Let Your Heart Hold Fast

Chapter 38

Neal was sitting miserably in a room near the principal's office, waiting to find out how much trouble he was in. He felt like crying, but was doing everything he could to hold the tears in. It had really turned out to be a no-good day for him, thanks to Patrick and his two friends. Neal had been having a great morning, answering everyone's questions about what had happened to him, and being the center of attention always made him happy. Leah hadn't left his side all morning and he had once again decided that he was going to marry her someday.

He enjoyed the special treatment that all of the teachers were giving him, too. Mr. Parker let him be line leader, even though it wasn't really his turn. Even the lunch ladies were nice to him, giving him extra cookies when he went through the lunch line. Everyone was being so nice to him, except Patrick, Simon, and Jordan. He tried to ignore them, even tried to walk away from them at one point, but they wouldn't let him. Neal had to admit that Patrick's comment about his grandfather had really hurt, especially because, even to his five year old mind, there was truth to it. Even worse was the fact that Simon and Jordan, who Neal had been friends with before everything had happened, seemed to echo whatever Patrick said or did.

Neal had been able to make it through recess, mostly because Leah was right there with him, but the events that followed had been too much for him. He had been minding his own business, sitting at his table and working on his spelling work, when Mr. Parker had sent Patrick and his friends to get the video equipment. On their way out, Patrick had leaned down and whispered loudly, so that everyone at the table could hear him. Neal couldn't help the surge of anger that filled him when Patrick called Leah a loser for being friends with a scaredy-cat again. Right then and there, Neal decided that he wanted to do something to make Patrick pay for what he was doing.

As Patrick, Simon and Jordan left the room, Neal suddenly decided to follow them. After quickly getting permission to go to the bathroom, Neal went directly to the equipment room. He could tell that the boys were still inside, so without a second thought, he kicked the door stopper out of the way and watched as the door slammed closed. He then reached up and turned off the light switch, which for some reason was on the outside of the door, leaving the three boys locked up in a pitch black room. He could hear the muffled yelling that was coming from the closet, but easily ignored it as he turned and walked back to his classroom. He felt a small surge of guilt shoot through him when he heard Mr. Parker wondering out loud what was taking the boys so long to bring back the video equipment, but he quickly squashed it down. After everything they had done to him that morning and at lunch, they deserved what they had gotten.

It wasn't until the aide came back to the classroom and asked to speak to Mr. Parker that Neal knew he was in trouble. After a few words with the aide, Mr. Parker came back into the room with a disappointed look on his face.

"Neal, come with me, please," he said with a serious look.

Without a word, Neal stood up and followed Mr. Parker out of the classroom and down to Mrs. Corbin's office, his head hanging down the whole way.

When Neal walked through the door and saw Peter and Elizabeth, he immediately ran to Elizabeth, throwing his arms around her neck as he scrambled into her lap. "Mommy, I wanna go home, okay?"

"We will, sweetie, but first we need to talk about what happened today." Elizabeth said softly.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Neal answered. "I wanna go home and never come back."

Peter stood up and walked over to Neal, picking him up out of his wife's lap and placing him on his hip. "Hey, bud…..we need to talk about what happened even if we don't want to. Then we can go home."

Neal buried his face into Peter's shoulder and Peter held him tightly to his chest. "I don't wanna be in trouble, Daddy," he cried. "It's not fair."

"What's not fair, Neal?" Peter asked.

"I was trying to have a good day and Patrick made it a no-good day. I asked him to leave me alone, but he wouldn't. Then, he started saying mean things to Leah, too. And Simon and Jordan kept laughing at me."

"They were wrong to treat you that way, Neal, and I've already talked to them about that," Mrs. Corbin said. "Now, we need to talk about your actions and what you could have done differently."

Neal's eyes welled up with tears again, but they all watched as he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. "I know what I did was mean, but I'm not sorry," he said defiantly.

"Neal," Elizabeth said gently. "You locked those boys up in a dark room. They were scared, sweetie."

"I don't care, Mommy. They were picking on Leah and they made her sad."

