Who: Theo, Ezra, and Maren What: Accusations and a family reunion When: Thursday-ish Where: RV Park Warnings: None
After the amazing reunion between Arya and Ned, the last thing Theodore expected to return home to was the possibility that Ezra’s sister might have helped someone hit the high stakes roulette table. People didn’t cheat at a five dollar table and he’d seen the tapes. It was just fishy and even though he couldn’t prove anything, it still made him suspicious. If he was going to let Ezra stay at the Wynn, and likely any other Stark child that happened to come along, then he needed to be sure that he wasn’t going to put his casino at risk. People cheated all the time, but he didn’t get to where he was without learning a few things.
He was dressed sharply, as always, in a light grey suit with a white button down shirt and dress shoes. Sunglasses were tucked in his breast pocket, unnecessary while in the town car he had at his disposal. He directed his driver to the MGM Grand where Ezra was currently staying. He rolled down the window and whistled sharply to get Ezra’s attention. His driver was opening the door for the young man as Theodore slid over to the other side. “So, what should I know about your sister?” he asked once Ezra was in the car. The driver was already taking them to the RV park that had been listed on her ID.
Ezra didn’t know if it was coincidence or design that both Raegan and Maren were in Vegas. Either way, he wasn’t entirely sure what to feel. He hadn’t seen them in five years, hadn’t thought to check up on them or make a phone call. There was a certain degree of guilt, he guessed. He didn’t regret his decision to run away from home, but the way it went down had always been…shameful. Ezra was perfectly aware that he had abandoned his siblings, that he had left them behind to deal with the fallout of abuse and drug addiction on their own. In the early days of life on his own, he told himself that he had had to run, that he had had no other choice. Still, he would always think of Maren, her nose tucked in a book, or Raegan, standing up to her father in the face of his anger and Ezra would know that running away had been cowardly.
As he slid into Theo’s town car, the driver shutting the door behind him, he found himself fidgeting, digging his fingernails into the meat of his palm. He had been serious when he told Theo on the phone that Maren might hate him, but the gravity of that possibility was starting to set in. And Ezra really, really didn’t want his sister to hate him. He had no idea why Theo was so dead set on speaking with Maren, but he was comforting himself with the knowledge that Ned Stark had said Theo was a good man. He wouldn’t do anything too terrible…right? Ezra was dressed in a simple pair of jeans, but his t-shirt was worth noting: it was black and bore the Stark family sigil and the words, “Winter Is Coming.” He had thought it was hilarious.
“I think you should know that I haven’t seen Maren since she was sixteen. So, whatever she was like five years ago…she used to like to read, you know?” The corners of his lips quirked up. “She was just always so quiet. My brother and step-sister and I used to get into – we used to do all kinds of shit and Maren was never part of it.”
Theo’s gaze was focused out the front windshield. It took effort to silence Ned when it came to Ezra because the man just did not like him. Theodore could kind of understand that, given the previous interactions between the three of them. With the addition of Maren to the situation, Ned immediately suggested that they were in cahoots with each other. Theo disagreed there, because he trusted that what Ezra said during their conversation as the truth. His background check had said that Ezra had left home at eighteen, so it wasn’t as if he had any reason to really doubt the young man. Besides his attitude, that was.
When Ezra spoke, Theo looked to him and noticed his shirt. He could appreciate the humor in it, but Ned bristled, calling it disrespectful. “I hope you’re not really expecting winter. I don’t recall the last time it snowed in Vegas,” he replied with a slight smile. But then it was time to focus on the topic at hand. At least he wasn’t trying to hide the mistakes he made as a child. “What sort of shit did you, your brother, and step-sister get up to?” There was a bit of a hidden agenda in this as well because Raegan had come up as the step-sister in question and she was rather vague about her past. A glance out the window said they’d be at the RV park in a few minutes.
