A/N This oneshot is actually part of my crossover story with Castle "A Call to Arms", so if you are following that story just ignore this. I decided to publish it also as a oneshot because I really liked how these two chapters came out. Also it's not relevant to the plot of the story and it only involves Fringe characters. You do not have to read the story to understand this.
Like I told before, these are two chapters in the original story, but I decided to blend them. It works better this way for a oneshot.
It takes place in season one, after "Ability" (1x14) and right before "Inner Child" (1x15).
In my mind this could had happened in the show.
As always big thanks go to Crystalline Green, for correcting, changing and adding text in the right places, making it bearable to read.
Olivia was definitely in need of a break. After spending the whole day doing paperwork that had accumulated because of her week in DC for the annual FBI update on law, ethics and security, which was always so much fun, she'd had enough of secretary work. By now she was even missing their wildly odd and bizarre cases.
Looking at the lab from her office she could see Peter messing around with some electronic parts scattered around his bench. He was sipping at his coffee completely oblivious to Walter watching him. Olivia didn't think too much of it, just Walter being Walter.
She toyed with the idea of asking Peter to join her for a real cup of coffee or maybe a drink, after all she had been away from her team for a week and it would be a good opportunity to catch up with what had happened during that time. Just two colleagues and friends, relaxing and catching up, that was all it would be.
To be honest she did really miss hanging around with Peter, his carefree attitude and the way he always had some smart ass comment about everything, which wasn't as annoying as she often made out it was, actually it made her laugh and feel better, not that she would ever confess that to him.
Not giving any more thought to it, she grabbed her coat and left the office, walking by Peter's bench on the way out.
By now Walter was watching Peter overtly, which he couldn't fail to notice. "Do you need anything Walter?"
"Oh no Peter I'm fine, thank you son."
"So why do you keep watching me?" Peter asked irritated by the observation and even more so by Walter not getting to the point - if there was one.
"Oh that?" Walter blurted, as if surprised his observation had been noted by his son. Then he gave a sweet smile as he began his explanation, "Nothing really, I am just trying to ascertain if your penis has already acquired sufficient state of readiness to engage in sexual intercourse."
"Come again!?" Peter gaped, shocked at the response.
Olivia stopped in her tracks, already too close to Peter's bench to not listen to what Walter just said, definitely nothing good was coming out of that conversation.
On the other side of the lab, Astrid raised her head, stopping the search she was doing on her computer and turning her focus completely on both men.
"Pay attention boy. Do I have to explain everything to you? If you hadn't dropped out of school there would be no need for that! I'm just trying to determine if you are sexually aroused." Walter noted the look on Peter's face, but in truest Walter fashion, he misinterpreted the look of mortification as confusion and therefore he pressed on, offering further explanation, "If you have an erection."
A snort almost came out of Astrid's mouth but she managed to stifle it with her hand in front of her face before it came out. Oh this was definitely going to get interesting.
"Walter, I understood very well the first time, what I don't understand is why on earth you are trying to determine such a thing!" Peter said felling is irritation growing.
By now Walter was watching Olivia who was standing a few feet from Peter trying to disguise the awkwardness of the situation, fiddling with her phone and pretending not to listen to that very strange conversation between the Bishop men.
"Of course, silly me, it wont do." Walter babbled, "Wrong environment with too many variables, we will have to try again later son, when we're alone in the lab."
"Walter..." Peter paused for a few seconds trying to gather as much patience as he could, especially knowing that Olivia was standing a few feet away listening to the whole God damned conversation.
"Now, from the beginning explain everything to me. Why are you expecting me to be... sexually aroused and what do you want to repeat again later when we are alone?"
"Oh yes, yes, I shall explain. The compound I put on your coffee a few minutes ago when you went to the bathroom is a powerful sexual stimulant I'm testing. I needed to know if I got the right dosage for a young man of your age and if it acts as quickly as I posited it would. But I forgot that Agent Dunham was here and that alone is enough to give you an erection, so my experiment is biased, hence we'll have to repeat it later once Olivia has gone home," Walter said, like if it was the most natural thing in the world.
By now Olivia was wishing she could disappear, the shade of red her face had turned was only a bit lighter than Peter's, who was dumb struck listening to his father's words. Nearby Astrid had ducked down pretending to get something from a low drawer in her work station, in order to hide behind her bench. She was trying really hard not to laugh her ass off.
"You put something in my coffee...?!" Peter's irritation now reaching near boiling point.
Before he could continue Olivia grabbed his arm getting is attention. "Peter let me get you a new cup of coffee, let's get out for a while I really need a break."
