Okay so here's the idea. This story is devoted to various ficlets that are spinoffs to my story "Growing Up in the Dark". Most of the ficlets will be AU interpretations of the earlier chapters (Peter and Olivia as kids) but there might other stuff in the mix as well. I had about 10000000 ways of writing "Growing Up in the Dark" to begin with (and some parts I had wish I thought of before writing) and this is my way of using as many of them as freaking possible! LOL
And I will update "Back in the Dark Again" sometime soon but I'm too obsessed with writing other crazyness. Damn I cant believe that this whole thing was originally intended to be a one-shot…now I got a sequel AND a AU-within-an-AU spinoff! Crazyness!
Since it's December, we'll start with this Christmas story I originally wrote for my fans at Fringe-Forum :)
DISCLAIMER: This is just a crazy universe of AU fics within a AU fic for a show that I like. The characters arent mine but dont worry...I aint getting paid! LOL
Title: "Christmas in the Dark"
Rating: G
Summary: Not as AU as the others are gonna be. Olivia is 7, Peter is 9. It's their first Christmas living on their own after all the insanity of chapters 1-8 of "Growing Up".
Characters: Peter, Olivia, special surprise guests :D
Warnings: None
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It was the worst way to wake up that morning. Peter had bitten his tongue. It took him a while to realize that his teeth were chattering, and somehow his tongue must've gotten caught in the midst of it. He curled up his legs but nothing helped. It had gotten cold…so cold that not even staying under the blankets all day was going to help.
"Peter?"
Olivia had been lying next to him struggling in the same situation he was in. "I can't stop shaking."
He crawled out of bed past Olivia. "We could put on more clothes."
He opened the dressers only to be greeted by a strange smell…something like rotten wood. The clothes had been stuck in the wooden drawers unused for quite some time. Peter pulled out one flannel shirt that was at least twice his size when he put it on.
For Olivia, he found an old sequenced long sleeve that looked like something his grandma would've worn. The shirt went down past her knees and wouldn't stay up on her shoulders.
By now they were both wearing about two or three layers of clothing but they couldn't find jackets or coats of any kind. At the very least they found pairs of gardens gloves to keep their hands warm, but it wouldn't do much.
It wasn't until they went downstairs that Peter noticed the white that had covered the windows.
Olivia noticed that the hole at the bottom of the door was completely blocked by the strange substance that was seeping in.
She started to panic. "What is this? It's trapping us in!"
"No it's not," said Peter. "It's just snow."
"How do we make it go away?"
Peter sighed. "Just dig it out of the way." It felt silly to Peter that Olivia had never seen snow, much less heard of it. But then he had forgotten that Olivia had spent her life in a dark windowless cell with no knowledge of the outside world. He had become her eyes and ears from the very moment that had escaped. Perhaps that was why she was constantly scared and was always clinging to him.
Now Olivia was kneeling there by the door afraid to touch the white stuff, even with the garden gloves on. She closed her eyes and with one swoop scooped the snow out of the way as much as she could, only to have more snow seep in and fall right onto her hands. She gasped…and Peter laughed.
She turned to face Peter with a look of pure contempt and red cheeks to match. Peter stopped laughing and said "sorry". He went over and dug more snow out of the way. "See, it's not dangerous. You just dig enough out and then we can crawl through." When Peter believed he had cleared enough out, he went through the hole. "Look, I'm outside!"
Olivia could see nothing but white through the hole. "Is it all snow out there?"
"Yeah," Peter called out. "Are you coming or you gonna stay in there all day?"
In her mind, Olivia was screaming. Why did it have to come down to this? Why did she have to choose between two things she was scared of: the snow and being alone? She sat there whimpering and pondering for a moment. If Peter was outside and okay, then maybe the snow couldn't be all bad.
She took a deep breath and pushed and squirmed her way through. Luckily Peter saw her trying to come out and pulled her out the rest of the way. Bad enough her feet were now inches deep in the cold crunchy stuff, but now it was in her hair and getting under her clothing.
The water pump was frozen shut and there was nothing naturally edible to be found in this kind of weather. Peter could only hope that if they went down the road to the nearby town, they would find food in the trashcans or something that they could heat in their unused fireplace.
It was struggle to walk in 4.5 inches of snow and Olivia was grabbing the back of Peter's clothes just to keep herself from falling. Not only had it gotten cold but it was also quite dark for the daytime. There was no color in the sky and the streets of the nearby town seemed lifeless. Only a few streetlights and small strange ones that were strung up in many of the windows were all that stood out.
