Disclaimer: I don’t own them and this story isn’t an attempt to infringe on the rights of those who do. The ATF AU belongs to Mog, only Juliet and Meg belong to me.

WARNING: This story is rated PG-13 for a reason! It contains adult language and situations that some may find disturbing. If you are bothered by such content (or if you like Nathan’s girlfriend) please leave now!

Chris didn’t realize they had a problem until the Christmas party came up. He’d been only slightly surprised when he couldn’t get Ezra to commit to coming to the yearly ‘family’ get-together; it was a dance they’d done for the past two years, and he expected to be doing it for several more to come. And so, two weeks before the party, Chris went to the stubborn Southerner’s cubicle fully expecting to accept the man’s grudging capitulation while knowing that he’d more than likely planned to come all along. What happened instead came as a complete shock; Ezra, obviously unhappy and refusing to meet his eyes, informed his team leader that he and Juliet would not be attending. When Chris demanded a reason, his undercover agent said quietly, "Because I won’t do that to her. She’s been through enough."

A contemptuous snort from the hall stopped Chris from responding; Nathan was standing there, shaking his head. "Yeah, right, Ezra; why don’t you just admit she don’t want to face us?"

"Because it wouldn’t be true, Mr. Jackson," Ezra replied coldly, but Chris saw an angry fire in his eyes. "I have every intention of making this holiday special for Juliet, and askin’ her to spend the least portion of it with yourself would be counterproductive to my goal. I only regret that you and your partner in crime have deprived our associates of the opportunity to share their celebration with the woman ah intend to marry."

The undercover agent pushed past the two larger men without another word and headed for the elevator. Vin came out of the next cubicle pulling on his battered leather jacket; he saluted Chris and scowled at Nathan before sprinting off in his friend’s wake. Josiah and JD appeared from the other side, both wearing equally grim expressions. The team leader took it all in and then turned his famous glare on the chemist. "In my office, Jackson," he ordered sharply, then turned to the other two. "You two know anything about this?" Both men nodded, and he sighed. "All right, you too, then. I want some answers."

He trailed the three men into the office and closed the door firmly behind them, then circled around to the position of power behind his desk. "Nathan, talk to me."

"Ain’t nothin’ to say, Chris," the chemist replied defensively. "It’s Ezra’s problem, not mine - and not Rain’s, either. And if he’s plannin’ to marry someone like that, I guess he’d better get used to it."

Larabee’s mouth dropped open, as did JD’s; Josiah just shook his head, looking upset. Chris zeroed in on the older man. "Josiah?"

"I tried to talk to him, Chris," Sanchez said, his eyes on the floor. "He wouldn’t listen."

"Some sins shouldn’t be forgiven," Nathan said stubbornly.

"Not your call to make," Josiah replied quietly. "Not Rain’s either."

Nathan’s temper flared. "You leave Rain outta this! She’s got a right to her opinion, just like everyone else. She doesn’t have to hide her feelings just because they make some people uncomfortable!"

The anthropologist’s own temper began to unravel. "She also doesn’t have the right to inflict her beliefs on others in the name of being right," he growled. "And neither do you. Your way ain’t the only way and it damn sure isn’t the only right way, Nathan; just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t make them wrong!"

"Right is right and wrong is wrong, Josiah! You can’t change that!"

"SHUT UP!" Both men froze; surprisingly, the command had come from JD, not Chris. "Just shut the hell up, both of you!" the youngest member of Larabee’s team roared. "You’re both in the fuckin’ wrong, okay? And so am I, ‘cause I should’ve followed my instincts and told Chris what was goin’ on a month ago instead of listening to you, Josiah."

The kid made an obvious effort to rein his anger in and faced Larabee. "Chris, this all started when you had me dig up all that information about that hostage situation Juliet was involved in down in New Orleans four years ago; Buck and I were in my cubicle discussing what a damn shame the whole thing was when someone," he glared at Nathan, "overheard us and jumped to the wrong conclusion. I didn’t find out until later, and then Josiah told me to let it alone and not cause problems." His jaw tightened. "Guess he didn’t care how many problems Nathan and Rain caused."

Larabee’s expression darkened, but he nodded at JD. "I’ll take it from here," he told the young agent. "I want you to go round up Buck and then the two of you go after Vin and Ezra; I want to know exactly what kind of a mess we have on our hands here and what we need to do to fix it. Call me when you find them." JD nodded once and then brushed past his other two teammates with a disgusted snarl; Chris sat back in his chair and fixed icy turquoise eyes on Nathan. "I take it you told Rain what you heard?"

Nathan shuffled his feet on the carpet. "I was mad, she wanted to know why. It wasn’t like it wasn’t public knowledge…"

"How did you know it wasn’t part of a case?" Chris’ voice was deceptively cool. "You in the habit of sharing just anything you hear around the office with your girlfriend, Jackson?"

"Hey! I didn’t…"

"YOU SURE AS HELL DID!" Chris was out of the chair and in Nathan’s face before the man had a chance to react. "You put two and two together to make twelve, and I want to know who else you’ve been sharing your ‘opinion’ with and why!"

The chemist’s temper flared. "A god-damned pedophile shouldn’t be workin’ in no school, Chris! Rain did the right thing! If them courts in New Orleans hadn’t…"

"Found her innocent?" Larabee hissed. "You self-righteous bastard, did you even bother to check out your facts? Did you ever even ask any of us what was going on? No, of course you didn’t…because this was about Ezra, and you’re always right when it comes to Ezra, aren’t you? After all, he’s just some slimy no-good Southern bastard with no morals, right?"

Nathan’s mouth opened but no sound came out; Chris pushed him backwards into a chair and glared down at him. "I could fire you right now for breaching internal security, you realize that, don’t you? This is a hell of a lot bigger than you and Rain being ‘entitled to your opinion’!" Suddenly he froze. "What do you mean, Rain did the right thing?"

The chemist swallowed, the sound too loud in the suddenly silent room. "She just did what any other concerned citizen would do."

Chris forced himself to take a step back; he sank down on a corner of his desk. "My god, she called the school board, didn’t she." It wasn’t a question. He shook his head, horrified and disbelieving. "What did you do, Jackson?"

"He’s been tryin’ to ‘help’ Ezra," Sanchez told the carpet, not waiting for Nathan to answer. "Leavin’ pamphlets and things on his desk, makin’ little comments whenever he has the chance…mentionin’ that his career might be adversely affected if word got out that he was seein’ a known pedophile." The big man looked up at his friend at Chris’ gasp, the responsibility his reluctance to force the issue had burdened him with heavy in his voice; they all knew how much the Southerner’s job meant to him. "I still can’t believe you took it this far, Nathan. What you’ve done to Ezra…"

Nathan’s jaw tightened; the self-righteous look was back. "He needs to be more careful with the choices he makes. I don’t see how he could be so blind! But if he’s not gonna do what’s right, someone else…"

"Meaning you and Rain?" Chris was gripping the edge of his desk so hard his knuckles were white, and his low, quiet voice was shaking with fury. "You and Rain were the ones who needed to do something about it, is that it Nathan? Because of course, the two of you are the only ones who know right from wrong." He shook his head. "And the most sickening thing about this has to be…I know for a fact you’ve never even met the woman, wouldn’t know her if you tripped over her."

