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azombiewritesTitle: Payback
Fourth story in 'The Continuing Ezra Standish Saga'
Rating: PG
Warnings: Bad writing ahead!
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Ezra is still recovering when Maude arrives in Four Corners and as she struggles to find out what happened to her son a group of men also arrive in town looking for a high stakes game of poker with Ezra Standish but they loose heavily and they want pay back.
Main Characters: Ezra, the rest of the seven, Maude Standish
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. *is ashamed*
Notes: Fourth story in the ‘Continuing Ezra Standish Saga’.
Spoilers: None.
Word Count: 20,471
Part Three
The game continued on for another two hours, Ezra knew that he told Nathan that he would stop as soon as he got tired but he also knew that it would not take long to win this man's money. The game stayed even between the two for the first hour and then Ezra beat Davis's 'flush' with a 'full house' and then a 'straight flush' over his 'four of a kind'. The game was one sided after that but Davis was able to hide his frustration and anger at loosing.
"Well, Mr. Davis, I see that this game has come to an end unless you have something else to bet with." Davis had put the last of his money in the pot and he didn’t have anything else, there was no use looking to his friends as they had already lost all of their money and he knew that they were also not happy.
"No, I don’t, Mr. Standish, but may I say that it has been a privilege playing with you." Inside he was ready to kill the man who had defeated him so easily at this game. He had come to town with every intention of winning but this man had beaten all three of them. Well they were not going to sit back and let him get away with it. They were going to get their money back and teach him a lesson and it was not going to be via a poker game. He kept the smile on his face. "Perhaps tomorrow when I’m able to get my hands on some more money we can try again."
"Certainly, I always enjoy a good game and may I say that I did enjoy this one." He smiled showing his gold tooth.
Davis thought to himself, 'I just bet you did, but I’m going to wipe that smile off your face.' "Goodnight Mr. Standish, until tomorrow." He tipped his hat had then joined his friends who had been sitting at another table watching the game.
While Ezra collected his winnings, Maude moved quietly over to the table and sat down. "Ezra."
He looked up at his mother’s voice. "Mother, and what can I do for you this evening."
"I see you have done well. May I ask how much you have won?" She was trying to get back on his good side as she knew that if she tried to convince him to leave town while he was angry then the answer would be no.
"You know that a gentleman does not disclose that sort of information, you taught me that yourself remember."
"Yes I did. Ezra, could I talk to you please." She made sure that no anger showed in her voice. She could also see out of the corner of her eye that his friends were watching. She was going to have to be careful with what she said.
"What is it mother, and please be quick as I’m tired and wish to go to bed." Ezra had counted his winnings and they totalled fourteen hundred dollars, he was quite pleased with himself, he was going to be able to buy the saloon. He would have to make sure that his mother didn’t find out though as she would really be disappointed then.
"I want you to come home with me."
He nearly dropped the glass that he was holding. "Go home with you." She nodded. "Why?"
"Ezra," she put her hand on his "I thought about what you said earlier and your right, I didn’t bring you up,
I did a terrible job and I’m an awful mother. I want to make things up to you. I want you to come home with me." there was no change in the expression on his face and she knew that he was wearing the poker face that she had told him so often to wear, to hide his emotions, she couldn’t read him at all.
He laughed. "You want me to go home with you, since when did you have a home to start with?"
"We can start a new home. Spend some time together like a mother and son should do." She saw the sadness quickly flash through his eyes and knew that she hit a sore spot. She now knew which area to work on to convince him to leave Four Corners.
"I can't just pick and leave mother, I have a position here."
"I don't want you to leave straight away, you have to think about it first, I don't want to rush you Ezra. And Ezra." He returned his gaze to her eyes. "I’m proud of you, I just found it hard to admit." she smiled at him. Maude then got up and left the saloon thinking to herself that she had just completed the first step to getting him to leave town.
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Davis and his friends had been watching Ezra. "We’ll have to get our money back," growled Tombs.
"How could he beat all of us?"
"Do you think that he cheated?" asked Shelby.
"Of course he did!" stated Tombs.
"Tomorrow, we’ll get him and our money tomorrow. We'll just have to make sure his friends aren't around, they seem to be watching him like a hawk for some reason."
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The next morning Ezra got up early knowing that the others would not expect this of him. He did this so they would not continue to follow him around and watch him like they had been doing. He also couldn’t sleep as his headache had become worse again. He had forgotten to drink the powder mix as Nathan had asked him to. He was to tired last night and he had fallen asleep as soon as he had laid down on the bed.
He headed towards the church as he wanted to speak to Josiah and then he planned to spend some time on his own so he could think about things, amongst them what his mother had said to him the night before. He knew that she had lied, knew that she would never change her ways or the way she felt about him. She had only said those things because she wanted him to leave his profession and continue with the trade that she had taught him. He didn’t want that, he had changed and he knew that he couldn’t go back to his old ways.
There were four men though who had seen him leave the saloon early and they followed him with the intention of getting their money back and teaching the gambler a lesson that he would never forget.
Ezra found Josiah in the church where he knew he would be. He had finally finished the repairs to the church but he still spent most of his time there. Josiah was surprised to see Ezra standing in the doorway of the church his face still looking pale against the colour of his red jacket.
"Ezra, what has gotten you out of bed this early in the morning?"
Ezra stepped into the church; he hesitated for a moment not sure, if he was doing the right thing. "I wanted to talk to you about my mother." He saw the shocked expression on Josiah's face.
"You want to talk to me." Josiah smiled and chuckled at this, thinking that finally Ezra realised that he could talk to his friends when he needed to.
