Peter went straight to Mila's place first thing in the morning. He'd promised Aiden they would have breakfast together and then accompany him to school. But if Peter wanted to separate himself from Mila and her criminal activity, he wasn't going to be able to continue the charade of a happy family. Unfortunately, Peter had already bonded with them. Which was odd even for him. He'd always been a loner. He kept to himself more out of necessity. It was how he kept people safe. Because no matter how hard he tried to keep his powers hidden, the bad guys always found out who he was and they targeted his family and friends first just to get to him. Peter had lost too many people in his life. He wasn't looking forward to losing anyone else. He also had to keep in mind that he wasn't in this dimension permanently—he hoped wholeheartedly—so he shouldn't be laying down roots. He had to cut ties. The easiest way to go about this was to talk to Mila. He just wasn't looking forward to it.
It was still early when Peter arrived at the house. Mila had woken Aiden up for the day. Peter had time to talk to her. He walked up the stairs when he didn't see her in the kitchen and found her in her office. He heard voices right before he got to the door. Mila was talking to Cheshire. Peter acted as if he hadn't heard anything and knocked on the door, opening it as he did. The voices cut off abruptly and when Peter looked inside Cheshire was gone. The window leading to the balcony was open.
"Good morning," Peter said with a small smile.
"Peter," Mila said standing up and walking up to greet him. "You're early."
"Yeah," Peter said, lowering his voice a little. "I need to talk to you about something."
"Sit," Mila ordered, gesturing to a small couch in her office. "How can I be of help?"
"I don't need help," Peter said sitting down. Mila frowned a little but gestured for him to continue. "Um, yesterday, a police officer approached me."
"This is what you had to do yesterday," Mila said carefully. It was a statement, not a question.
"Well, no, there was something else," Peter said and rubbed the back of his neck. "The police… Mila, they think you killed Arman and—"
Mila clicked her teeth. "Of course, they do! But what about you? You think I killed him?"
"Mila, I don't mean to upset you but the fact of the matter is, I don't know you well enough to know one way or the other," Peter said truthfully. Even though just the day before he'd thought completely different. "I was upset at first. I thought their accusations were baseless—"
"Because they are!"
Peter held up a hand to stop her before she said anything else. Peter already knew she was innocent of this at least. She didn't need to justify herself to him. "I don't think you are behind Arman's murder. But from what they told me, it has come to my attention that I don't know you as well as I should. If you are involved in criminal activity—from the look on your face I would hazard a guess that you are—then I don't think it's a good idea for me to come around anymore." Peter watched her face fall and he felt sick in the pit of his stomach. He really didn't want to do this. "The thing is, in the short amount of time I've known you and Aiden, I already think of you as family. I would like to see him, on occasion. If that's okay with you. But I don't want to give the impression to the police or anyone else that I'm part of your mob family." Peter scratched his head awkwardly. "I hope you can understand that."
Mila nodded slowly and then stood up slowly. "I understand. We can make arrangements for you to have playdates with Aiden," Mila said and walked to the door holding it open for Peter. "Please, stay for breakfast."
"Of course," Peter said and as he stepped over the threshold, Mila grabbed hold of his arm.
"Peter, thank you for coming to me with this," she pulled him in to kiss him on the cheek. "I'll be down in a minute. Do you think you can wake Aiden for me?"
"Sure, Mila," Peter said with a soft smile. "Thank you for understanding."
"If it would have been this easy for me when I was a child, I would have done what you did. Walked away from the family. This business, it's not for the soft-hearted," Mila said and shook her head. "I don't want this for Aiden. He will have a choice. Mark my words."
Mila shut the door to her office after that and Peter walked away feeling relieved. That had been easy. And he felt a sense of unease prickling at him. It had been too easy. A part of Peter knew he shouldn't trust Mila but another told him he could. He didn't understand. It was like he was warring with two parts of himself. He shook the thought away and went to Aiden's room to wake him.
Mila didn't act any different at breakfast. But before Peter left with Aiden to school, she pulled him off to the side.
"Don't worry about explaining this to Aiden, you leave that to me. Nothing has changed in my eyes. You are still my nephew. And Freddie will be at your disposal," Mila said and Peter opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head. "No, you told me your wishes. These are mine. You call me once a week for my peace of mind. Saturdays are for you to spend with Aiden. My driver will take him to your apartment. If you need to cancel, he will understand. Now go, Aiden waits for you and I won't have him be late for school."
Peter didn't get a chance to say anything before she quickly walked away. Just as he thought about going after her, he heard a car horn. Peter blew out a breath and walked out of the house. Aiden was already strapped in and Todd was looking at his wrist pointing out that they were cutting it close when Peter walked out.
"What happened, forgot your lunch money?" Todd said with a smirk.
"Something like that," Peter said solemnly and looked back to get a last look at the house. Mila was watching him from the window. He waved at her and she nodded looking as pained as he felt. Peter got into the car and forced himself to smile for Aiden's benefit.
When they got to the school, Aiden hurried to the playground and waved at Peter. He knew that Peter needed to go straight to the classroom. Peter on his part wasn't sure what he was going to do about volunteering at the school. He actually needed a real job. It was nice that he had an apartment but if he wasn't going to continue being a stand-in bodyguard for Mila and Aiden, he needed to pay the rent. He couldn't live off of Mila's money. He wasn't her nephew no matter how nice that sounded. And it did sound nice that she might have bonded with him just as he had with her, but it probably wasn't healthy for either of them. She was still grieving her lost nephew and Peter, well, aside from missing May was also missing his entire world. It hadn't been that much of a stretch for him to imprint on the first aunt-figure he met.
