This is an old West AU that has mainly lived inside my head so far, where the catalyst of change is different ages for the four youngest-though admittedly I'm guessing at Canon ages for the other three.

First Episode they are

Josiah-46

Chris-40

Buck-36

Nathan-24

Vin-21

Ezra-18

JD-16, like a week before.

Also Buck and Chris have known each other for closer to twenty years then twelve. Josiah and Nathan already knew each other, from the war. Nathan ran north at a much younger age, and became a stretcher bearer in his early teens. The two keep running into each other, start traveling together, and by the time we run into them in four corners are already unofficial family.

The three youngest lie about their ages, JD saying he is 19, which I figure is his canon age, Ezra, who is of course very good at conning people says he is 25 and Vin says he is 26. Vin lies mostly out of habit, he trusts Chris but not the rest. JD and Ezra lie partly so they will be allowed to come along, but also because JD has runaway from the abusive orphanage he was put in after his mothers death, and because Ezra is trying to stay below his mothers radar. Nathan is only 24, but he doesn't lie about it. Other than that it's the same, Vin and Chris rescue Nathan, JD tries to help and gets told you don't shoot people in the back, they find Ezra bluffing his way out of getting shot-up after hustling darts at the saloon.

Second episode-when Judge Travis recognizes Ezra it isn't as Ezra Simpson, bail jumper, but the teenage ward he and Evie had taken in when Maude was sentenced to a year in Ft. Laramie. Ezra was originally sentenced as well, but when taking the boy on a visit to his mother in the small area set aside for women offenders, already upset at the bruises clearly left by the guards, Judge Travis overhears a rather disturbing conversation. Like Witness, but worse, with Maude blaming Ezra for their being caught, and backhanding the boy. Within a few days, the judge, still reeling from the death of his son months before and furious that some people don't understand the gift they've been given, has the sixteen year old remanded into his care and takes him home to Evie. All goes as well as can be expected for close to a year, but a month before Maude is to be released Ezra disappears. Now, a few months after his eighteenth birthday the Judge finds him. Whole buncha stuff happens then, but biggest thing is, because Ezra never finished serving out his "sentence" the judge still has legal custody, and reluctantly winds up giving responsibility to Josiah. He misses the boy, exasperating and slippery as he is, but it's clear Ezra trusts the rest of the "seven" to keep him safe in a way he didn't trust him and Evie. That the ex-priest is clearly fond of, if rather bemused by, Ezra, helps. Still, he has every intention of keeping an eye on the situation, and once Mary learns Ezra is there he has a determined helper.

A few months later, in between Witness(In which Josiah was initially enamored by the sight of Maude, but quickly became unenamored) and Nemesis, Judge Travis comes to town, both to visit his family, which includes Ezra whether he likes it or not, and to find out whether JD is the John Daniel Dunne missing from an orphanage in Boston. If so, he's sorry, but JD is a few years too young to be the sheriff. After a fair amount of angst, most of which would have been unnecessary if JD hadn't run-off instead of just asking the judge whether he meant to send him back, Buck is assigned custody, (as Orin sees it he was already raising the boy, whether JD is sixteen or nineteen doesn't much matter). Chris won't take the position of sheriff officially, so it winds up going to Buck by default of no one else wanting it either. JD gets to keep the badge, though.

Vin winds up just telling Chris not long after, when the two are camping out in the desert though Chris had already pretty much figured it out. It doesn't change much, but he does keep a closer eye on the younger man, interfering more than he would have before, and stepping in when he feels he needs too.

This is set about a year after that, so all the boys are a year older, and have bonded quite a bit as an unofficial family. I've tried to keep them in character as much as possible, but it is a spanking/discipline fic. If you don't like it, click the back button.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Inez smirked as she looked at the poker game going on in the middle of the room. She didn't know what the three youngest peacekeepers had been up to, but it was obviously something the others wouldn't approve of, if the nervous glances both Ezra and JD had been taking towards the door since they came in an hour ago meant anything. Granted, Ezra's glances were much fewer and less obvious, but Inez had been watching the seven long enough she could see he was anything but as relaxed as he seemed. Vin had been in earlier too, and even more squirrely than the others, taking off after only a drink, heading out on a long ride. Well, whatever they had done, they hadn't done it in the saloon, and they seemed to be in one piece, so Inez was content to sit back and wait for the fireworks.

