Someone To Watch Over Me
by Purple Lacey
 

Part 12

A shaken Buck followed Vin from the police station and back into the parking lot two hours after they had first arrived.  He had known some of what Ezra had been through because Chris had told him, but it was different hearing it coming from the child’s own lips.  Several times during the interview, Buck had almost bolted to the nearest restroom, sick to his stomach at what the child was telling them.  It was only that tiny hand grasping his so desperately that kept him in his chair fighting back his nausea.

When the interview had concluded, Buck had wasted no time in sweeping Ezra up into his arms and holding him tightly, needing the reassurance that the bPoy was actually safe and unharmed.  When he felt Ezra’s arms wrap around his neck and hold on like his very life depended on it, the man knew Ezra needed the reassurance of contact as much a he did. Even Vin, with his broader exposure to the depths that some men were able to sink, was disturbed by the boy’s recitation of what almost amounted to torture of the sweet child being carried by his friend towards his car.

The silent trio climbed into Vin’s vehicle and he started driving them home.  Buck sat in the backseat again with Ezra, one arm wrapped around him holding him close.  Ezra had his face buried in the man’s chest.  No one seemed to know what to say or do to break that awful, emotion-filled silence.

They had driven for several miles like that when Vin saw something and had an idea. 

“Y’all in a hurry to get back home?”  he asked glancing in the rear view mirror to meet Buck’s eyes as he spoke. 

Buck tried to inject cheerfulness in his tone for Ezra’s sake as he answered, “No.  Not really.  We really don’t have any plans made.  What did you have in mind?”

Vin grinned and said, “Are you up for a little fun, Ez?”

Ezra pulled his face away from Buck enough to turn his head toward the blond man driving them away from the police station and nodded, eager for anything that would make the memories that were replaying in his head go away.

“Great.  I know just the thing to liven up an afternoon,” Vin told them decisively and switched on his turn signal before making a quick right turn into the parking lot of a busy shopping center.  He drove down past the row of stores and found a parking space in front of a large building and pulled in.

Buck looked at the sign proclaiming the name of the establishment and the banner draped above the front door proclaiming the day’s Christmas special and started to grin.

“Vin, I do believe you’re a genius,” Buck told his grinning friend enthusiastically.

 “I know,” Vin said with a laugh.

Ezra watched the two men curiously as they descended from the vehicle.  Buck took one of his hands and Vin clasped the other and the men led him inside.  The noise hit him the minute Vin opened the door.  The sounds of bells and buzzers and the happy screams and laughter of children washed over him. 

“What are they doing?” Ezra asked, intrigued, as he started at the horde of children of varying ages and the adults accompanying them that filled the building.

“Bumper bowling,” Vin told him happily.

“Are we going to do that?” the little boy asked, excitement beginning to fill his voice in anticipation of this new experience.

“Yep,” Buck answered, “I do believe we are.”

Ezra gave the first smile either man had seen on his face all day.

They signed up for a lane, but were told there would be a little bit of a wait until one came available.  Ezra had been disappointed, thinking they wouldn’t get to play after all, but Buck had assured him they would.  They would just have to find someway to entertain themselves until their name was called.   Vin pointed to the large game room at one end of the bowling alley that was teeming with children and suggested that might be a great way to kill time while they were waiting.  Ezra happily agreed.

Buck had pulled a few bills from his wallet and shown the boy how to feed them into the change machine sitting in one corner.  Ezra had happily stuffed his pockets with the quarters he received from the machine and headed with the two men for the video games. 

For the next hour, the trio challenged each other on the video games.  On the car racing games, Ezra managed to outdo the men, much to Vin’s chagrin, but the man redeemed himself in his own eyes at the shooting games, although Ezra demonstrated he had good eyes and good aim on those too.  Buck rocked at the fighting games and took great delight in flattening Vin’s avatar several times before they moved on to the next game.

When they were notified over the loud speaker that their lane was ready, Buck led the energized child to the counter to rent shoes and then over to the long racks of bowling balls.  It took several minutes to find bowling balls for all three.  Ezra proudly carried his neon orange ball over to their assigned lane and deposited it on the machine rack as Buck showed him.   Buck helped him change his shoes, tying the bowling shoes tightly and making sure that the laces didn’t hang down to trip him.  Ezra sat on the molded plastic bench that circled the back of their lane for a minute with his legs straight out in front of him staring with interest at the funny looking shoes.

Ezra sat in Buck’s lap and got to press the letters to enter their names on the electronic scoring machine as Buck spelled them out for him, watching in fascination as the letters he pressed showed up on the big screen overhead.  Then Buck gave the child the simplified version of the rules.  When the time came to actually bowl the boy watched with fascination as Vin went first. 

