Facing Evil [Part 3 of 3]
The Game's Afoot By Starwinder
Simon Trevor was not a happy camper... literally. He lay in a snow bank glaring at Standish and Tanner's new home through a pair of high-powered binoculars. He was wearing snow camouflage fatigues and a parka over two sets of long underwear with heated boot liners, glove liners and a heated vest. He had on a ski mask and a watch cap under the parka hood and he was still freezing his ass off.
This had to be the most isolated house around and that was saying something considering that this was Colorado and the people here seemed to think that if you could see another house you were too close to town.
He wasn't used to hunting his prey in a setting like this. He was accustomed to big cities and college campuses.
To make it worse, Standish seemed to be oblivious to his presence. He had started his phone campaign a week before but he hadn't actually spoken to Standish once. Every time he called, he got the answering machine. He had left messages, sly, cruel remarks that he knew Standish would understand but that he was sure no one else would, yet Standish went about his business as if he hadn't been calling at all.
Like now, the house was crawling with activity, Every single member of what had formerly been ATF team seven was down there, plus what looked like every girlfriend, boyfriend and significant other any of them had.
He growled to himself and settled back to watch again.
Chris Larabee put down the box of groceries that he had just brought into the kitchen and turned to Ezra. "He out there?"
"Indeed he is and in a very sour mood I might add," Ezra flashed a shark's grin at him. "I really don't think that he likes snow very much."
"Where exactly?" Buck asked coming up behind Chris and putting his arms around his lover.
Vin answered. "He's lying over yonder on the ridge." His grin mirrored Ezra's predatory one. "The north facing ridge," he pointed out.
"And the wind is from the north today," Josiah put in from beside the counter where he was assembling his chili to put in the slow cooker, "I believe the weather man was predicting ten to fifteen mile an hour winds with gusts up to twenty miles an hour."
"Anybody want to make bets on how long he lasts today?" Ezra asked.
"He made it almost six hours yesterday," Nathan pointed out.
"But there wasn't hardly any wind yesterday," Vin reminded him.
"And you have to remember that he was born and reared in the south. Snow was a rarity, even in Atlanta. He was never in the military or such and therefore has no practical snow survival training or skills." Ezra reminded them then added, "I'm sure he will be gone around noon."
The others sighed. If Ezra was betting on around noon, then noon it was. There really wasn't any reason to bet now.
"You think he'll call again this afternoon?" Chris asked.
"Yes, and since we are as ready for him as we are going to get I shall answer the phone this time. He won't move on to the next stage of his campaign until he actually gets to taunt me on the phone for a few days. He is remarkably predictable."
"How long will he stick to making phone calls before he makes his actual move?"
"Between a week and ten days. That is why I am going to start taking his calls today. Tomorrow we will all vacate the house for several hours, giving him time to plant listening devices. When JD does his daily sweep we'll know if he has managed to get in and get them planted. After we are sure he's listening we will only discuss our plans for dealing with him in writing or sign language."
"What exactly are our plans?" Chris demanded.
"Vin and I will deal with Trevor. That is non-negotiable. We are hoping to lure him into making his move on Thanksgiving Day or at least during that weekend. The rest of you will have plans for that week end; plans that we will discuss after his listening devices are planted so that he will know that Vin and I plan to spend Thanksgiving weekend alone here. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and not be so bad that he cannot get up here."
"What happens if the power goes down?" Nathan asked.
"Not a problem, since we aren't depending on the security system, just my enhanced senses and Ez's empathy to know when he's coming and where he is," Vin reassured them.
"I was thinking about the cold. How will you deal with that without power."
Ezra chuckled. "There are six wood stoves in this house Mister Jackson, one in each of the bedrooms and two downstairs, besides the fireplace in the great room. On top of that the house is superbly insulated and has passive solar heating provided by the glassed in foyers and balconies. Plus the back up generator is in an underground bunker accessible only through the house. He has to get in to take the power out and once he's in, Vin and I will be hunting *him*."
"I still don't like you two being alone here," Chris stated emphatically.
Buck nodded in agreement.
"That does seem rather foolish," Josiah put in, "and I do understand that you believe you can rely on your senses, but what happens if there is a storm or something? Will you be able to detect his presence then?"
