Story [Top Gun] Fragmentary [Seeing a Trailer Backstory] [UDC 10]

@earlybird-obi-wan ...It is, isn't it? Thank you.

A/N: I totally went for three yesterday.

Week Nine - UDC 9 - Reunion at the Grocery Store


41. Explosive


In the hours since church that morning, Helen had changed her mind about not being at the store to actually buy anything, which was why she'd sent Nick and Walt off to the meat department and she was standing with Pete in the Soup aisle, watching while he looked up at the cans. Down at the other end of the aisle, the woman and one toddler from the Polaroid picture was watching them with a smile. "What kind of soup do you want?"

It took him a minute and then he reached out for one and handed it to her. "We used to have that one when Dad was on leave."

Helen frowned at the Bean with Bacon soup. "Just when he was on leave?"

"Mom didn't much like it."

"But you do?"

Pete nodded, turned, froze, and then turned back to her with wide eyes. "I... can I go say hi?"

"Go on." Helen put the can of soup in the cart and grabbed five more when he'd turned and started walking really fast. A reminder of his missing parent was a good thing, after all.


42. Speed


She hadn't expected him to be so open or excited to see her, was what came to mind as Chelsea watched him walk swiftly towards her, an expression of mixed emotion on his face. When he got close enough, Pete didn't start with words and instead hugged her. "I'm happy to see you, too. So much."

Pete looked up at her, smiling in a way that went all the way to his green eyes. "Does Nicky still have colic?"

"No, and he's over in the meat department with Noah." She raised her head and nodded to the woman who had to be Mrs. Bradshaw. "Introduce me?"

Pete blinked, then remembered where they were and stopped hugging her. "Oh. Mrs. Bradshaw, this is Chelsea. Chelsea, this is Helen Bradshaw. They were our neighbors."

"Good to meet you," Mrs. Bradshaw said with a responding smile, widening when Maggie laughed at them. "And you, too, little one." She hid, or tried to, behind Chelsea's arm. "Oh. Sorry, didn't mean to scare her."

"No, Maggie's fine. She's just not sure of new people." She smiled when Pete tried playing peek-a-boo with her. "Pete, why don't you go find Noah? He'll be happy to see you, too."


43. Thought


Helen watched Pete actually run this time and shook her head in amusement. "I know he was understating the connection, by the way."

Chelsea sighed. "Well, he's not wrong. Before he lived with us for five months, we were their neighbors. How were your first two days, so far, with him?"

"Actually? Not as bad as it could have been." Helen's attention dropped to Maggie. "How old?"

"The twins will be three in June," Chelsea said after a moment, startled that she'd ask, and then startled again when Helen nodded in understanding.

"Twins and a nine-year-old who had complicated stressors," Helen said slowly. "And the colic he was worried about. That explains so much. I'm sorry."

Chelsea smiled. She could understand, now, why Alan liked them. "How did you end up with him, anyway? Alan didn't tell us much."

"Actually? My son saw him in the cafeteria two weeks ago, got really concerned by what he saw, and offered him half a sandwich," Helen explained, watching her reaction. "He brought him up to me several times after that, and I started making two lunches. I only met him on Friday night, though."

Chelsea tickled Maggie's side playfully as she checked her watch. "That's long enough. Shall we go catch up?"

"We shall."


44. Absorb


It wasn't odd for his father to chat with people at the grocery store, but the red-headed man and his son in the shopping cart had drawn his attention so quickly that Nick was left wondering what it was about these two that would attract his father's attention like that. It wasn't until the man held out his hand to Nick himself that he understood. "I'm Noah. You?"

At his father's nod, Nick returned the gesture. "Nick." He looked questioningly at his father.

"It's why we're here," Walt told him, and was then cut off by a joyful yell as someone short latched onto Noah's waist.

"Noah!"

Noah laughed and picked Pete up with barely any effort. "Hey there! Goodness, how light are you, kid?" Pete, now higher, grabbed onto him again, and Noah shrugged at Nick's open-mouthed reaction. "Used to live with us."

"My Noah."

"Oh yeah? I thought I was Chelsea's Noah?"

"Share?"

Was it Nick's imagination, or did Pete actually sound younger? "So, you'd be THAT Noah."

"And you'd be the kid that Alan Jenkins likes so much," Noah replied with a smile.

"Glad Nicky don't have colic no more," Pete told him, causing Noah to blink in surprise at his wording.

"Dad, is he..."

"Give him a minute," his father cautioned. "It's been three years, after all, and we didn't tell him."


45. Change


Noah stared at Pete, so close in his arms before a tugging at his shirt made him look down at Nicky, watching them with a puzzled frown. "Oh, right. Nick? Say hello to Nicky."

The teenager frowned at him, then offered a finger to Nicky who grinned up at him and pulled him closer. "Hi there. Colic, huh?"

"Was awful," Pete put in, voice less happy.

"Yes," Noah agreed. "Can I put you down now?"

Pete blinked, suddenly realizing that Walt was watching them with raised eyebrows and a slight smile. "Sorry?"

"Don't be," Walt told him, then glanced into the refrigerated case and nodded to himself. He grabbed a plastic bag from the dispenser and put four packages of cube steak into it. "He that light to you, Mr. Finney?"

"For being twelve? Yes."

"That's what I thought. Hard to tell without actually putting him on a scale." Walt turned and put the cube steak in their cart, then regarded Pete seriously as Noah set him down. "If you're hungry, you need to tell us. Doesn't matter if we ate two or three hours ago, your body is trying to tell you things." Noah frowned curiously at him. "Tried saying he wasn't when his stomach was noisy this morning."

"Ah."

Pete looked to Nick, who was playing finger tug-of-war with Nicky. "Okay."

"He's right, you know," Nick told him. "I can't tell you how many times I've been voraciously hungry and gone on a tear, only for Ma to measure me later and find I'd gained an inch. Where is Ma, anyway?"

"In the soup aisle, with Chelsea and Maggie." Pete bounced on his toes, all smiles suddenly. "They have Bean with Bacon!"

 

Pete happy, that's nice

 

@earlybird-obi-wan It's about soup, but totally. Happy Pete! Happy Pete!!!!!


Week 10 - UDC 10 - Grocery Store Reunion, part the second...


46. Tetchy


They rounded one more corner and were suddenly in the meat department, and Chelsea had to pause at the sight of a bouncy, happy twelve-year-old who was being stared at by two grown men and a teenager, all with varying expressions of disbelief or amusement. "Oh."

"I agree," Helen breathed beside her. "It's too bad Alan didn't join us. Wow."

"Bean with Bacon?" Nick wondered, still staring at Pete. "Really?"

"That explains it," Helen spoke up, and she motioned Pete over and he smiled up at her. "Well?"

"Best day?"

"Glad you think so."

"Ma, is there something about Bean with Bacon soup that we're missing?"

Helen nodded. "Yes. Just like lighting a candle this morning for his father."


47. Prudent


Noah frowned at that, at the mention of a man missing going on five years now, and didn't miss how Chelsea had plucked Maggie out of the shopping cart seat and was holding her closer. His gaze shifted to Pete, who was still bouncing but less so, and suddenly he didn't seem nearly so young. As if her words had tempered him, reminded him of the present. He wanted to pick him up again and let him be joyful for longer, to be lost in the moment, but didn't dare move.

Nicky protested the sudden loss of Nick's hand and his attention was drawn to his son, who looked up at him with that guilelessness that only a two-year-old could pull off. To be that innocent again... "Pete? We have some things for you out in the car."

When he looked over at him again, Pete was frowning. "Things?"

"Yes. We'd have given them to you sooner, but..." There was always a but in there somewhere, wasn't there?


48. Daring


Glancing away from the sudden tension between Pete and Noah, she noticed what Walt had put in the other cart and frowned for a moment or two. "Walt? We'll probably need more eggs and crackers if that's what I think that is."

"It is," he told her and she nodded. "And I'd thought of that, too. Ran into these two, though." Their son frowned at them. "Dinner tomorrow night, Nick."

Noah sighed, finally. "This is awkward, isn't it?"

Nick glanced between them. "This? Nah. Awkward is Pete asking me who I am first thing in the morning." Noah frowned at him. "Happened yesterday."

Noah looked at Nicky, who was watching all of them curiously, and nodded. "Happened more than once to me, too. And I think I like Alan more than Harry. You have no idea how much."

"Well, Harry was mean," Pete spoke up. "And rude, and those assessments really were boring."

At that, Noah couldn't resist a chuckle.


49. Ornery


Helen frowned down at Pete. "Assessments?"

"Learning assessments," Chelsea explained as she slowly set Maggie back down in the cart seat. "Might have been the one thing Harry Burrows got right with Pete."

"Even if we did have to bribe him," Noah interjected humorously and Pete glared at him. "What? We did! And really, Pete, you're the one who took the toaster apart and put it back together again, and then had to do it a second time because you forgot the heating element." Walt frowned at that. "He loves to fiddle with mechanical things when he's bored."

"Oh?" Walt leveled a look at the twelve-year-old. "If you want to fiddle, we'll talk about that, too."

"The toaster worked better afterwards?"


50. Jovial


A snort of laughter drew their attention to Nick, who couldn't hold it in any longer. "Sorry, but... really?"

"There's a reason we were talked into learning assessments," Chelsea said with a smile and reached over to tap Pete on the shoulder. When he looked at her, she nodded. "Yes, the toaster worked better afterwards, but you could have also burned the house down."

Pete nodded. "I know better now."

"Glad you do."

He grinned. "Of course now, there's woodshop and they let me use the lathe." He waited, then shrugged. "Do you think Mr. Jenkins might like an ashtray?"

Nick snorted in laughter again at the thought of Alan's face if the man were ever presented with an ashtray made in shop class.

 

A/N: I was letting them be incredibly awkward. So, so much.


Bonus - UDC 10 - Week 10


Gregarious


She let her son continue to laugh for a minute before clearing her throat to get his attention, and suddenly he didn't seem quite so amused. "Walt? Why don't you three go out to the parking lot and see about transferring from one vehicle to the other?"

"Good idea," Walt replied, his tone more measured than hers, because he'd also not missed the emotional awkwardness. "Let's go, Mr. Finney, Nick."

Noah moved to pick Nicky up out of the shopping cart only for Chelsea to shake her head. "What?"

"Go on," she urged and moved to quickly consolidate their carts into on and took Nicky from him. "Out. We'll talk later." She nodded to Pete. "We're in public. What did you say?" Noah stared at her, then nodded and followed Walt as he led Nick away.

"Dada silly," Nicky said suddenly and Chelsea smiled at him.

"I think we're all silly today, sweetie," she said as she turned back to look at Pete, who was frowning again.

"You didn't have to do that," Pete told her. "And I know what a time out looks like." He moved to follow them, and Helen stopped him. "What?"

"They need a minute, and well done changing the subject. Mr. Burrows was mean?"

Pete stared up at her, then looked in the direction that Noah, Nick, and Walt had gone in. "I frustrated him. A lot."

"Naval families," Chelsea put in as she put Nicky into the cart seat of Helen's shopping cart while Helen herself got the cube steak left behind from the other cart. "I know, because Dorinda gave me updates. Any number of times, there were altercations because things were said that shouldn't have been."


Mischievous


Helen turned back, only to pause at the red-headed two-year-old grinning at her. "Oh."

"Careful, he loves ball-shaped objects," Chelsea told her. "We learned quickly to keep oranges away from him."

Helen smiled and set the meat in the cart. "Looking at him now, you'd never think he had colic. What do you say, little one? Should we go find the crackers and the eggs, and maybe some olive oil?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, then." Helen glanced down at Pete again. "That's not the only thing that's bothering you, though. I know it isn't."

Pete shook his head. "No, I knew I was having the flashbacks. I didn't know what the word for it was until Mr. Jenkins told me on Friday, but I knew I was, and it used to happen more often. I thought I was over it, and then, recently, Bart sang it at me and Mrs. Tatham asked me why I sang sometimes in my sleep."

"Clothes and attempting to help you," Helen mused approvingly. "Asking the wrong way, probably, but..."

"Yeah. Like I said, I knew I was having them." Pete offered a hand to Nicky and smiled when he played with one of his fingers the way he had with Nick. "It's hard not to know I'm having something weird going on when I wake up and don't even recognize the furniture in the room and suddenly it's March 9th all over again and nothing's wrong. Usually, I'm alone for that."

"But yesterday you weren't," Helen realized.

"No," Pete agreed. "And I'm really glad I wasn't, even if Nick was sleeping on the floor."


