They say he sat on a king's ransom although he lived plainly. He was a hermit, alone in the crackling dry hills. There had been rumors-rumors to protect against nosy neighbors and a man's privacy. At least that is what Ali chose to believe. The hermit had called for a driver. Ali needed the money. He had children to feed. The driver easily found the stucco house and pulled the four-door Renault in front of the home.  Ali didn't have to get out. The mystery man exited with one bag. Despite the warmth, he wore a turtleneck. His head was covered, eyes shielded with sunglasses, face strategically hidden.

A normal bust did not culminate in two injured agents.

"Did you see where the shots came from?" Chris asked pushing a hand through his hair, making his tense forehead more pronounced.

Vin pushed off from the wall he was leaning against.  The sharpshooter crossed his arms tightly then closed his eyes, going over the scene in his mind. Ezra and JD were on the outskirts of the courtyard. It was a small bust with big ramifications. Guns would be stopped from entering at least one high school in Colorado.

JD was thrilled he was going undercover, having only played a computer geek before in another operation in which he kept silent and his head bent over a keyboard. This time Dunne didn't care he was playing a 'kid.' The young agent was the source of the ATF's information- the go between. His mission was to make friends with the teenagers known to have weapons, find out who their source was and try to broker a deal between the source and another player, Ezra.

The source, Samuel Givens, was interested in gaining another avenue in which to acquire guns. The meeting, after school, in the yard was quiet..

Buck was next to Vin, finding it difficult to keep quiet. Tanner had sent the mustached agent menacing looks.

Wilmington begged to go with the sharpshooter in the tree when the team had been discussing the bust. Vin had protested.  Buck, usually filled with bravado and machismo had leaned in closer to the team, and in a soft voice stated his purpose. "I just want to be close to the kid. Make sure he's all right." The congenial agent prevailed.

In the tree, Tanner brought his finger to his lips as Wilmington mumbled,  "Kid's head is going to be swollen for days after this."

Vin thought JD was having fun the past few days, enjoying the time with the teenagers even though it was the 'wrong crowd.'  Dunne never had an opportunity to be a real, irresponsible teenager. Tanner figured the young agent's head wouldn't be swollen. It would be a let down to go back to work with the adults.

The sharpshooter sensed the climax to the bust. He pointed at his eyes and then to the area in the courtyard. Buck nodded.

Below, Ezra and JD took out their badges. Everything seemed peaceful. Weapons were placed on the ground. Then Buck and JD got shot.

Vin opened his eyes, assaulted with the harsh fluorescent lighting and the turquoise colored vinyl chairs. He let out a breath. "I don't know. I was climbing down." Tanner slightly bowed his head, then brought it up again to face the team leader. "Looked like it was all clear."

Chris looked away and Vin swallowed the lump in his throat. The sharpshooter knew he wasn't to blame, yet his answers were lacking and insufficient.  Larabee stared at the hall his friends had been taken down. Tanner rubbed his eyes. They both stood transfixed until Ezra came up behind them.

"Mister Givens was not forthcoming with any information." Standish drawled. Ezra and Nathan had gone back to the office to see if they could find out where things went wrong.

Next to him, Jackson closed his cellphone. "And intel confirmed, again, he did not have any known backup." The medic gave a quick glance down the hall, checking for the doctor. "Just like we said from the beginning-he's a one man band."

Standish rubbed his chin for a moment. "Then we told Givens that an assault on a federal  officer could add to his jail time. . ."

Nathan shook his head. "He was scared Chris, but he was adamant he had nothing to do with the shooting." Jackson placed his hands in his pockets. "He told us he would swear on a Bible"

Frustrated, Chris slammed his hand, palm flat, against the wall. "Damn."

Vin nudged Nathan to continue, letting Chris ride out his aggression.

Jackson nodded.  "Then he started to rollover on his contacts."

"We left him in the capable hands of the assistant district attorney."  Standish added, looking away from the irate leader, he directed his question to Vin. "Any news on Buck and JD?"

"Not yet,"  the sharpshooter sighed, moving slightly away from the leader to give him some space to pull himself together. The only thing that would help him and the others was to know that their friends would be okay.

Tanner watched Josiah as he calmly sat, going through old copies of Field and Stream. The large man cleared his throat breaking up the tete-a-tete. "Here comes the doctor." Sanchez stood up and went to stand next to his teammates, giving Vin a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder.