"Ez will know he's coming. Weather don't interfere with his empathy at all. We're still working with my senses. I've been learning to tune out what I guess you'd call 'background noise', things like a storm, and focus on listening for specific sounds."
"Besides, we won't actually be entirely alone," Ezra informed them, "Kojay, Chanu and Jon are coming to stay with us that weekend. They will slip in while he is not watching and stay out of sight so that they can be here should we need backup."
"Still ain't like having *us* to back you up," growled Chris.
"I swear, Mister Larabee, sometimes I wonder if you are not a Sentinel. You certainly have the protective instincts of one." Ezra muttered.
"You're right," Vin said to Chris, "but we need to end this, end it for good, and Ez is sure he won't come if any of you are here."
"Won't he hear you talking to Kojay and the others on the bugs?" JD asked as always focused on his electronics.
"They understand that verbal communication won't be possible. Once they are inside, all communication between the two of us and them will be in either sign language or writing."
Vin nodded, "We've already bought about a dozen dry erase boards with pens and erasers for each."
"I saw those when we were carrying in supplies. Wondered what they were for," Nathan said.
"All of us will use them to communicate anything that we don't want Trevor to overhear once his listening devices are in place," Ezra said.
Chris sighed then nodded.
He still didn't like the idea of them facing Trevor without any of the other five to back them up but he understood Vin and Ezra's need to finish this. They were starting a new life together and they didn't need this threat from the past hanging over them.
Thanksgiving Day dawned bright and clear, the morning weather belying the weatherman's prediction of a blizzard blowing in over the mountains by midnight of Thanksgiving Day.
Vin had assured Ezra that the storm wouldn't hit until after midnight, giving them plenty of time to deal with Trevor since Ezra was certain that Trevor would make his move around twilight that day.
Kojay, Chanu and Jon arrived in the early morning, riding in over the mountain on snowmobiles which they parked along side the others that routinely sat lined up in the courtyard formed by the square that included the house, the garage, the stables and the kennels. They doubted that Trevor would notice the additions since the number of snowmobiles there at any given time had varied widely over the past two weeks that he had been watching the house.
They walked into the house not worrying about Trevor seeing them. Vin had said that he would call them if Trevor tripped Ezra's radar before they got there and he hadn't called.
Vin was in the kitchen making breakfast when they arrived. Chanu spoke Vin's name softly then walked in without knocking, knowing that Vin would have already heard the snowmobiles and verified that it was the three of them long before they got to the house.
He wasn't surprised when Vin greeted them with a grin and said, "Breakfast'll be ready in a minute. Coffee's on. Left hand carafe. Y'all don't want the right hand carafe that's Ezra's fancy stuff."
Chanu chuckled, at the sight of three coffee makers lined up on the counter. "And the center one is for...?"
"That's mine and Josiah's 'road tar' as the rest of them call it." Vin told them.
Jon laughed, "What was it, again, that Ezra said about your coffee?" He grinned as he answered his own question, "Oh yeah. 'Mister Tanner's idea of coffee would wake the dead and make them dance a jig.'" He did a credible imitation of Ezra's drawl.
Vin just chuckled. Then turned serious. "'Fraid y'all are gonna have a borin' day. We can't be sure when Trevor will show up so you'll haveta stay in the upstairs back room until we're ready for you an' Jon to take mine and Ezra's places. I still ain't real happy about that part of the plan---"
Chanu interrupted him, "You don't have to worry about us, Vin. Ezra said that Trevor almost never carries a real gun just the tranquilizer pistol and several knives. That's why you have the throwaway piece. Even if he should get off a shot before you and Ezra take him down, we shouldn't have to worry about a gunshot wound just a tranq dart."
"Still seems wrong to use y'all as bait."
"This man is evil," Kojay said quietly, "That evil needs to be removed from the world. Accomplishing that is worth the small risk that we are taking. My sons will be well guarded with a Sentinel and his Guide to watch their backs." He grinned, "And this old Shaman will be watching as well."
Vin finally nodded accepting that their friends were doing this willingly.
