Child Of My Heart (9/12) - Mag7/Highlander
Title: Child Of My Heart (9/12)
Author: strangevisitor7
Fandom: Magnificent 7 and Highlander
Beta: Much thanks to ithildyn
Prompt: #69 - Thunder for Crossovers100. My table is here
Rating: PG, Gen
Characters: HL: OFC Charlotte Sparrow (AKA Pearl Black); Mag7: Ezra Standish, Maude Standish
Chapter Summary: Ezra revives and is now an Immortal. Will he see it as the gift Maude intended?
A/N: Charlotte is an Immortal and an original character created by ithildyn. In Charlotte’s bio, Ith mentioned that she’d lived in New Mexico in the 1860’s, so it was obvious to me she knew the Mag7 boys. I have added the idea that she was Maude Standish’s teacher, longtime friend and one of those people Maude would occasionally ‘dump’ Ezra with. The rest of Charlotte’s stories can be found on ithildyn’s journal Here
Chapter List
Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Epilogue
Child Of My Heart, Chapter 9
Ezra felt like he was wading through a heavy fog. There was a searing pain in his chest, but it was rapidly disappearing. What was growing stronger was the buzzing behind his eyes. It wasn’t exactly a headache but he felt as if he was following the feeling toward consciousness. He gasped for breath as the sensation of suffocation hit him along with the strange thought that he hadn’t been breathing a moment before.
He took a long deep breath as he opened his eyes. Blinking, he tried to register what he was seeing; the barn, Charlotte’s barn. His last memory hit him like a blunt object. His mother had shot him.
Bolting upright, he quickly unbuttoned his vest and shirt looking for signs of the bullet wound. He let out a heavy sigh of relief as his searching hands encountered no such wound. He must have imagined it. But then why had he blacked out and where had the blood on his shirt come from?
He felt eyes on him and looked up to see his mother - he supposed he would always think of her that way - and Charlotte watching him.
Charlotte moved first and sat down beside him. “Ezra, I know this must seem odd to you, but there are things you need to understand,” she said as she laid a hand on his arm.
His head buzzed at the nearness of her, almost like she was generating the feeling. “I had the strangest dream --”
“It was no dream, darling boy,” Maude said as she took a seat to his left.
Ezra turned toward her, sensing the same sensation that was coming off Charlotte. “Of course it was a dream. I know you can be a bit cold sometimes, but I hardly think you would ever shoot me,” he laughed.
Maude looked down and then past him to meet Charlotte’s eyes. Ezra was feeling a bit uncomfortable. He reached up to examine his chest again. The memory of the bullet seemed so real. As his hand ghosted across his shirt, he found a bullet hole.
Pushing his finger through the tear, he stuttered, “I don’t understand. How could it have missed me and yet done this damage to my shirt?”
“It didn’t miss you,” Charlotte explained. “Maude shot you and you were dead.”
“That’s impossible, unless - “ Ezra jumped to his feet and backed away from the two women. “This is the afterlife. Hell?”
It didn’t feel like Hell, but Ezra was quite certain he’d never gain entrance to the other location. That meant that Charlotte and his mother were figments of his imagination; not real. The occupants in his own personal Hell.
“You’re not in Hell and you never will be,” Charlotte insisted.
He laughed without humor. “Cousin, your faith in me even in my own imagination is still misguided.”
“Ezra, stop being so difficult and sit down,” Maude commanded as she patted the hay bale.
He stared at the illusion of his mother. “You shot me!” he shouted as the reality of her actions penetrated. “I’m dead because of you! Why would I come anywhere near you again?”
Maude stood, anger pouring off her. “Ezra Standish, I am you mother and you will not speak to me in that tone!”
“You’re not real! I can speak to you however I choose,” he retorted, feeling emboldened by his rage. “You chose to end my life when your jealousy over Charlotte became too much and I no longer wished to be you partner in criminal activities. Hardly the act of a supportive and attentive mother. But then you weren’t, were you? Charlotte was right, you were never meant to be a mother.”
Maude stepped forward and slapped him. “How dare you say such things to me?”
Charlotte forced herself between them and pushed Maude back. “You’ve done enough, Maude! Let me handle this. He’s confused and angry as I warned you he would be.”
Maude poked a finger into the other woman’s chest. “No, Charlotte, I will handle the explanations.”
Ezra listened with half an ear as the two women argued over him. He reached up to massage his temple; the buzz had settled into white noise behind his eyes. “Stop it!” he yelled.
They fell silent as they both looked at him. It was then Ezra noticed that Charlotte was holding a rather large sword. He blinked and shook his head. Why would he imagine a version of his cousin wielding such an odd weapon?
