Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" T.V. series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide.
Elena Rose mostly identified people by smell and sight and at four months of age, she was satisfied that this was a skill she would keep in the future. She knew faces to a certain extent and judged whether or not she liked them by how they felt. There were not many faces that she did not like for instance that that big pink stuffed rabbit that sat at her corner of her crib whom she was certain would stop sitting one day and do something terrible to her while she slept.
The world was still big place to her and if she actually knew what the world was, it would make understanding it a lot easier. Still, her life was rather simple at the moment and everything was a source of fascination to her, especially the faces that seemed to always be around her all the time. They varied in appearance and often emerged when she was hungry, frightened or needed taking care of. She liked it when they carried her outside to the place where there was nothing but blue overhead and so much space her mind could not quite hope to make sense of it. She liked being under the blue because there was warmth there; almost as warm as the hands often that held her.
She did not always understand what the faces said but they spoke to her a lot and they were always smiling when they did although they did not always smile when they spoke to other, hence the confusion. She had names for her faces and was always happy to see the one that was always smiling and saying soft things in her ears she did not understand but felt deeply comforted in hearing.
"Hello there my little Rose," The smiling one with the dark hair said as Elena felt herself picked up from the place where she slept. "We're going on a little trip."
"Inez!" Another voice rang out and Elena knew who it was even if she did not understand anything it was saying. It did not sound very happy. "Are you ready yet? We got to get going soon."
"Buck," the smiling face replied. "I'm ready. I've just got to get Rose."
"How's my girl?" The face she called Ticklish looked down at her with a grin as she felt herself lifted in Smile's arms.
"She's fed and she's had her nap." Smile answered as Elena felt herself being rocked and wished it would stop, it was bringing up lunch.
"Stop doing that," Ticklish seemed to guess that was what the frown on her face was all about. "Feed a child and then shake it until she pukes."
"Buck!" Smile looked at Ticklish mortified. "Don't talk like that in front of the baby!"
"It ain't like she can understand a word I'm saying Inez." Ticklish groaned. "Now come on, let's git going or we ain't gonna get this day to ourselves."
"Maybe we should bring Rose." Smiles said again as the familiar ceiling disappeared and Elena chortled in delight at coming back into the blue.
"Inez," Ticklish replied once more "We haven't had any time to ourselves since we got married. I'm sure she'll be okay with Mary for just the day."
"All right," Elena saw the smiling one agree before they all climbed on the big wooden thing with the round circles and started moving with the blue above them.
"Hello darling." Elena woke up to see another familiar face staring down at her. She knew this face and did not feel alarmed because it smelled nice and Elena liked seeing the gold that swayed in front of her eyes. "You've had a nice little sleep didn't you?"
Gold looked at her and moved some stray stands around her eyes as she was lifted out of her sleeping place and carried through the rooms of a place she did not know but was unafraid because she liked watching Gold's hair shimmering.
"She awake?" Another face asked and like so many around her, Elena was quite proud of herself when she knew this one too. Eyes. She did not know color but Elena could see that his eyes shimmered the way that Gold's did.
"Yes," Gold replied. "I'm sorry to do this to you Chris but I really have to sort this out with Audrey."
"No that's fine." Eyes answered taking her from Gold's arms. There was no apprehension for Elena when he took her because his hand went to all the right places as if he were no stranger to handling one as small as her. "I'll take her to Alex for her check up."
"Thanks," Gold sighed. "I have no idea what's got into Billy but I'm going to have a little chat with Ezra once I'm done talking to Audrey."
"Well don't be too hard on Billy," Eyes replied said with an amused smile. "That's the risk you take when you ask Ezra to baby sit. We need to have a no gambling rule in the house."
"To say the least," Gold answered, not looking at all happy. "You can probably leave Elena with Alex for awhile. She knows Buck and Inez are taking a day to themselves and won't mind sitting for Rose."
"That's fine." Eyes said with an affectionate smile in her direction and Elena beamed because she did not think he did it very often. He adjusted the thing on his head with one arm still wrapped around her before turning to Gold and joining lips. "I'll see you in awhile."
"Thanks Chris," Gold said warmly.
Elena looked at Eyes as they came out into the blue again. He was very different from Ticklish who was always smiling. She felt safe in his hands but not in the same she felt when Ticklish held her because he was always saying nice things to her and making those funny faces that made her laugh. No funny faces here, just a small smile when he looked at her and those eyes became very sad for a moment and made Elena feel sad too.
"Hey lookee here!" A loud voice boomed. "If it ain't the great Chris Larabee, you sure don't look to scary right now."
