Chris was in the jailhouse ready to head out on the night's patrol when he heard the rider coming into town fast. He met the frantic man in the street, barely getting out of the way as the exhausted horse was pulled to a sudden stop. The animal was panting heavily, dangerously even,as its owner was already trying to steer it around Chris and into motion again.

"There's a fire! Fire!" the rider screamed. He was just a kid. Maybe thirteen at the most, Chris realized. He reached up and grabbed the reins and patted the sweating animal soothingly.

"Easy," he ordered both man and beast.

"Our land!" The boy jumped from the horse, frantically searching the dark buildings and deserted street. "it's burning!" There were tears in his eyes.

Chris could hear footsteps and knew without looking it was Vin. He put a hand on the youngster's shoulder. "Where?"

The boy quivered under his hand, trembling with fear, exertion and worry. "Out by the Johnston's." He swallowed back a sob.

"What's going on?" Tanner arrived, his mare's leg in hand.

"Fire at the…" Larabee looked at the boy for an answer.

"Myles," the boy answered, sniffing loudly and wiping the back of his arm across his face. "My dad is Jonathan Myles."

"I'll get the others." Tanner ran for the boarding house.

"You think you can calm down enough to lead us back to your place?" Chris asked the blond-headed boy. The kid's hair stuck up wildly, his eyes still red from lack of sleep and tears.

He gulped. "Yes, sir."

"What's your name?"

"Jon."

"Ok, Jon, Head to the livery and get a fresh horse. Tell them Chris sent you."

"Yes sir." Calmer now, but still humming with suppressed energy, Jon obeyed.

Buck turned up first, followed by everyone else but Ezra. It didn't take long for everyone to mount up.

"Where's Ezra?" JD was the first to point out the Southerner's absence.

"Didn't wake him," Vin explained. "Know he was hurting from the ride out earlier and didn't think he'd be up for another one. Not like this."

"Probably right," Nathan agreed, securing his medical pack in his saddle bags. "Anyone hurt at your place?" He turned his attention to Jon Myles.

"Not when I left." Jon chewed at his lip, twisting at the reins of his borrowed horse.

"Let's go," Chris directed.

They rode out of town fast but safe, Chris keeping a pace that wouldn't harm them or the horses. He knew the urgency, yet also knew there was probably nothing they could do, even as a group, to save the family's property,but maybe they'd be able to help in some way.

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Ezra watched the commotion from his rocking chair. He saw the rider arrive and Tanner run for the others. He watched, waiting for someone to pound on his door and tell him to get moving. The notice never came. They didn't need him.

'You wouldn't do much good right now anyway,' he reminded himself.

Nathan had probably told them to let him sleep. Whatever the problem was- he couldn't handle a ride that harsh or fast, not yet. Not after the ride earlier today.

Frustrated and trying to be logical, his drink-clouded mind chose to focus only on the simple fact—they'd left him behind, alone- again.

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The sun was up by the time the beleaguered group rode slowly back into town. Exhausted, filthy and weighed down by the futility of their efforts, no one spoke.

The Myles' property was a loss. The lumber they'd painstakingly stocked for a home, had burned like a giant bonfire. The peacekeepers had arrived in time to help Jonathan Myles and his wife move two of their three wagons out of reach of the flames and keep their other six children out of harm's way but the family had lost most of their possessions and one of their horses to the fire.

Chris and Vin had listened to Mr. Myles' description of the sudden fire, Tanner shaking his head. "Nothing natural about the way that woodpile is burning," he muttered to Chris.

The fire, for all appearances, had been set.

Now, riding into the waking town, concern chewed at Larabee's mind. Did they have a fire starter loose in Four Corners? How were they going to figure out who it was? How were they going to stop him?

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Ezra sat at a corner table in the saloon instead of his usual one, the one Chris usually picked when he wanted to wallow in drink and anger. Ezra figured it was his turn. A bottle of whiskey sat on the table, already half empty. He ignored the toast and tea Inez had brought out to him despite his curt refusal.

He watched as Chris, Vin and Buck came into the building together. Their shoulders sagged with weariness. They looked done in from the night and Ezra had to push aside his concern. He didn't care, he reminded himself.

