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Chapter 1: Yet you should not fret, My darling child

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Bradley is awakened by the rain falling on his face. Which is quite strange, because it seems to fall only on his face.

Without opening his eyes, which are so heavy for some reason, he tries to shield his face from the rain.

‘Oh, I'm sorry. I'm getting you wet.’ The rain apologises, which is even weirder.

The rain also sounds suspiciously familiar.

Like a voice he hasn't heard in years (not counting those deleted voice messages from his phone), but one he'll never forget anyway.

He opens his eyes with difficulty.

Dad.

Mav.

Mitchell.

Mitchell is crying and his tears fall down on his face like rain, because his head lies in his lap.

Suddenly he is aware that one of Mitchell's hands is on his hair and the other is holding both of his own hands.

Bradley stands up as if burned, Mitchell raises his hands in a gesture of surrender without getting up from bed.

'Sorry, I shouldn't have, but...'

'It's fine.' He interrupts his apology, and Mitchell puts his hands down like he's not sure what to do with them now.

Normally he would be furious about waking up in that position, but the fact that they seem to have been kidnapped takes priority at this point.

Bradley looks around the small windowless room they are in. A metal door with food port. Toilet and washbasin. One faintly burning bulb hanging from the ceiling. Bare walls and floor. And ultimately the only bed in the room that Mitchell still sits on (looking so horrifying small).

The perfect room to hold kidnapped people.

They have definitely been kidnapped.

He recalls a blonde woman with a broken-down car.

He remembers he stopped to help.

The thing is, she didn't even try to flag him down, he did that all on his own, but he remembered when he stopped he thought she reminded him of his mother in appearance.

So it was definitely a trap.

Then she kept thanking him for stopping to help her. She seemed nice and was wearing pink sundress.

What kind of kidnapper wears pink sundresses?

The last thing he remembers is when he felt a sharp pain in his neck after leaning against the bonnet of her car. She stuck a needle in his neck

‘Thanks for making it so easy love.’ Was the last thing she said, as everything went black.

Damn.

'How did they catch you?' He asked when it became clear that his companion would say nothing more, and Mav sitting stiffly on the bed while crying terrified him. If Mav gave in to despair then the situation was already lost in advance.

Mav didn't even seem to hear him now.

'How did they catch you?' He asked again this time way louder. Maybe he was just too quiet first time.

Still no response.

'Mav, do you hear me?' Bradley says as he kneels before him.

'What?' Mav only responds when Brad starts waving his hand in front of his face.

'I was talking to you. Did you not hear me?'

'No, I'm sorry. What did you say?' This mellow anwser, scares him even more.

'I asked how did they catch you?'

'Woman with baby and broken car.' Baby? What kind of kidnapper brings a child to work?

'Same. Minus baby.'

'Okay.'

After a few more minutes of silence Bradley wants to say: Please stop having breakdown because you're scaring me. But that would be kinda fucked up thing to say, to someone whos been kidnapped. Even if it is Mitchell.

'Can I sit next to you?' He says instead. Which is kinda stupid question, as he was the one who has bolted from that bed before.

He's not even sure how much time has passed since he woke up. There is neither a window nor a watch here.

'Sorry, you can have bed to yourself.' Bradley has to stop Mav from trying to get up from bed.

'That's not what I meant.'

'Okay.' He seems surprised by this and Bradley feels like an asshole.

Which is not right, because he is not the one who started it all.

But he's not gonna start anything with Mitchell now when he's fucked up like this, because even though he has stopped crying now, he still looks so wrong.

Not even counting whole we been kidnapped thing.

So he sits down on the bed next to him and just says. 'Can we have a truce?'

'Truce?'

'Truce due to force majeure.'

'I was never fighting you.' And Bradley thinks maybe he will start shit with Mitchell even when he's fucked up like this, but then he adds. 'But I'll take you on this truce.'

'Good.' Bradley extends his hand as he says this.

'Good.' Mav replies as takes his hand, then he smiles sadly at him, while gently squeezing his hand, and for the first time since Bradley woke up in this cursed room, he feels he can breathe.

