Chapter Text
Instead of the sound of an alarm clock, Pete and Sue awakened from the sound of their youngest son charging around on the landing, reenacting an ancient Egyptian sacrifice method.
“Does he ever sleep?” Sue groaned, her face still essentially in the pillow.
“Probably not.” Pete said, raising his head to see what the time was. It was a quarter past four. They didn’t need to get up for another half an hour at least, but nothing was going to silence Ben’s enthusiasm.
Pete saw the bedroom door swing open, and Ben came walking through it.
“What are you doing awake? It so early, you should be asleep!” Pete scolded. He wasn’t happy about being woken up this early.
“But I’m really excited for this holiday!” Ben cheered, a grin on his face that just spelt excitement. “When are we having breakfast Mummy?”
“Ben, we’re not having breakfast until five at the earliest, go back to bed like your father said, or he will put you back to bed himself.” Sue said, he voice still slightly muffled by the pillow.
“Will I?” Pete asked, not willing to get out of bed this early, even if it was to put his son back to bed. Once he got up, he couldn’t go back. “Just play around quietly, we’ll get up in about 45 minutes.” Pete said to Ben, who darted back out, continuing whatever disturbing game he had been playing.
Mere seconds later, another figure emerged from the door.
“Mummy? Daddy?” The little tired voice of the Brockman’s youngest child spoke.
“What is it Karen?” Sue asked, finally lifting her head from the pillow.
“I can’t sleep, Ben’s scaring me...” Karen replied, taking a few steps closer to her parent’s bed.
“Ben!” Pete called out, “you’re scaring your sister!”
“Did you know that the Egyptians used to kill their servants, and they were buried with their masters, so they went to the afterlife together?” Ben asked, walking back into the room.
Seeing the clear discomfort on his daughter’s face, Pete tried to stop Ben’s ranting. “Ben, that’s enough.”
“They would do it by stabbing them brutally in the chest, and letting them bleed to death, sometimes they made them stab themselves.”
“Ben!” Sue yelled at her son.
“Sometimes they would tie them all together and lay them in a circle around their dead master.”
“Ben, enough! Go and watch the TV or something!” Pete instructed his son, who ran back out into the landing. Karen looked almost close to tears. She didn’t like being woken up, or having the thought of several dead Egyptian servants forming a ring around a dead Pharaoh.
“Can I come in with you?” Karen’s quivering voice asked.
“Of course darling.” Sue said calmly, while Pete closed his eyes. Any chance of a bit more sleep was gone. Karen crawled in between Pete and Sue, leaning her head on Sue’s arm, while reaching for Pete’s hand, which Pete moved within Karen’s reaching distance.
Although she was high maintenance, Pete couldn’t deny that she was really cute at this point in time. She was just happy to be there, she wasn’t asking questions, or writing a letter to Gordon Brown, or explaining how babies were made over a Sainsbury’s microphone, she was just cuddling.
Pete’s temporary moment of bliss was cut short by the sound of a deafening roar and the squirt of a ketchup bottle. He could already picture what Ben was doing.
“Can’t you two shut him up?” A voice was heard calling across the hall, “he’s your son and your responsibility!”
“Good morning to you too Jake!” Sue called back.
“Sarcasm!” Ben shouted from the landing.
“Look if you don’t shut up I’m gonna make you, you stupid little- “ Jake was cut off in the middle of his sentence, and the sound of the ketchup bottle being squeezed and making contact with a person replaced Jake’s speech. That sound was followed by some incomprehensible yelling, and the sound of Ben being rugby tackled, still squirting ketchup at Jake.
Pete jumped out of bed, and made a beeline for the two boys. “Bloody hell! That is enough!” Pete shouted at his two sons, pulling Jake off from on top of Ben. Before he could say anything, he saw Jake’s face, almost completely drenched in ketchup. Then Pete noticed Jake’s pyjamas, which were also drenched in ketchup. Then, Pete’s eyes turned to the walls, and the doors, and the carpet... and the ceiling, which was causing ketchup to rain down like some kind of tomato storm. Pete grabbed the ketchup off of Ben before he was the next to be decorated red. Turning to Jake, who was conveniently standing next to the bathroom, Pete merely opened the door and motioned for Jake to enter, which he did, slamming the door behind him. “Ben, just, go and watch telly like I told you.” Ben ran downstairs, continuing his Egyptian sacrifice game.
Just as Pete was about to go back into his room, figuring he could ask a housekeeper to clean it up for them, he heard the noise of his father in law walking towards the ketchup cataclysm.
“Morning Frank.” Pete said, calmly, hoping he wouldn’t notice the ketchup.
Grandad took one look at the scene in front of him, and asked; “Has someone passed a kidney stone in the hall?”
Slightly confused that that was where Grandad’s mind went when he saw ketchup everywhere, Pete replied softly by saying; “No, Frank. Why don’t you go and have a nice cup of tea, and take your pain killers. We’ll be heading to the airport at about seven.”
“Alright then,” Grandad replied, doing his best to manoeuvre the ketchup streaks, and singing an army song his regiment used to sing in the Korean War.
Pete slumped back down into bed, the sound of the shower, Grandad’s singing and Ben’s deafening war cries weren’t exactly the most soothing sounds in the world, but he was surprised that when he looked over towards his wife and daughter, she saw them both peacefully asleep, Karen still resting her head on her mother’s arm. Pete shuffled over, wrapping his arms around them, resting his head on the pillow behind him, and closing his eyes.
Then the alarm clock went off.
“Well... family holiday, here we come.” Pete groaned, getting up to make his family breakfast.
TO BE CONTINUED