Ezra took his reaction the wrong way. He was beginning to change his mind about the whole thing; he didn’t expect Josiah to laugh at him. "What's so funny about me wanting to talk to you?" He was getting angry and his head was hurting.
"I’m not laughing at you, Ezra; I’m glad that you are finally going to talk about things without one of us trying to force you to. Come over here and sit down and we’ll talk as much as you want."
Ezra couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, it seemed to him that Josiah was laughing at him, as if it was some sort of joke among them that he was not able to talk about his problems. He turned around to leave. He had changed his mind but Josiah grabbed him by the arm.
"Ezra come and sit down." He tried to move him towards one of the church pews but he stood firm where he was.
"I’ve changed my mind!" He couldn’t get the smile that had crossed Josiah's face out of his mind when he told him that he wanted to talk, he still felt as though he laughed at him. He turned around and left the church. Josiah watched him go. "Ezra," he whispered.
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The four men watched Ezra leave the church and head towards the livery. They followed him making sure that they themselves were not being watched. They waited outside and out of sight and saw him ride out of town headed west. They entered the stables and hired three horses for themselves and after saddling them, they followed him.
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Josiah walked into the saloon expecting to see Ezra sitting at one of the tables but he was not in there. He saw Buck and Vin though and he headed over to them.
"Have you seen, Ezra?" He asked them, he wanted to talk to him again hoping that he had calmed down so he could explain to him what had happened. He knew how hard it was for Ezra to talk about things, that it had taken a lot for him to walk into the church and ask Josiah if they could talk and he reacted in a way that hurt Ezra. Now he thought that the man would never trust him enough to talk to about things again.
"He's still asleep," answered Buck yawning himself as he like the others hadn’t slept much the last two nights.
"No, he isn't, I saw him in the church about thirty minutes ago, he wanted to talk but I did something wrong and he walked out. I thought that he may have come back here."
Vin got up."I'll go and check his room to make sure," he returned quickly stating that Ezra was not there.
"Go and find the others and tell them what's happened. Then we better search the town and make sure that he's okay."
An hour later, they had all gathered in the saloon. "Any luck?" Chris looked at each of them and they all shook the heads no. They hadn't found him anywhere. "What about his horse, did anyone check to make sure his horse was still in the livery."
They all looked at each other and without a word, they head to the livery. Once there they saw that Ezra's horse was gone. Each went to their own horse and then split into three groups and left town in search of their friend. Chris and Nathan headed West, Buck and JD went South and Vin and Josiah went North. They knew he would not go East as the town Purgatory lay that way. He had an hour and a half lead on them; Chris just hoped that Ezra was not going to do anything stupid.
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Ezra had ridden for about two hours before he came to a stop near a large tree next to a green meadow. He had been to this area on other occasions, it was a place he liked to come to think and now he had a lot to think about.
He turned to get off his horse and saw four riders headed towards him. He thought that it might have been Chris and the others come to check on him but as they got closer, he could see that the four men were the same men that he had gambled against the night before. He could also see that they had drawn their guns.
He turned his horse to head in the opposite direction, heard a gunshot, and felt the bullet tear at his right upper arm. He felt himself falling backwards off his horse. He slammed into the ground landing on his back and felt the wind being knocked out of his lungs. He rolled over knowing that if he stayed out in the open that he would have no hope against them. He quickly picked himself up gasping at the pain in his arm and the lack of oxygen in his lungs.
He struggled to get behind the large tree and positioned himself between the large roots they were big enough to give him the cover he needed. The four men saw this and stopped their horses; they got off and lowered themselves to the ground to make themselves smaller targets. Davis was carefully aiming at the spot he knew the gambler was hiding. Ezra had pulled one of his guns out using his left hand and carefully looked around the side of the tree to see where the men had positioned themselves but everything went black as the bullet hit it's mark. He was flung to the ground with his gun hanging limply in his hand.
"Got him," yelled Tombs.
They ran over to where Ezra lay and saw the blood that had already begun to soak into the ground. Most of the blood was coming from where the bullet had hit his skull. Davis leant down and began to check his pockets looking for their money. He didn't find any. He checked Ezra's boots and found only five hundred in cash.
"Where the hell is the rest of it?" asked Selby.
"It must be in his room, we'll go back for it."
"And what about his friends, how are we going to get past them?" Selby asked again.
"I'll think of something, come on lets go."
They left Ezra lying between the large roots of the tree in an expanding pool of blood that soaked both his clothes and the ground.
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Davis and his friends were heading back to Four Corners when they saw two riders heading towards them, they quickly changed direction so that they would not run into them, and if it were the gambler's friends then they would start asking questions that they didn’t want to answer. Davis watched until the two men had passed in the distance, he knew that they had seen them too. He pulled his horse to a stop and waited.
"What's up?" asked Newman pulling his horse to a stop along side of Davis.
"Were going to follow them," he turned to his friends. "I want to make sure." He hadn't made sure that the man was dead, as he had assumed that he would not be found for days and that he would die due to his wounds in a matter of time anyway.
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"Why do you think he went off on his own like that for, Chris?"
"Because he’s stubborn," he answered. They had been riding for nearly two hours and they still hadn’t seen any sight of Ezra. They did see four men though and that gave Chris a nagging feeling in his stomach.
"We'll give it another hour and then head back to town to see if the others have had any luck, I don't think he would have gone much further than that." Chris was getting mad, he wished that Ezra would just accept everyone's help and stop trying to do things on his own, such as looking after himself when he was sick.
