Notes: not mine, no profit garnered. For the trope bingo squares: IN VINO VERITAS/DRUNK FIC, HURT COMFORT. Opening quote and title from & Somewhere in the Sun by Sara Woods. For the gwyo bingo setting spot seen below. Thanks to A and the JAM! for beta help. Sequel to a few teaspoons of uranium.

Somewhere there is a mountain
I have written on in forest fires
that says I am sorry I am not

the one you were looking for.
I wanted to be so badly.
But I am just this one person.

& it says all this
spiraling across
below the tree line.

Peter didn't necessarily want to go to back to work for Fringe, but it was, in some ways, the path of least resistance. He thought, sometimes, that he didn't want to be back at work with Walter and Olivia because he didn't want to feel those connections. Luckily, being back with his father and living with him meant Peter rarely had time for self-reflection.

It was his third day of actually working, his third day of waiting in the lab with Walter. Astrid went out in the field now. Peter wasn't even sure he wanted to. He didn't want to talk to victims about their pain and he was done getting the first look at grotesque corpses. Of course, Walter interrupted that train of thought as usual.

Walter said, "I'm glad you're back, son, and I do like our new place. And now you have some privacy if you want to masturbate or bring home someone to have intercourse with. I know you had that while you were away from me, but now you can have both."

"Yes, I can masturbate knowing you're right downstairs, it's a dream come true," Peter said. He paced around, looking at the new equipment, the projects Walter had going on and hopefully hadn't forgotten about. "What are you working on, Walter?"

"Well, we don't have a case, so the past few months while you were gone I have been reviewing those books of my father's you sold," Walter said.

"And bought back the day before I got you out of St. Claire's," Peter said. "In the grand total of things we've done to each other, I still think you're winning, Walter."

Walter shuffled around and started reading one of the books. "Are you hungry? You could make me something."

"Let me guess, you want a milkshake," Peter said.

"You remember," Walter said, sounding happy.

"It would be hard to forget," Peter said. "Maybe I should have hooked myself up to a car battery."

Things were quiet for a few minutes as Peter assembled the ingredients. He decided to make one he would have, he could be kind to himself once in awhile.

"I know you didn't do it for me," Walter said. "All that running away and getting revenge. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet your lady friend."

Peter stopped himself from saying he wasn't sorry at all. He was and had been pleased that Tess never saw him with Walter. Peter thought he was often a jackass when his dad was around.

Walter said, "I loved your mother like that."

Peter clenched his jaw. He didn't say anything. He didn't say that he'd never once cheated on Tess. He'd never cheated on anyone he'd been in a relationship with, anything longer than a one night stand. He'd heard enough from Walter to know that wasn't the case when it came to his mother.

He finished the milkshakes and brought one over to Walter. Then he sat himself down in front of one of the computers. He remembered an idea he'd written down three times in his notebooks.

They both worked in silence until Walter suddenly started talking about mole biology and Peter was drawn into the conversation against his will. It was stimulating and disturbing and he kept wanting to laugh, so it was like most of his adult conversations with Walter.

Then Astrid came in with lunch for all three of them. "The case was not a Fringe case," she said. She passed out sandwiches. Peter got a simple grilled cheese while Walter's was more elaborate. Peter made a face of envy at Walter's sandwich and Astrid just rolled her eyes at him.

"Are you sure?" Walter sounded plaintive.

"Garden variety murder," Astrid said. "The murder victim worked for Massive Dynamic for 2 years, 10 years ago, so we tried really hard to find a connection. But it was just his wife."

"For insurance," Walter said. "Just like the books I read as a child. People killing for money, it never stops."

Olivia came in and sat down next to Peter like it was nothing, like she always did that. She said, "I'm sorry there wasn't something for you to work on."

"I'm sure we'll have one soon," Walter said with relish. He also already had relish clinging to his chin.

"I'm good," Peter said. "I can wait a long time before we have to cut into someone else's brain."

The next day, they had three disgusting corpses, and Walter wouldn't shut up about coffee cake. "You think this is Jones," Peter said to Olivia.

"I think he knows you're back," Olivia said.

"He doesn't care about me. He seems to care about you," Peter said.

Jones turned himself in and when he met with Olivia, he sent her to a storage unit and a box. She brought it back to the lab and then took out each piece.

