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laniew1It’s really quite amusing to me that a cancelled western is causing me to have a newfound interest in Without A Trace.
Enough so that I’ve written fic.
Without A Trace/Magnificent 7 crossover fic.
When Martin Fitzgerald decides to leave New York City it isn’t because Sam is pregnant and there’s a 50% chance the baby is his and he’s a 100% sure it isn’t.
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Vin (Martin)/Ezra, UST Martin/Danny, Past Martin/Sam, Sam/Jack
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own them, if I did I’d totally treat them so much better then they are/were.
SUMMARY: When Martin Fitzgerald decides to leave New York City it isn’t because Sam is pregnant and there’s a 50% chance the baby is his and he’s a 100% sure it isn’t.
A Name Is Just A Name
When Martin Fitzgerald decides to leave New York City it isn’t because Sam is pregnant and there’s a 50% chance the baby is his and he’s a 100% sure it isn’t. It isn’t because Jack looks at him snidely, like he’s won some sort of prize and Danny hasn’t spoken to him like a friend for something like three months.
He leaves because maybe his father is right and maybe New York isn’t the right city for him.
He’s pretty sure that Washington DC isn’t the right city either which is why he doesn’t call his father when he’s deciding to leave.
He calls the one college buddy that no one knows about, partly because he’s not so much an old college buddy as an old college boyfriend.
Michael is pleased to hear from him, doesn’t give him grief about calling out of the blue after not talking to him in over ten years. Instead he helps Martin figure out a plan that doesn’t involve crawling back to his father or staying in New York and dying little by little.
Michael sets him up with a Special Operations team and there’s no need for Martin to change his name or anything but he does anyway, because being found is inevitable but he doesn’t need to make it simple.
He changes his appearance, growing his hair out like he’s always wanted to do. His father is probably having heart palpations and doesn’t know why but Martin likes it, might even keep it when he’s ready to go home.
He doesn’t think about the fact that he’s over thirty and what he’s doing could possibly be called running away from home.
He doesn’t have a home, not anymore. And the places that he’d called home don’t exactly call him family anymore.
He sends postcards a couple of times a month, sends them off to friends of friends who toss them in the mail.
He sends letters to Danny and doesn’t hide where they come from, if Danny really wants to find him he will.
He doesn’t know why he does that, he doubts anyone misses him. He doesn’t call to find out; he really doesn’t want to know the answer.
******************************************************************************
The assignment is simple when he doesn’t think about it. His father would say that working in Special Operations is probably a waste of his abilities. He doesn’t really care.
He’s having fun or what passes for fun for Martin Fitzgerald.
Vin Tanner is having the time of his life. This is someplace that he fits right in and he speaks like he’s lived in Texas his entire life and is just passing through Denver on his way back.
Vin Tanner slides seamlessly into their group.
The team he works with garners the nickname of the Magnificent Seven once he joins them. He doesn’t think there’s anything magnificent about him, he’s a grown man that’s terrified of going home.
They investigate high profile cases, there’s nothing that they don’t look at. Three months in they get a missing persons, a congresswoman’s daughter is snatched on her way home from school. It’s handed to them instead of Denver’s Missing Person’s Unit because it needs to be kept under wraps for reasons that Martin never attempts to get explanations for.
Martin doesn’t think about how that must chafe at the Denver M.P.U. Jack would have been having a fucking fit.
They get the job done, always get the job done. Typically with one of them getting hurt.
He’s not sure what they thought they needed a sharpshooter for, but they had and he relishes the opportunity to show off that part of him as Vin Tanner that that no one had ever needed from Martin Fitzgerald before.
His grandfather had taught him how to shoot when he was seven. Putting a gun in his hand and a target in a field and they’d practiced and practiced until his grandfather had a heart attack and died and his father had not so gently folded him back into his family.
It only takes a few months for these men to be close enough to be called brothers, family in a way that those that are related to him by blood can’t claim.
He doesn’t think about the fact that they barely know him and if they did, if they knew who he really was, that they wouldn’t like him.
He shouldn’t stay, the longer he does the more likely that his father will find him, but he doesn’t leave, doesn’t even make a token attempt to resume the life that he left behind.
