As the sun made its way over the horizon, Olivia willed herself out of her dreams. The sound of little feet padding through the room pulled her from the remnants of sleep and she smiled, opening her eyes at the blond little girl sucking her thumb in front of her. Henrietta, her 'Etta. She still marveled at her perfection. Her eyes a precise imitation of her own. Her hair blond, with her father's curl. Her smile, definitely Peters, and her feet…well, yes. She has my feet, she thought. Olivia rolled over closer to Peter to make room for her morning greeter.
"Hi Mamma." Henrietta smiled, tilting her head to one side. "Daddy?"
Olivia turned to the empty bed. He didn't say anything about leaving early. She reached for her phone and found no calls or messages. Turning back to her daughter she sighed, smiled and raised her up onto the bed and into her arms.
"I don't know 'Etta. Maybe he's getting breakfast. Are you hungry?"
"Yiss" she mumbled through her thumb.
Kissing her forehead, she gathered Henrietta onto her hip the two followed the scent of coffee to the kitchen, as Olivia talked about what they would do that day. Rachel, her sister, was due in town with her two children, Ella and Edie that morning and they were practicing saying her Aunt's name.
"Say Aunt Rachel," Olivia nudged. "Ann Rach" she responded, and Olivia chuckled at her mispronunciation of the name.
The kitchen was empty, a cup with a few drops of coffee left in the bottom sat by the sink. Something wasn't right.
"Daddy?" Henrietta called.
"Peter, are you home?"
She knew there would be no answer. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but she knew something was not right. Olivia's heart began to beat a little bit faster, as she walked to the doors checking the locks to be sure all was safe. She held her daughter close against her body. Perhaps, she should call him. He normally wakes her if he leaves early. She reached for her phone, and her eyes rolled in a silent groan. She left it by the bed. No pockets in pajama pants.
"Daddy," Etta giggled again. "Daddy!"
"Shh, let's go call Daddy on the phone." She smiled, unsure if she was reassuring herself or the girl, who just giggled and cuddled in closer repeating her father's name. Carrying 'Etta back upstairs with her, she placed her on the bed while she shut the bedroom door, retrieved her phone, and armed herself, checking to make sure the safety was on and hiding it inside her shirt so the child wouldn't see it. Henrietta sucked her thumb, watching her mother's movements.
"Gun," she said, wide eyed at her mother.
Olivia froze. She was too perceptive, this daughter of hers. "How do you know that word baby girl?"
"Gun"
"Great, I'm screwing you up already and you're barely the same age I was when they started the Cortexiphan trials". She sighed, mustering a smile. "Yes, mamma has a gun for work". What did she tell Ella back then, when they visited and she forgot to put it away? "I use it to catch bad guys". She rustled Henrietta's hair. "Let's call Daddy, shall we?"
Peter's phone rang as he pulled into Harvard parking lot. "Good morning, beautiful."
"Hi, you weren't home when we woke up. Are you o.k.?" Olivia asked when he answered.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just wanted to ask Walter something this morning."
"Oh, o.k." she paused. "It…it couldn't wait until after breakfast?"
"Well, I guess it could, but it was nagging me, the letter he sent me. "
"The tulip?"
"Yeah. It just makes no sense. I can see you sending me pictures of tulips, but not him. Are you sure you didn't send it?"
She laughed, remembering their first encounter in the field of white tulips. "No, not me. I guess you'll have to ask Walter." Her heart rate began to slow down. The immediate fear subsiding. She picked up Henrietta and began back down the stairs to the kitchen, pulling oatmeal out and preparing it for breakfast. "So are you going to talk to him about moving out of there today?" She poured a cup of juice and placed it in front of the girl.
"Maybe. Are you sure you are o.k. with it?"
"Yeah, he's family really. He shouldn't be staying there alone all the time, and we have the room here. Besides, Peter, he seems so much better when you are with him. You do really well with him."
"You told me that once before. Do you remember?"