She got busy serving a group of cowhands that came in, pouring drinks, and occasionally reminding one that she was not a working girl with a well placed fist or foot, and had let the antics of the men she was coming to see as family slip from her mind. Which is why Inez was as startled as everyone else when the roar of, "My boy did what?" came from the boardwalk out front.

Senior Sanchez sounded incredibly unhappy, and judging by the way Ezra jumped out of his seat, pushing back from the table in one fluid move and tossing his hand in, not even bothering to announce that he was folding, just a breathless, "Mah apologies, excuse me gentlemen.", before he was running to the backdoor, he'd given him reason to be. JD seemed to be going the opposite route, and had slunk down in his seat so that just his head showed over the table, and was still going lower.

"Ezra Standish!" Ezra might have made it out the door unseen, but he was wearing his trademark red jacket, and Josiah saw the light reflecting off one of the coattails and was after him like a shot, the bulky man dodging through the crowded tables in a surprisingly graceful manner. "Don't you run from me!" Josiah disappeared out the backdoor after Ezra, as Buck, looking particularly long suffering, walked over to JD's hat brim (as that was all you could see now) and spoke plainly, with a voice full of exasperation.

"Son, I understand the temptation, but you can't just go around doing things like dumping whitewash and manure on people, even if it is Conklin." The entire saloon busted up laughing at this pronouncement, and Buck glared around at them all. He was trying to handle this like a grown-up, and they weren't helping. He'd already had to stop in an alley and laugh for about five minutes before he could trust himself to keep a straight face. Buck hadn't really expected Josiah to get as mad as he did when he told him, but then again Chris hadn't seemed too happy when he'd lit out after Vin on Pony, telling Buck to "handle yours and make sure Josiah does the same".

"It wasn't me!" He could still only see JD's hat brim over the table and he stepped over to grab his little brother by the shoulder and haul him back into his seat, taking the time to knock the useless hat off his head as he did, JD not saying anything about it for once.

"Not just you, sure, but you and Vin and Ezra."

"It wasn't!" JD's voice was higher pitched than usual and Buck crossed his arms as he stood over him.

"Then who was it?"

JD's eyes flitted away from Buck furtively, "Strangers."

"Strangers?" Buck's face was incredulous, "Strangers came to town just to dump a bucket of manure and whitewash on Joe Conklin. JD, even that man isn't that annoying!"

"I didn't say that was the only reason they came to town!"

Buck was starting to get a bit annoyed by now. "I don't like ya lying to me, kid. You were seen, all three of you, and I don't want to hear a lie out of your mouth about it again, ya hear?"

JD hung his head, nodding, "M'sorry, Buck."

Buck sighed, "C'mon, we gotta go have a talk."

*.*.*.*.*.*

"Now Josiah, Ah can see your upset with mah actions, and Ah can understand-"

"Ezra?"

"Yes, Mr. Sanchez?"

"Shut-up and c'mere." Ezra's back was up against the fence behind the saloon, the one that seemed to mostly be there to hold up the slanting privy, and he shook his head, having no intention of removing his backside from the solid protection behind him. He wasn't scared of Josiah exactly, the one time the man had really lost his temper he'd promptly removed himself from the vicinity without laying a hand on Ezra, and had apologized later. That was far more consideration than many of the 'relatives' his mother had left him with over the years had had for him. So no, Ezra wasn't scared of Josiah, the man wouldn't actually hurt him.

But that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt. He shook his head again and Josiah straightened up to his full height. It was strange how, for all both Buck and Nathan were taller than him, Josiah seemed so much bigger.

"Josiah..."

"Ezra." The human mountain wasn't going anywhere, nor was he going to just grab Ezra himself, not now. Josiah was going to make Ezra step forward and give himself up, and Ezra glared at him, but of course he didn't react. Ezra had already learned that Josiah had more patience than him, or at least was more stubborn, and could wait him out for ages.

He'd hidden on the roof of the old grainery for an hour once, but that had only made him madder. Every time Ezra had run it had only made him madder, but he couldn't help it, it was just in his nature. Finally, finally, he took a step forward and let Josiah grab him by the arm and haul him in front of him. His feet had been getting sore, standing there, that was all. Soon, something else was getting sore as Josiah bent him over and tucked him under one arm, his large paw of a hand coming smacking down on Ezra's posterior, eliciting an undignified squawk from the gambler, then twice more, though Ezra kept his mouth sealed against any noise that wanted to escape on those. Lord, that stung! "That was for running from me. We'll talk about the rest when we get home." Home to Josiah was the old church he'd been rebuilding, and the little rooms on the back where he slept and stored his things. As Josiah towed him along, taking no chances on another escape attempt, Ezra had to admit that even though he slept above the saloon, he, Ezra P. Standish, who had spent most of his life highly uncomfortable around churches, had come to think of this one the same way.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Chris frowned as he turned off the trail, following Peso's tracks down a steep embankment. It wasn't bad in dry weather, but he wasn't sure why Vin would have come down this way to find a camp. At least he was leaving tracks. Chris knew very well he could have erased them and left the gunslinger none the wiser to his whereabouts until he came back in his own sweet time.

