darker_london | Daddy Dearest (Peter, Edward)

Jacinta and Edward Montgomery had spent the entire afternoon at Peter's house, playing with their grandchildren and helping Aly with Lauren who seemed determined to be difficult. Peter reckoned she had already cried more in her short life than Baby Thomas had in his. Though, according to Aly, Baby Thomas had cried a lot in the days he'd been all dead. Peter couldn't imagine his little Thomas like that, nor did he want to. Lauren, he couldn't imagine now, in any other way.

Once both the babies were down for naps, and Jacinta was playing with the other kids, Edward approached his son-in-law. "Can I talk to you, Son?" He asked, looking quite grave.

"Er...of course Edward." Peter wasn't used to parents and his first thought was, 'oh no, I'm in trouble!!' It was hard to keep himself calm as Peter led the way into the kitchen so they could talk in private. When they were alone, Peter cleared his throat, and he looked at Edward with worry. "Yes?"

Edward smiled lightly. "I'm not going to interrogate you, Peter. You can relax."

Peter realised he'd been tensing his shoulders and he gave a self-depreciating laugh. "Sorry. What would you like to talk about?"

"You actually." Edward walked forward and he leaned against the counter, fixing Peter with a concerned gaze. "I'm worried about your noggin, Son."

Peter raised his eyebrows and he blinked in confusion. "My...what?"

"Your brain! You collapsed the other day at the hospital. I understand if you're just tired." Hell, he had had three kids and they kept him busy enough that sometimes he thought he'd forgotten how to sleep. Or maybe it was Jacinta that kept him busy... "But I'm worried it might be something more malicious. Like that distasteful tumour business." Edward waved his hand around.

Oh right. Peter had collapsed because of a vision, but that he could not explain to Edward... "That tumour business certainly was distasteful." Peter said, trying not to look amused because there had certainly been nothing amusing at the time! Edward just made him giggle. "I'm alright, though. I promise."

"You're not going wacky on us?" Edward narrowed his eyes. "It'd be a pity to put you in your own nuthatch."

"Hah! Yes. Yes it would!" Peter smiled then, reassured that he was not, in fact, in trouble. "I'm not going wacky. I was just a bit ill. But nothing you need to worry about, I promise." Peter did his best to sound reassuring.

"Damn good thing." Edward nodded, and then he acted quite English as he straightened things on the counter, refusing to look at Peter while he said his next words. "Because we'd hate to lose you." Peter knew enough about Edward now to know that meant Edward would hate to lose him, that's just the way he said things. "It was a hard time when we thought we had. I didn't care for it."

"I didn't care for it either." Peter shook his head, trying to keep his Petery emotions in check so he didn't hug the reserved man and call him 'daddy'. That he should probably leave to his wife because she could get away with it. "Thank you for looking out for me, Edward."

"Well, you're my son. Don't need to bother with the 'in-law' I don't think. Do you?" Edward finally stopped straightening things and he looked up at Peter.

Peter shook his head. "No objections from me. My father was a lawyer."

"Har! Enough said!" Edward stepped forward and he clapped Peter on the back. "So we're agreed then!"

"Yes! Wait, on what again?" Peter looked over at Edward and he waited.

"That you're not allowed to lose your marbles again, Son, keep up!" Edward laughed. "I'll write it down for you." And he led Peter back out into the living room.