"I don’t want to know someone like that," Nathan countered. "No decent person would!"

It was the wrong thing to say; the chemist knew it as soon as the words left his mouth. Chris released his hold on the desk and stood up slowly. "Glad to know your honest opinion of the men you work with," he said in a flat voice. "But for your information, ‘someone like that’ was a twenty-five year old high-school English teacher put in the position of trying to negotiate with a psychotic gunman to get a bunch of hostages released."

"He was fixated on her," Josiah intoned before the chemist could comment. "I tried to talk to you about this before and you said I was makin’ excuses for Ezra. But two court-appointed psychiatrists evaluated that young man as being delusional and concluded that his obsession had no roots in reality - matter of fact, they both claimed that Miss Moore was lucky to be alive, because he could have turned on her at any time. And she knew it. And she still stepped in front of his gun trying to keep him from killing the hostages."

"Just like she did at the Halloween party," Chris added harshly. "You weren’t there, you didn’t see her; the look on her face when she stepped in front of Ezra and called that kid by name…she looked like she was reliving a nightmare. And then some detective did the same math you did and tried to squeeze a confession out of her, had her so upset she couldn’t even talk. His lieutenant is the one that got she and Ez out of there that night and sent them home; the man had Buck and I go with him to the condo the next day to get both their statements personally and to offer her a formal apology from the department for what happened. And now I find out that one of my own men…" He stood up abruptly. "No, make that two; you both fucked up. Nathan, you’re suspended for three days without pay as of this moment. Josiah, I’m giving you an official reprimand for your part in this - when you told JD not to tell me what was going on, you knowingly contravened the chain of command. Be here first thing tomorrow morning and we’ll take care of it." He walked to the rack and grabbed his coat, swinging it over his shoulder. "Now, Jackson, you come with me; we’re going to go have a talk with your girlfriend about what it means to be involved with a federal agent." His turquoise eyes flickered with something dark and cold. "Maybe she should take some lessons from Juliet."

Later that afternoon, Chris knocked on Ezra’s door and was admitted by Vin. The sharpshooter looked unhappy, and once he was inside Chris could see why; Ezra’s boxes were back, freshly taped and neatly stacked in one corner of the spacious living room. "Thought we got rid of those?" he whispered.

"I bought new ones," Ezra responded from his seat on the couch. "The others were unsightly."

Chris had a sudden, ludicrous vision of the impeccably dressed Southerner picking over boxes to find the ones that wouldn’t clash with his living room decor. Crossing the room, he loomed over the other man. "You weren’t supposed to hear that," he stated flatly. "Something else you need to tell me, Standish?"

Green eyes looked up at him, unperturbed. "Only if you aren’t familiar with the science of acoustics - or if you’re carryin’ Kryptonite."

"Maybe I should start." Chris broke into a grin, relieved, and lightly cuffed his agent on the side of the head before circling around the couch to appropriate a nearby chair. "Might be the only way to level the playing field around here. Now when were you going to tell us?"

Ezra sighed and dropped his head back against the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling. "Nevah."

"He tried to straighten things out himself, Chris," Buck elaborated. "We’ve been draggin’ the story out of him a piece at a time for the past two hours. Ez got Nate alone when he first started his little crusade and tried to correct his…"

"Erroneous supposition," Ezra supplied when the ladies’ man faltered.

"Yeah, that," Buck said with a grin. "Ez tried to tell him he was makin’ a mistake, and if I got the gist of it ol’ Nate told him to stop thinkin’ with his dick and do the right thing for once." The undercover agent flinched and Buck added apologetically, "It sounded a lot more genteel the way he said it."

"Don’t matter how it’s said, it still weren’t right," Vin interjected pointedly from the other end of the couch. "And the thick-headed bastard knows Ez better than that, ain’t no excuse for any of this."

"We all know Ezra better than that, and no there isn’t," Chris said firmly. Something else occurred to him. "Ezra, they didn’t call…the hospital, did they?"

"Thank goodness no," came the quick reply, but the small shudder that visibly ran through the Southerner told the men that it had probably been threatened. The anger level in the room went up a few notches; Ezra didn’t talk about the volunteer work he did at Children’s Hospital, but all of his friends knew how important it was to him. "No, I was just…visiting there yesterday and everything was fine."

"Well, that’s something, then," came from Buck. "Maybe that stick up his ass don’t reach all the way to his brain after all."

The droll comment broke some of the tension, and they were all still chuckling when Ezra’s front door suddenly rattled and then flew open; Juliet was standing there with a key in her hand, looking panicked. "Mr. Larabee, you can’t let him resign!"

Everyone froze; Ezra looked down at his shoes. "Juliet, we’ve discussed this…"

"There’s nothing to discuss; you love this job, and I won’t let you give it up because of me." She rushed across the room and dropped to her knees in front of him, reaching for his hands; a soft golden gleam of an engagement ring on her left hand told Chris that his undercover agent’s plan to marry the small teacher had already been approved by the woman herself - and that Nathan’s self-righteous crusade had prevented Ezra from sharing his good news with the rest of his friends. "Ezra please, don’t do it. Take it back."

"I hadn’t resigned yet, cherie," he told her with a faint smile, enveloping her cold, shaking hands in his. "And now that you’ve revealed my intentions, I doubt my associates will give me a chance to follow through with them."

"Damn right we won’t," Buck growled. He shook his head. "Ez, you were gonna leave?"

"After the first of the year, I was planning to put in for a transfer," the undercover agent admitted. "It became obvious to me that we couldn’t stay in Denver…"

"I couldn’t stay in Denver," Juliet corrected with a frown. "And actually I could stay, I just couldn’t teach. Ezra, I can do something else! I could get another job, or go back to school…"

"Or I could keep you barefoot and pregnant?" Ezra quipped sarcastically. He squeezed her hands and shook his head. "Darlin’, we both know how pervasive rumors can be; the damage is already done here - and I will not accept you givin’ up your vocation just so I can remain in Denver!"

"But it’s all right for you to give up your family so I can teach?! Ezra…"

"All right, both of you shut up." Chris was shaken by what he was hearing, but also rather pleased; she’d called them Ezra’s family, which meant the Southerner had been as well. "Juliet, have you been fired because of this mess?"

"I’m under suspicion of improper conduct," she said, lifting her chin. Chris couldn’t help but notice that the small woman had lost weight, making her look even more fragile that she had before. I wouldn’t for anything have Nathan here right now…but damn I wish I could rub his nose in what he’s done to these two! "The principal told me today that they won’t be able to renew my contract next year, and he warned me that the school board is considering having my license revoked as well." At her fiancé’s shocked gasp she turned back around and shook her head. "It’s not his fault, Ezra; as a matter of fact, he apologized to me and offered to help me get another job. Bill is well connected around here, his recommendation will count for a lot. So you see? It’s all going to work out, I promise."

