. From what Vin had said, he should be above and to the shooter's right, in the morning sun, a blind spot. Sanchez settled his large automatic rifle in his grip and kept moving, edging slowly closer to the open land beyond the hill.

"See him yet, Josiah?" came over his earpiece just as he spotted the same irregularity that Tanner had seen. Sanchez settled down, setting his sight.

"Yep." He fiddled with the gunsight. "Got him in the cross hairs."

Nathan had begun to edge to the side, closer to Wilmington's assigned place, moving up on Dunne. "JD," he murmured, "I'm on your right flank."

"Got you," JD whispered back, with a nod as he looked over his shoulder where he lay on the riverbank.

Chris dragged himself up beside Dunne now, having caught up with the younger agent. He tapped JD on the shoulder and they moved forward together.

Vin pushed up to his knees, keeping his rifle steady against his shoulder, eye squinting along the barrel. He ignored Clem beside him, knowing the man was watching out for him, though as far as they knew, there was only one shooter left. Want to hear that story later, he thought, watching the target who remained still.

Buck tore the mike off his collar and shoved it in his pant pocket then caught Ezra by the scruff of the neck. He had to duck back as Ezra's fist full of pistol whipped around. He caught it with his free hand and they rolled over together, down the riverbank and, with a small splash, into the water.

Ezra gulped in a combination air and water, sheer anger keeping him from gagging and cursing. Instead, he silently battered at Buck's hand with his own, angered by this sudden protectiveness. It's only my fucking ankle that's messed up! How dare he! Too much tension, too much emotional baggage and too many surprises, that's all he could later say to explain his next action. Ezra reared back, twisted around, opened his mouth and bit Buck on the ass.

Josiah sat quietly, legs crossed Native American style, upturned wrists resting on the sides of his kneecaps. He contemplated Oohm. It seemed safer than thinking about his teammates at the moment. Even that tiny chink was enough to cause a catastrophic flashback and his fingers, moments before delicately shaping two perfect circles, now curled back into fists. Dear god, things could have gone so very badly wrong.

Vin strolled over to the dead terrorist's body, Clem Fortnight ambling at his side, whistling god knew what. Vin tipped the body over with the toe of one boot. He counted three distinct shots, two body shots, not his, and his head shot. He had to give Clem credit, the man could shoot. Based on the angles, he figured the shot to the clavicle was Clem's. That meant the heart shot was Josiah's.

JD had fished the man's weapon out of the marshy edge of the lake and was stripping it down now. Better safe than sorry. Vin craned his neck to look upstream. He could see the cluster of others up there. From what he'd heard over the wire before things quieted down, he was just fine where he was, thank you kindly. He shook his head and grinned, spitting across the narrow river mouth.

When Buck shrieked, Chris had startled right up off the ground like he'd been hit himself. The gunman rose for the easy kill shot and was promptly perforated by two of Team Seven plus one crazy pilot. Weird arithmetic, but it had worked.

Chris dove back to earth at the barrage of fire and then climbed back to his feet, looking royally pissed, when Vin gave the all clear. Nathan was already charging back upstream to where Ezra and Buck were flailing around in the water. Chris had roared something to Josiah about taking charge and tore off after Jackson.

Josiah sighed and carefully uncurled his fists. Chris was still alive. Ezra and Buck, though rather unbalanced at the moment, seemed more or less intact. Josiah flinched and his fingers reformed the fists before he could stop them. The image of Ezra sitting up in the water with bloody canines exposed had taken the oomph out of Josiah. Right. Oohm. Josiah tried to concentrate.

Clem had taken one look at the mess up the crick and ambled back over to his waiting Huey. She really was a placid old cow, but very faithful. He patted her once on the nose and then sat beneath her in the shade as the sun continued to rise. Sooner or later these boy-ohs would all need a ride back to town, some town. He grinned and produced a twisted length of paper, tapped it on his knuckles and lit it with a long wooden match struck on his flight suit. He inhaled deeply, let himself roll down onto his back and held the sweet smoke inside. The good life was all around you, all you had to do was know how to appreciate it. Sweet.

JD joined Vin on the bank, wiping his greasy hands on his jeans. With a jerk of his head upstream, he asked, "Think we should go down there?"

"Nope." Vin turned and spotted Josiah sitting on a sunny rock outcrop on the hillside. He turned and moseyed up that way, ignoring JD's panting presence as the hill turned steep. Figure they had some time to kill.

Chris crouched in front of Ezra, arms spread wide, but not touching. Ezra had pushed himself upright to his knees in the flat riverbed, and sat on his heels. Hell, that had to hurt. From what Nathan and Buck said earlier, Ezra had a badly swollen ankle. Didn't look like he was feeling it now though. Chris frowned and duck-walked closer through the shallow whitewater. Ezra growled and Chris stopped. "Ezra. You need to calm down now."

Ezra's hands were fisted on his thighs. His shoulders were stiff and high and shaking, and his eyes radiated his ongoing fury. The greens blazed with his anger and Chris frankly had never seen his undercover agent look anything like this before. What was really scary though, was Ezra's bloody smile. Literally. His white teeth were rimmed with red gore. Well, maybe not gore, but definitely showed blood. Chris swallowed and rocked back on his feet, watching Ezra. Maybe he needs a bit more time.

"You need more time, Ezra?"

Ezra growled and his grin, which was starting to worry Chris, seemed to grow. Actually, as he studied it, he realized it really wasn't a grin at all, it was Ezra baring his decidedly bloody teeth. Jesus.

Nathan kept flicking stolen glances over at Ezra, contained for the moment by Chris. Hell, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes ... he looked back down at Buck's ass cheek. He'd dragged the dress trousers and boxers down once he finally convinced Wilmington to stop hollering and rolling in the river. Ezra hadn't actually penetrated skin, but he had torn the thin, fine cloth of both pieces of clothing.

"How bad is it?"

Chris' voice sounded remarkably shaky and Nathan's head came up sharply. He looked over at him and past him to Ezra. What the? Nathan already noted that only Ezra's upper teeth had made it to the skin, but they'd dug a healthy arc of impressions in Buck's gluteus maximus. So why was Ezra showing blood? Then he realized what happened.

"Old Buck'll be fine. That's likely Ezra's own blood, Chris. He probably abraded his gumline chomping down on this tough old ass." Nathan chuckled at Buck's muffled objection. To be safe, with quick, skilled hands Nathan was cleaning the bite marks with an alcohol disinfectant, swabbing the area with one hand, using his other to shove Buck's head back down. Again. This both settled the man and put a cork in his mouth. Whenever Buck caught a breath, coming up from the water, he began bellowing for Ezra again, with some rather startling threats. "Just get Ezra to rinse his mouth."

Chris eyed Ezra again. Rinse? I'll be lucky if he doesn't bite me too. "You done over there yet, Nate?" Chris was beginning to sound strained.

Jackson stared down at Buck's buttocks. This would be a hickey to beat all hickeys, he thought. Likely marked for life. The arc of tiny black and blue marks and associated bruising from the cloth forcefully rubbed against skin was very colorful already. Painful, probably. Life threatening, likely only to Ezra - if Buck gets a hold of him. Nathan shook his head at his thoughts, then glanced up and over to Larabee.

"Yeah, I'm done." He smacked Buck's ass on an undamaged section. "Get off me, Buck!"

Wilmington rolled over and off Jackson's knees and yanked up his trousers, glaring across the stream at Ezra. He wasn't yelling anymore and, seeing Ezra sitting there with an unearthly grimace and wet, spiky hair, his anger suddenly evaporated like a balloon deflating. "Shit."

Chris flung a scowl over his shoulder at Wilmington, then dropped forward onto his knees in the water in front of Ezra. "Ezra. You're freaking us all out here. Stop it." He spoke in a low undertone, meeting Ezra's stare head on.

With an inner curse, Chris watched the fury flicker and die and a calculating look enter Ezra's face. "Nope. No. No way, Ezra. Stop whatever it is you're thinking right now." Chris leaned forward until his hands rested on Ezra's knees. "You made your point."

He was still trembling internally, but he was starting to think again. The wave of red fury that had engulfed him was receding now and he spat out the taste of blood. His own from what Nathan had just said. Chris was watching him warily, having subsided into silence again.

With a single disdainful glance over at Buck Wilmington, Ezra met Chris' eyes and nodded slowly. "Okay." Succinct. To the point. Rather like his teeth had been. A bubble of laughter began to rise deep inside. It was funny. Now. He choked on the hoot and saw Chris begin to look panicked so he waved his hands helplessly in the air and the laughter finally pealed out.

"Oh, that's rich, Ezra." Buck's bitter tone only seemed to goad Ezra into further peals of laughter.

Chris caught him and stepped up out of the water, dragging Ezra with him, ignoring the man's continuing laughter that was now dissolving into giggles. Dropping Ezra on the riverbank, he flung himself down beside him and drove a hand through his wet blond hair, flinging it back from his face. He looked down at Ezra who was lying there chuckling more slowly and he shook his head.

"You know, Ez, you looked like a damn vampire there for a minute."

"I did?" An almost-smirk turned up the corners of Ezra's mouth and he sounded satisfied and curious at the same time.

They were the first conversational words that Ezra had said since he attacked Buck, and Chris found them reassuringly normal. For Ezra.

JD squatted on his heels, arms extended and resting on his kneecaps. It really was a pretty spot, the small river rolling around the bend into the marshy lake. The hillsides were dry scrabble, with only very stunted looking trees poking up here and there among a toss of boulders and rocky soil. He raised his chin toward the sun, nearly overhead now. He was dry, had dried out over an hour ago. It was nice, peaceful. Well, since Buck stopped yelling, and he'd stopped a couple of hours ago.

The rush of the white water over rocks, streaming out in a wide fan into the marshy water, made for a delta effect that Josiah hadn't seen since his days in the air over the Far East. He shivered, not from cold, but from a past that had a tendency to resurface, bringing with it ugly memories. His meditation had finally taken hold and he'd held a level of consciousness that had eased his tension after some reflections. Now, he was just lazing in the sun, enjoying being out of doors. He tipped his face back, letting his head rest on his folded arms, raised up behind him. Take it when you can get it.

Vin had enjoyed communing with nature for a spell, but he had a puzzle to solve and wasn't content to simply sit with the mystery. Once things settled down a while back, he'd wandered down to where Chris Larabee was sitting against a rough cut-out of bank, likely formed during a flood. It gave the blond some shade as the day heated up. Vin had nodded to Nathan who was wading in the marsh, pant legs rolled up to his knees.

Nathan winked and nodded back to Vin before returning to his foraging. He had already discovered several herbs that he'd only read about before. His night class on homeopathic medicine would be thrilled. He uprooted selectively, he wasn't about to strip Mother Nature, despite a pulse of avarice that tempted him with the excitement of these discoveries. He didn't even notice as Vin moved on.

"Hey, Cowboy." Vin slumped down beside Larabee.

"Vin."

"How much longer you reckon we've got here?"

Chris finally opened his eyes and arched his back, stretching before cocking a wrist to check his watch. "At least another hour, maybe two."

"Think I'll wander back up stream some more, see if I can meet up with that 'Henry' character."

Hazel eyes slewed around and the blond's mouth tightened. "Keep your mike on, and watch yourself."

"Sure." Vin stood up easily, his length stretching to full height as he twisted first one way, then the other. He lifted an eyebrow over to where Ezra and Buck sat, about twenty paces downstream, facing each other. Ezra's arms were folded over his chest and he had a stubborn set to his features. Vin nearly burst out laughing at the pleading look on Buck's face. Couldn't hear what was being said, but they'd been at it for a while now, ever since Chris laid down the law and sent them over there to calm down and make up. Vin turned to look down at his friend and boss.

Chris felt someone watching him and looked up to meet Vin's inspection. He shrugged, knowing where Tanner had been looking a moment ago. "They'll get there."

Vin nodded. Then, with a simple salute, two fingers to his temple, Tanner drifted off, picking up speed until he was slow-jogging along the bank, head turning to look left and right as he moved along.

Chris relaxed where he sat, watching Vin disappear around the bend in the little river. From what Ezra and Buck had said, this Henry character had only helped them so Vin was not likely in any danger. He turned his attention to the troubled twosome. Ornery. That best described both of them, which was why they were butting heads right now. He chuckled, Buck's finally met his match.

