"We started by finding out what we could about your father's family –"
"Please JD. Would it be possible to refer to him in some other fashion?"
"Oh, sure. Sorry Ezra. By finding out about Jacob's family." JD checked that this was more acceptable, and getting a nod from Ezra, he continued.
"We know about the one brother, William. Still don't have anything on where he is, but he can't hide forever."
"Which is precisely what worries you all so much." Ezra hazarded a glance at the men surrounding him. It occurred to him that he couldn't remember a time he felt more protected than when he was in the company of these individuals.
"There are two other brothers, and a sister."
"Dammit." Buck spoke without realizing it.
Ezra had lost even more colour from his already pale face, to the point Nathan was ready to check him over. He held up a hand to hold off the intervention. "I am fine. Just a tad surprised. Mother had failed to share that detail. I suppose that should come as no surprise."
Chris felt he needed to intervene. "Well, not that I'm likely to cut her much slack, but it's possible she didn't know about a couple of them. The sister and youngest brother seem to have little or nothing to do with the others. Both have normal jobs, no criminal record, and as far as we can see no contact with your – with Jacob, William, or Simon."
"Just so I can keep try to keep some semblance of order, where does each fit in chronologically."
"William, Jacob, Heather, Simon, then Dennis." JD paused to let Ezra register the information. "Then we get to the next generation."
"A moment, please. I don't need to know about Jacob's past," don't want to know was closer to the truth, "but William and Simon – do they have criminal records?"
Seeing a bit of hesitation on JDs part, Chris reluctantly took the question. "Yeah. We can get you the details if you want them, but the short answer is yes. Fraud, theft, assault – you get the idea." Chris's voice faded off, which was all the tip off Ezra needed.
"And the more serious charges?"
Chris licked his lips, his mouth suddenly feeling quite dry. He stalled by swallowing a large portion of his beer before continuing "Two counts of attempted murder against Simon. A murder charge against William. All dismissed when witnesses recanted."
"Might it be safe to assume the two incidents were related? Cause and effect, as it were."
"Yeah, the attempts were on family members of one of the witnesses." Chris paused.
Vin took one look at the undisguised pain in Ezra's eyes and knew he had to speak up. "You can go ahead and open that beer now Ezra. Nobody here would blame you," he added, glaring at Chris, who merely nodded.
"No. I need to keep focus. Please, proceed to my generation."
JD continued. "William has three kids. Simon four. As far as we can see, they all take part in the family business."
"Well, the family that slays together…" Ezra interrupted him, leaving the young agent a bit at a loss for what to say next.
"Don't shoot the messenger Ezra." Buck got a bit protective. "It ain't JD's fault."
"This isn't about me Buck, I'm fine."
"You are indeed fine JD, but your defender has a valid point. I often find it simpler to deflect the discomfort, with no consideration as to where it lands. My apologies."
"None needed Ezra. Like I said, I'm fine." Buck wasn't though, and he didn't need the heated glares from the others to realize he'd overstepped. Ezra spoke before Buck had a chance.
"This is ridiculous. There is no pleasant way to deal with this. No way to ease into things and clearly no way for me to hear what I need to hear without a significant degree of discomfort. JD, treat this as Nathan would a bandage. Rip the damn thing off and let's be done with it."
"Okay. Like I said. Seven cousins on the less than legal side of the family. No major arrests or convictions, but a slew of minor ones including assaults.
And Trevor wasn't lying when he mentioned siblings. Jacob has – had – other children." He paused. "Six – plus the two you already know about."
The fact no one was rushing to give him aid was the only reason Ezra knew he was still breathing. Six. Six more Standishs out there. At least. He would not have been surprised to find a few more not registered by that name, either due to lack of recognition or more likely in an effort by the mother to keep Jacob ignorant. He thought back to the number of times in his life, especially as a child, he had wished for siblings. What a wonderful example of "be careful what you wish for".
Six siblings. He could barely wrap his mind around the concept. Brothers? Sisters? He hadn't thought to ask. Of course, he hadn't thought to ask anything.
"Ezra? You still with us?" Vin's voice brought him back to the moment. He had no idea how long he had zoned out for, but since none of the others look looked especially panicked, it couldn't have been too bad.