"Yes, it is," Chris agreed firmly. "We’re going to make sure it does - and I’m not agreeing to a transfer, Standish, so just forget about it." He stood up and pulled out his cell phone. "I’m going to go make a phone call; by the time I come back, I want all of you to have worked out what everyone’s bringing to the family Christmas party - last year Ezra brought sushi and the rest of you showed up with cookies and beer, let’s try for a better selection this time. I’ll leave Juliet in charge." He winked at the openmouthed little woman sitting on the floor and then went back to Ezra’s bedroom to make his call.

By the time he came back out, the discussion had degenerated into an argument over the relative merits of fruitcake and Juliet was curled up on the couch under Ezra’s arm. "It’s all in the fruit," she was protesting. "I’m telling you, Buck, if you start with fresh fruit instead of that awful stuff they sell in those little plastic bowls then fruitcake is an absolute delight. I bet you’ve never eaten real mincemeat, either."

"I have." Vin grinned and licked his lips. "Mama used to make it when I was a kid, and that was some great stuff. You know how to make mincemeat pie, too?"

"I do - but I won’t." Juliet’s indigo eyes sparkled with mischief. "I’ll teach you how to make it, though. Write it down, JD; Vin is bringing mincemeat pie…"

"And Buck is bringing fruitcake," JD snickered, scribbling. "And I’m bringing an-ti-pas-to." He sounded the word out with evident smugness. "Hey, Chris! You should have put Juliet in charge a long time ago, this is going to be great!"

"So says the one who doesn’t have to cook," Buck grumbled. "Why does he get off easy?!"

Juliet laughed, and to Chris’ surprise Ezra did too. "He doesn’t; Mr. Dunne has to learn how to shop, and he’s going to have two very demandin’ taskmasters watchin’ his every move." He smiled down at his fiancée, who smiled back up at him; they very briefly became the only two people in the room, and then Juliet leaned back a little farther into his arms and they both smiled at JD. "You can bring your young lady along for moral support, if you like - ah’m sure Miss Wells could benefit from the lesson as well."

And now Ezra is asking JD on a double date; I can see this gettin’ interesting. Chris cleared his throat. "What about me?"

Juliet tipped her head back to blink up at him. "The party is in your house, Mr. Larabee."

"Glad someone finally thought of that - and it’s Chris," he said with a small but genuine grin, dropping back down into his chair. "You all figured out what Josiah’s bringing?" JD stiffened, and Chris sighed. "All right, I guess we’d better get this talked out now. I gave Josiah an official reprimand for contravening the chain of command, JD, and Nathan is on three days’ suspension - and then I dragged him down to the hospital and had a talk with him and Rain both about breaching internal security." The ‘talk’ had been rocky at best and Chris knew he probably could have handled it more discreetly, but he’d felt he needed to impress on both his opinionated agent and his girlfriend just how serious the situation was; Nathan’s protests that interrupting Rain at work could cause problems for her there had been met with a hard, angry glare and the chemist had shut up quickly.

Rain hadn’t been so easy. She’d been shocked at first to find Chris and Nathan waiting for her in the nursing director’s office, but shock had quickly given way to self-righteous anger once she found out the purpose of their visit. Chris had let her rant for a full ten minutes while Nathan sank lower and lower in his seat before cutting her off in mid-tirade. He never once raised his voice; he didn’t have to. Rain found out firsthand that day why Chris Larabee was one of the most feared and respected men in the ATF, and for his part Chris made sure that Rain knew exactly what kind of behavior was required from her if she didn’t want to cost Nathan his job. He’d used Juliet as an example, pointing out that the English teacher was helping Ezra maintain his cover in the Denver Public School system in spite of having strong personal reservations about ‘unqualified federal agents masquerading as teachers’. When both Rain and Nathan started to agree, he’d dropped the bombshell on them that Ezra, who was a certified teacher, felt the same way and had been quietly working within the system to rectify the problem. "Within the system," he’d emphasized. "Not going off half cocked and making a mess of things. And I’ll have you know, he’s already talked to Judge Travis about the proposal they want to make to the school board and the judge is behind him one hundred percent."

The extended conversation he’d just had with the judge on his cell phone from Ezra’s bedroom had shown the man to be solidly behind the Southerner in the current situation as well - Chris just hoped the strings Travis was able to pull would be enough to fix things. For now, though, he said nothing; it wouldn’t do to raise everyone’s hopes just yet. There was something else Judge Travis had insisted he discuss with Ezra, however. "Ezra, there’s something we still need to go over and I guess now’s as good a time as any. Did you want to press charges against Nathan?"

He’d known what the answer would be before the undercover agent shook his head, but Buck and Vin both gasped at the question. "It’s harassment, guys," JD explained quietly before Chris could say anything. "Federal government takes that very seriously. Juliet could sue Nathan for defamation under the same laws, if she wanted to - and she’d win, too."

Juliet looked absolutely horrified by the idea, which was also what Chris had expected. "Okay then," he said, leaning back in his chair again. "Now on to more important things; I want to know when and where these ‘cooking lessons’ are being held, because I ain’t missing that for the world…"

Nathan returned to the office after his suspension more than a little nervous about what his reception would be; he hadn’t heard from the rest of the team during the three days he’d been gone, which could only mean they were all pretty upset with him. The office appeared empty when he arrived, but a memo on his desk instructed him to join the others for a team meeting as soon as he got in. Must have a new case, he thought with relief. That’ll be best, then; get everybody workin’ together and it’ll all blow over. I’m sure Ezra’ll be a little stiff for a while, but I’ll get him alone some time today and apologize for the misunderstanding. Yeah, it should all blow over pretty quick. With that thought in mind he walked into the conference room with a small smile on his face…and stopped dead; he was facing a judge and jury. Chris was at the head of the table with Vin and Josiah on his right and Ezra, JD and Buck on his left. No one was smiling. "Shut the door and sit down," Chris ordered. "We’ve got some things to discuss."

Nathan hesitated and then did as he was told. He hesitated again when the only chair available turned out to be the one at the far end of the table but finally sat down in it, feeling like he was on trial. He said as much, and Buck replied evenly, "No, we already had the trial; this is your sentencing hearing."

The chemist’s temper got the better of him. "Judge, jury and executioner, is that it? Who gets that last job, Ezra?"

"I want to change my vote," Vin said, rapping his knuckles lightly on the table.

"Vin." The admonishment came, surprisingly, from Ezra; the sharpshooter subsided. "Mr. Larabee, I believe you have the floor."

Chris sighed and got straight to the point. "Nathan, your actions left us with a tough decision to make, and it’s taken us almost this whole three days to make it because someone," he shot a pointed glance at Ezra, whose eyes had remained glued to the tabletop the entire time, "insisted that the decision had to be unanimous or he wouldn’t go along with it. So you and Rain are still welcome at the family Christmas party, if you want to come."

