Fic: The Right Path 4/?
Feb. 12th, 2008 06:25 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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mag7fansTitle: The Right Path - chapter four
Category: Delinquent AU (aka ATF Teen AU)
Characters: Vin, Ezra, Buck/Chris, JD
Rating: R
Warnings: Slash, mentions of child abuse, profanity
Summary: Sequel to "Delinquent", "Substitute Dreams", Uncomfortable Decisions with the Halloween side stories/prequels Halloween Tales part of the Delinquent Universe which is a spin off of Mog’s ATF universe. Vin and Ezra have more choices to make with the guidance of Chris and Buck; Chris and Buck also have some issues they need to deal with.
Previous chapter(s): Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three
Chapter Four
“My god, is it Monday?” Chris sounded more like a petulant child than he had when he had been a child and Buck loved it. He was leaned against the counter, his forehead pressed into the cabinet door as the coffee perked beside him. It was the perfect opportunity for Buck to slide in behind Chris and wrap his arms around Chris’s waist and nip at his neck.
“Yeah, it’s Monday.” They’d had a nice long talk over the weekend about their boys – Ezra’s ideas and presumably fears of sex and Vin’s fear of having a “dad” again and not wanting to change his name. Chris had already figured that Vin wouldn’t be changing his name and it was something they had wanted to address closer to the final adoption, but it looked liked Vin had brought it up first. They had worked with the horses and spent time with the boys, keeping them occupied and mostly out of trouble.
Chris sighed as he pushed back from the counter and into Buck’s steadying arms. “Are Thursdays just bad days for the boys because counseling brings up everything they’ve been trying to supress all week? I’d say we should just do away with Thursdays altogether, but…”
“It’s necessary even if it does make for really long weekends.” Vin had likely had an uncomfortable night of it, sleeping as he had with his head against Ezra’s bedframe and Ezra latched onto his arm. At least twice Chris had jolted Buck awake to check on the boys because of Ezra’s restlessness, Vin talking Ezra back to sleep each time. Chris had mentioned Vin hadn’t asked what the dreams were about and Ezra hadn’t offered; they could both easily guess the subject of Ezra’s nightmares. “Speaking of our little angels, they need to be gettin’ their butts in gear or they’re going to miss the bus.”
When yelling down the hall didn’t provoke any responses Buck wandered toward the boys’ rooms and paused outside the bathroom when he heard Vin’s annoyed, “Come on, already!”
There was a snort, clearly from Ezra. The boy had the most arrogant and yet amusing snort ever. “Do you really want to rush perfection? Would you rather end up looking ridiculous?”
“I already look ridiculous,” came the nearly pouting retort. There was a heavy sigh followed by, “Damn, Ez, you’ve got more products than a girl.”
“Yeah? How many girls have you lived with?”
“Uh, hello? Foster care? A lot!”
There was a quiet cough followed by, “Well, I have less than my mother ever did, though I doubt she’ll have occasion to use any of those things in the near future. There. Now, what do you think?”
“I don’t know about this…”
“You look nice.”
A groan. “I’m not supposed to look nice. You realize you are completely ruining my badass image here? Dark, brooding? Dangerous?”
“Yeah, so, now you’re pretty.”
“Pretty?! Oh, god, no. Change it back!”
“Stop it. Pretty’s good. Besides you’re about as dangerous as one of Maddy’s kittens.”
“That doesn’t mean ya have to show people!” Both boys jumped when Buck knocked on the doorframe and peered into the bathroom. Immediately Buck’s eyebrows raised in surprise as he took in Vin’s styled hair – just a touch spikey, though because Vin’s hair was on the longish side most of the “spikes” were tilted over giving his hair a messy just-got-out-of-bed look. The look Vin shot Buck was about as fearious as a new-born lion cub. “Don’t say nothin’, Buck!” he growled as he shoved past him.
