It had been two weeks since Jean had left town and Ezra was still recovering from his ordeal. He was for some reason still having some symtoms remaining from the posion and Nathan could not understand why. Ezra had still not regained his full strength, he also suffered from headaches and occassionally became dizzy. Nathan had ordered him to get a lot of rest and not to do anything to strenuous but he did not have any trouble convincing Ezra to do this as he still spent a lot of time sleeping, he was also not eating well and had lost a bit of weight all of which continued to worry Nathan and the others. Nathan was hoping that it was because his body was still not completely rid of the poison and that it would still take a bit more time before he was fully recovered. That was what he hoped anyway.

During all this Ezra had begun to become frustrated at the attention that he was again receiving and to make things worse his mother was due to arrive in town today. He had gotten a telegram the week before telling him that she was coming to visit. He had sent one back to tell her that there was no need as he doing fine but he had gotten no answer which meant that she had ignored what he had to say as she always did and was coming anyway. He knew that once his mother found out what had been happening to him that he would never hear the end of it. She would tell him that his was wasting his God given talents and that he should not be spending his time protecting people that he should be conning money out of, that he should not have allowed himself to become friends with the townsfolk as it had made him soft and why would his risk his own life for these people.

The coach was due to arrive in one hour and already he was pacing on the porch outside of the saloon. Chris, Vin and Nathan were also there watching him with smiles on their faces at the nervousness that they thought he was feeling and keeping inside the worry that they were feeling.

"Ezra why don't you just sit down before you tire yourself out." Nathan had gotten up and stood in the way of Ezra's path to stop him from continuing his pacing.

Ezra just gave him a cold look and walked around him. He continued on like this until he had begun to feel dizzy and he grabbed hold of the railing to stop himself from falling. Nathan quickly took hold of his arm to support him until the dizziness had passed but Ezra just shrugged him off and went and sat down in one of the chairs next to Chris who glanced sideways at Ezra and noticed how pale he still looked.

"Did Maude say how long she was going to stay in town for?" he asked hoping to distract Ezra from whatever it was that was causing the bad mood, not realising that his mother's impending arrival was one of the reasons behind the change of mood.

"No she didn't, hopefully it won't be to long." he answered as he began to massage his temples.

"You got one of those headaches again Ezra?" Nathan was watching him carefully. He did a lot of this lately and he would continue to do so until he knew that Ezra had fully recovered.

Ezra did not answer him though. Instead he started to get up. "I need a drink." was all he said.

"Why don't I get us all a drink." said Vin as he too started to get up.

"I am quite capable of getting my own drink thankyou Mr Tanner." growled Ezra.

"Just trying to help." shrugged Vin.

Ezra wanted to tell them again that he did not need their help but he knew they would just ignore him as they always did. Everyone seemed to be ignoring what he had to say lately. He got up intending to go into the saloon but he had to sit down again as he still felt slightly dizzy.

"On second thoughts Mr Tanner, why don't you get the drinks."

Vin put on a false smile and nodded to Ezra. "Sure."

When Vin returned with the drinks he saw that Ezra was leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed. "Is Ezra asleep again?"

"No I am not!" he answered before anybody else could. "I was mearly resting my eyes." He did not open them though nor did he make any sort of movement to get his drink from Vin.

He sat back and closed his eyes because the sunlight was making his headache worse. He was getting a lot of them lately. Nathan had told him that it was due to the poison that woman had given him. He had no idea why she had done it. Jean had told him that the woman enjoyed doing that sort of thing but that was not a real explaination to him. He wished that Jean was here now so he could talk to her, he had been able to tell her things that he would not tell anyone else. Maybe when his mother left and he felt better he would go and visit her.

Ezra continued to sit back with his eyes closed while the others silently watched him.

"Do you gentlemen have nothing better to do than to sit there and watch me."

"Nope." smiled Chris. "Just waiting for the stagecoach to come in."

"Just great." muttered Ezra.

"Good morning." greeted Josiah as he walked up the steps to join the men who were already gathered there. He had a huge smile on his face at the thought of seeing Maude Standish again but the smile turned to concern as everyone but Ezra looked at him. He thought that he was sleeping again.

"What are you dressed up for Josiah?" asked Vin knowing that he wanted to impress Maude when she arrived. Josiah had really liked Maude and would have courted her except for the fact that Ezra had told her that he was penniless.

"I have come to meet Ezra's mother." he smiled again.

"You don't have a chance Mr Sanchez as she is only interested in men who are rich and gulible." he scowled.

"Now is that anyway to talk about your mother Ezra." he said lightheartedly.

Ezra finally opened his eyes then, he got up and took a moment to steady himself and then walked over to Josiah who flinched at the anger that his green eyes held. "You do not know my mother, and you have no idea what she is capable of doing to get what she wants."

Ezra turned then at the sound of the stagecoach coming into town. He opened his mouth to say good lord but stopped when he remembered what happened the last two times he said that.

Ezra held onto the railing while the others gathered around him. They watched the stagecoach come to a stop. He saw that the top of the coach was full of luggage again and groaned silently at the thought of having to carry those bags which he hoped were not full of bricks. He did not have the strength to carry them. He stepped forward making sure that he did not move to quickly as the dizziness was not completely gone yet. He opened the door to find his mother smiling down at him, he smiled back but the smile did not reach his eyes. Maude stepped down from the coach and looked at her son the smile leaving her face as she noticed his pale complexion, she stepped back and looked him over also noticing that he had lost weight since she last saw him. She frowned but did not say anything to him she would do that later when they were alone.

"Ezra dear it's so nice to see you again, I've missed you." she gave him a small hug which he did not return.

"Mother."

Maude kept the smile that she had put back on and looked towards the other men that were with her son. "Gentlemen."

They tipped their hats in her direction. Josiah stepped forward and took her hand and placed it against his lips.

"I am glad that you have returned to our town dear lady." he smiled at her.

She smiled back at him, she liked this man even though he had no money. She looked back at Ezra who seemed to becoming paler with each moment. Nathan had also noticed and moved towards the luggage that the stagecoach driver was removing from the coach. Vin and Chris also began to pick up the luggage following Nathan's lead and headed towards the Hotel. Maude could not help but notice this as she took her son's arm as they followed the others. Ezra was glad that they had picked up his mother's luggage. He knew he would not be able to do it as he was beginning to feel worse and he was becoming very tired. He would have to spend a short time with his mother and then make his excuses so he could go and rest. He had already arranged a room for Maude so it was only a matter of getting the key for her and making sure that she was comfortable in the room that he had chosen.

Once the others had put all of her luggage in her room they left Ezra and his mother but they did not leave the Hotel, they waited for him downstairs, they also saw that he had begun to look worse and they wanted to make sure that he got back to his own room to get the rest that he needed to continue his recovery.

Ezra sat down on the bed because he knew that if continued to stand that he may end up falling down. Maude looked down at him.

"Ezra have you been ill, you look pale and you have lost weight haven't you?" she sat down next to him and took his hand in hers feeling how warm it was.

He matched her poker face with one of his own. "Yes but it is nothing to worry about, Nathan said that I will be fine, that I just need a little more time to get over it. Speaking of which I am feeling a little tired and I am sure that you would like to freshen up after your trip so I will leave you for now and perhaps we could meet for dinner later this evening."

And without another word he got up and left his mother sitting on the bed watching his back as he left her room. When he closed the door behind him he leant against it waiting for the dizziness that had returned to it's full force to pass. When he had steadied himself he began to descend the stairs only to find the others at the bottom waiting for him.

"Ezra I think that you should go and get some rest." Nathan was concerned at how much paler Ezra had become.

"I have all intentions of doing so Mr Jackson." replied Ezra.

But he only took two steps before he felt the dizziness take control of him again and he collapsed to the floor. Nathan rushed to his side with the others close behind him. He rolled Ezra over on to his back and checked him over quickly.

"Josiah?" Nathan glanced up at him seeing the worry on everyone's faces. Josiah nodded, he knew what he was asking. He bent down and lifted Ezra into his arms and carried him to his own room at the saloon.

JD and Buck had joined the others in the saloon who were waiting for Nathan to come down and tell them how Ezra was. They had waited only fifteen minutes before Nathan joined them. He saw them all looking at him with an unanswered question on their faces.

"Ezra's okay, he's just sleeping."

"Why isn't he getting better Nathan?" asked JD.

"He is, it's just going to take time, what that woman did to him took a lot out of him and we can't expect him to his old self in only a couple of weeks."

JD was not convinced and neither were the others.

Maude entered the saloon later that evening looking for her son who was going to take her to dinner. She was greeted by Josiah.

"Maude, would you allow me to escort you to dinner as Ezra is not feeling himself at the moment. He went to his room earlier today and he is still sleeping." Josiah smiled trying to reassure her that Ezra was okay.

"Of course Mr Sanchez, I would be honoured and perhaps during the meal you could tell me what is wrong with my son." she smiled back at him.

"Ezra did not tell you?"

"Mr Sanchez surely you know what Ezra is like."

Josiah nodded, he should have realised that Ezra told his mother about as much as he told them. "I am not sure that it would be in my best interests to tell you Maude as you also know what he is like." Josiah knew that if he told Maude something that Ezra did not want her to know then it could mean his life as he would not be happy about it at all and with the mood that he was in at the moment he could be more dangerous than Chris even if he was not himself physically as yet. He also decided that it would be best if Ezra told her himself about what he had been through lately.

They spent a pleasant evening together and when the meal had ended they returned to the saloon for a quiet game of poker. While they were there Mary Travis entered the room carrying a tray, she saw Maude and went over to her to welcome her back to Four Corners.

"Mrs Standish is so nice to see you back in town, will you be staying long?"

Maude was surprised to see her in the saloon, she thought that she was the type of woman that thought she was to good to be in one. "Mrs Travis, I'm glad to be back. What is it you have there?" she asked courious to find out what she was doing in here.

Josiah who was at the poker table with Maude, Vin and JD knew what Mary was doing as she did it quite often.

"I'm taking a tray of food up for Mr Standish. Chris told me that he had been sleeping all afternoon and I assumed that as usual he would not come down for a meal so I brought him one so when he wakes up later he can eat something if he was hungry. He has not been eating enough these last two weeks." she began to turn away. "Perhaps we can meet for lunch before you leave town."

"Yes of course, we could talk about Ezra perhaps, maybe you could tell me what's been going on." frowning at the thought that he had not been eating.

"Yes perhaps we could." Mary smiled and headed towards the stairs.

