For Maddie and Cissy Sweeney it was simply the most exciting day on earth. The bull work was done and they were now actually playing on the front porch of their new home. 'Their Home', wasn't that grand? And it had this front porch, a big front porch, where they had some dolls and doll furniture and were playing.

They were, of course, making a huge amount of noise but for Maddie and Cissy, Madelaine and Cecelia, that was the norm. They were out going, effervescent and therefore noisy a lot of the time.

Now and again Angela, their Mom, would come out onto the porch to make sure they were okay but she kept an ear open for the din of their play time and would have only worried if the noise subsided.

The move to this small house was Angie's decision after the note from 'Reba' someone finally told her that Tim was dead, gone. He'd died somehow in an accident. Reba didn't offer details apart from the fact that Tim was dead and buried, and Angie wasn't going to ask.

There was, for Angie, also some real relief in the situation. She hadn't felt good about buying the house and moving while the shadow of Tim was still over her head. They had had any number of 'set to's' over the years of their marriage, about 8 to tell the truth, about 'her' money.

Her Momma and Dad had been fairly rigid in their advice about it. Angie did have money but, after that first year and a half, and after Tim had shown how unreliable he was, going off any time he wanted and not showing up for days. Then only breezing in with the 'hi babe' attitude that he was sure would settle everything down for him and her again.

Angie had hung on and then devoted herself to the twins, who were born after she and Tim had been married for about a year and three quarters.

One of Angie's early lessons was that Tim's lifestyle, the way he planned and lived his life, did not admit him being tied down in any way by the duties of being a father. He told Angie boldly, during one of their arguments, that he wasn't 'Dad' material.

The downright happiness of those lovely little girls didn't seem to bring him around at all. He was gone a good deal of the time. Meanwhile, Angie worked, and took care of the twins. They formed a very happy, if incomplete, little group, the three of them.

Angie knew that she could give credit for part of this attitude to her lovely Mom, also Angela, and Dad, Duane. They stood by her, made sure that she had what she wanted, and even advised her to wait to purchase a home until life was a bit more settled for her.

They'd been right there, when Angie finally got that short note from 'Reba' about the death of Tim.

In that instance there was some weeping but it was more weeping for the loss of a possible life.

It was also then that Duane had suggested that it was time for Angie to have her own home. The apartment should be given up in favor of a small house.

It was done that way, with Momma and Poppa paying the lion's share for the house and now here they were.

Both Duane and Angela senior had thought that giving Angie some time to get settled in her own way was a good idea. That's why they weren't there that particular day.

The tasks were going well and the girls were out on the porch making their noises and behaving like the very active 6 year olds that they in fact were.

Tom Lanton, Police Captain Tom Lanton, had noticed that new neighbors were moving in. He also noticed the two lovely little girls and their equally lovely Mom. He in fact took some time that morning to work on a plan to welcome the new neighbors.

MOMMA, IT'S THE COPS

Angie was working inside getting the kitchen settled, and singing to herself. The relief in her life these days was hard to calculate or understand unless you'd been the one that had had to deal with Tim Sweeney's ways for all these years.

Tom had gone to the precinct house that morning and made sure that things were well organized and priorities for their work were set. Then he went home to make his preparations to welcome the new neighbors. He was driving his cruiser that morning, and when he pulled into the driveway, he heard the choruses of "Momma, it's the cops!"

Angie heard the two of them but thought it was just another facet of their play.

Then Maddie and Cissy got even more strident, and were calling out: "Momma, the police are here!" This was accompanied by the continually shouted words: 'The Police, The Police, The Police'. Angie could also hear the girls jumping up and down in their excitement.

It was then that Angie went to the front porch. She did in fact see a policeman coming up the walk and carrying a box in his hand.

"Hi," Tom Lanton said. "I'm your next door neighbor."

"Hi yourself," Angie said.

"No possibility of sneaking up on you, I guess," he said, grinning at the two equally grinning girls.

