SPLASH!
Chris, who was walking towards them, was so startled by Billy's question that he tripped over a rock and land face first into the horse trough!
Chris came up to find all of his so called friends laughing hysterically. Buck was sitting on the ground, holding his ribs, JD was using the horse in front of him as support, Vin almost fell out of the saddle he was laughing so hard, Ezra was on the ground next to Buck, tears streaming out of his eyes, and Josiah and Nathan were leaning on one another for support.
And poor little Billy, he was kneeling next to Chris, asking if he was okay. Chris nodded in the affirmative, and then stalked to the house to change, without a word to his still laughing friends. Just as Chris reached the back door, it swung open, courtesy of Mary.
"Chris! What happened?" Mary was definitely concerned but she couldn't help the twitching of her lips, Chris reminded her of a drowned cat, blond hair plastered to his head, dripping water into his crystal clear green eyes, black jeans and T-shirt cemented to his lean muscular body. He was definitely a sight to behold.
Chris didn't answer, he just stalked past six pairs of wide eyes, and headed towards his room.
Mary and the other women gave each other wide eyed looks, each one with the same question in their minds. As one they turned to the men who were clumsily making their way up to the house. The remaining six men were laughing so hard that they were weaving about as if they were drunk. When questioned, the men could only laugh harder. The women watched as the men staggered past them, taking Billy with them to do God knows what.
An hour later, about 1 in the afternoon, the women were winding up the last of the meal's preparations. Everything was about done, except for the turkey, which had about an hour and a half to go. It was then that Mary heard a noise behind her, she dismissed it as one of the men, but when she turned to ask Rain for a knife, she found that not only was Rain, Inez, and Casey's gazes transfixed behind her, but so was Maude's. Her curiosity won, and Mary turned to see what it was that kept her friends so enthralled.
Mary stopped breathing at the sight that greeted her. Mary's back had been to the opened door of the laundry, which was presently occupied by a half naked Chris Larabee. Chris only wore a pair of low riding black jeans, that weren't fully zipped up or belted. He was also barefooted, a pair of socks was sitting on the counter next to him. Chris was actually digging around in him 'clean' hamper for a suitable shirt, and so was bent over at the waist, giving Mary an eyeful of his really nice butt. Mary couldn't decide what to look at: his tight butt or his long, lean, muscular, naked torso. Mary sighed, too sexy, much too sexy.
"Anyone else here have that song, 'Too Sexy' running around in their head?" Rain whispered to no one in particular, but received affirmatives from all present, except for Miss Nettie. She just grinned and then decided that they had ogled the poor boy long enough and cleared her throat. That got her four blushes and eight very busy hands. Nettie turned to share a knowing look with Maude and they both laughed softly.
Once all of the men had changed from their dirty work clothes, they stormed the kitchen, demanding in their diversely charming ways that everyone go for a ride before dinner. No objection was valid and the women found themselves cleaning up for a twilight ride.
One hour later, the fourteen riders returned to find Judge Orrin Travis and his wife Evelyn waiting for them on Chris's front porch.
"Judge! What are you doing here?" Vin, the first to reach the house, greeted the pair.
"Orrin! Evie! I thought you had been called to work!" Mary walked up to hug her father- and mother-in-law.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" Billy ran to his grandparents for his hugs.
"Judge. Mrs. Travis." Chris tipped his black hat to both of them.
Evelyn wasn't having any of that formality and came forward to embrace the man that she hoped would soon take her son's place in Mary's and Billy's lives. "Chris. We're sorry to just drop in on you like this, but Orrin managed to finish his business faster than we had anticipated, and Mary mentioned that you had invited her to dinner tonight, and well, we don't want to impose ... "
"Nonsense. Come on inside. There's plenty for everybody. We made plenty, I knew with seven growing boys, we were gonna have that make a lot of food ... " Miss Nettie continued her monologue as she lead every one into the dinner room and then disappeared into the kitchen.
Chris, as the host, offered the Judge and Evie drinks. Evie declined, rather opting to join the other women in the kitchen. The Judge ordered a whiskey and Chris and Vin played bartender for the others.
A little while later, the men were given the task of setting the table while the women got the food ready. When they finally sat down to the table, all sixteen of them, with Chris and the Judge at opposite ends of the table, Chris asked the Judge to say the blessing.
"My friends, today we gather to give thanks to the Lord for all that he has given to us this day, fine food, good health and for friends that have become family. Thank you, Lord, for all these and more."
"Amen." Was chorused around the table and everyone turned to the business of eating Thanksgiving dinner. Because the Judge said the blessing, Chris carved. And when his arm started hurting from wielding the cumbersome knife, the job was turned over to Nathan, who dug in with relish.
Half way through dinner that the first shots rang out.
