A/N: Hey guys :) So thinking/discussing about birthday fics for the YP 'verse somehow led to this, an orgin fic for 'Come Together, Right Now' 'verse. Which really needs it's own 'verse name if anyone wants to suggest one :). That and a need to flesh out my OC's who I hope you like.

Also, I think little Vin and JD are adorable and I hope you all agree.

There is some discussion of past child abuse, little Ezra has not had an easy life.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it check out my new Young Peacekeepers one-shot, Dynamite! Yes, I said one-shot, it is complete :)

And as always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

*.*.*.*.*

*.*.*

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Jack Larabee felt his wife's eyes on his back as a sudden presence, had been too wrapped up in the paperwork spread across his desk to hear her enter the study. He hunched over them guiltily and a little defensively, and then, feeling like a tool, straightened up and swiveled his chair so he could see her, offering a smile because he didn't know what else to do.

"How are you coming on the paperwork?" Alice's voice was soft, but lacked it's usual warmth, her sweater encased arms moving to cross over her chest as she spoke.

His hand moving to scrub his eyes for a moment before he answered, Jack dropped it, feeling strangely exposed as he did, vulnerable in a way that he knew wasn't fair. He was far, far, from the victim here. "Mostly done. Orin filled out everything I wasn't required to do myself, and it's mostly just signatures and dates. They'll need yours too." Now that the DNA test results were back it was just formalities and red tape to get through, one perk of having both a district judge and the retired head of children's services as family friends. Alice nodded almost absently as she looked around the room, arms still tight across her chest, not comfortable right now in his space. Not comfortable around him. Needing to say something, knowing it would do no good, and might even make things worse, he still lamely offered up, "I'm sorry."

Alice laughed a little, her eyes half-closing and her chin moving down towards her shoulder. Turning her head, hiding her face from him. "Yeah, you already said that." He wanted to get up, comfort her, but instead he just stayed rooted in his chair, glued there. Her eyes turned back to his again, her expression more focused, voice going tight in a way that meant she was holding back angry tears, "You just make sure you dot every I and cross every T. You make sure he is never going back to that-that-." Alice, fully aware that in their house, there was always the possibility of a child listening cut herself off there, but it was enough for Jack to sit forward in his chair worriedly. His hospital ward running, PTA meeting attending, plan for everything wife, had always been far more the type to get even than to get mad, but he could almost hear the stream of curses she was holding back.

"Did something happen? Ezra-"

"Something more than Ezra flinching every time you or me, or even the older kids go anywhere near him? Something more than the rigid, nervous way he holds himself, picks every word with us like if it's the wrong one something terrible will happen?" She paused then, glaring at him, and what the hell was he supposed to say? That first day or two, a week and a half ago now, when her focus had been solely on a nearly thirteen year old betrayal, it had been easier, almost. If she weren't going to forgive him for that, Jack had no doubt he would have already known, for all it was going to be a long while. It would never be quite the same, she would always remember what he had done, and knowing he'd lost that...but she would forgive him. He hadn't known about the boy. Alice knew that. She would forgive him for that too, eventually, but he thought it might be even longer. Knew that her forgiveness didn't wipe out the debt he owed his son, anyway.

"Yeah, actually something more did happen." Her face twisted as she spoke, tears in her eyes, "Vin and JD actually got him to go out back and play in the sprinkler with them," she paused, pressing her lips together and Jack didn't understand, though there was a hollow feeling growing in his stomach. That should have been a good thing, a great thing when he wasn't sure he'd seen Ezra actually play the whole time he was here. The only toys of his own he'd brought with him were his cards and an old stuffed dragon that he kept hidden underneath his pillow-and they only knew about it because of a very tense scene at bedtime a few nights before when he couldn't find it and had nearly gone to pieces until it was discovered, wedged between the mattress and the wall. "Ezra kept his t-shirt on, and it was covered in mud by the time they came back in, so I had him take it off. He has scars from cigarette burns on the back of his arm. Someone was putting out their cigarettes on the back of that baby's arm!"

Jack thought he was going to be sick. He heard a cracking noise, and looking down realized that the pen he'd been holding had broken in his hand, the plastic splintering and the ink chamber cracking so it was spreading across his skin and dripping onto the sleeve of the sweatshirt he'd put on after he was done with the day's work. With a curse he turned and threw the pen into the garbage can that rested next to his desk, and grabbed for a handful of tissues to sop up what he could of the mess before he smeared it on everything. "Did the plastic cut you?"