“Oh, you never know. I’m not really one to question what’s possible anymore.” He stared out the window, trying to get a good feel of Theo’s motives. He didn’t doubt that he had been serious when he said that he just wanted to talk to Maren, but he was starting to wonder why. Ezra highly doubted that Theo was the type to collect early twenty-somethings. He had a business to run and taking a personal interest in a kid, even if she had tried to cheat at his casino, seemed like a waste of time for someone of his rank. Ezra doubted that Theo would have given him the time if day if he hadn’t had Robb bouncing around inside his skull.
That left a very limited choice of possibilities. Either Theo was doing some sort of strange father figure type bonding activity where he reunited Ezra with his sister (unlikely) or Maren was important to him. Or Ned. Turning away from the window, he looked Theo in the eye, “First, you tell me why you’ve got such an interest in her. And don’t say because she tried to cheat. You run the Wynn. If you don’t go to the police, you’ve got to have people for this kind of thing.”
Perhaps something crazy would happen, like snow in Las Vegas. In March, no less. Theo thought it was more likely that Ned would come to like Ezra. His thoughts turned to the young woman he was about the meet. Maybe he was making things a bit too personal. Maybe he didn’t really need to come out to an RV park to speak to a young woman who might not be involved in a greater scheme. Was Ned’s dislike of Ezra affecting Theo’s view of Ezra’s sister?
It seemed that Ezra wanted to avoid his question and he didn’t want to push too much. He turned to look at Ezra as he laid it out on the table. “I do have people for this kind of thing. It honestly would’ve ended at her not being allowed back on the floor. However, she showed up on your background check and, quite frankly, I don’t know you or your sister. I want to make sure that she’s not involved in anything that might come back to bite me in the ass.” The car rolled to a stop, but Theo didn’t break eye contact with Ezra until his door opened. “Now you know.”
With that, Theodore stepped out of the car and slipped his sunglasses on. He waited for Ezra to get out of the car and told his driver to wait. The slip of paper in his hand gave him the approximate location of what he assumed was her location. He’d had one of his security members check it out ahead of time so he didn’t go knocking on every RV door in the park. He walked up to the RV in question and knocked twice on the door before taking a step back. Theodore looked out of place, but he didn’t care about that.
Maren knew someone had been looking around. She would have been terrible at her job if she hadn’t realized that, and she wasn’t terrible at her job. A life spent between the pages of books meant she was good at anticipating the next chapter, and the next chapter (after the guys in suits looking around) was someone knocking on her door. She’d been waiting most of the day, and by the time the car pulled in she had talked herself in (and out) of multiple character angles. She could cry, be the damsel, Fanny Price with her poor relations when Crawford came calling. Or she could be cool, collected, Lisbeth Salander and her bad attitude against the world. In the end, she opted for harmless at the last minute, based on the man in the sunglasses who exited the expensive car. Harmless, definitely.
She didn’t immediately see Ezra, so she didn’t alter her demeanor to account for someone who had known her when she ran around pretending they all lived in a story that would eventually arrive at a happy ending. She opened the door, her cheeks damp with sprinkle-water tears, and she sniffled at the man in the sunglasses. “I can’t pay whatever you’re here for,” she said, demure and none of her normally impressive, literary vocabulary in her voice. Her accent (faked) was from somewhere in the Bible belt, and she smoothed her hand over the bright yellow gypsy skirt she wore. Her blonde hair whipped in her face, and she looked nothing like Ezra’s darkness. She blinked cornflower pale eyes, and she waited for the next paragraph in the chapter.
Ezra trailed behind Theo, taking in the RV park with an air of disappointment. For some reason, he had pictured Maren living in a house. Possibly with a picket fence, to make the whole image complete. She had always had her face shoved in a book. He would have thought that she would have gone to college somehow, gotten a degree and had a real life. Instead, she was in an RV park and apparently cheating at cards. Or trying, at least. Ezra tried not to feel that he had somehow caused this, that his leaving had somehow triggered a chain reaction that sent his little sister down a path of…whatever it was that she was doing.
The door to the RV opened and at the first sight of blonde hair, Ezra knew it was Maren. With a fake accent. And quite possibly fake tears. A laugh burst out of him. He placed his hand to his mouth in an attempt to cover, but still, his shoulders shook. She was a little con artist. “Hey, Maren,” He gave an awkward wave from behind Theo. “Nice accent.”