Leaning back on one elbow, Chris tossed a pebble lazily into the passing water. He kept his head turned slightly, listening for Clem's chopper to return. When Fred Hernandez had introduced him to the pilot, he thought Hernandez was wildly out of line, and then he got to know Fred ... and Clem. Clem Fortnight was one of those jewels in the rough. Old enough to have a bucketful of experience, a lifetime of know-how and the balls to enjoy it. Chris snorted. Never thought I'd envy a circus pilot.

He turned over on his stomach, looking up in the direction of JD and Josiah. Those two had chosen to hang out up on the crest of the overlooking hill. Both seemed lost in sun worship. He closed his eyes again, feeling much as he imagined a cat might feel in the sun, lazy and content. The threat was over, the body had been removed by Clem's copter to the base camp of what was now the FBI. Thanks to Fred's, long-distance, running of interference, the ATF continued to be a misty background to the events. Clem's role with the CIA operative got him in and hopefully would get him back out of the camp, minus the dead terrorist. Then Clem was coming back here to give them all a lift.

Clem had warned him that he might have to do a fuel run first, but he'd be back before dark, even have some supplies if it looked like they'd have to spend the night. Chris had been in contact with Travis, too. So there were no worries about unauthorized leave or out of state duties. They'd ended up in New Mexico, of all places. Chris felt drowsy and pushed himself back up. With Vin out of sight, he had no intentions of falling asleep.

"Ezra, please." Buck's throat was aching and his voice was hoarse. He really wanted to rub his rear end, too, but didn't dare.

"We haven't even begun to plumb the depths of my displeasure, Mister Wilmington."

Buck blinked. "Shit, you were calling me Buck before."

"Before you decided I didn't have whatever you think it takes to perform as a qualified agent."

"Ezra, that's just not fair." Buck wiped at his face, weary and frustrated but not prepared to give up this fight. "I was worried about you. Admit it, you're still not a hundred percent from that concussion!"

"I admit ... nothing!" Ezra's eyes flashed and he lifted his chin.

Buck decided to try another tack. He slowly reached across the void between them and touched the limp, faded bloom still miraculously pinned to Ezra's lapel. "Still got it, huh?"

Ezra dropped his chin and looked down in surprise, momentarily shocked out of his well-developed aggravation. He caught sight of the small, wilted orchid. The one that Buck had given him so romantically. Lord, he couldn't even begin to remember when. Could it have been only two nights ago? He stared at it, his arms falling to his sides and then one hand moving up to toy with the creped petals. He remembered very well what Buck had said then. And there was Greg, standing him up, again. Ezra stared at the tiny flower and sank into thought.

Buck sat back. Finally! Finally I got through to him. The man knows how to hold a grudge. Buck wiggled uncomfortably. Ezra was looking thoughtfully at the small flower so Buck held his peace. Please, please let him come around.

Ezra found himself examining at his life as he stared blankly at the tiny orchid. He had been so desperately hopeful with Greg, even after being treated badly several times. Buck Wilmington had been a total surprise. Since he'd joined the team, he'd admired the man's physique from a distance, rather the way a connoisseur appreciates a bottle of good wine, without sampling it.

Ezra contemplated Buck Wilmington in, he hoped, an abstract way. He ignored a heat growing below his belt as he tried to stringently examine the man. Buck had a sterling character, despite his flagrant flirtations. His heart was so large that it encompassed the whole team. Ezra could bring to mind many instances of Buck's selflessness when it came to Chris or JD, or the others. And me? Had Buck ever gone out of his way for me before that night? Ezra had to admit that Buck had helped out on more than one occasion, and not just on the job.

Somehow, the others were all involved in Buck's pressing of this suit. Ezra shot a suspicious glance over at Chris who sat peacefully upstream, gazing out at the world through sun-glazed eyes. Chris would never lie to me. Abruptly, Ezra stood up.

Buck was just getting ready to try again when Ezra jumped to his feet, nearly toppling over on his bad ankle. The man made a face and hobbled away. Buck got up and stood watching as Ezra stalked over to where Chris sat silently. Buck had a bad feeling about this.

Here comes trouble. Chris straightened, turning to watch Ezra's approach. No, not good. He mentally braced himself.

"Mr. Larabee." Ezra thumped down on the ground, setting his injured ankle out in front of him, one hand soothing the new throbbing that walking on it had caused.

"Ezra, you shouldn't be walking on that!" Nathan Jackson called out from the marshy bogs, quite a distance away.

Ezra closed his eyes briefly. Then with a look of the inevitable, waved weakly towards Nathan. When Jackson didn't yell again, Ezra breathed in relief, turning to check on their medic. He chuffed in amusement as he realized that Nathan was wading through the wet weeds bordering the small lake, looking down intently. It's a wonder he even noticed.

"When it comes to us, he sees everything." Chris' voice carried a degree of resignation that only a former patient of Nathan's could truly appreciate.

Ezra smiled. Then he settled himself and turned to study Chris.

"You wanted something?" Chris was not comfortable with a silent Standish. Never a good thing.

"The truth." Ezra didn't elaborate. He honored Chris Larabee that way. Chris was an extremely intelligent man and Ezra knew that Chris would understand what was being asked and would prefer simplicity and directness. Ezra could accommodate.

Chris bowed his head. Time to pay the piper. He scrubbed at his face with both hands and then lifted his eyes to Ezra's. The pale greens were clear and steady. No more anger or conniving. He nodded. "The truth." He cleared his throat and spared a glance back over at Buck. He could see the bleak look there on his old friend's face. This could all turn out badly and Buck knew it. But Chris wasn't about to piss in Buck's puddle. He shifted his gaze back to Ezra.

"Buck fell in love with you the day you walked in the door at our office." Chris waited a beat, then continued, "He talked to me about it right off." Chris' gaze wandered away from Ezra's blank face, following the soaring glide of a hawk in the clear blue sky. The bird became a speck as it circled higher. "I told him to keep his hands off."

"Why?" Ezra was amazed that he was calmly having this conversation with his boss.

"Oh, the usual. That sort of thing complicates life for everyone."

"'Sort of thing?'"

"An affair." Chris shrugged, then watched as the hawk plummeted earthward.

"So why now?"

Chris closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again. "He watched you all the time." A darting glance at Ezra's face noted that it paled at his words. "Quietly. I only heard about it when you got involved with someone he didn't approve of."

"Oh?"

"That's when he'd come out to the ranch, shit-faced drunk." Chris began to play with the band of his watch. "And he only talked about it after he sobered up, come morning."

"So you and he talked about me?"

"You were driving him nuts, Ezra." Chris met Standish's eyes again. "He couldn't bare it. Then you connected with Greg."

"You knew about Greg." Ezra felt himself warming now, blushing. All my dalliances. All my indiscretions. Fodder for them. And Greg's infidelities. Ezra bit his lip.

"Yeah. Buck was crushed. Figured that Greg was perfect for you." Chris frowned. "Until he saw what the creep was up to on the side."

"Oh." Ezra's world was tumbling. All his careful façade at work had been meaningless. If Chris and Buck knew, then by now, the whole team knew. He licked he lips and felt his jaw tighten.

"Ezra!" Chris spoke quietly, but sharply. "It wasn't like that ... whatever you're thinking right now. Buck loves you!" Chris inhaled deeply and continued. "He couldn't handle seeing you hurt again. That's when he came to me for help."

"And you gave it to him."

"We talked. He had long since convinced me that this was no fickle romance. He's heart-deep in your pocket, Ezra." Chris cleared his throat again. Got a feeling I'm going to be doing that a lot. "Somehow, the team got involved."

"Everyone." Ezra wasn't asking.

"Yeah." Chris saw the hawk rise again, something in his beak. He jutted his jaw out slowly. "They all know. We all care about you, Ez." Larabee switched his gaze back to Standish again. "You're one of us. So is Buck. Frankly, I think he could make you happy."

"So you took it upon yourselves to interfere in my life."

Yep. Knew it was trouble coming. Chris waited.

Ezra slowly turned to look over at Buck Wilmington, looking woefully discomforted and miserably uneasy. The man was literally twitching. And I bit him in the ass. Ezra couldn't suppress the wide smile that surfaced. He is a dear, sweet man. And he cares about me. He loves me. Ezra swallowed a sudden lump in his throat and blinked away a watering at his eyes. He took a breath and rounded back to Chris.

Ezra kept his smile as he quietly said, "Thank you."

It was a beautiful day, the sun was high now, a light, playful breeze kept things pleasant, the river was shrinking to a frothy stream, and Vin Tanner was in his element. He really didn't care if he solved the puzzle of 'Henry' or not. He was having too much fun.

Between battling with each other, Ezra and Buck had managed to convey a report on events, as they knew them, since being kidnapped outside of the restaurant. Most of what they told was the other side of the coin from the experiences of the rest of Team Seven, in hot pursuit. So the camp, Dressler, even the information on the Mosher boys, all of that was already known in the broad strokes if not the fine details.

The fascinating part had been their encounter with the stranger in some old Anasazi ruins, ones that Ezra claimed had never been made public, perhaps not located since their abandonment centuries earlier. He had been momentarily distracted from his disgruntlement with Wilmington, long enough to wax poetically over the pictographs in the ruins - and the flute music. Buck had simply grunted and said that 'Tonto' was hard to figure, but had been helpful. It had taken another round of grouching to discover that 'Henry' had asked that he be called 'Tonto'. Vin grinned in memory of Ezra and Buck nearly nose-to-nose over old 'Henry' and his flute.

Vin lengthened his stride from a jog to a lope and began to whistle lightly. As the hillsides steepened even more, forming a near canyon, he spotted the high, dark shadows on the far side of the stream. He came to halt and stared up. It was amazing how difficult it was to see the ruins from below. If Ezra and Buck had not described them, he doubted he'd have found them.

He keyed open his mike, grimacing as he remembered he's promised to keep it open. "Chris?"

"Vin?"

"Found the ruins. Doesn't look too tough a climb. I'm going up."

"Wait-"

"Won't be long." Vin could imagine the simmer at the other end of the wire. He began to pick his way across the stream on some higher rocks, a natural ford.

"If you're not back in an hour, we're coming after you."

Vin laughed aloud and leapt to the far shore, hands rubbing together in anticipation.

Ezra waited until he was certain that Chris was finished talking with Vin Tanner over the wire. He wasn't worried about Vin, those ruins were wonderful and Henry was marvelous. But, he could see the concern in Larabee's eyes as Chris released his throat mike.

"Now, about the surveillance."

"Surveillance?" Chris tried for innocence.

"At the restaurant."

Shit. Chris found himself looking down in embarrassment. "I cut it off as soon as Buck gave you the orchid." He sighed and waited, head still bowed.

Ezra was amazed. Chris Larabee appeared to be shamed by his and the team's actions. It gave Ezra another pause. Instead of tearing into the man with the indignation that had still been simmering, he sat silently, thinking.

When no acid comment was forthcoming, Larabee dared to look up. What he and the others had done was very unethical; they'd been swept up in the crisis that loomed for Buck and, yes, damn it all, for Ezra. Even if he didn't know it. Ezra was staring directly at him, but those green eyes were unfocused. He seemed lost in thought. "Ezra?"

Ezra shook his head, blinking and licking his lips. He raised one hand and his thumb stroked his upper lip as he took in the sight of a penitent Larabee. "So you *were* watching?"

Larabee shrugged. "Listening." He quirked his lips, "We had the table wired." He hesitated, then added, "And a camera on the front of the restaurant."

"All highly illegal."

"Yeah." Chris sighed. "Seemed like a good idea, at the time." He actually found himself smiling at Ezra. "We wanted to help."

"Five fairy godfathers?" Ezra smiled back, forgiving them all at that moment.

"Hey," Chris flashed one of his rare, charmingly off-center smiles, "Watch who you call fairy."

Ezra's raised eyebrow and half-affronted look had Chris flushing with new embarrassment as he realized how that sounded. Ah, shit. Larabee grabbed up some straggling weeds and tossed them at Ezra. "You know what I mean, you bastard." His affectionate tone was enough to soften the words, give them a friendly meaning.

Ezra grinned and blew out the tiny, almost powdery, mess of greenish-brown leaves and stems that had attached themselves to his lips and nose, waving a hand in front of his face at the same time. Before he could answer, however, they both heard the sound of an approaching helicopter and automatically reached for weapons as they looked up.

Vin scrambled up the pockmarked face of the steep hillside. In the daylight, he could see that the seemingly natural indentations were actually ancient foot and hand holds. Warm sun on his back, he was content with his exploration, happy to find such a treasure in the wilderness. The dry air and sweet smells of wild herbs, growing in snarls of old twisted roots near his climb route, were heady and stimulating. The sounds of tiny creatures, rattling and scratching away from him, kept him alert. He checked each hold visually before placing a bare hand in it.