Peter and Elizabeth had no idea how to handle any of this. On one hand, of course, Neal was wrong in what he did. But, on the other hand, he did it because he was trying to protect his friend in the only way he knew how. Who could fault him for that?

"I understand how frustrated you were, sweetie, but you should have let Mr. Parker handle it."

Neal didn't have an answer for that, so he just buried his face into Peter's shoulder again. Mrs. Corbin finally spoke after asking for his attention. "Neal, I know that there have been problems between you and Patrick ever since the first day of school, and I'm sorry that we haven't figured out a way to fix it. I also know that you have been doing your best to avoid any conflict with him and I appreciate that. However, what you did this afternoon is unacceptable. Those boys could have been hurt inside that closet. What if one of them had tried to climb on the shelves, looking for a way out? What if no one had found them quickly? I know you were frustrated, Neal, and I know you never meant to hurt anyone, but what you did could have been dangerous for Patrick, Simon and Jordan."

Now, Neal was truly crying as the magnitude of what he had done was explained to him. "I didn't wanna hurt them, Mrs. Corbin. I just wanted to make them stop being so mean to Leah and me, that's all."

"I know, Neal. You just went about it in a bad way. So, I expect you to apologize to Patrick, Simon, and Jordan and for the next week you'll be giving up your morning recess. Mr. Parker will make sure to have something for you to work on during that recess. The other boys will be apologizing and receiving a punishment, too. Now, I'm going to call in the other boys and their parents, so we can get this over with."

Peter, Elizabeth, and Neal all looked like they would rather be anywhere else than sitting in Mrs. Corbin's office, waiting for the others to arrive. Peter and Elizabeth were both heartbroken at how Neal's first day back had turned out, but they felt that Mrs. Corbin had handled it all rather well. What Neal had done was rather mean and potentially dangerous, so neither of them could refute the fact that he deserved to be punished somehow and they both felt that Mrs. Corbin's punishment seemed fair, even if Neal didn't agree.

The door opened and Patrick, Simon, and Jordan walked in, followed by their parents. Simon's parents were the ones that had given Peter and Elizabeth the nervous looks earlier and Jordan's parents were an older couple that looked like they had better places to be. Patrick's parents were the other couple they had seen sitting in the office. Patrick's father was a rather large man who looked like he might have anger issues. His mother was a petite, frail looking woman who never seemed to look anyone in the eye. In fact, her eyes rarely lifted off of her own hands.

With there not being enough seats in the office, they all just stood there awkwardly waiting for Mrs. Corbin to start. Peter couldn't help but notice that Patrick was glaring at Neal and that his father was also shooting harsh looks at Neal. Peter, who was still holding Neal, turned his body away from the man, blocking his view of Neal.

Mrs. Corbin finally started speaking. "I'm sorry that I don't have enough seats for everyone, but I hope to make this quick. I've already talked to all of you individually, so I don't see a need to re-hash the day's events. Each of the boys had a part in what happened and I hope we all are in agreement that this needs to stop."

"The only thing I'm in agreement with is that that little twerp needs to pay for locking my son in a closet," Patrick's dad growled. "What kind of a coward does something like that?"

"Pat, please….." Patrick's mother said softly.

"Stay out of this, woman, and shut your mouth," the man growled even louder.

Elizabeth watched in horror as the man grabbed his wife's arm tightly, causing her to cower in front of her. Peter handed Neal over to his wife and stepped forward.

"There's no need to act like that, especially in front of the boys," he said firmly. "And there's no reason to get all riled up."

The man immediately dropped his wife's arm and turned to Peter. "I don't need you to tell me how to act. Worry about your own wife and kid, and stop worrying about mine."

"Listen," Peter tried again. "We're all here to try and figure out how to get our boys to get along better, that's all. We don't need to make it more stressful than it already is."

Pat laughed. "I don't want my son to get along better with that boy," he sneered. "He's a little freak who's always trying to one-up my son."

"Whoa, there…" Peter said. "I can't have you talking about my son that way. I haven't insulted yours, have I?"

Mrs. Corbin tried to interrupt, but Pat wouldn't let her. "What's to insult?" he asked. "It's obvious that my boy can knock the crap out of your scrawny boy any time he wanted. And my boy doesn't have to sneak up on someone to get the better of them. He's not a coward."

