The end of May brought about all the wonderful things that summer entailed…school let out, days lasted longer and ice cream was the thing on every child’s mind. With the kids at home daily, Gloria Potter had had to make arrangements for sitters, or to be home with Josh, Katie and Angie herself. It was not usually a problem, as her next door neighbor happily watched the kids most days. Emma Smith was the neighborhood grandmother, knew all the kids, their parents and their favorite sweets. She had even managed a grudging admittance from the biggest neighborhood kid of all, Ezra Standish, that he had occasional cravings for butterscotch candy, Werther’s in particular. She supplied the charming southerner with the little candies every time he appeared at the Potter’s which was more than once a week when Ezra was not on a case.

Gloria was not surprised to see the sleek convertible parked along the curb outside her home, considering the agent had not been sent undercover in the last few weeks, he had been spending a relatively large amount of time with the children. Ezra may have originally begun spending time at the Potter’s to see Angie, but he had gradually come to be close to Gloria’s own children as well. Today, the dapper young man was out in the yard, playing something that highly resembled freeze tag with several of the neighborhood children. It was clear that Katie Potter was “It” as she chased the others around the yard. Gloria couldn’t help but wonder how the southerner was planning to ‘unfreeze’ any of the other players, as the five nine agent would clearly have difficulty scampering under the legs of the children. Her concerns were answered when Ezra promptly grabbed little Ben Garretson around the waist and lifted the five year old over his head before setting him back on the ground to allow the boy to run off, un-’froze’. She laughed lightly, not having considering the loophole before. You just had to go under the frozen person’s legs, it didn’t say the legs had to be planted on the ground. The five o’clock whistle from the nearby factory sounded, signaling the children that it was time for them to head home for dinner. Kids headed in every direction simultaneously, most yelling hasty goodbyes to each other and the popular agent. Ezra captured Angie, and tossed her over one shoulder as he herded the other two towards their mother. There was just something odd, no matter how many times she saw it, to the image of a young man in an Armani suit, well at least the shirt and slacks of the suit, with three dirty and grass-stained kids, all of them laughing and slightly flushed from running around.

“ Hey, Mom, can Ezra take us to the sno-cone place after dinner?” Katie asked, nearly bouncing in her excitement.

“ That depends. Did you finish your chores today?”
“ Yes.” All three kids chorused.

“ Well then, I don’t see why not, assuming Ezra is willing and able to stay until after all of you have finished dinner?”

“ He can eat with us!” Angie piped up. “You’re always saying he could use to eat more.”

“ Yeah, then you can remind HIM to finish his vegetables.” Josh excitedly added, the kids giggling as Ezra unconsciously made a small face. Gloria smothered her own smile at the young man’s reaction, and nodded.

“ Its all right with me, if you want to stay for dinner, Ezra?”

“ Please, please, please, puh-leez?” Angie asked.

“ Yeah, please?”

“ Please?”

“ If you’re sure its not an imposition, Mrs. Potter-”

“ Hardly. As long as you don’t mind sharing the take out I picked up.” Gloria held up the bag from a local restaurant.

“ Are you kidding? Ezra always eats take out, Nathan says he shouldn’t cuz its bad for you not enough vitamins and stuff but Ezra-”

“ Angie.” Ezra tickled the girl lightly, making her squirm in her position on his shoulder.

“Mr. Jackson is right, eating at restaurants is not as good as a home cooked meal, but sometimes we make do.” Gloria replied, leading the kids into the house to enjoy another meal with her three children, and the federal agent who had become more and more like the little brother she’d never had.

After dinner, it was nearly dusk when Gloria, Ezra, Josh, Katie and Angie began the short walk towards the small hole in the wall place that sold sno cones. A short ten minute walk had them in line, waiting with varying degrees of patience for their turn at the window. The small family in front of them stepped up to the window and placed their order, the little girl concentrating on holding the sno cone even so that none of it dripped or slid off. She was probably only about Angie’s age, and thus despite her best tries, the top-heavy cone lost part of its shape as a relatively small hunk slid to the concrete. The man who had just finished paying for the cones turned to the girl and Ezra watched as the little girl visibly cringed.

