Two Years Later

Two Years Later

1

What was the defining moment of your life? What was the moment that split your life in half, with a 'before' and an 'after'? Before, your life was just fun, hanging out with friends, going to the movies and basically not giving a damn. But after, your life got a whole different, deeper meaning. Everything became more serious, more dramatic even, and all of a sudden you realized that life wasn't just fun and games.
Peter's defining moment has changed a few times already. The first one was a big car accident he was in when he was 16, which almost cost him his life, and after which he had to spend several months in a hospital. The defining moment changed the first time he had sex, while still at the hospital, and then several years later, the moment he said yes to marrying his wife. The last time the moment changed was when his first kid was born, which both overjoyed and frightened him. Standing there in the hospital, holding that small bundle of life in his hands, he thought this would be the final defining moment of his life, and that from now on, there would only be 'after'.

How wrong he was.

2

The day started really well. For the fifth day in a row, the temperature was around 30 degrees Celsius, and the weather was so lovely that Peter and his wife Lara decided to take the kids to the beach. It was a long time since they had last been at the beach, a life of too much fast food and too little exercise taking away any urge to show off their bodies, and the kids went out of their minds with joy when Peter and Lara told them during breakfast that they would go. They jumped up from their seats immediately, ran upstairs, and started rummaging through their clothes to find their bathing suits. It only took 15 seconds for the youngest, Jimmy, to start complaining loudly that he could not find his swimming shorts, and it only took another 10 seconds for his big sister Jenny to join him.
"Shall I tell them that I packed their outfits already, or shall we let them sweat a little?" Peter loved it when his wife had that mischievous sparkle in her eye. He did not have time to tell her to let the kids search a little bit more though, because they had already ran back downstairs and found the bag.
"Mommy," Jimmy said, fishing his Cookie Monster swimming pants out of the bag. "Don't you think I am maybe a little too old for Cookie Monster?" Lara walked towards her son and kneeled down in front of him.
"So, what do three year old boys like on their swimming trunks then"
"I want the Transformers! Like daddy has on his t-shirts!" Lara laughed.
"You are right, the Transformers are a much more mature choice, and can I just say that you have chosen a fine person as an example of who to base your style on?" She got up, looked at Peter's t-shirt and walked into the kitchen laughing. Peter was not amused.
"What? What's wrong with the Transformers?" He followed her into the kitchen. "I will have you know that the Transformers were the epitome of coolness back when I was a kid and that their resurrection is testament to the enduring quality of the material"
"Ooh, that's a lot of words with more than two syllables in once sentence! Now shall we go or would you like to continue your transformation into a couch potato?"

Peter's initial grumpiness aside, the ride to the beach was a pleasant one. Lara was singing songs with the kids and her sister, who had decided to tag along, while Peter tried his best not to be in an accident in the insane traffic that was heading towards the beach. When they finally arrived, it was almost impossible to find a parking place, since the whole city seemed to have picked this exact same day to work on their tan. But when they had found a spot, things only seemed to go uphill. Okay, the water turned out to be a bit cold, and it took Peter five minutes to get into the water up until his ankles until Lara splashed the water all over him, but how can you complain when your kids are having such a great time? Besides, lying at the beach gave Peter the time to finally finish reading that book he had started months ago, and Lara was exposing so much flesh that Peter could not stop himself from sneaking a peek in between flipping pages. Yeah, it was a lovely day...

