Responsibility (Peter, Hospital peeps)

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

People were everywhere.

The hospital's helipad was quite convenient for delivering Peter where he was needed. Abby, Katia and Stuart met the wayward group on the roof and Peter found himself being hugged by no less than six arms, two of which almost knocked his very important sunglasses off of his face. That was a lot of arms for someone who had just spent three weeks in a hole in the ground. "Okay, okay," he muttered as he dislodged himself from the pack of them. "I need to get to the basement."

"Peter, you should let Lucian have a look at you first," Abby insisted, glancing nervously at Aly and Thomas who both shrugged. "You don't look-"

"I am completely aware of how I look!" Peter snapped, and Abby looked taken aback. "I'm not going to break. Please, stop...looking at me like that. All of you. I'm fine."

Everyone tried very hard to look anywhere but at Peter. Which wasn't easy since he happened to be the person they were all here to see.

"I have to see Darren and Evan."

"It's 2:39 in the morning, Peter..." Stuart checked his watch and looked back up again.

"I know." Peter began to move away from the helicopter, but he got tired mere steps away from it and he knew if he kept going, he was going to fall. A huge sigh escaped his lips and he glanced towards Katia. "Alright, maybe...not having to walk down the stairs wouldn't be such a bad idea..." He was exhausted and traumatised and was an electronic wheelchair really that much to ask for? He did own the hospital.

One electronic wheelchair and an elevator ride later, and Peter was tooling towards Darren's room. He had strictly refused assistance from some very upset employees, but Peter knew Darren and Evan well enough to know they wouldn't accept anyone else's presence. And he was right. Darren wasn't asleep, but he had been sitting at his table, shredding the books Razvan had brought him into little pieces. When he felt the slightly angelic feel of Peter's aura, he stood in hope. Then the door opened and Peter didn't walk in, but he was there. "Peter!"

Peter did not look happy, nor did he look well. He looked sick and disappointed even from behind the sunglasses, and immediately Darren looked ashamed. "Darren, is it true that you almost broke Dr Abby's arm?"

Darren sat back at the table and he bit his lip. "Hi, Peter..."

"Hi. Darren, why would you do that?"

"You...weren't here?" It seemed like such a pathetic excuse now. Before, it had seemed like the most legitimate thing in the world. "Where were you?"

Peter closed his eyes and refused to think about it. "It doesn't matter." Peter looked at Darren again, and he crossed his arms across his chest. "You and I have made amazing progress, Darren. And I come back to...what?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Are you really?" Peter did not look convinced. "Darren, I'm sorry I wasn't here, but that doesn't give you the right to hurt the people who are around to take care of you. And since when did you lose faith in me?"

"What?!" Darren looked shocked. If he had faith in anyone, it was Peter Kemp. "I..I didn't!"

Peter looked up at Darren and he removed the sunglasses from his face. The light hurt his eyes and he had to squint, but he wanted Darren to see him. "Darren, it doesn't matter who tries to take me away. I will always come back." Peter didn't mention the doubt he had had about that very thing occurring, because it was no longer relevant. "No one and nothing is going to keep me away. Do you understand that?" Darren nodded. "So the next time I go missing..." inwardly Peter shuddered. Somehow, there was always a next time. "You will behave yourself around the people I trust to take care of you. Is that understood?"

Darren nodded again. "Peter...are you alright?" Peter was the only one Darren ever showed concern for, and right now he was terribly concerned. The man was talking and he sounded firm and determined, but something was off.

Peter looked down at his hands and he shook his head. "I'll come back. Get some sleep." He left then, Darren watching him go.

* * * *

Peter finally entered his hospital room, and Aly and Thomas jumped off the bed to help him up. Aly walked him back over to the bed while Thomas readied the room so one of the doctors could look him over. "How did it go," Aly asked lightly.

"Evan hugged me tightly. I think...he opened some...er..." Peter just pointed to his back and Aly winced. "And Caoilfhionn wanted to sit on my lap. It was not comfortable."

Peter sat on the bed, and he stayed silent once Ken entered the room. He gritted his teeth while he was cleaned up and stitched up. He agreed that an IV was a good idea, and he allowed himself to be hooked up, even though it felt like he was once again chained to a wall, even if this wall was more an IV stand he could roll around with him. He let everything happen around him as if he wasn't really a part of it.

When Ken left, Thomas went with him, and Peter and Aly were alone. Aly helped Peter lie back in the bed, and Peter felt like he was going to sink straight through the mattress after so long sleeping on wood and rock. It felt good to finally let his body relax, at least as much as he could relax at all. The pillow fluffed around his head and he was half-way worried it might try to suffocate him later. He didn't have enough energy to care. He wouldn't stay dead anyway.

Aly ran her fingers through his hair and she smiled sadly down at him. "My Peter... Can you rest now?"

Peter just sighed and he threw his arm over his face. "I don't know, Aly." His other hand found hers, and he gripped her tightly. Weakly, because it was all he had left, he pulled her towards him. "Come. Come on. Please? Lie with me?"

Aly, who had never had any intentions to do anything else, inched over on the mattress and she stretched out beside him. She pulled Peter close to her, so his head was resting on her chest. "Now you can rest," she whispered, her hands still in his hair because of his injured back.

Peter wasn't so sure. There was work to do, and Peter couldn't rest. The Templar wouldn't. If he rested, they could take away the people he loved. They could take him away again. There was so much to do and if he didn't do it, who would? No. He couldn't rest. He couldn't...

Peter was asleep in his wife's arms withing two minutes, and as Aly held him, he finally got some rest.