Honor Thy Mother

"'O, beware, my lord of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.'" Ezra thoughtfully quoted to himself as he watched his mother flirt with his lover once more.

He looked over at Josiah and noticed how uncomfortable he had become since they had arrived at the restaurant to celebrate Mother's Day with Maude.

Right now, at this moment, he agreed with Shakespeare's Othello. He was jealous.

He was also jealous of a few dinner dates that Josiah had gone out on with his mother.

'Yes,' he thought. 'I know that nothing happened on those dates, because Josiah told me nothing happened, and also because while he was entertaining my saintly mother, I followed them.'

'Yes, I know that it was low of me, but what's a guy to do when the man he has hopelessly fallen in love with has also captured the eye of his own mother?'

'But I won that round, Mother,' Ezra smiled to himself as he remembered the best gift that he had ever received was on Valentine's Day, just a few months ago, and that was the heart of one Josiah Sanchez.

He frowned once again as he noticed his mother scooting closer to his love, as Josiah tried to move further down the booth to get away from her.

'That's it,' he angrily thought. He looked up at Josiah and saw how embarrassed he was about what was going on, and Ezra decided it was time to take his mother in hand.

"Josiah," he said as he watched his love look up at him. Ezra gave him a reassuring smile as he spoke. "Josiah, I seemed to have left my wallet out in the car. Would you mind going to get it for me?" Ezra calmly asked as he watched Josiah let out a relieved sigh. He started to get up when his mother stopped him.

Maude Standish, was a conniving woman who always got what she wanted, and what she wanted right now was her son's lover. Simply because of the fact that he was making her son happy and her son truly owned his heart as well.

She smiled coolly up at Josiah as she raised her hand and waited for him to kiss it. Josiah nervously looked from her back to Ezra. Ezra gave him a reassuring smile as his eyes told Josiah not to worry. Josiah gave out a relieved sigh and ignored Maude's offered hand as he went out the door to get his love's supposed forgotten wallet.

Ezra watched her stunned expression and then waited for Maude to gather her emotions together.

Maude was shocked at the abrupt way Josiah had treated her. Why all she was doing was trying to teach her son a lesson, and that lesson was that Standishes are not allowed to be happy and in love, because being happy and in love made you vulnerable, and that was something that Maude couldn't have her son be.

Her son was meant to marry money, and once he was through his little old phase of playing cops and robbers, that was exactly what he was going to do.

Why she had the lady's family all picked out and everything. She sighed happily at the thought of all of that money coming to her hands once the ill-stricken daughter died and left her poor little Ezra alone with all of those lovely piles of bills lying around.

So, in order for her to get her son back in her hands, all she had to do was break up his relationship with Josiah, which wouldn't be so hard to do since they had already gone out on a couple of dates. So what if nothing had happened on those dates? All she had to do was plant the seeds of doubt in her son's mind, and soon he will be saying goodbye to his lover and those friends of his. Why, it just wasn't right to see a Standish so happy.

Ezra cleared his throat to bring his mother out of her conniving thoughts.

"He's mine, Mother." Ezra coolly stated as he swirled his drink around in his glass.

"Yours?" Maude laughed in her smooth, southern accent. "Why dear, Josiah is a grown man. I should think he is old enough to choose who he belongs to."

"He has chosen, Mother, and he has given his heart to me and no one else."

"Why Ezra, darling. You of all people should know that a man can never be trusted." She smiled cunningly at her son, forcing him to remember all the times she had used him.

Ezra raised his eyebrow up at her. "Now that is a low blow, Mother. Josiah's love for me must really have you running scared to open such old wounds."

He leaned in closer to his mother as his green eyes suddenly turned cold and angry. "Now you listen to me, Mother, I have won Josiah's heart and in return for that love, I have promised that I would never see him hurt again...be they alive or dead."

He paused as he waited for his words to settle in.

"Now, I have won the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and I refuse to stand by and watch you try and take it away. So I have come up with a plan of sorts." He smiled happily as he watched the fear slowly creep into her cool green eyes.

"Oh Mother, you would be so proud. It's a little thing called.... " he paused as he swirled his drink around again before speaking, "Blackmail."

"You wouldn't dare!" she softly exclaimed.

He turned his cold green eyes to her again and simply said, "I would."

She paused as she took a drink of her red wine and remembered all of the things that Ezra could blackmail her with. "You must really love him," she quietly stated.

Ezra nodded as he swallowed his drink. "I do Mother. I love him so much that I would even blackmail my own mother to protect him."

Maude sighed as she looked at her son. "Very well Ezra. I will leave Josiah alone...for now."

Ezra paused in his drinking and turned to slowly look at his mother.