And really, there’s nowhere else for him to go.
******************************************************************************
He takes up with Ezra because there’s really nothing stopping him. Not anymore.
His fathers’ voice isn’t ringing in his head reminding him of everything that he will never live up to.
There’s not Sam watching him, hoping that he’ll distract her from Jack. There’s not Jack reminding him that he’ll never be him and that he’ll always be second best to her.
There’s not Danny being himself and not understanding half the signals that Martin had sent him.
He takes up with Ezra because Ezra is smart and funny and he doesn’t expect anything that Vin Tanner gives him but takes it anyway.
******************************************************************************
Martin Fitzgerald comes crashing back into his life with little announcement.
One minute he’s picking up coffee (when it’s his turn to make it he’s typically sent to pick it up from a local coffee shop instead) and the next he has a gun pointed to the back of his head.
His hands are full and if there’s one thing he doesn’t really want to deal with its Ezra’s whining when he returns with a police escort and no coffee.
He doesn’t even get the opportunity to think about getting his hands free so he can get to his gun or better yet his fists.
He doesn’t get to think about anything. One minute he can feel the gun pressed to the back of his head and the next thing he knows he’s getting sucker punched and there’s darkness descending.
******************************************************************************
Four Hours Missing:
They’re interviewed as a group and no one remembers anything odd.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Nothing that would have led to Vin being kidnapped in broad daylight.
None of them have any idea what’s going on and the Ezra that had been getting pissy about Vin taking so long to get back is now fidgety and restless, itching, like the rest of them to get out on the street and figure out what was going on.
Chris knows how he feels, but he also knows that the sooner they get through the questions the sooner they can hit the streets and begin their own search.
He doesn’t have much faith in the police being able to track Vin and whoever took him down.
If someone managed to get close enough to Vin to take him down in the first place, they’re good enough that they’ll be covering their tracks. If they even still have him in Colorado he’d be shocked.
Chris is tapping his fingers and Buck makes a face at him that indicates that he should calm the fuck down.
Vin is missing, he’ll calm down when they have him back.
They’re bringing in a Missing Persons Team from New York City, Chris isn’t sure why. They have a perfectly suitable Missing Persons Unit in Denver; they even have a fairly good track record.
“There’s mitigating circumstances,” he gets over and over again. But no explanation as to what those ‘mitigating circumstances’ are.
They’ve all asked why numerous times.
It’s almost a relief when the door opens and head pops in, fingers gesturing to the agents that had been going through the motions of interviewing them while they waited for the team that’s actually going to lead the investigation to arrive.
They’re left alone and Buck stretches, hands linking together behind his head as he stares at the ceiling.
“What the hell kind of trouble do you think the boy managed to get himself into this time?” he asks. None of them responds, Chris doesn’t think that Buck really expects an answer.
“I don’t like this waiting,” JD says anxiously.
“None of us do,” Josiah says, his voice rumbles and its comforting because Chris can’t detect any sort of fear in Josiah’s voice.
The door opens and four agents enter.
One of them Chris knows, Jack Malone is a bit of a wild card. He’d also been involved in a relationship with one of his subordinates; he thinks it might be the young blonde that is hanging back next to the young Latino man. There’s an older African-America woman standing in line with Malone.
“Agent Larabee,” Malone holds out his hand and Chris looks at it for a second before he reaches across the table to shake it.
JD is right; this waiting is not doing his nerves any good. Vin would probably hate this, their being worried about him. He doesn’t ever seem to understand completely that he’s their brother, their family.
“Gettin’ tired of waitin’ around,” Buck says. “We’d be doin’ more good on the streets.”
Chris hums his agreement but doesn’t say anything.
“We’re set up in the main area,” Malone says. He gestures for them to follow and they do. The sooner they do the dog and pony show the sooner they can get on the street and figure out who Vin has pissed off this time and where he is.
He stops dead when he gets there, the bulletin board has pictures and a timeline already scrawled across it. He hears Buck make a sound next to him, not enough to draw notice unless you’ve known him going on too many years to count.
“What the hell is this?” he snarls.