Elena could not see who had spoken but she knew she didn't like them. They smelt bad and it made lunch churn in her tiny stomach.
Eyes looked at them with a sharp glare and replied very firmly. "I only need one hand to carry this little girl, I can still use my shooting hand."
"Aw come on Larabee," the voice approached and Elena's nose wrinkled at the stench of him. She did not like it at all and when the face peered down at her, she liked it even less. "I ain't meaning the little one no harm, just want to take a look at Wilmington's kid. Ain't as ugly as him though."
"Not too close, Roy. You're drunk." Eyes ordered and then one of his hands moving away from holding her. Her stomach started to churn because she could still smell that overpowering stink and suddenly reacted the only way a four-month-old could.
"Goddamn it!" The one she did not like suddenly exploded loudly. "That kid jus threw up on me!"
Eye still looked as hard as ever. "I warned you to stay away."
Elena felt her chin being wiped with the swaddling that was wrapped around her. "Babies have tricky stomachs and good taste. Face like yours could scare anyone." Eyes replied. "Be seeing you Roy."
As they started moving again, Eyes looked down at her and suddenly a smile crossed his face, the first real one she had ever seen on his face. They drew further and further away from the face she did not like before Eyes said to her with that same smile. "Nice going kid and unlike your father, you don't need a bottle whiskey and Mexican chili to do the same job."
"She threw up." Hands declared as Elena was put on her table and she stared at Eyes.
"You know Roy," Eyes answered as Hands began the usual poking and prodding that she did whenever Elena was here. The little baby could not say whether or not she liked or disliked it, except some times it hurt a lot and some times it was very Ticklish. It seemed important to everyone that Hands did what she had to, so Elena tried not to make too much of a fuss while she was doing it.
"Well at least she thew up for a good cause." Hands smiled with amusement. "If you want to leave her here with me for awhile, I don't have any more patients for the afternoon and I need to give her some vaccinations."
"Ouch." Eyes flinched and Elena decided that was something foreboding about the way his face become unhappy after Hands used that 'word'. "All right then," Eyes shrugged. "I'll leave you to it." He tipped the black thing on his head again in her direction and then he was gone, leaving Elena alone with Hands.
"Just a little monthly examination," Hands spoke to her. "Just to see if you're nice and healthy."
Elena watched Hands with fascination doing all those odd things Elena was accustomed to seeing her performing like putting things in her mouth, tickling her toes and snapping her fingers like she wanted Elena to pay attention. Of all the faces, Hands was one of the most confusing. Elena could not understand what she was doing and watched her as she disappeared for a moment. When she returned, she had something very sharp in her hands and Elena wondered what she was going to do with that.
Hands took her small plump arm and dabbed something that was cold and was about to put the sharp thing to her skin when the door opened and another voice exclaimed loudly. "Alex! You're not sticking her with that!"
"Vin," Hands groaned with exasperation. "You do this every time! Vaccinations are necessary. Now if you're squeamish about needles, get out of here until I'm done!"
The face she recognized as Hair came over to her and looked at her anxiously. Elena wondered what was wrong with him that he was so worried when suddenly she felt terrible pain and she squealed out loud. It hurt! It hurt! It hurt!
"See, you done gone and made her cry." Hair picked her up and started to rock her which just made the whole thing worse, now she was in pain and starting to feel sick again. "Its okay, she ain't gonna hurt you no more." He cooed gently in her ear with surprising tenderness for one who always smelled like the outside where the blue was.
"Oh for god's sake!" Hands looked at him. "Its just a needle and if you weren't making such a fuss about it....."
"I mean couldn't you do it when she's a sleep or something?" Hair replied, rocking her in his arms. He hated to see babies cry. It tugged at the heartstrings and he told himself that he was going to hide all the needles in the house if he and Alex had children.
"Vin..." Hands started to say cautiously while Elena continued to howl. "I wouldn't keep doing that.."
"What?" He asked blankly.
Elena threw up.
"That." Hands winced as Elena unloaded the contents of lunch into Hair's buckskin coat.
"Aw hell!"
Elena was in another place and she tried to remember what it was about this one that was different from the other and decided that it was definitely louder. She heard Hands talking in a string of words she did not understand but recognized the soft voice she who answered.
"Anyway," Hands continued to say. "Vin is chucking a proper fit. If I don't help him clean that coat of his, I'm never going to hear the end of it."
"Well it was not your fault that Elena decided to retch, is it Elena Rose?" The voice she had called Curly after her long dark tresses, regarded the baby. Elena could only offer a look of innocence in response.