3

"Peter," Lara began when they were resting on their towels later in the afternoon, the kids playing with their aunt.
"Hmm?" Peter answered, the attraction to his book making it hard for him to give his wife his full, undivided attention.
"They caught two more clones yesterday night"
Now Lara had Peter's full attention.
"What? Really?" He sat up.
"Yeah, read this." Lara handed him the paper she was reading, and there it was, splashed all over the cover: "Clone Police in Curious Clone Catch"
"Jeez, who makes up these headlines"
"It's not about the headline, Peter, read the story"
"The local branch of the Clone Police was involved last night in the most curious clone arrest since cloning became illegal, now over 30 years ago. Two clones of recording artist Liza Johnson were caught last night as they both showed up at the same concert. The real Johnson was residing on a beach on an undisclosed island in the Pacific, using her clones to do her performances for her. If Johnson returns to our country, she faces charges of up to thirty years in prison, while her clones face instant termination." Peter looked up from the paper.
"That is unbelievable." Peter looked at the picture that went with the article, showing two scared looking women that looked exactly the same, as they were being dragged off in handcuffs by angry looking policemen, one of whom Peter immediately recognized. "Oh, look, your brother made the arrest." He snorted.
"Yeah," Lara answered without looking at the paper. "Imagine if you were still his partner, then you could have met my favourite singer." She raised an eyebrow. "Twice."

As Peter tossed the paper to the side, Lara continued.
"How can that woman be so stupid, and so careless? And most of all, so heartless"
"Heartless"
"Of course! You know that clones run the risk of being caught and terminated. If you make a clone of yourself for a purpose like this, you must be totally heartless"
"Yeah, but is there any cause for which it is not heartless to make a clone"
"Well..." Lara did not say anything for a few seconds, as Peter saw that she was looking for the right words. He continued before she could say anything else.
"Lara, you cannot justify making clones, period. You cannot play God. They never should have invented cloning in the first place!"Lara knew where this discussion was going, and instantly regretted having brought it up in the first place. Peter had always been very vocal on the subject. He had joined the Anti Clone Police to put a stop to people cloning themselves, but was shocked to find that most of the times his job involved hunting down these clones, which would then be terminated almost instantly. In the beginning he thought this was a necessary evil, since he thought clones were nothing more than soulless shells anyway, but as he got into contact with more and more clones and saw the fear in their eyes when they were caught, he realised that it was too easy to think that way. This had led to many heated discussions with both Lara's brother John, who was still in the Anti Clone Police, and her father, who was one of the scientists originally involved with developing clone technology, and who later publicly denounced it, claiming it to be one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made in his life.
"They invented cloning for spare body parts," Peter continued, "which is completely unethical, your dad agrees on that. Rich people buying a clone of themselves so that when one of their organs failed, they could just cut it out of the clone and use it"
"I know the history, Peter," Lara began, but knew that any resistance was futile. Peter went on without paying attention to what she had just said.
"Then it turned out that the clones who were made were not perfect and that the use of their body parts was a danger to the lives of the people receiving those body parts. So the government decided that all those thousands of clones running around in the country had to be rounded up and terminated. That's also unethical. Clones may not be real people, but they have feelings, and who knows, maybe even a semblance of a soul as well"
"You are preaching to the converted, dear." Lara knew that, whenever Peter was in one of these moods, it was best to just let him go on without interrupting him. She just hoped that he would not start waving his finger at her, as if he was a teacher at school lecturing his students on a particularly difficult subject.

And of course, he did. Luckily he did not see her roll her eyes, or she would never hear the end of it.

"And then scientist started up secret underground laboratories where they worked on perfecting clone technology, not caring that if they would be found out, the clones they made would also be terminated. Do you know that there are rumours that they are still making clones, and that these clones are so perfect that you can only distinguish them from real human beings when you test their DNA"
"Then what is wrong with making clones of people for special circumstances"
"Special circumstances? What special circumstances?" Peter rose to his feet, a sign that he was getting really heated about the discussion. "Are you saying that there can be a possible reason for somebody giving life to another human being, in any other way than through birth"
"What if somebody close to you dies of a terrible disease"
"Lara, that's life! When somebody dies, you mourn. You live with it. You don't start up the pottery machine and bake a clone! I agree that the clones who live now should be allowed to live their life, but you cannot just make new clones, no matter what reason there is. How would you feel if you found out you were just a copy of someone else?"

