azombiewrites: (The Magnificent Seven)
azombiewrites ([personal profile] azombiewrites) wrote2009-04-25 09:30 pm

The Magnificent Seven fic - 'Trust' - 2/5

Title: Trust
First story in 'The Continuing Ezra Standish Saga'
Rating: PG
Warnings: Bad writing ahead!
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Marshal Hanley arrives in Four Corners - a man from Ezra's past - but is he friend or foe.
Main Characters: Ezra Standish and the rest of the seven
Disclaimers: The guys are owned by CBS, MGM, Trilogy Entertainment Group, and The Mirisch Corp.
Beta: Not betaed – written in the early days when I didn’t know what the words grammar and edit meant. *shamed*
Notes: First story in the ‘Continuing Ezra Standish Saga’.
Spoilers: None.
Word Count: 15,416




Part Two


All six men rose from their seats at the same time. They rushed out of the Saloon door and out into the street looking for where the gunshot had come from. They could not see who had fired the shot that had finally ended the quiet that had hung around Four Corners for the last week.

"It came from the stables." called Mary.

They all turned in the direction of the voice and saw Mary pointing towards the stable.

"The Marshall." whispered JD. Everyone looked at him. "Who else could it be?"

"Get back inside Mary; we'll take care of it." Chris motioned to Mary to go back inside but she hung around the doorway to wait and see if anyone had been hurt. She had been grateful for the quiet but like everyone else, she knew it would not last. But like the others, Mary did not know how badly the quiet had been shattered.

The men rounded the corner heading for the stable. They came to a stop, waited and listened for any other noise that would let them know what the situation was before they went head first into trouble. Just as Chris was, about to tell the men what he wanted them to do they saw the stable door open wider and what they saw confused them. Marshall Hanley dragged Ezra out of the stable by the collar. They did not open fire but instead waited for an explanation from either man. Ezra saw the looks on their faces. He thought he would see expressions of shock but instead their faces showed confusion as though they had always expected something like this to happen but were confused as to why it happened. Ezra had pulled his coat closed so they could not see how bad his wound was hoping that the blood loss he was feeling was not yet showing too much through his clothing and waited to see who was going to make the first move.

"Do you want to explain yourself?" growled Buck. This question was aimed at Hanley. He knew that Chris was not going to say anything, he could tell by the look on his face. Chris looked like he was ready to kill someone but Buck could not tell if it would be Hanley or Ezra and that worried him.

"As you can see gentlemen I have arrested Ezra Standish." he raised his eyebrows in question. "You did not know that he was a wanted man?"

"We know Ezra was wanted for bail jumping but Judge Travis gave him a pardon, he's a free man now," replied JD. He noticed that Ezra was having trouble keeping on his own two feet. The
Marshall was holding him up for some reason. He looked across at Nathan and saw that he had noticed it too.

"Oh, this is not for bail jumping. I would not go through this trouble just for that."

"Then what have you arrested him for?" Buck stepped closer as he asked this question. His eyes were on Ezra's face watching him for any sign that may show he was in the sort of trouble that needed his friends to get him out. Ezra just returned the stare keeping the pain he felt from showing on his face and in his eyes. "Damn you Ezra show me something." Buck said to himself.

"I have arrested him for murder. The murder of Charlotte Ramsey to be exact."

Buck looked back at Hanley and saw that he was serious.

Chris brushed past Buck and stood in front of Ezra. "Are you telling me that Ezra murdered a woman?"

Ezra saw the look in Chris's eyes and knew that he could take advantage of what the gunman was feeling to try to convince Hanley that they were not going to help him and therefore keep them all alive for the time being. He would have to think about how he was going to get himself out this mess later.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Hanley squeezed Ezra's arm as to warn Ezra what might happen if he said the wrong thing.

Chris looked Ezra in the eyes to see if the man was lying when he answered his question.

"Well did you?"

Ezra prepared himself for what he knew was going to erupt from Chris.

"Yes." Ezra lied.

The rest of the guys could not believe what they had heard but it had come straight from the gambler's mouth and they did not think that Ezra would lie about something as serious as this. What reason would he have to do so?

Chris did not even blink at the answer. Instead, he slammed the butt of his gun into Ezra's face drawing a trail of blood. Ezra fell to the ground and landed on his back letting out a small cry of pain. He grimaced at the pain as it shot through his side. Before anyone could stop him Chris kicked Ezra in the side hard enough to crack two ribs. Ezra tried to roll away but this movement only caused new pain to erupt from above the bullet wound in his side.

"Oh great, why didn't you just shoot me yourself Chris." Ezra wondered. He knew that Chris would hit him but he did not expect the kick to the ribs.

