Scary Beyond Belief
Disclaimer: I don't own anything connecting to the show.
Summary: "Oh," he said at once and a teasing smile appeared on his face. "You're afraid of the dentist, 'Livia." He stated with a full-blown grin. The no-nonsense, ass-kicking Special Agent Olivia Dunham was afraid of the dentist. (established Polivia)
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting at my dentist's and an old conversation came into my mind that I had overheard a while back in that same waiting-room. This conversation inspired me to write my very first Fringe fic. Enjoy!
On the verge of waking up, Peter turned on his side in the bed to pull his wife closer to him… but his hand could feel only air where Olivia should have been. He opened an eye and looked at the empty spot grumpily. Then he took a look at the clock on the nightstand and a groan escaped his lips. It was way too early to wake up. Of course, it had never stopped Olivia before from leaving the bed.
Finally, he slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position then climbed out of bed to look for his wife. Rubbing his tired eyes, his way led him into the nursery where their eight-month-old little boy was sleeping peacefully. And his mother couldn't be seen anywhere. Peter padded into the room and after pulling the blanket a little higher on the sleeping form of his son and pressing a kiss on his head, he resumed searching for Olivia.
He found her sitting in the kitchen wide awake, nursing a mug of herbal tea and looking at it as if it had been the bizarre result of one of Walter's experiments – Peter could swear that for Olivia the most difficult part of her pregnancy was to give up coffee. Peter chuckled slightly at the sight of the unmasked disgust on her face then, walked up to Olivia and cupping her face, he leant down to kiss her good morning.
"Morning, Sweetheart," he told her then narrowed his eyes when he noticed her wince at the contact. "That tooth's still bothering you." It wasn't a question and it really didn't take a genius to figure that out.
"It's not that bad, really," Olivia told him trying to sound convincing but failed miserably as a sharp pain shot through the left side of her face.
"Yeah, and I'll believe that if you say it again without the wincing," Peter scoffed as he turned to put on some coffee brewing. Olivia gave him a glare which was returned by her husband, who turned back to her. "Don't look at me like that. You have to go to the dentist. There's no point in torturing yourself like that."
"It's fine, Peter. I'm sure it'll go away soon." Olivia tried to drop the subject, a little too desperately in Peter's opinion.
"You told that same thing a week ago. You remember?" Peter pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "That was a time when you could actually sleep through the night. Face it, Olivia. It's just getting worse. You know what? We drop Danny in the lab then I'll take you to the dentist."
"No." The word came so fast and left Olivia's lips so forcefully that Peter's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He regarded his wife, who looked as if he had just told her that he had decided on crossing back to the Other Side and help his real father destroy that world.
"Oh," he said at once and a teasing smile appeared on his face. "You're afraid of the dentist, 'Livia." He stated with a full-blown grin. The no-nonsense, ass-kicking Special Agent Olivia Dunham was afraid of the dentist.
"No, I am not." Olivia denied vehemently but it was too late. Peter would never believe her. So she did the only thing that could convince her husband of the contrary, she straightened in her chair and with an air of confidence, she agreed to see the doctor.
Peter pulled up in front of the dentist and proceeded to leave the car when he noticed that Olivia didn't make any move to do so. He leant back in his seat and looked at his wife with exasperation.
"Aren't you come, 'Livia?" he asked, amused by the slightly panicked look on her face.
"You know what, Peter?" she looked at him feigning a smile and Peter rolled his eyes in advance at what would surely come. "I feel much better. We should go back to the lab." Another wince accompanied that statement. Peter left the car without a comment and walked over to open Olivia's door.
"Come on," he gestured for her to get out. "The sooner you are over with it, the better."
Olivia groaned as she got out of the car. They got as far as the entrance without Olivia complaining but she stopped short in front of the door. Where the hell was Broyles when someone needed him? She couldn't believe that there were no mutants running around anywhere or strange, disgusting corpses lying around. What was up with the universe that day of all days?
"That is not a great idea, Peter," Olivia stated looking too pale for her own good.
"Are you kidding me here, Olivia?" Peter asked incredulously noticing her state. "That's just the dentist." The mere mention of that occupation made Olivia another shade paler and Peter couldn't help the laughter that break out of him. Olivia wasn't impressed.
"What?" She asked grumpily.
"Sorry, Sweetheart." He tried to look at his wife with a straight face. "I just can't believe that you, who walked into the hospital on your own two feet while you were having contractions that made me feel sick as calmly as if you had been going for dinner and then, after a twelve-hour-labor, you gave birth to Danny without so much as a single complain, now you are looking sick just thinking about the dentist."
"You can't really compare the two things, Peter," Olivia told him with a deep sigh, involuntarily lifting up her hand to touch her cheek. God, her whole face was throbbing like hell; she felt like hell and her husband instead of being supportive and sympathetic, looked all too amused by the situation. "Giving birth is a completely natural thing but this…" She nodded towards the building. "This is scary beyond belief." If she could choose between chasing after a huge monster in a sewer and seeing a dentist, she would definitely go with the former. Hell, she'd rather have the monster chasing after her than putting a foot into that building!