Ostentatious


"Better the floor than an arm chair," Chelsea said, almost to herself, only to realize it had actually been out loud when they both looked at her. "Sorry. Story for another time, really."

Helen nodded. "Let's go find the things we'll need, then, and catch up to the menfolk."

"Aren't I a menfolk?"

She smiled. "Yes, but I meant them, who went out to the parking lot. Come on. Let's go find some saltines."

Pete was left to wonder just what kind of dish one made with cube steak, crackers, and eggs as he followed along. Why did they need cooking oil for it, anyway?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~​

A/N (2): What dish, normally slathered in gravy if you order it in a restaurant, CAN you make with those ingredients? Pete would dearly love to know.

 

A/N: So the dish is a Southern (and regional) one popular in Texas and Oklahoma. Pete doesn't recognize the ingredients for it because he's never actually watched someone make it, if someone did indeed make it while he was around. Nick, on the other hand, is probably wondering why his father was suddenly "oh, we should do this!" in the middle of meeting people, but he totally knows what it is. But I'm getting really off track and rambling, so back to story...
(2) My apologies to any military clerks at Fort Worth Naval Air Station, fictional or not, who seem to be getting a bad rap in this story any time they're mentioned.


Week 10 - UDC 1


46. bell


Outside in the bright afternoon sunshine, Nick stopped walking and waited for both his father and Noah to turn and look at him. "Did Ma just put us in time out?"

"Yes, and I was about to suggest the same thing," Walt answered as he looked at his son, then glanced at Noah, who was looking back at the store with a frown. "Mr. Finney?"

"I'm fine," Noah muttered, then shook his head. "It's one thing to arrange a meeting, entirely another to have it happen and forget myself in the middle of it. I... why are you looking at me like that, Mr. Bradshaw?"

Walt nodded back toward the store. "You're about as fine as that kid in there, I think. He got mad on Friday night when he realized that Alan was actually doing a home study with us on the spot. Something about having witnessed one before, when Harry didn't think he was paying attention?"

Noah paused, absorbing that information, and glanced back toward the doors again. "That was the next day, after... you know. After. We didn't want to make the trauma worse, so we consented to a Foster Care interview with him right there. Of course he was paying attention, even if he wasn't reacting." He glanced at Nick. "Even at nine, he was the homework king."

"Still is," Nick said with a grin. "Even at lunch time. You have a box for him?"

"We do. Come on."


47. book


"I can't really imagine him silent for a month solid," Nick mused as Noah unlocked the trunk of his and Chelsea's car. "Hesitant to talk, sure, but..."

Noah opened the trunk and stood there a moment, lost in thought. "Until Nora died, I wouldn't have been able to imagine it, either." He blinked and looked down at the box, Aviator jacket folded on top, only to blink again, startled when Walt tapped him on the shoulder. "What?"

Walt pulled his keys out and handed them to Nick, then lifted the box when Noah moved, and handed that to Nick, too. "Go put it in the trunk?" Nick studied them, then nodded and left them alone. "I think my son forgot himself, too. In fact, I think we all did."

"I'm not opposed to talking about those days," Noah said as he closed the trunk and then leaned against the car, arms folded across his chest. "It's just... hard. One minute we were concerned because no lights had come on over there across the street when we knew they were home, and basically the next, I was holding a child who was in shock and repeating the Pi sequence, and Chelsea was calling the police." He chuckled suddenly. "I don't know why I'm finding it funny right now, but one of the things we found when we were cleaning out the house? Recently checked out library books, some even over due."

Walt nodded slowly. "Which would be funny, because?"

"Because at first I'd thought that Nora had checked them out for herself, and then the librarian told me that it had been Pete and he was a regular and had been for at least a year."


48. candle


Walt didn't really find that detail odd, given that the boy in question had apparently been put through learning assessments and then skipped several grades to end up a high school freshmen at twelve. "Right. Because he had to pick up the Pi sequence from somewhere, if he was repeating it like that."

"That, and the fact that he'd have been at Grumman around engineers while they were working on the Lunar Module," Noah added with a shrug. "Clerk at the base wouldn't tell me much when I tried asking for more than Pete's dependent file, but Duke Mitchell? Test pilot before returning to active duty, but it wasn't the Apollo program that they were in Bethpage for. Might have been testing planes that the engineers were working on, but that kind of thing the Navy gets touchy about if you ask too many questions. Also, there's the whole cloud of him being MIA under whatever circumstances it actually happened in, which they're even more touchy about." They stood there in silence for a few minutes before Noah looked at Walt to find him frowning thoughtfully. "Something about all of that bothers you, doesn't it?"

Walt nodded. "My father was Navy, Mr. Finney. Submariner. That the Navy would do something to shame a child of someone gone MIA, no matter the circumstances..."


49. bowl


Sitting on the curb near the entrance to the grocery store, Nick watched from a distance as his father and Mr. Finney continued to talk, the latter's tension seeming to fade from his posture the longer they did. What was it, he wondered, about all of this, aside from the obvious, that had made the man suddenly lock up the way he had?

His thought process was derailed when someone sat down beside him and melted to his side, and Nick froze for a moment before looking down and realizing who it was. "Oh, it's you. You okay?"

"Tired," Pete told him without opening his eyes and Nick put his arm around him.

"Physical or emotional?" At the moment, it could be both, but it made more sense if it was emotional, given how much see-sawing he'd seemed to do inside the store.

It took him a moment, then he looked up. "Emotional? We got to the check stand and I just couldn't anymore."

Nick nodded slowly. "And that's okay. It's okay not to be okay about things, Pete."

"He okay, son?"

They both blinked, startled, and then Pete was laughing against his chest, and Nick looked up to find a man and... "Oh. Bart, is this your father?" Bart nodded, and Mr. Tomkins glanced at him in question. "Mr. Tomkins, he's fine. It's just been an emotional weekend."

Mr. Tomkins continued to frown, and then Bart tugged at his shirt sleeve. "What?"

"Can I stay out here for a few minutes, Dad? I actually did want to talk to Pete."

Mr. Tomkins stared at him, then leaned down to their level and waited until Pete had calmed down again. "Is that okay with you, that Bart stays out here with you two?" Pete nodded, and then pointed past them to where Nick's father and Mr. Finney were still talking. "Oh, good. Supervised. Bart? Behave. I'll go get the things that Sheryl wanted. Shouldn't take long."


50. blade


As Bart joined them on the curb, Nick studied him with a frown. Pete hadn't looked at him again, but... "So."

Bart shook his head and waited for Pete, and when he still didn't react, Bart sighed. "That tired. What is your name, anyway? You were there, for some reason, when Mom finally got around to giving that," he motioned to the adornment on Pete's wrist. "...to him, but... aren't you a new transfer or something? And I know for a fact that he's in at least three Honors classes and not with the rest of us lowly Freshmen." Pete snorted in laughter at that. "You really are a smarty pants, Pete. We all call you that because it's true."

"Nick, and yes. Recently transferred from Tennessee." Nick paused, checking on Pete, to find that while he was laughing, it was probably coming from a place of utter exhaustion with everything right now. "Hey."

"I'm fine-"

"Pete," Nick interrupted. "I know you're not, so do not try to tell me you're fine right now. This was a lot."

Pete nodded tiredly. "Blonde lady is staring at us."

Nick glanced up, noted the puzzled-seeming woman and her kids, nodded to her, and then turned his attention back to Pete, then looked at Bart to find he was frowning at her. And then he realized she wasn't staring at THEM, but Pete himself, as if she was trying to figure something out.

"Lady, he really doesn't like being stared at," Bart told her. "And even I can see he's tired, so-" He shut up when she glared at him and then motioned for her kids to stay where they were.

She joined them and crouched down in front of Pete. "Now I remember who you are, kiddo. Bookworm boy, practically wouldn't leave your grandfather's side unless you had to go to school. How's your mother? She doing okay? I remember that she was so, so sick right after he passed, and-" She paused, frowning at Pete's reaction to burrow his head further into Nick's side. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you further." She caught that Nick was frowning at her, and then looked at Bart. "Which one of you is he with?"

"Me, Ma'am," Nick answered. "You are?"

"She's a nurse," Pete mumbled and Nick winced internally at how worn he sounded now.

The doors opened and Nick glanced back to see his mother and Miss Lowell exit with Nicky and Maggie and he'd never been so happy to see her in his life. "Ma, I think this lady needs to talk to you."

The woman stood up, looked down a them again, and moved to talk with his mother quietly. Whatever it was she said made Miss Lowell stand up straighter and join in the conversation.

 

Love this story! All the different family moments, and the unwinding of Pete's backstory and trauma. Glad things seem to be headed in a positive direction for Pete.

 

@Tarsier ...yes. Positive, because he's got support now. Thank you.


A/N: It was another attack of that which bugged me all day at work. What was it? Well, the first one was Bart Tomkins AND Pete getting emotionally tired. The second involved the puzzled blonde nurse who has incredibly poor timing and gave herself athlete's gums. (And I didn't think they COULD make me cry over a jacket. I was wrong.)


Week 10 - UDC 2 - Why we don't go shopping on a severe sleep deficit...


46. Water


"I can't believe... no, yes I can. I can totally believe she did that right now."

Bart looked away from the meeting taking place in hushed voices to find that all three of the girls, two of them at or near his age and one older, standing closer to them, the blonde whose shoulder-length hair was free-flowing appearing incredibly unhappy while she glared at her mother's back. "Why?"

She shook her head and glanced at the older one. "Char, go over there and stop her from turning around and causing another scene, would you? I'm so glad you're driving, by the way." Then she looked at the other one. "And Jenn? Go get a cart. Jeeze."

"But what about-"

"Jenn?"

"Right. Cart. Got it."

She waited a minute, then looked down at him. "He asleep? And don't touch him, Bart. We don't need him reacting badly and punching you."

"Actually," Nick spoke up, getting her attention. "I think he did pass out. And who are you? Wait, Pete reacts badly to being touched?"

"Sometimes." She glared again at her mother's back. "Mom's going to kick herself tomorrow when and if she remembers that she asked someone who is basically an orphan unofficially how his mother is. Hate when she's been on too many overnights and her sleep schedule is crazy, and the shifts were bad." She paused and glanced down at Pete. "She must have had MedSurg overflow shifts to interact with him like that when his grandfather was in the hospital."

"What makes you say that?" Bart wondered.

"Because she's normally on the OB floor?" She waved both of them off from talking when Pete jerked awake in Nick's grasp. "New kid? Where is your parent's car? Is it close?"

"Yeah. Come on, Pete. Let's go."


47. Wine


"Still best day," Pete mumbled at him as they both stood. "And Karen?"

"Hmmm?"

"Don't make your mother feel too bad. She didn't know."

Karen was still glaring in her mother's direction. "That may be, but she overwhelmed you when you clearly already were and didn't stop herself. She's a nurse and knows better."

"I'm-"

"Say you're fine," Karen interrupted, surprising Nick at her tone. "And I swear I'll get Mr. Fredrickson to come up with a Geometry problem that will puzzle you for weeks. He'd probably jump at the challenge, even."

"Are you threatening him with Math?" Nick wondered. "Seriously?"

Karen smiled at him momentarily. "Well, he's in my Geometry class. Of course I am. Off with you. Now."

"Can we get him to do it anyway?" Pete asked. "I love challenges."

"We'll see. Get."


48. Ale


"Who was that and why does she scare me?" Nick wondered as he got the keys out and unlocked the car doors. "Guess I'll find out tomorrow."

Pete didn't say anything as he looked around to see where everybody was, found both Walt and Noah watching them now, and he waved. They made their way over and Noah simply looked at him for a minute before opening his arms in a universal gesture, and Pete nodded and let the hug happen. "Still the best day," he repeated.

"Glad you think so," Noah told him. "Even if I feel like a moron right now."

Pete pulled back and looked up at him. "Don't. Walt, did you exchange numbers?"

"We did," Walt answered, startled by the sudden informality.

Pete grinned at him, then looked up at Noah again. "You said there was a box?"

"It's in the trunk," Nick said as he handed the keys to Walt. "A jacket with patches was on top of it."


49. Tea


Noah watched as Pete's eyes went wide. "You know what that is." He nodded. "Walt-"

"Already on it," Walt told him as he got the trunk open. He pulled the folded up jacket out and studied some of the patches for a minute before turning and nearly bumping into Pete who was again hopping from heal to toe and smiling, eyes shining with unshed tears.

