The Truth (Peter, Lydia, Kemp Family)
Peter certainly had not expected his thirteen-year-old daughter to come tromping home with her hair newly purple. In fact, when Peter first looked out the window to see who was making their way up the walk, he thought Lydia had brought home a friend. Then he blinked and realised the girl with the purple hair was Lydia. Peter rubbed his lips with his one hand for a moment as he was holding baby Thomas in the other, and he watched her before he went to the door to greet Lydia, Anna and Caleb.
"Look at her hair!" Anna yelled, running towards the door as Peter held it wide for them. "It's beautiful!" Purple was Anna's favourite colour.
"Urpey!" Thomas shouted, pointing at Lydia's head.
Peter smiled at Anna and when he looked back up to Lydia, she looked almost as if she were smirking. "I see it." Peter said with a nod. The expression on Lydia's face told him everything he needed to know about why she'd done it, though that certainly didn't mean he wasn't going to bring it up. In fact, considering it seemed that she did it to get a rise out of him, he felt it would be bad parenting form not to bring it up. "Why don't you get started on your homework. You too Caleb." Peter waved to Liz, who had dropped the kids off and he bit down on his lips to keep from chuckling when she gave him a wave and then a 'good luck!' look right back.
"I'll help you with your maths if you help me with English!" Anna yelled, and she raced upstairs ahead of her little brother, making quite an incredible amount of racket. He heard Aly call them in, and he knew they would do their homework in there with her where she was playing with little Lauren.
Once her siblings were upstairs, Lydia walked into the living room, looking quite put upon. "Oh my god, am I in trouble?!"
Peter followed her, shifting Thomas to the other side so he could hold him better. "Lydia, honestly." Peter said gently. "How many times have you been in trouble with me, hmm? Of course you're not in trouble." Peter was not a parent who would punish his children for having their own identity. Certainly not. Liz had been a wild young woman, and Peter's cousin Kat had pink hair (or she had...) and he loved the fact that both of them were who they were and they weren't afraid of that. Lydia, however, wasn't necessarily someone he had seen as a person who would go around with purple hair. Anna, yes. He rather expected that as Anna grew up, she would go through quite a few hair colours and probably a dangerous boy or two as well, unfortunately. She was much more outgoing than Lydia was. Lydia was studious and reserved. She rode her horses and got top grades and until a month ago, she was as polite as anything for the most part, though she had a stubborn streak in her that Peter knew came from him. "If this is what you want, then it doesn't bother me. It bothers me a little that you didn't tell me."
"You mean ask you?" Lydia shot back, raising her eyebrows.
"No, I mean tell me." Peter said, keeping his voice calm. "You're thirteen, if you want to dye your hair purple you can. If you want to wear spikes and leggings, as long as it's not inappropriate, be my guest. I would never stand in the way of you discovering your identity like that." His father had. Peter hadn't liked it.
"What's inappropriate?" Lydia asked as she held her hand out for her little brother to latch on to. "Hmm?"
"Well I don't fancy you in a low cut top or a skirt slit up to the...area." Peter wrinkled his nose up. "I just tend to think it's asking for trouble. And if anyone hurt you, I'd have to replace their esophagus with my rake handle..."
Lydia giggled at that, until she remembered she was supposed to be annoyed at him so she stopped. "Yeah, whatever. I'm not a slut."
"I...I know that!" Peter said, incredulous. "Lydia, when did you dye your hair?"
"At lunch." Lydia said with an air of indifference. "All the girls did. Brianna said it would drive her aunt mad. So her hair is orange and Carmen's is green. And I'm purple."
"Ah, driving people mad. Always the best reason to change one's appearance." Peter said, sounding slightly disappointed, and Lydia understood that Peter had thought she was more mature than that. She didn't like disappointing her father. But she was also a thirteen-year-old girl who knew she was going to live forever and now her father was not. And that sucked. "I'm surprised you agreed at all. You were quite happy when your hair grew out the last time it was dyed." Katherine had dyed Lydia's hair black when she had taken her to Paris so many years ago. It had taken six months for Lydia's hair to grow out enough that she could cut off the rest. And she'd been so grateful to look like herself again...