"Hi, Mr Policeman!" they said, first Cissy and then Maddie.

"Hi to you, he said. "I'm police Captain Tom Lanton."

Now it was "Momma, Momma he's a captain! A captain!"

"Thank you, girls," Angie said and the two of them, though still grinning, stood and watched silently.

"I've taken the liberty of bringing some things here," he said. "Didn't know if you've had the chance to shop or not."

"How nice," she said, looking on as he opened the box and showed her. It was some ham, cut into slices, bread, cup cakes, which got a shout from Cissy and Maddie, some fruit and milk.

There was clapping now from the girls, who were anxious to have a treat.

They did in fact have their treat, to which they invited Tom Lanton, on the porch. There was a table on the side porch, which was screened in.

Angie and Tom took the time, while the girls were busy with the treat, to get to know one another a little bit. She was forthcoming about the reason to finally move from the apartment and buy the house.

By then the girls were back on the front porch playing again.

"They are just lovely!" he said.

"Thank you," she replied, "At times a hand full."

"I don't doubt that for a minute," he replied. "If ever I can help, please let me know."

"That's very nice of you," she said, with a smile. "It seems that they are already smitten with you."

"My charm!" he said with a grin.

Exactly at the time of this first encounter between Angie Sweeney and Tom Lanton, Angie was a very pretty 30 year old. She was petit, indeed none of the women in her family were very large. She took rather after her Mom and her Aunt Jane. She was 5'5" and had auburn hair, with just a hint of red lurking there somewhere. After the birth of the girls, she had gotten back into pre-pregnancy shape and had maintained herself over the years. Despite her Tim's lack of interest in either Angie or the twins, Angie Sweeney was lovely.

Tom Lanton had been married to a woman who got more and more critical of his time away as a policeman. She, at times, thought, vocally, that she could certainly do his job better than he. He always simply let her spout such opinions, which she was wont to do often enough.

They eventually simply separated and she went her own way. She had never wanted children, a continual bone of contention between them.

Indeed, not having children was one of the sadnesses of Tom's life. After the marriage broke up, Tom bought himself a house and settled there, introducing into the house two cats, whom he called 'the bandits'. They were his devoted fans, Edie and Rooney, were their names. Together they served to bring Tom out of the funk that the disaster of his childless marriage had produced.

While Angie Sweeney was in the process of getting things settled in the house, Tom Lanton saw the girls almost on a daily basis. Angie, who worked for her Dad, was taking time off to get settled in the house with the girls.

It provided Angie with quite a busy week.

On the Wednesday of that week, Angie and the girls' first week, Tom came home for lunch. It gave him a chance to check on the 'Bandits' at his house. When he pulled into his driveway, he noticed Maddie and Cissy playing on the porch.

"Hey Policeman!" a squeaky voice called out. Tom waved at the two of them. "It's captain," the other voice insisted. Both were grinning at him.

"Momma, it's the police!" Cissy called into the house.

Angie appeared in the door to say 'Hi' to Tom.

Tom stood by the railing of Angie's porch, with the two girls standing by and grinning at him. He was certainly a favorite of theirs.

"I have someone that I'd like you to meet," he said to Cissy and Maddie. "That is, if your Mom won't mind."

Angie Sweeney and the girls had lived in an apartment where pets were not allowed. It was therefore a major thing, when Cissy and Maddie discovered that two cats were lurking in the house next door, where the big police captain lived.

"Momma?" both girls were calling at once, while dancing around on the porch.

Angie laughed and said: "Not at all; maybe I should meet this person also."

"Maybe you should," Tom said. "It's two by the way."

"Two?" Cissy said.

"Yes," Tom replied. "I'm referring to 'the bandits', as I call them, at my house."

"Bandits?" Maddie asked.

"Yes," Tom said, "My two cats."

Then there was pandemonium. Both girls were jumping up and down and alternating saying 'please' or 'Momma' or 'may we?' or all sorts of variations on 'now'.

