Hi, so here is another chapter, always nice to delve into Jason's perspective as this story slowly starts winding to a conclusion.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

Guardians And Gladiators.

Chapter 9-The Great Man Down.

A mirror to this one. John and Olivia sit down with their children to discuss the events of the day and what comes next. John-Boy finally makes it to the recovery room.

The second Grandma was gone Jason turned to his parents.

"So John-Boy's going to be alright?"

"Yes" their Daddy said sitting down still looking at where his Grandma had gone with a slightly stunned look—Jason didn't blame him in the slightest—and Jason followed his lead sitting down and gesturing with a look for the other three to do the same.

"Yes John-Boy is going to be alright, the bullet seems to have gone out of it's way not to hit anything. Minor miracle to be honest"

Jason thought that was right but he didn't want to say it. Instead he caught Mary-Ellen's eye and pressed on.

"So…so he'll come home and be alright and go onto college and…everything?"

"Yes" his mother said firmly. "Yes everything will be as it was"

Ben blew out a breath and Jason felt the same, he would not let onto anyone just how much he had been afraid that this would change the steady plodding along that was daily life on Walton's Mountain. He knew that everyone—John-Boy, Mary-Ellen included wanted excitement but Jason was just happy with their day to day existence. He didn't need excitement. With excitement came pain and often misery. Quite frankly after Seth, he'd had enough of that for one lifetime.

"So…what do we do next?" Ben asked watching their father in that way that only Ben could do.

"With what son?"

"With them" he said venomously pointing his head in the direction that they had seen Martha Corrine and Boon walk out of.

"What do you mean?" his father said in a very tired voice. It was as if he could see where Ben was going but couldn't get his brain to work. Jason could understand the emotion completely.

"I mean what do we do? Sure they've lost the battle and their packing or so they say but what if they move down to our land? You heard her she doesn't like flat land. She want's mountain land. What if she decides she wants ours?"

"She won't"

"She might" Mary-Ellen muttered. "Nothing she does would surprise me"

"She won't" their Daddy said and there was an edge to his voice that Jason had never heard before and hoped never to hear again.

Ben scoffed and their Daddy turned to look at all four of them and something in his gaze seemed to soften.

"Look…I know it's been a long day for all of you and I know it's been traumatic for you and I know your emotions are all over the place but Martha Corrine is not coming down from the mountain to steel our land, we are not going to war with her, we are not going to never speak to her again. It's not how we work, we don't have that level of hate in our hearts or in our house. Be angry, be furious with her—God knows—and I say that reverently—I am, but don't hate her, because hate…it's such a wasted emotion. Such an awful emotion and it will eat you alive and it's not something that I would ever want for you"

There was something about the way he said it. Like he was speaking from experience and Jason wanted to ask him but at the same time he was scared of asking him. It was like when Mr Harrison had visited. All of it in that moment so raw and exposed when his father had looked at him and had called him a man.

Well, he was a man now. Hell, younger boys than him had families to provide for of their own.

"So what happened then?" Ben asked. "Because we only heard their version and their version wasn't very complimentary to anyone but themselves"

His Daddy gave a long sigh.

"There was a shootout. It shouldn't have come to that but it did and we are not apportioning blame" he said to Ben's furious gaze.

"We are not doing it Ben I mean it. We are not going up to the mountain with shot guns like we are on some vendetta from the movies. We are not Chicago gangsters. There was a shootout, John-Boy was hurt but he is going to live. Anything before that and anything after that is between us. Your parents"

"Where was Grandpa?" Erin asked finally.

"He was there. He was with John-Boy"

"Yeah but—"

"NO" and it was their mother and it was such of the tone of her voice that it made all four of them sit up and quell their answers at once.

"Your Grandpa was with John-Boy. There is nothing else to discuss"

Jason thought that there was, clearly something had happened before they had arrived but he was also old enough and smart enough to know when to ignore the obvious signs in front of them. Clearly something had happened between the two of them that they were not to prod or poke.

"So…so have they surrendered?" Mary-Ellen asked.

"Yes"

Mary-Ellen shot him a look and Jason nodded. Clearly as the eldest he was supposed to ask this question though he would rather face the gallows than throw them all into the firepit.

"Err…Daddy…did…did Boon and Martha Corrine mention they had been to the house?"

His Daddy snorted. His Momma shot him a look that Jason personally wouldn't like to be on the wrong end of, but he was grinning a little when he looked at the four of them, the four of them that had been there when Martha Corrine and Boon had arrived and the four of them that had in their own way seen him off.

"Yes son. She did."

Oh good.

"Err…did she mention…anything?"