"I chose this." Lydia insisted.
"It doesn't sound like you did." Peter disagreed. "It sounds like Brianna wanted you to. She wanted to make her family angry and you didn't really want to but you did anyway. Did you think it would make me angry too?"
Lydia shuffled her feet. "Do you even care!?"
"Lydia, of course I care!" Peter moved to put Thomas down in his playpen so he could take Lydia by the shoulders. "Not being angry doesn't mean I don't care! It means I want you to experiment. Try things out. Not...drugs, but clothes. Hair. Music. All that stuff that allows you to express who you are. Do you really think purple hair is who you are?"
"No." Lydia said grudgingly. "And I am not going to try drugs! Like I want to end up dead in a fuckin' shower."
Peter closed his eyes for a brief moment, remembering how he had found Katherine. Lydia's mother, who had killed herself because she saw no other way out of her addiction. "I know you're smarter than that, Lydia. And if this purple hair isn't you, why do it?"
"To make you notice me!" Lydia yelled then. "To make you look!"
"Lydia!" Peter couldn't understand. He saw his children every day. He talked to them. He tucked them in. Yes, he was a busy man and sometimes the things he did took him away from his family, but when he wasn't in a different country trying to save someone, he always made time for his kids. Always. No matter what. He remembered having a father who was always too busy with work to spend time with Peter and Liz. So Peter himself made sure he was available. He did just see his kids every day, he talked to them. And while his conversations with Lydia, lately, had consisted mostly of him asking her questions and her grunting at him, he didn't see that as entirely his fault... "Why do you think I don't see you?"
"You're leaving me!" Lydia shouted, tears springing to her eyes. "You're leaving me and you don't even see that it hurts!"
Peter's heart felt like it was ripping in two and he reached out for Lydia's arms again, but she kicked him right in the balls and she ran away. Peter grunted and he rolled onto the floor with a little whimper. So now he had given up his immortality and Lydia had kicked him in the bollocks. She was angry at him, and he couldn't blame her.
Cardinal Sin, Kat's huge dalmation, loped over to Peter and he licked Peter's cheek. "AUGH STOP!" Peter cried out. He hated slobber and germs and yuck.
Aly had already been on her way downstairs, shifting Lauren from her arms to her hip. "Sinny, get off!" She said firmly, and Cardinal Sin loped away from Peter's curled form. "Peter, honey?"
"Lydia kicked me!" Peter gritted out. He was still feeling quite tender and slobbered on. "She kicked me in the balls and ran away. I have to go talk to her."
Aly looked like she was trying to decide between amusement and horror. "She kicked you?!" Aly finally settled on confusion.
"AUGH STOP!" Thomas yelled out, copying Peter's words and looking proud of himself.
Peter glanced over at his son and then he stood shakily to his feet. "I'll sort it out. Can you watch Mockingbird there?"
Aly nodded and she gave Peter a kiss on the cheek Sinny hadn't licked.
Lydia was sitting on her bed, her dog Petey curled up beside her. When Peter entered, she looked up at him, fearing that now he would be angry. "So am I grounded now?!" She bit out.
Peter took several deep breaths before he said anything, as it was very easy to lose one's cool when you had been kicked in the bollocks. "Just...no telly tonight. For kicking me, not for your hair. I think it's quite nice actually. I agree, I don't think it's you, but it looks nice. Lydia, I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I didn't...I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't choose to be mortal again."
"I know." Lydia admitted.
"But I am so sorry I didn't realise that is why you were upset. I should have. You should have told me earlier, but more...I should have known."
"Who's going to look out for me when you're all dead?!" Lydia whimpered.
