Rating: PG13 (language and violence)
Setting: OW
Series: Home is Where the Heart is
Main Character: Ezra Standish
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the Magnificent Seven and I do not seek to profit from them.
Comments: Read The Change first. And I do apologize for some of the grammatical mistakes in The Change.
When the telegram came, Ezra was hesitant to leave Pong, his wife of six months. She was pregnant and he was very overprotective of his love and their coming child. He only went when Chris Larabee told him that she would be looked in on at the ranch every day by one of the Seven.
Although his mother had left town five months ago on bad terms with her son, he still felt some duty to her, so he answered the telegram and followed its directions.
Ezra Standish left town to go to a small bump in the road called Snowden's Creek to retrieve a box from his mother. When he finally reached the town and opened it, he cursed his mother for her stupidity.
After a quick marriage, she apparently divorced her latest husband and received a small fortune in gold. She obviously thought her son could keep it safe for her until she could catch up with him back in his town. He was very tempted to leave the box where it sat.
The vultures gathered not long after he picked up the box. Gold was like a piece of rancid meat on a hot day to some. It could be smelled and sensed from miles away.
He didn't stay in town that night. It was too dangerous.
'Thank you, Mothah,' he said softly, sarcastically.
He slept under the stars, something he abhorred, and started home the next morning. That was when the men came at him at a gallop, firing their guns.
Ezra shot back as he mounted his horse and rode away as fast as his horse could travel with three heavy sacks of gold in the saddle bags.
The men had been after him for the last three days. And they were gaining again.
Ezra knew he was viewed by the rest of the Seven as someone who was lost on the trail with his fine accent and sometimes city ways, but he knew one thing. Dynamite and Poker were the equalizer of all men. And what did you know? He just happened to have some dynamite in his saddle bags.
When he reached town four days later, his jacket was in ruins from bullet holes. His hat was shot at least once and his horse was heaving for breath.
Chris Larabee, the leader of the Seven, took one look and raised the alarm. Clearly danger was on its way.
But Ezra waived him off. "Mr. Larabee, the mattah has been taken care of some hours back at Creely's Pass. Well, it used to be a Pass. Now it's a big rock pile."
Ezra got down from his heaving horse and patted him on the nose. "Mr. Larabee, if you don't mind, please take these to the bank and to the safe. Ah need to see to my poor steed. He's been running full out for days." Ezra took out the three bags of gold and shoved them at Chris as if they were poison.
Chris took the bags with a raised eyebrow. The rest of the Seven trusted Ezra since he came back to save Mary from the assassin, but Ezra had still taken the money. Now, here was a fortune in gold and he was shoving it away in favor of his horse.
Chris knew Ezra had changed over the years, but this was sparkling proof of that drastic change.
"All right, Ezra. And, just to warn you, your mother is in town."
Ezra's head dropped. "She hasn't been to the ranch, has she?"
Chris shook his head. "Naw. We've been out to see Pong every day and she hasn't said anything about your mother visiting."
"She wouldn't. The poor thing would probably be scared witless by my Mothah."
After seeing to his horse, Ezra headed for the one place he knew he could find his mother at this hour. The saloon.
He entered and looked at his regular gaming table on the platform. Yes, there she was. A glorious looking woman and youthful in appearance, but Ezra knew her dark side. He wasn't fooled by her outward appearance.
Her eyes came up as if sensing his arrival and she smiled a smile full of white, even teeth. "Why, Ezra, my dear boy. You have made it to town with mah gold."
She said it as if it were a fact. She never asked about his health or how he managed to look so downtrodden. She just assumed he was successful because he was her son.
"Yes, Mothah. It's ovah at the bank safe. You can pick it up in the morning and leave."
She clasped at her heart. "Ezra, is that any way to greet your Mothah? Give her an ultimatum in your very first breath?"
He waived her theatrics away. "Forgive me if Ah'm blunt, but Ah never know your intentions. Ah'd like them out of my town so that I can sleep soundly at night."
She gasped. As usual, she thought their differences were canceled out whenever she left town. She always expected him to welcome her with open arms whenever she returned to him.
"Excuse me, Mothah. Ah have to return to Pong."
"What, you're not staying to play a game of chance?"