"No it isn't," Hands agreed. "But me laughing my ass off probably didn't help things too much either." She shrugged while trying to stifle another smile at the scene she had been forced to witness.
"Well I would have dearly loved to have been there." Another smooth, rich voice answered. It always sounded like a breath against her skin and had the ability to make her sleep. Elena grew excited because she liked that voice very much; it always smelt nice and spoke softly like music in her ear. More than anything, she liked listening to the Voice.
"Don't make me force you to change a diaper Ezra." Curly replied. "Alex, she will be fine with me. The saloon is pretty empty anyway and I am sure I can trust Ezra to keep an eye on Elena while I am getting ready for the dinner crowd."
"Ladies, I am the soul of dependability." Voice said magnanimously and flashed Elena a smile that made her giggle. He was always so shiny and surrounded by color. Elena reached for the sparkling thing on the end of his shirtsleeve and tugged at it.
"Right," the two women said in unison with absolutely no trace of belief in their voices.
Elena continued to play with the sparkling thing until their voices started to become more distant and she faded away into slumber.
When she woke up, she was fed by Curly who gave her something very nice to eat which did not taste like the food she was normally fed and she was very hungry after her nap, so she delighted Curly be eating all of it. Once she had finished her feeding, Curly disappeared for awhile, leaving her in the hands of the Voice. She liked the Voice especially when he smiled at her. Instead of cradling her like the others, she started to teach her a curious game with pictures in red and black. She was not quite big enough to sit up on her own yet, so he nursed her on her lap as they played.
Elena liked the pictures. She also liked how smooth and cool the pictures felt under her tiny palm when he distributed them between himself and her.
"Well Miss Wilmington," Voice said to her. "You have an interesting hand. An ace of spades and a five. I do believe you need another card."
Just to show that she agreed with that assessment, she thumped her palm on the table once.
"You are a wise woman." He grinned and then placed another card before her. She grew excited when she saw that it was one that had elaborate markings on it. "A queen of diamonds. Would you like another?"
Elena bounced in his lap once again and slapped her palm down on the pretty card in the affirmative.
"Always give the lady what she wants," he answered and put another picture down. "Well I believe that is as good odds as you're going to get. I mean a three added to your present total makes 19. I would sit on those cards, Miss Wilmington." He advised.
Elena hit her palm on the table again.
"Another?" He looker her with a brow raised. "Are you certain about this? That is a very good hand."
Elena started to bounce lightly on his lap again, making her wishes more insistent with a loud gurgle.
"All right," he conceded finally. "Never say I am a man who denies a lady anything. Another card it is." With that he placed another picture in front of her even though Elena was less impressed with this one than she was with the last one with the pretty lady on it.
"Blackjack!" He gasped with surprise and looked down at her with a proud grin. "You need to learn how to talk quickly. I do believe you do possess the gift. I knew all that time Inez spent in the saloon with me in close proximity had some effect on your fetal development."
"Ezra Standish, what in the Hell are you doing?" A loud voice shattered the moment and Elena jumped at the sound. The new face was crowned in red hair and Elena stared at the pretty colors, transfixed in the fiery highlights as Red swept in the room.
"I am merely teaching the child some social skills." Voice said as he made an attempt to gather the cards and hide them. Elena looked up at him to see that he was quite nervous. She had never seen him anything less than collected and started to pout in disappointment that he was not smiling. She liked his smiling.
"Social skills?" Red paused in front of them both, gloved hands on her hips as she stared at them. There was no smile on her face and Elena started to feel worried for Voice. "Like you taught Billy social skills? I just intercepted Mary from coming here to have your guts for garters. If she had come in here and seen this....."
With that, Red took Elena from him and Elena decided she did not like that at all and started to whimper. She wanted him to hold her!
"I merely taught the boy..."
"You taught him how to play craps!" Red snapped. "A game which he apparently showed surprising adeptness in the school yard when he won everyone's lunch!"
"Really?" He started to smile with pride and that stopped Elena from whimpering.
"Get that smirk off your face!" Red barked again and made Elena jump again. "Mary is furious! Now I don't know what you're going to do to make this right but you will fix it!"
"The boy has a father you know." He frowned.
"Yes, a father who just so happens to be one of the meanest sons of a bitches in town and is not above rendering you from limb to limb, so get to it!" With that Red swept Elena out of the place and left Voice behind.
