Inside the Glass Sphere
Summary: Suddenly, both found themselves inside a glass sphere, separated from reality but somehow fused to each other. OneShot.
Warning: Um... Not actually fluff, but nothing angsty, either... I think it's just right. Because the last one was a bit too angsty, wasn't it...
Set: This was written before the season 2 finale. Pretend it is the future - or the past - or another universe...
Disclaimer: I own a right shoulder that hurts - for some unknown reason - immensely. I don't own Fringe, so...
No copyrightinFringement intended!
„Wow."
That was all he said when he saw where he had found her. Alone, standing under a tree, and watching – actually watching the sea.
A roiling mass of blue, green, and black, crashing waves against the huge rock she was standing on, old as time and worn out from wind, water and sun. A never-ending tale of coming and going, mirroring a dark evening sky. The sun slowly sank behind the horizon, casting a violet and orange shadow onto the water. There was no sound except the rushing of the waves and the wind in the tree she was leaning to.
"It´s beautiful, isn´t it", Olivia said softly, returning her glance to the sea extending in front of her eyes for miles and miles.
Peter seemed for a loss of words as he stood next to her. The tension in his shoulders, which had been there for the past weeks, seemed to recede slowly. He relaxed.
"It is."
He watched her from the corner of his eyes.
She seemed calm – almost peaceful. It was a nice change to see her like this. There always was a new case, there always was work to do, they weren´t even here to enjoy this view he could only describe as stunningly beautiful. On the other side of what Liv had so carefully created like a shield between herself and reality and which allowed her to stand here as if unconnected to the world was a case which had unsettled them both more than they wanted to admit.
So he was the first one to understand if Liv wanted some time-out.
It seemed, Liv reflected absentmindedly, as if she was in a different world, all connections to reality severed.
It was … interesting, to say the least, that her little soap bubble allowed Peter in as well. But he was her partner, after all, so she shouldn´t think is as unusual. He needed the rest as badly as she did, she was sure of it.
So here they were: in their own little world, separated by only a few steps and it still seemed as if they were touching.
Her breath caught.
Peter froze.
It was a new experience.
Olivia had tried to shrink away from every contact, whether physical of mental, in order to protect herself. Peter had kept up his facade of sarcasm and irony for the same reason. Suddenly, both were stripped bare, finding themselves in another reality, inside a glass sphere, separated from reality but somehow fused to each other. Without looking at each other, without speaking, both felt the connection manifest: a thin, invisible thread which bound them both together, which connected two beings into one. Maybe it was due to what they had been through during the past years of team work. Maybe it was due to their rather contrasting characters. Who could tell? Suddenly, everything fell into place. And it felt right, somehow, as if it was something that was meant to be.
But right now, it was fragile and thin, breakable, similar to the material of the sphere surrounding them, and neither of them dared to think about it further. To think about something meant to risk breaking it before it was able to grow.
They returned to reality after another twenty minutes, feeling like something had been stripped away from them, like they left behind something significant under that tree on the rocks. In exchange, they had brought something back, something new, strange and entirely different. Something they had to think about first, then, eventually, test. Nothing they could talk about, because talking had no use when both exactly knew what the other one was thinking.
There had been something inside the glass sphere, something only meant for them both.
Time would show whether the part of it they had taken with them in their hearts would break or would form into a new, beautiful shape.
Just for the two of them.