At fifteen past eleven the black car drove up to and stopped in front of the large, white house. Getting out, Chris noted as Buck had; Vin's jeep parked a few yards from his own car. Walking past the red car, he entered the house.
The hallway was dark, making Chris reach for the light switch, flicking it on. In less than a second electric light hummed to life over him. Then the switch turned back into its original position, and the dark was back. Staying where he was, Chris remained still. "What are you planning at this time?" he thought absentmindly, trying to hear anything in the quiet darkness. He was just about to say the name in his thoughts out loud as he was picked up and hugged tightly. Before he could say anything at all, warm lips covered his in an intoxicating kiss, making him forget everything else but the man holding him.
"Christ, Buck!" he gasped as they broke apart for air. "I hate it when you do that!"
"What?" the innocent reply came, in a warm and humourous tone. "Kiss you? You know, because I would miss that very much if you..."
"No," Chris corrected him, smiling.. "That I like very much." His hand on the taller man's face told him that Buck was smiling as well.
"What then, love? Me jumping you like that? You just looked so tempting standing there, I couldn't help myself. I haven't seen you all day." Only Buck could put a puppy-dog eyed look in words and pull it off. "I missed you."
"That's why you called me earlier?" Behind them the light switch turned itself on again, flowing the hallway with light again.
"Yep."
Able to look at his partner's face now, Chris studied him. "So. What aren't you telling me?" Brushing the dark hair away from the taller man's forehead, he smiled over the look he got in return. "Yeah, I know you that well, lover."
"That's a scary thought," Buck couldn't help himself. "But alright. We've got a guest tonight. You remember what Vin told us about how he ended up in that orphanage when he was six?"
"Sure. Why? Everything go ok in town?"
"Remember the boy that was with him?"
Again Chris nodded. "Yeah, the one whose parents were killed by the two robbers..."
"His aunt and uncle," Buck corrected him at once. "Well, seems that they found each other again tonight, ran straight into each other back in town. The kid's about seventeen now." He paused, wanting to say more, but decided against it. Even if he was completely sure inside of him, he needed to have solid evidences before telling Chris.
"They did? Vin must be thrilled."
"He sure is. Although his little friend is eighteen now and not quite so red-headed anymore. But they took to each other like ducks to water, so I guess some things don't change. Let's go meet them."
Vin was the one to introduce them. Buck and Nathan had already heard the story before and both were very curious to see the two green-eyed men react to meeting each other, albeit with not exactly the same expectations.
Watching from the sideline, Nathan easily felt the tense atmosphere. Vin, who usually picked up on the same things, was too occupied by the night's events to notice. With a beaming smile he introduced his younger friend to Chris. Buck was standing next to Chris, watching the exchange carefully.
Simultanously two pairs of green eyes turned golden.
Slowly exhaling Nathan felt a stab of anticipation. Up until now he had discarded Buck's feelings as wishful thinking, but now he wasn't so sure anymore. The likeness between the two wasn't plain to see, but if you looked for it, it was there to be found.
Vin was starting to get a bit worried, feeling the smaller hand slip into his. Not yet having made the connection that Buck had, he regarded the two others curiously. He knew Chris well enough to see that the older man forcefully made himself relax, and his eyes turned back to their usual hazel colour. Leaning almost unoticably against Buck's hand that was resting against the small of his back, he smiled.
"Nice to meet you, kid. I hear the two of you had a bit of an exciting evening?"
Dark lashes shielded the large green eyes for a second and Chris tried very hard not to think of who those eyes reminded him off. Sarah had been dead and gone for fifteen years, but he was still able to see her face clear as day in his mind.
"Don't know if that's the right word," Vin cut in, "I told him about what we do, Chris. We almost ended up as a somebody's night snack, so I figured he had the right to know." He wasn't quite sure why he felt like defending what he had done, Ezra's obvious reation to Chris was making him worried. If he didn't know better he'd say that the small Southerner was frightened. The tall blond also seemed distressed but concealed it better. Meeting Nathan's eyes, Vin knew that the other man knew more about what was going on. He would need to talk to him later on.
It was getting late, and not unexpectedly Nathan was the one that sent the younger ones off to bed, after a very late dinner. Smiling over the way Vin was dragging Ezra away by hand, saying that the younger boy was to stay in his room, he couldn't help but at least be happy that the two of them had found each other again. Even if the young, green-eyed boy was something of an enigma. He had volunteered very little personal information about himself, and looking back Nathan realised that almost every question asked had been carefully and skillfully shielded and reflected, so subtly that he hadn't even picked up on it before now. Leaving Buck to deal with Chris, he reminded himself to check on the two younger boys before he went to bed himself.
The spacious room was dominated by the bed set in the middle of the room. And the small mountain of blankets and pillows nesting in the middle.