They saw a large tree in the distance and a horse grazing nearby but they couldn't see anybody. "That looks like Ezra's horse," pointed out Nathan. He wondered where Ezra was.
"Nathan, you head towards the right of the tree and I’ll take the left, something's not right about this." He pulled his horse to the left without answering Nathan's questioning look.
As Chris got closer, he could still see no sign of Ezra. 'Where are you Ezra?' He asked silently afraid of actually getting an answer that he didn’t want to hear. He thought he saw a flash of red, he blinked just to make sure, it was red, it was Ezra's red jacket and there was no movement within it either. He hoped that he had just taken his jacket off and laid it down on the tree but he then saw the arm that was hanging limply over the large tree root and that hand had a gun in it. Chris immediately thought the worse.
"Nathan!" He yelled as he urged his horse on towards the tree at a gallop. "Nathan, over here!"
Chris pulled his horse to a stop and jumped off. He stood there for a moment in total shock. What he saw was Ezra lying in a pool of blood that had been coming from two separate wounds, one to his right arm and one to the left side of his head, he could also see the white pasty colour of his skin and the slack expression on his face. Chris couldn’t move, he thought Ezra was dead. He heard Nathan jump down off his own horse next to him hesitating only for a second before racing to Ezra's side. He saw the large gash that was on the left side of his forehead, he then placed his hand under the side of his throat feeling for a pulse. Chris held his breath until he heard Nathan say that he was still alive.
"His pulse is very weak but he's still alive."
Nathan gently moved Ezra's head to the side to get a better look at his head wound, it had stopped bleeding but by the amount of blood that was on the ground, he knew that he had lost a lot of blood and apart from the bullet wounds; he would also be suffering from shock. The wound was deep and it looked as though it had also grazed his skull. 'This could be serious.' thought Nathan. He then looked to his arm but couldn’t tell how bad it was with Ezra's jacket still on.
"Chris, come and help me get his jacket off, I want to look at his arm." Nathan looked up and saw that he hadn’t moved. "Chris!"
Chris had begun to move towards Nathan not taking his eyes off Ezra's deathly white face when he heard a gunshot, he instantly dropped to the ground, his instincts taking control of his shocked emotions. He rolled towards the tree root that was covering both Nathan and Ezra. He recognised the men as the four that they passed earlier and knew that it must have been these men that had shot Ezra. He returned fire taking great pleasure in seeing one of them drop to the ground, he had been slower than his friends, they were already hugging the ground for cover.
Nathan had also drawn his gun and was returning fire. "What are we going to do Chris, we can't see them unless we get up and that would only give them something to aim at?"
"You stay here with Ezra, I'm going to try and get around the other side of the tree, see if there’s somewhere I can get a bit higher." He moved off with Nathan's protests falling on deaf ears.
Chris quickly jumped over the tree root feeling the splinters of the tree hit the side of his face as a bullet hit the tree a mere inch from his face. He was then behind the tree protected by the cover that it gave him. As he moved around it, he was able to see a strong branch, which he would be able to climb on and get a better view of the situation. He took a few minutes to get up onto the branch. He could see the three remaining gunmen on the ground, then took careful aim, and saw one of them jerk when the bullet hit him.
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Selby saw Davis get hit by a bullet and wondered what had happened, they shouldn't be able to see them from behind the tree and while he was thinking this, he felt a bullet hit his own leg. He yelped out in pain and dropped his gun, Newman also saw this and dropped his own gun and slowly got up with his hands in the air. He expected to be shot anyway and waited for the pain that a bullet would cause him but he felt nothing.
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Chris saw the remaining two raise their hands in defeat and he jumped down off the tree and went towards them. "Which one of you shot Ezra?" He growled at them. They didn’t hesitate, they both pointed to Davis. Chris looked at the dead body of Davis, his punishment was to quick. He pointed the two that were left towards the tree. "Get moving before I shoot you."
"Chris we have to get Ezra back to town," he heard Chris return but didn’t look at him, his face was full of worry and he didn’t want Chris to see it. "I'll quickly clean his wounds and then we should go."
"I'll just tie these two up first; I’ll send someone back for them."
It only took Chris five minutes to tie them both together, they were going to stay that way until someone came for them, he didn’t know when that would be because he knew that once the others found out what happened they would not leave Ezra alone for too long. Chris helped Nathan take Ezra's jacket off and then stood back and watched as he cleaned the wound on both his head and arm, wincing at the thought of the pain that it would have caused him if he were awake.
"Both wounds are deep and he has lost a lot of blood, we gotta get back."
"Sure, I'll carry him on my horse with me."
They gently picked him up and carried him out into the open, then laid him on the ground while Chris went and got his horse. They had noticed how limp Ezra was in their arms; he hadn’t moved or made a sound.
Nathan sat with him until Chris got back and then they placed him on Chris's horse with a small amount of difficulty, Chris then got up behind him and headed back towards Four Corners. Nathan got his own horse and then Ezra's and caught up with him. He kept looking at Ezra to make sure that he was still breathing, which he was able to tell by the slight rise in his chest. Chris held on to Ezra tightly making sure that he was not going to fall off. He could feel Ezra's weak breathing against his own throat, his breaths coming very slowly. There was too long a gap between each breath causing Chris quite a few scares on the way back to town. There were a few times that he thought Ezra had stopped breathing.