Pulling himself up to the cave-like entry, he could see the clever way the adobe had been used to supplement nature's own shelter, a wide, deep natural cavern open to the small river below. How in the world Ezra and Buck had ever stumbled upon it, in their flight from the kidnappers, was beyond him. Vin was impressed. He dusted off his hands on his jeans and stretched, surveying the view from the entrance. Good defensive position if needed, high enough to avoid any flash floods, close to water. He stepped to the edge and looked up assessingly. The hill was really the bluff face of what seemed to be a plateau. Might even be more sign on top. Of course, anything there would have been even more exposed and had centuries to wear away with erosion. He shifted and used his heel as a pivot to face the dark behind him.

Chris offered Ezra his shoulder as a crutch and the two made their way back down stream. Buck had gotten to his feet and joined them, looking questioningly at Ezra. Ezra simply shook his head and reached out to touch Buck's face in a gentle admonishment.

"We will have to have a longer talk, later, my friend." He made sure that Buck could hear his reconciliatory tone.

Buck brightened considerably and cast a grateful glance over Ezra's head at Chris. Chris nodded once, then looked toward where Clem's Huey was crouching down by the little lake. "Ez? You mind coming on with Buck so I can go ahead?"

"No, that's fine, Mr. Larabee," Ezra pulled his arm from around Larabee's shoulders, giving them a light pat as he withdrew. He smiled warmly at Chris' startled look before the man moved on. Then, Ezra turned on one foot to face Buck.

"Here, Ezra." Buck lowered his shoulder in offering.

Carefully adjusting his hold to Buck's taller form, Ezra drew himself up and slipped one arm over the man's wide shoulder. "Thank you, Buck." He allowed himself the luxury of a moment's pause, to lean against the big man. Ezra was so relaxed and at peace, it was as if all the stress and emotional distress he'd felt was an old skin that he'd just shed.

Buck wasn't sure what Chris had said or done but he was eternally grateful. Ezra wasn't angry anymore. Buck had learned his lesson and didn't even have to work on suppressing the urge to offer to carry Ezra to the chopper. Shit, I'd probably look like mincemeat if I tried it. Buck took smaller steps, slowly, to accommodate Ezra's hobbling walk, happy beyond words to have his arm around that slender waist. Think this just might be heaven. He edged over a bit so that Ezra's body was close and warm against his and smiled out at the world, eyes disappearing as his cheeks rounded and his mustache nearly curled at the breadth of his smile.

Josiah and JD had climbed down to meet their teammates at the helicopter and Nathan waded up out of the boggy marsh, a stash of plant stalks, rootlings, and weed heads dangling from an open canvas sack on his shoulder. Just as Nathan dripped his way under the slowing rotors, Chris Larabee made it to the pilot's side window. He looked up, hands braced against the metal hull and waited until Clem stuck his head out.

"How'd it go?"

"No problemo, amigo!" Clem shoved his flying cap back on his head. "Got fueled up too, but to get anywhere interesting from here is going to take a whole hunk of time." He peered over the side of his bird. "I brought supplies in case you fellows want to spend the night here first."

Chris stood back and looked around consideringly. It would be nice to have a bit more rest before they headed back to Denver and a shit-pile of work. He spotted JD nodding vigorously next to Josiah and Nathan, both of whom were smiling in agreement. Nate motioned to his weedy collection, clearly signaling his desire to keep adding to it. Chris turned to watch Buck assisting Ezra up the slight slope to the helicopter. They could probably use some more time before the world comes crashing down around us.

"Sounds good. Thanks."

Before he could continue, Vin's voice came over the wire. "Cowboy! This is ..." and the wire went dead.

"... amazing!" Vin was crawling further into the petroglyph room and didn't notice when he scraped his tiny, wired mike against the old and oddly broken doorway.

There was enough natural light at midday to see the simple and dignified etchings into the rock wall at the back of the room. With one finger, he gently traced an antelope's stick figure. His eyes roamed over the complex pattern of animals, plants, objects and human figures. He was drawn to the dancing stick figure, hunched over what looked like a flute. "Kokopelli," Vin breathed out, unaware of how Ezra had reacted in the same way to the sight of the carving.

Sitting down finally, in front of the beautiful wall, Vin Tanner leaned back on both hands and crossed his legs at his ankles. "Chris, you and the boys gotta come see this." He waited for Larabee's usually grumpy reply.

Nothing.

"Chris?"

Vin tapped the earpiece and the throat mike fell into his lap. "Shit." He took up the tiny device and could see it was sheered off, rock scratches on the plastic casing bit that remained. Well, hell, that meant company was coming. He rose easily to his feet in a sinuous uncoiling of lean length, then picked his way back through the broken and rough doorways through a series of small empty rooms until he was once more at the place where he'd entered the ruins. From here he could see across the small valley, and some ways up and down the small river. The sun was still up, it was early afternoon. He hadn't come far, so he watched expectantly downstream.

Chris frowned as he gripped the sling seat pole beneath his legs. On one side of him were Ezra and Buck. JD and Nathan sat facing them across the narrow aisle, on either side of the open doorway hatch. Josiah was up in the copilot chair again as Clem pulled them up into the air. JD swore that Vin had to have done something at his end to his wire because all the rest of them had fully functioning sets, even Clem. So what had happened to Vin?

Vin heard it before he saw the dark shape hover into sight above the river valley. Clem got back. Made it a bit easier on everyone. He began to climb back down the bluff. Won't be seen up in the shadow of the cavern and ruins.

"I see him." Josiah's slow, steady phrasing was reassuring to everyone. "He's on the side of a hill, looks almost like a bluff. Climbing down. He's by the river now, waving at us. Looks fine."

No one else spoke, until Chris leaned forward and tapped his mike. "Clem? Can you set down near him?"

"Can do." Fortnight had been studying the terrain and already picked out a spot right on top of a big mesa that Tanner had just climbed down. The valley was too narrow for his baby, and the hillsides were nearly canyon walls, but the high land offered an nearly tabletop level surface. Looked like an old kiva had been there once. He figured to land near it and motioned to Sanchez.

Josiah was startled by the artificial formation that Clem pointed out but nodded and gave a thumb's up. Then he spoke into his mike. "We're going to set down up above Vin, might be a good idea to lower someone first." He looked over at Clem who nodded and gave the universal thumb to forefinger OK sign. "We can send someone down a line to Vin. Pick him up."

"I'll do it!" JD's voice chimed in right on the heels of Josiah's suggestion. He sounded excited and eager.

Chris considered only briefly. "Go in armed, JD, we'll cover from here." Then he looked up, eyes widening as Clem slid down the access from the cockpit area and into view.

Clem smiled brightly at all, tossing his long silk scarf back over his shoulder and striding the length of the ship to the rear where he promptly popped open a storage unit. By the time Nathan and Chris had joined him, he was dragging out a rope ladder with pole crosspieces. It had weights on the ends.

No one said anything about the pilot's appearance in the rear. Chris mentally crossed his fingers that Josiah's flying talents were still up to date. He and Nathan hauled the ladder to the hatch where Clem fitted JD with a harness like a parachutist wears. Then he clipped a line directly to the harness and showed Jackson how to reel JD in with simple hydraulics by the door.

Standing over the open door, the roar of the blades still heavy above their heads, Clem gestured for Larabee and Jackson to drop the ladder over the side. JD stood watching, flexing his hands.

Ezra sat observing from the open circle of Buck's arms. No one had said a word when the two arranged themselves in a tangle on the bench and he was grateful now to have Buck at his back. It was frustrating not being able to be more help. Buck's hands tightened on his arm and hand. Ezra looked up, realizing that Buck's best friend, JD, was now at risk.

Buck, sensing Ezra's scrutiny, looked down to meet the questioning silence. "He's smart and he's tough. He'll be fine." The confidence in his voice didn't have to be faked, he believed it. Turning to his young friend, he called out, "JD, take it easy on Vin! He probably didn't break his mike on purpose." Then Buck flashed a wide grin to tell his friend that he knew everything would be alright.

JD was touched and smiled at the couple. He could see Ezra's eyes shining there, his head tucked in close to Buck's shoulder. Both men smiled back and waved. He waved in turn, then squatted as Clem guided him to the ladder that twisted like a demented snake at his feet. When he looked up, Clem was gone and Chris and Nathan were leaning over him, each bracing him on an arm. Chris gave the go sign, and JD started his descent.

"I'm on it." Clem slid into his seat and retrieved control of his old bird, tapping Josiah once on the shoulder as he passed. Once the other pilot was sure Clem had full possession of the controls, he released his set and peered out the side window to watch the lift.

Vin stared up at the Huey, hovering above him. Well, damn. A rope ladder fell out, unrolling as it dropped. Then JD was coming down.

Clem landed on the mesa with no trouble, flattening a few dry bushes. The team with him all called out their appreciation. Vin Tanner had made a point to climb up the access and thank him personally once he'd climbed up the ladder with JD's help and they'd swooped up and away from the tiny valley.

Getting out of the helicopter, the team quickly passed down and out the supplies that Clem had brought along with their own equipment and gear. Camp was set up within an hour and the Huey tied down in case of wind at Clem's direction. They were rather exposed on the open plateau.

As soon as the team had done some initial sorting and settling in, Josiah let Chris know he was going exploring, explaining about the kiva remains he'd spotted from the air. Vin chimed in asking to go along and soon it was everyone. Curiosity, both from Vin's non-stop descriptions of the ruins below and Josiah's of the kiva, had even Clem and Chris wandering in Sanchez's wake.

Vin kept a sharp eye for holes. He hadn't said anything but if Josiah was right, then there had to be a way to get between the kiva above and the adobe living quarters below. He suddenly realized that the others might not have figured this out. "Stop!" He licked his lips as his friends froze without question. Eyes swiveled to him. "Listen, I think there must have been some way up from the ruins to the top. Especially if that really was a kiva that Josiah spotted."

"So there may be a hole around somewhere?" Chris finished the thought.

"Yep. Only, might be hid, intentional or just from nature's way of it after so long." Vin shuffled one foot forward, testing. "Could just open up under someone who's not careful."

Buck instantly hauled Ezra closer where he was supporting him. Standish started to object. Foolish boy. A chance to snuggle and I should object? He let his arm pull Buck in closer too and felt an answering hug. Now we just lag back here and let the more adventurous spirits prevail. Ezra relaxed against Wilmington.

Nathan, who had been at Sanchez's side, took a tentative step forward again, tapping lightly with his foot. Beside him, Josiah did likewise. To their right, Larabee picked up a broken length of wood and tested the ground as if he had a cane. JD watched and copied the movements with a stick of his own. The men reached the broken circle of adobe bricks without incident. The structure had once been roofed over but all that was left was a circular bench backed by remnants of wall curving inward slightly as they rose. In the center was a jumble of stones that might once have been a fireplace. And, to the side, near a wall and what appeared to be an entrance, was a squarish hole. Dark and gaping.

"Found your way down, Vin." JD stood over it, peering into the darkness below.

Knowing where it was relaxed the rest of the men. Chris sat on the circular bench and was soon joined by Nathan. Josiah, JD and Vin wandered the ruin, looking closely at the structural details that still remained after centuries of abandonment and weather.

Buck helped Ezra over the shell's lowest wall point, stealing a kiss for his trouble.

"Easy, sweetheart, take it nice and slow with that ankle."

Ezra dimpled at Buck and then felt himself falling against the big man as they crossed the wall boundary. "Buck!"

Buck easily caught and braced Ezra, drawing him in for another body hug. "Got you." He kissed his friend sweetly and together they turned to look around the huge empty meeting chamber, both drawing in breath with awe and reverence.

Standing and sitting around the circle of the kiva, Team Seven and Clem Fortnight quieted until no one was speaking. Those who had been wandering about slowing found places around the curved bench, instinctively seeking out separate spots. A tranquil peace seemed to settle over everyone and gazes rose to the bowl of blue sky above them.

Josiah's voice was a bare whispery rumble as he broke the silence. "Back then, the kiva's roof would have been complete, only a smoke hole in the center, no sight of the sky." He stopped speaking and dropped his eyes to look around the circle of his friends. Each face was open, eyes raised still to the sky. With a bare smile, he went on. "This was a space of ceremonies. For seeking the presence of the spirits, for walking with them. Nature was very close to the people, spoke to them. Their dwellings and their lives entwined with the world around them."

