Let Your Heart Hold Fast

Chapter 25

Before Elizabeth was ready it was the week of Thanksgiving and she had so much to do. They were planning on spending the holiday with her parents and she was excited for them to finally meet Neal, but before that they had a meeting with their adoption lawyer. They were hoping to hear some good news about their chances of adopting Neal.

As expected, the adoption lawyer explained to them that the adoption process was a tedious process and it was unlikely that they would have an answer for several months. Elizabeth wasn't happy to hear that, but she wasn't surprised. They were prepared to do whatever was necessary, for however long it took.

Once they had done all that was needed at the moment, they returned home to get started on their Thanksgiving plans. Elizabeth had several new recipes that she was excited to try and Peter had stocked the fridge with his father-in-law's favorite wine. They had already bought all the groceries they needed, so they felt like they were as prepared as they were going to be.

Neal was a little nervous about meeting Elizabeth's parents, but after meeting Peter's parents and loving them so much, he was actually more excited than nervous. Robert and Tina Mitchell had resigned themselves to never having any grandchildren, so they were extremely excited to meet Neal.

The day they were to arrive, Neal spent hours drawing pictures. Elizabeth had learned that he liked to draw whenever he was feeling unsure about something. She had him set up at the table with all of his drawing supplies and as she sipped a cup of coffee, she watched him. He was bent over his sketchpad, his tongue sticking out slightly as he diligently finished his drawing. Elizabeth had no idea what he was drawing, but she loved watching him as he worked.

"Are you almost done, sweetie? They should be here soon, so we should get things cleaned up a little."

"I'm almost done, Lizbef," Neal answered. He spent another few minutes drawing, and then finally put his pencil down. "Lizbef? Do you think your mom and dad know that I live here?"

"Of course, they know, sweetie. They know all about you."

"Really? Do they know that I broke Peter's favorite bowl last night?"

"Well, they don't know all about you, Neal. Just the important stuff."

Neal looked relieved at that. "That's good. The important stuff is the best stuff."

Elizabeth started to pick up Neal's things when he spoke again. "Lizbef? What's the important stuff?"

"The important stuff is all the good stuff about you, sweetie. The fact that you're smart, and funny, and kind, and sweet, and helpful. That's the good stuff, right?"

"You forgot adorable and charming, Lizbef. You're always telling me that I'm adorable and charming, remember?"

"Of course! How could I forget that?!" Elizabeth answered with a smile. "You are most definitely adorable and charming, young man."

"I already knew that, Lizbef. I even knew that when I was four."

By the next day, Neal had Robert and Tina Mitchell both wrapped around his little finger. Never having had a grandchild, they were more than willing to spoil him completely, anyway, much to Peter's consternation. He already felt that Elizabeth spoiled the boy, not that he would ever accuse her of that out loud.

Things were going along fine until the day before Thanksgiving when Robert and Tina took Neal out for ice cream. Peter was hesitant to let them go, warning Neal to be good and to mind his grandparents as they went out the door. He had also warned Robert and Tina that Neal was quick on his feet and could disappear in half a second.

When the door opened an hour later to an upset Neal and an even more upset set of grandparents, Peter realized that his earlier hesitation was warranted.

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked. "Why do you all look upset?"

Tina and Robert shared a quick look before looking back at Elizabeth. "Everything's okay, Elizabeth. We just had a little issue when we were eating our ice cream." Turning to Neal, Tina continued. "Sweetie, why don't you go and wash up a little bit?"

Neal, who still looked fairly upset, stayed put. "I saw Mozzie, Lizbef, and I just wanted to talk to him."

"Mozzie? Who's Mozzie?" Elizabeth looked in confusion at Peter. She knew the name sounded familiar, but couldn't remember why.

"Mozzie is the man that found Neal in the woods, remember, El?" Peter couldn't believe the chance of them running into Mozzie right there in Brooklyn.

"Mozzie's my friend and I wanted to talk to him, but Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't let me," Neal pouted. "They made me get in the car."

"Neal, I want you to go upstairs and get cleaned up like your grandmother asked you to, okay?"

Neal started to protest, but the look on Peter's face changed his mind. Instead, he turned and ran up the stairs as fast as he could, figuring that if he hurried, he would be able to get back downstairs before they were done talking about Mozzie.

"Who is this Mozzie person, Peter?" Robert Mitchell asked, concern heavy in his voice. "He seemed peculiar, to say the least, and Neal acted as if he was his best friend."