Buck, Vin and Josiah pulled Chris away from Ezra, knowing why the man erupted but thinking that we went too far as Ezra tried to raise himself to his knees. During all this time,

Hanley was enjoying himself thinking that these people disliked Ezra as much as he did. But then he saw Nathan move towards Ezra.

"Ezra let me have a look; he may have broken a rib."

"When I need your help Mr Jackson I will ask for it." Ezra grabbed his coat and closed it but not before Nathan saw the blood.

Nathan looked at Hanley with a question in his eyes.

"Why is Ezra bleeding?"

"He pulled his derringer on me so I had to shoot him before he killed me." Hanley saw the other men stiffen at this so he quickly added. “It’s only a flesh wound though. I'll clean it up for him later."

Nathan bent down towards Ezra again.

"Ezra, please, will you let me have a look."

Ezra looked up at Nathan, anger in his eyes for what Chris had done and he hoped that Nathan would think that the anger was aimed at him.

"Get the hell away from me." Ezra spat out. "I do not need help from someone like you." He knew that he had been convincing by the hurt and anger that showed on Nathan's face.

No one could believe what they were hearing. It was as though Ezra was a completely different person. They seemed to be seeing another side to him. Together they wondered if this person was the real Ezra. Nathan was stunned. He stood up and moved away from Ezra to join the others. Only JD seemed to be looking at Ezra with doubt showing on his face. Ezra hoped that Hanley did not notice.

Hanley dragged Ezra to his feet.

"Now if you excuse me I have to take my prisoner to jail." Hanley pushed Ezra in the direction of the jail trying very hard to keep the smile off his face. "It seems you were right Ezra, these men don't seem to really want to help you and they believed what you said." he whispered this into Ezra's ear so no one else could hear.

Ezra turned to look at the men he thought were his friends. He was saddened by the fact that he had convinced them so easily. It seemed that they actually thought he was capable of murder. He noticed JD pick up his hat, which had fallen to the ground when Chris had hit him and start to follow them but Chris grabbed his arm and held him back.

"Let go of me Chris, I'm going with them to make sure Ezra's alright."

"He does not want our help JD," said Vin. "Can't you see that?" He was still reeling from what had just happened. Ezra a murderer.

"Don't you want to find out his side of the story, maybe it was an accident or self defence even?" JD aimed this question at the whole group.

"He just had the chance to tell us. He would have told us if there was another side to it. A side that may have shown him to be innocent. Why would he lie about something like this?" Chris growled this back at JD. He also gave JD a look that said that this was the end of the subject.

"For now," thought JD "but I am not going to let Ezra just rot in that jail cell."

They all then turned and headed back towards the saloon each man in his own thoughts trying to deal with what just happened. Just when they thought, they could really trust Ezra and rely on him to protect their backs in a dangerous situation this happens.


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Mary had seen Ezra dragged towards the jail. "What is happening?" she asked herself. Then she saw the rest of the group headed towards the saloon and wondered why they were not following Ezra to the jail. She raced after them to find out what was going on. She reached them before they entered the saloon.

"What happened?" she asked hoping that one of them would answer.

Chris and Nathan did not stop but continued into the saloon. Vin, Buck and JD looked at Josiah and walked through the swinging doors leaving him to answer Mary's question.

"Ezra has been arrested for murder," he simply stated. He watched for the reaction to show on Mary's face and she was shocked.

"Murder! I knew Mr Standish was capable of a lot of things but murder. Are you sure?"

"He admitted it. And he doesn't want our help. Don't ask me why, I am still trying to figure this out myself."

"And you believed him."

"He was very convincing Mrs Travis."

"Yes convincing is the word Mr Sanchez. What about the others are they going to help him or do they think he actually killed someone?"

Josiah did not answer straight away. The statement Mrs Travis had just made was nagging at him. Convincing is the word.

"I do not believe they are going to help at this time. We will give Ezra a bit of time to cool down and then we will see if he still refuses our help."

"Is that all you are going to do." Mary was starting to get angry. She did not like a lot of the things that Ezra did. But she had actually come to like the man. She saw a different side to him that the others did not see. He was not always afraid to show his human side to her. She knew he was changing, he still did things that angered her but she did not think he was capable of murder.

"I am afraid there is not much more we could do at the moment. Perhaps you could look in on him later and make sure he is ok maybe convince him to allow us to help."

Mary could only nod her head. She could not understand why these men needed Ezra's permission to help him. Josiah tipped his hat to Mrs Travis and walked into the saloon to join the others.


m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7



Hanley threw Ezra into the jail cell. He could not keep his balance and slammed his side into the bunk crying out as the pain that he felt in his side caused him to lose consciousness. He fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. Hanley lifted him and tossed him onto the bunk as though he was a rag doll. A smile crept up on his face as he observed Ezra's unconscious form.


m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7



It had been four hours since Ezra had been arrested and very few words had been spoken between the group of men. JD could not wait any longer he got up and started towards the door.

