Found

Disclaimer: I don't own the Magnificent Seven, not making any money, just cheap thrills.

Warnings: Slash, Angst, Violence

Rating: FRT

Found
Chapter 7


Vin glanced towards the office again, he was really getting worried about Chris. He shared a concerned look with his lover, knowing Buck was as worried as him. Hell, the whole team was getting scared for Chris. They could clearly see that the more time went by with no leads on Ezra, the further Larabee pulled away from them. Turning his attention back to the office, he was just in time to see Chris slide something back into his desk drawer, a very suspicious looking something. His chair flew back as he jumped to his feet; stalking into the office, he slammed the door behind him. "That ain't gonna help Chris."

"What the hell are you talking about Tanner?" Chris growled.

"I'm talking about that bottle you keep in your desk," Vin calmly replied.

Chris didn't bother to deny the accusation, Vin wouldn't believe him anyway, "None of your business."

"Like hell it ain't," Vin snapped. In three strides he was at the desk, the drawer jerked open; the bottle in his hand. Before Chris had a chance to respond, Vin was in the small restroom, the scent of whiskey wafting up to him as it flowed down the drain. An enraged roar sounded from behind him, seconds before Larabee crashed into him, sending them both to the floor. Neither man got the upper hand during the short fight, each getting in a few good strikes before the others pulled them apart.

"You son of a bitch, you had no right doing that," Chris snarled as he fought Josiah's hold.

"I got every right," Vin countered, "I'm your friend."

Buck grab a paper towel, and after wetting it began to clean up his lover's split lip. "You okay?"

"I'm fine Buck, thanks." Taking the towel from Buck's hand, Vin continued to dab at his lip. "I know you're worried Chris, but drinking ain't gonna help anybody, especially Ezra."

"You don't know anything about it! The last time I talked to him, it was to yell at him for being a goddamned hero and now...I didn't realize, not until he was gone, how important he is to me. I can't lose him too, not like this," Chris quietly ended his tirade, sagging in Josiah's arms.

Vin sighed, closing the distance, he laid his hands on Chris' shoulders. "You're not going to lose him cowboy, I won't let you."

Chris stared into Vin's eyes, the promise and determination they held gave him the hope he needed. "I didn't drink any of it," he admitted in a quiet voice.

Vin nodded, silently thanking the spirits for small favors. "You ready to get back to work now?"

Chris took a deep breath, "Yeah. Vin, I'm sorry."

"We're okay Chris," Vin assured him. "I'd be just as ornery if it was Buck that had been missing for ten days."

Catching a look from Vin, Buck quickly herded the others into the outer office.

"I love him Vin," Chris whispered.

"I know cowboy."

"Why did it take something like this to make me see it?"

Vin led Chris to the small sofa, pushing him down to it, he sat beside him. "You loved Sarah so much Chris, I bet you thought you could never love anybody again."

"I did think that."

"That's probably why it took this to make you see it," Vin reasoned.

"I guess," Chris mumbled. "I don't understand why we can't find him, there should be some type of lead. It's almost like whoever did it knows exactly..."

"What we'd look for," Vin finished the thought when Chris didn't.

"Doug Lawerence," Chris growled. "It's got to be him." Feeling energized, he jumped to his feet and moved to his desk, bringing up the inter-agency website.

Vin was lost, "Who's that?"

"Deputy Director of the FBI, Atlanta division and Ezra's ex-lover," Chris replied. "He's the one that was sending Ez all them gifts," he explained as he brought up the man's file. "I can't believe I never thought of him, how could I have been so stupid?"

"He ain't got nothing since them flowers Chris, none of us thought about his stalker." Vin quickly absolved his friend of blame, though he knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Son of a bitch!"

"What is it?" Chris didn't respond, his eyes glued to the screen, the vein in his forehead throbbing at full force. "Chris, what did ya find?" Vin demanded, grabbing his arm to get his attention.

Chris blinked, "He transferred to Denver. JD!" he yelled. Opening his door, he nearly collided with the younger man as JD hurried towards his office, no doubt anxious to help. "I need you to start looking for any property in the Denver area that's been recently sold or rented to Doug Lawerence."

"Okay, who is he?"

"Deputy Director of the FBI, he was in the Atlanta Division but recently transferred to Denver."

"He have something to do with Ezra's disappearance?" Buck asked.

"He's the man that was stalking Ezra," Chris replied.

"Might explain why the feebies haven't had any luck finding him," Vin commented.

"I want you all to find out whatever you can about the man, I'm going to see Travis." Furious with himself for missing the obvious, Chris marched out of the office and to the elevator. A few minutes later he was in Travis' office, "We need to talk."

