A/N: I know, another WIP. Another Brothers AU, that has nothing to do with the first except that they're on a ranch. Wanted it to be a lighter, fluffier AU, but the H/C fairy was in town so this is what you get. Partially inspired by a guest comment on my de-age fic about the role of siblings vs. parents, partially was already in my head.

In this fic the boys (and their sister, the OC character Savannah) are:

Josiah 23

Savannah 21

Chris and Buck 20

Nathan 18

Ezra 13

Vin 11 and a half

JD 9

There will be some discussion of corporal punishment, and mention of punishment given to children younger than I would ordinarily include. That said, there will be no spanking in this particular fic.

Hope you enjoy, and as always I love and appreciate feedback.

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Nathan stood in the middle of the third outbuilding he'd checked, acres left to search, one hand clutched around his cell-phone and the other scrubbing over his face as he forced himself to think. It had been almost forty minutes since Ezra had run off, and if he hadn't been upset Nathan wouldn't have thought twice, thirteen was plenty big enough to explore the ranch on his own, he knew the places he wasn't supposed to go. But he had been upset, very upset, and while had Ezra deserved a good scolding for running a betting ring in the school cafeteria, and Nathan having to leave his own classes to come pick him up when he was suspended, he hadn't deserved to have Nathan lose his temper.

Even if he was a sarcastic little shit who seemed to pick each word solely to get under his skin, and had outright told him that he had every intention of continuing what he was doing, but 'would endeavor not to be caught out in the future, so as to avoid inconveniencing you, Nathan'.

He hadn't deserved to be hurt, and he had been, shocked and stung by Nathan's words, chin trembling as he flung himself out of the kitchen chair the pre-med student had parked him in when he'd marched him inside and ran out the back door without a backwards glance.

He thought it just might have been the worst thing he'd ever done.

It was time to call Josiah, he was only down at the high school, and the closest to the house, could get there the fastest.

Except for JD, who had come in off the school bus in time to hear the end of the confrontation, and informed him with all the outrage the nine year old could muster, that he was 'a big, fat, mean jerkface, and I'm not gonna talk to you never again, and I hope you get your butt whooped good!' JD had tried to light out after Ezra then, but the last thing he needed was two missing and upset boys, and so he'd ordered him to stay in the house, much to his brother's disgust.

Walking out of the building, he dialed the number, eyes still scanning back and forth for any sign of Ezra as he started the nearly ten minute walk towards the tractor and equipment shed, since there had been no sign of him by the pond, in either of the cow barns, the stable, the tree-house, or the well-house either-not that he had really expected to find his brother in the cramped, spider filled, structure. The shed was all the way over on the other side of the hay fields, and Nathan hurried down the packed dirt path as the phone rang in his ear. Hay gave Ezra hives so he wouldn't have disappeared in there, at least, or they never would have found him, not now when it was well above his little brother's head. And he wouldn't be anywhere near the grain silos, not after Chris had caught him halfway up the ladder of one last year, Vin on the ground, grousing because he was going to lose the ten dollars he'd bet Ezra that he wouldn't climb inside one. Daddy and Mama had grounded both boys to the house and yard for a month, and Daddy had promised them a tanning if either of them ever did something that foolish or encouraged the other to do so ever again. Of course, with Daddy having been in the hospital for three weeks, and then a month and a half so far in the rehabilitation center, recovering from the stroke that had taken all of them by surprise, and Mama going back and forth so much it seemed almost like they'd lost her too, Ezra had apparently decided that their family's rules didn't matter anymore.

That wasn't fair. That wasn't fair, and Nathan knew it. Ezra had been finally starting to feel secure and then everything had changed again in an instant, and he was acting out because of it, testing them or something. It was the same reason Vin kept getting into fights and JD would pretend to be sick, trying to get one of them to stay home with him.

Still, though. That boy better not be anywhere near the grain silos.

The phone went to voicemail and, running a hand over his close-cropped hair, Nathan hung up and tried again. Josiah hadn't answered earlier, either when the principal or Nathan had called him, but his last period should be over by now, and just as he was about to give up his brother's rumbly tones came over the line.

"Hello, Nathan, I'm just packing up some grading and-"

"I screwed up, Josiah. I screwed up bad." Nathan's shoulders slumped as he walked down the path along the edge of the alfalfa field, reaching out a hand to run across the top of the blossoms.

