A/N: Hey everybody! Hope you enjoy this chapter :)

I had grand plans for doing a proper shout-out, but it's like one in the morning, and I keep nodding off. Love you guys and thank you for all the inspiration :)

Maude lovers, be warned, I am not nice to her here. I think Maude's fascinating and awesome in her own way and has probably been through some massive crap in her own life. I also think she's a shitty mother who uses her child as a tool, and that his well being is only important to her A. when he is physically present around her, i.e., out of sight out of mind, and B. when there is significant physical danger that isn't part of one of her cons, and it shows.

Reviews are to an author like fuel is to an engine :)

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Ezra did his best to appear as though he were not overly worried about their conversation as he stepped lightly onto the stairs in front of his uncle. It was tempting to drag his feet and slow down the proceedings as much as possible, but while he certainly did not go up them as fast as he could, he did not change his pace, even as the idea became increasingly alluring as they grew near the top. To do so would expose his vulnerabilities, as though they were being presented in a showcase and that would never do.

Part of his dilemma was that he had yet to achieve what he'd hoped to over dinner, finding a valid and technically true reason(Uncle Orin would have a much harder time detecting a falsehood if none had been told) for his departure, that still did not include his actual reason. He knew his Uncle. Knew that the man would not leave well enough alone if he determined that there was a threat that needed taking care of, and so far Ezra had found that staying below the radar had been the best way to avoid the trouble that came with Graham 'the gentleman dancer' Burke.

Gentleman. Hah! That creature didn't even know the meaning of the word.

As incensed and offended as Mothah had been when Ezra began to consort with the more law-abiding side of society, particularly the very judge who had sentenced her, she had still made sure word was gotten to him when she'd heard that Burke had been looking for her. How she kept her information network intact while she was trapped in a cell Ezra had no idea, but Mother truly had a remarkable array of skills. The man had attempted to use him to manipulate her before, when he'd been about fourteen, and Ezra had frankly been surprised by how easily she had given in to his demands. He had not been truly frightened until he realized, though he doubted anyone else had, even Burke, that Mother had been as well, her body language and manner of speech exposing it to Ezra, if no one else.

Of course, once she had him back with her, and determined that he had not been injured to the point of being unable to travel, they had whisked away in the middle of the night, slipping past Burke's men like they were no more dangerous or observant than a hedgerow. Mother had reminded him later that there were some levels a Standish simply did not stoop to, no matter the circumstances, and doing favors for a man such as that was one of them.

In a rare and precious caress, she had brushed his hair back, pausing with her hand resting on his head, and told him sincerely she would not have a man like that around her son.

He would not bring trouble such as that to the Judge's doorstep.

It had taken him a month to both plan properly for his departure and to find it within himself to actually carry through with it, but in the end, it had been an action felt he had no choice but to take.

Ezra realized suddenly as his body came to an automatic stop that he was in front of the room. He swallowed, hoping the fact that his back was to Uncle Orin would hide it, as he laid his hand on the doorknob, and turned, pushing the door open. Which he was dreading the most, the talk where he would have to come up with some kind of viable explanations for his actions of the past year, or the conclusion to said talk, would have been hard to pinpoint. Ezra realized that he was hovering in the doorway, a discreet glance behind showing that Uncle Orin was waiting more or less patiently for him to go through, and Ezra swallowed as he did so, hoping he had been equally circumspect in that. "Go and sit down on the bed." More reluctant than he had been and even more determined not to show it, Ezra crossed to the bed and sat gingerly on the edge, well aware that it would likely be the last time he could do so comfortably for awhile.

Uncle Orin had grabbed a small chair that was pushed off into the corner on the right side of the door while Ezra was sitting and carried it over, setting it down so it faced Ezra and seating himself in it. He looked at his nephew expectantly and Ezra abruptly felt very small and foolish in front of that gaze. What explanation could he possibly give?

He could potentially say that he'd known when she was released in a few months time his Mother would have done everything in her power to persuade Ezra to rejoin her, and while he did not desire to, he knew she would not cease until he had given in. It was a possibility he had worried over more than once, knowing his mother could be ruthless when it came to ensuring her child was on what she thought of as the proper path. The likelihood of her having taken that course of action if he had remained with his Aunt and Uncle was, Ezra would lay odds, credibly a fifty-fifty shot. The other option was that Mother might have made no contact with him at all once free, dropping off the face of the earth as a reprimand for his maintaining associations she disapproved of.