Pete took the jacket from him, smelled it, and then hugged it to himself. Then he tried wearing it, only for them to all smile at how small he was compared to the jacket. "This... I'm swimming in it."

"You'll grow," Nick told him with a grin.


50. Juice


"I think he looks perfect," Helen spoke up from behind them and Nick spun to find she was holding a camera that she must have pulled from her purse. "Nick, come take Nicky. Miss Lowell, go stand over there with Maggie. It's picture time."

Pete sighed. "Pictures?"

"Yes, Pete. Pictures. Alan missed this, after all." She waited for Nick to get the toddler, who laughed at him, and Nick grinned again as he came back to the car and stood beside his father. Chelsea got into position beside Noah with Maggie. "Everybody ready? Good."

She took a couple, and then Chelsea handed Maggie to Noah and directed Helen to take her place, and then she took a few more. Chelsea frowned at the expression on Pete's face, and then someone tapped her on the shoulder and she spun to find a man standing there. "Oh. Hi."

"Allow me. Join them, Bart."

"Why?"

"Just get over here, Bart," Pete told him humorously, and Bart did so with a grin, where he ended up next to Nick.

Nicky reached for him and startled Bart. "Oh. Hey. Look at my Dad, little guy."

Mr. Tomkins waited, and then took several more pictures. Then he handed the camera back to Helen with a smile.

"Thank you," Helen told him with a questioning glance at Pete, who simply smiled tiredly at her.

 

A/N: Not sure if we're tagging or not, but... @Kahara and @Tarsier and @earlybird-obi-wan (Thank you. )

Week Ten: Before the Of! - UDC 6


46. Return


Looking at him, Helen wondered momentarily just why Pete was so tired and then she glanced at Nick and noticed Nicky pawing at the boy standing next to him. She paused... "Pete, is this Bart Tomkins?"

"Yes."

Which would make the helpful mystery man his father, she realized as she slowly turned back to look at him with raised eyebrows. "Oh. Walt, load the trunk. Mr. Tomkins and I need to have a chat."

Mr. Tomkins frowned at her. "I'm sorry? Who-"

"Dean," Pete interrupted suddenly and Helen didn't miss the emotion there, or the informality from a boy who had in fact been so formal since Friday night. In fact, Mr. Tomkins was looking over her shoulder at him in confusion that mirrored her own.

"Right." He held out his hand to her and she shook it. "Dean Tomkins. You are?"

"Helen Bradshaw. Can we talk, sir?" She nodded back to Pete, who was sighing even as he shrugged out of the over-sized jacket. "I was told something that I think might concern you." She lowered her voice. "And I was going to bring it up tomorrow with a school councilor, but this is more your problem than mine."

"That so? Then let's talk."


47. Revenge


Bart watched his father walk a little distance away with Mrs. Bradshaw, eyes narrowed even as the toddler was still pawing at him playfully. "Should I be worried that your mother wants to discuss something with my father?"

"Depends," Nick said carefully. "She had an idea earlier and Pete was very open about a thing."

Bart absorbed that information and then focused on the kid in his arms. "Whose kid is this? For that matter, what's going on here?" The toddler giggled and he let him play with his fingers. "Awfully playful, aren't you?"

"He's very tactile," the red-headed man that he'd noticed before told him with a smile, and Bart frowned at Pete, who was now at that guy's side, hugging the jacket to his chest and watching them. "And we have to be careful not to let him have round objects."

"Ball!" the toddler said excitedly.

"Yes, Nicky. Balls." The man glanced down at Pete, then hugged him closer, and that startled him, for he knew Pete didn't really let people into his personal space like that. Who was this guy, that he was? For that matter, why had he been so close to Nick earlier and practically melded to his side?


48. Curse


Noah bent down to Pete's level and really looked at him while Walt put the groceries in the trunk. "So... this okay?"

"Dad's jacket," Pete whispered with a nod. "I... thank you. Hadn't thought about where the stuff from the house went."

"Why would you have? You were nine, Pete, and in no shape to even think about any of it." Looking at him, he could see how tired the kid was, that he was staying on his feet through sheer determination, and Noah wanted to hug him again. "There's a few pictures in the box here, along with some books that I think were your Dad's. Can't imagine Nora wanting to read about aviation or military strategy."

Pete nodded. "No, Mom was more likely to read novels with odd covers."

"Found a few of those, too, actually." Something about that caused Pete to giggle, and Noah decided not to tell him that Chelsea had loved the 'odd' novels enough to keep them. He glanced up at Walt to find the man was watching them with a smile.


49. Wrath


"Nick, you good for a minute? I need to talk to your father," Noah asked with a glance back at him, and the teenager nodded. He returned his attention to Pete to find him frowning and shook his head. "Grown up stuff, bud. Nothing bad. Promise."

Pete nodded and Noah stood while Walt closed the trunk and then Noah beckoned him away. When they were far enough, Noah took a deep breath and nodded back to the preteen. "Be very careful about falling asleep sitting up in an armchair."

Walt paused. "Come again?"

Chelsea sighed and Noah blinked, not having realized that she'd followed them. She lowered her voice enough to not be overheard. "That's how Pete found Nora, sitting up in a chair in her room. More than once, we made the mistake of falling asleep like that, and it's better that you're warned, even if it might not still set him off."

Walt nodded. "I can see how that might be a problem we can avoid."


50. Attack


A loud yawn came from beside him and Nick glanced down at Pete in concern. "You're going to crash so much later, aren't you?"

"Maybe."

Which, if he was admitting it, was more than likely a definite. Thankfully, both his mother and his father were rejoining them, and Mr. Tomkins was looking at Bart with a troubled frown. Was that good or bad?

"I'll take him back now," Mr. Finney said and held out his hands. "Nicky, come on."

"Dada!" Nicky cried and launched himself at his father and Noah caught him with practiced ease.

Nick laughed and then put a steady hand on Pete's shoulder and pushed him toward the car. "Come on. We'll see you at school tomorrow, Bart."

"Yeah. Dad, don't look at me like that. I didn't do anything."

"Not today, no," Mr. Tomkins said, and something in his voice tone made Nick wince internally. "Come on, son. We have some things to discuss."

"Do I get to pick the topic?"

"No."

Nick got Pete into the backseat and then stood and looked at his mother. "Was your idea to get Bart in trouble with his father?"

"He's not in trouble," Helen said with a slight smile. "Although he's been grounded since November with minimal privileges, according to Mr. Tomkins. They were unaware of the tutoring problems and I suggested a screening for reading issues because of how Pete described it and he agreed that it was a good idea, since English is his worst subject and always has been." She blinked, startled, when a giggle came from inside the car. "Nick?"

"I think we wore him out. It's a good tired, Ma."

 

Week 10 - UDC 8


46. Raise


Helen got Nick to move so she could look into the backseat at Pete and found he was leaning back with his eyes closed. She wanted to say something, to explain the situation clearly, but now was not the time. She could tell it wasn't and she stood up to look at Nick again with a sigh. "I think I'll be explaining it to him later."

"Probably." Nick sighed and bent to look in, then looked at her again. "Is this what it feels like to be a parent, Ma? Uncertain and-"

"Oh Nick," she chuckled as she caught him in a hug. "Someday, you won't even have to ask. Uncertain? Yes. All the time. Over and over again." She let go and pushed him toward the door. "Let's go home, huh?"


47. Juvenile


He slid carefully into the back seat and sighed as he pulled the door closed. Nick glanced at Pete, then at the jacket he was holding to himself. "I want to ask..."

"Tired," Pete muttered at him, almost a hiss, and Nick winced.

"...but right now I'm not going to." Nick waited while both his parents got in and his father started the engine, and his mother looked back at both of them. She wanted to ask, too, obviously. "Pete?"

"Yeah?"

"Was it your father's father, or your mothers?" He put a hand up when his mother opened her mouth and she stopped, frowning at him.

The answer came after a minute or two... "Mom's. Month and a half, spring of '68." When no more questions came, Pete looked at him tiredly. And then a growling noise sounded between them and he was giggling again.

"Dinner it is," Walt acknowledged humorously. "Probably a nap, too."

"Not that tired, Mr. Bradshaw!" Except that Nick was actually looking at him and knew that was just a juvenile protesting reaction, which was a relief to hear, really.


48. Mature


As he prepared to back the car out of it's parking place, Walt got his chance to actually look in the back seat at the two of them. He wasn't surprised by the tiredness or the giggling behavior about now, from a kid who probably had so much experience keeping himself unnoticed that when he finally got tired enough, the mature facade evaporated. "Maybe not, but sleep and food are good things."

Pete simply blinked back at him, and then was startled again when Helen deposited a small plastic bag with cut up fruit and carrots in it, in his lap. "Uh..."

"Eat," she said simply and Walt wanted to kiss her again for thinking ahead. Nick didn't seem surprised, either, for she'd done the same with him through multiple growth spurts.

"You think he's having one," Walt whispered at her and she nodded, attention on the boy as he opened the baggie and started munching on it's contents.

"It'd make sense."


49. Growth


At the house, they unloaded the trunk and Walt saw to the box, only pausing at the envelope of pictures on the very top, labeled "From five undeveloped rolls of film found in Nora's Dresser, '66 to '70" in neat cursive. That... somehow, he could see Miss Lowell finding those and doing exactly this, and he'd only met her today.

Inside the house, in the kitchen while Nick put the groceries away and Walt set the table, Helen had Pete take his shoes off and stand against the wall near the refrigerator. "Why are we doing this?"

"For reference," Helen told him as she leveled a pen on the top of his head and then made an even line and put a date beside it. "And because milestones are important."

Pete stared up at her. "Enough to mess up the wall?"

"Yes, Pete. Enough to mess up the wall."


50. Elder


Later, after they'd gotten a very tired Pete Mitchell off to bed, Walt studied his son as he sat on the floor in front of the couch, reading his biology textbook. "Why did you ask about which grandfather it was? How did that even come up?"

Nick didn't answer at first, and then sighed and raised his head to look at him. "While you were talking to Mr. Finney? A nurse came up to us that knew him, and dropped some details. I was clarifying, Dad, because otherwise it's just confusing." He glanced toward the hallway that led back to the bedrooms. "I can see it, you know? The part where Pete wouldn't have wanted to be away from his grandfather, even to go to school. Especially if the hospitalization was sudden, like it appears it was."

Oddly enough, he could picture that, too. "Hmmm... how you coming with that chapter?"

Nick chuckled suddenly. "The process of cell division seems really uncomplicated after today."

 

Great interactions! My favorite line:

 

@Tarsier ... got here and suddenly "wait, we need a growth chart!" Mom's observation was that when her brothers gained a foot in a year, they did a lot of sleeping. Thank you.


Week 10 - UDC 9 - In which Nick needs to switch lockers...


46. Party


Right after third period let out, Nick was turning the combination lock on his locker, having already had to redo the combination twice because his mind kept drifting, when he finally got it open and heaved a sigh.

"Was class that bad?"

He blinked and moved the locker door to look at the blonde standing there looking at him funny. "Thinking about things. Karen right?"

She smiled. "New kid. Let me see your schedule?"

Rolling his eyes, he gave it to her and then put the books in the locker that he didn't need for afternoon classes. "Don't know why you want to look at it, but okay." Nick looked at her again to find she was comparing his to another one, worn and folded a lot.

"So that's how you met him. Forth period lunch." She frowned. "You know, if you switch history and PE, you'd have another."

He plucked the worn schedule out of her hand and found it was Pete's. "Why do you have this?"

Karen sighed and leaned against the locker next to his. "Because we've been trying to help keep him un-bruised up since September with only marginal success."

"We?"

She nodded across the hallway to a guy in a purple t-shirt and cargo pants, and then down a few lockers to several more students. "Our Geometry class in general." Karen looked at him again, saw that he was holding two lunch sacks. "Two?"

"One is for Pete."

"Oh." She snagged the second one and tossed it to the guy in the purple shirt, who caught it in confusion. "Jaime, go sit with the tiny terror and give him that." At Nick's incredulous expression, she shrugged. "You're coming with me to the office so we can get you different locker, Nick. Maybe even rearrange your schedule slightly."


47. Firework


A lunch sack landed into the middle of his textbook and Pete rolled his eyes. Was this going to keep happening? "I'm just trying to understand this... wait. You're not Nick. Jaime, what-"

Jaime Huntington smiled as he sat down and opened his own lunch sack. "Karen commandeered the new kid, told me to bring that to you. Something about a locker change?"

Pete stared at him. "What?"

