crack_van | The Past Redeemed, by Sue Bartholomew (PG-13)

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: Black Raptor listing, FanFiction.net listing
Why this must be read:

Bitter and hurting after his friends patronized the rival establishment of Maude, his mother, instead of his own long-dreamed of, and now lost, saloon, Ezra believes he was a fool to trust anyone except himself, and resolves to return to a solitary, self-sufficient life. He quietly leaves Four Corners, not telling anyone he doesn't intend to come back. Meanwhile, Chris is questioning the killing rage in which he gunned down Eli Joe, probably Vin's only chance to clear his name and lift the $500 bounty on his head that endangers him, his friends, and Four Corners.

As five of the regulators escort Eli Joe's accomplice to Tascosa for trial, Ezra falls in with a gang he discovers, to his horror and confusion, is stalking his former associates with deadly intentions.

Sue tells a gripping action tale. Don't miss this one.

As the lean young man slouched in the early morning sunshine gleaming across the porch of the jail, slowly sipping his morning coffee, he continued to mull over his situation. What his mother had done was bad enough-how she could buy a competing hotel and drive her own son into despairing insolvency and then justify her actions as merely keeping him sharp was something even Ezra's nimble mind could not fathom. He had been angry at her before for her callous, occasionally cruel treatment of him, but he had a feeling he would never be able to forgive her for this.

But still - still, he should have expected it. Maude was still Maude, mother or not, and she rarely passed up a chance to better someone and prove her superiority, even if it was her own son who got ground into the dirt. Her behavior was despicable and inexplicable but not shocking, for her.

His friends, on the other hand -

Ezra coughed at the sudden tightness in his throat and sat up abruptly, rubbing his eyes wearily with one hand. He'd done it again, called them friends when they had clearly proven themselves to be nothing of the kind. The other men who'd been hired along with Ezra to protect Four Corners had worked well together these past months, faced threats as a solid team, watching each other's back. And Ezra, who'd wandered all of his life never daring to call any place home, any man friend, had foolishly begun to believe that maybe that was over now. Here was a place he belonged, a group of men he could respect.

Gone, now. All gone, and all he had left were the bitter memories of his comrades turning their backs on him and going to Maude's hotel to drink and gamble, instead of Ezra's. Maude had driven his business into the ground, but of all the empty seats in Ezra's saloon at the end, there were six which really hurt.

The Past Redeemed