A/N: A fun little snippet with Peter, Ender and El because it seemed to fit right here, and this story will have so many serious topics it needs some humour. I'm sure there is someone out there who can sympathise with this situation.
But for everyone else interested in the main plot, not to worry, there is still more here about Neal's past in the form of another flashback.
Neckties and Nobodies
"Stop it! Stop it, you're choking me!" The words were voiced several decibels above what Peter considered acceptable, because at that volume glass could shatter.
"Just hold still I'm almost done." Peter had the half-Windsor knot partially tied when Ender yanked back and he lost his grip on the tie.
"I can't breath." Ender wailed, using his own smaller hands to try and pull Peter's away. "I don't want to wear a tie, it's like a noose around my neck. I'm going to die."
"Stop being so dramatic." Peter reached for the tie again, only to be hindered by two tiny hands with fingernails digging into his own.
"This isn't fair. I don't understand why you're being so mean to me." The kid was struggling, and sobbing, trying to yank the piece of fabric off, as Peter tried to adjust it back to the proper position so he could tie the knot.
"It's part of your school uniform, and it's not that bad. I wear a tie." Peter was really starting to get frustrated by this. Ender hadn't had a full blown temper tantrum since they'd first brought him home.
Ender didn't seem comforted by this piece of information. He wailed louder, and folded his legs underneath him, dropping down to a sitting position on the floor to hinder Peter's efforts.
After a couple attempts to force the kid stand again, where Ender stubbornly held his legs up in the air, Peter gave up and sat him down on the bed, pressing his own knee against the kid's legs and effectively trapping him. He would be the adult in this situation and not lose his cool, as much as he wanted to pop the kid one across the face.
"Neal wears a tie." He pointed out above the screaming. His parenting books had recommended using positive peer-pressure when faced with a difficult situation where the child did not want to cooperate. Ender liked Neal, and liked his hats, so why not a tie.
Ender had either read the book and the advice was now moot, or the tips were pretty useless because the kid just sobbed harder now that he was unable to pull away from the bed. "Neal steals stuff for a living, you're always saying not to listen to him, and now you want to make him the shining example of who I should act like?" He screamed.
"Just hold still." Peter was almost finished when he lost of the knot again. "Oh for the love of…" He almost swore. "Hasn't this school ever heard of a clip-on?"
El peaked her head around the door. "How's it going?"
Peter just gave her a look, and then mouthed, "Can I tie him down."
The woman chuckled. "Ender you're wearing the tie no matter what, the more you cry the worse it gets."
"I don't care." He sulked, and then managed to fling himself backwards so he was now laying on the bed, and as far away from Peter as possible.
Peter just held up his hands, flexing his fingers a few times, as if he was trying to calm himself down.
El shook her head and climbed onto the bed, pulling the kid into her lap. "Are you intentionally making life difficult for Daddy, or are you just nervous about your first day of school?"
"The tie is choking me. I don't get nervous." Ender curled up and instantly the thumb went in his mouth.
"Well maybe if you didn't thrash all over the place like a fish on dry land, the tie wouldn't choke you."
"So this is my fault?" The kid demanded, from around the thumb.
"I think you definitely have a hand in it. Now you can choose, either daddy ties it or I do but either way, you're wearing the tie."
There were a few shaky breaths where Ender obviously tried to calm himself down. "I'll let daddy tie it if you hold me."
El's eyes narrowed. Ender wasn't allowed to make deals when he was given a choice. But this time it wasn't exactly like he was changing anything by his demand. "I'm already holding you, so why would that stop if daddy ties the tie."
A long moment of silence and then the kid's arms fell to his sides. His eyes watched Peter's hands the entire time, practically cross-eyed, when Peter pulled the knot up to his throat. At that point the agent placed a finger between the kid's skin and the collar to ensure the knot wasn't too tight.
"You look very handsome." El told him.
The kid took a few experimental breaths, as if to test out his oxygen supply. Suddenly he jolted up straighter. "Who will walk Cafall while I'm at school?" Cafall was Ender's min pin puppy he gotten for Christmas. No one could figure out the significance of the name, and when asked Ender gave a typical Ender response. "It's him."
"Cafall will be fine. He'll stay in the kitchen, and he has food, and water, and his bed and the puppy pad."
"May be I should stay home, just in case." Ender stalled. "He'll get lonely and cry, and then the neighbours might call the police because they think you're abusing him.