Orrin looked up at the angry man standing in front of his desk, his face showing none of the fear he was feeling. In all the time he had known Chris Larabee, he'd only ever been afraid of him once; the day he'd told the man he couldn't investigate the lead on the murderer of his family. "Talk," he ordered, motioning to the chair. He wasn't surprised when Larabee ignored the invitation to sit.

"We think we know who took Ezra."

"Weren't you told to let the FBI handle his case?" Orrin asked in a dangerous tone.

Chris smirked, "I told you then, he's my agent and we'll find him. Good thing we did too," he added.

"How's that?"

"We have good reason to believe that the new Deputy Director of the FBI here in Denver is behind his abduction."

Orrin just stared at him, unable to believe what he was hearing. Chris had finally cracked under the stress, there was no other explanation. "That doesn't make any sense Chris, why would Deputy Director Lawerence kidnap Standish?"

"Because he's obsessed with him," Chris replied. Quickly he went on to explain about the previous relationship between the two men, the gifts sent to Standish and the confrontation at the hotel. "I didn't think about it being him until today because the gifts had stopped. It makes the most sense though. Nobody has gotten out of prison lately, there haven't been any threats, Ezra isn't scheduled to testify and we don't have any big cases going right now."

Orrin thought it over, it did seem to make sense. Damn, he missed the old days when you could trust that the good guys were the good guys. He sighed, that never had been true though and he knew it. It was only the rose colored glasses that one used when looking at the past, which allowed him to think any such thing even for a moment. Orrin sighed, "What do you want?"

"I want a warrant to search Lawerence's property just as soon as we have an address."

"You'll have it," Travis assured him.

"Thank you."

Returning downstairs, he had barely stepped through the door when JD grabbed his arm, tugging him excitedly towards his computer.

"I found him Chris, you'll never believe what he did. There's a state of the art security system, you can't get in or out without Lawerence's thumb print, the windows are tinted and he had the doorways all wired with a sensor system, like those invisible fences for dogs."

"Slow down JD," Chris ordered when he could get a word in edgewise. "How do you know all of this?"

"He had a bunch of work done on it recently, it was completed the day before Ezra disappeared. I almost didn't find it, I looked everywhere within a hundred miles of Denver and nothing was coming up. I even tried running a program that came up with possible aliases based on Lawerence's name and checked those, still nothing. Then I thought, what is the one name we'd never think to check?" JD was grinning proudly, it had been a long shot and had paid off in spades. "Ezra Standish," he announced, "he put the place in Ezra's name."

Chris stared at the youngest member of his team, waiting for his brain to catch up to what the boy had said. A feral grin spread over his face, "That's the best news I've heard in the last ten days JD. He buy it or rent it?"

"He's renting it, why?"

"Who's the realtor?"

"Um, Bob Cummings."

Chris nodded, "Boys get ready to rescue Ezra," he softly ordered. He didn't wait to see if they were following the command, he knew they would be. Walking into his office, he called Travis and explained the situation to him before pulling a set of papers from his desk. "Let's go boys."

"I got the address right here Chris," JD offered as they stepped into the elevator.

"Thanks JD, but we're not going to the house yet."

JD glanced at the others, he was relieved to see they were as confused as he was. "We're not?"

"Nope, gonna see Bob Cummings and get a key," Chris grinned. Doug Lawerence had screwed up and didn't even have any idea how badly.

"Um, Chris he isn't going to just hand you a key, unless that's a warrant in your hand," Buck pointed out.

"Don't need a warrant Buck."

"We don't?"

"Nope, I have Ezra's power of attorney and with him missing I'm within my rights to enter any of his property in the search for possible leads."

"And Lawerence rented the place using Ezra's name," Vin added.

"Exactly."

An hour later they were pulling up in front of the house Doug Lawerence had rented, with a key, compliments of Bob Cummings. "All right, Lawerence should be at work, but we need to check the garage, just in case," Chris ordered. After checking the garage, and finding it empty they headed for the house. Acting as though they belonged there, the six men moved up the walk to the front door.

Inside, they fanned out, searching the rooms for any sign of their missing man. Chris came to a closed door, the only one he'd seen so far. Carefully pushing it open, he felt his heart begin to race as he took in the sight before him. "Ezra?" he called softly to the smaller man. Stepping into the room, he moved closer to the bed, reaching out to ghost his fingers over the still form upon it. "Ezra, wake up," he called, laying his hand on the other man's naked shoulder and giving it a small shake. The result shocked him to the core; green eyes flew open and with a terrified cry Ezra curled himself into a ball.

Ezra hated himself as he cowered in terror away from Sir, but the shocks hurt so bad. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but he was so tired and daytime was his only chance for some peace. He had finally earned the right to move about the house freely in the evenings, but Sir still insisted he stay in his bedroom during the day. With nothing to keep his mind occupied it really was no wonder that he had fallen asleep. Now he'd been caught red-handed with the door closed and covered by the blanket, hiding himself from Sir, something he knew wasn't allowed. "I'm sorry Sir, I won't shut the door again, please don't hurt me," Ezra begged.

"God damn him to hell," Chris cursed. "Shhh, I'm sorry Ezra I didn't mean to scare you," he quickly soothed as the smaller man flinched. "It's okay Ez, you're safe now. I won't let him hurt you again, I promise," Chris vowed. Brushing his fingers through Ezra's hair, he marveled at the feel of it, "Please talk to me Ezra, let me know you hear me."

Something was different about Sir's voice, he didn't sound right. Forcing himself to calm down, he turned his head, "Chris?" he whispered. It couldn't be Chris, he was hallucinating, that must be it, and then the apparition laid his hand against his cheek. "Really you?"

His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, the disbelief and hope in that question broke his heart. "It's really me," Chris assured him. "I've...we've come to take you home Ezra," he smiled softly.

"Can't...Sir won't like it," Ezra mumbled.

"I don't give a damn what Sir likes, I won't leave you here with him."

"Hurts to leave," Ezra tried to explain.

"You don't want to leave?" Surely that couldn't be what he was saying, there was no way Ezra could want to stay here.

"Hurts...sensors in the door," Ezra tried again, this time pointing to the bracelet welded around his leg.

Chris looked between the door and Ezra's ankle, "Son of a bitch! It's like one of those dog collars? Shocks you if ya try to leave the room?"

Ezra nodded.

"JD!" Chris yelled down the hall.

Within two minutes, not only JD, but the entire team arrived at the room holding Ezra. "Hey you found him," JD grinned.

"Yeah, but the doors have sensors in them so if he tries to leave he gets a shock," Chris explained. "Stay back everybody, I don't think he can handle all of us in the room at once," he quickly warned as they all took a step forward.

"No problem Chris, I'll have them disabled in no time," JD assured. "Is it just this door or all of them?"

Chris turned back to Ezra, relaying the question in quiet tones. "He says all of them."

JD nodded, "There's probably a central control then. It's probably in the basement, I'll find it and shut it down as fast as I can Chris."

"Good man, Buck cover him," Chris ordered. He was sure by now they were alone in the house, but Lawerence could always come home unexpectedly.

"You should leave, Sir won't like you being here," Ezra quietly told Chris.

It took a great deal of effort to keep the anger he felt towards Lawerence from his voice, but he managed it, barely, "We aren't leaving you here Ezra. Now, do you think you could let Nathan take a look at you?" he quietly asked. He was relieved when the younger man nodded his acceptance. Though Ezra laid quietly, allowing Nathan to check him over, his obvious fear served to increase Chris' rage. Before Nathan could finish his exam, JD and Buck returned to announce that the sensors were now deactivated. "That was fast," Chris was impressed.

"It wasn't a big deal Chris, I just had to flip a few switches, that's all," JD quickly let him know.

Chris smiled, it was a sign of JD's growth that he refused to take credit for something simple. When he had first joined the team, he'd been so desperate to impress his heroes that he would never have admitted that he'd done something which hadn't taken any particular skill. "Thanks JD." He turned back to Nathan and Ezra, "You think it's safe to get him out of here now Nathan?"

"I ain't finished checking him over, but yeah I think so," Nathan nodded. He understood that Chris wanted to get Ezra clear of the place before Lawerence returned. "How many of us are staying behind?"

"I guess Buck and Vin can handle Lawerence," Chris replied.

"I reckon we can," Vin drawled.

Chris nodded, "Ezra, you got any clothes here?"

"Sir took them, I didn't deserve them."

"Son of a bitch!" Vin growled from the doorway. Moving down the hall, he began to search the other rooms for clothes. Ezra wasn't going to the hospital wrapped in a blanket! Not if he could help it, Vin vowed. Finally he found a box filled with clothes in Ezra's size. Quickly grabbing an outfit, he returned to the bedroom with the items, "Here ya are," he said as he handed them to Chris. "We'll be waiting in the living room," he added. With a pointed look, he had the others following him down the hall, leaving Chris behind to help Ezra if he needed it.

It took longer than any of them expected for Chris and Ezra to come out of the bedroom. The look on Chris' face telling them it wouldn't be a good idea to ask questions right then. JD reached out and pulled the front door open; coming face to face with the barrel of a gun.

TBC

Hope y'all liked it, please feed the muse with reviews.