He felt himself giving into the panic of the surreal situation. His mother had shot him. As many times as his brain repeated that fact, he really couldn’t process the enormity of what it meant. It was getting harder to breath. He needed to get outside; get away from them and the last confirmation that his life had been so sad and pathetic that his own mother had chosen to end it. Without a word he started toward the barn door.
“Wait, Ezra, please.” Charlotte walked to intercept him. “I know things seem odd, but I promise you there is an explanation, starting with the fact that you are not dead.”
Ezra tried to push past her but she grabbed his right wrist. He marveled at the very real feeling of her hand on his arm. He reached over to take her hand in his own and held it tightly. He clung to the comforting emotion that holding her hand in his always engendered. As the panic started to fade, he looked up to meet her eyes and saw nothing but concern.
“I’m really not dead?”
Charlotte smiled at him. “You are very much alive. In fact, you are Immortal just as Maude and I are.”
He heard but did not comprehend her statement. When Charlotte sensed his bewilderment, she tried to explain. “We can not die.”
That’s what he thought she’d said. He shook his head. “That’s impossible.”
He wanted so badly to believe that she could force it all to make sense, but Immortality. That was not logical.
“I know this is confusing,” Charlotte said as she squeezed his hand. “Come sit down and I will explain it better.”
When Ezra hesitated, she looked back at Maude. “We have to show him.”
“Show me what?” Ezra asked. He clung to the feeling of Charlotte’s hand as proof that he was alive. The rest was too bizarre to contemplate yet.
Charlotte ignored him and continued to stare at Maude.
“Why me?” Maude asked as she crossed her arms defiantly.
“You know why!”
Maude continued to resist. “I know no such thing.”
Releasing Ezra’s hand, Charlotte walked over to her. “You’ve done serious damage to your relationship with Ezra that I know you wish to repair,” Charlotte reminded her. “Plus, you can trust I won’t take your head, I on the other hand, have no such faith in you.”
“Charlotte!” Maude tried to sound indignant. “I would do no such thing.”
“Maude!” Charlotte barked, the command for the conwoman’s cooperation implicit in that one word.
Ezra was perplexed not only by the words exchanged but by the way Charlotte was behaving. She was in control and his mother was backing down. The dynamic was all wrong and the strangeness of it was unnerving. He felt Maude’s eyes on him, but he refused to look at her. He only wanted Charlotte to return to his side to share the rest of the enlightenment she promised.
“All right, I’ll do it for Ezra. He needs to see what I am willing to endure for him,” Maude said. “If this will help him appreciate what I did than I am ready to be the one to demonstrate our abilities.”
The concern in her voice got his attention and he finally dared to meet his mother’s gaze. She smiled at him and nodded. He was taken aback by the connection he felt to her at that moment. Maybe Maude really did care for him, and unlike so many times before, she actually had lowered her guard enough to show him.
“Thank you,” Charlotte said. Switching the sword she’d been carrying to her left hand and without taking her eyes off Maude, she reached her right toward Ezra. “Your Remington please, Ezra.”
Ezra didn’t move, but his curiosity got the best of him. Before he added to her arsenal he had to know about the sword. “Cousin, I couldn’t help but wonder at the blade you seem to have an iron grip on. Is there some reason you need such a weapon if, as you say, we are not in some improbable afterlife?”
Charlotte sent him a comforting smile as she walked back to his side. “I will explain the sword, but first I need your gun for a little demonstration that I think will put all your doubts to rest and,” she threw an amused look back at Maude, “make me feel better in the process.”
Maude rolled her eyes and began unbuttoning the bodice of her emerald green dress.
“Mother, what are you doing?” Ezra asked as he watched her open her blouse, and while still keeping her breasts covered, exposed her chest.
“I don’t plan on letting Charlotte put a bullet hole one of my favorite dresses,” she explained.
He titled his head in confusion as he looked to Charlotte for an explanation. She stood beside him, silently smiling with her hand raised beckoning for his gun. Without further debate, he pulled his weapon and gave it to her. If she needed it in order to provide answers, he was willing to go along with her request.
Indicating that he should follow, she walked back to stand in front of Maude.
“Ezra, being an Immortal is complicated. To really understand everything that goes with your new existence, it is sometimes best to see a demonstration of what we are,” Charlotte explained patiently.
He smiled as he recognized that she had gone into teaching mode. It brought back memories of his childhood when Charlotte had sought to educate him on everything from history to music.
“I am willing to learn all you have to share,” he said as he tried to grasp what Charlotte really planned to do. “But I’m not sure Immortality is something I can accept as quickly as many of the other thing you’ve taught me.”
“Which is why I’m going to do this.”
Before Ezra could process what was happening, Charlotte had raised the gun to Maude’s exposed chest and shot her through the heart. Ezra watched as his mother’s lifeless body fell to the ground. For the second time that day, he felt his world end.