There’s two pictures up on the board, side by side. One is Vin, he recognizes the picture from Vin’s file, the other is a straight-laced, uptight version of Vin.
“Martin Fitzgerald,” Malone says, pointing to Vin’s straight-laced twin. Ezra stiffens on Chris’ other side. The name is familiar to him, when they get fifteen seconds alone Chris will get it out of him. “Vin Tanner.”
Malone looks over at him, there’s almost sympathy in his eyes.
“Your missing agent was my missing agent first,” Malone says.
******************************************************************************
They sit around the table and Malone’s team briefs them. Chris doesn’t think he imagines any of the emotions that are barely hidden behind Danny Taylor’s eyes.
There’s anger and sadness and longing and if he looked over at Ezra he’d probably see Taylor’s emotions mirrored in Ezra’s eyes.
Martin Fitzgerald had vanished from New York City fifteen months prior; subsequent attempts to regain contact with him had failed though Fitzgerald hadn’t severed all ties with them.
Postcards came once or twice a month, never from the same city, never traceable back to their point of origin.
He’d wanted them to know that he was okay, but he didn’t want them to know where he was, that much is painfully honest to Chris.
The postcards simply said. “Okay, hope all is well with you as well.”
Taylor had received a handful of letters, though he doesn’t go into specifics of the contents. Chris wonders what he’s hiding.
They break into smaller groups and Chris grabs Ezra’s arm and tugs him into his office, Buck follows and Chris doesn’t know what it looks like the three of them going into Chris’ office and closing the door behind them.
It probably looks like they have secrets, but that’s okay, because he’s pretty sure that this team that has arrived on their doorstep has their own share of secrets.
He doesn’t care so long as they don’t interfere.
So long as they don’t try to take Vin away from them.
Ezra will pitch a fit and Chris won’t be far behind him.
“Ezra,” he says. He goes behind his desk and doesn’t look at the photo there.
It’s of the seven of them, on horseback on the ranch. They all look happy, Vin looks relaxed. His eyes don’t look haunted like that picture of Martin Fitzgerald.
“Martin Fitzgerald is the only son of Victor Fitzgerald,” Ezra says. He looks agitated; he doesn’t have a good relationship with the FBI.
“Deputy Director Victor Fitzgerald?” Buck says slowly. Chris leans back in his chair, taps his fingers against the edge of his desk.
Ezra nods, he takes a breath and composes himself.
“I’d never met the son, but the father is controlling arrogant bastard,” Ezra says steadily.
Buck grins and even Chris allows his lips to curl into something resembling a smile.
“Tell us how you really feel, Ez,” Buck says.
******************************************************************************
Eight Hours Missing:
They’re getting ready to hit the streets.
Chris has got Buck and Danny Taylor, he’d really only drawn Taylor because he was the one that would try and take Vin away from them.
The others got postcards, plain, generic, ‘wish you were here (but not really)’ postcards.
Taylor had gotten letters. Letter that Vin would have written in his own hand and made a point of mailing. Chris doesn’t really want to know if they were postmarked from Colorado, because that would mean that Vin hadn’t been trying to hide from him.
They getting ready to hit the streets but they never make it because Malone gets a phone call and it’s a ransom demand and its nothing to do with Vin Tanner or Martin Fitzgerald or his or the Missing Persons team that had come all the way from New York to be involved in the search for a missing friend.
There’s nothing any of them can do (though that doesn’t stop Chris from putting Ezra’s ear to the ground and getting JD tracing any and all leads possible) because they have to wait for Victor Fitzgerald to arrive and put the last puzzle pieces into place.
******************************************************************************
Ten Hours Missing:
Victor Fitzgerald descends and Chris can see right away why Vin would profess to be an orphan. Why he doesn’t claim this family that is his by blood.
If he had this man as his father he probably wouldn’t claim him either.
His father is just as arrogant as Ezra had claimed. And just as controlling.
He takes one look at the pictures side by side on the board and his nose turns up, a scowl on his face.
“We don’t negotiate with extortionists or kidnappers,” he states. His voice is gruff and there is no emotion there. He doesn’t sound at all concerned that they’ve promised to kill his son if they don’t get what they want.
