BIRDIE WAS, UNDERSTANDABLY, LOSING HER MIND.

Her day had started off rather well, she woke up right as her alarm went off, and Remy hadn't put up any of a fight as she forced him out of bed and to get ready. The traffic was horrendous per usual, but it wasn't overly atrocious, so she wasn't in too bad of a mood and, most importantly, she wasn't late for work. She made it in just in time to be handed off a new case from one of their retiring colleagues, and while it would have upset most to have a new work load, the fact that she had been given the case by one of the most esteemed attorney's in Manhattan had her floored.

So she got to work on her various cases and was surprised to find—after she had gone to a quick meeting that was basically just to clarify that she was, indeed, taking on the case that had been two years in the making—a large coffee and takeout food bag on her desk. Her first thought was that it was from Jayne, just being nice or a congratulations on the case, but found that it wasn't from her, nor was it from anyone else in her firm.

Instead, she had been informed that a man had dropped it off. It wasn't Tony Stark, but a man working for Tony Stark, which still meant it was from Tony Stark, and Birdie was getting really tired of everyone constantly mentioning the fact that she knew Tony to her. But they were defense attorneys, so it wasn't as if they had jobs or generally more important things to do, obviously.

"Are you in a relationship with Tony Stark?" one of her co-workers who had never once actually spoken to her asked, peering into the room, and one look at her withering gaze had him retreating immediately.

But besides the constant badgering about Tony, her day had been going pretty well. 

So she didn't think anything of it when she went to go pick up Remy from school. She had really been making an effort to go into the school to pick him up, and pick him up relatively on time, rather than forcing him to wait until it was near dark before he could go home.

Of course, it actually was near dark at this point, but there were some children still outside, so it wasn't as if she was doing too terribly about it.

She often wondered why she had gotten rid of Stacey all that time ago, though she figured it must have had something to do with Tony being much more prevalent and aware; which was truly saying something, as Remy once told her a story of how Tony had just walked away without him one day, figuring that he'd walk alongside him.

He clearly did not have much parenting skills, though he seemed to be making an effort, especially over the past few weeks.

Though he wasn't Remy's parent by any means, so it wasn't as if she had to expect anything from him at all. All she had to expect was that one day he was going to get tired and leave, no matter what he had promised.

But she tried not to think about that at the moment, as she was in a rather good mood and had been for a while, so she simply climbed out of her car and made her way to the school in search of her son, glad to find that there weren't any of the parents around to look at her.

As time had progressed, she began to notice that the same mothers she had seen giving her strange looks had not yet stopped, and she had to wonder why they still felt the need to isolate themselves and place judgement upon parents who were all trying their best. She vaguely toyed with the idea that it was because she was divorced, but she could never imagine any mother being so cruel as to believe that, yet she, unfortunately, had been around enough people to know that there were certain women in the world who, by no fault of their own, believed that women still needed to be housewives and get permission by the men in their family to be allowed to do things. 

She was once asked who was taking care of her now that her husband was gone, and when she mentioned that it was simply her and her then ten-year-old son at home, that person immediately assumed her son was taking care of her and making all the rules.

It made her sad simply thinking about it.

But pushing aside all of her wandering thoughts that were reminiscent of Remy's own, she made her way into the building, ready to ask his teacher if she had any idea where he was. She had, in fact, made the right decision by doing so, because she found Remy sitting in the classroom with Ms. Kimberly clearly checking her phone.

"Oh! Ms. Walsh, I'm so glad you got my text, I wasn't sure if it was going to go through," Ms. Kimberly said, standing up to greet her, and Remy groaned loudly.

Birdie was on him in a second. "Did you give her the wrong phone number?"

Remy raised up his own phone, showing the text that had gone through to him instead. "I don't see why this is such a big deal, like seriously, it's honestly not. And, mom, why didn't you call me, I have this phone for a reason."

"You have it for emergencies so you can call me if something terrible is happening and I know where you are," Birdie pointed out, and Remy waved his hand flippantly. Sighing, she turned towards Ms. Kimberly who had been waiting patiently to speak. "What did you need to tell me?"

The woman opened her mouth, then paused, glancing towards the desks. "I think you might want to sit down..."

º º º

Birdie was so upset that she didn't even care about inconveniencing the psychologist that was almost half her age.

"Sorry it took so long, life has been...hectic," Nicky said, bursting into the building and tugging off his jacket, surprised to also find Jayne and Wilma standing next to her, "Oh! Hello! Birdie, you sounded really distressed over the phone, what-what happened?"

Birdie took a deep breath, trying to find some semblance of calm, at least enough to be able to regale exactly what was frightening her. But, first, she felt as though she needed to explain herself to the young man who seemed incredibly confused as why these three women were meeting him at his workplace at a fairly late hour.

"Do you not usually work this late?" Wilma asked, beating her to the punch, and Birdie stomped her foot childishly at her sister, because she was much too overwhelmed to do much else.

Nicky's gaze darted over at her, before turning back to Wilma. "Uh, I do, sometimes, depending on the patient, though most people's schedules are much more spread out, I only have a handful who see me regularly, as I'm the only person they see, most see therapists. I don't have any trouble, though, I live around here, so it's all fine."

"You said life's been hectic," Jayne pointed out, also cutting off Birdie, and that was just seen as a true act of betrayal in the older woman's eyes.

Nicky couldn't help but smile at her reaction, only to dim when he remembered. "Yeah, it's just...life. It's not that big of a deal, it's all fine, we're fine, let's go into my office, I think some people can listen in, and I don't think we want that."

With a huff, Birdie followed him into his office, immediately falling onto the seat with enough melodrama that Nicky actually snorted, because never before had he thought this woman could be anywhere near the level of childish adult that Tony Stark was.