"Eight. Jacob fathered eight children."
"Nine." JD corrected gently. "You forgot to include yourself Ezra."
"You said six, plus the two I was aware of. Trevor and myself."
"I meant two brothers you were aware of."
Ezra rarely looked confused, but at the moment he was far beyond that point. "I am not aware of any other brother JD."
"Well, I know that your full brother died when he was just a couple years old Ezra, and you were only about five, but he was –"
"Stop JD." Buck ordered.
Vin had moved quickly to squat beside Ezra. "You didn't know?"
"Mother had another – I had a brother? How could I not have known? How could she not have said – no. This makes no sense."
"Steady Ezra."
"No! I'm sorry JD but clearly, you've made a mistake. I don't blame you. No doubt this is all is complex and convoluted as one could imagine, and mother has always been an expert at obscuring and manipulating circumstances and situations to her advantage. I am certain this is just another example of that."
JD said nothing, but reached into the file folder he'd brought, pulling out both birth and death certificates. "They could be fabricated." Ezra said with weakening conviction. After a moment's hesitation, JD added two photos from the file, one of her holding an infant, and the other a similar shot but including Jacob.
Ezra felt the life drain out of him. All of the possibilities he prepared himself for, this one had never crossed his mind. He stared at the photos, not seeing anything or anyone else in the room. When he finally found his voice again he knew only that he needed to blame someone for something and he couldn't bring himself to care who the target was. "Family photos Mr. Dunne? Are there no limits on what you will dig into? No privacy you won't violate?"
Buck lost his cool again. "Knock it off Ezra. You wanted to know what he found out.
Ezra ignored him, picking up the offending items and flinging them back at JD. "Perhaps you'd like to find mother's diaries and scrounge through them for more juicy details."
"Back off. It's not his fault your family is fucked up."
Ezra froze at the comment, and the room went silent. "Ah Shit Ezra. I didn't mean that. I just. Oh shit, no. Don't go." Buck reached out to try to stop him, but Ezra dodged his grasp. He likewise avoided Vin and Chris and was gone from the room before anyone else could speak.
Buck look around for a hole to crawl into. He braced himself for Chris's wrath, but was stunned to get both barrels from JD instead.
"What the hell is the matter with you?"
"He shouldn't have –" Buck faded off, knowing there was really no excuse.
"Shouldn't have what Buck? Shouldn't have asked? Shouldn't have been surprised? Shouldn't have reacted the only way a sane man would? You think I didn't know this was coming? That something like this was going to happen?"
"But what he said…"
"I'm a big boy Buck. I can take a bit of deflected anger. That wasn't even as bad as I'd expected. Kinda figured he'd hit me."
"Ezra doesn't hit." Josiah said quietly.
"Well, he should." Buck's voice was shaking with emotion. "He should knock me into next month, and then keep going."
"No argument here." JD replied.
"Worst thing about all this is when he calms down, he's gonna be mad at himself for making you mad." Vin added.
"Yeah, I know. What I don't know is what to do about it?" Buck looked for help.
"You do nothing Mr. Wilmington." Ezra was back in the doorway.
"Shit Ezra. I'm such a –"
"Please. Don't. It wasn't a shining moment for either one of us. You at least had a noble motivation of defending a friend. I, on the other hand, was making a futile attempt to defend the honour of the family that clearly is not worthy of the effort. Mr. Dunne –"
"So help me Ezra, if you try to apologize I'll – I'll –" he was at a loss for an appropriate threat.
"While you make the effort to come up with an undoubtedly intimidating and convincing threat, might I suggest we proceed with the unveiling."
"I think you've had enough for one day Ezra." Chris interjected.
"No, I haven't. I need this over Mr. Larabee. I cannot imagine any revelations that would be more momentous than what has transpired, but I am sure given a sleepless night my brain would develop such scenarios. However unpleasant the truth may be, it needs to be exposed."
"I don't think anything else is gonna be quite so upsetting Ezra." JD hoped this was right. Chris looked to all the others, all of whom reluctantly took their seats again. He gave a much longer stare to Buck, who quietly moved himself off to a corner, determined to sit with his mouth shut if it killed him.