Before he could answer Alice was taking his hand, examining it, and while Jack knew she was most likely just being practical, his wife had hardly touched him in what felt like ages, and he missed her, missed her touch, and waited for her to be the one to decide he was fine and let go. But she didn't, instead perching on the edge of his desk and pulling his hand and upper arm closer, clasping her hand with his and tucking them both under her chin, like she was hugging just his arm to her, and closed her eyes. They both said nothing for a long moment, Jack's eyes glued to her closed ones until they slowly opened, meeting his. The amount of uncertainty in them from the women who had always been his rock hurt to see. He was her rock too, tried to be at least, 'her solid place in the storm', she'd called him once, but when he was the one who hurt her...they'd both been stumbling around blind, with nothing to hang onto or guide them, only Jack had been the one to pluck out their eyes. "We'll find our way to the other side of this." He hadn't meant to say the words, but was glad he had when her eyes, those liquid chocolate eyes that she'd passed on to their only daughter and middle son and that he loved so much, seemed a little less lost, a little more focused.

"I know we will." His shoulders relaxed from a tension he'd felt but hadn't been conscious of, and Alice took a deep breath, then said, a sudden flash of humor in her eyes, "If not you're going to be paying a lot of therapy bills." He let out a laugh and without thinking lifted himself slightly out of his chair, twisting his head to meet her lips. Jack had a split second where he started to worry-and then she was kissing him back, just a firm press of her lips on his that only lasted a handful of seconds before she pulled away, untangling their hands, but it was enough. It was enough. "So," Alice gestured to the pile of papers on his desk, "where do I sign." She saw the look on his face and correctly interpreted it, cutting him off before he could speak. "Don't thank me. We agreed, before we ever said our vows," Jack hoped his flinch at that wasn't visible, and either way Alice didn't react, "that there would be no mine or yours, only ours. I meant it."

And even though she'd told him not to say it he had to. "Thank you."

*.*.*.*.*.*

Jack hadn't realized just how many pages he'd signed, but, used to reams of paperwork from the hospital, Alice made short work of flipping through to where Orin had paper-clipped each spot needing to be signed, initialed, or dated, as he finished the small pile he had left untouched in front of him when she came in. "Wait a minute," Alice said suddenly, fingers running over a form that he was pretty sure was actually the school enrollment form he'd picked up from the middle school two days ago, with his transcript underneath. He wasn't sure how it had wound up with the custody papers, but hell, at least this way he knew they were filled out. "I thought Ezra's birthday wasn't until May."

"That's what that damned fact sheet on top of the folder with all his paperwork said." It had looked like something you gave to a kennel when you were boarding a pet, but considering Ezra was allergic to both blueberries and penicillin, he was grateful for it. That was probably the one thing Maude had done right, when she dumped a little boy who was doing his best to not look like he was terrified on their doorstep with hardly a backwards glance, just a pat on the arm that had reminded Jack of the way you patted a puppy looking for attention, a bright smile and a call of 'goodbye, mah darlin' boy,' as she walked away. They had his birth certificate, his social security card, the transcript from the damn boarding school she'd stuck him in when he was ten, though nothing from any other years, and a very incomplete medical history. Or, if it was complete, he hadn't had a check up for almost three years until they'd taken him into Dr. Reynolds and they'd been entirely random before that.

Ezra's birth certificate even had his name on it. He hadn't known they did that, if the person wasn't there to sign it. Another thing that made things easier.

Ezra was still convinced his mother would be back in a few months. Jack didn't think she would have handed any of that over if she had intentions of coming back any time soon, if ever, and either way he wasn't going anywhere with her.

"Well it's not what the school transcript says, let me see the sheet, or better, his birth certificate." That was in his filing cabinet and he pushed himself off the chair he'd carried over, giving Alice his desk chair, and walked over to the wall to pull it out of the top drawer. All the kids had files, but Ezra's, which didn't have either the bank papers for a college fund-not yet-or things like kindergarten graduation certificates stored inside seemed thin and empty in comparison. Heading back over with the whole file just in case, Jack flipped it open as he walked. "Yeah, it says May third. Just two months, hopefully we'll have some idea of what he likes by then." Reaching over and taking it from him as he sat down Alice thumbed through it until she found the birth certificate, and shook her head as she looked at it.

"Jack, the date on that paper is European style, his birthday is March fifth."

"What? What the hell is European style?" Jack shook his head, not understanding, and his brain not quite accepting the reality of what his wife had said.

Sounding a little impatient, Alice said, "They write the day before the month, that's not really the point-it's the third. We have the rest of the day and tomorrow to plan something for his birthday."

