*~ Disclaimer ~* I do not own any of the characters, language, plots, or locations from Fringe. The Fox network holds all rights to Fringe and this story is only created for pleasure, not profit.

Author's Note: Since getting the season one box set for Fringe, I've been obsessed with re-watching the series until this story wouldn't leave my head. Please enjoy. (Through Episode 1.15 "Inner Child")

Nameless

Peter watched as the doctor from the hospital led the boy out the door. It seemed Olivia had managed to right the wrongs of a case again, and find a real home for the kid. Although he really should be expecting this by now, he thought with wry amusement. He should have known ever since the lengths she went to in order to procure his insane father from St. Claire's by tracking him down and somehow bluffing him into cooperating to save her former partner. Hell, he still couldn't believe that he couldn't see the lie in her face at the time.

He shifted back to lean against the desk as his father turned to go work on some other project, already off in la-la land again. Peter felt a frown crossing his face as he looked at Olivia, still standing where she was, even after the kid had left. If only he had that kid's ability to sense emotions, then he would never have been tricked into coming back here. Sure he knew that he was invested in Fringe division now, and he was certainly beginning to feel like having Walter back in his life wasn't so bad after all… but he would have liked to have been able to see through Dunham's tough exterior and figure out what she was really feeling…

There was a sharp sensation running through his chest as he began to wonder what she was feeling right now. And it didn't take him long to identify why he was feeling so strange; he was jealous. That boy had the inside scoop on the imperturbable Special Agent Olivia Dunham and Peter wanted to know. As soon as they figured out that the kid was an empath and had actually bonded with Olivia, she responded to him. She knew, somehow, that the boy was angry with her, without needing her own ability, and she knew what to say to soothe him. The give and take between them was all the more intense because they didn't need so many words. He could feel her; there was no doubt in him that she was sincere and Peter wanted a piece of that certainty. Peter knew, logically, that Olivia was one of the most driven, sincere FBI agents out there; he'd seen the way she drove herself to exhaustion in her cases and get personally involved with finding solutions (often to the point where she was in danger of hurting herself, which was just… stupid). But he also wished that he could feel, even for a few moments, what Olivia felt when she stared danger in the face, when Walter said the next insane thought in his brain… when Peter tried everything in his power to make her play it safe for a change.

What did she feel when she looked at him?

As he watched Olivia, she finally seemed to shake off her funk and walked back into the office space she claimed for herself in the lab. It was an easy way to keep in contact with her mad scientist team and a safe place to store the coffee where it wouldn't end up in one of Walter's experiments. It seemed to him (and he hated having to guess) that Olivia was somehow disappointed that the boy was gone. He wondered if she would've wanted to keep him herself. It wouldn't be a good idea, what with the CIA agent dogging after the kid and the fact that her job kept her from home a lot. It wouldn't be safe. But he wondered if she had wanted to. With their connection, with the strings she pulled, and how she had kissed his forehead before he left, Peter thought she might have wanted to take him home with her instead. But that wasn't the smartest or the safest thing to do for the boy, so of course she didn't.

She was just so… protective, he thought, a little annoyed with her. Protective to the point where she made bad decisions for the good of other people. Peter wasn't nearly so self-sacrificing. He at least knew when it was necessary to take a measured risk, but he usually made sure to back himself up one way or another. Still, it was fairly easy to get swept along at her pace if he didn't watch himself. He didn't know if it was her FBI training or just something in her personality that let people feel like they could rely on her. The FBI standard-issue gun probably helped, but when she insisted on doing something it was like trying to fight an ocean current to go against her. That was probably part of the reason the kid bonded with her; with Olivia Dunham on your side, there was little that you could not accomplish.

Well, it did get the boy to a safe home; no doubt he was going somewhere infinitely better than a CIA facility with people poking and prodding him all day. They'd just treat him like their own personal guinea pig and maybe try to develop soldiers that could go without food and air as well. They probably wouldn't even try to learn his name.

Which they never did, either. Peter frowned. They had finally begun to communicate with the boy, but the only name he wrote down was the name of the Artist's victim. Maybe he never learned his name, then. It didn't seem to be a problem when they were talking to him in the lab, but he wondered what name the poor kid would be shunted with. Matt? Brian? … Peter? He felt a spark of amusement that died when he wondered what Olivia would have called him. How would she be thinking of him in the next few months… as "that kid we found" or, "the boy who bonded with me?"

Maybe she wouldn't need a name unless he picked one himself.

Peter turned and looked around for something to work on. A little distraction would probably keep him from spending way too much time with his thoughts. His brain wouldn't shut up, though, when he wondered what name the kid would pick, if he got to choose. Would he pick something that sounded good to him, or something related to a person he bonded with? Maybe he would pick a name from his new foster family's emotions. Or maybe he would pick a name that he could associate with Olivia. Maybe it would be Walter's name, or his name.

Pausing his half-hearted attempts at work, he didn't know how he felt about that. Granted, it would be a little weird to have another person so connected with them named Peter. Mistakes would be made and he wasn't sure how Walter would react at having a boy named Peter around, with all the references he continually made to Peter's childhood. But if it was his name… he could imagine what that would mean about Olivia. He would know…

But he wouldn't know. Because the boy was gone and he wasn't coming back and he never told them what he or Olivia were feeling. The kid was nameless.

Peter swept aside his thoughts and finally focused on his work. All of this thinking wasn't helping him in the least. The boy would stay nameless. And so would Olivia's feelings.

…And so would his own. Until he figured them out.

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