"I'll keep going Ezra but there's a condition." JD focused on him. "No more calling us mister. You go back to first names, or I'm done for the night."
Ezra seemed surprise. "I wasn't even aware." He paused. "If you don't mind, JD, I'd like the details concerning –" Ezra took a quick breath – "my brother."
"His name was Ethan. He died when he was about just short of 20 months old. There was nothing suspicious about it Ezra. Routine autopsy showed there was some kind of heart problem. Nathan could probably explain this better than I can." He started to hand some papers over, but Ezra shook his head.
"No, if there was nothing suspicious then I do not need the details." He looked down at the birth certificate. "I was with family at the time. Mother had sent me away. I presume she felt unable to handle a child and a baby at the same time."
"Yeah, not like millions of other women don't do that all the time." Chris grumbled, surprised when he realized he'd spoken out loud.
"Maybe you should sit in the corner with Buck." Vin's tone was joking, but the look he shot a Chris wasn't.
"Sorry Ezra – not my place."
"Gentlemen, it is second nature for you all to express your displeasure with my mother. I accept that your motives are pure in doing so, so please stop apologizing. JD – continue." Before anything was said, Josiah interrupted.
"JD, is there anything we need to know right away? Any of Jacob's kids pose any kind of threat to Ezra, or the hearing, or anything else we need to know about?"
"There's a couple that we've notified the San Francisco cops to be watching for. Calvin and Mark. They might show up at trial. Far as we can tell, most of them have even less contact with Jacob than you have Ezra. Couple of them don't even seem to be aware of him."
"How fortunate for them."
"You got photos?" Chris asked. JD reached into the folder again, passing around the sheets. "Most recent we can get. They're pretty current."
"Damn." Vin clutched one of the shots. "Nathan?" He handed the sheet over, aware every eye now riveted on him.
Nathan looked at the shot and cursed softly himself. "Yeah, that's Dylan." He looked around quickly before focusing his attention on Ezra. "He's a new youth volunteer at the community centre. If I remember correctly, his resume said he's getting a degree in social services."
JD searched his notes. "That matches up." He hesitated for a moment. "So how do you guys feel about coincidence?"
"Skeptical." Chris answered. "Find out everything you can about it JD. Have either of you to talk to him?"
"Just briefly, routine centre stuff. Nothing personal." Vin answered first.
"I talked to him a bit about his reasons for being there. Trying to find out how he'll fit in. That's why I knew about his studies."
"As much as we are loath to accept the possibility, there is a strong likelihood this is mere chance." Ezra was looking at the folder. "There is no indication that he is ever had any direct involvement with Jacob, even that they ever met."
"Timing is curious." Josiah observed.
"True, but inconclusive. As we know, it is not beyond realistic consideration to presume young Mr. Dylan Standish is blissfully unaware of the extent and nature of his family relations." Ezra could sense another round of sympathetic support and didn't really want to try to cope with that right now.
"Goes by the last name Pearce. Mother's name."
Ezra felt a strange pinch of regret to hear that. "Vin, what situation can you create to provide an excuse to meet with Mr. Pearce to try to determine what, if any, ulterior motives he might have?"
Vin looked to Nathan, who smiled broadly. "Working on a Big Brother program. That'll give us the perfect chance to talk about father figures. Should start the ball rolling."
"Okay, that's one thing off the list." Chris reached out and took the folder from JD, passing it toward Ezra.
"I don't think anything else in here is going to be too much of a shock. A surprise maybe, but not a shock." Ezra took it from him without opening it. "You don't have to look at it now. Or ever for that matter."
"No. I do need to review it. Only a fool fails to gain as much knowledge as is possible. May I take this with me?"
Buck moved out from his corner. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Home." He raised a hand to defend off the comments he knew would be forthcoming. "I have not been drinking – I assure you I can drive."
"Just thought you might want someone around while you sort through all of this." Josiah commented.
"I appreciate the sentiment, and the concern, but I think I would be better able to process all of this on my own."
Chris reluctantly agreed with the assessment. "You do what you have to Ezra. But you call us if you have any problems. Any questions at all about your family."
"My family," he said with conviction, "is right here in this room."
No one spoke as they watched him leave.
tbc
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