Spoilers: Everything so far.
Disclaimer: Fringe and whatever is going to happen to the story does not belong to me.
Author's notes: I'm trying to write in different directions now, so this is kind of weird, my take on the end of the show, I know, we are far from that but this simply won't go away. Constructive criticism is welcome and any other thoughts you may have about it.
Life, death and resurrection
"You have always been the variable, no matter where we observed your paths always crossed. It had always ended like this. I hoped for you to be different." The observer tells them because Walter can't anymore.
He died two weeks ago giving them the last piece to the machine, trying to avoid his son from going to certain death in an effort to fix the mess that, at the end, Walter hadn't caused alone.
Astrid had not stopped crying since then.
Peter and Olivia looked at each other across the room, their eyes actually meeting for the first time in more than three weeks, knowing that the end lies in their hands.
It's awful to know that this had happened before, that somewhere else other universes are destroyed by the same choices, knowing that this is not the first time and it won't certainly be the last. It depresses Peter, maybe it's not even worth it he thinks bitterly, because this war has already taken everything from him: two fathers, two mothers, two Olivia's, but he knows he would do it because that's the man he had been shaped to be, because all that losing has left him standing in front of this choice.
September looks at them and then at the possibilities, deep inside he's just astounded that the moment they been looking for is this, the moment two people chose to die for the greater good.
He would have liked to give them hope before leaving, but he can't, because not even he can see how this is going to end.
He lost his shirt on the way here and he raises his arms to be secured on each side of the machine.
Olivia is still wearing her work suit, coat and all; she doesn't cry because he asked her without words to remain as she has always been, to be his strength as she had always been. She secures his arms but does not leave.
This is what he doesn't know.
[It is just not him; Peter would activate the machine, but you…. you my dear are what will make it heal, not destroy. I'm asking you to die with my son.]
Peter can feel the machine reacting and powering up, they don't know exactly what would happen but he doesn't hope to get out of this alive.
"Olivia, go." He commands while she is just standing there, unmoving. "You promised me." He agreed to do this, to let her accompany him because she had promised to go, but she is not, and he knows she is not going to.
Olivia gives two steps forward until he can feel the fabric of her blouse on his chest, he is hardly breathing, she surrounds his waist with her arms and rests her face on his chest, she looks up just one more time while a tear escapes her eyes; he wishes one of his arms were free so he could comfort her.
"I love you." He can hear the words through the deafening sound of the machine.
"I love you too." Then Peter knows no more.
In the distance, while people run for their lives; as if there was actually a place to hide, three people stay at each other's side watching the undeniable glimmer get brighter and brighter.
Astrid turns to look at Nina and Broyles, she has tears in her eyes, he looks amazed by their strength.
On the other side Walter, Elizabeth and Marilyn watch in horror; they might not be their children but they are willing to die for both sides. Elizabeth reaches out and grasps their hands when the light finally explodes.
It is like a renewed big bang. New and younger universes are born from the explosion, brother universes where eight year old kids with sparkling blue eyes don't get sick, where parents get to keep their children and make better choices, where blonde, green-eyed girls get to be three and just play.
A universe, the one that had always carried the worse physical pain, gets to be fixed and corrected.
The other one gets to deal with what is left. At the end is given another chance.
She opens her eyes.
Blink.
Blink.
The light streaming through the window hurts her eyes.
"Olivia, Olivia, can you hear me?" She hears the voice and manages to make out the words; she finally focuses on the figure. Astrid.
"Hey." Olivia can see her puffy eyes, she is tired, she has been crying. "Don't try to talk." Olivia ignores the command and tries to, but she finds her airway blocked; a ventilator. She wants to make the obvious question which Astrid seems to notice.
"He is fine, he survived; you both did." Olivia then focuses beyond Astrid on the TV. "Let me go get a doctor."
Astrid leaves while Olivia is left to stare to the screen, buildings are destroyed everywhere, there are people on the street who look lost. Total destruction.
Did they just survive to see this?
