"I'm just stopping by my apartment to pick up a few things," Olivia Dunham announced into her cell phone as she juggled the coat slung over her arm and the keys in her hand. She decided to drop the black overcoat onto the floor beside the door and jammed the key into the lock.
"I'm fine you know," Peter Bishop told her in a weary voice. "You can leave me alone, it's not like I am going to disappear." He chuckled after his statement.
"Not funny," Olivia told him as she turned the key in the lock and swung open the door. She forgot about her coat on the floor and turned around and shut the door behind her. "I never want you to even joke about that."
Olivia didn't have to see Peter to know he had cocked his head slightly and bit his lip knowing she was right. She knew him that well.
"I'm sorry," he said in a low tone. "But I am trying to tell you I can manage on my own. And anyway, Walter is here in the lab with me. He wants to do some kind of father/son bonding. Maybe you could save me from that?"
Olivia appreciated how Peter tried to lighten the mood. "No, I think I will leave you to that," she told him as she dropped her keys on the side table. "I will pack a quick bag and meet you at home in a couple of hours. I'll even pick up dinner."
It didn't escape Peter Bishop, who prided himself on being about to read people, that Olivia Dunham, bad-ass FBI Agent and woman who kept her feelings close to the vest, just called the house he shared with his father, home. She had called it her home too.
Olivia didn't even seem to notice what she said, as Peter heard her naming off some of their favorite take-out places.
"Surprise me," Peter said interrupting her lengthy list.
"Okay," he heard her say, imagining that shy smile spread over her face. Right then Peter wanted to be next to her, pull her into his arms, and thank her for the 100th time for never giving up on him. When everyone else had forgot he existed, Olivia Dunham remembered and she brought him back.
"Hey Olivia," Peter said before allowing her to hang up.
"What," she asked in that crisp tone she sometimes adopted.
"I love you," he pronounced in a matter of fact tone. Peter found every opportunity he could to tell Olivia he loved her. She had told him first, standing in that warehouse as he was about to step into the machine. He wished he could take back just a few seconds of that day, just enough time to tell her he loved her too. But Peter was scared, not only for what he was about to do, but for his feelings for Olivia. He felt if he told her he loved her, there was finality in those words, and he wanted to return to tell her. After all that happened, he wished he would have just said it.
After traveling to the future and seeing how their life could be, he was even more driven to return. To claim Olivia Dunham as his wife, but also to stop her murder. It was why he had sacrificed his very existence to save her. But only Olivia Dunham, his future wife as Peter liked to think of her, wouldn't stand for that sacrifice. Which led them to her, trying to put their lives back together with Peter in it, and Olivia fretting over the oft chance Peter would disappear again.
When Olivia told him she loved himr too, during their phone call, it was like a warmth rushed over Peter. To earn the love of a woman like Olivia Dunham was no small feat, and Peter would spend the rest of his days, however many he was given, proving to her that he deserved it.
Hanging up the phone, Peter left the small office in the lab and walked out to where his father was mixing up some experiment. "I am all yours for two hours," Peter spread his arms wide. "Let's do some father/son bonding."
Walter Bishop raised his head and smiled at his son, his eyes practically beaming. "Excellent," Walter said and clapped his hands loudly.
Olivia chuckled to herself thinking about Peter and Walter's father/son bonding time as she pulled out a bag in her closet. She put a few suits in the bag as well as underwear and socks. A trip to her bathroom produced some of her personal items and she had placed them in the bag as well.
It has been one week since Peter returned to her. Wiped from existence, after making the choice to save both worlds, and Olivia from a future death, Peter had returned to them on Olivia's sure will alone.
For three months they had all lived in a world where Peter didn't exist. Yet, two months after Peter left them, Olivia began having visions of him. A feeling washed over her that she knew the man in her waking dreams and he was important to her. Later Walter said it was the cortexiphan not only in her bloodstream, but also bonded to her DNA, that gave her the unique ability to remember someone wiped from existence.
In a sense, Olivia had brought Peter back from the brink of nothingness.
After Peter returned, and everyone around them began to remember him, Olivia refused to leave his side. She had taken the first vacation of her life, while working for the FBI, and spent every moment with him. She didn't care about diplomatic workings with the alternate universe, or Walternate, Peter's father from the other side, demanding to see Peter. She didn't care she was on the task force to help coordinate a joint division of both side's Fringe division. All she cared about was having Peter back.
She was set to return to work, well she and Peter both were, in two days. But Olivia still refused to leave his side. She had decided to put a stop to daily trips to her now almost vacant apartment, and just pack a bag and stay at the Bishop's house.
Neither she nor Peter discussed what that meant. Olivia packing a bag and all but moving into the two-story house with him and his father, it just seemed like the right thing to do.
Olivia found her steps were lighter as she zipped up the large leather bag and left her bedroom. She was thinking about what restaurant to stop at to pick up their dinner when something caught her eye on her couch.
There was a bright light flickering in the middle of the couch. Olivia dropped the bag she was carrying and stepped over to the front of the couch. The light grew brighter and seemed to fade in and out. It almost reminded Olivia of the way she faded in and out when crossing over to the other side.
As she stood transfixed by the event, Olivia was shocked to see a shape forming. She was even more surprised when the shape finally solidified, and there sitting on her couch was a six month old baby boy. He looked up at her, smiled, and held his hands up to her.
Unsure what to do, Olivia decided he wanted to be picked up. She leaned down, scooped up the baby boy and held him close. And in that instant, Olivia was certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was her son.