Pastimes

by DeniseV

Ezra's newest pastime.

Three Days Ago …

There were few pastimes more enjoyable these days. He had just finished his turn at patrol which was, more and more, a pleasant affair. The dusty backwater town had grown, and he had grown quite fond of the results. If he were to be honest with himself, which was not as rare an occasion as in years past, he had to admit that he, too, had grown - quite a lot - during his time in Four Corners. His daytime patrol allowed him the opportunity to spend extra minutes during the suppertime hours with some of the children with whom he still worked, despite the town's recent acquisition of a full-time teacher. He would perform card tricks or allow Chaucer to show off for some of the children as a reward for their extra efforts at school, or spend needed time with those who seemed to be struggling with their studies. He would be forever grateful that his position within the team of men hired three years before to protect this town was part-time, for the most part, allowing him the time with the children. Though he might not have admitted it out loud, it was true that he got as much out of his time spent with the young people of the town as they did. Passing off the responsibility he felt towards the children had been one of the hardest things he'd ever done.

His day shift covering the town and its western outskirts had now shifted indoors, his last stop the place where he began his day: the saloon. He was exercising his hands – and his ability to read a crowd – in preparation for this evening's gaming at his regular table. As he sat with his favorite Kentucky bourbon and worked the cards as dexterously and effortlessly as ever, he kept his eye on the goings-on at the bar. Or rather, more precisely, the goings-on behind the bar.

More and more, Ezra Standish found his attentions taken up by the pretty Mexican barkeep. Fortunately for him, his powers of concentration still allowed him to beat all comers at the card table, though he wondered some days how that could possibly be.

She was truly mesmerizing. Amusing. Intelligent. Beautiful. And she knew how to handle the typical saloon clientele, like the oaf currently trying to flirt with her. Make that slobber over her. Ezra could feel the heat building as he forced himself to stay out of it. The effort on the man's part was ridiculous, of course; Inez Recillos was a deft hand in keeping the dusty cowpoke in his place, yet encouraging the man to continue to imbibe and increase the evening's proceeds. Inez had developed into a businesswoman par excellence.

Ezra smirked at her antics, dropped his head briefly, smiling even wider as he set up a new game of solitaire, and then raised his head, the appreciative grin still in place, to find the object of his admiration … staring at him. She frowned, quirked her head questioningly, and then turned quickly, her skirts whooshing across the shelves behind the bar, and headed to the kitchen.

He'd been caught at his current favorite pastime. He had to admit to some trepidation at the prospect; the fiery senorita was no one to cross swords with. He knew that a confrontation with the independent object of the daydreams of many a man passing through his no-longer-backwater town was imminent.

Ezra would need to prepare appropriately, as his own daydreams had just been found out.

"Hey … Hoss," Buck Wilmington said in a most deliberate manner as he waved his hand in front of the gambler's face.

"Is that entirely necessary?" Ezra asked with annoyance as he swatted the offending hand away.

"Well, I guess so. I gave ya a friendly greeting and then asked if you were interested in a game."

"So you did," Ezra answered. Silently he chastised himself with a 'Come now, Ezra.' It would do no good to give away his hand so soon, especially in light of the fact that he did not yet know what said hand would reveal.

Buck saw the hint of worry just before the southerner put up his formidable poker face. "Somethin' wrong?" the ladies man asked as he took a look around the room.

"No, Mistah Wilmington. Ah was just wonderin' when one of you gentlemen would finally make an appearance this fine evening."

"Hell, Ezra. It ain't us that's late." Buck pulled out his pocket watch and tapped on the timepiece as he showed the face to his friend. "You're here early. And that," he said as he leaned in conspiratorially, "is something to wonder about."

Ezra scowled as he pushed his friend – and this time the man's watch not just his hands – away. 'Aw, hell,' the con man thought. He would need to think fast here, as the previous object of his attentions was now heading over to confront him in front of his current, less desirable distraction. There was little chance that this would end well.

