That Aly is a wise woman, and Gareth is a meanie! (Peter, Aly, Gareth)

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Aly's procedure had gone just as planned, and she was lying in the recovery room now, cradling little Lauren in her arms. "You're so beautiful." She whispered to her daughter. Daughter. She had a daughter she'd given birth too. A daughter that was partly her and partly her wonderful Peter, whom she adored more than life itself. It was a dream come true.

Even if the situation at the moment, certainly wasn't. Peter entered the room and Aly looked up at him, knowing what he was going to say before he said it. "You should go." She said softly, as it certainly wasn't a harsh thought there. It was compassion. "Peter...go to Deirdre." Deirdre was in a hell of a lot of trouble and Peter could stop it. The visions could lead him there.

"I...I don't want to." Peter sat on the edge of Aly's bed and he gazed at his newborn little girl, reaching his finger out to brush her tiny hands. Lauren gazed up at him, eyes unfocused and Peter adored her. "I don't want to leave."

"Of course you don't." Aly soothed. She gave him a tired smile.

"I just...running out on you. On our family...I have a responsibility and I despise people who just don't seem to care, and-"

"Peter! You're the last person who would just 'run out' on his family. You can't die, so you're not going into a situation where you might deprive us of you...and I wasn't around for the first week of Thomas's life..."

"You had a heart attack while giving birth!" Peter said incredulously. He sort of thought that was a damn good excuse...

"Yes. And you have brain-splitting visions which aren't going to make you very helpful anyway, Peter. Especially if you're going to have to be ringing someone up every three hours to give them more information. I know you don't want to go. I also know you have to."

"I'll miss you..."

Aly smiled at him and she pulled him forward so she could kiss him. "I will miss you too. I have to stay here for a few days to be pampered. Svetlana can stay with the kids. And Mama and dad too. Even David if need be. You know he would in a second. We will be taken care of."

Peter nodded mutely. "I should...I have to talk to Garth. Already said goodbye to the kids. Except Lauren." Peter leaned over and he kissed his daughter's tiny head. "I love you, Lauren. So much." He was going to miss so much too. Her first few days. Dammit, dammit, dammit all to hell. "You take care of Mummy, okay?"

Aly chuckled softly. "She'll be my little protector?"

"Aly?" Peter reached out and he brushed her cheek with his hand.

"Yes, Peter?"

"I love you. You're...everything-"

"I know." Aly didn't need Peter to reach for words he didn't really have at the moment. She knew exactly how Peter felt about her. About their family. He never let them wonder and she didn't need reassurances. "I feel the same, Peter. I love you too. Go help our Deirdre?"

Peter nodded. "Nothing will keep me from doing so." He stood and kissed Lauren again before giving Aly a more lingering kiss. Then he left her room, wishing he knew how to shut off his emotions, even for five minutes.

With a heavy heart, Peter climbed the stairs to visit with Gareth the vampire. It was 5:30 in the morning. Gareth was not going to be happy... Peter knocked on his door loudly anyway, hospitality be damned. Gareth was a patient, not a guest anyway...

Comments

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

Even though vampires were supposed to be nocturnal according to mythology, the hospital ran on standard human hours, making it simply a matter of convenience to sleep through the night and be awake through the day. At 5:30 in the morning, Gareth was indeed asleep, though he was roused quite smartly by Peter's rather loud knocking. He groaned loudly, then as the knocking continued, he yelled out, "What?! Where's the fucking fire?"

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"Not a fucking fire." Peter said, letting himself in then. He just wanted to make sure Gareth wasn't going to be in the nude when he walked in. "I need to ask you about something rather important. About the people who had you before you came here to London. The traders or whatever the fuck the fucking cunts were." Peter was mad. When he was mad, he swore a lot.

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"It couldn't have waited until morning? These aren't my therapy hours," Gareth grumbled. He sat up on the bed and rubbed at his eyes, then reached for his glasses on the bedside table. "Bloody hell, Kemp. I think maybe you're not quite as sane as I thought last time."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"I assure you my mental faculties are as intact as ever they were." Peter said flatly, though that wasn't necessarily reassuring. Sometimes Peter got a little crazy...but that's because he thought with his heart and not with his head. "And no, this can't wait. I've been having visions. And before you think that's just me being mad, they're real. I had them before the tumour. They help me help people in trouble. But this is...I've been seeing my friend. She was taken and she needs me. And in the visions, there's an auction and I know you...can you tell me anything about them, Gareth?" He knew it might be painful to relive, but it was better than making Zoe do it. Zoe was his niece. And Gareth was a dickhead.