Whatever he’d been expecting, Maren wasn’t quite it. He hadn’t expected the accent considering she was from Montana. Her cheeks were damp and she looked harmless enough, but the accent wasn’t right and that made him even more suspicious. He didn’t get a chance to say anything, however, before Ezra was laughing rather loudly. Theo’s lips pressed together in a tight line. If there was one thing he did not like, it was being conned and all the evidence pointed to a con.
“How much did they offer you?” Theo asked, ignoring Ezra’s outburst in favor of confronting Maren. He didn’t think she was all that harmless anymore and he wasn’t in the mood for playing games. Pussyfooting around would take too long and he was already risking things by being here. “You were working with them, weren’t you? The guys who hit the roulette table?” Despite the accusatory nature of his words, Theo’s voice was calm and collected. He wanted answers, but he wasn’t threatening her. He’d never hit a woman, even before Ned came along.
The laugh drew Maren’s attention right away, and it actually took her a few long seconds to recognize Ezra. There were a few key moments in the story of her life that she could pinpoint as the turning points, the change in the action that took the tale in a different direction. Ezra’s departure was one of those moments, and it took Maren a second longer than it should have to compose herself. She didn’t laugh, because she’d never been in on their jokes, always the outsider, and she just stared at him for a very long, very uncomfortable minute before turning her attention to the man who had knocked on the door. She listened to the accusations and, a second later, she threw an accusatory look at Ezra. Not only had he left, but he was bringing the casino cops down on her head? In that moment, she wished she was Dantès, a revenge plan in her back pocket and all of the sorrow of the world leading her forward. But she wasn’t Dantès, and she hadn’t planned on this.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told the man in the suit, accent slipping away, but her expression and gaze clear and emotionless. His accusatory words were nothing compared to what she’d experienced in her life, and she didn’t wince, or flinch, or look away. He had no proof, had nothing on her. “I didn’t go near the roulette tables.” She hadn’t.
Theo hadn’t mentioned that other people were involved. Ezra’s mind immediately spun with possibilities, each one worse than the last. Everything from boyfriends with bad intentions to organized crime and through it all, Ezra felt a mixture of wanting to protect his sister and feeling like it wasn’t his place. He leaned toward the latter, but still gave Theo a look. “Don’t look at me,” At Maren’s look, he held up his hands in a gesture of innocence, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. “He found you all on his own. I’m just along for the ride.”
It wasn’t exactly the most ideal of reunions. Had Ezra known that Maren was in town – living here, even – he would have come on his own. He would have talked to her, tried to make her understand why he had left. His lips twisted in displeasure. Now she was going to think that he was some kind of snitch. This entire situation was far more unpleasant than he had anticipated and he regretted agreeing to come along. “You said you wanted to speak with her,” He snapped at Theo. “This isn’t speaking. This is accusing.”
Ezra wasn’t his main concern at the moment and Theodore continued to ignore him, despite the exchange between siblings. No love was lost there, that was for sure, but the sheer fact that she had used an accent and fake tears didn’t lend to her credibility. “I saw the tapes, Ms Westerberg. I know exactly how your evening at the Wynn went. I also know that, while my floor manager was dealing with you, my roulette table was hit for a significant loss. Now, you aren’t exactly giving me any reason to trust you.”
He turned to Ezra before the boy could say anything further. “This is me speaking, Ezra. If you have a problem with that, you can wait in the car.” Theodore was in no mood for back talk and it seemed he hadn’t needed Ezra to get in the door, figuratively speaking. His tone carried an under current of a father speaking to a son, but he hardly noticed as he turned back to Maren. “Now, young lady. I’ve been in this business for a very long time. If you wanted to cheat, you’d do a hell of a better job.”