"So what happened?" he asked, glancing over to the other women for clarification, but they were just as lost as she was, "Why'd you call all of us here?"

She took a deep breath, sighing, "I just...I wanted to just say it once so I wouldn't have to say it again, but I am so terrified right now, I just...Remy needs to do that family tree report, with the DNA test. He's also doing a hero project, but that's the least of our worries right now."

The reactions were all varied. Jayne immediately started cursing and demanding to know that Remy wasn't actually going to be doing that, right, not again, and Wilma just had her mouth covered, softly apologizing on behalf of whatever person decided to put her sister through all that pain once again, and Nicky just stared, knowing exactly what happened, but having no reaction to what he had just heard.

"Is he going to do it?" they all finally asked, in unison, and Birdie felt incredibly overwhelmed.

She took a deep breath, shrugging. "He won't listen to reason. His teacher even tried to convince him against it, but he said that, and I quote, 'it's healing. Or whatever.' What am I supposed to make of that? And he threw up from the stress of it all."

"He's suffering, but doesn't want to have to be separated by something that had been defining him for so long," Nicky immediately said, thinking back to all that he had learned from the boy, and all the stories he heard from Tony and Birdie, "He's incredibly angry and has been traumatized by that experience, but he's also incredibly headstrong, so he's going to go through with it no matter what."

"What do I do, I can't—" she took a deep breath, giving him a pointed look, "With what we know?"

Nicky nodded, glad that the other two women weren't trying to pry. "You help him. You're really going to have to help him understand certain things, make sure that he's going to be okay. For the DNA test, since that's clearly a very heavy trigger for all of you, can you test yours?"

"Yes, and we've made it clear that he is," Birdie said, nodding, "Though...he hasn't brought it up since he first brought Tony into our lives, but I think he's still holding out that Tony's his biological father, though we have no concrete evidence, so he's not set on it yet. He's rational like that."

Jayne sighed. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, he would've found out eventually," Birdie said, turning to look at her, "And besides, I'm glad he's with us now."

The other people in the room gave her soft smiles, and she wished they wouldn't, because Tony was not the focus of this conversation. He wasn't even the focus of her life, he's just a focal point in the broader narrative that was her life, and she would appreciate people acknowledging that.

"I'm just worried that he's going to ask to test Tony's," she admitted, "Because here's an opportunity and he's going to want some closure. Something to really stick it to Mark and say 'you're not my dad and I already have someone better,' which I still...I want him to get along with Mark. I know he was awful to him, but I don't want him living the rest of his life with this hatred in his heart, it's not healthy. I should know."

Nicky gave her a sad, pursed smile, and Wilma shifted uncomfortably. Jayne was really the only one who wasn't quite sure what she meant, but wasn't about to pry. She was a good friend like that, she knew when to push things and when not to.

"I think, with that, if it does happen..." Nicky said slowly, carefully choosing his words; that was what Birdie always liked about him, he never just shot off the mouth, he was careful, precise, "You just need to have a conversation with him. It'll be difficult, because he does tend to rush to conclusions when he's in high emotion, but I think it's important for you to explain family dynamics to him? I mean, Wilma and Treshelle are not Ethan's biological parents, but Remy still sees them as Ethan's mothers, right?"

"Of course," Birdie said firmly, Wilma agreeing wholeheartedly.

"Then he just needs to grasp the concept when it comes to himself, though I can see why he would have a need to know, as it is the reason why Mark left, which makes it seem as though it's incredibly important," Nicky finished, nodding to himself.

"I think he understands why Mark was so upset when he realized that he wasn't his biological father, that makes sense to him," Birdie said, "Because he grasps the concept of cheating and he understands it's awful, but he's not willing to forgive him just yet."

"Because the pain has manifested farther than that now, it's latched onto all the awful things that had happened because pain and anger needs to feed and searches for more and more to be angry about," Nicky explained, "It's all valid, his anger, but it's no longer just about Mark leaving, it's also the build-up. He's not actually happy about him leaving, he's crushed. He says he's not upset, but he's not happy. But he's also not indifferent."

"He's eleven," Jayne butted in, and Nicky smiled, nodding.

"He's eleven, and he's high stakes emotional, much more than most his age, and he's got this deep rooted resentment against Mark for making him feel stupid, and himself for giving him reason to make him feel that way in the first place," Nicky said, waving his hand after speaking, "We're not gonna sit here and psychoanalyze, we can do that later, right now we just need to focus on what we're gonna do."

"What are we going to do?" Birdie asked.

He smiled. "You're gonna take a few deep breaths and just let it happen. You can't control this, Birdie, and you need to be okay with that. Trust your son. You'll be there to catch him, but you can't always walk him through it."

Birdie took a deep breath. "That's gonna be so hard."

He nodded. "I know. But this is a perfect, real life example where you're going to have to work on it. So use this as an exercise."

"But it's real life," she argued, "If I screw up, there's no going back."

Nicky smiled. "So don't screw up. If you care enough, you won't. Do you care about your son?"

Her jaw set and her eyes grew hard. "Did you honestly just ask me that? Yes, I do."

He splayed out his palms. "Then there's nothing to worry about."

Birdie buried her face in her hands, trying to breathe, the others in the room conversing softly as they let her think. This was going to be much harder than she was already expecting it to be. But she would do it.

Remy needed this, and so did she.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Yeah, so here's the chapter with a lot of psychoanalyzing exposition that's basically just Birdie dealing with a lotta emotions that are all rising up, as you can tell by the tangental kind of narrative in this particular chapter. I think it was clever. Maybe you don't. Oh well, I'm proud.

If I ever said that Remy was ten in another chapter, forgive me, he's eleven, so I think I need to do some major edits in certain chapters where I said he was ten, whoops, I'm gonna go die now, thanks.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!