Buck held up his hands silently as Vin took off down the hall, his eyes wandering back toward Ezra who was putting all of those “girly” products away. For once Ezra’s hair was unstyled, loose and soft, the ends of his hair curling up just a touch. “It was a compromise,” Ezra said, unable to keep the smile from his voice as he flashed a look sideways at Buck. “I got to do whatever I wanted with his hair, but had to leave mine au naturel. I think it was worth it.”
The boy looked so pleased with himself that Buck couldn’t help but grin at him even as he told him to hurry it up because they still had to get breakfast before the bus came. When they entered the kitchen Vin was scowling and scuffing his feet against the floor from where he sat at the table. Chris cast a surprised look Buck’s way which said he’d probably told Vin that he looked nice or his hair looked good and got a sharp comment in reply.
“It’s okay, Vin. If anyone makes fun of you I’ll just beat them up for you.” Ezra said as he picked at the dry toast Chris slid in front of him – it was one of the very few things Ezra would eat in the mornings. He refused eggs and Buck believed that once the boy had said something about them trying to feed him chicken fetuses, which he’d personally thought was rather clever. Oatmeal was a lost cause as Ezra had actually gagged and swore they were trying to feed him lumpy cat vomit. Cereal worked part of the time provided that it didn’t get soggy too quickly, but they discovered anything colorful or chocolately was refused and he detested the cereals that were too hard which pretty much left them with Cheerios.
“You most certainly will not.” Chris filled a glass of milk and set it down in front of Ezra; aside from water – purified water – there wasn’t a whole lot else Ezra would drink. In fact it had to be organic whole milk for Ezra to drink it at all and there was even a brand of oragnic whole milk that had to be bought because Ezra could tell the difference between his brand and other brands blindfolded. At one point Ezra had refused any dairy products in the morning, but once they had gotten the "right" milk he was fine with drinking milk. They had discovered that Ezra would drink almost any brand of tea, but seemed to prefer green teas and a select few black teas – Earl Grey and Red Rose tea. Buck had taken to buying Earl Grey Green tea and since Ezra had not complained he assumed he had no problem with it.
Ezra smiled in reply, acknowledging Chris’s rebuke while avoiding it completely. Then the boys were grabbing their backpacks and headed for the bus, Ezra shoving his last piece of toast between his teeth when Chris told him to eat it on the way to the bus stop. Vin bolted down anything set in front of him, but Ezra never hurried when it came to food.
“Do you think he would?”
Chris looked startled for a moment as he paused in putting everything away and dumping out the remains of coffee. “Do you think he would what?”
“Do you think Ezra would beat someone up?”
“Yeah,” was the immediate reply before Chris paused to think about it. “I think he wouldn’t get caught, though. With Vin you usually know what’s coming, but Ezra’s just better at hiding things.”
The keys were grabbed from the key rack by the door and Buck tossed Chris his set of keys as he shook his head. They almost always drove seperately because Buck never knew when he would be needed to get one of the boys from school or if Chris was going to be working late. That and Chris hated grocery shopping and someone had to buy food for them. “Don’t always know with Vin. Have you forgotten those outbursts so quickly?”
Chris shrugged in reply. “True, but he didn’t plan those, either.”
“You still think you’ll be able to pick Ezra up from practice?” Buck asked on their way to their trucks. “Vin said he wanted to stay after and watch so don’t forget about him.”
“I hope so – barring any major disasters it’ll be possible, at least.” They shared a quick kiss before they headed off to work.
Since they had just finished a case there was a lot of paperwork to do, plus the meetings that kept Chris busy for most of the day. It was mid-afternoon when a call came in, Chris having only just arrived back in his office ready to review some of the reports congesting his in-box. “Larabee.”
“Mr. Larabee, this is Angie with Children Services.”
His mind immediately leaped to the worst case scenario possible. “Is something going on with Vin’s case?”
