Main Character: Ezra Standish
Rating: Rating: PG13, some language
Universe: Alternative Old West
Series: Home is Where the Heart Is
Disclaimer: I don't own them, don't sue. No money! I do not intend to make any money from this story or any of my other endeavors.
Comments: Ez finally gets a little love in his life. Don't you think it's time? Read Revenge is Sweet first.
Of all the damn, son-of-a-bitching days, it had to be today. And what was today? It was his damn birthday, of course. He was officially thirty years old. Thirty years to the day, he had been born into this hell-hole of a world and thirty years and nine months ago he had been conceived of a woman who had no morals what so ever. None.
Oh, she had tried to teach him, she said. Give him a trade, she had said. She had left him alone so much when he was younger for his own good. She had needed to leave to get money for the two of them or have him learn a cover trade.
The two of them. He snorted and then quickly looked around to make sure no one had heard him make the ungentlemanly sound.
And what wonderful friends and relatives she had left him with. Each charged with a part of his 'education' during his stay with them. He had lessons in controlling his facial expressions from an old crone of an aunt in New Jersey. Lessons about guns from an uncle in Petersburg. How to ride and judge horses from an older cousin in the bayous of the South.
All his gambling skills had come directly from his mother. No one else had been allowed the privilege of teaching him how to palm a card or deal from the bottom of the deck. Only his mother was slippery enough to teach his the proper use of a deck of cards.
He could count the number of times they had spent more than two months together at a time on one hand during his first twelve years of life. When he started coming into his own, began to get into the game, then his mother found him useful.
He was suddenly good for something.
She had also taught him how to dress and how to act. How to con and how to fleece. He looked down at his present state of dress and almost laughed. He was still in his ranching clothing. He had yet been able to replace all the wardrobe that he had sold off. He absently ran a hand down his blue leather vest and jeans and smiled.
He was no gentleman anymore.
They only concession to his former glory was the redonning of his extra guns. His Colt in the shoulder holster and his derringer were safely in place. He had learned his lesson after the revenge seeker had found hin just outside of town with only his Remington at his hip. It, and Buck, had almost not been enough to get him out of that deadly situation.
Mother always told him that it payed off to be prepared.
And yet, he still loved her, for all her rough treatment of him as a child. He still yearned for something from her. Something, anything that would show she loved him. He had thought that he had received that when he learned of her two days of supposed mourning in Josiah's church when she had heard that he was dead. He had thought wrong. She wouldn't even come see him when she learned that he was alive and well.
Inez walked by his table and asked if he would like another whiskey. He nodded and watched her walk away with a smile.
When he had come back from Silverton, Inez had made a play for him. He had been flattered, he had been nervous and he had been heartbroken. In the end, they had just decided to stay good friends.
Besides, his heart lay elsewhere. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone, especially himself. He absently played with a plain gold band on his right ring finger. He needed to feel some of the old pain today.
Inez brought him his drink and smiled at him and then returned to her duties. He was so lucky to have her as a kind, caring friend. He was lucky to be in the Seven. If it hadn't been for them, he would have lost his sanity years ago. They had saved it the moment he met them in the saloon while he was cheating a group of cowboys.
Josiah though it was all a part of a divine plan from God. For Chris, it was redemption. For Buck and JD, a family. For Vin, some protection and friendship. For Nathan, validation as a human being.
For him it was just a chance to get away from his mother.
But she had found him not long afterwards. Tried to lure him back to the con. When that didn't work, she came back and destroyed his dream.
She had almost destroyed him with it. Sometimes it was hard to just get out of bed in the mornings and face the world.
That was, until he looked at his friends and his starting ranch. His horses playing in the fields and the town that needed his protection.
He paused his thoughts as he downed the last of his whiskey and then held the glass up to eye level and studied the fine cracks in the thick glass. Fine cracks and yet not liquid had escaped the vessel.
Everything was cracked to some degree. Even himself.
He sighed.
And then he had gotten the telegram. His mother was coming back again. Coming back into his life to try and reorganize it for him. She would take one look at his clothes and his ranch and immediately start to make plans to get him the hell away from it all to reinstill all her former lessons.
He didn't want her to come. He loved her, but he hated her with an equal passion.
His friends didn't know that she had finally decided to come see him after his supposed death. They would not be able to help him now any more than they had in her previous visits. It was all up to him and he trembled a little.
And she had not even wished him a happy birthday in the telegram. She probably didn't even remember it. Dates and holidays had no meaning for her unless they contributed to her moneymaking scams.
Ezra's finely tuned hearing for the workings of a saloon picked up something odd and he looked up to scan the room. Inez was at the bar, the other six lawmen were at their regular table and a few other locals were scattered around the room nursing their drinks.
But it was suddenly very quiet.
And his friends were all looking at him with intense stares and then turned their eyes to his far right. Toward the door.
After all that had happened to him in the last few months he was almost afraid to turn around to face the doorway of the saloon.
He slowly turned his head, his chin-strap from his hat swinging gently to tap his right shoulder. And his mouth dropped open and his vision got dim for a moment. When his heart finally stated beating again and his breath was back up to speed, he reached up with his right hand and swept his hat off of his head absently and stood from his chair.
His heart stood in the doorway. It was the return of his love.
His mother was completely forgotten.
He knew exactly why she was there. It wasn't to talk about old times and it wasn't to be just friends. He could physically feel the love radiating off of her small body.
She started toward him and he met her halfway. Not a word was spoken, not a hello or a good to see you again. They met in a fiery kiss that almost set the saloon on fire with its long repressed passion.
Inez sighed as she finally had proof as to why Ezra was just her good friend and not more.
The lovers separated just enough to go into a fierce hug that put her cheek against the hollow of his neck.
"I almost not recognize you without your pretty coat," she whispered.
"You would know me whatever Ah was dressed in. Just like Ah would always know you," he whispered back.
"I here to stay now."
"That's good, because Ah'm not letting you go again, Li Pong."
They held each other tightly, like two people drowning that were trying to stay afloat on the raging sea. His friends gently encouraged the others in the saloon to leave by the back door so that the two could have some privacy.
But before his friends could leave as well, Ezra called out to Josiah.
"Josiah, could you marry us?" Ezra asked without even taking his eyes off of Li Pong.
His friends gave each other a look. Ezra had not even asked Li Pong to marry him. But she was not refuting it either.
"Please, Josiah?" asked Li Pong, her eyes still on Ezra. "I have been waiting long time for this."
Josiah moved back toward the couple. "Do you have a ring?"
Ezra reached under his shirt and pulled out a chain. On the chain was a delicate little gold band with one round jade jewel at the center. He pulled it off the chain and threw the chain to the floor. He wouldn't need it anymore since the ring was about to take its proper place on his love's finger.
He held up the ring between his right pointer finger and thumb and raised it to Li Pong's eye level. "I've had this ring since the week you left for San Francisco. I saw it and thought of you. It's been near my heart all this time, waiting for your return."
She also reached into her bag that hung from her wrist. "I see this in San Francisco." She held up a red-gold band with an inlayed opal. "I see the pretty colors and think of you." She reached with her left hand and touched his right ring finger where another golden band rested. "But if you want to keep this ring?"
Ezra looked down at the white-gold ring that was on his finger. It had a whole history of things he had never talked about to anyone in this town. Things he would never forget, but things best left in the past.
Without comment, he pulled off the ring and put it in his pocket. It would go in his wooden chest when he went back to his ranch later.
When they got back to the ranch later.
Next: The Change
The End
February 10, 2003
Feedback to Author