I thought I knew the rules,
I thought I held it in my hand
I thought I was bullet-proof,
'till the blood pooled up in the sand
Are you a satellite, a shooting star or a dove
Did we put you way up there,
or did god sent you down from above

Oh how it deepens
Oh how it deepens

My eyes have seen the glory of a love that does transcend
My eyes have seen the worst inside of men
And the fear is like a falling bridge broken from the edge
And the proof is in the bloodshot eyes of the one who failed to see
--Live: Mystery.

Dan Evans looked around his kitchen table, observing all the faces. It was almost too quiet. His wife, Alice, was quiet, cleaning the counters, while his youngest, Mark, was nibbling away on his sandwich. His oldest, Will, was poking around his sandwich. Yes, it was rare to eat lunch as a family, but when they did, there was some conversation going on. It was never so quiet. “Am I missing something?”

Alice looked up at him, then looked at Will. “Why don’t you tell your father, William?”

Will looked up, glared at her, then looked back down.

Dan frowned. “…Tell me what, Will?”

Will looked at Dan. “I failed Math. Gotta retake it in Summer school, now.”

“Damn it, Will!” Dan slammed his hand down on the table, startling Mark slightly. He sent his other son an apologetic look before returning to Will. “Why? We made sure you went to extra help, we talked to the teacher, what went wrong?”

“Oh, like you care!” Will snapped before getting up and storming off.

“Will?! William, get back here!” Dan barked, to no avail. He sighed when there was no response. He didn’t know where he went wrong with Will. He just put it to the side as a “teenage thing”. He growled a bit. “I’ve got to go to the bank.” He announced, getting up himself, ruffling Mark’s hair before getting his car keys on the corner hook.

“Dan…” Alice began.

“I’ll deal with it later. I’ll be back soon. See ya, Mark.” He headed out the door, towards his car, driving to the bank close to his home in Phoenix, Arizona.

He was never one for going into small banks, even more so when he would be the only patron going into one. However, money was tight at the time, so he walked in and headed for his usual teller, Harry. He greeted the man cheerfully, as always, then went about his business, asking to cash in checks. He groaned when a few coins fell out of his wallet. He had sworn to himself to get a new one that wasn’t beaten up, but other things kept coming up. However, he was relieved that the coins had dropped, because a moment after he went down to retrieve them, he looked up towards the front of the store and saw a group of men running towards the bank, guns drawn. “Shit!”

Thanks to Dan’s vocalization, Harry also caught the movement, but froze in fear, as did the other few tellers inside.

The blonde man who seemed to be the leader was the first to enter, releasing a few rounds from his gun above his head “Alright. We wanna see cash, and lots of it in under a minute or things WILL get messy!”

Dan could barely believe what was going on. He was in the middle of a bank robbery. He made a mental note never to come here again. He added “if I survive” when he felt something that he guessed was a gun get pressed to the back of his head, followed by a dark, low laugh.

“What do we do with this one, Charlie?” the one behind Dan asked, calling to the apparent leader. He watched as a couple of others with the two jumped the counter and held a few of the tellers at gunpoint so they would pick up the pace getting the money.

“We’ll see, Tucker… maybe you can deal with him.” the blonde, Charlie, replied.

Tucker let out a low laugh again and pressed the gun harder to Dan’s head.

Dan winced, but kept his fear in check, trying not to make any sudden movements or noises.

“Alright!” one of the other men who hadn’t been getting money jumped up on one of the counters. “We got this, now, all we have left this month is Tyler’s, Chase, Babcock;s, n’ Dillion’s!.” he called out the names of other banks and jewelers. Dan realized that they were probably the next targets.

“You dumb shit, Darden!” Charlie snapped, immediately walking over to the brunette. “Wade said no mistakes, no bringing people back… now we ain’t got no choice cause you blabbed!” his ice blue gazed focused on Dan. “We were gonna let you go, but now thanks to this one, we gotta bring you back to the boss. We can’t have you running to the cops with our next few payloads.”

“I won’t- I won’t… I won’t go to the cops. I just want to get back to my family.”

Charlie looked from him, to the others behind the counters, who were now stuffing money into black bags. “Too bad for you. Guess this just wasn’t your day.”

Dan frowned. “Please…” However, the plea didn’t go far, because before he knew it, there was a whoosh behind him, then there was a sharp pain at the back of his head, then nothing.

