The fans have spoken. Yes, I know I'm weak, but who am I to deny those that ask for more? "Please sir, could I have some more?" Well, I say yes! Yes indeed (except to the "sir" part, that's not quite right now is it? lol)! And since I already had it all outlined and was going to make it part of the previous ficlet (except that it didn't flow right so I decided to leave it out) it all works. On with the show!
Children Again: Child Ezra (in adult body) Version Two
by Ami-chan
"Nathan, quick!"
It had all happened so suddenly; one moment Ezra had been standing there looking slightly bored since their search hadn't turned up so much as a hair and then he was down. There'd been no gunshot, no attacker, he'd just collapsed. The word "stroke" rushed through JD's mind as he called for Nathan again. People stayed awake for heart attacks so it couldn't be that, but a stroke... and yet, Ezra was too young, too fit, but it'd happened before to other people, hadn't it? Of course, that was exactly it? It happened to "other people" so it couldn't be happening to Ezra! Could it?
An ambulance had been called while Nathan checked Ezra – vitals were all normal, he said, and there appeared to be nothing wrong with him. Except that he was unconscious. "Exhaustion?" Vin had asked, but Nathan had only shook his head and suggested they wait until Ezra had been checked over by experts.
The search of the warehouse was abandoned, Chris taking the option of riding in the ambulance with Ezra – being team leader had its perks. Everyone else piled into the vehicles they had taken and drove to the hospital. They all hoped for good news. Chris met up with the others in the waiting room and had no more information than they had before. The doctors were all as baffled as Nathan had been. No signs of head trauma, stroke, or anything, but still Ezra was unresponsive.
Then a nurse appeared, looking somewhat alarmed as she hurriedly said, "Mr. Larabee, there's been a bit of a problem. Will you come with me please?" She glanced around at the other five men, men that she knew all too well from prior experience, and added, "Perhaps all of you should come."
Though they were all worried and uncertain exactly what was going on, they followed silently. If it was really bad news then they didn't want to be in a hurry to get it. Even Buck was so distressed that he didn't even attempted to hit on the nurse who certainly would have been considered his type.
When they entered one of the rooms the first thing they saw was a doctor and a nurse standing very still near the door and watching something that they couldn't see because of the angle of the hospital bed. There was no one in the bed itself. "What's going on?" Chris demanded when no one offered an immediate explanation.
"Your agent appears to be disoriented," the doctor said, her eyes distractedly observing the corner of the room. "Rather violently so. He woke abruptly and was rather distressed – he pushed us away before we knew what was happening, ripped out the IV and…" She pointed helplessly and Chris moved to see what she was looking at.
It was Ezra, huddled in the corner, glaring at them with a mixture of fear, confusion, and perhaps even a bit of hatred. "We were hoping," the doctor continued, "That you, one of you, would be able to get through to him so that we can continue our examination. It's not as if this is the first time it's happened, what with his occupation and all, but I've never seen him nearly as… unapproachable and never violent. Confused, yes."
Chris nodded absently, tuning out her words as he began to walk toward Ezra. Normally he wouldn't have bothered with a slow approach, yelling at Ezra usually shook him out of his confusion, but for some reason he found himself seeing Ezra not as his calm and cool agent, but as a skittish – what? A child? Ezra was certainly looking at him with a wide-eyed and not altogether certain expression, as if Chris were a complete stranger. "Hey, it's all right." Even that assurance was ignored; Ezra didn't believe him. "What's wrong with him?" he asked, backing away and turning back to the doctor.
"From what we saw? Nothing. As far as we can tell he's in perfect health, except that he's rather confused. It might take him a while to come back to himself, though I will admit he's never reacted quite this badly after waking before." She shook her head helplessly. "We tried to tell him that he was safe here, that we knew who he was, but he doesn't want to believe us."
While they were talking Buck attempted to approach the crouched figure - an ominous growl halted the man in his tracks and he backed away again. He tapped Chris on the shoulder and said, "Tag," making Chris roll his eyes. "Hey, he didn't growl at you. He might be little and up-to-date on his shots but I am certainly not in a hurry to get bitten by him."