Peter said, "I know that lightbox. Walter, you know what this is."

"No," Walter said. "No, I don't."

"Yes, you do. I went to Jacksonville, Walter. You mentioned it and conveniently forgot it, but I remembered and I went there. You experimented on children, you and Bell, and you used that lightbox as part of it," Peter said, standing up and staring down his father.

"I don't remember, Peter," Walter said.

"That's convenient. Are you hoping Olivia won't as well?"

Olivia looked at the two of them. Anyone could see the fear on her face. Peter said, "Walter has declined to tell you, Olivia, but you were one of the kids he experimented on. People called you Olive then."

Olivia nodded stiffly. Astrid stepped back from Walter's side. Walter looked around like a sad old man and finally made something like a confession. How and he and Bell created cortexiphan because Bell thought everyone was born with abilities. They tested on children in 1981, 1982, 1983, and then started again in 1985 before stopping again. Astrid said, "All those kids are still out there?"

Walter nodded. "I don't know all of them, it was mostly Belly. It was."

"What did you to me?" Olivia sounded angry.

"We were trying to make you special. There is another side, you see? We needed to protect our side," Walter said.

Peter rubbed his chin. He was feeling a lot better about everything he'd ever done since he'd never once experimented on children. Or humans, period. He was definitely winning.

Jones was falling apart and melting but somehow still holding it together. Olivia looked at Peter across the damn lightbox and turned off every light. He suspected it was the sheer force of her anger and fear. Jones sent them to a building where there was another damn lightbox. Peter went with Olivia and Charlie. Charlie ran down to evacuate everyone and Peter stood behind Olivia.

"Okay," she whispered. "Okay."

As Peter watched in awe, barely able to breathe, Olivia did it. Every light blinked out. She turned to him and smiled. Then he had to act quickly before her shaking legs gave out. They sat together while the rest of FBI surged around them. He said, "How about a drink or 10?"

She smiled at him again. She said, "You talked me into it."

While they drank at a bar, she kept asking him about Jacksonville. He would describe what he remembered and what he'd seen in Walter's files, she would say she didn't remember any of it. "How do I not remember, Peter?"

"I don't remember anything before I was 8, so I think Walter has a technique," Peter said. "I dunno, I wouldn't mind forgetting for selective events."

"But not the way you beat that Michael guy half to death. Sorry, you ran him over with a motorcycle," Olivia said. She grinned.

"I'd want to forget why," Peter said. "Are you repulsed by that? Major turn off?"

Olivia snorted. "I don't care."

"You brought it up," he said.

"I can't stand talking about being an experiment, about whatever Walter and Bell did to me."

"So you turn the conversation back to me," Peter said. He clinked her glass with his glass. Her third glass of something on the rocks was nearly empty. "I'd call it clever but it's really not."

"Not clever to you, it would have worked on someone else," Olivia said.

"Who? Not Astrid or Charlie," Peter said. "How's Charlie doing?"

"In general? In the last 20 minutes?" She sounded arch and she wasn't slurring a single word.

"With today's news," Peter said.

"His partner was an experiment, is a complete freak, and David Robert Jones is disintegrating in front of us but somehow still escaped, I think Charlie is dealing just fine," Olivia said.

"And you?"

She just glared at him. They moved on to talking about bars they'd enjoyed and drinks they hadn't. Olivia was describing some sort of insane mix someone had made for her in college at a party when she stopped and stood up. "I think it's time to go. We have work tomorrow."

"Of course we do," Peter said. "I'll call the cab."

When they got in, he said his place and waited for Olivia to chime in with her address. She didn't. He decided not to say anything. He paid for the cab because he had a lot more money than anyone might think he had and headed inside. Olivia took his hand and followed him. She followed him all the way up to his bed. She sat on the corner of his bed, taking off her shoes and blazer. "It's too much effort to go home," Olivia said. She was already under the covers by the time he went to the bathroom and came back out.

He thought about suggesting some hangover remedies but she looked more peaceful than he expected asleep.

Peter had a nightmare, something loud in his head, Tess bleeding out on a sheet of ice. He blinked and looked around, Olivia was gone. Olivia was in the bathroom, he realized. He closed his eyes and fell back asleep before she got out.