"Why, good evenin', Inez," Buck said as he stood to welcome the pretty woman to the table. But Buck Wilmington might as well have been invisible for all the interest the pretty brunette paid him. Inez, rather, stood and stared at Ezra. There was no magnetism, animal or otherwise, that would tear Inez from Ezra and toward Buck, her staring straight through the lean gunman proof positive of that fact. It was early, as Buck had said, and there was a decided lull as the busy part of the evening approached, giving her plenty of time to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.

Ezra, who had looked back down to his solitaire game, which was looking much like the unfamiliar characters of the Russian alphabet, looked up to greet the object of his … was he quite ready to admit? Affections?

"Senorita Recillos?"

"Senor Standish?"

Buck looked back and forth between the two of them. He frowned, not really liking what he was seeing, or more importantly, feeling. "What's goin' on here?" he asked.

Inez folded her arms in front of her bosom. "That is what I would like to know."

"Inez, mah dear … "

"No. You are not Buck," she said.

"Damn straight," the handsome gunman agreed. Inez looked to Buck and shook her head with frustration, and then turned back to Ezra.

"You and I, we do not play games," she said plainly. Ezra and Inez looked intently at one another. She stepped between the two men and in an intimate fashion, leaned into the gambler's personal space. Never once relinquishing eye contact, she asked softly, "What is going on here?"

Buck leaned back in his chair, peered around Inez's waist to look accusingly at Ezra, and said, "That's what I want to know." This time it likely felt like he had just spoken to Vin's ornery excuse for a horse; it had indeed been a waste of energy to even open his mouth as the pair before him ignored him completely.

"Could you," Ezra started, unsure of just where he was going, but bravely choosing the path forward, in spite of the pains similar efforts had wrought with similar 'opportunities' in his past. He hoped his instincts were right, that this time – with this woman – the pursuit would amount to something other than pain and disappointment. "Would you be able to take some time away from behind the bar?" he asked hopefully.

Their eyes had not faltered, their gazes upon one another steady and all that mattered at that moment. No thoughts of monies not won, of liquor not sold, of friends ignored. Only the 'could have beens' of chances not taken.

"Si." Ezra carefully put his cards back in their protective carton, his hands trembling slightly, and slid them into his vest pocket. They stepped away, Ezra following Inez up the staircase, leaving Buck open-mouthed in their wake.

"'Bout time," Buck heard in between the jingle of spurs. Chris. 'What the hell?' the town's Lothario questioned to himself.

"Ya think?" was expressed by the former buffalo hunter Vin Tanner. Buck considered Chris as close to him as the young sheriff with the stupid hat who Buck had come to love as a brother. He and Chris had a relationship with a history that nothing, external or internal, could challenge. And Vin had become very important to the ladies man, as had all of the men he worked with to protect Four Corners. But he was thinking twice now about his affection toward both Chris Larabee and Vin Tanner as this conversation progressed. Hell, even J.D. Dunne, who wasn't even in town, would be a target of the lean gunman, knowing where the kid's side in the conversation would lie.

"Jest a matter of time," Vin added to the conversation, followed by, "Ya in a fly catchin' contest, Buck?"

Buck shut his mouth, and then started to formulate a question, but he was quickly cut off by the booming voice of Josiah Sanchez.

"Brothers, how was your day?"

"Well, I'll tell ya … " Buck began, but nobody seemed too inclined to hear what Buck had to say. Other conversation from the bar seemed to drown him out, as though even the building itself, at least for today, was tired of hearing the same old stories from Buck, stories that more and more held a distinct repetitive nature to them.

"Looks like Ezra and Inez finally figured it out," Vin said with a decidedly happy grin. The smiled faltered somewhat when he realized they were still missing one of their team. "Where's Nate?"

"He's … " the former preacher started, just as the man in question stepped through the bat wing doors. "He's right there," Josiah said with a knowing smile and a twinkle in his eye. Vin sent back a roll of the eyes at what he could see just fine … now.

Nathan raised his eyebrows, sensing that he was the topic of discussion, and hoping that his skills as a healer were not needed. "Did I miss something?" he asked as he shed his coat and folded tiredly into a chair at their regular table.

