Olivia VS Olivia : Find my way home

'Stay close to me' I told Peter, a hand on my gun. We'd been looking for Walter and Bell for a few hours but we had no clue of their location. Our last chance was the theater but like we'd foreseen it, thirty men of the Fringe Division were waiting for us. My brain was working fast : I needed to find a way to enter the theater without being noticed. I peeked a moment at the crowd from behind the wall we were hiding and saw Broyles and his team near a car, talking to a dozen of cops. No sign of the other me. I could use it to my advantage. I had good chances that she'd been sent to protect Peter from me, and maybe they were expecting her to come back with him.

Good plan or not, I had to decide now. 'Listen Peter, we're gonna go to them.'

'What? Are you losing your mind? If we get out of here we're dead!'

'No. The Olivia from here had to protect you. I'm sure her mission is to get you back before I can -which I've already done-. I have to pretend I'm her and tell them I want to go into the theater with you because you know something they don't and you want to tell it only to me. It's the only way.'

'This has ninety-nine percent of chances to fail, you know that?'

'What, you think we'd better stay there until they find us? We have to give it a try.'

'What if the other Olivia arrives?'

'I trust her, she won't betray me' I said simply. I took him by the wrist and led him to Broyles. When they turned their heads toward me, my heart missed a few beats. They didn't seem to be surprised to see me. That should have been a good point but that didn't make feel safer. My fingers clenched around Peter's wrist and I tried to ignore the cold sweat running on my neck. 'If they realize' I whispered, trying not to move my lips. 'Try to save your life. Don't bother for me.'

'Liv, I...'

'This is not a debate, Bishop. Just do it.' We were now only a few steps away from them and I could see clearly now that they were smiling at me. It was working. I smiled back, at least I tried, but it surely had looked like a grimace.

'Good job, 'Liv' Charlie said with a pat on my shoulder. 'Did the other Olivia come on your way?'

'I... No' I said, my throat dry. 'Everything's fine. He,' I told them with a nod toward Peter, 'says he knows something about the machine to get back to their universe. It's in here, but he wants to show it to me. Only me.'

'Mister Bishop, I understand you have your reasons to want to keep it secret, but I'm not sure you realize this would save a lot of lives. Your medical knowledge is more advanced than ours but we have the technology to develop it. If you know the way to cross between our universes, everyone could take benefits from it. But I have to see it to believe it.'

'Your agent here is the only one I can presently trust. I'm going with her.' Peter was doing his best to be convincing but I could feel hesitation in his voice.

'As you wish. Agent, I give you ten minutes.' I nodded and yet I didn't know if it was going to be enough. But there was no way we could get back on our decision and we headed to the entrance kept by four policemen on each side, feeling their stares on our backs. I had a bad feeling. At first, I thought it was an impression because if they had knew they could have killed me the minute I showed up. We were four steps away from the door when I realized it was a trap. I saw Peter being taken away from me and the second later I felt three pairs of strong arms around me. There was no use to struggle but my pride told me to fight back. I tried to kick their legs but it had no other effect than triggering their anger. They pushed me against a wall roughly and the force of the impact left me breathless. While the stars were dancing in front of my eyes, they put handcuffs around my wrists and tightened them enough so that the blood almost couldn't run through my fingers. One of them grabbed me by the collar of my leather jacket and led me to a police car. I didn't know what was going to happen to Peter, I couldn't see if he had succeeded in leaving before being caught, but I really wished he had. If not, my plan would have failed and I didn't like the idea. I sat in the car without resisting, probably because of the rottweiler in the trunk who was staring at me avidly. I was sure they could have used it against me and having my throat sliced by this enormous dog's fangs really wasn't in my plan. They slammed the door and the engine started with a roar. I had no idea where I was going but before I could think about it someone outside caught my attention. A hand on her hip, standing proudly near Broyles, she was looking at me through the window, watching the car I was in slowly pass her by. I felt a twinge of sorrow but I couldn't do any better than look back, my eyes full of tears. I was wrong. She had betrayed me. They all knew how I worked and they had planned I'd have come to try and leave with Peter. It was her fault. She had sold me. I wasn't angry, though, but I felt deeply hurt. I had pull all my faith in her, believing she was on my side. I'd been wrong all along and I was paying the price of my self-confidence.

Half an hour later, the car parked near a huge and gray building. It didn't really look like a jail but it wasn't reassuring either. They led me inside and what I saw made me shiver. I was walking in a long corridor safely kept by three guards at both ends. Some doors were open revealing what looked like giant labs. To experiment on what exactly, I didn't know, but if I was there it probably was because they intended to use me. We stopped two minutes later in front of a large and heavy door and they took off the handcuffs before pushing me inside the cell. There was a bunk, dirty toilets in a corner and a rag of dust covering the whole. The situation couldn't be any worse. I sat on the mattress, silence only broke by noises of drops of water falling on a pipe. The yellow light coming from the single bulb quivered and I thought for a moment that it was gone, but a few seconds later it had come back to normal. Not that I was afraid of darkness, but this cell really was creepy. My hands were cold – I was cold. So I just curled on the thin mattress, put my hands between my thighs to keep them warm and closed my eyes. I didn't know it yet, but I was going to spend five long days here before someone would come.