Now Lara was standing too, but right before the discussion could escalate any further, both Peter and Lara noticed something was going on. All around them people were standing up and looking in the same direction. Peter and Lara turned as well.
"Can you see what's going on"
"Nope, I don't see a thing"
But then it became clear. A woman in the distance screamed, and as she ducked out of the way, Peter saw four men from the Anti Clone Police run past her.
"Great, it's my old colleagues coming to say hi. Maybe they are finally coming to give me my farewell gift. I mean, it's only been two years since I... Lara, what's wrong?" Lara's face had frozen when she saw the foursome run over the beach in their black outfits.
"What's wrong? You look like you have never seen somebody from the ACP before. For God's sake, your brother is practically married to the Anti Clone Police, and your dad used to work for them after he stopped making clones. I wonder what poor bastard they have in their sights now."

As Peter turned to look around, he felt Lara grab his hand.
"Peter, we have to run!" she said, tears starting to stream down her face. He looked into her eyes, hoping to see that glint in her eyes that always told him she was joking, but could only see fear. "Peter! We have to go!" she yelled again as she started dragging him away. Peter was too baffled to protest, and the only thing he could say in return was: "But what about the kids"
"Leave them! They will be fine! My sister will take care of them"
And as they started running, he could hear the men in the distance yell for them to stop, while Lara kept looking back, hoping that he was keeping up with her. What on earth was going on? Why was Lara so scared of the ACP? And why were they being chased anyway?

4

They ran. They ran like crazy, but it seemed like there were policemen coming from everywhere. There was even a chopper above them, with two heavily armed men hanging from the sides, aiming their guns at Peter and Lara. Peter still didn't understand why they were running in the first place.
"Lara, what's wrong?" he yelled at his wife, but she only urged him to run harder. Lara seemed to know perfectly well what was wrong. She kept pulling him along, dodging and weaving over the busy boulevard that ran alongside the beach. Peter's mind was racing to find a reason for this chase, but it was not coming. Why would Lara be so scared of the Anti Clone Police? They only chased people who were clones, so what did they have to fear? But then, in a flash, Peter put two and two together.

The main reason why Peter had left the ACP was not a pleasant one. While driving home after work one day, and after having picked up his wife and kids, his car had exploded. An organisation calling itself the Pro Clone Movement had been targeting the Anti Clone Police for some time already, and took responsibility for this attack as well. Peter and Lara had ended up in the hospital, according to the doctors the kids had nothing but a few scratches, but Peter and Lara had balanced on the line of death. Peter could not remember much about the first few months after the attack, but he did know that since then, Lara had never really been the same. She was still as smart, sexy and funny as she was before the attack, but something seemed different. She was not as happy and full of life anymore as she had used to be. Peter knew that this was natural when something traumatic has happened to you, but while he had been able to fully recover and more or less become the old Peter again, he had found Lara sitting silently in a corner many times, sometimes with tears rolling down her cheeks. And this was still the same, two years after the attack had happened. He told Lara many times to see a psychologist about this, but she had always refused. Peter always wondered why, but now, as the ACP was chasing them, it suddenly seemed very clear.

No, it couldn't be!

Could Lara be a clone?

5

Even though Peter did not want to believe it, Lara being a clone made perfect sense. Lara's father, Simon, was one of the scientists who made the first clone, so he had the knowledge and skill to make a clone of his daughter anytime he wanted. But hadn't he also one been one of the first of these scientists to feel that cloning was wrong, quitting his job and giving many interviews about the evils of cloning? Then again, what would you do if your only daughter dies and you have the technical know-how to more or less bring her back to life?

This was too much to take in for Peter, especially since they were still in the middle of a high speed chase. Peter hardly registered what the Clone Policemen behind them were yelling at them (but he was guessing they used words like 'stop' and 'now'). He was too dazed from the possibility that was just presented to him. His wife a clone? How could he never have guessed anything? Then again, how could he have? This must have happened in that period after the accident that he did not have any memory of, and now he even began to wonder if that had been intentional. Had he known that his wife was dead, and had he known that his father in law had wanted to bring her back to life, and had he been opposed to that? Had they then wiped his memory?

