Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this work of fan-fiction and are not my own creations and I am not trying to infringe on they copyright MGM, Mirsch or any other person who has something to do with these characters. I will not receive any money from this or other profit. I am just trying to have fun and avoid doing some studying :-) (unless one of the professors from UTPB should be reading this, then of course I am not avoiding studying I always put my schoolwork first and I hope you will enjoy this story, and before you start reading this I should warn you that this story deals with the issue of child abuse, and there will be gun play, but that should be known since our guys are protectors of the town, and it is a western so the rating is probably PG-13ish for language and violence so read and enjoy.

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THE PAST RETURNS

A fanfic based on The Magnificent Seven

By Debbie

As usual the Matt Johnson was in the bar, and no doubt his children were at home hungry once again. This was getting to be a regular situation. A situation that Nathan, Josiah, J.D., Vin, and even Ezra were finding unbearable. They suspected he was also beating his children. They were hired to uphold legal laws and not the moral. They half-hoped he would do something stupid like pull a gun on someone then people of Four Corners could do something. Chris turned when the doors to the bar opened. He was not amused to see Jamie walk in. She marched straight up to Chris and finally demanded an answer. She was fed up with the situation. "When are the seven of you going to do something about him?" Chris was tired of that question. "There is nothing we can do, according to the law the children are his to do with as he pleases." She looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "Excuse me do you know where Nathan and Josiah are? No, I didn't think you did. Well-let me tell you where they are. Mary and I paid a little visit to the Williams farm. The baby the two-year-old has a broke arm. That's right somebody broke the baby's arm, and your standing here telling me that according to the law nothing can be done. He's abusing his children." Chris took a drink. "Look maybe we'll get lucky and he'll start mistreating his animals and then we can do something. That's right it's a crime to beat your horse, but not your children. How's the baby?" She was so furious she could spit nails and aim them strait at Matt Johnson heart. She just stood and looked at him standing there and getting drunk and the seven watching him. "I don't believe this he can stand there get drunk and break his child's arm and nobody is going to do anything about it? What kind of place is this. Chris?" She wanted to see something done even if it was illegal, whatever they did would not be immoral. The immoral acts were being committed on the farm of Matt Johnson. His six-year-old son was trying to make crops grow. His seven-year-old daughter was running the house and a carrying for the younger children. That was the immoral thing not killing Matt Johnson. She looked at Chris for an answer when he didn't give one she gave him one. "Well maybe this should interest you. Mary and I have talked it over Chris, and we're going to do something about it. We are going to get them. And if you or anybody else doesn't like it tough." Matt Johnson, turned around then. "You can't take my children." She laughed at him and told him the truth. "You Mr. Williams is a drunk and an abuser of children. Your children deserve better than you." She had more to say but Chris and Vin ended up dragging her out of the barn before she could finish. "What are you two doing?" Chris looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "You can't take his children." She drew up her back and he continued. "I know you don't like the way he treats those kids, Hell no one does, but if you just go and take them we'll have to arrest you." She looks at him. "Get ready to arrest me, because I am going to do it." Mary pulls up with the wagon she gets in and they leave. Chris was furious with her. "Damn it what is she thinking, who in the hell does she think she is? She is not above the law. I will arrest her. I can't believe that Mrs. Travis is going along with it." He goes back into the saloon. At the farm they pull up, Cynthia is cooking and trying to comfort the baby. They walk in and the house is filthy and so are the children. Cynthia is scared and comforted by the fact that they have returned. Mary approaches her and takes the baby and with a firm but loving tone tells her to call her brothers in from the field they