---

A couple of hours later, Dan came back to Earth, slowly. He went to sit up, but his head pounded, so he went back down with a moan of pain. He waited for everything to come into focus, seeing that he was lying down on something in a dimly lit room. Was it a dream?

“Ah, you’re up.”

Dan winced. An unfamiliar voice. He guessed not. He looked straight up, and a moment later, a man with blue green eyes and dirty blonde hair that ended in a wave just below his ears came into view.

The man looked him over, then raised his eyebrows. “Looks like you’re in one piece. That is, other than the headache. Probably hurts like a bitch, huh?”

Dan ignored the question. “Where am I?”

The man smirked. “Somewhere where you were safer than you were before… I’d tell you what you’re doing here, but I heard Charlie’s already told you.”

Dan frowned. “Am I dead?”

The man laughed. “No, but you could’ve been.”

Dan lifted his head slowly this time, feeling the back of his head. He was surprised when there was no blood.

The man walked backwards a bit, leaning on another table in the room. “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Tucker likes to show off his own strength.”

Dan waited for memories to come back. Tucker. That was the name of the man holding him at gunpoint.

The man observed him again. “Tucker must like you. He usually doesn’t like letting Charlie bringing witnesses back alive.”

Dan squinted. “Why’re you telling me this? Who are you?”

The man shrugged and leaned forward, putting one of his hands in his pocket. “You’re here because you heard too much, thanks to one of my men.”

Dan tried to remember more. The brunette, he recalled. “What happened to him?”

The man’s slight smirk faded completely. “…He’s been dealt with.” He replied.

Dan frowned. With what he had seen before, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what “dealt with” meant.

The dark look of the man didn’t last long. He tilted his head back up. “As for me, Ben Wade, at your service.” He bowed his head slightly.

Dan didn’t know what to think.

Ben crossed his arms now. “Your turn. What’s your name?”

“Dan…?” Dan replied, not knowing why he responded.

Ben laughed. “You think it’s Dan, or you know it’s Dan?" he asked.

"It is Dan." Dan replied slowly.

“Hm.” Ben nodded. “Dan what?”

“That… I’m not saying.” Dan replied.

Ben smiled. “Why?”

There was something about Dan that he liked already. The brunette's reply would've also been his own.

“Because you’re a criminal.” Dan shot back.

“ ‘Because I’m a criminal’?” Ben repeated. The smile grew. “You have a lot to learn then, Dan.”

“What?” Dan asked.

Ben smirked yet again. Dan figured it was now his signature of sorts.

“What you law abiding citizens don’t understand is that there are different classes of criminals out there. Different classes at different levels. Classes who have more humanity… the thieves who refuse to hurt people, other like them, then there are the rapists up there with the murderers… the murderers who are parents who end up sharing cells with rapists, and want to return the favor… that’s our hierarchy.”

Dan questioned the sanity of the man in front of him.

Ben continued. “You think I’m gonna hurt you, you’re wrong. You’re probably safest with me in here.”

“Oh really?” Dan snapped.

Ben raised his eyebrows and nodded, then pointed out the door. “Them out there, they’re all in different classes…. Dangerous classes. They’re the monsters out there.” He pointed again.

Dan felt his breathing get heavy. He looked back at Ben.

Ben noticed the fear in his eyes. “…I’ll give you time to mull that over, huh? Try and get comfortable. You’ll be here a while.”

Dan swallowed hard. He didn’t know why the next question that came out of his mouth wasn’t about his family. He knew they’d want to know he was alright. Well, at least Alice and Mark would. However, he felt after hearing what he just had, there was one question that needed to be asked. “… … What kind of criminal are you, then?”

Ben stopped reaching for the doorknob and looked back at Dan, making sure he looked him in the eye. “I’m the kind that keeps the monsters at bay.” Without another word, Ben made his exit, leaving Dan to stare at the spot where Ben had been moments before. This was going to be a very confusing time.

A/N: Alright, so this is my… third 3:10 to Yuma fic. Hope you like the start. I know Tucker’s technically a good guy, but Kevin Duran plays such a great, believable villain, I have him as a bad guy in here. However, there will still be a Ben/Tucker conflict, and that’ll also be a big part of the storyline here. Anyways, drop a line or couple, tell me what you think.

-PCl