That was all he could think, and he found himself silently repeating it over and over as he watched the woman who'd given birth to him basically freak out. He should have just lied. But didn't she deserve the truth? He thought he did, so she should, too. "There were issues. My social worker didn't tell me much. She just calls them my first home now. But they lost custody, I guess." Yeah, it was a little out of the ordinary. But Peter had gotten used to it. And he never meant to make Jane panic the way she was.
He'd been holding up pretty well, he thought. Until she was there, in front of him, asking him to come stay for a while. That was too much. Now he looked like that was the whole reason he'd come here. Begging like a little lost boy who just wanted a home.
Which essentially was what he was but he didn't need her thinking that.
He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to breathe properly and, most importantly, not to cry. "I didn't come here to try and get you to take me in," he protested. "You have a life now. I'm not going to get in the way." No one wanted to claim your almost grown son. Even he knew that. "I just wanted to see you. And....I guess to know why."