Chapter Text
Neil had spent more than half of his life moving around, planning his next escape, choosing his next three names for the next three cities he’d run to next, hiding in plain sight, hoping to be forgotten by anyone who saw him. He’d spent so long trying to survive he never truly learned how to live. How to be himself. Not Nathaniel. Christopher. Alex. Stephen.
Not even Abram.
After he’d had to bury his mother, he’d given up on himself. He’d given up a long time before then, but his mother forced him to continue, never stop. Never stay too long. But he was tired. Exhausted, was a better word for it. So, against all rules his mother had set, he called his uncle.
With the help of Stuart, he was able to get in contact with Agent Browning. With him came the FBI and the promise of one last name change and a life without running away.
Even after half a year of freedom, Neil Josten still found it hard to stay still. Despite knowing his father was dead and his people could no longer get to him, the need to run remained ever present, no matter how hard he tried to unlearn the instincts his parents had painfully ingrained within him.
But he was trying.
Which is why he found himself sitting beneath a tree at the community college doing absolutely nothing.
He’d chosen a spot with a clear view of the people passing by, close enough to the street that he could leave quickly if he needed to. Old habits, apparently, were harder to kill than he thought.
Still, he stayed beneath the tree.
Children ran across the grass, screaming and laughing. He could see a father and a son playing with a red ball from his right. On his left, a family of four seemingly having a picnic. He could hear the yells of children around him, none because of pain but of joy. A group of teens, on his right, laughing at what one of them had said.
He did not know why he’d chosen such a place for his identity crisis. Maybe it was because no one knew him. Maybe it was the masochistic reminder there is a life away from pain and terror.
Either way, he sat beneath the tree and stayed.
It was maybe five minutes later that he noticed a small child approaching his tree. She walked with a wobble, as if she had five minutes of knowing how to walk. Judging by her size, Neil wouldn’t be surprised if that were true.
Suddenly she stopped walking and stood still. Right in front of Neil. Staring at him with golden eyes too big for her little face. They stared at each other, a silent staring game starting out of thin air. Neither of them moved.
“...What?” Neil asked, his voice coming out gravelly from misuse.
The toddler smiled and took a wobbly step forwards before falling onto her knees. She sat on her bottom and stared at him, hands now dirty. Neil expected tears. Instead, she crawled closer to him until she could reach his shirt and pulled herself up again. Instinctively, Neil placed a hesitant hand on her back before looking around, expecting an angry parent to yell at him for touching her.
There was no one.
“Where are your adults?” He asked, uselessly, turning back to look at the baby in front of him.
In response, she just smiled and tried to reach for his burned cheek. Carefully, he took hold of her hand and lowered it.
“That’s not an answer, you know?”
After having experienced hundreds of unexpected situations, Neil had learned to expect them. Driving with someone shooting at him? A normal Thursday. A knife to his lower abdomen? Any other day, that’s why he was missing an appendix.
Being good with children? Completely unexpected.
Somehow, he sat beneath a tree trapped under the surprisingly strong grip strength of a golden haired, golden eyed baby.
“You are going to get me arrested,” Neil commented. “What will I tell Browning?”
The girl babbled in response, lowering herself to the floor, a big smile on her face, making her rosy big cheeks more noticeable.
“You’re wrong,” he replied, as if he understood completely what she had said. “He probably would believe more that I kidnapped you than the other way around.”
She stared at him.
He stared at her.
Somewhere behind them, a woman laughed, delightedly.
Neil blinked first.
“Neil,” he grabbed her hand with his index finger and thumb, carefully moving it up and down in a mock handshake. “And you are…”
“MAE!”
“AARON WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!”
“How would I know Nicky?! You were supposed to watch her!”
Neil turned around at the distant screams, finding the image of two men looking around, postures tense and fear palpable in their bodies and voices. The short blonde gripped tightly his hair, seconds away from ripping it out from how hard he seemed to be pulling; jaw set tightly enough Neil could see a vein on his neck pop out as he paced around. On the other hand, there was a brunette hispanic looking guy who ran around the grass, searching everywhere and nowhere at the same time, head moving side to side rapidly in desperation. Neil turned towards the toddler who, while he’d been distracted, started playing with the grass and flowers around them.
“Mae?” He tried. Immediately, the toddler’s face lit up entirely as she recognized her name, the biggest smile on her face. He pointed towards the general direction of both men. “Are they yours?”
“Fowe!” She replied, ripping from the ground a flower, crushing it in her fist. She was about to put it in her mouth before Neil intercepted and removed it, cleaning her hands carefully.
“That’s not what I asked,” Neil sighed, carefully picking her up and standing up.
The moment her little body pressed against his, Neil tensed. He was maybe a year or two older than her when Nathaniel was taught the family motto. Wesninskis were born to make others hurt. Now, holding such a tiny body, Neil had to take a moment to pause and reorient himself. Remind himself he was no longer Nathaniel and Nathan was dead.
Then, the toddler rested her head on his shoulder and her hands bunched a part of his shirt, full trust and comfort on him. Neil had never held a child before, had never had the opportunity to be gentle. Now, he found himself as a safe space for a toddler he’d never met before.
Neil was maybe 20 steps away from the two men when they saw him approach. The moment their eyes landed on the child in his arms, the blonde’s face hardened impossibly harder while the brunette’s face screamed relief as he opened his arms, a grin on his face.
