A/N: I had to do a Walter/Olivia friendship thing. I HAD to. After Brown Betty, it was just unavoidable. lol I pretty much forced myself to write since my laptop wasn't working (it is now) and this happened. I do love it. I'd love it more if Peter was there, but hey - he's gonna be gone for a while. Bring on the angsty fanfictions from me. XD I miss meh Peter.

PREVIOUSLY ON FRINGE

"Do you think she'll call me Dad?"

"Who?"

"Agent Dunham!"

[laughing] "My guess would be no."

"Don't look at me like that, she's just what you need! Someone who can see right through you."

"Agent Dunham?"

She didn't answer.

"Olivia, I know you're awake."

Two blue-green eyes opened and glared at the man leaning over her. She adjusted the thin throw draped causally over her frame as she slowly sat up. A junior agent stood nearby, a half smile lighting up her dark brown eyes. "What is it, Walter?" Olivia asked as fatigue brought her voice up an octave.

He sat on the coffee table in front of her. He was already dressed and ready for another day at the lab, even though it had to be three in the morning. She just looked at him as he pondered over what he wanted to say. "I… I was wondering if you had any new leads. On-on finding Peter." His sapphire blue eyes were pleading and hopeful and he took her small hand in his fatherly one. "I know it's early but… I haven't been able to sleep."

She couldn't help but smile, even if it was a small and sad smile. She hadn't been able to sleep either, even in the warmth and security of the Bishops' apartment. Everything reminded her of Peter: the doorway where she had first seen Peter glimmer, this living room where she had told Walter that Peter was gone, even the driveway outside where she had rejected his invitation to come inside and work some more on their case. The blanket around her waist even smelled of him. "I know what you mean, Walter. But there's nothing – I'll tell you when I do find something out. But until then, you should try and get some rest."

He hesitated, stroking the back of her hand with his calloused thumb. "Olivia…" he started, but then thought better of it and shook his head. "Never mind. It's not important." He smiled again, patted her hand and got up. Astrid led him back to his bed in the dining room before coming back to sit beside Olivia.

"I know we've all been worried about trying to find Peter, and I know you've been stressed lately. But, 'Livia… Walter needs you now more than ever. He needs to know that you're feeling upset about this, too," Astrid whispered, playing with a piece of fraying threads on the armrest. Her brown eyes flickered to Olivia's face, begging her to understand. "He told me about a time when he was talking to Peter. It must have seemed innocent enough then, but… he believes you two are going to get married someday."

The surprise was evident enough on Olivia's face. But, very subtly underneath was a gentle satisfaction, like she had believed something and someone was saying they agreed. Astrid didn't pretend to only see the surprise and smiled. "I thought so. Just… try to make it seem like he's right." She got up and left, going up the stairs to the guest room she was staying in.

Olivia waited until she heard the door close upstairs before getting up herself and padding into the dining room, where Walter was looking at a piece of paper. Only, he was looking at it like it was a complex equation. He noticed Olivia standing in the entryway and showed her the paper – a hand-drawn tulip in black and white. "I've always waited for a sign from God that I would be forgiven for my actions. A sign in the form of a white tulip. It's a flower that doesn't bloom this time of year." She didn't know what to say to that, so she just came over and sat next to him at the foot of the bed. "Agent Dunham-"

She interrupted him, "Walter, we've known each other for almost two years now. You can call me Olivia."

He looked comforted by those friendly words, and he went on with a light passion. "Olivia, when this… arrangement started, I thought it was going to be temporary. That after I helped save Agent Scott's life, Peter would send me back to the mental institution and none of us would ever see each other again. But when we formed the little team, I began to take all of it for granted. And I forgot that you, Peter, and Agent Farnsworth all have lives of your own. So by your being here, it's almost like your babysitting me." He went silent and looked like he was about to start crying.

"I'm not babysitting you, Walter, and neither is Astrid. You didn't see how I was after John died. I pretended like I was fine, that everything was perfectly normal, but what you and everyone didn't know was that almost every night I couldn't sleep. Because I felt like a huge part of my life had been ripped forcibly out. Like there was still something missing. And then I realized that you and Peter weren't leaving. That almost made it better."

"But there's still something missing?"

She sniffled and looked away, blinking back the tears for Walter's sake. "For the longest time, there wasn't. But now… there is again. You probably wouldn't believe me if I said it's worse, but it is."

He just looked at her, slowing starting to understand. He was probably running through his head all the little moments where Peter had displayed some form of emotion for Olivia or vice versa. All the little moments that somehow had made up the big picture. A slow and mischievous smile crept across his wrinkled face. Very teasingly and almost fatherly, he whispered, "You like him, don't you!?" It was something a middle-school kid would say, but it made her half-smile too.

She didn't say yes, but she didn't say no either. Instead, she just got up started to leave. "Goodnight, Walter," she said from the hall, looking back at him with the same amused smirk Peter always gave him during moments like this.

"Goodnight, Olivia."