'Do you know what they want from Ice?' Bradley ask after some time, when he somehow ends up in same position he woke up. Once again Bradley uses Mav's knees as a pillow while one of Mav's hands is stoking hair and the other is holding both of his own hands.

Only this time it's fully consensual, and this should be weird, but somehow it is not.

He knows for sure this is about Ice, because Mav told him, that they actually came with today's newspaper, and made Mav take proof of life video, while Bradley was still unconcius.

They could have at least left them this fucking newspaper.

'I don't know.' He stops stroking his hair, and Bradley kinda wants to whine about it, but he's an adult, so doesn't. 'Since he became COMPACFLT a lot of people want a lot things from him. I have no idea what it's about specifically.'

'Well, whatever they want they not gonna get it.' When Mav doesn't agree with him, he adds. 'Ice would never. He would never give in to the demands of terrorists.' Mav looks down on him like he's naive kid. 'You can't think that there is even a possibility that he would do that?'

'Honestly?' He finally says. 'I say it's 50-50 chance.' He whispers as if it were some kind of crime.

'You need to have your ego checked old man.' Bradley feels offended on behalf of Ice. 'Ice would NEVER, not even for you.'

Mav have audacity to laugh at that.

'I wasn't talking about myself.' Mav just picks up hair stroking again, like he didn't just make Bradley speechless from shock.

No.

NO.

NO.

'I haven't really spoken to him for almost ten years.' He finally says when he regains his voice. 'You can't seriously think that there's even possibilty that he would ruin himself for me, let alone risk national security in some way.'

Because whatever they want from Ice, can't be small. You don't kidnap someone's life partner and child (child that they are not even officially related in anyway, so they had to do some intensive research) for little things. 'He wouldn't do that. Mav, I even pretended not to know him the few times I saw him.'

'That doesn't matter to parent.'

'He must know that I would not want him to do that!'

'I'm sure he knows that.' Mav finally gives him some reassurance.

'So he won't do this? Please tell me he won't do this.'

'I don't know, baby goose.' Mav says honestly, and Bradley can't handle that right now. He starts crying.

'I'm sorry, but this is the truth. I really don't know what Ice will do in this situation.' Bradley hides his face in his hands, as Mav keep talking. 'I'm so sorry, about this whole thing.'

'Please lie to me like you did about the papers.'

'What?' In normal families this wouldn't be a big revelation, but Mav never lied to him, so he probably didn't expect Bradley to realise when he finally did.

'I know you lied when you told me about the reason with the academy papers, I don't want to talk about it now. I just want to lie to me again.'

'Okay.' Mav recovers quicky enough. 'He won't do this Bradley. He won't even consider it.'

'Do you promise?'

'Yes.'

For the meal (he has no idea if it is closer to lunch breakfast or dinner) they get McDonald's.

Cold McDonald's. Rude.

Maybe because Bradley doesn't know how long it's been since his last meal, and it must have been a long time, but that cold McDonald's ends being the best McDonald's of his life.

'Mav stop trying to push me into eating a larger portion. You could at least try to be subtle.'

'You know I don't even like McDonald's.' Yes, almond mom, I know.

'This is American culture.' Mav makes a sound of disapproval. Bradley flips him bird in response.

'But I can admit it is quite nostalgic. I haven't eaten it's since you left.' So much for a good mood, but Bradley can tell, Mav regrets the words as soon as they left him.

So he takes pity on him and makes lame joke. 'I'm pretty sure you lose your citizenship if you don't eat it at least once every 7 years.'

'Really?'

'Yep.'

'You sleep first, I'll wake you up in a while to change.'

'You're lying, you wouldn't wake me up.' Bradley isn't that naive. He glares at Mav.

'Yes.' He admits brazenly.

Bradley chooses to ignore this disrespect. 'I think we can just both go to sleep. If they decide to kill us they can give us poison or whatever. They have guns. We are not really in a position to do anything.'

Mood drops once again.

'Don't say that sweetheart.'

'But it is true.'

In the end Mav agrees that can skip trying to keep guard.

But still he insists that he needs to lie on the side bed that is not touching the wall.