There was a heavy pause and then, in his most concerned voice, Josiah said, "Since you're calling from your cellphone I'm going to assume you're not in jail."

"I said I screwed up, not that I transformed into Chris," Nathan snapped, guilt and worry making his temper short, even though he knew pissing off Josiah right now probably wasn't a good idea.

"Nathan...why don't you cut out the attitude and just tell me what's going on?"

Nathan sucked in a big breath, knowing Josiah would be furious with him, but also knowing he couldn't try and hide it, and told the story, "Sorry. I got a call from Ezra's principal, guess he couldn't get a hold of you or the twins...", His voice thickened with shame as he talked, feeling like he could feel Josiah's disappointed stare, a stare that was rarely directed at Nathan, right through the phone, having to choke out his last words.

"You're telling me that you told our thirteen year old baby brother that his Daddy wouldn't be proud of him anymore? That you didn't see much to be proud of? My God, Nathan, that would be bad enough ordinarily, but now?" The words were growled out, his brother's voice low and angry, and so disappointed, so disgusted, that if Nathan hadn't been unlatching the door to the tractor shed then, planning to look in the cabs, and underneath the bigger ones, the crooks and crannies of the building itself, anyplace big enough for a boy to hide, he thought he might have sat down and cried.

"I know-"

"Do you Nathaniel? Do you have any idea how much you probably hurt that boy? You know he was just starting to trust Daddy, just starting to want to make him and Mama proud, when everything happened. Ezra still doesn't really believe that he'll be okay eventually, hell, I don't think any of us really do yet, not after we nearly lost him. He needed to be punished, but you were obviously too angry and you should know better. That's not your place anyway, you should have waited for me."

Feeling frustration warring with his guilt now, because he did know that, but right now finding Ezra so he could fix it was more important than Josiah telling him off, Nathan said quietly. "You can kick my ass later 'Siah, right now I need you to come home and help me find him."

"I'm walking to the van, but I'm telling you right now little brother, kicking is not what I'm going to be doing to your backside when I get my hands on you. And you can tell Mama what you did yourself when she calls tonight. Check Daddy's studio, he likes to go and watch him paint." Josiah hung up before he could say anything in protest, that he was too old, eighteen, and what, did Josiah think he was Daddy now? Part of him chimed in that he deserved it, that he hadn't acted too old, but that didn't change the fact that Josiah was not their father. If it wasn't his place to scold Ezra for getting suspended, it wasn't Josiah's place to punish him. The studio was a good idea, at least,

he was kicking himself for not thinking of it sooner. He should have, and it was all the way back around the fields and down behind the corral to get there, and that was too long, it had already been too long, for an upset little boy to be all by himself. Walking as quick as he could out of the tractor shed, turning back at the last minute to lock it, because JD was very interested in anything with wires or gears right now, and had already snuck in here and tried to take apart the big lawnmower, Nathan headed down the path again, jogging for most of the way, though he still kept his eyes peeled for a flash of reddish-brown hair.

Slowing as he got to the end of the path and veered off it to cut around behind the stable and corral, and down the hill behind it to an unused storage building Daddy had turned into his painting studio, Nathan shoved his hands in his pockets. Ezra had been all but silent for a week or two after Daddy had been hospitalized, alternating between being clingy and more closed off than ever. All the younger boys had been terrified. Daddy had been standing in the hall like a statue, mouth hanging slack and left eye sagging, when JD, always the first of the boys up in the mornings, had said hello, hugged him, and Daddy must have tried to say something back and it had come out garbled because JD had gone bursting into Buck's room, wailing at the top of his lungs that something was wrong with Daddy, he was talking like a monster. Vin had come running out of the room he and Ezra shared, looking for something to fight, only for Buck to grab him up, at the same time as Nathan had come out of his bedroom, realizing what was going on when saw his father's face. He'd told Buck to take the little ones downstairs, 911 already ringing on his cell-phone as he tried to get Daddy to sit down, to respond to him, to do anything but stare vacantly, a sort of blank confusion in his eyes, nonsense occasionally coming out of his mouth, starting to droop just like his eye, but nothing else.

