A/N: Story was written for tvnetwork1_ prompt word was-stranded.
Beta-reader: Tania
Between Worlds
Peter felt stranded during most of his life. Forcing back the feelings and memories from his early childhood whispering to him that this was not his real family didn't help. It was hard not to feel like a stranger, with a mother that seemed to feel guilty every time she showed him some love and care. It made Peter feel uneasy, and although he loved his mother dearly, the look in her eyes hurt him each time. Still, it was better to be loved than to be forgotten - or at least that was what Peter thought in the first few months after Walter blew up that lab, killing his assistant and condemning himself into the prison of his own mind. When he grew up and his mother finally succumbed to the guilt she was carrying, Peter was alone. There was no one he could call family, no one to care. No reason to play by the book.
By the time Olivia Dunham found him, Peter was well and truly lost to the world. He existed under different names, in different places, not one of which he could call home. In a way, he felt free. He could go wherever he wanted - and he did, always looking for some place, for the right place. When Olivia brought him home, made him face his father, Peter wanted to run. The man was a stranger to him, just like he was a stranger when Peter was a kid. But the situation didn't let him escape, not at first. By the time he was free to go, he didn't want to. His perception of the world had changed. His perception of Walter Bishop started to change too. He thought that maybe, maybe he didn't have to run anymore.
Working with the FBI was nice. Not the being kidnapped and tortured part, or barely escaping death by unexplainable experiments gone wrong. It was nice to belong somewhere, to have rights and privileges, to have a partner he could trust and who had his six. The fact there was some attraction between the two of them was an added bonus. It was during this time that Peter and Walter become a family - only to be broken apart once again.
The truth hurt.
All this time, Peter was right to feel as if he didn't belonged. All this time, he was just a kidnapped child trying to find his way home. Suddenly the guilt in his mother's eyes made sense, as well as the strange feeling every time he looked into a book with a picture of an airship, or saw a document on TV about the Hindenburg. Those dreams he used to have, about the sky filled with airships wasn't just his imagination, it was the truth. He was lied to his whole life, and it was in that hospital bed, after the bridge vanished when he realized the truth with shocking clarity. He wasn't just stranded in a different family. He was stranded in a different universe. The urge to run was stronger than ever, and for once Peter listened to it. He knew there was only one place for him, and it wasn't here. He needed to go home.
This time when a man came to his room, Peter was going on his own free will, knowing the man was really his father. It astounded him to find Walter so normal, so strong, but it was nothing to finding his mother alive and well. It really was his family, and he was in the place he was supposed to be. For a little while, Peter was happy and content. For a little while, he had no idea of the terrible things his father was planning for him. He was oblivious and happy; the only thing really missing was Olivia.
His Olivia.
The plans started unfolding, the truth rearing its ugly head. This Walter was different. Cold, indifferent. While Peter understood the man was changed by the loss of his son, there was something that made him nervous. While he would never admit it openly - the anger still too strong - he missed the old Walter. He missed the silly jokes, the nights they spent on the couch eating popcorn with homemade ice cream, watching reruns of Sponge Bob. He missed the easy smile that reached Walter's eyes, the concern he was capable of showing for Peter or Olivia. The man in the suit, holding the fate of a billion people in his hands... That wasn't the father Peter wanted. The plan to destroy a whole universe wasn't what Peter was willing to do.
It was once again Olivia who found him when he was lost. It was Olivia who made him - if not forgive then at least forget - Walter's faults. It was Olivia who kissed him in that theater, and it was Olivia who brought him home.
Maybe the bed he was lying in wasn't from the universe he was born in. Maybe the air he was breathing, the sheets wrapping around his body, or the roof above his head weren't his either. But he knew for sure that he and the woman lying next to him, curled against his body and sleeping peacefully, that they belonged together. Without each other, they were both just stranded pieces of sand lost in a desert.
The End