'I'm older I need to go to the bathroom more often.' Which is such a brazen lie, because Mav's bladder is made of steel, that Bradley doesn't even comment on it.

In response, he lies that he wants to be a big spoon. He never wants to be big spoon (this has not changed in ten years and he's pretty sure Mav can tell that's also brazen lie), but if Mav wants to be the barrier between him and the door, Bradley at least should be able to watch the door.

In morning (Who knows what time of day it is, but he will pretend for his peace of mind that it is morning) Bradley concludes that there is something very wrong with him, as this is ends up being one of the better nights of sleep he has had in a long time.

They get another cold McDonald's.

'Do you think we will only get this to eat?' Bradley gets worried.

'Yes.' Mav doesn't seem to care about that.

'This is gonna ruin McDonald's for me for the rest of my life.'

'Good.' Mav has the audacity to smile when saying this. Bradley throws fry at him in response.

'So do you want to talk about the papers and lying?'

'No.'

'Okay.'

'But I can tell you about Phoenix if you want.'

'Yes.'

Two dudes in masks with guns shows up to make another proof of life video.

Bradley gets to hold The Washington Post while Mav reads today's article from the front page.

Whole time Mav keeps trying to be a barrier between these guys and Bradley, like he isn't almost head shorter than each of the three. But he is acting like Mav again, and that's actually does makes Bradley feel safe, even when there are two guys pointing guns at him.

'Can I keep newspaper?' Bradley ask when he thinks they are done. Mav looks at him like he wants to kill him for that.

'I'm sorry about him." Mav says at the same time one of dudes starts laughing.

'Yes, whatever.'

'That's against rules.' Responts the other one scandalised. Mav takes the newspaper from Bradley and offers it towards that guy, he takes it.

'You are so boring.' Says the first dude as they are leaving.

Bradley agrees, so in his head he starts calling these guys Boring and Whatever.

As soon as door closes Mav gets into his face. Which is a bit impressive considering his height. 'What was that!?'

'You're not seriously mad at me for that?'

'I AM!'

Truce gets called off.

By the time they both are in tears Mav says. 'Let's stop before we both say things we will regret.'

Which is kinda quite generous, because they both know that on this front Bradley has said a lot of unforgivable thing long time ago. He is unlikely to be able to say anything worse than what has already been said before.

'You fucking started it yourself!'

'Your stupidity started it.'

'You're a fucking hypocrite, if I wasn't here, you would have said much worse things to them.'

'But you are here.' Mav pretty much stopped crying, and Bradley can't stop tears, so he feels like he lost this fight, only because they are locked in here, he cannot run like he wants to. The only way he can escape is by being turned away from his father.

But he still has one bullet, he can at least take Mav down with him.

'Bradley let's not start about papers right now.' Mav knows that too. The fact that he knows what Bradley is thinking about even when Bradley's back is turned to him is a little scary.

'Why not? This conversation is already ruined, why also ruin some other conversation, when you can kill two birds with one stone.'

'Bradley, please.'

'Let's get this out of the way now. You know what the funniest thing is? You're the one who'll be relieved about it and not me.' He starts laughing through his tears. 'I know that you actually withdrew those papers because of a promise you made to my mother.'

'Did Ice told you something?' Mav sounds as pissed off as he always imagined he would be.

'Ice didn't have to tell me shit. I figured it out because she made me give her the same promise.'

'What?' Now Mav sounds confused. Bradley finally has courage to turn to face him.

'She made me give her the same promise and not to tell you. Since I didn't keep it anyway I guess it doesn't matter if I tell you now.'

'So you knew whole time I did this because of a promise I made to Carole?'

'I figured it out when you lied that it was because I wasn't ready. So pretty much whole time.'

Then Mav fucking slaps him across his face.

His dad actually hit him.

The funny thing is, the slap actually makes Mav start crying.

'I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. No matter what I shouldn't have done that.' He starts apologizing right away.

'What the fuck.' Bradley actually stopped crying from that. 'You didn't even slap me when I called you every homophobic slur I could think of or when I screamed at you how you killed Goose and I hope both you and Ice gets AIDS and die!' Bradley wish he could do something worse then slap to teenager version of himself that done that. Mav really should have slapped him back then.

