Note #1: Lots and lots and lots of smarm! ******Warning: I am one of those touchy-feely people, you know the ones, they always hug you rather than just saying hi. Anyway, I think that touch can communicate a lot, so the physical contact in this story is at optimum levels. Think along the lines of "His Touch". ******
Note #2: Did I mention this is a crossover? Walker, Texas Ranger. Actually, they're just supporting characters; they're not that big in the scheme of things.
Note #3: I know there are some things in the story which may be presumptions and/or mistakes in details. Such as the flight time from Dallas to Colorado and the guys knowing the rosary. I can only ask that everyone please bear with me. Thank you.
Thank yous: To my betas, Dayna and Karen. Without them, this story wouldn't have been as good. To Dr. Catherine O'Brien, for letting me bug her about toxicology. To Kathy, for answering all my questions about Dallas. And the same goes to Mattie for her help with the poisons.
Feedback: As always I would love any and all feedback for my work. *****But I would like to ask everyone, if you have the time and inclination, to please tell me two things you liked about the story and two things you didn't like about the story. Also if you could answer the following question: Did you honestly think the character portrayals in this story were done well? Thank you. Lady Angel*****
The Leader
For your darkness was our day:
Signal fires, your pains untold
Lit us on our wandering way
To the mystic heart of gold.
"Mr. Larabee, you didn't by chance get us first class seats, did you?" Ezra Standish addressed the question to his boss's back.
"Ez, we're civil servants. The best we get is business class." Vin Tanner grinned at his friend's heartfelt sigh.
"As long as I have room to stretch my legs out, I don't care if we're in the cargo bay," Buck Wilmington exclaimed.
"I'm with Buck. I think my butt's sore from sitting in those plastic chairs." JD Dunne followed Buck's lead and picked up his gear.
The entire team had just spent the last four days in Dallas, Texas attending a seminar for all Midwest ATF agents. Ever since the incident in Waco, all ATF agents were required to periodically attend conferences on rules, regulations, and operating procedures. Now they were boarding a late night flight heading home to Four Corners, Colorado.
"At least y'all didn't have to give a speech." Chris Larabee threw the comment over his shoulder as he handed their tickets to the attendant at the desk.
"Aw, Chris, you did great! I actually listened to your speech!" JD grinned at his idol.
Chris smiled back at JD. He knew that for the most part, JD had slept through almost all of the speeches, as did Vin and Buck. Only Vin hadn't been caught snoring.
The seven men continued their banter onto the plane. Chris managed to get all their seats in the same area and as they settled into their seats, the men traded barbs and banter. Chris, Vin, and Ezra were in the row next to the window, while Josiah Sanchez and Nathan Jackson were in the row in front of them. Buck and JD were in the row across from Ezra.
As the plane took off, Chris settled back into his chair and closed his eyes, listening to the quiet repartee between his friends. Vin grinned as he watched his best friend dozed off. Turning he saw that Ezra had also noticed Chris's relaxed state. Ezra reached up to buzz for a stewardess, requesting a blanket and pillows for their leader. Ezra smiled his thanks at the woman, and then handed the blanket to Vin, who easily tucked Chris into its folds.
"Chris, its Vin, I'm gonna put these pillows under your head, okay?" He whispered the words into the blonde agent's ear, knowing that if he were touched without warning, Chris would come up swinging. When Vin finally arranged the pillows to his satisfaction, he sat there for a moment, studying the familiar lines of Chris's face, relaxed and younger in his sleep. Vin gently ran his fingers over Chris's brow, and smiled, glad that Chris could now rest.
When Vin turned back around, he came face to face with four sets of smiling faces. Vin grinned ruefully, "He's so strong and in control, sometimes I forget that he's still only a man."
"Amen brother." Josiah grinned. He was kneeling on his seat, as was Nathan. Both men leaned against the back of their chairs as they talked to the rest of their team members.
"Buck." Nathan whispered and when Buck's green eyes meet his, the healer nodded his head towards JD. Turning, Buck saw that JD had also succumb to slumber's arms. Grabbing one of the blankets that the stewardesses were handing out, Buck repeated Vin's actions.
Soon Morpheus claimed the rest of the seven as darkest night descended upon them.
It was nearly morning when Vin woke with a start. Looking about him, the sharpshooter could not find anything amiss.
"Mr. Tanner, would you care to explain why you have disturbed my slumber at such an ungodly hour," Ezra whispered, trying to get comfortable again. Vin's sudden movement had jolted the undercover agent awake.
"Gee Ez, you even use five dollar words first thing in the morning. I'm impressed." Vin tried to relieve the cold fist around his heart with humor, but it didn't work.
"Thank you, now answer the question."