Nathan digested that and nodded. "Well of course we want to," he managed. "We been plannin’ on it all this time…"

Ezra stood up. "Well, gentlemen, now that that’s settled I have work to do." He left the room without looking at anyone.

Nathan shook his head. "Shouldn’t bet if you don’t want to lose."

"He won," was Josiah’s unhappy reply, startling him. The older man sighed. "He refused to go along with it unless everyone said you two could come and no conditions were put on you. If we hadn’t agreed, he and Juliet would have spent Christmas alone." He frowned sadly at the openmouthed chemist and shook his head, standing up. "You should only hope to be as big a man as Ezra is someday, Nathan."

Buck stood up too. "You know how insecure he is," he said in a flat voice. "Must’ve taken more balls than you’ll ever have to put our friendship to the test like that for the likes of you."

"And we ain’t gonna forget it," Vin added, joining them. "You’d best never pull anything like this again, Jackson." The three men filed out of the room in Ezra’s wake, and JD got up and followed them with one last frown in Nathan’s direction.

Nathan looked at Chris, who remained where he was. "Well?"

The team leader just shook his head. "Think they about covered it," he said coolly, pushing himself up out of his chair. "Although there’s something else you should know; we had another meeting, one Ez wasn’t part of, to decide if we could keep you on the team or not. They had to chew on it a little but they all finally agreed to give you a second chance, seemed to think you deserved it."

Nathan’s mouth fell open again; he hadn’t realized until that moment just how close he’d been to losing his place in this odd family of brothers. But there was a precedent, he remembered. "Like you did for Ezra before…"

He was surprised when Chris immediately shook his head again with a disgusted look. "I gave Ezra a second chance because what happened in that warehouse that day wasn’t his fault," he corrected sharply. "And not only that, he knew how it would look and he still came back and saved our asses." He paused at the door but didn’t turn around. "Consider this subject closed, Jackson. I expect you to be back at your desk working in five minutes."

Nathan waited three and a half; then he stood up, looked around at the arrangement of empty chairs one last time, and headed back to work. He had a lot to think about.

He was still thinking about some of it when he and Rain pulled up into a vacant spot in the wide, bare area that was Chris Larabee’s driveway on Christmas Day. The first thing they saw was a snowball fight in progress at the west side of the house. The chemist counted five adults and two children, the smallest of whom was Billy Travis and another he assumed was one of the kids Vin was mentoring. The kid and a woman he recognized as a member of the research department at the office were hiding behind a slender tree which they shook violently to dump a small cascade of snow onto Buck and Ezra, who went down very theatrically while their attackers ran off laughing only to be ambushed by JD and Casey. Billy came to their rescue with an enthusiastically hurled snowball that hit JD on the arm and made him yelp.

The kid immediately grabbed the small hand that was about to toss another messily packed white orb and broke the ball apart to reveal a thumb-sized rock. Nathan had moved closer when he heard the yelp and was surprised when the ‘kid’ pulled back hood and scarf to reveal a woman’s face framed in black hair and wearing a disappointed expression. "No, honey, this is not acceptable," said a sweet, high voice with just a hint of a Southern accent. "A snowball fight is for fun, not for hurting people; you didn’t want to hurt JD or Casey, did you?"

The seven year old shook his head and sniffed. "Do I hafta go in now and be in trouble?"

"No, of course not!" The small woman lifted the little boy’s chin and looked him in the eye. "You made a mistake, that’s all, and I know you won’t do it again, right?" Billy nodded and she kissed his forehead. "That’s a good boy; go apologize to JD now and maybe we can all go build snowmen before we have to go in." He scurried off and the woman stood up and dusted snow off her jeans; Nathan estimated she was only about five feet tall. She cocked her head up at the taller woman beside her, indigo eyes sparkling with mischief. "Do you think we should go dig them out?"

"No need." Ezra and Buck trotted out of the trees, still shaking off snow. "You ladies are dealin’ with two highly trained federal agents here, you know, capable of extricatin’ themselves from most any situation with relative ease."

"Yeah, we are two dangerously resourceful individuals," Buck agreed, draping a long arm around the other woman’s shoulders. "So what are we doin’ now, ladies? Did I hear someone say snowmen? I make a mighty mean snowman…"

"You make a mighty anatomically correct snowman, if I remember correctly from last year," Ezra chuckled. "Somehow I don’t think Billy’s mother would appreciate havin’ to explain why your snowman has three legs, Buck." He caught sight of Nathan and his smile faltered slightly. "Ah, I see Mr. Jackson has finally arrived."

"Hey, Nathan," Buck greeted the newcomer with only a shade less than his usual joviality. "Don’t think you’ve met Meg and Juliet, have you?"

Nathan decided to play it straight. "Nope," he said. He extended his hand first to Meg, who was closest to him. "Don’t you work down in Research?"

"Yes," Meg replied, taking the offered hand politely but with no real enthusiasm. "I’ve been there almost a year now."

"Meg went to the Halloween party with me," Buck added. He smiled down at her. "And luckily for me we were able to convince her that all our parties don’t end with the SWAT team bein’ called in."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. The inveterate ‘ladies’ man’ had been seeing one woman for more than a month? Come to think of it, Buck had never brought one of his women to any of their ‘family’ get-togethers before, either. Well, it could have been the hostage incident, he reasoned; things like that sometimes caused people to bond temporarily. "Sorry to hear you were caught in the middle of that, Meg. I hope you took advantage of the department’s counseling center…"

He was surprised again when both Meg and Juliet looked at each other and giggled while Ezra and Buck rolled their eyes. "I believe the women discovered a different approach for dealin’ with their traumatic experience," Ezra said in a dry voice but with an amused sparkle in his eyes. "The concerted effort the three of them applied to verifyin’ the therapeutic benefits of chocolate would have put the most devoted researcher to shame."

Juliet cocked her head at him coyly; they both knew the real reason Mary and Meg had taken to sitting around in her kitchen after the hostage incident, and it had nothing to do with food. "You’re just jealous because we didn’t save you any cookies the last time."

"Ah am still unsure you ever actually baked any of them," he countered. "Ah very much suspect that the three of you consumed the entire bowl of dough before any of it had opportunity to be so much as threatened by an oven." He reached out and brushed a curling ebony tendril away from her cheek. "And no you didn’t save us any, inconsiderate wretches that you are."

Her smile grew dimples. "How very rude of us." She allowed him to draw her closer and returned her attention to Nathan, extending one small gloved hand. "Mr. Jackson, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you."

The chemist had to shake off the shock he was feeling after watching the affectionate by-play between Juliet and Ezra. Blinded by his prejudices, it had never occurred to him that the Southerner might have been involved in what he would consider a ‘real’ relationship; the two of them were so obviously in love, he could understand now why Chris and the others had been so angry over what had happened. He took her hand almost gingerly, feeling the way his own grip just swallowed it up. My God, she’s so tiny; just the right size for Ezra, but I feel like a giant. "Ms. Moore, the pleasure’s all mine. I’m just…sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet you sooner."