Maude turned to Vin and JD who looked down at their cards knowing what the expression on her face was saying. It was the first time since they had met her that they saw any real emotion there. She wanted to know what was going on but they were not going to tell her as they knew what Ezra's reaction would be if they did.

Mary knocked gently on the door in case Ezra was awake but when she did not receive a reply she entered his room. She saw that he was still sleeping, she went over to the other side of his bed and left the tray on the side table. Mary looked down at his face and could see the light sheen of sweat that had gathered there and she placed her hand on his forehead feeling the warmth that was there thinking at the same time that he had a slight temperature. She pulled his bed covers up back over him as he must have tossed them off some time during the day. She then left his room taking one last glance at him before closing the door.

The next morning Maude went looking for Nathan, she wanted to know what was wrong with Ezra and if any would tell her then it would be him but she was wrong. She found him in his room, as he had just finished treating someone with a gunshot wound. Chris was with them as he wanted to know how the man had gotten shot but the person would not tell him and as it was only a flesh wound he got up and left as soon as Nathan had cleaned and bandaged the wound.

Maude did not bother with goodmornings as she wanted to know what they knew about her son. "Mr Jackson, I would like to know what is wrong with Ezra. He told me that he had been sick and that you said he would be okay but that is all he told me."

"I'm sorry Maude but if Ezra wanted you to know he would have told you himself."

She looked at Chris to see if he was willing to answer the question but he just looked at her. "But he hasn't told me and I want to know. From what I can gather he is sleeping alot and not eating and he is also very pale and no one will tell me why."

"You will have to ask him."

"Nathan you know that he won't tell me."

"I'm sorry Maude. I can't go behind his back and tell you what happened to him." Nathan was beginning to become nervous, he did not want to get on Ezra's bad side but he also did not like to keep Maude in the dark.

"What do you mean happened to him?" she questioned him. "I thought that he had been sick."

Nathan glanced at Chris. "Well in a way he was." before Maude could ask him anything else that might get him into trouble he made a suggestion. "Would you like me to talk to Ezra, get him to tell you what happened or maybe he might let me tell you."

"I would appreciate that Nathan, thankyou." she smiled, grateful that she may finally find out what everybody but her knew. "And when will you do this as I would like to know as soon as possible?"

"Let's give him a couple of more hours as he does not get up this early in the morning then I will talk to him."

"Thankyou." she nodded to Chris and left.

"Let me know when your ready to talk to him so I can give you the protection your going to need because you know how he is going to react." smiled Chris on his way out the door.

Nathan was beginning to regret the suggestion already.

Ezra woke with a groan, he grimaced at the light that was creeping through the curtain into the room. He tried to sit up but a wave of nausea overcame him and he fell back onto his bed, he also had a headache already. He realised that he must have slept since yesterday morning. He waited for a few minutes then tried again, this time managing to get himself out of bed, it took him a while to get dressed and once he had accomplished that task he headed down to the saloon. He had not bothered to shave as he felt that he would not be able to stand for such a long period of time, all he wanted to do was to sit down and have a drink. Once he got his bottle of whiskey and a glass he went to his usual table in the corner of the saloon not even glancing at his colleages who were sitting at one of the tables that he had passed. He sat down and drank two shots straight away. He needed the drink as he had to be prepared for his mother's questions as to why he did not meet her for dinner last night.

Nathan, Chris and Vin had seen Ezra come down the stairs from his room get a bottle of whiskey and head to his table. He didn't seem to see them as he passed them. Nathan looked at Chris who smiled as if to say well you offered you go talk to him. Nathan grimaced and got up, he walked slowly over to the table that Ezra was sitting at.

"Mind if I sit down Ezra?"

"Yes I do." was the simple reply.

Nathan did not sit down but he continued to speak. "I saw Maude this morning, she wanted to know how you were doing, wanted to know what was wrong."

"Well I hope for your sake Mr Jackson that you did not tell her." Ezra brought his eyes up to meet Nathan's and they were cold and full of anger.

Nathan looked over his shoulder at Chris who was watching the scene intently ready for Ezra's reaction as he was sure that there was going to be one. He knew that when Ezra was like this he was capable of doing anything, and this was when he was at his most dangerous. In the last week his mood had become very sour, they knew he was angry about something but not what it was but they did know that when he was in this mood that they were best to leave him alone. Sometimes they had no choice though and this was one of those moments as Maude wanted to know what was going on and Nathan had made the mistake of offering to talk to him for her.

"I told Maude that I would talk to you about it, see if you would tell her or I could tell her if you want me to."

"No I don't want you too and what gives you the right to discuss any of this with her?"

"She's worried about you Ezra."

Ezra actually laughed at that. "Worried, my mother? She has never worried about me so why should she be worried now."

"Well she is and she wants to know what happened to you." Nathan decided it was now or never. "And if you don't tell her then I will."

Ezra stood up slowly and moved around the table to stand in front of Nathan. Chris saw this and he also moved towards Nathan. Ezra looked at him.

"Excuse me!" he growled through clenched teeth.

"You heard me Ezra, she needs to know." Nathan stood his ground.

"My mother needs to know nothing." Nathan saw a change come over Ezra's face but it was gone as quick as it came. "She never wanted to know before just as she never worried about me before. Now if you will excuse me I have a bottle to finish."

"I mean it Ezra, if you don't tell her then I will." he repeated.

Chris was standing to the side watching and waiting but he did not expect Ezra to be so quick with the way that he had been feeling. Before he could stop him Ezra gave Nathan a right hand uppercut that knocked the healer off his feet. Chris grabbed hold of Ezra as he went to hit Nathan again.

"Ezra that's enough." said Chris as he struggled to hold him. Ezra stopped and Chris let go of him.

He looked at Nathan and then back at Chris.

"No that is not enough, I have had with the lot of you. None of you will leave me alone, you keep interfering with my life, why can't you just for once do what I ask of you. I don't want you to tell my mother what happened."

"Why don't you want her to know, she is your mother Ezra." asked Nathan as he rubbed his jaw.

Ezra suddenly felt tired again, he sat down and put his head in his hands. Chris and Nathan sat down with him. "I just don't want to tell her yet, why can't you just leave it at that, why do you have to keep pushing me on everything."

"We want to help." said Chris.

"This is not helping." sighed Ezra.

"Would you at least do one thing for us if we drop the subject?" Chris asked. Ezra looked up at him. "Put that bottle of whiskey back and have something to eat."

"I'm not hungry."

"Jeez Ezra, you don't make it easy for us do you." smiled Chris.

It was at this moment that Maude decided to enter the saloon, they all saw her arrive. Ezra looked at Nathan and Chris. "Please do not tell her, I will do it in my own time."

Chris heard the pleading in his voice. In his own time he had said, he did not know if Ezra would do this or not, he remembered that he and the others had agreed to tell Ezra how they felt in their own time which was something they had still not done.

"For now Ezra."

Ezra sighed with relief.

JD watched as the stagecoach rolled into town for the second time in two days. He had been on his way to the saloon to see how Ezra was doing when he saw it coming. He stopped to watch who had arrived. He watched the four men exit the stagecoach all of whom seemed to be dressed similar to Ezra but somehow they did not seem to carry the look off. He went to enter the saloon when he heard one of them ask a question of him and he stopped in his tracks.

"Excuse me could you tell us where we could find Ezra Standish?" one of them asked.

"Ezra Standish?" JD pretended that he did not know Ezra especially after what had happened to him. "No I don't sorry." he then continued on into the saloon to see Ezra sitting at his usual table talking to his mother, he went over to Chris.

When Maude Standish had walked into the saloon she went straight to the table that Ezra was sitting at, Nathan shook his head at her silently telling her that he had no success when he spoke to Ezra, she asked Nathan and Chris to leave them alone. They had done so but they were not going to be to far away.

"Chris some men just arrived on the stagecoach and their asking for Ezra."

Chris looked at Nathan and Vin and together they walked out of the saloon looking for the men that JD had just told them about. They were still standing next to the stagecoach waiting for their luggage to be unloaded. They turned when they heard Chris's voice.

"I understand that you gentlemen are looking for Ezra." he said in a cold voice.

"Uh yeah, we heard of his reputation when it came to poker and we were hoping to play a game with him, if he would allow us to that is." one of them smiled and put out his hand. "My name is George Davis and these other men are," he pointed to each one after realising that the man was not going to shake his hand, "Peter Tombs, Bill Newman and Roger Shelby."

"You want to play poker with him?" Chris asked but did not wait for an answer. "He's busy at the moment you will have to see him later but I'm sure he won't say no to a game, it's what he needs right now." he didn't answer the questioning look that appeared on their faces at that remark.

"Sure, we need to get a room anyway, so where can we find him later." he asked again.

"In here." Chris pointed behind him into the saloon.

The four men tipped their hats and picked up their luggage and headed in the direction of the Hotel.

"Keep an eye on them." he said to JD.

Maude sat down and looked at her son. She thought that he looked terrible, he looked like he had just thrown his clothes on and he had not shaved. She waited for him to acknowledge her but he continued to look down at his glass.

"Ezra are you going to tell me what has been going on." she asked him.

Ezra had finally managed to put his poker face on, this was something that his mother had taught him to do, he looked up at her. "No!"

"And why not?" she demanded.

"Because there is no need for you to know."

"Of course there is a need for me to know, I am your mother."

Ezra smiled at that. "Are you going to start telling me about how you raised me again." his voice had a sarcastic tone that Maude did not like.

"Ezra you look terrible, something has happened to you and I want to know what it was."

Ezra could feel his headache getting worse. He rubbed his eyes hoping that it would ease the pain that he felt behind them. "I don't want to talk about it Mother. Now would you please leave me alone."

"There is something wrong now isn't there, are you in some sort of pain, will you please tell me." she reached over and put her hand against his right cheek. She was shocked when he roughly brushed her hand aside.

"I simply have a headache, that's all."

"There is more to it than that, Ezra I am your mother and I demand to know what is going on!" she was becoming angry, she could not understand why he would not talk to her.

"You can demand all you want mother but I am not going to tell you, I'm not ready to tell you. Now will you please leave me alone."

"No."

Ezra made a move to get up but Maude grabbed his arm, he looked down at her. She could see the anger in his eyes and she did not understand it, he had been angry at her before but never like this. He had changed since he had become a lawman here, he was not the same man that she knew as her son.