are going to town and staying with her and Mrs. Williams. Meanwhile, in town Matt Johnson is getting drunk. Buck comes over. Chris looks at him. "So where have you been?" He orders a beer and sips it. "Out I met a new friend you look like you're not having the world's best day. Oh great he's here again." I'm surprised Jamie and Mrs. Travis aren't here complaining about him." He looks at him and informs of the events of the day. Buck looks at him. "So what are we going to do?" He slams down the drink and walks out. Everyone expected him to do something about it. What was he supposed to do? Jamie was beyond control on this issue, and Mrs. Travis wasn't much better. He just for once wasn't sure what to do. Part of him wanted to shoot Matt Johnson down, and cheer for Jamie. The other part of him knew that they were hired to represent the law no matter how much they despised a law. He was not amused when he saw them pull up with the children, and he walked over. He didn't know that Matt had so many children. Jamie looked at him with a dare in his eye. They were filthy and hungry and exhausted. Mary was getting the three boys out of the wagon, and eyed Chris with suspicion. Jamie knew that one of them couldn't handle five children. "Mary, why don't you take the two boys girls and the baby can stay with me?" Mary looks at her and agrees that is the most practical solution. "I think that is a wonderful idea." Cynthia is frightened of being separated from her brothers. "I think we should all stay together." Jamie kneels in front of her. "I know honey but for right now the boys have to stay with Mrs. Travis, and you three with me. Oh honey don't cry." She takes the children upstairs and Chris follows. She starts filling the tub. Chris is watching. She smiles at him. "Chris could you pick Mindy from school and take her riding?" He looks at her. "Chris, I just got back to town and I have to get these children bathed and fed and over to see Nathan and make sure there are no serious injuries or illness." He nods yes and she hugs him. "Before you do that though could you go down to the store and get some children's clothes. Cynthia is seven, Susan is five, Janie is four, and the baby is six moths old." He goes and she starts bathing the children starting youngest too oldest. She has just finished the baby when he comes back. "Great your back while I bathe Janie, you can dress the baby. Don't worry I will make it up to you later." She kisses him. He is dressing the baby when he notices the bruises on the baby. "What happened to you?" Cynthia rushes to take the baby. "Its okay honey nobody is going to hurt you or this baby." Jamie calls from the kitchen, for Susie. Finally Cynthia goes to get bathed and Chris has fed the baby and the other two. He is wondering how she drug him into this mess. Then he realizes there is no other mess that he would rather be in. He hears Jamie drop something and tell the other two children to stay where they are he runs into the kitchen. Cynthia's back is to him and it looks like she's been worked over with a board, he is sick to his stomach. Jamie looks at him and she mouths "I am okay, can you go get Mindy?" He nods and runs into J.D. on the steps. "Chris, Matt Johnson just rode out to his place. What do you want us to do?" Chris turns and looks at her door. "Go get Josiah and meet me at the church. I will tell Jamie to get the children there, and send Buck to Mrs. Travis'." He goes back in she is feeding the children. She looks up and smiles. "Honey why are you back?" He picks up the baby and tells her "We have to get the children to the church." She knows that look and doesn't even question his decision they get there. Buck brings in Mrs. Travis and the boys. Jamie is trying to get Chris to tell her what is going on and why they are in the church. "Chris, why are we doing this?" He moves her and Mrs. Travis away and tries to explain that if Matt finds the children they will have to be returned to him. As long as he doesn't find the children there is nothing that can be done and that the children will be staying there and that includes Mindy and he's taking Jamie home. He gets her there, and she is furious. "I should be there I am just as much involved with this as Mary is." He sits and looks at her "I know but you are totally irrational on the subject of Matt Johnson, and those children don't need an irrational person they need someone who is cool and calm and collected to help them." She walks to the window and stares at the street. "I know but they're so helpless, and deserve better than what they have gotten out of life. No child should ever have to live like that."

