Hello! This one's based on a discussion my family and i actually had while watching the ep 'August'. Thought I'd give it a spin and see how it goes! And by the way, it's got nothing to do with Superman, i just watched an ep of smallville (Pandora, such a good ep!) and the title popped into my head. As always, this is a Bolivia fic, and i tried to give this one a bit more plot than my other fics have had lately... sorry about that. just gonna have a little more fun with this one.... ;)

I don't own fringe.... or any green radioactive meteor rock :D

Kryptonite Isn't Always Green

"Look how happy she is. It's a shame things are about to get so hard for her…."

….

Olivia returned from the afternoon at the amusement park with Ella, who was passed out and snoring softly on her shoulder, and a grin that she couldn't lose even if she'd wanted to. She eased carefully into the house, going to lengths to make sure Ella didn't wake up. It was late, and the little girl had had a packed day, filled with cotton candy, rollercoasters, and more cotton candy. After her sugar rush, Ella's eyes had begun to droop, and Olivia had seen how much she had been fighting to stay awake in the backseat the whole way home.

Removing Ella's shoes, socks, and jacket, Olivia carried her niece to bed, tucking her in. Her smile only grew when she saw a loose strand of pink cotton candy in the girl's hair. She picked it out gently and kissed a sleeping Ella on the forehead before backing slowly out of the room. She was careful to close the door three quarters of the way so that only some of the light from the hallway spilled onto the carpeted bedroom floor – just the way Ella liked it.

Thoroughly worn out herself, but not yet ready to go to bed, Olivia shuffled back down the hall to the kitchen barely lifting her feet up off the floor. Her eyes kept hazing over in the bright kitchen lights and she had to blink several times to clear them. A lone package of Mr. Noodles caught her eye in the back of a once-thought empty cupboard, as well as a whiskey bottle that was also empty, save for a couple sips.

She only sat down on the couch when the lights in the apartment were all dimmed to her liking, bowl of Mr. Noodles in one hand and the liquor bottle on the other. There was so little left it was just a hindrance to pour it into a glass. Olivia sat back and sighed. Today had been nothing less than a whirlwind. And now all she needed was this, this silence and peace and –

A soft knocking on her door interrupted her thoughts and Olivia contemplated just ignoring it. If it were something important, someone would have called her. One glance at her phone on the coffee table showed no missed calls, and Olivia was happy to just sit on the couch and enjoy her moment. Well, not that it was much of the quiet evening she had been expecting, not after this disturbance. Begrudgingly, she took one large gulp of her whiskey and forced herself to get up.

Glancing through the peephole, Olivia unwittingly felt the smile on her face flare up again.

"Hey," Peter greeted her once she'd opened the door.

"Peter, hi," Olivia leaned casually on the doorway, running a hand through her hair as a wave of self-consciousness washed over her. Just by touching it, she could tell that her hair was more of a mess than she'd thought it would be after a day at a theme park. All of the little flaws in her appearance suddenly jumped to the front of her mind; the scuffs on the bottom of her pants from running between attractions at the park; the small red spot on the bottom edge of her t-shirt, a byproduct of putting too much ketchup on both her and Ella's hotdogs.

Why am I so worried? It's only Peter…

He was eying her strangely, and Olivia frowned, confused. "What?"

Peter stepped closer to her, so close that their noses weren't much more than an inch or two apart, and then he did something totally unexpected. He sniffed her.

"You've been drinking," he concluded, voice low and raspy, almost in warning, after a long moment of intense proximity that resulted in Olivia's stomach doing a few back flips. She was frozen in his presence, and the mental replay of his voice. She hated to admit it, but that tone made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and, mixed with exactly how close they'd been standing, sent a fiery chill through her body.

He stepped back and Olivia scrounged up an explanation. "Just a glass's worth, that's all. She glanced up at him for a moment, and upon seeing his coy smile, she knew that he wasn't looking for an explanation; he just wanted to show her that he'd noticed and that he was… worried? Concerned? "I'm fine Peter, I just needed to wind down a bit."

Again, she was rattling off an excuse. Peter smiled and shook his head.

"If I had a penny for every time the words 'I'm fine' came out of your mouth, I would be able to retire early."

Olivia smiled back. Admittedly, he could be pretty funny and always knew how to get a grin or two out of her.

"Peter," she began softly, "it's late; it's almost midnight… is everything alright?"

