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Cho likes to take Maddie and Michelle Grace to the park a block from his house, because it means he can sit and read a book in peace while they chase each other around like wild animals. They both have a lot of energy, and he doesn’t anymore, so sometimes the easiest thing to do is let them wreck havoc somewhere he can keep an eye on him. Years of stakeouts have made it so he can keep an eye out while reading. It’s slower, but it works.
He has no idea what Maddie and Michelle Grace are doing right now. They’re playing around the slide, climbing up and down and jumping around. Maddie is a little older but Michelle Grace seems to be the one leading their adventure. She’s always been the confident one, like her father.
There’s an older boy, maybe ten, hanging around, watching them. Cho has had his eye on him for a while, but he just seems to be watching the two girls play. He gets closer and closer, but he doesn’t do anything and the girls don’t seem to be bothered, so Cho doesn’t intervene.
Until the boy walks up to Michelle Grace and shoves her over.
“Hey!” Cho yells, snapping his book closed and jumping up. He strides over as Michelle Grace starts to cry.
The boy runs off, and Cho has to tamp down the agent-training that tells him to run after the kid. He focuses on Michelle Grace, sitting on the ground and sobbing her little heart out. Cho scoops her up, cradling her to his chest, and looks around for Maddie.
But she’s gone, chasing after the boy and shrieking.
“Don’t push my cousin!” She screams as he runs out of the gate of the park and into the parking lot. “You big idiot!”
“Maddie!” Cho yells. “Come back here.”
Maddie continues yelling at the boy, mostly incoherently. In her defence, she’s eight, but she’s causing a scene. Cho doesn’t like the disapproving looks he’s getting from the other moms in the park.
“Madeline Theresa Rigsby Van Pelt!” Cho shouts. “Come here .”
Maddie’s legal name is not Madeline Theresa Rigsby Van Pelt. It’s just Madeline Theresa Rigsby, but Cho thinks it’s funny to add the Van Pelt part when she’s in trouble. Not that she’s really in trouble, he just doesn’t want her to leave the park on her own.
With a huge sigh, Maddie trudges back to where Cho and Michelle Grace are. She follows them back to the bench where Cho had been sitting. Cho sets Michelle Grace down on the bench and checks her for injuries - there are grass stains on her dress and mud on her knees, but other than that, she’s fine.
“You shouldn’t have chased after that boy.” Cho says to Maddie as Michelle Grace starts to calm down.
“I’m scarier than him.” She says.
“Alright then.” Cho doesn’t know how scary an eight year old can really be, but he isn’t about to argue with her. Because he is slightly terrified of her.