A/N: Hey guys, know it's been awhile on this one, but here is part three-of four. Yep, it grew bigger than expected, but the wait for part four won't be as long, no more than a week.
Thanks for sticking around and here is a shout-out to the reviewers, Lunaz (No, he really, really doesn't. I'm afraid he isn't much better in this.) Mhart (I was proud of my Vin scene, felt he came off better here than in the original story, so thank you :) I confess, I actually quite like Casey, ("I'm complicated, JD!" With that little flourish makes me die every time), except for on those couple of occasions I hate her, so it's more just JD being naive as all heck in general.) Larafrank (thank you, we don't see a lot of one on one interaction with them in canon and I wanted some) Millie2007 ( Well you don't see Nathan directly in this, you do get some memories, hope you like them) Kittyranma (A lot of the fuss is that he said it where JD could hear, but I am thinking of it as an unusually bad word. Your wish may just be coming in the next chapter...) Annie Jones (your wish has been granted, lol. Hope you enjoy it) Guest (Twice every day? Okay, I feel kind bad now. hope the wait was worth it!)
*.*
*.*.*.*.*.*
*.*
JD was sitting in the pew in front of Ezra, reading a book on India that Josiah had given him. It was harder to read than his dime novels, there wasn't a story to pull him along, but some of it was fascinating. He hadn't believed it when he'd read that people there considered cows sacred, but Josiah had told him it was true, he'd even been there and seen it. Than he'd said a lot of really complicated stuff about God and Gods and people finding their own way to the Almighty that he didn't really understand, but JD figured meant Josiah didn't think there was anything wrong with thinking that.
JD thought it was really neat that Josiah had been to so many different countries around the world, he even spoke five different languages (Though he'd told JD that English and Spanish didn't count, as his parents had spoken both to him since he was born, but that was still three when most people JD only knew one, maybe two. And wouldn't that mean everyone who only spoke what their parents did knew zero? And you couldn't know zero languages, that didn't make sense.). He'd always wanted to be a Texas Ranger someday, but now he was wondering if maybe he wanted to do something where he could travel the world. He definitely wasn't going to be a missionary, though. Maybe he could be an explorer, and find islands no one had ever heard of...meet new people no one else ever had...before he could get too far into his daydream he felt the heavy weight of a gaze on him, distracting him.
JD sighed. He was sitting in the pew in front of Ezra trying to read the book, anyway. When he wasn't distracted by his own daydreams, which he had to admit, happened a lot, it was Ezra's stare on the back of his head drilling into him, like it was right now. Only every time he turned around Ezra's nose was buried back in his own book-excerpts from Greek Philosophers that had made JD's eyes bleed when he'd tried to read a page-acting like he hadn't just been looking at him. It was starting to drive him a little crazy. He whipped his head around quickly, hoping to catch Ezra in the act, grinning when he managed to see the last second of his eyes darting back to the book held open in his lap, "Saw you."
Ezra made a show of slowly looking up, even blinking his eyes as though getting used to looking at a distance when he'd been bent over a text, but JD wasn't going to be fooled when he'd seen him. "Whatever are you talking about, Mr. Dunne?"
"You keep staring at me. Do I got something on my head?" His eyes widened suddenly, hand flying to it, patting around his hair, "Buck didn't really put a spider on me, did he?" Buck had been catching a nasty looking one for Inez when Nathan and him had gone in for lunch, and of course he'd spent a good few minutes keeping the poor thing trapped in a beer mug while he teased JD, threatening to drop it on him when he wasn't looking. JD wouldn't have put it past him to have somehow saved the spider until he was leaving and dump it on him then.
"Ah have seen no spider, Ah assure you. Ah would have told you if Ah did, JD." Ezra was rolling his eyes at him now, and JD scowled just a little, not mad, but getting a bit frustrated.
"Then what do you keep looking at me for?" Ezra hesitated, and JD gave him his best pleading eyes.
"Alright, fine, Ah heard..." Ezra trailed off, unusually reluctant to continue, and JD leaned forward, doing his best to look eager, and after a moment the other teenager blurted, "Did you really say-that word-to Inez?"