The dark-haired doctor removed his surgical cap and smiled as he clutched it. "They're going to fine."

Josiah grinned as he watched his teammates. The doctor made the team wait until after the roommates were moved out of recovery and asked they be patient. The team's version of patient consisted of  men pacing, fidgeting  and tapping until they saw their friends being rolled down the hall.

"Honey, wait, those are my friends," Wilmington said awkwardly waving his hand towards the general direction of the team. A sheet covered part of his torso, but part was left exposed showing the neat white bandage pinning his arm against his chest. The mustached agent had taken a hit in the shoulder, the bullet lodged inside.

JD followed behind, having taken a bullet in his side leading to a nicked liver.  He cleared his throat as he passed and offered a wan smile. "Is someone going to write me a note for school tomorrow?"

Josiah chuckled, "Wasn't  I playing the dad?"  Sanchez had gone the first day of the undercover operation to register JD for school.  As they walked into the office the young agent was already getting into his role, whining and being mouthy to his so-called father.

The men followed their infirmed friends in the room and tried to stay back as the two were moved from their gurneys to their beds. The nurse took some time to write some notes on their charts. "Are you two okay?"

Dunne nodded, and Wilmington flirted. "With you by my side I'm going to feel better in no time."

The nurse shook her head. "Boys, not too long." She eyed each man. "They need their rest."

"Don't worry, we'll be leaving shortly." Nathan replied. "I don't think they need us to entertain them." Jackson added, noting Buck was reaching out already to the television remote control.

Chris stepped forward and pulled the object from Buck's hand, putting it out of reach of the injured man. Larabee was a little surprised when the overhead TV came to life.

"It slipped?" JD said, opening his eyes wide trying to look innocent as he held the remote.

Josiah walked over and reached up to shut the TV off. "No TV until you do your homework."

Dunne groaned at Sanchez's comment.

Buck shifted against his pillow and grimaced. "Where the hell did the shooter come from?"

Josiah had noticed that Vin had been a step behind, practically hidden by the large man's frame.

"Couldn't tell." Tanner said, looking unblinkingly to Wilmington, avoiding the other men. Sanchez didn't know what was eating the longhaired agent, after all, he had saved Buck from falling. Tanner had turned to climb down the tree, then noticed the mustached agent falling back. Luckily, and there just had to be a lot of luck involved, Vin was able to grab a fistful of Buck's shirt.

"Possibly a northwestern direction." Ezra said as he sat down in the only available chair in the room.

"There's a team on the scene trying to figure it out." Chris added as he glanced between the two men making sure for himself they would be fine. "I should have a report soon."

Wilmington adjusted his position yet again frustrated it was difficult to move with one arm pinned to his side. "At least you were there to catch me, Junior." Vin looked up, and nodded, accepting the thanks quietly.  "Don't think  I wanted to take a bullet and end up with a cracked head."

"I don't know? Maybe you would have ended up with a different personality." JD replied as he tried to stifle the yawn causing his eyes to water. "A normal one would be nice."

"Now, what fun is that?" Wilmington retorted as he raised and lowered his eyebrows.

Nathan cleared his throat and pointed to his watch.

Chris, understanding they were overstaying their welcome, placed a hand on the end of JD's bed. "Get your rest. We'll be here in the morning."

After three days, the two team members were coming home to finish recuperating. They were going to go back to the CDC under the careful scrutiny of the other five men.  Josiah and Chris were going to pick them up after lunch.

In the aftermath of the bust the office had been working hard to find out what happened. The conclusion were theories ranging from a leak in the office to perhaps revenge by a Given's competitor. No one wanted to believe it was some sort of fluke. Combined with the two hospitalized men, Nathan found himself stressed.  This morning he was starting his day at Starbucks.

Jackson was not surprised to see Tanner in line already. He waved to the sharpshooter who gestured he come forward. Nathan shrugged his shoulders and whispered apologizes to the people directly behind the longhaired agent.

Vin seemed oblivious to the rolling eyes and the dirty looks the people in line were giving him. "Hey, Nate what do you want?"

"Some tea," the medic replied as he tried to stifle a yawn.

Tanner shook his head. "You sure you don't want a double espresso?"

Nathan laughed. "And have it eat my stomach lining?" Jackson looked ahead to the menu, wondering what the tea of the day was.  "No, Rain had me up." He said absentmindedly, before realizing how that could be construed.