He sighed. "No, Mothah. Ah only play two or three nights a week now. Tonight is not the night and Ah'm tired from your task. Ah'll be back to see you off on the stage tomorrow."
He didn't give her time to interrupt as he turned on his heel and walked back out of the saloon.
Ezra wanted to go home, so he rented a nag from the stable and rode home to his beloved wife and their child to be.
Night was falling as he reached his horse ranch. His chestnut stallion was in the pasture with his mares and only grunted when he saw his former rider on another horse. He was used to it by now.
Ezra put the nag up in the barn stall and eagerly went to the house with the wrap around porch. Pong should be in the small den by the fireplace improving on her English with a book that Ezra bought for her.
He opened the door and went into the house and froze.
The house felt empty and he got a chill down his spine. He went to the den and found what looked like blood on the floorboards.
Ezra almost lost it. He knew that Pong had a derringer to protect herself. He had given it to her himself the first time he had been away from the ranch for more than one day.
The blood could be an attacker's blood.
Ezra pulled on everything his mother taught him to stay calm —
"Mothah," he hissed.
He was out the door and saddling the rented horse before his ranch door swung shut.
Oh, if his mother had anything to do with this . . . it wasn't going to be pleasant. Not pleasant, at all.
The banging at Nathan Jackson's clinic door was very loud. It set several dogs in town to howling, it was so loud.
Nathan grumbled as he picked his across the dark room to the door in only his pants. "Yeah, who is it?"
The panicked voice that came back to him moved Nathan more quickly to the door. "Nathan, it's Ezra! Ah need to see you!"
Nathan lit a lamp and flung open the door to find a white-faced and trembling Ezra Standish. Ezra pushed by Nathan and stood wringing his hands. Something that Nathan had never seen him do before.
"Nathan, have you seen a man with a derringer wound today?" Ezra asked, his voice strained and his eyes hopeful.
Nathan stooped to think about it. Let's see. He'd had that woman with womanly troubles and that farmer with the cut on his arm. And then he'd seen a little boy though about put his eye out with his daddy's gun-
"Nathan!"
Nathan's thoughts came back to Ezra. "No. I don't think so. What's happened?"
But Ezra was already going back out of the door and down the stairs mumbling to himself. "Sure, she wouldn't have let him see Nathan. That was a long shot. At least, it better be some hired gun's blood. If that's Pong's blood, she'll pay in spades." The litany continued down the street toward the hotel.
Nathan was listening to the monologue from his first step. The word blood caught his attention. "Pong's blood? What's going on, Ezra?"
He was ignored as Ezra stormed the hotel, yelling for Maude. Nathan reckoned he'd better get Chris and the others.
Ezra hit the hotel yelling his lungs out for Maude. He didn't even slow down that much at the darkened desk that held the registry book. He just skimmed a finger to find his mother's room and stomped up the stairs to find her room.
He could hear a man's voice yelling for him to get quiet and he made a perfectly ungentlemanlike suggestion to the man behind the door.
When Ezra reached his mother's room, he didn't knock. He just kicked it in.
She was up, having heard him coming from the saloon. She knew what he was here for and took a look at his enraged face. And for the first time, she had doubts about what she was doing.
Ezra's rage was banked for the moment. His voice going soft. "Well, Mothah? Where is she?"
Maude Standish had only seen her son like this four times in his life. This would make the fifth. "Ezra, what ever are you talking about?"
There were sounds of boots and sleepy inquiries from the doorway, but Ezra was having nothing to do with his friends right now. All that mattered was his bride in the hands of this . . . this harpy of a woman that was his mother.
"You know what I'm talking about, Mothah. For your sake, she'd best not be hurt. If that blood back at the ranch was Pong's, what I did in Atlanta as the Quick Gun will not even be a comparison."
Maude blanched a little. Ezra's gunfighting days in Atlanta while he was protecting her were some of the bloodiest of his years besides the war.
Then she squared her shoulders and pressed on. This, after all, was a lesson on staying sharp. Her boy always needed those to remind him of what he was and where he came from. "Ezra, Ah do not like the tone of your voice."
Ezra nodded. He had expected this from her.
Ezra pulled his gun and pointed it at her to the surprised exclamations from behind him from his colleagues. He didn't have time to deal with them right now.