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JD, Buck, Vin and Josiah had no luck when it came to finding Ezra, they had returned to town to find Chris and Nathan were still out looking for him. Josiah went to Ezra's room to see if he had returned while JD went to check the stables again to see if his horse was there. Neither were so they settled into the saloon and waited for Chris and Nathan hoping that they had better news than they did. They only waited an hour before they found out that the news was bad.
They all looked up when Mary rushed into the saloon; she had just seen Chris and Nathan ride into town with Ezra. "There back." she didn't need to say anymore as they recognised the expression on her face; they had all been wearing it a lot lately.
They got up and ran outside. They all felt their hearts tighten at the sight that was in front of them. Chris had Ezra on his horse with him, they could see that the left side of his head was caked in blood, they saw his very pale complexion, and they saw that he was not moving at all in Chris's arms. They stood there without moving. Nathan got off his horse and went over to Chris. He looked towards the others knowing what it was that they were thinking.
"He's not dead so come over here and help me." He could hear the sigh of relief from where he was standing and then felt their arms as they helped him get Ezra down off the horse.
They saw the other wound on his arm and the amount of blood that was on his clothing. They noticed his laboured breathing. Chris got down off his horse after them, feeling weak himself after holding onto Ezra for two hours and he followed them up to Nathan's room.
"What the hell happened to him?" asked Buck as they made their way up the stairs.
"He got bushwhacked by those guys that he played poker with last night," growled Chris remembering his first sight of Ezra thinking that he was dead.
"And are they still alive?" Vin was also showing his anger.
"Two of them are, we'll go and get them when were ready."
JD opened the door and watched as they carried Ezra in and placed him on Nathan's bed. He then went over into the corner and watched not knowing this time if Ezra was going to survive, he looked terrible, and he looked like he was dead.
"I'm going to get Maude."
They turned at the sound of Josiah's voice, but they didn’t argue with him. He left the room saying a silent prayer for his friend; he didn’t think that Ezra was going to live through this.
Chris and Buck began to help Nathan with Ezra's clothes but Chris started to fall to the floor, Buck quickly grabbed him. "Are you alright, Chris?"
"I'm fine," he shrugged Bucks arms off.
"Chris, you go and sit down, you practically carried Ezra back, sit down and don't argue with me." Nathan gave him a look that said that he was not in the mood to argue with him.
Chris nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. Mary came over and gave him a cup with some water. He drank it and then turned back to watch Nathan as he took care of Ezra. Nathan and Vin had gotten Ezra's clothes off and Nathan was now looking at his right arm and forehead.
"I'm going to have to stitch these wounds as their too deep to leave them like they are."
"Do you want us to hold him down?" asked Vin.
"I don't think that were going to have to worry about him moving about." Nathan stated simply. He knew what the head wound might have done, he didn't know if Ezra would even wake up again. The bullet had scraped the bone of his skull, he didn't know if it had caused any damage to the brain. He saw the confused looks that they gave him. "The wound to his skull is deep, he's probably in a coma right now, there could swelling to the brain which could have caused more damage, I'm not really going to know anything until he wakes up," he looked at them. "If he wakes up," he added.
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Josiah found Maude in the Hotel; he went over to her table and sat down. She saw the concerned expression on his face.
"And what is it that is troubling you, Josiah, have you come to talk to me about Ezra because if you have you can go back to him and tell him to talk to me himself."
"Maude, you have to come with me, it's Ezra, he's. . ." he didn't know how to tell her.
"I know he's sick, so he wants to see me now does he?"
"No . . . I mean he's been shot and it doesn't look good." He heard her gasp. He couldn't look her in the eye but he could tell that she was shocked.
"Where is he?" She got up from the table knocking her chair over.
"He’s in Nathan's room; I'll take you to him."
"No thank you, I think you and your friends have done enough already." She walked out of the Hotel and towards Nathan's room thinking that if her son dies that these men will pay dearly for what they did.
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Nathan gently cleaned the wounds that Ezra had suffered, he knew that there was no need to be as careful as he was being but this was Ezra and even if he thought that, he couldn’t feel it he was still going to be gentle, Ezra was a friend and he was going to treat him as such. He cleaned his head wound as much as he could but he didn't get all the blood out of his hair or off his face, he would do that later. As he began to stitch the deep gaze to his arm, he heard the door open and then Maude's voice. Maude entered the room but couldn’t see her son clearly because of all the men standing around the bed.
"What have you done to my son this time?"
None of them answered her, it was not a question they were going to answer, and she was accusing them of doing this to Ezra.
"We didn't do it, Maude," said Josiah. He had followed her into the room and heard her ask the question.
"Of course you did, if you hadn’t gotten him to agree to being a lawman here this would not have happened." She accused them. She turned to face Josiah with a look of hatred on her face.
"Do you remember the poker game that he played last night," he watched her nod her head. "They did this to him, seems like they didn't like losing, it had nothing to do with him being a protector of this town.
The expression dropped from her face. She turned and made her way through the men to see her son.
What she saw almost made her faint there and then. "Oh Ezra." A tear spilled from her eye and ran down her cheek. She moved to the bed and sat down at her son's side, she took hold of his hand but he didn’t return her grip. "Ezra." She repeated.
Nathan finished stitching Ezra's arm, he put some balm on it to try to stop any infection from setting in, and he then turned to Maude. "Maude I’m going to take care of his head wound now, so would you like to sit on this side while I do that." He came over to her and helped her up off the bed and moved her to the other side where she then took Ezra's other hand in hers.
Nathan then stitched and bandaged Ezra's head wound. Once he was finished he stepped back, there was nothing more he could do for him now, he had suffered a serious head wound, lost a lot of blood and would be in shock, he would have to wait like everyone else.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four
Master Fan Fiction List
Fourth story in 'The Continuing Ezra Standish Saga'
Rating: PG
Warnings: Bad writing ahead!
