FRINGE
Worried
No inFRiNGEment intended.
Note: filler for "Bound". Walter POV
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Of course he didn't know his son as much as he would have liked to.
Of course he couldn't remember the times when they where together before. Well, before that out of time --unwilling on his part, hiatus in St Claire's that is.
But certainly, he knew enough.
He'd seen Peter around Olivia Dunham so he knew. He knew that Peter was so very fond of her. Therefore he knew that Peter was worried.
Anyone could see that. Peter had been a ghost since she had been MIA and didn't make a mystery of it. Only he would refuse to speak about it or acknowledge that he was worried.
He merely checked his voice mail every five minutes, he was not attentive to the procedures and was making a mess of very simple experiments, and he would not listen to his music with his extraordinary tiny device. Worse, he was barely eating.
That was more than a sign, it was a confession.
Walter knew all that because he was worried too, not to the point of fasting or failing his work, but enough. He happened to be very fond of the blonde agent himself. She was a femme fatale from a black and white Hitchcock movie. She could blow hot and cold at the same time but always kept her distance. That was fascinating.
Walter took a swig at his coffee and stared at Peter with intent, eying every movement, every change in his body language, every frown on his face.
No need to know him that well to see that he was worried. He had this deep vertical crease on his forehead that never disappeared, not even in his sleep.
Walter had to dose him twice without him knowing to make sure he could get some sleep.
Peter was worried and it was eating him.
Every time that this agent with the raspy voice came to the lab to talk to Asteroid, Peter was eavesdropping or asking questions in a menacing tone. Every time that he was on the phone with that Broyles fellow, they argued and Peter would hang up on him.
Peter was frustrated, and angry and restless.
Everyone could see that.
Predictably, Peter wild goose chase would eventually turn into an obsessive compulsive behaviour and that was something Walter could not condone, something he was far too familiar with.
He could induce a comatose state that should allow Peter to have some real rest. But Walter could see the flaw in this reasoning. Once Peter would be back to an awaken state, he would never forget or forgive him.
Dr Bishop considered at some point the repeated use of a device based on green and red light hypnosis. He was forced to renounce his project by Asterisk.
Unethical, she said.
The alleviating of Peter's distress was ethical enough for Walter, but he concurred. One alternative was to use the device on them both but he discarded it as unpractical.
It was the third day agent Dunham was missing that Walter pondered that he was left with no valid options.
By the end of the day, he will make sure that Peter could relax. Whatever it takes.
He would find a way later to erase that deed from his son's memories. With a satisfied smile, he trotted to Gene's stall and soon got engulfed in their conversation.
The slamming of Olivia's office door brought him back to reality.
He watched Peter rush from the office to his desk and slump onto his chair. With a stern look, Walter scurried back to his bench and started to work on a special blend of the drug he successfully used on Asteroid before. Peter would simply have to understand that it was for his own good.
He looked up when he heard Peter answering his phone. He was… cheerful.
It might be good news.
"Olivia, thank god," Peter exclaimed. "Are you okay? How are you? Where are you?"
If he wanted answers, he ought to let her time to respond, he thought with a smirk. He was on the verge of explaining it to Peter when he turned to him.
Walter did not avoid his son's eyes and stared back. He took an envelop and put the drug inside. Then he grabbed a pencil and meticulously calligraphed "Emergency" in a cursive decorative script on the envelop before putting it away in his top drawer.
Next time, he will have to remember which drawer and what was the emergency but that was incidental.
"Do I have to?" asked Peter.
Walter could hear he was teasing her.
Good, that was good.
"Walter! Hurry up, we've got to meet with Olivia in front of the building asap. Take your gear, we're on again."
God, he was relieved to see that Peter was so happy. He will have to tell Olivia.
She will be pleased.
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