Chapter number 21. Confusing feelings

"Peter" Lara exclaimed, she was sitting at Peter's desk, stairing at the documents they'd found at the shed last night, and one near the bottom of the pile had her name on it, Loyd had wanted her dead, along with her no good brother and nearly everyone else she knew.

"Yeah" he called back coming through the door and seeing her with the files in her hand. "Um Lara you don't need to be reading those".

"I already found the one with my name on it" she told him dully, "Peter, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry" he explained, pulling up a seat next to her and sitting down.

"This is part of a case I'm working on, you can't just keep these kinds of things from me!" Lara screamed. "Sorry" she apologized softly, "it's just a shock" she told him, bitting her lip, trying not to cry.

"No, I'm sorry, I should of told you" Peter told her soothingly.

"Promise you won't keep anything else from me?"

"I promise" he agreed nodding his head slightly. "They just called in before".

"And?" she asked, still trying to hold herself together.

"The hit man Loyd was hiring for all his work in the past was..."

"Who?"

"Matt" Peter told her, "Your brother Matt".

Lara was silent for a moment, "But how?" she began to lose control over her tears. "He was one of the one's Loyd wanted dead".

"We don't know yet" Peter told her in a hushed voice, trying to calm her down.

"For all we know, Loyd could of told him to kill everyone else on that list, and then finished him off himself" she sobbed.

"Lara, nothing's certain yet".

"That doesn't mean it's not true, knowing Matt's twisted mind he's probably watching and waiting for the right moment to kill me and everyone else. Why did I have to come from a messed up family?".

"Your not messed up, just because one brother has an obsession with crime doesn't mean your like that, your nothing like him, nothing at all" he told her, trying to make her feel safe, using his fingers to move a stray piece of hair back behind her ear. A tear rolled down her cheek, and Peter found himself whipping it away with his thumb before pulling her in close to him, sliding her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her, "It's ok Lara, no one's going to hurt you, I promise" he whispered.

For some reason he felt the need to protect her, like he would blame himself if someone dared to hurt her, and once again, without thinking her kissed her gently on the top of her head while she cried into his shirt.

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"She looked so weak" Martha spoke sadly taking another sip of hospital made coffee from the disposable polystyrene cup. She looked over at Tony who was sitting next to her, he seemed lost, really lost, just like Beth, Maddie and Lucas who were sitting in chairs opposite them.

Maddie sighed, "why did this have to happen?".

"I don't know sweet" Beth sobbed, putting an arm around her, "It's not fair".

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Down the hall, a man in about his sixties stood in front of Serena's door, he looked at the number, it was twenty three, just like the nurse had said. Then slowly he reached out and grabbed the silver stainless steal door handle applying pressure on it to turn, ever so carefully pushing it open, taking a step inside.

Serena looked up, expecting to see Martha or one of the other's she tried to smile, but as soon as she saw who it was she was angry, "what are you doing here?" she asked, she couldn't raise her voice, she didn't have the strength, she just staired at him with fierce eyes.

"I came as soon as I heard about the-".

"Don't even pretend to care dad".

"Serena, of course I care, your my daughter".

"Like that's even made you care about anything else that happens to me, you sit and watch me get sent to jail for something I didn't even do, you sit there in front of me while I'm locked up and tell me that I got myself into that mess and that I deserved every single minute of it" she exclaimed, her voice going crackly and she was shaking from trying to make her weak body get her point across, "and you expect me to believe that you actually care when I'm dieing?"

"Look I know I made plenty of mistakes about you, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you. I can't lose you the same way I lost your mother" he whispered sitting down next to her bed.

"What? Mum had Leukemia? But why didn't you tell me?"

"You were too young, can you imagine explaining to a two year old that there mum just died from a deadly disease?"

"No, but that didn't mean you had to lie to me my whole life, you told me that she died in a car accident. Dad, your a doctor, a cancer doctor, you knew more than any one what her condition was and you couldn't even explain it to me" Serena said blankly, she didn't know what to do, she felt more betrayed than ever, so she did what came to her first, "just go".

"But Serena-"

"No dad, just go" she repeated, holding herself together and keeping a straight face.

"Hey, how-" Tony started as he came into the room, "hey, I didn't mean to interrupt anything".

"You weren't interrupting anything, he was just leaving" Serena told him, giving her dad a death stair.

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"You ok now?" Peter asked soothingly rubbing his hand up and down Lara's back.

"Yeah, thanks, I just got a bit of a scare".

"That's alright. I'm just glad your ok now".

"Me too, you've been a big help, not just today, ever since the whole thing with Matt last year you've been great, thank you, I don't know what I would of done with out you" she thanked him, there was a moment of silence, a moment of confusion, Peter could see a twinkle in her eye, there was something special about her.

He moved closer, their eyes locked. Lara didn't know what to do, so she gave him a hug instead, she couldn't kiss him. Her husband died three years ago and ever since then, when ever she'd gotten that close to another man she'd felt like she was walking allover his grave.

Peter felt a little disappointed, but he took her in his arms anyway ,"So are you up to going down to Greensville now?" he asked, pulling away from her.

"Of course I am, come on lets go" Lara said, getting up and grabbing Peter's hand, pulling him out of the door. Peter just smiled and followed her lead, it was good to see Lara's smile again, even if she didn't feel the same way towards him.

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Tony sat by Serena's side, ever since the guy that had been in here earlier had left, she'd been silent. She was getting weaker, the cancer was taking over. "Serena, is there anything I can do for you?"

Serena just nodded, slowly reaching out to grab a folded up piece of paper, her hand shock as she handed it to him, "can you give it to Jack for me?" she asked softly, she couldn't talk anymore than a small voice now, an her words were coming out slowly.

Tony nodded, trying to hold himself together, for everyone's sake, he had to stay strong, "I will. I'll make sure he gets it" he reassured her.

"Thank-, thank you".

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