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"Ah, so this isn't for my benefit then," Gareth responded dryly. "Well, that makes more sense. Alright, Peter. I'll play your game. But since you came barging in here at this ungodly hour, it's going to cost you." He raised his eyebrows, hoping that Peter's response would indicate just how much the information was worth to him. So far, it seemed like it would be of substantial value...

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Gareth thought Peter had wanted to give him therapy at 5:30 in the morning? What the hell? And now he was demanding something?! "You...you fucking..." Peter was keeping him in the hospital to keep him out of prison and now Gareth was demanding more? When it came right down to it though, Peter wasn't in a position to refuse. Deirdre wasn't in a position for Peter to refuse. Not for information that was necessary.

"Fine! Fine whatever. You know I can't let you out, though..." God, he was going to ask Peter for a fucking whore...

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

Gareth leaned back against the wall, his hand stroking his chin. That was the only limit, hmm? Very interesting. Very interesting indeed...

"Aurelia," he said, she being the first thing that came to mind. "I want to see Aurelia. No hassles, no interference. In exchange, I tell you everything." Aurelia was good. Sex and blood...

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Peter licked his lips and he shook his head. "Gareth...Aurelia doesn't work here anymore. Remember? She...attacked my wife looking like me with her bloody stupid mind tricks." And she'd been the main star in Peter's sex dreams, but he hadn't known she was sending them, dammit! "I have no idea where Aurelia is, and if I did, she'd be in a room just like yours, only I wouldn't be half as pleasant..." Peter growled.

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

Gareth snorted. "That'd almost be amusing enough to watch in itself. Be kinda funny, seeing the look on her face." He sighed, and crossed his arms. God, he wanted a coffee. But he wasn't going to exchange his information for that. "Alright, Peter," he said finally. "Two things a growing boy needs. Sex and blood. Talk to me."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Peter groaned. "Gareth, I am not going to be able to get a woman to come in here and sleep with someone she thinks is a mental patient!! And if I do, I could get sued or...something terrible could happen. I'm sorry...I know it terrible, but you got yourself in here. You have to deal with it. I...I don't know if I could find a donor either but..." Deirdre was running out of time. Dammit, they were stalling too long already. "Fuck. Fuck. Just...look, I...you can have my blood. Not all of it!!"

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"You serious?" Gareth raised an eyebrow, but he wasn't unimpressed. Peter was no angel, but he was the boss. That counted for something. A power-play. And he did kind of taste like angel from across the room. Gareth was no genius, but he was smart enough to know that this was probably the best deal he was going to get, since Peter had a good point about the whores... "Alright, it's a deal."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"Fine. Just...do it then..." Peter didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do now. Vampires weren't anything like they were in the movies, and he certainly wasn't a busty lady for Dracula to feed off of. He was just a man. Who happened to be an ex-angel and possessing of one of the purest auras around. That didn't help in this scenario. "What...do I do?"

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"Just sit there and take it," Gareth said with a shrug. "As in, you might actually want to sit in case you go a bit funny." Gareth moved closer to Peter, ready to do the deed. He reached for the man's wrist, then stopped and looked up at him. "You know this doesn't make me gay, right?" Since Peter was going to live through this, he just had to make sure.

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Peter had the urge to hit his head repeatedly against the wall, but he refrained just then as he sat down. "Yeah. I think I can handle that, Gareth." Then he closed his eyes, because he didn't have the feeling this was going to feel too good. "If you give me rabies, I'm so having those teeth removed."

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"Hey. Just remember who's been the more likely to bark like a dog between us over time." Then Gareth lifted Peter's wrist to his lips, and bit into the vein. The blood spurted into his mouth from the holes he made with his surgically-sharpened incisors right away, delicious warmth filling him. The vampire's eyes rolled back in his head as he drank of the sweet, life-giving elixir. Peter may not have been Aurelia, but his blood was still more potent than a normal human's, and humans tasted pretty good. This was brilliant. Peter certainly qualified as a nummy treat. In a purely bloody and non-sexual way...

