A/N: Yeah, yeah. So I suck, BIG time. Blame life, it got in the way, again. So, as an apology I am giving you two chapters. Yes, two chapters.
A couple of days later, Pete made his way straight from the hospital to his father's house where he was invited to have dinner with him and his family. He stood on the doorstep nervously and looked up at the house. He could hear soft noises from inside and the downstairs was lit up. He was holding a bottle of wine in his hand and looked up when he heard the door open slowly.
"Pete," Richard smiled warmly, "come in." He stepped back so Pete could enter.
"I felt like I should bring something." Pete handed him the bag with the bottle as he walked inside.
"There was no need to." Richard smiled and accepted the bottle. "Dinner is nearly ready." Pete nodded and slipped out of his shoes as he followed Richard further inside.
"Clara, this is Pete. Pete, this is my wife, Clara," Richard introduced the two.
"It's nice to meet you." Pete gave a smile as he shook her hand.
"You look a lot like Richard." She smiled softly as she studied the younger man.
"I do?" He glanced Richard before back at Clara. "I didn't realize."
"You do." Clara nodded. "I can see it now you're stood next to each other." Pete nodded as well and gave Clara a soft smile. "Sit down, would you like a drink?"
"Yes please, whatever you have." He did as he was told and sat down.
The sound of the door opening before someone entering was heard. "Hey! Sorry, I'm late. I got stuck in traffic. Those damn road works!" A younger woman appeared in the doorway and smiled at them all.
"Oh you're just in time, honey, dinner is nearly finished." Clara smiled at her daughter.
"Great, I'm starving." Lindsey plonked herself down in a chair at the kitchen table and turned to look at Pete. "You must be Pete. I'm Lindsey."
"I am." He gave a nod. "Nice to meet you."
Lindsey titled her head to the side and studied him. "You've got the same eyes," she observed.
"The face structure too," Clara added as she began to dish up the food.
Lindsey nodded and sat up straighter in her chair as food was served. "It's kind of creepy."
Clara smiled softly as she carried the plates to the table. "He is your half brother, Linds."
"I know." She gave a smile before she looked down at the food. "Looks delicious, mum."
"It always tastes delicious too," Richard commented and kissed his wife on the cheek before he too sat down. Clara smiled softly and sat down as well before all four of them began to eat.
"Richard mentioned you're going to be a dad soon," Clara commented after a while. "Will it be your first child?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm really excited."
"I'm sure you are." Clara smiled softly. "You both must be so happy. A child really completes a family I feel."
"I've always wanted to be a dad." Pete smiled as he ate.
"Why haven't you had a child before?" Lindsey asked and looked at him.
"The woman I married when I was young didn't want children," he explained.
Lindsey frowned. "Then why did you marry her?"
"I was young." Pete gave a small shrug. "We hadn't thought about those things, unfortunately." Lindsey gave him a look he couldn't read before she shrugged and continued to eat.
"The food is amazing," Pete commented after a while.
"Thank you." Clara smiled at him. "Cooking and baking has always been a hobby of mine. I like to experiment."
"I love to cook as well."
"You do? Maybe we should share recipes sometimes. Maybe you have some I don't."
"Sure." Pete smiled. "Sounds good."
"Great." Clara grinned.
Richard smiled softly as he watched them and the four of them finished eating before moving into the living room while Clara finished the desert in the kitchen.
"Would you like another drink, Pete?" Richard asked.
"No, I'm fine, thanks." He gave a smile as he looked around. "You have a really beautiful house."
"Thank you. It's all down to Clara really. She decorated it."
"Well she did a great job."
"She really did, didn't she?" Richard smiled softly. Pete smiled as well and looked around as he sipped on his drink.
"Desert." Clara smiled as she carried the desert into the living room. They all sat down on the couch and took hold of their plates.
Later that night Pete and Lindsey where sat next to each other in the living room while Clara and Richard cleaned up the kitchen together. Lindsey had gotten a few photo albums from her old room to show him pictures of their father and her childhood.
"That was when we went on holiday to Greece. I was six at the time," Lindsey began to give him brief details about the holiday.
"That sounds amazing." Pete smiled softly as he looked at the pictures. Pete couldn't remember being on a holiday until he was in his early twenties.
"It was," she agreed. "We had a really good time."
"I can tell." He nodded. "Where was that?" He pointed at a different picture.
"Erm." Lindsey frowned as she tried to think. "I think that was in Paris."
"Wow, you really got around."
She shrugged. "We saved."
"Yeah." Pete nodded and looked at the pictures as she turned the page.
"We're not rich if that's what you're thinking." She turned her head and looked at him.
"That's not what I'm thinking." He shook his head. "I just never used to travel much when I was a kid."
"Oh." She nodded and a slight colour passed over her cheeks. "Sorry. Why not?"
"We didn't have the money." Pete shrugged. "And my mother was never around much."
"Oh, sorry," she murmured and turned her gaze back to the photos.
"It's alright." He shrugged again and they continued to look through the album.
"That's dad there." She pointed at a photo.
"He looks so young there." Pete smiled softly.
"I think it was before I was born."
"Looks like it." He nodded. "Have you always lived here?"
"Yes. Mum and dad moved here when they found out mum was pregnant."
"LA is a nice place to grow up."
"It is," she agreed and turned the page. There were more pictures of the three of them at different occasions and holidays.
"Mum could go on forever with photos," Lindsey commented as she shut the album. "We're not that interesting really." She turned her head to look at Pete.
"I liked them." He smiled. "I'm sure it's nice looking at them from time to time."