Elena was out in the big blue again, watching fast paced blurs moving past her and feeling giddy trying to catch up with all the faces around her. She did not know them but nonetheless felt secure in Red's soft arms. Although she had not want to leave the Voice, she did not mind being under the blue when there was so much going on around her. There were not just faces but smells and noises that were so many that she could not keep track of them all and her big brown eyes moved from place to place, trying to catch out all the things that were happening but they were just too quick for her. After awhile, she grew so tired of trying to keep up that she fell asleep to the sight of Red's hair shimmering in the afternoon sun.
It looked pretty.
When she awoke again, she was in a difference place but once again the faces were familiar and she was accustomed to the two that were present. They reminded her a little of Smiles and Ticklish because they always seemed to be arguing even though it was obvious they liked each other very much. Elena liked the way brown would play with her and make funny faces at her. Elena called her brown because she had dark hair, the same color as Smile's eyes and she liked cradling Elena in her arms and sing songs that were not as melodic as that sung by Smile's when she was put in her sleeping place.
"Oh JD,"Brown said. "Isn't she beautiful?"
Hat looked at her. Elena liked Hat because Ticklish liked Hat. She did not know what the word meant but Ticklish was always calling him Hat...followed stupid, ugly but Elena did not know what that meant either and assumed it must be like one of those things that Ticklish often whispered to her when they played.
"She's looks like Inez," he answered as he brought forward a bottle.
Seeing it made Elena excited because she was hungry and she uttered a little cry just to let the duo know that she would like the bottle sooner rather than later.
"Did you fix the milk like I showed you?" Brown asked him as she took the bottle of milk from Hat and sat down somewhere. Elena's eyes kept following the bottle and her stomach churned in hunger as Brown sat her up and made it comfortable for her to feed. Of course, she did not do it like Smiles did it. Smiles did it the best and held her the best as well. Elena let out a soft baby sigh wondering if Smiles and Ticklish were coming back soon. She missed them.
"Casey I ain't dumb." He retorted somewhat incensed. "I followed your instructions."
"Well we got to feed her before we take her back to Mary's." Brown reminded as she held the bottle to Elena's lips. The little girl opened her mouth and started nursing on the contents of the bottle, feeling her hunger satiated after a few greedy gulps, but kept feeding anyway, compelled by an instinct far older than she to continue.
"I think we should wait awhile." Hat said as he took the funny thing of his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "Chris has gone to rescue Ezra."
"Why does Ezra need rescuing?" Brown inquired quizzically. The conversation held very little interest to Elena mostly because her milk seem to be far more interesting at the moment and wished she could tell Hat that he had done it just right but guessed he was big enough to know anyway.
"Oh Mary's gone off the deep end," he answered. "Ezra taught Billy how to gamble and Mary's now yelling her head off at him in the saloon."
"Still?" Brown said surprised. "I didn't think Mary could get that mad."
"I didn't think Mary could yell for an hour straight but she's doing just fine."
"You think we could go see?" Brown gave him a conspiratory look and although Elena did not understand it, she could see that Brown was very excited by the idea.
"What about Elena?" Hat asked, tweaking her nose and causing Elena to chortle happily. She liked Hat because he was always playing with her whenever he came about and he knew how to hold her properly too. She wondered where he learnt to do that. Of course, he didn't like to do it in front of other people.
"We'll take her with us." Brown replied. "Its not like she knows what's going on anyway." She replied. "Come on JD, let's go see."
"Okay..." Hat said uncertainly, not entirely sure whether or not it was such a good idea but chose to agree withBrown probably because he did not want her to shout at him again.
Once again, Elena was reminded of Smiles and Ticklish and suddenly found herself missing them both and yearning for Ticklish to hold her and blow bubbles on her tummy. Hopefully, they would not be away too long because the blue was starting to disappear and Elena equated its vanishing with the time it came for her to be put to sleep. She did not want anyone else to do that but Smiles or Ticklish.
Brown and Hat took her out into the big blue once again and as she looked into the expanse above her head, she noticed that it was changing color rapidly. Very soon, it would not be blue any more and it would be time for her to be placed in her sleeping place. Despite the day's ending, there were still many faces on the street and very soon they were somewhere with a lot of noise and in particular one voice that seemed to raise above all others. Hat andBrown peered through the funny shape doors of the place where Voice had been.
"And if I ever find you teaching my son such unsavory habits again, I will ensure Mr Standish that you will have no hands whatsoever to ever deal another card again." The familiar yet loud voice that Elena had come to recognize as Gold's, roared with fury.
"JD, Casey," someone hissed behind them. "Lord, what is in both your head bringing a baby to this place?"
