Work Text:
Peter couldn’t help but frown at the baby pink paper he was holding. A paper everyone of his peers in his first grade class got.
MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH!
The title read, it was an invitation to moms to come to school and have an early lunch with their children.
This wouldn’t be so bad if Peter had a mom.
He remembers bits and pieces of spending the holiday with his mom before she died. He always spent Mother’s Day with Aunt May.
Aunt May…
Peter folds the paper and pockets it, instead of putting it in his school folder like all his classmates are doing. He’s planning to discreetly trash the flyer, he doesn’t have a mom. He doesn’t even have a grandmother. Also his aunts are to busy to come on a week day for a small brunch. There’s no need for him to bring the slip of paper home.
“Oh shit…” Dick murmurs while looking at his laptop as he sits at his small police desk.
“What is is?” His police partner Amy Rohrbach quizzes. “Did something about that case we are working on came up?”
“No no,” the man shakes his head. “I just got an email from my son’s school about a Mother’s Day event.”
“That’s it? What’s wrong with that?” The woman raised an eyebrow.
“My son’s mother isn’t in his life.”
“Oh… I forgot about that…” she says sadly.
“Anyways, what am I going to do?” The father pinches his brows.
“What have you done before?” Amy asks as she looks over some papers.
“We just ignored the holiday all together. This is Peter’s first year in school.” Dick explains. “This is also his first time experiencing an event like this.”
“You can just go. Moms go to their kids father’s day events when there isn’t a dad around.” Amy suggested.
“Can’t, we have that training meet up with the rookies.”
Amy was going to suggest inviting a grandmother but remembers her partner’s mother is dead. If his child’s mother isn’t in his life, she doubts that a maternal grandmother would be in his life also.
“Does he have any aunts that could show up?” She questions.
Dick’s posture changes, like a light bulb turn on in his head. “He does,” He brightens up. “And I just know the person to ask.”
Amy goes back to drinking her coffee as Dick makes a phone call.
It’s the morning of the Mother’s Day Brunch and Dick is being particularly too excited for Peter’s liking. Today is supposed to be the day that the young boy watches his peers hangout with their mother figures as he sits in the corner and internally mourn for his Aunt May. He could help but feel his dad’s excitement is just rubbing salt on his wounded heart.
Peter was trying very hard to hide his annoyance with his father’s elated behavior.
“You’re going to have an awesome day I just know it!” His dad announces as he drops him off at school.
All Peter could do was nod an “Yep” his way out the care.
“I love you, bug!”
“Love you too, daddy!” The 5-year-old yells back.
The Mother’s Day brunch has begun. Other kid’s moms walked into the classroom one by one. Each child runs up to their respective adult excitedly.
It was just only moms that came. Their was one or two grandmothers that came in. Someone’s stepmother arrives to hang out with their stepchild.
So there was Peter, the only one of his peers without a mom to spend the event with.
“Where’s my Pumpkin Eater at?” A familiar voice that made the boy gasp out loudly.
He looks toward the door, watching a recognizable redhead wheeling herself in.
“BABBY!” Peter shouts as he runs to his aunt. “Babby! Babby!” The boy cheers as he climbs onto his aunts lap. “What are you doing here!?”
The woman could only chuckle as she looks at her little nephew with loving eyes. “I came to see you silly.” She says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“But-But I didn’t tell Daddy, I threw the paper away.”
“Your Dad got an email about.”
Stupid emails!
“Wanna go get some food?” Barbara asks.
“Yes!”
There wasn’t a wide selection. Peter got a small cup of apple juice, a blueberry muffin, and two chocolate chip cookies. Barbara got a small water bottle, a banana, a croissant, and couple of grapes.
When the pair were done eating, they were encouraged to go to the crafts table and decorate a picture together. As they work together, a song from the teacher’s playlist began to play.
“Skidamarink a dink a dink,
“Skidamarink a doo,
“I love you.”
Peter and Barbara had their picture taken as they glued on plastic gems on the frame. The picture would be printed out to be put in that same frame by the end of the day.
“Skidamarink a dink a dink,
“Skidamarink a doo,
“I love you.”
Peter is glad he got to spend the morning with his Aunt Babs. No one could replace Aunt May, but Barbara helps fill that void in his heart that yearns for his beloved May.
Nights as Oracle can be tough. Barbara has to multi-task by writing codes at lighting speed, looking at people’s backgrounds, looking through surveillance footage, and so much more.
Some nights she can feel exhausted and overwhelmed. When she felt like this, she would always glance the poorly colorfully decorated frame that showed case a picture of her and Peter at the Mother’s Day event.
Whenever she looked at the picture, she was reminded that she needs to push through and continue her work to keep her nephew safe.
She goes back to typing as she hums to herself.
“I love you in the morning,
“And in the afternoon,
“I love you in the evening,
“And underneath the moon.”
“O, what are you humming?” Spoiler asked through the comms.
“Just a cute silly song I heard a while back.” She replies.
“You sound really happy humming the tune.” The blonde says.
“I really like it. Reminds me of a happy time.” Barbara answered.
“Skidamarink a dink a dink,
“Skidamarink a doo,
“I love you.”