Ezra pulled his arm away, he needed to be alone, he decided to go back to his room. Ezra walked away leaving Maude sitting at the table confused, hurt and becoming angry herself. She was going to get to the bottom of this, she turned around in her chair and saw Chris and the others watching her. She got up and went over to them intending to find out what she can.

Ezra could feel his headache getting worse and he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him again. He sat down on his bed until it passed. He saw the tray of food that Mary had left there the night before, he decided to have something to eat even though he was not hungry. Once he had eaten some of the food he laid down on the bed and was asleep within minutes and as he slept he dreamt of the times that his mother had left him alone with relatives, he dreamt of the time that he had spent with his Uncle Jack.

"He won't talk to me." Maude spoke to the group.

"What did you expect." Chris mouthed what he thought the whole group was feeling. They got frustrated with Ezra when he would not talk to them but they did not totally blame him for this as they knew it was something that his mother had taught him to do, to not talk about how he felt, to hide his emotions and to not let anyone see them because if they did he would not be able to con them.

"What do you mean?"

"That's how you brought him up isn't it, not to talk about things or show his emotions. He does not tell us anything either, he will not admit to anything, wether it be his mood or if something was physically wrong with him. The only reason we know that something is wrong now is because we see the symptoms not because he told us. You have taught him to build a wall around himself and I must say that you did a very good job because we have not been able to break it down as yet. Ezra is our friend and we don't like to see him hurt, and not being able to talk about things seems to hurt him more than anything else.

"I see." she looked around at the rest of the group seeing that they all silently agreed with what Chris had said. "If he won't tell me it means that one of you will have to."

"Sorry Maude but we just told Ezra before you came in that we would not tell but he did say that he would but in his own time."

"I can't convince you."

"No." said Chris as he watched her poker face reveal nothing of the emotions that were hidden under it.

"Very well then." said Maude. She got up and headed out of the saloon, she still had one more person that she could speak to and that was Mary Travis.

Mary was working in the Clarion when Maude walked in. She looked up to see a look of concern on her face. Maude had decided that she was not going to ask Mary outright, that she would try and trick Mary into telling her what happened and she started by putting a concerned expression on her face.

"Mary, I just wanted to come by and thank you for what you have been doing for Ezra." smiled Maude.

"It's the least that I could for him." Mary smiled back not realising what Maude was up to. "It was terrible what that woman did to him."

"Yes it was." Maude was finding it easy to hide the emotion that she felt at that remark as it was something that she had been doing all her life. "He finally told me what happened, I was shocked to say the least."

"Yes. The bullet wound healed but . . ." she grimaced at the thought of what the poison had done to him.

Maude's expression almost faltered. "I don't understand why she shot him"

"She didn't shoot . . ." Mary realised what was happening. "He didn't tell you anything did he?" she accused Maude.

"No he didn't but I think that you should tell me the rest now that you have started."

Mary gave in knowing that Maude would not leave her alone now, she would have to explain to Ezra how stupid she was to allow Maude to trick her. Maude stood in stunned silence as she listened to how her son was shot protecting some woman who had then poisoned him and that he almost lost his life.

Chris and the others were sitting in the saloon silently worrying about Ezra and why he did not want them to tell his mother about what happened. They knew that he found it hard to talk to them but they couldn't understand why he wouldn't talk to his mother. Chris had told the others that Ezra had asked them not to tell her, that he wanted to do it himself but when he was ready. Josiah found this difficult to understand, he thought that Ezra should tell his mother. He had told Maude the night before that he would not tell her, that she would have to talk to Ezra herself thinking that her son would tell her what was going on. He got up and moved towards the stairs.

"Where are you going Josiah?" asked Chris knowing what the answer would be but still asking anyway.

"I am going to check on Ezra."

"He does not want to tell her yet."

"I know, I'm just going to check on him."

Chris knew what he was going to do and it was not to check on Ezra. "He is not in a good mood Josiah, so be careful."

Josiah looked towards Nathan and saw the purple bruise that was already forming on his jaw. He nodded and head towards Ezra's room.

Josiah knocked on the door and did not wait for an answer, he entered the room to find Ezra sleeping on his side. All he seemed to do lately was sleep and they were all worried about this. He went over to the bed and looked down at him seeing him grimace at something that must have been part of a dream that he was having. He saw the tray of food and noticed that Ezra must have eaten something. He picked the tray up intending to return it to Mrs Travis but in doing so he dropped the plate that was on the tray, the slight noise jerking Ezra awake.

"Mr Sanchez may I ask what it is that you are doing?" Ezra grimaced at the pain in his head as he opened his eyes, his headache was getting worse. He sat up and placed his head in his hands.

Josiah sat down on the bed next to him. "Your headache still bad?"

Ezra just nodded.

"I know that this is not the right time Ezra but I want to talk to you about your mother." when Ezra did not say anything he continued hoping that the silent reply meant that he was willing to talk about it. "She is worried about you."

"My mother is not worried, she just does not like the idea that she is the only one who does not know what happened." muttered Ezra. His headache was getting worse as he sat there, he was also to tired to argue with Josiah.

"Would you mind if I tell her?" Josiah asked. Ezra looked up at him and he could see the pain in his eyes, his headache must be bad, he will have to tell Nathan when he went back downstairs.

"Josiah do what you want, I'm to tired to argue with you or anyone else for that matter." Ezra laid back down. "Just make sure that you keep her away from me after you tell her."

"I will leave you to rest but I'm going to send Nathan. Okay."

"I told you Josiah, do what you want, I don't want to argue anymore, I'm too tired."

Maude stormed into the saloon and went straight to the table where the five lawmen were sitting.

"I understand that my son was shot and then poisoned."

"And who told you that?" asked Chris

"Mrs Travis." she saw the look that crossed Chris's face. "Do not blame her as I tricked her into telling me what happened. Why would you not tell me this. My son almost died and you couldn't tell me. Why?" she was very angry now. "I am his mother you should have told me."

"I am sorry Maude, Ezra did not want you to know." Chris really did not know what to say, he knew that she should have been told but Ezra did not want her to know and he wanted to do what he had asked of them.

"You say that you are his friends, the first thing that a friend would do would be to inform his mother what happened, you should have sent me a telegram, what if he had died, would you have informed me then." she looked at each one and saw the guilt beginning to form on their faces. "It is you that I blame, you and this pitiful town, he should not be here, risking his life for people that he does not even know and when I leave he will be coming with me. I will make sure of that if it is the last thing that I do."

They all looked up at her then but she had turned on her heel and headed towards Ezra's room. She saw Josiah coming down the stairs.

"Where are you going Maude?" he asked her as he blocked her way up the stairs.

"I am going to see my son, now that I know what happened I need to talk to him."

"Maude you are best to leave him alone at the moment." Josiah had stopped Maude not knowing that it was the wrong thing to do. If he had let her go then things may have turned out better because what she was feeling now was actually a mother's concern for her child even though she was also angry but now he stopped her from seeing Ezra she was going to calm down and that concern was going to change disapointment that her son was working as a lawman instead of using the trade that she had taught him.

"I need to speak to him."

"Later Maude, please, he is not well and I would like Nathan to check on him."

"If he is not well then I should see him, why won't you let me see him."

"He does not want to see you at the moment. I'm sorry."

"Fine, if that's what he wants." she turned away and went to a table, she was not going to leave, if Nathan was going to see her son then she was going to wait here until he came back and then she was going to talk to Ezra.

"Nathan, can you come and have a look at Ezra please." asked Josiah seeing everyone look at him at once.

"What's wrong?" Nathan got up and started to follow Josiah back to Ezra's room.

"His headache is bad, I think that he is in a lot of pain."

The others watched as they went up the stairs knowing that they would have to wait until they came back to find out what was wrong. Maude was also watching from the other side of the saloon.

When they entered Ezra's room they found him asleep again. Nathan frowned, he went to the side of the bed and looked down at Ezra seeing the grimace of pain that occassionaly crept across his face. He placed his hand on his forehead feeling the slight temperature that was there.

"Ezra." said Nathan as he gently nudged his shoulder hoping to wake him so he can ask him a few questions regarding how he was feeling. "Ezra." he shook him a bit harder this time.

"Would you please let me sleep." he groaned.

"I just want to ask you how you are feeling, is there anything I can get you."

"My head hurts, I'm tired and you can get yourself out of here."

"Are you still feeling any nausea?" Nathan contuinued to watch him as he asked the questions. He had an idea what was wrong and thought that he should have realised it sooner.

"A bit, I tried to eat something earlier but it just made me sick."

"Are you feeling any pain anywhere else?"

"No."

"Okay, I am going to make you something to drink so stay awake for at least another ten minutes, think you could do that?"

"No." he repeated.

Nathan got up and moved over to where Josiah was standing in the corner of the room. Nathan glanced back at Ezra. "I think that the poison is starting to take control again. I'm going to give him some of that powder that Jane gave us and see if it makes any difference in how he is feeling. Can you stay with him until I get back?"

"Of course." Josiah walked over to the chair that was near Ezra's bed and sat down. He sat there and watched Ezra, he had no intention of moving until Nathan came back.

While Nathan was gone Josiah tried to get Ezra to talk to keep him awake but he was not in the mood for conversation. "I saw Maude downstairs, she was coming up to see you." he saw Ezra grimace at that and took it as an answer. "I asked her to wait until you were feeling better. She also said something about knowing what happened."

"Oh great." muttered Ezra.

Nathan returned a few minutes later. He had the small package of powder and a canteen. "Still awake is he." he saw Josiah nod. He quickly mixed a small amount of the powder into the water thinking that if he needed more later he would mix some of it together again. He handed the cup to Ezra.

"Ezra I want you to drink all of this and then you can sleep all you want."

Ezra opened his eyes and looked at the cup. "What is it?"

"It should make you feel better." answered Nathan.

Ezra frowned at the thought of drinking something that Nathan had put together, it usually tasted terrible but then he thought anything had to be better than this headache. He took the cup from Nathan and sat himself up. He dropped the cup and quickly placed both hands against the sides of his head moaning in pain at the same time.

"Ezra?" Nathan and Josiah grabbed him before he fell from the bed and placed him back down against his pillows. "Easy now. I'll make some more." Nathan looked at Josiah then bent down and picked the cup up and made another drink for Ezra. "Here you go Ezra, don't get up this time." he held the cup for Ezra who drank most of the liquid before he started coughing.

"Nathan that stuff is terrible." he then turned his head to the side and promptly fell asleep.

"What just happened then?" asked Josiah.

"His headache must really be bad, I just hope that powder will make him better, I should have given him more as soon as I knew that he kept suffering from headaches and dizziness."