"Well then, let's eat. Y'all can take what ever you want to eat and drink later upstairs to the room you'll be staying in. There's a small fridge up there. The back bedroom, sitting room and bath all have no windows so Trevor can't see in. Y'all can move around freely in there. It's got a TV, DVD player, stereo CDs and such to keep you from getting too bored. We'll let you know when Trevor shows up."
When they finished eating and had cleared up the dishes, Vin said, "I'm going back up and lie down with Ez till he's ready to get up, probably about noon unless Trevor shows up before then and triggers his alarms. We'll tap the intercom twice, then pause and tap it twice more to alert y'all when he shows."
***************************************
(I have been told that I need to put a warning on this so here it is: This is the section where Trevor gets his due and contains Graphic Violence by a member of the Seven.)
***************************************It was twilight when Trevor made his move, dressed in his snow camouflage he was nearly invisible in the dim light. He slipped across the open ground between the small stand of trees just below the treeline and approached the house from the side.
He could see inside the house through the large windows on that side. Tanner and Standish were sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace apparently unaware of his presence.
He had called just a short time before and he still smiled at Standish's horrified reaction to the fate Simon had promised for Tanner.
Tanner was obviously trying to comfort Standish. He cuddled the other man to him as they sat on the couch, brushing soothing fingers through his hair.
Inside the house Chanu struggled not to giggle like a girl as he cuddled his baby brother to him and stroked the soft curls of the wig that he wore. Chanu was dressed as Vin and Jon was dressed as Ezra, putting on a show on the couch for Trevor. The fact that the power was off and the only light in the room came from the fireplace helped with the illusion.
Meanwhile, the real Vin and Ezra hung back in the shadows out of sight of the windows. Vin had the throwaway gun that they would plant on Trevor if he didn't have a real gun. Ezra maintained that Trevor would most likely have a tranquilizer pistol as he had used one before. Trevor would want to take them away from the house to a place he felt secure to torture them.
Ezra had the ax that they used to cut firewood. He obviously planned to carry out his stated intention to chop Trevor's head off. Vin really couldn't blame him. Ezra had thought that he had killed Trevor at least twice before and the man had somehow survived to come after him again.
This time he wouldn't. There were damned few things out there that could survive having their heads cut off. Vin really didn't think that Trevor was one of them.
A storm was moving in over the mountain, brilliant flashes of lightening occasionally lit up the evening sky which was why Vin, Ezra and Kojay remained in the corners of the room that couldn't be seen from the outside.
{He's coming in from the east.} Ezra informed Vin silently.
[Got him,] Vin assured, [about fifty feet out and moving slow. Reckon he don't want to make any noise.] There was a silent chuff of amusement. Vin could hear every crunch of snow under Trevor's boots, every shift of his clothing as he moved and the harsh panting of his breath as he exerted himself in the thin mountain air.
Ezra hefted the ax and swallowed hard. He tried to tell himself that his hands weren't shaking, that he was ready for this, while flashes of the past chased themselves through his mind. His fiancée, lying on their blood soaked bed in their apartment in Atlanta, his child ripped from her womb and butchered like a chicken on the bed beside her. His stepfather, Adrian LeBeau in the penthouse in New York, cut to ribbons, and Maude's screams when she caught a glimpse of his body before Ezra could tell her that she really didn't want to see what Trevor had done to him. The feel of Trevor's hands on his body and his cock inside of him raping him.
This had to end tonight. It had to. He wasn't strong enough to keep going if it didn't.
[Ez,]
The gentle touch of Vin's mind on his reminded him that he needed to focus, that he didn't want Vin *seeing* what he was remembering.
[Too late for that, Babe,] Vin told him, [but it's all right. I'm here. We'll get through this. You need to focus now. He's at the window, opening it.]
Ezra forced the past away and focused on the present.
Trevor carefully removed the screen from the window, lowering it quietly to the ground and began to raise the window.
Inside the house, Vin, standing in the shadows beside the passage into the kitchen signaled Chanu on the couch to be ready to duck that Trevor was coming in.
Chanu gave a slight nod of his head and bent to whisper in Jon's ear, relaying the information.
Trevor crept across the broad main room almost silent as he stalked his prey. He was almost to the couch when suddenly the two men on the couch rose and backed away.
A flash of lightening revealed their faces and he scowled.
It wasn't Standish and Tanner!
