Black and White
By Starwinder
Mag7 ATF
He leaned his forehead against the cold glass of the window, frozen between the black night outside it and the white walls around him.
Trapped between black despair and shining hope, he prayed that it hadn't been his bullet that put his lover here, in this hospital hovering between life and death,
The bust had gone to hell in a heartbeat, guns blazing all around Ezra.
He had done his job, gave all the cover fire that he could, methodically taking down the bad guys, with disabling but not fatal shots. Then as he fired at a man who had his gun pointed at Ezra, in that instant, Ezra stumbled or was pushed right into his line of fire. It was too late to stop the bullet, too late to even jerk his gun up and pray that the shot missed. He could only watch in horror as Ezra went down.
But then Ezra had rolled and scrabbled for cover and he had breathed a sigh of relief and kept up his cover fire.
It wasn't until it was over and the all clear was given that he was able to get to the ground to check on Ezra only to find that Ezra was gone, rushed to the hospital, badly wounded.
No one had seemed to realize that the shot that took Ezra down could have come from his weapon and he had chosen not to bring it up,
Forensics had all their weapons. SOP for whenever officers fired their weapons in the line of duty. They wouldn't have the bullets the doctors took out of Ezra for hours yet and it would probably be tomorrow before they knew which gun the bullet that had put Ezra here had come from.
The team hadn't done reports yet, when they did he'd have to tell what had happened, until then he couldn't quite bring himself to say the words, to make it real, to genuinely face the fact that he might have shot the man he loved.
"Borrowing trouble, darling?" He could almost hear Ezra's amused drawl, almost feel his breath stirring the long hair that brushed his shoulders, "It doesn't pay. The interest is a bitch. Sufficient unto the day, etc., etc."
He let a deep sigh out then raised his head. He stared out at the black night then resolutely turned his back on it. He turned back towards the lights softly reflecting off the white walls of the waiting room and the friends that waited there with him.
Ezra wasn't dead and he wasn't going to die. He was strong and he always beat the odds. He'd be all right and if it had been his bullet that put Ezra here, they'd deal with it.
Accidents happen but their love would get them through this.
"Vin, are you all right?" Josiah asked as he moved to join them.
"I will be," he said firmly, as he watched the doctor coming down the hall towards them.
The doctor still wore his scrubs but he was smiling when his eyes met Vin's.
The End