TITLE: Chapter One
PAIRING: Walstrid
CHARACTERS: Astrid Farnsworth, Walter Bishop, Peter Bishop
GENRE: Dark
RATING: M
SUMMARY: life in the mirror world
WORD COUNT: 546
WARNINGS: Language
SPOILERS: 1.18
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I missed 1.20 so I wrote this to occupy my time.
DISCLAIMER: none
Astrid was sitting at her kitchen table, sipping on a late night cup of coffee as she added small notes to her paperwork on post-it notes that bore the FBI seal. She had Cole Porter playing softly on the record player and she tapped the cap of her pen on the tabletop to the beat of the music.
There was a sudden noise at the front door—knocking—and she stood up abruptly, her hand resting on the gun in her belt holster as her heart pounded. Who the hell could that possibly be? She silently made her way to the front door, gun ready; she could only hope it wasn't danger…
She peeked through the door's eyelet and to her surprise saw Peter and Walter standing outside her door. Astrid quickly unlocked the deadbolts, though she didn't put her gun away immediately. Peter's jaw was stiff and she could see he was grinding his teeth together, while Walter's eyes were red and there were dried tear tracks running down his face. He was biting his lower lip, his chin was wobbling, and his head was bowed as he sniffed.
Astrid glanced to the younger Bishop in alarm. "Peter, what's—"
Peter shoved Walter towards her. "Take him."
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "What?"
Peter glared at the cowed man standing next to her. "I am not spending another minute with him. I can't. He's driving me insane."
Astrid looked at the scientist's face once more. "Peter, you both just need some time to get used to one another agai—"
"I am this close to putting a bullet through his head!" he said, his voice starting to rise. "I don't want him with me. He's yours."
With that, Peter turned around and left.
"Peter!" she shouted after him.
"May I come in? I would like to sit down," Walter whispered hoarsely, still looking at his feet.
"Get in and stay put," Astrid instructed, standing aside for him to come in and quickly followed after the younger man. "Peter, wait!"
Astrid chased him down the hall and fell into stride with him. Peter was still fuming and gave her an angry look.
"He's a monster! I can't stand to look at him!"
She tried to reason with him. "Peter, he did something bad a long time ago."
Peter stopped and spun around to look at her. "Bad? Bad?! He broke the tenth commandment of ethics! 'That which is dead past help shall remain as such.' He disgusts me! You're an Empiricist, aren't you?"
She looked away, feeling put in a very awkward position. "Peter…"
He grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Tell me what he did doesn't make your skin crawl."
It did. 'What he did was wrong, I agree. But what about the Hippocratic Oath we all take to become members of the church? That's supposed to be held above the other commandments."
"There is an abomination loose in the world because of him. There is some 'thing' that should be destroyed and he's worried about who's going to sing him fucking 'Row, Row, Row, Your Boat'." He let go of her and continued to walk down the hallway, reaching the staircase. "I'm done, Astrid! It's over. He's yours now."
"Peter!" she cried.