"It's not your fault Nathan. Why don't you go downstairs and tell everyone what's happening, I'll stay with Ezra for a while." Josiah returned to the chair next to Ezra's bed.

Nathan looked back at Ezra then left the room, he went down to the saloon to let the others know about him. He found them still at the same table where he left them. Chris saw Nathan coming back down the stairs, he had come down earlier and left the saloon then returned to Ezra's room without even glancing at them. Nathan sat down at the table.

"Well?" Chris asked for them all.

"I'm sure that it is the posion again." he saw the expressions on their faces. "I've given him some more of that powder, hoping that it will get rid of what is left of it. He's sleeping now and Josiah is going to stay with him for a while. I'll know more when he wakes up which will probably be the morning."

"We will take turns sitting with him then." Chris didn't have to say anything else, they all agreed with him.

Ezra slept through the night and woke the next morning feeling better than he had in the last few days. He still had a headache but it was not any where near as bad as it had been. He lay there quietly for a few minutes before moving.

"Feeling better Ezra?" asked Nathan.

Ezra opened his eyes and turned towards Nathan. "How long have you been sitting there?" he asked back.

"Only a couple of hours, we've been taking turns through the night, just to make sure that you were alright."

"I do feel better. Thankyou."

"Feel up to eating something?"

"Not really. Maybe I'll try something later."

Nathan watched him, he did look better, he was not as pale as he had been and he had checked his fever earlier to find that it had gone down. "Sure. I'll leave you be then, and I will check on you again later, see if you want something to eat or not." he didn't wait for an answer. He left Ezra to go down stairs and get something to eat himself. He saw that the others were all still waiting in the saloon, Maude was no longer there. She must have given up and gone to bed.

"He awake then?" enquired Buck. They had all stayed in the saloon during the night refusing to go when the owner wanted to close up for the night, neither of them sleeping.

"Yeah and he's feeling a lot better, I'll give him some more of that stuff tonight and keep giving it to him until he is back to his old self."

"Just great." muttered Chris but with a smile on his face.

Ezra came down to the saloon an hour later, he more or less looked his normal self, the only thing showing that he was ill was the still slightly pale complexion that he had. Compared to the others though who had a sleepless night he looked very healthy.

"Gentlemen you all look as though you could use some of that concoction that Mr Jackson made me drink yesterday." he smiled at them. It was the first time that they had seen him in days and they returned it with a feeling of relief.

"That's okay Ezra I'm sure Nathan would like you to have some more of it tonight." Buck laughed at the look of disgust that came over Ezra's face.

"Want something to eat yet Ezra?" asked Nathan.

"No not yet, I'm still not hungry." he saw the frown on Nathan's face. "Do not worry yourself Mr Jackson as soon as I do feel the need for nourishment I will have something."

"Just make sure that you do."

"There were four guys who came to town looking for you yesterday Ezra." said JD changing the subject knowing that the last thing Ezra wanted to talk about was how he was feeling. He then saw the worry on Ezra's face which was due to the things that happened each time someone came to town looking for him so he quickly added. "There gamblers, said they wanted to play poker with you."

"Really Mr Dunne." his interest picking up, he hadn't had a good card game in months.

"Yeah they said they would come by today, see if you were interested."

As Maude entered the saloon the expression on Ezra's face changed completely. She walked over to the table.

"Ezra may I have a word with you please?" she waited for an answer but instead he just got up and moved to another table so they could talk alone. He could not put it off any longer, he knew that Josiah was going to talk to her but now that she was here he decided to do it himself.

"What is it that you wish to talk about mother?"

"I want to talk about you and what you are doing here in this town. Mary told me what happened with that woman. If you did not become a lawman that would have never happened."

"Are you saying that it was my fault mother."

"What I am saying is that if you did not accept employment in this town it would not have happened."

Ezra nodded, she was blaming him. "If you will excuse me mother I need a drink." Ezra got up and headed towards the bar, he got a bottle of whiskey and a glass and proceeded to pour himself a drink.

Maude waited a moment for him to come back but he did not return so she stood up and joined him at the bar and during all this time the other hired gunmen were watching Ezra very carefully.

"Ezra you should not be staying in this town, you should be out there using the God given talents that you were given, not staying here protecting people against outlaws. I have taught you to protect number one and that is you Ezra not these people. You dissapoint me Ezra, this is not how I brought you up."

"You seem to have forgotten that you did not raise me mother." Ezra was starting to get angry, any other mother would be proud that their son was protecting innocent people like he was but not his mother.

"Don't start with that Ezra, you know why I left you with relatives, you were to young to travel around with me."

"You did not seem to think that I was to young when you needed me for a con."

"It was not that I needed you Ezra, it was an opportunity to teach you a trade." Maude could not understand why he was always angry about that. The families that she left him took care of him.

Ezra had finally had enough. "Did I ever tell you about the time that you left me with Uncle Jack?" he asked knowing very well that he hadn't.

"Your father's brother?"

"He showed up here in town a couple of months ago. He's in jail now for trying to take my life." he saw the shocked look on his mother's face but he didn't know if was because he had tried to kill him or if it was because he was in jail. "During the time that I stayed with him he beat me, badly, almost killed me once. That's the type of people you kept leaving me with."

"Ezra I didn't know, why did you never tell me?"

"Because just like now you would blame me for it." the anger that he was feeling was beginning to show in his voice.

"Ezra I do not blame you, if you told me this when it happened I could have done something about it." she was getting more angry herself.

"No mother you would not have and do you know why, because if you did then you would have not been able to leave me there with him again."

Ezra was not shocked by the slap that his mother gave him. "How dare you even say such a thing, you talk as though I do not care about you."

He rubbed the side of his face and nodded towards the six hired gunmen who were still sitting at the table now with shocked looks on their faces after they watched Maude slap her son. "They care more about me than you ever did or ever will. Did you not notice that through this entire conversation that you have not even asked how I am feeling, I'm sure you would have known that I have not been well over the last few days and yet you have not shown any desire to know how I am."

"Ezra that is not true I do care." she put her hand on the side of his face that she just slapped.

He removed her hand. "You only care that I keep up the trade that you taught me, you care that I keep conning people, trying to get their money, you do not care when I protect this town and the people in it."

"Ezra that is not true."

"Oh I think it is mother, you were quite happy with me when I was a liar and a cheat but I dissapoint you when I am a lawman. Now mother I tire of this conversation, perhaps we can continue this another time." he walked away before she could answer. She watched him go back to the table with the other men who protected the town with him.

Ezra sat down at the table and he spoke first before someone else could. "And gentlemen that is why I did not want to tell my mother, she blames me, saying that it was my fault because I am a lawman and that she is also very dissapointed in me, thinks I should still be out there conning people instead of protecting them." he kept his eyes down not wanting to look at the other men. They all sat there silently. Maude did not know what to do or say, she had to get him to leave town so he can become his old self again, these men had changed him.

It was after lunch when the four gamblers who had arrived in town the day before came into the saloon looking for Ezra. They spotted him easily at a table with a group of men, including the ones that had confronted them when they arrived. Three of them went to their own table while George Davis went to invite Ezra to a game of chance.

"Mr Standish." Ezra looked up at the man. "My name is George Davis and my friends and I," he looked over to the table that his friends were sitting at, "would like to invite you to play a game of poker with us this evening."

Ezra looked at the man then at his friends and made quick but hasty decision. "I would be delighted to." he smiled thinking that he would be glad of the distraction from what was going on around him. Little did he know that it may just cost him his life.

Ezra jumped when he heard the knock at his door. He quickly ejected his derringer into his hand. "Who is it?"

"It's Nathan can I come in." Nathan opened the door and looked into the room before entering, they all knew what he was like with that derringer, and he wanted to make sure that Ezra did not have it pointed at him, but he did. "You want to put that away Ezra."

Ezra did as he was told. " What can I do for you Mr Jackson?"

Nathan told him straight as he didn't know any other way to put things with Ezra. "It's this poker game that your going to play tonight."

"And what about it?" Ezra knew what he was going to say, that he should not be doing it, that he should be resting.

"I know that I can't talk you out of it but I do want you to try and not let it go on through the night, you need your rest." and Nathan knew what Ezra was going to say, that he was fine, and that he need not worry about him.

"I assure you Nathan that when I feel too tired I will end the game, we can always continue tomorrow night." Ezra smiled at the expression on Nathan's face. "You expected me to say something else perhaps."

"Uh, yeah I did." he started to leave. "Oh Ezra I left some of that powder there next to your bed and I want you to mix a small amount with some water and drink it before you go to bed."

Ezra grimaced at the thought of that. "Of course Mr Jackson. Now if you will excuse me I have four gentlemen waiting for me."

Nathan followed Ezra down into the saloon and while he joined the other gamblers Nathan joined the other hired gunmen, they intended to stay there as long as the game lasted to make sure that Ezra was alright, they were not sure if he would have the strength to protect himself if something happened.

When Ezra joined the other gamblers introductions were made, none of the names were familiar to him so he assumed that they were just four men interested in a game of chance.

"So what will it be gentlemen, five card stud aces high."

"Of course, what else would a decent gambling man play." laughed Peter Tombs.

Ezra began to deal the cards allowing each man with the highest card to bet, he won the first hand easily with a 'straight flush'. As the game continued on Ezra could see that of the four men Mr Tombs, Mr Newman and Mr Shelby were the easiest to read, he could also see that they were becoming frustrated that they were loosing nearly every hand they played. The real player was obviously Mr Davis, he was harder to read, he did let his face slip on occassion and it was at this time that Ezra either won the hand by bluffing or by just outplaying the man. The game had been going for two hours when Mr Shelby threw his hand into the middle of the table in disgust and stated that he was finished for the night. An hour later Mr Tombs and Mr Newman followed him. It was now just Ezra and George Davis.

A small crowd had begun to gather around the table blocking the view of the men who were trying to keep an eye on Ezra in case anything happened. They got up from their table and moved to better vantage points around the saloon. They had seen two of the men leave the table and Chris motioned to Buck and JD to watch them. Only Josiah saw Maude enter the saloon and take a position at the bar to watch her son do the thing that made her most proud and that was gambling, taking money from someone else and not risking his life for other people.

The game continued on for another two hours, Ezra knew that he told Nathan that he would stop as soon as he got tired but he also knew that it would not take long to win this man's money. The game stayed even between the two for the first hour and then Ezra beat Davis's 'flush' with a 'full house' and then a 'straight flush' over his 'four of a kind'. The game was one sided after that but Davis was able to hide his frustration and anger at loosing.