"Oh she mentioned everything"

Oh shit Jason thought. Seth had taught him that word and they had giggled together as they had tried it out. It had made them both laugh over supper and his Momma had asked him what was going on and that had made him look to his best friend and get a strong case of the giggles. Seth had fobbed off all concerns and had made up a story but it had made them giggle for months afterwards.

It was hard to think of Seth now. Hard to think of his best friend and the life that he should have had.

"When you say everything" Mary-Ellen began looking very much as if she was heading to her room to learn the entire bible off my heart before supper.

" . .ing" their Daddy spelt out for them with a knowing look.

Oh God damn it all to hell.

But because they were all masochistic who had ask before they swung for it they had to ask.

Or at the very least Jason had to ask.

"So…"

"The shotgun, the language, all of it"

Jason caught Mary-Ellen's eye but before they could say anything their father spoke and it was with a tone that Jason thought might have bordered on amused for a second.

"I think" he said with a carefully look at each of them. "We should chalk this down to a rather difficult day, where things were done and said by all of us. And we will not speak of it again…and we will not touch my gun or use such language again. And we will not discuss your Grandma's...outburst of emotion. Understand?"

Four choruses of "Yes Daddy" rang out and each of them were true. There had been things done and said today from not just them but also from Momma and Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa. Jason might not understand much but he understood that. Someone—their brother—had nearly died and it had been kith and kin that had battled it out up there on the mountain like it was the wild, wild west.

"However" their Daddy said and this time his gaze was firm on the wall and not looking at each of them, and this time there was a smile on his face that Jason couldn't understand but what made him feel warm inside all at once.

"If I was to comment on what had transpired between the four of you and Martha Corrine and Boon…I'd have to tell each and everyone of you that I am so…so…proud. Proud of what you did and proud of what you said"

"John—"

"Livy we are not going to speak of it after this. And after this the children know not to use such language or do such things. This is a special day"

Jason caught Mary-Ellen's eye and they both had to look away to hide their giggles. Erin was grinning, even Ben who had been coiled up like a spring ready to snap had relaxed a little.

Yeah. This was a special day alright.

Certainly not one that they would forget any time soon.

Doctor Vance came out his face smiling at the same time his mother and father did. His Ma her face controlled like it was, was solid and stoic next to his father. John had seen her like that only once and that was when he had come home and John-Boy had told him solemnly that he had known that Uncle Ben had gone to heaven.

Not exactly the first post war conversation he had wanted with his son. Especially when he had left that son had not been talking. Just another reminder of everything that had been lost in between those months where mud and blood and shit had been his friend and his enemy and boys younger than him had lost their minds, their bodies and their lives to the enemy.

But it was Doctor Vance who told them that John-Boy was going to live, Doctor Vance who told them that his son was going to be wheeled to the Recovery Room and it was Jason he dispatched to tell his Ma and Pa. At some point he was going to have to speak to his father—certainty if they were ever going to work together but right now was not the time. The bullet had not nicked anything and he was grateful for that. If that was the God that his wife and his mother believed in and that he had stopped believing in somewhere between the Spring Offensive and the Armistice then he was grateful to Him too.

He kept that thought to himself. The last thing he needed was Olivia asking him when he was going to get himself baptised. He didn't need that. If he could have his way he'd never have that conversation again.

Then suddenly his son was there. Pale in the hospital bed, pale in the sheets and looking very much as if he was sleeping. Compared to the last time it was easier to have something to prepare himself with but he found that he was still curling his hands into fists.

At least there wasn't a head bandage wrapped around him. Seeing John-Boy with that thing on had been a nightmare that had kept him awake for a long time after it had come off and been consigned to the flames of the stove fire.

For the second that he stared at him it was as if the air had been knocked out of him but then John-Boy was gone and Erin had her face half hidden in Mary-Ellen's shoulder and Mary-Ellen was ashen and Ben was furious again and Jason was looking at him with that same look his brother would give him, the same look John's brother would give him and John was reminded suddenly and sharply that he had other children that he had to protect, other members of his family and his friends who cared about them.

There was a support network around the Walton's. Friends, family and though he dare not say it kith and kin and though he didn't want to John knew he had to forgive. In that shining moment he knew he had to forgive because every word he had told his children was true.

Hatred was such a wasted emotion, and it rotted away both at you and at the world. And John was not going to hate. Not now, not ever.

And so he would forgive.

But that would be tomorrow.

He would give himself today, and he would forgive tomorrow.

Livy in that way she had when she knew his thoughts squeezed his hand.

John knew she understood.

And there you are, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Next Chapter-John-Boy drifts and John-Boy dreams and then he wakes up to see that the world around him has fallen apart.