Author: strangevisitor7
Fandom: Magnificent 7 and Highlander
Beta: Much thanks to ithildyn
Prompt: #69 - Thunder for Crossovers100. My table is here
Rating: PG, Gen
Characters: HL: OFC Charlotte Sparrow (AKA Pearl Black); Mag7: Ezra Standish, Maude Standish
Chapter Summary: Ezra revives and is now an Immortal. Will he see it as the gift Maude intended?
A/N: Charlotte is an Immortal and an original character created by ithildyn. In Charlotte’s bio, Ith mentioned that she’d lived in New Mexico in the 1860’s, so it was obvious to me she knew the Mag7 boys. I have added the idea that she was Maude Standish’s teacher, longtime friend and one of those people Maude would occasionally ‘dump’ Ezra with. The rest of Charlotte’s stories can be found on ithildyn’s journal Here
Chapter List
Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8; Chapter 9; Chapter 10; Chapter 11; Epilogue
Child Of My Heart, Chapter 9
Ezra felt like he was wading through a heavy fog. There was a searing pain in his chest, but it was rapidly disappearing. What was growing stronger was the buzzing behind his eyes. It wasn’t exactly a headache but he felt as if he was following the feeling toward consciousness. He gasped for breath as the sensation of suffocation hit him along with the strange thought that he hadn’t been breathing a moment before.
He took a long deep breath as he opened his eyes. Blinking, he tried to register what he was seeing; the barn, Charlotte’s barn. His last memory hit him like a blunt object. His mother had shot him.
Bolting upright, he quickly unbuttoned his vest and shirt looking for signs of the bullet wound. He let out a heavy sigh of relief as his searching hands encountered no such wound. He must have imagined it. But then why had he blacked out and where had the blood on his shirt come from?
He felt eyes on him and looked up to see his mother - he supposed he would always think of her that way - and Charlotte watching him.
Charlotte moved first and sat down beside him. “Ezra, I know this must seem odd to you, but there are things you need to understand,” she said as she laid a hand on his arm.
His head buzzed at the nearness of her, almost like she was generating the feeling. “I had the strangest dream --”
“It was no dream, darling boy,” Maude said as she took a seat to his left.
Ezra turned toward her, sensing the same sensation that was coming off Charlotte. “Of course it was a dream. I know you can be a bit cold sometimes, but I hardly think you would ever shoot me,” he laughed.
Maude looked down and then past him to meet Charlotte’s eyes. Ezra was feeling a bit uncomfortable. He reached up to examine his chest again. The memory of the bullet seemed so real. As his hand ghosted across his shirt, he found a bullet hole.
Pushing his finger through the tear, he stuttered, “I don’t understand. How could it have missed me and yet done this damage to my shirt?”
“It didn’t miss you,” Charlotte explained. “Maude shot you and you were dead.”
“That’s impossible, unless - “ Ezra jumped to his feet and backed away from the two women. “This is the afterlife. Hell?”
It didn’t feel like Hell, but Ezra was quite certain he’d never gain entrance to the other location. That meant that Charlotte and his mother were figments of his imagination; not real. The occupants in his own personal Hell.
“You’re not in Hell and you never will be,” Charlotte insisted.
He laughed without humor. “Cousin, your faith in me even in my own imagination is still misguided.”
“Ezra, stop being so difficult and sit down,” Maude commanded as she patted the hay bale.
He stared at the illusion of his mother. “You shot me!” he shouted as the reality of her actions penetrated. “I’m dead because of you! Why would I come anywhere near you again?”
Maude stood, anger pouring off her. “Ezra Standish, I am you mother and you will not speak to me in that tone!”
“You’re not real! I can speak to you however I choose,” he retorted, feeling emboldened by his rage. “You chose to end my life when your jealousy over Charlotte became too much and I no longer wished to be you partner in criminal activities. Hardly the act of a supportive and attentive mother. But then you weren’t, were you? Charlotte was right, you were never meant to be a mother.”
Maude stepped forward and slapped him. “How dare you say such things to me?”
Charlotte forced herself between them and pushed Maude back. “You’ve done enough, Maude! Let me handle this. He’s confused and angry as I warned you he would be.”
Maude poked a finger into the other woman’s chest. “No, Charlotte, I will handle the explanations.”
Ezra listened with half an ear as the two women argued over him. He reached up to massage his temple; the buzz had settled into white noise behind his eyes. “Stop it!” he yelled.
They fell silent as they both looked at him. It was then Ezra noticed that Charlotte was holding a rather large sword. He blinked and shook his head. Why would he imagine a version of his cousin wielding such an odd weapon?