He woke up with a slight headache but happy. Olivia was sprawled across him, having drooled just a little on his undershirt. He found it adorable. The sun was just starting to rise, he thought, golden hour. Olivia shifted and looked up at him. "Hey," he said. He prepared to move away, get everything back to their normal. She smiled at him and to his absolute but very pleasant surprise, she moved so she was more on top of him and kissed his neck. She pushed his undershirt up, her nails skimming his chest. He ran his hands down her side. At some point during the night, she'd shed her pants and shirt, she was dressed only in a soft cotton bra and light blue underwear. He gripped and kneaded her butt, his hands on her skin.

Things were getting hot and bothered. He blinked and said, "Wait, wait. Bathroom." He got up first and went into the bathroom closing the door. After flushing the toilet and spitting out his toothpaste, he squatted down to get at the condoms Walter had given him as a moving in present. He took one, just in case, but he stashed it in the waistband of his underwear. No need to make assumptions. He looked at himself in the mirror. He stared at a picture he had maybe from Thailand, a white castle and blue pool. He'd ripped it out of a magazine in Quito, shoved into a notebook, carried it from Dennis to Stoneham to here. He remembered the place, or it made him remember something. When he stared at it long enough, he could almost maybe recall why it moved him.

He left the bathroom and gestured for Olivia to go in. She grinned at him as she closed the door. He moved the condom to a drawer in his bedside table. He wondered if he'd ruined his chance. If Olivia didn't want to when she got out of the bathroom, then that was how it went.

She did, though. She got back in bed, pushed up against him, pulled the blankets over them. They kissed, they both had minty fresh mouths. He couldn't help himself from smiling against her lips. He cradled her jaw and ran his hand down her chest and stomach, fingers inside her underwear. She kept kissing him as she arched into his hand. Then she was holding his wrist, sliding her own hand over his to guide him. "Dunham," he said. It was an expression of affection. He was hard already and he was restraining himself from humping her thighs like a teenager.

Their hands together got her off, though she didn't make a sound. She whispered, "I don't want to wake up Walter."

She reached for his dick to give him a fantastic handjob. "You're just good at everything," Peter said.

Olivia got out of bed again, now naked and he almost couldn't believe how beautiful she was. He listened to her shower and tried to think about Jones again or Walter's lack of morals, what that meant to his lack of morals. He was just thinking about her hand on top of his, wet and soft pushing insider her.

She got out of the bathroom and said, "I feel like there's something we're supposed to be saying here. I don't usually do this, despite what you may think."

"I don't think anything like that," Peter said. "You think I'm thinking because of John a year ago and me now, I'm judging you in some way?"

"Because that would be ridiculous," she said, pulling on her pants. She went straight to his closet to take one of his button downs.

"It would be ridiculous," Peter said. "Gimme a minute, I can make sure you don't encounter a stray Walter on your way out. Believe me, it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Walter."

"I believe you," she said. He went downstairs and saw that Walter was still asleep, and better, he was turned away from the door. He snuck upstairs and waved Olivia down. She tiptoed in her boots. He waved goodbye in his underwear.

True to what Olivia said, there was very little actually talking about what was happening between them. It did keep happening so he couldn't complain. He could have pushed. He thought about pushing her to talk and it seemed very alien to his usual role. He wasn't the type to want a clear commitment.

"You're turned on by sneaking around," Peter said. "If you could, you'd climb out the window in the morning."

Olivia turned on her side to face him, gloriously naked and beautiful. "You could get me a ladder. We're only sneaking around because Walter. Is Walter."

"Are we dating, by the way? And I can certainly get you a ladder. I like you turned on," he said.

"I guess we're dating, yes," she said. She pressed her hand against his chest. "It's only been a few weeks, but sure, we can go that far."

"It's a been a month since I got my first fantastic handjob from you, so yes, I think dating is an appropriate term," he said. He covered her hand with his.

"Is this all about making me celebrate a cheesy one month anniversary? Are you taking me out to dinner?"

"No, I'm getting you a ladder," Peter said. "I don't like how quiet Jones has been. It's not good."

"I like to be the one who changes the subject," Olivia said. "I don't like it either."

