Life in One Day
Fandom: Fringe
Characters: Astrid Farnsworth, Lincoln Lee, Alternate Astrid Farnsworth, Alternate Lincoln Lee, Alternate Olivia Dunham, Alternate Frank Stanton
Rating: T
Wordcount: ~9,300
Summary: Astrid and Lincoln go to the Red'verse.
Notes: AU of "Everything in Its Right Place": What if Astrid escaped from her family obligation that day? Includes a considerable amount of dialogue from that episode and a tiny bit from "The Consultant." S4 compliant...mostly. :D
Many thanks to betas Norgbelulah, Elfin, and especially JB McDragon.
Written (with great glee!) for samjohnsson for Fringe Exchange using the following prompt:
I'm fond of Astrid, either verse, or Lincoln, either 'verse. What does red!Frank do when he's not with Liv? Frankly, I want more Red'verse, so anything over there would be great!
At least she'd gotten out of Grazing Day.
Astrid liked Gene just fine when she wasn't mucking out the cow's stall. With her little bit of seniority in their unofficial division, she could usually even pass that task off to the other agents who rotated in and out of the lab. Still, deliberately taking a day trip to tend to the animal's supposed case of Seasonal Affective Disorder went way beyond the call. Walter and Olivia and Peter had the excursion well in hand, and besides, Astrid had another assignment today.
She wrestled the boxes of files out of her car and down the stairs to the basement lab. Lincoln came rushing over to help as she pushed the door open.
"Here. Let me give you a hand with those."
"Thank you," she said gratefully.
He eyed the boxes. "Let me guess. Gene's picnic lunch?"
"Happily, no." Astrid rebalanced the files between boxes; whoever packed them really overloaded one of them. "The other side is requesting a detailed debrief of our recent run-ins with David Robert Jones. And given the gaps in Agent Dunham's memory, Broyles thinks it's best if somebody else goes. The timing's perfect-I was supposed to take my dad to Castle Island today, but he's got a cold." She leaned in, her tone conspiratorial. "I've seen Fort Independence before. And frankly, I've been hoping for a chance to visit the other side."
Lincoln nodded, his gaze falling on the other side of the lab where Walter and Peter were preparing Gene for transport, complete with FBI windbreaker and hat. "Not too upset about missing Grazing Day, I take it."
"Not at all." The information-exchange assignment was mostly busywork, and Astrid knew it. But it might give her the opportunity to see her double again and to meet the other alternates.
He nodded again absently, then looked up. "Mind if tag along?"
"Liaison duty's really not a two-person job," Astrid started, but yielded the point on seeing Lincoln's face fall. Come to think, he could probably use the distraction. "But I'd be glad to have you along if Agent Broyles agrees."
Lincoln got clearance, and Astrid and Lincoln took the fast train to New York and made their way to the bridge room at Liberty Island. The tourists gawking at the statue, Astrid thought with amusement, had no idea that a doorway to another universe opened right under their feet. It was still a fantastic concept to her.
She'd been hugely relieved when the universes found a way to work together. Part of her still smarted about the infiltration the other Agent Dunham pulled off-and the way the other side kept Olivia locked in a dark cell during those weeks. Olivia carried an understandable grudge about that, and some people on the other side believed that Walter set out to destroy them on purpose by opening that portal twenty years ago. But now David Robert Jones provided a common enemy and everyone agreed that finding him took priority over all the previous misunderstandings.
Lincoln seemed pensive on the train down, and Astrid could guess at the cause. He was obviously hurting over the recent developments with Olivia and Peter. But she didn't know him well enough to press, and Lincoln didn't seem eager to confide in her. That whole situation wasn't entirely clear to Astrid, either. As she understood it, Olivia now remembered the timeline that Peter came from, one where they were in love. He'd gone, from Astrid's point of view, from a mysterious stranger with no documented past to Olivia's true love in the course of a few weeks. She chose to accept that it made sense. Olivia seemed happy, which really was Astrid's main concern.
Lincoln was heartbroken, or at least disheartened by Olivia's sudden reversal of interest. Astrid felt for him, but only to a point: she thought it a little disingenuous to be that depressed about a possibility he'd never acted on.
At least he seemed to be feeling better after the bacon incident.
Underneath the island, they passed through the scanners and the guard verified their identities. He led them along a short passageway, saying, "Agent Lee, Agent Farnsworth, please come this way. You can go ahead and set up in here. I'll let Captain Lee and Agent Dunham know you've arrived."
Astrid felt her heart sink at the sight of a basic conference room with a table and chairs. If this was as far as she got, if she was going to be this close to the doorway and not be allowed to go through it, she'd regret losing the opportunity forever.
Lincoln started pulling files out of boxes without overt concern. Then again, he'd already traveled to the other side. And spent part of it in handcuffs in a closet, Astrid reminded herself, so maybe his interest in the other world had been tarnished by the experience. But from what she'd read, the Towers were still standing over there, and they sent flights to the moon on a daily basis, and-
Agent Dunham, the redheaded version, came swinging through the door and looked surprised to see the two of them there. "Oh, hey. We only expected Agent Farnsworth."
"I tagged along," Lincoln offered. "Nice to see you again, Agent Dunham."
She grinned. "Yeah. Would've been nicer if you brought me a caffé latte instead of that pile of paperwork, but..."
"Uh, maybe next time." Lincoln smiled a little sheepishly, and Astrid hid her own grin. Maybe it was inevitable that the man would be smitten in two universes. But Astrid wasn't, and she wasn't about to offer the special delivery in her oversized briefcase to this woman, either.
She was just about to ask, maybe plead, for a tour of the other side when Dunham said with a wave to both of them, "Change of plans. Brief me on the way."
"On the way where?" Lincoln asked. Astrid was already chucking files back into the boxes.
In the outgoing corridor, Astrid received a series of injections to protect against the other side's native diseases. The guard at the far doorway issued Astrid and Lincoln some necessary equipment: ear cuffs and the other Fringe Division's frequencies so they could listen into the relevant (and no doubt carefully non-classified) department communications, and loaner datapads. Thankfully most of the tech ran to Apple-mode-nearly user-proof in its simplicity of design.