"He is not going to want your help JD, I've told you that already." Vin said not really sounding like he wanted to stop JD going to the jail. He was starting to regret not following Ezra himself.

"I just want to make sure that Marshall Hanley has taken care of his injuries," he said as he continued to walk through the door.

Chris noticed the looks that were aimed at him when JD said injuries. He did not care. The man deserved what he got. Anyone who was coward enough to kill a woman should suffer before his is finally hung for murder. He just wished that he could exact the same revenge on the person who had his family killed.


m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7m7



JD walked into the Sheriff’s office and saw Marshall Hanley checking his guns as he leaned back in the chair behind the desk.

"Be careful of that chair, it tends to fall backwards on you."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." he looked at Ezra who had still not regained consciousness. "You come to check up on the prisoner?"

"Yeah." JD sighed. Ezra did not look good. He was very pale and not moving. He saw the bruise and cut from Chris's gun standing out on his pale face. He wished that he had asked Nathan to come with him to make sure that he was ok. "Is Ezra asleep?"

"Been asleep since I cleaned his wound and bandaged his ribs," lied Hanley. "Used some old clean sheets I found." He did not lie about using the sheets. He had torn them up and thrown some of them into the fire that he had started in the stove and used the rest to tie Ezra's hands together so he did not have to worry about any nasty surprises that he knew Ezra was capable of inflicting on a person. He knew that Ezra's wound was still bleeding slightly and he liked the thought of that.

JD just stood there watching Ezra wondering why he would ever kill a woman. He stood that way for ten minutes. Ezra did not move at all during that time. Hanley interrupted his thoughts.

"Um, JD in all the confusion I forgot about my horse. He's probably still standing outside that stable. Would you mind taking care of him for me?" Hanley wanted to get rid of JD and this was the only way he thought he could do it without making JD suspicious.

"Sure," JD said, "I'll come back later."

"Why don't you bring us both something to eat when you do? I'm sure Ezra will be hungry when he wakes up." Hanley followed JD to the porch steps, waited for him to disappear around the corner towards the livery, and then looked towards the saloon where he knew the others would be to make sure that he was not going to be disturbed for the next ten minutes. He headed back inside to get the keys to the cell. "I think it is about time we had some fun," he laughed to himself. They had no idea what he was doing with their friend or acquaintance as Ezra had put it.

Hanley pulled the blanket down far enough to reveal Ezra's wounded side. He then sat down on the bunk making sure that he put most of his weight on Ezra's legs so he would not be able to use them to defend himself. He looked at Ezra's face seeing that there was no sign that he was pretending to be unconscious. He placed his right hand over Ezra's mouth leaving his nose uncovered so that he could continue to breath. Then he put his left hand on Ezra's wounded side. He felt Ezra move slightly beneath him knowing that his hand had caused some pain. He squeezed harder. This time Ezra reacted more violently. He yelled in pain but the sound was smothered by Hanley's hand. At the same time, his eyes flew open showing the pain that his was feeling. He saw Hanley leaning over him and knew that he was the cause of his pain. He could not use his hands as they seem to be bound in some way so he tried to kick him off but he couldn't move his legs either. Had Hanley actually tied him to the bunk? Hanley removed his hand from Ezra's side before he blacked out on him. He left his hand on his mouth for a moment longer.

"So Ezra are you enjoying yourself?" he removed his hand so that he could answer him. "Because I know I am."

"Loving every minute of it." Ezra gasped.

"You never change do you Ezra?" he began to run his fingers along Ezra's side enjoying the pain that crossed the gambler's face. "Always the smartass. You know this revenge thing might
take a while."

"I'm sure I will keep trying to make it entertaining for you." The pain was starting to show more on Ezra's face as Hanley started to squeeze harder. He was not enjoying himself at all. Who would?

"You know Charlotte felt a lot of pain before she died." Hanley waited for Ezra's reaction. But he did not show one. Hanley was beginning to get frustrated about this. Maybe he would have to shoot him after all.

Ezra knew that he was waiting to see how he would react to that statement. If he were able to he would have killed Hanley right there and then. But that will have to wait until later.

"I did not want to kill her quickly. Wanted her to suffer for what she did to me. Just like, I want you to suffer. Nobody takes what is mine."

To prove his point he put his hand back over Ezra's mouth to muffle the scream that would come and pressed his fingers into Ezra's side. He felt the blood begin to flow more heavily through his shirt. It took a few seconds for Ezra to black out again and when he did, Hanley placed the blanket back over Ezra's arms to hide his condition and bound hands.




Part One | Part Two | Part Three


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