Olivia is disconnected from the machine and given a good prognosis, the doctors know who she is and what she did but they don't understand how she survived. Neither does her.
She only gets to see Peter once, he is in the room next to hers and the effort to walk from her room to his left her tied to the bed for a whole week, by the time she is released he has already gone.
She understand though, he is stranded now, unable to go where he belongs; Olivia doesn't know if he is going to stay in Boston, there is no Walter to keep him here and she is sure she burned any possibility to be a reason for him to stay.
Astrid drives her to her apartment, it's incredibly still standing; Rachel, Ella and a multitude of press are waiting for her. She doesn't feel like a hero so she doesn't actually know what to say.
Rachel knows everything now, but instead of asking incessant questions she just sits with her on the couch.
The reporters eventually get tired of waiting for her to say something and leave. She still hasn't seen Peter.
Broyles is dealing with the mess with the help of Massive Dynamic; she hasn't watched enough news to know exactly where they stand with the people, but they are the best they have.
She asks them if they had heard of the other side, Nina informs her that their friend has stopped by to say that they are fixed. It makes her feel as if all this is somehow worth it.
She is handed a clean bill of health when the press and the people are still deciding if they are heroes or villains, if the government should have said something before. This is when she decides to go and look for him.
The streets look a lot like they did on the other side almost four years ago, death trees that hide green roots beneath them, gray clouds that give them clean water. They would be fine, they would recover.
Olivia founds Peter outside the house; still standing too, cleaning the garden, removing dead tree branches, dried grass; she remembers Walter told him the garden needed a trim the morning of the accident. He turns when he hears the engine of the car.
He looks tired, as if he hadn't slept at all since this ended, his eyes are puffy, he had been crying, he looks sad. A house full of Walter's things may be doing that to him.
"Hey."
"Hey." He says when she is finally standing in front of him. His voice sounds raspy, unused; he has lost weight since his jeans look like they are about to fall. She might look the same to him; she sure feels her clothes with a lot more room.
Neither say a word, she is sure he didn't expect to survive so he doesn't know how to handle this, she doesn't either; she just now wishes that those last words she told him had sounded more like a promise than a goodbye, it would be a little bit easier that way.
Peter is cleaning his hands on his pants when she says it.
"I'm pregnant."
Olivia can see her own feelings reflected on his face right now; surprise, awe, sadness, hope.
She is as sure as hell Walter knew, he made a full work of her blood the day he told her what it had to be done, it gives her some kind of comfort that Walter knew before he died, that all his efforts to put them together had worked at the end, he must be laughing right now somewhere.
"How… how…" It's all that comes out of Peter's mouth.
"Our little impromptu session. I don't know how it survived the blast." It had been two weeks before Walter died, when they found out that they had ran out of time and options and everything was going to hell in no time, she had been so afraid and he had held her, they were just looking for some relief, for someone to understood and they had ended in her bed, there had been no time to worry about protection or anything else. It had just been them fulfilling their own prophecy.
"I'm keeping it." In the hospital she had wondered why they had been giving another chance, here was her answer, she wasn't about to throw it away. The added bonus was that it was his. "I just thought it would be fair for you to know, I don't expect anything."
She waited, gave him time for the news to settle down. Peter looks totally confused. He might run away, but this time she won't stop him or go looking for him, she made that mistake once, this is her ironically settling him free.
She can see him give to steps towards hers and then his body enveloping her, his arms supporting her, giving her the heat she had been craving.
"Marry me." She can hear the feelings on his voice; he is on the verge of tears. "I have been so stupid, I should have never let you drift away all those years ago, I should have never allow for all that to get in the way… we have been given another chance, he died for us to have it… tell me, tell me I haven't lost you."
He talks as if this has been his entire fault, his doing; she had made as many mistakes as he, but no anymore.
Olivia puts her arms around him. "You haven't."
They both stand crying and holding each other in the middle of the death garden while the man on the hat watches form across the street and sees all the possibilities.
Fin