People doing their shopping looked up in amazement when they saw them run by, with the Clone Police in tow. All Peter could think about was that the hand that was holding him, was attached to the woman he loved passionately, who now turned out to possibly be a clone. He wasn't just going to stop loving his wife, just because she was a clone! Was he?
Again she looked behind her and Peter caught the scared look in her eye. Her beautiful blue eyes, the eyes he had looked in so many times. And if Peter did not save her, this would be the last chance he had to admire them.

6

People ducked out of the way when they were running by, probably afraid that they were carrying guns, or that the trigger happy Clone Police would start shooting at them. Peter wouldn't mind betting all his money that his brother in law John was part of the chase. And although he was sure that John was intent on catching this clone of his sister, he was also pretty sure that he would not just want to have her killed like that. Besides, Peter was also pretty sure that John would not want him to get hurt. They may have had their differences, but in the past Peter and John had been like real brothers and, at least to Peter, some of those feelings were still there. Peter now realised that it was probably John who had found out about Lara being a clone. He had probably noticed the same thing that Peter had only realised now, and had then spoken to his father to get the truth out of him. Peter got more and more angry by the second. How could he not have made these conclusions earlier? Then they could have left the country and move to a more liberal country, were clones did not have to fear for their life.
A loud bang dragged Peter back into the reality of what was going on. He saw people left and right of him dropping themselves to the ground, and realized that the Clone Police had finally started shooting. He heard them yell something about a last chance, but realised that they were already past the last chance. If the Clone Police would catch them, no matter what John would do, Lara would be terminated and he would go to jail. They would never believe that Peter had never realized before that his wife was a clone, and being with a clone is an offence that can put you in jail for at least twenty years. Besides which: Peter could not imagine a life without Lara.

He had to get her out of this mess!

But just when he had finally shaken away the shock, and was ready to take charge, Lara pulled him into a shop, up the stairs and into a storage room with a big lock. She threw the lock on the door and threw herself against him. He could smell that she was sweating, as she put her finger to his lips, signalling him to stay quiet. The only thing Peter could hear for the next two minutes was the beating of his heart in his ears, as he held Lara tighter than he had ever done before.
It looked like they had been able to shake off the Clone Police, and he wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. Lara turned towards him and put her arms around his neck. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and Peter realised that she was feeling remorse over never telling him about her being a clone, and feeling sorry that she put him into all this trouble. Peter wanted to tell her that it was all okay, and that she did not have to worry about a thing, and that they would work something out. They could still try to find their way to a neighbouring country!

"It's okay Lara, don't worry," Peter started, running his hands through her hair and kissing her on the top of her head.
"Peter"
"You don't have to worry about a thing. I don't mind that you are a clone, I love you"
"I'm a clone"
"We just have to get over the border. We will get Jimmy and Jenny from your sister and then we will borrow a car somewhere and just set off. We will make it, you will see!"

She put a finger on his lips to stop the stream of words and said something that made his heart freeze worse than before, and made him feel terribly light in his head. She said:

"Peter, I'm not a clone. You are."

7

The world fell away for a few minutes. It was impossible to form any coherent thoughts and Peter had to lean against one of the walls to not fall down. Lara was holding his hand and wiped away the tears streaming down her face. As Peter looked into her eyes, there finally was a thought that formed in his head.

How was it possible that he had never realized that he was a clone?

It was as if Lara had read his mind.
"You did not survive that explosion in our car. The doctors said that you didn't suffer, it was instant. It was my nightmare come true. Ever since we met, I have always loved you so much, that I could not imagine you dying one day. My dad had confessed already when I was still young that he still kept up to date on all the latest cloning technology, and after you died he came to me and told me it would be possible to bring you back to life. I did not have to think for a single second. It was easy to get your DNA, since it was all over your clothes, took it to him, and he got to work. I did have doubts about it, thinking that I should not do it, leave it alone and mourn. I know we had so many discussions about how bad cloning is, but the thought of not having you in my life was just too much. Dad saw that, and he persuaded me to have you cloned. It scared me to death, but when he led you into the house, a few weeks later, it was like you had come back from a holiday. We told you that you had been in a coma after the attack and that you had just come out of it, ready to take back your life. It just felt right immediately. You were exactly like the real Peter, and I do mean exactly. I knew that if I would never let you know that you were a clone, life would be able to continue just as it was before the attack. You would be Peter, and I would be able to love you like nothing had happened."

