Hi, so here is another chapter, I hope you enjoy this one and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

I didn't know how this one was going to go especially because you never see Ellen's character as the one who uses violence, but I thought that in this moment with Boon it just came out. I think it made more sense to have her do it rather than Olivia or John because she is Esther Walton. It might be a bit OCC for the character but I had such a fun time writing it so I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine

Please Read and Review.


Guardians And Gladiators

Chapter 7-Awful People.

Martha Corrine, Boon, John, Olivia, Esther and Zeb come face to face for the first time since John-Boy's shooting. Expect fireworks.


They were standing in the corridor, the old man and the even older woman clutching her stick with her little bonnet on her head. Boon had an expression which told everyone that he really didn't want to be here but had clearly been prodded and poked by his mother to do her bidding. It wasn't shame though that was on his face. If Esther didn't know better she would have thought it was amusement. But she did know better and she knew that Boon's expression was one of his default ones. Man had all but thrown his wife in the ground with that expression and though she hated Boon, she also knew that he had loved his wife in his own funny little way.

John had come out of the chapel, Livy behind him both of them tight in their posture. She noticed that Livy was watching John more than she was watching what was unfolding between them and she resisted the urge to smack her only living son on the back of the head. John was primed for war and Esther was going to kill him if he shamed them by punching Boon clean across the mouth in front of half of the medical staff in the county.

It wouldn't take long for that kind of gossip to spread. This was Charlottesville. They tended not to get a lot of gossip out here. Most of it was home grown and even then it was few and far between. They lived in Virginia, not in one of those sin-soaked states like New York or California.

"Zeb" Martha Corrine said her voice shrill almost in the silence. "We came to enquire about John-Boy"

"Went to your place first" Boon said sitting down in one of the chairs and sticking out his feet as if he was board. "Ran into your eldest girl and your elder boys. That red-headed one pointed a gun at us and told us to shift…and that girl…" he made a tutting noise. "She's got some mouth on her John. The language that she used—" he shot John a look with a smirk and Esther who was not prone to violence suddenly felt a sudden urge to smack him clean across the mouth because he was deliberately provoking her son and her son had not had what one would call the best day. It was as if Boon wanted a fight though she couldn't understand why. John was ten years younger than him and had been working with his body for a long time. Why anyone would want a fight with John when he was in any mood never mind the mood he was in now was beyond her.

"Might wanna do something about that John. Called me some right names. Doesn't bode well if you want to marry her off"

"What did she call you?" John said flatly.

"She said we were no longer welcome so could we fuck off"

Esther closed her eyes. She despaired she really did. Since when Mary-Ellen have the knowledge of such language? Because certainly nobody in Esther's acquaintance knew words such as that.

John gave a smile that reminded her of a picture she had seen in a magazine of a shark about to strike. It was a new look on John. As his mother she didn't like it. In fact she hated it.

"That's my girl" he said his voice savage with pride and Esther had to remind herself sternly that this was not funny though really the look on Boon's face was. He had clearly been expecting some kind of reaction and John's savage approval had not been the one he was banking on.

"What do you want?" Olivia said looking between her husband and Boon.

"We came to see—"

"He's been shot woman what did you expect him to be doing?" John asked. "Singing and dancing? He's just come out of surgery, he's going to live which is the only reason I haven't wrapped my hands around your scrawny neck and shook you until your teeth come out"

Esther caught Zeb's eye. Relief was written all over his face and she couldn't blame him. She had been trying in the interval to keep her husband from blaming himself more than he did already and she knew that the news that John-Boy had survived (and surely he had used up several of his lives at this point) was enough to make her knees weak. She sent up a prayer because she believed with everything she was and everything she had ever been that there was someone up their looking out for her family. Time and time again they had been tested but bar the one time they had never lost a soul.

That had to mean something.

God please tell her that meant something.

"So" Martha Corrine said watching John and Esther realised that there had still been a conversation that she had missed.

"That's how it's going to be then?"

John gave a snort but it was Olivia that spoke.

"How did you expect this to go Martha Corrine? My son has been shot"

"He's a man" Martha Corrine said finally. "He knew the risks"

"Though he tried a couple of times to run away" Boon muttered. John took a step forwards but Zeb reached out and gripped his shoulder. For one moment, for one terrible endless moment Esther was sure John was going to punch his father clean out but Zeb had stepped forwards effectively blocking John from view and in doing so Esther got a look at her husband's face and the anger that was showing, the anger, the fury, the hot white guilt he had been battling since they had arrived at the hospital. Zeb with this expression looked about thirty years younger, when he had been a hot head and she had been so desperately in love with him. It was hard to believe that such a time had gone.

He stared down at his brother's son with such a look of cold, hard fury that Boon seemed to realise he had made a fatal error. He stood up his hands outstretched in some move as to indicate surrender, but Zeb wasn't having it.

