Someone To Watch Over Me
by Purple Lacey
 

Part 13

“JD! What are you doing here?” Buck cried with happy surprise as he hugged his cousin.  “Your plane reservation wasn’t until day after tomorrow.  What about your exams?”  Buck pulled back and allowed the young man’s feet to touch the floor again as he looked down at him sternly.  “Didn’t you have an exam scheduled for tomorrow?  Tell me you didn’t blow it off!”

JD laughed as he straightened the clothes that had gotten twisted in Buck’s bear hug and answered, “I got the professor to let me take it yesterday.  I caught a flight out early this morning.  I couldn’t wait to come meet my new cousin.”

Reminded of Ezra, Buck turned and held out a hand for the watching child.   “Come meet, JD, Ezra,” he called happily.

The child looked at the outstretched hand and slowly walked over to Buck’s side.

“JD, this is Ezra,” Buck said proudly and lifted the child up to sit him on his hip. “Ezra, this is my cousin, JD.  I’ve told you some about him, remember?"

JD smiled and said with enthusiasm, “Hi, Ezra!  It’s really good to finally meet you. I wanted to come right away and see you but I had to finish taking my tests at school.   Buck’s told me some about you.  I’m real glad you’ve come to live here with us.  I can’t wait to get to know you. 

How do you like everything so far?  Buck’s the greatest, isn’t he?  Has he shown you everything yet?  Maybe we can go out tomorrow and I can show you all my favorite places.  There’re some really cool spots by the lake that you’d probably like.  What do you say?”

It took a few seconds for Ezra to realize the man had stopped talking and was waiting for him to answer.  “I guess so,” he said reluctantly, looking at Buck hesitantly. 

Buck nodded and smiled his approval of both the offer and the acceptance, however tepid that acceptance had been when it was given.

“Come on in and sit down, Vin,” Buck invited remembering the man standing to one side watching the family reunion with a smile. 

“Hey, Vin!” JD called on seeing the man standing there. “How’s it going?”   JD stepped over to shake hands and give a back slapping hug to his old friend.  

“Can’t complain, kid,” Vin told him with a grin.  “How you been?”

“Good,” JD assured him then grinned broadly.  “My only complaint is I seem to be missing out on all the action these days.  I hear Chris has been keeping all of you guys busy.”

Vin chuckled and replied, “Well you know how the Cowboy is.  He likes us close, and occupied.  Seems to think it’ll keep us out of trouble.  You think he’d know better by now.”

Buck and JD laughed and Ezra looked between the others blankly, not understanding what they were talking about.                                                                                                            

“I’ve told you before, don’t call me a cowboy,” a growl came from behind them and as a group the men turned to face the disgruntled angel.

“Chris!” JD hurried over to grab Chris for fast hug. 

“Welcome home, JD,” Chris told him with a small smile.

“I have to tell you it’s good to be home.  The cafeteria food they have at the dorm doesn’t even come close to Nettie’s.  I really miss her fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  That’s what we’re having for dinner, by the way,” the young man said with satisfaction.  “I stopped by to see Nettie after I got home.  She promised she’d make them tonight for me.  I can’t wait.  So what have you guys been doing?” 

Buck looked at the young man over Ezra’s head and shook his head to let him know not to follow down that line of questioning and simply replied, “Me and Vin took Ez bowling.”  The man smiled down at the boy and hugged him close.  “We found out Ezra’s great at it, aren’t you Ez?  You did me proud.”

Ezra perked up under Buck’s approval and hugged back. 

“Hey, cool!” JD smiled at the boy.  “Maybe we can all go again before I leave.  Sounds like a lot of fun.”

As JD continued to talk, Chris stared at a silently watching Ezra and frowned.  Vin noticed and raised an eyebrow in question, silently asking if there was a problem, and Chris nodded thoughtfully as he turned back to watch the child.  Buck was too happy and excited with having JD home to be able to see.

The group settled in the den JD, Buck and Ezra seated on one sofa, Vin and Chris taking another.  Vin couldn’t help but be concerned at the way Ezra managed to subtly insinuate himself between Buck and JD, snuggling up against Buck possessively and watching JD with hostile eyes.  If JD noticed the animosity pouring off the child in waves, he gave no sign of it. 

Buck has slow to pick up on it but he did eventually begin to notice how unusually quiet the boy was being, and began observing him more closely.  Buck looked to the ex-gunslinger and asked a silent question which got a short nod from Chris in reply.  Buck sighed.  He had worried about JD being jealous of Ezra being in his life.  It had never occurred to him that he should have been worrying about the reverse.

