A/N: **stares at prompts** Okay... what kind of battlefield? (And then Mom suggested a mental one. Mental Battlefield it is.) To that end... Mav's Mother got a name picked from Popular Baby names of the late 1930's because the novelization didn't give her one.

Week Two - UDC 10 - Pete and Nora Mitchell - 1968-1970

6. Battlefield

It was so hard to stand, to get up and do anything after the news came. After her world had collapsed around her. Did it even matter anymore? He'd left them, to disappear off the face of the Earth dishonorably. Left them, left her without even a letter. Left her to watch the television, with it's nightly horrors from the other side of the world. To watch as, one by one, flag-draped metal coffins were shipped home to grieving families. Left her to raise their son in this nightmare, not knowing if she was doing the right things by him or not.

7. Opponent

He was really starting to hate the record player. Not because it had actually done anything to him, but because his mother wouldn't let him play anything else. The same song, one he remembered his parents dancing to in the living room before his father had shipped out again, over and over again like a mantra, it's slow, off-beat tune an attempt to soothe something deep inside.

Pete stared at the spinning record as the song ended, waiting for a shout he knew was coming to start it again. If he didn't, would she be mad?

8. General

In the kitchen, she frowned as she watched her son, eight years old, make a sandwich. His technique was sloppy and she would have to clean up after him, but he was doing it nonetheless. She wanted to step in, to get up from her chair and show him, but settled for watching. How many had he made while she was up in her room, demanding that he start the record again?

Pete brought the sandwich over to her, smiling. "Good enough, Momma?"

Nora froze. "Is this for me?" He nodded. "Oh. Yes. Yes, Pete. It's good enough."

9. Knight

In the line at the grocery store, Pete watched his mother chat with a lady who had noticed her bracelet. It wasn't much, just something with his father's name on it that she'd worn since they'd been told he was missing in action. Something about it, how the other lady was asking questions, was making his mother upset. He could tell by the emergence of lines on her forehead. He reached out and pulled at her skirt, and she glanced down at him. He nodded to the display by the register. "Can I have one of those?"

Nora stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. "We have real food at home, Pete."

10. Ceasefire

Opening the door, the first thing he noticed was the silence. There was a fuzzy noise, and Pete frowned as he found the record player still turning, blipping over and over again at the end of the record. He turned it off and waited for it to stop spinning... that one. Again.

Setting his book bag down, he went in search of her, for it was odd for her to leave the record player on like that. Eventually, he found her, seated in the chair in her room, appearing for all the world to be asleep, except her eyes were open and fixed, staring at nothing.

He sat on her bed, staring at her for a long time.