It was as close to an apology as Nathan felt like he could get at the moment, having promised Chris that neither he nor Rain would bring up their ‘mistake’ at the Christmas party, but he wanted her to know that he was sorry for what he’d done. Juliet’s smile reassured him, but before anything else could be said JD and Casey came bouncing up. "Hey, Nathan, you made it," the young agent observed, his usual enthusiasm only slightly subdued. "How come you aren’t helping Rain get that stuff in?"

"Oh dear, I didn’t see…" Juliet grimaced and tugged on Meg’s coat. "Come on, let’s go help her get that inside."

Meg followed, but not before shooting a concerned look at Buck. "I don’t know where we’re going to put it, Juliet - I think the only empty spot left is the top of the refrigerator…"

"We’ll make a place somewhere…"

"I’ll help," Casey chimed in after sharing a look of her own with JD and trotted after the other two women. "We could maybe shift the Christmas cookies to the coffee table if no one lets the dog inside…"

A momentary, uncomfortable silence fell between the four men with the women gone, and then Nathan cleared his throat. "So…looks like everyone’s here."

"Yep, now they are," Buck replied, tearing his eyes away from the women as they approached Rain at the car. "You missed a good snowball fight."

"Roads were a little slick," Nathan explained. It felt odd to be so stilted with men who were as close as brothers to him; Buck was just being polite and JD and Ezra had yet to stop watching the scene going on at the car. He sighed. "She ain’t going to do anything, guys."

JD glanced at him. "Don’t think you can blame us for wanting to see that for ourselves, considering," he said quietly. "It’s going to take everyone a little time, Nathan."

Maybe more than that, Ezra thought, seeing his fiancée stiffen slightly at something Rain said. The tall black woman headed for the house and Juliet glanced over her shoulder, knowing he was watching; she smiled reassuringly and nodded to him before hurrying into the house herself, and he returned the gesture with a sinking heart. Perhaps we were too optimistic regarding this situation; this sort of thing only works out if everyone is trying their best to assure that it does…

After a bare two hours Chris would have been more than ready to agree with his undercover agent’s assessment of the situation. Nathan was trying and the effort alone was enough; a man can’t undo the habits and attitudes of a lifetime in a single week and no one expected him to. Rain, on the other hand, didn’t appear to be trying at all, and telling Nathan to either shut her up or take her home was quickly becoming a serious consideration. But if he did that then Ezra and Juliet would almost certainly leave too, so Chris held his tongue and hoped that everyone else would be able to hold theirs as well.

And his hope was fulfilled…for a little while. Buck had tacked mistletoe all over the house and Vin was armed with a Polaroid and lots of film; so far the only person who hadn’t gotten caught in a compromising position was Billy. The sharpshooter himself had been captured by his victims in the end and had his own picture forcibly taken under a prominent sprig with his arm around Chris’ dog and a shiny piece of Christmas ribbon tied into a bow in his hair, so blackmail ceased to be a threat after that. Then a second foray into the yard had resulted in a proliferation of unnatural snow…things, including a new version of the remembered multi-legged snowman which they told Billy was an octopus but which Buck and Meg gigglingly called an Overfiend. The name had sent JD and Casey into fits of embarrassed giggles as well, and once the reference was explained in a Billy-proof whisper to Ezra and Juliet it resulted in a round of Southern-accented scoldings followed by another surreptitiously taken picture of a kiss that Chris swore should have melted all the snow on the mountain and had probably singed the tree the couple was hiding behind. The snow fight that had followed was quick and dirty and ended with everyone ganging up on Buck and burying him in a deep drift under the big bay window while those who weren’t outside watched from behind the glass. Chris had held Mary a little tighter to him while they watched their friends roll around in the snow, letting himself bask in the warmth. It felt good to have a family again.

Josiah thought so as well, but the profiler was all too aware of the downside of family holiday gatherings - the fact that one bad apple can spoil the whole basket. It wasn’t a problem Team Seven had ever had in the past, but Josiah had been watching Rain and had reluctantly had to accept what his instincts were telling him; the woman was angry about what had happened, about the embarrassment the situation had caused her and probably about just plain being wrong. If she’d actually admitted to herself she was wrong, he amended. Rain had been very obvious about watching Juliet every time the younger woman had interaction with Billy Travis - which was fairly often, as the teacher had the same affinity for children that Ezra did. Juliet was ignoring the surveillance, but Josiah could tell that Mary was not going to be able to put up with it for much longer.

Meg and Casey were also beginning to lose patience with Nathan’s girlfriend, but for a different reason. The nurse’s disparaging comments about the food everyone had brought to the party had started at the car when the three women had gone to help her carry things into the house. Everyone knew that Nathan and Rain were extremely health-conscious and had very strong opinions about diet, but to date the conflicts with the rest of the team on the subject had stayed low-key and more on the level of teasing than anything else. Not so today; Rain had been quick to condemn everything with a pointed comment of, "At least last year one of you brought healthy food, but it looks like he’s fallen prey to a bad influence this time around." And it also wasn’t helping that the large tray of unadorned raw organic vegetables she and Nathan had brought was being avoided like the plague by everyone but the two of them. Juliet, to her credit, had tried more than once to find common ground with Rain on the subject of food and cooking but had been cut off with sanctimonious disdain each time and had finally given up. Everyone was doing their best to stay civil, but tempers were starting to grow short and uncomfortable silences to grow longer. Even Nathan was starting to look embarrassed by his girlfriend’s behavior…but he didn’t appear to know what to do about it either.

Eventually the situation - as such situations tend to do - came to a head all by itself. Since at first no one would so much as touch the vegetable tray, when Rain noticed it suddenly becoming popular she at once became suspicious. Sure enough, closer inspection revealed that a bowl of something pale beige in color had been placed near the raw vegetables and was resulting in their being eaten with gusto by everyone who got near them. "What is that?" she demanded, pointing to the bowl. "I didn’t bring that."

"You should have." Buck had lost the desire to keep being polite about thirty minutes earlier, after Meg had found Juliet outside the back kitchen door fighting to maintain her composure so no one would know how upset she actually was. What he’d really wanted to do was corner Nathan and advise him to stop thinking with his dick and do the right thing, but he’d had to be content instead with enlisting Billy’s help to wheedle Juliet into making the dip they were all eating right now. "Cream and nutmeg and a little honey - it ‘enhances the flavor’ of the vegetables real nicely."

The quote caught Ezra’s attention from across the room and he tensed. It was something Juliet had repeated several times during their ‘group cooking lesson’ a few days before, and the way Buck had said it told the undercover agent that the simmering tension of the past few hours was about to boil over. While on the one hand he was pleased that his friends - all of whom were in the general area and none of whom looked inclined to put a stop to what was about to happen - were feeling protective toward the woman he loved, it dismayed him that his and Juliet’s presence at the party might be the cause of a rift in the group that couldn’t be fixed. I shouldn’t have let them talk me into this, he mused regretfully. I was afraid that this is what would come of it.

Rain was glaring at Buck. "They don’t need ‘enhancing’, they’re fine just the way they are."

