Oh Dearest Me, Part 3 (Peter, Aly and Klaus)

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

It wasn't Peter who answered the door, but Aly. Which, all in all, was probably for the best because Peter would have screamed and slammed the door in his dead father's face. Aly had seen a few pictures of Klaus, but not enough to remember him at first glance. Especially not when she had no reason to assume he was going to drop by. How was she to know Rolf had gone crazy and was bringing people back from the dead all willy nilly? Klaus was not someone Peter spent a lot of time talking about. He had no reason to focus on the man who had died when he was fourteen. Even before Klaus had died he hadn't been an exemplary father. So when he rang the bell and asked to see Peter, Aly simply told him to wait and she dashed up the stairs to find him. "Peter? There's a reasonably attractive older man at the door for you!"

Peter blinked and he shifted Lauren to one arm so he could open the door for his wife. "Do I...know any reasonably attractive older men? Well, I suppose there's Johan, but I think King and Country would frown on that."

"Why, because he's your cousin?" Aly reached out for Lauren and the little girl was transferred between them, seemingly unaware of what was going on. Lauren was not an affectionate baby. "I think King at least, would be used to that by now."

"Okay, no more talking for you." Peter kissed her forehead. "I'll let you know if I get lucky."

"You'd better!" Aly called after him. Peter took the stairs two by two and when he pulled open the front door to reveal his father, he very nearly wet himself. And might have, had he not remembered that Klaus Kemp did not consider such things acceptable. Even when you were four and Klaus wouldn't let you out of the car to use the toilet. Peter had nothing to say. In his wildest dreams, he had never expected to see his father again. To have to stare into his face again. Even if it was on the same level now, instead of so far above him it was like staring at a stone idol of disapproval.

"Peter." Klaus nodded once, looking uncomfortable. Peter hated the way Klaus said his name. So cold and German.

"I'm dreaming." Peter surmised. He took several steps backwards, shaking his head emphatically. "I'm dreaming and you're not here."

"Rolf heard what you said about Gabriel."

"Wha?"

"About Gabriel having trouble with Jane. He thought it might be best if-"

"This is about Gabriel?!" Peter squeaked suddenly. Gabriel had come to Peter for help, and Rolf had thought Klaus was the best way to get Gabriel's marriage to Jane back on track!? Hell, this was the reason it had derailed in the first place, standing on his stoop, looking all tall and...bossy.

"Peter." There were things Klaus wanted to say. A lot of things. But now that he was here, he found he didn't know how to say them. "I thought Rolf would have told you."

"Rolf's half-mad." Peter shot back, already on the defensive, even if his father hadn't said a word that would necessitate that. Why did the man have to make him feel this way, even now at thirty-eight?! And why what he back anyway? Why couldn't he have stayed dead!? Peter had absolutely no idea what to do. This was more confusing than seeing Katherine again. This was...horrible. If he hadn't had practise in dealing with shocking people showing up on his doorstep many times before, he wouldn't have been able to form words now. Still, they did not come easily. "Why did you come here?"

Klaus looked taken aback. He hadn't expected to be asked that question. He had thought it would be obvious. "You're my son."

"Didn't seem to make much difference when I was growing up. I knew you didn't approve of me then and I know you won't approve of me now. And you want me to invite you in so you can have at it?"

"Do not address me like that, Peter Gabriel Kemp!" Klaus hissed.

Peter felt like his insides were shrinking as his father set in on the commands as if no time had passed whatsoever since his death, and Peter was still the little fourteen-year-old who couldn't do anything right. "I'm sorry." Peter whispered. His hand clenched on the door, causing his knuckles to go white. And he willed himself to wake up from this nightmare because surely this wasn't happening.

"And it's rude to keep me standing on your doorstep." Klaus walked in, uninvited, because it was his son's home and it had been his wife's before that. He closed the door, pulling it roughly out of Peter's hand. "It's cold outside."

"I know. I know, I'm so sorry..." In thirty seconds Peter had gone from righteous anger to shamed child. And he certainly did feel ashamed that his father could still get this reaction from him. But inside hid a deep fear of what his father was capable of. Klaus was a Kempf. His little brother, Wolfgang, headed up the Kempf crime family and fed people to lions. Klaus was not beyond violence. Creative violence.

Aly stepped down the stairs to see how Peter was going with his flirt-o-gram, and she was surprised to see him looking miserable. "Peter?" She joined them at her husband's side. "Would you care to introduce us?" When Peter just stared at her blankly, she gave him an odd look and then held her hand out to the dashing man. "Alyona Kemp. I'm Peter's wife."

"I know who you are." Klaus said, and his voice was not warm, but he shook Aly's hand anyway. "Klaus Kemp."