"Yeah, I need a break too," was all that Peter could muster as he was leaving the lab trailing behind Olivia.
Early spring unfortunately didn't guarantee warmer weather in Boston, much to Peter's dismay. Still they walked to the coffee shop. There was a comfortable silence between the two as they passed by the students who were milling around the campus on that sunny yet crisp afternoon.
Peter threw occasional glances at Olivia, who was avoiding looking at him. He noticed that she was smiling, not that he didn't like seeing her smile, actually he loved it, but he didn't need his 190 genius IQ to know why she was smiling and trying so hard to hide it from him.
"You think it's funny, don't you Dunham? It's not your coffee that he spiked."
She looked at him, not needing to hide her amusement anymore. "Oh I don't think spiking my coffee would help his experiment, it would be difficult for me to get an erection." By now Olivia was openly laughing.
"Oh you're so funny Dunham, wait until he tries to develop a sexual stimulant for women."
Olivia grimaced at the thought, but she still kept their easy banter, "I have a feeling he would still test it on you."
"Yeah I guess he would," Peter said sighing.
They arrived at the coffee shop. Olivia grabbed the door so Peter could enter, smiling and biting her lower lip still amused by the events in the lab. Peter couldn't help smiling back, shaking his head.
He wondered at how easily their friendship had developed. But what he felt when she smiled at him like that, it was something he would keep hidden for now. In reality he didn't want to face the fact that the more time he spent around Olivia Dunham, the more he was drawn to her.
They entered the coffee shop which was full of students, some in small groups just chatting idly, others alone with books in front of their faces or resting on the table fully engrossed in their readings while they sipped at their warm cups of coffee.
"Go get us a table or... that booth. I'll get the coffee," Olivia said directing Peter with her eyes to a vacant booth by the window. "Do you want something to eat too?"
"Only if you're getting something for yourself."
Olivia rolled her eyes, "Fine. I'll get us two cream cheese bagels, if that's ok with you?"
"That would be excellent," Peter replied with a grin heading for the booth. He took a seat and waited for Olivia while taking a moment to observe his surroundings.
The coffee shop had a distinctive college atmosphere, so much like the places he used to frequent during his tenure as a professor at MIT. It made him miss those times, when he felt he was doing something positive with his life and it was also something he enjoyed very much. Even if he had faked his credentials in order to do it.
At one of the tables not far from Peter's booth there were three boys and a girl fully engrossed in a very animated discussion, by the sound of it, something to do with Computer Science, or maybe History.
Peter noticed the book the girl was holding and apparently quoting from it, reading it aloud to her colleagues. It was about Alan Turing, the English mathematical genius and his role in the development of computers.
The story of Alan Turing was one well known to Peter. It had a dark side which made him sick and reminded him of how cruel humanity could be every time he remembered it. The same man who had played a crucial role in decoding information transmitted by the famous Enigma machines during WWII and with that he helped defeat the Nazis, was later condemned by his own government to chemical castration only because of his sexual orientation.
Who knew how many lives that man had saved by using his unique skills to help breaking the Enigma machine. Who knew how much more his genius could have offered mankind if, just two years after the sentence was passed, he had not taken his own life at such a young age.
He was shaken from his deep thoughts by Olivia who had just returned with a loaded tray, she set it down on the table between the two of them and reached for her coffee, savouring it, while Peter went straight for the bagel, biting a big chunk off it.
She wondered how he managed to keep such a slim form eating like he did. After swallowing it with the help of some of his coffee, Peter broke the silence, "So tell me about your exciting week in DC," he said grinning at her.
"Oh God, don't remind me of that. Boring lecture after boring lecture which didn't teach me anything new. I only went because Broyles virtually forced me."
"Thank God I'm only a civilian consultant," Peter said raising is cup in a gesture resembling a toast before taking a sip.
She smiled at him, "Actually I was so bored that I kept hoping you would burst into the conference room and start giving the lecture of your own. Now that would have been interesting," she said chuckling.
Peter gave her one of his trademark grins. "So instead of focusing on the lecture, you were thinking about me."
She blushed lightly, only then noticing the implication of what she had said. "Err... I mean... you had so many jobs in the past and even faked your credentials to teach at MIT. I could totally see you faking your way to an FBI seminar and giving a lecture to a room full of Agents."
"Oh you could?" His smile was getting wider.
"Yeah," she kept looking at the bagel, picking a small piece off it with her fingers, trying to hide her discomfort.
Peter leaned back on his seat enjoying the reaction he was getting from Olivia. "I actually did, a few years ago."