Broyles, armed with Walter's tearful confessions, had convinced Nina to give them Bell's records of the cortexiphan experiments. They had been trying to track down all the kids, but it was rough going. A few they found easily, and after a quick interview, Olivia had decided not to tell them about any of it. She just warned them to be careful.

A few more were dead. A women had burned herself to death, another man had immolated himself the same way. "They must have had pyrokinesis," Walter said. "I don't know how they were activated."

They were able to find a common denominator; a visit from a man that had visited the dead kids. "There's another man," Broyles said one day. His voice was heavy and Peter wondered how bad this news was. "It's Sanford Harris."

Olivia said, "Are you sure?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Broyles said.

Peter said, "Who's Sanford Harris?"

"Another friend of mine," Broyles said. "One that Dunham put away years ago."

"For rape," Olivia said. "I can't believe he got out."

"He did," Broyles said. "And now we have reports he's been helping to activate these poor people, or letting them die."

"Walter should have to listen to all this," Peter said.

"There's no point," Olivia said in a clipped tone. "He won't learn, he'll just feel guilty and that won't help him work. We don't need a replay of when you left, he was useless."

Peter chose to keep his mouth shut.

The worst were the ones they couldn't locate, who had just disappeared.

"Maybe they just needed to get off the grid," Astrid said. "It doesn't have to be dire."

"Of course, I'm sure none of them have been activated and turned into good little soldiers for David Robert Jones," Peter said.

Walter was being only slightly useless. He was determinedly puttering away at some sort of experiment but when Peter asked about it, all Walter would say is that it was about herbology. So he was growing his own pot somewhere in the lab and at some point Peter would come home to Walter even more stoned out of his mind than usual.

Walter said, "The idea was to protect this universe."

"Because there's a parallel universe," Astrid said, slowly. Peter felt for her, he'd had it explained to him even more times than her, and it still made him pause at the unbelievability.

"We saw it, we got there with hallucinogens, and then we made a window," Walter said. "There are people just like us, only slightly different. They are slightly more advanced than us technologically. We used to make weapons and other inventions based on what we saw. There was one of me, another Walter. But crossing over, breaking that wall, would have, well, a disaster. But perhaps someone would try. Someone on that side."

"Why would they try? What would they want from us?"

Walter looked away and poked at a patch of mold on the petri dish in front of him. "I don't know. But Belly and I were very convinced."

Peter wanted out of the conversation, again. Like every time they talked about this other universe. "Judging by the manifesto, you were both very convinced," Peter said.

Walter sighed. Peter went home early. It was a few hours before Olivia showed up, knocking on the door. "There is actually a ladder on the side of the house," Peter said. "You'd have to open it up and bring it to my window, I'm not making it easier for common thieves."

"You're an uncommon thief, of course," Olivia said.

"I haven't stolen anything in months," Peter said. They went upstairs to his room even though Walter was so busy moping and avoiding his guilt he wouldn't be home for hours.

"Peter," Olivia said. She sounded exhausted. She took off her blazer and put her gun and badge on the bedside table. He watched her get up and grab a couple of condoms from under the bathroom sink.

"Wow, you think a lot of me," Peter said.

"We'll use them eventually," Olivia said. "Tonight I just want to sleep, actually."

"Me, too," he said.

Olivia said, "Turn on the heat, this room is a like an icicle."

"Right away," he said.

Olivia didn't fall asleep quickly but he pretended she did because he figured she would appreciate it.

She woke with a start, waking him up. She said, "Someone was murdered. I did it."

They'd found another cortexiphan kid.

The case went badly, in a way that didn't surprise Peter. Walter was a mess, so Peter sat with him in another ice cream parlor. He let Walter have two milkshakes and hoped Walter wouldn't worry himself into a frenzy. Peter said, "Walter, you did something bad. But it was a long time ago. You can fix things now if you can just focus and remember and actually tell us."

"No," Walter said. "I can't. I'm not pretending to forget. I genuinely don't remember. It comes and goes. You have no idea how frustrating it is for me, Peter, I don't remember. If I try, it won't come. If I don't try, it might. It just might, Peter. I do want to fix things. I promise you I do."

"I believe you," Peter said, holding Walter's hand. "Maybe you're afraid to remember. Sometimes I'm afraid to remember things."