It was quickly decided that the four of them would make a trip to Tom's house to meet 'the bandits'.

They went together. It was, in fact, a fairly lovely scene as the four of them, walking abreast, walked from her house to his. Maddie and Cissy were in the middle with Maddie holding Tom's hand on one side and Cissy holding her Momma's hand on the other.

As soon as they entered the house they heard Rooney and Edie. Cissy and Maddie were thunder struck immediately. They were simply wide eyed, as the two siamese cats, Rooney and Edie came wandering into the room.

"Give them a chance to get to know you," Angie said softly.

Maddie and Cissy were determined to do this the right way and said a soft 'Yes, Momma' immediately.

Edie and Rooney seemed to take the situation into their own hands, so to speak. They came forward, making noises —- Rooney and Edie were what is usually referred to as 'mouthy' cats —-and simply began to rub up against everyone in the hall of the house.

Maddie and Cissy were in love immediately. They both knelt and each had a cat to pet and make a fuss over. Meanwhile Edie and Rooney seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. They lay there and received the adulation that they obviously considered their due.

"We love them, Momma, Captain Tom," which they'd begun to call him, whenever the chance was provided, Cissy said and Maddie agreed with her immediately.

They spent time that day, at least as much time as Edie and Rooney seemed to have for them, simply enjoying the cats, and had a promise from Tom that they could come almost anytime at all to enjoy 'the bandits'.

With this final introduction of the two girls to Edie and Rooney, life took a pleasant turn for Tom and Angie, and the girls.

They began to make arrangements for the girls to spend some time at Tom's house with the cats and just enjoying being with Tom.

This, of course, gave Angie also some relief for those times when she needed to work and also needed someone to take care of the girls. Tom was always willing, and his schedule seemed to be flexible, so that he was able to have Cissy and Maddie over frequently during those weeks.

SOMETHING NEW AND A RESCUE OF SORTS:

Another one of the by products of this interchange of houses for Cissy and Maddie was the relationship between Angie and Tom. They began to form a fast and very good friendship.

They sought each other out, and strangely enough, at that point in their relationship, there was no romance going on. They exchanged ideas and feelings, and not only the old stories about how their lives had turned out 'this way, at this time'. They certainly approached the point of becoming best of friends.

Tom proved to be the first 'sitter' that Angie would always contact, when events were going to keep her out in an evening. He was also always willing to help out. Not only was he a true friend of Angie's but also he was positively in love with the two little girls.

There was a time when a friend of Angie's from work decided that she would 'fix Angie up' with a guy that she knew. They talked about it and, though Angie wasn't completely sure about it, finally Angie relented and said that she'd go out with this guy Joe.

Angie talked to Tom about it, and though it gave Tom a strange feeling, he did listen to her and offered to have Cissy and Maddie over that evening, when Angie was scheduled to go out to dinner with Joe.

They decided that the girls would stay over at Tom's house that night, a not infrequent occurrence these days for the girls.

Angie was nervous but went out on the date with Joe. Tom stayed home, though he realized that he was kind of upset about the idea of Angie dating, a new notion to him. He simply took care of the girls, getting them to bed on time.

Cissy and Maddie were, as usual, overjoyed to be spending the night at Captain Tom and 'the bandits'' house.

On that occasion, Tom saw Angie and Joe return home. It was already dark. Joe walked Angie to her house and she went down the walk, which would take her to Tom's to say 'good night' to the girls.

He felt strange about watching Angie and her date and was just turning away, when he watched Joe grab Angie and pull her into an embrace. He saw that Angie, at the same time, pushed him away.

Joe was apparently not in a mood to take 'no' for an answer. Tom was still watching, as Joe now grabbed Angie by the collar of her blouse and pull her back toward him.

Buttons flew in all directions and then the blouse was ripped open down to Angie's waist. She slapped Joe, which only made him madder.

He grabbed her by her bra strap and wrenched her toward him, ripping the bra strap in the process.