"With me? Fine. Walter on the other hand," he paused, choosing his words carefully, "he's been having trouble making his favorite banana milkshake because he's already made about five this evening and we're out of bananas."

With that charm smile set in place, Olivia was at his mercy. She knew he was stalling, but she played along.

"Did you come here looking for some?"

"No, but if you've got a couple it would save me the trip to the store I'm about to make."

Olivia thought of her cupboards and how some were gathering dust from lack of use. "Sorry, I'm fresh out… of most kinds of food actually." She looked down in shame and ran her hand through her hair again. This was becoming a very bad habit.

"I'll be sure to pick some up for you, then," he winked and smiled – a lethal combination. "But before I do…" he trailed off and exhaled slowly. "I just want you to hear me out."

Olivia nodded. Now they were getting somewhere.

"Olivia, I trust you – you know that. I also know that you're good at what you do, and that any perp who's got you on their heels doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell." He glanced up at her, trying to gauge her reaction, she guessed, before continuing. "But… when it's you and the perp playing a back and forth game of cat and mouse, then you… you've got to be more careful. Call for backup and actually wait half a second so that they can do their jobs and not show up when you've already caught the guy… or he's got you." Peter's voice broke on the last word and he cleared his throat quickly. Olivia opened her mouth to protest but he held up a hand. "Please, Olivia, let me finish." To her own surprise, she nodded and backed down. "You almost got shot on this last case. You got lucky that I was there when I was." A disbelieving chuckle escaped his lips. "You always seem to get lucky, 'Livia. You've had tons of close calls, and there have been countless times you should have come out of a situation hurt or worse… and all I guess I'm saying is that I'm afraid that that's all going to change." Peter swallowed. "And I wouldn't be able to live with that."

Olivia didn't know what to say, or even how to react. She opened her mouth and closed it a few times before she was able to stitch together a reply.

"I'm not lucky, I just get the job done right, that's all. Danger is a big part of what I do –"

"You think I don't already know that?" Peter cut her off, a steel edge to his voice, taking her by surprise. "I have seen you kidnapped, tortured, knocked out, beaten up…. Believe me when I say that I know what's in a standard job description for an FBI agent, but it doesn't come anywhere close to what you've got under your belt. When I say your job, I mean you, Olivia. Not just any agent. Only you."

"Well if I don't do it then who will?" she snapped back. Peter had hit a nerve and it was sizzling inside her, slowly firing up her anger.

"I don't know!" He fired back. They were yelling now. "I don't know – just not you."

"Why not me? If you haven't noticed, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. I've been taking care of myself. I want to do this."

Frustrated, Peter ran his hand through his hair. "What if you get hurt? What if something happens to you? Have you ever stopped to consider what that means, or are you just too preoccupied with your damn job to think about the other people in your life and how it would affect them??"

"They," Olivia began, adding venom to each individual word, "know the risks. It's not their decision to tell me what I can and cannot do. If I get hurt, then so be it."

"That's not good enough Olivia!" Peter roared.

She took a deep breath, preparing to fire another snarky comment back at him, but a voice from one of the surrounding apartments yelled out to the street, complaining about the noise and telling them to shut the hell up.

Peter took a step closer to her so that they were face to face, staring each other down with burning fires of equal magnitude reflecting in each other's eyes. Lowering his voice considerably, he spoke with as much if not more bitterness than Olivia. "That is not good enough, Olivia Dunham."

With that, he turned and stomped angrily down her front steps, jumped into the Cruiser and banged the door shut at the same time as Olivia slammed the front door and dead bolted it furiously with a new-found hatred for the small metal lock.

Whatever kind of a good mood she'd been in before opening the front door only minutes ago was long gone. Frowning at her now cold bowl of noodles, Olivia eyed the nearly empty bottle of whiskey beside it and mentally kicked herself for not having more hard liquor in the house. She put the noodles in the microwave but didn't heat it up. It would be there for breakfast tomorrow.

Downing the last of the whiskey in one gulp, Olivia stomped off to bed, muttering curses the whole way. Wasn't good enough? Who the hell did he think he was to tell her what was and wasn't best for her? She would decide what was best for herself, just like she always had.

Got your interest peaked yet?

Well, this is going to have at least a couple more chapters... we'll see how it goes. And i'll do my best to keep the updates relatively close together..... :P

If the title doesn't make sense yet, i promise it will in a chapter or two.... Stay tuned! ;)