“No, nothing like that,” Angie replied with a small laugh. “I’m actually calling about another boy. We’re trying to keep him in the same school district since there is only a few days left in school and I thought of you.” She gave a quick summary – the boy was being physically abused and had denied the abuse repeatedly in the past, but was now admitting to it. It was possibly only a short-term placement until they could check out a relative’s home, but if that fell through it could be a long-term placement.
“I’ll need to talk to Buck. Do you want to hold or would you rather I call you back?” After Angie opted to hold Chris threw his door open and yelled into the bullpen, “Buck!” Chris snorted when Inez said, “Oooo someone’s in trouble.”
Buck was closing the door as Chris dropped back into his high-backed leather chair. “Vin’s caseworker called and is asking if we want another boy. Said it could be short-term once they check out a relative’s home, but they wanted him to finish out the school year where he is now.”
“We’ll have to clear out the spare room. How old?”
Chris couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his face. “How old do you think? Fourteen, possibly someone the boys know, but there are, what, four different sections in each grade?”
“You want to make this decision without the boys?”
“Gonna have to. So?”
Buck shrugged. “If you’re going to get off on time I can head on back to the house while you go to the game.”
Chris reached out and picked the call back up, turning the phone to speaker phone. “Angie?”
“Yes?”
“What time would someone be by to drop him off?”
They could hear the hopeful smile in her voice as she replied, “I’d say around 5 o’clock, maybe a little after. There are some things we need to get for him and then we could be right over.”
“All right. We’ll keep him at least as long as school’s in and we’ll let you know if it’ll be a problem after that. Someone will be at the house to meet whoever is dropping him off.” Chris said goodbye and hung up the phone. “Are we crazy?”
Another boy was going to be even more work and keeping up with Vin and Ezra’s varying moods and problems was difficult enough. Buck had always liked activity and a touch of chaos in his life so the more the merrier for him. “Nah, we aren’t crazy yet. I’m going to have to let Nettie know there might be another boy she gets to watch until everything gets switched over. What’s the boy’s name, anyway?”
“Elijah Watson.”
The rest of the afternoon seemed to go quickly and then it was time to clock out and Buck assured Chris that he was fine with getting the spare room ready for Elijah. It had been Chris’s suggestion for him to start picking up the boys and maybe taking them to counseling, not only to relieve Buck but also to give him more contact with Ezra since it was apparent he was going to be with them for some time. Practice was almost over when Chris arrived and located Vin in the stands. “Where’s Buck?”
“Buck went home to get the spare room ready for a guest.” Then they both became involved in watching the baseball players and it was some time before either of them spoke again. Watching Ezra play, even during a practice was an extraordinary thing, like a fine tuned machine. It amazed Chris over and over again that there was anything in Ezra’s past that had in any way harmed him because he was that good at faking it. That scared him more than any of the suspects that had repeatedly lied to him in the past – if there was any hope of changing Ezra’s future and keeping him from becoming one of those criminals it rested with them.
Finally Vin asked, “Another foster kid?”
“Yeah.” Vin wasn’t really looking at Chris, his attention focused on the players in the field, though most likely he was just staring at Ezra on the pitcher’s mound. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Vin shook his head no. “Why should it be? I’m not a foster kid anymore and neither is Ezra. He said you guys signed the guardianship papers, so he’s ours now.” Then Vin frowned and shook his head. “But that doesn’t make him… like a brother or anything, right? Because guardianship isn’t like adoption, so he’s not my brother.”
“No, he’s not your brother.”
There was obvious relief on Vin’s face. “Okay, good.”
Chris didn’t have the heart to tell him that it might not matter if they were brothers or not, but there was no sense in destroying his hope. After all Ezra hadn’t indicated one way or another whether he was truly interested in Vin or if he was just sexually acting out. The practice went well and Ezra looked pleased by the praise he had gotten from the coach. The boys were still talking animatedly as they piled into the truck and in all the excitement it ended up being Vin that mentioned the new foster child to Ezra. “Oh, some kid is going to be staying with us.”
“Who’s that?”
“Uh…” Vin leaned against the front seat as Chris started the truck.
