Someone To Watch Over Me
by Purple Lacey
Part 26
Ezra lay in his big, comfortable bed in his big warm house and started at the ceiling above his head watching the shadows that played across it as the tree outside his window moved in the wind. He sat up and tossed the covers back then climbed out of the bed and slipped his feet into the Star Wars slippers that Casey had given him earlier that day for Christmas. He walked slowly to his bedroom door. He pulled it open just enough for him to slip out into the hall. He turned toward the stairs and made his way quietly down them. He headed toward the den and across the room to the Christmas tree that stood in the corner looking very bare in comparison to the way it had looked only that morning.
Ezra used the light coming in from the windows to guide him around the piles of toys and other things that were scattered around the den floor. There was plenty of light to see by because Buck had turned on all the outside lights and had apparently left them on after he had gone to bed. Ezra believed the reason Buck did it when he usually didn’t bother was probably because of Maude’s visit, but he hadn’t mentioned it.
After she had been taken away, everyone had seemed determined to pretend she had never shown up. After the police left and Chris had dropped his bombshell, the rest of the group and tried to get back into the Christmas spirit and act just as cheerfully as before, but there was a shadow over the rest of the day that even a small boy could feel. They did their best though and Ezra had to admit it has still been fun.
Ezra stopped by the tree and reached down to lift the single box that remained under it. The small rectangular gift was wrapped in red paper and encircled by curling ribbons of red, green and silver. Ezra held the gift in front of him sadly for a moment then he raised his head and called softly, “Chris?”
“I’m here, Ezra,” came the equally soft reply from behind him.
The child turned around to face his angel. “I never got a chance to give you your gift,” the boy said sadly as he approached the angel. “I was just about to when...” The boy didn’t need to finish his sentence. “I forgot to give it to you later. I’m sorry.”
Chris knelt in front of Ezra and smiled warmly. “It’s still Christmas, Ezra,” he said tilting his head toward the clock on the mantle that read 11:28. “It still counts.”
Ezra smiled back and handed the ex-gunslinger the belated present. He watched as Chris carefully pulled off the wrapping and opened the jeweler’s box inside to reveal a silver chain with a medallion about the size of a quarter suspended from it. Chris looked at the stylized angel carved into the medallion with a warm pleasure.
“Thank you, son. It’s beautiful.” The angel pulled the necklace from the box and slipped it over his head. The silver medallion lay on his chest against his black shirt and glowed in the reflected illumination of the exterior lights.
“I thought you needed your own angel to watch over you because you’re always so busy watching over me and Buck and the rest of the guys. I hope he will keep you safe too.”
Chris was touched more deeply by the boy’s speech than he had been by anything in a very long time. He couldn’t find the words to tell the child exactly what his gift meant to him so he pulled Ezra into his arms and held him close then let his own feelings spill over into the protector’s bond that linked him with the child and let Ezra know in the only way he could at the moment.
Ezra went still as he was flooded with the feelings of love and thankfulness then reached up and wrapped his arms around Chris and held on tightly. The pair stayed that way for a few minutes until Ezra broke the silence.
“Chris?” Ezra asked with soft sadness, “Mother is going to take me away from here, isn’t she?”
Chris pulled him closer and replied, “She’s going to try, but we won’t let her Ezra. You are right where you belong,. I and each one of your new friends will see to it that you stay there. I’m not going to lie to you and say that there won’t be anything to be scared of because you already heard me tell the others about the Dark One that your mother has become involved with. It’s a serious situation, and we will all have to be careful, even you, but we can beat them because we’re together and that makes us stronger than them. It’ll be okay.”
“And my mother?” the little boy asked.
Chris read the whole question in the boy’s mind and answered it with gently honesty, “I’m sorry, Ezra, but she’s gone too far. She’s already lost. There’s nothing that anyone can do to save her from the Dark One now. She doesn’t want to be saved.”
Ezra absorbed that silently. For all the horrible things she had done to him and allowed others to do to him, she was still his mother and, until Buck and the others had come into it, the only constant presence in his short life. A small piece of him mourned the loss of her.
The pair remained there for a long while before Chris reluctantly pulled back, feeling the boy start to slump against him as he gave into the need for sleep. He reached up and smoothed Ezra’s hair back gently as he said, “As much as I would like to stay right here all night, you need to get back to bed.”
Chris kept his arms wrapped around the child and stood up. He carried Ezra back up the stairs and started toward the boy’s bedroom when Ezra sleepily shook his head and simply said “Please?” and Chris continued down the hall to Buck’s room. He walked over and stood Ezra beside the bed where the man lay sleeping and gave the mattress a shake. Buck barely woke enough to be aware that Ezra was there. Still mostly asleep, the man pulled the covers back in silent invitation and the boy scrambled under them. Buck lowered the blankets over the child and then wrapped his arm around Ezra and pulled him close. With minutes the pair was sound asleep with Ezra’s head snuggled against Buck’s chest.
Chris stood looking down at them both for a long time, enjoying the sight of his two charges together and safe. After awhile he slipped back into the corner where the shadows deepened and once again took up his customary position. He stretched out his senses to check on the others he watched after and smiled as he found all was well with them.
Inside the guest house on the city’s grandest estate, the occupants slept peacefully and without fear because they knew someone was there watching over them as they slept keeping them safe, secure in the knowledge that he would always be there.
The End.