"Well Mr Davis I see that this game has come to an end unless you have something else to bet with." Davis had put the last of his money in the pot and he did not have anything else, there was no use looking to his friends as they had already lost all of their money and he knew that they were also not happy.

"No I do not Mr Standish but may I say that it has been a privalige playing with you." but inside he was ready to kill the man who had defeated him so easily at this game. He had come to town with every intention of winning but this man had beaten all three of them. Well they were not going to sit back and let him get away with it. They were going to get their money back and teach him a lesson and it was not going to be via a poker game. He kept the smile on his face. "Perhaps tomorrow when I am able to get my hands on some more money we can try again."

"Certainly, I always enjoy a good game and may I say that I did enjoy this one." He smiled showing his gold tooth.

Davis thought to himself, 'I just bet you did, but I am going to wipe that smile off your face.' "Goodnight Mr Standish, until tomorrow." he tipped his hat had then joined his friends who had been sitting at another table watching the game.

While Ezra collected his winnings Maude moved quietly over to the table and sat down. "Ezra."

He looked up at his mothers voice. "Mother, and what can I do for you this evening."

"I see you have done well. May I ask how much you have won?" she was trying to get back on his good side as she knew that if she tried to convince him to leave town while he was angry then the answer would be no.

"You know that a gentlemen does not disclose that sort of information, you taught me that yourself remember."

"Yes I did. Ezra could I talk to you please." she made sure that no anger showed in her voice. She could also see out of the corner of her eye that his friends were watching. She was going to have to be careful with what she said.

"What is it mother, and please be quick as I am tired and wish to go to bed." Ezra had counted his winnings and they totalled fourteen hundred dollars, he was quite pleased with himself, he was going to be able to buy the saloon. He would have to make sure that his mother did not find out though as she would really be dissapointed then.

"I want you to come home with me."

He nearly dropped the glass that he was holding. "Go home with you." she nodded. "Why?"

"Ezra," she put her hand on his "I thought about what you said earlier and your right, I did not bring you up, I did a terrible job and I am an awful mother. I want to make things up to you. I want you to come home with me." there was no change in the expression on his face and she knew that he was wearing the poker face that she had told him so often to wear, to hide his emotions, she could not read him at all.

He laughed. "You want me to go home with you, since when did you have a home to start with?"

"We can start a new home, spend some time together like a mother and son should do, the time that I did not spend with you when you were a child." she saw the sadness quickly flash through his eyes and knew that she hit a sore spot, she also now knew which area to work on to convince him to leave Four Corners.

"I can't just pick and leave mother, I have a position here."

"I don't want you to leave straight away, you have to think about it first, I don't want to rush you Ezra. And Ezra." he returned his gaze to her eyes. "I am proud of you, I just found it hard to admit." she smiled at him. Maude then got up and left the saloon thinking to herself that she had just completed the first step to getting him to leave town.

Davis and his friends had been watching Ezra. "We will have to get our money back." growled Tombs. "How could he beat all of us."

"Do you think that he cheated?" asked Shelby.

"Of course he did!" stated Tombs.

"Tomorrow, we will get him and our money tomorrow. We'll just have to make sure his friends aren't around, they seem to be watching him like a hawk for some reason."

The next morning Ezra got up early knowing that the others would not expect this of him. He did this so they would not continue to follow him around and watch him like they had been doing. He also could not sleep as his headache had become worse again. He had forgotten to drink the powder mix as Nathan had asked him to. He was to tired last night and he had fallen asleep as soon as he had laid down on the bed.

He headed towards the church as he wanted to speak to Josiah and then he planned on spending some time on his own so he could think about things, amongst them what his mother had said to him the night before. He knew that she had lied, knew that she would never change her ways or the way she felt about him. She had only said those things because she wanted him to leave his profession and continue on with the trade that she had taught him. He did not want that, he had changed and he knew that he could not go back to his old ways.

There were four men though who had seen him leave the saloon early and they followed him with the intention of getting their money back and teaching the gambler a lesson that he would never forget.

Ezra found Josiah in the church where he knew he would be. He had finally finished the repairs to the church but he still spent most of his time there. Josiah was suprised to see Ezra standing in the doorway of the church his face still looking pale against the colour of his red jacket.

"Ezra what has gotten you out of bed this early in the morning?"

Ezra stepped into the church, he hesitated for a moment not sure if he was doing the right thing. "I wanted to talk to you about my mother." he saw the shocked expression on Josiah's face.

"You want to talk to me." Josiah smiled and chuckled at this, thinking that finally Ezra realised that he could talk to his friends when he needed to.

But Ezra took his reaction the wrong way. He was beginning to change his mind about the whole thing, he did not expect Josiah to laugh at him. "What's so funny about me wanting to talk to you?" he was getting angry and his head was hurting.

"I am not laughing at you Ezra, I am glad that you are finally going to talk about things without one of us trying to force you to. Come over here and sit down and we will talk as much as you want."

Ezra could not tell if he was serious or not, it seemed to him that Josiah was laughing at him, as if it was some sort of joke among them that he was not able to talk about his problems. He turned around to leave. He had changed his mind but Josiah grabbed him by the arm.

"Ezra come and sit down." he tried to move him towards one of the church pews but he stood firm where he was.

"I have changed my mind!" he could not get the smile that had crossed Josiah's face out of his mind when he told him that he wanted to talk, he still felt as though he laughed at him. He turned around and left the church. Josiah watched him go. "Ezra." he whispered.

The four men watched Ezra leave the church and head towards the livery. They followed him making sure that they themselves were not being watched. They waited outside and out of sight and saw him ride out of town headed west. They entered the stables and hired three horses for themselves and after saddling them they followed him.

Josiah walked into the saloon expecting to see Ezra sitting at one of the tables but he was not in there. He saw Buck and Vin though and he headed over to them.

"Have you seen Ezra?" he asked them, he wanted to talk to him again hoping that he had calmed down so he could explain to him what had happened. He knew how hard it was for Ezra to talk about things, that it had taken a lot for him to walk into the church and ask Josiah if they could talk and he reacted in a way that hurt Ezra. Now he thought that the man would never trust him enough to talk to about things again.

"He's still asleep." answered Buck yawning himself as he like the others had not slept much the last two nights.

"No he isn't, I saw him in the church about thirty minutes ago, he wanted to talk but I did something wrong and he walked out. I thought that he may have come back here."

Vin got up."I'll go and check his room to make sure." he returned quickly stating that Ezra was not there.

"Go and find the others and tell them what's happened. Then we better search the town and make sure that he's okay."

An hour later they had all gathered in the saloon. "Any luck?" Chris looked at each of them and they all shook the heads no. They hadn't found him anywhere. "What about his horse, did anyone check to make sure his horse was still in the livery."

They all looked at each other and without a word they head to the livery. Once there they saw that Ezra's horse was gone. Each went to their own horse and then split into three groups and left town in search of their friend. Chris and Nathan headed West, Buck and JD went South and Vin and Josiah went North. They knew he would not go East as the town Purgatory lay that way. And he had an hour and a half lead on them, Chris just hoped that Ezra was not going to do anything stupid.

Ezra had ridden for about two hours before he came to a stop near a large tree next to a green meadow. He had been to this area on other occassions, it was a place that he liked to come to think about things and at the moment he had a lot to think about.

He turned to get off his horse and saw four riders headed towards him. He thought that it might have been Chris and the others come to check on him but as they got closer he could see that the four men were the same men that he had gambled against the night before. He could also see that they had drawn their guns. He turned his horse to head in the opposite direction and heard a gun shot and felt the bullet tear at his right upper arm. He felt himself falling backwards off his horse. He slammed into the ground landing on his back and felt the wind being knocked out of his lungs. He rolled over knowing that if he stayed out in the open that he would have no hope against them. He quickly picked himself up gasping at the pain in his arm and also the lack of oxygen in his lungs.

He struggled to get behind the large tree and positioned himself between the large roots they were big enough to give him the cover he needed. The four men saw this and stopped their horses, they got off and lowered themselves to the ground so as to make themselves smaller targets. Davis was carefully aiming at the spot he knew the gambler was hiding. Ezra had pulled one of his guns out using his left hand and carefully looked around the side of the tree to see where the men had positioned themselves but everything went black as the bullet hit it's mark. He was flung to the ground with his gun hanging limply in his hand.

"Got him." yelled Tombs.

They ran over to where Ezra lay and saw the blood that had already begun to soak into the ground. Most of the blood was coming from where the bullet had hit his skull. Davis leant down and began to check his pockets looking for their money. He didn't find any. He checked Ezra's boots and found only five hundred in cash.

"Where the hell is the rest of it?" asked Selby.

"It must be in his room, we'll go back for it."

"And what about his friends, how are we going to get past them?" Selby asked again.

"I'll think of something, come on lets go."

They left Ezra lying between the large roots of the tree in an expanding pool of blood that soaked both his clothes and the ground.

Davis and his friends were heading back to Four Corners when they saw two riders heading towards them, they quickly changed direction so that they would not run into them, if it was the gambler's friends then they would start asking questions that they did not want to answer. Davis watched until the two men had passed in the distance, he knew that they had seen them too. He pulled his horse to a stop and waited.

"What's up?" asked Newman pulling his horse to a stop along side of Davis.

"Were going to follow them." he turned to his friends. "I want to make sure." He hadn't made sure that the man was dead as he had assumed that he would not be found for days and that he would die due to his wounds in a matter of time anyway.

"Why do you think he went off on his own like that for Chris."

"Because he is stubborn." he answered. They had been riding for nearly two hours and they still had not seen any sight of Ezra. They did see four men though and that gave Chris a nagging feeling in his stomach. "We'll give it another hour and then head back to town to see if the others have had any luck, I don't think he would have gone much further than that." Chris was getting mad, he wished that Ezra would just accept everyone's help and stop trying to do things on his own, such as looking after himself when he was sick.

They saw a large tree in the distance and a horse grazing near by but they couldn't see anybody. "That looks like Ezra's horse." pointed out Nathan. He wondered where Ezra was.

"Nathan, you head towards the right of the tree and I will take the left, something's not right about this." he pulled his horse to the left without answering Nathan's questioning look.