"Lydia." Peter sat down on Lydia's bed and she leaned into his arms. He wrapped them around her gratefully and he kissed her newly purple hair. "Honey, you will never be alone. I believe that with all my heart. You don't have to be afraid, Lydia. Svetlana will be here. And your sisters Rasputina, Anna and Lauren. Your brother Thomas." Of all Peter's children, biological or no, only Caleb and Tasha could die. "Deirdre will be here. And Renee and Kait. And they love you. Spectre loves you. Your cousin William is an angel. See, Little Girl? You're not alone."
"I want you." Lydia said helplessly.
"I know." Peter said, kissing his daughter's hair again. "I know you do, Lydia. I want to be here too. The world just had other plans."
"So we can be mad at it then? Not that I'm not happy Uncle Thomas is here..."
"I'm happy he's here too."
"I know. It's cute." Lydia looked up at him. "I'm sorry for kicking you, Dad."
Peter sighed and he gave her a helpless look. "You reminded me of your mother."
"When did she kick you in the balls!?"
"When did she not?" Peter asked, though he was speaking both literally and metaphorically there. "Just don't do it again. I'll listen. You really don't have to kick me to get me to do that."
"No, I know." Lydia sighed too. "Growing up is frustrating!" She growled.
"It can be that." Peter agreed. "Lydia, you're not upset that your hair is purple, are you?"
"Nah." Lydia shrugged. "It'll be gone in about a week anyway. 'Snot permanent."
"Fair enough. You say you did it during lunch? Did you not eat during lunch?!"
"Our hands were all dyey!" Lydia protested.
Peter's lips thinned. "That's it. Get your booty in the kitchen right now. I'm making you a snack and you are going to eat it."
Lydia grinned and she jumped off the bed. "Okay, Dad."
"And then I am going to take funny pictures of you and post them on the interwebs because that is what happens when you dye your hair purple."
"Daaaaad!" Lydia protested.
"I'm sorry, Baby, those are the rules." Peter smiled at her. "Lydia Ashley?"
"Yeah, Dad."
"I'm not going anywhere in a hurry, you know."
Lydia's lips slowly spread into a smile and she rushed forward to hug him again. "I know. Please don't. I love you, Dad."
"I love you too." Peter felt such relief in hearing her say that. They had been at odds for so long. And Peter knew that Lydia was not a little girl anymore. They would be at odds again. At least, at the end of it all, they loved each other and that was more than a lot of families could say.
"Look at her hair!" Anna yelled, running towards the door as Peter held it wide for them. "It's beautiful!" Purple was Anna's favourite colour.
"Urpey!" Thomas shouted, pointing at Lydia's head.
Peter smiled at Anna and when he looked back up to Lydia, she looked almost as if she were smirking. "I see it." Peter said with a nod. The expression on Lydia's face told him everything he needed to know about why she'd done it, though that certainly didn't mean he wasn't going to bring it up. In fact, considering it seemed that she did it to get a rise out of him, he felt it would be bad parenting form not to bring it up. "Why don't you get started on your homework. You too Caleb." Peter waved to Liz, who had dropped the kids off and he bit down on his lips to keep from chuckling when she gave him a wave and then a 'good luck!' look right back.
"I'll help you with your maths if you help me with English!" Anna yelled, and she raced upstairs ahead of her little brother, making quite an incredible amount of racket. He heard Aly call them in, and he knew they would do their homework in there with her where she was playing with little Lauren.
Once her siblings were upstairs, Lydia walked into the living room, looking quite put upon. "Oh my god, am I in trouble?!"
Peter followed her, shifting Thomas to the other side so he could hold him better. "Lydia, honestly." Peter said gently. "How many times have you been in trouble with me, hmm? Of course you're not in trouble." Peter was not a parent who would punish his children for having their own identity. Certainly not. Liz had been a wild young woman, and Peter's cousin Kat had pink hair (or she had...) and he loved the fact that both of them were who they were and they weren't afraid of that. Lydia, however, wasn't necessarily someone he had seen as a person who would go around with purple hair. Anna, yes. He rather expected that as Anna grew up, she would go through quite a few hair colours and probably a dangerous boy or two as well, unfortunately. She was much more outgoing than Lydia was. Lydia was studious and reserved. She rode her horses and got top grades and until a month ago, she was as polite as anything for the most part, though she had a stubborn streak in her that Peter knew came from him. "If this is what you want, then it doesn't bother me. It bothers me a little that you didn't tell me."
"You mean ask you?" Lydia shot back, raising her eyebrows.
"No, I mean tell me." Peter said, keeping his voice calm. "You're thirteen, if you want to dye your hair purple you can. If you want to wear spikes and leggings, as long as it's not inappropriate, be my guest. I would never stand in the way of you discovering your identity like that." His father had. Peter hadn't liked it.
"What's inappropriate?" Lydia asked as she held her hand out for her little brother to latch on to. "Hmm?"
"Well I don't fancy you in a low cut top or a skirt slit up to the...area." Peter wrinkled his nose up. "I just tend to think it's asking for trouble. And if anyone hurt you, I'd have to replace their esophagus with my rake handle..."
Lydia giggled at that, until she remembered she was supposed to be annoyed at him so she stopped. "Yeah, whatever. I'm not a slut."
"I...I know that!" Peter said, incredulous. "Lydia, when did you dye your hair?"
"At lunch." Lydia said with an air of indifference. "All the girls did. Brianna said it would drive her aunt mad. So her hair is orange and Carmen's is green. And I'm purple."
"Ah, driving people mad. Always the best reason to change one's appearance." Peter said, sounding slightly disappointed, and Lydia understood that Peter had thought she was more mature than that. She didn't like disappointing her father. But she was also a thirteen-year-old girl who knew she was going to live forever and now her father was not. And that sucked. "I'm surprised you agreed at all. You were quite happy when your hair grew out the last time it was dyed." Katherine had dyed Lydia's hair black when she had taken her to Paris so many years ago. It had taken six months for Lydia's hair to grow out enough that she could cut off the rest. And she'd been so grateful to look like herself again...
"I chose this." Lydia insisted.
"It doesn't sound like you did." Peter disagreed. "It sounds like Brianna wanted you to. She wanted to make her family angry and you didn't really want to but you did anyway. Did you think it would make me angry too?"
Lydia shuffled her feet. "Do you even care!?"
"Lydia, of course I care!" Peter moved to put Thomas down in his playpen so he could take Lydia by the shoulders. "Not being angry doesn't mean I don't care! It means I want you to experiment. Try things out. Not...drugs, but clothes. Hair. Music. All that stuff that allows you to express who you are. Do you really think purple hair is who you are?"
"No." Lydia said grudgingly. "And I am not going to try drugs! Like I want to end up dead in a fuckin' shower."
Peter closed his eyes for a brief moment, remembering how he had found Katherine. Lydia's mother, who had killed herself because she saw no other way out of her addiction. "I know you're smarter than that, Lydia. And if this purple hair isn't you, why do it?"
"To make you notice me!" Lydia yelled then. "To make you look!"
"Lydia!" Peter couldn't understand. He saw his children every day. He talked to them. He tucked them in. Yes, he was a busy man and sometimes the things he did took him away from his family, but when he wasn't in a different country trying to save someone, he always made time for his kids. Always. No matter what. He remembered having a father who was always too busy with work to spend time with Peter and Liz. So Peter himself made sure he was available. He did just see his kids every day, he talked to them. And while his conversations with Lydia, lately, had consisted mostly of him asking her questions and her grunting at him, he didn't see that as entirely his fault... "Why do you think I don't see you?"
"You're leaving me!" Lydia shouted, tears springing to her eyes. "You're leaving me and you don't even see that it hurts!"
Peter's heart felt like it was ripping in two and he reached out for Lydia's arms again, but she kicked him right in the balls and she ran away. Peter grunted and he rolled onto the floor with a little whimper. So now he had given up his immortality and Lydia had kicked him in the bollocks. She was angry at him, and he couldn't blame her.
Cardinal Sin, Kat's huge dalmation, loped over to Peter and he licked Peter's cheek. "AUGH STOP!" Peter cried out. He hated slobber and germs and yuck.
Aly had already been on her way downstairs, shifting Lauren from her arms to her hip. "Sinny, get off!" She said firmly, and Cardinal Sin loped away from Peter's curled form. "Peter, honey?"
"Lydia kicked me!" Peter gritted out. He was still feeling quite tender and slobbered on. "She kicked me in the balls and ran away. I have to go talk to her."
Aly looked like she was trying to decide between amusement and horror. "She kicked you?!" Aly finally settled on confusion.
"AUGH STOP!" Thomas yelled out, copying Peter's words and looking proud of himself.
Peter glanced over at his son and then he stood shakily to his feet. "I'll sort it out. Can you watch Mockingbird there?"
Aly nodded and she gave Peter a kiss on the cheek Sinny hadn't licked.
Lydia was sitting on her bed, her dog Petey curled up beside her. When Peter entered, she looked up at him, fearing that now he would be angry. "So am I grounded now?!" She bit out.
Peter took several deep breaths before he said anything, as it was very easy to lose one's cool when you had been kicked in the bollocks. "Just...no telly tonight. For kicking me, not for your hair. I think it's quite nice actually. I agree, I don't think it's you, but it looks nice. Lydia, I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I didn't...I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't choose to be mortal again."
"I know." Lydia admitted.
"But I am so sorry I didn't realise that is why you were upset. I should have. You should have told me earlier, but more...I should have known."
"Who's going to look out for me when you're all dead?!" Lydia whimpered.
"Lydia." Peter sat down on Lydia's bed and she leaned into his arms. He wrapped them around her gratefully and he kissed her newly purple hair. "Honey, you will never be alone. I believe that with all my heart. You don't have to be afraid, Lydia. Svetlana will be here. And your sisters Rasputina, Anna and Lauren. Your brother Thomas." Of all Peter's children, biological or no, only Caleb and Tasha could die. "Deirdre will be here. And Renee and Kait. And they love you. Spectre loves you. Your cousin William is an angel. See, Little Girl? You're not alone."
"I want you." Lydia said helplessly.
"I know." Peter said, kissing his daughter's hair again. "I know you do, Lydia. I want to be here too. The world just had other plans."
"So we can be mad at it then? Not that I'm not happy Uncle Thomas is here..."
"I'm happy he's here too."
"I know. It's cute." Lydia looked up at him. "I'm sorry for kicking you, Dad."
Peter sighed and he gave her a helpless look. "You reminded me of your mother."
"When did she kick you in the balls!?"
"When did she not?" Peter asked, though he was speaking both literally and metaphorically there. "Just don't do it again. I'll listen. You really don't have to kick me to get me to do that."
"No, I know." Lydia sighed too. "Growing up is frustrating!" She growled.
"It can be that." Peter agreed. "Lydia, you're not upset that your hair is purple, are you?"
"Nah." Lydia shrugged. "It'll be gone in about a week anyway. 'Snot permanent."
"Fair enough. You say you did it during lunch? Did you not eat during lunch?!"
"Our hands were all dyey!" Lydia protested.
Peter's lips thinned. "That's it. Get your booty in the kitchen right now. I'm making you a snack and you are going to eat it."
Lydia grinned and she jumped off the bed. "Okay, Dad."
"And then I am going to take funny pictures of you and post them on the interwebs because that is what happens when you dye your hair purple."
"Daaaaad!" Lydia protested.
"I'm sorry, Baby, those are the rules." Peter smiled at her. "Lydia Ashley?"
"Yeah, Dad."
"I'm not going anywhere in a hurry, you know."
Lydia's lips slowly spread into a smile and she rushed forward to hug him again. "I know. Please don't. I love you, Dad."
"I love you too." Peter felt such relief in hearing her say that. They had been at odds for so long. And Peter knew that Lydia was not a little girl anymore. They would be at odds again. At least, at the end of it all, they loved each other and that was more than a lot of families could say.