She just had to be a mob boss. You really know how to pick them, Peter ol' boy.
Peter blew out a breath and walked into the classroom. Barbara Gordon was sitting behind her desk going over a planner.
"Oh good, you're here," she said and gestured for him to come closer. "I was going over the schedule but if you're going to be here for some of these activities, I need to take that into consideration."
"Actually," Peter said when she took a breath. "I think today might be my last day volunteering."
Barbara took off her glasses and looked at him with a slight frown. "Volunteering? I was told you were hired as a TA. I only agreed to take you on to help assess you during your probationary period."
"Wait, what?" Peter said confusedly. "You're saying I work here? As a TA?"
"Nothing gets by you, does it?" Barbara said with a smirk.
"No, there's gotta be some kind of confusion. The last time I was in a school, I sure wasn't a TA," Peter said with a scoff as if being a TA was beneath him.
"Oh, then what did you do?" Barbara said curiously. From what she knew, this guy had lost his memory. Helena was still upset that he was parading around as if he were her deceased cousin. But even she said it was hard to tell the two apart.
"I was a high school science teacher," Peter said then caught himself. He didn't know why it had been so important for him to declare that aloud. "I mean, no, that's not… I don't know why I said that. Um, let me go sort this out. I really thought I was here as a volunteer but if I actually work here, then I don't have to go look for another job. Excuse me."
Barbara stared after him as he walked out of her classroom with raised eyebrows. Had he just had a breakthrough? She would have to ask Helena if her cousin had ever been a science teacher. She smiled. She'd heard from Tim that Peter was smart. She just hadn't seen any evidence of that. One thing was certain, he was really good at teaching kids. Maybe he had been a teacher before.
When Peter walked out of the classroom, he had to take a breath. He had no idea what that outburst had been about but he had to get his head on straight. The bell would ring soon and he had to find out if what Barbara said was true. He went to the office to talk to the secretary who directed him to the administrative secretary. It took a few tries before Peter was able to explain his predicament properly to Mrs. Engel—a German woman who quite frankly scared him a little—before she told him that it was true that he was hired on as a teacher assistant. Then she told him that he was overqualified to be a TA. She had called around some of the schools in the area. She said there was a teacher position available at one of the public high schools but that it was in a bad neighborhood. She didn't think he would be interested but when Peter told her he was, she nodded and made a call.
Peter walked out of the office feeling better. He had an interview set up that same afternoon. He was looking forward to having a piece of his old life back. He just had to tell Barbara that he was leaving early and probably not coming back. It was for the best. Staying in touch with Mila and Aiden as a family friend was fine but being an integral part of their family went beyond what he knew was right. They were not his family.
Peter's family was back in his homeworld. One he hadn't even tried to find a way back to. But how could he? He didn't have the means to even begin any research. Collect data. Analyze the data. Come up with a theory. Prove the theory. Repeat the process until he was home. But he needed data. Which he didn't have. He was lost in a different dimension and he had to make the best of it until he came up with a way to get home. He let out a breath. He had a lot of brainstorming to do, but that would have to wait.
As soon as he walked into the classroom, Barbara already had something for him to do. Which was fine. That was what he was there for; work, work, work. But as soon as he had the chance, he told her he was leaving early and that if she had any questions she could ask Mrs. Engel. Barbara nodded neutrally and then handed him a folder of things she needed to be xeroxed before he left for the day. Peter grumbled but did as he was asked.
Before Aiden went to lunch, Peter told him he was leaving and that he would see him soon. Aiden didn't understand what Peter was saying, so he simply said he'd see him later. Peter was making his way down the hallway to leave when he stopped by Helena.
"What happened?" she said in a low voice.
"What do you mean?" Peter said with a tilt of his head.
"Mila called me this morning. She said you tried to cut ties with her—are you leaving?"
"Look, I don't know you very well and I understand that Mila is part of your family or something, but that doesn't mean I need to explain anything to you," Peter told her, feeling annoyed.
"Are you leaving Gotham?" she said with a frown looking disappointed for some reason.
"No," Peter said and shook his head. "Not yet, anyway."
"Not yet?"
"What is this about? First, you're upset I'm in Gotham now you're upset that I'm thinking of leaving," Peter said exasperated. "Women, none of you make any sense."
Helena let out a breath. "You know what, I don't even know why I'm talking to you."
"That makes two of us," Peter said with a roll of his eyes. "Now if you'll excuse me, you're going to make me late."
"For what? I doubt anyone is waiting for you."
"As a matter of fact, there is," Peter said haughtily. "I have an interview, thank you very much."
"An interview? You work here," Helena said, raising her hands to the side to punctuate her statement.
"Yeah, well, I thought I was volunteering," Peter said and laughed in embarrassment. Helena rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. "I talked to Mrs. Engel earlier and she said I was overqualified to be working as a TA. She set me up with an interview at one of the high schools. So, I sort of need to leave now."
"Huh," Helena said in surprise and moved out of his way. "Well, see you later. I guess."
"Not if I can help it," Peter said jokingly and smirked as he tipped his head in a goodbye gesture. He saw her smile at him before he walked away.
'Always leave them smiling.' The words from his Uncle Ben came to his mind unbidden.