crack_van | Come Sunrise by BMP (mature themes)

Fandom: MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: None
Length: 12,910 words
Author on LJ: Not that I know of
Author's Website: On AO3
Why this must be read:

Two of BMP's stories have already been recced here, "Aftermath", which is a tremendous work of characterization made all the more brilliant by the fact that it's set in the ATF universe, and "Blood Money", a story set after the traumatic last episode "Obsession". That story is from Buck's POV, and this one is a companion piece to it, set from Chris' POV as he ponders what he's going to do about the mess he's put himself and his friends in.

Anyone who has read anything by BMP knows that she's a strong writer, well adapted at balancing plot with character development. In this story, as with "Blood Money", she outdoes herself, addressing the major questions that "Obsession" leaves hanging in the air, not the least of which are how Chris is going to find his way back from the edge of his own catastrophe.

Chris breathed the relatively fresher air in as deeply as he dared, as deeply as those hot coals in his side would allow, and turned his gaze up the street toward the end of town. They were out there somewhere. Buck and Vin and Ezra and J.D. They were out there looking for her, that murdering demon with the beautiful face. They were out there doing the job Chris left undone. It didn't sit comfortably with him. They should not be wrapped up in this.

Oh, Buck would disagree. Of them all, he had the most at stake here, now that he knew what Ella had done. Now that he knew the truth. All of it.

Maybe it was a good ending for Buck. As good as it could get. Maybe now that Buck knew the truth, he could absolve himself of needing to stay that one more night down in Mexico. Maybe now he could let go of the memory of where he was and what he was doing the night that Sarah and Adam burned and died. Maybe now that he knew exactly why two people he named as family were gone—and whose fault it was—maybe now he could let it go.

But Chris couldn't. And he didn't have the right.

The irony that Sarah's father was right all along burned him more than the bullet hole in his side. Chris had rankled at Hank's objections that Chris was no good, that he didn't deserve Sarah, that Chris was too hot headed, too wild, and too heedless, that Chris's recklessness and past deeds would only hurt Hank's beautiful prairie flower.

It wasn't true, he had said. And he had believed it, too.

He had changed. He had had goals and priorities. He had wanted to build a life. And he wanted to build it with Sarah. How could Hank think that Chris would ever want to hurt Sarah? That he could ever hurt her? For any reason?

But he did, didn't he? In the end, the old man was right.

Chris had tried every which way to deny it, fight against it, refuse it until it was staring him right in the face upstairs in that room, when he had wrapped his hands around Ella's throat, three years too late. Too late to save them. Too late to save himself. Then the truth came home.

He got them killed.

Sarah had taught him the pleasures of home and family. She taught him how to be happy. And he paid her back by bringing death down on their door. He paid her in death and ashes.

Killed his beautiful wife and their beautiful child both.

Vin and J.D. and Ezra shouldn't be out hunting the murdering bitch. And Buck shouldn't either. It was his blood that was called for. His blood debt that was owed. He and Ella, an eye for an eye.

For three years Chris had flirted with finding a bullet. For three years he all but dared death to come for him. But when the dust settled, here he was, alive and mostly in one piece. The continued irony of his existence. He lived. People he cared about died.

No more. It was time to pay his tab.

He was clear on that part.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple.

His damn friends complicated things. Buck and Vin and the others wouldn't let him just ride off—even if he could sit a horse. They would come after him. They had proved that riding into that jail at Jericho.

He closed his eyes against the sun.

Not that he was likely to get very far at the moment. Maybe in another few days. Maybe tomorrow.

"Come sunrise, I'll be going..."

With true talent, BMP weaves us through Chris' confrontation with himself and with the men who, despite all, stand with Chris through this. But mostly, BMP gets into Chris' head in a way that's as close to the canon character as it's possible to be, the story as real as the episode it was based on.

Come Sunrise by BMP