He wasn't really sure if it was him or Buck who had forgotten about Ezra, or both, couldn't say that he'd thought Buck had him because he hadn't been thinking about anything but Daddy. If Mama hadn't already been at work, an early shift at the hospital, it never would have happened. She would have been able to help Daddy, contact 911, and still get all the little ones, probably including him and Buck to her, downstairs and away from something they didn't need to see, would have seen instantly that Ezra wasn't there. As angry as she had been at Daddy when the results of his affair were dumped on their doorstep, she hadn't allowed that to transfer onto the wary, trying oh-so-hard to be charming, twelve year old. By now, he was hers as much as any of the rest of them.

When he'd glanced up when he was describing the symptoms and his own opinion that it was a stroke, or possibly a series of strokes, to the 911 operator and seen Ezra peeking out from his bedroom, face white and stiff, hands tight on the door frame, his heart had dropped into his stomach. He'd tried to tell him to go downstairs, to find Buck, calling louder until he was almost shouting, but Ezra had just stood there frozen, staring, and Nathan had had no choice but to turn back to Daddy and the 911 operator's directions. Buck must have realized he only had two boys with him, because the next time Nathan had looked up he'd been trying to coax Ezra to let go of the door and come with him, finally pulling his hands loose and picking him up bodily, Ezra moving to wrap his arms around Buck's neck and bury his face in his shoulder.

He hesitated as he came to the front of the little white washed building, scraggly grass and wild flowers growing up around the sides of it, not sure what he was going to say to Ezra, how to apologize for something this big. Still not quite sure what he was going to say when he reached the door he pushed it in gently, stepping inside, his eyes immediately landing on Ezra across the room from him. He was curled up in a ball on the window seat Daddy had built, looking like he'd cried himself to sleep, face tight and anxious even in rest. He'd wrapped one of Daddy's smocks around him, small enough still he could use it like a blanket, and since it was plenty warm out, hot even, with the light streaming through the big window behind him onto Ezra, it hadn't been because he was cold. A guilty sigh snaking it's way out of his throat, Nathan scrubbed his dusty boots over the top of the doormat and walked further in, weaving around second-hand easels and half finished canvasses as he went, stopping in front of Ezra and wondering how he would react if Nathan woke him. His foot rustled against something as he shifted and, looking down, Nathan grimaced as he saw it was the small sketch book his brother carried everywhere, the top flipped back, his boots still dusty enough there was a toe print across the top of the page. He knelt down onto one knee to pick it up, glad that it looked like it was a page that only had writing on it, not planning to snoop, just to flip the lid closed and set it down where it wouldn't get damaged, but his eyes trailed automatically across the page, and once he'd seen a few words, Nathan had to finish reading it, couldn't not, feeling frozen in place.

The page had been divided into sections, first in half horizontally, and then the top section divided vertically, his brother's neat and tidy handwriting even neater and tidier than usual, the top left labeled reasons to go, and the right reasons to stay. The bottom seemed to be a list of places he'd been in the past, with notes on why they were places he could or couldn't go.

He didn't know who the hell Cousin Joe was, but the neat note next to his name that simply read, 'hits too hard', made him damn well want to find out.

It looked like the lists on the top had grown in spurts and spits, the list on reasons to go even had several lines that had been crossed out(and some, like no designer clothing stores, would have made him laugh and roll his eyes at any other time), and was being edged out in length by reasons to stay by three lines now, but he would have thought after a year and a half Ezra would have known this was where his family was, where he needed to stay. Noticing how faded most of the ink was compared to the last few entries, Nathan thought maybe he had, until today. Until he opened his mouth.

He traced his finger over the words, 'Nathan hates me' and 'I don't belong', wondering if it would be going to far to cross them out, because it wasn't true. Nathan didn't hate him, and he was exactly where he belonged. He loved him, even if Ezra made him want to pull his hair out half the time-it was because he loved him he got so upset when he did things like he had today. Ezra already had a record, mostly shoplifting, breaking curfew, one charge for pick-pocketing, and a few more serious ones from times that Maude or the people she had left him with had let him take the fall, knowing a juvenile wouldn't be charged the same way. He didn't need anything else on there, anything to hold him back, he was smart, a good kid, and he deserved a good future. This was the second time this semester, the second time since Daddy had gotten sick, he'd been suspended, not counting the time he'd been given in school suspension, and they hadn't even had spring break yet. The principal had told Nathan that, despite the fact that they understood that things had not been easy for Ezra or their family lately, and his exceptional grades, if things continued how they were Ezra would need to find another place to continue his education. There was only one middle school in Four Corners, so what exactly they were supposed to find for him Nathan didn't know.