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Peter winced because ow. And he had not barked like a dog, dammit. Cheeky fucking vampire. Peter began to feel a bit lightheaded and his head rolled to the side a bit as he let out a sound that was somewhere between pain and distress.

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

Gareth was aware enough to realise that Peter was growing faint, and clued in enough to realise that taking too much wasn't going to get him anywhere except into trouble. Reluctantly, he relinquished Peter's wrist, and licked the blood from his lips. "Mmm," he said approvingly. "My compliments to the haemogoblin."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Peter pulled his arm back rather lazily. "Uh." And then he tried to lean forward. "Just...gonna sit here a moment. You got a..towel? And information. Fetch while talking, come on."

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

Gareth snorted, but did what he was told. "Right you are, guv'nor." He fetched a towel from a small set of shelves that were the closest thing he had to a closet, and dropped it in Peter's lap. "When they had me, the slavers were in Stockholm, Sweden. I was a demon when they got me. Wings, black eyes, the whole bit. Cunting ghost left me after we'd been locked up too long. Go figure," he said, looking around the confines of his room. "So. They're not short on firepower. They like drugging our lot, must use fucking elephant tranquilisers or something. Story was always the same. Out like a light, then we wake up in our cages."

"The guys running the show are rich, and their security is practically paramilitary. They can afford shit like that with the prices they charge for slaves. Auctions are invitation only though, pilgrim, and good luck getting ahold of one of those. Still, if you're smart, you'll be able to find them. Angelboy who led the rescue mission said the cocky buggers advertise. You just need to be able to read between the lines."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"I've never had a problem reading between lines, and people do tend to see my money as incentive enough to invite me places I wouldn't otherwise get to go. I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about..." Her. He was worried about Deirdre and Rosa. "So they drugged you and sold you. And they're in Stockholm. Fucking hell." Peter looked up at Gareth, though it was still sort of sluggish. "Gareth they...what did they do to you while you were in there? While you were waiting?" What had they done to make Gareth's spirit leave him? There weren't many who would just give up right away. It took a lot for a spirit to leave a body it was comfortable in.

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"Nothing. That was exactly the problem," Gareth grumbled. "They kept us in a constant, drugged-up stupor. We were in tiny little cages. Not even big enough to stretch out in. Made this place look like the Hilton. Wouldn't mind a bit of that Paris..." He cleared his throat. "Anyway. The auctions aren't that frequent. Gotta collect us all, first. I was there a long time. You try having muscle cramps for a month, see how long you last."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"Uh...yes. I don't...mm." He had been through that, but he didn't feel like telling Gareth about his motorcycle accident, nor did he think this was the time for it. "But they don't...hurt you?" Peter didn't want them to be torturing his Deirdre. He knew not being able to move was horrible yes. And being drugged up was no picnic either. But it wasn't a Judas Chair... "Did they harm you in any way beyond...that?"

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"No," Gareth said, shaking his head. He frowned. "That'd be damaging the merchandise. Can't have that. Nobody wants their pet angel or what-have-you scarred. Least not before they get bought. Can't vouch for what happens afterwards." Thank fuck...

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"Oh...right." That made sense. "Okay I...I should go then." Peter stood slowly, holding the towel to his wrist. "Thanks for what you told me." Even if he had to pay a price, dammit.

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

Gareth gave a low chuckle. "Peter old man, for the chance to see you stick it to my old enemies, I'd have given you that for free." He gave the man a toothy grin. "Good luck, I mean that. Make 'em hurt for me."

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"You Fu-" Peter was about to say he couldn't believe Gareth...but he really could. "You are so not getting this month's Playboy!" Peter said, giving Gareth a 'hah HAH' look. "And I will. Make them hurt."

[vampire-gareth.livejournal.com]

"Me fucker?! You fucker!" Gareth shot back. "I hope you sit on a tranquiliser, Kemp! Then... stick it in someone's eye." As much as Peter could be incredibly annoying sometimes, Gareth hated the slavers a hell of a lot more. The fact that Peter was about to take the fight to them made it really hard to be angry at him. Even over Playboy.

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

"There's a mental image I won't forget any time soon..." Peter backed towards the door. "I'll keep it in mind though..." And with that, Peter was gone, headed downstairs to meet with Alexei. They had to hurry.