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Accidents Will Happen Authors: Teri – Judy – Mary Ann – Zarbettu – Amelia – Robijean –
Anneack June 2009 Round
robin challenge on the Vin F&D list Theme:
Accident Limitations:
7 parts, no more than 500 words each ************************************* Part
1 By
Teri (493
Words) Vin
pulled into his parking space and turned off the jeep before reaching into
the passenger seat to grab the box of pastries he had picked up at Ezra's favorite
bakery. It was the least he could do under the circumstances. What
a long night spent waiting in the ER. Not that it was a new experience,
the emergency room trip. However, having to wait in line for hours just
so Ezra could be seen was not commonplace. Even Larabee's
patented glare couldn't move them ahead of the other unfortunates waiting to
see a doctor. Vin had to assume that it had something to do with the
black patch the man currently sported over his left eye and the crutches.
Both were compliments of an ER trip just days earlier. Vin
rushed toward the waiting elevator as fast as his bum leg would allow and
slipped through as the doors slid shut behind him. The
accident with Chris really hadn't been his fault, just dumb luck of being in
the wrong place at the wrong time, for both of them. Granted, he had
planned to replace the board in the loft of Chris's barn weeks ago, but there
was no way it should have splintered the way it did when he stepped on it.
While he had suffered a few scrapes and splinters Chris hadn't been as
fortunate. The noise and falling shards of wood had spooked Pony and the
large animal had stepped on Larabee's foot. X-rays had proved the foot
not broken, just badly bruised. More serious was the scratch to Chris's
cornea from the dust and debris, but Nathan assured them that it would heal
given time. Shaking
himself out of his musings Vin prepared to step into the offices of ATF Team
Seven, or what was left of them. He knew Nathan would still be home recuperating.
The doctors said it was a mild case of food poisoning, and that Nathan had
been lucky Vin was there at the time. Vin had a hunch Jackson was
feeling anything but lucky or grateful. The
door opened with a 'ding' and Vin moved into the room.
"Breakfast," he offered, and watched as JD seemed to scurry out of
his way in fear with a muttered, "Thanks." Opening
the box in offering to Ezra, Vin watched as the undercover man grabbed a
pastry with his good hand. "Ez, I'm
sorry." "Think
nothing of it, my friend. It was merely an unfortunate chain of
events." An
unfortunate chain of events… now that was a very antiseptic way of looking at
things. In the last week, his life had become an accident waiting to
happen and his friends seemed to be caught in the fallout. You couldn't
miss the inflatable donut that Josiah used to cushion his bruised tailbone or
the fact that Buck was sporting only half a mustache, and Chris well, unlike
common belief, he was just glad he couldn't actually read Chris's thoughts.
****************
Part
2 By
Judy (500
Words) Ezra
almost called Vin back. Instead he watched as Vin walked away, shoulders
hunched with dejection. He tried to convince himself that nothing that had
happened over the course of the last week was truly Vin’s fault. He just
happened to be nearby when each disastrous event took place. Certainly, no
one could blame Vin for Nathan’s gastronomic predicament. And Ezra had been a
first hand witness for his own and Josiah’s incident. It really had been an
unforeseeable set of circumstances. Vin
and Ezra had volunteered to help Josiah with a remodeling project down at the
church. Well, Vin offered to help, Ezra just went
along to supervise. Yet somehow he found himself up on a ladder placing nails
above a doorway to hang numerous religious art pieces. Josiah had insisted
that he hold the rickety ladder while Ezra climbed and performed the menial
labor required, on the lame pretense that the ladder might not hold Josiah’s
bulky frame. After
some fair amount of discussion, Ezra had acquiesced and climbed the unsound
wooden contraption. He had just started to hammer in the third nail, when Vin
shouted ‘look out’. This warning set up a domino effect that would not be
stopped. Both
Josiah and Ezra jerked their heads around to see what the problem was. Josiah
jostled the ladder. The hammer Ezra had been wielding continued its path,
landing on the back of his hand instead of the nail. Ezra yelled, jerked his
hand back, dropped the hammer and then grabbed the ladder with both hands as
it started to topple. The hammer just missed Josiah’s foot, but the ladder
was already too far off balance. It fell, dropping Ezra on top of the
profiler. Vin
had felt horrible when he found them trying to untangle from each other and
the ladder. Especially when they asked what he had been shouting about. Vin admitted to playing keep away with some of the
kids. The shouted warning was nothing more than an attempt to keep the ball
from landing in the other teams’ hands. Ezra
sighed. Vin looked so forlorn. Somehow he’d gotten the idea that he was a
jinx. Of course, Ezra still didn’t know how Buck had lost his mustache or why
JD was avoiding Vin like the plague. He grabbed a pen and stuck it down into
his cast. I can’t believe I broke my own hand with a hammer. Only one day,
and already it itches. He
glanced toward Chris’s office. The blond hadn’t come out since he arrived.