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Ezra is still recovering when Maude arrives in Four Corners and as she struggles to find out what happened to her son a group of men also arrive in town looking for a high stakes game of poker with Ezra Standish but they loose heavily and they want pay back.
Main Characters: Ezra, the rest of the seven, Maude Standish
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. *is ashamed*
Notes: Fourth story in the ‘Continuing Ezra Standish Saga’.
Spoilers: None.
Word Count: 20,471
Part Three
The game continued on for another two hours, Ezra knew that he told Nathan that he would stop as soon as he got tired but he also knew that it would not take long to win this man's money. The game stayed even between the two for the first hour and then Ezra beat Davis's 'flush' with a 'full house' and then a 'straight flush' over his 'four of a kind'. The game was one sided after that but Davis was able to hide his frustration and anger at loosing.
"Well, Mr. Davis, I see that this game has come to an end unless you have something else to bet with." Davis had put the last of his money in the pot and he didn’t have anything else, there was no use looking to his friends as they had already lost all of their money and he knew that they were also not happy.
"No, I don’t, Mr. Standish, but may I say that it has been a privilege playing with you." Inside he was ready to kill the man who had defeated him so easily at this game. He had come to town with every intention of winning but this man had beaten all three of them. Well they were not going to sit back and let him get away with it. They were going to get their money back and teach him a lesson and it was not going to be via a poker game. He kept the smile on his face. "Perhaps tomorrow when I’m able to get my hands on some more money we can try again."
"Certainly, I always enjoy a good game and may I say that I did enjoy this one." He smiled showing his gold tooth.
Davis thought to himself, 'I just bet you did, but I’m going to wipe that smile off your face.' "Goodnight Mr. Standish, until tomorrow." He tipped his hat had then joined his friends who had been sitting at another table watching the game.
While Ezra collected his winnings, Maude moved quietly over to the table and sat down. "Ezra."
He looked up at his mother’s voice. "Mother, and what can I do for you this evening."
"I see you have done well. May I ask how much you have won?" She was trying to get back on his good side as she knew that if she tried to convince him to leave town while he was angry then the answer would be no.
"You know that a gentleman does not disclose that sort of information, you taught me that yourself remember."
"Yes I did. Ezra, could I talk to you please." She made sure that no anger showed in her voice. She could also see out of the corner of her eye that his friends were watching. She was going to have to be careful with what she said.
"What is it mother, and please be quick as I’m tired and wish to go to bed." Ezra had counted his winnings and they totalled fourteen hundred dollars, he was quite pleased with himself, he was going to be able to buy the saloon. He would have to make sure that his mother didn’t find out though as she would really be disappointed then.
"I want you to come home with me."
He nearly dropped the glass that he was holding. "Go home with you." She nodded. "Why?"
"Ezra," she put her hand on his "I thought about what you said earlier and your right, I didn’t bring you up,
I did a terrible job and I’m an awful mother. I want to make things up to you. I want you to come home with me." there was no change in the expression on his face and she knew that he was wearing the poker face that she had told him so often to wear, to hide his emotions, she couldn’t read him at all.
He laughed. "You want me to go home with you, since when did you have a home to start with?"
"We can start a new home. Spend some time together like a mother and son should do." She saw the sadness quickly flash through his eyes and knew that she hit a sore spot. She now knew which area to work on to convince him to leave Four Corners.
"I can't just pick and leave mother, I have a position here."
"I don't want you to leave straight away, you have to think about it first, I don't want to rush you Ezra. And Ezra." He returned his gaze to her eyes. "I’m proud of you, I just found it hard to admit." she smiled at him. Maude then got up and left the saloon thinking to herself that she had just completed the first step to getting him to leave town.
Davis and his friends had been watching Ezra. "We’ll have to get our money back," growled Tombs.
"How could he beat all of us?"
"Do you think that he cheated?" asked Shelby.
"Of course he did!" stated Tombs.
"Tomorrow, we’ll get him and our money tomorrow. We'll just have to make sure his friends aren't around, they seem to be watching him like a hawk for some reason."
The next morning Ezra got up early knowing that the others would not expect this of him. He did this so they would not continue to follow him around and watch him like they had been doing. He also couldn’t sleep as his headache had become worse again. He had forgotten to drink the powder mix as Nathan had asked him to. He was to tired last night and he had fallen asleep as soon as he had laid down on the bed.
He headed towards the church as he wanted to speak to Josiah and then he planned to spend some time on his own so he could think about things, amongst them what his mother had said to him the night before. He knew that she had lied, knew that she would never change her ways or the way she felt about him. She had only said those things because she wanted him to leave his profession and continue with the trade that she had taught him. He didn’t want that, he had changed and he knew that he couldn’t go back to his old ways.
There were four men though who had seen him leave the saloon early and they followed him with the intention of getting their money back and teaching the gambler a lesson that he would never forget.
Ezra found Josiah in the church where he knew he would be. He had finally finished the repairs to the church but he still spent most of his time there. Josiah was surprised to see Ezra standing in the doorway of the church his face still looking pale against the colour of his red jacket.
"Ezra, what has gotten you out of bed this early in the morning?"
Ezra stepped into the church; he hesitated for a moment not sure, if he was doing the right thing. "I wanted to talk to you about my mother." He saw the shocked expression on Josiah's face.
"You want to talk to me." Josiah smiled and chuckled at this, thinking that finally Ezra realised that he could talk to his friends when he needed to.