Astrid took a long breath and stepped through the door into another world.
She felt lightheaded for the first few seconds, something about the difference in the atmosphere between universes affecting her senses. Maybe it was just her own sense of anticipation, heightening the emotion of the moment. Or it could have been the sight of the Twin Towers, shining in the morning sun, stealing all her breath.
She bit her lip and valiantly won the battle against tears. Lincoln and the other Agent Dunham had moved on a few steps ahead, giving her the illusion of privacy for these first few moments. Astrid took a deep breath of unfamiliar air-it "tasted" distinctly different, even if she couldn't define the variance-and walked swiftly to catch up with the other two as they boarded the ferry to the New York shoreline.
Astrid let Lincoln handle the main debrief as they drove toward the crime scene that had diverted Agent Dunham from their scheduled summit. He'd volunteered for the meeting, so she was more than happy to let him do the talking. Astrid was more interested in staring out of the black SUV's windows, craning her neck to watch the dirigibles overhead and smiling at the double-decker cars. And if there was any way to make the technology compatible between universes, she really, really wanted to get a copy of those additional five seasons of The West Wing.
She tuned back in to their conversation when Lincoln pointed out a busy construction scene centered around an Ambered site. They were driving through the part of New York that Astrid recognized as the Bronx, although some of the street signs bore different names.
"The Department Of Containment's reopening this part of the city," Agent Dunham said, sounding pleased. She touched the screen on the dash and the computer said in its mechanized voice, "Zone 13-A, more commonly referred to as Parkside, was closed on November 12th, 2004 due to severe toxic air conditions. There is one live media alert on this subject. Would you like to play it?"
"Yes, please," Astrid said. Both Lincoln and Dunham jumped as if they'd forgotten she was in the back seat.
Secretary Bishop's face appeared on a video file, and Astrid leaned forward to watch what looked like a press conference. "This is a turning point in our history. In the last week alone, eleven previously uninhabitable zones have been reopened. Our cities are healing. Our world is being restored, but the process will take time. So as we celebrate this recovery, let us never forget those we've lost. Thank you, everyone."
Agent Dunham glanced in the rearview mirror and Astrid saw the genuine smile on her face. "That's fantastic," Astrid breathed.
Lincoln looked thoughtful. "I take it things are starting to get better because of the Bridge?"
Dunham nodded, still smiling. "Yeah, it's stabilized spatial rifts in the Ambered areas. Don't know how it works. Don't care. I'm just happy."
But Walter would be ecstatic to hear it. Astrid made a note to document as much information as she could about the healing process for him.
...and as the conversation continued in a lighter vein, she learned that Lincoln's middle name was "Tyrone." Astrid smiled to herself as they neared the crime scene.
They pulled onto the top level of a parking garage. Dunham bounced out of the car, energetic, and threw a "What's up, Tyrone!" toward one of the men consulting at the edge of the scene. He turned, his voice full out outrage.
"How the hell did you-" Lincoln's alternate started, and checked himself as he saw Lincoln and Astrid. His look at Lincoln was half exasperation, but he was nothing but professional toward her. "Agent Farnsworth, a pleasure."
"Captain Lee." She glanced over toward the uniformed police surrounding a bagged body. "I'm used to looking over crime scenes for Doctor Bishop. Mind if I take a peek?"
"Be my guest." He turned back to Lincoln, clearly still distracted by Dunham's greeting. "Why would you tell her that?"
"You don't like Tyrone? I think it's a strong middle name," Lincoln said, defensively.
Dunham snickered. "He's been my partner for six years, and he wouldn't tell me his middle name."
Lincoln shrugged. "My bad."
Captain Lee blew out an annoyed breath and looked over at Astrid. "Well, anyway, welcome. Sorry to pull you right into this, but I wanted Liv to get a look too." He didn't, she noticed, extend the same apology to Lincoln.
She liked the spiky hair and the artful stubble-the precise grooming spoke of a little more attention to his appearance than she was used to from her Lincoln. This guy knew he was attractive, but she didn't get any sense of overt egotism. He projected confidence rather than arrogance. Well, maybe a little bit of arrogance.
They all walked over as Captain Lee gave the rundown. "We've got the body of an unidentified assailant. A woman named Paige Randall placed an emergency call last night, after she was assaulted walking to her car. She reports that during the attack, someone saved her."
Agent Dunham looked curious. "You think this might have something to do with the vigilante cases the PD's been working?"
Lee nodded. "My thoughts exactly. Local police received a dozen similar reports in the last few months. Criminals going missing, junkies mysteriously vanishing. Victims calling in, claiming that their assailants were attacked mid-crime."
Lincoln quipped, "Maybe Batman's moved to the Bronx," and while the other three debated the relative merits of fictional urban vigilantes, Astrid slipped in to unzip the body bag. She'd been wondering what made this a Fringe Division case, but the corpse's half-melted face erased all uncertainty.
Captain Lee nodded toward the body. "I don't think Batman would've done this."
"Is this a shapeshifter?" Astrid asked, wanting to be certain she was interpreting correctly. "Like the body you found that was hit by the bus?"
"Were all the other bodies like this?" Lincoln demanded before anyone could answer.
Captain Lee shook his head. "There've been no other bodies. This is the first one we've found. And we won't know if it's a shapeshifter or not until our lab guys look at the body, but it does seem similar." Astrid stepped away as Lincoln leaned over to look at the body more closely.
Dunham frowned. "So assuming this is the work of our vigilante, makes you wonder why he left this body behind. What's changed?"
"Good question." Captain Lee's head came up and he tapped on his ear cuff, moving away from them as he took another call.
Astrid glanced around at the other agents on scene, wrestling with the question she'd wanted to ask since she and Lincoln arrived in this universe. She finally decided she'd kick herself if she didn't. "Agent Dunham, is Agent Francis on duty?"
The other Olivia watched Lincoln examine the body. "No, he's down at the Academy, doing a teaching stint for the rookies. Standard protocol for agents who've just gotten married. It's bad PR if they get killed right after the honeymoon." Dunham grimaced, as if she'd said something she hadn't meant to, and then turned to Astrid with a curious look. "Why?"