As Chris got closer he could still see no sign of Ezra. 'Where are you Ezra?' he asked silently afraid of actually getting an answer that he did not want to hear. He thought he saw a flash of red, he blinked just to make sure, it was red, it was Ezra's red jacket and there was no movement within it either. He hoped that he had just taken his jacket off and laid it down on the tree but he then saw the arm that was hanging limply over the large tree root and that hand had a gun in it. Chris immeadiately thought the worse.

"Nathan!" he yelled as he urged his horse on towards the tree at a gallop. "Nathan, over here!"

Chris pulled his horse to a stop and jumped off. He stood there for a moment in total shock. What he saw was Ezra lying in a pool of blood that had been coming from two seperate wounds, one to his right arm and one to the left side of his head, he could also see the white pasty colour of his skin and the slack expression on his face. Chris could not move, he thought Ezra was dead. He heard Nathan jump down off his own horse next to him hesitating only for a second before racing to Ezra's side. He saw the large gash that was on the left side of his forehead, he then placed his hand under the side of his throat feeling for a pulse. Chris held his breath until he heard Nathan say that he was still alive.

"His pulse is very weak but he's still alive."

Nathan gently moved Ezra's head to the side to get a better look at his head wound, it had stopped bleeding but by the amount of blood that was on the ground he knew that he had lost a lot of blood and apart from the bullet wounds he would also be suffering from shock. The wound was deep and it looked as though it had also grazded his skull. 'This could be serious.' thought Nathan. He then looked to his arm but could not tell how bad it was with Ezra's jacket still on.

"Chris come and help me get his jacket off, I want to look at his arm." Nathan looked up and saw that he had not moved. "Chris!"

Chris had begun to move towards Nathan not taking his eyes off Ezra's deathly white face when he heard a gunshot, he instantly dropped to the ground, his instincts taking control of his shocked emotions. He rolled towards the tree root that was covering both Nathan and Ezra. He recognised the men as the four that they passed earlier and knew that it must have been these men that had shot Ezra. He returned fire taking great pleasure in seeing one of them drop to the ground, he had been slower than his friends, they were already hugging the ground for cover.

Nathan had also drawn his gun and was returning fire. "What are we going to do Chris, we can't see them unless we get up and that would only give them something to aim at?"

"You stay here with Ezra, I'm going to try and get around the other side of the tree, see if there is somewhere I can get a bit higher." he moved off with Nathan's protests falling on deaf ears.

Chris quickly jumped over the tree root feeling the splinters of the tree hit the side of his face as a bullet hit the tree a mere inch from his face. He was then behind the tree protected by the cover that it gave him. As he moved around it he was able to see a strong branch which he would be able to climb on and get a better view of the situation. He took a few minutes to get up onto the branch. He could see the three remaining gunmen on the ground and then took careful aim and saw one of them jerk when the bullet hit him.

Selby saw Davis get hit by a bullet and wondered what had happened, they shouldn't be able to see them from behind the tree and while he was thinking this he felt a bullet hit his own leg. He yelped out in pain and dropped his gun, Newman also saw this and dropped his own gun and slowly got up with his hands in the air. He expected to be shot anyway and waited for the pain that a bullet would cause him but he felt nothing.

Chris saw the remaing two raise their hands in defeat and he jumped down off the tree and went towards them. "Which one of you shot Ezra?" he growled at them. They did not hesitate, they both pointed to Davis. Chris looked at the dead body of Davis, his punishment was to quick. He pointed the two that were left towards the tree. "Get moving before I shoot you."

"Chris we have to get Ezra back to town." he heard Chris return but did not look at him, his face was full of worry and he did not want Chris to see it. "I'll quickly clean his wounds and then we should go."

"I'll just tie these two up first, I will send someone back for them."

It only took Chris five minutes to tie them both together, they were going to stay that way until someone came for them, he did not know when that would be because he knew that once the others found out what happened they would not leave Ezra alone for too long. Chris helped Nathan take Ezra's jacket off and then stood back and watched as he cleaned the wound on both his head and arm, wincing at the thought of the pain that it would have caused him if he was awake.

"Both wounds are deep and he has lost a lot of blood, we gotta get back."

"Sure, I'll carry him on my horse with me."

They gently picked him up and carried him out into the open, then laid him on the ground while Chris went and got his horse. They had noticed how limp Ezra was in their arms, he had not moved or made a sound. Nathan sat with him until Chris got back and then they placed him on Chris's horse with a small amount of difficulty, Chris then got up behind him and headed back towards Four Corners. Nathan got his own horse and then Ezra's and caught up with him. He kept looking at Ezra to make sure that he was still breathing, which he was able to tell by the slight rise in his chest. Chris held on to Ezra tightly making sure that he was not going to fall off, he could feel Ezra's weak breathing against his own throat, his breaths coming very slowly, there was to long a gap between each breath causing Chris quite a few scares on the way back to town as there were a few times that he thought Ezra had stopped breathing.

JD, Buck, Vin and Josiah had no luck when it came to finding Ezra, they had returned to town to find Chris and Nathan were still out looking for him. Josiah went to Ezra's room to see if he had returned while JD went to check the stables again to see if his horse was there. Neither were so they settled into the saloon and waited for Chris and Nathan hoping that they had better news than they did. They only waited an hour before they found out that the news was bad.

They all looked up when Mary rushed into the saloon, she had just seen Chris and Nathan ride into town with Ezra. "There back." she didn't need to say anymore as they recognised the expression on her face, they had all been wearing it a lot lately.

They got up and ran outside. They all felt their hearts tighten at the sight that was in front of them. Chris had Ezra on his horse with him, they could see that the left side of his head was caked in blood, they saw his very pale complexion, they saw that he was not moving at all in Chris's arms. They stood there without moving. Nathan got off his horse and went over to Chris. He looked towards the others knowing what it was that they were thinking.

"He's not dead so come over hear and help me." he could hear the sigh of relief from where he was standing and then felt their arms as they helped him get Ezra down off the horse.

They saw the other wound on his arm and the amount of blood that was on his clothing. They noticed his laboured breathing. Chris got down off his horse after them, feeling weak himself after holding onto Ezra for two hours and he followed them up to Nathan's room.

"What the hell happened to him." asked Buck as they made their way up the stairs.

"He got bushwacked by those guys that he played poker with last night." growled Chris remembering his first sight of Ezra thinking that he was dead.

"And are they still alive?" Vin was also showing his anger.

"Two of them are, we'll go and get them when were ready."

JD opened the door and watched as they carried Ezra in and placed him on Nathan's bed. He then went over into the corner and watched not knowing this time if Ezra was going to survive, he looked terrible, he looked like he was dead.

"I'm going to get Maude."

They turned at the sound of Josiah's voice, but they did not argue with him. He left the room saying a silent prayer for his friend, he did not think that Ezra was going to live through this.

Chris and Buck began to help Nathan with Ezra's clothes but Chris started to fall to the floor, Buck quickly grabbed him. "Are you alright Chris?"

"I'm fine." he shrugged Bucks arms off.

"Chris you go and sit down, you practically carried Ezra back, sit down and don't argue with me." Nathan gave him a look that said that he was not in the mood to argue with him.

Chris nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. Mary came over and gave him a cup with some water. He drank it and then turned back to watch Nathan as he took care of Ezra. Nathan and Vin had gotten Ezra's clothes off and Nathan was now looking at his right arm and forehead.

"I'm going to have to stitch these wounds as their to deep to leave them like they are."

"Do you want us to hold him down?" asked Vin.

"I don't think that were going to have to worry about him moving about." Nathan stated simply. He knew what the head wound might have done, he didn't know if Ezra would even wake up again. The bullet had scraped the bone of his skull, he didn't know if it had caused any damage to the brain. He saw the confused looks that they gave him. "The wound to his skull is deep, he's probably in a coma right now, there could swelling to the brain which could have caused more damage, I'm not really going to know anything until he wakes up." he looked at them. "If he wakes up." he added.

Josiah found Maude in the Hotel, he went over to her table and sat down. She saw the concerned expression on his face.

"And what is it that is troubling you Josiah, have you come to talk to me about Ezra because if you have you can go back to him and tell him to talk to me himself."

"Maude you have to come with me, it's Ezra, he's. . ." he didn't know how to tell her.

"I know he's sick, so he wants to see me now does he?"

"No . . I mean he's been shot and it doesn't look good." he heard her gasp. He couldn't look her in the eye but he could tell that she was shocked.

"Where is he." she got up from the table knocking her chair over.

"He is in Nathan's room, I'll take you to him."

"No thankyou, I think you and your friends have done enough already." she walked out of the Hotel and towards Nathan's room thinking that if her son dies that these men will pay dearly for what they did.

Nathan gently cleaned the wounds that Ezra had suffered, he knew that there was no need to be as careful as he was being but this was Ezra and even if he thought that he could not feel it he was still going to be gentle, Ezra was a friend and he was going to treat him as such. He cleaned his head wound as much as he could but he didn't get all the blood out of his hair or off his face, he would do that later. As he began to stitch the deep gaze to his arm he heard the door open and then Maude's voice. Maude entered the room but could not see her son clearly because of all the men standing around the bed.

"What have you done to my son this time?"

None of them answered her, it was not a question they were going to answer, she was accusing them of doing this to Ezra.

"We didn't do it Maude." said Josiah. He had followed her into the room and heard her ask the question.

"Of course you did, if you had not gotten him to agree to being a lawman here this would not have happened." she accused them. She turned to face Josiah with a look of hatred on her face.

"Do you remember the poker game that he played last night." he watched her nod her head. "They did this to him, seems like they didn't like loosing, it had nothing to do with him being a protector of this town.

The expression dropped from her face. She turned and made her way through the men to see her son. What she saw almost made her faint there and then. "Oh Ezra." A tear spilled from her eye and ran down her cheek. She moved to the bed and sat down at her son's side, she took hold of his hand but he did not return her grip. "Ezra." she repeated.

Nathan finished stitching Ezra's arm, he put some balm on it to try and stop any infection from setting in, he then turned to Maude. "Maude I am going to take care of his head wound now, so would you like to sit on this side while I do that." he came over to her and helped her up off the bed and moved her to the other side where she then took Ezra's other hand in hers.

Nathan then stitched and bandaged Ezra's head wound. Once he was finished he stepped back, there was nothing more he could do for him now, he had suffered a serious head wound, lost a lot of blood and would be in shock, he would have to wait like everyone else.