There was a vague resemblance in the body size and shape enhanced by the wigs that they wore, but the features were dark and angular and the eyes black.
He raised his gun and snarled. "Where's Standish?" Rage boiled in his eyes even as he realized (It's a trap! That little sneak set a trap!)
"Right here." The voice came from behind him cold, hard and grim.
He spun and nearly leaped backwards over the couch when he was confronted not with Standish, but with an ancient Native American Shaman. The old Indian's snow-white hair was braided and decorated with feathers and beads. His face was painted with a design in reds, blacks and whites. He held one hand out in front of his face a small ceramic bowl set on a raised base held in the palm. The bowl was shaped like a Jack O'Lantern, the glowing coals inside it shining through the horrific face that decorated it. The old man dropped a handful of herbs onto the glowing coals and smoke spiraled up from them.
As Trevor turned to face him, Kojay blew the smoke from the herbs into his face.
For Trevor the world slowed down. He tried to bring the tranquilizer gun in his hand up, to aim it but he suddenly felt as if he was moving in slow motion. His arm wouldn't obey him.
Then Standish was in front of him, hefting an ax. "This time you're dying, you son of a bitch," he snarled as he raised the ax and brought it down, cutting deep and hard into the top of Trevor's right shoulder, cutting through muscle tendons and bone.
Trevor went to his knees, the tranquilizer gun falling from his hand and clattering across the floor.
He stared up at Standish unable to comprehend what was happening. Standish couldn't kill him. He just couldn't.
But the ax rose again and fell again, this time cutting deep into the left shoulder, almost but not quite meeting the angled cut from the right shoulder.
Vin started forward, but Kojay laid a hand on his shoulder. "He needs to do this."
Vin nodded, almost vibrating in place in his need to go to Ezra, to hold him.
Ezra didn't even know that he was crying that a terrible wailing moan was issuing from his throat, as he kicked Trevor in the chest, knocking him back to sprawl on the floor. He stepped forwards circling the body until he was standing over Trevor at shoulder level. He raised the ax one last time and brought it down, so hard that it wedged in the floor after severing Trevor's head.
The last thing that Simon Trevor ever saw was Ezra Standish's face, twisted with grief and rage as he brought the ax down one last time.
Ezra yanked at the ax handle repeatedly, trying to pull it out of the floor.
Then Vin was there, prying his hands off the ax, drawing him away and Ezra turned into his arms sobbing hysterically.
Chanu moved to them, taking the throwaway gun from the back of Vin's waist with a gloved hand and exchanging it for the tranquilizer gun that Trevor had dropped, making sure that it was positioned exactly as the other gun had been. He carefully returned the tranquilizer gun to its holster.
Kojay nodded to him then turned to Jon, "Go start the snow mobiles. It has started to snow. If we leave now, there will be no sign left that we were ever here by the time the authorities arrive."
He lay a hand on Vin's shoulder.
Vin nodded to him, "Go. I've got it here."
He waited until he heard the sound of the snowmobile motors fading in the distance to carefully try to guide Ezra up the stairs to their bedroom.
"No." Ezra protested, his sobs fading as he resisted Vin attempts to move him away from the body. "He's not disappearing this time."
He pushed away from Vin, straightening. One hand reached up to wipe tears away from his face. The other hand remained twisted in Vin's shirt, clinging to his lover. "We don't leave the body alone... not for a minute. Understand me?"
Vin hesitated, glancing at the body. The man had been decapitated. He wasn't going anywhere. Still, Ezra had thought that he had killed Trevor on at least two other occasions only to have the body vanish and Trevor come after him again.
"All right. But you need to lie down. You're shaking like a leaf."
"Couch," Ezra said.
The short sentences and plain words combined with the continued shaking told Vin that Ezra was in shock.
He gave a brief nod and began leading Ezra to the couch in front of the fireplace where Chanu and Jon had sat only moments before. He made Ezra lie down then pulled the colorful Indian blanket they kept folded over the back of the couch down and spread it over Ezra.
"I'll get you some hot tea, with lots of sugar."
Ezra began to sit up.
When Vin tried to push him back up he said. "You can't see the body from the kitchen. I'll watch it."
Vin started to protest then gave it up with a sigh at the determination he felt from Ezra. "All right... but you stay on this couch."
