Caffrey Envoy

Chapter 3 - Choices

In Hughes' office, Neal's right hand automatically went to the middle of his face.

"Exactly," said Trent. "When the car lurched to a stop, you did a face plant into the steering wheel. You banged your nose and had a cut on your forehead, and it seemed like you were spewing blood. By the time I jumped into the passenger seat, you were crawling toward the back to escape the evil steering wheel. I'd swear it was less than a minute from impact until I dragged you out of the car, but the next day when I cleaned the interior I found tiny blood-soaked fingerprints everywhere."

"You stole a car when you were two!" Peter exclaimed.

"I was practically three. And I didn't steal it. I accidentally put it in gear. You could as easily say the car stole me."

"You remember it?" asked Peter.

"No..." Neal frowned. "It's more like a sense of déjà vu as I'm hearing the story. What happened next, Trent?"

"You mean, after I decided you should come with a warning label?"

Peter couldn't help laughing. He'd often felt the same way.

"As much as Angela's screaming and Henry's crying had bothered me, it was your silence that got to me the most. I carried you inside, put ice in a towel to help stop the nosebleed, and the whole time you didn't say a word. You just stared at me, wide-eyed. I thought maybe you were frightened of me after I'd yelled at you, but you didn't resist while I cleaned you up and got you into your Star Wars pajamas. In fact, you didn't want to let go of me, and I had to carry you upstairs so I could change into a clean shirt. With Henry and Angela asleep on the sofa there wasn't space for us once we got back downstairs. I turned on the TV, sat on the floor in front of the sofa, and you gradually relaxed until you fell asleep in my arms."

Trent sighed. "I glossed over everything that happened when your parents got back. Then the next day I told Polly the kindergarten teacher everything, poured out all of the terror, and I swear her heart melted when I confessed how I felt when you slept, like I wanted to hold on to you and not let anything ever hurt you again. At that point the idea of having kids of my own terrified me. I stopped chasing Polly. But she'd made up her mind and started chasing me. A year later we were married, and now we have two boys of our own. And I don't let either of them drive the Aston Martin."

"If you don't mind me asking," Peter said, "how is it that you're Neal's godfather, instead of his uncle David?"

"It was supposed to be David. He was posted overseas but planned to come back on leave. Weather got in the way, delaying his flights, and he asked me to stand in for him." Trent paused to drink from the bottle of water. "And that brings us to my other reason for being here. There are some things I want to ask you, as your godfather. To start: did we do the right thing, sending you into WITSEC with your mother?"

Neal looked confused. "There was another option?"

"Didn't your mother tell you?"

"It was my eighteenth birthday when I finally learned we were in WITSEC and why. That was more than I could handle. I ran away that night and haven't seen her since."

"You never knew... That wasn't a scenario I was prepared for. Let me try a different question. How was it, growing up with your mom?"

"It was..." Neal swallowed. He glanced at Peter, then clasped his hands between his knees and stared down at the floor. "It was fine."

Peter caught Trent's eyes and shook his head.

"Peter, can I talk to Neal alone?"

Reluctantly, Peter stood to leave the room. Before he closed the door behind him, he said, "Take your time. And Neal, check in with me when you're done." He went down to Neal's desk and watched the conversation as it played out in Hughes' office.