She stopped and started sobbing. In between sobs she said: "But now they found out, and you found out, and everything is ruined. I don't want them to take you away, but how can you ever love me anymore, now that you have found out the truth?"

Peter was knocked senseless, still unable to say anything. The silence that hung between them was interrupted, at first only by Lara's sobs, a bit later by loud banging on the door, signalling that the ACP had found them. And as the door gave way, inch by inch, Peter realised that this was the end for him.

When the door finally gave way completely, the Anti Clone Police grabbed him and put him in handcuffs. Peter couldn't really care. His life was over. And it had only lasted two years.

8

Peter didn't recall very much from the trip to the police station. He didn't recall Lara screaming to the policemen to let go of him, about being brought in and about being questioned. They brought in some scientist who took some DNA from him and went to test it. Half an hour later the scientist confirmed that Peter was indeed a clone, and that was that. They put him into a jail cell where he spent two weeks, waiting for the moment when they would take him away and end his existence. During those two weeks, all he could think about was not realising that he was a clone, and what would happen to Lara and the kids now. He had no idea, but he worried that Lara would be in jail as well, since she had been involved with his cloning. And even though his life, or whatever he would have to call it, was over, he still worried about his wife. Although he did not agree with the fact that she had cloned him, he was emotional whenever he thought of the risks she had taken to keep him with her. Of course, he also realised it was kind of selfish of her, but he guessed that people do insane things when they are in love.
The few moments when Peter was not worrying about Lara's life, he tried to find imperfections in his body. He examined every bump and red mark he could find, but realised that most of them came from the rough games he used to play in bed with Lara. Even though he had seen many perfect clones, it was unbelievable for him to realise that cloning technology was so perfect, that he didn't even know he was one himself. Now he felt even worse for all those clones he had arrested when he was still with the ACP himself.
He didn't worry much about his own fate. After all, technically speaking he was already dead, and thanks to his wife he had gotten two more years than he was really entitled to. They had had so many wonderful moments in the past two years... He wondered if Saint Peter would be very angry at him for cheating death, and then he wondered if clones even got into heaven.

Probably not.

At the end of the two weeks, the door to Peter's jail cell opened and John stepped in. Peter looked up at him, and could see that John observed him with a look of total disdain. It was exactly the same look that John used to reserve for the clones they had caught earlier, and Peter knew that to John, Peter was nothing more than a fake, and that he could not wait for the moment when Peter would be terminated.
"Well well well..." John started, taking a chair and sitting down opposite Peter. "My trusted colleague turns out to be a clone." Peter expected John to be smirking, but instead he could see a pained expression on his face, like something was bothering me.
"I already thought something was wrong with you after that accident," John continued. "But it wasn't until I found my dad's laboratory in his basement that I was able to put two and two together." This time he did smirk, that annoying look on his face that he always had whenever he was proud of something. But the smirk disappeared almost instantly. "They are going to let me terminate you." Peter felt a shiver run down his spine, as John stared him into his eyes. "Isn't it ironic? That will be the second time I'm killing you."

Peter froze. The second time? "What do you mean?" But it was like John did not hear what he said.
"Of course, it was never the idea to kill you the first time. I just wanted to wake you up, make you see how necessary it is to kill every clone there is on this planet. Put a little explosive in your car, blame it on those clonelovers... I've never been really good at math though, and accidentally put in then times a as many explosives as I had wanted." He shrugged his shoulders, but Peter could not see the comedy in what John had just said. On the contrary.