'But you slap me now!? When I haven't even done anything wrong?!'

'I'm sorry. I just got so angry that you knew whole time that it was because of her, yet you still would cut us out completly. I would never have done it, if she hasn't ask me to do it. And I honestly didn't even plan to keep that promise. Ice kept telling me that people with brain cancer stop being themselves. That if it wasn't for cancer she wouldn't have asked me to do it.'

Mav hides half his face in his hand. 'Then you had that car crash, and I started having dreams about your mom, and she keep reminding me about that promise.'

Mav ends up sliding down the wall until he is sitting on the floor. 'I know you and Ice don't really belive in those kind of things, but I do.'

'Anyway, you are right.' Mav is looking everywhere in room but at Bradley as he says that. 'You had every right to cut me out, even if you knew why I did it. I still did it.'

Mav closes his eyes as he says this. 'You were barely 11, she shouldn't have asked you to do anything.' If it wasn't for the fact that Bradley knows better he would have thought Mav was angry at Carole about that. 'Ice was right, it was probably more cancer then her those few last months.'

His dad open his eyes and finally looks at him. 'So don't feel guilty about not keeping your promise not to fly.' And Bradley is fucking stupid, because only when he gets that spelled out, he gets it.

He is so fucking stupid.

'She made you promise not to let me fly.'

His dad is less stupid then him because he immediately notices that he is having a panic attack.

By the time Mav almost calms down Bradley's first panic attack, suddenly third cold McDonald's shows up.

Somehow Bradley ends up having second panic attack because of that.

Later his dad actually hand feeds him McDonald's, when he refuses to touch it with his own hands.

That night (who knows if it was even night) Bradley cries himself to sleep while his dad sings him Polish lullabies.

Mostly the creepy one that is his papa's favorite.

('Please Sarah, they all are creepy, when you understand words.'

'Yeah, but you just had to pick the worst one as your favorite'

Bradley recalls a conversation from old life. The one he so foolishly rejected.)

When they finish fourth cold McDonald's, Mav tries again.

'Baby Goose, you got tell me what she made you promise.'

'No.'

'Then tell me what you thought, she made me promise.' Bradley glares at him, he is stupid, but even he's not that stupid.

'You know, it's the same thing.'

'Sweetheart, you'll feel better when you tell me.'

'No, I won't. Just let me take to the grave how stupid I'm.'

'Bradley Peter Bradshaw, you tell me this right now.' He tries again.

'Or what? You gonna slap me again?'

Kind of low blow, but very effective.

'Does it still hurt?' Too effective.

'Please Dad, it was like a mosquito bite, it didn't even hurt when you did it.' Slight exaggeration.

'Bradley, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have done that.'

'Yes, I heard it the first hundred times.' No exaggeration at all. 'I already told you, I forgive you.' Bradley is the only one who should be asking for forgiveness here.

'Ice won't forgive me.' He keep stroking his cheek as if this could somehow un-slap it.

'All those years together, and you think he will draw a line at one slap in the face of your almost 30-year-old son.' He jokes because he wishes Mav would stop acting as if this is the biggest problem in their situation.

'Yes.' Bradley is not sure how serious this answer is, but he concludes that since they can very much die here, he can reveal another issue that was also supposed to be to the grave.

'That would be very hypocritical of him.'

'Don't even try. He would sooner bite his own hand off than hit you.'

'I could make him hit me.'

'In your dreams.'

'He swore an oath on your life, that he would use belt on me, no matter how old I was, if I did something again. So yeah, If I wanted to, I could make him hit me.'

'What did you do and why don't I know about it?' Mav is mad.

'That's not imporant part of this story.' Mav starts to do some calming exercises with breathing. 'I think this issue should have been taken to the grave after all. Forget that I said anything.'

'How old were you?'

The question is rather unexpected, so he answers right away. 'Sixteen.'

But it's not as if even Mav can guess what he did by his age alone.

'Drunk driving!'

'The fuck?! Are you a witch?!'

After several hours of his dad's sermon on drunk driving, another cold McDonald's shows up.