“Boy’s name is Elijah Watson.”
The outburst was unexpected. “Elijah Watson? Elijah Watson? No! Absolutely – how could you even – ?”
Chris twisted around in his seat to get a better look at Vin who was having a fit in the backseat. “All right, what’s this all about? Vincent!”
Vin continued to sputter and yell until Ezra quietly interjected, “Elijah is like Vin’s arch nemesis.”
“YES! Arch nemesis.” Vin’s head hit the back of Chris’s seat several times. “He is evil! He’s – oh – my – god,” which was followed by incoherent whining.
“They don’t like each other.” The calm way Ezra spoke nearly made the entire situation funny, except that Vin was having a mini breakdown. Chris had always suspected that Vin acted far too good and polite and that there was going to be a moment when he snapped, but he’d never guessed it would happen because of another foster child.
“Vin, listen to me. You are going to be nice to him.”
Vin was shaking his head. “Nice? To Eli-Joe? He’s nothing but a – a – ”
“Bully,” Ezra spoke up before Vin could say something they were all likely to regret. “It’s not that bad, Vin. I’m sure he has some good points when he’s not hanging out with his… gang.”
Chris pulled the truck out of the parking lot while Ezra continued to talk Vin out of his tantrum and he choose to let Ezra handle Vin since it seemed to be working, despite Vin’s unwillingness to except Eli-Joe as human. The last week of school was suddenly seeming like a very long and treacherous event. Chris had planned on working with the horses this evening; they’d been having more luck with Cassius since the name change and Ezra’s riding adventure. They’d used Ezra several times as “bait” to get the horse to come to them so they could get a halter on him. More than once the thought had struck Chris that the horse knew Ezra, but he’d not actually voiced the question to Ezra. When he’d mentioned it to Buck he’d said that it was possible and would make sense and he’d planned on asking Ezra about it eventually. Now with Vin acting the way he was and having to adjust to another boy in their home that apparently didn’t get along with Vin there was no telling what was going to happen.
-to be continued-
Category: Delinquent AU (aka ATF Teen AU)
Characters: Vin, Ezra, Buck/Chris, JD
Rating: R
Warnings: Slash, mentions of child abuse, profanity
Summary: Sequel to "Delinquent", "Substitute Dreams", Uncomfortable Decisions with the Halloween side stories/prequels Halloween Tales part of the Delinquent Universe which is a spin off of Mog’s ATF universe. Vin and Ezra have more choices to make with the guidance of Chris and Buck; Chris and Buck also have some issues they need to deal with.
Previous chapter(s): Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three
Chapter Four
“My god, is it Monday?” Chris sounded more like a petulant child than he had when he had been a child and Buck loved it. He was leaned against the counter, his forehead pressed into the cabinet door as the coffee perked beside him. It was the perfect opportunity for Buck to slide in behind Chris and wrap his arms around Chris’s waist and nip at his neck.
“Yeah, it’s Monday.” They’d had a nice long talk over the weekend about their boys – Ezra’s ideas and presumably fears of sex and Vin’s fear of having a “dad” again and not wanting to change his name. Chris had already figured that Vin wouldn’t be changing his name and it was something they had wanted to address closer to the final adoption, but it looked liked Vin had brought it up first. They had worked with the horses and spent time with the boys, keeping them occupied and mostly out of trouble.
Chris sighed as he pushed back from the counter and into Buck’s steadying arms. “Are Thursdays just bad days for the boys because counseling brings up everything they’ve been trying to supress all week? I’d say we should just do away with Thursdays altogether, but…”
“It’s necessary even if it does make for really long weekends.” Vin had likely had an uncomfortable night of it, sleeping as he had with his head against Ezra’s bedframe and Ezra latched onto his arm. At least twice Chris had jolted Buck awake to check on the boys because of Ezra’s restlessness, Vin talking Ezra back to sleep each time. Chris had mentioned Vin hadn’t asked what the dreams were about and Ezra hadn’t offered; they could both easily guess the subject of Ezra’s nightmares. “Speaking of our little angels, they need to be gettin’ their butts in gear or they’re going to miss the bus.”