A sigh left him, before a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. When he'd told Vin to lay off the pranks on his fellow peacekeepers he hadn't realized he was turning him loose on the townsfolk. Of course, if anybody was deserving of such things it was Conklin, after what the son-of-a-bitch had done to Billy, but they were supposed to be the law in town. The law didn't dump shit on people, whatever they deserved.

Chris would never admit it, under pain of death, but he wished he'd seen it.

He rode along for awhile longer, crossing over a dry stream bed, and back up an incline that wasn't nearly as steep as the first but was a lot more gravely, through a grove of tree's with a stream that would have been perfect to camp at, and eventually to a little canyon in the rocks he never could have found on his own. Boy had made him work for it. There he was, fire roaring away merrily with a snake roasting on a spit over it-Chris hated snake, but Vin loved it-and a quiet, sneaky, little grin dancing it's way across the tracker's face as he watched Chris dismount from his horse and ground tie him next to Peso, glaring at Vin the whole while.

"Evenin', Chris. Want some supper?"

"I want you to tell me what the hell you were thinking." Chris walked over and settled across from Vin at the fire, balancing on a small boulder, still glaring. Vin's face lost it's smile and he nodded.

"Thinkin' Conklin is a bastard, walkin' 'round town like he's better than everybody after what he did." Vin took a sip off his flask, and passed it across the fire to Chris, then stared hard at the flames, like he was looking for something in them. Chris waited him out. "Should hear the things he says 'bout Inez, things he says 'bout lots of people."

"Tell me."

"Ain't the sorta thing a decent man repeats." Chris could see that whatever it was it was bad, the way Vin's head had ducked and his jaw had clenched.

"The general idea." Chris wasn't expecting the torrent of words that flooded out of his usually silent friend, but it seemed Vin had been holding this in for awhile.

"Any women who spends time around any of us is...I ain't gonna say it. Nate won't say nothing, but I head Conklin one day, mostly saying more shit I ain't gonna repeat, and saying if the town was anything like decent they wouldn't let him practice medicine at all. Then he's knocking on the clinic door two days later, needin' help. And you know Nate, he ain't gonna turn anybody away. Gots things to say about all of us. Goes 'round, saying we should all be run outta town, 'cause we're 'riff-raff'. Mostly, it's been behind our backs...but not always. Had JD almost in tears last week." Vin looked up and Chris realized that he wasn't just angry, he was hurt. Hurt for what had been done to the others, but hurt for himself too. Vin wouldn't tell him what Conklin had said about him either, too used, even now, to not thinking he mattered compared to others. "And people agree with him, sometimes. Man terrorizes a widow and a little boy like that, and 'cause he dresses fancy he's better than us? Only, when it's Ezra, suddenly dressing fancy is suspicious. Ya know what else? Ezra ain't allowed to tutor the Polacek kids no more. Going out there once a week for months and now all of a sudden he ain't welcome. Can't prove Conklin is behind it, but after everything else..."

Vin's eyes pleaded with him across the fire to understand, and in a way Chris thought he did. Conklin wasn't a villain they could use guns or knives to fight against, or even the law so long as the bastard kept his nose clean. So they had fought back in a way that was open to them.

Didn't explain why none of the boys, why Vin in particular, hadn't said a word to him. Chris would have taken care of it himself, without any of the boys putting themselves in Conklin's crosshairs. For all the man's talk, since the day Ezra's mother had convinced him he had a mob on his tail he'd been terrified of the peacekeepers. It was why he was so set on getting rid of them. While some of the townsfolk might speak out against them, they were mostly the sort the rest of the town didn't like. As long as people like Mary, and Mrs. Potter, and the others who practically ran the community, spoke up for them, Chris had thought of Conklin and his ilk as an annoyance, and ignored them. Had thought that was the best way to handle it.