"I don't know, something just don't feel right." Vin couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. Ezra immediately sat up, fully awake. If Vin said that something was wrong, the others listened. Ezra stood silently, and peered over the seats. Josiah and Nathan were asleep, as were Buck and JD. Everyone else in the cabin was also sound asleep.
"Vin, I don't see ... " Ezra stopped when he saw Vin reach out and hesitantly touch Chris's face. Ezra squinted, the almost non-existent lighting in the cabin made it very difficult for the undercover agent to see what the sharpshooter's trained eye saw.
"Ezra, wake Nathan up." Vin's voice was softer than usual, but the fear was loud and clear.
Ezra wasted no time. He leaned over the chair and roughly shook Nathan awake. Before Nathan could say a word, Ezra hissed, "Something's wrong with Chris."
With that the ex-medic quickly got up and grabbed his carry-on bag in which he carried a variety of medical supplies. By this time, Vin had removed all of the blankets and pillows, trying unsuccessfully to rouse Chris. He wasn't responding. Chris just lay there, nearly colorless, sweat dripping off his skin. His breathing was barely audible. Nathan had to forcibly move Vin out of the way to examine Chris.
While Nathan examined Chris, Josiah had awakened and had turned around in his chair. The large man had an arm around Vin who was kneeling next to him. Ezra was on the other side of Josiah, waiting anxiously for Nathan's prognosis. Buck awoke when he felt too much movement around him. Bolting up, he looked over to see Nathan examining Chris while his other team members waited silently. When JD felt Buck move, he too awakened to find the same eerie scene.
"Nate?" Buck quietly whispered.
"I don't know what's wrong. He's not responding at all. His temperature's too low, but he's sweating. His breathing is too shallow and his pulse is very weak. We need to get him to a hospital." Nathan turned dark worried eyes to his friends.
"Nathan, we're on a non-stop flight and we still have a few more hours to go!" JD was scared, Nathan didn't know what was wrong and they were 37,00 feet in the air.
Nathan's frightened eyes prepared his friends for the horrible truth, "We need to land. If we don't get him help soon, Chris might not make it."
Nathan's announcement galvanized the others into action. Vin and Ezra went to speak to the captain while Buck and JD went in search of more blankets to keep Chris warm. Josiah stayed with Nathan to watch over their leader.
"Well?" Buck demanded from Vin and Ezra as they returned from the cockpit.
"The captain's turning the plane around, we'll be on the ground in an hour and a half. We're gonna have to go back to Dallas. The closest strips are full or can't handle the plane." Vin answered, a small measure of relief evident of his features as well as frustration.
"How is he, Nathan? Any change?" Ezra whispered.
Nathan debated how much to tell them. He knew that the youngest ones of their team would not take the news well. Nathan knew that he, Josiah, and Buck could handle whatever life threw at them, but the youngest ones would be devastated. Chris was the foundation upon which they had built their world on. But it was their love for Chris and Nathan's respect for his teammates that made the decision for him. They would want to know good or bad.
"He's getting worse. Chris is having trouble breathing. His heartbeat is incredibly slow, too. I don't know if we're gonna make it." Nathan quietly whispered Chris's condition to the rest of their family.
A soft broken sob escaped before JD could bury his dark head into Buck's shoulder. Wrapping his arms around his little brother, Buck watched as Vin crumpled into Nathan's vacant seat.
Vin continuously dragged in ragged breath after ragged breath, trying not to pass out. Vin knew that his brothers would now be looking to him for guidance through this crisis. But the sharpshooter didn't know if he could do it.
For what seemed like hours, they waited. Josiah hadn't stopped praying since Nathan made his announcement. He had started the rosary, and without knowing it, began to vocalize his prayers. The missionary's son only realized what he was doing when he heard five other voices join in the prayers.
Once during the flight back to Dallas, Chris stopped breathing. Nathan and Vin frantically began CPR on their brother. Josiah could only pray harder, Ezra and Buck's voices were stronger as if making up for the absence of Nathan and Vin's. JD sat with his arms wrapped around himself, staring with horrified eyes, silently praying with his tears. Vin was nearly in tears and Nathan's usually calm face was now contorted in agony. It was several frightening minutes later when Chris finally began breathing again.
The six men breathed sighs of relief, but they knew how close they were to losing him.
They were never so helpless.
The captain had arranged an ambulance to meet the plane once it landed. Chris was immediately transported to Baylor Medical Hospital. Once there the doctors began a battery of tests as the agents began the too familiar routine of paperwork and waiting. JD had cried himself into an exhausted slumber. He laid on a couch, his head pillowed by Buck's thigh. Buck, too, had succumb to emotional exhaustion and dozed lightly, one hand supporting his head while the other was buried in JD's dark black hair. Vin sat on the floor with his back to the wall, knees drawn up and arms wrapped around them. Tears followed silently down his cheeks, unchecked and unheeded.
Uncharacteristically, Ezra paced. Back and forth, to and fro. The southerner moved in even paces, never once pausing. It was as if the motion helped hold the demons at bay, as if he stopped, the true reality of Chris's condition would finally overwhelm him. Josiah continued to pray, silently now, knowing that the others needed the silence as much as Chris needed the prayers. Sitting in a chair, Josiah prayed. He looked at each man in turn, knowing that their salvation would come in the form of another's safe return. Nathan stood looking out the window, staring at the Dallas skyline, but not seeing it. Instead, he saw a man's face. A face that was too pale, that wasn't breathing. Skin so cold, it was as if it belonged to a corpse. He saw the dying spectre of his friend, his brother.
It was several hours later when a doctor finally came in search of them.
"Doctor?" Nathan was always the middleman between the medical personnel and his team.
"Agent Jackson, I'm sorry to tell you that ... " Dr. Ellis's first words were met with looks of horror.
"He's not dead." Vin whispered vehemently.
"No, no he's not. Agent Larabee, as of right now, is in a coma. We believe he has been poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Ezra didn't want to believe it, but it made sense.
"We believe that Agent Larabee was exposed to a systemic poison. But this particular poison acts upon the respiratory and circulatory systems only. The poison was a fast acting one that lay dormant in his system until it was somehow activated. We believe the poison might be phenol."
"Did you give him the antidote?" Josiah demanded.
"We can't give him an antidote, because we don't know which poison was used."
"Don't know? How can you not know?!?! You just said ... " Buck was getting more agitated with every word that came out of the doctor's mouth.
"Agent Larabee is exhibiting the most severe symptoms of phenol poisoning. But according to your statements, up until the time that Agent Tanner alerted the rest of your team, Agent Larabee had not been exhibiting any of the preliminary symptoms. Also, phenol is extremely corrosive. If ingested, it should have killed Agent Larabee instead of just putting him in a coma. This leads us to believe that it is a derivative of some kind, a new form that is a complete mystery to the Poison Control Center."
"So what do we do?" Nathan asked patiently.
"We need to find out how Agent Larabee came into contact with the poison. Even better, if we could get a sample of the poison, we could then try to create a antiserum for it."
"How do we figure out how Chris got it?" JD asked quietly.
"We need a list of things that Agent Larabee has consumed in the last few days and a list of things that he has come into contact with. This list must be comprise of things that only he has touched or ingested because none of you are exhibiting any symptoms nor have any of you succumb to a comatose state."
Each man nodded and got to work.
It was several hours later that they were informed that Chris had been moved from the ICU ward to a private room. With a little persuasion, Ezra managed to get permission for all six men to visit Chris.
Once in the room, the six hardened agents froze.
Chris Larabee, their stone cold leader, their steadfast brother, the man that could reduce hardened criminals to tears with just a glare, laid in the hospital bed: small, pale, fragile, barely breathing. His skin blended in with the sterile white sheets. The numerous tubes that protruded from Chris's chest and arms were the only things keeping him alive.
Vin was the first to move out of the doorway and into the room. The young man's movement propelled the others into motion. Soon a protective circle surrounded the bed. They stood there, unsure of what to do. Once again it was Vin who moved first, tracing his fingers along Chris's hairline, feeling the cold clammy skin under his fingertips, cursing the one who would poison his big brother.
One by one, each in their own way, they let Chris know that he was not alone. Josiah simply grasped Chris's hand in his much larger one, murmuring a quick prayer. Nathan placed his hand over Chris's brow, feeling for fever just as much as he was searching for a link with his friend. Buck cupped his hands on either side of his long time friend's face, hoping that by sheer will alone, Chris would get better. Ezra laid a gentle hand on Chris's chest, not just to make sure that Chris was still breathing, but to connect himself to his liege lord. But it was JD's small kiss to Chris's forehead, and his whispered "We need you, Chris, please get better" that had several of the hardened men wiping tears from their eyes.
It was there that Rangers Cordell Walker and James Trivett found the six ATF agents. It was nearly nine a.m. and most of them were still asleep, scattered about the room.
Jimmy nudged Walker and indicated the young man in the other bed, "I thought you said Larabee was put in a private room?" he whispered to his partner.
"He was, not sure who the kid is," Walker was about to go over and find out when suddenly he found himself staring down the barrel of gun.
"Who are you mister?" Walker looked up in surprise at the longhaired young man in front of him.
"Ranger Cordell Walker, my partner Jimmy Trivett." Walker introduced himself, keeping perfectly still. He didn't want to startle the man into doing something rash.
"ID, please?" Walker and Trivett slowly turned to towards the Southern accent, only to be greeted by another gun barrel. Slowly, they both pulled out their IDs and handed it to the Southerner. When he was assured of their identities, he nodded at the other man and they both lowered their guns.
"Sorry, we had to make sure. Vin Tanner. That's Ezra Standish." The longhaired young man introduced himself and his southern partner.
"It's okay. I thought this was a private room?" Walker said as he replaced his ID.
"It is. Why?" Ezra walked back towards his chair by Chris's bed to replace his gun back into his jacket holster. Out of the corner of his eye, Ezra saw Walker nod his head towards JD.
"Who's the kid?" Jimmy clarified for them both.
"JD Dunne, ATF." The soft voice came from the still half-asleep kid lying on the bed.
"You're kidding!" The kid couldn't be more than 20!
"Actually, Ranger Trivett, I'm 22." JD answered the unspoken question that always accompanied his declaration about his occupation. JD sat up rubbing his eyes, looking even more like a child with that action.
"How may we help you?" Walker and Trivett turned towards the deep voice coming out of the shadows. Their eyes widened as the saw the bear of a man that the voice belonged to.
"Josiah Sanchez, that there's Nathan Jackson and last be not least, Buck Wilmington." Josiah introduced the rest of the team as Vin and Nathan checked on Chris.
"Judge Travis sent us. He asked that we assist you in finding out who poisoned your partner." Trivett answered the question as he shook hands with the large man.
"What can you tell us?" Buck smiled at Walker's question. The older ranger was like Chris, skipping the chitchat and going straight for the bones. Buck and Ezra took turns telling the two rangers what they knew and what the doctors told them, which all in all, wasn't much.
After listening to the ATF agents, the rangers voiced their opinion about their game plan, and the others agreed. JD, Buck, and Jimmy would begin searching for an antidote in an assortment of databases, while Josiah, Nathan, and Walker would speak to the various airline employees about anyone behaving suspiciously.
Vin and Ezra were adamant. They would be staying to protect Chris.
"Damnit!" JD savagely slammed the palm of his hand against the computer screen, frustrated beyond belief. For nearly five hours he had been searching and hadn't even made a dent in the countless databases. He didn't even want to think about the numerous individual websites. JD searched for anything to help Chris but had found nothing. Buck and Jimmy both looked up at JD's outburst, both feeling the same way, but only the ranger continued his search.
Buck knew that JD wasn't capable of dealing with the stress of trying to find Chris's cure and worrying about Chris at the same time. He crossed the room and knelt by JD's side, draping his arm around the younger man's shoulders. For once Buck didn't speak. He wanted to wait for JD. The large agent wasn't disappointed.
"God, Buck, I feel so helpless! Chris is laying in a hospital bed, and he's gonna ... he's gonna ... and I can't do one damn thing about it!" JD couldn't say the word, afraid that if he did, it would come true.
"I know kid. I know. We all feel like that. But we have to be strong, for Chris. It's what he would want us to do, to keeping fighting till the end. He wouldn't want us to give up. Just keep trying JD. I know we'll find something." Buck quietly whispered, hugging JD close. When Buck felt JD's nod, he quietly went back to his own computer.
Across the room, Jimmy watched the scene with curious eyes. He knew for a fact that the two men were in no way related, but they acted as brothers just now. The older one comforting the younger one in their time of crisis. Judge Travis had told them that these seven men were close, but it hadn't prepared Jimmy for the depth of commitment, loyalty, and love that bound these men together. Truth be told, he was a little envious of the relationship between these men. He and Walker were best friends and he knew that Walker would always be there when he needed the older ranger, but it wasn't like what these men had. Walker was his friend, but these men, these men were brothers in every true sense of the word. With a sigh, Jimmy turned back to his own computer.
Down the hall, Walker was witnessing a similar display of anger and brotherhood.
He, Nathan Jackson, and Josiah Sanchez had interviewed the plane's staff but had found nothing. The next step would be to interview the various passengers about suspicious happenings aboard the plane, but it was a slow process. The frustration had finally got to Josiah.
"Goddamn, fucking, asshole!" Josiah savagely hissed as he threw a heavy book, the closest thing at hand, across the room. Sanchez stormed out of the room, banging the doors against the walls as he left.
Walker and Jackson exchanged surprised glances. Nathan could only smile in apology before he followed Josiah.
In the hallway, Nathan found his errant brother staring at the Dallas skyline. The healer joined Josiah at the window. They stood in silence. Nathan knew the reason behind Josiah's outburst. He felt the same way. Their friend, their brother was depending on them to find the person who did this and to find the cure. But they had found absolutely nothing. Nathan knew that right now he could not say or do anything to alleviate the pain and frustration Josiah was feeling, so he simply stood there, sharing the silence and the pain.