Author's Note: I just wanted to say that there will be some swearing in this chapter. I personally have no problem with swearing but I know some people do, so I thought better safe than sorry :)

CHAPTER 14

Peter followed Satchmo as the dog eagerly trotted through the hallway, ready for his morning walk.
He stopped, much to the dog's dismay, outside the guest room and peered inside and saw that the boys were still asleep.
Mozzie had his arm wrapped tightly around his little brother while Neal had one arm around his teddy and the other hand were up by his mouth, the thumb placed in the kid's mouth.
The children looked even more adorable when they were asleep and it was hard to take his eyes off them.
Peter stood there watching them for longer than he intended and eventually the dog lost his patience, gently pushing his master's leg with his head.
"Okay boy, we're going."
He whispered to the impatient dog before taking one long last look at the adorable brothers.

When Peter and Satchmo came back inside, Elizabeth had gotten up and judging by the smell, she was making pancakes.
He walked into the kitchen and put some food in Satchmo's bowl before walking over to his beautiful wife and putting his arms around her before he placed a loving kiss on her temple, telling her a good morning.
Elizabeth smiled and told him good morning too before she asked him to set the table.
Out of habit he only grabbed two plates from the cupboard before he remembered their two little guests and he took out two more while failing to stop himself from smiling like an idiot.
Peter had always wanted a family and even if he knew that the kids were only a temporary addition to the Burke household, he really enjoyed having children in the house.
As he was putting down their plates, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and soon the boys appeared, both of them dressed in ill-fitting clothes which made Peter glad that he and El had talked last night and decided to take the boys shopping.
They had guessed that the kids didn't have the best clothes, a guess that apparently had been correct, and they had decided that both of them would take the day off and go to the mall.
They had also decided to pick up some toys, book, crayons and other things that the kids could need since it didn't matter to the Burkes if the boys would stay here for just a week or if they would stay for a month, they still wanted them to have a good time while they were here.
Neal suddenly squeaked as Satchmo approached them, wanting to greet them, and the four-year-old left his brother's side and ran and hid behind Peter's leg while the dog stopped, looking confused.

"Satchmo's not dangerous, Neal. He's a good boy."

Peter tried, making Satchmo's tail wag, but Neal didn't listen.

"Bad dog. He bite."
The kid mumbled and Satchmo actually looked offended by Neal's words and decided to greet the older boy instead and Mozzie happily greeted the dog back.

Despite having two adults with him, Mozzie was watching the energetic four-year-old like a hawk.
It was cleat to Peter that the eight-year-old was used to looking after his younger brother and the more he watched the kids, the more Mozzie looked like a parent instead of the child that he was.
On one hand he had to applaud the kid for stepping up and being mature enough to care for both himself and for Neal when there was no one else but on the other hand it was incredibly sad that Mozzie had been forced to grow up so fast.
Peter made himself a promise to help Mozzie learn to trust adults again, so that he could enjoy his childhood again instead of having to act like an adult.

"Why don't we go and try these on?"

Peter's thoughts were interrupted by his wife's question and saw her holding up a bunch of different clothes for the boys.
It had been apparent from the second they stepped into the store that picking out children's clothes was something that brought her joy and she had spent the past half hour or so picking out clothes while Neal ran around, wanting to look at everything while Peter and Mozzie watched him.
Neal stopped running and looked at the clothes Elizabeth had with an excited look on his face while Mozzie just looked uncomfortable.

"The clothes we have are fine, you shouldn't have to spend money on us."

The kid said and it was sad that it had been so long since an adult had provided for these kids.
After all, feeding and clothing the kids were two of the basic tasks in being a parent or a guardian and Peter couldn't believe that Keller hadn't even been bothered to do that.

"We want to."

Elizabeth just answered, in a firm tone that left no room for protests.
Mozzie didn't say anything else but he still looked uncomfortable as they walked over to the fitting rooms to try on the clothes.
After picking out several outfits for them, they paid and Peter didn't miss how Mozzie looked even more uneasy when he saw the total.
They left the store and moved on to a toy store where the younger child was even happier, running around and looking at every single item with amazement while the older paid more attention to what Neal was doing than the toys surrounding him.
The boy even acted as a parent in a place that should be like heaven for a child.
They were told that they could pick out three items each and as expected Neal looked like he was about to burst with excitement and ran off, Elizabeth following, while Mozzie barely reacted.

"You should give my choices to Neal instead."

Mozzie told Peter and it was unbelievable how unselfish this kid was, even when he didn't have to he still chose to sacrifice things to make his brother happy.

"It's okay to want things for yourself, Mozzie."

Peter told him but didn't want to force him to choose something.
Mozzie walked around for a while, clearly thinking it over, before something caught his attention and he slowly walked towards if, as if he was afraid to show that he had seen something he liked.
In the end both boys ended up picking out three things each, Neal chose an art kit, a pack with toys looking like various wild animals and a police car while Mozzie chose a spy gear kit, a box of Legos and, to Peter's amusement, he also chose a cuddly toy that looked like a pigeon and named it Estelle.