Only Nathan and Chris were with Ezra at the moment, they had decided that rather than all of them crowd the room two of them would stay with Ezra at a time while the others continued on with protecting the town and get the rest that they needed. Nathan had insisted that Chris be the first one to get some rest but he refused. They had also talked Maude into leaving, she was to distraught to stay for a long period of time and they also did not want to listen to her blaming them for what happened. They knew it was wrong for them to do that but they also knew that it was wrong for her to blame them. Josiah had told her that what happened was due to a game of poker but she still blamed them as if they had shot him. She said that it was because he was in this town, if he had been somewhere else it would not have happened. But they didn't want to argue with her so they made up some reason for her to leave. They would allow her to come back of course but if she started another argument then they would do the same.

Nathan got up and checked Ezra's wounds for any sign of infection and found none, he also felt his forehead under the bandage for a fever, he was slightly warm but no real fever had started yet. He had managed to clean the remaining blood out of his hair and off the rest of his face. He was still worried though as Ezra had still shown no sign of life since they found him. His breathing was still laboured and his pulse weak. Nathan sat back down and continued to wait.

"Is he going to be okay Nathan?" Chris could not take his eyes off Ezra's still form, he looked to pale and he didn't move, if it wasn't for the slight movement of his chest rising with each laboured breath that he took Chris would have thought that he was looking at a corpse.

"I really don't know Chris." muttered Nathan.

Two hours later Buck and Vin arrived to take their turn watching Ezra. "Is there anything that we should watch for?" asked Vin looking at Ezra. He hadn't changed at all since he last saw him.

"Keep checking him for a fever and his wounds for an infection. I don't think that an infection will set in now but he could still get a serious fever from the head wound." Both Nathan and Chris left to go down to the saloon and sit with the others.

When they got there they saw that no one had gone and gotten the two remaining men that had shot Ezra. He was correct when he thought that none of them would want to leave Ezra in case something happened, they wanted to be there wether it was good or bad. Chris noticed Maude sitting at a nearby table on her own. He saw so much of Ezra there in his mother's face and her body language but he knew that they were different, that Ezra was not like his mother, he may have been when they first met but Ezra had changed. He was a good man with a kind heart but he didn't let everyone see that as his mother had taught him that appearences were the most important thing so he kept up his appearence of a gambler, a cheat and a liar. But his friends knew differently, they had accepted him for what he pretended to be and what he was.

JD and Josiah then relieved Buck and Vin and took over watching Ezra. "Is there any change?" asked Josiah. Niether of them answered him. He looked down at Ezra's pale face, his lips slightly parted as he breathed in each laboured breath. He did though have a slight reddish glow to his cheeks. He moved over and checked him for a fever but found that he was only slightly warm which may have been due to the blankets that Nathan had put him for the shock that he said he would be suffering from with the amount of blood that he had lost.

Nathan followed them in not long after. He wanted to change Ezra's bandages'. He removed them still finding no sign of infection, he knew that there would not be any now because if they were going to become infected they would have by now. He informed JD and Josiah of this. He did notice though that he was slightly warmer than when he last checked him for a fever.

"He feels a bit warmer than last time so keep checking him." he saw Josiah and JD nod in answer while they continued to look at Ezra. They were worried about him like everyone else was.

JD and Josiah had been sitting in silence, they did not want to speak their fears so instead they concentrated on Ezra, Josiah got up to check him for any sign of a fever and felt that Ezra had become even warmer to the touch, his skin also felt clamy.

"JD go and get Nathan."

He didn't have to ask why. He knew that he would be in the saloon with the others. "Nathan, Josiah wants you to come up, I think Ezra's got a fever." Nathan jumped up from his chair and rushed up to his room followed by everyone else including Maude who had seen him leave in a hurry after JD came in.

He entered his room to find Josiah wiping down Ezra's face with a damp cloth being careful of the bandage that was wrapped around his forehead. "He's got a fever Nathan."

Nathan moved over towards the bed watching Ezra, he didn't see any sign of movement and knew that the fever would be due to the head injury. He felt his forehead, Josiah was correct he had begun to develop a fever and it was going to get a lot worse. And for the second time in as many months Nathan began to worry about what the fever was going to do to Ezra in terms of brain damage.

Maude sat in one of the chairs in a corner of the room, she was not going to let them take her away from her son this time. She could feel all sorts of feelings going through her mind. She had never seen her son in this kind of condition before. Maude had never thought of loosing her son, had never considered it and now here she was watching him, thinking that he was going to die and it was only a matter of time until he did. She wiped another tear that was forming in her eye. She didn't want the others to see how upset she was.

Nathan spent a lot of hours with Ezra trying to keep his fever down, it had become bad but because of the coma that he was in he did not thrash about or become delirious, he just lay there not moving, not making a sound, the sweat making his hair cling to his bandage. He wanted to give him some fluids with herbs but knew that the condition he was in would not allow it, he would only choke. He had taken the chance after they had found him with Jean and Buck but he was unconscious and they had to risk it then because of the poison.

The others had continued to take turns sitting with Ezra doing what they could for him which was not much. They did this for another four days. Each had become exhausted, they had not slept well or eaten much at all either. They had gotten some other men from town to go and get the other two gamblers as they knew that if they did that they may not come back alive. Maude had continued to come and go, she did not talk to the others as she knew that they would not allow her to stay with her son if she did. She still blamed them though for what happened and if her son survived then she would do everything in her power to get him to leave Four Corners.

After five days Ezra's fever finally broke but Nathan knew that he was still not out of danger, he still had to wake up. Nathan and Buck were sitting with Ezra, Buck had fallen asleep in the chair and Nathan was trying hard to keep his own eyes open. The lack of sleep that they had was beginning to catch up to them.

"Mr Jackson." Ezra whispered. Ezra had woken not knowing where he was. The last thing he remembered was seeing the four men that he had played poker with riding towards him with their guns drawn, he had fallen from his horse for some reason and then everything went black. The next thing he remembered was the extreme amount of pain coming from his head. He did not move for fear that his head would fall off his shoulders. He waited for a moment before speaking. He knew that there would be someone in the room with him.

Nathan's head jerked up. "Ezra?" he got up and moved to the bed thinking that Ezra was awake but his eyes were still closed. He must have been dreaming.

"Can I have some water please?" he whispered again. His throat was dry and sore.

Nathan saw Ezra's lips move as he spoke and knew that it was not a dream, he smiled. "Sure Ezra." he went to get the water and kicked Buck on the way pass.

Buck nearly fell from his chair. "Nathan what did you do that for?"

"Mr Wilmington, please do not yell." Ezra was tiring and he fell back into darkness before Nathan could give him some water.

Buck ran into the saloon and headed straight to the others with a smile on his face. "He's awake. Well he was awake he's out again now but he did wake up." they all started to rise but Buck hadn't finished. "Nathan said that there is no use going up there, that we should just continue on like we are." They didn't listen though, as they continued to rise and went out the saloon door with a protesting Buck following them.

"I said that there was no need to come up." Nathan said as they all made there way into the room. To them Ezra still looked the same.

"We just wanted to check that was all." said Chris. Some of the worry had left his face.

"He was only awake for a couple of minutes, it might be hours before he wakes up again. But each time he does wake it will be for a longer period and the time that he is unconscious will also continue to be less. So there is no need for all of you to be here." He started to head them towards the door.

"We would rather stay Nathan." Chris went to the corner of the room and stayed there, the others found their own areas to wait in and they intended to stay there and there was nothing that Nathan could say to make them leave.

It was another six hours before Ezra woke again. They all heard him moan from where they were standing. Nathan moved towards the bed with a cup of water that he had also placed some herbs in to try and help Ezra get through the pain that he knew the head injury was causing.

"Ezra do you think you could drink something?"

Ezra opened his eyes but closed them again as the light sent a shot of pain through his skull, he grimaced but that only caused him more pain. The others watched as he opened his eyes and they all relaxed finally seeing some sign of life coming from their friend.

"Ezra I want you to try for me okay."

When Ezra did not say anything he took it as a yes. He sat on the bed next to him and saw him wince at the pain the movement of the bed caused him. He placed the cup against Ezra's lips and was grateful when he swallowed a small amount. He then took a second drink but he stopped there as he fell into unconsciousness again. Nathan got up and moved towards the others.

"That's how it is going to be for the next few days so there is no use staying here like this, we'll just take turns again sitting with him. Now has anyone told Maude or Mary that he has woken up. Josiah quickly left the room. He was so anxious to see Ezra wake up that he did not think of either of them.

When Ezra woke again Chris, Vin and Maude were sitting with him. They moved to his bedside when they heard his voice, he had asked for Nathan. Vin left to find Nathan knowing that Ezra probably won't be awake when they got back.

"Mr Larabee could please give me a moment with my son?" smiled Maude hoping that he would leave them.

"No." he knew what she wanted to do and this was not the time for it. She wanted to lay blame on them, probably Ezra too, but he was not going to let her do that.

"Mr Larabee I insist." she had raised her voice slightly trying to be firm knowing that she was not going to get anywhere with this man.

"Mother, please I do not need this at the moment." Ezra groaned from the bed.

"Ezra I only wanted to. . ."

"Mother don't." Ezra started to cough and cried out at the pain as it caused him to pass out again.

Maude quickly moved to his side and took his hand.

"Maude I think you should leave." stated Chris

"I will not leave my son."

"Yes you will and when you are ready to sit with him quietly and not judge him or us for what happened then you can come back."

"I will not be treated like a child."

"I'm sorry Maude but he needs rest and you will not give him that while you are here. Now if you don't leave then I will have to carry you out." he stepped towards her.

She was confident that he would do it so she left ready to mouth a protest on the way out but the expression on his face stopped her. Chris then went and sat next to Ezra waiting for Nathan and Vin to return.

Nathan made sure that he stayed with Ezra so the next time he woke up he would be here if he still wanted him. When he had returned with Vin earlier Ezra had passed out again so he was not able to help him. He wasn't going to let that happen again.

Ezra had begun to cough again. "Ezra you want some more water?" asked Nathan.

"Yes."

Nathan worried about the fact that Ezra was not using large words or long sentences like he usually did. He hoped that this did not mean anything serious. He helped Ezra drink some water with the herbs in it.

"Nathan why does my head hurt so much."

"You've been shot Ezra, the bullet grazed your skull. You have been unconscious for seven days now."

"Shot, I don't remember, I thought it was that poison. I didn't drink that powder like you asked."

"That's okay Ezra, don't worry about it. I think that is the last of your worries at the moment." Nathan held up his hand. "Ezra can you open your eyes and tell me how many fingers I am holding up."

Ezra opened his eyes and moaned at the pain. "I can't count that many." he closed his eyes again. "Nathan could you do me a favour please?"

