Week 11 - UDC 7

Fun

As the rest of the members of the JROTC were filing out, Alan watched as Jaime waited for Nick by the door. "Huntington, is it?"

"Sir?"

Alan waited, glaring at Campbell until he actually was out the door, before nodding to Nick. "You don't have to stay. I'm taking him home."

Jaime looked at Nick. "That okay with you?"

"Yes, that's okay with me. Wouldn't be the first time." Nick shrugged. "A week ago was enlightening, after Norling dropped us off at Social Services without telling me why he'd have been leaving Pete there."

Jaime nodded, then offered a hand to Alan. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jenkins."

Alan shook his hand. "And you."

"See you on Monday, Nick. Hopefully with a much smaller shadow."

Nick allowed a chuckle. "Unless he passes whatever it is on to the rest of us."

"Or that."

Play

Alan finished packing up the materials he'd brought, glanced at Nick. "It's good to see that, that he's got classmates that miss him."

Nick smiled. "Pretty sure it's the honors students, but yeah."

"Now come on," Alan said as he closed the case and hefted it. "Let's get you home. How'd I do?"

"With the lecture? Loved it. Clear, concise... so loaded that it made my head spin." Alan nodded and motioned for Nick to lead the way. "Mr. Jenkins?"

"Yes?"

"Can two people who hate each other find common ground?"

"So you were listening. Good. And yes. That's a reverse pattern of normal interpersonal relations..."

Laugh

This time it was Walt to be perplexed while he was setting the table and looking out the window. Had Nick gone to Social Services? Again? As the two of them came in the house, sharing a laugh, Walt frowned at Nick and then Alan. "Son?"

"We had a surprise advisor today," Nick told him, smiling.

"Why is Pete sleeping on the couch?" Alan wondered, concern evident in his tone.

"Didn't want to be alone," Walt told him. "And after he had that nightmare in the car while Helen went in to talk to you, I didn't want him to be alone in his room either."

Alan nodded and went over to the couch, jostled Pete's arm until he was looking up at him. "You missed a good lecture."

"Yeah?"

"Um-hmm. Nick took notes, so ask him later."

Pete smiled tiredly. "Okay."

Games

"You staying for dinner?" Walt asked after a moment and Alan shook his head. "Because it's all right if you are. I'd love to hear about whatever lecture it was instead of drills."

"Was almost worse," Nick said with a smile. "And Mr. Jenkins got my head on square again." Walt looked at his son with an expression of concern. "I think I needed the reminder that this is bigger than one person, that there are big scary reasons for people to be acting the way I've been witness to. What was that about the difference between Police Action and War, Mr. Jenkins?"

Alan rejoined them by the table. "That over there it's a war, even if we're calling it something else." Walt frowned at him and he motioned to Pete. "They go to school with others who have deployed parents, among other things."

At that, Walt suddenly got it, why there would have been a lecture instead of drills. Could they call a lecture a drill in this case? "What was the topic?"

"Aspects of Communication, including Interpersonal." Alan shrugged. "I work with troubled children. Sometimes, creativity is required rather than bulldozing through a problem head-on, even if head-on might seem like the better option. Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"He's asleep. Go put it back in the box, or it'll be me telling him what you wanted to do. Trust works both ways."

Vacation

It, Walt realized, turned out to be one of the pictures of Pete and his parents as Nick set his backpack down and opened it to take the item out. He marched straight over to the box and carefully put it in with a sigh. When he came back, he was staring at the floor. "Oh, so that's what you meant. Nick, come here."

"I was just-" He was interrupted, surprised into silence as Walt dragged him into a hug that he didn't know he needed. "Dad, I-"

Walt pulled back, looked at him with a slight smile. "You wanted to make things better?" At Nick's nod, he hugged him again. "You are, son. You are, and you have no idea how much."

"Doesn't seem like it," Nick said, muffled against his chest.

"That's because you're looking at the situation wrong," Walt told him. "That kid in there? Closed off the way he is because if he wasn't, he'd fall apart. He's been letting us see. That? Trust. It might not seem like it, and he might take forever to take the next step that seems so simple to you and me, but he'll take it. Eventually. Right, Alan?"

"Exactly." Alan chuckled suddenly and they both looked at him. "Sometimes, with him, trust looks like something else entirely. I've got his woodshop project on my desk, still, if you want proof."

"Woodshop project?" Helen asked from behind them.

Alan nodded. "Nice little box, to hold something that got broken." He peered into the living room again, nodded once. "And I would love to stay, but Sonia and I had plans."