"Looks like," Vin offered with a smile as he took a swig from his beer. Josiah and Nathan looked from Vin, who seemed pleased to leave things as is, more cryptic than the two men currently had the patience for after a long, dusty ride back from the reservation, and then over to Chris. The leader of the 'Magnificent Seven' shook his head at his quiet comrade and told of the news.

"Ezra and Inez just headed upstairs."

"Is that so?" Josiah asked approvingly.

"Yeah, it was kind o' like a slow dance," Vin observed, the romantic in him still pronounced, even after the difficulties with Charlotte and his inability to sustain a romance in a town where he saw his friends, one by one, becoming more serious with the women in their lives.

"No it wasn't," Buck insisted, decidedly irritated that he was the only one among them who didn't think that this news was at all newsworthy. They seemed satisfied, even happy at this turn of events. 'It was!' he even heard J.D. challenge, even if only in his head.

"I won't argue with that. Been near three years since they first laid eyes on each other," Josiah agreed. "That's pretty near the slowest of dances."

"So what, Josiah? The same could be said for each one of us," Buck said.

"Bucklin, you need to open yer eyes 'n' clean out yer ears." Buck stared at Vin in the hopes that the man would explain what he meant. As that tact seemingly would result in naught, he turned to his oldest friend. Chris just shook his head.

"You need me to say it?" the tall blond asked. Buck looked from one of his friends to the next, and then finally back to Chris.

"I reckon so, old pard, 'cause I ain't seen what you all seem to be seein'."

"Buck, do ya think maybe you ain't seen the attraction that Ezra and Inez got goin' because of your own feelings for her?" Nathan asked.

"Buck don't feel about Inez the way Ezra does," Vin said, plain and simple. Buck looked to the tracker, his expression wounded, as though Vin had purposefully slighted him. Vin could see the pain his words had caused, but he knew that he had spoken the truth. 'You don't, Buck,' ladies man heard again, J.D. once more, the easterner's voice somehow rising higher in Buck's head, as it tended to do in moments of stress.

All of his associates, save for the one currently occupied by the pretty Mexican, and the one who was on an errand for the judge and out of town, were awaiting a reply from Buck on what Vin had said. Buck didn't appear to have a ready answer as Vin's soft voice chimed in.

"You don't really want to feel the same way Ez feels 'bout Inez, do ya Buck?"

That was the question, but his friends felt it somewhat necessary to drive that truth home.

"You ready to settle down with one woman?" Nathan asked. Though it wasn't for the same reason, he had recently been contemplating the same question, but he knew he had a far different answer than Buck.

"The lovely lady does not seem like she'd be the type interested in sharing," Josiah added.

"They've all got a point, Buck. And that's beside the fact that what's been goin' on between Ezra and Inez has been goin' on for close to a year." Or more accurately put, what had not been going on, at least not outwardly, but everyone but Buck, apparently, and Ezra and Inez maybe, knew something was up.

"A year?" Buck exclaimed, not sure he believed what Chris claimed.

"Longer on her part, I'd reckon," Vin said.

"That's only 'cause Ezra's been blind to what's right in front of him." All of the other seven present stared back at Chris. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It may be the pot callin' the kettle black but, Buck, you need to let this go. I may be ready," he added, which was likely news to more than one of the Seven insofar as how Chris felt things were going with Mary Travis, "Ezra seems interested in considering it, but you are not the settling down type." He looked to Nathan and nodded his head, knowing that the healer was much farther along with his relationship with Raine than either Chris or Ezra was in theirs. Hell, J.D. was closer to a real relationship with Casey Wells, despite the kid's own penchant for dragging his feet.

Buck lowered his head, averting the gazes of his friends as they awaited his answer. Chris noted the hesitation and asked, "Are you?"

Buck raised his eyes to his oldest friend. In those eyes, Chris read, 'I wanna be', but what came out of his mouth confirmed the painful truth.

"No," buxom redheads of the political persuasion notwithstanding.

Chris clasped his hand on his friend's neck. Josiah saw the pain, too, in Buck's demeanor.

