So this story was sparked by something Joshua Jackson said in an interview, he said Peter might have been a bubble-boy genius if he hadn't been kidnapped and taken to Our side. And it seemed like an awesome Fringe story to tell and very well could have happened in some alternate parallel universe...
It starts out Over There.
The Olivia in this first chapter is Fauxlivia, in case you don't pick up on it.
On with the show!
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Olivia shifted nervously outside the beautifully landscaped, and designed glass and concrete home of the Bishops. Home was an understatement, it was more like a mansion. Or a fortress.
The secretary of defense lived in a walled mansion of splendor in comparison to the rest of the city.
There was a plush garden from the green tendrils of vegetation she could see peeking out over the fortified walls.
She had called before coming over but she was unsure of what to expect when she arrived. She had a nice apartment by most peoples' standards. Putting your life in peril every day, came with a lot of perks, but this put her meager existence to shame. The Secretary was definitely leagues above her pay scale by the look of things.
She rang the buzzer and it was answered quickly.
"Agent Dunham?" a male voice echoed over the intercom.
"Yes. Olivia Dunham to see Peter Bishop. I called earlier."
"Oh, I know," the voice said as the gate buzzed open. "Just follow the path. My mother will meet you outside."
Olivia hesitated a fraction of a second before she pushed open the gate. Why was she so nervous? She never let her nerves get to her this badly. She took a few deep breaths of the sweet smelling air to calm herself down.
The front door opened and an impeccably dressed woman with long dark hair came out to greet her. The woman was regal and stretched out her hand and smiled warmly.
"I'm Elizabeth. Peter's been waiting for you all morning. He's very excited," she said sheepishly. Then realizing she might have said something embarrassing, quickly tried to backtrack. "I mean, he's very excited to hear about your investigation."
Olivia smiled back at her. Elizabeth seemed very protective of her son. Rightly so.
Speaking of her son, Peter Bishop appeared at the door. He was seated in a state-of-the art electric chair, a model she had never seen before. Only the best for the Secretary's son.
Did he know he lived a charmed life behind these walls? He had deserved it, though, being kidnapped and his face plastered all over the world's newspapers and TV screens.
"Forgive me if I don't shake your hand, sweetheart," he greeted her. He lifted his curled motionless hands and Olivia gave him a quick smile. He moved his eyes to the left and his chair did a 360 degree turn and she followed him as he zipped through the living room. She almost had to run to catch up to him. He sensed this and slowed down a touch. He wasn't used to female visitors, so he was nervous and forgot his manners. He stopped at the door to a patio long enough for it to slide open and they both slipped through, leaving Elizabeth to busy herself in the kitchen, but still able to watch them on the patio. Her son was thirty-two years old, but she still worried about him.
Olivia almost gasped at the colors that inhabited the small bit of natural space. She had only seen pictures of most of these flowers in textbooks and never encountered them in real life. The deep red flowers of a vine clinging to the wall and the small orange and yellow flowers lining a pathway around a deep emerald green lawn almost took her breath away. She had heard that expression before, but never felt it as she did here in this garden. Taking your breath away was always regarded as a bad thing so she always wondered where that expression came from. Now she knew.
She stood speechless for a moment.
"Beautiful isn't it?" He smiled up at her. "Sometimes I feel so lucky..." The way his voice died out at the end broke Olivia's heart. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?" He looked up at her with beautiful, deep, dark soulful eyes. His voice was strong as he said it, as if the previous sentence hadn't ever been uttered.
"There have been some... alarming events happening recently-"
"Yes, my father told me about some of them."
"-and I've been looking over the files on your kidnapping. I just had a few questions to ask you. You said that a man who looked exactly like your father came and took you?"
"Yes. But I've told this story to a hundred officers and a million reporters, you could have looked it up anywhere. Hell, The Weekly World News actually had a fairly accurate report of it and that's saying a lot." He snorted.
"I don't know how much your father has told you about recent events."
"He said a war might begin soon. But that's cryptic and vague and he's been saying that forever. So take it with a grain of salt."
"I'm starting to believe him," Olivia's voice drifted off and was carried away by a blue butterfly that had swooped in to check out the greenery. She watched it fly around for a moment before gathering her thoughts again. "We've received reports and seen surveillance footage of a woman who matches my description exactly. She could be my double." She looked down at Peter who was not looking at her but looking out at the yard and she tried to gauge the expression on his face. But he wasn't giving anything away.
Did he understand what she was trying to say? Who else but Peter Bishop could or would understand what that meant?
She broke the contact and stared off into the landscape and let the silence sit between them. She felt an instant kinship with Peter Bishop and even though she only knew him through police reports and newspaper stories, she felt she knew him. They were the same age and his story had been ever present in her life. They had grown up together, only worlds apart.
She dared say his story was one of the (many) reasons she had wanted to enter law enforcement.
"Do you have a theory as to why she might be here?" he asked finally.
"No, but I was hoping you might. The man who kidnapped you, cured you and brought you back...Why did he do that?"
"I don't know why. Yeah, he cured me, but it all came back eventually. But how could he have known that? He was trying to do something good, I always felt. I don't think your 'twin' is here to do you any harm, if that's what you're thinking." He looked at her. "I never told anyone this, but I also met a version of my mother over there. But I don't remember much else and then he brought me back and the whole media circus started.
"Sometimes I thought it was all a dream. My father was so loving. So caring. So unlike the father I knew. Sometimes I wished I could have stayed over there. I dreamt about it for years. I've spent many years trying to get back there..."
"How have you done that?" Olivia asked. Curious.
"I've studied electronics and physics. It's just... I have some limitations, ya know." He smiled shyly. Peter was never one to be this open or honest about himself (especially with a real woman and not some cyber chick he met online), but he felt like he could be open with her. He felt happy around her. At peace.
"It seemed so surreal. But I was better for a long time after that. I could play soccer, I rode my bicycle, I could just be a normal kid. But then it all went downhill after that."
Olivia nodded. And they both enjoyed the silence for a moment.
"I guess maybe I hoped if I was ever to go back, they could cure me again. It seemed maybe they were a little ahead of us, technologically speaking. Who would have thought an alternate universe even existed and was as accessible as going through a door? I have trouble believing it and I did it."
"But what if you went back and got worse?"
"Touche. But what if they could cure me? It doesn't hurt to try, does it? There's so many what ifs... so many possibilities."
"Yes, so many possibilities... This woman who looked like me was seen outside my apartment a few nights ago," she gently steered the conversation back on track.
"Do you think she might hurt you?" Peter felt that Olivia could take care of herself if she needed to. Even her casual stance beside him screamed "military". And the gun at her hip probably deterred most people from even trying. But for some reason, he felt very protective of her despite that. Even though he knew he was useless in a fight. But he'd never felt so alive in his uselessness. From the moment he'd laid eyes on her he had developed a slight crush. Her long reddish brown hair... Or it could be the simple fact that a woman had called him and wanted to meet him in person.
That NEVER happened.
"No. But... you never know," Olivia answered and she looked down at him and Peter seemed far away, lost in his thoughts.
"I've been told my entire life by my father that they're monsters for taking me, but I've never believed that stuff. They were kind to me. They cured me. They fed me. They hugged me. They sent me back home. Those are not the actions of people who are at war with us."
"But what if they've changed, Peter? What if things over there are as bad or worse than they are here? Who knows to what lengths they would go to to survive?"
He was silent.
"I know exactly to what lengths WE would go to survive." he said cryptically.
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