To Each a Fair Good Night
Summary: In Olivia Dunham's world, being sick means a 100% chance of getting a case. Casefic, shades of Bolivia.
Rating: T for a bit of bad language
Spoilers: General mentions of a few past cases. Olivia's in it, so before Safe.
Author's note: So this is already written, lucky you :) I'll try and post one chapter a day, as I remember.
Disclaimer: If it belonged to me, there would be no hiatus and therefore no withdrawal.
To all, to each, a fair good night,
And pleasant dreams, and slumbers light.
--Sir Walter Scott
Prologue
When Olivia wakes up feeling more exhausted than she was when she went to sleep, she knows she should take a sick day. Her body aches all over, her throat is scratchy and sore, and her head is pounding so hard that she can see the room pulsing. But there's a text on her phone from Charlie saying, "I've got a case right up your alley." If she doesn't go in, he'll take it to Broyles and Broyles will take it to the Bishops and the world as they know it might possibly turn to chaos without Olivia playing ringmaster to the dysfunctional 3-ring circus. This is not hubris; it is truth.
She piles on make-up, chokes down Advil, and stumbles out the door.
Charlie is oblivious; either he's too excited about his case to notice or she's hiding it better than she thinks. "Okay, Livvie, you'll like this." She probably won't. "Anonymous tip line. A girl calls last week saying she knows where a terrorist will be. She gives us the time and location, but of course we don't go. Two days later she calls again and tells us she knows we didn't go, but that we can try again. So we send an agent."
"The terrorist is there," Olivia concludes, glad for the honey in her tea and trying not to throw it at Charlie so he'll just go away and leave her in peace
"One agent can't take him down, so we wait, hoping she'll call back. She does and gives us the time and location and we get him, 'Liv. Eighteen bombings, this guy coordinated." Charlie shakes his head. "Girl knew it down to the minute. I know you've been getting the weird cases, and this is as weird as it gets, so I'm passing it on to you."
"Thanks, Charlie," she murmurs, secretly hating him. After two hours of research that should've only taken her half an hour, she traces the call to a payphone near Wichita and that payphone to the nearest schools. She calls Broyles, gets the go-ahead, and calls Astrid. "Tell Peter he's coming with me to Kansas."
In the background, she can just hear Walter start to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," followed quickly by a pained, "Shut up," from Peter.