"I...thought it might be nice to see Charlie again," Astrid said quietly, and Dunham's face softened.
"It was hard not to call the other Rachel when I was over on your side," she said somberly. "But I kept telling myself she wasn't the same person as my sister, so there wasn't any point." She hesitated a moment, and Astrid waited for her to continue. "I...sort of made peace with Walter when I went over to retrieve Agent Farnsworth, but didn't really have a chance to talk to you."
There'd been plenty of time, Astrid reflected, but held her tongue.
Dunham sighed. "Hard to apologize when you don't really mean it. I'm sorry for the deception, but not for trying to save my world based on what we knew at the time. It wasn't until I was over there, in your Olivia's shoes, that I realized Walter hadn't set out to destroy us on purpose. And by then I'd nearly finished my mission." She glanced over, searching Astrid's face. "Does this make any sense?"
"I don't have any licorice whips to offer you," Astrid said with a straight face, and Olivia laughed, and that was that.
Captain Lee rejoined them, motioning Lincoln over. "Some recovery workers found a bunch of bodies in the basement of a church nearby. Same melted faces. Melted everything, from what it sounds like."
Lincoln looked perturbed. "That- that doesn't fit any pattern that I know of for these things."
"Well, it looks like that's our next stop," Agent Dunham said as Captain Lee moved off to coordinate with the police. "I'm sorry about the timing. This is gonna tie us up for a while, so full debrief has to wait." Dunham called out to one of the other Fringe agents, "Uh- Reynolds? Agents Lee and Farnsworth need a ride back to the D.O.D., and then an escort to the Bridge."
Astrid and Lincoln glanced at each other, clearly on the same page, and Astrid spoke up first. "That's really not necessary."
Dunham tilted her head at them quizzically. "I just assumed under the circumstances you'd want to return to your side until we're freed up."
"It sounds like this case is relevant to both our sides," Lincoln said. He glanced at Astrid again and she nodded. "We'd like to stay and be of assistance, if we can."
Dunham's easy smile widened. "Sure."
"If you don't mind, though," Astrid said, "I could still use that ride to your headquarters. I can start working with your Agent Farnsworth to get your division up to speed on the latest."
Captain Lee wandered back their way, and he nodded approvingly. "Good idea. If we find relevant anything at the site, that'll put us a step ahead." He motioned to Reynolds, standing by waiting for an order.
Astrid rode with Reynolds to the division headquarters while Lincoln accompanied Agents Dunham and Lee to the next crime scene. The young agent kept glancing at her as he drove, and finally ventured, "Agent Farnsworth? I just wanted to tell you, uh...well, thanks."
"For what, Agent Reynolds?" she asked gently, and for the next ten minutes was treated to a gushing litany of gratitude. Reynolds seemed to take her as a symbol for the two worlds' working together and the healing effects on his own. Astrid was simultaneously too amused and too touched by his appreciation to throw a damper on his enthusiasm.
Fringe Division on this side consisted of a whole building of its own, but its impressive stature served to underline the fact that this world needed a large organization dedicated to Fringe events. As much as Astrid sometimes wished for a couple of extra hands to help out with cases (and Walter at his most difficult), the cost would far outweigh the convenience.
Lincoln's disgusted voice echoed over Astrid's ear cuff as she and Reynolds entered the Fringe Division building. "Be glad you're not here. Bodies and heads everywhere, disassociated from each other. Also, decomposition."
"Ew." She'd seen that and worse as Walter's hands and eyes in the field, but some things you never got used to. "Try not to squish."
"Sage advice," he said. Astrid grinned to herself at the dry tone of his voice. She liked Lincoln, might even have made a play for the new agent if his eyes and his heart hadn't immediately been captured by Olivia.
Astrid listened with half an ear to the team's chatter as she and Reynolds made their way to the main command center. From what he wasn't saying, Lincoln seemed to be brewing some kind of theory that he wasn't ready to share yet. It'd take them awhile to wrap up and join her here, which would give her time to legitimately deal with the business at hand...and maybe have an extra moment.
"Colonel Broyles is busy, ma'am," Reynolds said, almost stuttering. Astrid glanced up to see the glass-walled office overlooking the command floor and her double's boss pacing inside, obviously having an intense discussion with someone on the other end of his cuff. The young agent shuffled his feet, unsure. "Can I, uh-"
She smiled at him before he tried to offer her a cold beverage. "That's all right. I'm here to consult with your Agent Farnsworth, we've met already. Thank you, agent."Astrid walked down the stairs into the pit and her alternate's station without waiting for his answer, gathering stares along the way as the other Fringe agents registered her presence.
Astrid cleared her throat as she approached. "Hello, Astrid."
Agent Farnsworth turned quickly, nearly dislodging her beret. "Oh! Hello, Astrid."
"It's nice to see you again," Astrid said, not expecting a response. Her alternate surprised her with a simple but sincere, "Yes."
Astrid glanced around. Everyone else had gone back to their tasks, or was doing a good job of pretending not to stare. As good a time as any. "I brought you something." She reached into her oversized case and pulled out the gift bag she'd been carrying all day.
Her double peered inside and gasped in alarm. Astrid said quickly, "Oh, no, no, it's okay. I got permission. You like it?"
The look of joy on her other self's face as she clutched the bag and its can of precious-over here-coffee was reward enough. "I never thought that I was going to taste this again. Thank you, Astrid!"
"You're welcome, Astrid," she said, smiling, thinking that would never get old. "You should put that away before your co-workers want to see what you've got. You don't have to share it unless you want to."
The other woman gave a quick nod before stashing the package at her feet. "You have data?"
They spent the next hour going through the files, bringing the division's database up to date on Jones' movements and activities. Between the Westfield event and Olivia's kidnapping and the appearance of the porcupine-man, Astrid and her counterpart managed to construct a fairly good timeline of his activities...but they still had no clue to his endgame. It felt like Jones was executing multiple plans at once, but how they fit together-if they did at all-remained a mystery.