“Sir…” Malone starts and Victor raises a hand. Malone backs down though the expression on his face is angry.
“Not even if it’s your son?” Chris asks.
“Not under any circumstances,” Victor snaps.
Taylor is practically vibrating with anger next to him; Ezra looks ready to go over his desk and strangle the man. Buck is sitting back in his chair and if looks could kill Victor Fitzgerald would be dead about eight times over.
******************************************************************************
They don’t find Vin with any help of his father. They don’t find Vin at all.
Vin finds them. Stumbling through the door with blood on his face and his clothes and he’s obviously hurt, but Chris makes it to him first and can’t see fit to let Nathan do what needs to be done.
The team from New York is gathering around and Josiah and JD are keeping them back enough that Vin doesn’t even notice them before his eyes close.
Nathan finally manages to get to Vin’s side when Buck yanks Chris back, allows himself to be moved and sits by Vin’s head, cradling it in his lap while Nathan does what he can.
He can hear someone calling for an ambulance but it sounds like it’s happening in another office somewhere far away.
“Gunshot to the abdomen,” Nathan says softly, his hands are gentle on Vin’s skin, pushing his shirt to the side, t-shirt up and out of the way. Vin makes a noise low in the back of his throat, “Maybe a broken rib or two,” he says.
“Ambulance is coming,” Ezra says, Buck shifts out of the way and allows him into his place. Of all of them, Ezra really is the only one that has the right to lay hands on him.
“Aw Ez,” Vin says, he sounds weak and tired. His eyes don’t open, even when Ezra draws a hand across his face. Not even when he reaches up and takes Ezra’s hand, squeezing it tightly.
They do pop open when Ezra says, “Now, now Mr. Fitzgerald, you’ll make your friends think we don’t take care of you, when it’s obviously you who can’t take of yourself.”
He sees them then, Taylor looking pointedly at where Vin is still clenching Ezra’s hand, Chris sitting on the ground with Vin’s head in his lap, Buck touching Ezra’s shoulder, Nathan still touching Vin’s skin.
Vin closes his eyes again, turns his head into Ezra’s hand.
“You all having a party without me?”
******************************************************************************
Victor Fitzgerald tries to ban them from his sons’ room.
The nurses and doctors don’t listen to him, they know the team well enough that they nod when he speaks and then do exactly what he doesn’t want done.
Ezra camps out in a chair by Vin’s bed, and refuses to leave. They bring him back coffee and food and JD brings him magazines that Ezra turns his nose up at but doesn’t refuse.
It’s probably pretty boring in the room considering that they’ve got Vin drugged to the gills and he’s half the time sleeping when they come in.
Chris purposefully doesn’t think of him as Martin.
Martin Fitzgerald is a preppy, uptight ass that they probably wouldn’t have gotten along with in the first place if they’d met him first.
The Missing Persons Team from New York stops by, the only one that goes in to see him is Taylor.
That’s the only time that Ezra leaves the room, standing out in the hallway watching the door so intently that Chris wonders if Ezra is afraid that Taylor is going to try and sneak Vin out without them knowing.
Taylor comes out and he looks resigned and sad.
He looks at Ezra and Chris can’t read the look that passes between them. He doesn’t know if he really wants to.
“You hurt him…” Taylor starts.
“Mr. Taylor, if I hurt him there’s five people in line ahead of you that have first dibs,” Ezra says, he shakes Taylor’s hand and goes back into Vin’s room.
The door closes behind him and Chris watches Taylor as Taylor stares at the door.
He shakes himself and stiffens his shoulder, shakes his head and heads down the hallway to where the rest of his team is waiting. They’re scheduled on an afternoon flight, it’ll get into New York at 3:00 am.
And if JD is waiting to make sure they all get on the flight it isn’t because Chris asked him to.
None of them want to fight with people for Vin.
He watches them leave and heads into Vin’s room, Ezra is back in his chair by Vin’s bed. They’re not holding hands anymore but Chris thinks that might be because Vin is awake and watching him with wary eyes.
