The Academy

Seventy Four

Tink:

"I bet you can't lift me on your shoulders," I challenge on the way back out of the theater. Peter grabs me by the waist and I squeal. Out of the corner of my eye I see Rose blush a little as he starts to lift me. I'm going to have to ask him to lift something else later. "What was this about not being able to lift you?" Peter chuckles as he sets me on his shoulders. "Peter I feel like I am going to fall," I say warily. "You're not going to fall babe, give me your hands," Peter says, reaching his hands up. I put my hands in his and hold on tight.

"Are we seriously going to walk home like this?" Trevor asks and Peter nods, which makes me nervous. "Peter put me down," I say, closing my eyes. "Alright, Jace can you pull her down?" Peter asks. "No, no, I've got it," I tell him, pulling myself down. "Daddy can I sit on your shoulders?" Samantha asks. "Of course," he says, pulling her up. "We'll switch later so Delilah can have turn," Peter says, holding Sammie's hands. "No, that's alright, I've got her," Trevor says, putting the ten year old on his shoulders.

"Just another day overseas huh?" Trevor asks as he puts down Delilah once we are inside the institute. "Don't talk about it," Peter says, tensing up and obviously feeling uncomfortable. "There's my grandkids!" Dad yells, coming into the parlor as we hang up our coats. They all run and hug him. Wolverine in a Christmas sweater, huh, that's new. "Hey girls," he says, pulling Rose and I in for a hug. "So the presents are in the kitchen. Let's go tear through those," Dad says, ruffling Delilah's hair. "Can you, you use your claws?" I hear Mathew ask, making the pose that Wolverine does in the comics. "No silly, that hurts grandpa," Jace says as Dad puts Matthew on his hip.

"You guys go ahead, I need to talk with Peter for a second," I say, nodding at my mom. "Alright sweetheart, if there is anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask," Jean/Mom says. I nod again as she corrals all the kids into the kitchen. The other grown ups follow suit and I turn to Peter. "You okay?" I ask, placing my hands on his waist. "Yeah, I just, it was hard over there. A lot of the time you don't know if you're going to make it through and thinking about it makes me want to punch things. I can't think or talk about while the kids are around. It's not Trevor's fault, he was just trying to crack a joke," Peter sighs, putting his arms around my back.

"Do you need Jean for that? Therapy isn't as weird as it sounds honey," I ask, searching for a piece of Peter that I can help and looking for it in his eyes is making me want to cry. "No, it's okay. I'll be fine," he says, searching my eyes right on back. "You're not going to find your answers there," I mutter, keeping my eyes on him. "That's the thing Tinkerbell, I already did. You are the answer to every problem I've ever had. This Marine brain damage thing is going to pass and when it does I know you will still be waiting for me to resurface. I'm not going to be myself for a while, it's going to take some time," he explains. I nod, looking at my feet. "Now, are you okay? You still seem really upset and you are extremely tense, as if waiting for something to go wrong," Peter says, putting his fingers under my chin and making me look back up at him.

"I want my Peter back," I sigh, laying my head against his shoulder and pressing myself against him. "Me too," Peter says, tightening his arms around me. "Merry Christmas," I laugh sarcastically with tears in my eyes. "Merry Christmas," Peter mutters, pressing his lips against my shoulder. "Are you alright?" Jace asks, coming back into the room from the kitchen. "No," I say, wiping tears from my face and looking at him. "Yeah, we're getting there," Peter laughs, putting his happy face back on. "Come here," Jace mutters, opening his arms to me. I go over and hug him before going into the kitchen with a very fake smile on my face.

"Hey guys what did you get?" I ask, sitting on the ground with them. "We all got D.S.s you know, except for Matthew and then Matthew and Nathan got little toy claws like grandpa's so they can play together," Delilah says. "Very cool, now I don't want it to seem like we came for presents and ditched but I want to go by one more place before going home and it's already late," I say, looking down at my watch. "Can we have cereal for dinner?" Samantha asks. "How about Burger King drive through?" I bargain. "Alright," she sighs.

We pile back in the car and take a five minute drive to The Academy. We go inside the building which is still all hustle and bustle about Christmas. I get so many Merry Christmas Tink!s that I feel like if I hear another one I will throw up. "Hey Mr. Skywalker," I say, coming into the principal's office. When Rose took his job, he became principal. "Tinkerbell is that you?" He asks with a laugh. "Yeah, that's me," I say, hugging him. "Star wars is really too?" Trevor asks. I laugh and introduce Mr. Skywalker to Trevor. "I think I'm going to pass out," Trevor mutters.

We visit a few other teachers and the go home after eating on the way. "One more thing before bed," Peter says when we get back up to the apartment. "Delilah bring me your guitar," he says, sitting on the couch. Delilah unburries her guitar from he pile off books and brings it to her dad. "Trev and the kids on the floor, mom by me, lets do this," Peter says, pulling out the pretuned guitar. "Delilah, thank you so much for letting us take you in and being part of the family," he sighs, tearing up. Then he starts to sing her song. Hey There Delilah.

"How come only Delilah has a song?" Sammie asks. "That's the song daddy sang when he met me on the train. I wasn't born in this family like you guys," Delilah says. "It's okay. Don't cry, we love you, you are our sister," Sammie says, hugging her big sister. "Yeah, we all love you. We don't care where you came from," Nathan says, hugging his sister. "Great now I'm going to cry," Trevor mutters, voicing my opinion pretty well.