In a camp a few hours away Matt Johnson has met up with his brothers. "Those two meddling women and those so-called law men have stolen my children." His brothers were aware of what he had become and weren't happy about it, but they couldn't allow people to take things that belong to them. They knew getting past the seven men wouldn't be easy. Yet they were determined they would, and then they would deal with their brother and the treatment of his children.

At the church things were going well the children and adults were nervous. They wondered why Chris had taken Jamie away. Buck and Mrs. Travis were talking it over. "Why would Chris just take her out?" "I don't Chris just said they had to go." "Why is he so worried about Jamie being hurt, or is there something in her past?" He looks at her and tells her the truth. "If Chris knows something he's not telling anyone, and he doesn't want other people speculating about it." With that he moved away and went to check on the children, who seemed to be bearing up better than the adults. The children were in that state of nothing is terribly wrong. To the Johnson children tension was the most normal thing in the world. To Mindy it was the simple fact of hanging out with the guys.

At Jamie's she and Chris were quiet. He finally couldn't take it anymore. So he did the one thing he had never done to her. He yelled. "Damn it Jamie say something tell me what your thinking? Why is this so important to you?" She looked at him and wondered how she could tell him. How do you tell someone who's never been abused or mistreated by the people who was supposed to protect them had as a small child had committed acts of terror on them? How could she explain what had happened as a little girl when she didn't even understand it, and she had lived it? She wanted to cry out and tell him about the beatings, being locked inside the storm shelter, or the cellar with the rats. She wanted and needed to tell him, but she couldn't. He watched and waited till finally she spoke. "Chris you just have to trust me on this. This is just something I have to do." She goes into the bedroom and gets into bed. Half hoping that Chris will join her, and half hoping that he doesn't. She knows that if he does she will tell him everything. Meanwhile in the living room he is wanting to join her, and at the same time wondering what it is she's not telling him. He eventually falls asleep on her couch. Meanwhile Jamie was having the worst nightmare of her life.

She had been beaten by her father severely, and he was locking her in that small closet. Telling her how stupid and worthless, she was. He locked her in there, and she was left alone with the rats. She cried and cried then he comes back and beats her again.

She wakes up screaming and Chris runs in. She is just crying and he holds her. "Chris, nobody should have to live like that." He just holds her and letting her cry knowing that she will talk eventually. "Chris, he's just like him." He is confused she doesn't know what she's talking about. "I don't understand." She looks at him and realizes that she can tell him and he'll not hate her. "I don't know where to begin." He holds her and kisses her and says "You can tell me no matter how bad it is. You know sometimes you can be more stubborn about talking about things than Mindy." She smiles "I guess should tell you what is going on why I am so determined to help the Johnson children. My father was a lot like Matt Johnson. He used to drink a lot as a matter of fact he made Matt look like a tea totaler. The first couple of years were okay then Ma got sick and died, he couldn't handle it. So he started drinking and that's when it started the more he drank the meaner he got. He would beat me up then lock me in the storm cellar, the smoke house, a closet where ever, then he would go drink some more and comeback. This went on for years. Till I was sixteen and then I killed him. They ruled it an accident everyone in town knew what he was doing but nobody would speak out. So I left that town and met Johnny, and we got married and he was killed by that bank robber. Chris, no child should have to go through that. I can't let those children go through that do you understand now." He kisses her and tells her that he does understand, and holds her. They fall asleep like that she continues to cry out in her sleep throughout the night. Chris, is shocked but finally understanding why Jamie can't let the children go through this.

At the church their getting the children settled and Mindy is not happy because she hasn't got to go see the pony that Chris bought her. She tries to argue, beg, manipulate, to go see it. She is not amused that they are not letting her go. When the children are a sleep, she sneaks out the window. Johnson and his brothers ride into town and grab her. They leave a note saying Mindy for his children.

The next morning Jamie is shocked to find Chris in the bed with her. She remembers telling him, about her father and everything she went through. She kisses him. He smiles. "Hi, thanks for being here." He pulls her to him. "You feeling better." She looks at him and smiles. "It felt good to talk about it. I hadn't done that in a long time." He looks at her. "You okay?". She smiles and snuggles against him. "Thanks but how am I going to tell Mindy about my killing her grandfather, she's going to ask one day and I have no idea what I am going to say. I have never forgot how that felt. It was the most sick feeling I ever had. I don't ever want to face that feeling again." They lay there knowing that soon Matt would soon be coming for his children. After a while she looks at him "What do you want for breakfast? Chris, do you think less of me now for killing my father." There is no way he could think less of her for doing what had to be done to a man that would beat his own child. Yet the pain he inflicted on Jamie during her childhood had been the reason she now was in danger. He pulled her to him and told her the truth. "I want you to listen to me. I am only going to say this one time only, and once only. Look at me. I understand why you did it. I don't think you should regret it, you probably saved your life just like your saving the lives of these children." He kisses her. She lays on his chest and tells him the truth. "I just don't think any child to be faced with that prospect. Kill or be killed. I don't know what I am trying to say all I know is that, I dread having to tell Mindy about my past." He holds her there is a knock at the door. She pulls on her robe. "I'll get it, what do you want for breakfast? Oh don't look at me like that my cooking has improved significantly and you know it, you eat dinner here often enough." He smiles and tells her the truth. "Only in case you accidently poison yourself and Mindy, I can go get Nathan." She hits him with the pillow. There is another knock on the door. I better get that or they are going to kick down that door next. She goes and opens the door, and it's Vin. She stops smiling when she sees his face. "What's wrong?" He just stands there and Chris comes in. "Mindy is she here." Jamie shakes her head no. "We put the kids to bed last night, and then this morning Mindy was gone. We haven't been able to find her." She sits and Chris goes to her. "We're going to find her. Did anybody check the stable?" "J.D. is doing that now. We were hoping that she was here." J.D. comes in "She was there they left this note." Jamie is immediately upon her feet. "What does it say?" Chris reads it. "That we get Mindy back when he gets his children." She looks at him. "Fine he can have his children back. If it comes down to a choice between getting my daughter back, and his children. I chose my daughter I am sorry if that makes me a horrible person but that is how I feel. All I want is my daughter back here and safe." Chris nods and hugs her. "We aren't going to lose her we'll get her back and the Johnson children will be safe to." Mary Travis comes in. "I'll stay with her."