"She'll probably explain later. It'll probably even make sense when she does." Jaime shrugged. "Don't ask me, I'm just her sister's boyfriend."


48. Gift


Twenty minutes later, Nick found him seated with a group that included Purple Shirt, an Asian guy in a white shirt, the dark-haired Jenn from the day before. "Are all of you in his Geometry class?"

Jenn laughed. "Well, I'm not! Jaime, Charlie, and Addi are. Do I call you New Kid or...?"

Nick ignored her and focused on Pete who was rolling his eyes at her antics. That was good, then. "How's your Mother? Karen had me so distracted, I forgot to ask her."

The humor left Jenn's features. "She'd be better if my oldest brother hadn't been drafted into the Marines. It wasn't just the sleep deprivation yesterday." She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small paper sack, handed it to Pete, who looked at her funny. "Dad made cookies for you."

"For me? Why?"

"It's his way," Jenn said with a shrug. "We can't do anything about the over there stuff, but here? This we can do."


49. Fond


A touch on his shoulder as they left the table and Nick glanced up to find Jaime frowning but not looking down at him. "What?"

Jaime nodded to a table nearby. "He didn't say anything, but those guys over there? The ones in the JROTC with you two? Kids of Naval Aviators. Navy Brats."

Which sounded weird, that he'd be warning him like that in a way that should mean something. "Pete IS a Navy Brat."

Jaime shook his head. "Not to them, Bradshaw. In fact, I've seen him so hyper vigilant on Uniform Day that even those guys over there think twice before talking to him. Normally? They're the ones I'd suspect for beating him up, because they know he won't rat them out."

Actually, he'd seen that too, the first time he'd seen him, Nick mused and then turned to look in that direction. "Noted."

"Which was probably the other reason that Karen went to the trouble of getting you to switch lockers. We're fond of this kid."


50. Farewell


"Locker switching?"

The curious tone in Pete's voice made Nick smile just enough to turn back around as the members of his Geometry class departed and left them to it. Nick shrugged. "Karen seemed to think I needed a better locker. Did you know that she thinks you're a tiny terror?"

"Of course," Pete said as he put the white sack in his book bag. It didn't surprise Nick that he was hoarding those, if the amount of times he'd been hungry the day before were any indication. "It's not for no reason that she threatens me with complex math problems."

"She'd do it, too," Jenn, who was the last to leave, told him. "Show me if she does?"

Pete grinned. "If she doesn't, I'm asking him to. And yes, Jennifer, I'll show you."

Nick watched her go, then looked at Pete again, marveling at the difference between the Uniform Day hyper vigilance, the excitement of the day before during the reunion, and now, the hints of what probably earned him such a nick name as Tiny Terror.

 

Aww, lots of people looking out for Pete! Love it!

 

@Tarsier ... It's not that they didn't care, it's that they cared but didn't know HOW to do something until the option presented itself, if that makes any sense. And someone needed to, given that he has a very bad habit of not talking about the problems. Thank you.


A/N: In light of my not actually being ready for a thing because I'm not there yet, we shall be going in a slightly different order.


Week 11 - UDC 1


51. dawn


As he got to the new locker in an entirely different hallway after last bell and packing up his old one, Nick suddenly realized two things. One: it was right near the School Nurse's office. That... had Pete had this locker the entire school year so far?

Two was that at least three of their fellow JROTC members were close by, jeering and talking to one another but excluding the smallest. Farther down, he caught sight of Bart, who waved him off, and Nick nodded in reply.

"What are you doing here?" Pete wondered when he noticed as he was taking books out and stuffing them in his bag. "Isn't your-"

"It was," Nick told him as he got the paper with the combination out and spun the lock. He got in on the first try. "But this one is mine now. What kind of cookies were those?"

"Peanut butter."

He felt attention on them and glanced that direction. "Campbell, something you need?"

"Heard you mention food. Could eat a horse."

"Has last period PE," Pete muttered under his breath, and Nick chuckled.

"What's so funny? Did Mitchell suddenly gain a sense of humor?"

Nick froze and waited, glancing down and to the side with raised eyebrows, but Pete hadn't moved or even looked. In fact, he was looking at the bag that Jennifer had given him and contemplating how to put in his book bag. "You okay?"

"He's an idiot."

"Ah." Nick put his backpack down carefully and turned to look at Campbell with a neutral expression. "How do you know he doesn't have a sense of humor?" The other student glared at him for a minute and then looked away. "Before you say things like that, think about who you're saying them to or about. What he said was to inform me of your last period PE. Nothing more. Why is that funny? By itself, it isn't. In context, however..."


52. morning


Campbell grunted and slammed his locker door shut, making at least one person in the hallway jump. Then he blinked down at his own backpack and realized he didn't have everything he needed.

The school nurse stepped into the hallway and looked around. "What have I said about slamming your locker doors like that?"

"That we're not to do it, Ma'am," Campbell answered. "Not even while frustrated."

"Exactly. Principal's office, Campbell. Now." She nodded to Nick in acknowledgement. "You're right, you know. By itself, not necessarily funny." When Campbell still didn't move, she glared at him. "I'll call ahead. Get going."

Nick turned back around and studied Pete again as their school nurse went back into her office. Now it made sense. "How long have you had this locker?"

"Since November."


53. noon


They were met at the curb by an unfamiliar older lady and Nick frowned when Pete stopped cold, staring at her in what had to be disbelief and then going to greet her with a smile. "Hi!"

"Hi yourself," she said, looking him over critically and then shifting her gaze to Nick. "Who is your friend, Pete?"

"This is Nick. Nick, this is Lydia Tatham."

At that, Nick studied her a bit more before offering his hand. "Ma'am." She firmly shook his hand with a nod. "How are you?"

"Relieved to see that I think I like you, too," Mrs. Tatham said after a minute as she let his hand drop. "How was school today?"

"Good," Pete enthused, surprising them both.

"Nick?" She prompted expectantly.

"Enlightening," Nick settled on with a shrug. If she was going to randomly show up and claim to like him on sight, why offer her more than he needed to?

"Both good things," Lydia Tatham mused as she nodded and then bent down to Pete's level. "I just wanted you to know that you're always welcome again if you need it. Understood?"

Pete nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."


54. dusk


Homework after dinner was both awkward and quiet as Pete mumbled to himself in random German phrases and Nick contemplated his Spanish language exercises. Was he surprised that Mrs. Tatham had awkwardly said hello the way she had? Not in the slightest. Did he want to mention it to his mother, to see what she'd say on the matter? Yes.

"Das ist so dumm. Ich kann nicht glauben, dass Karen ihn dazu gebracht hat, die Schließfächer nur für mich zu tauschen. Warum ich? Und Mrs. Tatham... Das war komisch. Und dumm."

Nick glanced over at his father, washing dishes at the sink to find him glancing back at them with raised eyebrows. Clearly, Pete didn't realize he wasn't the only one to understand German.

"Warum nicht Sie? Und warum ist es dumm?" His father winked at him and Nick quickly looked down at his own homework.

"Es ist nur ein Schließfach in einem anderen Flur. Ich verstehe es nicht. Mir ging es gut."

"Ist es besser, dass es einen Schließfachschalter gab?"

"Ich denke schon? Es ist immer noch seltsam und dumm."

Walt chuckled. "It's good to have things both weird and dumb occasionally." Nick glanced up at him again and he mouthed 'later.' "Thank you for the language exercise, Pete, it's been a while."

Pete paused. "I said all of that out loud, didn't I?"

"You did. Nick, why was there a need for a locker switch?"

At that, Nick suddenly got the gist of the foreign language exchange. "Actually? I think one of his Geometry classmates saw him with me while her mother was putting her foot in her mouth yesterday and decided she liked me enough to take me to admin and help me switch lockers to be in the same hallway that his is in. If that makes any sense."

Walt nodded. "Actually it does. And really, Pete: why not for you?"


55. evening


After the studying and doing of homework, Walt took his son aside. "He said something about Mrs. Tatham and something being weird. What happened?"

Nick glanced toward the couch where Pete was at last checking out the pictures and the books in the box. "She was checking on him, I think. Nice lady, but awkward. Don't know if I'd classify it as weird, really."

Walt nodded. "All right." They joined him on the couch and Pete glanced up, then handed him one of the pictures. He studied it, specifically the smiling woman with the long hair, and then the man on whose shoulders a much younger Pete Mitchell was sitting on. It hadn't hit him until just now, how deep the loss really went. He passed it to his son, who took it respectfully. "You don't need to go through them all tonight."

"I know," Pete answered. He opened the envelope and shuffled through those, smiling at one. "I can't believe she took that of us." He passed it to Walt, who studied the photograph to find Pete cuddled up to an older man in a hospital bed who didn't look well, a book propped up between them. Walt squinted at the title...

"Mr. Midshipman Hornblower?"

Pete smiled, tears in his eyes. "We only had time for that one. Grandpa kept falling asleep."



Translation from German, courtesy of DuckDuckGo Translate...


1: "This is so stupid. I can't believe Karen made him swap lockers just for me. Why me? And Mrs. Tatham... That was weird. And stupid."
2. "Why not you? And why is it stupid?"
3. "It's just a locker in another hallway. I don't understand it. I was fine."
4. "Is it better that there was a locker switch?"
5. "I think so? It's still weird and dumb."

 

Week 11 - UDC 2


51. Young


A soft click reaches his ears and Nick looks up to find his mother in the entry way between the living room and the kitchen, with a camera and a smile on her lips. She'd been the one to demand pictures the day before, and now... "It's a moment, isn't it?"

"Sure is," she said and then she sobered. "I have an empty album, if you want to get those pictures out and arrange them."

Nick turned back to find that Pete had that expression of blank confusion they'd slowly gotten used to. Was it because he didn't know how to react, or because it was a lot all at once? Probably both. "What do you think? Album, so you can look at 'em easier? Maybe tell us about what you remember?"

Pete frowned down at the envelope in his hand, at pictures his mother had apparently left undeveloped in her dresser drawers for years. "Does it have to be tonight?"

"No," Walt told him. "It doesn't."

"In that case," Helen said, getting their attention again. "I'll leave the empty album in your room on your dresser for when you are ready."


52. In-Between


That statement was met with silence and Pete staring down at the pictures, still, until Nick tapped his father's knee and made a motion for the picture in his hand. Walt blinked, startled as he handed it to him, and then Nick put the frame he'd been holding in the box, and put that on the floor. Then he tapped Pete's shoulder and made a motion for the envelope, which Pete handed to him, and he carefully put the loose picture back inside. "Okay. Not tonight."

"Nick?" Helen asked, curiousness in her tone.

Slowly, Nick sat down on the couch next to Pete and carefully put the envelope in the box. "Come over here, Ma. I think we should talk about why idiots think Pete is a perfect target with no sense of humor and his entire math class nicknamed him Tiny Terror. The pictures can wait."

"Reacting doesn't solve anything," Pete whispered. "I went through three placements in a year, reacting badly and having fights over things people said before Harry gave up and Mr. Jenkins..."

Walt shared a glance with Helen, who was also frowning. "Before Alan what?"

"Before he gave me a talk about controlling myself because I can't control anyone else or what they say."

Helen nodded as she sat down on a chair that she'd brought from the kitchen table. "I'm glad he did. Why were you reacting badly before and to what, exactly? Because I can't imagine you being the one to start it unless you had a reason, especially an emotional one."

Pete blinked, confused again. This close up, Walt was starting to wonder if anyone had asked the kid that besides Alan. "Dad would have called it Scuttlebutt. The rumors about how he went MIA. It'd get brought up, and..."


53. Old


"And gossip, because that is what the Scuttlebutt would be in this case," Walt mused into the ensuing silence. "Is painful." Pete frowned at him. "What?"

Pete shook his head. "Not important." Nick tapped him on the shoulder. "It really isn't, Nick."

"Wanna hear it anyway," Nick drawled. "Is it that we know what scuttlebutt is, or something else?"

"Else," Pete said after a minute. "Haven't heard good Navy talk that wasn't bad things said in my direction since Dad and Uncle Viper were last on leave together, and I'm not sure when that was."

Walt's gaze went to the box, to the pictures in the frames resting in it, because he had some idea of the when... "Oh. Uncle Viper? You have an uncle named Viper?"

"Sounds weird, doesn't it?" Pete's eyes went distant, as if he was trying to dredge something up and failing miserably. "Not actually my uncle, not really his name. Is it... call sign? I'm trying, but..."


