A/N: I do not own Fringe. That's all Bad Robot (#Alias!). However, this is my first Fringe post. And for some reason, I was very rude and abusive to a young character and that makes me feel like a horrible person. That said, this chapter is not a precursor to how the rest of the fic will be. This situation was created by the writing team of Fringe and it seemed like a horrendous, yet good way to allow the somewhat AU plot line of this fic to happen.
The night that Olivia Dunham first crossed over to the alternate universe, she had been frightened. Had she not been tripping over her feet as she ran away from her step-father, she might have said petrified. Lucky for her though, Dr. Walter had been administering her with special medicines at daycare. She rounded the corner into an open field and froze. Turning in a slow circle she took in her surroundings, looking up as the strange blimp floated across the sky above her…and then it was gone and she was being shoved to the ground, her eye narrowly missing the corner. Instead she fell face-first into the wall, knowing that bruise would adorn her face in several minutes. She might get out of a black eye this time. Hot tears streamed down her face and she cried, stinging the newly tender spot just below her eye. The whimpering alerted her mother to the fact that something was happening. The horrendous moment was over when her mother came to her rescue and bravely took the brunt of her step-father's rage, but little did she know that those brief seconds that she had crossed had saved her life…
In the alternate universe, Olivia Dunham was also reading Winter's Tale, but in her universe, Peter Lake's story unfolded in a drought- and depression-stricken Los Angeles. At nearly the same word on the same page, her step-father entered the room and cursed at her, threatening her about going to bed. Olivia ran away as well, but at the moment our Olivia crossed, the other tripped. Dr. Walter Bishop on her side had never worked with William Bell, never developed cortexiphan trials, never tested at a daycare center in Jacksonville, Florida. Her two second venture bruised her hands and knees, stealing precious time, and brought her closer to her step-father and in line with the sharp corner edge. Her forehead connected with the corner and split it open from above her eye and into her hairline. She couldn't even remember to cry, immediately in shock, which left her unable to alert her mother that something was wrong. Black dots were already eating away at her vision and the last thing she ever saw was her mother rounding the corner too late…
A few months later, Olivia leveled the gun at her step-father and squeezed the trigger twice. Her shots didn't miss and she avenged herself and her mother in that fleeting moment. She didn't cry; she barely blinked. After all the years, she finally made her first report to the police...
In the other universe, her step-father had been found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and was killed by a fellow inmate during a yard fight. His crime was not unknown and he hadn't heeded any warnings about watching his back, that many of the state penitentiary inmates looked down on crimes against women and children. The other Olivia was also avenged, though she would never know…