"However," she paused as she took another sip of her wine. "If I find out that he has somehow hurt you, then by any means necessary, I will hurt him back no matter what you say." She paused again as she looked at her son.

"For no one hurts my son and gets away with it."

Ezra took another sip of his drink as he shook his head.

"Very well, Mother, but you've been warned." He said as he put his drink down and got up from the booth. He picked up his jacket along with Josiah's and started to walk out of the restaurant. Then he slowly turned around, made a formal bow to his mother, and wished her a Happy Mother's Day.

With that, he calmly walked out of the restaurant and into the reassuring arms of his love.

Josiah held him close as he softly asked, "Is everything alright?"

Ezra wrapped his arms around his love and nodded his head.

Josiah bent down to place a loving kiss on his lips, causing Ezra to moan.

"Come Love, I think you might have left your wallet at home in our nice warm bed."

Ezra chuckled as he took his lover's hand in his and they made their way home.

Later that night, Josiah wandered down to the kitchen to get himself something to eat. The dinner with Maude had made him so nervous that he was unable to eat anything at the restaurant.

As he walked into the kitchen, he turned on the lights, and there sitting at his table, slowly drinking a cup of tea, was Maude.

She softly laughed as she smiled up at the tall rumpled man who was wearing only his light blue silk boxer shorts and slippers.

"No wonder Ezra loves you so." She said softly as she put down her cup of tea.

She motioned for him to finish getting something to eat while she waited for him to sit down.

Josiah noticed that she was still wearing her evening dress from tonight's dinner as he cautiously sat down beside her with a turkey sandwich in his hand.

She was quiet for a while as she sipped her tea once again and watched Josiah eat his sandwich.

She began to speak when she saw that he was done eating. "Out of all the people in the world," she paused as looked at Josiah, "My son had to fall in love with a former missionary's son, and a poor one at that."

Maude shook her head silently as if she was laughing at her own joke.

"Life, Josiah, is full of surprises. No matter how much or how hard you plan your child's future, it will still surprise you."

She put down her cup and looked him in the eye. "Do you really love him?" she asked.

"Yes, Maude, I really and truly love him. I love him so much that it hurts. Some days, I just sit there and wonder how in the world did I become so lucky to have his love in my life."

She watched him closely as he spoke and heard the truthfulness in his words.

She smiled at him, and as she got up to pour herself another cup of tea, she noticed out of the corner of her eye the well-loved face of her son listening in on their private conversation. She smiled to herself as she went back to the table.

"Tell me Mr. Sanchez," she paused again as she took another sip of her tea, "How long have you been in love with my son?"

Josiah paused for a moment as he smiled at the memory of when he first realized that he was in love with Ezra.

"Well, Maude, it had been coming on gradually at first, so I can't you exactly when I fell in love with him, but I can tell you when I realized that I was in love with him."

Ezra leaned in closer to the entrance of the kitchen to listen, for he himself never knew when it was Josiah realized he was in love with him.

She motioned with her tea for him to go on. "It was Thanksgiving Day and we were all gathered at Chris's place to celebrate another year together. While we were all going around and telling everyone what we were thankful for, I looked down at Ezra who was sitting next to me. He was laughing at the antics of JD and Buck, and as I watched him, he turned to me and smiled the most loving smile I had ever seen. I knew in that moment that I was in love with him. I knew I had been for awhile. I was just slow on finding it out."

Maude shook her head at him and finished drinking her tea.

She softly smiled at him as she got up and grabbed her coat. "Take care of him, Josiah. For he is the only person that has ever meant anything to me." With that, she bent down and kissed his cheek and made her way out the kitchen door and into the night.

"What a woman," Josiah softly mumbled to himself as he cleaned up the dishes and turned off the lights.

"Josiah," came the soft spoken call as Ezra made his way back down the stairs again.

"Ezra!" Josiah called out as he saw his love, not knowing that Ezra had been downstairs listening in the entire time.

"What are you doing down here?" Josiah asked as he noticed the sleepiness in Ezra's green eyes.

"I just missed you when I realized that you weren't in bed anymore."

Josiah let out a soft chuckle as he put his arm around Ezra's waist and began walking them back up to bed. He decided for the time being to let Maude's nocturnal visit go by, as he told his love that he woke up hungry and thought a sandwich would help him to sleep better.

As they got back into bed, Josiah opened his arms to his love and waited for Ezra to snuggle down closer to him.

As Ezra wrapped his own arms around Josiah, he whispered softly, "I love you, Josiah Sanchez."

Josiah softly chuckled and held his love closer to him as he bent down to place a kiss on top of his head, "I love you too, Ezra Standish."