"Brother Buck, I know that you made the right call. And the next time you see Ezra and Inez together, you'll know it, too."

"They're good for each other," Nathan said. Chris rubbed more firmly on Buck's neck in silent agreement. Vin Tanner just nodded his head in accord with his fellow lawmen, his friends who were happy to see what it meant for Ezra and Inez to be together.

Buck looked toward the stairs. He knew it would take him time to accept what had gone on, though he also knew he would immediately stop flirting with the lady in question. He turned back to look at the rest of his friends, and then nodded once, the smile finally back on his face.

"You reckon we'll get a card game outta Ez tonight?" Buck asked.

"Indubitably," the southerner said as he escorted Inez down the steps. At the bottom of the staircase, Ezra took her hand, held it gently, lovingly, and then kissed it. He leaned in, said something to her that only she could hear, though those close enough could tell it was spoken in Spanish. Inez, a blush quickly adorning her cheeks, replied, 'Si', and then headed with a definite bounce to her step back to her job behind the bar.

Ezra watched her go, and Ezra's comrades watched the con man. The fancy-dressed man smiled at his friends, unpacked his deck of cards and started shuffling. They had never witnessed Ezra Standish give away so much. It was obvious to his friends that though he might not yet be prepared to verbalize it, he was not afraid to show his feelings, not now, not for something so important. And though Ezra's good friends thirsted to hear more of what had gone on between the gambler and the pretty proprietress, and they all knew they could count the missing J.D. at the top of that list, it seemed Ezra had other ideas more in line with lining his pockets with his compatriots' money.

"Five card stud?" he asked, and then with a twinkle in his eyes and the light gleaming off his gold tooth, he added with a happy smile, "Queens wild." It was a call that the card sharp would have chastised a dealer for on any other day.

This was not one of those days.

The card playing lasted for near two hours, and a pleasant time was had by all, the camaraderie amongst the men bleeding into the rest of the saloon. An easy, uneventful night was spent as the men awaited the arrival of their seventh. J.D. Dunne was due in any time, his errand to deliver documents to Eagle Bend and Silver Spring completed, as per the dispatches he had sent upon departure from each town.

At the start of their third hour of play, everyone tired but willing to stick with it in the hopes of hearing something from the gambler, J.D. stormed into the saloon, heading with determination to the playing table. Ezra had just returned from the privy, and the fact that he was sitting back in his seat was probably all that saved him from more serious injury. J.D. hauled off and punched the gambler, taking him and all those at the table completely unawares. Ezra flew over the back of his chair. The punch didn't knock him out, but the landing on the railing behind him did.

"J.D.!" was yelled by the only female in the room. Inez, her anger and fear raised her voice above all of the din within the drinking establishment.

J.D. had continued to go after Ezra, even with Chris, Josiah and Buck trying to hold him back. Inez's voice pierced through all else and distracted J.D. enough that Vin's added weight in the mix finally forced the rabidly angry man away from the unconscious one. 'Madre di dios' was heard as Inez and Nathan and a local rancher moved chairs and the table out of the way enough for the healer to get a look at his downed friend. Inez remained glued to Nathan's side until the last chair was removed and she had the opportunity to put herself just beside the southerner, her skirt buffering her knees against the hard floor.

"What the hell?" Chris demanded as he glared at J.D. with nearly the same menace as the young man seemed to now have for their downed fellow lawman.

Buck put his hand in front of the angry blond. "Now hold on, Chris."

"Hold on?" Chris said as he scowled at his old friend, and then grimaced as he took a glance at Ezra, unconscious on the floor. He turned to J.D. and demanded, "Tell me, now, what just happened here. It looked like assault, plain and simple, J.D. Unprovoked assault."

"Chris," Buck pleaded.

"Buck, shut up. J.D., talk."

J.D. Dunne was seething, barely getting enough oxygen with each breath. Josiah and Vin still held him back on either side; they could feel in the tension in his arms that he'd be right back at it if either of them let go. Buck stood beside Chris and was the next closest to the young man other than those who held his arms.

"He bedded Casey."