"You do not dare blame my grandson for the actions taken on that mountain" he said. He didn't yell but then again Zeb didn't have to yell when he was angry. He didn't have to yell or scream or raise his voice. When her husband wanted to make his opinion known he didn't need to raise his voice. It poured out of him in every line of his body, every tremble of the muscles that might have relaxed over time but never faded. She remembered once when Henry and Zeb had stared each other down years ago over a stupid comment about John and Ben enlisting and she'd thought that had been the angriest that she had seen her husband.

It had been until this moment.

"Zeb" Martha Corrine began but Zeb held up a hand and the woman fell silent. The anger that her husband was projecting as such that it seemed to stun the entire room into silence including the two nurses and the doctor who were watching at the end of the corridor transfixed.

"You do not get to come here Martha Corrine and criticize John-Boy. You and I are older, we should have known better. It wasn't worth the cost. I'm sorry Martha Corrine but nothing is worth more than your own life and the lives of your kin and I should have told you that."

"It was my land Zeb, my land and they took it from me. And you would have just let them?"

"Are you still fighting now?" Esther asked before she could tug on Zeb's heartstrings, his sense of honour and above all his love for his brother despite the fact that she was sure it had been more one-sided than he realised.

Martha Corinne turned to look at her and Esther took her in. She had always been old. She had always looked old. Time had took to both of them taking away the beauty that they had both been proud of but for the first time Esther looked at the woman and saw that she looked lost and frail. She could see the frailness in her posture and in her stance and for one moment her heart went out to her, the woman had lost her baby, her husband, her daughter in law and now through no fault of her own her home. Someone had come and taken her land away, her home, the place where her memories were and it wasn't like Esther was a cold woman, she could understand it, heck at one point in her life long ago she might have even encouraged Zeb to do the same thing if it was them but that had been a different Esther before she had children, before she had grandchildren. Before she understood the pain of losing one.

And that was something that she could never understand. The loss of her son, the agony that had dulled over time to a dull ache—never leaving, never going away—but faded until she could remember the good times mixed in with the bad. She could never understand having had that loss what it was to give your grandson or even her grandson a rifle and point them in the direction of the other man with a rifle. She could never get that. She could never, ever understand or justify another war which was whenever the newscaster mentioned over the radio the marching in Germany she felt the urge to change the channel and forget that she had ever heard it in the first place.

"No" she said shortly. "We surrendered. They won"

"Still think we'd have done it" Boon muttered. "All this fuss over a fucking coward"

And that was the end of her good mood. John moved first closely followed by his father but it was Esther that had gotten there first though she hardly remembered moving.

SMACK.

She had cracked Boon around the face with all the strength she could muster.

Boon fell into the waiting room chairs, John fell into his father in shock but Esther didn't care. A fury the likes of which she had never known had engulfed her, a fire burning within her and God help her she knew that she didn't care if the miserable little wrench in front of her lived or died.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL MY GRANDSON A COWARD YOU FOUL, YOU EVIL, LITTLE BOOTLEGGING COCKROACH"

"Esther" Olivia said shock coating her voice but Esther didn't care. Boon scrambled to his feet but she didn't care. She could take him.

Well…she could hold him off. She hadn't raised two boys on the mountain for nothing.

"GET OUT" she snarled taking a step forwards and it was almost comical to see Boon take a step backwards. She pointed at Martha Corrine who was gaping at her.

"TAKE YOUR BRAT AND GET AWAY FROM MY FAMILY. AND IF YOU COME NEAR MY GRANDCHILDREN AGAIN IT WON'T BE BEN WITH A GUN YOU WILL HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT"

Martha Corrine looked at her for a second and then jerked her head at Boon and slowly they went. Breathing heavily Esther turned around to see three stunned faces staring at her.

"What?"

"Jesus Ma" John said looking at her with something akin to awe. "I didn't know you had that in you"

Esther opened her mouth to speak but applause cut her off and she turned blinking in surprise. Ike looking as if he would rather be anywhere else (though he too looked like he wanted to applaud her—clearly he had thought better of it—smart man) was pushed to the side as Jason, Mary-Ellen, Ben and Erin all applauded her.

"Just what are you children doing here?" Oliva asked finding her voice.

"I was at Ike's when Doctor Vance called" Ben said grinning. "I took Blue back and we all decided to come together. Especially when Doctor Vance told us that Martha Corrine was here. Ike borrowed the Baldwin sister's car. Their at the house now with Jim-Bob and Elizabeth"

Esther closed her eyes. She was particularly worried about losing her grandchildren's respect or the fact that this story would no doubt be all over the county by morning (she knew that most mothers, grandmothers etc would understand if she pled to an emotional state) but the thought of what the Baldwin sisters could do to her house was another thought entirely.

"That was fantastic" Jason said.

"Amazing" Ben said his grin just as big and as bright as his namesakes had once been.

"Spectacular" Mary-Ellen said.

"Grandma" was all Erin could say.

Esther couldn't help it, she turned on her heels and walked into the chapel. She had a reputation to keep up with after all and grinning at them was not going to be conductive to her grandchildren leading violence free lives.

But God help her…it had felt good.


And there you go, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I will bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-Esther and Zeb share a moment as they reflect on the past, the present and the future. John-Boy comes out of surgery and is wheeled into the recovery room.