He felt himself giving into the panic of the surreal situation. His mother had shot him. As many times as his brain repeated that fact, he really couldn’t process the enormity of what it meant. It was getting harder to breath. He needed to get outside; get away from them and the last confirmation that his life had been so sad and pathetic that his own mother had chosen to end it. Without a word he started toward the barn door.
“Wait, Ezra, please.” Charlotte walked to intercept him. “I know things seem odd, but I promise you there is an explanation, starting with the fact that you are not dead.”
Ezra tried to push past her but she grabbed his right wrist. He marveled at the very real feeling of her hand on his arm. He reached over to take her hand in his own and held it tightly. He clung to the comforting emotion that holding her hand in his always engendered. As the panic started to fade, he looked up to meet her eyes and saw nothing but concern.
“I’m really not dead?”
Charlotte smiled at him. “You are very much alive. In fact, you are Immortal just as Maude and I are.”
He heard but did not comprehend her statement. When Charlotte sensed his bewilderment, she tried to explain. “We can not die.”
That’s what he thought she’d said. He shook his head. “That’s impossible.”
He wanted so badly to believe that she could force it all to make sense, but Immortality. That was not logical.
“I know this is confusing,” Charlotte said as she squeezed his hand. “Come sit down and I will explain it better.”
When Ezra hesitated, she looked back at Maude. “We have to show him.”
“Show me what?” Ezra asked. He clung to the feeling of Charlotte’s hand as proof that he was alive. The rest was too bizarre to contemplate yet.
Charlotte ignored him and continued to stare at Maude.
“Why me?” Maude asked as she crossed her arms defiantly.
“You know why!”
Maude continued to resist. “I know no such thing.”
Releasing Ezra’s hand, Charlotte walked over to her. “You’ve done serious damage to your relationship with Ezra that I know you wish to repair,” Charlotte reminded her. “Plus, you can trust I won’t take your head, I on the other hand, have no such faith in you.”
“Charlotte!” Maude tried to sound indignant. “I would do no such thing.”
“Maude!” Charlotte barked, the command for the conwoman’s cooperation implicit in that one word.
Ezra was perplexed not only by the words exchanged but by the way Charlotte was behaving. She was in control and his mother was backing down. The dynamic was all wrong and the strangeness of it was unnerving. He felt Maude’s eyes on him, but he refused to look at her. He only wanted Charlotte to return to his side to share the rest of the enlightenment she promised.
“All right, I’ll do it for Ezra. He needs to see what I am willing to endure for him,” Maude said. “If this will help him appreciate what I did than I am ready to be the one to demonstrate our abilities.”
The concern in her voice got his attention and he finally dared to meet his mother’s gaze. She smiled at him and nodded. He was taken aback by the connection he felt to her at that moment. Maybe Maude really did care for him, and unlike so many times before, she actually had lowered her guard enough to show him.
“Thank you,” Charlotte said. Switching the sword she’d been carrying to her left hand and without taking her eyes off Maude, she reached her right toward Ezra. “Your Remington please, Ezra.”
Ezra didn’t move, but his curiosity got the best of him. Before he added to her arsenal he had to know about the sword. “Cousin, I couldn’t help but wonder at the blade you seem to have an iron grip on. Is there some reason you need such a weapon if, as you say, we are not in some improbable afterlife?”
Charlotte sent him a comforting smile as she walked back to his side. “I will explain the sword, but first I need your gun for a little demonstration that I think will put all your doubts to rest and,” she threw an amused look back at Maude, “make me feel better in the process.”
Maude rolled her eyes and began unbuttoning the bodice of her emerald green dress.
“Mother, what are you doing?” Ezra asked as he watched her open her blouse, and while still keeping her breasts covered, exposed her chest.
“I don’t plan on letting Charlotte put a bullet hole one of my favorite dresses,” she explained.
He titled his head in confusion as he looked to Charlotte for an explanation. She stood beside him, silently smiling with her hand raised beckoning for his gun. Without further debate, he pulled his weapon and gave it to her. If she needed it in order to provide answers, he was willing to go along with her request.
Indicating that he should follow, she walked back to stand in front of Maude.
“Ezra, being an Immortal is complicated. To really understand everything that goes with your new existence, it is sometimes best to see a demonstration of what we are,” Charlotte explained patiently.
He smiled as he recognized that she had gone into teaching mode. It brought back memories of his childhood when Charlotte had sought to educate him on everything from history to music.
“I am willing to learn all you have to share,” he said as he tried to grasp what Charlotte really planned to do. “But I’m not sure Immortality is something I can accept as quickly as many of the other thing you’ve taught me.”
“Which is why I’m going to do this.”
Before Ezra could process what was happening, Charlotte had raised the gun to Maude’s exposed chest and shot her through the heart. Ezra watched as his mother’s lifeless body fell to the ground. For the second time that day, he felt his world end.