Ezra took his reaction the wrong way. He was beginning to change his mind about the whole thing; he didn’t expect Josiah to laugh at him. "What's so funny about me wanting to talk to you?" He was getting angry and his head was hurting.
"I’m not laughing at you, Ezra; I’m glad that you are finally going to talk about things without one of us trying to force you to. Come over here and sit down and we’ll talk as much as you want."
Ezra couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, it seemed to him that Josiah was laughing at him, as if it was some sort of joke among them that he was not able to talk about his problems. He turned around to leave. He had changed his mind but Josiah grabbed him by the arm.
"Ezra come and sit down." He tried to move him towards one of the church pews but he stood firm where he was.
"I’ve changed my mind!" He couldn’t get the smile that had crossed Josiah's face out of his mind when he told him that he wanted to talk, he still felt as though he laughed at him. He turned around and left the church. Josiah watched him go. "Ezra," he whispered.
The four men watched Ezra leave the church and head towards the livery. They followed him making sure that they themselves were not being watched. They waited outside and out of sight and saw him ride out of town headed west. They entered the stables and hired three horses for themselves and after saddling them, they followed him.
Josiah walked into the saloon expecting to see Ezra sitting at one of the tables but he was not in there. He saw Buck and Vin though and he headed over to them.
"Have you seen, Ezra?" He asked them, he wanted to talk to him again hoping that he had calmed down so he could explain to him what had happened. He knew how hard it was for Ezra to talk about things, that it had taken a lot for him to walk into the church and ask Josiah if they could talk and he reacted in a way that hurt Ezra. Now he thought that the man would never trust him enough to talk to about things again.
"He's still asleep," answered Buck yawning himself as he like the others hadn’t slept much the last two nights.
"No, he isn't, I saw him in the church about thirty minutes ago, he wanted to talk but I did something wrong and he walked out. I thought that he may have come back here."
Vin got up."I'll go and check his room to make sure," he returned quickly stating that Ezra was not there.
"Go and find the others and tell them what's happened. Then we better search the town and make sure that he's okay."
An hour later, they had all gathered in the saloon. "Any luck?" Chris looked at each of them and they all shook the heads no. They hadn't found him anywhere. "What about his horse, did anyone check to make sure his horse was still in the livery."
They all looked at each other and without a word, they head to the livery. Once there they saw that Ezra's horse was gone. Each went to their own horse and then split into three groups and left town in search of their friend. Chris and Nathan headed West, Buck and JD went South and Vin and Josiah went North. They knew he would not go East as the town Purgatory lay that way. He had an hour and a half lead on them; Chris just hoped that Ezra was not going to do anything stupid.
Ezra had ridden for about two hours before he came to a stop near a large tree next to a green meadow. He had been to this area on other occasions, it was a place he liked to come to think and now he had a lot to think about.
He turned to get off his horse and saw four riders headed towards him. He thought that it might have been Chris and the others come to check on him but as they got closer, he could see that the four men were the same men that he had gambled against the night before. He could also see that they had drawn their guns.
He turned his horse to head in the opposite direction, heard a gunshot, and felt the bullet tear at his right upper arm. He felt himself falling backwards off his horse. He slammed into the ground landing on his back and felt the wind being knocked out of his lungs. He rolled over knowing that if he stayed out in the open that he would have no hope against them. He quickly picked himself up gasping at the pain in his arm and the lack of oxygen in his lungs.
He struggled to get behind the large tree and positioned himself between the large roots they were big enough to give him the cover he needed. The four men saw this and stopped their horses; they got off and lowered themselves to the ground to make themselves smaller targets. Davis was carefully aiming at the spot he knew the gambler was hiding. Ezra had pulled one of his guns out using his left hand and carefully looked around the side of the tree to see where the men had positioned themselves but everything went black as the bullet hit it's mark. He was flung to the ground with his gun hanging limply in his hand.
"Got him," yelled Tombs.
They ran over to where Ezra lay and saw the blood that had already begun to soak into the ground. Most of the blood was coming from where the bullet had hit his skull. Davis leant down and began to check his pockets looking for their money. He didn't find any. He checked Ezra's boots and found only five hundred in cash.
"Where the hell is the rest of it?" asked Selby.
"It must be in his room, we'll go back for it."
"And what about his friends, how are we going to get past them?" Selby asked again.
"I'll think of something, come on lets go."
They left Ezra lying between the large roots of the tree in an expanding pool of blood that soaked both his clothes and the ground.
Davis and his friends were heading back to Four Corners when they saw two riders heading towards them, they quickly changed direction so that they would not run into them, and if it were the gambler's friends then they would start asking questions that they didn’t want to answer. Davis watched until the two men had passed in the distance, he knew that they had seen them too. He pulled his horse to a stop and waited.
"What's up?" asked Newman pulling his horse to a stop along side of Davis.
"Were going to follow them," he turned to his friends. "I want to make sure." He hadn't made sure that the man was dead, as he had assumed that he would not be found for days and that he would die due to his wounds in a matter of time anyway.
"Why do you think he went off on his own like that for, Chris?"
"Because he’s stubborn," he answered. They had been riding for nearly two hours and they still hadn’t seen any sight of Ezra. They did see four men though and that gave Chris a nagging feeling in his stomach.
"We'll give it another hour and then head back to town to see if the others have had any luck, I don't think he would have gone much further than that." Chris was getting mad, he wished that Ezra would just accept everyone's help and stop trying to do things on his own, such as looking after himself when he was sick.