“Mae, oh my god!” The latter yelled, quickly making his way towards Neil. Before he could touch the child, Neil took a step back, protective instincts at full force. The brunette, for his part, tensed before putting his arms up and taking a tentative step back. “Sorry man, just- she’s been missing for like 20 minutes and Aaron and I were worried sick. Not only for her, but like, if we got home without her and Andrew found out? We’d be dead. Like, blood on the floor, probably a few cuts all around us-”
“Nicky,” the blonde interrupted, a heavy stare never leaving Neil. Aaron, Neil guessed, going by what the brunette had said. “Look, thank you for finding her and not kidnapping her or something, but we need to head back before my brother freaks out and kills me and Nicky here.”
Aaron motioned his arms towards Mae. Neil, for his part, took another step back, pressing the girl’s body closer to him, in response, she snuggled closer, forehead now pressed comfortably under Neil’s chin, watching the three men in front of her with a tiny smile around her thumb.
“How can I be sure it’s not you who want to kidnap her?” He asked. Neil couldn’t really understand what the sudden surge of protective instinct that had taken over him meant; all he could think was: Protect! Protect! Protect!
“Are you serious?” Aaron asked, blinking as if Neil giving a baby that had been alone for a whole 20 minutes to a random man who he knew nothing about was the most abnormal aspect of this whole situation.
Neil stared at him. Then at the baby in his arms.
It was then that he noticed the similarities. Mae had the same golden hair and eyes as Aaron, though hers were softer, brighter. Filled with an innocence the man in front of him appeared to have lost a while ago.
They could be related, Neil supposed.
Still, he did not let go.
After a minute of silence where the two men played a heavy game of staring at each other, Nicky seemed to grow impatient.
“Look,” he began. “I understand this is a strange situation, but her father finally let us babysit her for a few hours while he went to work and we’re already 10 minutes late. Honestly, I’m really glad Mae-Mae here found a responsible adult with no bad intent to take care of her when we were not around, but we really have to go.”
Neil wordlessly let him get closer, not fully ready to let go, but willing to if that’s what the child chose to do. He watched her giggle at Nicky, hand peeling away from her mouth to wave at him as he came closer.
“Hi baby,” Nicky whispered in a high baby voice as he extended his arms towards her. “You ready to go home?”
“NO!” She yelled, surprising the three men. Her face changed from giggly to close-to-tears as she shook her head side to side furiously, her hand clenching Neil’s shirt. On his part, Neil immediately took a step back at the same time Nicky did, brow furrowing as he stared daggers towards them.
“What did you do?” Neil deadpanned, gently bouncing the girl in an attempt to calm her down.
“What did we do?” Aaron replied, harshly yet obviously trying hard not to scream at the implication. “She’s our niece. We are babysitting!”
“You left her alone!”
“It was an accident!” Nicky defended. “Aaron and I got confused and we both thought the other was watching her!”
“And you expect me to leave her to you after you left her alone at a park for god knows how long?”
“She was at the sand box,” Aaron growled. “We literally stepped away for like a minute and next thing we know, she’s gone.”
“Wow,” Neil replied, sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
“I don't have time for this,” Aaron deadpanned, eyebrows pulled together tightly. He walked over to Neil and grabbed Mae by the armpits and attempted to pull her away.
This time, there were not only tears, but screams of bloody murder.
“NO! NO! NO!” She yelled, her whole face turning bright red as she clung harder to Neil, almost as if her life depended on it. “AAWON NO UPPIES!”
Aaron let her go immediately after, raising his hands and taking a step back. The tears and screams, however, did not let go.
“NO UPPIES!” She continued to wail.
For his part, Neil had no idea what to do. One thing was a happy bubbly baby. Another was a wailing toddler who refused to leave his side and clung as hard as a toddler could. So, he let his instincts take over. As she sobbed, he softly bounced her while walking around her adults, pressing her tighter against his chest. At that moment, everything except Mae disappeared.
Slowly, but steadily, she started to calm down on his hold. Sobs turned into soft hiccups around her thumb as her other hand rubbed her eyes.
“She’s tired,” Nicky whispered, understanding eyes on her back, where Neil’s hand continued to rub circles against. “Look, I know you don’t trust us, much less with how much she just fussed. But we really need to get her home. Why don’t you come with us? Lord knows we don't need a repetition of what is probably the biggest meltdown she’s had in her 18 months of life.”
“No,” came Neil’s immediate response.
“She’s not letting go,” Aaron remarked, voice hard. “And she sure as hell won’t let us take her away from you.”
Neil considered his options. He could say no. He should say no. He should ignore the screams and cries and give her back to her adults. He should turn away and never return. He should forget this all happened and leave.
But he’d chosen to stay.
The ringing of a phone between the two men in front of him startled him out of his reverie.
“Shit,” Nicky murmured, staring at his own phone before answering quickly. “Hello, dear cousin of mine, father of the most beautiful little girl to-” A pause. “Yes- Andrew do you really think we- Oh come on! We’re at the park! Everyone is fine, Andrew. You forget I adopted you and- Yeah, yeah. Give us twenty- That’s too little time! Andrew! Did he really hang up on me? The nerve!” He turned back to look at Neil with a tight smile. “We have about 7 minutes before we’re skinned alive. So, could you decide so we can start moving?”
Neil turned back to the little girl now sleeping against his chest. As he listened to the soft hiccups right beside his ears, felt her lashes tickle his neck and her little hand fist tightly around his shirt once again, he realized he could stay a little while longer.
He could choose to stay a while longer for the little girl on his arms.
“Okay."