Chris nearly asked why Buck thought that he would enjoy risking his own skin before finally deciding the argument wasn't even worth it. His undercover agent was... having issues and so he'd deal with them. And if Ezra did bite him he'd feel very guilty about it later and would be on his best behavior, which, if he was lucky, would include Ezra not conspiring with Vin for a while. Not that that would last for long, but maybe a week or so of not having to check to see if the sugar was really sugar or not finding realistic snakes and spiders in his desk would be nice.
He blinked down into wide green eyes that were staring at him almost fearfully. Ezra hadn't made a sound, but he seemed to be attempting to make himself as small as humanly possible. There was just something so completely wrong about seeing Ezra, cocky, proud, and confident cowering like a kicked puppy. Only kicked puppies looked less pitiful, Chris was sure.
It wasn't unexpected when Ezra bolted - or attempted to - and Chris caught him before he could go more than a few steps. It actually wasn't difficult; as soon as his hand caught Ezra around the waist all the energy went out of him and he waited, but for what Chris couldn't say. "It's all right Ezra." Green eyes looked up at him sharply, as if surprised. "Hey, there. You remember me, right?"
Ezra hesitated uncertainly. There was something about the look in his eyes that reminded Chris of a child, though he quickly shook that thought away; Ezra wasn't a child, just a rather confused man. "Come on, Ez. You're safe now, do you hear me?" There was a long pause and then, suddenly, Ezra pushed forward and into Chris's arms, cuddling up against him, trembling so violently that he shook Chris too.
"Awww, now isn't that cute?"
"Buck!" Chris growled as Ezra went immediately tense and nearly pulled away from him, his eyes fixed at some point over Chris's shoulder, presumably at Buck. It took several more minutes to get Ezra to calm down again. It was decided, after Ezra seemed very close to biting Buck when he tried once more to approach his friend that Buck not go near Ezra at all.
"I don't think he likes you, Buck," Chris had told him, a smirk decorating his face.
Buck had glared at him. "Well, I think you and Ez like each other a bit too much. Something you ain't tellin' us, pard?"
Chris had not been inclined to respond and Ezra, for his part, was not inclined to deattach himself from Chris. It was only after great effort that Chris managed to get Ezra to release him, sort of. In compensation for allowing Chris to breathe, Ezra was allowed to attach himself to Chris's arm. When the medical staff deemed it safe they attempted to speak to Ezra, who clearly wanted nothing to do with them. It was only at Chris's insistence that Ezra answered their questions.
"What's your name?"
"Ezra."
"Your full name?"
He looked up at Chris questionly then after his faint nod he continued slowly, "Ezra Patrick Standish."
"Do you know where you are?"
A faint shrug, then, "Hospital."
"Do you know why you're here?"
Pause. Blink. "I passed out?"
"What were you doing when you passed out?"
Ezra's next response brought stunned expression to all of the men crowded around, but at a safe enough distance so as not to disturb their confused friend - who was apparently more confused than they had guessed, "In the corner against the wall."
Seeing Chris's equally stunned expression the doctor pressed on, wanting more information, "What wall?"
"In the house."
"Whose house?"
"Foster parents."
The woman was floored for a moment, recovered quickly and asked, "How old are you, Ezra?"
His head tilted to one side, as if in surprise. "Four."
"Right. Right. Ezra, can I borrow Chris for a moment? You can have him right back, I promise. Just wait here, all right?" Her voice had changed abruptly from questioning an adult to a child and though Ezra looked uncertain, he allowed Chris and the others to be ushered away.
There was a sudden rush of words from the team members that had remained silent while observing Ezra. The doctor was silent until they had all talked themselves out and then, in their silence, said, "As I mentioned previously, there is nothing wrong with him. Physically. I have no explanation why he suddenly thinks he a child, though I would put forth the idea that something triggered a memory and now he's reliving it. A psychologist - a child psychologist at that - would be better qualified to deal with it and help him... come back to himself. In the mean time, someone is going to have to take care of him."