Peter sighed heavily before answering. "Mozzie found Neal in the woods when he escaped from his kidnapper. He fed him and made sure that he was safe. Neal bonded with the man, and I'm pretty sure it was mutual. In the first days after the kidnapping, I spoke with Mozzie several times and he always showed concern for Neal. He is pretty peculiar, as you said, but I think he means well where Neal is concerned."

Robert didn't look completely convinced of this, prompting Peter to get suspicious. "Did he approach Neal? Or do anything strange?" Peter asked his father-in-law.

"No. Neal saw him and immediately ran to him. The man looked surprised to see him, but he seemed to recognize him right away. He also looked around, trying to find who Neal was with. I immediately went to Neal and sent him back to Tina, telling him to get into the car. Then, I spent a few minutes talking to the man."

"What did he say?" Elizabeth asked her father.

"Not much," Robert answered. "He was surprisingly uninformative when I asked him how he knew Neal. In fact, he didn't answer any of my questions. He just kept asking me how Neal was doing and how he was dealing with everything. He was quite frustrating, actually."

Peter laughed at that, remembering for himself how frustrating the little man could be. "So, Neal's upset because he couldn't talk to his friend," Robert continued. "I tried to explain it to him, once I got back into the car, but he was too upset to listen. He insisted that Mozzie was his friend and that he missed him."

"I appreciate your caution, Robert. With everything that's happened, we need to be careful, but I guess we can't expect a five year old to understand that. I'll talk to him about it."

Peter turned to go upstairs, but Robert called him back. "Pete, Neal was so upset about it all that I thought there had to be some truth to their friendship, however odd it seemed. I thought that maybe if you validated Neal's friendship with this man, that we could perhaps arrange a meeting for them. I hope you don't mind, but I gave him your phone number and asked him to call later on tonight. I have no idea if he will, though, because he looked as if I was asking him to give up a kidney or something."

"I doubt he'll call, Robert. He's definitely a little paranoid."

"Well," Elizabeth interrupted, "if he does call, we'll invite him to Thanksgiving dinner. He saved Neal and it's the least we can do."

Peter looked like he was about to argue, but thought better of it. He knew there was no talking Elizabeth out of something, once she had her mind made up, and by the look on her face, she had definitely made up her mind.

If Mozzie called, he would have to extend an invite to dinner.

Peter headed upstairs and met Neal on his way back down. "Hey, little man…..let's go into your room for a second, okay? I want to talk to you about something."

Neal turned around and headed back upstairs. Once in his room, he jumped up on the bed and turned to face Peter. "I didn't run off, Peter," Neal quickly said. "Mozzie was right next to us, so I didn't have to run off. I just wanted to talk to him, but Grandpa wouldn't let me!"

"Buddy, your grandpa doesn't know who Mozzie is, remember? He was just taking care of you the best he could. He wasn't trying to be mean."

"But, I told him that Mozzie was my friend, Peter! Why didn't he listen to me? I didn't get to tell Mozzie about anything important!"

"Your grandpa just did what he thought was right, Neal. He was trying to protect you."

"Mozzie wouldn't hurt me, though. Mozzie's my bestest best friend."

Peter nearly laughed at that. Neal could be so dramatic for a five year old! "I know Mozzie wouldn't hurt you, bud, but Grandpa didn't know that. He does now, though. I explained Mozzie to him, so he would understand everything. Now, let's go downstairs and do something, okay?"

"Can we go in the backyard and climb that tree, Peter? I think that might make me feel better."

"How many times do I have to tell you that you can't climb that tree, little man?" Peter said with a laugh. "It's way too high, even for a monkey like you."

With that, Peter grabbed Neal and slung him over his shoulder, causing the boy to giggle, as he mercilessly tickled him. "Let's go, Monkey!"

It didn't take Neal long to forgive his grandparents for not letting him talk to Mozzie and by dinnertime, he was back to his usual chattering, boisterous self and the room was filled with laughter. Peter had his phone in his pocket, hoping that Mozzie would call, but also hoping that he wouldn't. For some reason, he trusted that the man wouldn't hurt Neal, but he didn't trust him in general. When Neal was first returned by Mozzie, the FBI had used their resources to find out what they could about the man. They came up with nothing, of course. It was hard to find out anything about anyone when you didn't know their real name.

By the time Neal had had his bath and bedtime story, Mozzie still hadn't called. Just as Peter was about to turn out the light, he heard Neal's little voice. "Peter? Tomorrow's a special day, isn't it? Lizbef said we would have turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and cookies and a lot of other stuff I don't remember."