"What are those plants?" asked Olivia.
Peter was confused, especially given that all the trees were practically dead. "What plants?"
"Those. They're hanging all over the walls and the doors and they got big colored berries on them."
As they got closer, Peter realized that the green stuff was just fake garland. And the colored berries were ornaments.
Peter sighed. "They're just decorations. They're not real."
"Oh". Olivia looked disappointed, especially since they were both starving. First, they began searching through a dumpster behind a general store until an employee came and drove them away threatening to bring out his hunting rifle if they didn't scram.
They tried restaurants, but some were closed and others were dumping out food that was far from pleasant. Anything that looked remotely edible had gone bad from the cold.
At one street corner a man in a Santa Claus suit was annoyingly ringing his bell. When the children walked by, they heard the man say "Merry Christmas". Peter ignored him but Olivia would occasionally peek back curiously.
"What is that weird man doing?" Olivia asked him.
"Just ignore him," said Peter. "He wants money, which we don't have."
The chaos of the holidays was interfering with him and Olivia being able to find anything they needed to survive. Instead of finding food in most of the dumpsters, they would find discarded wrapping paper and various junk related to the holiday.
Peter had almost cut himself picking up a large discarded coffee can. It was tossed to the floor but something in the noise it made triggered something in Peter's mind.
A light bulb had turned on in Peter Bishop's genius head!
"Livvy, I have an idea!"
He picked up the coffee can and pulled Olivia to a nearby street corner. "Take this." Peter shoved the can in Olivia's hands and then he put his hands in Olivia's hair and kept messing with it.
She panicked and tried to fight him away. "What are you doing?!"
"I'm making you messy. They'll pity you more this way."
"What?"
Peter looked around then said to Olivia. "Okay, now you just leave the can out so that people will put money in it. Don't talk, but if someone asks what you're doing, say you want to buy something for your mom for Christmas."
"But what's…"
Peter saw people coming. "Just stay there. I'll be watching over here." And he disappeared into the nearby alley.
Olivia could only stand there nervously while a modest middle-class couple was walking by. They stopped by Olivia with a look of shock and pity. The woman pulled out some change from her purse and tossed it into the bucket.
Peter smiled. It was working. He could make suckers out of this whole community for feeling sorry for a cute little blonde girl. And then will they would have enough food to get the two of them through the next Christmas. He liked the idea of conning people. It was preferable to boring old work and school.
A couple hours past and Olivia stood there shivering. It had gotten deathly silent and Peter realized that everyone was practically gone for the day.
He rushed over to Olivia. "We gotta hurry," said Peter. "They'll close the general store any minute. How much money did we make?"
Olivia looked down and counted the contents in the coffee can. "8 copper things, four of these little thick things and one big silver thing."
Peter looked into the can. "No!" he protested to nobody.
53 cents…all his genius work and all the people gave Olivia was 53 freakin' cents?! That wouldn't even cover the cost of a candy bar!
It was Christmas Eve and once again, they weren't going to eat. He had given up.
The sky was getting black and the air was getting colder. They were overdue to go back as it was. As they walked the empty streets, Peter could see shadows of people in houses and apartment complexes bustling as though they were having a party…
…or a good Christmas meal. It was getting to Peter so much…not that he hated Christmas but of course, everything had changed.
The last Christmas that Peter had spent with his mother was a fake. He realized that now. He had gotten everything that he had wanted for Christmas that year and that was probably because his mother knew that it would be his last at home. It was a good thing he never believed in Santa Claus.
And Olivia…well she probably never heard of Christmas or Santa Claus, which would explain how confused she was by everything being so different. This was good in Peter's mind. No stupid expectations or false hopes. They could both just treat this as another day of failure and try again the day after tomorrow when all things Christmas would be gone.
They were passing by the last Christmas tree, standing there in its fine décor at the edge of town. The lights were glowing dimly, which would do little to help them find the path back through the woods and get back to the cottage. Olivia pointed the tree to Peter. "I think I've seen a lighting tree like that before."
"They're everywhere in town, Livvy."
"No. I think I saw one a long time ago…before I…"
Olivia stopped herself from her devastating confession and was trying hard to think back to the other memory instead. It may have been a glimpse of a lighting tree she had seen before but she swore that she had been with her father at the time. She wasn't really sure if that was this "Christmas" thing that Peter was talking about.
Suddenly Peter saw Olivia break out in quaking sobs that he could not understand. It was as though as something went off in her head, as if she had been sleepwalking and has suddenly woken up from a nightmare…a really bad one.