Maren didn’t look at Ezra again, not just then. She stared at the man in the suit, listening to his assertions that she wasn’t giving him any reason to trust her. She might have interjected then, but the comment to Ezra had her quirking a brow, wondering what the relationship was between them that allowed the older man to order her brother around like that. Abandonment or no abandonment, they’d all been handed the kind of lot in life that began a tale of woe and misery, and there was a modicum of solidarity in that, even if she was still angry. The man in the suit young lady-ed her a moment later, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back.
“My brother isn’t a dog for you to order around,” she said, her tone as plain and calm as before. There was no emotion on her face, no feeling in her inflection, but this wasn’t the girl who hid around corners in her youth. That had been beaten out of her after everyone had disappeared, and it had left a nothing, a void behind. “I’m not your young lady, and if you have something on me then, please, arrest me. Otherwise, I’m in my rights to call the authorities, which I will do. And if you try to strong arm me, Ezra will stop you.” She wanted to add that this land was her Tara, but she refrained; somehow her literary insanity felt like a bad idea just then.
“You invited me on this little memory lane adventure, so no, I think I’m fine here,” Ezra crossed his arms over his chest. Robb or not, he wasn’t going to sit by and take orders from Theo. He had had plenty of experience with fathers, none of it good, and was quite sick to death of the whole concept. He wasn’t on a leash, a fact that probably wasn’t too apparent. He was painfully aware of the fact that he had, since meeting Theo, done everything he had asked, one way or another.
And then Theo called her “young lady” and Ezra couldn’t help, but roll his eyes. Really? He couldn’t tell if Theo’s attempt to be everyone’s dad was on purpose or just instinct. “Well,” He exhaled loudly and uncrossed his arms. “This has been a super fun reunion. Maren, this is Theodore Winters. Theodore Winters, my sister, Maren. She’s actually correct. I would stop you if you tried anything, but,” He shrugged, looking at his sister. “I don’t think he will. He seems to prefer talking to people like they’re children.” He raised his eyebrows, “And my sister seems to prefer cheating in casinos. So. You know. Funny how life works out.”
“No, he isn’t a dog to be ordered around,” Theo agreed. He had to stop himself from commenting about children being treated like children. “However, your brother and I have an arrangement that your little stunt has jeopardized simply because I don’t trust you.” He didn’t take a step back but he did cross his arms over his chest and lean back just slightly. “I have no intention of arresting you, or of laying a hand on you. Unlike some men in this world, I would never hurt a woman intentionally or otherwise. I will, however, black list you at every casino on the strip.” That particular bit of news was delivered with a smile. “I’m not convinced that you weren’t involved, Ms Westerberg.” He made it a point to use her name this time.
“Now, I’m prepared to not ruin your little business if you get my money back and promise to not hit the Wynn again. Have your fun at the other casinos, I don’t care. Mine? It’s off limits.” There were few things that Theodore held near and dear to his heart. Raegan, Kate, and the Wynn were three of those things and there was very little he wouldn’t do to keep them safe from harm. Con artists, even budding ones like Maren Westerberg, were a threat to his casino and he wasn’t going to stand for it.
Maren glanced over at Ezra during the introductions, but she didn’t say anything until the man - Theodore Winters, apparently - was done saying his bit. “I haven’t seen Ezra in half a decade, since he left. Whatever arrangement you have with him, it has nothing to do with me,” she said, crossing her arms without meaning to in a defensive posture from her childhood. “You can black list me if you want, but I can’t get you any money back, not when I didn’t take it.” She couldn’t, either. He was overestimating her power, and he was overestimating her fear of him; she had bigger things to be afraid of, and bigger people to be loyal to. She couldn’t climb out of the bed she was in just because he showed up at her doorstep, but she didn’t expect him to understand that.
“I’ll stay away from your hotel, and I’ll stay away from my brother. Now, please get off my property,” she finished, which was laughable, because a square in an RV park was hardly property. Either way, she was doing a good job of maintaining that blank look on her face, the one that lived there most days, vacant and unfeeling. She glanced once more at Ezra, wondering what had changed that would end him up here, like this, but she didn’t ask. She didn’t care, she reminded herself. Not about him, or about their other brother, or about Raegan. She considered telling him that mom was dead, but what was the point? She just leaned against the door of the RV, and she looked back at Theodore. “I recommend reading a few young adult novels in your spare time. Sullen post-teens respond better to non-parental figures, especially when our associations with our parents leave something to be desired.”