"Oh, hell," Chris said, his tone saying, without doubt, that the accusation was untrue. When Chris said 'Oh, hell', no one in the room heard anything other than, 'Like hell'.

"He did!" J.D. insisted. "He deserves more than that," he added, his ire growing. He pushed from side to side, attempting to loosen the hold on his body. They all held on tighter as J.D. aimed a kick at Vin. The tracker, slow to anger, especially anger at his friends, was having none of that, and would not allow a second attempt as he moved behind the irate man and pulled J.D.'s arm well-high up his back.

And then the quiet Texan had something to say.

"Ain't true."

"You always take his side, Vin!" J.D. yelled.

"Simmer down. We can just as easily do this down at the jail," Chris suggested.

Buck looked at Chris with sad eyes, seeing in the stern demeanor that he had already decided J.D.'s fate, without really hearing what had caused this unexpected behavior. He turned to the young man and tried to get more out of him.

"Why do you think that, kid?" he asked softly.

"I heard some guys talkin' at the livery. Said it plain as could be," he answered in challenge to Chris' use of the same word to describe what he had witnessed J.D. do just moments ago.

"What did he say, J.D.?" Josiah asked, far calmer and quieter than his friends expected. Josiah had found, ever since the incident with the territorial governor and Ezra nearly leaving town … leaving them with the money hidden in his jacket, a certain empathy for the gambler. That Josiah had been wrong in what he'd done, in how he'd treated Ezra that fateful day meant what seemed a lifetime of penance to the con man. It wasn't what Ezra wanted or ever asked for, and there were days, when Josiah's smothering figuratively left him unable to breathe, when he wished that he had left that day he saved Mary's life. It didn't happen often, feeling this way, which was why he was still here. It also didn't stop Josiah from being Josiah, no matter how much Ezra tried to get him to stop.

J.D.'s eyes grew big, and a little teary, grateful that someone was willing to hear what he had to say. He was so overwrought, though, that he was still unable to see that none of them believed what J.D. had said Ezra had done.

"One of 'em said that 'the gambler'," he started, saying the descriptive with contempt, "had stolen her right out from under the dark-haired one. That had to have been me, since Buck ain't like that with any of his girls." Buck lowered his head and then shook it sadly. J.D. frowned at the reaction, but went on. "Then he said she's just a daughter of a dirt farmer, that she didn't know no better. Well, Casey's ma's family were farmers and they were headin' to their new place when they died."

"Casey's pa was educated, Nettie told me. They bought a place, but her ma was just gonna have a vegetable garden, like Nettie does." Vin said it slowly and with the conviction of knowing that J.D. had misread the situation terribly, and Ezra had paid a steep price for that. But Vin also knew that J.D. was going to need all the help he could once he realized what he'd done. He went on, even more quietly, "Inez's people are farmers."

"Inez? Wh … What's Inez got to do with this?" J.D. asked, confused.

"J.D., Ezra ain't after Casey," Buck said.

"He may not be after her, but looks like he's willin' to take her … "

"J.D.," Buck said more firmly. "Someone mistook my … flirting with Inez as more than it was. And when they saw Ezra take Inez upstairs … "

"E … Ezra and Inez?" J.D. asked. He started blinking his eyes more, a tear falling down his cheek. He looked over to where Ezra lay … and saw Inez holding his hand as Nathan continued to help his … friend? "Oh, god. I … I heard … "

"You heard wrong, kid," Chris said as he stood up and headed for the space behind the pulled out table. He turned back and to Josiah and Vin said, "Let 'im go."

As soon as he was released, he headed to follow their leader, but hands grabbed him from three different directions.

"Leave it be, son," Josiah said.

"Best you keep away 'til Nathan finds out more," Vin suggested.

He looked to Buck, the man to whom he'd turned every time he had experienced trouble, or lacked confidence, or wanted to share his joy, since jumping from a stagecoach onto the dusty main avenue of Four Corners some three years before. "Come on," the compassionate ladies man said. "I'll clean up your hand, and we can talk."

"Buck, I … how could I … "

"How could you?" Inez was furious as she mimicked how J.D. had asked the question, his query more a question of how he could have gotten it so wrong. And then Inez asked it in her own way. "How could you?" Her meaning was clear: how could he have taken what he'd heard and believed it of the gambler, after over three years working together, drinking together, sharing the highs and lows of their lives – together. It took her only a moment to make herself clear, to make it clear where J.D. now stood with her. She turned and headed back to her spot, taking the hand in hers once more. To say that everyone who remained was worried that Ezra had not come to yet would have been a sorry thing to state, so obvious it was.

"Come on, kid," Buck said as he put his hand on J.D.'s back and steered him from the saloon.

The Next Day …

"But he will be all right?"

"Yeah. He's going to have a bad headache for a while longer, but he's going to be fine," Nathan said, his voice warm with concern.

"But he doesn't remember … " Inez started, but decided not to finish.

"No, I'm sorry, but he don't remember anything since we saw … well, since three days ago." Nathan had meant to say since they saw J.D. off on his errand, but right now, Inez wanting nothing to do with J.D. and just mentioning his name seemed wrong to the compassionate black man. J.D. was going through his own kind of hell. This entire episode was miserable for all of the players.

Inez looked to the door of Ezra's room. He had been moved there earlier in the day, Nathan and Josiah supporting him as he made his way dizzyingly to his feather bed; Nathan had insisted that they move him only to the back room after Ezra had been hurt the day before. The pretty Mexican had watched the effort, had even been acknowledged by Ezra with a gentlemanly nod of the head, but she could see in his eyes that he did not remember that things had changed between them. No recognition that they had moved well beyond their friendly daily encounters, the teasing that they so enjoyed subjecting one another to. No, Ezra didn't remember; he had no recollection of what they had discussed in his room the other day, of what had been consummated with a single kiss.

Nathan couldn't stand watching her, her sadness was overwhelming. Vin and Chris had tried to console her, to explain that he had made the decision to pursue her once before; that he was likely to take the same route again. Ezra was, for all his flamboyant dress and occasional bravado on an encyclopedia of topics, and likely even because of these things, a man of habit. The routines of his life had made what was to most people just a hobby or even a passion into a vocation; winning at poker, most people would say, was not a winning proposition.

"You know he loves you," the healer said. "He has for some time." Inez's eyes grew wide at the suggestion. "Yes, ma'am. So I suspect, when he's feelin' better, that he'll come up with the idea again to see if you'd have an interest in him." Inez snorted, no need to add the comment 'Of course I'd have an interest.' A look came over her, her expression one of confusion and pain. "Hey, you ain't thinkin' of movin' on, are you? Because even if Ezra hadn't decided that it was time to ask you to see him, I know for sure that it would break his heart if you left. Give it time. Give him time."

"We have both earned at least that," she said as she plastered on her happy face, turned the doorknob, and entered Ezra's room above the saloon.

Today …

Ezra Standish woke to find a full head of long, silky brown hair feathered across his chest. He was having an easier time keeping up with why he had been abed these last days, but finding Inez at his side this morning was new. Relatively new, as he remembered seeing her yesterday, at least he was somewhat sure that this was true, though under what circumstances he could not recall. She had fallen asleep this time, obviously. Maybe Nathan had asked for volunteers to watch over him; he must have been hurt pretty badly for the pretty Mexican to remove herself from the saloon, at least for this purpose. Ezra rubbed his head, the ache persistent, as Nathan said it would be for some time. He placed his hand on Inez's soft hair. It was somehow soothing, having her here. He had admired her beauty and her fiery nature since they first met, and watched her grow into a better businesswoman than his mother could ever hope to be. God his head hurt. He closed his eyes and continued to feel the soft hair and listen to the steady breathing. It calmed him, some, as he fretted about the time wasted lying in his comfortable bed. These circumstances, however, a beautiful woman sleeping with her head nestled on his arm, was something he could get used to, especially this woman. He fell asleep thinking about the beautiful Mexican; as pastimes went, this was one he could become addicted to.

The End.