darker_london | Early morning distractions (Peter, Aly, Baby Thomas)

It was six in the morning when Aly awakened to a hungry baby Thomas, more requesting to be fed than demanding it. She picked him up and carried him down the stairs, passing Peter who was in the living room, surrounded by books and papers. Once she'd prepared the bottle for her son, she stepped back in to the living room and she raised her eyebrows, holding a contentedly suckling baby in her arms. "Darling...have you been down here all night?" Aly wouldn't have known really, she did sleep through practically anything. Except baby sounds.

"Huh?" Peter looked up at Aly as if he was just noticing her presence. Which was probably darn close to the truth anyway. "Oh...yes?"

Aly shook her head and she went to sit in a chair near him. "You're a worry, Peter Kemp." She said, though her voice was fond. She didn't mind at all when he did things like this. It meant he was helping someone. In ways no one else really bothered to help. She'd known when she married him that she would have to share him with other people and she didn't begrudge him that at all. She wasn't selfish enough to take the one person who refused to give up on these demons away from them. "Have you at least had anything to eat. Or tea, even? I can make you something when Thomas is finished eating."

Peter smiled lightly at Aly and then he moved over to kiss his son's head. "You don't have to do that. I think the words are all blurring together anyway. I need to stop sometime. Besides, I keep reading 'Ganub' as 'Grub' and it's weird to read about grubs tearing people's hearts out..."

Aly raised her eyebrows. "I'm sure that's quite true. Also disgusting, what are you reading?!"

"Khoikhoi mythology...though I probably pronounced that wrong."

"Cocky...wh..okay then."

"The mythology our African demon keeps talking about." Peter said, rubbing his tired eyes. "There has to be a reason she thinks she's a god which is probably not so much schizophrenia and more that people told her she was. Because she seemed confused about her power, merely happy to continue to repeat that she had it. And she made no mention of chips in her head or the government listening in, though maybe I just didn't understand it because it wasn't in English." Peter sighed and he closed the book heavily. "I should go speak to her again."

"Yes, I agree. After you sleep." Ganub seemed fond of battering Peter around the room and Aly hated that. The more alert he was, the less likely he was to be hurt. "You are still getting over your whole...dying ordeal, anyway."

Peter looked over at her and he reached up to caress her cheek lovingly. "Yes, ma'am. No more dying. And sleep soon."

"Good then. I'll go put Thomas back down. You'll join me?"

"I certainly will." Peter watched as she left the room and then he buried his face in his hands. He wished he could explain the real reason he was up studying until 6 am, reading and re-reading the same damn line of text for hours on end. Sure, he wanted to help Ganub and it was a perfect excuse to escape to the living room and focus on something not Aly. As soon as the research was over, and he was lying there with his wife in his arms, there was nothing to distract him from the fact that Aly's pregnancy was fast reaching it's end. And considering what had happened the last time she'd given birth, Peter feared that day like no other. So much so that he needed the solace of research. It was better than the solace of alcohol. He could not lose Aly. He just couldn't.