'How did you know it was drunk driving?' He knows he is risking another lecture by asking about it, but the fact that he guessed it from age alone is almost frightening.

'Well I like to think I know my wingman.' He laughs at Bradley's eye-rolling.

'Fine, fine.' His dad reaches out to flick him on the nose gently. 'Contrary to what all teenage boys think, there are not that many ways to get into trouble, and you were such good kid most of time so there's was even less options.' Before he can protest to that, his dad puts some fries in his mouth.

Notes:

Since it's AU of AU, the first chapter is the same as in original AU up until 'So much for three weeks at most.' but I added this here, so this AU could be read without reading the first one

and here we are doing time skip after prologue

title is from Lewis Capaldi - Almost

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter Management

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Chapter 1: prologue

Chapter Text

The thing that will always hunt Pete is just how close he came to not picking up the phone call that ended up with him getting a second son.

It was the beginning of August.

Bradley was gone.

Bradley technically was going to be gone either way, if not for academy then gone to college. But now that he found out about the papers, he was gone for good. Pete would no longer be able to call him whenever he would like, his son wouldn't be even coming back for Christmas. His son was gone for good.

Tom was gone.

Tom at least technically was going to come back, since he was gone on deployment, but he also said that he needed a break, and not to call him unless someone died.

He never said not to call.

(Pete also never cost him a son before, so who could blame him.)

So Pete was like 95% they were done. It was just Tom softening him the blow out of courtesy (after all they did have some good years), not making him lose both him and Bradley the same month.

When the phone rang that Saturday he was so hungover, not to mention nursing black eye from some stupid bar fight from the night before, he almost didn't pick up.

He almost pulled the phone cord out of the wall when it started ringing to shut it up.

He knew it wasn't Bradley or Tom calling, so there was no point in picking it up.

If it was important they would leave a message or something.

(Later he would know she wouldn't, since what she did was so off the book, it could be technically considered illegal. He thought it was illegal actually.

So the vision of life where he ended up not picking this phone, was sometimes in the back of his head like a nightmare.)

He almost didn't pick and just got back to drinking on the weekend away.

But thankfully somehow something (it was looking at Goose's picture, and suddenly feeling he was being told by him, pick up) stopped him at that moment from just ripping that stupid cord out, and he did pick up.

He will always be grateful for that for the rest of his life.

Of course, the moment he picked the call, he immediately regretted it (he will be grateful later).

After the woman explained what she was and what she wanted, he was thinking that maybe he wasn't hungover, maybe he was still drunk because that didn't make any sense.

"I think you made a mistake, I'm no longer registered as a foster father. I barely ever was, it was just for a friend's kid. I never had any real foster kids." He just did it only for Bradley before their legal situation was fully cleaned up, and he was fully his official guardian. "I'm pretty sure I did all the documentation to deregister."

She gave him, what he would later find out some bullshit story about some technical error, that he wasn't fully deregistered and that he could just sign those few papers, and he would be good to go to take in this kid she didn't have anything else to do with.

"You're Navy right? His father was in the Navy, maybe you knew each other. Theodore Seresin." She was so desperate for him to take in this kid, he didn't even tell her hey Navy is huge, we don't all know each other. He definitely didn't remember meeting Theodore Seresin.

"Listen, you know I'm a single Navy guy?" He tried to ignore pain at the fact that it wasn't even a lie probably for the first time in years. "They told me, there was almost zero chance I would get any call like this when I was registering. That I was lucky to even pass inspection and shit." What Pete thought was almost rude, because he had been to such terrible foster homes himself, but he supposed it was good that standards were improving somehow.

She knew she wasn't getting through him, so she started almost begging.

Pete thought that was so surprising, he didn't think they could do that.

He was so surprised he almost told her honestly “I screwed up kid I know his whole life, he basically just left cursing me out, cutting me out of his life, with declaration of hate. You don't want to give me this foster kid. You clearly care about it.”

"Please, because of a physical fight with that other foster child, he's basically blacklisted for now, from anywhere where they have kids. If you don't take him in, I'm gonna have to put him in-" She was definitely crying a little when she told him the name of the institution.