"If you don't tell me where my wife is, Ah'll shoot you."
Maude became smug. "If you shoot me, Dear, then you won't get your information."
Ezra shook his head and smiled a mirthless smile. "Ah didn't say Ah'd kill you, just shoot you. And Ah'll keep shooting until you tell me what Ah want to know." Never had Ezra threatened her life before. Her voice was high pitched as she spoke, "You're just like Daniel."
Ezra shot and Maude flinched back. It missed. He cocked his gun again. "Wrong answer. And Ah told you before not to mention his name. You have no right."
He studied her shocked eyes and bleak expression. "Mother, mah wife and child will be returned to me in the next hour or Ah'll come back and finish the job."
"But, Darling, Ah'm just keeping you sharp. A wife and child will tie you down to this town. She's just a gold digger anyway. Just taking you for everything you have."
Ezra almost shot her just for saying that. "Mothah, you may not have much love in your life, but Ah'll not shun it when it comes mah way. Mah wife loves me and Ah love her. And if you hadn't noticed, Ah'm already tied down in this town." He put away his gun. "Like Ah said, one hour and then Ah come looking for you."
Ezra pushed through the rest of the seven peacekeeper of the town that were standing in the hallway and continued on to the jail for his agonizing wait.
Plus, he knew that Chris Larabee kept some whiskey in the bottom drawer of the sheriff's desk. Ezra needed something to settle his nerve after this hellish night.
Ezra was on his second gulp of whiskey when the others arrived at the jail. He almost got a good laugh at the picture they presented. J.D. and Buck were only in their longjohns and gunbelts. Chris was just in his jeans and boots with a gun tucked into his waistband. Nathan was still in just his pants. Josiah was half pants and half longjohns. Vin was the only one that was fully dressed out the lot of them.
"Gentlemen, you are a picture," snorted Ezra.
"Ezra, what the hell was that back there," demanded Chris. "I thought I would have to take your gun away to keep from bloodshed."
Ezra's eyes went dark. "You would have tried to take my gun. The outcome of which would not have been pleasant for either of us."
Buck could see Chris bulling up over that statement, so he jumped into the conversation. "So, what's going on?"
Ezra slowly shook his head. "Ah went home to find my lovely bride gone and blood on the floor."
More exclamations rang out. All Ezra did was nod his head. "And mah lovely Mothah is the one that took her. Mothah has one hour to hand Pong over . . . or Ah will shoot her."
"Now, son-"
"Josiah, don't even finish that sentence. Ah know Mother like the back of mah hand or a deck of cards. She took her. Just like she did before."
Now that got all of their attention. "Before?" asked Vin as they all settled themselves down into comfortable places in the jail for his tale telling.
Ezra just quirked an eyebrow at their presumptuousness.
"Well, come on, Pard. You can't leave us hanging after something like that," pleaded Buck.
Ezra sighed. He did have some time before he would have to shoot his mother, so he guessed it wouldn't hurt to talk about it.
"Well, this all started many years ago. Ah was around seventeen and fell madly in love with a girl named Sally Jo Jennings. Of course, we were married right away." He held up his right hand and wiggled his right ring finger. "I don't know if you have noticed my wearing of a gold band on this hand on occasion. Or the jade ring."
He smiled down in reflection for a moment and then continued. "Well, Mothah would have none of it. Ah wasn't put here on this Earth to settle down and make an honest living, or so she said at the time. One day Ah came home and Sally Jo was gone. It took me three days to get her back. Mothah had her taken and hidden away to 'teach me a lesson.' Just like now."
J.D. was listening with large eyes. This wasn't what a mother was supposed to do to her son. "But, why?"
Ezra got very quiet and looked down at the desk top. The silence stretched out for almost five minutes.
Finally Josiah broke the tension. "Daniel?"
Ezra whipped his head up so fast he almost gave himself a hurting. "Yes, Daniel. My older brother."
"You have an older brother," stated Chris.
"No, I had an older brother. Jackson Spalding shot him in the back after Daniel was betrayed by his own wife."
Chris sat up. "Wait, wait. Are you talking about Daniel Saige, the lawman? The one where his wife sold him out and then lived with the man who shot her husband?"
"Yes."