“Are you going to make me leave?” he asks. Chris doesn’t answer, just stands at the foot of his bed until the man in it fidgets slightly.
“Do we call you Vin or Martin?” Chris asks.
******************************************************************************
Enough so that I’ve written fic.
Without A Trace/Magnificent 7 crossover fic.
When Martin Fitzgerald decides to leave New York City it isn’t because Sam is pregnant and there’s a 50% chance the baby is his and he’s a 100% sure it isn’t.
RATING: PG13
PAIRING: Vin (Martin)/Ezra, UST Martin/Danny, Past Martin/Sam, Sam/Jack
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own them, if I did I’d totally treat them so much better then they are/were.
SUMMARY: When Martin Fitzgerald decides to leave New York City it isn’t because Sam is pregnant and there’s a 50% chance the baby is his and he’s a 100% sure it isn’t.
A Name Is Just A Name
When Martin Fitzgerald decides to leave New York City it isn’t because Sam is pregnant and there’s a 50% chance the baby is his and he’s a 100% sure it isn’t. It isn’t because Jack looks at him snidely, like he’s won some sort of prize and Danny hasn’t spoken to him like a friend for something like three months.
He leaves because maybe his father is right and maybe New York isn’t the right city for him.
He’s pretty sure that Washington DC isn’t the right city either which is why he doesn’t call his father when he’s deciding to leave.
He calls the one college buddy that no one knows about, partly because he’s not so much an old college buddy as an old college boyfriend.
Michael is pleased to hear from him, doesn’t give him grief about calling out of the blue after not talking to him in over ten years. Instead he helps Martin figure out a plan that doesn’t involve crawling back to his father or staying in New York and dying little by little.
Michael sets him up with a Special Operations team and there’s no need for Martin to change his name or anything but he does anyway, because being found is inevitable but he doesn’t need to make it simple.
He changes his appearance, growing his hair out like he’s always wanted to do. His father is probably having heart palpations and doesn’t know why but Martin likes it, might even keep it when he’s ready to go home.
He doesn’t think about the fact that he’s over thirty and what he’s doing could possibly be called running away from home.
He doesn’t have a home, not anymore. And the places that he’d called home don’t exactly call him family anymore.
He sends postcards a couple of times a month, sends them off to friends of friends who toss them in the mail.
He sends letters to Danny and doesn’t hide where they come from, if Danny really wants to find him he will.
He doesn’t know why he does that, he doubts anyone misses him. He doesn’t call to find out; he really doesn’t want to know the answer.
The assignment is simple when he doesn’t think about it. His father would say that working in Special Operations is probably a waste of his abilities. He doesn’t really care.
He’s having fun or what passes for fun for Martin Fitzgerald.
Vin Tanner is having the time of his life. This is someplace that he fits right in and he speaks like he’s lived in Texas his entire life and is just passing through Denver on his way back.
Vin Tanner slides seamlessly into their group.
The team he works with garners the nickname of the Magnificent Seven once he joins them. He doesn’t think there’s anything magnificent about him, he’s a grown man that’s terrified of going home.
They investigate high profile cases, there’s nothing that they don’t look at. Three months in they get a missing persons, a congresswoman’s daughter is snatched on her way home from school. It’s handed to them instead of Denver’s Missing Person’s Unit because it needs to be kept under wraps for reasons that Martin never attempts to get explanations for.
Martin doesn’t think about how that must chafe at the Denver M.P.U. Jack would have been having a fucking fit.
They get the job done, always get the job done. Typically with one of them getting hurt.
He’s not sure what they thought they needed a sharpshooter for, but they had and he relishes the opportunity to show off that part of him as Vin Tanner that that no one had ever needed from Martin Fitzgerald before.
His grandfather had taught him how to shoot when he was seven. Putting a gun in his hand and a target in a field and they’d practiced and practiced until his grandfather had a heart attack and died and his father had not so gently folded him back into his family.
It only takes a few months for these men to be close enough to be called brothers, family in a way that those that are related to him by blood can’t claim.
He doesn’t think about the fact that they barely know him and if they did, if they knew who he really was, that they wouldn’t like him.