"Just for that, bitch," he said "You're going to get fucked, right here and right now."

A voice from the shadows interposed and said: "No she's not!"

It was only then that both Joe and Angie saw Tom standing there.

"Tom," Angie said, relief in her voice.

"Who are you, hero?" Joe asked, sneering.

"Well," Tom slowly answered, "There are a couple of answers to that question: "First, I am Angie's neighbor, and I take care of her daughters, when she wants me to. I am her neighbor the cop, and I'm also the guy that has a gun."

Joe, a true hot head, reacted to that with some action. At the same time, calling her a 'bitch', he pushed Angie so that she stumbled and fell against her house, letting out a cry of distress. But then, he also threw a punch at Tom, hitting him, with the sneer never leaving his face.

Tom Landon, who had experience with these kinds of things that Joe could only barely image, acted with a speed that Joe had no idea was even possible.

Tom took Joe's punch, and, using the butt of his gun, smashed Joe's front teeth in, leaving him cursing, holding his mouth and moving quickly to his car.

(I will say that Tom made a decision to act on what had happened. The next day, when Joe was at a conference with the bosses of the insurance company where he worked, Tom showed up with three other policemen. The receptionist had tried to tell Tom and the officers that Mr. Dante was in a conference and couldn't be disturbed. Tom and the other policemen went to the conference room still and simply opened the door. The men in the room looked up and the receptionist explained that she'd told the policemen that the meeting was not to be disturbed.

Tom stepped into the room and identified himself as Captain Tom Lanton and said that he had a warrant for the arrest of Mr Joe Dante for aggravated assault, attempted rape, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

Joe had told the bosses that his mouth problem was the result of dental surgery.

Once his bosses realized the nature of the complaints against him, they refused him the services of the firm's lawyers.)

When Joe had stalked up the walk and left, Tom turned to Angie, who stood there sobbing and holding her blouse together with one hand.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks to you," she said, letting the blouse flop open and putting her arms around him. She kept saying 'thank you' over and over again into his shoulder, as she clung to him.

Finally, he said: "Go and get another blouse on. The girls are sleeping, the bandits are in bed with them."

She then realized that her blouse was hanging open again and that the torn bra strap had the top of one of her breasts exposed.

"Sorry," she said.

"Hey," he answered, "No 'sorries' for us."

"No," she said, "No 'sorries' for us."

"Are you okay to go in?" he asked then.

"Not sure," she said, "Don't let go of me yet."

He held her for a while then, humming in her ear.

"Tell you what," he said,"Why not come in my house? I have Cissy and Maddie asleep in my bed. I'm going to put you there in bed with them."

"Oh," she drawled, "That sounds nice."

"Come on," he said. "I'll get you settled and then I'll lock up your place and come back."

"You'll be there too?" she asked softly.

"Yes," he said, "I'll be there."

That's the way that they did it. It served to settle Angie down almost immediately. He gave her a police tee shirt to wear and then, when she was ready, he put her into his big king sized bed, in between the sleeping beauties, with Edie and Rooney at the foot of the bed.

Angie snuggled down into the bed, under the covers, and got one last hug from Tom, as he pulled the covers up to her chin. She smiled at him.

"This is nice beyond nice," she said.

"Good for us," he said to her, their faces only a few inches apart.

"That's exactly the truth," she said, "Good for us."

Before she let him go, she planted a lovely and soft kiss on his lips.

"Thank you for tonight," she said.

"Over and done," he said, "No need to mention it again."

She closed her eyes then. He watched only a few minutes, until he heard the evenness of her breathing and knew that she was asleep. Then he slipped out and went to lock her house. Once that was done, he locked up his house and went back upstairs. He was dressed in a pair of running pants and a tee shirt.

In the corner of his bedroom was a rather large lounge chair. That's where he deposited himself for the night, but the three in the bed, along with 'the bandits' were quiet for the night.