They saw a large tree in the distance and a horse grazing nearby but they couldn't see anybody. "That looks like Ezra's horse," pointed out Nathan. He wondered where Ezra was.
"Nathan, you head towards the right of the tree and I’ll take the left, something's not right about this." He pulled his horse to the left without answering Nathan's questioning look.
As Chris got closer, he could still see no sign of Ezra. 'Where are you Ezra?' He asked silently afraid of actually getting an answer that he didn’t want to hear. He thought he saw a flash of red, he blinked just to make sure, it was red, it was Ezra's red jacket and there was no movement within it either. He hoped that he had just taken his jacket off and laid it down on the tree but he then saw the arm that was hanging limply over the large tree root and that hand had a gun in it. Chris immediately thought the worse.
"Nathan!" He yelled as he urged his horse on towards the tree at a gallop. "Nathan, over here!"
Chris pulled his horse to a stop and jumped off. He stood there for a moment in total shock. What he saw was Ezra lying in a pool of blood that had been coming from two separate wounds, one to his right arm and one to the left side of his head, he could also see the white pasty colour of his skin and the slack expression on his face. Chris couldn’t move, he thought Ezra was dead. He heard Nathan jump down off his own horse next to him hesitating only for a second before racing to Ezra's side. He saw the large gash that was on the left side of his forehead, he then placed his hand under the side of his throat feeling for a pulse. Chris held his breath until he heard Nathan say that he was still alive.
"His pulse is very weak but he's still alive."
Nathan gently moved Ezra's head to the side to get a better look at his head wound, it had stopped bleeding but by the amount of blood that was on the ground, he knew that he had lost a lot of blood and apart from the bullet wounds; he would also be suffering from shock. The wound was deep and it looked as though it had also grazed his skull. 'This could be serious.' thought Nathan. He then looked to his arm but couldn’t tell how bad it was with Ezra's jacket still on.
"Chris, come and help me get his jacket off, I want to look at his arm." Nathan looked up and saw that he hadn’t moved. "Chris!"
Chris had begun to move towards Nathan not taking his eyes off Ezra's deathly white face when he heard a gunshot, he instantly dropped to the ground, his instincts taking control of his shocked emotions. He rolled towards the tree root that was covering both Nathan and Ezra. He recognised the men as the four that they passed earlier and knew that it must have been these men that had shot Ezra. He returned fire taking great pleasure in seeing one of them drop to the ground, he had been slower than his friends, they were already hugging the ground for cover.
Nathan had also drawn his gun and was returning fire. "What are we going to do Chris, we can't see them unless we get up and that would only give them something to aim at?"
"You stay here with Ezra, I'm going to try and get around the other side of the tree, see if there’s somewhere I can get a bit higher." He moved off with Nathan's protests falling on deaf ears.
Chris quickly jumped over the tree root feeling the splinters of the tree hit the side of his face as a bullet hit the tree a mere inch from his face. He was then behind the tree protected by the cover that it gave him. As he moved around it, he was able to see a strong branch, which he would be able to climb on and get a better view of the situation. He took a few minutes to get up onto the branch. He could see the three remaining gunmen on the ground, then took careful aim, and saw one of them jerk when the bullet hit him.
Selby saw Davis get hit by a bullet and wondered what had happened, they shouldn't be able to see them from behind the tree and while he was thinking this, he felt a bullet hit his own leg. He yelped out in pain and dropped his gun, Newman also saw this and dropped his own gun and slowly got up with his hands in the air. He expected to be shot anyway and waited for the pain that a bullet would cause him but he felt nothing.
Chris saw the remaining two raise their hands in defeat and he jumped down off the tree and went towards them. "Which one of you shot Ezra?" He growled at them. They didn’t hesitate, they both pointed to Davis. Chris looked at the dead body of Davis, his punishment was to quick. He pointed the two that were left towards the tree. "Get moving before I shoot you."
"Chris we have to get Ezra back to town," he heard Chris return but didn’t look at him, his face was full of worry and he didn’t want Chris to see it. "I'll quickly clean his wounds and then we should go."
"I'll just tie these two up first; I’ll send someone back for them."
It only took Chris five minutes to tie them both together, they were going to stay that way until someone came for them, he didn’t know when that would be because he knew that once the others found out what happened they would not leave Ezra alone for too long. Chris helped Nathan take Ezra's jacket off and then stood back and watched as he cleaned the wound on both his head and arm, wincing at the thought of the pain that it would have caused him if he were awake.
"Both wounds are deep and he has lost a lot of blood, we gotta get back."
"Sure, I'll carry him on my horse with me."
They gently picked him up and carried him out into the open, then laid him on the ground while Chris went and got his horse. They had noticed how limp Ezra was in their arms; he hadn’t moved or made a sound.
Nathan sat with him until Chris got back and then they placed him on Chris's horse with a small amount of difficulty, Chris then got up behind him and headed back towards Four Corners. Nathan got his own horse and then Ezra's and caught up with him. He kept looking at Ezra to make sure that he was still breathing, which he was able to tell by the slight rise in his chest. Chris held on to Ezra tightly making sure that he was not going to fall off. He could feel Ezra's weak breathing against his own throat, his breaths coming very slowly. There was too long a gap between each breath causing Chris quite a few scares on the way back to town. There were a few times that he thought Ezra had stopped breathing.
JD, Buck, Vin and Josiah had no luck when it came to finding Ezra, they had returned to town to find Chris and Nathan were still out looking for him. Josiah went to Ezra's room to see if he had returned while JD went to check the stables again to see if his horse was there. Neither were so they settled into the saloon and waited for Chris and Nathan hoping that they had better news than they did. They only waited an hour before they found out that the news was bad.
