Olivia Dunham was sitting at her desk – or rather at the desk of the other Olivia Dunham, the Olivia Dunham who belonged in this universe – flipping through the computer screens of the case file she was working on, trying to figure out how a person without a heart was alive and walking around New York City. Unfortunately, she was completely baffled. These were the kinds of things Walter or Peter always figured out. She was no good at this science stuff.
As she was wracking her mind to find something in old cases in her universe that would help her solve this one, Olivia suddenly heard someone call her name.
"Agent Dunham!"
Olivia looked up to find Colonel Alt-Broyles staring at her, his arms crossed. He jerked his head, gesturing for her to follow him into his office.
Olivia stood up and walked into her superior's office.
"Sir," Olivia said.
"Agent Dunham, the Secretary would like to see you."
Olivia nodded. "Does he know I know?" Olivia whispered.
"No. I don't think so," Alt-Broyles answered quietly.
Olivia nodded again. "I guess I should go. Hopefully I can figure out what he wants with me."
"Be careful, Agent Dunham," Alt-Broyles said and Olivia left.
Once downstairs, Olivia hailed one of the Fringe Division escort cars and was on her way to Liberty Island, which housed the Department of Defense and the office of the Secretary of the State, Walter Bishop – or Walternate, as Olivia called him in her mind.
Crossing over the New York Harbor in one of the government issued boats, Olivia stepped onto the island and stared up at the Statue of Liberty, bright, shiny, and copper-colored in this universe, but no less breathtaking.
Olivia took a deep breath and made her way into the DOD building, which was directly across from the statue. Within a minute she was outside the Secretary's office and knocking on the door.
"Come in," said the oh-so-familiar voice from inside.
She walked inside and was greeted with a "Welcome, Agent Dunham. How good it is to see you" from Walternate.
How so unlike Walter he is. Walter would never stand there smiling, knowing what he's done, Olivia thought to herself.
"Sir," Olivia said, putting on a genuine happy face.
"How goes the case, Agent Dunham?"
"With all due respect, sir, you must know I cannot release the details of it."
"Of course. I understand. I merely wished to know if there was any progress," Walternate said, striding out from behind his desk.
"Some, Mr. Secretary," Olivia said.
"Good." There was a beep and Walternate's assistant's face appeared on the screen in his desk.
"Mr. Secretary, Colonel Broyles is in the conference room for you."
"Tell him I will be right in," Walternate said.
"Yes, sir." His assistant clicked off.
"I'm sorry, Agent Dunham. This will only take a few moments. Please, sit down. I will be back shortly."
"Thank you, sir," Olivia said as Walternate left the room.
Thank you, Broyles, Olivia thought as she gently closed the door behind Walternate.
Quickly, Olivia made her way behind the desk and started rummaging through the drawers, trying to discover why she had been called to Liberty Island and what Walternate was planning on doing with her.
As she flipped through papers, careful to place them the way they had been, Olivia pulled from a stack an old piece of paper, a drawing done in crayon, most likely by a child. Pulling it clean from the others, Olivia straightened up slowly, her mind processing what she saw. It was a drawing of two children holding hands in what looked like a field of white tulips. Underneath the children were names – Peter and Olivia.
Confused, Olivia stared at the drawing for a couple minutes, but snapped back to reality when she heard noises in the hallway. Quickly, she folded the paper and slipped it into her jacket, as she moved over to sit down on the couch.
A minute later, Walternate walked back into the room and Olivia stood up.
"Sorry about that, Agent Dunham. Colonel Broyles seemed to be concerned about some protocol issues."
"Oh. Is everything okay?"
"Yes. We worked something out," Walternate said mysteriously. "Now, back to why I asked you here."
"Sir."
"I was hoping that you could attempt to cross over universes again. It seemed like we were so close last time."
Olivia's heart raced, as she realized that this could be her ticket home.
"Of course, sir. I would be more than willing to help you discover how the other Olivia can cross over unharmed."
"Thank you, Agent Dunham," Walternate said, smiling.
"Shall we say, two o' clock tomorrow?"
"I'll be here," Olivia said.
"Well, then, I will see you tomorrow, Agent Dunham," Walternate said, escorting Olivia out the door.
Twenty minutes later, Olivia was banging furiously on Colonel Alt-Broyles' office door.
"What in God's name are you doing, Agent Dunham?" Alt-Broyles said, opening the door.
"I need your help," Olivia whispered. Alt-Broyles let her into his office and closed the door behind her.
"He wants me to attempt to cross over in his lab tomorrow. If I do it with him monitoring him, I won't be able to stay there. I need to go home tonight. But I need your help," Olivia said.
Colonel Alt-Broyles looked at Olivia. He saw the desperation in her eyes and he knew it was only a matter of time before the Secretary figured out she knew who she was and decided that he no longer needed her.
"What do you need?" Broyles asked quietly.
Olivia smiled and said, "To get to into his lab – the unused one at Harvard."
"Meet me here at 22 hundred hours."
"Yes, sir. Thank you," Olivia said, smiling slightly, leaving the office, and walking back to her desk.
For eight hours, Olivia sat at her desk trying to crack the case of the real-life Tin Man, watching her co-workers leave and go home to their families, waiting until ten o' clock to attempt to go home undetected.
At two minutes to ten, Olivia stood waiting outside Alt-Broyles' office door, which opened precisely at ten o'clock.
"Let's go," Broyles said. Together they hurried out of the Fringe Division building and into Broyles' car.
Four and a half hours later, Olivia and Alt-Broyles pulled up outside the Ambered Harvard campus and quickly made their way into the abandoned school. Within minutes Olivia was pulling the cover off of the sensory deprivation tank, dumping bags of salt into it, filling it with water, and jabbing herself with Cortexiphan.
Suddenly, there were noises from upstairs.
"There here," Olivia said.
"I know. Please, make it worth it," Alt-Broyles said.
Olivia nodded and sunk into the water. As she heard a scuffle above her, Olivia closed her eyes and concentrated on crossing over to the other side.
In what felt like less than a second, Olivia heard voices from outside the tank, but they were different, voices that were familiar to her, voices which sounded like they were discussing a case. From what she could hear, it sounded almost as if they were trying to figure out a way to get her out of the other universe.
Smiling, Olivia pushed her way out of the tank to find Astrid, Walter, and Peter staring at her.