Buck mentally kicked himself for ignoring the obvious.  Knowing the kind of life the boy had been living to date, of course he would feel threatened by Buck’s relationship with JD.  The child had no experience with loving or being loved.  He had no way to know that Buck was able to love both of them.

It probably would have been different if JD had been there from the start, he realized. Ezra would probably have accepted JD as a just another person there to look after him, like Nettie or Casey, or Bob.  Instead, Ezra had come into the house and spent the last three days where it was only himself and Buck.  His relationship with his new guardian had begun as a pair, not part of a trio. As far as the child was concerned JD was an intruder; a rival for Buck’s time and affection, and a serious threat to his newfound sense of security and happiness.  There would be nothing but enmity shown toward the young man until Ezra could be convinced that Buck’s love for his cousin didn’t take away from his love for Ezra.   Buck was stumped as to how to begin to set the boy straight.

The men remained in the den talking until Nettie called them in to dinner.  Buck carried Ezra in to the kitchen where Nettie had dinner set up on the table in the breakfast nook.  To Ezra’s dismay, JD had pulled out the chair he always sat in since coming to live here, the one next to Buck.

“That’s my chair,” he objected angrily before he could stop himself then froze in fear when he realized what he had done.

Buck felt the little boy instinctively start to draw his body into a protective ball.  He hugged the child gently, not letting the boy curl up anymore, and bent his head close to Ezra’s ear to whisper, “It’s okay, Ezra.  It’s fine.  Nobody’s going to hurt you.  Nobody’s mad at you, I promise.  It’s alright.”

JD hadn’t even thought about what he was doing when he pulled out the chair to sit down.  It was the same chair he had been sitting in since he had moved in with Buck and it had been done strictly out of habit.  That he had done something to upset the child was regretful to the soft hearted young man.  JD had seen the absolute terror in the boy’s eyes before Buck had lowered his head to the child, shielding the boy’s expression from the rest of the observers in the room.  JD swallowed hard.  He hadn’t known a child’s eyes could look like that.  It was a devastating discovery. 

JD cleared his throat and said lightly, “Sorry, Ez.  I didn’t know you’d claimed that one.  No problem.  I’ll sit over here.  You take your chair.”

Buck looked at his young cousin gratefully and then returned his attention to the now trembling child.  “There, you see?  No harm done.  No foul. Everything’s okay...okay?”  The man waited until the boy looked at him hesitantly and nodded meekly then he smiled encouragingly. “Let’s get you in your chair.”

Ezra sat quietly with his eyes downcast until he felt a nudge at his side and looked over to find Vin seated on his other side.  The man was looking at him with a tender, caring expression as he leaned closer and whispered softly so only the child could hear, “It’s going to be alright, Ez.  Remember, munchkin, you’ve got a Guardian Angel watching over you.  Trust him to know what he is doing.  He wouldn’t have arranged things to put you someplace where you would be mistreated or unhappy, or just have to turn right around and leave again.   He told you Buck would love you and fight to keep you, if you recall.  He always knows what he’s talking about.” 

Vin straightened again and looked down at Ezra with pointed smile.  The child absorbed the other’s words and straightened up feeling better.

“Now, how about we get ole Buck to pass that basket of rolls.  I don’t know about you, but I’m about to fall over with hunger.  That last chili dog didn’t go very far,” Vin told him with a grin that was returned in kind.

Ezra obligingly took the breadbasket a smiling Buck was holding out for him and he took a roll and placed it on his plate then passed the basket to Vin.  Buck held out a platter that held butter-dripping corn on the cob and let the boy take one before the man passed the heavy platter to Vin.  Conversation began to pick up again as the bowls and platters were passed. 

If Buck thought everything had gotten back to normal, it was only a few minutes later that he found out it hadn’t.  He tried to put a drumstick on Ezra’s plate and the boy flatly, but politely, refused the piece of chicken saying, “I don’t like fried chicken,” very firmly.  Buck shrugged and let it slide, after all everybody had likes and dislikes when it came to food, but when the child used the same excuse when he refused the spoonful of mashed potatoes Buck tried to put on his plate after gobbling them down only the night before, Buck realized Ezra was claiming to dislike the foods simply because JD had stated they were his favorites.  He sighed heavily but didn’t force the boy and made sure the child had enough of the other food on the table to fill him up.

Buck reminded himself several times during the rest of the evening that no one ever said this was going to be easy.

Part 14

Part 12

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