Walter blinked and didn't respond. He said nothing for a long time. Peter gave up and went to his room, looked at himself in the mirror. He looked at the picture again, focusing past his own drawn face. It was a place to go to, he thought. Something like a beacon, he thought.

He put on his jacket and left the house. He walked to Olivia's apartment and knocked on her door. She opened the door and just looked at him. In her eyes he saw anger and despair and something warm that was just for him. So he smiled back and stepped inside.

At some point in the middle of the night, after the sex and two glasses of wine each, Peter tried to describe the picture to Olivia. "I see it all the time," she said, her hand in his hair. "You could take me with you when you run away."

"Olivia Dunham doesn't run away," Peter said. "It's one of your least and most attractive qualities."

"Which one?"

"Depends on my mood," Peter said. "Right now I feel like most. It's a very attractive quality to me right now."

She rolled onto her back, with a faint smile. "I like how you run away," she said. "I would have liked to see Ecuador."

"We can retired to Quito," Peter said.

"When are 'we' retiring?" She was still looking at the ceiling, faintly amused, he thought.

"33," Peter said. "That's a good age to quit."

"Have you thought about this a lot?"

"Actually, no," Peter said. "You can't retire when you don't work."

"You worked," Olivia said. "You had all sorts of jobs."

"Not long enough to think about that 401(k)." They fell asleep.

Weirdly, then there was two weeks of no cases, nothing bubbling up, not even in the sink in the lab which had never stopped smelling like Walter's so-called experimental root beer. The first two days Olivia was on the edge every minute, waiting for the bad news to come calling. She finished all her paperwork. Peter watched her tapping her fingers on the table endlessly while she read and typed. She went home with him, slept badly next to him and only seemed to relax briefly when they were having sex.

Then she just stopped. She said to him, "Something will come, it always does."

"You really believe that," Peter said tentatively.

"For now," she said.

She let him take her on a long lunch in a restaurant she didn't ask how he could afford. He said, anyway, "I don't eat out often, you know. I've been saving up for this."

Olivia shook her head, so close to smiling at him. "So it's not the secret stash you've been sitting on since Ecuador?"

"Long before Ecuador, thank you very much," Peter said. "It's not like I owe anyone money right now."

Olivia ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. "It's delicious," she said.

"Worth every penny, then," Peter said.

She even had breakfast with Walter one morning. Walter was over the moon having her there and went all out with the waffles and chocolate chips and whipped cream, only a bit of which ended up on Walter's neck. Walter said, "This is wonderful, a perfect way to start the day." Then he giggled and said, "Or perhaps you've both started the day in an even better way."

"A bracing shower," Peter said.

"Oh, I'm sure," Walter said.

Olivia didn't take her eyes off the morning paper. She was apparently engrossed in an article on the latest pipeline someone was trying to build. "Thank you for the waffles, Walter, " she said.

A day later she came by at 2 pm and said she thought it might be fun to see a movie. "Right now?"
"What are we going to see? What's playing?" Walter nearly jumped up and down in glee.

"There's definitely no reason to think she was just inviting me," Peter said.

"Walter, you can choose the movie," Olivia said.

He chose the Taking of Pelha to Peter's chagrin. He'd been hoping for something less cops and bad guys in the brief moments before they opened the newspaper for Walter to pick. Walter loved the movie and tried saying so often during the movie. Peter shushed him into silence but he did appreciate how much fun Walter was having. He liked seeing the man happy.

"Now that we're out of the theater, I presume I am allowed to speak," Walter said. "That was very gripping."

"You know what wasn't gripping? The near complete absence of women with speaking roles," Peter said. "I like women cops."

Olivia smiled at him, still oddly relaxed.

The next day, the two of them saw the Hurt Locker without Walter. "We're moviegoers, now," Peter said.

"As long as you're paying, it seems like fun," Olivia said, actually taking his hand as they walked to her car.

"Bad things are going to start happening again, any minute now," Peter said.

Olivia nodded but she still looked sanguine.

He settled into the passenger seat. "Do you think we'll have time do a weekend on the Cape before then?"

"We can try," Olivia said.

He was astonished to discover Olivia Dunham owned a bathing suit and was capable of sitting on a beach, trading a book of crossword puzzles back and forth. Peter had to buy a suit.

