Ezra Standish sipped his latte
and contemplated the correct wording for the incident report of the most recent
raid of his ATF team. He smiled as the proper descriptive verbs came to him.
He really did enjoy words and their infinite power and creativity. No sooner
had his fingers hit the keys, however, then a paper aircraft made a crash
landing on his keyboard as well. Gritting his teeth and looking up, his green
eyes met the clear blue ones of their sharpshooter.
"Might I assume that this
misdirected missile is yours?"
Vin looked sheepish. He was going
stir crazy sitting in the office on desk duty. Unfortunately, his doctor had
decided to be cautious and wait another week before allowing Vin back to his
regularly scheduled activities on the team. He had tried every trick in the
book, and a number that weren't, to get Chris to let him go on the raid anyway,
but the man had not budged. Vin was not allowed to do anything but light desk
duty until his doctor cleared him.
"Sorry Ez, it got away from
me, I was aiming for Buck," Vin confessed, taking his latest creation
off of Ezra's keyboard.
Shaking his head, the undercover
agent looked at his report and decided that it was complete and ready for
Mr. Larabee's signature. Hitting the appropriate button, he saved the document
and sent it to the printer. A roar told him that Vin's second attempt had
not failed. The plane was now making a return flight across the room with
some slight modifications to it. It's life ended when it crashed mid-air into
Chris on a coffee run. He picked it up, mangled it and deposited it in the
recycle bin near the printer. Sending a glare at both agents responsible,
he got his coffee and returned to his office.
Ezra was picking up his report
when a new plane bounced off the back of his head. Retrieving it from the
ground, he tweaked the wings and sent it back to the sharpshooter. "I
suggest that you get remedial flying lessons if you are going to continue
acting as an airport for those menaces."
Vin nodded, and bounced the next
one off Josiah's book.
Ezra sighed, it really wasn't Vin's
fault he was acting like this, he was simply bored out of his tree! He was
an extremely active man who, due to a broken arm, had been reduced to almost
no activities the last few weeks. The man needed to feel free open space like
anyone else needed to breathe. Something had to be done, however, as Larabee
was also going to snap if he was hit by one more article flying through the
air. The plane was just the latest in a week-long list of paper objects that
had collided with him.
Ezra left Chris's office after
depositing his report. Going to his station, he logged off and shut down the
computer for the weekend. His next stop was Vin's desk.
"Mr. Tanner, are you ready
to depart for the day? Our supervising agent has graciously agreed to allow
us to leave early," he informed the other man.
"Chris has been trying to
get Vin to leave all week," Buck chuckled.
"I wished to depart early
and Chris allowed it, saying I was to take Mr. Tanner with me. I agreed, since
it fit into my plans for the afternoon," Ezra explained.
Vin grinned and prepared to leave.
Whatever the southerner was up to should be more fun that sitting here doing
paperwork and harassing Chris and the others when he couldn't sit still any
longer.
Within minutes, the two men were
down in the garage heading to Ezra's Jaguar. Vin had to admit that the leather
seats and purring engine were nice.
"Where are we off to?"
Vin asked.
"You shall know when we have
arrived," Ezra smiled and slid into the traffic.
Vin raised an eyebrow. Pestering
Ezra never got you an answer, so he sat back and enjoyed the ride.
Vin blinked as he saw where they
were, there was only one thing in this area. A private air strip owned by
a flying club. He turned and looked at his friend.
"As I said, Mr. Tanner, you
obviously require remedial instruction in the proper and safe operation of
flying transports, as a number of your paper ones managed to escape your control,"
Ezra replied, showing a guard his ID card as a member and parking his car
in the lot.
"We're going flying?"
Vin's eyes bugged out of his head.
Ezra smiled, he had known Vin for
a little over a year, now, and it never ceased to amaze him when the serious
adult would turn into a gleeful and mischievous child. "I thought perhaps
instead of attempting to soar paper planes, we might soar ourselves."
Vin followed Ezra towards a white,
single-prop, two seat plane.
"I have to check some things
on it and I'll be about fifteen to twenty minutes," Ezra said, opening
the passenger door.
Vin got himself situated in the
passenger seat and buckled up. He sat staring at all of the gadgets and things
on the dashboard. Well, in a car it would be the dashboard, he wasn't certain
what it was called in a plane. Ezra came aboard and buckled himelf into the
pilots seat after checking that Vin was properly strapped in
"First thing is a pre-flight check, Vin," Ezra explained as he went
through the routine check. Vin silently and with rapt attention listened as
he was told what each instrument was and what it did.
Before he knew it, they were heading
down the runway and taking off. Vin had everything he could do not to whoop
in excitement as they left the ground. He had flown many times, but it had
never been in a small private plane like this where he was able to see everything
in almost every direction
"I didn't know that you had your own plane, Ez," Vin said, raising
his voice slightly to be heard.
"Doesn't everybody?"
Ezra grinned, as he banked and turned. Vin did whoop, this time.
"Might I gather from your response that you would not be adverse to learning
to soar on your own set of wings?" Ezra asked, looking at his passenger.
"You offering to teach me?" Vin gapped in amazement.
"Mine is a pilot's license not an instructor's, but should you wish to
learn, our club instructor has been told you are to be given lessons in my
plane. After you have soloed, you will naturally have the use of the plane
if I'm not using it."
Vin looked at his friend, "Ezra?"
"You shared your thinking place with me last month when we were riding,
I am merely returning the favor by sharing mine," The Southerner explained.
"Arranging lessons and then letting me share your plane is a lot more
than goin' riding with someone and showing them a nice place you know of,"
Vin pointed out.
"You incurred that injury to your arm, taking a bullet that was aimed
at me and would have killed me. I, I have never known anyone willing to take
a bullet for me, even a non-lethal one. I merely wished to express my gratitude,"
Ezra admitted hesitantly.
"You got six of us that would take a bullet for you now, brother. And
thanks for sharing your wings."
"Indeed, you appeared to be in need of soaring today, or else an industrial
strength tranquilizer."
Vin grinned, he hadn't meant to, but he knew his bored antics had been making
the group as crazy as he was. Ezra was right, he had needed to get out in
the open again, and this had been the perfect way to do it!