All eyes turned to Chris. "Guess that's me. Any recommendations for a child psychologist?"
"Yes. Dr. Will Lowery - I'll get his number for you. Until then, just... try to deal with Ezra as if he were four and see what the psychologist has to say about all of this."
It was surprisingly easy to get Ezra to go with Chris. With only minimal hesitation Ezra followed as nicely as could be, hopping into the backseat of Chris's truck without complaint. "Think you can handle it?" Buck had asked once Ezra was in the car, "Or do you need some help with this?"
"What and have you lose your hand? No, I can deal with children, though it is going to be odd dealing with an adult-child Ezra. Hell, I can't even imagine him being a child and yet - I dunno, he seems like a kid, but at the same time he's still Ezra."
"Let's hope this doesn't last too long, then. Don't forget to call the shrink, now!"
Chris nodded as he got into his truck, his attention immediately turning to Ezra. "You hungry?" No comment. Damn. Ezra hadn't been a very talkative child, had he? Then again, to Ezra they were virtually strangers. "Well, I'm starving. How about we head back to the ranch and I'll get us something to eat?" He was basically talking to himself, but Chris kept talking, thinking that at any moment Ezra was going to snap out of it and suddenly be himself again, demanding to know what was going on or otherwise complaining about something.
But the frightened childish look remained and the silence between them lingered. Was Ezra's previous wordiness just him making up for barely talking as a child? Not that Chris had any idea of these matters, not really, but he figured it was only natural to want to try to connect events up so that they made sense and the Ezra he knew rarely shut up. He was sorely missing that Ezra, too. Chris made a stop at Ezra's condo first and grabbed some of Ezra's more casual clothing so that he'd have something to wear.
Even after they ate Ezra seemed not to be interested in conversation at all, despite Chris's attempts. Chris wandered off for a bit, just long enough to call Dr. Lowery for an appointment after explaining the rather delicate situation. After their late lunch, after which they had spent many hours in silence watching the first child-appropriate tv station they had come across, Chris decided to fix a simple dinner and throughout it all Ezra remained quiet and watchful. Finally Chris asked if Ezra wanted to play a game. Very tenatively Ezra had looked up at him, for the first time showing signs of actual life and intelligence. "A game?"
"Yeah." He attempted to recall all of the children's games that might be suitable for a four year old - Adam's games that he had never been able to throw away. "How about Candyland?" Chris got a blank expression in return. "Or Chutes and Ladders?" It always had to be Chutes and Ladders, not the Snakes and Ladders version, damn scary snakes.
"Don't know how."
"Well, we'll have to remedy that, won't we?" With more enthusiasm than he thought possible, Chris found his way into the closet and dug out the old children's board games. He nearly choked on the layers of dust coating the games and had to wipe off the boxes before taking them back to the table where Ezra was patiently waiting. Had Ezra been so... inactive when he had really been a child? If so, he had been the world's easiest child to deal with. Or the world's hardest to get to do anything.
They played several of the games, all of which Ezra struggled to understand. More than once he proclaimed that the games were all ridiculous. Or, rather, as he pronounced it, "reedickuous". Chris managed not to even crack a smile at the - dare he even suggest it? - adore way in which Ezra mispronounced the word. The adult Ezra would have probably died if he'd uttered a word so incorrectly. Finally Ezra, frustrated with the games, asked, "Do you have a deck of cards?"
"What kind of cards?"
The question confused Ezra, who said, "Normal cards. A deck, you know, fifty-two cards with kings and queens and everything."
It took only a moment to locate (and dust off) a stashed away deck which he handed to Ezra, though what he wanted with them he hadn't a clue. Until Ezra had gotten his hands on them and began shuffling the deck. "You know how to play poker?"
As amazing as it seemed, Ezra then demonstrated his considerable skills at cards. A child that couldn't play Candyland, but excelled at poker. Again, Chris found himself wondering about Ezra's childhood. What sort of a mother had Maude actually been? "Where'd you learn how to play like that, huh?"
"Ma - mother taught." It was only a slight falter, but Chris caught it. Had Ezra been about to say, "mama" before correcting himself? What child called their mom "mother"? Most likely one who had been asked to use that term instead.
Chris soon decided that it was bedtime and settled Ezra into the guest bedroom. It was strange, but Chris at least could be glad that Ezra had not gone into this state any sooner or else he might not have been able to cope. Not that Ezra was anything like Adam; there were no similiarities at all. Chris fell asleep wondering just what the hell he had gotten himself into and when he woke - several minutes before his alarm even went off, as he usally did - he nearly trampled the figure curled up on the floor by his bed. It was surprising not only because Chris was a light sleeper and normally would have woken up at the slightest sound, but because he never would have excepted to find Ezra on the floor.
Green eyes stared up at him almost pleadingly, though what he was pleading for Chris had no idea. "Hey buddy, what are you doing down there?" Ezra flinched slightly when he touched his arm; Ezra was freezing. He shut the alarm off automatically when it went off then slid back into bed, tugging Ezra up off the floor and under the covers. "Did you have a bad dream?" Chris asked when Ezra had carefully snuggled up against him, seeking warmth.
Ezra shook his head no. "It was just too dark."
Ahh. "Next time wake me up, okay? You shouldn't have to sleep on the floor." The look Ezra gave him was one of disbelief. They got a late start that day, but it was all for the greater good - winning Ezra's trust was a difficult task and though Chris was sure he wasn't nearly there as far as the child was concerned, he had passed all of his tests so far. Ezra watched him as he fed the horses, always standing out of the way, silent.
Chris had already decided that he was taking Ezra into work. Even if it didn't do any good, it couldn't do any harm, either, and it might possibly spark some of Ezra's memories. That, and someone should explain to Travis why Team Seven's undercover agent would be taking a very necessary leave of absence. Again, Ezra rode in the backseat of the truck.
As soon as they entered the bullpen there was a chorus of questions, all asking after Ezra and Chris found the smaller man clinging lightly to his arm in fright when before Ezra had almost been acting normal, keeping a polite distance. But he was still a child. Seeing the effect they were having on Ezra, the others began to quiet down. "It's about the same as it was. We have an appointment with Lowery later and... I need to talk with Travis." Chris turned his attention to Ezra. "Can you stay here for a bit with the guys? I have some things to take care of and then I'll be right back." It was with great effort that Ezra released his hold on Chris. He felt incredibly guilty at the look of abandonment on Ezra's face, but leaving was necessary.
"Ezra, you want to come over here?" Ezra didn't and Josiah had to smile at the vaguely stubborn childish expression on the man's face. He made a mental note to ask Maude if she could bring pictures of Ezra as a child the next time she decided to show up for a visit. All of them, except Josiah, pretended to work as they all kept Ezra in their sights, Josiah watching him openly as he made his way to the one empty desk, his desk. It wasn't the computer that Ezra went for, though, it was a large folder that was filled with all the rules and regulations that they had to follow.
After watching Ezra apparently reading through the pages, Josiah went over to him and asked softly, so as not to startle him, "Can you read that?"
Ezra nodded slightly and began reading out loud, stumbling over some of the larger words but basically saying them correctly. Then he stopped, put the folder aside and reached for the dictionary that was also on Ezra's desk. Ezra was looking up a word. Could Ezra actually do this as a child or was this merely the result of the overlapping memories of the adult Ezra really was and the child that he had reverted to?
"You look up things in the dictionary often?"
Sharp green eyes gazed up at Josiah. "I've read the dictionary. I only look up things I don't know."
JD was unable to stop himself from blurting out, "What? You've read the dictionary? Why?"
There was a very childlike shrug from Ezra. "Some places there isn't much of a selection. Either the dictionary or the bible." It was apparent from his tone of voice that the dictionary was infinitely preferable.
"What places are those?"
Ezra didn't respond to that.
When Chris returned - there was relief written on Ezra's face at his appearance - JD cornered him and asked to see him in his office. Privately. He told Ezra he'd be right back and followed JD into his office, closing the door. "What's - "
"He's never been in foster care," JD said suddenly, before Chris could finish his question. He shoved a file full of papers into his arms. "I did a background check, nothing. What I did find is that Maude was nearly brought up on abandonment charges a number of times, but she always showed up days before they could officially file against her. He told us he'd been with his foster parents, but he's never had any. It shows that he lived with a number of relatives, most of which were not particularly happy about keeping him, thus the reason they were trying to get Maude charged with abandonment so that Ezra would be taken away from her... but, I thought it might help to know. For you and the doctor to - get to the bottom of this whole episode."
Chris stared at the papers and then at JD. "Thanks. This could be a lot of help."
"I hope so."
"Don't worry so much. Ez will be fine." He patted JD's shoulder as he moved past him and out of his office, wishing he felt as confident as he sounded. They did have to talk to the shrink first and get a better idea of what was going on inside Ezra's head.
That turned out to be easier said than done. Ezra became frighteningly unresponsive at the sight of Dr. Lowery, ignoring all suggestions that he could find something to play with and simply staring blankly at some undetermined spot. Chris was watching through a two-way mirror at the lack of progress and finally, Dr. Lowery asked, "Would you rather have Chris in the room with us?" and Ezra, for the first time since entering the room, looked up and nodded. "I'll be right back." Chris met him half way.
"What should I do?"
"Getting him to talk would be a good start."
Chris entered the room first and found Ezra staring at him silently. "Ez, don't you want to talk to Dr. Will?" Ezra shook his head no. "No? Then how about we play for a bit? It looks like there are some legos here." Ezra watched him, but didn't move even when Chris brought a container filled with legos over.
Finally Ezra's curiousity got the better of him and he took out one of the legos and studied it before asking, "What do they do?"
"You've never played with legos before? Here, look at this. See, they snap together and you can make things out of them." Ezra began snapping the legos together, cautiously at first, and his creation started to take the shape of a building.
"It looks like you're building a house. Is that what it is?" Dr. Lowery asked.
Ezra glanced at him as if offended that he had even considered asking such a thing before replying, "No, it's a casino."
"A casino? Why are you making a casino?"
He shrugged. "Where mama is." Then he stopped for a moment before correcting, "It's where mother is."
"What does your mother do at the casino?"
"She plays the high-stakes games. You have to risk a lot to get a lot. But I can't go. They don't let kids into casinos. When I'm older I'll be able to go, too."
"Where do you go when your mother's away?"
Another shrug. "Anywhere. Relatives, friends, anyone who will take me."
"Does she usually leave you with them long?"
"Usually. Until they complain."
After a pause, in which Dr. Lowery noticed that every once in a while Ezra would look up at Chris, as if checking to make sure he was still there. "Do you remember the first time you met Chris?" At his affirmative he asked, "Can you tell me about it?"
"It was at the warehouse."
The doctor saw the surprise on Chris's face. "What were you doing at the warehouse?"
"Staying."
"Staying? Do you mean you were visiting the warehouse or... living in the warehouse?"
Two more legos snapped into place. "I guess I was living there."
"Weren't you staying with relatives?"
Ezra's eyes darkened. "They were bad. So I left."
"Were they mean?"
Ezra glanced up, a frown on his face. "Mean is okay. I'm used to that... but... they were worse."
"What did they do that was worse than mean?"
He shut down, shaking his head.
"All right, so let's go back. You met Chris at the warehouse. What was he doing there?"
Green eyes flickered toward Chris. "Looking for the drug runners."
"And then he found you?"
A nod. "I tried to hide, but I wasn't fast enough. Then they took me to the home."