They also bought some books for the children, Neal wanted the books with colourful, fun pictures while Mozzie picked books about science, history and even one about conspiracy theories, something that caused Peter to frown but he didn't say anything.
Apart from that they also picked up a couple of child appropriate board games, some additional art supplies and a nightlight for Neal.
Then they sat down and had some ice cream before leaving the mall, all of them wearing genuine smiles.
Neal was so eager to get back to the car so that they could return to the house and play, that he completely forgot about the strict rule to hold someone's hand.
Before anyone had the chance to react, the kid darted away.
They heard the screeches of the tires before they saw the car that had been forced to slam on the brakes when the little boy came running.
Peter swore that his heart stopped when he saw that the car had stopped just a couple of centimeters from Neal and he realized that if the driver hadn't been so quick on their feet then Neal would have been hit by the vehicle.
The car honked loudly, the driver just annoyed and not concerned about almost hitting a child, and the little kid managed to move to the side and let the car pass, despite being in total shock.
Mozzie was the first one to unfreeze and he marched over to his brother.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

He yelled before shoving Neal so hard that the younger fell to the ground.

"Mozzie!"

Elizabeth had managed to get through the shock as well and tried to reprimand the boy in a slightly shaky voice, but she was just ignored.

"I have told you a million times, Neal! Why don't you ever listen, you stupid idiot?!"

Mozzie's voice broke and it was clear that he had started to cry in the midst of the yelling.
The older brother's anger and harsh words came from the fear that they all had felt when the car almost hit Neal.
Peter managed to move and together with Elizabeth he hurried over to the boys, their bags left on the ground.
Elizabeth grabbed Mozzie, hugging him as he cried while Peter walked over to Neal, who was still on the ground, too shocked by the encounter with the car and his brother's anger to move.
The agent picked up the child and held him tightly to his chest, suddenly afraid to let the boy go.

When they arrived home, they were all still pretty shaken up, especially the children.
Mozzie had spent the entire ride avoiding to even look at his brother while tears still rolled down his cheeks and Neal spent the entire ride looking at his brother with his huge, blue puppy eyes.
When they got out of the car, Neal tried to grab Mozzie's hand but the older boy backed away from him.
Neal looked really lost and sad, Mozzie had probably never been this mad at him before and Peter felt bad for the little guy even if he could completely understand the older boy who had almost lost his little brother because said little brother hadn't followed a simple rule.
They walked inside and place the bags in the living room before Peter and Elizabeth looked at each other, none of them knowing what to do.

"Leave me alone, Neal!"

They looked over to see Mozzie pushing Neal again, although this time much gentler.
It was a surreal thing to see since the brothers had been so attached to each other before and it had seemed to be impossible for one of them to be mad at the other.
Peter had thought that they would never have to worry about the boys not getting along.

"Maybe we should split them up and let Mozzie cool off?"

Elizabeth suggested and Peter agreed.
They ended up deciding that Peter would take Satchmo for a walk and bring Neal with him, so that he could talk to him but also get more used to the dog in the process, while El would stay inside and help Mozzie cool off.

Neal had reluctantly followed Peter outside, staying by the agent's left side while Satchmo stayed on the right side.
They walked in silence until they reached a park where Peter sat down on the bench and after some slight hesitation, Neal joined him.

"Do you know why your brother is angry at you, Neal?"

Neal nodded.

"Why is he angry?"

He asked, trying to get the kid to talk more.

"Ran."

The boy mumbled, hanging his head in shame.

"Mozzie have told you not to run off like that, right?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you run?"

Neal stayed quiet for a couple of seconds as if he was trying to figure it out himself.

"Dunno, 'cited."

The boy answered with a shrug, failing to pronounce the word "excited".

"It doesn't matter if you're excited, you shouldn't run like that because, as you noticed, it's very dangerous. Your brother is angry because he got very scared, we all got scared."

Neal looked up at him and his eyes were filled with tears and Peter knew that the child really understood that he had done something wrong, how much he had scared his brother and how close it had been to him getting seriously injured.

"Sorry."
"I think your brother is the one who really needs an apology right now."

Neal nodded before Peter grabbed the little guy and pulled him up in his lap, hugging him as the kid cried.
Peter felt good that the child had understood and hoped that this incident had taught him to never do something like that again, and he also felt good because he really felt like a father.

Once the boy had calmed down, they walked back to the house and Neal held his hand the entire wat back as if to prove that he could follow the rule.
Neal seemed nervous when they got inside and he stayed behind Peter as they walked into the living room.
Elizabeth and Mozzie was sitting by the table and each of them had a wine glass in front of them, both glasses filled with a dark red liquid.
Peter gave his wife a questioning look and she just smiled.

"It's grape juice, don't worry."

Elizabeth said, looking amused by the thought of Peter even for a second believing that she would give an eight-year-old wine.
Mozzie looked over at them and luckily the anger seemed to be completely gone and had been replaced with a big smile.
To Peter's surprise, Elizabeth and Mozzie seemed to have bonded while they were gone.
Neal dared to leave Peter and walked over to his big brother.

"Sorry Mozzie."

The child said, regret evident on his face and Mozzie got up from his chair and enveloped his little brother in a hug.

"I'm sorry for calling you mean things and pushing you."

Mozzie said and it was nice to see that the kids were getting along again, even if the anger hadn't lasted for that long.
Peter looked over at Elizabeth and they shared a smile, maybe they weren't too bad at this whole parenting thing.