In this scenario, if Mother choose option one, he could see her pursuing two main ways of achieving her goals. Either she would try to integrate herself with the family-which would have been an entirely pointless waste of energy on her part, as after their initial interactions the judge's opinion of his mother was not particularly high-, or to try and separate Ezra from them by a variety of methods, including sabotaging him or setting him up for their displeasure. He would ordinarily say that such techniques would be left as a last resort, as they had once before, but she had been truly disgusted by his staying with Uncle Orin, and Mother always had been a believer in the ends justifying the means. If neither of those methods worked to her pleasure, and she didn't decide it was too much trouble to persist, things could get ugly fast. He had seen the woman at work, and she did not use her relatives simply as boarding houses for her child, he had seen her use family in her cons, or con family more than once, and if it got her her way he had no doubt she would not hesitate to do the same to him. He'd already played the pawn and the scapegoat for her more than once.

It hadn't happened, and it would not happen, but the fact that he could see it having occurred very easily if he had stayed was disturbing.

The fact that she was his mother, and there were still times he longed for her company, for all it never lasted long, either his desire or the time before she would foist him on someone else, was something he would not share with anyone. Thoughts such as those were only for him.

He could tell him that he worried he was just a replacement for his dead son. Orin had taken him in no more than four months after Steven Travis had passed, and it did not take a wise man to see the possibility. Even if it had not occurred to him naturally, the citizens of his uncle's town were not shy or retiring people when it came to gossip and the sharing of other people's private business. Ezra had heard that more than once when moving through town, the people assuming he was oblivious, and received the pitying looks to go with it, heard the murmurs that he, a common grifter, could never measure up. That they wondered how long until...

But he would not hurt his Uncle like that, even if it had been the reason for his departure. And it had not.

So it would be Mother he would use. He reminded himself that it was not as though anything he'd be saying was strictly untrue, were all things that had been done in the past nor anything that could actually effect her situation. It felt...improper to speak so of his mother, and he was somewhat discomfited by the fact that he would effectively be implying he was apprehensive of or even intimidated by his mother. He felt many things for Mother, but he had never actually been frightened of her, of displeasing or shaming her, yes, at times, but never of Mother. "You're thinking awfully hard there."

Ezra was surprised as the voice broke into his thoughts, calm, but serious, and then felt ridiculous as he realized how long he'd been sitting there, lost in his thoughts as though he were the sole occupant of the room. Good lord, he would need to pay mind to those kind of slips, or he'd wind up giving away far more than he meant to. "Ah am afraid that in trying to find words to begin, Ah became lost temporarily in mah mind. Ah apologize."

"That's fine. I'd reckon that as long as you start at the beginning, the words themselves aren't that important. Why did you think you had to leave?" His uncle's face was patient, but it still felt like his eyes were boring into Ezra's. For a moment he wildly considered telling him the truth in its entirety, but willed down such a ridiculous notion. He'd developed a plan, a direction to pursue, he'd done so for a reason, and he would stick with it.

"Ah received a missive from Mothah about a week before mah departure." A technical truth, a letter had arrived for him at that time. Orin was listening quietly, but Ezra had seen a flash of emotion on his face when he uttered mother, the man's anger-at the woman herself for being involved or at Ezra for allowing her to manipulate him, he did not know-jumping onto his face. "Within the midst of flowery language, she made her main goal abundantly clear. She felt mah presence was required for her next business venture and was so confident that Ah would rejoin her, that it even contained instructions to brush up on mah pokah game and to establish contact with one of her partners." Also not precisely a falsehood, as Ezra had received more than one piece of correspondence from Mother with almost that exact wording.

Truly, she had mentioned his poker game in her last missive, both dismissively assuming he'd allowed his skills to erode and would be unable to hold his own in a game of the class they were used to playing, and stating that he would have to remedy that error before he would be of use to her, though there had been no con discussed or even a mention of him rejoining her in any concrete way. It had briefly spurred a desire in him to fleece the locals before he made his exodus, but he had already achieved greater feats of gambling related chastisement than he would ever have imagined by that point, and had not desired to test the waters further. It would have had both Uncle Orin and Aunt Evie watching him closer and made his extraction more difficult, and likely would have meant his ride would have been a most unpleasant one.

As though he'd ever allow his 'god given talents', as Mother insisted on calling them, to slide.

"Ezra," his uncle's voice was quiet and serious, "you ran away to avoid your mother forcing you into a con? You were in my custody, son. There's no way in hell I would have let her take you anywhere if you wanted to go, let alone let you be dragged away against your will."