"You bastard!" He yelled.
"Peter, don't you see? We have to keep the human race pure, we cannot have people mingling with clones! They are not like us! If kids get born, they will be nothing but freaks! Don't you agree on that? Humans cannot play God"
"You bastard!" Peter yelled again, jumping up and grabbing his old partner by the collar. He dragged him away from his chair and pulled him against a wall, ready to hit him in the face.
"You sick bastard! You could have killed Lara as well! And Jenny! Jimmy"
John looked down.
"Ah..." he began. "About that..." John put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. A stunned Peter saw the door open, revealing his father in law. With two sleeping kids in his hands.

Peter's kids.

No, it couldn't be!
9

"You're not going to tell me that..." Peter began, but he could not say the words. "Are they"
"They are sleeping," Simon said. Then, in a grave voice: "And no, they also didn't survive the explosion, Peter"
"So you cloned them as well"
Simon fell silent.
"But what are they doing here"
"They had a health check at school. I have a friend in the school medical service who does not mind to look the other way whenever I ask him to, but on this day he was sick and of course, his colleague noticed immediately that something fishy was going on. And there I was thinking the kids would be safe after I was able to keep their existence a secret from my loving son John, when he raided my lab"
"Do you mean that they are going to be terminated as well"
Peter looked up at his father in law, but Simon could not bear to look him in the eyes anymore. Peter turned towards John, but all he did was shrug. "It's the rules, what can I do?" And then he said something that turned Peter's blood boiling. "They are only clones, like you. To me the real Peter, Jenny and Jimmy are dead. It's only because of my sister that you are still alive."

Peter had a reputation for being calm in any type of situation. Lara used to make jokes about that, especially if they were on the dance floor together somewhere and she was having trouble getting Peter to show his dancing moves. "Don't be shy, sweetie, everybody else is acting like idiots as well, you can let go. Then Peter would reluctantly start some moves that only somebody with a wild imagination would be able to call dancing, but Lara didn't care. No matter how insane he looked, she loved it when Peter went wild.

Which is exactly what Peter did now. He jumped at John and started hitting him in the face, in the stomach and on the chest. John, who had not expected this sudden outburst, was too shocked to hit back, even though both knew that John was the stronger one. But before he could even think about fighting back, he was looking straight into the barrel of his own gun, which Peter had grabbed from out of his belt."You bastard," Peter yelled, almost unable to control himself. "I should shoot you right now for what you did to me and my family!"

Peter was torn. On one hand, he had already given up on life, but on the other hand he could not bear the thought that his kids would also be terminated, clones or not. He had to get them out of the police station and out of the country.
"We have to go," he said, pulling John up by his collar and pushing him towards the door with his gun.
"Where do you want to go, Peter 2? If you leave here, everybody in the city is going to be looking for you"
"We'll cross the border. At least our neighbouring country is not that incapable of handling clones"
"Yeah, and a fat lot of good that will do to them. Everything will be fine at first, and then in ten or twenty years, people will start getting weird diseases, and before you know it the whole country will be dead"
"Aren't you overacting a little bit? I've lived for two years, and I feel fine"
"Yeah, but for how long more? Huh"
"If you keep this up, I will at least live a lot longer than you! Now shut up and get us out of here without anybody noticing!"

This turned out to be surprisingly easy. It was the middle of the night, most of John's colleagues were either at home or on patrol, and they were able to slip out of the station through the back door and into John's car without too much trouble. When all of them had gotten into the car, the kids still sleeping through all that had happened, Peter told John to start driving for the border.
Simon interrupted him. "Peter, we have to go to your home first"
"Home?" Peter was puzzled. "That is the first place they are going to look when they find out I have gone"
"Peter, please. The kids have to be able to say goodbye to their mother"
"Their mother? But isn't she in jail as well? Come to think of it," he pointed the gun at Simon, "why aren't you in jail"
Simon shrugged. "It's all about having the right contacts. Especially if some of those contacts are clones themselves..."