54. Foolish


"Call sign sounds right," Walt put in. "If we're talking about pilots. And it's okay if you don't remember the particulars right now."

Pete glanced toward the hallway, then looked at Helen. "Is it really my room and not just the guest room?"

She smiled. "What kind of question is that that? I was waiting for you to unload your bags into the dresser without my saying it was okay. It is, by the way."

Pete glanced at Nick, who nodded. "I just... it's..."

"It's that next step?" Nick suggested. "Feels dumb to say out loud, but you hesitate to take it?"

"How'd you know that?"

Nick shrugged. "Took me three days to unpack my suitcase when we got here."


55. Wise


Walt felt like laughing at how odd it sounded when put that way, but he understood the feelings that Pete didn't quite have words for. Acceptance. Belonging, and this had happened quickly. "So... tiny terror?"

"I like complex math problems," Pete explained with a sudden grin. "Makes everybody else groan when I'm pushing Mr. Fredrickson to explain the complexity of something like a Koch Snowflake with fractal or topological dimension."

"Karen," Nick put in with amusement. "Who was the one who took me to admin today for locker switching, threatened him with a complex math puzzle yesterday for even trying to say he was fine. Did she do it yet, Pete?"

"Nope, and if she doesn't, I'm doing it."

Helen's lips were twitching from restrained laughter, if Walt's guess was correct. "But sure, you have no sense of humor."

"I can't threaten people with higher math when they're Freshmen in Algebra One, Helen. That's just mean." He paused. "It would make for an interesting conversation in the hallway for Mrs. Joosten to listen to, though."

Walt wasn't surprised at all when Nick lost his composure entirely and laughed outright. Honestly, he wanted to join him and had to bite his inner cheek not to.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~​

A/N: In a previous set, Alan Jenkins actually took that picture of Duke Mitchell and Viper with him, because he wanted to ask questions at the base or look into things further, so it's not in the box, nor would any pictures of Viper himself be in that envelope, because Mrs. Mitchell was taking family pictures for her on-deployment husband. They ended up staying undeveloped until Chelsea Lowell found them due to circumstances.
(2) Pete seems to have his fellow JROTC members schedules memorized, doesn't he?

 

Week 11 - UDC 3


51. Denial


Coming inside after dismissing the officer in the Service Khakis, Chelsea joins Noah on the couch while the twins play with toys on the floor. Noah nudged her, waiting. "I sent him to the Police Station. If he's not redirected there, he'll be talking to Harry."

"You do realize that that might have actually been a friend of Nora's, right?"

She nodded slowly. "I do. It's also been three years, Noah."

Noah sighed, knowing that she was right, that it had been three years since that night, and five since another event which was still haunting everyone. "I feel like we should warn Alan, just in case."

"That what? We've got a Naval Officer playing nice and asking questions and I sent his butt to Arlington?" Chelsea let it hang in the air between them, a roiling unpleasantness, for minutes, and then she sighed. "All right, fine. I'll go call the station and head him off."


52. Sadness


The phone call had been an odd one, Officer Rockford Santos reflected as he opened a file cabinet and started looking for the right file. If Miss Lowell was correct, then he needed to find it now. He found it and opened it to review with an emotional pressure settling over him. The case had not been a nice one, and he still remembered sitting on the Lowell/Finney porch, listening to the Pi sequence...

Turning, he went to find the copy machine to make a copy quickly. With any luck, whoever this was that had been sent their way would actually care.


53. Anger


Quickly changing into gym clothes, Nick stowed his backpack in the locker and made his way down the rows, checking in each one. Finally finding who he was looking for, for he'd actually switched PE classes, too, he watched the interactions silently. Was it his imagination, or was Pete angry and hiding it really well?

The two guys opposite kept throwing snide remarks at him that to others would seem innocuous, but... "Hey. Which way is the weight room again? Still new and this place is a maze."

Pete's head came up, the anger melted away, and he smiled. "That so? Let's go, then."

The two guys, who were two more of their JROTC members, eyed Nick with incredulity, and he shrugged. "What can I say? I still get lost."


54. Guilt


"You didn't have to do that," Pete said on their way out of the locker room. "And don't you have history this period?"

"Switched," Nick told him. "Didn't like my original history class anyway."

A rare chuckle came from his Tiny Terror. "Same homework, though. Are you actually doing weight training?"

"Yes. You?"

Pete sighed. "Archery."

"Let's go see if they'll let you do weights, huh?"

"Is it more fun than shooting targets?"

"Depends on your definition of fun."


55. Acceptance


In the weight room, Jennifer came bouncing up to them with a grin while he talked the instructor into letting the youngest (and smallest) student on campus switch from Archery to Weights. He also noticed Bart was in this hour of Physical Education and wondered how he'd missed him in the locker room.

Mr. Leland looked down at Pete with a shrewd expression, then shrugged. "A bit of weight training will do you good, kid."

Pete nodded to Nick. "His idea."

"Well, it's a good one."

Later, Nick learned that he'd missed Bart because his locker was in the last row by the exit doors to the outside.

~*~*~*~*~*~​

A/N: In the movie novelization of Top Gun, it was mentioned that weight training helped fighter pilots cope better with G-Forces, and this aspect was also mentioned in a special on the Blue Angels hosted by Dennis Quaid: Blue Angles Around the World At The Speed of Sound (1994).

 

A/N: DID Noah recognize Viper from briefly having seen a black and white photo? No. No he did not, his attention was focused on the twins and Chelsea didn't give him time to try. There may be some random bowling fun at some point, but it will not be this set.


Week 11 - UDC 4


51. Bite the Bullet


Around 6:30 that morning, Nick entered the kitchen after having gotten dressed only to pause at something very odd... that being Pete, asleep on a textbook at the table, and not in his uniform for Uniform Day. "Ma?"

"I know," Helen said as she stood at the stove, frying up breakfast. "I know he went to bed last night, and he's far too warm now. Not going to school today."

Nick frowned at her and went to check for himself. Sure enough, Pete's forehead was far too warm. "Want me to wake him?" At her nod, he gently shook Pete's shoulder. "Up and at 'em, big guy."

"Don't wanna, Dad. Tired."

Either he was having the best dream for him, or Pete really did think it was five or so years ago. "Ma, I think you're right about keeping him home today..."

"Oh, I'm taking him with us to our follow up for TB testing," Helen mused as she plated the eggs. "Warm, tired, and flashbacks. That's not good."

Gently, Nick pulled the textbook away and Pete scrabbled for it in a panic. "Hey, I'm just putting it aside. It's not going very far."


52. Break the Ice


At the doctor's office, the receptionist took one look at them and called them back to be put in a room quickly. She quickly took the information that Helen did know and then called Social Services for the rest of what they needed. She smiled as she jotted things down and then hung up. "New to having a Foster?"

Helen nodded. "And illness doesn't run on a timetable."

"No, it doesn't." The receptionist watched as Walt got Pete to stand unsteadily on the scale, noting how pale the young man was. Was it her imagination, or did he seem to want to both bolt out of here AND throw up? "Eunice? Keep a bowl ready."

"Was noticing that," Eunice said as she quickly also got Pete's height. "Did you eat this morning, Peter?"

"Not hungry."

"All right. First room on the left, Mr. Bradshaw."

Helen sighed. "I'm sorry to spring this on you, on top of what looks like a busy morning."

"Don't worry about it. This is what we do. Sometimes with a side of pre-teen who can't decide if he wants to run or..."


53. Knock on Wood


In the exam room, Eunice got Pete to sit on the exam bed and finished taking his vitals. She studied him, noticing how he was eying the door tiredly, and wasn't at all surprised that his temperature was 100.2 or that his blood pressure was slightly elevated for his age. "Don't like doctors, huh?"

Pete blinked, startled. "It's not that."

"No?"

He shook his head and looked at Helen, then at Walt. "Three years, always had to hide being sick. And... hospitals. And before..."

Helen nodded slowly. "His grandfather was hospital sick in '68, Ma'am. And... Pete, was your mother sick right after that, if I understand right?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," Eunice said as she picked up the chart and wrote those details down for family history. "Well, you don't have to hide being sick with us. Lay down while you wait, even. If you don't mind my asking, was your father also sick?"

Pete shook his head and looked away. "Don't know. MIA."


54. Off the Hook


After she got Pete to lay down on his side, Eunice turned and got both Helen and Walt's charts and did their vitals, and then noted the lack of reaction to the PPD tests where the injection bubbles had been placed on their arms. "I didn't mean to upset him by asking."

Walt shook his head. "I don't think you did, Eunice."

She took a deep breath, nodded, and gathered up the two charts and the clipboard. "We'll get Dr. Salvatici in here as soon as we can."

"Thank you," Helen told her with a smile.


55. Back Seat Driver


Walt stood and moved his chair closer to the exam bed, then sat down again in Pete's eye line. "Three years, huh?" Pete just looked at him tiredly. "Ah, so it may have been longer, but you're tired right now. Did you feel sick yesterday?"

"No," Pete told him. "Woke up about Four and couldn't go back to sleep. Didn't want to wake anyone and I wasn't thirsty, just had chills and decided to read for a while."

"And then you started to feel worse and fell asleep at the table," Helen finished.

"Uh-huh." He blinked when Walt laughed softly. "What?"

"You're you, kiddo," Walt told him with a smile. "Helen, do we have any lime soda at the house?"

"No, that slipped my mind. We'll get some on the way home." She watched Pete's eyes fall shut, only for him to startle awake and Walt to catch him. "Pete, it's okay to sleep a little while we wait."

"Don't like it in here."

Walt glanced at the playful wallpaper. "Is it the cheerful you don't like? I think it's cute."


A/N: And suddenly this was a double feature. Yay?


Week Eleven - UDC 5


51. Office


Dr. Salvatici joined them in the room not long after Pete had fallen into a restless doze, and he cleared both of them for their Foster Care physicals and then examined Pete visually first, and then woke him to ask questions, which Pete answered yes to a headache and body aches, but no to coughing. "Dizzy?"

"A little?"

Dr. Salvatici nodded and jotted down some notes and then checked his eyes and nodded again as he wrote out instructions on two different prescription papers, which he handed to Helen. "The medication is for the conjunctivitis in his right eye. It's rare, but I've seen that happen with a bout of Flu before." Pete looked at him oddly. "Have you had a lot of stress recently?" They were treated to a tired twelve-year-old with a case of the giggles. "Ah, so that would be a yes."

"More accurate than you realize," Walt told him. "His coming to live with us was awful sudden for him."

"But good?"

"The best," Pete said for himself when he could talk again. The doctor's raised eyebrows set him off again.


52. Sales


Third period had gone by in a boring blur and Nick sighed as he got his locker open, only for both Bart and Karen to pounce on him. "What?"

"Checking on you," Karen said with a smile. "For we seem to be without our Tiny Terror today to give you directions. Not sure about Bart."

"Oh, I was just going to thank him for his mother getting my Dad to get me re-assessed," Bart told her and Karen frowned at him. "I didn't realize I could have gotten better tutoring if I'd just asked?"

Karen nodded. "That makes sense. I think."

Nick sighed. "Did everyone hear about my re-directing during PE? I wasn't lost!"

"Didn't think you were." She waited while he got books out of his backpack and put different ones in, and then grabbed his lunch sack. "One today."

"Pete didn't feel good this morning. Ma kept him home."


53. Accounting


"If you weren't lost," Campbell said from nearby, causing Nick to wince. "Then why did you make up a story like that? Even I heard about it, and I wasn't in PE that hour."

Nick carefully shut his locker, then moved to look into the Nurse's office. "Mrs. Joosten? Do I have permission to smack Campbell for being an idiot?"

Mrs. Joosten blinked up at him from her paperwork. "No, Bradshaw, you do not. Wait to talk to your JROTC advisor."

"Thank you, Ma'am. I will." He turned back around and looked at Campbell humorlessly. "If you can't figure it out, I'll explain it in very small words later for everyone before drills, along with certain things you should not say to people. Think about that until then." Nick nodded to Karen and Bart. "Let's go eat. I'm starving."


54. Management


"I think I love you," Karen muttered as they got to the cafeteria.

Nick smiled. "As nice as that sounds, I don't-"

"Not in that way," she clarified and led them to... was he wrong, or was this Geometry Central? "And I'm taken. Fionn would be so mad if I dumped him for you."

"Fionn?" Nick wondered and she motioned down the table to where Jaime was talking animatedly with Charlie and another guy. "Oh."

"Heard about this place being a maze," Bart said as they sat down and Nick pulled his lunch out of his bag. "But not the why."

Nick bit off a piece of his sandwich, chewed. "I didn't want to find out what happens when Pete's control actually does break and he loses his temper, and that was what I interrupted."

Bart froze. "Oh."

"Three days and it's been the same set of guys," Nick nodded to a table and Bart turned to look.

"But he's in the JROTC with them," Bart said slowly, confused. "That doesn't make sense."

"And now you know why Mrs. Joosten told me to talk to our JROTC advisor instead. I was going to, anyway, but it's nice to have an adult say I should."


55. Temp


The way home included a stop at a convenience store and another at Social Services to drop off the rest of the paperwork with Alan, who didn't seem at all surprised that Pete had the Flu. "How's he seem?"

"Exhausted," Helen said. "And I wouldn't expect any less. It's been an emotional week." She reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. "And I got this developed quickly, because you missed it."

Alan opened the envelope and slid something out of it that turned out to be a group photo. "Oh! Thank you, Helen. You're all in here... why is Bart Tomkins in this?"

"His father took it," she explained with a smile. "Is there any more paperwork?"

"Nope. I'll just get everything filed and get the background checks back and we'll be good to go."

 

A/N: Reason Nick asked the school nurse last set if he could smack someone? Because he'd talked to her before first period about things that were on his mind and he'd already agreed to discuss it with the advisor. (If you can't talk to the readily available and adjacent school nurse, who can you talk to?)



Week Eleven: After the Of! - UDC 6


51. Death


The classroom they normally met in was empty save their advisor seated at the desk, Nick observed as he stopped in the doorway and pulled the framed picture from his backpack that he'd snagged that morning. He paused, looking down at it, and then sighed heavily.

"Has it been that bad of a... oh. Nick, get over here."

Nick blinked at the now-familiar voice and looked up to find Alan watching him with a neutral expression and a curious tilt to his head. "You're not Mr. Norling."

"No, he had a family emergency to see to," Alan told him. "And I'm the reserve advisor today. What's that, kid?"

Nick went closer and handed the picture to him, and Alan studied it for a long moment before laying it face down. "Mr. Jenkins, I-"

"Were you going to tell Norling about some things?"

"Yes."

Alan nodded. "Grab a chair and we'll talk, Nick."


52. Doom


As Nick went to grab a chair and bring it back to the desk, Alan stood and started writing on the chalk board. Nick watched, perplexed at the subject matter and the bullet points. "Should I be taking notes?"

"This is for later," Alan told him. "And you will be, along with everyone else. All week long, and I managed to forget that you, however mature you seem, are fifteen. This has been a lot, hasn't it?"

"I don't know where to start," Nick admitted.

Alan paused. "That's a good place, actually. Does Pete know you brought it to school?"

"He was too tired to notice."

Alan chuckled at that answer. "Well, your mother did say he was exhausted, as well as having the Flu, so that tracks." Silence, and Alan glanced back at him. "Paperwork, Nick. I saw her this morning."

"Oh. Doesn't a JROTC advisor have to be or have been military somehow?"

"I was. Navy. Served aboard a ship during the Korean Police Action." He paused in writing one of the bullet points, shook his head. "Of course then, just like now, over there it's a war and not a police action."


53. Terror


Nick wondered what the distinction between the two definitions was as he sat down. "Right."

"And then, just like now, the draft was in play. Something you should consider here, really. People do and say things they normally wouldn't as a means of dealing with fear, both known and unknown." Alan stood back and read everything he'd put on the board, then nodded to himself and sat back down at the desk just as two more JROTC members filed in. "Take your seats and start taking notes, Gentlemen. It'll be a theory of communications drill today instead." Nick stared at him. "More than one way to deal with a problem. Remember that."

"Theory of communication?"

Alan tapped the picture he'd laid on it's face. "Part of the issue, which the school staff has been aware of but unable to do anything about? Communication and rumors. What a person thinks they know versus the reality can be two very different things." He lowered his voice as more members filtered in. "That was what you were going to bring up, wasn't it?"

"Badly," Nick admitted. "Just... he hasn't even unpacked yet, and is always startled at nice gestures, as if it's the last thing he expects. Pete was even startled when Ma told him he could use the dresser in his room, and asked if it really was his room and not the guest room. How does that happen, that he'd be so closed off like that, Mr. Jenkins?"

Alan stared at him for a minute, then nodded slowly. "All of that makes sense, you know. It shouldn't, and if this were a normal situation, you'd never have to think about the whys, but this? If he's talking about it, if you're open to listening, it's good. It's progress." He looked over Nick's shoulder at the dark-haired teenager watching them from the open door. "Is the non-uniformed guy with you?"

Nick blinked and looked, then chuckled. "Nah, he's from Pete's Honors Geometry class. Jaime?"

"Just making sure you weren't actually in danger of smacking Campbell like you wanted to," Jaime said with a touch of humor.


54. Peril


"What did I do?" Campbell asked suddenly, drawing Alan's attention. "And you did say you were lost, Bradshaw." He cringed suddenly. "Don't look at me like that, Huntington."

"Someone should," Jaime muttered. "Sir, can I join the drill? I'd love to learn a bit more about Communication."

"Take a seat," Alan told him, then turned his attention back to Nick. "Now why would you want to smack anyone? Lost?"

Nick sighed. "Two guys in the locker room were being mean in Pete's general direction and I intervened. I was lost for a week or so, new school and all. As for Campbell... he has a locker near Pete's and a habit of asking questions and saying things that he shouldn't. Also? Pete is twelve and doesn't know how to cope sometimes. He's fine with adults, but not so fine with..." He motioned to Campbell. "Not sure how to define it, and I might be missing the right vocabulary to do so."

Alan nodded again. "Now I know we need a communications drill. Thank you." He handed the picture back to Nick. "Put that back in your bag."


55. Shadow


Campbell caught his arm as Nick was moving to take a seat next to Jaime, and tilted the picture so he could see it momentarily. He frowned, then looked up at Nick. "Is that...?"

"You have eyes," Nick told him curtly, a hint of danger in his tone. "And you're the one who asked if he'd suddenly gained a sense of humor."

"Gentlemen?" Alan spoke up and Campbell blinked. He studied the picture again, and then let go and Nick quickly put it in his backpack and then sat down. "Thank you."

The next hour or so was filled with a communications lecture that was so heavy they'd have to re-read their notes several times to understand all of the theory presented.

 

Week 11 - UDC 7


Fun


As the rest of the members of the JROTC were filing out, Alan watched as Jaime waited for Nick by the door. "Huntington, is it?"

"Sir?"

Alan waited, glaring at Campbell until he actually was out the door, before nodding to Nick. "You don't have to stay. I'm taking him home."

Jaime looked at Nick. "That okay with you?"

"Yes, that's okay with me. Wouldn't be the first time." Nick shrugged. "A week ago was enlightening, after Norling dropped us off at Social Services without telling me why he'd have been leaving Pete there."

Jaime nodded, then offered a hand to Alan. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jenkins."

Alan shook his hand. "And you."

"See you on Monday, Nick. Hopefully with a much smaller shadow."

Nick allowed a chuckle. "Unless he passes whatever it is on to the rest of us."

"Or that."


Play


Alan finished packing up the materials he'd brought, glanced at Nick. "It's good to see that, that he's got classmates that miss him."

Nick smiled. "Pretty sure it's the honors students, but yeah."

"Now come on," Alan said as he closed the case and hefted it. "Let's get you home. How'd I do?"

"With the lecture? Loved it. Clear, concise... so loaded that it made my head spin." Alan nodded and motioned for Nick to lead the way. "Mr. Jenkins?"

"Yes?"

"Can two people who hate each other find common ground?"

"So you were listening. Good. And yes. That's a reverse pattern of normal interpersonal relations..."


Laugh


This time it was Walt to be perplexed while he was setting the table and looking out the window. Had Nick gone to Social Services? Again? As the two of them came in the house, sharing a laugh, Walt frowned at Nick and then Alan. "Son?"

"We had a surprise advisor today," Nick told him, smiling.

"Why is Pete sleeping on the couch?" Alan wondered, concern evident in his ton.

"Didn't want to be alone," Walt told him. "And after he had that nightmare in the car while Helen went in to talk to you, I didn't want him to be alone in his room either."

Alan nodded and went over to the couch, jostled Pete's arm until he was looking up at him. "You missed a good lecture."

"Yeah?"

"Um-hmm. Nick took notes, so ask him later."

Pete smiled tiredly. "Okay."


Games


"You staying for dinner?" Walt asked after a moment and Alan shook his head. "Because it's all right if you are. I'd love to hear about whatever lecture it was instead of drills."

"Was almost worse," Nick said with a smile. "And Mr. Jenkins got my head on square again." Walt looked at his son with an expression of concern. "I think I needed the reminder that this is bigger than one person, that there are big scary reasons for people to be acting the way I've been witness to. What was that about the difference between Police Action and War, Mr. Jenkins?"

Alan rejoined them by the table. "That over there it's a war, even if we're calling it something else." Walt frowned at him and he motioned to Pete. "They go to school with others who have deployed parents, among other things."

At that, Walt suddenly got it, why there would have been a lecture instead of drills. Could they call a lecture a drill in this case? "What was the topic?"

"Aspects of Communication, including Interpersonal." Alan shrugged. "I work with troubled children. Sometimes, creativity is required rather than bulldozing through a problem head-on, even if head-on might seem like the better option. Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"He's asleep. Go put it back in the box, or it'll be me telling him what you wanted to do. Trust works both ways."


Vacation


It, Walt realized, turned out to be one of the pictures of Pete and his parents as Nick set his backpack down and opened it to take the item out. He marched straight over to the box and carefully put it in with a sigh. When he came back, he was staring at the floor. "Oh, so that's what you meant. Nick, come here."

"I was just-" He was interrupted, surprised into silence as Walt dragged him into a hug that he didn't know he needed. "Dad, I-"

Walt pulled back, looked at him with a slight smile. "You wanted to make things better?" At Nick's nod, he hugged him again. "You are, son. You are, and you have no idea how much."

"Doesn't seem like it," Nick said, muffled against his chest.

"That's because you're looking at the situation wrong," Walt told him. "That kid in there? Closed off the way he is because if he wasn't, he'd fall apart. He's been letting us see. That? Trust. It might not seem like it, and he might take forever to take the next step that seems so simple to you and me, but he'll take it. Eventually. Right, Alan?"

"Exactly." Alan chuckled suddenly and they both looked at him. "Sometimes, with him, trust looks like something else entirely. I've got his woodshop project on my desk, still, if you want proof."

"Woodshop project?" Helen asked from behind them.

Alan nodded. "Nice little box, to hold something that got broken." He peered into the living room again, nodded once. "And I would love to stay, but Sonia and I had plans."

 

Week 11 - UDC 8


51. Go


Alan paused, then grabbed one of Nick's hands and pulled him over to the entryway. "In fact, before I go? Take a good look in there at the couch, Nick. Just look for a minute."

Nick did as he was bid, frowning. "So he's sleeping. I don't-"

"No," Alan interrupted and Nick looked at him in confusion. "Sleeping is the whole point right now. Walt, did he mention how he'd go to school even sick like this, because he thought he had to?"

"Did mention the three years of maybe hiding being sick," Walt replied and Nick turned to look at him. "I didn't ask for specifics and was trying to keep him calm in a doctors office."

"You're trying to tell me something here, aren't you?" Nick asked.

"Yes," Alan told him. "And it's this: behavior like that didn't happen overnight or in a vacuum, and did not start with the Foster Care environment."

"Like the cooking," Nick realized suddenly. "And the used to being hungry and trying to hide that he is."

"There you go," Alan said, nodding. "You know more than you think you do. He'll frustrate you without realizing that he is, because he has hang-ups, Nick. Not all of them stem from three years bouncing from home to home." He nodded to Pete, asleep on the couch. "And I get it, you know? The desire to make a grand gesture and try to solve everything at once. I made one a week ago, but I didn't and don't expect it to fix everything right here and right now, because life does not work like that."


52. Wait


Nick sighed. "Baby steps?"

"Yes, Nick. Sometimes so small you don't realize they're being made." Alan paused. "Although, if I were in your shoes, I think I would have wanted to smack Campbell, too, but I did not officially just say that as Pete's social worker."

"He'd probably laugh, though," Nick said with a chuckle.

"Probably. You good?"

Nick nodded slowly. "I think so?"

"Not going to try something grand without permission again?"

"I'll be hearing about that for a while, won't I?"