And Pete felt almost like an activated sleeper agent.

"They closed that place. I heard there was an investigation and trail." He's sure something in his voice ended up betraying him.

"Oh, you heard about it?" And she knew she had him. "It ended up not sticking. Something happened, I don't know exactly what was going on behind the scenes, but long story short: they opened it again. Under the same management, since they ended up getting cleared off."

"It's only for a few days, right? Only until he gets cleaned up on that physical fight with another kid, then he will be out of my hair, but without danger of getting into that institution?" Pete feels like an asshole for saying that, but on that 5% chance that Tom wasn't planning on leaving him, he's sure he would anyway, if Pete made those kinds of decisions without him. Again.

"Yes, Jake is a good kid. I'm sure it won't be more than two or three weeks at most and he will be out of your hair."

It ended up being way longer than two or three weeks.

It ended up being his whole life, but Pete doesn't mind.

Social worker, Caroline Grey, shows up with so many papers to sign, that Pete just knows she was being very generous with saying he wasn't fully deregistered.

(He wonders if it is fully legal on her side, but considering her other option he doesn't even blame her.

Not like he has any leg to stand on judging people for doing suspicious things with papers.)

She also shows up with a kid that not only looks like he could be Ice's biological son but also his middle name is even Tom, and isn't it just freaky.

Jacob Thomas Seresin. Thirteen years old with a black eye.

Pete almost wants to make a joke about how they have matching black eyes, but he went to Susan (neighbor) to cover it up with her make up before for something.

Even if now he thinks that Caroline was so desperate she probably wouldn't say anything about the black eye.

"You know, I always thought it was a little awkward as a kid. I never imagined it could also be awkward from the perspective of being a foster parent." Mav said just after Caroline left. Even calling himself a foster parent felt wrong and weird. He was Bradley's dad. Maybe not anymore, but that was beside the point. He never wanted to be a foster parent.

"Huh?" The kid finally looks at him. He barely said anything to him the whole time Caroline was here.

"I always thought it was awkward when a social worker leaves, and it's like hey you guys live together now, bye. when I was in your place. I'm telling you this is awkward for me too, even if I'm in a way better position." Pete doesn't think he could survive being in Jake's position again.

The kid looks at him with consideration.

"I'm not sure you're supposed to be telling me that, sir." Pete laughs at this little nervously.

"Sorry, maybe you're right. I'm doing this for the first time. " And definitely the last. He doesn't add. "Please don't call me sir."

"What I'm supposed to call you." He sounds so nervous, and Pete feels bad, maybe he just should let this kid call him sir, if he prefers that.

"Pete or Mav, Maverick, whatever. If you really want you can call me sir, I guess I could survive that too."

"Ok. Can I go to my room?"

Pete's heart broke a little at that ‘my’, He remembers not really having anything, and he felt bad about the way he prepared the guest room very quickly (it was like Slider was coming over. Nothing to show it was for a kid, but not like he could have done much in literal two hours. Between cleaning the place and himself up, he didn't have time to go shopping, and he couldn't imagine taking something from Bradley's room).

Pete's heart broke a lot at realization that he asked him just that so nervously.

He remembers being in this position, not knowing boundaries in new homes. It felt like playing a game where you didn't know the rules. Only losing in those games could have very bad consequences.

"Yes, you can, and you don't have to ask me that. You can go everywhere in this house as long as it isn't locked. And I'm only keeping my (his and Ice's) bedroom and Bra- one other room locked. Everywhere else is a free game. If you're not sure of anything, you can just ask me. And I really won't get mad at you for breaking some rule you didn't know existed. I promise."

"Okay." The kid leaves without that much conviction. Pete doesn't blame him, most foster parents are trying at the beginning to look better, especially the very first days.

You can't really trust the first days as a foster child.

Pete wants to call Tom, but not like there's anyone dying so he doesn't.

He wants to call Bradley, but he wouldn't want him calling even if someone was dying.

So he doesn't call anyone.

For the first week Pete feels like there's a ghost in his house, a very polite little ghost named Jake.

("I prefer Jake, but you can call me Jacob sir."

"It's ok, I'll call you Jake.")