Jamie just stares at the window "Chris will get her back, he loves her." Mary nods in agreement, but she's been in this town longer than Jamie and she knows the men like Matt Johnson that live here. Would easily kill a child but she can't tell Jamie that. Suddenly there is a question that she is not prepared to answer. "Do you love Chris?" She's shocked and prepared to deny it if will comfort Jamie, but immediately she realizes that she wants the truth. Jamie looks at her. "I know he has feelings for you, but I want to know if you love him. Mary, it's not going to hurt our friendship? If your in love with him tell me please." Mary is stunned but knows she must answer. "I have feelings for him, but I am not in love with him are you?" She nods yes. "I have loved Chris since he stayed on the ranch, but I couldn't tell him. Chris isn't ready to hear that now. I keep hoping against hope that one day he will be ready. I think he feels more for you than he lets on." She looks surprised. "How can you say that he obviously cares for you." Jamie smiles at the woman "I can because it's the truth, see Chris and I came together because we need to learn to live and care about others again, but I think our time has passed. I'm worried though if something happens to Mindy then Chris will give up and never be the same again. He'll completely shut down."

They are riding toward the camp. He checks the wagon. Chris "We get Mindy and then ride like hell not one child is to get hurt." They get Mindy. Matt Johnson is obiviously drunk. "I want you to take my kids back to my place." One of his brothers pulls a gun Chris shoots him, and then one of them grabs Mindy. Chris calls out "HOLD YOUR FIRE, let her go." Mindy is crying, and calling for him. "Crits I am scared." He tries to reassure her. "I know baby don't worry." The brother just laughs. "Larabee we don't care that Matt is dead, hell he probably deserved it, but it's bad form to let someone get away with killing your brother." Vin tells him he can't get a clear shot. Chris gets a cold blooded look. "I don't know what you think is going to happen, but you harm one head on that child's head, and there isn't going to be anywhere on this earth you can hide from me." The brother then tries to negotiate for Matt's children. Cynthia climbs out of the wagon and moves to Chris without anyone of the guys noticing till she's there. "Uncle Will, you don't care about us. You told Daddy that beatings didn't hurt. They made us strong? We want don't want you. You do the same thing to your children. I heard Momma tell Daddy when she was sick to make sure none of us children went to any of all if anything to send us to his parents." He drops Mindy and goes after her Buck stops him and Chris grabs Mindy. "When your told to stay somewhere you stay put, do you realize that you could of been killed." She just cries and he holds her. They are heading back. "Crits can we go riding tomorrow." He smiles and tells her "We'll see, but I think your Momma may be a tad upset with you for running off." Mindy thinks. "It's kinda your fault." He looks at her. "You bought me the pony and told me I had to go see him everyday." Buck looks at her. "Well Chris what do you think?" He looks at Mindy and smiles. "I am nottaking the heat from your Momma for this one."

They get back to the house. Jamie is happy till she realizes that the reason they were able to get her was she went to the stables. "Tell her to go see the pony everyday. Why would you tell a four-year-old girl to do that. What were you thinking Mindy when Chris and I tell you to stay someplace we mean it. There is a reason we wanted all the children to stay at the church and not go running off. Chris why would you tell the child to go see the pony every day?" He looks at her and smiles. She continues on "I wish you would tell me what your thinking rather than sitting there grinning at me." He finally puts Mindy down and takes her in his arms. "That your okay and that I knew I was going to be blamed, and so did your daughter. When in fact it's your fault she is so stubborn because she is just like you." Mary Travis walks in and tells them that children's grandparents are coming for them and they will be here in three days. Jamie moves closer to Chris and tells him "The Johnson children are going to be okay they won't have to go through what I did."

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