"No Way!" she shot him a look of surprise.
"Well, Agent Dunham, wasn't that in the file the FBI kept on me?" she looked at him with her mouth wide, trying to read him searching for a hint as to whether he was telling the truth or not.
He kept his poker face for a while, until he thought it was enough and started laughing. She threw the peace of bagel she was holding at him, faking grievance, then she started laughing too.
They resumed their small meal, letting the conformable silence fall between them once again. Peter watched Olivia, pondering if he should ask her what he wanted so much to know.
He thought that bringing up the subject of David Robert Jones would most likely make her uncomfortable, also he hated to break up their moment, it wasn't often that he saw Olivia so relaxed.
But he couldn't help being worried about her. He had noticed how nervous and on edge she had been in the days after the events with the light box as a means of defusing the bomb and then of course there was Jones' spectacular escape from the hospital. He knew something else was worrying her, but as always she kept whatever it was to herself.
"Olivia?"
"Yes?" She smiled at him and it almost made him stop from raising the question.
"Have you heard anything else about Jones?" Her smile dropped like he knew it would. He was already feeling like an asshole.
"No," she stated simply.
He could sense the sudden discomfort taking over her. Now he was definitely regretting bringing the issue up. "Listen, maybe you were right and that thing with the bomb was all a scheme dreamed up in Jones' sick mind, to make you believe you have an ability." She shrugged and took another sip of her coffee.
He could clearly see she was struggling with something, he took her hand, feeling compelled to give her reassurance and comfort, along with warm smile. "I'm sorry Olivia, I shouldn't have brought that up." He noticed she didn't pull her hand away, it made a warm feeling bloom in his chest.
"It's ok Peter. Maybe you were the one who was actually right."
"I was?" he looked at her puzzled. She looked at him and he could see distress in her eyes. "Olivia, forget about Jones. He's not worth it." He gently squeezed her hand, still resting in his palm before he let go.
She looked out of the window, still battling with herself, wondering if she should reveal to Peter what Nina told her about the second round of Cortexiphan trials in Jacksonville.
Olivia always had a hard time talking about her problems even with the people she loved, like her sister Rachel. But Peter always seemed to manage to draw things out of her effortlessly. She had begun to recognize that it actually felt good being able to share things with him. But this - the possibility of having been a test subject as a child, for some God forsaken drug - was something she didn't want to face right now.
Then something happened.
She noticed a woman passing by on the street with a bouquet of flowers in her hand and a smile appeared on Olivia's face. Peter watched her sudden change of demeanour, noticing how she brightened when she looked at the woman. "What is it? Do you know her?"
Olivia kept her eyes on the woman, still smiling. "No I don't," she paused, searching her thoughts and trying to put into words what she was experiencing in that moment. "Don't you ever associate something - like a sound, a smell or an object - to something else entirely different which apparently isn't related in any way?"
Peter watched her still observing the woman, he soaked up the moment but was still confused and had a curious look on his face, "Like what?"
"The woman with the bouquet of white tulips," she said smiling fondly, "Ever since I remember, I've always associated white tulips with snow." Olivia turned her attention to Peter, looking at him she was captivated by his winter blue eyes. And then it hits her; a strong sense of déjà vu.
She searched her memory in vain, trying to hold on to the feeling. It was frustrating for someone who could remember in minute detail, things which had happened years ago - to all of a sudden not be able to figure out what had triggered that overwhelming sense of familiarity, the powerful feeling of something important that had happened a long time ago… but she just couldn't remember what it was. And as the woman disappeared around the corner, the felling was gone, leaving her only with a sense of frustration, which must have shown.
"Are you ok?" Peter asked with a frown.
"Yeah... It's... nothing, really." Still it takes a few seconds before she shakes off the felling. "Maybe we should get going before Walter decides to run experiments on Astrid." She smiled at him as she got up from her seat.
"Oh, I think Astrid is safe. Remember, I'm his favourite guinea pig," Peter snorts following her lead.
"I guess you are." She patted him on the back chuckling has he passed by.
Peter stopped just as they were about to exit the shop. "We should grab something for Astrid and Walter. I will never ear the end of it if I don't bring him something sweet." Olivia nodded in agreement so they made a stop at the shop's pastry display, making their selection before heading out.
As they left, they failed to notice the man in a dark suit and the fedora watching them.
He took out a device resembling an old cellular phone, he flipped it open and began to speak.
"It is now certain that she does not remember their early encounter. Neither does the boy."
He then closed the device and slipped it back in his pocket before disappearing into the crowd.