Pete goes to work normally even though he probably should have taken time off, but also he felt like that would overwhelm the kid.

Jake preferred to hide in the guest room that Pete prepared for him, only coming out when he had to, like for the food or bathroom. (Their guest room is full of books, and Jake was going through them surprisingly fast. Maverick wonders if Jake is this huge bookworm or is this a case of boredom.)

He also comes out of his room when Pete is gone, because Pete knows he's watching TV in the living room. Every time Pete comes back from work, the TV is very warm.

"Jake, you don't have to stop watching TV just cause I'm coming home."

"Okay." The little ghost didn't believe him yet.

That fact was making Pete sad because a little ghost was growing on him surprisingly fast.

On another Saturday, exactly a week after the little ghost showed up, Pete takes him hiking.

It turned out little ghost likes hiking just like Pete (he just never really gets to do it, since Tom and Bradley don't like it as much).

They talk about everything and nothing.

The little polite ghost starts to turn into funny smart-ass Jake very fast.

Pete likes Jake even more than he likes the little ghost.

By the time they are watching sunset Pete knows he wants to keep Jake.

So much for three weeks at most.

Pete knew he had to call Tom about it.

Funny thing was when he finally worked up his nerves to do that, almost immediately after Tom picked up, he heard a crash from upstairs.

“Jake, what happened?” He shouted, once he didn’t hear “I’m okay.” or anything like that.

“Jake? Who the fuck is Jake?” He heard Ice’s annoyed voice on the telephone, but he ignored that because Jake didn’t give any kind of response.

He abandoned the phone in panic.

He found Jake in the bathroom with a mirror in pieces on the floor.

Jake looked okay, so that made him relax, but once Jake noticed he was in the bathroom too, he panicked.

“I’m sorry, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to.” He started crying and covering himself from Pete, clearly expecting violence. “I’m so sorry.”

It broke Pete’s heart in half.

It took Pete so long to calm Jake down, he was sure he was returning to just hang up the phone up.

Only Tom was still on the line.

“Ice you’re stayed on the phone for almost two hours? You should be sleeping by now, you have to wake up early.”

“Who the fuck is Jake?” Ice just growled in response. “Are you fucking cheating? Because break isn’t breaking up. I’ll-”

“Calm down, Rachel Green. I’m no Ross. Jake is a thirteen years old boy.”

“What?”

Once he ended up explaining what happened, Tom knew what he wanted before he even asked.

“You want to keep him.”

“Yes.” Pete just answered.

“I would like to talk to him first at least on the phone, but it’s probably not a good idea now so okay. I agree with this insanity.”

Pete was surprised. “Okay? You’re agreeing so easily? You're not going to say it is a bad idea, with everything that happened with Bradley?”

“I probably should say that, but the kid just had a mental breakdown over breaking a mirror. So even our pathetic asses can do better than this.” Tom sighed before speaking. “And I actually knew his father. We weren’t really close or anything, but he was a nice guy. I think I owed him a drink for something, so that will probably cover that.”

Pete laughed. “Yeah, I think taking in someone’s kid, covers up the drink you owned them.”

“My friend wants to talk to you. Are you okay with that?” Pete asked Jake the next day.

Jake looked up from his sandwich. “Why do one of your friends want to talk to me?”

Pete realized he needed to lay all the cards on the table actually. “Okay, he is much more than just a friend. If you want to, we could make you staying here permanent. But you should talk to him before making that decision, because while he is on deployment right now, he does live here too.”

“So if I made a good impression on him, I can stay?” Jake clearly was hearing what he wanted to hear, or rather what he feared.

“No, Jake. I want you to stay. It’s more of a case of if you want to stay.”

“Okay, I guess I can talk to him.” Next part he mumbled to himself, and Pete almost didn’t hear that. “It’s not like he can give me black eye over the phone.”

“What? You think he gave me that black eye?” Pete laughed because that was so ridiculous. “Jake, I got drunk at the bar, and had a fight.”

Jake seemed to consider his words carefully. “You swear it wasn’t him?”

“I swear.”

Pete was worried about this conversation. He knew from personal experience that Tom was prone to making a bad first impression.