Thanks to their constant training, Chris and his men were able to grab their friends and pull them down to the floor.
"Where the hell are they coming from?" Nathan yelled out, making sure that Rain was safely under him.
"I can't tell! I think that its coming from all around the house!" Vin shielded Miss Nettie's smaller body with his larger one from flying glass.
"Momma!" Billy cried out in fright. Ezra had tackled the boy during the first volley and was keeping a tight hold on him.
"Billy, stay where you are! Stay with Ezra!" Mary yelled to her frantic son, then turned to look at Chris. He had pushed her under him, effectively shielding her from any projectiles.
"Buck? JD? Josiah?" Chris did a quick roll call.
"I'm fine, Chris, so's Inez!" Buck called out.
"Me too, Chris, and Casey's here with me!"
"Mother!"
"Maude and I are fine, Ezra!"
"Judge? Mrs. Travis?" Chris called out to his remaining guests.
"We're fine too, Chris!"
"Thank God! That's everyone." Mary heard Chris whisper.
"Chris! Where are the keys to the gun cabinet?" Vin called out from the other side of the room. He was the closest one to the gun cabinet that Chris kept in the living room, which was just on the other side of the wall.
"In the my bedroom, just break the damn thing open!"
Vin nodded his head, and after making sure that Miss Nettie was safely under the dinner table, he crawled, snake-style, towards the guns. Vin quickly smashed the glass and then grabbed every gun he could stuff into the bag that Chris kept there, along with lots of ammo.
"Chris! Heads up!" Vin sailed Chris's weapon to him and then proceed to call out his teammates names, sending each at least two weapon. After making sure that all of his fellow ATF agents had weapons, Vin distributed the rest to the Judge, Mary, and Casey.
Just in time the guns and ammo were fully distributed, because Chris and the others heard the doors being kicked in.
Chris quickly jumped into his role as leader and issued orders, "Vin, Ezra, cover the north door. Josiah, Nathan, the south door. Buck, JD, the window. I want all of the women and you too, Judge, to follow me."
Without question, they followed him, on their bellies to the east wall. Once there, Chris pushed aside the china cabinet to reveal a door in the wall.
"Mary. Mary, listen to me. Take everyone down into the tunnel. It leads to a hidden hatch by a bunch of rocks. Take my cell phone, call for back up. And keep everyone together." Chris stared into her wide blue eyes, making sure that she understood. "There a couple of flashlights at the bottom of the stairs, use them. You should only have to walk about half a mile to reach the trapdoor." Mary nodded, understanding, but hesitated next to Chris, looking deep into his eyes, she whispered, "Please be safe."
Without thinking, Chris pulled her to him and kissed her, hard. It was a quick kiss, an everlasting promise, and then he pushed her down into the darkness and then passed Billy to her after giving him a hug and telling him to be brave and to take care of his ma. Once the Judge and the women were safely in the hidden tunnel, Chris and Josiah pushed the display case back into place.
JD, Vin, Ezra, Nathan, and Buck had successfully held off their attackers. Chris sweep the room in one glance and decided their course of action. They had to distract the attackers to give Mary and the others time to get away.
"Report!"
"Heaviest attack is from the north." Vin reported as he returned fire.
"There's no one outside anymore Chris, I think they're all in the house." JD called out.
"Josiah, break the window! Everyone outside, circle back, we're gonna attack from behind!"
"But our assailants will find it strange that we are no longer returning fire! They might be more alert to a rear assault." Ezra advised Chris of this possible error in his plan.
"Ezra's right, Chris!" Buck told his leader.
"Fine, I'll stay here, provide cover, everyone else, get outta here!"
"You're not staying by yourself, Chris! I'm staying!" Vin, damn his stubborn hide, he would want to stay wouldn't he?
"Fine, we don't have time to argue! Ezra, Josiah, JD, the north side. Buck and Nathan, the south. Be careful and hurry!" Chris watched and prayed as Buck provided cover for the other men to climb out of the window and then followed.
So while Chris and Vin pinned down their attackers, Josiah and the others made their way behind their attackers.
Actually, it was rather surprising how easily the gunmen surrendered, but then again, they must have realized that during the gun fight their numbers had dwindled and now they were outnumbered.
"Chris! We got 'em!" At Josiah's shout, Chris and Vin came out of the dining room to help tied up their prisoners.
They were almost done, when one of the presumed dead prisoners, suddenly pulled a gun and shot off several rounds before JD managed to stop him with a bullet to the head.
"Everyone okay?" Vin called out.
Several "yeahs" were heard from around the room, but Vin didn't hear the one voice he needed to hear was alright.
"Chris! CHRIS! Where's Chris?"