Astrid had gone over everything relevant by the time Lincoln and Agent Dunham and Captain Lee arrived back at Fringe Division. From the looks on their faces (and the up-to-the-minute reports that came through Agent Farnsworth's station), she was glad she'd skipped out on the expedition.
The team reconvened around her double's station after a brief break to wash up. Lincoln requested that Agent Farnsworth run through some surveillance feeds around the mass gravesite, following an unspecified hunch. Astrid took the opportunity to grab a chair and stop looking at a screen for a moment. She watched her "twin" start poring over the footage, faster than Astrid could register images, and then closed her eyes to give them a rest.
She listened in as the two Lincolns compared life experiences: where they grew up, school teachers, prom dates or the lack thereof. They were so different in personal style...but she could see in them the same dedication to the job, the same desire to fix the wrongnesses of the world.
"Captain Lee, Agent Lee, the system is registering an eighty-two percent Face Rec to the photo in the locket," Agent Farnsworth reported a few minutes later, interrupting two Lincolns' discussion.
Lincoln's intuition proved correct. Satellite footage documented one of the identified dead at the church, a woman named Bree Collins, walking around several days after her approximate time of death. Impossible by any circumstances except those frequently involving Fringe Division.
"You think this is our shapeshifter?" Astrid asked quietly, as an aside to Lincoln. "And all those people were his victims."
"Some new mechanism for the change," he muttered, half to himself. "She was the only one with the wounds to the roof of her mouth. Agent Farnsworth, can you run this same search for the rest of the victims?"
Agent Farnsworth looked up at Captain Lee, dubious. He looked at the screen, rechecked the time codes, and finally nodded. "Yeah, run with it. We're gonna need more than this before the boss will sign off, but it's a good start. Nice job, Agent Lee," he said with genuine approval. "I'll let Colonel Broyles know we need a bit longer on the debrief-which is true, I haven't reviewed it."
Astrid's counterpart nodded and went back to work without comment. Astrid looked over to see Lincoln earnestly explaining his theory to Agent Dunham. Her body language as she leaned toward him to listen denoted more than simple interest in the case.
There were definite sparks between Lincoln and the other Olivia, even if neither of them seemed completely aware of the fact. Captain Lee caught the byplay too and smirked slightly.
Astrid raised an eyebrow at him. "Something funny?"
He turned to her, grinning. "I always said, if I was straight I would have fallen for Liv. Interesting to see that theory proven out."
She liked him a lot for that, both the openness of his "confession" and the ease with which he'd made the observation. And for another reason, too. "Actually, I'm kind of relieved to hear you say that. I was a little uncomfortable with the idea that my double was the only one who is so significantly different."
Lee furrowed his brow. "Too small a sample size to really be concerned. And your John McClennan wasn't a serial killer like ours."
Astrid shook her head, pressing the point. "Same background, though, just a different choice. Not a-a biological or genetic variance."
"Good point. Unless your Lincoln is just being polite..." He flashed another grin. "I can't think why sexual preference wouldn't be mirrored. Or our Astrid's condition."
"Chaos theory?" she suggested. "I've worked with Walter long enough to accept the plausibility of the butterfly effect."
Captain Lee leaned in over his desk, his eyes intent as he considered the issue. "Some tiny variation in biology, sure. Or a larger one in environment-we've dealt with all kinds of bizarre disruptions to the ecology. I haven't checked the rates for autism and related syndromes in your world, but ours have gone up significantly in the past few decades. So that could explain one difference. As for me..." he leaned back again, laughing. "Just lucky, I guess."
"Lucky," she repeated, amused. "I was impressed, honestly, reading over some of your histories. You got to a lot of civil rights advances faster than we did."
"It'd be interesting to go through the historical record and compare," he said. "But at least for the last twenty years, a lot of old prejudices just...didn't seem important to people anymore. That made it easier for me than it would have been on your side, I think."
At least that was one good result in the midst of a terrible phenomenon. "I'm glad," she said simply. And then, slyly, "Is that why you broke up with Alicia Dvoskin?"
Captain Lee stared at her for a moment, then chuckled. "Yeah. I spent prom, uh, making out with her brother."
She laughed, shaking her head over his bad behavior. He shrugged without embarrassment. "Not a lot of second chances in this world. 'Seize the day' is pretty much the watchword."
The philosophy made a lot of sense, but her stomach chose that moment to start growling and Astrid remembered she hadn't eaten since a quick coffee and bagel on the train to New York this morning. "Captain Lee, is there a cafeteria or something-" she started and then paused, realizing she didn't have any legitimate money here. Legal tender hadn't been part of the welcome package.
He straightened up. "We do and it's not half bad, but thank you for the reminder-poor form to let our guests starve. Agent-"
"Astrid," she said, seizing a moment.
He shot her a smile. "Only if you can stand calling me 'Lincoln' as well." He whistled sharply, getting Lincoln's and Olivia's attention. "Astrid and I are gonna run up to the caf for a bite. Want us to bring anything back?"
Lincoln and Olivia put in their requests, and Astrid and Lee-it was just easier to think of him that way-took the elevator up a couple of levels to a brightly lit hall that looked more like a fine restaurant than a cafeteria, with large windows allowing diners to see the airships passing by. Lee grinned at her surprised look. "The D.O.D. splurged on a little compensation for the agents, considering what we throw ourselves into every day."
Over really good, freshly pressed Cuban sandwiches and some unfamiliar packages of chips-chicken tikka masala flavor was a big thing here-they talked about some of the other variances between their worlds. When they finished eating, Lee grabbed a few sandwiches and accompaniments for Lincoln and Olivia, then turned to her. "Listen, Astrid, I wanted to ask if you'd do us a favor."
"If I can," she said, curious.
"I called for a CDC rep to look over those bodies, and I'd like to have someone with him who knows the case. Problem is, our best contact is Liv's ex-boyfriend. Everyone involved is professional enough to get the job done, but..."
"But it might go easier with someone unconnected to the situation." Astrid flashed her best understanding smile. "I'm happy to help."