Turned out it was an unnecessary worry.

Jake asked almost right away, Tom did he know Theodore Seresin. So they spend over an hour on that topic.

Jake cried a little. Pete pretended he didn’t see that.

“I’m glad you weren’t the one who gave Pete black eye.” Jake suddenly said. “Oh, I thought you knew. He said he was in a bar fight.”

Fuck, he should have told Jake not to mention that to Tom.

Jake handed him a phone. “Pete, he wants to talk to you now.”

Great.

He closed his eyes and prepared for the lecture.

“I want to stay.”

“I want you to stay too.” Jake hugged him, and for a second Pete was so happy.

Then he remembered he wouldn’t be able to tell Bradley about it.

Yeah, sure he will leave him a message and write a letter, but he was pretty sure Bradley wasn't listening or reading anything from them.

“Tommy, you’re not going to believe what happened.”

“I can guess what happened. Jake already left me a voice message complaining that you think that Caroline wants to bring another kid. Only you two are so soft, you probably already got manipulated by her into agreeing.”

“Tommy, Bobby is so cute even your icy heart will be melted by him.”

Tom just sighed. “Just let me talk to him first, before making this permanent too.”

“Okay, Bobby has to stay too.”

Pete wasn’t surprised when he heard that after Tom's phone call with Bobby. Pete knew Bobby would break Tom, too.

When Tom returned early from his deployment a few months later he had the first official meeting with Jake and Bobby at the airport.

Pete expected it to be awkward yet it wasn’t.

Apparently talking on the phone was enough for both of the boys to just run to hug Tom on sight.

Pete was almost jealous because he didn’t even get to hug Tom at the airport, he was so busy with two kids.

But honestly seeing three of the four people he loved the most in the whole world being cute together was more than enough for him.

It was a little insane how fast he grew to love these kids as if they were his own blood.

Pete could cry from the happiness.

(He probably would if Bradley was here too.)

On the way to the car Ice, of course, had to spoil his good mood.

"How about we go for some fast food?" Asshole knew he hated giving children fast food. Jake and Bobby were so tiny, they needed healthy food! So they wouldn’t end up so stupidly short like him!

"Yes! McDonald's please!" Bobby agreed happily.

“McDonald's is fine with me too.” Jake said, and Pete knew he was losing but he had to at least try for his own conscious sake.

"I made dinner at home." He said like a killjoy. Ice shook his head at him, and rolled his eyes.

Bobby looked so disappointed, but he just nodded. “Okay, Dad.”

Jake didn’t give up so easily. “But Pops just got back from his deployment. He deserves fast food if he wants fast food.”

Pete almost said that “He doesn't even like fast food, he was just saying that for you guys sake.” But he noticed that Tom froze, and only that made him realize that Jake just said ‘Pops’.

They started calling him Dad recently, so he knew Ice was next, but Ice was sceptical.

And honestly Pete himself didn’t expect it to happen so fast.

“We can call Tom Pops?” Bobby asked, and that seemed to make Jake second guess himself.

“I’m sorry, it was weird right? It’s too soon. I’m-” Jake started saying, but got interrupted by Tom picking him up with his arms.

Jake made a noise of surprise, but he didn’t appear to be scared, so Pete didn’t intervene.

“It’s not too soon, Baby.” Pete knew Tom was crying even without looking at him.

“Bobby is a real baby, Papa.” Jake complained but he started crying too.

“I’m not a baby.” Bobby said, and Pete picked him up, because otherwise he would start crying too. “And it means we can call him Pops or Papa, right?”

“Yes, Bobby.” Both Pete and Tom answered at the same time.

“Okay.” Bobby nodded happily.

“And we’re going to McDonalds. I do deserve fast food if I want fast food.” Tom said it so convincingly, that Pete almost believed him that he actually wanted McDonald’s.

Yeah, Pete knew he couldn’t say “no” now.

At McDonald's they had this almost perfect nice reunion meal.

It would be perfect if Pete could ignore the fact that Bradley was missing, and that he probably will be missing a piece of this family for a long time.

In worst case scenario, even forever.

Notes: