Setcheti's answer to the October M7 Challenge: Five of the Magnificent Seven are headed to Tascosa to clear Vin's name for good, two are left to protect the town. Who will take the opportunity to terrorize Four Corners?

They've been gone better than a month now and still no word.

Saw Ezra go into the telegraph office just now to check, but he told me the other day that he thinks something must have gone wrong; he's hopin' they hightailed it across the border with Vin, but of course there ain't no way we can find out for sure. Then he laughed kind of strained-like and said that at least Mr. Larabee's last memory of him would be true to character, and the other men's as well.

He thinks I don't know what really happened; he's wrong. I saw it this time, plain as day, him settin' out to make Chris just hopping mad so Chris would make him stay behind. I'm pretty sure he'd already talked it over with Vin before he did it, because Vin winked at him and tipped his hat when they rode out and Ez saluted--not the little two-fingered gesture he gives Chris, this was the real thing and done just as solemn and proper as any Army officer I've ever seen. I don't think he expects Vin to come back.

Actually, I'm not sure he expects any of them to; maybe that's why he stayed, he wanted there to be someone here who would watch my back no matter what. Ez would never come right out and say it, not ever, but he knows that him and Vin are the ones I trust most and I think maybe the two of them set things up this way because of that. Now don't get me wrong, the seven of us together have something really special and I do trust them all…but Chris and Josiah are drunks, Buck can't keep his pants buttoned to save his life and Nathan's so damn stubborn he'd just as soon burn down the whole forest if he don't like the tree in front of him. Ezra may love his cards, but I've seen him take off from a game without a backward glance and leave a full house scattered on the floor just because he knew he was needed--and I've seen Chris sit in the corner and have another drink in the same situation. There's a reason they never asked Chris to be sheriff here instead of me and that's it.

That's also the reason I made Ezra my deputy right after they left. The others would have made a big joke out of it, but Ez and I talked about it serious-like while we were deciding how to rearrange things with only two lawmen in town and when I told him I didn't think it was workable for him to keep a low profile lawman-wise under the circumstances he grinned and pinned the star right on. He ain't worn his colors since, either, but he didn't say anything about it so I kept my mouth shut--I think he appreciated that. I appreciate him, more than I can say; think I learned more from him that first week than I did from everybody else over the past two years, but the way he does it makes me feel like I knew it all along and all he's doin' is reminding me.

That first week everything was quiet. Bunch of cowhands rode in the second week and we locked up two and ran the rest off before they could start any real trouble, and a few days after that the stage came through with Ezra's mother on it and he ran her off, too--didn't even let her get out, just held the door shut and flashed his badge at the driver, told him Mrs. Standish wouldn't be gettin' off until the next stop. Guess she had a few things to say about that, but he just said he'd be happy to see her at Christmas if she had a mind to visit…and that if she ever tried to run another con in Four Corners he'd lock her up. I still say that had a lot to do with the town raisin' our pay, fifteen dollars a week we're makin' now, but Ez says it's just because now they're payin' lawmen instead of hired guns and that makes a difference in a person's mind. He says that 'different ways of thinkin' make things change.'

And there's the problem, right there; things have changed. Four Corners isn't just a dusty little cowtown anymore, and it's gettin' along just fine with two lawmen instead of seven hired guns; they used the other half of what had been pay for those seven men to hire a teacher and start a school, things are gettin' right civilized around here and I have to say I like it. If the rest of the boys come back, though, I'm not too sure this new 'civilized' town is gonna have a place for them anymore, and somehow I don't think Ez and I would be able to go back to the way things were before even if it did--especially now that Ez and Mrs. Travis seem to be gettin' to be a little more than friends lately. It's more her doing than his from what I can tell, but I don't think that'll cut any ice with Chris if he comes ridin' back into town expectin' to pick up everything where he left off. This ain't the town he rode out of more than a month ago and we ain't the people he left behind either, but I don't expect him to accept that without some trouble.

And unfortunately, stopping that trouble would be our job, mine and Ezra's. I miss my friends, those five special men, really I do, but a part of me--the part that's the sheriff of Four Corners--is really hoping that the rest of the boys just keep on ridin'. Because some things have definitely changed around here since they left...and one of them was me.