“ What the hell did you do now? I told you to be careful with the damn thing. You wanted it so bad the least you could do is make sure not to loose the whole damn cone before you can even eat it.”

“ Sorry.”

“ God, you’re always sorry! Can’t you ever just do it right the first time? I’m sick and tired of hearing you say you’re sorry.”

“ I didn’t mean it.”

“ You never fucking mean it, ya little brat!” By now, Ezra had heard more than enough. It was one thing to correct a child, even to ask htem to be more careful in the future, but this was just plain cruelty.

“ Sir, I think you need to calm down, and control your tongue in the presence of children.”

“ WHat the hell business is it of yours?!”

“ Despite whatever right you may believe you have to berate your child-”
“ Ain’t my brat, just dating her mother.”

“ Nevertheless, it is her choice to subject her child to your neanderthal-type attitude but as this is a public venue, you should control your language more carefully.”

“ Just stay the hell out of my business, and I’ll stay the hell out of your face.” The man was bigger than Ezra, probably six two and a good deal heavier, and must have figured he could intimidate the smaller man as he stepped closer.

“ Ezra-”

“Angie, why don’t you and Josh and Katie find us a table?”

“ But Ezra-”

“ Angie.” Angie nodded, and the two Potter kids went with her, all three looking over their shoulder, watching the brewing confrontation.

“ I suggest you remove yourself from such proximity to my person, sir.”

“ You gonna leave your nose out of my business?”

“ Your behavior in front of other children made it my business as well.”
“ Back off, buddy.”

“ I’m hardly your ‘buddy’. And you may want to consider anger management classes, they work wonders for the inner neanderthal.” Gloria shook her head, knowing that Ezra’s mouth was going to start a fight if he wasn’t careful.

“ Shut the fuck up. I ain’t gonna tell ya again.”

“ Oh, please, don’t stoop to redundancy on my account.” If Ezra saw the fist come at him, he made no move to dodge as it connected solidly with his jaw. Experience kept him from falling as his feet adjusted to a fighter’s stance, Ezra returning with a textbook uppercut that floored the other man. Ezra reached into his back pocket, retrieving his wallet as the man stood up once more.

“ ATF.” Announcing himself as an agent, Ezra showed his badge hoping to end the fight. The other man evidently did not particularly care if he assaulted an officer as he swung again at the southerner, who deftly dodged and responded with another swift punch. Seeing the other man rise yet again, Ezra focused only on his opponent, losing all other background noise as his years of experience in hand to hand was called up. When the police arrived not even five minutes later, the bigger man was rather clearly losing the fight, Ezra not really wanting to render the man truly unconscious, but he refused to stay down. Two officers were quickly restraining the loser, as two others grabbed Ezra. Immediately ceasing any movement that could be considered resistance or aggression, Ezra concentrated on quickly bringing his breathing back to normal.

“ I want that man arrested for assault. Look what he did to my boyfriend!” A woman, the girl’s mother Ezra assumed, announced to the cops.

“ He hit Ezra first!” Angie’s voice piped up from the short distance Gloria had kept her children.

“ Sir, I’m gonna ask you to put your hands on the building, keep both of them in plain sight, and spread your legs slightly.” Both fighters were positioned against the wall, Ezra well versed in ‘take the position’ from the hundreds of times he’d been ‘arrested’ when undercover.

“ Officer, I am an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, my badge is in the wallet about four feet from my right foot. You will find one gun in the shoulder holster positioned under my left arm, another small caliber weapon in a holster on my right ankle and a knife sheathed against the left calf as well as an empty holster at the small of my back for my third hand gun. That weapon is to be found in the locked glove compartment of my vehicle, license plate ES51974 parked on the street in front of 3258 N. Arrowhead Trail.” The officer’s partner had picked up the wallet, and scanned over the ID as the man frisking Ezra found each of the weapons pointed out to him, hidden previously underneath the simple black windbreaker he was wearing.