"Daniel Saige was a legend in the law business," said Buck in a hushed voice. Reverence was in his face.
"Yes, and look what it got him. He got a gold digging wife who wanted more than he could offer her on a lawman's salary." Ezra's voice was bitter, hard and agonized. "Mothah's been giving me these 'lessons' ever since he died."
"And what about your jade ring?" asked J.D.
Ezra smiled. "Ah got that from Daniel just before he was killed. It was our Fathah's, Joel Saige."
Buck sat up again from his slouch. "Wait, wait. Joel Saige, the U.S. Marshal? The one who never left a case unsolved? Boy, Ezra, you've been holding out on us."
Chris shook his head. "But why are you a Standish? Why not a Saige?"
Ezra snorted. "Mah Mothah's idea. She didn't want to be associated with 'them' any more than they wanted to be associated with her. She took me from Fathah when Ah was around ten years old to start conning and gambling with her. Daniel met up with me later and gave me Fathah's ring. It's been in the family for almost thirty years." He looked down. "Then Daniel was killed and the 'lessons' started. She says she's trying to keep me sharp."
"Son, maybe she's just trying her best to look out for you. Keep you from Daniel's fate," rumbled Josiah from the corner.
Ezra shook his head. "Ah don't know. Ah really don't. They seem vicious at times. Like the saloon incident."
They all became quiet as Ezra took out his watch and looked at the time. Ten minutes left to go.
"Gosh, I hope she comes," whispered J.D. to Buck.
Buck nodded. "You and me, both, Pard."
Maude made a hard decision and went to see Ezra's bride.
Pong was in the cellar of the saloon and tied up with rope. A gag was in her mouth, but her contempt of the woman in front of her was obvious.
The blood had not been Pong's at the ranch house. In the corner of the cellar was a large man with a hasty bandage on his left forearm.
"Ah trust you've kept out of sight with that bullet wound on your arm?"
The man nodded. "Sure, and I've kept watch over her just like you said. I don't want to risk that thirty dollars you promised me after this is over."
Maude sniffed in disdain at the man. All you needed was money and you could get anyone to do anything.
"Take the gag off."
The man moved over to Pong and took off the gag. Pong spat at him as he turned to go back to the corner. He moved to slap her, but Maude stopped him with a word.
"Now, leave us you dolt. Ah'll pay you later."
The man muttered to himself and moved up the stairs of the cellar. Maude waited for the door to close before she began to talk to Pong.
"What's your business with my son?"
Pong's anger turned to puzzlement. "What business? I love your son. I love our baby."
Maude was a master of the con. She could hold her own with the best in the business. Surely a girl like this could no con her. Maude looked deep into the eyes of Pong and saw the truth for the very first time.
This woman truly did love her son. It was like taking his first wife all over again. How did she keep making these mistakes? Jo had really loved Ezra as well.
Maude had made a horrible mistake in taking both of them from their homes.
Five minutes to go and the Seven were getting antsy.
"So, what happened to your first wife?" asked Buck.
Ezra's eyes went down. "Ah believe the consumption took her to the Lord. She had the god-awful cough and lost weight every day. She was gone in a year."
"Sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about, Buck. It was just her time and the doctors could do nothing to help her. She was suffering."
The conversation was interrupted when a light footstep was on the jail's boardwalk.
Ezra immediately jumped up and ran to the door. He knew that step anywhere and anyplace. It was Pong.
When he was finally face to face with her, he grabbed her in a hug so tight she almost couldn't breathe. "Lord, Ah was worried for you and the baby."
"I fine now. Baby is fine."
He pushed her back slightly. "Was it Mothah?"
Pong nodded. "Yes."
"Is she gone?"
"Yes, she left with large man on horses. Told me to come here."
Well, good riddance, though Ezra. He hoped she never darkened his doorstep again.
Three months later, Daniel Liang Joel Saige Standish was born.
Ezra didn't wire Maude of the birth. It was best she didn't know. Especially since Pong named the baby after the 'good' side of Ezra's family.
She insisted that Ezra was part of the 'good' side as well.
He wasn't too sure about that, but he'd like to think so. He'd like to think he was living up to Joel and Daniel's examples as good, honest men.
If he would have thought to ask any of his friends, they would have told him that he was.
The End of Home is Where the Heart Is