"May be you should quit stalling and get your bag." Peter picked him up and pointed him in the direction of his own room.
"You're a slave driver." Ender struggled till he was put on the ground, then he stalked out of the room.
Neal carefully placed his hat on his head and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He looked like he did everyday. Well, if you didn't count the bags under his eyes that looked like little bruises. He wondered for a second if he should try to do something to cover them up, then thought would might make Peter more suspicious then if he just alluded to a late night with a girl.
The ping of his cell phone told him Peter was out front, and not in the mood to wait.
At front door, Neal took a deep breath, and cautiously stepped outside. There was a momentary pause where he just stood there waiting for the brief sting of the bullet before his life ended right there at his own door. When nothing happened he carefully glanced around looking for any sort of reflective shimmer caused by the sun's rays bouncing off a gun scope. There wasn't actually a good sniper spot around, considering the park was just across the street and other buildings had a bad angle, but Neal was still nervous. A good sniper could still take him out.
Peter honked impatiently and Neal hurried towards the car. He flung the door open, climbed in and was met by the sounds of wailing.
Now that Neal looked over, he saw Peter gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white, and his stare was fixed forward with a tense look on his face. Glancing behind, Neal realised Ender was in the back seat, tears streaming down his face, and he was sobbing hysterically.
"Okay?" Neal commented, slightly confused by the whole scene "Did you accidentally kick Cafall or something?" There was one upside to this entire mess. Peter wouldn't notice anything was wrong.
"He's nervous about his first day of school." Peter grit out, with the air of someone trying to sound much calmer than he actually felt.
"At least he's expressing his frustration without physical violence." Neal felt the need to point out.
Peter just glared at him. "You're not helping." Then the agent finally seemed to have enough because he shouted. "Ender, stop this game. I don't know what's wrong and I really don't care anymore. So stop your crying. You can't take the tie off."
There was a brief pause followed by some choking noises. Neal glanced back expecting a perfectly calm face. Instead the kid's cheeks were still smeared with tears, and he was sucking furiously on his thumb, his face distressed.
"You really shouldn't yell at him so much." Neal stated matter-o-factly.
Peter made a frustrated grunt, as if to shrug Neal off. "He's been crying non-stop since 5:30 this morning. After almost two hours, my ears have had enough."
"Believe it or not I used to hate dressing up," Neal stared out the window and watched the city pass him by.
"You? Seriously?" Peter sounded amused, like Neal was pulling his leg just to ease the tension of the situation. "I though you were born wearing vintage trilby hats and three piece suits?"
Neal just shook his head and laughed. "You had to hold a gun to my head to get me to wear one."
"Danny," the women snapped. "Stop pulling on your tie. You want to look smart when the people come."
"I don't like ties, it feels like I can't breath," Danny whined.
"Don't be so melodramatic," she yanked his hands away and pulled the knot uncomfortably tight. "This is a big deal, so don't blow it. If these people like you they'll give you a new home."
"But I want to go my home. Why can't I go home? I want to go back to my mommy." Danny stood there crying, while the woman smoothed his suit jacket and straightened his tie.
"You're mommy couldn't take care of you, we told you that already. That's why the nice people took you away." Although the words were probably meant to be kind the tone of voice certainly wasn't.
Danny just cried harder, tears trickling down his small cheeks.
There was a knock on the room door and suddenly the woman latched her hand to Danny's upper arm, causing the kid to flinch. "They're here. Now stop crying, so they'll like you." She pulled him through the doorway and into the next room.
Danny stumbled next to her, trying to keep his feet under him, and match her swift pace. His legs were much shorter, and it was difficult.
Tears still clouded his vision, and he stared at the tips of his shoes to avoid having to look at anything, or anyone else.
"Is that him?" He heard someone ask. The voice was kind and gentle. A woman's voice, but not the person who was holding his arm.
"His names Danny Brooks, five years and seven months old," someone else said. "He's forty-two inches and thirty eight pounds."
"His WISC was 160+?" Another voice, this time a man but Danny didn't recognise him.
"Good little artist too. And, he's pretty athletic."
"He's not an orphan." Danny heard the man say.
"Mother's considered non compos mentis. She was diagnosed with clinical depression a few months and is unable to take care of him. Social services took him when the kid showed up to kindergarten without a lunch a week in a row. But the father signed, requested this in fact."