"What happened after that?"
"They placed me in foster care because they couldn't find mother. They weren't very nice, though. Then I blacked out."
"Why did you black out?"
Ezra blinked at him as if asking, 'Don't you already know?' "He slammed me into the wall."
"Who did?"
"One of my foster parents. Tom."
"Did he do that often?"
A nod. "He wasn't nice." There was a pause in which a few more legos were added to the small creation. "Usually I didn't black out, though." Ezra raised his hand to his forehead, wincing as he rubbed at his temple.
"Does your head hurt?"
Another nod.
Their session didn't go much farther and Dr. Lowery had a private word with Chris while one of his assistants kept an eye on Ezra. It was apparent that Ezra was reliving a part of his childhood in which he'd suffered some kind of abuse, though the real-life records never showed Ezra having stayed in a warehouse at all, that didn't mean it hadn't happened. It was possible that he had rewritten his childhood memories to include Chris, who, in this new memory was the person that had rescued him in his greatest need. Every child needed a hero, especially in that sort of a situation, and Chris had become his, perhaps echoing the adult Ezra's respect for Chris. There would be more sessions to try to work out more of the details and in the details, somewhere, they might recover Ezra himself.
Chris asked if it would be wise to contact Maude, Ezra's mother and if that would do more harm than good. Dr. Lowery said that it might help for Ezra to see her and so Chris set about attempting to find her. As it turned out, that was a fruitless effort as Maude was overseas and where, exactly, no one was entirely sure.
"Just you and me, kid," Chris muttered to himself as he took Ezra back to the ranch with him.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful, the only "big" thing being Ezra's response to Chaucer, his horse. Chaucer had demanded his attention, spoiled horse that he was, and Ezra had hesitantly approached him. There hadn't been any real recognition on his part, but they had reacted to each other like old friends and that, Chris decided, was a good sign.
That night Chris was jolted out of his sleep by the feeling of eyes upon him and sure enough, there was Ezra, peering at him silently looking ready to flee if he saw his presence wasn't welcome. "Come on, Ez," he managed to say, flipping back the covers in clear invitation. It would have seemed odd - perhaps should have seemed odd - but at the same time it felt very natural. This was a child (even if he really wasn't a child) who needed affection.
It didn't take much for Ezra to curl up against him this time. Had he been a cat, Ezra would have been purring. Chris dropped back into sleep and caught a few more hours sleep until Ezra's twitching woke him up again. Though Ezra made no audible sound it was apparent by his unrest that his dreams were not pleasant and because of that Chris shook him awake. Half asleep, Ezra murmured, "Daddy?" which was the last thing Chris would have thought he would have said. As far as Chris knew, Ezra didn't have a "daddy". The word was repeated and then green eyes became fully awake and alarmed.
"You miss your daddy?" Chris asked him gently, not wanting to further frighten him.
Tears sprang suddenly to Ezra's eyes before he buried his face into Chris's arm. "I don't have a real daddy, but one of my mother's husbands was really nice. He let me call him that."
Chris tried to sooth him and though his efforts only seemed to help marginally it didn't stop him. "I bet you want to see him now, don't you?"
Ezra gave him an odd, pleading look, and told him, "It doesn't matter. I... I like it here better."
It was like stabbing himself to make the offer, but one look at Ezra found him saying, "I wouldn't mind if you started calling me 'daddy'. If you want to."
There was again that surprise that burned in Ezra's eyes before he pressed himself closer to Chris. There was something heartbreaking about the way he whispered the word, "Daddy." It occurred to Chris that if Ezra remembered any of this he would die from the embarrassment alone, assuming he did not kill Chris first.
Two more days, two more sessions with Dr. Lowery. All they really managed to uncover was that Ezra had experienced a great deal of abuse, though the full extent of it was unknown; there were certain things that Ezra would not address at all. It was on Saturday that the whole team got together at Chris's house. The idea hadn't been all the appealing to Chris, particularly because Ezra's normal reaction to Buck was not in any way friendly. In fact, terrified would have been more adequate a term. In the sessions with Dr. Lowery Ezra had alluded to the fact that one of his abusers resembled Buck and Chris was torn between wanting to trigger those memories and hopefully recover Ezra to the present, and not wanting to further traumatize child-Ezra.
