A/N: Three or four attempts at this later, I finally got the POV I wanted.

Week 16 - UDC 9

76. Ancient

He felt old as the hills as Charlotte and Jaime brushed past him, deftly dropping a piece of folded paper into his hand as he did so. Mike knew if he reacted, Pete would pick up on that, so he simply put the note in his pocket.

Charlotte carefully put a hand on Pete's shoulder and he smiled up at her. "I'm really sorry, by the way."

"About Jane being herself?" Pete shook his head and Mike frowned at that, at his phrasing. "It was good to see her, Charlotte. I didn't think she cared that much to remember me like that, you know?"

"Well she does, Pete. So much." Charlotte glanced over at him, smiled, and then leaned closer to Helen. "I had to ask Dad what book it was, and you might want to get a copy of In The Heat of the Night." Helen frowned minutely. "For story hour."

Helen nodded. "We'll get that one, too. Thank you, Charlotte."

She turned and looked at their hosts. "Thank you for a wonderful evening. If Bart needs more tutoring, I volunteer to do so."

Dean smiled. "We might just take you up on it."

"Could we, between us, get both Nick and Bart up to Trig so they can do Calculus?"

Charlotte glanced at Jaime with a grin, then looked at Pete. "I think we could, yes."

Was it Mike's imagination, or did the tired pre-teen get his second wind at the mere mention of math? A snort of laughter had him looking suspiciously at Nick, who simply rolled his eyes long-sufferingly.

77. Lasting

"I thought I was doing pretty well with Algebra," Nick said as he stepped to Mike's side. "And you keep correcting my homework."

Pete shrugged. "You are, but one can always be better."

Mike had to bite his inner cheek to keep the emotion off his face at that, because that was Duke all over. That, right there, pushing those around him to be their best... "That's true." Charlotte nodded to him again and then practically dragged Jaime out the door.

"She a better tutor than you?" Bart wondered suddenly, causing Mike to look at him with a frown.

Pete grinned. "She's working on an Associate of Science for transfer, Bart. STEM pathway, and she graduated high school two years early."

"Oh."

78. Descendant

With a chuckle, Walt tapped Nick on the shoulder and nodded to the door. "Come on. Time to go." He blinked, startled when Pete pushed gently away from Helen and went straight for Dean and Sheryl, dragging Bart along with him. Should he have expect that? Probably.

"Thank you for dinner," Pete told them as he first hugged Sheryl, and then shook hands with Dean, who snapped him up into a hug. Walt cocked his head at the emotion on the normally reserved man's face and dared to look at Bart to find he wasn't upset, but couldn't identify the emotion that was there.

"Anytime," Dean finally said as he set Pete back down and looked him in the eyes. "No more keeping things in for months when there's a problem, understood?"

"Yes, sir," Pete said, then nudged Bart in the arm. "That goes for both of us, right?"

"Right," Bart replied after a moment. "Monday?"

"Monday." Pete looked at Alan, who waved him off. "When does Mike have to get back to base?"

"I fly out on Sunday afternoon," Mike spoke up. "And I'm on leave for another week."

Pete slowly turned back, another puzzled expression on his face as he moved to Walt's side and gestured for him to bend down. When he did, Pete asked a question that caused him to nod and look at Mike. "Oh, I think we can arrange that. Mike, you're invited to church with us. I will not take no for an answer."

Mike stared at him, frowning, and then nodded. "And I would not turn down such an invitation. I'd love to."

79. Epoch

With the Bradshaws and Pete out of the house, Alan finally let himself relax a little and took a deep breath. Something about that, the invitation, had struck a chord with the Lieutenant Commander and he wasn't quite sure what it was. "And with that, Sheryl... Dean? Thank you for your hospitality."

"Who is this guy?" Bart suddenly asked, looking between them. "Because this was weird."

Mike snorted and allowed himself to laugh. "So was my wife putting me straight on a plane, right off the transport, kid." Bart stared at him, confused. "There were reasons."

"Son?" Dean spoke up, getting his attention. "This is Pete's godfather, Mike Metcalf. He found out when he got here that the friend's wife he was looking for had died three years ago. So... weird was kind of the starting point that included Miss Lowell having a mood swing and telling him to ask the police instead of telling him herself."

Bart looked to Alan. "And we're not telling Pete, why...?"

Alan shook his head with a sigh. "One complicated emotional thing at a time, Bart. I know that sounds like an excuse, but it's not. This, tonight? Pete hasn't gotten to see Miss Lowell and Mr. Finney much in the month since the reunion at the store, and Mike needed an opportunity to see him as he is right now. He might be mad later that we didn't tell him, but that's for later. Right now, we're working on emotional and physical safety with him."

"Inclusion, too," Mike noted. "I got the feeling, from the way Helen reacted to his wording, that it was progress. An odd sort of progress, but-"

"...but progress all the same." Alan studied the teenager, who was staring at him in confusion.

"This is something I'm going to be confused by until I'm not, isn't it?"

Sheryl smiled at that, though there was a ruefulness to it. "Yes."

"Okay."

80. Ephemeral

After leaving the Tomkins' house, Mike pulled the folded note out of his pocket and stared at it while Alan drove home through darkened city streets. He couldn't read it yet, because it was too dark, but the notion struck a chord. His godson was surrounded by good people, and that was enough for now. "I wasn't going to call it weird."

"No?"

"Enlightening was a better word for it."

Alan laughed. "Forgive the teenager for calling it exactly what it is, Mike. Also, it's both."

There was that, too. Both enlightening and weird. At Alan's home, he finally unfolded the note, only to stare at it.

'I'll make sure Dad's on base tomorrow morning. Wear something you'd do PT in,' followed by contact information for an Aaron Whittington.