Vin Tanner's quiet rasp seemed to rise from the dry earth in the silence following Josiah's words. Ezra shivered slightly and was comforted by Buck's arm hugging him closer as they sat side-by-side on the kiva's bench. Vin said, "I took a spirit walk once. Had to be purified first in a sweat lodge. Felt the cleanest I'd ever been, inside as well as out. Walked up into mountains with air so clear that it knifed my lungs and made my head echo inside."

No one said anything. The place seemed to demand that respect and even the wind was still. Vin smiled up at the warm sun on his face and shook off his vest, letting it fall to the adobe behind him. "I soared with eagles, ran with foxes, dug with a badger." He opened his shirt to the air, letting the dry heat cleanse his sweat away. "Had a vision." He felt no need to say more and no one else spoke.

Silence and sunshine swirled around the friends.

JD broke his hypnotic stare up into the azure field so pure that he felt as if he'd been drowning. With a blink or two, he looked around at his companions. All friends, these men he'd worked with for sometime now, and a new friend, Clem, who'd helped them rescue Ezra and Buck. He breathed evenly and his fingers fumbled with his vest straps then released them, his vest falling off. He pulled his sweatshirt off over his head and let it drop down behind him, too. The thin blue oxford shirt below was unbuttoned and fell off as well. The heat rising from the open, dry land, baked with the high sun, gave him a sense of deep ease, like times his mother had held him when he was a child, safe and warm. He raised his head again to the sun and closed his eyes.

Nathan felt a tiny alarm at the quiet way his friends were acting, all of them beginning to remove clothing there in the sunshine. He wasn't sure why he was disturbed by it, though. As he turned his head, he saw that Josiah, Chris, Vin, and JD had all removed their vests and either opened or taken off their shirts and jackets. Chris sat with his dark tee still on, but his weather breaker was nowhere in sight. Josiah's simple plaid flannel shirt was open, his v-neck white undershirt revealing curls of gray and black chest hair. His chin was raised so high that he seemed to be a flower soaking in the energy of the sun's rays. JD and Vin were both free of all upper clothing now. Vin's thin frame was tanned, he must spend time outside, Nathan thought, assessing the man's condition, skinny but not alarmingly so. JD was white, not a speck of tan. He shouldn't be sitting out in the sun like that. Nathan started to open his mouth, and then paused, feeling a need to give them all this moment of peace. He won't burn for a few minutes. I'll speak to him before it gets dangerous. The small alarm he'd felt faded away. His own fingers began to unfasten his vest and he closed his eyes as he shrugged out of it, savoring the heat of the sun on his skin as he opened his shirt too.

Buck and Ezra opened their eyes as one, beginning to feel connections that had nothing to do with the flesh. A soft kiss on pursed lips, chaste and dry, had them both smiling into each other's eyes. Then Ezra's sure hands were tugging Buck's rumpled tux jacket off and picking open the button studs on the, no longer white, dress shirt beneath. He had to weave his arms through Buck's because Buck was performing the same service for him. Jackets fell to the dusty adobe, and white shirts billowed around them as they rolled their shoulders and pushed their hands under the fine fabrics of their open shirts, fingers stroking lightly on warm damp skins quickly drying in the air.

Clem grinned around at the ATF men. He pulled off his silk flying scarf, his cap left behind in the Huey already. He pushed his jumpsuit off his shoulders and stretched, his old torn tee ignored. He scratched himself and reached for the sky as if he'd fly away. This was the best he'd felt in a very long time.

No one could say how long exactly they sat there in quiet communion, but after Vin finished speaking, no one else said a word. After a time, Nathan had edged over beside JD briefly, touching his rosy skin on one forearm and looking at the pink and white response meaningfully. JD had only nodded and reached back, picking up his pale blue shirt and pulling it on again, though he left it unbuttoned. Nathan had patted him on the shoulder and settled back away from him again.

Chris was the first to move, stretching and standing on stiff knees. He did a deep knee bend and felt his muscles loosen. Around him, the others slowly broke from their meditations, rising to do similar moves to loosen muscles and joints. As everyone stirred, a slight breeze picked up and the coolness was enough to have the men closing up open shirts or pulling back on ones that had been discarded. Reluctantly, everyone put back on their vests.

JD, closest to the dark hole in the earth, spoke first. "How about we all go down? Take a look at the ruins? See those carvings that Buck and Ezra found?"

"They're mighty fine." Vin spoke after clearing his throat, as if it had been disused for some time.

"Best everyone have something to drink first," Nathan suggested, gesturing back to their temporary camp.

Chris nodded for the group. It had been warm and dry but now he began to feel sweat cling to his skin, a slight chilling affect and his mouth felt like paper. "Good idea. There're canteens of water." He looked over at Clem. "How about we use your rope ladder to get down inside?"

"Need to anchor it." Clem walked over to the hole, looking at the stones that rose up from the ground on one side. "Looks like we could hook it over some of these rocks." His long thin frame was like a bird's against the sky behind him.

"I'll go get it!" JD was up and leaping over the rim of adobe in a moment.

"JD! Drink some water first!" Nathan's call was answered with a cheery wave of acknowledgement.

Buck helped Ezra stand and balance on his good leg. They helped each other into jackets without comment. Both remembered the coolness of the shadowy rooms below. Then Buck leaned in so that only Ezra could hear. "Are you sure you want to do this? We've already seen those pictures and that ladder might be a bit hard on your ankle." He rubbed Ezra's firm back possessively without even thinking.

Ezra arched into the stroking hand and nearly purred. He smiled up at Buck. "My arms are strong, I'll just lower myself that way and pull myself up afterwards." His clear green eyes met Buck's dark blue ones. "I'd like to see them again."

Buck tipped his head and kissed Ezra soundly before saying softly into his ear, "Then we go. If you need help-"

"-you'll be there." Ezra lightly cupped Buck's sincere face in his hands. "And I'm very glad of that." He placed a light kiss on Buck's lips and then licked them softly before pulling back enough to smile into Buck's serious expression. "I think I am already depending on it and, Buck, it's a good feeling."

Buck's face opened into a tender smile and his eyes dampened. With a full and happy heart, he gently wrapped his arms around his love and held them close for a moment. He thrilled at the feel of Ezra's answering pressure. He felt as if he was growing taller right there, at least ten feet tall by now, and his throat inexplicably closed up tight so he couldn't answer, but somehow, he knew that Ezra understood. He swallowed with difficulty and rubbed his face on Ezra's shoulder to brush away tears that had squeezed out. Dreams do come true.

Chris watched quietly as Buck embraced Ezra and they murmured together. When he saw the look of happiness and tenderness bloom on Buck's face, Chris nodded with satisfaction, feeling a bit warmer toward life himself at that moment. It had been a long road for Buck, for Ezra, too. Two lonely souls in need. Fortunately, Buck had known exactly what he needed, wanted, from the day that Ezra P. Standish had walked into their Denver office. Chris wondered at the fine hand of fate that had led him to Atlanta and one badly used undercover operative.

As he picked up a canteen and took a sip, he continued to surreptitiously observe these two friends of his as their bond grew before his eyes. It had been worth it, he decided, as he thought back over the months of his private counseling with Buck, his final concession that, yes, Greg was not the right man for their Ezra. He passed the canteen to Josiah who smiled back wisely. Man knows exactly what I'm thinking, likely thinking the same thing too, Chris thought as he leaned against the hull of the chopper and watched all his men pick up small supplies and take some water.

Buck was helping Ezra with a deft degree of reservation now. He won't make that mistake again. Chris suppressed a grin as he thought about the way Ezra had responded to over-protectiveness. Glad my ass was outta there by the time Ezra had his second wind. He paused in thought. Does Ezra realize how we all accept, hell, approve, of them as a couple? Hope our little talk helped. Chris stroked his stubbled jaw and moved to pick up an extra flashlight from the small pile at JD's feet.

Dunne had fished out the store of hand torches from the locker that he and Vin had filled and lugged along with them on their 'adventure.' Chris looked back as Nathan came up beside him and gave him an elbow nudge, smiling and nodding to where Buck was hovering over Ezra. They watching knowingly, seeing the way Ezra was humoring Buck's extra careful handling.

The hole led down into the first room that Ezra and Buck, and later, Vin, had entered from the river's bluff climb. None had noticed the dark opening because it came out in an alcove to the rear of the first chamber, it's small window of light masked. Once everyone was down, Vin led the way through the series of empty rooms to the wall of old carvings.

As the men filed slowly into the room of pictographs, Josiah set down the large camp lantern that Clem had pulled out of a storage bin in the Huey. He fired it up and the warm glow supplemented the sunshine from the crumbling open wall across from the stone engravings. Whistles and hums of appreciation were the only sounds as everyone found a place to sit and view the wall.

With a smile on his face, Ezra leaned back against Buck who had seated himself directly behind Ezra. He had wanted to come back here but never expected it to happen so soon. To share the experience with his teammates was just icing on the proverbial cake. He nestled his head comfortably against Buck's chest and relaxed, his eyes tracing the elegant designs carved centuries earlier.

Buck held his friend close and stared at the engravings over Ezra's shoulder. Ez thinks these are pretty special. He began to study them more closely, interested in seeing what Ezra saw in them. The array of herd animals, a lizard, two desert tortoises, and a coyote were the first things he was able to identify. Then he saw the picture of Henry. No, of that cocoa-something creature.

"Look over there, Ez." Buck pointed to the dancing flute player. "Looks like old Henry."

"That's Kokopelli, Buck." Vin's comment met with nods of recognition from Josiah, Ezra and Nathan. Chris raised an eyebrow in interrogation, but it was JD who spoke.

"Who's cocoa-pelony?"

"Kokopelli." Josiah spoke in his clear voice, dry as dust. "He is a very popular figure of Native American myth. Perhaps a god. He was known for his mischief, his music, his dance, and his affinity for lovers - being also associated with fertility."

"Well, he sure was friendly to us." Buck chuckled. "Helped out quite a bit."

"So, where is he?" JD's impatience was reflected in his quick question.

Buck craned his neck around the room, seeing all his friends and Clem, but no sign of their visitor from the night before. "Don't know."

"Oh, I imagine he comes and goes." Ezra didn't seem the least perturbed by the disappearing Henry.

Chris pushed up to his feet and dusted his rump off with both hands, eyes still on the carvings. He moved closer and one finger lightly traced a leaping antelope. Then he looked down the row of receding, empty doorways that continued past the distance they'd already come. "Think I'd like to see what else is down here while there is still some light."

Vin and JD stood together. "Got my flashlight," Vin said, fishing out the one he'd brought along.

"Where'd they go?" Nathan stood up too, coming over to look at the wall more closely; he was joined by Josiah.

"No one knows," Josiah said softly. "They just disappeared from history's view." He glanced over his shoulder at Clem Fortnight. "You know anything about local legends?"

At his name, Clem climbed to his feet and wandered closer. He stared at the carvings. "Hear things." He struck a pose, chin tucked to stare at the finely carved symbols, hands laced on his flat stomach, back arched. "Never heard a whisper about this place."

Vin stood at the empty hole that had once been a doorway, he looked back over his shoulder at his friends. "Anyone else coming?"

Josiah, Nathan, JD, and Chris all walked over toward Vin as he stepped out of sight. Clem followed as well. Chris stopped at the opening, turning back to where Buck still sat with Ezra in front of him. The boys showed no sign of moving. "We'll be back."

Ezra's eyes were half-lidded, he looked drowsy. Buck lifted his head from where he'd been resting it on Ezra's shoulder. "We'll be here." He tucked a kiss into Ezra's neck and then looked seriously at Chris. "Take care. Strange things happened in this place."

Larabee gave a single nod, then turned away from the room, leaving behind the soft glow of the camp lantern, his two friends exploring their new love, and a wall of secret messages from the past. Before him was another small chamber, empty except for the disappearing back of Nathan Jackson. Through the gap around Nate's body, Chris could see the shapes of more of his men and the bobbing of small light cones. Outside, it was daylight, but in here, except for weak sunlight fighting through crumbled holes in the adobe, it might as well be nighttime. When he heard the crash, his heart leapt in his chest and he grabbed at his throat mike.

"What happened?" He could hear a babble of voices, but no answer.

"What the hell happened?" Chris shoved himself through the next opening, now clear, using both hands on the edges of soft, old adobe to jump through feet first into the dark.

Ezra leaned forward out of Buck's arms. "Go!"

Buck was on his feet in seconds. "Are you sure?" He hesitated, torn between staying with Ezra and charging off to help out with whatever mess the rest of his friends had gotten into.