"Oh we just wanted a look Nathan."Brown seemed to whine as they regarded the one Elena knew was called First. Normally, people called him Doc but Elena did not understand why.
"Here I'll take her." He frowned at them before reaching for her and taking her out ofBrown's arms.
Like Eyes and Hat, First knew just how to hold her as they moved away from the place with all the angry noises and went elsewhere withBrown and Hat remaining to watch the excitement taking place. Elena called him First because he was the first face she had ever seen, the one that had greeted her after her departure from the soft, warm place she could not really remember but knew she had left forever when Elena first saw the blue over her head. His was the first touch she knew and although she did not understand the instinct behind it, Elena knew she could always feel safe with him.
"You're growing so big." First said with a wistful expression on his face. "It feels like just yesterday I saw you come into the world."
Elena did not understand what he was saying but there was so much love in his eyes that she could not help feel the need to reach out and touch him. Her tiny palm brushed against his smooth skin and she felt his chest swell beneath her body as he held her next to him as they continued walking.
"Hello Nathan." The unmistakably deep voice, which always sent tremors through her when she heard it, spoke in its soft tones at First. It was an odd sort of voice but strangely compelling and always made her sleep after it resonated through her. He was always casting a shadow over her whenever he looked down at her and so Elena had appropriately called his face Big. There were at a place she recognized easily because it had very colorful windows with pretty pictures on it and whenever everyone was inside the building, they seemed to speak with a lower voice than usual. There was something about it that commanded respect. "You babysitting today?"
"No," First answered as they descended the steps to the arched doorway. "I saw her with Casey and JD outside the saloon can you believe it?"
"They probably wanted to see the toasting Ezra's getting from Mary." Big replied with some amusement in his voice. "Hello there little one." He greeted her with a smile as his big hand reached for her nose and tapped it playfully with his fingertip, inciting a gurgle of delight from the child upon doing so. "So how is Ezra doing?" He asked First again.
"Oh he's alive but barely." First laughed feeling no sympathy for man or his situation. "I think Chris is just letting Ezra burn a little more before he steps in and saves his ass."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Big remarked before turning to her. "How would you like to hear a little story Elena?"
"Well if you're gonna do that," First replied handing her to Big. The tall man took her in his arms and held her very carefully almost as if he was afraid of her, even though Elena could never feel fear at any of the faces she had seen today. "You can take her while I go find out where's she supposed to be. Last thing we want is Inez losing her mind cause she don't know where her little girl is."
"Amen to that." Big nodded in agreed.
He carried her into the building as First went away, rocking her gently in her arms and lulling her slowly into slumber as he started speaking in dulcet tones.
"Once upon a time....."
"Time to sleep my little Rose," Smiles was looking down at her happily after she had been brought back to the familiar surroundings of her sleeping place was. Elena was very content if not a little tired. The ride home had taken forever and the big blue had well and truly descended into darkness by the time they reached this room. Once back, Smiles had nestled Elena on her lap and gave her a warm bottle of milk, the content still warmed the inside of her stomach as Smiles placed her in the comfortable surroundings of her bed. Elena immediately rolled onto her tummy and looked up at her parents, preferring to sleep that way because she could feel the softness of her bedding against her cheek.
"You've had a busy day." Smiles ran her palm gently over Elena's back and soothed the little girl by that action.
"I'll say." Ticklish suddenly appeared next to Smiles and cast the same tender look at Elena who raised her head long enough to offer them both a toothless grin of happiness at seeing them again. It had been a long day and she had missed them both even though the faces that had come and gone each held the same affection for her to a slightly lesser degree. "From what Nathan tells me, she threw up on Roy McAlester and Vin."
"Oh no," Smiles declared trying not to laugh but she did nonetheless and Elena liked the way it sounded enough to join in her giggles with some of her own. "Poor Vin! Where did Elena get him?"
"You don't want to know." Ticklish said with something of a smirk on his face.
"Not the jacket!" Smiles exclaimed.
"Afraid so," Ticklish nodded as he started to laugh himself. "By the way, Julia happened to mention that we should never, ever let Ezra baby-sit. Ever."
"I heard," Smiles chuckled, perfectly aware why. "Mary told me about Billy."
Elena continued to watch them, unaware of what they were to her in reality nor could she have even understood the concept had anyone tried to explain. However, she was satisfied that she felt exceedingly comforted to be in their presence. She rested her head against the small pillow and continue to stare at them, watching them speak in words she did not comprehend but was nonetheless assured that they would be there when she woke up again.
For now, she would sleep because she was tired and it had been quite a day.
The End