"That's mine! Stop looking!" Before Nathan could do more than lift his head Ezra was barreling into him, knocking them both backwards into the floorboards, "Give it back!" He pummeled Nathan with surprisingly painful fists all over his shoulders and chest, the older boy trying to hand the book back to him like a peace offering.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, here it is, okay? Ow! Come on, knock it off, Ezra!" Snatching the book with one hand, Ezra leapt off of him and backed away a few steps, glaring hard and looking like he'd bolt again at the first wrong move. Slowly straightening up on his knees, making sure his voice was quiet and calm, Nathan spoke carefully, "I am sorry, Ezra, for that and for what I said earlier. It isn't true and I had no right to be so mean. I'm in a whole heap of trouble for it, and I deserve to be." Ezra's stance didn't change, but it was clear he was listening and Nathan decided it was safe to keep talking, "I saw what you wrote in your sketchbook-I don't hate you Ezra, and you do belong here, with us."

Ezra's face shut off like a light, except for his eyes, heavy with skepticism, "Perhaps yah do not hate me, but yah have made it clear yah do not like me vahry well eithah." Nothing but pure Georgia in his accent and Nathan winced at his words, shaking his head firmly.

"That's not true. I like you Ezra, and I love you a lot." Nathan shifted forward a little, stopping himself from reaching for Ezra when he stiffened, his hands balling into fists at his side. This was so much easier with Vin and JD.

Voice tight, like it was about to break, each word said slowly and distinctly, Ezra declared, "Yah think evahrything Ah do is wrong. Yah think Ah'm-", He stopped himself then, glowering, eyes filled with tears he was desperately trying to hold back, but Nathan was horribly sure of what he'd been about to say, and had to suck in a deep breath to keep his voice steady when he answered.

"Ezra, I swear, I don't-"

"If Ah'm not allowed to tell falsehoods yah shouldn't be eithah."

"I'm-"

"Yes yah are!" His voice was almost a shriek, the composure he'd been clinging to so desperately gone, "Yah think Ah'm bad fah playing pokah-when yah took mah cards away last week Ah was teaching Vin to play rummy, but yah wouldn't listen." Ezra's face was raw and open and he wasn't lying anymore than Nathan had been.

"But JD said-"

"He was just mad because we didn't want to play with him! It's not like Ah would cheat or take all their money anyway if Ah played pokah with them, their mah little brothahs! But yah think Ah'm so bad that Ah would! And yah laughed and said it's silly when Ah said Ah want to be in the Pokah World Series, and yah didn't even like the electives Ah picked fah school!"

Nathan gaped for a moment, honestly gaped, because, well he was sorry for the first one and would tell Ezra so, he'd been tired when JD had run up to him and told him that Ezra and Vin were playing poker for money, which their parents definitely did not allow, and he should have made sure JD was telling the truth. The boy had been developing a habit of lying for attention lately, and it was no wonder why. He didn't think Ezra would take all Vin or JD's money, other kids, yes, but not theirs-but they weren't allowed to play poker or other games for money, they were too young, and that wasn't his rule, though he agreed with it. But he'd been joking, when they were talking about that World Series thing. He did kind of think it was silly, but at thirteen Ezra should have crazy, silly, unrealistic dreams, and Nathan had just been teasing him, the same way Josiah and the twins had him when he was little and wanted to be Dougie Houser. Ezra had laughed too, and Nathan had thought they'd been having a good time. Hell, he'd even told him the Dougie Houser story. He didn't even know what he was talking about about with his electives, Nathan was pretty sure he was taking French and drama, and sure, drama was just one of those fun throw-away classes-

Shit. He was an idiot. A class like that would be a throw-away for Nathan, but that didn't mean it was for Ezra. Had he said that in front of him? Did he want to be an actor? Ezra hadn't said he did, not to him, anyway, but that didn't mean it wasn't true. The boy was a good actor, he couldn't deny that, even if he was a little too good for his own good, sometimes. Nathan pushed down his automatic thought that acting was an unreliable career, and not good enough for his brother, because he'd already learned with Buck that you couldn't decide someone's future for them. That wasn't important right now, anyway. "Ezra, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be unfair, or to hurt your feelings, but it's obvious I was and did. Sometimes I'm not very good at this big brother thing."