Captain Lee looked relieved. "Thanks. His name's Frank Stanton, he's a good guy. We also wanted him to take a look at the shapeshifter remains that we got from Jones' warehouse, see if he can work out how to track or identify them."
"No problem."
"Great." Lee grimaced. "Now I've got to go explain to the colonel why you two are still hanging around."
Lee pointed her in the right direction and Astrid rode the elevator down to the morgue in the basement of the building. On route, she glanced over the dossier on Doctor Stanton that Lee sent to her borrowed datapad. One of the CDC's leading field virologists, the doctor had previously worked with Fringe Division on a case involving parasitic beetles.
She reached the morgue, the section as gloomy as any in her universe despite the overly bright lighting. A technician directed her to a small conference room to await the liaison. She poured herself a cup of hot tea against the symbolic chill and read through files until a voice called her name. "Agent Farnsworth?"
Astrid turned around and immediately knew she was in trouble.
She just had this...thing for tall, broad-shouldered, kind-eyed guys. Frank Stanton made his living as a CDC doctor, which meant smarts. And his file said he specialized in first response to hot zones, which meant compassion and bravery.
The fact that he lived in another universe didn't seem to have any effect on the part of her lizard brain that immediately wanted to climb him like a tree.
Frank Stanton blinked at her and laughed, sparing her the immediate need to speak. "Wow. They told me about the other universe, but seeing is believing."
She cleared her throat and tried to behave like a professional agent. "Uh, hello, Dr. Stanton. I'm Astrid."
"Frank," he said, reaching out to shake. His hand swallowed hers entirely.
Astrid smiled, trying to cover her body's ridiculous response to his presence. "You've met the other Agent Farnsworth before?"
"Yeah. She's pretty amazing." He tilted his head slightly, and his gaze turned interested, professional. "It's fascinating, though, that you don't share the same syndrome."
She grinned at his smooth transition to doctor mode. "I was just talking to Captain Lee about that. He suggested environmental causes."
"Definitely a factor, but-" Frank stopped himself, shaking his head. "But that's not what I'm here for, as interesting as that puzzle might be."
She liked his focus, too. "Right. Have you, uh, reviewed the case?"
"Skimmed through the files on the way over." He shot her a wry look. "I guess I'm not surprised you got tagged with looking after me."
"I honestly don't mind," Astrid said, smiling for more than one reason. "I'm here as an intermediary, anyway. And this case is relevant to both our sides."
"Let's see if we can find some answers, then."
For the next few hours Astrid took notes as Frank examined the bodies, again thankful for her experience as Walter's proxy that enabled her to both keep up with his commentary and not lose her lunch.
They worked well into the early evening before one of the coroners poked her head around the corner and suggested they call it for the day. Frank nodded, stretching. "I've got plenty to write up at the moment." He turned to her, looking both hesitant and hopeful. "Do you, uh. Have dinner plans?"
Her luck with this kind of thing hadn't changed, even crossing universes. "Oh, I'm sorry, I do. The other Astrid invited me to stay over. Kind of a sleepover thing." Astrid smiled, a little amused. "Neither of us ever had a sister. It's a new experience for both of us."
"Family obligation," Frank said, nodding, without any hint of irony. "Well, maybe the next time you're in the universe."
Astrid laughed, feeling just a tinge of regret. It was better this way: she wouldn't go out with him, be charmed by his kindness and attention, maybe have a few drinks, and end up in bed with a virtual stranger from another world.
Maybe in yet another alternate universe, she might have. And that was definitely something she might contemplate, once safely back at home. For now, she settled for wishing Frank a good night and went back up to the command hub.
By the time she arrived, Lincoln had already left for the hotel room Fringe Division provided, pleading exhaustion in the email he'd left for her. Astrid felt a little oddly sad for him, that he hadn't connected with his alternate the way she had with hers, but maybe the divergences between them were too difficult to look in the face for very long. She'd heard a strange undercurrent in his responses to his counterpart, like maybe Lincoln thought he was in some way the less-ideal version of Lincoln Lee. Astrid really wished she could assure him otherwise-different was just different, neither better nor worse-but if he was looking at a mirror and finding himself lacking, nothing she could say would console him.
Her alternate was still working over the computer searches, but Astrid recognized the familiar signs of her fatigue. "Can you leave the rest of these until morning?"
"No," her double said, and then, "but I can set them to run and double-check the results in the morning."
That was definitely teasing, or as close as the other Astrid got to it. "It'll have to do, I guess."
Her double shot her a quick glance, a check to make sure Astrid was joking as well, before she signed off from her station. "My apartment is not far."
Astrid hadn't expected her alternate's personal life to look anything like hers, and she'd been right not to look for comparisons. The differences started with the sleek black car that picked them up outside of Fringe Division, and the driver who met them with a courteous, professional nod.
She'd learned that as a "looker"-her counterpart's unofficial designation-Agent Farnsworth was considered a valuable government employee...and asset. The Department of Defense provided her transportation and housing, along with a generous salary and benefits package. The program that shaped her took a child with a developmental condition and turned her into a savant capable of interfacing with computer systems and analyzing vast amounts of data.
She was clearly a valuable member of the team. Those Fringe Division agents she interacted with most often treated her as more than a mechanized asset...even if they weren't close on a personal basis.
Astrid found that situation a little more familiar than perhaps it should have been. Completely different circumstances in two universes had produced a similar (if not parallel) state of affairs. More proof, she supposed, that the two worlds shared more commonalities than differences.
Her alternate's apartment building managed to avoid the bland look of standard government housing, mostly by occupying a refurbished brownstone. Astrid followed her alternate up the stairs to a large apartment, sparsely furnished and a model of immaculate efficiency. Astrid kept her own place neat, but not that neat.
The other Astrid went straight over to the fridge. "I cook on Sundays and freeze meals for the coming week. What would you like? I have-"
"Astrid, wait." Her alternate turned, immediately attentive. "I...needed to clarify something. The last time we spoke in my world..." Astrid hesitated, trying to find the right words. "I talked about my father, and the distance between us. Like with you and yours."
"Yes." Her double stood perfectly still, attentive and focused. Astrid's internal debate about the necessity of this conversation had never really reached a satisfactory conclusion, but she felt compelled to explain further.
