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Seven men sat around the Larabee living room watching and laughing as one man opened presents from the other six. Some were gag gifts, considered with care with no other purpose than to make the recipient (and the watchers) laugh. Others were useful presents, no less thought into them, designed to have more life than to be sat on a shelf or in a drawer, looked at once in a while in fond memories but with little other purpose beyond the day. Nearly all the gifts came with humorous cards.
Ezra Standish opened the last card. Two old ladies sat at a table, drinking tea, having what looked to be a serious discussion, if you just went by the picture on the front. The speech bubbles over the lady on the left changed that. “Is it Butt Naked, or Buck Naked?” was the question of the discussion. Opening the card, the “verse” said, “These are the questions I keep you around for.”
Ezra raised one eyebrow as he looked at Vin Tanner, his team mate who signed the card. “I believe the origin of the saying is ‘Butt Naked’, Mr. Tanner.”
Vin tipped his head to him. “I figured you’d know. All that learning had to be good for something.”
J.D. Dunne, the team’s surveillance specialist and IT tech, tipped over laughing. “With Buck it could be the same thing!” He ducked quickly to avoid the head slap that his roommate, Buck Wilmington, threw in his direction.
“Take it outside boys,” Chris Larabee ordered mildly, shaking his head. Some days he wasn’t sure if he led the region’s best ATF team or rode herd on a kindergarten class.
“And don’t break each other!” Nathan Jackson added, as Buck chased J.D. out the door. As the team’s unofficial medic, it seemed like he was always patching up one or more of the ‘boys’ after someone got hurt playing a little too rough or throwing themselves in harm’s way to protect the innocent. One of these days he was going to demand he become the team’s OFFICIAL medic, and get paid for the added job of keeping everyone’s medical histories straight.
Meanwhile, Ezra finished opening the present that came with the card. A framed print of a photographed landscape was revealed when he carefully peeled away the wrapping paper. “Vin, this is exquisite.”
“It ain’t Georgia. The description said it was one of the Carolina’s. But I thought it was pretty. And the colors should go well with your apartment. I think I got the frame the same color as the rest of your furniture, but if it ain’t let me know, I can revarnish it.”
“Vin, you made the frame, didn’t you?” Josiah Sanchez, the team’s profiler asked.
“That was the easiest part. Finding the right picture that wouldn’t clash with the walls or reveal more than Ezra was wantin’ a casual visitor to see, now that was hard.” He grinned at the rest of the team seated around the room. “You don’t know how hard it was passing up the big picture of them poker playing dogs.”
Buck and J.D. came running in amid the groans, the taller man in the lead. “Buck, give me back my hat! C’mon, Buck! Give it back before I sick Josiah on you.”
Buck just laughed. “What makes you think he’s gonna side with you? Kid, you need a real hat.”
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