"That's right, buddy. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and it's a very special day. It's a day that we give thanks for everything that we have and it's a day to spend with the people that are important to us. Now, it's time to go to sleep, okay? Tomorrow's going to be a busy day."

He had just turned out the light when Neal spoke again. "Peter? What about Mozzie? I don't think he has anyone to spend a special day with, do you? I think he's going to be all alone and he won't know that I'm thankful that I met him in the woods."

"I think he knows, little man."

"Well, I wish he could spend his special day with us. I'd even share my cookie with him."

Just as Peter had finished locking up the house for the night, his phone rang. He wasn't surprised to find that it was an unlisted number, but didn't hesitate to answer it.

"This is Burke."

"Suit, I was asked to call you tonight by some smug, sanctimonious, pretentious gentleman that questioned my affiliation with young Neal."

"That would be young Neal's grandfather, Mozzie. He was just looking out for the boy."

"Well, Suit….I take offense to his manner of labeling me as a ne'er-do-well. As if I would ever harm mon frère!"

Peter could tell that the odd little man was truly offended by anyone thinking that he would ever harm Neal, a thought that served to warm his heart toward the man. After several minutes of strange conversation, he felt that he had appeased the man as best he could. After hanging up, he finally made it to bed, looking forward to the culinary delights Elizabeth had planned for the next day.

Thanksgiving Day was a rainy day, but everyone was in a wonderful mood anyway. The house was filled with the aroma of the turkey and all of its trimmings and Elizabeth was having a hard time keeping both Neal and Peter out of the kitchen. She finally had to threaten them with no dessert before they listened.

While Tina and Elizabeth slaved away in the kitchen, Peter, Robert and a rather reluctant Neal watched football. Neal kept begging Peter to change the channel, until finally Peter sent the boy upstairs to play in his room. That only worked for a short time, though, and it wasn't long before Peter had to go upstairs and remind Neal that his footsteps could be heard downstairs. It had sounded like the boy was stomping out bugs or something.

Finally, just when Peter thought his stomach might start eating itself, dinner was ready. After making sure that everyone was seated, Peter carved the turkey and they were all just about to start filling their plates when Neal interrupted.

"Lizbef? I think we're supposed to pray before we eat."

Elizabeth was surprised by this, since they had never really prayed before eating in the past. She wondered if maybe this was something that Neal remembered doing with his mother. "Okay, sweetie. Would you like to pray for us?"

Neal nodded, before bowing his head and closing his eyes, his hands clasped in front of him. "God, thank You for this special day and thank You for all this yummy food. Thank You for the bouncyful crops and for the harvest. And God? Please let my bestest friend Mozzie have a special day, too. Amen."

The adults at the table all laughed at Neal's words. "Neal? Where did you learn about bountiful crops and harvest, sweetie?"

"I saw it on television, Lizbef. Remember that show about the little house that we watched? They thanked God for their bouncyful crops, so I thought we should, too."

"Well, I think that was a perfect Thanksgiving prayer, Neal," Tina said. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

Neal looked proud of himself, his eyes shining and his smile lighting up the room. "Can we eat now?" he asked. "I don't think my stomach can wait anymore."

Elizabeth smiled as she started filling up Neal's plate with the things that he liked. She had never had so much to be thankful for.

Halfway through dinner the doorbell rang and everyone except Peter looked surprised. "Neal, why don't we go and see who's at the door?"

Neal was just about to take a bite of the sweet potatoes, which he had just declared for the third time as his new favorite food. Putting his fork back down on his plate, he got up and walked to the door with Peter, who stood off to the side as he told Neal to open it.

Neal opened the door and a brilliant smile lit up his face when he saw who it was. "Mozzie!"

Author's note: Sheesh! This was a hard chapter to write, for some reason. I've been trying to figure out a way to bring Mozzie back into the story, so I hope this worked for all of you. I do have plans for our vertically challenged, paranoid little man, so you can expect to see more of him in the future. Also, I keep thinking that the tranquility is surely about to end. As we know, things can't go right for our little family for too long. The angst and drama always seems to find its way in, doesn't it?

Just so you all know, Neal's prayer is something that he heard on an episode of Little House on the Prairie. I thought it was awfully sweet, especially since he had no idea what a harvest or bountiful crop was. Lol. Plus, I thought it was sweet to imagine Elizabeth and Neal snuggled up on the couch watching such a show.

Thanks for reading. I hope you're all still enjoying the story.