"Yes, I do."
It still amazed them both how they held both timelines in their memory. The newer one somewhat blurry, although others around them didn't share those memories. It did, however, help them with Fringe assignments in the past. However, life had been calm since the assignment that ended with the knowledge of her pregnancy. Since that day they stopped Bell and prevented the universes from colliding. It seemed like a lifetime ago. There hadn't even been many Fringe assignments lately, nothing major in the least, and there was talk of closing down the unit. It worked off of a skeleton crew now anyway.
She heard Peter call for Walter over the line. Not Dad, but Walter. He always used his first name. Parallel universes and alternate fathers will do that to a boy's mind. She grinned, stopping herself when she, heard him call again.
"Peter, is everything o.k?"
"He's not here. Let me call you back." The line went dead and Olivia stared at the phone willing it to ring again. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, as everything in her body was telling her something was happening on a Fringe level, she finished serving breakfast to Henrietta and took her upstairs to change for the day.
Twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Olivia placed her daughter in her room and told her she would be back. Closing the door, she crept down the stairs, hand to her side to remove the safety from her weapon. Slipping to the window she peered out, and released the breath she didn't realize she was holding. God, I must be going insane. There hasn't been a Fringe episode in years. What am I doing?
Olivia opened the door to say hello to her sister's family, as her niece and nephew ran up the stairs to see their cousin. Noise erupted from the ceiling while squeals and giggles carried through the house. The adults shrugged in defeat. Greg, Rachel's husband, carried luggage to the guest room.
"How was your trip?" Olivia asked.
"Great, if you don't count how many times two kids have to stop to pee in an hour," Greg called over his shoulder.
"Wouldn't have happened if someone didn't feel the need to buy them a drink at every stop. Seriously, Greg. You're a glutton for punishment," Rachel teased.
"Hey, I hate to do this to you, but…"
Rachel interrupted, "Really Olive? You haven't had to run off to bad guys mid conversation since before 'Etta was born."
"Yeah, I know. It's just, Peter went to talk to Walter, and he's not there."
"So?"
"So…um. Walter never leaves the lab alone. And well, I'm a little worried. It's not an FBI thing. It's a
"Father in law thing" Rachel finished the sentence for her. "O.k. You want me to keep an eye on the princess up there?"
"Thanks."
Quietly opening the door to the lab, Olivia held her weapon out. Everything seemed quiet, except for a hiss of white noise. She slowly crept into the room and surveyed the area, walking toward the office area where Walter normally slept. The shades were closed, and she jumped when Gene mooed from the corner. Turning quickly to survey the room, and throwing herself against the wall, she paused to look at the cow in the corner. She never did understand his affection for the animal. Or his insistence on drinking raw milk, but she could work well as a guard dog Olivia mused. Nothing else moved in the room, so she continued toward the office.
Olivia found Peter on the sofa bed staring at the t.v. screen and the origin of the white noise. "Hey," she said from the door. Peter didn't move. "You o.k.?" She walked to the sofa bed to sit next to him. Touching his face, "Peter, what's wrong?" her hand moved down his arm, ending at his hands, where she looked down to see the tulip drawing Walter had mailed to them the day before. "Peter, where's Walter?" She squeezed his had firmly and spoke louder "Peter! Look at me." He turned. "Where's Walter?"
"He's gone." He looked so lost.
"I can see that he's gone, but where?"
"Just. Gone."
"Peter, you aren't making any sense." He turned to the television and pressed rewind on the remote.
"Peter, I sent you a letter. It contains something of mine... I imagine you called me to ask why would you send such a strange letter? And when you tried to call, I didn't answer. So you came to find me at the lab. But I was not to be found. I was here one moment and vanished from the face of the Earth the next. I want you to know, I'm fine. And living many, many years from now. You will never see me again. You will never again because it had to be this way to ensure the future of our humanity. Your future, the future of Olivia and the future of Etta. I don't want you to be sad. The time we had together, we stole. I cheated fate to be with you, and we shouldn't have had that time together, but we did. And I wouldn't change it for the world. I don't want to say goodbye, but I will say… I love you, son."