"Don’t want to know." Vin said in a low tone under his breath.

Rain had been at his place working on a proposal. Her apartment was being fumigated. Seeing how on edge he was, she had graciously volunteered to give him a massage. "Wouldn't kill you to have someone in your life." Jackson commented.

Tanner pulled out his wallet, and took out two five-dollar bills. "Like being alone."

They were next in line. "What about companionship? What about sex?" Nathan finished saying as they reached the barista.

The young woman flushed in embarrassment at having heard the conversation. Her voice became an unnatural soprano. "An espresso and?"

"Yeah," Tanner quickly responded, feeling uncomfortable with the conversation and the fact it hadn't been private. Vin then shook his head. "Oh, and one .."

"Darjeeling tea," Nathan had quickly made his decision. "Grande."

The woman called out the order. The two agents waited in silence. Vin shifted his gaze around the tiny confines of the coffee shop, still uncomfortable from the odd, overheard conversation. Jackson read a pamphlet on teas, more turning the paper around in his hand then actually reading it. He returned it back to his spot when their order was completed. Once they left Jackson felt the need to apologize. "Sorry." The medic knew Vin would not be going back to that particular Starbucks for awhile.

Vin took a tentative sip of his steaming brew. "You always think about stuff like that?"

Nathan grimaced as he sipped the unsweetened tea. He always worried about the men and their well being. They led complicated lives. "I guess."

They had reached Vin's Jeep. Nathan was parked a little further down. Tanner placed the paper cup on the dashboard. "I'm doing fine, Nathan, rest easy."

"If you say so," Nathan chuckled and began to walk away.

"I say so." Nathan heard Vin reply. Jackson fidgeted the cardboard sleeve on his cup. He was surprised when the whole cup dropped out of his hands. He gasped and felt warm liquid on him. He was stunned when he looked down and saw it was blood not tea.

He wasn't expecting Vin to knock him down either. "Nate! Get down!" He heard Vin yell at him, patting his face with one hand while Tanner's other hand held a weapon.

Jackson tried to respond, but his tongue felt thick. He felt his breath quicken and then the searing pain in his side. "Oh God," he groaned.

Probably looked like a psycho. Vin's cuts glowed a deep rust color from the iodine and his jeans and jacket were torn in places. The bullet shattered his back window and the glass rain down on Nathan. Tanner had leapt out of the Jeep and in the process skidded on the glass littering the pavement. A shower would have cleaned him up, but the emergency room team insisted on looking him over to make sure the glass wasn't imbedded and the cuts were not too deep.

Finally the nurses had left him alone. The sharpshooter waited a bit to get his equilibrium before slowly putting on his soiled clothes. He needed air. Tanner looked around before stepping on the mat to open the sliding doors. The rest of the team wouldn't miss him. They were waiting upstairs for Nathan to come out of surgery.

He stood taking steady breaths. Vin saw the man next to him smoking. "Can I have a smoke?"

Silently the stranger gave him one. He closed his eyes as it was lit. Tanner felt his fingers indent as he slipped in the cigarette. He took a long drag, forcefully blowing the smoke through his nose.

The longhaired agent turned around and saw Chris pulling the curtain back from Vin's exam room. Tanner nodded through the glass doors and put out the cigarette.

"Is Rain here?" Vin asked.

Chris frowned. "Yeah, she's upstairs."  Larabee glanced to the ground. "Shouldn't be much longer now."

Vin looked out into the bright day, making out the distant outline of the city. "He gonna be okay?" Ezra had reported to him that the bullet had done damage to Nathan's intestine.

"Yeah, risk of peritonitis, but he's going to pull through." Chris spoke louder as a car came up near the place where they stood.

Vin rubbed the right side of his chest, feeling the scabbing skin through a rip in his shirt.  "What do you think is going on?"

"We've been talking upstairs." Chris turned and faced his friend. They shared a look, as if to prepare themselves for the trials about to come.  "Think it may be an old case."

Tanner closed his eyes, scared at the amount of enemies they had made over the years. "Damn," the whispered word sighed in the air.

Chris gave a twisted grin. "Let's go upstairs."

"Nurse just came out, said they are just closing now."  Buck sat in the chair in the waiting room fidgeting with his sling.  Chris had tried to make the two roommates go home, but they had been adamant about staying.