Ezra fell back on his hands, arms extended, and cricked his neck to look up at Wilmington. "I'm sure." He saw the hesitation in those dark blue eyes. "I'll be fine. I'll just stay right here. What could happen?"

Buck took a deep breath and met Ezra's eyes. "I love you."

"I know." Ezra smiled. "No, go!" He watched his companion snatch a small flashlight from a pocket and hop through the raised doorway, and vanish. Ezra sank back down onto his elbows and stared again at the carvings. Kokopelli seemed to glow, but surely that was just a trick of the gas flame from the lantern.

Ezra and Buck had to make do with older communications hookups from among the stash that JD had brought. The reception was poor and Ezra hadn't heard anything on the wire. He made sure the earpiece and mike were on and waited. He shivered once at an unexpected breeze.

Buck took the doorways like hurdles, leaping over the raised thresholds, pushing back on the side walls as he passed over each one. He had gone through six more chambers before he ran into Chris. Literally.

Chris Larabee, accelerated heart beat filling his throat with fear, jumped through the first opening, then tore head, high-stepping through the others until he found his men. They had moved ahead of him when he'd stopped to make sure Buck and Ezra would be okay. Skidding to a halt in the sixth room, he surveyed the damages with a gulp.

Josiah Sanchez sat, looking flummoxed, on the hard dirt floor, a pile of badly deteriorated adobe bricks tumbled around and under him, along with what appeared to be some dry and powdery, short wooden poles. Nathan Jackson was leaning against one wall, bent over and shaking. JD and Vin were collapsed against each other, and it sounded as if they were crying. Only Clem Fortnight seemed to take whatever had happened in stride. He was standing to the side, lighting what looked like a skinny cigarette. Chris sniffed the air. Oh, shit. It's shit. He sighed and slowly proceeded into the chamber.

Nathan looked up and coughed out a hiccupped greeting, "H-h-hello th-there, Chris." Anything more he might have been inclined to say was choked on a spasm of laughter. Weakly, he waved a hand in front of his face, shaking his head and pointing to Josiah.

Sanchez turned red and bent his head.

What had sounded like sobbing resolved itself into Vin and JD laughing hysterically. And at that point, Buck charged into the room full gallop and smashed into the back of Chris Larabee.

Ezra smiled into Henry's dark, merry eyes. "How nice to see you again."

"Friend Ezra!" Henry squatted down beside the southerner. He looked at the firmly wrapped ankle and then back up at Ezra. "You have been hurt."

Ezra nodded, then shrugged. "Nothing too serious. Just twisted." He smiled. "Never a wise thing to do."

Henry sank down to the ground and opened his pack. "You would like refreshment?"

Putting a hand on Henry's arm, Ezra shook his head. "I don't need anything, my friend. Buck and my teammates are here with me now."

Henry looked around questioningly.

"Oh, something happened further into the ruins," Ezra pointed at the far wall, "and Buck went to see if they need help."

Without another word, Henry closed up his pack and fingered his long flute, suspended from shoulder strap. "You are all staying here tonight?"

"Oh, no. They just wanted to see these beautiful carvings and do a bit of exploring." Ezra nodded to where the alcove was located, adding, "We have set up a small camp on the mesa above, and come down here again through the kiva we found there."

"You are not camping in the kiva?" Henry's voice dropped.

Ezra smiled and shook his head. "No." Then he thought of something, "Is this all yours?"

Henry picked up his flute and smirked. And suddenly Ezra wasn't quite so sure about Henry anymore.

Tumbling into JD and Vin, Buck and Chris fell on top of them on the floor, Buck's flailing legs knocking Nathan off his wall as well. A cloud of dust rose and smothered everyone.

Josiah, off to the side, wiped at his face and pushed himself up, rubbing his sore buttocks with one hand and a shoulder with the other. He watched as the dust settled again and the now filthy men still in a tangle began to claw their way free from each other. He winced at the creative cursing that emerged from the pile-up and stood well clear as first Buck, then Chris staggered backwards over to the wall at his side, each of them blinking blearily and pounding adobe brick dust from their clothing. Both men were coughing.

Vin used JD's struggling form as a support and shoved himself to his feet. He weaved off crookedly to one side and caught himself with a straight arm to the nearest wall, shaking his head as he went, a shower of dust cascading from his shaggy locks.

JD was coughing so hard he was gasping, and Clem reached down a hand and pulled the younger man up to his feet. Dunne couldn't seem to stop hacking and as the others watched, still mastering their own breathing, Clem whacked JD on the back, nearly flinging the young man across the room. With a mighty 'whoo-oomp', JD, sounding like a whooping crane during mating season (a fact that Vin pointed out later), finally cleared his throat and stood unsteadily, hands on his knees as he blinked away tears and breathed through his mouth.

Chris was the first to recover, or at least do something. He sent a short glare at Buck, who waved him off with both hands, and then turned to stare at Josiah. "What in the hell happened in here?" He sent another fierce look at Buck, adding, "Before Buck came wind-milling in."

Josiah bit his lip and admitted, "I fell down. Found a ladder heading up to what seems to be a second story and wanted to look around up there." He shrugged and wiped his hands on his vest, leaving dusty smears. "The wood gave out part way up the ladder." He eyed the pile of little better than kindling now and said, "I guess I should have figured the wood might not hold after all this time."

Chris closed his eyes.

"Chris?" Vin's voice sounded slightly wobbly, but he was getting control back. As long as he didn't look directly at Josiah.

Larabee opened his eyes and wiped his face with one hand. "So, aside from falling down, did you all find anything interesting?"

Breathing a sigh of relief to be out of the spotlight, Sanchez looked up the open shaft beside him. "Well, we know that there's some sort of second story over this."

"And that there are still more rooms beyond us too," JD said, having scrunched his face out of its semi-hysterical stretch of mirth, gestured to an empty dark opening past where Nathan leaned again on the adobe wall.

"Not much left in here, though." Vin scuffed with his foot at the dry dust.

"Unless," Josiah's voice took on a note of excitement as he dropped into a crouch beside the pile of debris he'd created, "unless you look closely." He scraped at the edge of the pile of old adobe brick and retrieved a small object that gleamed dully.

"What you got there, Josiah?" JD was already moving, hurrying over to look more closely. He whistled.

"Heard talk about stuff like that," was Clem Fortnight's only comment, spoken in a dreamy undertone as he pulled more of his sweet smoke into his lungs and held it, a hazy look to his eyes.

Jackson, curious now, bent over the top of Josiah's head and JD's shoulder. "You have got to be kidding!"

That was enough for Chris who strode over. "What now?"

Buck and Vin followed Larabee over to finish forming a circle of attention around Josiah's bulk. Clem, close by, simply stood taller and looked over Vin's shoulder.

Josiah looked up, holding out one hand, palm flat. On it was a warm gleam of gold. Very old gold.

"Pard, looks like you found yourself some treasure." Buck's comment brought nods from the others.

Sanchez plucked the old object from his open hand and held it up between thumb and forefinger as he rose to his feet. He blew lightly on it and then smeared it between his fingers before looking closely at it. "This is Spanish, I think."

"Coronado's lost gold!" JD said in an excited whisper. Five sets of surprised eyes turned his way. Clem simply smiled secretively. Defensively, JD added, "Well, it could be!"

"JD, little buddy," Buck swung a long arm around the young agent's shoulders, and continued, "You are full of surprises."

"Yeah. I guess. Anyway," JD shrugged off his friend's half-hug and brushed at his long bangs, pushing them behind his ears. "Might be more here. Might be a lot. Might be the Spanish explorers stashed their gold here and just never came back."

"Lot of 'might be's' there, kid." Vin grinned, leaning back against a wall. Gold was not of any special interest to him. Then he had a thought as he gazed at the rest of the men still staring in speculation at Josiah's gold piece. "Hey, I bet Ezra would know more about that. He still back in the picture room, Buck?" Vin turned to look at the tall man with his last question.

"Oh, damn." Buck seemed to shake himself. "Ezra!" He looked to Chris. "We couldn't hear you boys over the wires down here, so I came on to help. Left Ezra back there."

Chris nodded in understanding, seeing the sudden worry in Buck's eyes. "Go on back. Fill him in. We'll be along shortly."

Buck disappeared back through the closest opening in the wall and the rest still circled around Josiah. Chris scratched his head. "Seems to me, these old ruins are too dangerous for amateurs like us to go digging around." He saw the disappointed slump of JD's shoulders and the looks of agreement on the faces of the rest. "Take that one along, Josiah, and let's head on back. We can send the coordinates of this place to the right people along with that gold."

"One of the universities, perhaps." Josiah handed the coin to JD and began to dust himself off in earnest.

Chris turned to stare at Fortnight. The man's demeanor had him curious. Sure, he was 'flying' now on some maryjane, but from his words, Chris guessed that it was low-grade shit and that all Clem felt was a nice, warm buzz. "Clem." He waited until he had the man's attention. When Fortnight pulled himself up like a gangly puppet and turned to face Chris, Larabee asked, "Do you know something about this." He pointed at the coin now being examined by Vin.

Clem squinted, first at Chris, and then his eyes followed Chris' pointing finger to the lop-sided coin in Vin's fingers. "Could be."

"Could be what?" Larabee's patience was drawing to a close, his men could tell, but no one was sure if Fortnight had any idea of the wrath he'd be bringing down on his own head if he didn't start talking.

"Could be some from that hoard." Clem lifted his chin toward JD, "Like the kid said. Stories, old ones, been around for a long time. I heard 'em as a kid myself." He took a pull on his toke, then added with a sly smile, "Kinda like Indiana Jones, huh?"

Chris frowned and faced his men, dismissing Fortnight's musings. "Look, it's too dangerous down here. Nathan, give that back to Josiah. Josiah, keep it for now. You can report it when we get back to Denver."

At the sound of their home, the rest of the men seemed to brighten. Lost treasure was interesting but home sounded really good about now. Nathan, who had taken the misshapen coin from Vin, tossed it to Josiah and everyone stood, dusting themselves off. A sense of agreement and purpose was in the air.

"Let's go." Larabee waved toward the open doorway they'd all come through earlier and stood waiting. He fully intended to be the last man back through there. No more stray sheep.

Sanchez ducked into the doorway, leading the way back through the series of chambers. He was followed by Jackson, Dunne, and a slightly off-center Fortnight. Vin Tanner met Larabee's amused eyes with a small quirk of a grin and then slipped into the doorway. Chris took a final look around the small empty room and at the pile of rubbish beneath a dark opening in the ceiling. With a shake of his head, he climbed over the doorsill and followed his men back toward their exit.

Buck reached the room of pictographs quickly. He'd started calling Ezra's name two rooms before but got no answer. Arriving in the empty room, he stood staring at the spot where he'd left Ezra. Shock held him still for a moment, then he ran to the broken wall facing the drop off to the river. Leaning over the crumbling adobe, he stared out and down. No sigh of Ezra nor any sign that anyone had left that way. Swiveling around, he took off at a run for the first room, shouting through cupped hands, "EZRA!"

He reached the first room that gave way to the entry from below, and above. Still finding nothing, he flopped on to his belly and hung over the edge, looking down at the foot and handholds and the river below. No one. He shouted again, "EZRA!" By now, Buck was shaking, his heart had begun to pound faster and he found himself holding his breath in fear. Where was Ezra? Twisting around he lurched to his feet and ran over to the alcove where they'd left their rope ladder. The ladder was gone.

Buck stood thunderstruck below the hole to the top of the mesa. What had Ezra been thinking? Had he done this on his own? Why take the ladder? Had he been forced? Buck shook his head and raised both fists upward, his teeth clenched in an agony of uncertainty.

Josiah and Nathan arrived next, only a few minutes later. They had found the room of pictographs empty and continued on to their exit, where they found Buck frozen below the vertical tunnel.

"Buck?" Josiah approached their tall friend cautiously, his tension clear. "Where's Ezra?"

Before Buck could answer, if he would, Nathan noticed what else was missing. "Where's the ladder?"

By now, JD had arrived with Clem drifting in on his heels. He heard the two questions and anxiously asked, "What's wrong?"

Buck sagged to the ground and looked up at his friends. "He's gone and I don't know how or why." The lost sound in Wilmington's voice gave everyone pause.

"Can't have gone far on that ankle," Nathan volunteered just as Vin climbed through the final portal with Chris right behind him.

Larabee took in the stances of his men and Buck's bewildered upward stare. One look at the empty hole and he registered the missing ladder, as the others had or were doing now. "Any sign of a struggle?" He didn't wait for an answer, giving Vin a sign with his eyes to go back over the other rooms for whatever their outdoorsman could discover. Then, Chris put his hands on his hips and looked around the room. "Well, we still have to go back up, likely Ezra is already there."