Elizabeth could tell that Peter was just about to lose it, so she stepped in. "Can we please be civil? If we can't handle this in a reasonable way, what are we teaching the children?"

This time, Pat turned intimidatingly to Elizabeth and she used every inch of self-control she possessed to not back down. "What I teach my boy is no concern of yours, lady."

Not backing down, Elizabeth stood even taller as she faced the large man. "It is, if you're teaching your son to be a bully and he's bullying my son. It is very much my concern, then," she said.

"I've had enough of this crap," Pat said as he turned to his wife and son. "I'll deal with this at home. Let's go!"

Peter couldn't help but notice that both Patrick and his mother cowered at the man's words and deciding that he couldn't just let it go, he stepped forward again, pulling out his badge.

"Mr. Thomas, we haven't officially been introduced, have we? I'm Special Agent Peter Burke with the FBI."

Pat turned around to face Peter. "Are you threatening me?"

"No, not at all," Peter said. "I just felt that proper introductions were in order, especially since it seems we might be seeing a lot of each other in the months to come."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Pat Thomas asked.

"Just that I think it's time we put this bullying thing to rest, don't you? Neither one of us want out kids to be bullies, right? I'm sure that you're teaching your son the same thing I'm teaching mine…bullies are cowards and anyone that uses their size and strength to intimidate someone else is the biggest coward of all, right? I'm always telling Neal that it's one of my jobs as a FBI agent to stop this kind of behavior when I see it."

Without another word, Pat Thomas stormed out of the room. Patrick and his mother hesitated, but then finally followed the man out the door. Just as Patrick reached the door, he turned and gave Neal a small wave.

Once the door had closed behind the Thomas family, Mrs. Corbin started talking again. "Thank you, Mr. Burke, for stepping in. I think Mr. Thomas definitely needed to hear those words."

After talking for a few more minutes about everything, Neal, Simon, and Jordan exchanged apologies and they were all finally able to leave. All of the adults present felt that things had been settled adequately and that the issue between Neal, Simon, and Jordan was at least finally resolved.

After leaving the school, Peter and Elizabeth took Neal home. Neal had been uncommonly quiet on the drive home and every time they looked at him, he had a thoughtful, faraway look on his face. They both decided not to push it at the moment, allowing Neal time to think over everything in his own way.

Dinner was a quiet affair, too, and neither Peter nor Elizabeth missed the frequent looks that Neal sent over to the time-out corner. When they were finally done, Elizabeth asked Peter to take Neal upstairs for his bath. Without arguing, Neal followed Peter up the stairs and watched as he filled the tub, making sure to use Neal's favorite bubble bath. Once in the tub, Neal played quietly and calmly with his toys, occasionally throwing Peter a quick look. Finally, Peter couldn't take it anymore.

"Do you need to talk about something, buddy?"

After a bit of a pause, Neal finally answered. "Are you mad at me, Daddy?"

Peter looked surprised at the question. "No, of course not, buddy. Mommy and I don't like what you did today, but we do understand how frustrated you were with everything. Maybe next time you can trust Mr. Parker and Mrs. Corbin to handle things, rather than try to handle it yourself."

After another pause, Neal asked another question. "Am I in trouble?"

"Well, that depends…Do you think Mr. Parker just wants to give you extra work and make you miss a recess for no reason, or do you think that's punishment for what you did?"

Neal rolled his eyes at Peter. "Daddy," he sighed. "I know I'm in trouble at school, but am I in trouble here? Is Mommy going to take away my dessert for a long time? Do I have to sit in the corner?"

Peter laughed at how pitiful Neal looked. "I think that there's no reason for further punishment, buddy, as long as you understand what you could have done differently today. I know those boys were being mean and were bullying you, but you did the same to them when you locked them up in that closet."

"I don't wanna be a bully, Daddy," Neal said quietly. "I don't wanna make people feel bad."

"Then, I say it sounds like you learned your lesson today, kiddo. Now, let's get you out of the tub before you turn into a prune."