They sat, hand in hand staring at the screen as the video ended. Neither moved for half an hour, processing their emotions in silence. Where is he? How do we know he is fine? What does he mean many, many years from now? Why can't we ever see him again?
"What will we tell Etta?" Olivia finally broke the silence.
"I don't." He paused. "I don't know."
The sat a few moments longer, and Olivia turned to see her husband shaking, heaving as it finally over took him. She pulled his head to her chest. The sobs convulsed through his body, her shirt getting soaked with his tears. "He's gone. My dad. He's gone. All these years. I mean, he's not really my dad, but he's gone. I never even told him I cared. He crossed universes to save me. He raised me, and I never told him. Why? What did you do Walter?"
She held him tighter, "I don't know, but he knows you loved him. You held him together. You kept him grounded. Peter, he knows, or he wouldn't have left the message on that video".
She held him, rocking as though he were a child, her lips brushing his head as they both wept. Slowly he calmed, his body slowed to occasional tremors. "What are we going to tell Etta?" He sniffled, and began to wipe his eyes.
Olivia shrugged. She didn't know what to say. He was broken, and she didn't know how to fix this hurt. Taking his head in her hands she kissed his forehead, and brought her lips down to meet his in a tentative kiss. "I don't know."
A door opened and closed in the lab breaking the moment. Olivia reached for her gun in the holster stopping when she heard the familiar voice of Astrid. "Hey Walter, I brought you some donuts for breakfast!" She was greeted by Gene instead. "Walter, are you going to let that cow go without milking all morning? She looks like she's in pain."
"Walter's not here." Olivia said from the office door.
"What?"
She looked at Peter, who began to wipe his eyes as he nodded from the sofa bed. "Come here," she nodded toward Astrid.
Astrid came into the office where the video began to play again. Peter sat silent from his seat as she stood in front of the screen. Olivia beside him, touching him in reassurance as he relived the nightmare once more. At the end Astrid stood silent for a moment before mumbling, "I always thought you were tripping when you talked about this."
"Astrid, what do you mean by 'when you talked about this'?" Olivia looked away from Peter at her comment.
"Oh, um it didn't make sense at the time, but he said things like 'they're coming', and 'I have to fix this' and was always talking about Observers." Astrid pulled out drawings of a bald child, scribbled in pencil in a sketch book of mathematics and engineering designs. The child was labeled "child Observer" and "Michael" depending on the drawing.
Olivia's phone rang. "Hi, sorry, we're still here."
"Everything o.k?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, uh. No. I don't know, but I don't think we can do anything about it at the moment."
"Did you call the police?"
"Rachel,"
"I know, you are FBI, your guys are better than the police. O.k. well, the kids are getting hungry. I thought I'd order a pizza since it's after 1:00 already"
"Yeah, go ahead. We are going to leave soon anyway. I will meet you there. Thanks. Bye." Olivia hung up her phone. "That was Rachel. Kids are getting hungry, we should go, but call Broyles on the way." She touched Peter's arm. "Astrid, do you want to join us?"
"No," she replied. "I'm going to stay here and go through this stuff. See if I can find anything. Besides, Gene is going to explode if someone doesn't milk her." She grinned as she nodded toward the cow.
"O.k. We will talk to you later then." She took Peter by the hand and walked toward the door, but he did not move. Stopping she reached up to turn his head toward her. He simply looked right through her. "Do you want to stay here?" He shrugged. "It's o.k. I can handle my sister. You stay if you want." He kept staring ahead. "Peter, we will find him. Look at me. We will find him." Their eyes locked and he reached for her pulling her toward him until their heads met. "Stay here with Astrid. I'm going to call Broyles, and put a team on this. We will find him." She kissed him and walked out the door.