REMY WAS STARTING TO GET CONCERNED WHEN HE WALKED INTO THE LIBRARY TO ONCE AGAIN FIND SOMEONE OTHER THAN PETER SITTING AT THEIR USUAL TABLE. He and Peter had been having much more frequent sessions, as Remy's grades were still rather subpar, though they didn't go on for as long as they used to, but since before Valentine's Day, something had come up, so there had been substitutes, which had bothered Remy greatly, as he craved stability and needing warnings early on in advance, but it wasn't as if he didn't necessarily enjoy their company.

The first day, he had been tutored by a girl who mostly read her books and perused through the shelves while he worked, occasionally chatting with one of the volunteer librarians, but always going back and helping him with his English and taught him a lot about current events in the short amount of time they had together.

The next day was a fun boy who, according to him, was Peter's best friend and somewhat of a sidekick, and when he finished helping Remy with his science they talked about video games and superheroes. Not much homework got finished that day, but Remy did enjoy himself.

The last day, he was taught by a boy who clearly did not want to be there, but claimed that he owed Peter a favor. He was very intelligent from what Remy saw, and he found that the two got along rather well, despite the initial disinterest the boy held towards him, as he realized that his tutor wasn't naturally smart, like his other tutors; it was nice to see someone smart who had to work hard to do it.

Today, however, was another girl who was supposed to help him with his grammar, as he had a test that Monday. She had hair so blonde it was almost white and was wearing a silver band on her left ring finger, which let Remy know that this was Peter's infamous girlfriend.

"Isn't it a conflict of interest that you're the one tutoring me?" was the first thing he asked, because he would be the first to admit that he was rather fond of Peter, and meeting his girlfriend for the first time wasn't necessarily high up on his list of things he wanted to do.

Instead of a scathing response, he got a laugh and a smile, the girl making sure she pulled out the chair he always sat in, patting the seat. "Peter's alright at grammar, but it's not his forte, so he sent me. He'll be here for your next session, but he wanted me to explain that he had to deal with an emergency than tell you himself."

"Why didn't he want to tell me?" he asked, climbing onto the chair and pulling out his books, still not ready to warm up to her entirely.

"Because you scare him," she said, and she smiled, "I'm Diana, by the way."

"I'm Remy," he replied, opening his binder, "I want a good grade."

She smiled, looking over his practice test. "Oh, don't we all..."

º º º

It was a few hours later and Remy came home to his mom preparing for her cross which would take place first thing the next day. He had been dropped off by Tony, who promised to drop by later, though he had been avoiding the house since Valentine's Day.

"How was your tutoring session?" Birdie asked, reading glasses perched on her nose, just barely glancing up from her work.

"I met Peter's girlfriend," he said, toeing off his shoes and moving to sit on the couch, his mother seated at the counter.

"Did you learn something?" she asked, half paying attention, scrolling through an article.

Remy licked his lips as he thought back to his conversation with Diana. In some way or another, she had wound up telling him about the death of her parents, and how she didn't blame Tony, at least not anymore. It had all stemmed from Remy grumbling about how he hated Mark. She explained to him that he didn't have to forgive anyone if he felt they didn't deserve it, but that if he wanted to, it was okay if he did.

"I learned who and whom," he said, and it seemed to be the right response for the both of them, because Birdie didn't ask any more questions and he didn't feel the need to tell her anything more.

Booting up his game console, Remy played for a few minutes, glad that he could just relax on the weekends. It was as if things were back to the way they used to be, before Tony and his tutoring and everyone, really. It was just him and his mom. They weren't really doing anything together, but they were in the same room, and that was enough, really.

"Why is Tony avoiding us, did I do something?" Remy asked, finally unable to help himself.

Birdie looked up immediately, shocked, and opened and closed her mouth, as if her tongue had disappeared, finally able to stutter, "No! No, of course not, you did nothing wrong."

After a moment, he asked, "Did you do something?"

Birdie sighed heavily, dropping her head before raising her eyes, giving him a sad smile. "Yes. I think I did."

Remy blinked. "Oh God, did you—"

"I don't even want you to finish that sentence, young man," she commanded, holding up a hand, "I'm going to pretend that you don't know anything just yet and haven't been secretly watching Game of Thrones with BUDDY behind my back."

Remy pursed his lips, glad to just be able to nod and go along with what she was saying instead of getting in trouble; he didn't think she'd find out, he had covered his tracks so well; he even used his Aunt Jayne's account when watching.

She sighed, tapping her fingers against her laptop. "Nothing happened. Things just got...emotional, that's all. There's nothing to worry about."

Remy nodded before a moment, thinking it over. Finally he said, "You need to see a psychologist."

Her jaw dropped and she almost looked offended. "What are you saying?"

He shrugged, and it was probably his conversation with Diana had that gotten him to this subject in the first place. "There's nothing bad about it. But you gotta talk to someone, mom. I think psychologists are better than therapists. I think it's because they have more time to learn, so they really know what they're talking about. But that's just what I heard. But you gotta talk to someone, 'cause you've been getting worse."

Birdie just stared at him, more than shocked at this point. "What do you mean?"

Remy shrugged; he might be young, but he noticed a lot. He noticed it after Mark left, but he had started seeing it long before. But he never really thought about it that closely until Thanksgiving. That's when it stopped making much sense, when it became harder to just brush aside certain things.

"I don't think you even know," was all he knew what to say.

Birdie just continued to stare, not moving or speaking, hardly breathing or thinking, until nearly two minutes later when she finally asked, "Would it make you happy if I did?"

Remy paused for a moment before replying, "Yeah, but shouldn't you be doing what makes you happy?"

She gave him a small smile, shaking her head. "That hasn't been an option for me for a very long time."

There were many things he wanted to say, but the first words to come up were, "So will you do it?"

She nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

º º º

"You know, after I had sent away Remy, I didn't think I'd get another referral from Tony, but I guess that's what happens when you're a socialite."

Birdie tried to laugh as she took a seat across from the incredibly young man who looked more than a little sleep deprived, but it fell short, and he gave her a sympathetic one in return. He had a jaw that was made for smiling, and she couldn't help but feel at ease with him.

He sighed, leaning back in his seat. "You can tell me whatever you want, but...I like to start from childhood, as that tends to have most of the answers. Are you alright with that?"

She could feel herself break into a cold sweat, her entire body reacting to the suggestion, her skin prickling and her chest constricting, and she found that it was getting way too hot in the room and much too hard to breathe. She forced herself to calm down, pushing away the short flashes of memory that threatened to surface.

Nicky watched her for a moment before saying, utterly serious, "I hate to do this to you, but I don't think childhood is an option anymore. Go at your own speed, but we need to do this."

She ran a hand through her hair, laughing ruefully. "Well, if it makes my son happy, I guess I have to."

Nicky shook his head. "Don't do this for your son. Do it for you. My God, don't do it for anyone except yourself."

She shook her head, already feeling tears start to prick at her eyes, and she hated how much she'd cried in just the past few days. "I never do anything for myself. No one ever lets me."

Nicky leaned forward, trying to catch her eye. "Then start now."

So, after over forty years of silence, Birdie began to speak.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So we're starting to get somewhere so it's time to, um, prepare ourselves.

Let's hope the people who were confused about all my other Diana references will read this author's note even though they never read any of the others: Diana Smith is from Lonely Hearts, my Peter Parker fic, which takes place before this particular fic.

And for those who don't know, the reason Peter wasn't there was because of events that are still yet to occur in my fic Sleeping Beauty, which takes place in the same universe as this one.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!