JD felt his face flame at the mixture of almost awe and downright disapproval in Ezra's voice, "Not like that! Buck said it, and I'd never heard it before, and then him and Chris were ignoring me when I asked them what it meant and so I asked Inez! I still don't know what it means!" JD's voice was an indignant wail, and apparently too loud, because all the way from the back of the church yard, where he was working on a carpentry project they'd been told was a secret, they could hear Josiah.
"Boys! That doesn't sound like your lessons!"
Neither of them said anything for a long moment, then when neither more words or footsteps came their way, Ezra turned back to JD and said, voice not much louder than a whisper, "Ah apologize, Ah should know better than to listen to rumor."
"It's okay." JD shrugged, "It kind of made a scene." He hesitated, "Is everybody talking about it?"
"A few people. Some men in the saloon. Mary was expressing her displeasure to Buck about it. A bit loudly."
JD groaned, Ezra wincing in sympathy, "That's just great."
"Something new will happen and the gossip will move on. Did you get in trouble?"
"Not exactly, Buck said I shoulda known better than to ask Inez, 'cause Chris smacked him for saying it," Ezra's eyes widened at that, "and Chris said if he heard me say it again he'd tan me."
"It is a very nasty word, JD, you really shouldn't say it."
"Everybody says that, but nobody will tell me what it means!"
"JD, shhh!" The two waited in silence for a moment to see if Josiah would appear-ordinarily they were allowed to talk, as long as it was about school work, but Josiah had caught them playing cards twice last week, and then Ezra had been teaching him a magic trick when he'd walked in yesterday, and Josiah told them they'd lost talking privileges for the rest of the week. It was Thursday, so it wasn't that big a deal, but he'd also told them what to expect if he had to come inside and 'redirect your attention to your studies'. "What do you mean everybody? You didn't ask somebody besides Inez?"
"Um...no..." JD looked down at his book, feeling his ears heat up as Ezra's face turned more and more incredulous.
"You did!" He hissed it at him, "Have you taken complete leave of your senses?"
"No." JD glared over at Ezra, who continued to look at him like he thought JD was bound for an asylum.
"Who in the world did you ask?"
JD groaned slightly, but figured from the look on Ezra's face, he wasn't going to let it go without an answer, "Vin. And Nathan."
"Vin, Ah can almost understand. But Nathan? You have taken leave of your senses." Ezra shook his head and sighed, and JD groaned again.
"Yeah, may not have been my best idea ever." It hadn't been until halfway through his lunch that the last of the bitter taste had left his mouth. The look of disbelief on Ezra's face was enough to make him roll his eyes though, turning back to the front to hide it. Sometimes, he thought Ezra seemed-not scared, exactly, maybe kind of wary around Nathan? And he didn't really get why, maybe the first little bit they'd all been in town Nathan had been kind of hard on Ezra a couple times, like with that thing with the ladies? Only, JD got why Nathan had been mad, even if he didn't really think Ezra had been doing exactly what Nathan thought he had been doing, what he had been doing wasn't exactly good. JD had thought they must have made up though, because later, when Buck and Vin had been teasing Ezra like crazy for wearing that dress to save Mrs. Travis, he'd gotten real mad at them and told them it wasn't right to be mean to Ezra for doing something good.
Then there had been that time with the horse traders, and JD had kind of thought Nathan was gonna skin Ezra alive, and he had swatted him really hard (JD had decided when the third audible whack had landed, Ezra dancing up on his toes, that he was never going to do anything to get in trouble with Nathan. He probably should have thought of that earlier), but than he'd hugged him really hard too, and JD kinda thought he'd been shaking a little from where he'd been watching. He hadn't told on him when they got back from Eagle Bend either, and Josiah probably would have been mad at Nathan for not telling him if he'd found out.
So he didn't really get it, it was pretty obvious to JD that Nathan liked Ezra as much as the rest of them, even if Ezra seemed to drive him crazy sometimes.
