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Pete’s not the smartest.
He can be smart. He just tends to go a little sideways in the head sometimes, because Ava is adorable but knows just how to catch him off guard and knock him off balance, both literally and metaphorically. Right now she’s trying to do the former by hanging off his arm, giggling up a storm, and Pete gives the guy—Josh, he thinks his name is?—a very tired smile.
“I promise she’s usually really good,” he promises, but he doesn’t have high hopes.
Josh sighs, then crouches, looking at Ava. She’s six now, but she’s on the shorter side—Priya’s genes, no doubt.
“Ava,” he says gently. Ava stops hanging, squirming until she can hide behind Pete a little. “Hi, I’m Josh.”
“Hi, Mister Josh.”
Josh smiles, and Pete gets the feeling it’s going to be okay.
Moving in with a kid is more stressful than it should be, but he takes a twenty minute break to run in circles around her so she sleeps and stops trying to get in the way of him moving the very few big furniture pieces they have. There’s a guy Josh recruits to help—one of the roommates—and he seems…well, put out seems rude, but Pete doesn’t know another way to say it. That is, until Ava wakes up again, sleepy but determined, and the guy crouches down by her on the sofa.
“Hey,” he says, his voice low and gravelly. “Do you, um, wanna go watch some…cartoons?”
Pete doesn’t normally let Ava get TV time this early in the day. He can see the way she’s twitching though, so if this guy is willing to volunteer to babysit, well—
Anyway, it goes fine, cause the guy puts on Bluey and spends far too long trying to explain to Ava why it’s fine if he watches it with her. It’s long enough for Pete to get moved in properly and a few boxes unpacked, at least. And then comes the money, and the questions—they co-sleep, yes, he’s saving up, here’s the rent, and when is it due again?
By the time he finds his daughter again she’s completely knocked out, snoring in the guy’s lap. The guy looks up, the blue streak in his hair falling just a little into his face.
“Sorry,” he says, his voice hoarse. He hurriedly wipes at his face. “Um, Bluey is—”
“I was gonna say I love this episode,” Pete says softly. “Ask if I could join.”
“She’s your kid,” the guy says awkwardly, but he makes sure not to disturb Ava as he makes room and keeps his arm on the back of the couch so Pete can slot in next to him.
“Thank you, for watching her,” he says softly.
“Sure,” the guy replies. “Lots of kids came into Hot Topic. Not the best with them, but when the IP demographic shifted…y’know.” He shrugs nonchalantly. “Plus, she’s sweet.”
“She’s my baby,” Pete agrees, petting some of Ava’s hair back from her face—
Smash cut to six months later, and Pete is kneeling with Ava in front of the apartment door while Cody watches on, amused.
“And what did I tell you last time?” Pete asks pointedly. “I asked you not to say anything about the magic to Mister Josh—”
“I’m sorry, daddy,” Ava says, her big eyes watering, and Pete nearly melts—
“You gotta promise not to do it again,” Cody interjects, to keep them all on track. Pete nods, steeling himself.
“Now. You want some ice cream?”
Ava brightens, nodding, but Cody just looks confused. He doesn’t ask until Ava is sat at the table, out of earshot.
“You’re rewarding her?” he asks slowly.
Pete sighs. “I have a philosophy,” he explains. “She’s too little for most consequences to make sense, but I also need her to see me as a safe place, y’know? She’s just a kid. She doesn’t know much better. But when she gets older, if she knows I’m not gonna make her feel like shit for a mistake, I think we’ll both be better off.”
“So like Gilmore Girls.”
Pete smirks at him. “You have been watching with me.”
“I’ve woken up a few times,” Cody protests, panicked. “It’s still not my jam!”
“Uh huh. Well, no, not exactly. She’s not getting the parental pressure to be perfect.” Pete stares at Ava, who has managed to get chocolate on her nose and not realize. “I chose her. I want to do right by her.”
“What about her mom?”
Pete sighs softly. “Priya? She’s…she just wasn’t ready. It’s what broke both of us—mind you, technically I had nothing to do with Ava. We agreed on a sperm bank, since I can’t…y’know.”
“Right.”
“But she carried her, got to the end, and decided she wanted to go back to art, single. And I wasn’t gonna send Ava somewhere she would risk not feeling wanted.” He swallows hard. “I love that kid. She’s my baby, whether she’s mine or not.”