"Livvy?"
Her breathing was getting shorter and her cheeks became pink and icy. Tears were drying up quickly in the cold. Peter knew that something was terribly wrong for Olivia to be like this but he knew he wouldn't get any answers from her.
"We have to get back," said Peter.
He took her hand and the two of them went into the woods toward the direction of the cottage. It had gotten so dark that Peter was scared they would get lost. He couldn't see anything. They must've gotten one of those coincidental holiday miracles for Peter and Olivia to finally find their way back to their "home" after a painful hour wandering.
Peter had picked up some twigs and tiny branches along the way. The two of them had been outside for so long and needed to warm up quickly before they would get sick. Olivia looked like she was already getting there.
It was lucky that Peter had found a matchbook in the house…with only five matches left. Putting the scrap wood in the old fireplace, he tossed the first lit match in. It went out before it even touched anything. The next two would do the same. The fourth time, Peter even tried to stick his hand in and risk being burned. Still nothing but a bunch of gray ash on Peter's hand.
The fifth time, he slowly noticed that there was a glow in the wood. Peter got down quickly to try and keep the flame going…
…a minute later, it was gone.
His boy scout experience had completely went to waste. The little sticks were too weak to rub together.
To add to their misery, Peter could see his own puffs of breath. It was getting THAT cold inside.
"It's okay," said Olivia who was shaking and shivering madly. "We can just go to sleep."
Peter complied when he saw how pale she had gotten. They headed upstairs and got themselves under every cover they had, which wasn't much. Olivia instinctively snuggled close to Peter and fell asleep. But Peter was still grouchy and upset.
After finally getting himself to fall asleep, he had decreed (aside from Olivia being here) tha this had become the worst Christmas ever.
…
Sometime in the middle of the night, Peter had woken up from another nightmare but all he could do was look up at the ceiling at nothing.
Then he heard an unusual noise. Something like a thump.
He turned to the window, there was a full moon and it brought light into the loft.
Another thump made Peter froze…and another.
It kept getting closer and that's when Peter realized that someone…maybe something was coming up the stairs! He cursed himself. There was no way for him and Olivia to escape but the stairs. The stranger's arrival would have the children cornered.
He didn't wake Olivia. She would completely freak out. Instead he could only shield the both of them completely under the blankets. If he didn't breath or make any sound, maybe the stranger would think no one lived here and would go away. It was practically inhabitable here as it was.
After many intense seconds, the thumping stopped. Peter poked his head out of the covers very, very, carefully. The moonlight revealed the stranger's shadow against the wall and that was enough to send Peter back under the covers in a split second.
He hoped the stranger couldn't see him. After all, Peter had only seen the shadow. It was a man, a large man and he looked pretty bald.
'It couldn't be,' Peter thought. There was just no way.
If it really were Santa Claus then he wouldn't have left them living like this. If it really were Santa Claus, Olivia would not have to have live the life she had lived for four Christmases prior.
Logically, in Peter's mind, it was not making sense. Yet there was a big bald stranger in their "home" on Christmas Eve.
Perhaps, Peter needed to take a second look. But before he could, the thumping noise happened again. Peter stayed under the covers. This time, the thumping was not getting louder. It was fading away. 'Good,' Peter thought. The stranger was leaving…
He would wait for him to leave…wait until it was safe for him to peak out again.
…
The room had gotten brighter.
Peter must've fallen asleep waiting for the stranger to leave. It was now morning…Christmas morning.
But to Peter, it would just be another morning.
Just then Olivia was stirring but she was moaning at the same time. Peter pulled the blankets out and looked at her in shock. She was getting very pale, white as a ghost, and she was shaking uncontrollably.
"I don't feel so good, Peter."
Peter put his hand to Olivia's forehead. God, she was burning up. Of course, she would be sick given that they were starving and enduring cold freezing temperatures.
He doesn't want to believe that making her stand out on that street corner was what caused it. He had been exposed to the outside as well. But now, Peter was really scared.
"There's gotta be medicine downstairs."
Peter leapt off the bed. He was going to check every drawer and cabinet in this place, tear the whole house apart, to find anything for Olivia. He knew that going to town on Christmas day would be hopeless.
He hurried down the stairs and was about to tear the entire kitchen apart, but his eyes had taken a quick glance at the living room.
Peter stopped.