"JD? JD?" JD came back to the present with Ezra hissing his name and poking him in the back of the shoulder, and lazily batted the others boy's hand away.
"What?"
"What did he do? Did he wash your mouth out?" Ezra looked both fascinated and horrified, and JD blushed, Ezra grimacing with sympathy.
"Not exactly. He put this weird herb thing in it that was all bitter and tasted worse then one of his teas." JD couldn't help the face he made at the memory.
"That sounds appallingly awful. Ah shall have to endeavor to keep mah language scrupulously clean around Mr. Jackson." Ezra shuddered a bit theatrically, and JD caught the glint of humor in his eyes and stuck his tongue out at him, and Ezra 'endeavored'-he'd taught JD that word a while ago-to keep his face straight. JD didn't think he was doing a very good job of it. "Ah'm sorry, JD, really, it's just what good did you possibly think would come from asking Nathan that? You do have mah sympathy though, while Ah have never experienced anything like that, Ah had an elderly Aunt ah stayed with one year who reached for soap at the slightest bit of what she called 'sass', let alone bad language." JD blanched, slightly horrified.
"No wonder you never cuss." It was true. While he'd heard Ezra unleash some devastating insults in the middle of arguments, he had never heard him say so much as a 'damn'.
"Mmm. She couldn't cure me of mah sarcastic streak, that is in the blood, but even if Ah were much inclined to such things, it is a reflex not to. Sometimes Ah think Ah can still taste soap."
Searching about for something to change the subject to, as JD thought Ezra looked a little green, "Hey, Ezra?"
"Yes?"
"You know, you wouldn't have to say the word to tell me what it means." Okay, so it wasn't a complete change of subject, but it sorta counted, right?
"John Daniel, you are completely incorrigible." JD wasn't sure what that meant, but Ezra had an amused smile on his face, so he figured it couldn't be too bad. 'Course, that coulda been why Ezra was smiling...
"Am not. Anyway, I mean you probably knew what that word meant when you were my age, right?"
Ezra looked uncomfortable, and wouldn't look JD in the eye when he answered, "Yes, when one spends as much time in saloons and gambling halls as Ah have, it is inevitable to hear such unseemly language."
"So c'mon, tell me, won't you?"
"Ah think not."
"Oh, Ezraaa, c'mon!"
"Whining mah name in that obnoxious manner is not helping your cause."
"Please?" JD dropped the wheedling tone he'd been using, but turned up what he'd heard Buck call 'the puppy face' full blast.
"JD..." Ezra was definitely kind of embarrassed now, he still wouldn't quite look him in the eye-wait was he blushing? JD watched him with his head cocked to the side for a long moment, then grinned.
"You don't know what it means either, do you?"
Ezra looked affronted but JD kept grinning, "Ah certainly do."
"No, you don't."
"Ah have a fairly good notion."
"Nope." Ezra scowled, and JD was one hundred percent sure he was right now, otherwise Ezra's feathers wouldn't be getting all ruffled.
"Ah know it is a rude and undignified word, that a gentlemen never calls a lady." He crossed his arms and deepened his scowl.
"I ain't gonna go calling any ladies any names at all," JD protested, "I just wanna know what it means. C'mon, ain't you a little curious?"
"No, Ah am not."
JD just kept grinning right into Ezra's scowl, knowing Ezra well enough by now to know that was a big fat lie.
"Yes, you are."
"No, Ah am not."
"Yes, you are."
"No, Ah am not."
"Yes, you are."
"No, Ah am not-no, Ah am not doing this with you, Ah am not a child."
JD's grin was more than a bit wicked as he responded right back, "Yes, you are."
"No, Ah-JD!" Ezra looked so frustrated now that JD couldn't help it, he fell of his pew and all but started rolling on the floor he was laughing so hard. "Would you stop it? Josiah is going to come in here any second!" He stood up and bent over the back of JD's pew, swatting at him with his book, and JD batted him away, trying to get himself under control and finally snatched Ezra's book away, holding it hostage. Ezra grabbed his book from where JD had left it open on the pew and held it away from him, but since JD didn't really need it this second he just grinned, still gasping out the occasional giggle. "Ah'll hide it up on a roof somewhere if you get us in trouble, Ah swear, and you'll get stuck with philosophers too." Okay, JD had seen Ezra pick that book out of Josiah's collection, when he was picking out his own, which reminded him...