"Not when you've seen them about a hundred times."
"Yeah, probably," Pete chuckled softly. "So, what is it you do? Are you still in uni?"
"I'm a beautician." She grinned.
"You are? That's interesting."
"What?" Lindsey frowned. "Is it not impressive enough?" Her voice took on a defensive tone and she straightened up.
"No, it is. You should do what you enjoy doing."
Lindsey mumbled something and stood up from the couch. Pete stayed where he was and watched her in silence. She put the album on the shelf and kept her back to him.
"Where do you live?" Pete asked after a while.
"A ten minute drive from here. You?"
"About twenty minutes into the centre, near the hospital."
Lindsey nodded and looked at the photographs on the mantle piece. After a while Pete got up as well and walked over to her.
"Why are you here?" She turned to face him with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Here? Tonight?" He frowned as he looked back at her. "Your dad invited me."
"Why did you get in touch? You've had your whole life to do that so why now?"
"I had no idea where to find him. I hadn't talked to my mother in over a decade. But now that I'm going to have my own child, I wanted to find out."
"What do you want from us?" she demanded.
Pete frowned even more and was starting to get annoyed. "I don't want anything from you. I don't need anything from you. I've lived my whole life without a father. All I wanted was to find out who he is."
Lindsey looked at him, really looked at him. "Nothing at all?"
"I thought it would be nice to have some kind of relationship, but if any of you don't want that then I'm not going to bother you anymore."
"I didn't even know you existed. Dad just announced it one day."
"I didn't know you existed either. I didn't even expect your dad to want to take a test, let alone invite me over for dinner."
Lindsey looked at him in silence before she dropped her arms and sighed.
"I never had a family, and I'm not looking for one now. If you don't want anything to do with me I get it." Pete gave a small shrug.
"I always wanted to have a sibling growing up. I used to get lonely," she explained.
"Do you still want one now?"
"I'm not a little kid anymore." She looked at him. "It's not the same."
Pete gave a small nod and turned his head to look at the mantle piece." Yeah, I guess it's not."
"It'll never be the same. There are too many years lost."
"I can still be a brother to you." Pete shrugged. "I grew up with my brother and now I barely see him anymore. It's not about the past, it's about now. If you want me to be there for you now I will be."
Lindsey looked at him in thoughtful silence. "How?" she whispered.
"We can do stuff together, get to know each other," he suggested.
"You've got a baby on the way. You've hardly got time for a sister."
"I will make time." Pete looked at her. "If you want me to."
"How? How can you make time? You've got your wife to take care of, you've got to plan for this baby, work. There's no time for me." She shook her head with a hint of sadness.
"She's not my wife," he corrected her. "And I do have to take care of her and plan and work but not all the time. I'm free for lunch for the rest of the week for example. How about you stop by the practice and we grab something to eat?"
"Oh, I just thought that…" She shrugged.
"It's a little complicated," he explained.
Lindsey sighed and glanced at a photo on the mantle piece. "I'm free Thursday."
"Thursday sounds good." Pete nodded.
"Twelve?"
Pete nodded again. "Meet me at the practice?"
"Sure."
"Good."
"Why aren't you with the woman then?" she asked and looked at him.
"We're just friends." He gave a small shrug.
"So, the pregnancy wasn't planned?"
"No, it was. She told me how much she wants a baby and I do too, so we decided to have one together."
"Then why aren't you together?"
"Because we're just friends," Pete tried to explain. "We have been for a couple years."
"But you clearly like her enough to have a baby with her." Lindsey looked at him. "You must feel something for her."
"It's a little complicated."
"How?"
"I don't know," he sighed. "We've decided to have this baby as friends and that's all we are. Everything else would just make things more complicated right now."
"It might not," she pointed out. "People don't agree to have a baby with someone without having feelings there."
"Some might, if they're desperate enough to have one."
"Are you?" she asked and crossed her arms again.
"I really want this baby, but I wouldn't have a baby with just anyone," he admitted.
"That's my point." She nodded. "You clearly like her."
"I do, we're close." Pete nodded as well. "But things are working out they way they are right now."
"I mean you like her."
He looked at his half sister and gave a small smile. "You don't let things go easily, do you?"
"Nope." Lindsey grinned. "So, you do. What are you so afraid of?"
"I'm not afraid." Pete looked at her and gave a small shrug. "I just, I'm not sure what I want. Maybe things are just meant to be the way they are right now." She raised an eyebrow and slightly tilted her head to the side. "Are you going to let it go now?" He smiled softly.
"No, because I know that you know what you want you're just afraid to admit you want it and ask for it."
"We're having a baby there are other things to think about."
"Like?" she asked and sat back down on the couch.
"Like, maybe she sees things differently or maybe it doesn't work."
"Right," she scoffed. "You're afraid."
Pete gave a small sigh and looked around the living room. "Maybe."
"What is there to loose?"
"Her," he said as his eyes wandered around before back to his sister. "If she doesn't feel the same way I could lose her."
"She's having your baby. The two of you are bound to be in each other's live forever."
"I don't want things to be awkward between us."
Lindsey rolled her eyes and murmured, "Coward."
"It's complicated." Pete sat back down as well. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
"It's only complicated if you make it complicated. No, I don't."
"You don't understand."
"I do." She nodded.
"Why don't you have a boyfriend?"
"Why don't you have a girlfriend?" she asked.
Pete rolled his eyes at her. "You really are stubborn."
"Yep." She nodded. "Drink?"
"Sounds good."