When yelling down the hall didn’t provoke any responses Buck wandered toward the boys’ rooms and paused outside the bathroom when he heard Vin’s annoyed, “Come on, already!”
There was a snort, clearly from Ezra. The boy had the most arrogant and yet amusing snort ever. “Do you really want to rush perfection? Would you rather end up looking ridiculous?”
“I already look ridiculous,” came the nearly pouting retort. There was a heavy sigh followed by, “Damn, Ez, you’ve got more products than a girl.”
“Yeah? How many girls have you lived with?”
“Uh, hello? Foster care? A lot!”
There was a quiet cough followed by, “Well, I have less than my mother ever did, though I doubt she’ll have occasion to use any of those things in the near future. There. Now, what do you think?”
“I don’t know about this…”
“You look nice.”
A groan. “I’m not supposed to look nice. You realize you are completely ruining my badass image here? Dark, brooding? Dangerous?”
“Yeah, so, now you’re pretty.”
“Pretty?! Oh, god, no. Change it back!”
“Stop it. Pretty’s good. Besides you’re about as dangerous as one of Maddy’s kittens.”
“That doesn’t mean ya have to show people!” Both boys jumped when Buck knocked on the doorframe and peered into the bathroom. Immediately Buck’s eyebrows raised in surprise as he took in Vin’s styled hair – just a touch spikey, though because Vin’s hair was on the longish side most of the “spikes” were tilted over giving his hair a messy just-got-out-of-bed look. The look Vin shot Buck was about as fearious as a new-born lion cub. “Don’t say nothin’, Buck!” he growled as he shoved past him.
Buck held up his hands silently as Vin took off down the hall, his eyes wandering back toward Ezra who was putting all of those “girly” products away. For once Ezra’s hair was unstyled, loose and soft, the ends of his hair curling up just a touch. “It was a compromise,” Ezra said, unable to keep the smile from his voice as he flashed a look sideways at Buck. “I got to do whatever I wanted with his hair, but had to leave mine au naturel. I think it was worth it.”
The boy looked so pleased with himself that Buck couldn’t help but grin at him even as he told him to hurry it up because they still had to get breakfast before the bus came. When they entered the kitchen Vin was scowling and scuffing his feet against the floor from where he sat at the table. Chris cast a surprised look Buck’s way which said he’d probably told Vin that he looked nice or his hair looked good and got a sharp comment in reply.
“It’s okay, Vin. If anyone makes fun of you I’ll just beat them up for you.” Ezra said as he picked at the dry toast Chris slid in front of him – it was one of the very few things Ezra would eat in the mornings. He refused eggs and Buck believed that once the boy had said something about them trying to feed him chicken fetuses, which he’d personally thought was rather clever. Oatmeal was a lost cause as Ezra had actually gagged and swore they were trying to feed him lumpy cat vomit. Cereal worked part of the time provided that it didn’t get soggy too quickly, but they discovered anything colorful or chocolately was refused and he detested the cereals that were too hard which pretty much left them with Cheerios.
“You most certainly will not.” Chris filled a glass of milk and set it down in front of Ezra; aside from water – purified water – there wasn’t a whole lot else Ezra would drink. In fact it had to be organic whole milk for Ezra to drink it at all and there was even a brand of oragnic whole milk that had to be bought because Ezra could tell the difference between his brand and other brands blindfolded. At one point Ezra had refused any dairy products in the morning, but once they had gotten the "right" milk he was fine with drinking milk. They had discovered that Ezra would drink almost any brand of tea, but seemed to prefer green teas and a select few black teas – Earl Grey and Red Rose tea. Buck had taken to buying Earl Grey Green tea and since Ezra had not complained he assumed he had no problem with it.
