A/N: I've run out of prompts, as we're on week eight. There is a contingency for when this happens, because we've done the Drabble Challenge ten times.

Week 8 - UDC 1 - It's a boy...

36. broken

The silence stretched while they ate, Helen wondering what it was about not having had a sleepover ever that made the boy so quiet. She wanted to reach over and get his attention, but stopped when Nick shook his head and reached over himself to get Pete's attention.

"Hey, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had one," Nick said carefully, evenly. Pete blinked at him, obviously startled. "That is nothing to be upset about, all right?"

Helen let out the breath she'd been holding when Pete nodded and resumed eating.

37. fixed

After dinner, Helen had Nick show Pete around so they could talk to Jenkins, and she regarded him seriously. "You mind telling me what you're thinking, sir?"

Jenkins glanced in the direction that Nick had gone with Pete, sighed. "He doesn't trust easily, but today was using your son as a pillow in our break room, and he's only known him two weeks, ma'am. He trusts him, and you have experience with Veterans who have issues, from what Nick told me. That's my thought process right now, Mrs. Bradshaw." He handed her the folder he'd been carrying, then looked at Walter. "You're free to tell me no, you don't want to try being Foster Parents, but... let's just say his current placement isn't adequate."

She opened the folder and looked at the application, then handed it to her husband. "How inadequate?"

"Among other things, they didn't ask him about the bruises Nick first saw him with, it wasn't reported to me, and Mrs. Tatham has an incredibly poor idea of first aid for contusions." She frowned at him, and Jenkins sighed. "You can get an infection from putting a steak on a black eye."

38. light

"I like him," Walt said suddenly, causing her to look at him. "What do you think, Helen?"

She took a deep breath, nodded. "I do, too." They shared eye contact, deciding between themselves before Walt nodded and she nodded back. "Our very own stray, hmm?"

"Nick already likes him," Walt ventured with a smile. "What do ya say? It's a boy?"

She chuckled suddenly, hearing it put like that. "All right, Mr. Jenkins. We'll fill out the application. What are the other steps here?"

Jenkins motioned to the folder. "There's an information meeting, a training session, testing for TB, a background check, and a family home study, which we're doing right now. Where you from in Tennessee?"

39. dark

When they got back to the living room after taking as much time as Nick could without being obvious about it, they found Jenkins deep in conversation with his parents about their history and Pete sighed. "What?"

"Home study," Pete answered and glared at Jenkins. "What's the big idea?"

Nick frowned down at him, wondering how he knew what a home study looked like. "Pete?"

"Mr. Burrows interviewed Chelsea and Noah in front of me when he didn't think I was listening," Pete answered, clearly upset.

Alan turned and looked at him, frowning, then beckoned Pete over. "Then I'm glad he isn't your case worker anymore. Why does this upset you, my interviewing them?"

"Don't I get a choice?"

40. shattered

Alan smiled. "Of course you do, and this is preliminary. For right now, I needed to know they were open to the idea. Understood?" Uncertainly, Pete nodded. "Good. Let's go get your bag, huh?"

Nick watched them go out to the car, then looked at his parents. "So..."

"So we're not opposed," his father answered. "From the sound of it, that kid needs a place and people and support. Like Jenkins said, he trusts you after only two weeks."

Nick nodded, not really surprised with that answer. "Has weird singing, sleeping flashbacks related to his mother. We might hear Sitting on the Dock of the Bay a lot, because he also tried desensitizing himself from it, only for it to happen today with me."

His mother shrugged. "There are worse songs." She paused. "It's a flashback?"

"Something about being woken out of it and disorientation, Ma."

She glanced out the front window, watching as Jenkins talked to his charge, who still seemed upset. "Then he needs a better placement than a family who ignores things and doesn't report them. It's a boy, Walt."

His father pulled him into a hug. "Of course it is."

Nick didn't stop himself from laughing into his father's shoulder at that pronouncement.