They all looked up when Mary rushed into the saloon; she had just seen Chris and Nathan ride into town with Ezra. "There back." she didn't need to say anymore as they recognised the expression on her face; they had all been wearing it a lot lately.
They got up and ran outside. They all felt their hearts tighten at the sight that was in front of them. Chris had Ezra on his horse with him, they could see that the left side of his head was caked in blood, they saw his very pale complexion, and they saw that he was not moving at all in Chris's arms. They stood there without moving. Nathan got off his horse and went over to Chris. He looked towards the others knowing what it was that they were thinking.
"He's not dead so come over here and help me." He could hear the sigh of relief from where he was standing and then felt their arms as they helped him get Ezra down off the horse.
They saw the other wound on his arm and the amount of blood that was on his clothing. They noticed his laboured breathing. Chris got down off his horse after them, feeling weak himself after holding onto Ezra for two hours and he followed them up to Nathan's room.
"What the hell happened to him?" asked Buck as they made their way up the stairs.
"He got bushwhacked by those guys that he played poker with last night," growled Chris remembering his first sight of Ezra thinking that he was dead.
"And are they still alive?" Vin was also showing his anger.
"Two of them are, we'll go and get them when were ready."
JD opened the door and watched as they carried Ezra in and placed him on Nathan's bed. He then went over into the corner and watched not knowing this time if Ezra was going to survive, he looked terrible, and he looked like he was dead.
"I'm going to get Maude."
They turned at the sound of Josiah's voice, but they didn’t argue with him. He left the room saying a silent prayer for his friend; he didn’t think that Ezra was going to live through this.
Chris and Buck began to help Nathan with Ezra's clothes but Chris started to fall to the floor, Buck quickly grabbed him. "Are you alright, Chris?"
"I'm fine," he shrugged Bucks arms off.
"Chris, you go and sit down, you practically carried Ezra back, sit down and don't argue with me." Nathan gave him a look that said that he was not in the mood to argue with him.
Chris nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. Mary came over and gave him a cup with some water. He drank it and then turned back to watch Nathan as he took care of Ezra. Nathan and Vin had gotten Ezra's clothes off and Nathan was now looking at his right arm and forehead.
"I'm going to have to stitch these wounds as their too deep to leave them like they are."
"Do you want us to hold him down?" asked Vin.
"I don't think that were going to have to worry about him moving about." Nathan stated simply. He knew what the head wound might have done, he didn't know if Ezra would even wake up again. The bullet had scraped the bone of his skull, he didn't know if it had caused any damage to the brain. He saw the confused looks that they gave him. "The wound to his skull is deep, he's probably in a coma right now, there could swelling to the brain which could have caused more damage, I'm not really going to know anything until he wakes up," he looked at them. "If he wakes up," he added.
Josiah found Maude in the Hotel; he went over to her table and sat down. She saw the concerned expression on his face.
"And what is it that is troubling you, Josiah, have you come to talk to me about Ezra because if you have you can go back to him and tell him to talk to me himself."
"Maude, you have to come with me, it's Ezra, he's. . ." he didn't know how to tell her.
"I know he's sick, so he wants to see me now does he?"
"No . . . I mean he's been shot and it doesn't look good." He heard her gasp. He couldn't look her in the eye but he could tell that she was shocked.
"Where is he?" She got up from the table knocking her chair over.
"He’s in Nathan's room; I'll take you to him."
"No thank you, I think you and your friends have done enough already." She walked out of the Hotel and towards Nathan's room thinking that if her son dies that these men will pay dearly for what they did.
Nathan gently cleaned the wounds that Ezra had suffered, he knew that there was no need to be as careful as he was being but this was Ezra and even if he thought that, he couldn’t feel it he was still going to be gentle, Ezra was a friend and he was going to treat him as such. He cleaned his head wound as much as he could but he didn't get all the blood out of his hair or off his face, he would do that later. As he began to stitch the deep gaze to his arm, he heard the door open and then Maude's voice. Maude entered the room but couldn’t see her son clearly because of all the men standing around the bed.
"What have you done to my son this time?"
None of them answered her, it was not a question they were going to answer, and she was accusing them of doing this to Ezra.
"We didn't do it, Maude," said Josiah. He had followed her into the room and heard her ask the question.
"Of course you did, if you hadn’t gotten him to agree to being a lawman here this would not have happened." She accused them. She turned to face Josiah with a look of hatred on her face.
"Do you remember the poker game that he played last night," he watched her nod her head. "They did this to him, seems like they didn't like losing, it had nothing to do with him being a protector of this town.
The expression dropped from her face. She turned and made her way through the men to see her son.
What she saw almost made her faint there and then. "Oh Ezra." A tear spilled from her eye and ran down her cheek. She moved to the bed and sat down at her son's side, she took hold of his hand but he didn’t return her grip. "Ezra." She repeated.
Nathan finished stitching Ezra's arm, he put some balm on it to try to stop any infection from setting in, and he then turned to Maude. "Maude I’m going to take care of his head wound now, so would you like to sit on this side while I do that." He came over to her and helped her up off the bed and moved her to the other side where she then took Ezra's other hand in hers.
Nathan then stitched and bandaged Ezra's head wound. Once he was finished he stepped back, there was nothing more he could do for him now, he had suffered a serious head wound, lost a lot of blood and would be in shock, he would have to wait like everyone else.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four
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