Vin approached the lane and stood at the end staring down the lane with concentration.  Ezra watched as he took three steps, swinging his bright blue ball behind him as he went, then let the ball go to send it rolling down the lane where it collided with the pins set at the other end and knocked most of them down.

“Seven-ten split!” Buck whooped at his friend with a devilish grin.  “If you’re gonna play like that for the rest of the game then me and Ez can just sit back and take it easy.  This’ll be an easy win for sure.”

“I’m just warming up,” Vin boasted with his own smirk.

“Sure you are, Tanner,” Buck goaded.

Vin waited until his ball was returned then sent the ball down the lane again.  He managed to pick up the ten pin on his second roll.

“You’re up, Ez,” Vin told him with a smile.

Ezra eagerly stood up and walked to the ball return rack and reached for his ball.  He turned to find Buck beside him and looked up at his guardian in question as he held the five pounds of bowling ball against his chest. 

“You want me to show you how it’s done?” Buck asked as he looked down at the little boy looking back at him with the faintest of impatient looks.

“No, I can do it,” Ezra said firmly.  He had watched Vin closely when the man had done it both times.  He was sure he could do it too.  It looked easy enough.

“Okay,” Buck told him, “but if you change your mind just let me know.”

Ezra nodded, already dismissing him in his eagerness to throw the ball and knock down the pins like Vin.

Ezra walked toward the lane and stood holding the ball like he thought Vin had.  He tried to run down in his mind every movement that Vin had done.  When he thought he was ready he began walking forward and swung the ball back...and it went flying backward to land behind him with a dull thud.  Ezra turned to stare at it then raised chagrinned eyes to the two men watching him, both men gallantly trying to control the laughter that wanted to erupt at the look on the boy’s face.

“That’s okay, Ez,” Buck called out supportively.  “That could happen to anybody.  Just try it again.  Hold the ball a little tighter and don’t let go until it gets down near your ankle.”

A more subdued little boy picked up the ball and returned to his spot on the lane.  Following Buck’s instructions, Ezra tried again and managed to get the ball to roll down the lane. It didn’t go as fast as Vin’s had but it went.

Buck and Vin watched as the bright orange ball bounced off the red inflated bumpers that filled the gutters on either side of the alley and slowly, slowly, slowly rolled down to the end where it bumped into one of the pins that rocked and then fell over, knocking over six more of them.

“I DID IT!”  Ezra screamed in delight and spun around to run back to Buck.  “Did you see! Did you see!  I knocked them down! Just like Vin!  They fell all over the place!” 

Buck pulled the excited boy in for a hug and answered with a proud smile, “That was great, Ez!  Especially for your first time!  Way to go, champ!”

Vin patted the little back and added his own praises. “Beautiful shot, Ez.”

“Do I get to do it again?” Ezra asked eagerly.

“Uh-huh,” Buck assured him. “You get two chances to knock them all down.  There are three pins left standing so you get to try again. There comes your ball,” he said looking over the boy’s shoulder as the ball return spat out the ball into the rack.  “You ready?”

“Yep!” Ezra told him scrambling down and rushing back toward the lane.

As the little boy stood there getting ready to throw the ball again, Buck leaned over toward Vin and, speaking in a low voice, said, “Thanks, Vin.  I owe you one.  This was just what he needed.”

“Don’t owe me nothing,” Vin disagreed softly.  “I’m just glad I could do something to help him.  Kid didn’t deserve none of what’s happened to him. If this takes his mind off of it for awhile then that’s all the thanks I need.”

“You’re a good friend, Vin Tanner,” Buck said before turning back to Ezra in time to see the ball knock two more pins down and prepare to catch the child that flung himself into his waiting arms happily.

“Takes one to know one,” Vin whispered as Buck hugged their little one and heaped praises on his head.

It was a tired but happy little boy that Buck carried into their home several hours later.  The threesome had bowled several more games after the first one, the two men repeatedly falling victim to the child’s wide-eyed pleading for “One more, please?”  Vin had introduced the boy to the wonders of the bowling alley snack bar, increasing the child’s energy level with a fuel of cotton candy, popcorn, nachos, and cheese–laden chili dogs.   Buck had finally called an end to it claiming his arm was about to fall off.  He made of show of letting his arm hang at his side limply, making Ezra giggle at his silliness.

The group entered the house and Buck helped the boy remove his coat and hung it up for him in the foyer closet then hung his own and Vin’s there too.  Ezra was bouncing into the den, followed by the men, his eyes still alight with laughter and a big grin on his face as he rattled on to the men about how much fun they had had, when he came to a dead stop on seeing the stranger that was rising form the sofa to face them.

Ezra stared in dismay as his new guardian hurried into the room to close his arms around the newcomer in a huge hug that lifted the other off his feet.  Vin was the only one to see a pair of green eyes narrow as they watched the embrace and a frown wipe away the happy smile on the little face.

Part 13

Part 11

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