"I told you the truth, but not all of it. That's how we were for a long time after mom died." Astrid took a deep breath, remembering. "It took years before we figured out how to talk to each other. Actually, that's not right. We still don't talk, really. But he cooks and there's always something on the stove when I go over, and he feeds me, and that's how I know he loves me."
Her mirror image stared back at Astrid, her eyes huge and startled. "My, my father cooked too. I didn't know-"
She burst into tears.
The other Astrid wept in huge sobbing wails, a child's cry. Astrid scrambled over to hold her, thankful that her double didn't have any aversion to her touch. She hadn't meant to make the woman cry, but these seemed to be tears of relief rather than anger or sorrow.
Astrid still felt like she hadn't been entirely honest-things between her and her father were much, much better now than they'd been for a long time. But further pursuing the point wouldn't help. If her alternate found some solace in the idea that her father's cooking meant that he'd loved her after all, Astrid wasn't about to argue. That'd been her sole source of comfort for years.
After several long minutes her alternate drew back, wiping at her eyes. "Thank you, Astrid. I- I understand now."
Astrid smiled, swiping her sleeve over her own face. "I'm glad. Now, what were you saying about dinner..?"
They sat at the kitchen table, trading details of their lives long after they finished eating. Both Astrids both spent a lot of time reading when they weren't at work, and the subject matters weren't as far apart as Astrid initially thought. Her own reading list had evolved over the past few years to include a number of science journals and speculative dissertations in an attempt to keep up with Walter's maddest theories. She realized with dismay that she'd long neglected most of her other hobbies, and found herself blinking when her double said, "I spend time with my boyfriend Tim when I'm not in the middle of a case."
Of all the things this universe had shown Astrid, why this should be the one that surprised her most was both...startling and slightly shaming. Because of course, why not? "Tell me about him?"
After a moment's description, Astrid realized that her alternate was talking about this world's version of the agent who'd been assigned to Peter's initial security detail. The way her double described him, he sounded like more like a fuck-buddy than a boyfriend. Not that there was anything wrong with that, except for Astrid's automatic desire to severely hurt anyone who might take advantage of her alternate. But the way her double spoke about him, she was fully in control of the situation; she wasn't doing anything she didn't want to do; and besides, she was perfectly capable of pulling her gun and shooting anyone who tried to take advantage.
The real question might have been who was taking advantage of whom. "I like sex," her alternate said with unfiltered honesty.
"Me too," Astrid said, smiling, thinking ruefully that of course, her sex life would have to be more active in an alternate universe. It could hardly be less. "But it's...difficult...on my side to meet someone. Because I can't tell anyone what I do."
"Oh." The other Astrid looked thoughtful and then offered, "I can't talk about my work either."
"Not in specific," Astrid agreed. "But Tim knows what you do in general, what kind of pressure you're under. I can only say I work for the FBI, and with my background it's assumed that I'm a desk-jockey. An analyst," she clarified quickly. "So it's hard to explain when I come home exhausted and I can barely manage to take a hot bath and go to bed. But I didn't- I don't mean to complain."
"That's part of the purpose of a 'girl's night,' isn't it?" her double asked. "To talk about our lives and bitch about boys."
She said it like she was reading off a wiki description, and Astrid grinned. "Too true."
The other Astrid stood, stretching. "I think I would like to stay up past my usual bedtime and continue our conversation. Would you like to share some coffee with me?"
Astrid smiled, delighted. "I'd love to. And I'll show you a special treat, if you have any cinnamon."
Her double nodded. "I like it in hot chocolate."
"Same principle," Astrid said. She demonstrated how to make a cup, adding in the cinnamon to the coffee grounds before brewing.
Her alternate treated the lesson as something almost sacred, like a Japanese tea ceremony. Her face when she drank held that same simple joy Astrid remembered from the other side.
"I think I will save this for special occasions."
Bolstered by the coffee, they talked well into the night. By the time Astrid tumbled into an exhausted sleep on the couch, what she'd half-jokingly told Frank proved absolutely true: she really did have a sister here.
The hunt for the suspected shapeshifter started again bright and early. By mid-morning, Agent Farnsworth identified three more of the church bodies with footage taken after their deaths and worked out a definite radius for the shapeshifter's activities.
Doctor Stanton's report described the presence of strange bruising on the bodies' soft palates and throats. The marks differed from the device they'd seen before that the shapeshifters used to mimic other identities, but were close enough to suggest a similar methodology. Perhaps something organic, his report suggested, an evolution away from biomechanical devices to a strictly biological interface. Pure speculation, but definitely plausible based on what they'd found.
With the time of death established for the bodies in the church, the team constructed a time frame on the murders. They still had no answer as to why the shapeshifter targeted criminals. Or why he-it?-killed so many in such a relatively brief period.
Lincoln thought the answer to that last might have something to do with the strange growths they'd seen on Bree Collins' face post-mortem (but not post-ambulation). If the shapeshifters were imperfect creations, he insisted, it might make sense that they needed to draw on uncommon resources to keep them functional. The previous versions were mercury-based, but they'd found no evidence of that element's residue during this case.
"So...shapeshifter vampire?" Dunham murmured, definitely more teasing than mocking. Lincoln blushed but held his ground.
"Kind of. Like the report said, if they've gone completely biological, then maybe they need some human-generated chemical or enzyme to keep going." He stopped briefly, looking sick. "So maybe this thing's killing because it needs to."
"If that's true," Captain Lee said, "it's got to be pretty desperate by now. We disrupted its hunting ground yesterday. Granted it's been at this for a couple of months, judging by the PD reports, so it probably doesn't need to, uh, eat every day. Still-"
"One hungry shapeshifter," Dunham said, her eyes bright. "And hungry things don't exhibit the best judgment."
They all looked at each other. "That's a lot of speculation," Captain Lee finally said, "but this job's half intuition, anyway. Liv?"
"Yeah," she said instantly. "Feels right."
Lee breathed out. "Okay, then. Let's take it to the boss."