"Yes, sir," Ezra said. The glint of amusement in his eyes told Vin that Ezra would recover from his shock quickly.
While he was waiting for the tea water to boil, Vin picked up the phone. He wasn't really surprised when he didn't get a dial tone. They had had a short-wave radio installed just because loss of phone service was unavoidable in the high mountains.
He stepped back into the great room. "Ez?"
"Yes?"
"I'm goin' to haveta go upstairs and call the Sheriff on the radio. OK?"
"Yes," Ezra said again, not taking his gaze off Trevor's body.
Vin frowned. He could hear Ezra chanting in the back of his mind, {Stay dead, you bastard. Stay dead.}
He started to say something, then shook his head and went on upstairs. There wasn't anything that he could say. Only time would convince Ezra that Trevor wasn't going to get up and walk away again.
The mop up was anticlimactic.
Vin wasn't really surprised when Chris, Buck, Nathan, Josiah and JD showed up with the Sheriff and Bailey Malone's FBI ViCap team.
Apparently the guys hadn't gone back to Denver but had taken rooms in Granby and set up a police band radio to listen in on the Sheriff Department's calls. When they had heard the call from Vin about the break-in and the death of the intruder they had headed up the mountain.
Bailey Malone and his FBI team had been in Granby for a week, ever since Ezra had first reported to the Granby Sheriff's Department that he was receiving threatening phone calls from Trevor. The Sheriff had called them as soon as the call from Vin had come in.
The two groups had been staying in the same hotel and had met up while waiting to hear any news from up the mountain.
When the word came that Trevor had been killed after breaking into Ezra and Vin's house they headed out up the mountain together after Chris pointed out that the team had two trailer loads of snowmobiles in case they were needed.
They had come upon the Sheriff and his deputy pulled off the road where a small rockslide had blocked it, preventing them from continuing up the mountain. Since the team had come prepared with snowmobiles on a trailer pulled behind Chris' Ram and Nathan's Jeep Grand Cherokee Bailey exerted his authority as a FBI agent and took charge of the investigation.
They all loaded up on the snowmobiles and made their way up the mountain.
Sheriff Aaron Littletree had been the sheriff in Granby since he was in his early twenties. He was almost sixty now and would have told you that he figured he had seen it all but the decapitated corpse on the floor of what had once been a CIA safehouse took him by surprise.
The ax lodged in the floor told him that whoever had killed this man had done it with a vengeance. He raised an eyebrow at the long haired man standing protectively in front of a slim, pale man sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, staring blankly at the corpse his lips moving in a silent chant.
He recognized the blanket as one of the ones that the women on the reservation wove but the pattern was one that they seldom sold. It was usually reserved as gifts for family and friends.
Then his gaze went to the mantle of the fireplace behind the man and his eyes widened. On the mantle sat a piece of artwork that he recognized. Chanu Whitehorse's 'Phoenix Rising' stood on the mantle. Just below and in front of it, sitting protectively under the Phoenix's spread wings was another of Chanu's pieces, a small red fox with the right hand fang gilded with gold.
Both pieces had been in Chanu's gallery for ages because Chanu refused to sell them to anyone, claiming that they were special and had to go to just the right people.
The Phoenix was majestic, rising from the ashes, its tail feathers blackened, the wings and upper body rendered in shades of red and gold. Its beak was open as if it was screaming its defiance to the world and its claws were extended and hooked as if it were on the attack.
In contrast the fox looked almost dainty. It sat primly, its forefeet together, it's tail wrapped neatly around them. Its body was a deep autumn rust color. The ruff under its throat and down it's chest was a gleaming white as was the tip of it's tail. Each leg from toe tip to knee was black, neat and precise.
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Flashback
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He had just taken the report from Standish about the first of the threatening phone calls from the man stalking him and returned to his office to find his uncle Kojay Whitehorse sitting there waiting for him.
Kojay had already helped himself to coffee and sat contemplating the view out the window behind Aaron's desk.
Aaron knew better than to disturb the old man when he was sitting like that. Kojay was a tribal elder and a Shaman. He would tell Aaron why he was there when he was ready to speak.
After a long silence Kojay looked up at him and spoke. "It is good that a Guardian has returned to the mountains. Evil stalks our land this day."
