"I don't need your help."

"Damn it Chris, just shut up and do what you're told." Vin snapped back at him as he helped the wounded man up. "Nathan don't need you getting any worse. He's gotta focus on Ezra so just let me get you inside."

Watching as Josiah carefully lifted Ezra's unconscious form, Chris silenced himself. Truth was, he doubted he could make it up the stairs without help. He just didn't want the town to know that. "How bad is he hit?"

Vin calmed his voice. "Lot of blood on his shirt. Looks like he was hit in the back when he tried to get clear."

Needing to be sure Ezra had been correct, Chris had to ask. "Jessop?"

"As a doornail."

Turning his head to look back at the body in the street, Chris felt the anger welling up again. "Should have locked the bastard up when he made the first threat."

"Wouldn't have helped. You couldn't hold him on that. He was coming for Ezra one way or the other. Least that's over."

Both men went quiet as they climbed the stairs to Nathan's clinic. Ezra was already laid out on the first bed, and Vin carefully lowered Chris to the second. "Now just sit still. Or better, lie back. I'll get some water to clean you up."

Nathan was cutting Ezra's coat free, mumbling about how pissed of the gambler was going to be to lose another jacket. "He needs to get these things made in batches if he's gonna keep being this stupid."

"Nathan?"

"Can't say anything certain yet Chris, but it could have been a lot worse. In fact, a couple inches to the left and it would have missed him." Ezra had been hit low in the back and close to the side, likely at the instant he was diving out of the way as Vin had suspected. The bullet passed cleanly through, making life a bit easier for Nathan for a change. Stitching a hole was easier if you didn't have to dig anything out of it first.

"Couple inches right and he would have been gut shot." Josiah's face was etched with worry. "Think it did much damage?"

"His breathing is even, and his heart seems steady. I'm thinking maybe we got lucky."

Setting down a bowl of water and grabbing some cloths, Vin spoke quietly. "This don't look all that lucky."

Few words were spoken for the next several minutes as both patients were tended to. Chris declined Vin's offer to stitch him, opting to wait until Nathan was done. He'd seen Vin's sewing before. Beyond that, the room was quiet until Buck charged in from his patrol about half an hour later.

"What the hell happened?"

"Easy there Pard. Everybody's gonna be fine."

"Really? Two men shot, a body with the undertaker and you're telling me it's all fine. Don't think so."

"Someone got the body outta the streets?"

"Well, nobody's lyin' there, so guess so. Guessing it was Jessop?" Vin nodded. "Who killed him?"

Nobody answered, each looking to the other. "Lot of shots fired. Hard to say." Vin finally replied.

Chris propped himself up on his good arm. "Nathan – you be able to figure which bullet killed him if you took a look?"

Not looking up from his stitching, the healer shrugged slightly. "Maybe. Depends on a lot of things. What difference does it make as long as the bastard is dead?"

Knowing what was worrying Chris, Josiah answered. "Might be nice to be able to let Ezra know he wasn't the man who killed his own father."

"Not sure that he'd have a problem with that." Buck disagreed. "Under the circumstances."

"Maybe not right now, but I'm betting it would eat at him fierce down the road."

Nathan cursed quietly at the fate that surrounded him with stubborn men. "Fine – I'll look at him later. Right now, if you ain't helping, you're hindering, so get out. No Chris – that doesn't mean you. Lie back and lie quiet, or I'll knock you out for the next week."

Nobody made a move to leave and Nathan was losing his patience. "There isn't room for all of you to be in here. If you haven't got a bullet hole in you, then leave."

"Hell Nathan, we all have bullet holes in us. You should know that."

"Fine Buck. If you haven't got a bullet hole less that's been there less than 24 hours, get out."

Chris opened one eye, focusing his glare at Nathan. "First you tell me to sleep, then you make enough noise to wake the dead. I can rest better in my own bed."

Josiah laughed. "Now you're staring to sound like Ezra."