Perhaps he was upset at the case they’d had to turn over to Team 3. With
everyone but JD injured or sick, the bust they’d been planning for two weeks
had to be handed over to a more able-bodied team. Ezra
considered the talk he’d heard around the building. Vin was a jinx, bad luck.
All pure hooey. Surely Vin didn’t… A
loud crash, followed by, “Ah, hell,” had Ezra up and running to the break
room. ********************* Part
3 Mary
Ann Ezra
stopped at the door as the others crowded behind him. Vin was beside the table,
a look of surprise on his face. JD was hopping up and down by the coffee maker
that was on the floor, his hand held the remains of the coffee pot, the bottom
gone and coffee soaking into his pant leg and into his sneaker. Josiah pushed
forward, grabbed JD and led him to the sink, lifting him onto the
Part
4 By
Zarbettu 500
words Chris
clutched the left crutch under his arm as he allowed the right crutch to fall
to the floor. He pointed his Sig at the man on the right his left hand
supported the pistol. At his side, he noted that Ezra had sighted his weapon
on the man to the left, supporting the gun with the cast on his left hand. Chris
spoke before the crutch hit the floor. "Where's Vin?" Two
startled sets of brown eyes settled on the blond, taking note of his crutch
and eye-patch. Their eyes then scanned over the one-handed Ezra. One of the
guys smirked and started reaching behind his back. A
quiet "Wouldn't do that" and the sound of a gun's action brought
all eyes to the small bathroom located off the bedroom. There, belly down
near the sink amidst a growing puddle of red-tinged water, lay Vin – left
hand supporting his right, which held his sidearm. A small stream of blood
flowed down Vin's face from under his hairline. With
a growl the bad guy lifted his arms away from his body, hands empty. The
other man followed suit. Ezra carefully disarmed and handcuffed both and then
went to the prone Vin. Vin
was struggling to his knees by the time Ezra made it to him. Ezra grabbed a
clean washcloth from the shelf and handed it to Vin as he sat down on the
closed toilet. Smiling his thanks, Vin held the cloth to the cut near his
temple, closing his eyes as the pain intensified with the pressure. Vin
quickly got to his feet and staggered past Ezra when he heard the raised
voices coming from his bedroom. He walked in to find Chris towering over the
cuffed men sitting on Vin's bed. "You
expect me to believe you found him like that?" came
Larabee's growl. "I know you're part of Chavez's crew – did he send you
to take Vin out?" Vin
snagged Chris's second crutch and handed it to his boss, wincing as he
snapped his head in the direction of the living room. The three agents moved
to the other room, Ezra keeping an eye on the criminals through the open
door. "Weren't
like that, Chris" said Vin. Then his voice got real quiet. "When I
got here the bathroom sink was leaking and I kinda,
well," his voice got even quieter, "I slipped, alright? I guess I
hit my head on the sink on the way down – knocked myself out good." Chris
groaned and let his face fall into his palm with the revelation of yet
another accident befalling his team. Turning to Ezra he said, "Call the
boys and tell them to send someone for these guys. Let's see what they were
hoping to find and make sure Chavez doesn't know about the upcoming
bust." Chris
then turned towards Vin to assess the newest injury. As he turned, his crutch
landed on a magazine on the floor and it slid out from under him. *********************
Part
5 By
Amelia words-485 Chris
tried to stop his forward fall and succeeded to a point when he collided into
Vin, unfortunately sending them both down onto the couch. Luckily a soft
landing, unluckily the crutch hit and caught the side of the coffee table
just right, knocking it over and sending the open soda that was on it all
over them. "All
hell." Broke the stun still silence. Ezra
tried to see over the couch to where his friends landed, wanting to make sure
they were all right or if more damage had been done. Finally he looked at the
two handcuffed men, "You two get up nice and slow and move to the door
here, then we’re going to slowly go into the living
room.” "No
way man, I ain’t going nowhere near that dude. No
way!" One of the hoods declared with fear in his voice. "Yea,
you can shoot me, but I’m not getting close to that guy, he’s jinxed, you can
get hurt around him. That’s why we were told to follow him," the other
hood exclaimed with the same fear coating his words. Ezra
frowned, threw a confused look back at the couch. He found Chris and Vin, who
had not only righted themselves and were sitting up, looking just as confused
as they stared back toward Ezra. Their faces showed they had heard what was
said. "Who
told you to follow him, and why would they think he was jinxed?" Ezra asked
the two hoods as he continued to cover them. "I
ain’t saying nothing else. Go ahead and take us to
jail. You can’t make me tell ya nothing." "Ya
wanna bet," a swaying, soda drenched Vin
declared in a bit of a slurry voice as he tried to stand up to go back to his
bedroom. "NO!