"Mah Mothah is a resourceful woman, with fah more connections and assets in her grasp than eithah of us are fully aware of, Uncle Orin. She is also as persuasive as the Goddess Peitho, when she applies herself fully." There was a somewhat puzzled look on his uncle's face at that, and Ezra supplied, "A handmaiden to Aphrodite." His mother had always had an affinity for the mythical figure. If they lived in those times Ezra had no doubt his Mother would have an alter to her.

Ezra always remembered Peitho's, or Persuasion's, part in getting Pandora to open that box.

"You were worried that she would talk you into it?" Ezra gave a short nod, not wanting to say more, embarrassed by the fact that she very well might have succeeded in such a venture if she had been attempting it, by the way she always seemed to get him to play right into her hands, even though he of all people should know better. Hating the way he was both lying to his Uncle Orin's face and that it seemed the man had no idea. Of course, it was not as though Ezra wanted him to see through his deception, but...

A year truly did change things in an unequivocal way.

"Ezra, even if she had, you were a minor in my custody. I never would have let you go anywhere with her, frankly, not even to dinner unless I were along as well." Ezra had to clamp down on a surge of frustration, and the thought that Orin could not possibly understand just how easily Maude got her way. She wouldn't simply have thrown her hands up and dismissed the matter because she had been told no. Unless his uncle had held him under house arrest, if Maude had required an opportunity to speak to him she would have had it. Likely the harder it was to get to him, the more determined she would have become. "But I can see from the look on your face that you don't quite believe me."

Ezra frowned, both because that wasn't quite true and because the man could read his face so well. It wasn't that he didn't believe his uncle, at least he knew that Orin would have done that to the best of his abilities, and if anyone could get the better of Maude it would be Uncle Orin. Yet, he had seen her in action, and Mother was very good at what she did. "She would not have asked for your permission. She would not have asked for mah permission. When Mothah has resolved herself to a position, set her eyes on a goal, she will have it one way or the othah. If unable to extract me in othah ways she would have simply ensured Ah was no longah welcome in your household." Ezra felt a tightness, almost an ache, fill his stomach as memories better left buried piled onto one another in his mind, swallowing hard.

It would have happened again. He'd known, to the depths of his being, that Mother would not have tolerated him happily living with the judge who had dared to actually sentence her, and to sentence her for a year at that-the judge who in a packed courtroom had told her if the law had allowed for it with her offense it would have been two years, and that she should be ashamed of the influence she had on her son.

Why stay and risk putting both himself and his loved ones in danger-risk putting Billy in danger-only to become despised and required to leave anyway? When he could leave and avoid both potential catastrophes?

Orin had straightened as he spoke, and his was set in firm lines as he answered, though Ezra could see worry in his eyes, "That would never happen. There is a room for you in my and Evie's home always, even after you settle into your own."

Ezra shook his head, willing his dueling emotions not to show on his face or in his voice, "Unc-"

"There is nothing you are capable of doing, and I know you better than you think, Ezra, that would cause me to do that to you. And I'm not such a fool that I'd allow tales told by a woman that I, begging your pardon, wouldn't trust as far as I can throw her, to persuade me otherwise."

"She's done it befah!" There was a second where Ezra froze, trying to will his thickening accent and stinging eyes to disappear, starting to succeed when Uncle Orin rose and crossed to him, sinking down next to him on the bed and pulling Ezra into the closest you could get to a bear hug while sitting down, and not letting go for a long, drawn out moment. Ordinarily Ezra would have been uncomfortable with such an emotional display, but he found himself leaning into it, though he resisted the urge to place his head onto his uncle's shoulder. "She's done it befah. And Mothah did not confine herself to such basics as telling stories." She'd managed to turn an entire town against him, while staying almost entirely in the background herself. Orin somehow pulled him closer, squeezing reassuringly.

"I promise you, I won't be falling for any of your Momma's spiel, or anything else she pulls." Ezra shook his head without moving it from where it had wound up, square in the center of Orin's chest, like he was seeking permanent attachment. "No, no, I won't. And neither will your Aunt Evie or Mary. Whoever did the first time is a jackass who didn't deserve you in the first place." Ezra shook his head even more vehemently, because the Rangel's had been good people, they'd been excellent to him until the end, and he blamed Mothah for that more than them. "Alight, alright, it's okay." It wasn't until Orin began comforting him that he realized his damp eyes had overflowed, and mortified, he tried to pull away, only to have his Uncle's long arms pull him back again. "It won't happen again Ezra. I told you it was a promise, and I meant it."