He shouldn’t stay, the longer he does the more likely that his father will find him, but he doesn’t leave, doesn’t even make a token attempt to resume the life that he left behind.
And really, there’s nowhere else for him to go.
He takes up with Ezra because there’s really nothing stopping him. Not anymore.
His fathers’ voice isn’t ringing in his head reminding him of everything that he will never live up to.
There’s not Sam watching him, hoping that he’ll distract her from Jack. There’s not Jack reminding him that he’ll never be him and that he’ll always be second best to her.
There’s not Danny being himself and not understanding half the signals that Martin had sent him.
He takes up with Ezra because Ezra is smart and funny and he doesn’t expect anything that Vin Tanner gives him but takes it anyway.
Martin Fitzgerald comes crashing back into his life with little announcement.
One minute he’s picking up coffee (when it’s his turn to make it he’s typically sent to pick it up from a local coffee shop instead) and the next he has a gun pointed to the back of his head.
His hands are full and if there’s one thing he doesn’t really want to deal with its Ezra’s whining when he returns with a police escort and no coffee.
He doesn’t even get the opportunity to think about getting his hands free so he can get to his gun or better yet his fists.
He doesn’t get to think about anything. One minute he can feel the gun pressed to the back of his head and the next thing he knows he’s getting sucker punched and there’s darkness descending.
Four Hours Missing:
They’re interviewed as a group and no one remembers anything odd.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Nothing that would have led to Vin being kidnapped in broad daylight.
None of them have any idea what’s going on and the Ezra that had been getting pissy about Vin taking so long to get back is now fidgety and restless, itching, like the rest of them to get out on the street and figure out what was going on.
Chris knows how he feels, but he also knows that the sooner they get through the questions the sooner they can hit the streets and begin their own search.
He doesn’t have much faith in the police being able to track Vin and whoever took him down.
If someone managed to get close enough to Vin to take him down in the first place, they’re good enough that they’ll be covering their tracks. If they even still have him in Colorado he’d be shocked.
Chris is tapping his fingers and Buck makes a face at him that indicates that he should calm the fuck down.
Vin is missing, he’ll calm down when they have him back.
They’re bringing in a Missing Persons Team from New York City, Chris isn’t sure why. They have a perfectly suitable Missing Persons Unit in Denver; they even have a fairly good track record.
“There’s mitigating circumstances,” he gets over and over again. But no explanation as to what those ‘mitigating circumstances’ are.
They’ve all asked why numerous times.
It’s almost a relief when the door opens and head pops in, fingers gesturing to the agents that had been going through the motions of interviewing them while they waited for the team that’s actually going to lead the investigation to arrive.
They’re left alone and Buck stretches, hands linking together behind his head as he stares at the ceiling.
“What the hell kind of trouble do you think the boy managed to get himself into this time?” he asks. None of them responds, Chris doesn’t think that Buck really expects an answer.
“I don’t like this waiting,” JD says anxiously.
“None of us do,” Josiah says, his voice rumbles and its comforting because Chris can’t detect any sort of fear in Josiah’s voice.
The door opens and four agents enter.
One of them Chris knows, Jack Malone is a bit of a wild card. He’d also been involved in a relationship with one of his subordinates; he thinks it might be the young blonde that is hanging back next to the young Latino man. There’s an older African-America woman standing in line with Malone.
“Agent Larabee,” Malone holds out his hand and Chris looks at it for a second before he reaches across the table to shake it.
JD is right; this waiting is not doing his nerves any good. Vin would probably hate this, their being worried about him. He doesn’t ever seem to understand completely that he’s their brother, their family.
“Gettin’ tired of waitin’ around,” Buck says. “We’d be doin’ more good on the streets.”
Chris hums his agreement but doesn’t say anything.
“We’re set up in the main area,” Malone says. He gestures for them to follow and they do. The sooner they do the dog and pony show the sooner they can get on the street and figure out who Vin has pissed off this time and where he is.
He stops dead when he gets there, the bulletin board has pictures and a timeline already scrawled across it. He hears Buck make a sound next to him, not enough to draw notice unless you’ve known him going on too many years to count.
“What the hell is this?” he snarls.