"Ah." Aly nodded knowingly. "I see. You're one of the family from Germany then?"

"I am." Klaus nodded back.

"What are you after this time?" Aly reached up to adjust her bra strap because it had slipped down over her shoulder. "Are you here to take offense to Johan's wedding?"

"Bertolt got married?" Klaus asked, now looking quite incredulous. "He married that blank woman, didn't he?"

"Er..." Aly gave Peter another strange look, but he was just as frozen now as he had been several minutes ago. "No. An Austrian man, actually. I've never heard of you before. There are a lot of you. Peter's father was named Klaus, though you'd know that, of course."

Klaus looked amused then and he even smiled. "I would indeed. I am Peter's father."

All of a sudden, Aly understood why Peter was frozen, and she felt like her insides were shrinking too. "Oh."

And then there was a period of a minute and a half where no one said anything, and all three of them stared into space, looking at anything but each other, until Aly artfully cleared her throat and Peter decided he'd better grow some balls and say something. "I uhm...should check on the baby..." Real brave, that.

"Oh no you don't!" Aly protested. "Klaus, I assume this is Rolf's doing. In which case you'll need a place to stay. We have a spare room in the basement-"

"The basement is the servant's quarters!" Klaus objected.

Aly raised her eyebrows. She did not deal well with snobbery. "We don't have servants. What we do have are two rooms in the basement, or a shed in the back yeard. Peter once pissed in the corner, but it's pretty weather-proof."

Peter looked horrified that his father should know such a thing. "That's a really long story!"

"I'm sure that it is, Peter." Klaus growled. He could not believe that he had come back from the beyond to sleep in servant's quarters. "Downstairs will be adequate." He cast his eyes back to Aly's shoulder. Her bra strap was slipping down again, bringing the sleeve of her shirt with it. And she really was lovely.

Peter caught his father staring at his wife and he was sure he had never been so disturbed. "Stop!" He yelled, and he covered Aly's shoulder with his hands. "What is wrong with you?" Aly, for her part, just look bemused.

"Peter, I do hope that we can use this time I have to come to some sort of understanding." Klaus completely ignored Peter's horror at his attraction to Aly.

"An understanding?"

"There are a great many things we need to put behind us." Klaus continued. He eyed Peter up and down, and he was not entirely impressed by what he saw. Peter folded his arms around himself, feeling violated. "I will retire for this evening, but I'd like to speak with you tomorrow. When is breakfast served?"

"When you get up and make it?" Aly suggested, with a smile that was all too polite.

Klaus' face twitched involuntarily. "The Spanish women we had in Dresden were much more obedient." And then he walked away, knowing how to get to the basement without being shown.

Aly's face was filled with pure rage and Peter actually had to catch her before she followed him and let loose a veritable flash flood of Spanish swear words slandering anything from his heritage to his proclivity towards having sex with donkeys, true or not. "Honey, no! Just calm down!"

"Calm down?!" Aly screeched. "I am going to empuje un coco arriba su extremo y le cortó la cabeza con un alambre de piano y lo alimenta a una jirafa y cuando la jirafa lo caga fuera alimentará que a un puerco como él merece!"

Peter blinked. "I only understood half of that, but it sounds very painful..."

"¡Odio el peinado alemán y su disposición odiosa!"

"Aly...he's an arsehole, alright? Don't listen to him."

Aly took several deep breaths and then she relaxed in Peter's arms. "I...I can't believe you came from that man."

"Yeah." Peter swallowed, with difficulty. "I uhm...he didn't...there wasn't much-" Peter bit his lip and he looked over to where his father had disappeared through the doors of the kitchen. "I didn't really spend much time with him, growing up. I suppose...he never really rubbed off on me."

"Why is he even here?"

"I don't know. Look...can we just...go upstairs so I can hide from my daddy for the rest of my life?"

"Oh, Peter. Of course we can." Aly reached out for his hand and she gave it a squeeze.

"Besides, we're forgetting the most important thing here."

"What's that, Peter?"

"You totally perved on my father." Peter said with a smirk, and Aly swatted his arm. "Ow! Daddylover."

"Peter Kemp!"

It was an attempt to make himself feel better, and it was working so he went with it. "Gold digger. Seducer of the elderly."

"Well that last one's true, I married you." She said, giving him a triumphant look.

"Oh! Oh! That's it, you're grounded and you can't watch MTV anymore!" Peter grinned. "And no sneaking out to go sniffing around for dates at any early bird dinners or bingo games either, Missy!"

Aly laughed and she pressed herself up against him, nuzzling his chin. "You are half-cracked, do you know that?"

"Mmm, I might be somewhat aware." Peter purred.

"Come on, Cradle Robber. Let's go hide from your father." And Peter was hardly going to argue with that.