Ezra smiled in reply, acknowledging Chris’s rebuke while avoiding it completely. Then the boys were grabbing their backpacks and headed for the bus, Ezra shoving his last piece of toast between his teeth when Chris told him to eat it on the way to the bus stop. Vin bolted down anything set in front of him, but Ezra never hurried when it came to food.
“Do you think he would?”
Chris looked startled for a moment as he paused in putting everything away and dumping out the remains of coffee. “Do you think he would what?”
“Do you think Ezra would beat someone up?”
“Yeah,” was the immediate reply before Chris paused to think about it. “I think he wouldn’t get caught, though. With Vin you usually know what’s coming, but Ezra’s just better at hiding things.”
The keys were grabbed from the key rack by the door and Buck tossed Chris his set of keys as he shook his head. They almost always drove seperately because Buck never knew when he would be needed to get one of the boys from school or if Chris was going to be working late. That and Chris hated grocery shopping and someone had to buy food for them. “Don’t always know with Vin. Have you forgotten those outbursts so quickly?”
Chris shrugged in reply. “True, but he didn’t plan those, either.”
“You still think you’ll be able to pick Ezra up from practice?” Buck asked on their way to their trucks. “Vin said he wanted to stay after and watch so don’t forget about him.”
“I hope so – barring any major disasters it’ll be possible, at least.” They shared a quick kiss before they headed off to work.
Since they had just finished a case there was a lot of paperwork to do, plus the meetings that kept Chris busy for most of the day. It was mid-afternoon when a call came in, Chris having only just arrived back in his office ready to review some of the reports congesting his in-box. “Larabee.”
“Mr. Larabee, this is Angie with Children Services.”
His mind immediately leaped to the worst case scenario possible. “Is something going on with Vin’s case?”
“No, nothing like that,” Angie replied with a small laugh. “I’m actually calling about another boy. We’re trying to keep him in the same school district since there is only a few days left in school and I thought of you.” She gave a quick summary – the boy was being physically abused and had denied the abuse repeatedly in the past, but was now admitting to it. It was possibly only a short-term placement until they could check out a relative’s home, but if that fell through it could be a long-term placement.
“I’ll need to talk to Buck. Do you want to hold or would you rather I call you back?” After Angie opted to hold Chris threw his door open and yelled into the bullpen, “Buck!” Chris snorted when Inez said, “Oooo someone’s in trouble.”
Buck was closing the door as Chris dropped back into his high-backed leather chair. “Vin’s caseworker called and is asking if we want another boy. Said it could be short-term once they check out a relative’s home, but they wanted him to finish out the school year where he is now.”
“We’ll have to clear out the spare room. How old?”
Chris couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his face. “How old do you think? Fourteen, possibly someone the boys know, but there are, what, four different sections in each grade?”
“You want to make this decision without the boys?”
“Gonna have to. So?”
Buck shrugged. “If you’re going to get off on time I can head on back to the house while you go to the game.”
Chris reached out and picked the call back up, turning the phone to speaker phone. “Angie?”
“Yes?”
“What time would someone be by to drop him off?”
They could hear the hopeful smile in her voice as she replied, “I’d say around 5 o’clock, maybe a little after. There are some things we need to get for him and then we could be right over.”
“All right. We’ll keep him at least as long as school’s in and we’ll let you know if it’ll be a problem after that. Someone will be at the house to meet whoever is dropping him off.” Chris said goodbye and hung up the phone. “Are we crazy?”
Another boy was going to be even more work and keeping up with Vin and Ezra’s varying moods and problems was difficult enough. Buck had always liked activity and a touch of chaos in his life so the more the merrier for him. “Nah, we aren’t crazy yet. I’m going to have to let Nettie know there might be another boy she gets to watch until everything gets switched over. What’s the boy’s name, anyway?”
“Elijah Watson.”
