Burden of Knowledge (Lydia, Peter)

[father-peter.livejournal.com]

Peter had spent the day wishing he was more mobile so he could be with the Littleton family in their time of hardship. They were his family too. Thomas was his best friend, and poor Julian was so hurt...it pained Peter to know that the family was suffering. That Spectre was suffering. But he couldn't do much beyond ringing them several times to tell them he loved them really a lot.

He was lying on his stomach on his bed, staring at his journal when Lydia walked in to his bedroom and dropped her bag on the floor at the foot of the bed. She swept her brown hair off her face and sighed. "Dad. People are horrible."

Peter raised his eyes at his precocious twelve-year-old and he slid the journal away from him. "Did...did someone hurt you?" He asked warily, always one of his first concerns. People had hurt his Lydia before. Katherine had hurt his Lydia.

"No." Lydia sat on the edge of the bed and Peter did a sort of ungraceful half-roll so he could sit beside his daughter.

"What happened, Sweetheart?"

"Some girls got in a fight. One was Hayley's sister. Apparently this total bitch in her year was talking about the fire. Spectre's fire? And they had pictures and Hayley's sister had a friend who got hurt and so she got mad and they fought."

Peter frowned. "I'm sorry about your...friend's sister's friend... You...probably don't have to use the word 'bitch'."

"But she is a bitch."

"Heh. Right. She probably doesn't understand because she didn't know anyone involved. I suppose sometimes it's easy to be detached like that. People distance themselves from tragedy when they can, to protect themselves."

"The people at that school are so horrible, Dad. They just...they don't know anything. Most of them are just rich and stupid."

"Honey..." Peter rubbed Lydia's arm. "They're just kids." Rich kids, yes, but then so was Lydia. But the difference was that Lydia was not spoiled. They didn't have limousines and butlers and cooks and the like, because Peter didn't enjoy that sort of thing. It was why he didn't want to be in the manor, leaving that to his sister instead. Their house was large and nice, but so was their family. It was still half the size of the Kemp Manor House, which Peter believed to be a lot of wasted space, even if it was his childhood home.

"I'm a kid. And I know more than them."

Peter wished to god she didn't. "I...I know..."

"Sometimes they talk in the hallways about how their lives are so hard because their stupid little skirt doesn't fit anymore, or this boy they like won't talk to them. But those things don't matter."

"Those are the things that are supposed to matter when you're young..."

"But...the girls talk in the bathroom about throwing up to stay thin and they just don't know. They have money so they don't know what it's like. They didn't have mothers who used all the money up on drugs. Or mothers who kidnapped them. Or demons who kidnapped them. They don't know what it's like to really be hungry. They're choosing it. They can't understand what it's like to be so scared because you never know when you will eat something again. It's just...shit."

Peter rather felt like his heart would break, and for a brief instant, he wished to do unholy violence upon Katherine, but Katherine was dead. She couldn't hurt Lydia anymore. And it was his job now, to pick of the pieces of what she had done. "First of all...those poor girls. They need to speak to someone about that. I could speak to the counsellor at your school... And...secondly...Lydia, you've experienced things that no child should have to. Some of those students will have too, unfortunately. You grew up fast. They'll catch up to you. What you had to live through...it hurts when I think about it. And I think about it every day because I left you to that without knowing it. But you are an incredible girl. Young woman. You see things that you wouldn't see otherwise. I'm so grateful you're not hurting yourself to be thin. Because you understand the implications of that. You know true hardship, but that doesn't make what they are going through any less valid. Just...different."

Lydia looked up at him. "So they're not just useless snobs?"

"No. And I don't believe the Lydia I know would truly think that of anyone. No one is useless, Lydia. They just don't have the frame of reference that you do. And I think...instead of resenting them for that...you should probably be glad that they didn't have to face what you did. You wouldn't want anyone else to suffer that, would you?"

"No." Lydia said glumly. "No I wouldn't. Are you disappointed in me?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Never. Everyone has to learn, Sweetheart. That's part of being human. Which we all are, even if we also happen to be angels or demons or werewolves or... whatever Rowan Atkinson is..."

Lydia giggled at that and she leaned against Peter. "Okay. I'll keep learning then."

"What a fantastic idea." Peter leaned over and he kissed Lydia's head. "Which leads me on to the topic of homework."

"Aw, Daaaaaaddddd."

"I know, I'm simply horrible." He held out his hands for her bag. "Show 'em." Lydia handed Peter her assignment books, but she was much less annoyed about it than she sounded. She was just loving that her father was still alive. He hadn't been taken from her after all. And he could tell her she had to run 10 miles in the rain and she'd do it as long as he was there at the end to give her a hug and a mug of hot chocolate. "Oooh, you get to study Greece!"

Lydia snorted. "You're a total nerd!"

"A Greece nerd! Oh you will be too. Greek myths are the best myths. Would you like me to tell you some?"

Lydia grinned and she curled up at his side. "Yes please." He told the stories better than the books did, anyway.