The six of them looked at each other, than frantically began searching for their leader. It was finally Ezra that found him, slumped behind the couch, bleeding.
"Nathan! I found him! He's been shot!" Ezra knelt down next to Chris, gently cradling his blonde head on his shoulder.
Ezra turned to see Nathan hurrying towards him, the rest of the team in tow. Buck was on the phone, calling for an ambulance. Nathan began examining Chris, finding only one gunshot wound, but it was an artificial wound, it didn't hit anything important enough to knock Chris unconscious. Nathan quickly bandaged Chris's arm, where a bullet had grazed his upper arm and he finished just as the six men heard the wailing of sirens fill the air.
When the police cars and ambulance converged into the house, Mary and the Judge decided that it would be safe to return. The Judge and the women returned to find several men in black fatigues being hauled into the police wagon, while paramedics were heading into the house.
"Oh, God." Mary softly whispered, one of the seven must be hurt! Mary's instincts screamed at her to hurry, that something was wrong.
Mary left Billy in Evie's care and then ran after the EMTs. When she finally fought her way past all the cops, she managed to let out a sigh of relief. All seven of them were alive, but as she got closer, Mary noticed that Chris's button down dress shirt had been pushed off his shoulders and that a EMT was next to him.
"Chris?" Mary rushed to his side.
"Mary. Is everyone okay?" Chris caught Mary with uninjured arm, tucking her into his left side. Vin had to catch the ice pack that Chris had been holding with that hand and reapplied it to the back of Chris's head.
"Hmmm. Chris, what happened?" Mary peered around Chris, trying to see what the paramedic was doing. Too busy evaluating Chris's injuries, Mary didn't notice that she had placed her hands on Chris's bare chest or notice the fact that she was practically straddling his thigh. But damn if Chris didn't notice, her soft hands were burning holes in his skin and spreading heat to all sorts of body parts. He was in pain now, the bullet graze was nothing, but he wouldn't have stopped this kind of pain for the world.
"A bullet grazed Chris's arm, Miz Mary." Nathan, the only one of the group who had medical training, answered her.
"But his head?" Mary waved her hand at Vin, who was still holding the ice pack to Chris's head.
"I was trying to dodge the bullets, but then I slipped and hit my head on something, nothing to worry about." The EMT had finally finished with his arm and Chris firmly caught Mary's chin and looked into her wide blue eyes, "Don't worry, I'm fine."
Mary smiled at him, caught in the clear green pools.
The subtle clearing of a throat brought the couple's attention back reality. Mary and Chris turned to see the Judge standing in front of them, a small smile on his lips.
"Everyone alright?"
A chorus of 'yes, judge' was his reply.
"Good, because there's some mighty worried women and one scared little boy out there." The Judge lead the way out the door.
Billy ran to Chris who swung him up with his left arm and wrapped his right one around Mary's waist.
Miss Nettie has her arms around Vin's waist, and from the sound of it, scolding him for God knows what.
Without thinking, Inez threw herself at Buck, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face in his neck. Buck laughed and held on tight, easily lifting her slender frame off the ground.
JD and Casey were hugging each other, Casey's eyes were tearing and JD was trying desperately to steam their flow. All he could think of was to hold her even tighter.
Nathan and Rain were kissing and holding onto each other tight.
Maude divided her attention between her baby boy and her strong Goliath. She held onto Ezra tightly, not letting him see how scared she was for his life. Ezra returned his mother's embrace, whispering assurances in her ear. When Maude finally let Ezra go, she quickly turned to Josiah, holding on to him tightly and then she shed her tears, knowing that the gentle giant would understand. This was the first time the Maude realized how much danger Ezra's line of work was, but she knew that he would never leave it, not as long as he had these six men by his side. That offered the only measure of reassurance for this mother's heart.
"Well, Chris, never let it be said that your parties are in any way mundane." Ezra drawled as he came to stand next to his leader.
"Yeah, Chris, like that time you took us fishing in the Gulf." Vin grinned at the dirty look that Chris gave him.
"Yup, Chris, you sure do know how to celebrate holidays, like how you got shot on your birthday." Buck couldn't help nettling his oldest friend.
"Or when you got shot on the anniversary of us becoming a team!" JD was getting in on the fun.
"Damn, Chris, isn't this the second time your place been shot up?" Josiah scratched his brow, surveying the house and pretending not to know.
"Or, how about ... " Nathan never finished.
"Enough! I get the idea!" Chris looked at his circle of friends and smiled, thanking God, that for everything that had happened to them, they were still together. What's more, one by one, their family was growing. Josiah must have been thinking along the same lines.
"Brothers and sisters, let us give thanks this night. Thanks for what we have and for the knowledge that we will never be alone in our endeavours in the future, for we will always have each other."
"Amen."
Finis
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