"Scary?" Peter gave her a disbelieving look. "I'll tell you what is scary. Standing face to face with a huge monster which is somewhere between being a lion, a scorpion and a bat or seeing things that shouldn't even exist coming out of people's mouths and then hearing Walter calling them beautiful, now these things are scary. Seeing the dentist, it's just a piece of cake, really, a walk in the park. It's as easy as pie. Like…"
"Don't even think about finishing that thought." Olivia lifted a finger warningly, giving him a look that would have scared the hell out of him any other day but was now rendered ineffective by the pain that crossed through Olivia's face.
With a sympathetic look and a reassuring smile, Peter stepped closer to his wife and put an arm around her shoulders, gently nudging Olivia toward the entrance. "Come on, it's probably just a little cavity."
Taking a deep breath, Olivia let Peter guide her inside the building and, much to Peter's relief… or worry, without any word she sat down in the waiting room. She didn't give up, though. She was just waiting for the right time to make her escape.
For about half an hour, there were no words exchanged between the couple. Peter was sitting patiently, thumbing through old magazines while Olivia was sitting next to him tense, looking at her mobile, willing it to ring and save her from further torture. But the evil thing remained silent and Olivia groaned frustrated at once, earning an amused look from Peter.
"Guess, no scary mutants for us today," he told her with mirth in his eyes. Olivia gave her a dirty look then resumed willing her phone to ring – at least a tiny little virus that nobody had seen before, it wasn't so much to ask for.
That was until a very nervous-looking woman arrived and took her seat in the waiting room.
Normally, Olivia wouldn't have given her a second glance but the woman began to engage the woman sitting next to her in a not so silent conversation.
"I hate coming to the dentist," she stated. "The mere sound of the drill makes me nervous." She fidgeted in her newly occupied seat. Olivia visibly shuddered at the mention of the drill and to make things worse, the sound of it coming out of the office, which Olivia somehow managed to ignore up until that point, became more and more apparent.
"Yes," the other woman agreed with a pained expression. "And I can't even stand when the doctor gives me the anesthetic. It hurts so much and he doesn't even start to work on my tooth then. It is so awful." By that time Olivia had been clenching her phone so hard that her knuckles turned white. Peter rolled his eyes in exasperation then reached out for her hand and took it into his. Olivia relaxed a little and gave him a weak, grateful smile which turned into a frown as the two women continued talking.
"It's worse than awful. That syringe should be used for interrogation."Olivia winced. Syringe? She didn't need any syringe. She would rather go without anesthetic than having a needle stuck into the roof of her mouth. "But then again, last time the doctor said that he'd fill my cavity without anesthetic. I thought that I'd faint at that moment but he didn't even wait for me to protest, he took the drill and started working."
"Oh my God," the other woman gasped in horror and Peter could feel Olivia tense up again.
"I thought I'd die there and then." Suddenly that syringe didn't sound that frightening any more for Olivia.
"When I was here the last time," the other woman spoke up, "the doctor had to give me three shots and even after that I couldn't stand the pain."
All right, that was it for Olivia. She forgot any pride she had tried to maintain so far and turned to Peter with wide eyes that were shining with tears of mortification.
"Peter," she began; her throaty voice hardly above a whisper. "We should go. We left Danny alone for too long and I'm sure that Astrid has enough work with Walter to look after without us ditching a baby on her, too. And it's almost lunch-time for Danny anyway." She didn't even wait for Peter's reaction. She all but jumped up from her seat and grabbed her bag ready to go. However, Peter's grip on her wrist stopped her and she looked back at her husband who stood up, too. "Let's go, Peter."
"No," Peter stated trying to prevent a little smile appearing on his face. She was just too cute. "I'm sure that Danny's all right and you know that Astrid likes looking after him." Olivia shook her head and opened her mouth to try to convince Peter but he gently placed a figure on her lips. "Your tooth is aching, Olivia. You have to go through with it and believe me, it'll be all right again after that."
"I can't, Peter. I… I just can't go in there. Please, take me home." Her voice was pleading and it took all of Peter's willpower not to do as he was asked to. That wouldn't do Olivia any good.
Fortunately, he was spared to refuse his wife's desperate plea because the door to the office opened as a patient left the room and then the dentist's assistant poked her head out.
"Mrs. Bishop," she called for the next patient.
"Come on, Sweetheart, let's face the music," Peter put his hands on Olivia's shoulders and gently pushed her towards the office's open door, all the while ignoring his wife's protests and threats.
Danny was merrily giggling in Astrid's arms when the door to the lab opened and his parents entered the shabby room. When Olivia caught sight of her baby boy, a huge smile appeared on her face and quickly made her way towards the infant, who was already reaching out for his mommy.
"Hey there, baby boy," Olivia cooed to the boy as she took him into her arms.
"So," Astrid looked at Olivia. "I assume that everything went all right with the dentist."
"Yup," Olivia stated with a huge grin on her face as she was still cooing to her baby. "It was just a little cavity, nothing serious. As Daddy said, just a walk in the park."
Peter scoffed.
"Of course, a walk in the park." He rolled his eyes at Olivia's account of the events. "No biggie." He would make sure, though, that Olivia didn't live down their little trip to the dentist so easily.
THE END
Thanks for reading!
