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Stephen’s hands were shaking. He could barely get his sling ring over his knuckles with how hard his hands were shaking.
The phone call he had gotten moments earlier reverberated in his head. Peter’s youthful voice, hearing the tears through his terrified waterfall of words.
I crashed the car, there was this truck and it was going the wrong way and I swerved and it a tree and I’m so sorry, I’ll make it up to you, but Dad isn’t answered and you’re available but I know you hate cars and I’m sorry-
The portal opened to the side of a highway. For a moment, Stephen saw a flicker of a car sinking into a dark abyss before his vision cleared. Stephen turned around at the sound of Peter’s voice.
It was almost like Stephen couldn’t see anything but Peter. Nothing mattered except for Peter. His first priority was to make sure that Peter was okay, that Peter wasn’t repeating Stephen’s own accident, that Peter wouldn’t be another Donna.
Stephen only felt his racing heart begin to calm down when he had gathered Peter in his arms, tears he didn’t know were falling soaking into Peter’s shoulder.
“Pops, papa, kangaroo, I'm fine, I’m okay. The car.. The car isn’t, but I’m-”
“The car doesn’t matter to me.” Stephen choked out. “I just.. I need you to be okay.”
Peter tightened his hold around Stephen’s shoulders. “I’m okay. I’m fine. It’s okay.”
It took a few moments before Stephen finally believed him. The memories would always be there, in the back of his mind, but for now, his kid was safe. His kid was safe and that was all that mattered.