"It says here the kid's in WITSEC?" The man asked.
"HQ wants him. They said they'd take care of it."
"We still get the final say, not HQ. We don't take this decision lightly. It will change his life." The first woman, the one with the kind voice had rejoined the conversation.
Shadows danced around on the floor as people shifted about in the room. Danny just studied his shoes. They were white with a black design on them.
"Just make up your mind, because if you don't want him we need to send him back, and tell the father."
Danny kept his eyes fixed on the floor. He had no idea what was going on, and too scared to ask. Two women had walked into his kindergarten class several weeks ago and taken him with them. Then, without telling him anything, they dropped him off in a home with a bunch of kids and some mean parents who yelled a lot.
He'd been there almost two weeks when one of the other kids cut up his favourite toy, a toy lion name Leonardo, and stuffed the pieces in the toilet. Then the father had hit him across the face for crying about it.
The next day the smiling women were back and they took him to a new home. And now here he was ready to be sent somewhere else, when all Danny really wanted was to go to his real home. Not that mommy took particularly good care of him, but at least he knew where he was.
And every once in a while, Ms Ellen came around to see how he was doing and draw pictures with him.
Suddenly someone was kneeling in front of him and Danny felt a hand pressing at his chin till he was forced to look up into the person's eyes.
It was a young woman with delicate features, light blond hair and pale blue eyes. She was smiling at him, but studying him at the same time.
Danny stared back, unable to take his eyes off her. Her face had a kind expression.
"Hello Danny." Her voice was gentle. "I'm Domrémy and this…" she gestured to a man standing behind her. "…is Haidren."
"Neal…Neal…NEAL!" Neal jerked forward again, and then whipped his head to the left, following the sound of Peter's voice.
"There's no need to shout Peter." Neal sounded peeved.
"Really?" Peter looked at him amused. "Because I've been calling your name for the past five minutes and you were off in la, la land or something."
Neal gave a careless shrug. "Just thinking."
"Anything important." Peter looked over and Neal cringed, praying Peter would keep his eyes on the road.
Then Neal noticed the distinct lack of noise and glanced at the backseat, which was now empty. "Where's Ender?"
Peter gave him a raised eyebrow. "I dropped him off ten minutes ago. You seriously tuned out that whole fun conversation? He called me the Spawn of Satan, and then slammed the door as he left."
Neal couldn't help but smile despite the tension he was feeling. "I had a migraine last night. Not a lot of sleep. And he's right about you, you know."
"We're still a few miles from the office, you seriously want to tick me off, because that's a long way to walk ."
Neal gave him a smirk. Peter liked to make threats, but he usually wouldn't carry out anything made during their usual banter. "Only if you don't want to find out how Anders is leaving the country."
Peter smiled then looked him over, eyes concerned. "Do you want the day off? Even though this is a work release you're not a slave Neal. I won't make work if you're sick."
"Nah," Neal shook his head. The idea of sitting alone in that house was worse than working. All he would do was fantasize about ways he might die. "I'm feeling better, just a little tired." He looked over and cut Peter off before he could keep asking questions. "Peter I'm fine. I want to get Anders."
"You just don't want to miss out on that dinner party tomorrow." Peter laughed and faced forward again, much to Neal's relief.
"Anders like models."
A/N: So what did you think? I promise it will all make sense, and if it doesn't, ask me and I'll try and explain some of my thoughts. I've realised as I've read people's reviews that things make sense to me because I know that backgrounds but might be very confusing to the readers.
This story is definitely flowing better than Nativity so writing has been going well, although I still don't know how long it will be or if I'll be able to post as regularly as I have been. Classes will be starting again so that will affect things.
I thought I'd post a snippet of conversation, sort of like those trailers at the end of episodes, so people can see what's coming next week. I don't think this will be next chapter, but it will be in the next few. Might not do this every chapter, but this scene popped into my head and I had to get it written before I forgot, so scroll down for a tiny little piece.
Also, this might give you a picture of some of those themes some readers might not like, so if this freaks you out, I am recommending you don't keep reading this story.
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"You should have told me." Ender stared at his reflection in the mirror, but Neal could tell he wasn't really looking at it.
"He'll never stop until he kills us Danny," the kid continued just staring off into the distance, his posture rigid and his eyes glassy.
"Unless we kill him first." Neal told him.
"Unless I kill him first." Ender amended.