"Are you waiting for the next ice age or what?" The young Southerner stared at the pile of blankets with a disbelieving look. "Vin, you could fit a small, European country underneath there and still have some space to spare."
His friend shrugged. "I like to be warm."
"I'll say. Why don't you just turn up the termostate?"
"But then I wouldn't need my blankets."
Giving up, Ezra smiled. "Of course. Who can argue with that kinda logic."
Getting ready for bed, there was a comfortable air in the room, the years that they had been parted seemingly erased by the one night. Hurrying over the chilled floor Vin got into the bed, turning to Ezra next to him.
"So? What do you think?"
"I think you have strange friends," came the immediate reply. "But they're nice."
Vin took the moment to burrow down under the blankets. "Yeah, I know. They can be kinda overwhelming at first."
"Yeah..."
"You want to talk about it?" Green, surprised eyes were immediately turned his way
"Talk about what?"
"I don't know...everything? Why you're so scared of your mother catching up with you, why you looked like you were two seconds away from running away when you met Chris downstairs. What you're doing on your own like this." He studied the small figure next to him, feet drawn up underneath him, head bowed so he wouldn't have to meet Vin's eyes. "Why you don't like talking about it."
Thoughtfully tracing intricate patterns on top of a blanket, Ezra shook his head. "There's not much to talk about."
"I still want to know," Vin carefully pushed. "Come on, Red. I lost you back then, and thought I'd never get a chance to see you again, to know what happened to you."
"Didn't I tell you that already?" Exra was still not looking up. "Besides, I think you're the one who has had the most interesting years so far... I've just done the regular stuff, gone to school and all that."
The words made Vin smile, in spite of all. "Red, I don't think anything you do, could be regular." He grabbed some blankets, draping them over the other. "Here, before you go and get cold." Leaning over, he tucked them better around Ezra. Pausing he met the younger boy's eyes.
"You're staying, right? Not just for tonight."
A few seconds passed before Ezra nodded, their eyes never leaving each other. Then he nodded.
"Yeah. I am."
Several hours later Nathan climbing the stairs to the second floor. He passed the first empty bedroom on the left, remembering that JD was staying over at his girlfriend's Casey place for the weekend. Opening the next door quietly he peered inside. The room was dark, but the pale light coming from the window allowed him to see the interior fairly well.
In the bed two figures were curled up together, the sight made Nathan smile. True to his wolfish alter ego Vin gravitated to anything warm being next to him while sleeping. Wrapping himself around the source of warmth he happily slept on. Wondering what Ezra was going to think, waking up with his friend draped over him like yet another blanket, Nathan shut the door again.
Chris and Buck were a whole other issue. Coming downstairs again Nathan was too deep in thoughts to see the door to the study being slightly open.
Not sure what it was that had woken him, Buck wasn't surprised to find the other half of the bed empty. Leaving the bed himself, he followed the hallway down to the study where a soft patch of light was flowing out. Inside only a small lamp was lit, cocooning the couch and a crescent shape on the floor in light.
The blond didn't look up as Buck joined him on the couch, just leaned back into the offered arms.
"Couldn't sleep?" Buck asked, resting his head against short, soft hair. He was rewarded with a sigh.
"No. I didn't want to wake you, so I went in here."
Taking a closer look at what was on the floor, Buck lifted his hand allowing one of the photo abums to flow into his grip. He didn't really have to open it to see just what kinda pictures that was inside. His heart beat a little faster as he was met with the face of Adam Larabee on the first page. Even on paper the large green eyes were significant.
Sensing the larger man's emotions, Chris placed his hand on top of Buck's, the two of them both touching the glossed print. "Don't know why I felt like looking at these old photos..."
Buck had a good reason for that, but wasn't sure that he dared to reveal it just yet. He was as sure as he could possibly be, but still he had promised Nathan to not say anything before they could prove it. Which meant that the atmosphere in the house was going to be severly tense in the next days coming. Taking a quick decision, Buck twined his fingers with Chris'.
"You don't think that you were maybe... Reminded in some way?"
"Reminded?" There was a curious tone in Chris' voice. As well as a slightly guarded note that told Buck that even if he didn't want to acknowlegde it, the blond had felt something of what Buck had felt. Maybe even stronger.
Not one to beat around the bush, Buck jumped straight into it.
"Vin's friend. Ezra."
The album closed with a definite sound.
"Just because he happens to look like Sarah..."
"He just doesn't look like her, Christopher." Buck paused, then gathered his courage. "He looks remarkably lot like you as well."
Chris shifted in his arms, turning so he could see Buck's face. "Just what are you trying to say here, Buck? That..." A flicker of still intense pain flowed into his eyes. "That the kid, Vin's Red... Could be..."
"No. Not just could be." Buck met the hazel gaze head on. He tightened his hold on his partner, knowing the smaller man could just as easily take off as anything else, confronted with this. Then he spoke.
"I'm saying that he is Adam."