There’s two pictures up on the board, side by side. One is Vin, he recognizes the picture from Vin’s file, the other is a straight-laced, uptight version of Vin.
“Martin Fitzgerald,” Malone says, pointing to Vin’s straight-laced twin. Ezra stiffens on Chris’ other side. The name is familiar to him, when they get fifteen seconds alone Chris will get it out of him. “Vin Tanner.”
Malone looks over at him, there’s almost sympathy in his eyes.
“Your missing agent was my missing agent first,” Malone says.
They sit around the table and Malone’s team briefs them. Chris doesn’t think he imagines any of the emotions that are barely hidden behind Danny Taylor’s eyes.
There’s anger and sadness and longing and if he looked over at Ezra he’d probably see Taylor’s emotions mirrored in Ezra’s eyes.
Martin Fitzgerald had vanished from New York City fifteen months prior; subsequent attempts to regain contact with him had failed though Fitzgerald hadn’t severed all ties with them.
Postcards came once or twice a month, never from the same city, never traceable back to their point of origin.
He’d wanted them to know that he was okay, but he didn’t want them to know where he was, that much is painfully honest to Chris.
The postcards simply said. “Okay, hope all is well with you as well.”
Taylor had received a handful of letters, though he doesn’t go into specifics of the contents. Chris wonders what he’s hiding.
They break into smaller groups and Chris grabs Ezra’s arm and tugs him into his office, Buck follows and Chris doesn’t know what it looks like the three of them going into Chris’ office and closing the door behind them.
It probably looks like they have secrets, but that’s okay, because he’s pretty sure that this team that has arrived on their doorstep has their own share of secrets.
He doesn’t care so long as they don’t interfere.
So long as they don’t try to take Vin away from them.
Ezra will pitch a fit and Chris won’t be far behind him.
“Ezra,” he says. He goes behind his desk and doesn’t look at the photo there.
It’s of the seven of them, on horseback on the ranch. They all look happy, Vin looks relaxed. His eyes don’t look haunted like that picture of Martin Fitzgerald.
“Martin Fitzgerald is the only son of Victor Fitzgerald,” Ezra says. He looks agitated; he doesn’t have a good relationship with the FBI.
“Deputy Director Victor Fitzgerald?” Buck says slowly. Chris leans back in his chair, taps his fingers against the edge of his desk.
Ezra nods, he takes a breath and composes himself.
“I’d never met the son, but the father is controlling arrogant bastard,” Ezra says steadily.
Buck grins and even Chris allows his lips to curl into something resembling a smile.
“Tell us how you really feel, Ez,” Buck says.
Eight Hours Missing:
They’re getting ready to hit the streets.
Chris has got Buck and Danny Taylor, he’d really only drawn Taylor because he was the one that would try and take Vin away from them.
The others got postcards, plain, generic, ‘wish you were here (but not really)’ postcards.
Taylor had gotten letters. Letter that Vin would have written in his own hand and made a point of mailing. Chris doesn’t really want to know if they were postmarked from Colorado, because that would mean that Vin hadn’t been trying to hide from him.
They getting ready to hit the streets but they never make it because Malone gets a phone call and it’s a ransom demand and its nothing to do with Vin Tanner or Martin Fitzgerald or his or the Missing Persons team that had come all the way from New York to be involved in the search for a missing friend.
There’s nothing any of them can do (though that doesn’t stop Chris from putting Ezra’s ear to the ground and getting JD tracing any and all leads possible) because they have to wait for Victor Fitzgerald to arrive and put the last puzzle pieces into place.
Ten Hours Missing:
Victor Fitzgerald descends and Chris can see right away why Vin would profess to be an orphan. Why he doesn’t claim this family that is his by blood.
If he had this man as his father he probably wouldn’t claim him either.
His father is just as arrogant as Ezra had claimed. And just as controlling.
He takes one look at the pictures side by side on the board and his nose turns up, a scowl on his face.
“We don’t negotiate with extortionists or kidnappers,” he states. His voice is gruff and there is no emotion there. He doesn’t sound at all concerned that they’ve promised to kill his son if they don’t get what they want.