"You do just fine with Vin and JD. It's only me you have such contempt for." Nathan's eyes started to sting, wondering how long Ezra had felt like this and why he hadn't noticed. This was too big, he didn't know how to fix it, how to make it better. Nothing he said was working, and that wasn't something Nathan was used to. He needed his Mama and his Daddy here to fix it, Ezra needed them here to fix it. But they weren't here, they couldn't be, it was just him, not even Josiah right now. And he kept making it worse. "Nathan are you crying?" Ezra sounded vaguely horrified and Nathan went to shake his head no, but when he brushed his hand against his cheek it was wet.

"Yeah, I guess I am." He took a deep breath and willed the tears back, ducking his head for a second.

"Did Ah hurt you?" He couldn't hold back a wet chuckle at the idea of his small for his age brother having done him enough harm when he pounded on him to make him cry, swiping a hand across his eyes and looking back at Ezra.

"No bud, you didn't hurt me. Got a pretty good swing there, though." He shifted a bit, wanting to move so he wasn't putting most of his weight on his knees on an uneven hardwood floor, but not sure it was a good idea, how Ezra would react.

"Why were you crying then?" Ezra had taken a half step forward and seemed torn between concern and suspicion. Nathan scrubbed a hand over his face and decided to just say it.

"Because I've been making my little brother feel like I don't love him or want him and that's a crap thing to do, and now I don't know how to make him believe it isn't true."

"Oh." Ezra's right hand started fiddling with the button on his left cuff, looking down at the floor, away from Nathan. "You truly did not mean what you said in the kitchen?"

"No."

"...You do not wish me to leave?"

"Never." The sniffle was loud in the small room, and quickly followed by another, Ezra's head ducking down further to hide his face, and suddenly it wasn't so hard to know what to do. Nathan pushed himself up, ignoring the wood digging into his knees and took the few steps to Ezra, wrapping his arms around him in a bear hug. Ezra stayed stiff at first, gradually leaning a little more of his weight on Nathan as his sniffles turned to tears and finally to outright sobs, his hands raising to grip Nathan's shirt on either side of his head in tight little fists. Nathan shuffled them back to the window seat and pulled Ezra with him as he sat on the faded cushion, keeping him tucked close to his side. Not sure what else to do he just held him while he cried, rubbing his back, making no move to stand up even when Ezra seemed to have calmed down.

"Am Ah still in trouble?"

The quiet question threw him for a second, almost bringing an exasperated smile to his lips, because of course that was where Ezra's mind was going to go, Nathan finally shrugging and saying, "I think that's up to Josiah, bud, but probably some, yeah."

"Oh." Sounding miserable, pulling his legs tighter into him, the boy said, "He'll require me to call and inform M-Alice about mah actions." Nodding slowly, Nathan had to agree. There was no way either of them were getting out of that.

"Yeah, he's gonna make me too." Not about to pretend he hadn't noticed the slip, not this time, he said, "You know you can call her Mama, she'd really like that." The stiffness suddenly radiating off Ezra probably shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did, and Nathan wasn't sure if he should pull him back or not when Ezra inched away from him. He decided just to wait him out and after at least a solid minute of silence Ezra spoke again, voice so quiet he could hardly hear it and the tone overly formal.

"Ah'm not actually her offspring."

"Only me and Savannah are, and Savannah isn't Daddy's, not by blood. Josiah, the twins, and you are just Daddy's. Vin is technically ourcousin, and JD is adopted." Their family wasn't exactly traditional, which not everyone in their small town liked, but one thing it had made sure Nathan learned fast and well, was that blood might give you a connection, but it was choice that made you a family.

He remembered, when he was just a little kid in his mother's arms, some person, he couldn't even remember whether it was a man or a woman, making a joke to his mother, something along the lines of, 'yours, mine, and ours', and the coolness in Mama's voice as she responded, 'all of our children are ours'.

"None of you were foisted on her the way Ah was."

Nathan frowned and shook his head, even though Ezra wasn't looking at him, "That's enough. Mama and Daddy love you, and I know she doesn't think like that. You don't have to call her Mama if you don't want to, you know that, but if you want to you should." A shrug was his only response. "She showed everyone we know that picture you drew for her for her birthday. Put it in a frame in her office, you saw it, didn't you?" Nathan twisted so he could see when Ezra nodded, almost imperceptibly, a tear that he hurriedly wiped leaking out of his eye. "You miss her as much as I do?" Ezra shrugged again. "Bet you do. But she'll be home this weekend."