"It's Josiah's book!" Ezra paused, clearly having forgotten that fact, and JD took the opportunity to stand up and swat at Ezra with his own book in revenge, his brother automatically dodging and then doing the same, which was, of course, when Josiah walked in.
"Boys! What did I tell you?" The two turned slowly in his direction, raised hands and the 'weapons' in them falling down to their sides, gulping as they saw a very-not-happy preacher filling up the door frame.
"Uh, Sorry?" JD squeaked out as Josiah began walking up the aisle towards them.
"Now Josiah, it's just that we were having a debate about the works of Juvenal, Ah read a passage to JD and we disagreed on it's meaning..." Ezra trailed off as Josiah's eyebrows climbed higher, obviously not believing him, and JD didn't really blame him-like he would have really been listening even if Ezra had.
"Ezra, JD, what did I tell you about talking during your lessons today?"
"Not to do it?" JD's voice came out slightly squeakier than he liked, and he could feel his cheeks heating.
"Exactly. So even if", Josiah raised an eyebrow again, clearly expressing his disbelief, "you were debating 'the works of Juvenal', it was something you'd both been told not to do, wasn't it?"
JD mumbled a, "Yessir.", hearing a similar response from Ezra next to him. This was just great.
"I also don't appreciate seeing my books being abused like that. I've been allowing you two to pick freely what you want to study out of my collection, some of which I've had seen I was younger than either of you. After seeing you two swinging them at each other, I'm thinking I should take that privilege away." The two boys exchanged miserable glances, JD sure Ezra was thinking the same thing he was-getting to pick what they wanted to learn about was the only thing that made being forced to do lessons at the ages of sixteen and eighteen (Tiny's son was only fifteen, barely, and he didn't have to do lessons at all, which JD found completely unfair. Josiah had just talked a lot about how not everyone had the same opportunities when he'd complained though.), bearable. After a long minute of just looking at them, Josiah relented, "I won't, this time, but I don't expect to see behavior like that again, understood?"
Another chorus of "Yessir.", and JD was really hoping that would be the end of it. He knew it wouldn't be, but he hoped anyway.
"JD, c'mere." Reluctantly, wishing he could stay in the relatively safety of the narrow row, JD walked over to an expectant Josiah, cringing a bit when the man took him by the shoulder and bent him over, the same arm wrapping around his middle to steady him a moment later. He drew in a deep breath, a quick flurry of stinging smacks landing all over his backside, yelping a bit as few landed particularly low-and then it was over nearly as soon as it began, Josiah helping him back to his feet, rubbing at his back a bit. JD wanted to rub somewhere else, and did the second he was sure no one was looking at him, Ezra making his own reluctant trip to Josiah's side. JD turned away, not wanting to watch, but wincing a bit as he heard the same flurry of swats land on Ezra. The older boy kept quiet, which was kind of embarrassing, and then Josiah was done with him too, and calling JD's attention back over to him, and he went to stand by Ezra.
"The two of you have ten minutes left in your study hour-I should make you stay later to make up for fooling around like that, but I won't, this time-I'd suggest you sit quietly and get at least some reading done today, hear me?"
Another chorus, this time of, "Yes Josiah"'s, and he stood watching as they each went back to their pew, picked up and exchanged their books, and unwillingly sat down, JD squirming to try and get comfortable and instantly regretting it when it just made his butt hurt worse. After another few seconds while JD buried his head in his book, figuring Ezra was doing the same behind him, Josiah went out the back of the church again. JD didn't even look up, nose deep in a section of his book on festivals, and got sucked into learning all about Holi, a festival of colors where people had giant bonfires and even painted each other bright colors.
JD was definitely going to India some day.