The place was crowded again, but this morning the tone of the patrons was different. Instead of the normal easy gossip and everyday frustrations being passed around, this morning—the murmuring had taken on a tense frantic edge. News of the two fires had spread almost as quickly as the flames themselves. Ezra watched it all from his corner, wondering when the worry would erupt into shouting and full out fear.

"Morning, Ezra."

Ezra looked up, startled from his thoughts by JD's sudden appearance at his table. The boy looked like he needed a good bath. Soot and dirt lined his face and clothes, but none of it seemed to bother Dunne.

"Hmm." Ezra grabbed his whiskey and took a long sip straight from the bottle.

JD's eyes widened. He frowned. "Is that your breakfast?"

"It'll do," Ezra admitted, scowling as Dunne pulled out a chair and sat down. He didn't want JD's company or anyone else's. How come folks left Larabee alone when he sulked in a corner but not him?

JD watched him in uncharacteristic silence. Ezra tried not to notice the dark circles under Dunne's expressive eyes or the worry lines wrinkling his young skin. On second thought, the boy looked like he needed to go to bed.

The silence wore at him, it was too unlike JD to simply sit there and stare.

Ezra set the bottle back on the table. "What do you want, Mr. Dunne?" He kept his voice harsh and impatient. He wanted to be alone.

"I'm worried about you."

It was all Standish could do to control his reaction to JD's honest statement. It was definitely not what he expected.

"There is no need for you to waste your concern on me," he replied, his tone a little gentler.

"Yeah, well." JD didn't look away. "It's not like you to drink your breakfast."

"I don't believe that's any of your business."

"Maybe not." JD shrugged. "But too bad."

Ezra gaped at the young man.

JD smiled slightly. "I'm tired, Ez. I spent the night watching a family's new home burn up. I don't want to watch you destroy yourself, too."

Standish blinked. Why did JD have to push him? "Then maybe you need to find someplace else to sit for your morning meal." He pushed back.

Dunne needed to go away. If he had to be cruel to make that happen- he would do it.

"Nah, I'm good here."

JD waved at Buck, signaling the ladies' man over.

"Mr. Dunne, did it ever occur to you that I chose this particular seat because I wanted to be alone?" Ezra felt like the wall he'd carefully constructed with his anger the night before was about to cave in on him.

"yup." JD ignored the obvious prod to leave.

Within minutes Ezra's 'private' table was crowded. Chris and Vin had joined Buck after JD'd signaled him over and Josiah and Nathan had come in shortly after. Instead of finding another, larger table in the crowded room, they'd chosen to pull up chairs and squeeze around the smaller one where Ezra sat.

Knowing it would do no good to protest to the group and too stubborn to leave, Ezra continued drinking his whiskey and tried his best to remain ambivalent toward the group. He listened as they discussed the fire in hushed voices, conscious of the tension in the room around them.

"Did you see the way the flames traveled up the wood pile?" Buck asked.

"Following the trail," Vin answered.

"Trail?" Nathan stabbed his eggs, casting a glance at Ezra's ignored plate of toast as the Southerner took another sip of his breakfast. "What would cause the fire to do that?"

"Alcohol," Josiah answered.

"Oil," Chris added.

"So it was definitely set by someone." JD sighed over his empty plate. "But why?"

"We know that someone didn't want those land deed to ever get into the settlers hands to begin with," Josiah pointed out, eyeing Ezra carefully.

Ezra ignored the urge to react to the reference to his attack.

"But if Guy Royal was behind that…why would he burn the settlers out now?" Buck shook his head. "He's destroying the land that he wanted to get his hands on so badly."

"Land can recover, "Vin reminded.

"Yeah but when?" JD asked.

"It'd take time, but with work, it'd come around again. Sometimes better."

"What do you think, Ezra?" Chris surprised them all by addressing Standish directly regardless of his lack of interaction with them.

Ezra stared at Larabee a moment, his mind racing with panic even as he carefully schooled his expression to reveal nothing.

Purposefully, he reached forward and picked up the bottle of whiskey. Slowly, he rose to his feet, wobbling slightly at the wave of dizziness that swept over him. Clearing his throat he looked at Larabee.

"I have no theories on the matter," he stated sharply, then turned and weaved his way through the crowd and out the bat wing doors.

Buck sat back in his chair. "That went well."

TBC...