Vin saw Rain by the operating room doors, far away from the team and as close as she could be to Nathan. Her arms were crossed around her.  "How long has she been there?"

Josiah glanced over to the worrying woman and sighed. "Since she got here."

"She kinda snarled at the rest of us."  JD commented as he tried to stifle a yawn.
Ezra placed his deck of cards into his suit jacket. Buck figured in five minutes he would take them out again. It was Standish's nervous habit. "I have tried to draw her into conversation, but she is not talkative."

Wilmington saw the lone woman, looking so vunerable. He caught Chris's eye and gestured to Rain.

Larabee nodded. "I'll go talk to her."

The mustached agent watched as his old friend soundlessly joined the young woman. "Rain, he's going to be fine."

She did not turn around. "I hope so."

"Buck said the nurse told him they were almost finished." Wilmington watched Larabee struggle to make conversation. This was not his strong point. He could bully harden criminals, but was not the type of person to turn to for a sympathetic ear.

"Yep," Rain replied, taking another step away from the team leader.

Chris took a step back, closer to his men. "Why don't you come and sit with us."

Her back still turned, she shrugged her shoulders. "No, thanks."

Larabee turned back to look at Wilmington. Buck gestured to his friend to make some sort of overture.

"Okay, I understand. We're right there if you need us." Chris turned away.

Rain snapped around, her face was tear streaked and she roughly dragged a finger under her nose. "I don't think you do understand."

Wilmington winced and not from the pulling of the stitches in his shoulder. Ezra had started to take out his cards again and then stopped, giving the conversation in the corner his full attention.

"Excuse me?" Larabee stated.

"Look at your precious team—they are the walking wounded." She pointed to JD and Buck.  "And now Nathan?" She ran her fingers through her tangled hair.

"It's the risk of the job," Chris replied. The rest of the team looked over hearing his voice raise.

"Ha!" She snorted. Her eyes watered with unshed tears. "Part of the job is to get people mad enough at you that they'll seek revenge.  Nathan never said anything about that."
Wilmington looked away, as had the rest of the team. Rain quivered with resentment. She was finally realizing Chris was a major figure in their lives, as was the team.  The Team was everything. Buck felt terrible for Rain and Nathan. The medic was the only one to have an established relationship.  Wilmington wondered was this what it would be like if any of them got married? Family versus the job? This was the part of the job they never talked about.

Chris was silent.

Rain looked down to the linoleum floor. "I overheard your conversation."

"It's a theory." Larabee bit the words out. From his tone it was obvious he had told her she had crossed the line and their conversation was none of her concern.

She snapped her head up.  "That's great, just great."  The conversation was dropped as Nathan was rolled through the doors. The team stood up and pressed in closer to the gurney, but giving enough space for Rain and Chris.

Wilmington watched as Rain pressed a hand against the cushion of the gurney near Nathan's head.  Jackson had his head turned away towards Larabee. For a second he opened his eyes. Chris grinned and nodded.

"Is he gonna be okay?"  Buck asked the doctor who had at last exited behind Nathan.

"I think so. We're going to give him antibiotics and hope to keep the peritonitis at bay."  The doctor rubbed his chin. "If you'll excuse me. The nurses will set him up in ICU."

Rain followed the nurses. This time wrapping her hand in Nathan's.

The men started to follow and Chris called them back. "Let Rain spend some time with Nathan.  We'll come back in the morning."

Buck nodded, appreciating his friend's consideration for the young woman.  "Plus you guys need to take care of us. Hell, Junior needs some tending too."

Vin shook his head. "I'm going home."

Ezra took that as his cue. "I will escort Agent Tanner home."

"Guess that leaves me and Chris to tuck you in, Brothers." Josiah pointed to the elevator.

"JD has an impressionable mind!"   Buck said jokingly as he put an arm around his roommate.

Dunne shrugged his shoulders, causing Wilmington to drop his arm.

"Think of the damage you'll do, the last thought before he falls asleep will be you two." Buck mimicked an exaggerated shudder.  "That would give me nightmares for years."

Chris walked ahead of the wounded man. "You can always stay in the hospital Buck and I'm sure that Nurse Rita will be happy."

Wilmington began to pick up his pace. He was tired, but there was no way he was being left behind and be ministered to by THAT WOMAN. She had made him feel worse instead of better, her hands rough instead of helping. She downright intimidated Buck. "You don't play fair."