darker_london | Bloody Ties (Peter, Anna, Lydia)

Life in the Kemp household had not been entirely pleasant of late. Peter was mourning the loss of his best friend, and he was doing his best to work through it to be there for his family. Because even while he grieved, Aly was also grieving. And the way things were, she seemed worse off than he was. Peter was doing most of the work at home, which he certainly didn't mind, though it gave him little time to help Aly let alone himself.

Peter had been darting around the kitchen, trying to organise school lunches and breakfasts and baby bottles. He has holding little Lauren while baby Thomas sat in a high chair and banged against the tray because Peter hadn't had a chance to feed him yet. "Just a moment, Thomas." Peter said, his voice harried. "Your sister's taking her sweet time." Peter glanced down at Lauren who was still slurping languidly at her bottle. Then he kissed her head in apology for sounding impatient. "Caleb, do you have everything in your lunch? Sandwich?"

"Check!"

"Apple?"

"Check!"

"Crackers?"

"Check!"

"Do you have your coat?"

"Affirmative!" Caleb stumbled a little over the word, but he looked pleased with himself for saying it and even more pleased when Peter chuckled.

"Have you tested your blood sugar?" Peter asked, hefting Lauren into one arm so he could fetch Caleb's milk carton.

"Yes! I'm in the green zone, Daddy." That was their not-so-subtle code for Caleb's blood sugar being stable. When it was high and he felt sick, he complained he felt like he was in the red zone. Peter was thankful everything was okay at the moment though, and Caleb raised one arm in the air in triumph, adding proof of his own pleasure to the outcome.

Peter chuckled and he leaned down to kiss Caleb's head. "Perfect. Eat another piece of toast, it's good for you." Peter ruffled Caleb's hair affectionately and then he glanced around the kitchen to see what else still needed to be done. "Lydia!!" Peter called towards the ceiling. "Lydia, do you have your lunch?"

Peter did not recieve a reply from Lydia. Instead he heard a scream rip through the relative chaos of their Friday morning, throwing everything off-kilter. And it was coming from upstairs. Suddenly panicked, Peter raced to put Lauren into her playpen. He put her bottle on the table and he took Thomas down from his high chair, placing him in the playpen as well. Both of them started to cry, Lauren because she hated not being held, and Thomas because he was hungry. But somewhere, someone was screaming and Peter knew it was one of his daughters. "Caleb, you stay with them!" Peter directed, and then he raced upstairs. He found Lydia in the hallway, pointing to the bathroom, her face white. "It's Anna." She whispered. "In there."

Peter nodded. "Could you go downstairs and watch your brothers and sister, please?" Peter asked Lydia, his voice strained. Lydia dashed down the stairs to do just that as Peter knocked at the door, frantically. "Anna?! I'm coming in, Honey..." Peter twisted the door knob and he was relieved to find it unlocked. He burst into the bathroom and his jaw dropped when he found Anna standing in the middle of the floor, face as white as a sheet. She was naked from the waist down, her pajama bottoms in a crumpled pile by the shower. She was holding bloody knickers in her hand and she looked up at him in panic.

Peter put a hand to his forehead and he breathed an internal sigh of relief. The way she had screamed, it had sounded like she had hurt herself. Or...like someone else had. "Oh, Honey. It's alright. Remember how your mother and I talked to you about-" Peter hesitated there because Aly had handled the conversation about becoming a woman and Peter had sat on the sidelines, looking uncomfortable. As an ex-priest, he was getting better at handling the topic of sex, but when people brought up bleeding from the nether-regions, he still handled it about as well as a teenage boy did. "-becoming a woman." He finished with a gulp. "This is normal. I can go find..." Aly wasn't available... "Tasha. Tasha will be able to help you. And I'll get you some clean clothes if you want to take a shower. You can stay home today too if you'd like."

"Okay." Anna said weakly. She sniffled and she looked up at him sadly. "Daddy, I...I don't feel so good."

"Oh, Baby..." Peter knelt down in front of her, and he grabbed a hugely oversized towel to wrap around her so she wasn't standing in front of him naked. It draped around her small frame more like a blanket. "I'm so sorry you feel ill. Are you sore?" He so wasn't a woman. He had no idea how to best approach this... Anna nodded. "Where does it hurt?"

"All over." Anna mumbled unhappily. And Peter wondered if it was supposed to do that. "It was like...in Melk. Sometimes there I woke up and I was bloody there-"

All at once, Peter felt sick. Bile actually rose in this throat and he had to swallow quickly to keep from vomiting, leaving an unpleasant taste in his mouth. But whatever taste was in his mouth, hearing his daughter admit that was much more unpleasant. Anna had been the victim of sexual violence in Melk at the hands of Abbot Brunhardt while she had lived in the children's home there. Peter had adopted her and taken her away from the horrible place when he left the abbey, and Anna was usually a perfectly happy and well-adjusted kid. Peter hated the idea that something natural like menstruation would cause such horrifying memories to surface. To make her think that something like that could have happened again without her knowing, just like it had in Melk because the bastard had drugged her...no wonder she was screaming and ill. He hated this so much his skin flushed red with the force of his anger. He managed to keep it under wraps in front of his daughter, however. "Oh, Honey..." Peter wrapped his arms around her and he kissed her hair. He noted, with horror, that she was shaking in his arms and she felt clammy and somehow cold and hot at the same time. "Anna...you're safe now. You're safe here. It's going to be alright, meine Schatz."

