Not that different, after all (Emma, Peter, Open for visitors)

[winters-love.livejournal.com]

Emma had no recollection of being rescued. Which made sense, as she was unconscious at the time. When consciousness filtered back to her, and she found herself to be quite without pain, she jumped to the obvious conclusion. She was dead. She had obviously moved on to the Beyond and Thomas would be there to welcome her, as she didn't even know he wasn't dead anymore...

As Emma's eyes fluttered open, she started to realise the Beyond looked a hell of a lot like Peter's hospital and it was probably the effects of the very drugs that were keeping the pain at bay that made the realisation that she wasn't dead, but in fact, actually in Peter's hospital come quite slowly. Emma groaned, wondering how she'd gotten here, though the feeling was brief and buried under miles of relief. She turned her head and she caught sight of her brother-in-law, sitting in the corner of her room, looking quite broody... "Peter." Emma whispered, and then she closed her eyes in relief. "Oh, Peter-"

Peter's lips thinned, but he dragged his chair forward so he could be closer to her. "I'm sorry they got to you, Emma." Peter whispered, and he was completely serious about that.

"I didn't think anyone would come!" Emma said, moments away from dissolving into tears. "You have no reason to come for me."

"That's bullshit." Peter hissed, and then he leaned back with a sigh.

"You had no reason to know I was gone." Emma sniffed, opening her eyes again so she could look at him. He didn't look happy, but he didn't look angry either. That was something. Emma had abandoned his sister and his nieces, Peter had every reason to be angry.

"That's why I have the dreams, isn't it?" Peter said flatly. "I wouldn't leave you to them."

"I would have." Emma said, ruefully.

"Well it's a good thing we're not you then, isn't it?" Peter let his snarkiness slip through for a moment before biting his lip and reigning himself in. "Sorry... Emma, I let Svetlana into my family after she killed Thomas. Because she changed. Do you think I would leave my actual family to those horrible men because they made a mistake?"

"You think of me as family?"

"Whether you do or not." Peter nodded. "Your surname is the same as mine now, Emma. You're family." Peter softened then. "Are you in much pain?" Her joints were badly swollen from the rack, and she had wounds all over, but he hoped the morphine was doing it's job.

"Not much." Emma smiled then. "Thank you for drugs."

"Hey, that's my job." Peter said, wiggling his eyebrows. "I remember what it was like. If...if you need to talk."

Emma knew Peter had been through it all. More than once. But she didn't want to talk yet. She was just enjoying lying there without aching. "Later. Maybe later."

"Fair enough. Can I get you anything? I suggest something easy on the stomach." He added, remembering he had vomited up everything he ate for nearly a week and a half after his ordeal with the Templar. "Just take my word for it."

"Soup. I want soup. Peter...is erm...is Liz around?"

Peter took a deep breath then, and he shook his head. "She was here. To make sure you were safe. But she didn't want to be here when you woke up. Emma, I know they were trying to get you to give her your name. Thank you. Thank you for keeping my sister safe. For not giving in."

"I asked for their forgiveness." Emma whispered, sounding horrified at herself now that it was safe to do so.

Peter smiled ruefully and he stood. "So did I, Emma." His face was self-depreciating also, but his smiled widened when she looked shocked. Everyone thought of Peter as unbreakable when it came right down to it. When it really mattered, Peter was made of stone and more. To know that he had begged the Templar for forgiveness was a rare glimpse of weakness in an otherwise impenetrable force field of will Peter Kemp seemed to summon from out of nowhere when he had to. "See. We're the same, you and I."

"No." Emma admitted. "You never would have left."

Peter shook his head and he looked away, ashamed. "I did leave. What do you think I was bloody doing in Austria for the first ten years of my daughter's life?! I was a priest and I denied her existence to anyone who knew me without knowing her. I saw her every few years and I loved her more than anything, but I still left. Don't put me up on a pedestal I don't belong on, Emma."

Emma had forgotten. She hadn't known Peter then. All she knew was the Peter who seemed to be the father figure for more people that she could ever fathom knowing. The idea that he had left his family behind to be a priest was...unthinkable. "I forgot..."

"Lucky you." Peter said, though it was without an ounce of snark then. "I came back." He added. "I came back and I didn't leave again. Never without the intention of coming back, anyway. And I never would. My family is everything to me. And I do believe they are everything to you too. You were afraid. I was too. But you know now that you won't ever be left in the cold if it takes you. That's not how this works." Peter reached out and he patted her hair lightly because it was about the only place safe to touch that wouldn't hurt. "You and I...we're not so different after all. I'll go get you that soup." He said, leaving her then, to her thoughts.

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[empress-tasha.livejournal.com]

As Peter was leaving, Tasha passed him in the corridor, and gave him a warm hug. In the end, neither of them had had to join Deirdre and Caoilfhionn in the Templar stronghold, though they'd both been prepared. Tasha was still dressed for action, having not been home yet. There wasn't much point in changing, seeing as she hadn't even gotten sweaty, let alone bloody. Besides, she looked good in black lycra pants and a tight tank top. They were the clothes she worked out in, but just as suitable for a raid when she couldn't get access to riot gear for it.

She knocked on Emma's open door when she reached it, and gave her a smile as she entered the room. She never thought a smile would be what she greeted Emma with the next time she saw her, but that was before she'd gone through unthinkable torture to protect Liz from the Templar. "Hey, you."

[winters-love.livejournal.com]

Emma looked up and she caught sight of her daughter's girlfriend, and immediately guilt settled heavily in her stomach. "Tasha...hi..." Emma looked ashamed, but she didn't allow herself to look away from the girl. "I...don't know what to say."

[empress-tasha.livejournal.com]

"I don't expect you to," Tasha said, and pulled up a chair by Emma's bedside. "And you don't have to, either. You're not on trial, though I don't blame you for feeling that way." Her instinct was to reach out and take Emma's hand, but she looked like everything was sore right now. Not at all like the glamorous woman Tasha remembered. What Tasha remembered as well, was how bad it had been for her, in the clutches of the Templar, and Emma had been with them a lot longer. "I know the sort of things you would have gone through," she said quietly. "I want to thank you for holding out until Deirdre and Caoilfhionn got there. That was... pretty fucking amazing. We've known they had you for a while, but then we had to find you. That was the hard part."

[winters-love.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think anyone would come." Emma admitted again. "I wasn't hanging out for anything." She didn't tell Tasha she had almost given up Liz's name. Not now when it didn't matter. "I just...couldn't let them have her."

[empress-tasha.livejournal.com]

"Of course not," Tasha said softly. "She was a huge part of your life. Even what happened between the two of you... it doesn't change what you were. Nothing can erase that. I think... the past is the only thing that can't change." Tasha didn't want to suggest any more than that, but the hint was there. She'd changed, and everyone knew it. Emma could too, but she had to want to, no one could make her. Which was why Tasha wasn't going to push the issue. Besides, now was hardly the time for pushing.