"And displeased with me."

Nathan bit his lip, thinking that that was kind of one of the consequences of breaking the rules, but also pretty sure that that wasn't what Ezra needed to hear right now. It's not like she would still be angry once he'd been punished, anyway, but Ezra didn't seem to know that. "Not by then. She'll lecture you and tell Josiah what your punishment is on the phone tonight, and by Friday Mama won't even be thinking about it." Nathan wasn't so sure that would hold true for himself, but Ezra didn't need to know about that. "She'll just be happy to see you." With a little noise that could have been agreement as equally as it could have been denial, Ezra fought a yawn and changed the subject.

"Could we possibly stay here for awhile? Ah have little desire to see Josiah right now." Nathan knew he should say no to that, that it would be the responsible thing to do, and that was what he usually did. But he didn't want to go face his older brother either, and nodded before he could talk himself out of it.

"Sure, Ez. Not forever, though."

When Ezra's head shifted onto him about five minutes later, going limp as he fell asleep again, Nathan let himself thump lightly back again the window, the heat from the sun feeling good on his skin, his mind whirling as he watched the dust motes dance in the light. He'd had no idea Ezra felt that insecure, that unsure about his place in their family, and he didn't think anybody else did either. He'd had some trouble adjusting, it had taken at least a month before he'd truly warmed up to anyone but JD and Vin, Buck the first of the older kids to win him over, but once Ezra had started to relax, to find his place, it had seemed, to Nathan anyway, that things were going just fine. That he flinched sometimes when you tried to ruffle his hair, that he had more than a few questionable habits-while he was with them now, where he was safe and could learn better. It was bad enough for him to question how Nathan felt about him, but while Daddy might have been the head of the family, Mama was the center, the sun around which everyone else revolved. For Ezra to doubt his place with her was to doubt that he should be there at all.

They'd all been so busy, it was Josiah's first year with a class of his own, and Nathan's first year of college, and none of that meant the ranch could be neglected. Buck had put off buying the bar he'd been saving up for and moving out to help on the ranch full-time, and Chris had said if he didn't have Sarah and Adam to support he'd have come home, but he did. The last time he'd seen the man he'd looked like a walking zombie, the hours a rookie cop was expected to work not meshing well with a baby that was only just starting to sleep through the night, and Chris had insisted on going out and helping him and Buck track down some cattle that were missing anyway. Savannah had come home to help out for awhile, but Mama had found out she'd lose her place in the writing program she'd spent most of high school and college aiming for if she didn't go back (Or really, Josiah had found out, and told almost immediately), and his sister had been on the next plane. Sarah had come to help when she could, but she had a tiny baby and a house of her own to run. Maybe somewhere in there, when they'd been avoiding neglecting the ranch, they'd begun neglecting the boys.

Everyone had helped for awhile, neighbors and the people who went to their church, dropping off meals and groceries, offering to take the boys places, but it had slowly tapered off, and it's not like you could blame people for not having more to give. The Travises, their godparents, their neighbor Miz Nettie, and the Potters still helped, Mama's family lived too far away to come but his grandfather had sent grocery gift cards. He'd come home from class the other day expecting to have to do laundry and make dinner to find Aunt Evie folding underwear and matching socks on the kitchen table, while Miz Nettie cooked dinner. The study had revealed Mary, his godbrother Steven's girlfriend, helping the little ones with their homework, Vin for once not making a fuss out of having to do his reading. Steven and Uncle Orin had been out finishing up the evening chores with Buck and Josiah, and by the time Nathan had got out there, there had been nothing left to do. He'd been able to finish his homework before midnight for once. Usually he was up until around one, last night, when he'd had a presentation to finish, he'd been up until three. But they couldn't do that everyday, and it wouldn't be fair to expect them to. Most of the time, they were on their own. Nathan shifted back as Ezra twitched in his sleep, a sharp elbow digging into him, yawning as he got comfortable again a moment later. Josiah would be back by now, JD and Vin would be fine. If he moved he'd wake up Ezra, and it wasn't like he'd actually fall asleep, he almost never fell asleep out of his room...