Jack closed his eyes, his voice sad and disbelieving as he spoke, "She dumped him not two weeks before his birthday." He didn't remember Maude that well, just stolen and hazy weekends scattered over a few months, during a time in his life he wasn't proud of and had tried very hard to forget ever happened until a week and a half ago, but he still had a hard time believing he'd been taken in by someone so, so...cold. She hadn't seemed that way at all.

Alice's hands tightened on the folder and, deliberately, she folded it and set it to the side on the desk. When she spoke again she made no acknowledgment of his statement, Jack getting the distinct idea that he should avoid mentioning Maude as much as possible, even just as 'she'. He really couldn't blame her, though it might make some conversations more difficult. "We need to think about what he likes." Alice reached over, grabbing a pad of scratch paper and a pen off the small cabinet that held his printer paper and extra staples and the like and started to make a list, thinking out loud as she wrote. "Nice clothes-I've never seen a little boy who was so particular. JD told me Ezra's favorite color is red, and he does have that jacket he favors..."

"Cards, card tricks. And poker.", Jack said wryly. Ezra had won thirty dollars off Buck before Jack had realized they were playing for real money. Ezra hadn't known it wasn't allowed-Jack hadn't realized no gambling was a rule he'd have to set for an almost twelve year old-but Buck had certainly known he wouldn't be happy.

"Well, as long as he's just playing for fun, I don't mind poker, but that's not really something you can give as a present, and he already has two decks of cards..." Jack could see that she was writing it down on the list anyway and smiled. Then his smile widened as another thought occurred to him, and he pulled out his phone, looking up a video he'd seen on his Facebook page the other day. "What about something like this?" Alice leaned over and watched the video, and after a minute laughed a little.

"That works. That really works."

*.*.*.*.*

Vin frowned as he walked away from the study door, walking normally, because there wasn't any reason he shouldn't be in the hallway this time of day, and tiptoeing around would just make Mama and Daddy think he was up to something.

When Vin had put his ear up to the door he'd been wanting to find out if they were fighting or not. Mama had plenty of reason to be mad at Daddy, Vin knew, knew that Ezra being Daddy's son meant that Daddy had slept with Ezra's mama-and not the slept kind of slept, but the s-e-x kind of slept that Chris was always teasing Buck he did too much of. Vin wasn't quite sure what sex was, other than that it involved your private parts and made babies, but he knew if you were married you weren't supposed to have it with anybody except who you were married too. But they hadn't been fighting, even though they'd been in the study like they wanted to be alone. They'd been talking about Ezra and how his birthday was coming up, in only a couple of days. So maybe they'd made up, and then Daddy wouldn't leave for sure.

Chris had said he didn't think Daddy was going anywhere, and that Mama definitely wasn't, but then Vin had reminded him that a lot of times in movies and on TV, the dad would leave if something like that happened. Chris had looked worried too for a second, but then he'd shook his head and smiled and told Vin it would be fine. Mostly, Vin believed him. Until Mama and Daddy started yelling again. It hadn't been a whole, whole lot-back when Vin lived with his first Mama, before she'd gone to be at rest, the people that lived next door fought a lot, so much it was like they were always yelling, and it was weirder if they weren't. But Mama and Daddy almost never fought, and even when they did they didn't yell much. It had been weird, gave him an almost sick, uncomfortable feeling in his middle.

Ezra was kind of weird. And it was definitely weird sharing a room with him. Though it was better than before Chris had moved out and he'd had to share with JD. JD was kind of a baby still and Vin had been ten for three whole months now.

Anyway, Ezra was sorta weird. He was real worried about getting dirty (though Vin and JD were working on that), and only had dress-up clothes, and he talked so fancy Vin couldn't always understand him. But he was nice most of the time, even if he talked in a way Nathan said was smart-alecky. Nathan said Vin could be smart-alecky too, but he was pretty sure what he was was funny, and when he could understand Ezra a lot of what he said was funny too. Even if he'd heard him say a couple of different things that Vin figured their older brothers would have creamed him for if he hadn't been mumbling them so only Vin could hear.

He wasn't a smart-aleck to Mama and Daddy though, talked real careful around them. Vin thought maybe his mama had been mean to him, 'cause sometimes Ezra looked like he thought they were gonna hit him, and he didn't have hardly any toys, except for Puff, and Ezra had said his cousin gave him to him. And she'd left him right before his birthday, and Vin didn't figure she could have done that if she wasn't mean.

When Vin's first Mama had been so sick, he'd been real scared, but Daddy, Uncle Jack back then, had been there to hold her hand, 'cause she was his sister and he loved her, and to tell Vin that he was gonna come and live with him now, and Vin was still scared, even though he knew him, 'cause he wanted his Mama. Especially when that lady with the clipboard had come and tried to say that Vin couldn't go with him and Auntie Alice, he had to go with her.