Buck faced his oldest friend and saw the surety there. He bowed his head for a moment, then shed his desolation like an unwanted burden. Ezra would not leave me. He didn't do this by choice. And Buck believed. Belief blossomed again with Larabee's confidence, and with it came Buck's faith in himself and in Ezra. He pushed himself up and touched the walls of the small alcove, looking up the empty shaft to pale blue sky above, fading as the day began to wane.

"I can climb this." He spoke consideringly, touching the soft adobe lining and the rough stone that had been painstakingly hacked out long ago.

"Probably. But I can do it faster." JD shot a look over to where Vin had reappeared. "And Vin can too."

Tanner raised an eyebrow in question, having failed to hear the earlier remarks. When JD didn't respond, he transferred his voiceless question to Larabee.

Chris was moving over to Buck by now and didn't acknowledge Vin directly, Josiah and Nathan were backing out of his way, JD and Clem were sidelined by his intensity. "Buck." Chris came up beside his old friend. "We'll let the youngsters go first. You be ready to follow them."

JD didn't wait, he slipped past his mentor and braced his back against the stone shaft, arms flat and down, palms pressed hard behind him. Then he raised one leg and put his track shoe on the opposing wall, less than forty inches away from his back. He had his second foot up and was staring to scale the height by the time Vin had stepped in close under him, looking back at the others, sky blue eyes fixed on his best friend.

"Someone else showed up after Buck left, stood, maybe sat beside Ezra for a moment, then got him on his feet. They came back here." Vin spoke softly, directly to Chris.

Larabee's eyes turned flat and troubled as he looked over at Buck who was dusting his hands on the dirt floor. With a pat on Tanner's back, Chris motioned for him to follow Dunne up the shaft. "Send down the ladder or a line."

Vin gave a simple two-fingered salute and took position beneath JD who was already up at least eight feet in the tunnel.

Henry stood over Ezra. He looked up at the evening's first signs: a cool breeze picking up, a paling to the bowl of blue, a failing of the light. Lifting his flute to his lips, he began to play a soft, slow riff.

"Listen!" Buck ran to the shaft and cocked his head, waving the rest over impatiently. "That's Henry's flute, damn it! I should have known he'd have something to do with this!"

"Henry's that guy that helped you and Ezra?" Nathan asked even though he did recall the strange character that Buck and Ezra had described. He listened but didn't hear anything. Catching the eyes of Josiah and then Chris, he could tell by the way they paused that both were straining to hear something, anything. With no success.

"Yeah." Buck leaned back against one wall of the vertical tunnel and tried to lift his leg enough to brace his foot against the other wall. The shaft was so tight that this proved difficult for the taller man. He looked up enviously at Tanner's silhouette. JD was no longer visible.

Dunne shoved himself over the lip of the hole and rolled to the side so that Vin could come up. He raised up and looked around the kiva. Up here, it was very still, a quiet that seemed almost unnatural. Near the center, he could see someone lying down, all balled up, silent. Closer to where he was perched, he spotted their ladder - as if someone had pulled it up and simply cast it to the side, not even bothering to untie it from the securing lines his team had rigged.

He crawled over to the rope and pole set just as Vin shouldered himself up from the depths. "Here's the ladder." JD lifted the bulky bundle and half-offered it to Tanner.

Vin pushed out with a booted foot and tumbled over backwards away from the hole. Recovering and righting himself, he scooted over to JD's side and helped him manhandle the ladder into position. Together they dropped it back into the hole. It went taut instantly.

"Coming up!" Buck's voice sounded as quickly as the ladder landed.

Vin and JD moved back out of the way and circled round to approach the unmoving figure by the old fire center hearth of the kiva. Watching the area around them for anything threatening, the two agents stepped warily up to the body, separating automatically to provide a less tempting target. JD squatted beside the blanket-covered form and carefully pulled the covering off. Beneath was a sleeping Ezra, curled tightly in a fetal position.

"Ez?" Vin touched one shoulder with no result.

By then, Buck had run up the ladder and was there, pushing the other two aside. "Let me." He knelt beside Ezra and touched his friend's face. "Ezra?"

The pale face was perfectly still, except for darting eye movement beneath semi-translucent eyelids that were completely closed. "Aw, Ez." Buck's soft words were not lost on JD and Vin who stood over him, eyes still flicking about, checking their surroundings. Both cast worried glances down at the couple on the ground.

Buck scooped up the sleeping man and pulled him on to his lap, holding him close. He raised his head and watched as the rest of the team and Clem Fortnight emerged from the hole. No one said anything, everyone stared.

Nathan came across the open ground and knelt beside Buck to look more closely at Ezra. "Looks like he's dreaming." He pointed to the REM beneath the lids, active and persistent.

Vin crouched down beside Buck and Ezra and gingerly reached out to lift a simple handmade pottery dish up from near the central hearth. Inside were lumpy looking circular things that resembled small knobs. "Josiah."

Sanchez pulled his eyes away from Ezra, held so protectively on Buck's lap, and walked over to where Vin Tanner still squatted. His eyes widened, then narrowed at the sight of the bowl and its contents. "Peyote buttons."

"What I thought." Vin stirred the things with one finger. "Seven."

Josiah used his foot to nudge a similarly sized but much mashed object on the ground near their feet. "Eight."

Chris looked down at Vin's find and grimaced. He sighed at the chewed button of mescal. "Guess we know why he's dreaming."

"What are you guys talking about? And what's that stuff?" JD moved closer and scratched at his neck, the dirt was beginning to work its way into the pores of his skin. He'd be soaking in a hot bath for hours when this was finally over.

"The stuff of dreams, kid." Josiah smiled benignly down on Dunne.

"That's big time shit around here," Clem added, with a nod at the bowl. "I got my own poison and don't mess with that stuff." He wandered over to the edge of the kiva and plunked himself down on the broken adobe wall, legs askew.

Nathan carefully retrieved the partially chewed peyote button, frowning and dropping it into Vin's bowl. "Enough for each of us to try some too." He turned puzzled eyes on the others. "I just don't get it. Ezra probably knows what that stuff is, can do. He never does drugs. What could have possessed him to use it?"

"Henry." Buck's voice was heavy. He leaned down over Ezra's supine form and kissed the damp forehead, wiping back loose brown curls from Ezra's hair that sweat had formed there. "Ezra believes in Henry. More than I did. Trusts him too much."

The others slowly circled around Buck and Ezra, seating themselves on the dirt. Clem remained apart, not aloof so much as aware that he wasn't really a member of this strange family of men.

"Buck," Chris placed a hand on Ezra's leg, then looked up to meet Wilmington's haunted eyes, "Who the hell is Henry?"

"I don't know, Chris." Buck looked around at the empty mesa and kiva ruins, the Huey that hulked nearby, their simple sketchy camp by the helicopter, his friends circled around him and Ezra, and Clem sprawled at the edge of that circle. "He looked like a bum, had a backpack with some American Indian-style clothes that Ezra and I borrowed for a spell, shared some food and water with us. He played a flute." Buck's eyes dropped to Ezra's still form and he repeated, "Ezra trusted him."

"Ezra never trusts anyone." JD shrugged when several sets of eyes moved in his direction. "Well, he doesn't. Not really. Us, but no one else," JD qualified and then, added, looking embarrassed, "And maybe not us anymore."

Looks of resignation passed over several faces, but Chris shook his head. "No, Ezra and I talked. We settled the botch-up that the rest of us did, interfering in his life." He looked apologetically over at Buck, "And he even thanked me."

Buck nodded. He understood. Ezra had finally opened up to Buck and things were looking good. He kissed Ezra's forehead again and remained hunched over, his cheek now resting on Ezra's head. "How long will he be like this, Nathan?"

Jackson shook his head. "I really don't know too much about that stuff."

"It'll be a while. He's on a spirit walk now." Vin sighed. "Just hope your Henry prepared Ez a bit before feeding him that stuff."

Buck turned his mouth to Ezra's ear and whispered, "Ezra, come back to me."

Softly, so quietly that at first none were sure they heard it, music began to drift into the circle. Vin was the first to raise his head alertly. Josiah was next.

JD stood up suddenly. "I hear it!"

Chris and Nathan exchanged looks and cocked their heads, both catching the sounds of breathy notes on the light breeze that had started up. Clem, over by himself, whistled by inhaling his notes, echoing the simple refrain that wasn't quite a tune.

All around the men, the sky washed to salmon pink with streaks of blood orange and vivid blue whites, crisped with gold. Above, the sky's washed out color drained away and left velvety darkness in its place. The stars burned into the fabric of black, hot white lights that seemed like embers across the sky. Abruptly, the circle of color faded, until only one spot to the west remained aflame for a few breathtaking minutes. And then it was night.

Still the music wafted on the air, floating around them, directionless, tuneless, enchanting. JD lowered himself to the ground again and Clem groped his way over to the circle of men before sitting again.

Gradually, the sounds of the wood flute grew louder until the player seemed to be in their very midst. And he was. Dressed loosely in dark leathers, the stranger sat comfortably cross-legged next to Buck and Ezra, fingers moving up and then lowering over small holes in the wooden shaft of his simple flute. He lifted his flute until he was playing directly to Chris Larabee, staring calmly into wide hazel eyes.

Without warning, the man stopped playing and lowered the small instrument to his lap, eyes never leaving Larabee's. "You did not accept my gift?" The words were clear and warm and everyone relaxed without knowing why.

Chris finally broke the connection with those dark, amused eyes and looked over at the bowl of peyote buttons. "No, we can't do that."

"Can't or will not?"

The utter peace in the stranger's face was so complete that it was like staring at Buddha, Josiah mused.

"Who are you?" Chris refused to become defensive with this stranger. He began to feel anger stirring. This man had somehow enticed Ezra into taking mescal.

"Call me Tonto," an eyebrow rose over toward Buck who was watching silently, anger clear on his face, still holding Ezra against his chest and resting his head on Ezra's, "or, 'Henry' if you prefer."

"YOU are Henry?" Chris turned gimlet eyes on someone he began to think was a very dangerous adversary.

"Today." 'Henry' shrugged and met the gaze tranquilly.

"You talk to many people?" Vin broke the new staring contest, his gentle voice husky with curiosity and a certain 'knowing' that had Chris look over at him sharply.

"No, not for a very long time." Henry's gaze drifted over to Tanner and he smiled at the knowledgeable spirit he saw there. "You are brother."

"Yes," Vin agreed smiling back. "And these are all my brothers."

"Ezra? Buck?" Henry looked over at the two men.

"Yes, even them." Vin's voice was taking on a certain sing-song ritualistic rhythm that Josiah recognized as spiritual.

Chris was pissed. He felt a bit betrayed by the way Vin was acting, and wondered why no one else seemed to take exception. Well, except for Buck, who's probably mad enough to spit bullets. Chris shifted, the urge, to stand and confront, strong.

"Easy, Chris."

Buck's command had Larabee blinking in surprise and looking at his long time friend.

Buck sat up straighter and faced Henry again. "Why did you do this?"

"A gift." Henry smiled again, one hand straying up to play with the small beadwork that decorated the front of his tunic.

"This," Buck nodded down at the sleeping Ezra, "this is a gift?"

"He is walking with the spirits. It is a great gift to do so. When he returns, he will know his heart." Wise eyes burned into Buck's. "Your heart."

Ezra vaguely remembered climbing the ladder with Henry, to show him their camp and reassure him that the others would never desecrate the site. They sat and talked in the dimming daylight, Ezra content to enjoy Henry's company. For some inexplicable reason, he hadn't worried about Buck and the rest of the team. Henry's presence brought peace. He couldn't even recall what they spoke of, only that it was pleasant. Then Henry had taken his hand, put a small round object on his palm, and instructed him to chew it.

"You will meet your future and past, know your true self, be one with the world and nature's blessings." Henry had placed a thin, long-fingered hand on Ezra's face and following Henry's directions had seemed like the right thing to do. So Ezra chewed the dry button and mashed it between his teeth and spit it out in distaste after several minutes.

"Rest now." Henry had helped him to settle on the ground that seemed softer than he remembered. "You will dream." Henry had waved a hand over Ezra's eyes and they became heavy, then Henry faded away as Ezra's vision tunneled down to a single light that he knew was the sun in the low sky.