The situation got that much worse when, to Chris's annoyance, JD came armed with his camcorder and Vin with his digital camera, both of them ready to capture every moment for all eternity. Buck was especially delighted at the few times Ezra called Chris "daddy" and he asked after each time if JD had captured it on film. He was just waiting for Ezra to "snap out of it" so that they could show him the footage because to them it was only a matter of time before Ezra was back to "normal". There was no mention of him not being able to regain his memories even though to some degree they understood that that was a possibility.
One of Josiah's favorite moments was when Ezra fell asleep on Chris's shoulder. He said that he'd never seen Ezra so relaxed and that he liked that side of their undercover agent. There was a small hope that Ezra wouldn't be so distant after it was all over. Though, it would likely be worse for a while, what with Vin and JD's efforts.
They were just about to call it a day - Ezra had woken up, but it was obvious that he was not entirely awake - when Ezra jerked suddenly and clutched at Chris before he dropped like a stone. Chris hovered over him in concern and was about to suggest another trip to the hospital when Ezra's eyes opened. Though he couldn't say how, Chris immediately knew something was different, that Ezra was back even before he carefully and calmly drawled, "Mr. Larabee, if you kiss me I am going to have to punch you, boss or not."
Perhaps it had everything to do with the stress Chris had experienced looking after and worrying about Ezra or maybe he felt closer to him after having learned more about Ezra's past, but whatever it was caused Chris to hug his agent. It took Ezra's tugging at his fingers for Chris to release him again. The rest of the team was only too happy to inform Ezra of what happened and the look of horror on Ezra's face was priceless - even more so because JD had his camera on to film it all. Ezra still didn't believe Buck when he had dared to suggest that Ezra P. Standish would ever ever call his boss 'daddy' until he saw the tape. They had never heard Ezra swear so much until that day. He would have destroyed the evidence (and JD's camcorder) had he been able to get his hands on them. Vin's pictures weren't any better, but Vin knew enough not to let Ezra anywhere near his camera. Not that Vin would do anything with the pictures... other than possibly make them into Christmas cards or posters to put around the office...
"Well as least you aren't shying away from me anymore."
The statement, said pretty much out of the blue, made Ezra frown up at Buck. "Whatever do you mean? Why would I have been shying away from you?"
They all exchanged looks. "You told the doctor that there was a 'mean man' that sort of resembled me and that you didn't like me because of that."
Ezra had looked utterly confused. Then, sudden fear entered his eyes. "Doctor? What kind of doctor?"
"A child psychologist."
Ezra had been horrified at that. "You took me to a psychologist? How could you! God, what did I say?" His eyes turned accusingly to Chris, who tried in vain to redirect him. Finally Chris hinted at the fact that Ezra's childhood and been questionable and that the doctor had suggested that Ezra had regressed so completely because of deeply repressed memories that had been triggered by the warehouse.
"The warehouse? Why the warehouse? What - what does that have to do with anything?"
"You told Dr. Lowery that you had to runaway from a relative's house because they were 'bad' and that you stayed in a warehouse."
He stared blankly into space for several long moments. "But I... no. I never - I mean, that was - it wasn't real. It was, well, I don't know what it was. Like a dream or - or an alternate reality or - it couldn't have actually happened." Doubt appeared on his face as Ezra looked around at the faces of his friends. Was it possible that what Ezra had experienced before had only been some past memory surfacing and being slightly rewritten to include Chris and the others? Had he, in fact, been an adult thinking he was a small child even though he was really still an adult? Then why the strangers and the strange house? A figment of his imagination when he had blacked out and been rushed to the hospital?
Or was it something else entirely.
-The End- (for real this time)