Her joy hit me like a physical force—pure, uncomplicated, overwhelming. I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her slightly off her feet, feeling her laugh against my neck.

"Love you too, Mom."

She pulled back, wiping at her eyes and trying to laugh it off. "Okay, okay. Before I start crying in a parking lot like a lunatic. Come on, let's go home."

The Mercedes GLE sat under a harsh parking light—graphite gray, spotless despite being parked at a hospital, looking expensive and protective and exactly what I'd wanted for her. She pulled out her keys, but I plucked them from her hand before she could protest.

"I'm driving. You've been on your feet for twelve hours."

"Peter—"

"Mom. Please." I opened the passenger door and gestured. "Let me take care of you for once."

She looked at me for a long second—something soft and unreadable in her expression—then nodded. "Okay, baby. Okay."

Luckiest Mother

I waited until she was settled before closing her door and walking around to the driver's side. The GLE's interior wrapped around me—leather, wood trim, and the faint new-car smell that still hadn't faded. The seats adjusted automatically to my saved profile. Little things that made her life easier.

I started the engine. Smooth, quiet purr of German engineering. Pulled out of the lot slowly. No rush. Just driving.

"So what suddenly got into you?" she asked, sinking deeper into the seat and pulling my jacket—her jacket now—tighter around her. "Coming all the way to the hospital? You seemed fine this morning."

"I was fine. Still am." My eyes stayed on the road. One hand on the wheel. "Just… missed you. Wanted to be near you. Can't really explain it better than that."

She made this little sound—half-laugh, half-sob—and reached over to hug my arm. "You're going to make me cry again, saying things like that."

I freed my right hand from the wheel and let her cling as much as she wanted—both her hands around my arm, cheek pressed against my shoulder. I drove one-handed through the empty L.H. streets, slow and aimless, taking the long way home without her noticing.

"Tell me about your day," I said. "What happened?"

And she did. She told me everything—twelve hours of chaos compressed into one soft, exhausted monologue. The patient who'd coded but lived. The attending who was brilliant and impossible. The new nurse who kept screwing up but was learning fast. Every story, every detail, spilling out in that way she only did when she was tired and happy and finally safe enough to talk.

I drove slower than I had to. Took side streets instead of the highway. Let the red lights stretch longer than they should. Just to hear her voice—soft, worn, alive.

I didn't need the stories. Didn't care about the hospital politics or the medical jargon. All I cared about was her voice washing over me—warm, grounding, real. The sound of home.

With Mom, the world stopped demanding I think three moves ahead. I didn't have to plan, predict, or protect. I could just be. Just listen. Just exist in the quiet rhythm of her words, her touch, her presence.

For once, I wasn't the strategist, or the builder, or the man trying to change the world.

I was just her son.

And that was enough.

"And then Dr. Morrison—you remember Mrs. Morrison, Jack's mom?" Mom was saying, and I made an affirming sound, keeping one hand on the wheel. "She came through the ICU doing rounds, and Peter, she looked terrible. Like she hasn't slept in weeks. I almost felt bad for her."A pause."Almost. But then I remembered how she treated you when you were so young and that feeling went away real quick."

I smiled despite myself. "She still giving you problems at work?"

"She tried. But now that I know I don't need this job?" Linda laughed, that post-shift kind of laugh that comes from being too tired to care. "I've gotten a lot braver about telling her exactly where she can shove her attitude. What's she going to do, fire me? I'd love to see her try to explain that to HR."

"That's my girl," I said, smirking a little.

She squeezed my arm tighter, pressing in close. "I'm so proud of you, you know. Of everything you've become. Everything you've done for us."

"Mom—"

"No, let me finish." Her voice took on that tone—the one that meant she was shifting from playful to serious, that soft tremor right before she said something she actually felt. "You know what I tell everyone at work? About you?"

I glanced over. The dashboard lights painted her in soft amber, catching the grin tugging at her lips. "Yeah?"

"I tell them my son is the reason I drive this car." She patted the GLE's dash like it was some kind of sacred relic. "That my brilliant, wonderful boy made it happen. That he takes care of his family better than anyone I've ever known. That I'm the luckiest mother alive."

My throat tightened. Chest went heavy. Eyes stung in that annoying way that meant emotions were creeping in where they weren't invited. It wasn't the road—it was her voice, her pride, that quiet, sincere warmth that hit harder than anything I'd earned or built.

"After all," she went on, hugging my arm even tighter, cheek pressed against my shoulder, "you're the most important man in my life. Of course I tell everyone about you."

Fuck. I was gonna cry behind the wheel if she kept talking like that.

"You're acting like you're my big sister, not my mom," I said, trying to throw some humor in there, anything to keep from falling apart. "The way you're hugging my arm."

She laughed—God, that sound. That real, belly laugh that cracked through everything and made the world feel okay again. "See if I care. I'll hug my son however I want."

And she didn't let go. Her hands stayed wrapped around my bicep, cheek still resting on my shoulder, body angled toward me like she wanted to close the space between us, but the damn center console wouldn't let her.

And I didn't want her to let go either. I wanted this moment to stretch out forever—the two of us gliding through empty L.A. streets, her voice filling the quiet, her warmth pressed into my side, the world outside fading into nothing but lights and motion and breath.

Mom was my world. My everything. The one who'd been there before the system, before the money, before the power or the women or the bullshit empire I was trying to build. The one person who loved me when I had nothing.

She'd given up everything for me. Worked doubles, triples. Skipped meals. Wore shoes till the soles gave out. All so I could eat, so I could have a home, so I could make it in a world that didn't give a damn about kids like me.

And now? Now I got to give some of that back. Got to drive her home in a Mercedes. Got to make sure she never worked another shift she didn't want to. Got to finally be the man she always believed I could be.

I wanted to lean into her, to just pull over somewhere and hold her till whatever the hell was in my chest stopped burning. Wanted to tell her she was it—the reason I fought, the reason I built, the reason I became whatever the fuck I was becoming.

But the words stuck. Too big. Too raw. Too fucking real.

So I just drove. Slowly. Carefully. Her hands still clinging to my arm like she never wanted to let go.And honestly—neither did I.

And she didn't.

Kept her hands on me. Kept her body pressed close, like she was scared I'd fade out if she let go. Kept chasing more contact like she needed my skin the same way I needed hers—like warmth could fix both of us if we just held on long enough.

The mansion appeared up ahead—those soft, warm lights spilling through tall windows, safe walls, home. But I wasn't ready for this drive to end. Not yet.

Wasn't ready to stop hearing her voice, that tired, steady rhythm that somehow felt like it was holding the world together. Wasn't ready to lose this fragile bubble of quiet between us—just me and Mom, two people who'd walked through hell together and somehow came out the other side breathing.

So I kept driving. Blew past the gates, looped around the block like it was part of the plan. Let her keep talking. Let her keep holding my arm. Let the night stretch a little longer, selfishly.

Because this—her voice, her warmth, the soft weight of her against me—this was what I'd been missing. What had me walking 2.7 miles in the middle of the damn night just to see her.

Not conquest. Not the empire. Not the power or the women or the noise that came with all of it.

Just Mom. Just Linda Carter. The most important woman. The only woman who'd ever made me feel grounded and small in the best possible way. The only person who could make me forget the sharp edges of who I'd become.

And right then, she was exactly where she belonged—safe, warm, wrapped in my jacket, telling me stories I wasn't even fully hearing but couldn't bear to stop listening to.

Because yeah—fuck power, fuck control, fuck all of it.

This right here? This was everything.

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