And the sun soared up again into the sky and day was brilliant and everything was crystal clear to the eye, the air so transparent that it seemed to magnify everything. Ezra shrank smaller and smaller in this universe, changing shape, becoming a coyote, he barked at the wheeling stars, then a raven whose midnight black pin feathers ruffled in the stream of air, a snake so black that his scales shimmered as he squirmed, a scorpion fleeing shadowy pits of fallen earth, an ant with sticky thin legs, marching after a disappearing line of others.

The world towered above him, mere dust motes were like mighty, tumbling boulders to him. He moved easily through his world, examining the inner workings of the plants, the animals, the very bowels of the earth herself. Mother Earth smiled upon him and found him pleasing. Ezra glowed with joy. He knew his human shape again. He shed his garments, let his skin coat his bones and muscles, and grew. He grew tall like the grass, taller like the saguaro cactus, taller like the looming redwoods, he grew to lean against mountains and rest his feet in churning rivers, making dams with his toes.

And it was good. His brothers were the animals around him, their great, loving spirits wise and giving. He wanted to be like them and someone said, "You are." He yearned to join with them and someone said, "Patience." He viewed the world from such height that he could see the landmasses moving beneath his feet as they reformed and rose above the waves. And Ezra saw Buck Wilmington, as an enormous stag, standing straight and proud upon the land. The stag's spirit was beautiful, shining like the animals that had slowly departed, until he was alone with Buck's spirit. And it felt good, it felt right. Ezra let his skin rest against Buck's skin. He felt the heat and the strength of Buck. And Buck's love touched him, flowed over him, around him, giving him peace and comfort. Ezra looked at Buck's spirit and knew his own would join with it. He called to the stag and stately antlers swung around as the beast turned to face him and deep blue eyes studied him gently.

"Buck?" Ezra reached out with his soul and was accepted gladly. He felt his shape change, become small and airborne, he was Raven again. He flew up to the stag's shoulder and perched there and was home. His clawed feet dug into the deep, rich fur of the stag's coat, his feathers ruffled as he snapped shut his wings and flipped them on his back, and his beak clicked as he nibbled at the thicker mane of hair on the his companion's tall shoulder.

Ezra didn't question his adventure; he accepted it as the natural way of things. He leaned against the stag's strong neck and was content. I will just stay here with Buck and rest for a short time. For a lifetime, said someone. Ezra smiled. The stag turned his head to face him again. Love warmed the dark blue eyes and drowned him. Ezra was swimming. He was a rainbow fish in the deep full ocean of Buck's love and it was warm and safe there. His heart seemed to swell and then it cracked. Broke. A trillion infinitesimally small shards of his heart's hard surface broke in a crackle and then began to fall away. His heart grew bigger and stronger, free of its stiff old encasing. It beat hard and felt brave. He stretched and his heart sent his wine red blood to all parts of him and its throbbing reverberated in his brain, echoed in his ears. It beat in time with the heart of the stag. In time with Buck. He melted into Buck's heart and his heart beat with Buck's.

"Ezra, come back to me." Buck's soft voice called to Ezra and he knew he was home, safe, in Buck's arms. The stag was no more, the world was dark, and he was resting in Buck's arms. Ezra blinked and yawned.

Buck hugged Ezra closer. "Come on, sweetheart, it's time to wake up." He kissed the nearest ear, then offered, "Coffee, Ezra, hot and strong, spiced up with some brandy just for you, love." He kissed Ezra's cheek and murmured, "Please, baby, wake up."

Chris crouched down beside Buck. "He waking?"

Buck nodded mutely, hope bright in his eyes, hand still stroking Ezra's hair slowly, his fingers sifting through the silky mass.

Chris sat down at his side and picked up one of Ezra's hands. "Come back to us now, Ezra," he called quietly, his anger long since dissipated by the waiting. He looked over at the others, all awake now.

Josiah had made the coffee, JD had fixed some oatmeal in a large pot that Clem had produced. He'd frowned at JD's proposed use and then shrugged and spat on the ground, leaving the small cauldron with Dunne. Nathan had been chaffing Ezra's hands for hours while Buck held the sleeping Standish. Nate'd only relinquished his place for a few hours of sleep when Vin assured him that the spirit walk would end at dawn.

Vin Tanner was sitting like a silent sentinel at the edge of the mesa facing the rising sun. He greeted it with ritual words in Cherokee and sat letting its strengthening rays warm his face. Josiah joined him, bringing two cups of coffee and they shared the smell of hot coffee as much as the bitter taste.

Now Nathan appeared at Buck's far side from Larabee and took up Ezra's other hand again. He marveled at the fine, smooth hand, smaller than his own but masculine and strong. He rubbed the palm with his own and waited, again.

Larabee watched as JD knelt behind Buck, smiling at Nate and then at Chris. JD worked on Buck's shoulders, massaging away the stiffness they all knew had to be deep in the muscles after an entire night of holding Ezra.

Clem came to stand next to Larabee and sipped coffee from a mug that he cupped in both hands as if drawing warmth from the cup itself. Chris had seen him checking over the helicopter an hour ago, a small clipboard in one hand. It was rather reassuring to know that their pilot did follow some procedures anyway. Chris lifted his face to look at Fortnight. "He's coming 'round. Should be soon." Clem nodded without words and slumped to the ground nearby, clearly prepared to wait some more.

Vin and Josiah strolled up, the rising sun bright behind them, casting long shadows and burning their silhouettes into everyone's eyes. Vin folded himself down to a cross-legged position at Ezra's feet and placed one hand on Ezra's uninjured ankle, squeezing gently.

Josiah stood sipping his brew for a few more moments, then raised his chin to the sky and sniffed the smells of a new day, savoring the smell of mesquite, the dryness of the dust, the sour smell of sweat from the others, even his own ripe body stench. Nothing disturbed him, he smiled and went down on one knee, putting a large splayed hand on one of Ezra's shoulders. "Time to wake up, brother." He took another sip of the coffee, then added, "We're all here waiting for you, Ezra."

JD reached around Buck's neck to put one hand on the top of Ezra's head, then look around the tight knot of men, all touching Ezra somewhere. He peered down at Buck and saw the man's dark eyes gleam.

"Yes, that's it. Look at me, Pard." Buck began to kiss Ezra's face, small butterfly kisses all over his face. "Open up." Kiss. "Wake." Kiss. "Ezra, come on." Kiss.

Deep into the night, their visitor had simply not been there anymore. Gone. First, Henry sat with them, played his flute again, had spoken each man's name upon introduction and each man had felt as if he was answering the roll call of life itself. Then Henry was gone and Vin had opened one hand and resting on his palm was a small, straight, white bone. Hollow. With tiny dark holes in a line up on one side. Vin had lifted it to his lips and played Henry's notes. Piping, high, but the same. And each man, in turn had opened a hand to reveal a bone pipe.

"Scoured out, like us." Josiah had held his to his lips and blown through the tiny bone, smiling at the lovely sound. "Hollow, free of marrow. Like us, free of our pasts, clean and empty. Ready to be filled."

If it didn't make much sense to some of the others, no one had said. But each man held his bone flute in a fist and felt a liberating sense of freedom from evil. Spirits were clean and open, purified somehow by their companionship and their visitor. By the power of pure love. And now, they waited with remarkable patience for their dreaming brother to awaken and rejoin their brotherhood.

Ezra squeezed his eyes shut then opened them wide, seeing Buck so close, hearing his heartbeat, feeling his chest rise and fall with each breath. He saw the rest of his friends as he turned his face from where it had been snugged against Buck's chest. Ezra smiled at them all, his green eyes like translucent crystals lit with his inner fire, then turned back to Buck. Buck's face was close to his, eyes glued to his face. Ezra raised his dry, chapped lips to Buck's and kissed him softly, the smile never leaving him.

Buck moved back scant centimeters from that sweet kiss and met Ezra's eyes. He smiled at Ezra and then turned to look up at the others. "Nate, Ezra's lips are cracked, they're so dry."

Nathan nodded and waved a hand, then, dipping into his satchel, he pulled out some aloe vera cream and handed it to Buck. "This will help."

Carefully, Buck smeared the white cream on to Ezra's lips with one finger, his other hand cupping Ezra's jaw to keep his friend still. Done, he tossed the tube back to Jackson with a smile of thanks. Then he cradled Ezra close to him again and sighed, smiling brilliantly up at his circle of friends.

Chris stood and sniffed at the sharp, clear air. It was time to go. He spoke to Nathan, "Nate, can Ezra travel?"

"Don't see why not." Nathan squatted next to the couple and put a hand on Ezra's forehead. "No sign of fever." He grinned when Ezra tried to twist his head out from under Nathan's hand. Jackson let his hand slip to Ezra's chest. He could feel the steady, normal beat of Standish's heart. The quest for that same heart had started this whole outlandish adventure. Nathan patted Ezra's chest and then stood up, dusting his hands. "He's fine except for the ankle and maybe a bit of headache from the combination of concussion and drugs."

Buck's head snapped up. "Drugs?"

"Whatever you call that stuff," Nathan pointed to the bowl of still unused peyote buttons, "They are still drugs."

Josiah leaned over to press a hand on Buck's shoulder. "He'll be fine, Buck. The mescal has already lost its potency, you can tell by the receding symptoms." When Buck looked up doubtfully, Josiah tipped his head to the side and met Buck's eyes. "No more dreams, he woke up."

Ezra rested contentedly against Buck's warm body, secure in his arms and quite happy to remain there. He let the conversations wash over him and thought about his dreams. Henry had given him a true gift, he decided. He was distracted from this thought by a sharp, hard object that seemed to be caught in his teeth. He probed at it with his tongue. He felt it dislodge and fall into the center of his mouth. With caution, he rolled it around there and it seemed to be growing. Startled, he spit it out into his open hand. A bone. A long, thin white bone. Ezra poked the object and it rolled over, revealing a row of tiny holes. A little whistle, pipe, or flute. Now how? He looked up into Buck's face and saw a knowing expression there. "Buck, do you know something about this?"

"We each got one too, Ezra." He produced his from a pocket. "We found them in our fists." He shrugged. "Josiah says they mean we're clean as a whistle now." Buck grinned, then touched Ezra's new flute. "From Henry, we think."

Ezra studied the tiny thing, then carefully dropped it into one of his trouser pockets. He touched Buck's face, stroking down one side of the luxuriant mustache. "Something to help us remember all this."

Buck caught Ezra's hand with his own and brought Ezra's wrist to his mouth, kissing the inner side of it. "I won't need any help doing that." He paused. "Unless it's from you."

Lowering his eyes, Ezra stared at their clasped hands. When had that happened? In the space of a few hellish days, his life had changed for the better. Because Buck was now part of it. He wasn't ready to declare himself in front of all their friends, but even unspoken, he knew that Buck understood his feelings were returned. And his other friends had been remarkably quiet about everything they were seeing.

Larabee had been silently observing Buck and Ezra and now Chris spoke again, turning to their pilot. "Clem? I think it's time to leave."

Fortnight sucked on his teeth for a moment, then raised a finger to his mouth to lick it. He stuck the wet forefinger into the air and smiled. "Yep, good time to fly." He started away, calling over his shoulder, "Some of you boys want to unhook my lady?"

Vin, JD, Josiah and Nathan went to help remove the tie-downs that had secured the Huey for the night. Larabee stood by Buck and Ezra. "We'll take care of everything. You two just get yourselves inside that thing."

Buck hugged Ezra quickly and then climbed to his feet, bending down to help Ezra up. Together, with Buck's shoulder under Ezra's to off-set the sprained ankle, they set off for the helicopter. Ezra hobbled gamely along, glad to have Buck's help.

Within a half hour, the simple camp had been returned to nature and the last signs of recent human occupancy had been tossed back into the Huey as it roared to life. And, from up in the cockpit as the helicopter swung skyward, Henry shouted out over their communications system, "Albuquerque okay?"

Airborne, Josiah sat in the co-pilot seat beside Fortnight again. Clem circled the mesa before taking a heading. Josiah pressed against the window, staring down at the open shell of the kiva, not much more than a faint circle outline as they climbed higher in a spiral. Squinting, he thought he could see a small dark figure, moving rhythmically within the circle, hunched over with arms raised toward his head. Henry. Josiah smiled, one hand slipping into his jacket pocket to finger his new, tiny bone flute. He relaxed back into his seat and harness as Clem pulled out of the spiral and sent the Huey darting off toward their new destination.