Lincoln cleared his throat. "I'd be happy to present the evidence. Since, uh, I'm the one who pushed to follow this line of inquiry."
Captain Lee grinned. "My team, my responsibility...but in this case, you wanna throw yourself on the grenade, be my guest."
Astrid stood in the meeting alongside Lee and Dunham and listened to Lincoln argue his case with Colonel Broyles. He seemed nearly identical to the Phillip Broyles she knew, except for the tight t-shirt instead of a proper suit. Astrid schooled her face and tried not to stare at his arms.
Lincoln made a compelling argument, fortified with multiple instances of dead people walking when they shouldn't have been and backing his theory up with Doctor Stanton's report. Colonel Broyles agreed-with some reluctance, Astrid thought-to authorize a more intensive search.
Shortly thereafter Agent Farnsworth received a report of another possible victim in the targeted area, a man named Antonio Dawes whose profile included an extensive criminal record. Someone-or something- attacked Dawes in an abandoned house where he'd been squatting and enjoying his hoard of illegal narcotics.
His terrified fellow addict reported the assault to the NYPD, hysterical with fear. Within a minute of receiving the call, the PD routed the call to Fringe Division based on both the profile of the victim and the caller's ranting about Dawes being choked to death by an alien's tentacle-tongue.
Even given the obvious drug-fueled confusion of the call, it definitely sounded like a lead.
Again with that odd-seeming reluctance, Colonel Broyles authorized a comprehensive search for Dawes. The call originated in the Pelham District, north of the Bronx. Captain Lee was already on his comm arranging for a TAC team when he glanced over at Astrid.
"Up to you if you want to ride along."
Maybe he doubted her readiness as a field agent, expecting her to be a pure analyst like her double. True, Astrid could count on one hand the number of times she'd drawn her gun in the field, but she was determined to see this case through. And maybe keep an eye on Lincoln to make sure his quest for revenge over the death of his partner didn't lead him to take reckless chances.
The quartermaster issued her a vest and a service weapon. Lincoln went with Dunham at her invitation, and Astrid rode with Captain Lee. Agent Farnworth reported Dawes' route as he passed by traffic cams, and the teams dispersed into a search pattern as soon as they reached the area.
Despite the stress of the situation, or maybe because of it, Lincoln and Captain Lee continued their personal conversation of the previous day over the open comm. Astrid smiled at Lee's flippant response to Dunham's rebuke, but immediately tensed up when Lincoln reported that he'd spotted Dawes from his position in the lead.
Astrid took off running to catch up with him and join the pursuit, to no avail. Lincoln had the advantage both in height and righteous anger powering his steps. And-dammit-against all the protocols of two worlds, he followed the suspect into a building alone, the SWAT agents with him still half a block behind.
For a terrifying thirty seconds or so no one had eyes on either Lincoln or the perp, and Astrid was frankly terrified that they'd burst in to find his corpse.
But within the next few moments the rest of the team converged on his location, took the suspect into custody, and found Lincoln shaken but alive.
"And they tell me I'm the daredevil," Dunham said, the look on her face half amused and half approving. Anything Astrid had to say on the matter was superfluous.
With the site secured, Astrid sat in the back of one of the black vans, catching her breath and letting the adrenaline of the situation drain away. Lincoln went back into the building where they were holding Dawes-or, she supposed, the being posing as Dawes. Another team had recovered the criminal-turned-victim's twisted corpse.
Capturing the shapeshifter signified a huge break in the case, but if she were more paranoid-
Maybe she'd become more wary over the last few years, or maybe Olivia's intuition was rubbing off on her. Astrid hauled herself up and went to find Captain Lee.
As a junior agent not even of this world, she really had no business confronting the field leader for a department tasked with the most difficult job in this universe. But Astrid hoped he might listen anyway. "Captain Lee, I have a concern."
The use of his title caught his attention. "Yes, Agent Farnsworth?"
"I've gone through your files on the Jones cases over here. The last time you encountered him, he got away-"
"Don't remind me," Lee growled.
"-because he seemed to have access to the wavelength you used to track him," Astrid said quickly, pressing the point. She went on, a little more delicately, wary of accusing a nebulous "someone" of spying for an enemy without proof. Probably someone who worked closely with Captain Lee, someone he undoubtedly knew and trusted."The report implied that someone at Fringe Division might have given him that information."
He stared at her for a moment, then nodded sharply. "Don't know what they put in the water on your side to make you all so cynical, but it's a good point. Yeah, we looked into the breach, but didn't find anything. As you probably already know." He tilted his head to one side, looking far too young suddenly. "You think someone's tracking us here, too?"
Astrid spread her hands. "I don't know. These shapeshifters seem to be valuable assets. At least, if I was a criminal mastermind, I wouldn't want one to be captured and...examined." She barely avoided saying taken apart, the more likely scenario.
"You've read the Evil Overlord list," Lee said approvingly. "We've made great progress on this case thanks to you and my double, no reason to start second-guessing you two now. Easy enough to change our route, radio silent. We'll still be back at division in no time."
Which meant leaving her alternate out of the loop, but the maneuver might improve their chances of getting everyone back safely. Apologies could always be made later. "Thank you," Astrid said simply. She leaned against a van in relief as Lee went to relay the new instructions to his team in person.
She waited outside with Lincoln and Agent Dunham as Captain Lee retrieved the prisoner, leading him through a series of interconnecting warehouses to a side door. Lincoln was fuming, having failed to turn the shapeshifter against Jones or gather any useful information out of him with an impromptu interrogation. It really had been an unrealistic expectation, but Astrid kept that belief to herself.
Hand signals started to flash among the agents, indicating the imminent transfer, and then everything exploded at once.
The whole sequence occurred in under a minute. In very quick succession, Astrid saw and heard Captain Lee and "Dawes" exiting the building; the distinctive sound of a gunshot echoing through the narrow buildings; agents diving for cover; Olivia Dunham grabbing a rifle and making an utterly impossible shot; a spotter reporting that the suspect was down; and Lincoln, turning to look behind him and shouting "officer down!" as he ran.