“Sir…” Malone starts and Victor raises a hand. Malone backs down though the expression on his face is angry.
“Not even if it’s your son?” Chris asks.
“Not under any circumstances,” Victor snaps.
Taylor is practically vibrating with anger next to him; Ezra looks ready to go over his desk and strangle the man. Buck is sitting back in his chair and if looks could kill Victor Fitzgerald would be dead about eight times over.
They don’t find Vin with any help of his father. They don’t find Vin at all.
Vin finds them. Stumbling through the door with blood on his face and his clothes and he’s obviously hurt, but Chris makes it to him first and can’t see fit to let Nathan do what needs to be done.
The team from New York is gathering around and Josiah and JD are keeping them back enough that Vin doesn’t even notice them before his eyes close.
Nathan finally manages to get to Vin’s side when Buck yanks Chris back, allows himself to be moved and sits by Vin’s head, cradling it in his lap while Nathan does what he can.
He can hear someone calling for an ambulance but it sounds like it’s happening in another office somewhere far away.
“Gunshot to the abdomen,” Nathan says softly, his hands are gentle on Vin’s skin, pushing his shirt to the side, t-shirt up and out of the way. Vin makes a noise low in the back of his throat, “Maybe a broken rib or two,” he says.
“Ambulance is coming,” Ezra says, Buck shifts out of the way and allows him into his place. Of all of them, Ezra really is the only one that has the right to lay hands on him.
“Aw Ez,” Vin says, he sounds weak and tired. His eyes don’t open, even when Ezra draws a hand across his face. Not even when he reaches up and takes Ezra’s hand, squeezing it tightly.
They do pop open when Ezra says, “Now, now Mr. Fitzgerald, you’ll make your friends think we don’t take care of you, when it’s obviously you who can’t take of yourself.”
He sees them then, Taylor looking pointedly at where Vin is still clenching Ezra’s hand, Chris sitting on the ground with Vin’s head in his lap, Buck touching Ezra’s shoulder, Nathan still touching Vin’s skin.
Vin closes his eyes again, turns his head into Ezra’s hand.
“You all having a party without me?”
Victor Fitzgerald tries to ban them from his sons’ room.
The nurses and doctors don’t listen to him, they know the team well enough that they nod when he speaks and then do exactly what he doesn’t want done.
Ezra camps out in a chair by Vin’s bed, and refuses to leave. They bring him back coffee and food and JD brings him magazines that Ezra turns his nose up at but doesn’t refuse.
It’s probably pretty boring in the room considering that they’ve got Vin drugged to the gills and he’s half the time sleeping when they come in.
Chris purposefully doesn’t think of him as Martin.
Martin Fitzgerald is a preppy, uptight ass that they probably wouldn’t have gotten along with in the first place if they’d met him first.
The Missing Persons Team from New York stops by, the only one that goes in to see him is Taylor.
That’s the only time that Ezra leaves the room, standing out in the hallway watching the door so intently that Chris wonders if Ezra is afraid that Taylor is going to try and sneak Vin out without them knowing.
Taylor comes out and he looks resigned and sad.
He looks at Ezra and Chris can’t read the look that passes between them. He doesn’t know if he really wants to.
“You hurt him…” Taylor starts.
“Mr. Taylor, if I hurt him there’s five people in line ahead of you that have first dibs,” Ezra says, he shakes Taylor’s hand and goes back into Vin’s room.
The door closes behind him and Chris watches Taylor as Taylor stares at the door.
He shakes himself and stiffens his shoulder, shakes his head and heads down the hallway to where the rest of his team is waiting. They’re scheduled on an afternoon flight, it’ll get into New York at 3:00 am.
And if JD is waiting to make sure they all get on the flight it isn’t because Chris asked him to.
None of them want to fight with people for Vin.
He watches them leave and heads into Vin’s room, Ezra is back in his chair by Vin’s bed. They’re not holding hands anymore but Chris thinks that might be because Vin is awake and watching him with wary eyes.
“Are you going to make me leave?” he asks. Chris doesn’t answer, just stands at the foot of his bed until the man in it fidgets slightly.
“Do we call you Vin or Martin?” Chris asks.