Back in the hold, sitting slumped in the sling benches, the rest of Team Seven relaxed also. JD was fiddling with their radiophone, with Chris sitting over him, waiting impatiently. Nathan was staring fixedly at Ezra before dropping rummaging through his satchel. Ezra who'd felt Jackson's assessing gaze, squirmed closer into Buck's protective arm, and Buck sat basking in his friend's trusting closeness as they sat side-by-side on the bench. Vin watched the interplay with amusement, sitting on the other side of the open hatch from Buck and Ezra, and across from Nathan. He could tell that Nate was about to try practicing medicine again. Not likely that old Ez will cooperate this time. Vin's smile grew, nice to be back to normal, for us.

Nathan pulled out a small bottle of aspirin. "Ezra, I think a couple of aspirin might be a good idea."

Standish frowned and lifted his head from where he'd been resting it against Buck's shoulder. "Nathan, you yourself said that that mescal was a drug. Do you really think I should take another before it has fully dissipated from my system?" He could feel Buck's silent chuckle as a vibration against his chest. When Nathan reluctantly dropped the bottle back into his satchel, Ezra couldn't help sending a triumphant look up into Buck's amused eyes. Where he quickly became lost once more, happily so.

JD did a final adjustment, listened to the earphone and flashed thumb's up at Chris. "Got it!" He turned the handset over to Larabee.

They all listened as Chris spoke with their director, the Honorable Orrin Travis. Even one-sided, everyone could tell that some compromises were being made and that Chris was satisfied when he signed off. So it was no surprise when Larabee handed the radiophone back to JD and said to the group at large, "All set. Travis is sending a private jet down and it will meet us at the Albuquerque International Airport. We get a free ride home, boys."

"Good." Nathan sat back, his final worries about getting Ezra safely on a commercial airliner disappearing. With their own jet, they could handle things.

Buck lowered his head to Ezra's, satisfied and relieved that he wouldn't have to step away from Ezra on a public carrier. They could just be themselves for a bit longer, within the safe circle of their friends. He cocked a grateful eyebrow at his oldest friend and watched Chris's firm line of mouth soften slightly and quirk up in a tiny smile of acknowledgement. It was good to know they were in this together.

Vin stretched his feet out until they knocked into JD's, closed his eyes and clasped his hands behind his head as he raised his chin in the air and prepared to nap. Amazing how the open hatch to his side made the tiny space of the hold comfortable for him.
"Hey!" JD pulled his feet back from Vin's kicked out boots and frowned at his teammate, then, unable to stay irritated at the man who seemed to be sleeping in an open sprawl, JD shrugged and turned enough to weave his own legs out at an angle. He felt a warm, firm hand on his shoulder and looked up into Larabee's approving eyes. Feeling happy at the silent encouragement, he shut his eyes and relaxed back against the shaking hull.

Chris looked once more around the hold of the Huey, the noise was intrusive, the hull walls and deck shook, his men had all lapsed into sleep or at least closed their eyes, and everyone was alright. He eyed Ezra's ankle, strapped firmly by Jackson and propped up on a bedroll in the center of the small walkway between the benches. Yeah, we're okay.

Team Seven would be leaving for Denver on a jet that had been paid for by the US government, specifically, the Central Intelligence Agency. Fred met them in Albuquerque with a mile-wide grin. He slapped Clem on the back and shook hands with the man. Clem backed away from the effusion with a confused expression, but was reeled back in by Fred's hand. Hernandez spoke quickly and quietly up into Fortnight's ear. Then, eyebrows heading skyward, Clem nodded his head repeatedly, slipped one hand in his pocket, and with the other, gave Fred Hernandez a snappy if awkward salute.

"Any time at all, bo'."

With an elastic grin that seemed to be his trademark, Clem turned to the ATF men that had become family over the past day or so and held out a hand to Josiah, who'd been his copilot.

Josiah stood back, studying the offered hand for a moment, then grabbed it and yanked the thinner man to him in a bear hug.

"Clem, you're pure gold!" Josiah's booming voice had heads turning in the civilian terminal. The others laughed and took turns producing their own hugs and back poundings, already missing the crazy pilot who'd helped them save Buck and Ezra.

Ezra, restricted to an airport loaned wheelchair, with his strapped ankle propped up on the extendable leg brace of the chair, sat back and waited his turn. When Clem was released by Buck, Wilmington's big hand on his back propelled the man to Ezra's side.

"Mr. Fortnight," Ezra reached up a hand.

"Mister Standish," Clem drawled, clasping the hand.

Ezra pulled him down closer and smiled into curious eyes. "We owe you a very large debt. Call upon us at anytime." Plucking a pen from the chest pocket of Clem's jumpsuit, by brushing aside the man's flying jacket, Ezra held on to Clem's wrist and wrote a telephone number on it. "Just call."

Clem rose to his full, tree-like height and held his wrist in the light, near his face. He grew a rather silly, pleased grin and then threw Ezra a salute like he'd given Hernandez who still waited to one side. He spun on his heel to share the salute with the rest of the men, saying, "Gracias, Amigos!" Then he pulled out his new little bone flute, put it to his lips, pointed it at the ceiling and began to play a gay little tune, as he strode away without looking back.

Everyone turned to face Hernandez. The man had proven invaluable in the team's efforts to reunite with their kidnapped teammates. He shook his head, eyes still following Fortnight's head-turning progress through the terminal. Then he swung back to the men he'd grown to respect and, rubbing his hands together, asked, "You boys ready to head for home?"

A chorus of affirmatives brought another smile to his lips and he said, "Just follow me."

Hernandez led them out through a blind security door and some empty, unmarked corridors. These led to a set of doors out onto the tarmac and from there, a short walk to a private sector of the runway apron. Sitting on it was the prettiest not-so-little jet that Josiah had ever seen. "Way to go, Fred!" He put a friendly hand on the CIA agent's shoulder.

"Just your country's way of saying thank you." Fred led them over, Vin and JD pushing the team's weapon's locker and other equipment on a large trolley. It had been a relief not to have any hassles about transporting it through the terminal, thanks to a phalanx of Fred's quiet agents that encircled the team and kept local security reassured.

Nathan climbed up through the passenger door of the jet, and then ducked back out with a wide grin to call out, "Boys, be prepared to be impressed!"

Fred took Chris aside while the jet was being loaded with Team Seven's gear and a special lift was wheeled over to elevate Ezra's wheelchair up to the open door of the passenger entry to the plane.

Goodbyes with Fred Hernandez were grateful and respectful handclasps. Nathan came back down the steps to the plane, just to join in. Fred had made things easy and he could have made them very, very difficult. With a few quiet words and handshakes, each man of Team Seven made sure that Fred knew that they knew that.

Waving to Hernandez from a hull window of the medium-sized passenger jet, as the plane began to taxi away from the parking area, Vin's last glimpse of the man was seeing him standing there, clothing whipped by the wind, one arm raised in a simple salute. Vin turned back to the on-board lounge that the team had swarmed into. He had picked a free recliner, kicking back after strapping on the safety belt, and smiling beatifically at the others. Everyone had settled in, finding comfortable places in the smartly arranged first class decorated lounge.

Then, after the propjet lifted its nose skyward and was safely at cruising altitude, Chris stood up. He had something to say about his little talk with Hernandez. He went forward first to check and make sure that the steward would give them some privacy for a few minutes and when the man agreed easily, Larabee came back into the main cabin.

"Got something to tell you boys, listen up." Seeing that he had the attention of his team, he looked around for a moment to meet each man's eyes. JD sat forward in his big overstuffed chair radiating excitement, kid is still on a buzz. Next to him, his recliner already fully extended, Vin bent his neck up so he could raise his head enough to watch. Think this is one flight that Vin's gonna enjoy, Chris thought with a smile. Nathan and Josiah had settled into two facing seats with a low games table between them and Josiah had already started setting up a chess game, pieces retrieved from a pullout drawer in the table. Chris wondered briefly how Josiah had known where to find that, then decided some mysteries could simply remain that way. Yeah, his little inside voice muttered, like how Buck and Ezra ever made it through this alive. And in love. He smiled at the twosome ensconced on the only sofa in the lounge. Buckled in but still entwined somehow. Taking a deep breath, he began, "Seems the CIA was tracking those guys for quite a spell."

"That, we already knew." JD piped up then bit his lip, forestalling further comments springing from his lips uninvited.

Chris nodded to JD without censor, continuing, "And they were working with several other countries, both in Europe and the Near East, on this. In fact, turns out, there was a reward on at least three of the Palestinians and on Dressler himself."

Ezra sat up straighter, but said nothing. Beside him, Buck smiled indulgently. They both waited, along with the rest.

Chris rubbed his jaw. He had to fight to prevent a smile from breaking loose. "Does the figure two million dollars sound interesting?"

"Holy Shit!" Buck shot upright in his seat, his clasp on Ezra's hand suddenly tight. He turned in apology and promptly eased his hold when Ezra made a small noise.

Nathan sat forward. "Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?"

"It means we're all going to be stinking rich!" Buck couldn't contain his pleasure and turned to share it with Ezra, only to blink in surprise at the look of censure from his sweetheart. "Ezra?"

"Buck, two million dollars in today's world is nice enough for one person, or family, to live comfortably, but hardly rich. Split seven ways, or more?" Ezra cocked an eyebrow at Chris Larabee, then finished, "will substantially reduce its efficacy."

"Effening rich." Buck muttered as he snuggled down beside Ezra, not really caring anyway. He was already plenty wealthy. He had his health, his work, his friends, and he had Ezra.

"Ezra's right. It will be split up. We each get an equal share," Chris held up his hand to forestall any interruptions even though no one else had shown any inclination to speak, "and a share goes to Clem."

"What about Fred?" Vin asked slowly, hands sliding into his pant's pockets as he stretched.

"Part of it is from his organization, so he's unable to collect any." Chris shook his head. "He'll get a commendation and he says he's already been tapped for a promotion.

"We'll get him something." Josiah's soft words were met with general murmurs of agreement.

"So, Ez, how much you reckon that means for each of us?" Vin asked slyly.

Standish never even blinked, "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars apiece."

"Wow." JD's eyes went wide.

Nathan folded his hands on the game table and looked up at Larabee. "Chris, do you think we should take it?" At the groans from Buck and JD, he pursed his lips but continued doggedly, "I mean, we were only doing our jobs."

"You were rescuing us!" Buck said emphatically. "And Ezra and I were fighting to stay alive." He leaned across Ezra to meet Nathan's eyes. "That's not our job with the ATF, that's us surviving and you being family."

"And 'us' collecting a tidy sum apiece." Ezra added without missing a beat.

Buck leaned back and glowed at his partner, pleased to see his feisty Ezra in action.

Chris interrupted what looked like an emotional response from Jackson, "Orrin Travis already approved it. The money's ours, boys." He looked around at his men. "And, damn it all, you all deserve a lot more. And not just for this time out of the chute, either. So, Nate, don't worry, it's been okayed, and everyone? Enjoy it."

"I'm investing mine with Ezra." JD spoke up smugly, then had the grace to blush and look over at Standish. "Ah, if that's okay with you, Ez?"

Ezra smiled. "Of course. In fact," he rubbed his shoulder blades back against Buck where they sat together on the jet's first class cabin double couch, "Those who would like to pool their money, could form a trust fund for investment purposes."

"Stop right there, Ez," Vin held up a hand. "You got mine, no questions, but I really don't want the details, won't mean anything to me and I trust you with the money. Hell, five minutes ago, I didn't even have it."

Josiah clapped his hands on his knees, "You have mine too, Ezra. I can't think of safer hands, or a better investor."

"I'm in," Larabee said as he sat down, "and, Ez, if you don't mind, I'll check with Clem. If he wants, he could throw in with us too."

Buck tipped his head down and touched his cheek to Ezra's temple. "Me too. I'm in."

Nathan Jackson had listened to JD's idea and the quick acceptance of the rest of the team. It was a lot of money, but Vin was right, a few minutes ago his life was just fine without it. And, Josiah was right, too, Ezra was one of the most fiscally responsible people Nathan knew. "Would you take mine, too, Ezra?"

Ezra looked over at the medic and smiled graciously. "Of course, Nathan, it would be an honor."

"Right." Chris slapped his hands together and jerked his chin up at JD at the far end of the large first class lounge. "JD, would you please go tell the steward we're ready for some refreshments."

"Oh, yeah." Buck nodded as JD sprang to his feet and headed off. Then Wilmington kissed Ezra's nose, which promptly wrinkled. Buck snuggled in closer and whispered in Ezra's ear, "I'm so proud of you, Ez."

Ezra lifted smiling lips for a kiss and the two melted against each other, becoming lost in their own world as their teammates chatted around them and the muted roar of jet engines carried them home to Denver.

End