The rest of the afternoon seemed to go quickly and then it was time to clock out and Buck assured Chris that he was fine with getting the spare room ready for Elijah. It had been Chris’s suggestion for him to start picking up the boys and maybe taking them to counseling, not only to relieve Buck but also to give him more contact with Ezra since it was apparent he was going to be with them for some time. Practice was almost over when Chris arrived and located Vin in the stands. “Where’s Buck?”
“Buck went home to get the spare room ready for a guest.” Then they both became involved in watching the baseball players and it was some time before either of them spoke again. Watching Ezra play, even during a practice was an extraordinary thing, like a fine tuned machine. It amazed Chris over and over again that there was anything in Ezra’s past that had in any way harmed him because he was that good at faking it. That scared him more than any of the suspects that had repeatedly lied to him in the past – if there was any hope of changing Ezra’s future and keeping him from becoming one of those criminals it rested with them.
Finally Vin asked, “Another foster kid?”
“Yeah.” Vin wasn’t really looking at Chris, his attention focused on the players in the field, though most likely he was just staring at Ezra on the pitcher’s mound. “Is that going to be a problem?”
Vin shook his head no. “Why should it be? I’m not a foster kid anymore and neither is Ezra. He said you guys signed the guardianship papers, so he’s ours now.” Then Vin frowned and shook his head. “But that doesn’t make him… like a brother or anything, right? Because guardianship isn’t like adoption, so he’s not my brother.”
“No, he’s not your brother.”
There was obvious relief on Vin’s face. “Okay, good.”
Chris didn’t have the heart to tell him that it might not matter if they were brothers or not, but there was no sense in destroying his hope. After all Ezra hadn’t indicated one way or another whether he was truly interested in Vin or if he was just sexually acting out. The practice went well and Ezra looked pleased by the praise he had gotten from the coach. The boys were still talking animatedly as they piled into the truck and in all the excitement it ended up being Vin that mentioned the new foster child to Ezra. “Oh, some kid is going to be staying with us.”
“Who’s that?”
“Uh…” Vin leaned against the front seat as Chris started the truck.
“Boy’s name is Elijah Watson.”
The outburst was unexpected. “Elijah Watson? Elijah Watson? No! Absolutely – how could you even – ?”
Chris twisted around in his seat to get a better look at Vin who was having a fit in the backseat. “All right, what’s this all about? Vincent!”
Vin continued to sputter and yell until Ezra quietly interjected, “Elijah is like Vin’s arch nemesis.”
“YES! Arch nemesis.” Vin’s head hit the back of Chris’s seat several times. “He is evil! He’s – oh – my – god,” which was followed by incoherent whining.
“They don’t like each other.” The calm way Ezra spoke nearly made the entire situation funny, except that Vin was having a mini breakdown. Chris had always suspected that Vin acted far too good and polite and that there was going to be a moment when he snapped, but he’d never guessed it would happen because of another foster child.
“Vin, listen to me. You are going to be nice to him.”
Vin was shaking his head. “Nice? To Eli-Joe? He’s nothing but a – a – ”
“Bully,” Ezra spoke up before Vin could say something they were all likely to regret. “It’s not that bad, Vin. I’m sure he has some good points when he’s not hanging out with his… gang.”
Chris pulled the truck out of the parking lot while Ezra continued to talk Vin out of his tantrum and he choose to let Ezra handle Vin since it seemed to be working, despite Vin’s unwillingness to except Eli-Joe as human. The last week of school was suddenly seeming like a very long and treacherous event. Chris had planned on working with the horses this evening; they’d been having more luck with Cassius since the name change and Ezra’s riding adventure. They’d used Ezra several times as “bait” to get the horse to come to them so they could get a halter on him. More than once the thought had struck Chris that the horse knew Ezra, but he’d not actually voiced the question to Ezra. When he’d mentioned it to Buck he’d said that it was possible and would make sense and he’d planned on asking Ezra about it eventually. Now with Vin acting the way he was and having to adjust to another boy in their home that apparently didn’t get along with Vin there was no telling what was going to happen.
-to be continued-
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