A/N: I'm trying my hand with this again. Just some thoughts, because with "Jacksonville" everything is going to hit the fan. I hope this isn't where JJ Abrams is going with this, but it's where I fear it's heading. And, once again, I'm sorry I can't do this show justice. It's an amazing show, the actors are incredible, and I wish I was a better writer in order to give it the credit it deserves.
Disclaimer: Consider everything disclaimed. I wish I owned this. I wish I owned Josh Jackson. And as my Supernatural friends know, I'm completely obsessed with MST3K. So, I'd like to invoke its motto. (But, it is fun to play with the idea that this is not just a show, right)?
The Door
The storm wasn't just coming. It was here. Although Peter wondered when it actually began.
Did it begin around him? Because of him?
He hated Walter again, but he loved him at the same time. Peter wondered if there was a part of him that always knew that Walter wasn't really his father.
All his life, or rather, in the life he could remember, he had two nagging thoughts in his head. The first was that he just didn't really fit in anywhere. So, he had spent his entire youth running from something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Iraq, the mob, the gambling, the cheating, the aliases… everything was a way that he could run away from his past.
Or maybe he was running to something. Helping Olivia in this war was strangely fulfilling. He cared a lot about her. In fact, he wondered if he loved her. She was the one who came after him when he was running again after finding out about himself. She was his family. Actually, they were all his family. Astrid was like a little sister to him. And, yes, he had to grudgingly admit that he still loved Walter, in spite of everything.
It was complicated.
However, the second thought that always nagged him was the idea that he was always competing with someone his whole life. He never measured up to something or someone in Walter's eyes. He was never good enough, smart enough, talented enough to Walter. Of course "because you have been replaced due to Walter's real son died" never crossed his mind. And why would it?
Peter wondered again how he differed from Walter's real son. What sort of man would the dead child have made? He knew some of the things that made him different from Walter's son. He didn't like custard, and apparently the kid had. The kid had played with toys that Peter himself never would have touched. But, he wondered what that kid would have done if he had grown up. And what man Walter would have made. Would they be performing scary drug trials on defenseless children as father and son? Would the son be even more immoral than Walter? Or would he have been more on the amoral side, like Peter figured he was. Or would have the boy have grown into a good person, trying to save the world?
Peter figured that Walter had to wonder the same thing whenever the older man looked at him. But they never talked about it. Since that day he came back, he barely spoke to Walter. He just drove him around from event to event, helping in the lab, translating Walter's explanations. But, he and Walter hardly ever spoke. Walter occasionally tried to say something, but Peter didn't want to hear it. Any explanations wouldn't quite cut it.
Olivia tried to sell him on the idea of talking it out. He didn't want to talk to her about it. He wondered how she saw him. Did she see him as who he was—someone who cared about her and loved her and who would always have her back—or did she see him as just a link to the other universe where beings killed her partner.
More things were crossing from the other universe—the universe of Peter's birth—destroying things in this universe—his home universe—in the past few years. People have died gruesome deaths. No one was quite sure what the other universe's end game was. Except to kill everyone in this universe. Although Peter suspected that Walter actually knew what was needed to defeat the others. Or to reach some sort of truce between both parallel universes. But Walter was not talking.
But, Peter had an idea. The other universe was seeking some sort of balance. And using papers that he stole from Walter, he was forming some sort of plan. He didn't want to carry it out. He knew Olivia wouldn't like his plan. But, it was a way to save her, and since he could save this universe as well, so be it
He had briefly seen Walter's doppelganger, the brilliant scientist from the other universe. His birth father. AltWalt was behind everything. While Walter started getting out of the more abusive and immoral aspects of his scientific ideas after his abduction, from what Peter could tell, AltWalt immersed himself in immoral activities after he disappeared.
Peter felt another wave of anger. His disappearance was a catalyst for some the activities that were killing people from his home universe. Thanks to Walter's actions. And, thanks to Walter's actions, Peter now felt like he didn't belong anywhere.
Einai kalytero anthropo apo ton patera toy. "Be a better man than your father." This was what his mother told him every night before he went to bed after Walter was committed. He now wondered which father he should be better than. Keep your people close. Take care of the people you care about. "Well, you're good at that." Olivia had said.
He doubted it. He wasn't a good man. At all.
"You are a good man, and you weren't just a replacement." Walter's voice interrupted Peter's thoughts. He looked up, wondering how Walter could know what he was thinking. Walter patted Gene, and the cow mooed in appreciation. "I loved my son, and I grieved him. For a long time, yes, you were just a replacement. But, I got to know you, son. You're a good man. You have surpassed my expectations for you in many ways, with your strength and convictions."
