An Enemy Of Fate - Closed to Peter Bishop

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As it always was, getting Etta ready for her bath had been a chore, but Olivia had managed it. She laughed at the squirming young girl in her arms as she dried her off with a fluffy towel. "Daddy will be very impressed we got this finished in record time." Olivia rubbed her nose against her daughter's and smiled at the gleeful laughter. It didn't

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Peter had been a little remiss in his daily activities since Olivia disappeared. He broke into Olivia's room to find nothing there which had told Peter she wasn't coming back. Of course, since then, he hadn't noticed the re-occurrence of stuff in his own room. He had sort of been just drifting along.

A few days unshaven, Peter was mindlessly watching Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rear Window'. Things weren't necessarily dirty, but they were far less immaculate than before. There were a couple of days worth of dishes in the sink and the dishwasher hadn't been emptied yet.

The sudden shout of 'Ice Cream!' jarred Peter out of his pondering whether the couple in the movie with the dog was over-compensating for their lack of children. He blinked and turned to see a little girl. Peter was stunned faced.

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Etta skidded to a stop when there weren't stairs to go down but that wasn't really what caught her attention. It was seeing her dad. He was different really different and dirty! "Dad needs a bath, too." She grinned up at him.

Olivia was hot on Etta's heels and as her mind was trying to assimilate what was going on, flashes of memory, of something distant tickled her mind. It wasn't until she realized that she was standing in a hotel room and Peter looked dumbfounded that it was clicking back into place like a long ago dream.

"Haurvatat?"

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Peter was on his feet when the words 'Dad' and the vision of Olivia came into view. He couldn't find the words for a moment and simply nodded as he looked from Olivia to the girl and then back to Olivia. There were so many questions.

Suddenly he remembered he had a bit of a beard growing and lifted his hand to rub his chin.

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Olivia came up behind Etta and placed her hands on their daughter's shoulder. "Etta, why don't you go back in the bathroom and put your toys under the sink? Then we'll have some of that ice cream." She leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

Etta debated but thought better of protesting. She might not get that ice cream and she wanted it! There wasn't a huff of breath but there was protest in her movement as she went back into the bathroom.

"I'm going to guess you didn't leave the village when I did." Olivia smiled wryly. "And I just gave you a lot to wrap your mind around."