Title: Bedtime Story

Author: The Dramatic Dolphin

Rating: PG

Characters: Hopefully it's not who you expected.

Pairing: Bolivia

Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at Fringe fiction…so let's see how it goes. Reviews are welcomed with open arms. I also apologize for any errors, as this is hasn't been edited and I wrote it while I had a fever.

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"It's so cold!"

The woman looked at the little girl, six years old with her father's blue eyes, and dug a blanket out of a worn backpack. "Come here sweetie, it's warmer by the fire."

"Thanks," said the girl when she was wrapped in the blanket and settled by the woman's side. "Will you tell me a story?"

"A story? It's been a while since you wanted one of those."

"Please?" The girl's eyes were so hard to resist.

"All right, which one would you like to hear? Cinderella? Rapunzel?"

"No, I've heard those before. Can I have a new one?"

"A new one? About what?"

"Anything. Just make something up, if you want." For her age, the girl was already showing signs of her parents' intelligence.

"Ok." The woman thought, hard, about what she could afford to say. "Once upon a time…"

"I've heard that one before."

"Shh! They all start like that. Once upon a time in a magical land known as Boston…"

"Boston! I was born there!"

"I know, honey. Once upon a time in a magical land known as Boston, there was a very, very brave knight."

"Is there going to be a princess?"

"No, this one's different. The knight is a girl."

"Girls can be knights?"

"We girls can be anything we want to be. Remember that. Now, this brave knight was strong and beautiful, but one day, she learned that the kingdom was in trouble. So she went to King Broyles and Queen Sharp and asked permission to go get the help of a powerful wizard named Walter."

"Walter? That's a funny name for a wizard."

"Yeah, I guess it is. So the knight went to seek out Walter the Wizard, but there was a problem. Walter lived at the very edge of the kingdom, and he refused to come out of his house or see anyone. The only way the knight could see him at all would be to find the wizard's son, who had been traveling from kingdom to kingdom for years."

"Why?"

"Nobody knows, really. Some say he was a spy, some say he was a businessman…the point is, the knight was eventually able to find the traveler and get his father to come out of hiding. The three of them, the Knight, the Traveler, and Walter, had a whole bunch of adventures together, and they were very happy for a time. Well, sometimes things would go wrong like they always do, but overall, they were happy."

"Then what happened?"

"Well….I don't know if you're old enough to hear it."

"I am! I am!"

The woman smiled and ruffled the girl's hair. "Well, I guess if you're sure…I mentioned that the kingdom was in trouble, didn't I? The kingdom next to it, which was very like the kingdom that our heroes lived in, attacked everyone. You see, they had a wizard of their own, a very evil wizard, and our traveler was really that wizard's son."

The girl's eyes went wide. "Whoa, really?"

"You see, when Walter's real son was only a little boy, he got very, very sick and died. So Walter crossed the boundary of the kingdom and stole the evil wizard's little boy and raised him as his own. The traveler didn't know about it."

The woman had left her spot by the campfire and had begun to unroll her tattered sleeping bag. She handed a smaller one to the girl, who did the same, listening intently to the woman's story.

"The evil wizard and the evil King Bell decided that they had to start a war to get the traveler back. It was a very, very messy and violent war. The evil wizard was so mean, and so upset about losing his son, that he wanted to take it out on the entire good kingdom and especially Walter the Wizard. First a noble knight named Charlie died, followed by a good witch who was Walter's assistant. The knight was especially sad when her sister got caught in a spell that went horribly wrong and…well, I won't tell you the details, sweetie. You're really too young for them."

"Please?" The girl looked up at the woman, who quickly blinked a few tears from her eyes before the girl could see them.

"All I can say is that the knight and the traveler worked bravely together, night and day, to stop the war and save all the people of both kingdoms. They both had magic powers and used them to fight battles."

"What types of powers?"

"Well, the knight could do things with her mind. She could move objects and start fires." As if for effect, the woman threw another piece of wood, this one from a broken crate, onto the fire, causing it to suddenly rise and send a wave of heat over both the woman and the girl. "And the traveler was very, very smart, and he could think and talk his way out of anything. But more importantly, he could sense what other people were feeling and use that to help the knight get out of trouble."

"I like the knight's power's better."

The woman laughed. "Let me tell you, the traveler's powers saved the knight's life more times than she could count. And it worked the other way too. And eventually…can you guess what happened next?"

"What?"

"They fell in love. The knight and the traveler."

"Oh, really? That's so romantic!" By this point, the girl had settled into her sleeping bag and was clutching a patched stuffed bear. The woman crawled into her own sleeping bag, and wiggled it around so that she faced the girl.

"Really. They loved each other and became so much more determined to fight in the war, to keep each other alive, so that they could live together in peace. And they took in the knight's niece when the knight's sister died and she had nowhere else to go, and a few years later the knight and the traveler had a baby of their very own, a little girl they named after the knight's sister and the good witch who had died helping Walter perform his magic."

"Did they live? Did they stop the war? Did they beat the evil wizard? No, no, don't cry! Don't! They lived, didn't they? Didn't they?"

"Sweetie…" The woman covered her face with her hands for a few long moments, and took a few deep breaths before she continued. "They both worked very hard to win the war and save their kingdom but… they…yes. They lived." The woman used the edge of her sleeve to wipe away the hot tears that she couldn't stop from running down her face. "They were able to win the war and save the kingdom."

The girl grinned. "Oh, good! I knew they would. I wish a brave knight, a smart traveler, and a powerful wizard had been able to win the war here, though." For the first time since the woman had begun the bedtime story, the girl glanced around at their surroundings. Once-tall buildings lay in heaps of concrete, metal, and glass, and trees lay in piles of charred wood and ash that blew onto the cracked asphalt of useless roads.

The woman hugged the girl close. "Me too, honey. Me too."

"Still, it's nice to know that people get to live in stories."

"Yes, it is. And remember that somewhere the brave knight and her brilliant traveler are living happily ever after." The woman made sure that the girl was tucked snugly into her sleeping bag. "Goodnight, Rachel Astrid Bishop."

"Goodnight, Ella."