Chris shifted his glare for a moment, before turning his attention back to the bed next to his, concern returning to his face.

"I told you Chris, he'll be fine."

"If he's fine, why is he still out? And don't anybody say it's because he likes sleeping so much."

Nathan moved next to his quieter patient, adjusting the blanket enough to be able to take another look at the bandages. Satisfied that there was no fresh bleeding, he checked quickly for fever and was pleased to feel that while Ezra was a bit on the warm side, it was nothing to be concerned over.

"It's not even an hour yet Chris, and he lost a fair bit of blood. Add that to the stress of the last couple of days, and the shock of everything that happened, and he's just shutting himself down for a bit. It was adrenalin that kept him going at first. With that gone, his body is just giving him a bit of time to recover from it all."

"You think he knows I'm OK? He was pretty upset, and that can't be helping."

Vin nodded. "I'd bet the only reason he passed out was because he saw you were ok, and he didn't have to worry about that. Now just settle back down and rest so that you don't end up giving him something to feel guilty for."

7-7-7-7-7-7-7

JD paced impatiently on the sidewalk. With the ban on visiting the clinic being strictly enforced, he hadn't been able to see either Chris or Ezra, and until he did, he couldn't convince himself they were going to be alright.

"Wouldn't have happened if I'd been here."

Buck grinned. That had to be the 10th time the younger man had muttered the same phrase. "Just when did you become the fastest shot around? If Chris, Josiah and Vin couldn't stop him from firing on Ezra, what makes you think you'd have made the difference?"

"One more gun might have been all that was needed." He knew it made no sense, but the guilt still ate at him.

"Kid, you can't change things. Ain't like you were out cattin' around or anything. You were on patrol, same as me. We can't be everywhere. Just relax 'fore you walk a trench into the road."

"I don't get why I can't go up and see them."

He jumped when the answer came from behind him. "Because I gave orders to keep you all out so they can rest." Nathan was on his way back from the undertaker, finally having the chance to honour Chris's request.

"I just want to look in on them is all." JD was going to add more, but Nathan's expression silenced him. "Something wrong Nathan?"

"Let's just say I found more than I was looking for."

"Damn – Ezra was the one to kill him, wasn't he?" Buck had come to agree with the notion that that wasn't going to the best outcome.

"Can't really say which bullet killed him. He was hit by four, but the one closest to his heart was bigger than Ezra's Derringer would fire, so I'm good with telling him it wasn't his fault." He rubbed a tired hand over his face before continuing. "There's more to it though, and I just don't know if Ezra needs to hear it."

"Hiding stuff always backfires Nathan."

"I'm betting the only thing that would surprise Ezra at this point is ifin' you tell him Jessop wasn't kin. Don't imagine what you figured out could tell that."

That would have been a great bit of news to share, but sadly, he couldn't. "No way to make certain on that, but I can't see Maude naming this guy if there was another choice. Fact is Jessop was sick. Real sick."

"Course he was. Anybody try to kill his own son would have to be."

"That's not the sick I mean JD. His insides were a mess, and not from the bullets. I don't think he would have been around much longer."

"Why would that bother Ezra."

"Sick, dyin' sick, is a hard thing to hear about family, no matter the circumstances."

Vin joined them in time to hear the last comment. "Think that's the reason he did this?" It would be nice to have an explanation beyond basic evil to offer Ezra.

It wasn't an easy question to answer. Nathan had seen illness ravage people, changing calm gentle folk into rage filled brutes. At the same time, he'd seen foul-tempered tyrants who had sought salvation as the end neared and became almost saintly in their daily life. From what little Ezra had told them, and what they had seen for themselves, Nathan couldn't see that there had been any alteration to the vile character of Carl Jessop.

"I'm thinking he'd always been a son of a bitch. Only thing this did was give him the excuse not to care about consequences."

Motivation didn't matter to JD. "Don't much care what he was thinking, or why. Just glad he's gone from Ezra's life."

M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7

tbc