Ezra hadn’t come out here to watch Theo threaten his sister, even if it wasn’t violence, but to black list her. A threat was a threat and he found himself clenching his jaw in annoyance. Leaning in toward Theo, he spoke in a low voice, “You said that you didn’t want her money. I offered to pay and you said no. What the hell, man?”
He stepped forward, trying to place himself between Maren and Theo, feeling like someone getting into the way of a pair of dogs about to attack. “I think everyone just needs to take a breather and possibly tell me what the hell is happening because clearly some people chose to leave me out of the loop.” He looked at Theo. “Calm down. She’s my family. I think you should appreciate that, yeah?”
Theodore didn’t like the look she was giving him. Ned didn’t trust how easily she gave up her family either, but that wasn’t what set off the red flags for Theo. She didn’t care, about anything it seemed. It wasn’t right. Ezra stepped forward and Theodore stepped back to make room for the change of order. Honestly, he didn’t have a clue when it came to children. At least Nell and Raegan were reasonable.
He sighed and dropped his arms. “Yes, I can appreciate that. It’s not her money I want, it’s mine. I don’t know what you’re into, Ms Westerberg, but there are others out there that will kill you even for suspecting you.” He suspected that she knew that, but perhaps Ezra could succeed where he had failed. “As for your suggestion, the only books I’ll be picking up include a man who would do anything for his children.” Theodore gave Ezra a meaningful look. “Even from beyond the grave.” Perhaps he shouldn’t speak of Ned or Robb in front of Maren, but Theodore felt lost and Ned, a man who expected obedience from his children, wasn’t much help.
Whether it was the comment about people killing her, or the mention of a loving father that caused Maren’ next reaction wasn’t certain, but something about it made her move back in the doorway, the expression on her face something from her scared youth. She didn’t immediately assume Theodore was talking about a man through the door, because she’d only met one other person that shared any kind of Alter. “You don’t know me,” she said, fingers going white as she gripped the doorframe. “You don’t know what I do, and you don’t know my life. Some of us don’t have fathers who would do anything for their children. Some of us have stepfathers that beat you until you can’t stand, and some of us have mother’s who ODed in the living room, and some of us have siblings that left. So don’t come here with your suit and your glasses and pretend to know anything about my life, or about what I do to survive.” She sounded young when she said the words, and they shook by the end, the consonants warbling. Maybe she should have cared that Ezra was finding out about their mother like this, but she was hurt and upset, and she felt betrayed by all of it. “I don’t have your money. If I did, I wouldn’t live in an RV park,” She finished, the conversation more reality than she had indulged in since her childhood. Then, without warning, she stepped back and slammed the RV door.
“Yeah, you’re a regular saint, Theo,” Ezra replied a little more snidely than he had intended. He was starting to rethink his agreement to stay at the Wynn if the older man was going to use his connection to Ned as some sort of justification to demand obedience. He was a businessman, Ezra understood that, and needed to take care of threats to his casino, but part of him felt like Theo was taking this too personally. And expecting too much from Ezra. “You need to stop with the threats right now, man. This isn’t the battlefield.”
“No, no, Maren, don’t –“ The look on her face had him falling silent. It wasn’t the tough, confident girl that he had been surprised to find only a few moments ago. It was the scared girl that he had left behind in Montana, the one who hid behind books and blankets to escape their step-father. Shame bloomed in his chest, provoked by the idea that he had somehow been a part in this, in allowing Theo to come here and act like – well, like he was acting. He wasn’t so naïve as to wonder what had turned his family to this. He knew just what had happened. Abandonment, abuse, and drugs, but somehow, he had always hoped that Maren would turn out okay. That her intelligence would protect her.
“She ODed?” Ezra echoed, suddenly feeling a little breathless. Images of his mother smiling, her fingers and face spotted with paint, flashed through his mind as he thought of her before her addiction. And then afterward, memories of his mother strung out on the couch, too high or disinterested to step in when her husband took a fist to her children. His mother was dead. What was he supposed to feel? “I – when..?”