"Actually I think the dip was just what they needed." Mary was tired of being polite as well, especially since Billy had just asked her if Rain kept watching him because she though he would be bad. "Why don’t you try some, it’s very good."

"There’s nothing ‘good’ about it," Rain maintained. "The only good nutritious food in this house is what Nathan and I brought with us. All this processed, ‘enhanced’ junk you all are poisoning your bodies with, like all these sweets and that poor excuse for a vegetable tray, there ain’t none of it good."

Little Billy was frowning up at them in complete confusion; he hadn’t understood the reason behind the changed mood of all the grownups, but he was smart enough to have noticed that the change had happened after Nathan and Rain had arrived. He had also noticed that Rain was rude, and had wondered more than once why she hadn’t gotten into trouble for it yet like he would have. But this was too much. "That’s not right," the little boy piped up indignantly. "This food is all really good! I know, I’ve ate lots of it already!"

Smiles blossomed all around the room…on every face except Rain’s. The nurse sighed long-sufferingly and shook her head, looking down at the little boy with a frown. "I’m sure you like the way it tastes, but that don’t mean it’s good food," she clarified. "Everything here might as well be poison, it’s just plain bad for you."

Dead silence; it didn’t even sound like anyone was breathing. Chris wondered which one of his men would be the first to try to kill Rain and if he should actually attempt to stop it from happening. He himself was more than ready to pitch her out into the snow and tell her not to come back until she’d learned some manners, Nathan or no Nathan. And then…"It most certainly is not." Juliet’s determined voice cut through the nervous silence like a hot knife through butter, startling everyone. Of course, Chris thought with rueful amusement. Just like Ez; should have expected that she wouldn’t back down when the boy got involved. "Food is food," she continued, putting a reassuring hand on Billy’s shoulder and scowling up at Rain. "All foods have their good points and their bad points, and anything is bad for you if you eat too much of it."

"Fresh fruits and vegetables…" Rain began.

"Carotene poisoning," Juliet countered immediately. "Constipation from too much iron, diarrhea from too much fruit - and we won’t even talk about what improperly cooked legumes do to most people’s digestion. A balanced diet doesn’t mean eating only certain foods in certain ways all the time, it means balancing what you do eat so there isn’t too much or too little of any one thing." She turned back to the table, cut a piece of mincemeat pie and held it out to the openmouthed chemist, ignoring his sputtering girlfriend. "You have been staring at this ever since you got here, Nathan, and you are insulting Vin by not trying it. Here."

Nathan took the plate and looked a surprised question at the grinning sharpshooter, who blushed and nodded. "Did anyone happen to mention that Juliet also teaches home economics?" Ezra asked with a barely contained smirk, wrapping his arm around the woman in question with a very proprietary air.

"I made the fruitcake," Buck said, folding his arms across his chest. "And there’s no processed fruit in there, it’s all either fresh or frozen."

"Casey and I made the ‘poor excuse for a vegetable tray’," JD chimed in, scowling. "It’s called antipasto and it’s supposed to be like that - you’re not supposed to eat much of it, it’s just for an appetizer." He shot a look at Juliet to make sure he’d remembered right; she smiled and nodded approvingly at him and he lit up like a Christmas tree. "And those are all quality ingredients, so there."

"It took us a whole morning of shopping to find them all," Casey added, putting her arms around JD from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder. "We went to stores I didn’t even know existed, and once Ezra and Juliet told the people we were learning to shop they just couldn’t help us enough! And they made us taste everything to prove it was fresh, it was a lot of fun."

"Yeah, it was really cool; they’re friends with everybody everywhere we went, and they were delivering their Christmas presents while we shopped," JD said, plainly awed by the memory. "Everyone had presents for them, too, and Ez translated for us…"

Rain’s curiosity got the better of her. "Translated?"

Ezra shrugged. "It is only polite to address someone in their native language."

That made JD laugh. "Yeah, and you were polite to people in Italian, French, German and Chinese, Ez."

Nathan and Rain both goggled at that one, and it was Chris’ turn to laugh - although his had a bit of an edge to it. "Did anyone mention that Ezra is fluent in a bunch of different languages?" he asked, easing his arm around Mary’s waist. "How many was it at last count, Ez?"

"That depends on what you consider fluent," the Southerner hedged. "Mere linguistic proficiency aside…"

"He’s been holdin’ out on us," Buck informed Nathan. "It’s around a dozen, if I remember right - and he didn’t bother to tell anyone he has a photographic memory, either."

Nathan cocked a surprised eyebrow at Ezra, who blushed and shrugged again. "I prefer the term eidetic memory, but yes." A small hand tugging at his sweater was a welcome interruption and immediately had the Southerner’s full attention; Ezra went down on one knee to be at eye level. "Yes, Billy?"

"How come you’re embarrassed to be smart?" the little boy wanted to know. "Mama says it’s good to be smart and I shouldn’t be shy when I know the answer and the other kids don’t. Didn’t your mama tell you that?"

Ezra bit his lip. "No," he said quietly. "No, Billy, mah mother nevah did tell me that."

"Billy, do you remember when your mama told you not to be shy about being smart?" Juliet interjected quickly, joining her fiancé at the lower level and putting a reassuring hand on his arm. "It was because some of the other kids were being mean and making you feel bad, wasn’t it?" The little boy nodded gravely; so did she. "Well, sweetie, Ezra’s mommy didn’t want anyone to be mean to him, so she taught him to hide being smart so they couldn’t see it."

Billy still wasn’t happy with the explanation. "But my mama says you have to face your problems head on."

"And your mama is right," Ezra told him, having regained his composure and managing a half-smile. "But mah mother wasn’t as smart as yours is." That made several of his teammates grin and Chris hugged Mary a little tighter. "She did the best she could, however, and that is all anyone can ask of a person."

"But you’re a grownup now," the little boy insisted. "Kids are mean ‘cause they haven’t learned not to be yet; grownups know better."

"Not always, little guy; sometimes grownups can be even meaner," Buck said in a slightly pained voice, remembering a few times when he personally had let anger or jealousy twist playful teasing into something much uglier. Meg insinuated herself under his arm and his smile came back. "But grownups can learn better just like kids can."

Billy thought on that for a moment and then gave Rain a speculative look before returning his attention to Juliet and Ezra. "When will she learn better?"

Everyone froze. Chris stopped Mary’s automatic scold with a look and then smiled at her son and held out his arms; Billy eagerly went to him to be picked up, wrapping his arms around the tall man’s neck. "Now that was kind of a rude question," Chris informed the little boy, returning the hug. "But it’s okay this time, because I think everyone else would like to know the answer too. I know for a fact that I would."

Rain turned red. Nathan looked at her and then at his friends, and he made a decision. "Now," he answered before his girlfriend could say a single word. He took her by the arm and began pulling her away from the group. "If you all would excuse us for a second…"

Shock kept Rain silent until they were out on the wide front porch. Then she yanked her arm out of Nathan’s loose grip and glared at him. "Why didn’t you say something to him? He don’t have the right to talk to me that way…"

"He most certainly does; it’s his house," Nathan countered just as angrily. "Something I think you forgot when we came over here. And I’m just amazed he kept quiet as long as he did!"