"Maybe." Alan glanced at Walt with a smile. "Your son, sir."

Walt chuckled. "Oh go on. Tell Sonia we said hello."

"Will do."


53. Rise


"Nick?" His mother asked. "Wake Pete up and get him to the table, would you?"

"Can I change first?"

"We've got time," Helen told him, smiling. "And after, we might discuss feeling helpless in the face of things we can't solve instantly."

"You heard all of that?"

"I'm your mother, of course I did." She watched him go, then shifted her attention to the table, which wasn't completely set yet. "Walt? Table."

"Right." Walt paused a moment, noticing that she was stirring something. "Are we having soup? You only gave me one bowl."

"One of us is having soup, because I'm not sure how well he'd tolerate more than that right now." She smiled. "We're having a casserole and green beans."


54. For


A shake to his shoulder and suddenly he was staring up at Nick in confusion. "What?"

"Dinner time, Pete," Nick told him. "And at least you aren't mistaking me for your father again. I'll take it."

Pete paused as he sat up, blinking and yawning. "I didn't."

"Oh, you did." Nick helped him up. "Come on. Whatever Ma's got going smells delicious."

"Not hung-" and then he blushed, for his stomach was again betraying him. "Eh."

"Something tells me that you are."

Pete peered around the living room, something catching up in his tired brain. "Where's Mr. Jenkins? Wasn't he here?"

Nick smiled and navigated him to the table. "Yes he was, and he had plans and couldn't stay. Ma? One tired and confused Pete, where do ya want him?"


55. Against


The meal went by quietly and the three of them were amused at how excited Pete seemed over the soup. It was one thing to have seen him so excited over it, and another to see him tired but not stopping to talk until he was done and falling asleep at the table on them. Nick grinned and pulled the bowl away. "Been a long time, huh?"

"Ages," Pete admitted with a yawn. "Thank you, Mrs. Bradshaw."

"Pete," Helen said, getting his attention. "You really don't have to be so formal." That blank look again, this time tiredly. "We'll work on it, then."

"Okay." He blinked when Nick handed him a glass. "Huh?"

"Drink," Nick told him and Pete shrugged and did as he was told, then stared at the glass. "Don't tell me you've never had 7-UP before."

"Wasn't expecting it." He yawned again. "Hate being sick."

"Who doesn't?"

 

Week 11 - UDC 9


51. Skull


Later, after he and his father had gotten Pete off to bed again, Nick wandered out to the kitchen where his mother had finished the dishes and put everything away. She was staring at the wall next to the refrigerator with a thoughtful expression and Nick followed her gaze to realize there was another mark there, slightly above the one with the date on it from Sunday. "Already?"

"Gained half an inch per the scale at the doctor's office," she explained. "And like I thought, it's exactly what his body is trying to do. Growth spurt."

Nick stared at it, at the date next to the new mark, which was today. "Oh."

"He's still the bottom percentile," she added. "And he needs to gain some weight, but it's a step in the right direction."

"Light for being twelve," Nick mused as he glanced back at her. "Mr. Finney's words. We'll get him there, Ma."

"That picture you took to school without my realizing? Grab that for me, would you?"

Nick nodded as he went and grabbed it, brought it back to her.


52. Spine


Helen took the picture from him and propped it up on the table. "Explain?"

"Explain what, Ma? That I had a dumb idea and was emotional?"

She shook her head. "Not a dumb idea, Nick. Not at all. Your heart was in the right place. It's just..."

"Grand gestures and not thinking about it differently and only seeing one side. I know."

"Sit with me," Helen told him, and when he did after drawing one of the chairs closer, she looked at him, then pointed at the picture. "The world captured in that picture frame and the world right now? Two different things, Nick. There's a saying for times like this one: 'They say the past is another country. They do things differently there.'"

"It's an entirely different thing to live it, Ma."

"Didn't say it wasn't." She got him to raise his head and look her in the eyes. "Two things: you are not helpless nor are you powerless."


53. Teeth


"I already had this lecture, Ma."

"Ah, but I'm your mother," Helen told him with a slight smile and motioned to the picture again. "And you took that. I understand, Nick, but... talk to us when you're feeling overwhelmed. Like Alan said earlier: these things do not happen in a vacuum."

"That still sounds terrible." He reached out and traced the figures in the picture. "But I get it, Ma. I want to see him smile like that with us... again, actually. On Sunday, I was so startled I didn't know what to make of it."

"It's amazing what something so simple as a can of soup can do, huh?"


54. Fibula


After his talk with his mother, he found his father sitting on the edge of Pete's bed, reading a book by lamplight. "Dad?" His father glanced up, then motioned him into the room. "How bad was the nightmare, that you're in here?"

Walt set the book on the bedside table. "It was more the temporary amnesia, Nick, than it was the nightmare. He started singing, and a random honk woke him, and..."

"Oh."

Walt shuddered and looked down at Pete's sleeping face. "I can imagine that happening with a constantly crying baby around, and it's disturbing."

"But we've got him now," Nick said ask he sat down, a confidence that he didn't feel in his voice.

"We do." They both startled when Helen brought the box in and set it next to the dresser by the closet. "Got tired of it being in the living room?"

"No," Helen said after a moment. "These are his things and I am taking this step for him, to put it in here. This one, not the next one." She nudged the album on the dresser. "You're not the only one who wants to step in and do something, Nick."


55. Bone


Nick reached over and picked the book up that his father had been reading. "Master and Commander?"

Walt nodded. "It's a good book, and it seemed to calm him down... and it's not too far off from the Horatio Hornblower book that his grandfather read with him."

Nick absorbed that information and moved to have a better purchase on the bed than he'd had. "Go on. You two had him all day. My turn."

"Taking turns now, are we?"

"Dad!"

"I went to work somewhere in there," Walt added with a smirk.

"Loud," Pete mumbled, then yawned. "More of book?"

Walk chuckled. "If you want."

 

A/N: Who had "Viper vs The Adults in Pete Mitchell's Life" on their bingo card?
(As this is a civilian setting, however, Viper shall again not be going by his call sign.)
Welcome back to Fort Worth Social Services. Again.


Week 11 - UDC 10 - "Where have you been, Lieutenant Commander?"


51. Heretofore


As Mike got out of his rental car, he stared at the building. Was he even in the right place? Would they even know where Pete was? He sighed, trying to quell his anxiety that had only built since his run-in with Miss Lowell, whose reaction to seeing him still didn't make sense. Sending him to Arlington instead of the local Social Services office didn't make sense, either, even if Officer Santos had seemed like he'd wanted to laugh at that. The more he thought about that, about the misdirection on purpose, the less sense it made.

Grabbing both files from the passenger seat, a picture slid out and Mike reached in to grab it, only to find his wingman and his Godson smiling back at him in black and white. "Oh Rick..." The sound of his own voice startled him, and Mike blinked his eyes clear.

Inside the building, he was met with activity and was directed to sit in a chair, in a line of chairs that seemed to function as a waiting area. Watching these people bustle around with files of their own was anything but relaxing and he opened the case file again to review the details that made his heart ache at how bad it must have been. His eyes narrowed at a witness statement, suddenly realizing that it actually did make sense, that Miss Lowell would have sent him out of his way on purpose if she didn't trust him, which he'd given her no reason to.

"Sir?" The voice belonged to a woman who'd stopped in her tracks, a file in her hands. "You know, it's not often we're visited by the Navy. Can I help you?"

Mike nodded and closed the case file to find the picture, and handed it to her. "I'm looking for my friend's son. He'd be about twelve now, I think."

She took the picture and studied it, glanced at him with raised eyebrows, and then looked at the picture again. "I'll be right back."


52. Unbeknownst


Sheila's first stop was Alan's desk, to compare the boy in the picture to the one in the picture he'd framed and hung on the wall behind his desk that he'd gotten from the Bradshaws. Looking at it caused her to chuckle at how big the jacket clearly was on Pete's small frame, and then she held the snapshot up side by side. "Oh. I'm right."

"Right about what?" Dorinda's voice asked from behind her and then she looked at what Sheila was doing. "Oh."

"There's a man out there in service khakis," Sheila explained as she turned and gave the picture in her hand to Dorinda. "He had that and said he was looking for his friend's son."

Dorinda nodded as she studied the little boy seated on his father's shoulders. "I know that tone. No kicking him out, Sheila. Not your call, anyway."

Sheila sighed. "I heard the stories from Harry about those placements that didn't work."

"We all did, but it would still be bad to kick him out without letting Alan speak to him."

"True."

"And really? The boy in this picture is a darn sight happier than the one who, until a month ago, was sleeping on our break room couch every Friday like clockwork."

Sheila glanced back at the group picture on the wall. "It's been a month?"

"Time flies, doesn't it?"


53. Henceforth


Mike was starting to get impatient when the woman returned with a co-worker who studied him and then handed the picture back to him. "So..."

"So we have to wait for one of our Social Workers to get back from a home site assessment," one of them explained. "I'm Dorinda and she is Sheila. Your name, sir?"

"Mike." Why did he have the funny feeling that Sheila hadn't liked him on sight? "Is there something wrong?"

"Depends on your definition," Sheila told him. "How did you end up here to ask us about this boy?"

Mike sighed. "Well, first I went to the house that was the last known address of my friend's wife, and then a touchy red head sent me to the police station. I didn't find out why she'd have been so touchy until I started reading the case file they gave me."

Dorinda frowned and held a hand out. "Can I look at it?" He gave it to her and she paged through it with a neutral expression before nodding. "Ah. I have a phone call to make. Did she also tell you to go to Arlington?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Oh, sir. The things I know here... and while it would be entertaining to see you talk to Harry Burrows, you'd still end up back here afterwards, so you were saved a trip."

Sheila watched as Dorinda handed the file back and then went to make her call. "I think that's the closest I've ever seen her come to laughing in someone's face at work."

"This isn't funny," Mike pointed out.

"You don't know the particulars yet, Mike. Part of it kinda is."


54. Notwithstanding


He got as far as the waiting area upon arriving back at the office and Alan was perplexed at the sight of Sheila's stiff posture, as close to seething as he'd ever seen her. "What did I miss?"

Sheila blinked at him, then motioned to a man that he hadn't seen yet, and Alan turned to look, suddenly realizing it was someone in Navy service khakis. "We have an interesting visitor, looking for the son of his friend, who should be about twelve now."

Alan paused as he stared at the officer, now a Lieutenant Commander instead of a Lieutenant. "Well. Guess I don't have to go to the base and ask fruitless questions after all. Where have you been, Lieutenant Commander?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You... you know this guy?"

Dorinda joined them just then, smiling. "Miss Lowell and Mr. Finney will be here in a bit, along with both of the Bradshaws, and maybe Sheryl Tomkins if Helen can reach her." Alan glanced at her and she shrugged. "He has the police report. There's only one way they would have given it to him at the station, Alan."

"That's a good point. And it's more that I have a picture on my desk, Sheila, that I was going to ask questions about when I got the chance, just to see if I could get answers." Alan looked long and hard at the officer, assessing him. "Your friend wouldn't happen to be Richard Mitchell, would it, Officer Metcalf?" At his nod, Alan held out his hand, which Metcalf shook. "Alan Jenkins. I'm Pete's social worker. How's about we continue this in a conference room?"

Metcalf stared at him. "You mean I'm in the right place after all?"

"You are. Seriously, where were you all this time?"


55. Forevermore


In the conference room, Alan studied the file that Mike had brought with him. "You still haven't answered my question, sir."

"Mike," he told him. "Or Viper. And I was out on deployment often, with no idea of where to look because Nora didn't come to Miramar when her father got sick. I needed my wife to remind me that she had family here in the area, and then Linda tracked down a few details while I was deployed. What picture do you have that you were going to ask questions about?"

Alan got up and left the room, then came back shortly and handed it to him, and that was when Mike understood the ready acceptance. "Found that in boxes that Miss Lowell and Mr. Finney have, when we were deciding what to give to Pete a month ago. The other pictures didn't have you in them, and, well..."

"Answers. Got it. I think Linda talked to a clerk or two at the base who weren't all that helpful, either." Mike sighed. "This whole situation would have been easier if it weren't for Duke's death getting classified as MIA." Alan stared at him. "What?"

"Details," Alan said simply. "And if I'm understanding right, you can't tell me the rest. Particularly the where and the how."

"No, I can't. The State Department ordered everyone to silence."

Alan sighed heavily. "Not well enough, Lieutenant Commander. Really not."