Josiah's head poked back in the door, what didn't really feel like ten minutes later, "Alright boys, you're free to go." JD almost jumped to his feet, hurrying to deposit his book on the pulpit, calling a goodbye to Josiah over his shoulder as he hurried out the front of the church. India was interesting, but it would be years before he could get there-the sun was shining outside right now though, and it wasn't yet the part of summer that got so hot you didn't want to move. He waited on the porch for Ezra, who came out a second later, Josiah calling after him, "Don't forget we have evening patrol, son!"
"Ah won't!"
"Hey Ezra, what are you doing now?"
"Ah was going to see if I could find a game in the saloon. Care to join me?" JD was only allowed to play cards in the saloon if one of the others was playing too, and so rarely turned Ezra down, even if he almost always walked away with his pockets lighter.
"Sure, but I wanted to talk to you about something first." The two of them were trotting down the church steps now and Ezra cast a suspicious look at JD.
"If it is anything to do with what we were discussing before Ah want nothing to do with it."
"Oh, c'mon, Ez. We're the only two out of the whole seven who don't know, and I know you're curious. They just don't want to tell us 'cause they think we're babies!"
Ezra hesitated before he answered, and JD grinned to himself, pretty sure he had him now, "Ah have not actually asked anyone to tell me JD, though Ah do admit that the others, even Mr. Tanner, often treat us though we were children."
"Exactly! You haven't asked anybody yet, so you can't get in trouble for it."
"Ah am fairly certain the leap in your logic falls a bit short."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. Who-Ah am not saying Ah will ask anyone-who in the world would you have me ask? Ah am not asking Mr. Sanchez." Ezra shuddered melodramatically, and JD rolled his eyes.
"Duh. Buck, of course." There was a pause and then JD realized Ezra had stopped walking, and turned around to go back to him. "Ezra?"
"Are you certain you aren't running a fever?"
"Ha-ha, very funny."
"Ah assure you, Ah am not joking."
JD huffed and punched Ezra lightly on the shoulder, Ezra smacking him back, and Mrs. Travis, walking across the street to Mrs. Potter's store, Billy trotting next to her, spoke, voice half teasing, half serious, said, "Boys, we aren't going to have our town's peacekeepers fighting in the street are we?"
"No, Mary."
"No, Mrs. Travis."
"Good. Ezra, Evie sent a few pages for you in her last letter, stop by later and grab them, would you?"
Ezra's face lit up, before he smoothed his expression to something blander, Mary smiling and touching his shoulder. "Yes, of course, what would be a good time?"
"Anytime after the next hour or so, I'm running some errands right now." The boys waited until she'd crossed the street, Billy running to play with the Potter children, before they continued heading towards the saloon, keeping their conversation quiet.
"Ah'd think Buck would be the worst choice after last night, except maybe Chris. Why him?"
JD hesitated, not about to tell Ezra that Buck had said that word about his mother. Yeah he was figuring Buck would have a hard time being mad at Ezra for anything to do with it because of that, but if he told Ezra that the only thing Ezra would be likely to do would be to punch Buck in the face. "While, I figure A. he already knows what word it is so you won't have to actually say it, and B. it's his fault we want to know, really, so he can't get mad."
"Our, having already told you not to say it again, and able to infer from the amount of time Ah spend both in the saloon and with you, Ah have probably heard the story, he knows that Ah know you were told not to say it, and will decide Ah should have deduced no one would be pleased with me eithah and act accordingly."
JD thought he'd understood that. "But that's the first thing I said, you don't have to actually say it, just say you want to know what the word he said last night means."
"The answer is no. Ah am certain Ah will regret it if Ah do."
"Bet you a dollar, three to one in your favor, that you won't." JD could see from the look on Ezra's face that he had him.
"So you are saying if Ah lose the bet, Ah lose only a dollah, whereas if Ah win Ah gain three dollahs? We are both clear on that?"
Yep, he had him hook, line and sinker. "Yeah, that's what I meant."
"Ah'll only do it if you're with me."
Aw heck...