10

The trip home was a silent one. Jenny and Jimmy woke up, were happy to see their father again, but fell asleep again almost immediately. It turned out Simon had drugged them so they wouldn't notice too much of what was going on. The only thing Jimmy did was ask where they were going.
"We're going home, son"
"He's not your son," came a sneer from the drivers seat. "He's a clone. Just like you are. You all came from test tubes. Actually, now that I think about it, he is more like your brother. After all, you are both the same age"
"Shut up, you bastard," Peter whispered John in the ear, so that Jimmy wouldn't hear. "Or I will shoot you right here, right now"
"While I'm driving"
"Yeah, why not end all our miserable lives at this very moment? I wouldn't care, I died once already. Do you want to try it as well? You can always come back as a clone!"

The rest of the trip not a word was spoken. When they pulled up into the driveway of his house, Peter felt unreal. He felt like he was going to somebody else's house, and even though that was more or less true, Peter did know that it wasn't right. It was not his fault that he was cloned, brought back to life. He felt a knot in his stomach as he wondered to himself how Lara would react to seeing them all again.

He shouldn't have worried.

Right when the door opened, Lara ran out of the house and jumped around Peter's neck, after which she grabbed the kids from him and hugged them both tightly. After a minute or so she said: "Kids, why don't you go on inside and pack your bags? We're going on a long holiday.
"Holiday!" The kids yelled in unison, and ran inside, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. As the door slammed shut behind them, Lara turned towards Peter again. He was confused.
"I thought you couldn't love me anymore, because I knew I was a clone"
"Do you still love me"
There was no hesitation. "Of course I still love you"
"Then how can I not love you? Maybe it's true that you are not the same man that I married, but the difference is almost impossible to see. I was stupid to think that things would be different now. And besides..." She kissed him. "I'm a clone too"
"What?"

12

"A few days ago, my dad confessed to me that I was at first the only one to survive the explosion. But I was in bad shape. I kept asking for you and the kids, and dad was afraid I would not survive if I would not see you. So he cloned you all. But it was too little, too late. I was too hurt and died anyway. Dad was so stricken with grief that he decided to clone me as well, he could not help himself. It really wasn't meant in a bad way, you know, dad meant the best for us. He took DNA from me already a few days before my death, meaning that my clone would also know about him cloning you all. But he never told me that I was a clone myself. He brought me home before all of you and then when you came home from the hospital, normal life resumed."

She smiled.

"Well, maybe not so normal. But it's best not to tell John about any of this. He does not know I'm also a clone. He will never let us all get away if he would know that. I hoped that he would try and get you all out of prison for me, and well, he did. He's not such a bad guy after all, though I'm sure my dad helped convince him"
Peter wondered for a second if he should tell his wife the truth, but decided to keep his mouth shut about John's 'cooperation'.

Instead Peter decided to give Lara a kiss, one of those long ones you see at the end of movies, and Lara had to gasp for air when he finally let go.
"My goodness, did dad accidentally mix in some of Casanova's DNA with yours"
"Are you kidding? I've always been like this! He just forgot to clone some of your memories"
Again they kissed, and then went inside the house to pack their own bags as well. When they came back, John and his dad were standing next to their car. John was smoking a cigarette, the disdain in his eyes hardly contained. Simon had his head bowed and looked at the floor. John was the first one to break the silence.
"Run. Pack what you need and run. Cross the border and never come back. Make up some story for your kids and never come back. Make sure Lara is safe and happy, or I will hunt you down, whether you live in some other country or not."

For a moment, Peter and John looked at each other.

"What are you going to do with him?" Peter said.
"I'm putting him in jail. I will not have him make any more clones. Ever again. Even if he is my dad, he is going behind bars and he is staying there"
"It's okay John, don't you worry about me. Worry about Lara and the kids. Make them happy. Keep them safe"
Peter had a last look at the father and son, and knew that moment that he would never see them again. He also knew that he, Lara and the kids would be alright. They would always keep the truth about the cloning a secret, and who knows, maybe Lara and him would forget about it one day as well. The most important thing was that they had gotten a new chance and he was ready to grab it with both hands.
He got in the car, waited for his family to join him and started the engine. Ten minutes later they had left the city and were well on their way to leave the country as well. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood, and when Jenny suggested that they all sing a song, Peter happily obliged.

And together, they sang all the way to the border.

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