IT WAS THE DAY OF REMY'S PRESENTATION. Birdie had taken a day off from work to go, and Tony had promised to record it for Rhodey, who hadn't been invited but was incredibly invested in the boy's success and overall performance.

"I want to support my nephew," Rhodey had pressed, forcing Tony to wear a clip-on camera to record the moment, "I would like to meet him at some point, Tony."

"He's already lost most of his respect for me, so why not," Tony had sighed, and with a final smile towards the man, had left the facility, making his way over to the Walsh residence to pick up Birdie.

The woman in question had been quite panicked for her son, double and triple checking to make sure he had everything; Remy didn't have the best track record when presenting in front of people, his natural habit of speaking incredibly fast tended to frustrate most people.

"This'll be fine," Tony said, when he walked into the home to find Birdie watching the cooking channel in an effort to calm down.

"I'm worried," she sighed, turning off the TV and falling into Tony, her arms crossed over her chest.

"He'll be fine," Tony said, hugging her and rubbing her back, "Don't worry so much, you couldn't do the project for him, and he's worked as hard as he could. BUDDY doesn't seem to be worried, so I think he'll be fine."

"You're putting your faith in a robot?" Birdie asked, nevertheless calling the aforementioned robot from Remy's room, as he was also asked to be at the presentation.

"He knows the kid pretty well," Tony reasoned, "And are all the kids inviting all their families?" He asked solely because he knew that Jayne had also been invited, Wilma and Treshelle being over at Ethan's class, so they were unable to watch the presentation.

"I heard one of his classmates has over twelve people coming," BUDDY interjected, the three making their way to the car, and Tony shrugged; in comparison, Remy had invited a good number of people.

"Do you know anything about his presentation?" Birdie asked the both of them, silently asking Tony if he wanted to drive, the man shaking his head, despite feeling the need to—there was an entire backstory to that that he and Nicky were dealing with—climbing into the passenger seat.

"I do," BUDDY replied, "But I can't tell you. It's a surprise."

"That sounds ominous coming from you," Tony commented, Birdie heading off towards the school, "Should we be worried?"

BUDDY shrugged, thinking for a moment. "Maybe."

º º º

Parking was atrocious and Tony truly began to see what kind of a person Birdie really was, staring at her as she cursed and complained, mumbling to herself about the lack of parking and criticizing some of the others' parking.

"—I mean, with all their judgement of everyone else, you'd think they'd know how to park," the woman ranted as they made their way onto the grounds and into the building, walking down the hall to Remy's classroom, following the signs, despite already knowing where they were going.

Tony opted not to say anything, slightly terrified, making sure BUDDY wasn't drawing too much attention, though maybe he was drawing enough attention as is. He just nodded towards all the people, giving them pursed smiles and small waves.

The two stepped inside, the noise of the room immediately hitting them, all the parents chatting and looking at some of the kids' work that was posted along the room. There were designated seats for all the families, it was all very organized, though Birdie could already tell that there were going to end up being problems.

She turned to Tony to tell him, but saw that he was having a difficult time with all the noise, taking deep breaths and pressing his hands against his eyes. She looked over at BUDDY who carefully reached out and touched him with a warmed hand, the man jumping before relaxing again.

"Hey," she said, whispering in his ear, "If you need to leave, it's okay."

He shook his head, swallowing as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a modified set of earplugs. "I'll be fine, I'll just keep these in until it starts and everyone shuts up."

She nodded, squeezing his arm comfortingly, leading him towards Jayne who had been waving at them for some time, pausing when she saw Tony's expression.

"Brad couldn't come, so I'm filming it," the blonde said once they all sat down, people giving them more than one look due to Tony and BUDDY.

"Tony's filming it with his lapel camera, I'm sure he can just send you a copy," Birdie said, knowing that the woman never liked drawing attention to herself when it was an inappropriate time to.

"I can," Tony added, leaning close before pulling back just enough to drop his head on Birdie's shoulder, closing his eyes.

She reached up and patted his head before continuing to chat with Jayne, keeping an eye on BUDDY who had begun to strike up conversation with some of the people who had been staring at him and Tony, shocking them even more.

"Mom," BUDDY said, catching Birdie's attention as everyone began to take their seats, surprising people even more, "You should wake up Mr. Stark."

Birdie nodded, nudging Tony who woke up instantly, blinking away the sleep and pulling out the earplugs. "Time to watch the kids?"

She nodded. "Yup."

What surprised Birdie the most was that the presentation was an entirely separate animal to the reports and projects Remy had to do. The presentation involved going up and talking about what he learned from all the projects in an academic sense, giving interesting tidbits about what he learned in a personal sense, and closing with a final statement, all with some visual piece to go along, some using their family trees, others bringing in objects or pictures. That had been the students before him, and Birdie wondered how she hadn't been able to spot anything of the sort when helping him get ready for school.

Her breath hitched when Remy made his way up, carrying something hidden underneath a tarp. He stumbled a bit, and was clearly trying to catch his breath, but found his cool eventually, rubbing his hands over his nice pants before speaking.

"My name is Remy Walsh and I learned a lot from this project. I mean, a lot."

Some of the parents laughed at that, and he smiled, and Birdie couldn't help but realize just how much he had grown. He was eleven now. Eleven years she had had him in her life. Very long, very hard eleven years, but ones she wouldn't take back for the world.

"It was hard to do all these projects," Remy began, and they all shifted, interested to hear, "Because for the hero project, I had to go around and figure out who I actually wanted to write about, because I have so many people in my life who could count. I figured it out eventually, but I'll get there in a second."

He took a minute to remember his train of thought before continuing. "The family tree and the DNA test were hard for the same reasons. Last year, we did kind of the same thing as this year, but not as long, and my dad took a DNA test."

