Thanks to my beta Judy who always wants to know what'll happen next :-))))))
Summary : This could be said to be a tease, hinting at what was going on in Four Corners while the cat - sorry, I mean Chris - was away. Am I going to write the whole story? Maybe. Would I mind if someone else tries to connect all the dots in the meantime? Not at all - if you can.
Disclaimer can be found on the fanfic page. This story is part of a larger arc and to fully understand it you should go back to the Chronicles page where you can find earlier parts and read them if you haven't already. Comments welcome.
Ezra stared at his cards. Aces and Eights. Black Aces and black Eights, more commonly known as Dead Man's Hand. He hoped it wasn't a bad omen. Talking about bad omens ... a shadow fell across the table and Ezra looked up to find John Dancer standing there.
"Ezra, if you're still thinking about leaving then you'd better skedaddle," Dancer said. "They're here."
"Already? Oh, Dear Lord," Ezra sighed a miserable and deep sigh. "They are going to kill me."
"Nonsense," Dancer protested. "They are reasonable people, they're going to understand. You've done a grand job here. It wasn't your fault those knock-out drops didn't work out the way you expected. And you were the one to find that Princess. The President's aide told me you might even get a medal for that."
Ezra's face brightened considerably when he heard that. "Really?" he said. "A gold medal?"
"Well," Dancer replied, feeling that he had really spoken much too soon. "I'm not sure what kind of medal he spoke of. Anyway, as I was saying ... No one could have foreseen what happened with that Circus. We fixed all that, and things are back to normal."
"Except for the jail," Ezra pointed out, sinking deeper into misery with every word.
"Ah, well," Dancer said and looked almost apologetic. "I still think that was mostly my fault."
"You're just saying that to be kind," Ezra said and sounded resentful.
"At least the town is still standing," Dancer said to help the situation. It didn't.
"That's a matter of opinion," Ezra replied acidly. Then he swiftly stood as Vin, Chris, JD and Nathan entered the saloon and strolled over to the bardisk. They all greeted Ezra with words and nods.
"Mr. Larabee, Mr. Tanner. You have no idea how gratifying it is to see you alive." Ezra fell back to being overly polite as was usually the case when he was flustered, but the feeling behind his words was genuine.
"Good to see you too, Ez," Vin said and actually held out his hand in greeting. As Ezra shook it a small box fell out of his coat and landed in front of JD. Before anyone could stop him he had opened the box that contained a sparkling diamond ring.
"JD, you give me back that box this instant!" Ezra said and made a grab for it but missing as it had already changed hands and Nathan now studied it.
"A wedding ring, huh!" Nathan said and grinned. "You planning on marrying someone?"
"That ring is Dancer's," Ezra said.
"Actually, it could be said to belong to both of us," Dancer added.
"You're marrying each other?" JD piped up as the box was returned to him by way of Chris and then Vin. Ezra's face turned an unhealthy red color as his blood pressure rose. He drew a breath and opened his mouth and found that there wasn't a thing he could say that would help the situation so he fumed in silence instead.
Dancer snapped the box away from JD's hands and resolutely said, "If you must know we won it."
"I did, not you!" Ezra exploded. He had to get rid of his built up anger somehow.
"Don't be such a bad loser, Standish," Dancer coolly said. They'd already had this argument several times earlier. "You won it the first time. I won it the second time and it's the second time that counts."
"Wait a minute," Vin Tanner said, intrigued against his will. "You won over Ezra?"
The man must have been cheating.
"Fair and square," Dancer said but then admitted, "Well, he was distracted at the time by that camel out on the street. It's a long story."
"Did you just say camel?" Chris Larabee asked and Dancer nodded as if a camel on the street was an everyday occurrence.
Before Dancer could continue what would undoubtedly have been a very interesting tale a bellow could be heard from outside and then a very upset Buck Wilmington came striding into the saloon on a direct course for Ezra.
"Where's the jail?" Buck said without any preamble.
"It's there," Ezra said vaguely, not wanting to participate in this particular discussion in any way.
"Yeah," Buck agreed. "Half of it. Half! What good is a jail cell if it ain't got no walls! There's just the front wall still standing and I had things in that safe that is now gone!"
"What things?" Ezra asked, genuinely mystified.
"Things!" Buck refused to clarify it any more than that. "Never you mind! What happened to the back wall?"
"Well-" Ezra stalled. Luckily he didn't have to answer right away for Josiah walked in after Buck and he wanted to know something entirely different..
"What about the red splatters on the ground? They're all over the place."
"Ah, that would be paint," Dancer said. "I'm responsible for those, I'm afraid." Then he fell silent without elaborating further.
Silence fell on the company and the guests to the saloon hardly dared to even breathe for fear of not hearing what would be said next.
Chris was the one to step forward and ask what they all wanted to know.
"Ezra - Mr. Dancer ...." He glared at each in turn. "Care to tell us what happened while we were all away?" It was an order rather than a request.
Dancer looked over at Ezra and said "I think we're going to have to tell them about the Elephant."
Ezra sighed and signalled for a new beer. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day.
THE END