Aaron looked up at him startled, "There hasn't been a Guardian born to the tribe in more than a century, Grandfather."
Kojay looked up at Aaron. "The Phoenix and the Fox are not born to the tribe but they carry the blood of the People. You will know them when you see them. Guard them, protect them, guide them. They are a gift that the gods give to us. They will return your guardianship and protection a hundred times over."
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End flashback
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Nathan took one look at Ezra on their arrival and went straight to him. "How long has he been like this?" he demanded of Vin.
"Ever since he kilt that bastard," Vin said stonily.
Nathan tried to tilt Ezra's head up to look into his eyes but Ezra resisted, keeping his gaze locked on Trevor's corpse, his lips moving silently.
"What's he saying?" Bailey asked.
"Stay dead, you bastard, stay dead," Vin told them.
Bailey nodded. He understood perhaps better than any one why Ezra would feel the need to be sure that Trevor was dead. He had been there when Ezra had guided them back to Trevor's lair, to the hellhole in which Trevor had held him and had tortured and killed his other victims. He'd seen Ezra's reaction to finding Trevor's body gone from where he had left it when he had escaped, after he thought that he had killed the monster that had spent the previous week torturing and raping him.
"I think you should take him upstairs. He'll have to answer some questions later but right now, I need to clear everyone but my team and Sheriff Littletree's people from the crime scene." Bailey said.
He squatted down in front of Ezra, carefully laying a hand on Ezra's arm. "Ezra, I'm taking charge of the body now. I'll make sure it doesn't disappear. I need you to go upstairs. Let your people look after you. I'll come get your statement in a while after we process the scene."
Everyone had come in through the back door and Vin had stopped Chris and the rest of the team in the kitchen with a look, while Malone and his people took charge of the scene. Only Nathan had defied him to cross into the great room and go to Ezra but he had expected that. Now the rest of the team moved as one for the back staircase, going up to meet Vin and Nathan, who guided Ezra between them up the front staircase.
Vin turned towards his and Ezra's room only to have Ezra shake his head. "No. There's not room for everyone in there and I don't want to be alone."
With a shrug Vin turned them towards the back bedroom suite, where Kojay, Chanu and Jon had spent the day. As the team spread out over the sitting room and he guided Ezra to the bed and got him laid down, Vin smirked to himself. Even in the state he was in Ezra was a sly fox. With the team using the room, any evidence of Kojay, Chanu and Jon's earlier presence would be wiped out.
By the time that Bailey's team was through processing the scene the storm had set in and it was snowing steadily. It was decided that Bailey's team and Chris and his people would stay on at the house, while Sheriff Littletree and his deputy would take two of the snowmobiles and return to Granby, returning when the weather cleared to pick up the body and transport it to the Morgue. In the meantime they would store it in the stable, as it was currently empty.
It was Monday morning before the news that the infamous serial killer Simon Trevor had been killed while attempting to carry out his oft stated intention to kill former FBI agent Ezra Standish, the only one of his many victims to survive his attack, reached the media.
Both the Granby Sheriff's Department and the FBI were clear that no charges would be filed against Standish. Trevor had been a fugitive, a serial killer convicted on fifteen separate counts of aggravated murder each of which had carried the death penalty.
The isolation of the crime scene along with the continuing inclement weather prevented any one from pursuing the story further.
No details regarding exactly how Trevor died were ever released.
Epilogue:
Seven Months Later
Father Andrew cast a nervous glance back over his shoulder. The next time he agreed to do a wedding he was definitely getting a better description of the venue than 'We're getting married on a mountain top.'
*Nobody* had told him he'd be standing three feet from a two thousand foot drop off. Granted he was in a gazebo and both Vin and Ezra had assured him that it was perfectly safe, that the gazebo was anchored to the mountain top with sixteen-foot long steel re-bar sunk eight feet into the mountain and welded to the gazebo's steel frame.
Not that the gazebo looked like it was made of steel. It had been painted a gleaming white with what Vin and Ezra told him was 'liquid vinyl' except for the ornate roses and forget-me-nots that decorated the waist high panels that surrounded the floor of the gazebo. The roses were pink and the forget-me-nots were blue, a color scheme that was reflected in the wedding décor.