Her mouth fell open. "I don’t believe it, you’re taking his side over mine!"

"Damn right I am!" The chemist reigned in his anger with an effort and lowered his voice, not wanting it to carry back into the house. "You embarrassed us both - only problem is, don’t look to me like you’re embarrassed at all."

"I don’t have reason to be," Rain snapped back. "If the honest truth makes some people uncomfortable then that’s their problem, not mine."

"No one ever said you couldn’t have your own opinion," Nathan countered. "But you don’t have the right to force it on other folks, Rain. And just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t make them wrong."

She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a disgusted look. "Right is right and wrong is wrong, Nathan; you can’t change that."

The flat echo of his own words hit him like a slap in the face. Was this what he had sounded like two weeks ago? Suddenly he was in Josiah’s shoes and they fit all too well; he could have pulled Rain aside hours ago and tried to put a stop to what she was doing…but he hadn’t, and now the responsibility for the situation she’d created was his as well. "Nope, you sure can’t," he agreed with her quietly. "And this time you’re wrong." He ignored her outraged gasp. "You were in the wrong last time, too; I shouldn’t have let you talk me into doin’ what we did, especially when neither of us knew what all was goin’ on. Chris was right to be disgusted with me for judgin’ someone I’d never even met, ‘cause now that I have I can see that that little woman could never in a million years hurt a child…no more than Ezra could. I should have trusted my friend more than that."

"So now you ain’t gonna trust me, is that it?" Rain demanded. "That little cracker girl flutters her eyelashes at you and all of a sudden she can’t do no wrong, but just because I didn’t fall for her act now I’m the bad guy?"

Nathan froze, shocked by the racial slur. "But… you didn’t have time to get any kind of idea what sort of person Juliet is, you just started in bein’ rude and you haven’t let up! What makes you think she ain’t just bein’ nice?"

"I know the type," Rain snapped dismissively. "I didn’t have to get to know her, I knew what to expect before we came - it don’t surprise me that your ‘friend’ is hooked up with her either, ‘cause they’re both the same kind."

"Southerners," Nathan said. The light had come on, and he didn’t like what he could see by it. "They’re both white and they’re both from the South. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?"

"I’m surprised you couldn’t see it before," she said, relaxing a little, not realizing that he wasn’t agreeing with her. "You think if she was a black woman that judge would have let her off for what she did, let her keep teachin’? If she wasn’t a lily-white flower of the South they probably would have made her spend the rest of her life in prison. And it’s the same with him; if it was you that got caught takin’ payoffs you would have lost your badge, but the little white boy with the sheet in his closet just gets sent to another department and takes all his dirty money with him."

"Dear God," Nathan whispered. "I can’t believe I’ve been so blind…"

Rain smiled sympathetically and put her hand on his arm. "I know you thought they were your friends, honey, but I could see it all along; you’re just the token nigger on this ‘team’ of theirs. And I’m sorry if I embarrassed you…but they were all playin’ you for a fool and I just got tired of it, watchin’ you feel guilty for doin’ the right thing, tryin’ to get back into their good graces by swallowin’ your pride. I’m glad I was able to open your eyes…"

"Oh, you opened my eyes, all right," Nathan replied coldly. "There were clues before, of course - little things I overlooked because we were together and I wanted us to stay that way - but this time you just laid it all out where I couldn’t help but see it for what it was." He removed her hand from his arm with a look of disgust so deep that Rain caught her breath in surprise. "You’re a racist, Rain."

Her anger tried to kindle again, but shock dampened the reaction to insignificance. "I’m just tellin’ it like it is!"

"You’re tellin’ it like you see it, I’ll give you that much," he said. "But all I can see right now is someone who didn’t find nothing wrong with destroying someone’s life just because of the color of their skin - or with spoiling a holiday for a bunch more people for the same reason." He sighed and shook his head. "When I pulled you out here I was plannin’ that once we’d had a talk we’d both go back in and you could apologize, but now…now I think the best thing for all concerned is if you just head on home. You wait out here, I’ll go get your coat."

"I can get my own…"

He stopped her attempt to slide past him into the house with one outstretched hand; he didn’t actually touch her, but the gesture and the look in his eyes was enough. "I said, I’ll get it."

Neither of them said another word to each other after that; there was nothing else to say. Nathan watched her drive off and then went back inside the house…to find Chris and Buck waiting for him, their faces reflecting concern. He squared his shoulders. "Rain’s gone home - I told her I thought it was for the best."

"I’d have to agree with you," Chris replied solemnly. "Nate, you should know…we could hear her in here." The chemist immediately looked embarrassed and Larabee shook his head. "It’s her problem, not yours, and you know what you mean to this team - there’s never been any ‘token’ anything about it. But that ain’t all."

"Ez and Juliet already knew what was goin’ on," Buck continued. "They hadn’t wanted to tell anybody, but after Chris here had his ‘talk’ with Rain she apparently took a walk through your address book to get Ezra’s mailing address. They burned the letter she sent, but from the sound of it the woman had an awful lot to say about them and their ‘kind’."

Nathan winced. "Oh lord…"

"I’d say it says an awful lot about what kind they are that the two of them came to the party after that and acted like nothing was wrong," Chris observed. "Neither one of them blame you at all - they felt sorry for you, as a matter of fact, because Ezra knows how you feel about any kind of prejudice and he knew it would be a shock for you when you found out Rain was that way."

"Yeah, he seemed to think that ‘lettin’ your nether regions control your actions’ wasn’t something you were doin’ on purpose." Buck was proud of himself for remembering the ‘genteel’ way that Ezra had paraphrased the accusation Nathan had originally thrown at him. "’Course he also didn’t think you’d believe him if he told you and he didn’t want to cause any more problems."

"Wasn’t him that caused any problems to begin with," Nathan replied heavily. "I just can’t believe I’ve been so blind! Now that I think about it, it wasn’t like she ever really hid who she was from me, but I was just…"

"In love? Aren’t you familiar with the saying, ‘Love is blind,’ Mr. Jackson?"

All three men jumped, and Chris rolled his eyes at Buck. "Knew I shouldn’t have left the Kryptonite in my other pants. And just how long have you been standin’ there?"

Ezra shrugged. "The other women have adjourned to the kitchen with my wife-to-be and the remainder of our compatriots are in the den with Billy playing with the train and speculating on whether the track could somehow be affixed to the branches of the tree. I was left somewhat at loose ends."

"What are they doin’ in the kitchen?" Buck wanted to know. "Everything’s cooked and there ain’t no place to put anything else anyway…" Then his eyes narrowed. "No. No, they ain’t…"

"Yes, they are," Ezra confirmed with a sigh. "They’re on their first batch of cookie dough as we speak."

