Watch This Space...

[emmasi]

Topic Title: Watch This Space...

Topic Description: Peter, Drew. Rated G

Type of story: Oneshot

Rating: G

Main Characters: Peter, Drew.

Genre: Angst

Warnings: Mild language

Is Story being proof read: Yes

Summary: Peter questions Drew over his latest cry for attention.

Watch this space...

(Requested by *belle*)

They walked into the cop-shop, Drew in cuffs and Peter leading him to the interrogation room.

Drew sat down, waiting for his dad to start the questions, already prepared with his smart-ass responses.

“Drew, what are you doing to me?”

“What?” asked Drew, feigning innocence. “What could I have possibly done to you?”

“I’ve lied for you before,” said Peter. “I’ve covered for you. I don’t want you to be in trouble with the law but you’re not leaving me much of a choice!”

“Please… the only reason you don’t want me in here is because it will reflect badly on the Great Detective. Tell me, just how long did it take you to catch the Summer Bay Stalker?”

Drew’s cruel taunt was not appreciated.

“I bet if I was the stalker, you’d have been onto it straight away,” said Drew.

“Well I should hope so,” said Peter. “I should hope that I’d know my own son better than a random psychopath who pretends to be someone she’s not.”

“Yeah right. Good luck with that.”

“Are you saying I don’t know you?” asked Peter. “Or are you pretending to be someone else to impress me?”

“Why would I care if I impress you? Besides, you don’t look too impressed.”

“That’s because I’m not. Why did you steal that watch, Drew?”

“I wanted to know what time it was.”

“You already have a watch…”

“Actually, I have a charred scrap of metal. The pyro got it, remember? One of your guys wasn’t he? What, you’re not content with hassling me yourself, you have to get your cop friends to set me up as well.”

“I wasn’t even here when Rice was framing you for the fires!” Peter protested. “Besides which, if you needed a damn watch, why didn’t you just ask? I’d have bought one for you!”

“Right… cause you’ve always come through for me before…”

“Drew,” said Peter, knowing things would turn to his girlfriend eventually, “I’m sorry about what happened with Amanda… If I knew how to turn my feelings off for her…”

“It’s not just Amanda!” said Drew, sick of the constant misconception. “It’s about me, Dad! You’ve never been there for me! You dumped me at a boarding school – you let me think you were dead! Do you have any idea how much that hurt!? Do you realise how much it hurt Dan? How much it hurt me watching him miss you like that? How much it hurt knowing that I could never miss you like that… because I never knew you…”

Peter looked at his son – really looked at him. “I’m sorry,” he said. And it wasn’t just for Amanda this time. It wasn’t some obligatory precursor to a ‘but’… it was a sincere apology for Drew’s entire life so far. “If I could take it all back,” said Peter, “I would. But I can’t Drew. All I can do is tell you how much I love you.”

Drew sulked at the opposite end of the table. “Why don’t you try showing it for once?”

Peter didn’t know what Drew meant by that, but the first thing that came to his mind was to give Drew a hug, so that’s what he did.

Drew sat rigid as his father rose from the table, walked around it and embraced him. He glared at the floor, not sure how he wanted to feel. Did he want to stay angry? Keep hurting? Or did he want to accept that his dad did love him… let him get away with hurting him for all his life…

“I love you Dad,” said Drew quietly, “But that doesn’t mean I forgive you.”

“I know,” said Peter, letting him go. “I don’t expect you to. But Drew, you have to stop doing this. You have to stop breaking the law to get at me. I know it seems like the obvious way to embarrass me, but in the end, you’ll be the one behind bars. Son, I don’t want that for you. You’re better than that.”

“Because I’m your son?” asked Drew cynically.

“Because you’re you,” answered Peter.

Peter sat back down at the other end of the table, filling out the report. “So,” he said, writing down the information and not waiting for Drew to respond, “You bumped into a display stand of watches. One of them fell into your pocket and you didn’t know it was there until the alarm went off when you exited the store.” He looked up at Drew. “Is that how it happened?”

Drew thought about staying the rebellious course – denying his father the easy way out, again. But Drew realised that by trying to hurt his father, he was only hurting himself. He knew his father cared about him, so much so that he was willing to risk his career on more than one occasion…

“Yeah,” said Drew, agreeing with Peter for the first time in weeks. “That’s exactly how it happened.”

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