I woke up with a start when the door opened with a creak. I sat on the hard bunk only to find her standing in the doorway, her shape drawn by the harsh light of the lobby. She entered the confined room and closed the heavy door behind her. She was the last person I had expected to see there so I didn't know what to say. I just stayed there, my mouth half-open with surprise. She sighed and came closer, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. It seemed like she was trying to put words on what she wanted to say. She finally shook her head and sat next to me, crossing her hands on her knees. She remained silent for a long time and I didn't want to break the silence. After all, she was the villain of the story, not me. After what seemed to be an eternity, she cleared her throat and turned to me.

'It's not what you think it is.' she said, feeling her intense stare on me. 'I did betray you, but for a good reason.'

'Which is?' I asked, sorrow replaced by anger. 'You promised me you'd help! I trusted you and now I'm stuck here! I don't even know what happened to Peter, what they're gonna do to me! There's no good reason for selling me to them!'

'There is' she whispered, taking my hand in hers. 'I wanted to see you again. And it was the only way without taking too much risks. They believe I'm here to question you. All I wanted was to see you before you left...'

'Because you really think I'll be able to leave now that they've got me!' I almost shouted climbing on my feet. Sorrow had completely gone by now and I felt the anger running in my body through my veins like a dangerous poison. I couldn't believe she was the one behind all of this because I wouldn't have had done it. I would have protected her, because after all she was me. And what's more logical than save yourself? But the fact was that she wasn't like me at all and her logic wasn't the same as mine. That was the only thing that didn't fit in my plan. I blamed her, but not as much as I blamed myself. I should have considered all the possibilities but my plan had seemed so perfect I couldn't have had imagined there was a single flaw. And for that I hated me. I exhaled deeply and turned to face her.
'You're the flaw' I said, my nostrils dilated and my eyes dark. 'You ruined the whole plan!' My voice was low and loud, and it seemed a bit too loud for her.

'Don't make so much noise!' she said, looking at the door nervously. 'If they realize I'm not here for what they think I am, we'll be both in the same basket!' But I was unable to remain calm and she had to grab me by the shoulders and push me on the bunk before I could do something stupid -like throwing my fist at the door and alert the guardian. Her hand covered my mouth and she lowered her head so as she could look at me straight in the eye.

'Keep your fucking mouth shut and listen to me.' she ordered in a whisper. 'If I hadn't had a plan I wouldn't have let you be captured. There's plenty of ways you can escape and I'm here to help you. Nothing can happen to you when I'm around so don't panic. Understand?' I nodded slowly and she finally released her hold. I couldn't see what her own plan was because it was impossible to get out of this cell without passing by a guard, but I trusted her. An unpleasant silence set even though I waited for her to explain the reason of her need to see me. She had taken a lot of risks by coming here and I couldn't see why it was so important. She was fiddling with her fingers looking straight at the tip of her shoes. I didn't how much time she had, but certainly not the whole day. I was the one to break the silence.

'Why?' I finally asked, her eyes drifting to look at me. 'Why did you need to see me again? After the note you left me I thought you didn't want to.'

'I didn't really mean it. I was scared of what would have happened if we had met again... I don't want to get emotionally involved with you, I have Franck and you're... You're me. I don't know what happened the day we first met, or even why, but I just can't get rid of that thing.'

'What thing?' I perfectly understood what she meant because I'd tried to ignore that precise thing for the past few days. For me, it was like a tiger purring in my chest when it was calm, when my thoughts were aimed at anything but her. But when I came to think about her, it was roaring loudly, filling my body with some sort of vibration. For now, it was asleep and I didn't feel it. But I knew it was there, waiting for a sign, waiting for me to lose the control.

'I don't know... Every time I think about you I feel it inside. I've never experienced it before... It's like love, but way stronger.' She stood up and began pacing, fiddling with the hem of her leather jacket. 'I know this sounds crazy, but believe me, it's here. I've dealt with many weird and odd stuff in my life, but this is just too much. I don't know where this comes from, but it wasn't there before, so please we must do something about it.'

'Like what? Tell Mr Secretary that he needs to experiment on us to find out what's happening? No way. And would you please calm down, your anxiousness is infecting me!' She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face me.
'So what, what do we do now?' she asked, finally sitting back next to me. 'Do you think it'll leave when you get back home?'

'I have no idea. I suppose so. It's appeared when we met, maybe it's just the consequence of us being in the same universe. '

'What if it isn't? What if when we're both on the right side it doesn't disappear?'

'I don't know, okay? Stop asking questions I have no answer to!' I put my head in my hands, trying to control the wave of anger running through my limbs. I felt the mattress sink and she wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I tend to be a quiz machine when I'm upset.'