Nathan arched an eyebrow. "There’s still half a tray full of cookies in the den, why would they want to bake more…"

"Ah never said they were baking them," Ezra told him. "Ah said they were on their first batch of dough - ah seriously doubt the oven has even been turned on."

"Group therapy," Chris clarified for the confused chemist. "Mary and Meg started going to Juliet’s to talk things out after Halloween, the three of ‘em got to be pretty good friends. I guess we should just be glad they’d rather eat than drink when something upsets them…"

"Ah won’t be glad about it until they learn to share," Ezra pouted, an expression echoed by Buck. "And don’t be relieved too soon, Chris; ah distinctly heard Mary mention brandy snaps."

Larabee groaned and covered his face with his hand, shaking his head. Nathan had to chuckle at his three friends’ reactions…and suddenly realized that even after all that had happened they still were his friends. No long, drawn-out explanations had been necessary, no promises had to be made; the team had decided he could stay in their circle and the only proof these men would require that he deserved his second chance was for him not to make the same mistake again. There was still something Nathan required of himself, though. "Ezra, I owe you an apology."

"You may have been acting on an erroneous supposition but your motive for doing so was above reproach," the Southerner replied dismissively. "To err is human, Nathan, and apologies for that are hardly necessary…"

"This one is," Nathan interrupted insistently. It had taken him a while - two years, to be exact - but he had finally figured out that Ezra would become progressively more wordy when he was nervous or uncomfortable, and the only way to get past that particular defense mechanism was to interrupt him and not let him get started again. "I want to apologize for bein’ a hypocrite; I was doin’ exactly what I accused you of doin’, turnin’ a blind eye to what was goin’ on because I wanted someone to warm my bed more than I wanted to stand up for my principles. I’ve done this kind of thing to you before, I’m gonna try real hard not to do it again…but I wanted you to know right now that I was sorry I’ve done it at all."

He took a deep breath so he would be ready to interrupt again…and then let it out, surprised; Ezra was staring at him like he’d never seen him before. Chris and Buck looked startled too, and Nathan wondered if he should be offended. "You all act like you’ve never heard me apologize before…"

"Don’t think we ever have," Chris replied slowly, but a smile was starting to creep across his face. "At least, not like this."

"You usually have a ‘but’," Buck added. "You always say ‘I’m sorry, but’, and that’s not really an apology at all. It’s good to hear the real thing for a change."

"Yes, it is," Ezra said in a choked voice, his emerald eyes still wide with surprise and suspiciously shiny as well. "Ah never would have expected…" He hesitated a second and then held out his hand. "Thank you, Nathan. Apology accepted…and much appreciated."

Nathan’s vision blurred a little as well when he took the outstretched hand. Good lord, I must have been treatin’ him worse than I though all this time if an honest apology’s enough to bring tears to his eyes. Thank you, Ezra. I just wish there was some way I could make all this up to you and Juliet…"

"That isn’t necessary, Nathan; it wasn’t your fault."

The sweet high voice startled the four men. "Maybe you should just start wearin’ that Kryptonite on a chain around your neck, looks like we’ve got two of ‘em now," Buck teased Chris, who scowled at him. "And just how long have you been there?"

"Only a few seconds, I assure you," Juliet told him with a dimpled smile. "I recalled that someone was feelin’ neglected because he didn’t get any cookie dough last time, and we can’t have that." She glided over to her fiancé and held a small ball of chocolate chip-studded dough up to his lips. "See, I saved you some."

Ezra allowed her to feed him the small unbaked cookie and then nipped at her fingertips before she could pull them away. "Only the one?"

"Oh, look at that pout. We’re about to make another batch." She stood up on tiptoe to kiss him and then returned her attention to the other three men. "Maybe you’d all better come have some - it was sounding more like Lent than Christmas out here a minute ago."

"That was my fault," Nathan confessed. "I owed Ezra here an apology. I owe you one too." He frowned when she started to shake her head. "They told me about the letter, Juliet."

The little woman scowled. "They shouldn’t have. And men say women can’t keep a secret!"

"I’m glad they didn’t keep this one," Nathan countered. "Rain had already opened my eyes to her prejudice outside on the porch, but knowing that she went behind my back to send a letter like that…well, it told me something else about her that I needed to know, it told me that I couldn’t trust her. I’m just sorry I didn’t wake up to what was really goin’ on before this whole ugly mess cost you your teaching career."

Juliet sighed and shook her head again. "Nathan, I tell you it isn’t a problem; I can get another job. I could easily go to work as a cook almost anywhere in town, in fact. I’m just glad that Chris and Judge Travis were able to keep this from affecting Ezra’s career."

"That wasn’t all the judge was able to do," Chris interjected quietly. He immediately had everyone’s attention. "I wasn’t going to say anything until we started unwrapping presents…but Travis has a friend or two at the state board of education. He called yesterday to tell me that they finally got back to him and you won’t have any more problems, Juliet; the investigation has officially been dropped - ‘unfounded allegations with no basis in fact’ is what the record will say. And since the school board was keeping the whole mess quiet for legal reasons your career here in Denver should hardly be affected by what went on." He smiled at the openmouthed little woman. "Merry Christmas."

"Very," Juliet gasped once she found her voice again.

"Very," Ezra echoed, pulling his shocked fiancée into a reassuring hug. "He just told you yesterday? Is that why you’ve said nothing until now?"

"Yep. Travis wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to do so close to the holidays and I didn’t want to get everyone’s hopes up." His smile slipped a little. "And earlier …well, I didn’t want anything to spoil the moment."

"And Rain would have," Nathan said evenly. "And what’s worse, she might have tried to do something else."

"I’d thought of that too," Chris replied. Movement in the doorway caught his attention - much to his relief - and he smiled at Mary as she came out into the foyer. "Wondered when you’d come looking for her."

The newspaperwoman took a slow look around the small gathering and then smiled brightly. "You told them?"

"Yep." Chris essayed a fair imitation of Ezra’s pout. "Don’t I get any cookie dough?"

"Only if you help mix it up." She took hold of his sleeve and tugged. "Come on, we need you to unlock the liquor cabinet - we can’t make brandy snaps without brandy…"

"I thought that was a joke!" Larabee exclaimed as she led him back toward the kitchen. "What’s wrong with chocolate chips…"

Buck laughed quietly and followed them. "Best go check on Meg - and lay claim to my own share of those brandy snaps…"

Ezra and Juliet were headed out the door in Buck’s wake when they both stopped and looked back. "Nathan, aren’t you coming?" Juliet asked.

Nathan looked into those indigo eyes for something that would tell him she was just being polite…and didn’t find it. It wasn’t in Ezra’s emerald gaze either, although the invitation on the Southerner’s face was plain enough. They really wanted him to come.

And Nathan wanted to come, wanted to be with the rest of his family. He wanted it more than anything.

"Right behind you," he said, and suited the action to the words. "And…merry Christmas, you two."

They both beamed at him. "Yes, ah believe it is, my friend," Ezra replied, the affectionate appellation slipping out so easily and naturally that Nathan wanted to cry. "A very merry Christmas."