Nothing about this wedding was traditional except the vows and they had had a minor change to them as the bride and groom agreed that the word obey was not to be part of their vows. This was to be a partnership and nobody was vowing to obey anybody, period.
He looked up as the wedding march started playing and watched as the bride *and* the groom started up the long pathway from the back gate of the estate's courtyard to the gazebo.
JD had refused to wait at the altar for Casey. They were walking into their future together.
The bride and groom exchanged grins as they walked towards the priest that would marry them.
Casey was wearing a formal white pants suit, with a white vest decorated with embroidered pink roses and blue forget-me-nots. She held a bouquet of pink rose buds and blue forget-me-nots and tiny white baby's breath. White cowboy boots and a white Stetson completed the look.
JD wore a white tuxedo with a white bowler hat and white cowboy boots. He had a single pink rose bud and two small forget-me-nots in his buttonhole and a pink cumberband.
As they neared the gazebo, Casey's Aunt Nettie stood up from her chair on Casey's side of the gazebo and Chris Larabee and Buck Wilmington stood up on the other side.
Father Andrew cleared his throat and looked out over the assembled guests. It was a small gathering and although there was an aisle, they hadn't bothered to divide into the bride's side and the groom's side. Everyone just sat wherever they wanted.
"Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. Let anyone who has any objection speak now or forever hold his peace."
Father Andrew really didn't think anyone was going to object. He had been somewhat surprised at just how many different people seemed to be absolutely gleeful over this wedding.
Larabee, however, turned and glared out at the assemblage as if to say there had better not be any objections.
Father Andrew cleared his throat again and soldiered on, "Who gives this woman to be married?"
"I do." Nettie Wells was leaning heavily on her cane with Vin and Ezra hovering protectively behind her but her voice was firm and strong.
The priest nodded then asked a question he'd never had to ask before, "Who gives this man to be married."
Buck Wilmington, grinning hugely, stepped slightly forwards as he and his partner Chris Larabee said simultaneously, "We do."
Buck was dressed in his white sequined Elvis costume and would be the lead singer at the reception in the courtyard after the wedding. Larabee was wearing a standard black tuxedo with a baby pink cumberband that matched Casey's roses. Chris couldn't help grinning at the thought of him and Buck giving JD away.
JD and Casey walked up the steps of the gazebo and stopped in front of Father Andrew reaching out to clasp hands.
Moments later Andrew concluded the vows with the traditional, 'you may kiss the bride', only to have Casey grab JD and kiss *him* soundly to the very loud amusement of the crowd.
The young couple trotted down the gazebo steps and along the aisle between the two sets of chairs as the crowd surged to its feet greeting them with whoops, cheers, and whistles, happily tossing handfuls of birdseed at them as they made their way back towards the courtyard.
Father Andrew heaved a sigh of relief and headed back to the safety of the enclosed courtyard.
Much later that evening
Ezra sighed and snuggled into Vin's embrace. They were sitting in one of the two swings in the gazebo. The swings had been removed for the wedding and had had to be re-hung afterwards. One swing faced east, the other west. They were sitting in the west facing one, watching the sun sink over the mountains as they swayed gently.
"Good day, huh?" Vin said patting his stomach. He hadn't hesitated to make a pig of himself at the reception, after all he and Ezra had paid for the wedding and reception.
"One of the best," Ezra assured him.
"Glad Nettie could make it. Sick as she was last winter wasn't sure she'd last to see Casey get her June wedding." He paused a moment then added, "Glad that yer ma made it to. She's looking good."
"Yes, I think that finally knowing that Trevor is gone for good has done wonders for her. I know it has for me." He laid his head on Vin's shoulder and Vin leaned in to press a kiss to his forehead.
"Life is good."
"And the future bright," Ezra added. "I didn't mention it because I didn't think it appropriate to bring up business on JD and Casey's wedding day but the final papers on the company's incorporation came through today. We are officially in business."
The End
This is the end of the Broken Hearts Series. The story line will be continued in The High Mountain Sentinel Series. The first story in that AU is already underway and is a crossover with The Sentinel wherein the Sentinel of the Great City meets the Sentinel of the High Mountains.
Starwinder