Nothing kept happening. Olivia was at peace with it, however she negotiated that, but Peter was getting anxious. He disliked Jones's laser focus on Olivia, he wasn't worried Olivia wouldn't survive it, she could survive anything. But he worried about her getting through all of it. He wanted her to be happy.

He would easily do worse than anything he did to Michael or Big Eddie if something happened to Olivia. It was its own frightening revelation.

Then Jones was back. They found out after he'd made his first two moves; shooting Nina Sharp to steal her battery and then using it to open a brief doorway to the other side. Walter said, "He's looking for soft spots."

"And you know where they all are," Peter said. "So where does he go next?"

Walter frowned. "I don't know where they all are, it's been years since I mapped them." He was snappy, a streak that always surprised Peter when it came out. "I know where one is."

Peter drove Walter to Reiden Lake, trailing behind Olivia and Charlie and their SUVs. Walter said, "He must be looking for William Bell," Peter said. "That's what Nina tried to claim, right? Jones has a hard on for your old best friend."

"That's a vulgar way to put it," Walter said. "I'm sure Nina is lying and there's a more nefarious scenario going on." Walter stared out the window. "There's a place here I always visit."

"Our lake house, I know," Peter said.

"Yes," Walter said. "That's what I meant." He hummed for a few moments and then said, "Peter! Peter, I just remembered."

"What did you just remember?" Peter was always exhausted at having to play this over and over again with his father. He should have kept running when he could. Instead he kept driving and asking Walter questions.

"I just remembered, we need to go to the lake house. I built, Peter, I built that machinery Jones is using. Belly and Nina must have held onto to the plans, I'm sure Nina had lots of plans for exploiting them," Walter said. He always spoke so viciously about Nina. Peter wondered what had happened there.

"So you built it? Did you use it?"

Walter was more agitated. He said, "I built a device, to close the door and open it again. It's like a remote. They won't have that one in Nina's files. We have to get it. Then we can close the door before Jones can cross over."

"Do you know it works? Did you cross over, Walter?" If Peter had to play this game, he wasn't going to let Walter get away with anything.

"I, yes, I did, Peter," Walter said. "And my remote works fine. But we have to get it now, questions later."

"We're twenty minutes from the house," Peter said. He turned off at the exit he'd need to take. "But there's no time for questions."

"I have to remember where I put it," Walter said. "Please cease talking."

Peter thought fuck you as loudly as he could towards his father.

When they got to the house Walter made a beeline upstairs. Peter had had a good 20 minutes to seethe, so he stayed downstairs. He called Olivia and told her about the remote control. "Obviously, he's hiding something," Peter said.

"We think Jones is headed this way," she said.

"Great, so are we as soon as Walter has his precious remote."

"You love him, you know," Olivia said.

"Not at this moment, no," Peter said. "You, on the other hand."

Olivia didn't say anything for a few moments. Then she said, "Okay. Okay, well, you, too. I'll see you when you get to the lake." She hung up.

Hearing Olivia awkwardly admit she loved him was enough to put Peter back in a decent mood. He went upstairs to find Walter.

"I found it," Walter said. Walter wasn't angry anymore either which was a relief. He handed Peter the device.

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"I'm going to show you how to use it," Walter said. He showed Peter four times. "You can't let Jones crossover."

"Okay, okay," Peter said.

Walter got in the car and they drove to the lake. Olivia was preternaturally calm as she explained that Jones had gone to a different side of the lake and they all needed to drive around to that location. Walter pushed Peter aside and said, "You go with Olivia. You have the device. I'll go in the second car."

Peter said, "Okay, okay," again.

He and Olivia were the first out of the car when they got close to Jones and his men and Walter's invention. Peter stayed behind her, though, she was the one with the gun, after all.

They saw a shimmering area between two metal sort of columns. Peter pulled out the device and got it ready. He was hoping to catch Jones just as he went through so it would cut him in half. That had to kill the bastard.

Except even Olivia and the other agents couldn't knock out Jones's men in time. Olivia even shot Jones but he shrugged it off with some comment about being reassembled making him impossible to kill. He went through the shimmer.

Olivia chased after him and as soon as she stepped through, Peter ran to catch up with her. He would never let her do this alone, without him. He wasn't going to lose her. He grabbed her hand as they passed through to the other side.

TO BE CONTINUED.