'It... It's alright. But please would you... Just stay away from me.' Not that I was feeling anything special but I was scared that it might happen again. She nodded and released her hold, moving so that she was sitting far enough from me.

The yellow light made her hair shine, with a beautiful orange tone... The tiger in my chest stirred. I didn't want to wake it up, but... God she was beautiful. I inhaled deeply, closed my eyes to try and think about something else. It wasn't a selfish thought at all. She was beautiful because she didn't look like me. Her skin seemed soft, smooth. Probably because she didn't take her job as seriously as I did. The anxiousness, the lack of sleep, the fear of doing something wrong... All of this made me look older than her. She hadn't all those small wrinkles in the corners of her mouth, the light in her eyes hadn't disappeared yet, her face didn't look like she'd never laugh... She was way prettier than I was. I should have been jealous. Jealous of her life, because she had done something better of it than I had. Jealous of her, because she could strike friendship with anyone, because she was gorgeous, because she was everything I wasn't. But I just felt defeated. She'd just made the right choices when I hadn't. It was my fault if I hadn't taken the right way. I was reassured in a way. Reassured than a part of me had got on in life.

I was thinking too much... Too much about her. The tiger was awake now, and roaring louder than ever. My hands shaking, I couldn't help but open my eyes back only to find her smiling at me. Even her smile looked brighter than mine.

'I know what you're thinking,' she said, drawing me in a hug. 'But I'm not any better than you...' Her voice was muffled against my shoulder and it took me some time before I could realize what she'd said. She was wrong... She had to be wrong...

'I thought I told you not to touch me...' I whispered, leaning into her embrace. I didn't sound convincing at all and I could feel the tiger in me melting in a wave of affection. She was warm and I felt comfortable in her arms. A tear rolled down my cheek and disappeared in strand of her hair. I needed to hold her close to me, as close as possible. I didn't know why, but the idea of losing her was horrifying. If I let her go, she would disappear and I would never see her again. My fingers clenched on the back of her leather jacket, nails almost tearing the fabric. This time, sex wasn't the way out. This time, I felt like there was no way out. I heard her sniffle and I knew that I wasn't the only one crying. She wasn't any stronger... This time I had to put an end at whatever was happening. I couldn't let anything happen because the both of us would be unable to face the consequences. I knew I had only a few seconds left before there was no turning back. I had to do something right now, but... One. She's warm and the heat emanating from her body pressed against mine... It feels too damn good to let go... Two. Her fingers dancing up and down my back in a delicate ballet cause me to shiver deeply... It's been such a long time since I've experienced something like that... Three. She buries her face in the crook of my neck and she shifts on the mattress to get closer to me. She needs me... Four. I have to let go, but my own arms tighten around her... What if we stay like this forever ? Five...

'Agent Dunham, one minute left !' a guard shouted with a loud knock on the door. It had the effect of an electroshock which drew us apart. She looked at me and I could clearly see she was panicked. She took my hands in hers and kissed me deeply before I could know what was happening.

'I'm gonna come back' she whispered in my ear. 'Two days, okay? Hold on for two days so I can prepare everything. I'll make you leave this silly place, I promise.' She kissed me one more time before the door opened. Once outside the cell, she turned on her heels to face me and added :

'Remember, Dunham. I'll get everything I want from you.' The guard was still watching us, so I aimed my fiercest look at her, hoping he wouldn't notice what was really happening. She finally left and I laid down on the bunk, knowing I only had to wait a couple of days before returning home. My eyes lifted to the ceiling, I saw something that shouldn't have been there...

'God' I breathed, quickly getting on my feet. 'Please, open the door !' I shouted, knocking on the door. 'She's left something behind her !' The guard was either too stupid or too naive, but he believed me and opened the door. I didn't wait for him to understand the situation, knocked his gun out of his hand and shot a single time in the head. He fell on the floor and I started running in the same way she'd taken a few minutes ago. Luckily, I had a good memory and I remembered the path I needed to follow to get out of here. I slipped in a bend and I knew I had finally found the way out. She was at the end of the corridor, talking with another guard. She needed to know before he knew.

'Olivia, run !' I screamed, shooting at the guard. I didn't kill him, but he was injured enough not to chase us. I pushed her in her back, taking a quick look behind us to make sure no one was following.

'What the hell has happened?' she asked, breathless as we were running faster than ever to the exit.

'A video camera !' I answered, finally opening the front door. 'I guess that didn't fit in you plan, did it?'

'Not really.' she said sheepishly. 'Sorry I'm not gonna keep my promise.'

'You are. There might be one way...'

'What is it?' she asked, taking the keys of her car inside her jacket.
'Drive me to Walter's lab.' I replied, slipping inside the car on the passenger seat.

'That lab has been closed for years, what do you expect to find there?'

'Just trust me, okay?'

She sighed but complied, and a quarter later we were parking near the old building surrounded by amber.

One more chapter to go ! Stay tuned ! :)