He looked at the living room with disbelieving eyes. In the back of the room, was a fire, and actual fire in the fireplace! Someone had placed garland, laced up above with colored ornaments. On the old sofa, there was a strange pile of neatly folded sweaters, pants, and coats. And two pairs of small boots right next to them.
And the clothes, they weren't oversized old people clothes…one of the coats fit Peter comfortably.
On the other side of the room, he saw a stack of toys: dolls, stuff animals, and even those Lincoln Logs that Peter was obsessed with. There was even a chemistry set that Peter had hoped to get for Christmas this year.
The big basket right next to the toys was what intrigued Peter the most. The plastic that cover it gave him false hope, but once he tore it off, he almost wanted to cry.
It was biggest basket of food he ever seen…and it had everything, meat, biscuits, water, and even some canned food.
Peter didn't think. He just grabbed a bunch of cookies from the basket and scarfed them all up. He placed his hand in the basket for more and tried to eat it, only tasting paper. 'Yuk'. He looked at the weird tasting stuff.
It wasn't food. It was a paper wrapped package of medicine.
Peter hurried pack upstairs with the medicine and the bottle water. "Livvy! Livvy, wake up!"
Olivia couldn't even lift her head up. "I can't Peter…"
"I found some medicine."
That really surprised Olivia as to how fast Peter would find some. Not that it mattered, as she was too weak to ask questions. Peter had to help her take the pills. Swallowing them was the tough part but he guided her through it and soon Olivia was taken gulps of water from the bottle.
"Are you okay, now?" asked Peter.
"I dunno. I wanna lie down some more."
Peter gave her a big smile. "It's okay," he said, accepting that Olivia wasn't going to spring out of bed and recover so quickly.
"Why are you smiling so big?" she asked.
The excitement was building up in Peter…the same kind he used to get on Christmas day. "Just wait till you get downstairs."
…
The fire in the fireplace was still burning. Many hours had passed but Peter and Olivia had already gone through a good amount of food in the Christmas basket. They were now wearing new sweaters instead of the oversized rags. Even Olivia was brushing the hair one of the dolls mindlessly, but she was happy and definitely in brighter, healthier spirits than she had been earlier.
"Are they gonna come back for this stuff?" she asked Peter.
"Hope not. They're Christmas gifts, which means we get to keep them."
"But who brought it?"
Peter knew there was no possible way it could be Santa Claus. That was a man of fiction and myth. But there was no explaining how they got all of these gifts. How would Santa know that Olivia would get sick this morning and would need medicine they didn't have?
Then what if was a stranger? He was being too nice to the children. It had to be a trap. Have the two of them tricked into false childhood sense of safety and then capture them at their most vulnerable.
Christmas would be the perfect time to set such a trap. But deep down Peter just wasn't sure. Besides, Olivia was having a happy time, the happiest she probably ever was. This wasn't the best day to share his suspicions with her.
Peter just shrugged his shoulders and said "probably Santa Claus. Who else is it gonna be?"
…
He waited for Olivia to fall asleep before he tiptoed to the window to play lookout, but it was impossible to see anything. After a couple of hours, he found his eyes getting heavy and he was yawning. He felt so snuggly in his new pajamas that eventually, he just gave up and crawled back into bed with Olivia.
The stranger did not repeat his mistake from the night before. He made a much more quiet approach up the stairs. He found the children sound asleep in the bed with big smiles on their faces and their arms around each other.
He quietly stepped downstairs and out of the house where his superior was waiting for him.
"Are the children in good health now?"
"Yes," September reported. "Both are content and well. They believe their benefactor was this Santa Claus who is part of their 'Christmas' tradition."
December felt that half of these traditions and beliefs being celebrated by the humans during this time of year were downright silly. He could only logically determine that this was considered a coping mechanism by the humans to cope with the cold weather and dark skies.
But didn't the people here know that more dark skies were coming? Didn't they know that things were about to get worse and that all life was slowly going to die here?
September then asked, "Will it be enough?"
The Observers had to put their trusts in Dr. Bishop. He had to come and retrieve the children before the great wars would begin. They had triggered the steps that would lead up to the war by escaping from the lab, and now they would need to taken somewhere safe until they were mature enough and ready to play their respective roles in the war.
December said to September, "they should have enough to ensure their survival. Until Dr. Bishop arrives, there is nothing more we can do for them."
They took their leave from the countryside, leaving not a single footstep in the deep snow behind them.
COMING UP NEXT: A ficlet written by Lolita Tides: Astrid's tea party from Chapter 5 of "Growing Up in the Dark" gone horribly wrong....