She slammed the door in their faces and Ezra stood there, feeling rooted to the spot, blinking. This was the world that he had left his sister to. He had fucked up. Royally.
This wasn’t how he wanted this to go. Realistically though, what had he really been expecting? A confession? Theo wasn’t that naive, but he had hoped that there would be some sort of resolution. Instead, he’d screwed up and put Ezra in a really shitty situation. His background check had been for them, not their parents. Her admission of what her parents had been like caused Theo to pale slightly. Guilt weighed heavily on his heart for bringing up painful memories for the girl, for being the reason why Ezra found out his mother’s fate that way, and for not believing his sister about her pregnancy. The last one weighed the most heavily because if he’d believed her, Raegan could have had a whole different life. A better life.
He didn’t blame Maren for slamming the door in his face and he took a deep breath as he tried to figure out his next move. She was a kid. Physically, she was older, but she was a kid. She was a kid, and he’d gone at her like she was a hardened criminal. Monster came close to describing how he’d acted. “I’m sorry,” Theo said softly. He didn’t think Maren could hear him, nor did he think that she’d listen to him, but it still needed to be said. “I apologize, Ezra. I shouldn’t have dragged you along.” He wondered how many steps back he’d taken in his relationship with Ezra.
Ezra felt disconnected, the volume of the world turned down. Staring at Maren’s closed door, his mind was stuck in a loop. His mother was dead. His sister had seen it. He could have prevented it. His mother was dead. His sister had –Shaking his head, Ezra blinked and whirled on Theo, sneering, “Some honor,” He looked back at her door again, considering knocking, but decided against it. No, he’d come back – without Theo. “Congratulations on not murdering my sister. I guess that makes you a real fucking gentleman.”
Shoulders tight and fists clenched, the urge to give the older man a good shove or punch was strong, but he dug his fingernails into his palm instead. He wasn’t going to be his step-father. Starting a fight on Maren’s doorstep would probably on make matters worse. “Here’s a solution. I wouldn’t live at your hotel if you begged me. And if you come back here, you can bet Ned isn’t getting visitation rights with his kid.”
He didn’t blame Ezra for reacting the way he did. Theodore had been expecting a punch at the very least, but he was glad it hadn’t come to that. The worst part was that Theo knew he was right. There hadn’t been any honor in what he’d done, cornering a child like that. He’d been a casino owner first and reacted badly to what he’d discovered in the course of their conversation. Even Ned thought he’d handled that badly and Ned wasn’t one known for his gentle touch with things.
“I wont come back here,” Theodore promised, though that left a lot open. He’d keep an eye on the girl at the very least because as much as Ezra likely wished otherwise, they were connected now and those two were also connected to Raegan. Maybe he was going a bit overboard, but he’d never done the family thing before and he’d rather do too much than too little. “You can take the car. I’ll call for another. The driver will take you wherever you wish.” A peace offering of sorts, he hoped.
“You take it. I feel like walking,” Ezra wasn’t going to leave Theo standing in front of Maren’s home while he was driven back to his place like some kind of – Ezra rolled his eyes at himself. He had been stupid. He had let Robb’s inherent trust of Ned get in the way of his ability to read people. Ned Stark may have said that Theo was a good man, but the casino owner was clearly lacking. Ezra should have been smarter, more alert. Instead, he had allowed some stranger into his life and gotten his sister involved in – what, exactly? He still didn’t know. Theo had simply said she had been caught trying to cheat, but apparently it was far more intricate than Ezra had been led to believe.
“I’m not leaving until you’re gone.”
Theo took a deep breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring slightly. “Very well.” There wasn’t anything else he could do today besides make things worse and he didn’t want that. “I am sorry, Ezra. That wasn’t how I wanted this to go.” He lingered for half a moment before turning on his heel and returning to the car. His driver was already there, opening the door, and Theo stepped inside gladly. He needed a drink and he needed to talk to Kate.