Astrid scrambled up from where she'd ducked behind one of the cars-technically appropriate, for an agent without sniper or special ops training, but she'd been completely useless in the heat of the moment. She ran toward where she'd last seen Lincoln, rounding the corner of a van to see him crouched on the ground, his hands covered with his double's blood.
Lincoln had his fingers clenched around Captain Lee's upper arm, blood spilling through his grip. To Astrid's relief, Lee was alert and shouting out orders even as Olivia grabbed for a first-aid kit. Astrid knew better than to get in the way, but Lee saw her and nodded sharply in her direction.
"You called it! Who knew?"
Even from this angle Astrid could see Lincoln frown, interpreting his double's words as pain-instigated delirium. "What?"
Captain Lee looked more furious than hurt. "Who else knew we were transporting him? We gotta find out."
Olivia crouched down beside him, taking over the task of keeping pressure on the wound. "Hey, Linc. MedEvac's on the way. You're gonna be fine."
He snorted derisively. "Liv...I've been blown up before. This is nothing." He slumped back, the blood loss evidently taking its toll despite his bravado. "That was a hell of a shot. You haven't lost your touch."
Astrid watched, incredulous, as Lincoln left his double and grabbed the shapeshifter from where he still sprawled on the ground. She heard shouting but she couldn't follow it all and didn't try, instead moving forward to take Lincoln's place and help Olivia tend to Captain Lee.
"Clean shot through," Dunham reported as Astrid crouched down. "Press here, good. He'll need a little blood, some muscle and nerve regen, but he'll be fine."
"Talk about me like I'm not here," Lee muttered, his eyes heavy-lidded but clear. "Next thing you'll be bucking for my job."
Response time in this world was incredibly quick. The medical 'copter arrived, disgorging personnel and taking Captain Lee aboard within a matter of moments. Olivia stood back, watching the 'copter depart and absently wiping her hands on her shirt. "Too damn close," she finally said, and took a long, shuddering breath. And then she gathered herself together, professional mask dropping into place in an extremely familiar manner, and started organizing the rest of the agents into a caravan back to Fringe Division.
Astrid thought back to the conversation she'd overheard at the church and was suddenly, fiercely glad that this Olivia's famous stoicism wouldn't be tested today by the loss of her partner.
The rest of the day spooled out in a flurry of activity. Lincoln somehow convinced the shifter to literally take them to his leader, using the sharpshooter's DNA to adopt his form (was that cannibalism? Astrid didn't want to think about it too closely) and take down the security system. The shapeshifter stronghold at Fort Lee in Jersey-of all possible places-might have been impossible to assault without the aid of a Trojan horse.
Astrid rode with the strike team to the fort, taking over the comms and keeping in constant contact with her alternate. On route they received word from the hospital that Captain Lee was in stable condition. From all accounts, he sounded more irritated about missing the final raid than about being shot.
The plan went off without a hitch. The SWAT team blew in past the disabled security and took the apparent leader of the operation into custody: this side's Nina Sharp, heavily made up and reeking of arrogance. Astrid took private satisfaction in the fact that she could return to her world and report that the woman involved in Olivia's kidnapping had been caught, even if the mastermind eluded them again. Jones was nowhere to be found.
Still, the shapeshifters' command center proved to be a treasure trove of information, including a tracking board that showed the location of every shapeshifter in this world. Astrid hoped that once the analysts here decrypted all the information, they might even decipher a way to find the shifters that infiltrated her world as well.
Astrid spent her remaining hours on the other side assisting with the follow-up operations and saying her good-byes. As a last stop, she and Lincoln visited Captain Lee in the hospital. He appreciated the visit, but seemed far more interested in needling his doctors for an early release and flirting with the male nurse who was trying to change his nanite wrap.
She was bone-weary by the time she and Lincoln returned to the Bridge. Seeing the other world provided entirely new perspectives on her life and her world. Astrid would forever be grateful for the experience...and felt that she understood, more than ever, the words from one of her father's favorite sermons. "There but for the grace of God, go I."
When Lincoln made his choice to remain permanently in the other world with the Bridge closing, Astrid wasn't surprised at all. She hoped it would work out for him, and just as fervently prayed that this wasn't going to be the end of all contact between the universes. They still had too much to learn from each other to be parted forever.
Months later, after Astrid had been shot and recuperated and the world hadn't ended, General Broyles tasked her with introducing recruits to the newly enlarged Fringe Division. Many of them were brought over from Massive Dynamic, including Brandon Fayette. Some were FBI agents whose psychological profiles suggested they'd be able to adapt quickly to the parameters of their new job.
And one file, for the biohazard specialist on permanent loan from the CDC, made Astrid's heart skip a beat. Maybe this world's Frank Stanton wasn't anything like his alternate...but Astrid was looking forward to the opportunity to meet him and find out.
NOTES
Try and enjoy the here and now
The future will take care of itself somehow
The grass is never greener over there
- "Life in One Day," Howard Jones
I was very happy to be assigned Sam as my recipient for the Fringe Exchange-not only did his request play precisely to a story on my to-write list anyway *g*, but it also gave me a chance to offer an overdue present to my most-excellent beta of this last year. Thank you, Sam!
It always rubbed me wrong that Astrid was so disinterested in seeing the other side. And I know Sam thinks Red!Lincoln's death was as pointless as I do, so I had no compunction about altering history in those regards. (Plus, I could give Captain Lee his scruff back. BECAUSE.) It's even more senseless when you realize that his death has absolutely no impact on the plot-they discover Broyles' involvement either way.
ALSO, the hell the Red'verse doesn't have Batman, I won't have it. (His comic hung on the wall in Peter's apartment in "Over There, Part 2." Can't buy that a timeshift would have changed comic book history.)
I continue to flail toward that Act Up sticker in Red!Lincoln's locker to explain why he never got together with his partner of six years or made a move after Liv and Frank broke up. Lee being more interested in Alicia's brother is from Elfin's "Things Shaped in Passing," because I love collective-fandom canon.
Frank to Red!Astrid, "Immortality": "Where do I get one of you? ... I don't know what they pay you here, but I definitely need you in my life."
-I think I ship them a little, in any incarnation. *g*