Keep him in the other room, keep him away... It was Chavez. Chavez told us to
follow and find out where he lived and to find that damn letter. Ever since
Tanner opened the letter while he was in the shipping office Chavez has been
having bad luck. He’s broken three of his fingers, got a black eye from the
door opening, bruised a rib when he missed a step and fell. You got to keep
that dude away from us, till you find that letter and make him do it. *********** Part 6 by Robijean 500 Words "What
are you talking about?" Chris asked the man. "Chavez
is superstitious, has a lucky penny in his shoe, a four leaf clover
paperweight, and carries a lucky rabbit's foot. He sends out 20 letters
before each job. Each person sends it on to four others and also back to
Chavez. The others also send a copy back to Chavez. When he's received 100
letters, he knows the job will succeed. He always gets them back. Everyone
knows what'll happen if he doesn't. "Your
friend got one in his pay. Chavez saw him crumple it up and stick it in his
pocket. Chavez has only received 95 letters and bad things keep happening to
him and the people around him. Strange things, weird accidents, so he sent us
out to get his copy of the letter so Chavez can send it to someone else and
break the curse. "We
agreed to come because your friend wasn't supposed to be here and it was
safer than staying near Chavez. Don't let him near us!" Ezra
and Chris looked at each other and then over at Vin. This had to be nonsense,
none of the three believed in a cursed chain letter myth. Yet strange,
unusual accidents kept happening when Vin was around. What if it wasn't a
myth? "Come
on guys, you know this is nonsense." Vin was exasperated at the look he
could see in his friends' eyes. "Maybe,
maybe not," Chris said with an evil grin. "These gentlemen, I'm
sure will take convincing to turn on Chavez. I was thinking we should test
the curse by locking them in the bedroom with you for a few hours. Of course,
if they were willing to talk, we'd have to arrest them immediately." "I'll
talk, I'll talk," the men practically screamed the words. "It
would appear rather than cursed, this is your lucky day, Mr. Tanner. Events
seem to have gone our way and we should be able to bring Chavez to
justice." Ezra smiled at Vin as he escorted the handcuffed men to the
door. "After
a quick trip to the emergency room for you, we'll go back to the office and
tell the guys we've got a real chance at taking Chavez down." Chris
turned and smiled at Vin, his crutch catching on some of the debris on the
floor. He fell hitting his elbow on the edge of the coffee table. Leaving
Chris on the floor cussing up a storm, Vin ran to the bedroom, went through
his trash, found the letter, and quickly made four copies. He'd call and have
the three at the office meet Chris and him at the hospital. Then they'd mail
the five copies back to Chavez. He wasn't willing to take any more chances.
Of course, knowing Buck and JD he'd never hear the end of this. He
went to Chris to help him up. He'd figure out some way to explain the letters
to the others on the way to the hospital.
************ Part
7 Six
of the men on Team Seven sat around the conference room table. Vin had a very
becoming butterfly bandage on his hair line. Thankfully they had only had to
shave a little of his hair to get the bandage to stick and there would be no scarring. ~~~~~ Travis
looked at the reports on this desk and blinked. They had done it again. How,
he had no idea, but they'd once more done the impossible and made it look easy.
This time they had even done it a man short and with JD and Buck the only non-injured
ones in the group. He was still not clear on why JD had second degree burns
on his leg or Buck half a mustache, but he had long given up asking questions. The
end We’d
love to hear what you think. Teri –
Judy – Mary Ann – Zarbettu – Amelia – Robijean – Anneack |
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