 

A/N: In which Helen Bradshaw has taken to carrying around a baggie of fruit on purpose...


Bonus for Week 11, UDC 10


Homeward


A moment of silence, and then... "Who is this Harry Burrows person in Arlington that I would have been talking to if I went there?"

Alan glanced toward the door and seemed to be holding in a chuckle. "Now that? That would have been mean. Harry was Pete's first social worker, Mike. He'd have given you an earful about the placements with Naval families and then kicked you right out of the office." Mike frowned at him. "Pete had three attempted placements before we had to try something else, and they always ended for the same reason."

"Which was?"

Alan reached out and tapped the picture frame. "The public story of what happened? That he disappeared in an F-4 in November 1965? People can be needlessly cruel when it comes to rumors and scuttlebutt, and Pete loved his father. Imagine, if you will, a kid that is a permanent guest in someone's home, and this gets brought up a few too many times... how would you react, sir? When I got Pete from Harry, I had to have a long talk about things like that, about how words can hurt, but reacting solves nothing." Alan stood and left the room again, this time coming back with a small wooden box, which he handed over. "Open it."

Still frowning, Mike did so and didn't understand the contents until he lifted them out and put the two halves together. Startled, he looked at Alan with wide eyes. "I don't-"

"That was Nora Mitchell's," Alan said, and something in his tone made Mike jump a little in his chair. "If Helen can get her here, Sheryl Tomkins can tell you how it got broken. He has a new one now that actually fits, but... well, he didn't tell Sheryl why he really wanted to see me. Just that he wanted to show me that box that he made in Woodshop. I'm showing you because it's the little things here."

Mike stared at the bracelet cuff's two pieces, with Duke's name engraved across it, for far too long before putting it back in the box and closing it. Only then did he notice the inlaid pattern of a tree. "Woodshop? They have that in Junior High?"

Alan smirked suddenly. "No. And the reason he's not is one of the only things Harry did right."


Nevermore


Frank opened the door and peered in. "Did you call for a Foster Parent reunion or something? I've got Dean Tomkins out here with the Bradshaws, and Dorinda hasn't stopped grinning at her files."

Alan stared at him, looked at Mike, then looked again Frank. "I was expecting Sheryl, but Dean will do. Bring 'em back, Frank. Miss Lowell and Mr. Finney when they get here, too. And yes, we did call for that, though Dorinda made the actual phone calls."

Frank studied Mike for a very long moment. "He the reason?"

"Yes."

"Right." Frank smiled at Mike. "You eaten since your plane landed?"

Mike froze. "How did you-"

"Your khakis are wrinkled," Frank explained. "From what looks like sitting a long time, and you've got five-o-clock shadow. So I ask carefully: who put you on a plane and where were you before that?"

Observant, because of course these people would be. "Deployed, and my wife put me on a plane right off of the carrier to come to Fort Worth. And no, I forgot to eat in the middle of this." Frank nodded and left the room, leaving Alan to chuckle suddenly. "What?"

"Of course you'd be fresh from deployment. I didn't really look at your clothing, or I'd have made the plane connection."


Wherewithal


Frank returned with three adults and one happy toddler, whom he handed off to Alan. "Miss Lowell and Mr. Finney are catching up with Dorinda. Not sure why he handed me the little guy."

Mike took a moment to study the two men and one woman, all three of which were looking at him intently. "Hello?"

The woman sighed and reached into her purse, pulling out a baggie full of cut up fruit. "You're right, Frank. He looks famished." She handed it to Mike with a smile. "Go on. Eat up."

Alan frowned at her. "Why are you carrying fruit in your purse, Helen?"

"Pre-teen with a growth spurt. Not sure if it's over, or if he actually started another one, and if Nick keeps to his cycle..." Helen shrugged. "I like to be prepared, and one of my boys has a tendency to not tell us he's hungry. It isn't the tall one."

"Well, that makes sense." Alan turned his attention to the toddler in his lap. "And how are you, Nicky?"

"Funny clothes," Nicky told him, staring at Mike.

"Now those, kiddo, are service khakis." Alan looked from Nicky to Mike and back again. "Oh, I know what Noah was trying to do. Frank, take him back to his father would you? This isn't the time but I wish it were." Frank laughed and took Nicky back, leaving the room while Mike started to munch on a piece of apple. So prepared she expected a kid not to mention he was hungry? Mike liked her already.

 

A/N: I made so many jokes at the top about Plot Bunnies in F-14's... and then they actually showed up. (We'll be getting back to Viper at Social Services. Wanted to do this first.)
Also, I'm ignoring the fact that in reality at this point in time (the 70's), Naval Air Station Joint Base Reserve Fort Worth had been renamed Carswell Air Force Base temporarily to avoid confusion.


Week 12 - UDC 10 - JROTC Tour of Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Base Reserve


56. Pebble


An officer from the Air Force Reserve 457th Fighter Squadron, who had introduced himself as Technical Sergeant Aaron Whittington, call sign 'Knits,' had been leading their JROTC tour of the base, and currently they were on the tarmac, listening as he explained the layout and operations pattern of taking off and landing. He'd just gotten into the part about the importance of Air Traffic Control when he noticed that they were short a person. "Hang on. Where's the short kid?"

"Knits?" That was Jaime, his oldest step-daughter's boyfriend, getting his attention by using his call sign and not his name, motioning back toward a row of jets. "Bradshaw lost the Tiny Terror and didn't notice."

Frowning, Aaron followed Jaime's eye line and spotted him, in time with Bradshaw spinning on his feel and marching back to him. The boy was standing back that way, stock still, head cocked to one side. "Is that good or bad?"

"Nick not noticing or Pete so puzzled he got distracted?"

Aaron paused, suddenly realizing that he recognized the kid, including that nickname. No wonder that Karen had told him he needed to pull tour duty today. "So it could be both."


57. Boulder


As Nick got closer, he slowed and took in the fact that Pete appeared far too close to crying for his own comfort. Slowly, he put a hand on his shoulder, and Pete jumped. "Sorry. You okay?"

"What are those?" The tone in his voice was spooky, as if his mind wasn't in the present and Nick glanced at the planes, frowning at he studied them.

"Let's find out," Nick said as he turned to find the rest of the group catching up to them. "Mr. Whittington? What are those planes?"

Aaron seemed puzzled as he looked from them, to the jets, and back again. "F-14 Tomcats. Why?"

"Test flying," Pete said, still sounding faraway, and it was giving Nick goose bumps.

Norling started to step forward, but Aaron stopped him and he joined Nick instead at Pete's side. "Hey. What is it about test flying?"

"Those look better," Pete continued. "But... test flying."

Aaron glanced up at Nick. "That make any sense to you?"

Nick nodded. "We were able to figure out that his father was a test pilot for Grumman and the Navy before returning to active duty, sir." Carefully, he got Pete to look up at him. "Where are you?"

"Beth Page, on the tarmac with Mom. Watching Dad test fly, take off and land."


58. Loam


At that, Norling chuckled. "I can think of worse places, Pete."

Pete frowned at Nick, the change in expression so sudden that it almost gave him emotional whiplash, and then he was blinking rapidly. "I... I..."

"Okay," Nick said calmly. "Fort Worth, Pete. Remember? Base tour?" Pete's expression crumpled and Nick didn't hesitate to pull him into a hug. Then he studied the jets again. "That answers why the Navy would be so touchy about Mr. Finney asking questions."

"Hate when that happens," Pete muttered, and Nick could see Aaron's calculating expression as he looked around and then spun and went to talk to a crewman doing what looked like preflight checks on one of the F-14's. They chatted for a minute, and then Aaron was motioning the group over.

"Come on," Nick told him, and Pete looked up at him in confusion. "Tech Sergeant wants us over there."


59. Flint


Campbell fell into step beside him. "Seems okay. How did you know to ask that?"

"Not my first experience with flashbacks," Nick muttered quietly at him. Pete, for his part, didn't say anything and instead stared up at the nose of the jet when they got near enough. "This was tame."

The pilot who had been doing preflight looked around at all of them. "Really, Knits? We're getting ready for a hop."

Aaron nodded to Pete. "Can you walk that one through the checks while we watch? Seems his father did test flights for Grumman on these, or something like the F-14."

The pilot looked at Pete. "That so? Sure, we can do that." He squinted at Pete's name tag, then held out his hand, which Pete respectfully shook. "Lieutenant Herbert O'Reilly, call sign Rotor." Pete very slowly shook his hand, frowning at him.

"Rotor?"

O'Reilly smiled. "Ran Off The Only Runway is too long for the radio." The group laughed. "Yes, it was as stupid as it sounds." Another laugh came from the cockpit and Pete peered upward. "That's my RIO, kid. Know what that is?"

Pete shook his head. "First base I've been on since we left Long Island, and none of the parents in the Naval families I was placed with would talk about work."

O'Reilly stared at him momentarily, then looked at Norling, who motioned back to Pete. "Right. RIO, R-I-O, is short for Radar Intercept Officer." He motioned upward, where his RIO was looking down at them. "Dan? You want to explain the job?"

"There are times when I keep us from blowing up," Dan offered, shrugging when Aaron glared up at him. "Simplistically, my job is to watch the radar and work with my pilot as a team to fly the plane."

"Did the F-4 need a RIO?"


60. Gravel


Dan stared down at him now, puzzled. "I think it does, actually."

Pete shook his head and looked at O'Reilly, who seemed really puzzled. "Pre-flight?"

As O'Reilly began to explain each and every part they needed to look at and inspect, Campbell leaned closer to Nick. "That was odd."

"A bit," Nick conceded, still frowning. He'd have to ask later about why that detail mattered. "I'm glad they let him come, as much as Pete might be embarrassed for having a flashback like that in front of everyone."

"I think some of us needed to see and hear it," Campbell said eventually. "Myself included."

Nick paused and glanced around at his classmates, noting that they were all watching the preflight checks with varying expressions of intrigue. That was a good point. Maybe they did need to.

 

An A-plus nickname story, I can tell! And it's interesting to see that there is definitely something brought up in Pete's mind just from being around the planes. Though it's definitely not easy for him, and I'm glad that Nick is there to remind him of the present.

 

@Kahara I picked that call sign because it was the funniest on the list I was looking at AND it could totally happen while learning to fly at a small regional airport with only one runway. And if anyone needed an emotional support friend turned mutually adopted brother, it's this kid. So, so much. Thank you.


Bonus for Week 12, UDC 10


Detritus


"Mr. Rotor, sir?"

O'Reilly glanced down at the kid, taking in the puzzled expression on his face. "Yes? And you don't have to be so formal."

"Habit," Pete said with a shrug. "Mom and Dad were always saying to be polite and respectful."

Glancing again at the kid's name tag, realizing just whose kid this had to be if his father had been a test pilot and then returned to active duty, he nodded. "Just Rotor, then. No honorifics, not out here on the tarmac unless it's a superior officer. What's your question?"

"How did you run off the only runway?"

O'Reilly chuckled. "There was a crosswind while I was training for my pilot's license and I wasn't prepared for it. Ended up in the grass. Mine's not bad, though. I know a guy who goes by Gear Down because he kept forgetting a small detail." He motioned to Aaron, who was rolling his eyes at that. "And didn't you get yours because your girlfriend was teaching you to knit?"

"It was still the best third date I've ever had," Aaron said with a smile. "Married her, too."


Monolith


At home after school, they were both doing their homework at the table when Nick noticed a car pull up and someone familiar with red hair get out. "Ma?"

"Yes, Nick?"

"Were you expecting company?"

"They're here already?" Helen joined them at the table and looked out the window, then went to greet them. Pete turned and looked, squealed with surprise and bounced out the door after her so quickly that Nick was left staring at his empty chair.

Watching as Pete met them with his mother, Nick smiled and started putting their books away. There would be no studying, not with that much distraction.


Lodestone


"Noah!" The shout was his only warning, and then a short person grabbed him by the waist and Noah Finney blinked down, surprised at how affectionate Pete was being. "Dad was testing F-14's!"

Noah nodded, shared a glance with Helen, and then frowned down at him. "And we know this how?"

"They have F-14's at the base! And they look better!"

"Oh," Helen interjected with a smile. "Their JROTC unit had a base tour today. Pete, you can tell him more inside, all right? They're here for dinner. And I'm sorry, but we don't have high chairs."

"That's all right," Chelsea said, also smiling as she pulled Maggie out of her car seat in the back of the vehicle. "We'll make do."

"Helen, can you get Nicky for me? Pete doesn't seem to want to let go."

"Of course."