"Anything Ezra." he leaned forward as Ezra was whispering, he was falling asleep again.

"Please don't let my mother back in here."

"Are you sure about that Ezra."

"Yes." he muttered.

Nathan patted his shoulder. "If that's what you want Ezra." He sat there with him for a while longer hearing the rattle in his chest as he breathed. This caused him to start worrying all over again.

Josiah entered the room quietly so as not to disturb Ezra. "How's he doing?" he asked Nathan.

"Ezra's not breathing well Josiah, he might have some fluid in his lungs." Nathan had not moved from Ezra's side since he had first heard the rattle in his chest. It had not gotten worse but he wasn't leaving until his chest cleared. He continued giving Ezra a drink each time he woke up and he had also added something to it hoping that it would help clear his lungs.

"Is that serious?" Josiah sat down on the bed careful not to make to much movement.

"It could be Josiah, it could be." Nathan hung his head.

"Nathan why don't you go and get some rest, I'll sit with Ezra for a while."

"No I'm staying until I know he's out of danger."

"Nathan you will not be any help to him if you get sick."

"Gentlemen would you please stop arguing." Ezra had woken to the sound of their voices. He coughed, feeling the pain that it caused.

"Ezra are you still feeling a pain in your chest and back when you breath?" Nathan had moved forward so that he could hear Ezra answer.

"It's not as bad now, thankyou." he coughed again.

"That's good but I am sure that there is still some fluid in your lungs so you are going to keep drinking this stuff." he produced a cup from the floor beside him. Ezra didn't argue with him and drank the entire cup this time. Nathan smiled grateful that he was not being his usual stubborn self. "Mary made some broth for you. Do you think that you could eat some of that as well." He saw Ezra grimace at the thought.

"The mere thought of food makes me feel ill."

"I may have to force you to eat something Ezra, you have not had anything in eight days, you need it to help you get better." Ezra looked at him. "I won't force you now but I want you to try some tonight, even if it is only a spoonful." He saw him nod slightly thinking that the pain must be easing as he was now moving his head more.

"Ezra." Josiah spoke for the first time to Ezra since he had first woken up. "Nathan says that you don't want your mother in here. Is that true?"

Ezra turned his gaze towards Josiah. "Yes it is Mr Sanchez and if you bring up the subject again I will ask the same of you."

Later that evening Nathan waited for Ezra to wake up so he could get him to eat something but it didn't happen as he slept through until the morning. Nathan had fallen asleep himself and woke up to the sound of someone entering the room. He looked up to see Maude and Josiah standing in the doorway, Maude had a pleading look in her eyes.

"I know he does not want me here but I need to see how he is doing." she stepped closer waiting for Nathan to say no.

Nathan gave Josiah a look. Maude sat down on the bed and wiped her son's hair off his forehead, she place her other hand on his chest so she could feel his heartbeat. "Is he going to be alright Nathan?"

"He does seem to be better but I will know more in a couple of days, I just need to get him to start eating something."

They all heard Ezra take in a quick gasp of air and he jerked awake at the feel of someone touching his head. He opened his eyes to see his mother staring down at him. He turned and saw Nathan and Josiah at the end of the bed. He spoke to Josiah. "You brought her here didn't you!" he was getting angry. "I told you I didn't want to see her."

"Ezra take it easy." Nathan wanted to get him calm as quick as possible.

Maude got up from the bed and moved back to Josiah's side. She could not understand what she did that would cause him to act this way towards her.

"Nathan would you please get her out of here." Ezra grimaced as the pain in his head begun to get worse, he put his hand to his forehead. "Nathan."

Maude could not take anymore, she turned on her heel and left the room. Josiah waited though thinking that maybe he would be able to talk to Ezra about his mother. Nathan watched as Ezra's face began to relax as the pain subsided.

"You okay now Ezra?" he saw him nod again.

"Please don't let her in here. All she is going to do is blame me for what happened and I don't want to hear it at the moment."

Nathan looked at Josiah again. "She needs to see how you are Ezra." Josiah said gently.

"And Nathan please make sure that Mr Sanchez does not return either."

"Only if you will eat something for me." Nathan smiled at him knowing that Ezra would not like being blackmailed. Ezra could only nod again.

"Josiah could you send someone up with some fresh soup or broth please, and also make sure that you honor this agreement that Ezra and I have made."

"I see that your stubborness is returning Ezra." Josiah could not help but smile, this meant that he was getting better. He left to find someone to bring some food for both Ezra and Nathan.

Ezra managed to eat a small amount of broth before bringing it back up again. He hated being like this, hated relying on other people. He had always been able to take care of himself but since being in Four Corners he has come to rely on other people but then sometimes they did not give him a choice.

"That's okay Ezra, we'll try again later. Your stomach has to get used to food again." Nathan could not help but feel sorry for Ezra, he knew that he would not like this. Having people take care of him was something that he was still not used to even with all that happened to him in the last few months.

Chris and Buck came in a short time later insisting that Nathan go and get some rest. Nathan refused so they compromised, he was asleep within minutes on the smaller bunk that he often used when someone else was in his bed. Both Chris and Buck sat and waited while both Ezra and Nathan slept.

It was another two days before Ezra was finally able to hold down some of the broth that Mary had made. He had also begun to breath easier the rattle from his chest completely gone. He still had a constant headache though and Nathan had started giving him some of the powder for the poison that he thought was still in Ezra's system. A few days after that Nathan began to add solids to the broth. It had now been two weeks since they found Ezra, he was getting stronger, his headaches were also easing. He had still not allowed his mother to visit him although he had agreed to Josiah visiting him as everyone else seemed to be. He was not happy about them being with him all the time, it was becoming the same old story, they weren't going to leave him alone for a minute. He knew that as soon as he had enough strength he would be leaving.

Two more weeks passed and Nathan had finally allowed Ezra to get out of bed, his legs were weak at first but as the days passed he became stronger. He had made a decision earlier and now it was time to carry it out. There were times that they now left him alone and it was during one of these occassions that he left Nathan's room and went to his own. He did not make it though without being seen. Maude had seen him go down the side alley towards the back of the saloon wearing clothes that looked like something only Nathan would wear. She could not understand why they would allow him to leave and make his own way back to his room in clothes that did not belong to him. Then she realised that they probably did not know that he had left. But it did give her an opportunity to talk to her son without them interfering. She made her own way to Ezra's room with all the intentions of making him leave town with her.

She entered his room without knocking to find him dressing into his own cloths. She had not really seen him much in the last four weeks and she was shocked at the amount of weight that he had lost while recovering from the wounds that had been inflicted upon him.

"Ezra." she did not wait for an answer. "I want to speak to you and I will not leave until I do."

Ezra turned to his mother, she saw that he was still pale but apart from the loss of weight he was beginning to look more like his normal self apart from the small scar that showed on his hairline. "And what is it that you want to talk about mother." When Ezra fininshed dressing he took a bag out from under his bed and began to pack it with the little possessions that he had.

"I was hoping to convince you to leave this godforsaken town, look what it is doing to you." she frowned. She could see that he was packing, the frown turned to smile. It looked like that she did not need to convince him. "But I see that you already intend to."

"Yes mother I am but I am not going with you." he picked up his coat and hat then left his room for the last time.

Maude rushed after him. "Ezra you can't go off on your own, you can't be well enough yet." Maude was stunned, she knew her son was stubborn but did not realise how bad he could be. She wanted him to leave but only if he left with her. He was not in the sort of condition where he could look after himself.

"I am perfectly fine mother." which he knew he nearly was, the headache had just about gone and there was no dizziness, it was only a matter of putting some weight back on and getting back to his full strength. It was his mind that was not fine. He needed some space, some time on his own away from everyone so he could think. They would not allow him to do that here, they wouldn't leave him alone and he was tired of it. He knew that it was the concern of friends but as far as he was concerned it was to much to soon.

Ezra did not use the back door this time, he walked through the saloon where the other six hired gunmen were sitting and laughing, happy now that they knew Ezra was fine. They looked up when they heard Ezra's voice wondering what he was doing in here when he should have been in Nathan's room.

Nathan got up and went towards him, he grabbed him by the arm. "Ezra what are you doing? I didn't give you permission to leave my room." Ezra kept walking though so Nathan stepped in front of him.

"I do not need your permission Mr Jackson."

He went to push past Nathan but felt another hand on his arm. "What's the bag for Ezra?"

"I am leaving." he looked into Chris's eyes knowing what he was going to say to that remark.

"Are you running out on us?" Chris didn't know if this was true but he said it hoping that it would make Ezra explain what it was that he was doing.

"Think what you like." he pushed his way out the door and headed towards the livery.

"Is this your idea?" he turned towards Maude.

"No. He has no intention of coming with me."

"He's going off on his own?" Nathan left the saloon to go after Ezra. He was not well enough to take care of himself, he had to try and convince him to stay. The others were not far behind him.

Ezra did not make it as far as the corner before they caught up with him. "Ezra you are not going anywhere in the condition that you are in. Why don't you come back and sit down and well talk about it." Nathan knew that if he let Ezra go that he would not look after himself.

"At the moment Mr Jackson the only way you can get me to stay is to tie me down to a bed and I am sure that you would not do that." growled Ezra. They really knew how to make him angry, they did not seem to think that he could take care of himself. He had taken care of himself his entire life and yet they thought he could not do it now.

"At least tell us why your leaving Ezra." said Chris. "You owe us that much."

Ezra stopped and turned to face him. "Mr Larabee there have been occasions where you have left for periods of time. Did we demand an explantion from you. No we didn't. We knew that it was something that you needed to do. This is something that I need to do and you won't stop me." He moved off to the stable again with them still following him.

They watched as Ezra saddled his horse and then led him out of the stable. "There's nothing that we can say Ezra that would change your mind?" asked Josiah. "If it's Maude then we could do something about her."

"There is nothing you can say Mr Sanchez and no it is not my mother, if anything it is you, all of you."

And before they could say anything in protest Ezra mounted his horse and rode out of town. "What did he mean by that?" asked a stunned JD.

"We've finally pushed him to far, he's not use to what he has in this town JD and it has pushed him away. I think he wants some time to himself. I just hope that he will be back."

They turned and made their way back to the saloon not knowing if Ezra would return. Five of them blamed themselves for him for leaving and Chris was thinking along different lines. He was angry that Ezra had just left like that and that anger against him was going to build. He had run out on them again but for his own selfish reasons this time.

The End

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