A/N: It occurred to me that this takes place in '73, which is WAY before HIPAA...

Week 15 - UDC 1

71. indifferent

The scene in the living room wasn't something he was expecting as he stepped inside to find the girl from the engagement announcement holding Maggie on her lap while watching Mike and Alan look through... were those pictures? Walt frowned at the sheer emotion on Mike's face. "What are those of?"

"A birthday party," Chelsea told him without looking up. "I'd forgotten just how sick Nora was until I saw those."

Walt stepped over to the two looking through pictures and tapped Mike on the shoulder. The man looked up at him and Walt nodded toward the door. "Composure. You're going to need it."

Mike nodded and quickly put the pictures back in their envelope. Then he stared at it. "Is your mother on shift tomorrow?"

"On shift tonight, actually. Since my older brother got drafted into the Marines, she's been doing a lot more overnight shifts." Charlotte stared at him as he blinked, startled at that piece of information. "Why?"

"I have questions."

She smiled and moved to sit on his other side, still holding Maggie, who was watching them and not sure what to think. "When she made a scene a month ago, I asked her about how she knew Pete and... she told me some of it. Not everything, because by the time I got around to asking, she'd gotten some good, solid sleep, but enough to understand what she'd meant by 'so, so sick.'" Mike frowned at that. "Also, who are you in this situation? As far as I know from everything I've heard, the Navy didn't care about Pete or his mother."

Mike winced. "His father was my wingman. Pete is my Godson. I didn't know until this week that she'd passed."

"And Pete doesn't know who Mike is to him right now," Mr. Jenkins spoke up, drawing Charlotte's attention. "He remembers call signs, not faces, and it's been a long time. And before you ask why we're not telling him unless he remembers first: it's been a bad week for him."

Charlotte nodded. "Karen told me that he did seem very withdrawn for a couple days." She paused and glanced at Walt, then looked at Noah, and then finally Chelsea. "Oh, wait... Mike, did they tell you about the base tour?"

"We didn't," Noah informed her quietly, grinning. "Pete can do that. In fact, get him talking about F-14's, he probably won't stop. How do you know about it?"

"My step-father led the tour and my fiancé was there." She let that sink in and turned her attention back to Mike with a smile. "Ask away, sir. If I can answer it, I'll do my best to do so."

72. exhausted

Walt watched Alan get up and go to the door where Helen and Sheryl were supervising and wondered how the man wasn't exhausted from all of this. Or maybe he was, and he was just used to it, because he worked with children all the time. A tap on his arm, and he looked at Mike to find that he was handing the envelope to him. Walt took it, frowning at him.

"For Pete," Mike explained, and then turned his attention to Charlotte and started in on asking her pointed questions which she answered in kind to the best of her knowledge.

Walt frowned at the envelope in his hand and looked at Chelsea again. "What do you think?"

"Good reminder of a bad time," Chelsea said carefully, eyes narrowing at just how much Charlotte actually did know. She leaned closer to Noah. "I just realized that... oh."

"What?"

"It's April." She bent and looked at Nicky, who laughed at her. "I know someone who is going to need a hug, Nicky."

"Another?"

"Yes, another. A big hug, especially from you. Think you can do that?" He nodded and she smiled, set him down on the floor. "Go wait by the door. Pete needs a hug, Nicky."

Walt wondered what it being April had to do with Pete needing a hug as he watched Nicky do just that, go to the door and wait behind Sheryl.

73. hopeful

Sheryl ushered both boys inside, only to stop at seeing Nicky waiting. She frowned at how hopeful he seemed, even for a two-year-old. "Um..."

Pete was less confused and immediately picked Nicky up, smiling at him. "Hey there."

"Momma said you need hug."

Pete blinked at that, then hugged him back. "Yeah? Did she say why?"

"It April."

"What does it-" Bart started to say, only to stop when a hand landed on his shoulder.

Pete looked from Nicky to Chelsea, who was watching them with shiny eyes, and knew immediately. He'd forgotten, in the scheme of things, and maybe it wasn't exactly the day... "What are the chances that the baby would be kicking, too?"

Chelsea laughed at that, though it sounded watery. "In a couple weeks? Pretty good. Just little flutters right now."

Beyond her, the man from yesterday was talking quietly to Charlotte, who had Maggie on her lap, and Pete grinned when Maggie started squirming enough that the older girl put her down. Maggie moved to get Chelsea's attention, then pointed at him. "Hug too?"

Chelsea nodded. "Yes, Mags. Hug, too. Go on."

Pete ended up on the receiving end of a double hug.

74. relaxed

This was still confusing as Bart watched Pete being hugged by the two red-headed toddlers, and he looked up at his mother. She was smiling, so obviously she understood, but... "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"No one has explained who the toddlers are in all of this, not since Dad and I were at the store a month ago."

"Family," Pete told him simply, smiling in such a way that caused Bart to pause and really look at him. Had he smiled like that at all, since being introduced by Mr. Jenkins, back in October? "And until a month ago, I hadn't seen them since July of '70."

"And that was a bad day," Noah said suddenly. "Harry had really bad timing." Bart looked away from Pete and the twins, to find that the man was anything but relaxed, and decided not to ask who Harry was. "That, however, was then. This is now, and it's better now."

"It is," Nick agreed from behind them. A rumbling sounded and Nick laughed. "Pete, we really have to work on that."

"This is a dinner party with food, right?" Pete laughed when Nicky looked at him with wide eyes. "Yes, that was me."

"Loud," Nicky told him sincerely, then hugged him again.

75. restless

Mike glanced at Walt, who was shaking his head in amusement. "What's so funny?"

"That kid over there? Still not telling us when he's famished."

"Still?"

Walt nodded. "Still, Mike."

The bags of fruit, Mike realized, suddenly remembering what Helen had said two days ago. Not the tall one, going through growth spurts. How many facets did this situation have, if there was a kid in the middle of it who had a habit of not telling people he was hungry? "Oh."