Angie was awakened the next morning by the strident voice of one of her two girls. She woke and stretched, after what seemed like a wonderfully peaceful night. The first thing that she saw was a small smiling face, grinning at her. It was Cissy, who was awake a few minutes before Maddie: "Momma," she said, "We all slept at Captain Tom's with Rooney and Edie."

"Yes, sweet love," Angie said, giving Cissy a kiss and then Maddie one also.

"But where's Captain Tom?" Maddie asked.

"He was sleeping in the big chair," Cissy said, "I saw."

It was just then that Tom entered the room carrying a tray. It had on it two cups of hot chocolate and two cups of coffee.

"There he is," Maddie crowed. "Hi, Captain Tom!"

Her greeting was echoed by Maddie and then a soft 'Good morning, Tom, ' by Angie.

"All the pretty girls," Tom said, "Yes, you too Rooney and Edie."

Tom spoke to Angie then: "Angie," he said, "I have to get ready for work. Things to do there."

"Yes," she said, "I understand. I can feed the girls their breakfast."

"I have all sorts of things for them in the pantry," he went on.

"Good," Angie said, "Come on, girls, let's go and get some breakfast, while Captain Tom gets his shower and gets ready for work.

He entered the kitchen a little later, wearing his uniform.

"Hi, Captain Tom," Maddie said and then Cissy echoed the greeting.

Angie was at the stove, still wearing the police tee shirt, that came a little below the level of her butt. She was just finishing the task of getting the girls' breakfast ready.

"Quick breakfast?" she asked.

"Love some," he said, sitting down between the two beaming girls.

"Doesn't he look snazzy today, girls?" Angie asked.

"Yes, Momma," the two of them said in chorus.

"Speaking of snazzy," he quipped, "The cook looks pretty cool too."

Angie blushed and then gave a short laugh. "Yes, some nice policeman that I know gave me this tee shirt to wear. Almost fits me."

"Looking good from where I'm sitting," he said.

"Thank you, sir," she said happily and went across the kitchen to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Boyfriend!" Maddie said in a loud voice. Angie just grinned and turned a bit red.

"Boyfriend!" Cissy echoed now and both girls were clapping.

"Okay, on that note," Tom said, "I need to go to work."

"I don't go back until next week," Angie said. "Momma is going to be taking care of the girls, at least until school starts in the fall."

"Okay, you two," Tom said to the grinning girls, "Take care of your Momma."

"We will," the both assured him.

Angie walked out to the front door with him.

"I can't get my mind off of last night," she said.

He gave her an inquiring look. "I don't mean Joe and the nasty stuff; I mean you and then you and me and the way you took care of me."

She put her arms round his neck and put her head on his shoulder.

"Hey," he said into her ear, "Your panties are showing."

She turned her head and saw her reflection in the mirror that was across from them. She giggled

"Enjoy the show, copper," she said.

"Oh, I am," he assured her.

Then they simply looked at one another and he kissed her. She kissed him back.

She turned from him, as he was about to go out through the door. He quickly lowered his hand and put it on her panty covered butt. It made her giggle, as she spun around and gave him another kiss.

"Felt nice!" she said.

"Yep, did!" he agreed and left.

The interchange was slight. It was a brief, but satisfying glimpse of the roundness of her butt encased in pretty panties.

It certainly never left Tom's mind for the day. He continually let his mind drift back to that rounded, pink nylon colored vision. He was enchanted.

Angie too dwelt on it. It made her giggle all over again to think of his final assault, the heavy hand on her panty covered butt. Then the hug and the kiss. They seemed to invade her mind and make a permanent lodging there. It gave Angie, as it also did Tom, thoughts of a totally different nature than they'd had about one another before.

Tom came home a little before dinner time. He knew well that she'd be working at wrestling the kitchen to the matt and getting it all set up. He was prepared and provided for that certainty.

He sat in his cruiser in his driveway, pleased that he didn't see Cissy and Maddie on the porch. He knew what would bring them though.