He motioned then to a man in the corner that no one had seen walk in. Mark gave a small wave and a pursed smile, eyes trained on Remy. The smaller boy gave him a curt nod; it wasn't hostile, but it wasn't friendly. It was civil. It was healing.

"He took a DNA test," he continued, "And found out that he wasn't my dad. And he left us. It's been over a year now and I've been trying to figure out who my real dad is, so that made my family tree hard to do. I only got to make it on my mom's side. Which, I guess, is a lot easier, and I know a lot of us had to do the same, but I actually had someone who was supposed to be my dad and left me because he wasn't biologically related to me, so it was hard."

Some parents were casting looks over to Mark, others were actually beginning to tear up, Birdie being one of them. Remy went on.

"But the DNA test this time around was mostly just to talk about how cool science was and how cool DNA was, so it doesn't matter who I tested, 'cause that wasn't the point. In the end, I learned a lot about history, and a lot about science, and a lot about writing papers even when I don't want to."

That elicited some laughter, though it quickly died when Remy didn't smile. He had been mixing a lot of the pieces, most kids being structured, but he was blending everything together into one cohesive presentation; incredibly elevated for a boy who claimed to not be so smart.

"It took me a while to figure out who my hero was supposed to be, and who I was going to test the DNA of. I was just gonna use my mom for the DNA test, but I wanted another do-over, to see if maybe this time around the guy I thought was my dad would be my dad." He paused to look Tony in the eye, swallowing thickly before speaking.

"It wasn't him this time either. But third time's the charm, so I know who he is now, but I don't really care."

He looked at the people he had invited, swallowing thickly, clearly trying not to cry.

"I don't care. It took me a really long time to figure out that I shouldn't have to care. Just 'cause Tony isn't my biological dad doesn't mean he's not the best dad I ever had. I've only had two so far, but he's the best."

He looked over at Mark who rubbed his mouth, nodding towards the boy in understanding and apology. Remy just nodded back, in an acceptance, but not necessarily a forgiveness, but an openness to begin.

The boy took a deep breath, ignoring Ms. Kimberly who offered to give him time. "The hero I chose was my mom. It's weird, 'cause I know Iron Man and I grew up always wanting to be Iron Man, but he's not even really my hero, which is weird, because he made me the first friend I ever had, even if he didn't know it, then he gave my friend a body, and—"

Remy paused, realizing he was rambling. He fidgeted for a moment before saying, "But my mom's my hero because she's put up with so much. I thought maybe it would be one of my aunts or my grandparents or this high schooler I met, 'cause they all proved all these things, but my mom did too."

Birdie was crying at this point, tears freely flowing as she struggled to keep herself composed enough to listen, Jayne and Tony holding her, close to tears as well.

"My mom's put up with a lot in her life, and she's proved so much to me," Remy went on, "I have ADD, which means I have trouble concentrating, and sometimes, she was the only one who thought I was actually smart." He sniffed, wiping at his eyes, looking at his classmates then, who all looked away.

"And I remember she used to have people tell her, when she was going to law school because she didn't wanna be a nurse anymore, that she couldn't be a lawyer, but she is now and she's great at it, and she proved to me that it didn't matter if people called me stupid, because I'm not stupid or anything else people say I am, because only I get to decide that." She looked over at Mark, giving him a hostile stare that turned into a broken one, the boy struggling to keep his cool which was starting to break more and more.

"And my mom still loves me, even though I got arrested a while back," he sniffed, laughing at the uproar, "Don't worry I didn't do anything. But she doesn't just love me, she loves everyone else, even when no one deserves it, because they hurt her or they didn't get it and they said terrible stuff, and she's been hurt so many times that I wouldn't have been nice to anyone, let alone care enough to love them, but she's still doing it, so I can too."

He took a deep, deep breath at the end of that, sparing a look towards Birdie who was shaking, crying so hard that she wasn't even sure if she would be allowed to stay, because her son had found out, her son knew what had happened, what she had been through, but he didn't look at her any different, just more closely, because he was always an observant boy.

"And she didn't leave," Remy said, and that's when he started to cry, "Even when everybody else leaves, she could have left a long time ago, before anyone would have known her, but she stayed and she kept going, and she stayed with me and she didn't leave, even when everyone else does."

Ms. Kimberly walked over towards him to pull him aside, but he shook his head, turning towards the hidden object and tugging off the canvas. Underneath was a screen printed collage of various pictures of Remy and the people he had met.

There were many pictures of him and Birdie, some even with Mark, some with Jayne and Brad, his aunts, his uncles, the Christmas photos, even pictures with his tutors and Nicky, Flash included. There was the picture of him and BUDDY first meeting, both with BUDDY as simply an AI and in his physical form, pictures of him and Ethan during Halloween and at sleepovers, pictures with him playing basketball with Gage, weaving flower crowns with Stephanie, and hugging Marc. Pictures of him with everyone.

"I'm Remy Walsh and people leave me a lot. I'm learning to be okay with that. They can leave if they want. But I'll always remember them. Because I remember everyone that leaves. Because I remember me."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This was Remy's closing, if you will. I decided to focus mainly on him and Birdie, but told through his words, because next chapter focuses on all of them and while I wanted to have more at the end of this chapter, I figured that his last words would be a great way to end, so I did it like this. I know Birdie is the love interest, but Remy is definitely equal to her in main character status.

If you saw, I really mentioned everyone in this, and really showed how they impacted him, and the foreshadowing with "Are you My Hero" huh? Because it's like, his mother was his hero? Remy really laid out how Birdie is the overarching theme between what he had learned from all the people from that chapter, it's a whole thing, I'm proud.

Anyways! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!