Peter didn't respond. Just then, Olivia came into the lab. "Are we ready?" She asked, coolly eying both men, determining the level of tension in the room, calculating how bad of a drive it was going to be to Raden Lake, where she had word that Newton was doing something to open the door between worlds again. Peter didn't care much for that lake. It was the lake that he and Walter had crashed through when he was a boy and the Observer saved them. Now, Peter thought that the reason why Walter was driving in that area that night was because they were returning from the other universe. Peter couldn't exactly put his finger on why he thought that accident and his abduction took place the same night. He just did.
Whatever was going to go down was going to happen at Raden Lake.
"Yeah," Peter said softly as he stood up. He grabbed part of Walter's device to permanently seal the hole that they had just thought was permanently sealed. Olivia hoped to arrest Newton and maybe AltWalt in order to make this come to an end. Peter hoped that this plan of action would do it. Although, he doubted whether this would end anything.
It was a solemn drive. None of them felt like saying anything. Even Walter somberly looked out the window into the dark night and kept quiet.
It was quiet at the lake. There didn't seem to be anyone around, except for them and the SWAT team. Peter looked around. Olivia looked mad, and he figured that she thought she got her dates or her time wrong. He knew she hadn't been mistaken.
"I see something," Olivia said, drawing her gun.
Peter handed Walter the piece of equipment he grabbed. Walter smiled sadly at him. "Thank you, son," he said sadly.
All Peter could do was nod at him.
"You know, you weren't just a replacement," Walter said again. "I didn't do all that much with my Peter, sadly. I wanted to be given a second chance. And I had that second chance a couple times with you. You are everything to me. You are my son. I just wanted to be a good father to you. And I know I never was. And I am truly sorry."
"You once said that the universes are just trying to be in balance, right?" Peter asked without looking at Walter.
"Yes, son," Walter sounded giddy because this was the first real sentence Peter had asked him for a couple years.
Just then, high pitched squeals sounded through the darkness, sending everyone covering their ears. Peter jumped up, grabbed Olivia, and pulled her down by them.
"We need to end this now!" Olivia shouted over the squealing, then she groaned and grabbed her head. Peter noticed that her nose was bleeding. He turned to Walter. Walter was writhing in pain, his nose was bleeding as well. Peter focused across the way at some of the guys in the SWAT van. Everyone was covering their ears and their noses were bleeding. One guy was having a seizure.
Olivia's eyes were beginning to roll back in her head.
Yet, Peter felt fine. The tone was irritating, but he felt all right.
He took his hands away from his ears as bullets started firing in their direction. Peter saw one of the members of the SWAT team get hit. He dragged Walter and Olivia away from the direction of the bullets and grabbed her discarded gun.
Peter fired in the direction the sound was coming from. Suddenly, the tone stopped. He suspected he hit someone.
"The universe seeks balance." A cold sounding voice that sounded like Walter's floated through Peter's head. "A life for a life. One life was lost in your universe. It shouldn't be replaced by one of ours."
"Take care of the people you love. You're good at that." Olivia's voice rang in his ears, just before a bullet barely missed Olivia.
"No, son," Walter whispered behind him. "This won't solve anything."
Peter looked over at Walter and took out Walter's handkerchief. He gently wiped the blood from Walter's nose. "It's all right, Walter. I understand why you did it."
Olivia wiped the blood from her nose and looked at him. "What?" she whispered.
Peter smiled at her. "Einai kalytero anthropo apo ton patera toy."
With that, he stood up and walked towards the directions the bullets had come from. He could hear a laugh similar to Walter's laugh, although crueler than he had ever heard it come from the darkness. "You're going to save them all, aren't you?" the voice sneered.
Peter withdrew Olivia's gun and fired at the voice.
"Missed me," the voice said.
Peter never heard the gunshot. He didn't even feel the bullet. He just felt the ground.
"It's finished," the voice said.
Suddenly, there was nothing. No sound. No feeling other than Olivia's arms around him. He saw her call for paramedics. He focused on Walter's crying face.
"Is it over?" he whispered. There was a shimmering light behind Walter. Peter could see another lake on the other side of the light.
Walter took his son's hand. "It's over."
Peter closed his eyes and slipped into the light, arriving at the other lake.
End.
A/N: This sucked. My ideas weren't coming together as I thought they would when I first started writing. But, I'm posting it anyways. I can't write Peter. Love him, but can't write him.
For any Supernatural friends of mine who is reading this, I'm working on something. Not too happy with that either. Not sure when it'll be posted, but I'm working on it.
Thanks everyone.