"Ich habe Angst, Daddy." Anna said quietly into his shoulder.

"You don't have to be afraid, Annachen." But then Anna stepped away from him and she wiped a hand across her clammy forehead, leaving behind a trail of red, and Peter's own insides twisted with fear. He was sure she had not had blood on her hands. And she had discarded the knickers when he had wrapped the towel around her. Now there was most definitely blood on her forehead. Quickly, Peter reached out for her hand, and when he stretched it out to have a look, he saw that it was bloody too. "Anna..."

"Daddy?" Anna hadn't noticed what he was doing because she was staring at his chest, her face frozen in terror. Peter looked down at himself, and he found that his t-shirt was stained with blood where her face had rested against him. Peter felt his heart seize up and it skipped several beats in fear.

"No...oh no..." It couldn't be true...

"Daddy, why are you bleeding?" Anna asked, sounding weaker every moment. "Are you becoming a woman too?" And then Anna swayed dangerously and Peter caught her easily. He scooped the tiny girl into his arms and he bundled her more tightly in the towel. This didn't have anything to do with maturation. Anna was an angel, and Peter had seen so many angels bleeding like this lately... He had never considered that his daughter might fall victim to the infection that seemed to take down supernaturals with incredible ease.

"We have to go." Peter carried Anna down the stairs in his arms, and he darted quickly back to the kitchen where Lydia was waiting for him, looking terrified. She had Lauren in her arms, and the tiny girl was fussing, but she wasn't crying. Thomas was still bawling from the playpen, and he looked both confused and annoyed because his stomach hurt and no one was feeding him. Thomas was not used to not having his needs attended to, and the confusion and distress was understandable. "Lydia, call your grandparents. If they can't come over, you need to call someone else. Abby or ...not Deirdre." Deirdre could get ill. "Stuart or Flynn or Tamm. If you can't find anyone, you can ring me and I'll send someone from the hospital. Tell them Thomas hasn't had breakfast yet, alright? He needs to be fed. Anna's sick and I have to go. Will you be alright?"

Lydia nodded, her face still pale with worry. Her little sister was sick and Lydia was terrified she wouldn't be okay. Still, she had things to accomplish and that would keep her from worrying until there was someone there with them. "I can do it, Dad."

"I know you can, Lydia. I'll call you." Peter gave Lydia a quick kiss before racing out the door to his car which he technically shouldn't even have been driving. At the moment, he didn't care. He needed to get Anna to the hospital. Then entire way there, Peter's heart pounded in his chest. He continued to talk to Anna, hoping to keep her grounded and with him, but her responses continued to fade. By the time Peter raced through the doors of his hospital, Anna was barely awake and the towel he had her covered in was soaked in blood.

Several people rushed to Peter's aid, including Lucian Wentworth. "Don't touch her!" Peter yelled quickly to Lucian, and the angel's hand shot backwards and he glanced at Peter with a straight face.

"She's sick?" Lucian had just assumed she had been hurt. A rather dangerous assumption.

Peter nodded. "Where's Ken?" Dr Kenneth Tracey was human and he couldn't be harmed by touching Anna. He was undertaking most of the care for the afflicted patients.

"Through here." Lucian led Peter quickly to the area of the hospital where the patients suffering from the mystery disease were taken. There, Peter handed over his daughter and then he watched in horror as Ken cleaned her up, disposing of the infected articles of clothing. Anna was transferred to the quarentined ward and Peter stood outside a plane of glass, looking in at her.

Dr Tracey stepped out of the ward, and he placed his hand on Peter's shoulder. "We need to dispose of these clothes, Peter."

Peter looked down at his bloodstained clothes he had completely forgotten about. "Right."

"And you'll need to step through decontamination. Just a precaution, but with as many demons and angels you're around, it's for the best-"

"Is this my fault?" Peter continued to stare through the window at his little girl who was now hooked up to machines and tubes and she looked so small and breakable... "Did I do this to her?" Peter's heart clenched when he realised he could have transferred it to Rasputina too. His demon daughter. Rasputina who wasn't even two.

"I don't think so, Peter."

"But you don't know?"

"No one does." Ken gave Peter a sympathetic look and he led Peter towards decontamination. "Peter, she's in the best hands possible."

Peter nodded. He knew. He had hired them because they were the best hands possible. But this was his daughter. His world. And having it so recently shattered, he didn't think he could take that again. "Yeah." And Peter wasn't reassured. But he did his best to make sure that he didn't infect anyone else through his own incompetence.