As Peter was drying Neal off and helping him into his pajamas, Neal had grown quiet again. Finally, as Peter struggled to get the comb through Neal's curls, Neal spoke again.

"I didn't like Patrick's dad, Daddy. He's scary and mean and I think he's a bully, too."

"I think you're right, bud. I think that Patrick doesn't have anyone to teach him that bullying is wrong, so that's why he bullies other people."

"Maybe you can teach him, Daddy. Like you taught me….." Neal looked at Peter in excitement.

"I don't think Patrick's dad would appreciate that, Neal."

Peter truly felt sorry for Patrick, knowing that the poor kid had no one to look up to. A wild thought entered Peter's head as he continued to try to comb through Neal's hair. Maybe he could see if Mrs. Corbin and Mr. Parker would allow him to talk to Neal's class about bullying and a few other things. It was definitely worth a try, if it could somehow help Neal.

"Maybe you could teach Patrick's dad, too."

Peter knew he would do anything for Neal, but that might be asking too much.

Once they were downstairs, Neal was excited to see that Elizabeth had set out bowls of ice cream for them. Neal's bowl was full of chocolate chip ice cream with globs of caramel and chocolate sauce. Peter was surprised to see that Elizabeth was giving Neal so much sugar before bed. She smiled at him and quietly shrugged her shoulder. Seconds later, they all dove into their ice cream. Peter and Elizabeth both were happy to see that Neal's constant chattering had returned full force and the sounds of his giggles echoing off the walls was music to their ears.

After polishing off the ice cream, the three of them retired to the living room, where to Peter's great dismay, Elizabeth put the Frozen DVD in. He resigned himself to sitting through another showing of the most annoying movie he had ever seen, made somewhat more tolerable by the sound of Neal's voice singing every song and speaking every line. He longed for the day when Neal would find a new favorite movie and hoped that it was one that he liked. Maybe he could steer him to a baseball movie or something.

Halfway through the movie, Neal was starting to nod off, so Peter picked him up and carried him up to his room. Elizabeth followed after making sure that everything downstairs was turned off and picked up for the night. When she finally made it up to Neal's room, she watched at the doorway as Peter sat on the bed watching Neal sleep.

Her love for her husband grew with each passing second of their marriage, and the sight of him and Neal together was sometimes almost more than her heart could take. She had always known that Peter would have made a wonderful father, but until recently she had resigned herself to only imagining the possibility. Now, she was able to witness it first-hand, and her husband's propensity for fatherhood was astounding. He was a natural.

After kissing Neal goodnight and making sure that he was all tucked in, they retired to their own bedroom. Peter watched as his wife went through her nightly bedtime routine, wondering how he had gotten so lucky. Once she was in bed, he pulled her close to him, breathing in the light scent of her perfume and face wash.

"It's been a long day, hasn't it?" she asked with a big yawn.

"It has," Peter agreed. "El, I really, really wanted to punch that man today. Did you see the way he treated his wife and son? Did you hear what he said about Neal? He's lucky that Neal and the other boys were right there, because if they weren't, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself."

Elizabeth felt the same way, of course.

"I'm going to have Jones run a check on him tomorrow and I'm going to keep my eye on him. That man is definitely not treating his family right."

After talking over a few more things, they both finally drifted off to sleep, only to be woken up a few hours later by Neal's cries. Jumping out of bed, they both ran to his room, knowing that the events of the day had sparked a nightmare.

Neal was sitting up in his bed, looking wildly around the room, when they arrived. Satchmo, who had taken to spending every night in Neal's room, was pacing frantically back and forth in front of Neal's bed. Elizabeth went directly to Neal, scooping him up into her arm, while Peter tried to calm the dog down. It didn't take long for Neal to calm down and by the time Peter had taken Satchmo for a quick walk to calm him down, Neal was sound asleep in Elizabeth's arms. One look from his wife was all it took, and Peter found himself taking Neal in his arms and carrying him into their bedroom. It looked like he would be spending another night with a cold foot sticking in his back, but he somehow didn't seem to mind the thought.

Author's note: Whew! Another tough one! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy a little protective Peter. He was kind of awesome in this chapter, lol.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing.