Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night
Peter was sound asleep holding his wife close to him; it was peaceful, but that peace was disturbed when Peter's cell phone began to ring. Peter reached over with a lazy hand and answered with a sigh. Hearing Neal was out of his radius, Peter cursing under his breath, throwing the sheets off of himself and got up grabbing his pants and looked over at his wife who also woke up.
"Honey what's wrong?" El asked watching her husband grab his jacket and put it on. Peter told her that Neal was out of his two mile radius and that he had to go find him, and she got up giving him a soft tender kiss on the lips, and told him to just bring Neal back safe.
Peter nodded and headed out the door. He could not believe Neal went back to that house, what was he thinking? Peter walked into the house and had no idea what he was going to find. Seeing Aimee put Peter in a rage right then, with the mixture of anger and fear, "I don't want to hear a word; both of you in the car right now." Peter spoke and watched as Aimee ran down to the car, clearly scared of his tone of voice.
Neal sighed and looked at him, "Peter, don't be mad at her. She just wants to make sure the kids have a good Christmas. She is scared right now." Neal said picking up the gifts. There was no way he was leaving the gifts, and disappointing Aimee.
Peter rubbed his face, "Get in the car Neal, I am not in the damn mood for this! I know she is scared, but she is not going to get away with this. She is going to be punished. You know I will not hurt her." He said looking at him and started walking to the car, Peter glanced back to make sure Neal was following. Neal was in a lot of trouble as well, and Peter was going to give him an ear full about all this later. Once down at the car Peter took the presents from Neal and put them into the trunk, while Neal got into the car and spoke to Aimee calmly: "We are both in trouble, but don't worry. Peter is not going to hurt you. Going to have a long firm lecture coming; be ready for that." Neal than turned back looking out the window as Peter opened the driver's door and climbed inside, shaking his head Peter started the car and began the journey back home. It was bound to be a long night for them all.
Once at home, Neal got out first and sighed opening Aimee's door and gave her a soothing smiled, trying to calm the frightened green eyed girl. Neal knew himself that Peter would never hurt this girl, but her face told Neal that she was unsure, and that look worried Neal. He only hoped Peter got a hold on his temper, before he started talking with Aimee. Neal had seen Peter's temper when Keller kidnapped El, because Neal had that treasure. Peter really came unglued, but could the man be blamed? His wife had been kidnapped, he had every right to be pissed, but Neal still was praying that Peter's temper had went down a bit, because walking into the house with Aimee, Neal could see her body was quivering with fear.
Peter walked in after getting the gifts and locking the car up. He put the gifts under the tree and looked at Neal and Aimee, "Sit on the couch, both of you." He said watching as they obeyed quickly. Peter paced back and forth. Finally after a few minutes Peter stopped and looked at Aimee, sighing deeply, he walked over and sat down on the coffee table looking right at the girl, whose head was down as she played with her hands. Peter rubbed his face lightly and sighed, "Aimee I told you no leaving the house. There is a reason for that rule, it's to keep you safe, but if you go behind my back and disobey that rule, I can't protect you at all. Do you understand that?" Peter spoke firmly watching the girl's face. Peter really did not want her to be scared of him, but he had to get this through her head, but she was still looking at her hands, and Peter wondered if she was even listening to him.
Aimee sniffled shifting nervously, on the couch. Reaching her hand up she wiped her runny nose, and for a second time she sniffled, intertwining her hands, at that moment it dawned on her, 'he is looking for an answer' Aimee was trying to think of what he had said. She hadn't been listening, because she was just waiting for the slap across the face, or for him to pull her off the couch and kick her in the ribs. What could she say? She had not heard a word he said, 'Crap!' She had to say something before he grabbed a hand full of hair, and really hurt her, "Yes sir… No sir… Ummm." She said biting her lip hard. 'Damn damn damn!' her conscious screamed at her to just get the kids and run, to get out of this house! Her conscious was not shutting up right now.
Peter snarled slightly, ok so she was not listening, and that did not help Peter's temper at all. Rubbing his face and looked at her, "Are you not listening to me at all?" He asked sighing furiously.
Aimee tucked her chin into her chest tighter hearing Peter. Ok so she had to tell me, that she had not heard him before? Perfect, just perfect! What was she going to say? Could she say anything and not get hurt by him?
Neal looked at Peter and gave him a slightly angry look, "Stop scaring her!" Neal mouthed to Peter.