Obviously it hadn't been. Not know that he knew this been more than the ill thought-out prank he'd thought it was, now that he knew this had been half of his men feeling backed into a corner and lashing out because of it. The idea that the man had been tormenting the four youngest peacekeepers under his nose and he hadn't known made Chris want to do something a whole hell of a lot worse than what the boys had done. Piece of shit would be lucky if Chris didn't shoot him. Hell, when he told Josiah that his campaign to get Ezra to admit he wanted to be a teacher had had such a setback the man was likely to kill Conklin with his bare hands.

Alright, maybe he wouldn't shoot him. Or let Josiah kill him. Lock him up for terrorizing a child, maybe. JD was seventeen, he still counted.

He would have taken care of it. Vin knew that, didn't he? The question must have shown in his eyes somehow because the answer was there suddenly, in the stubborn set of Vin's mouth. He'd known and he hadn't told Chris plain and simple because he'd wanted to handle it himself, or at least hadn't wanted to let the older family members help. Had decided it was his to handle. Problem was, that wasn't how they did things and Vin knew that too.

"I'm gonna have to punish you." He said it plainly, no beating around the bush, and Vin glared at him, hurt and angry at him now.

"Bastard deserved it, and you know it."

"Not for doing what you did to Conklin, not know that I know why you did it. Though it's damn stupid to antagonize a powerful man when you got a bounty on your head." Chris considered this for a moment. "A little for Conklin. Mostly because you promised me you were gonna come to me if something happened you or the others needed help with. Instead you kept it a secret, and went behind our backs to deal with a family problem yourselves. If we have Conklin or somebody else gunning for us, I gotta know Vin. I can't be the leader if I don't know what's going on. Said yourself Nathan won't say anything if somebody's giving him trouble, but the rest of us can do something about it if we know. Ezra and JD look up to you. Try and do things like you whether they admit it or not." Vin bowed his head here, knowing it was true, and that he'd gotten the other boys in trouble. "You want Ezra deciding to deal with some angry player looking for revenge on his own? Want JD riding off on his own next time a telegraph comes asking for the sheriff's help?" The bowed head shook mutely. No, he definitely did not want either of those things to happen. "C'mere."

"Chris..." Chris just looked back at him steadily and after a minute he pushed himself slowly to his feet and crossed around the the fire to him, reluctant but not resisting. Chris pulled him down over his lap in one move, making sure to move slow enough Vin didn't hit his hands on the rock as he reached out to balance himself. He braced himself as one of Chris's hands cinched around his waist, pulling him closer, knowing that meant the other one was rising in the air. It didn't help as a blazing hard smack landed smack dab in the center of his left ass cheek, making him squirm before he forced his body to stay still. He wasn't gonna be a wuss, he could take what Chris had to dish out. Chris landed another smack right over the the top of the first one, then two more swats just like it on his right cheek. He continued like that in a zig-zag line down both cheeks, his hand easily covering most of Vin's scrawny behind as he lost the battle against first squirming and then kicking. Maybe he was sniffling a little too, but Chris had a damn hard hand. If this had been about the prank he might have been able to resist better, but knowing it was about not going to Chris, or even Josiah or Buck, for help, made it different. Vin didn't think he could ever be sorry for putting Conklin in his place, but knowing he'd disappointed Chris was almost as painful as the smacks that were now landing on his sit-spot and bringing the first tears to his eyes.

Then it was over. It took a second for Vin to realize that it had stopped and Chris's hand was patting him steadily on the back, and then he quickly wiped a sleeve over his eyes, and started to push himself up. Chris waited until Vin was steady on his feet, one arm out to catch him until he was sure, then rose after him, pulling him into a brief, tight hug and then stepping away. "Alright, eat your snake and let's get out of here."

"Chris?" Vin looked at him a bit confusedly, one hand absentmindedly rubbing his sore rear, wanting to know why he'd been let off so easy. Chris didn't tan him very often, this was only the third time(though Josiah'd got him once), but both times before Vin had been bawling by the time he was done. Chris clamped a hand on his shoulder, and looked him right in the eye.

"I understand you were trying to protect the people you care about, our family and friends, it's just that you went about it the wrong way. You keep something important like this from me again we will have a much longer talk." Then he let just a hint of a grin enter his eyes, "Though if you have to go about something the wrong way, you choose the right one." Vin found himself grinning back, relieved that things were back to normal.

"It was a sight, cowboy."

"Don't call me cowboy, Tanner." Chris moved to guide Vin over to the stream, figuring he'd feel better once his face was washed, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "Did he scream?"

"Like a little girl."