“She is yours,” Cody reminds him. “I mean, you’re her dad. There’s no doubt about that.”
“Yeah,” Pete agrees, staring up at the ceiling now. “Yeah, you’re right.”
They have to bring Ava to a Dream Team meeting, which is…unfortunate. Ava is bouncing off the walls, and she’d kicked Pete about ten times last night, and Cody had been overheating him, so now he’s just—exhausted, and she’s not helping.
“Ava,” he says, then louder: “Ava!”
It’s not the first time he’s raised his voice at her. It’s the first time he hasn’t had a reason, in her eyes.
“Daddy?”
“Stop,” he says sharply. “Stop moving, and stop making noise. Come here and be quiet and be still.”
“Pete,” Cody says softly, but Pete shrugs him off, pointing at his feet.
“I am not telling you again. Here, now.”
Ava sulks over, already starting to show signs of that teenage defiance that he thought he had another six years until—she’s seven. She’s seven. She’s not supposed to be disrespectful yet. His eye is twitching and he holds onto her shoulders a little harder than necessary.
“Daddy, I gotta go,” she says, just as Esther starts talking. Esther smiles and puts her stuff down.
“Pete, if you—”
“I got it,” Cody interrupts, scooping Ava up and slinging her over his shoulder, much to her delight. He gestures while she’s not looking for someone to check on Pete, who is rubbing his temples hard.
It’s Ricky who approaches. “Pete? You want some water?”
“Yes,” Pete snaps. “Or some vodka, if anyone’s got any.”
The room goes uncomfortably quiet, but Ricky passes him a water bottle. He chugs the whole thing before he looks around.
“What?”
“Do you want to let Ava have an overnight on Staten Island?” Sofie asks slowly. “You can spend the night with Cody, or Ricky and Es. Give you a little break?”
“I chose her,” Pete insists. “I don’t need a break from my kid that I chose.”
“Everyone needs a break,” Ricky says softly, rubbing Pete’s shoulder—then moving behind him to massage both properly, when he sees how melty Pete gets. It’s like trying to massage cement. But it slowly softens until it’s more like…hard packed sand. Not quite a full break down of the tension, but some.
“When was the last time you had a night to yourself?” Kingston asks. “I think they’re right. Let her have a sleepover, and you take a weekend for yourself. It’s summer. She doesn’t have to worry about school. Two days with one of her aunts.”
Pete starts to protest, but…well.
Ava is thrilled, and she goes without protest. Just for the hell of it Pete loads her bag with a few extra full sugar gummies, because he’d like Sofie to have to deal with her on a sugar high just to get the full experience. After all, Sofie’s expecting now—she needs the practice.
Which means he can have a movie night at the Chantry, placed firmly under two blankets, three pillows, Ricky’s arm and Cody’s legs in his lap. Esther is making everyone hot chocolate, which Pete takes gratefully—and he finds that it’s a little spiked, though nobody else seems to react to it when they sip their own, so Pete just gives her one grateful nod and downs the whole thing.
Ricky takes over massaging the tension out of his back and shoulders. Cody assumes the front of making Pete relax a different way. Esther keeps his mind occupied with good conversation. And for the first time in several years—since things ended with Priya, since Ava came into his life—Pete feels like a person.
She’s supposed to be gone for three days. After two, he calls Sofie and asks if he can come spend the last night with them, because he loves his daughter, and it might be easier to handle when he’s got someone else’s support. And it is. Ava is thrilled to see him again, unaware of how heated things had been behind the scenes, and Sofie knows how to cook better than anyone else he’s ever met. He makes sure to thank her profusely, and he gets Ava to as well, so Sofie knows how appreciated he is.
“Hey,” he reminds Sofie, Ava asleep on his chest. “She’ll be old enough to babysit, when your little stinker shows up.”
“Ha ha,” Sofie grins sarcastically. “You know, I was thinking about her name.”
“Yeah?”
“Catherine Petunia Lee.”
“Ooh, that’s gorgeous.”
“Petunia for Pete.”
Pete pauses for three seconds, then bursts into tears silently. He curls into her side, slides Ava between them, and smiles to himself through it.
Things are good.