Neal most have got through to Peter too, because he reached out and touched Aimee's check, tracing his finger under her chin and forced her to look at him, "Not going to hurt you Aimee. Never going to, never would. I'm going to say it once more, just listen to me ok? I told you no leaving the house. There is a reason for that rule, it's to keep you safe, but if you go behind my back and disobey that rule, I can't protect you at all. Do you understand that?" Peter asked caressing Aimee's cheek bone gently as he spoke in a calm soothing voice.
Aimee watched Peter, trying to keep her tears at bay, "Yes sir, I understand. But I just wanted to get the gifts. This is our first Christmas without our parents, and in a strange house. I got those gifts with all the money I had left over, I just wanted them to have a little bit of a Christmas. This isn't fair for them." Aimee said, holding tight onto her tears, but one broke free and slipped down her soft bruised cheek bone.
Peter rubbed his face looking at Aimee, "I don't like what you did, but I get it. That does not mean that I am not disappointed in you, or that you will go unpunished. You're on dish washing duty, and table setting duty, as long as you are under protective custody. You can go to your room, and get some sleep." Peter said giving Aimee a small smile and wiped the tear that slipped down her cheek; he was trying to be a gentle as he could around her black eye. Peter watched as Aimee stood and started walking to her room, "Sleep good Aimee. Sweet dreams." He said watching her climb the stairs. After Peter was sure she was in the room, Peter looked back at Neal, "You are not getting off so easy Neal. Two weeks house arrested." He said getting up and walked to the kitchen.
Neal sighed getting up and followed Peter, "I was trying to help Peter. You know how I am with girls. She wanted those presents and I really care of her Peter. It's like the little sister I always wanted. I mean I can even talking with her. She gets me to talk about feelings, I never talk about. I was talking about Kate to her; you know I don't do that with people. She is pulling feelings that are deep down out of me, and getting me to talk. You would have done the same thing if you would have seen her face." Neal said watching as Peter got a glass of water and took a sip.
"Neal… I get that you felt bad for her, because I do too. You need to just learn, when to help, and when it's not right. Tonight, you should have talked with me, and we would have done this legally, but now I have to explain why that house was broken into." He said looking at Neal and shook his head, "Look let's just go to bed and talk later. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I am guessing Penny will want to see if Santa came, which he did, just a little after the kids went to bed." Peter said finishing his water and put the glass into the sink and started up stairs.
The next morning came too early for everyone in the house, besides Penny, who was bouncing off the walls, because she had went down and seen that Santa ate all the cookies, left on the plate for him, and he had left presents for everyone too. After everyone was up, and had either Hot Chocolate, or coffee, everybody was sat down and opening presents. Aimee was taken aback that Peter, El, and Neal had got them gifts. It was sweet and nothing she had imagined, they would do. Mostly getting clothes and little things they need, they also got fun things. Penny got the doll she wanted, a doll house, and a couple kid movies; Lucas got a Nintendo Ds, which came with a couple games; Aimee, she got something that truly brought happy tears to her eyes. When she opened her gift, it was a Marine skin iPod, with a ton of music already on it, but with that came ITunes cash. She really could not believe it, and she just stared at Neal knowing it was him, but she knew she could not thank him just yet, because the gift was from Santa.
El and Aimee started working on dinner not long after and Aimee had one earbud in her ear with her iPod going on low, and moving around the gracefully around the kitchen while singing to herself. It was something her mother did, and she picked up at a young age. El watched as the girl danced a little and sang with the song that was playing. She had to smile, because Aimee really had a lovely voice when she sang, and more so smoothly. As if she did not have a care in the word.
Successively finishing dinner, and Aimee setting the table, everyone sat down to eat the cuisine the two girls had worked so hard on. It was luscious, and at the end of the meal, Aimee got up right away and started clearing the table. Peter did not stop Neal from helping the girl, and even got up helping her, himself. He was happy to help, because Aimee worked on the dinner, without being asked, and that was not the punishment Peter had dealt the girl. Peter washed the dishes, while Aimee rinsed them, and Neal dried then put them away. It was really a nice sight; it looked like a happy family. If only Aimee, Penny and Lucas was Peter and El's kids. Life would be perfect, but they weren't, but these kids deserved great parents, if only they could trust people again, they might get the parents they need. If only…