Ezra didn't know them at all, hadn't even really believed Daddy was his Daddy at first, so it would make sense if he was even more scared than Vin had been, even though he'd said he wasn't. Actually, Vin remembered with a roll of his eyes, Ezra had said he wasn't scared of anything.

Coming to JD's door, Vin just walked in, after all JD did it to him all the time. "Hi, Vin!" JD barely glanced up from the Lego city he was busy building, beaming at Vin real quick and then going back to sticking a window in the wall he was building for his skyscraper. Mama said JD might be an engineer someday, the way he liked to build things, but JD couldn't make up his mind on whether he wanted to be a cowboy, a secret agent, or a Texas Ranger. Vin thought JD was good at making up things to pretend to be when they were grown-ups.

Except for that week he'd wanted to be an ice cream truck. Vin had thought he meant an ice cream man at first, but nope, his little brother had meant the truck. He thought that maybe even though JD said he knew Transformers was just made-up, he was still hoping. Vin had caught him talking to Daddy's truck once, telling it he wouldn't tell and wanted to be friends. "Hey, JD. Got something important to talk about." The little boy swiveled around where he sat on the carpet, and, with his legs still criss-crossed, used his hands to push himself over closer to Vin. Figuring that was as good a place to talk as any Vin plopped down across from JD.

"What is it?" JD's cheerful look was gone, and he lowered his voice, anxious, "Did something happen?"

"Nothin' bad," Vin reassured him. "Just I guess it's Ezra's birthday Monday. Figure we should see about getting him a present."

*.*.*.*.*

"I still say Ezra would like my dinosaur lots and lots." JD said, pouting as he stared at the attic door. "Plus, Savannah said she'd glue me to the ceiling if I went in her room again, and she does a lot of crafts, she has special super strong glue. She showed it to me."

Ignoring the dinosaur comment-JD thought Ezra would like it so much because he liked it that much, and so even if Ezra wasn't too big for it, JD would probably change his mind before too long and want it back-, Vin said, with a little less patience this time, "We ain't going in Savannah's room, we don't even have to open her door to get to the storage room. And I'm pretty sure you're too heavy for her to gorilla glue to the ceiling, anyway."

"Pretty sure!" JD squeaked, looking like he thought he was gonna spend the rest of his life stuck up next to the glow in the dark stars on their sister's ceiling.

Trying to keep a straight face, as a wicked little light appeared in his eyes, Vin shrugged and said, "Mama would make her unstick you. 'Course, she might not notice you're gone for awhile...but I bet sleeping on the ceiling for a night would be a lot of fun."

"Vin!" JD huffed, "You're being mean, I'm not gonna play with you anymore." He turned to go back down the stairs and Vin moved quickly to block him.

"We ain't playin' JD, this is important. There's lots of neat stuff in the storage room that Ezra might like, everybody's old toys and games that weren't broke, and lots of other old stuff we can explore." Vin knew JD liked to explore more than just about anything, and figuring it couldn't hurt, offered, "It'll be like we're Indy and Short-Stuff."

JD considered this for a moment, head cocking to the side, "I get to be Indy?"

Vin shrugged, not really caring, "Sure," then grinned a little as JD cheered.

"And just what are Indiana Jones and Short-Stuff going to be doing in the storage room?" Vin turned, flashing his sister a sheepish looking smile. They weren't really supposed to go in the storage room, anymore than they were supposed to go into Savannah's room since Daddy had turned the old play room into a bedroom a few years ago so she wasn't 'swimming in testosterone from every angle' like she'd kept saying. Vin had looked up testosterone in the world book and figured out she meant that she was surrounded by boys, and she kinda was.

"We're gonna find something really cool to give Ezra for his birthday, it's on Monday," JD said, excited again now that he was Indy, then real quick, like he'd just remembered, "I'm too heavy to glue to your ceiling!"

Savannah looked like she was trying not to laugh as hard as Vin was, than said, voice teasing just a little, "As long as you stay out of my room you don't have to worry about it, do you?" JD gave her his best puppy dog eyes, and Savannah relented a little. "You're probably right, you are too heavy." JD looked relieved for a second, until Savannah said, sweetly, "I guess I'd just have to use duck tape instead," reaching out to pull him close and start tickling his side as she did, JD laughing even as he shouted about no duck tape. "Oh yeah, lots and lots of duck tape, so much you'll look like a duck tape mummy."

"Savannah, quit teasing your brother, and JD, I've told you about going in Savannah's room." Daddy's head popped through the half open door at the bottom of the short staircase, raising an eyebrow and stepping through it when he saw all three of them. "What are you guys up to?"

"I was thinking I might take these two over to the strip mall for a bit, get slurpies. Maybe get more pictures of Buck with that ridiculous pizza hat on his head." Savannah grinned a little as Daddy shook his head and tried not to smile, but Vin noticed she'd stiffened a little. Savannah and Chris were both mad at Daddy, only where Chris had yelled a whole lot just once, Savannah hadn't yelled at all, but every once in awhile said something Vin didn't think she'd get away with saying ordinarily.

"Your brother is working very hard, and I'm proud of him." Vin figured Daddy was right about Buck working hard, he was trying to save up to move out, but that didn't mean he didn't look pretty stupid in that hat. The free pizza was awesome, though. "It's fine with me if you take them, but check with your Mama first. And see if Ezra wants to go."

Vin frowned, because he thought they were really going to the mall to get a present for Ezra, and that wouldn't work at all if he was there. Vin thought he'd probably say no if they asked, but what if he didn't? Before he could figure out what to say JD piped up, almost shouting, "No, Daddy, that will ruin it!" Daddy just stood there for a second, shocked, and then he looked really sad.

"I'm sorry you think that, JD. I think if you give your brother a chance you'll really like him."

Now JD looked really confused. "I wouldn't wanna get him a present if I didn't like him."

"A present," Daddy shook his head, a smile replacing the sad look on his face, the sort that meant he was proud of them and surprised about what they'd done at the same time, "...you know, I should probably be asking which one of you was listening at the study door, but I'm not going to. Does anyone else know about Ezra's birthday or just you three?"

"I'm surprised you know," Savannah muttered, almost, but not quite, under her breath, not paying any attention at all as Daddy's eyes narrowed just a little at her.

"Savannah Rose..." Huh. So maybe Daddy was gonna stop ignoring it. Vin figured that meant he needed to start paying more attention to his homework again too. Mama had signed the late slip Mrs. Lowery had sent home about his book report without saying much, but he didn't figure that would happen again.

"What? I just meant with everything that's going on, I'm glad it didn't get forgotten." Savannah was pretty good at most things Vin thought, but she wasn't a good liar. The words sounded good, but her face looked guilty.

Daddy shook his head, then nodded, then said, "Yeah, so am I." He stuck his hand in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, saying, "Here, add this to what you were going to spend," as he opened it and pulled out a ten dollar bill, holding it out to Savannah.

"Cool," she walked down a stair, reaching out to grab it, and then paused with her hand on it, "You know, we should make this a really special one."

"If you're asking me for more money, the answer is no. I wouldn't be surprised if one of your brothers would be willing to chip in."

Savannah rolled her eyes, and said, "Well, I wasn't," even though Vin was pretty sure she had been, "but that's not a bad idea."

*.*.*.*.*

Nathan was walking down the hallway munching on the last of an apple, planning to get his Physics book and notes, go down to the den where he could spread them out on the big work table, when he heard-well, not crying exactly, but almost, coming from Vin's room. No, Nathan corrected himself, as he hesitated outside the door, Vin and Ezra's room. From the sounds of it, it wasn't Vin who was upset.

Nathan wasn't sure how he felt about Ezra being here, about the disruption to their lives, his mother's tears, and the idea that his father had, that he had...

But that was Daddy's fault, not Ezra's, Nathan thought, feeling guilty for just standing there doing nothing. He was just a little boy. Even if he was kind of a brat sometimes. That was probably Daddy's fault too, seeing as he hadn't been there to teach him any better. He knocked on the shut door so Ezra wouldn't be surprised, moving to open it, when a voice that somehow managed to sound like it hadn't been crying at all, and was also offended that someone had knocked, called out, "Ah am extremely occupied, please do not entah the premises!" 'The premises' Nathan shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. Made it sound like he had his own private estate.

"It's Nate, Ezra. You sounded like maybe you were upset?" He cringed a little after he said it. Smooth Nathan, real smooth.

"Ah am perfectly fine, and have already stated Ah do not wish for company at the moment."

"Ezra-"

"Go away and leave me alone!"

"Fine, then! Be like that!" Nathan snapped through the thin wood of the door, turning and marching the rest of the way to his room. Daddy's fault or not, that kid was definitely a brat.

Only then Nathan could hear him really crying, not just almost crying like he had been before, and, with a curse his Mama would have scolded him for, he let go of his doorknob and walked back to Ezra's door, taking a breath before he pushed it open. Whether he liked it or not, Nathan wasn't going anywhere until he figured out what was wrong.