UH-OH, HERE IT COMES

An Afternoon After

The drive back to Liberty Island is an uncomfortable affair, at least for three people. It is all Astrid can do to not start laughing again. Olivia stares morosely out the window, and the two Lincolns in the backseat also remain quiet.

Olivia. Remember.

She squirms in her seat for a moment, then she turns to the Lincoln seating behind Astrid, "I'd really rather not."

"Excuse me?" he asks, lazily looking to the other Lincoln for explanation. "Rather not what?"

But Olivia just shakes her head and turns back in her seat. After a few more minutes of awkward silence, she murmurs to Astrid, "What exactly is the Event this time?"

"You are," at her startled look, Astrid shrugs. "Walter had some sort of epiphany this morning and had wanted to talk to you. Something about astral planes and ethereal bodies trying to communicate through mirrors, but you didn't answer your phone. We all tried – no response," Astrid tries to contain her amusement. "So we thought you'd been kidnapped."

"Again," Agent Lee adds. At this, Olivia shoots Astrid a questioning look. Astrid shrugs, indicating he'd been briefed on something more than shapeshifters now.

"Again?" Lincoln's eyebrows rose, and with a self-satisfied smirk on his face, he leans toward Olivia and asks flirtatiously, "You get kidnapped often?"

"Coming from a man belonging to a division that successfully abducted her," Agent Lee snaps at his counterpart. "That's a little insensitive don't you think?"

"Wait a minute! What are you- You think I would-" the headache that had been hovering just beyond the pleasurable memories of the previous night descends with a vengeance. "What is he talking about?"

"Nothing," her eyes meet his, and he sees fury in them, mixed with an anguish that makes him blink and sit back. The look is gone in a flash, but not for one moment does it occur to him that he'd imagined it. "It's best not to talk about it here, now."

Shuffling Back, Then Slightly Forward

She escorts him through this side's various checkpoints and back to The Bridge. Surprisingly it is her who initiates the conversation.

"Look, this isn't something- I haven't done this-" John Scott flashes through her mind, and she sighs. "Whatever happened isn't going to happen again."

"Because it's a bad idea?"

"Yes," she says. Then she cocks her head to the side and asks with genuine curiosity, "Don't you think?"

"Maybe," he fights the urge to reach up and touch her hair, her face. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he grins at her. "But you had fun right? The dancing was good?"

"The dancing?" looking away, she rubs her nose to hide her smile. "It was passable, I suppose."

"Passable?" in protest, Lincoln's voice rise to squeak. "See there, that's a challenge. Now you'll wish you didn't say that."

Olivia laughs. She points to his side's door, shakes her head and wordlessly walks away.

"Passable!" Lincoln calls to her, "Just wait! I got moves you-" he stops as a scientist in his white suit glare at him over his clipboard. "I dance good," he reassures the man.

We're All Just A Sucker For Something

They are standing at the kerb by the car she'd left behind next to the bar the previous night. Agent Lee had gone inside one of the shops to buy something for Walter.

"What happened to 'not my type'?" Astrid leans against the car, absently watching the people hurrying past.

Olivia isn't sure if she knows the answer. What did happen last night? Or more to the point, what was she thinking? She usually prides herself in being in control. She sees the pattern, the bigger picture, better than anyone she knows and willingly makes decisions, even at the cost of her personal life, that attempt to avert the chaos that is always waiting to erupt. The previous night will have repercussions before this war, this truce – she corrects herself, is over.

She turns away from the crowd just as a man in a grey suit and fedora walks by. "He asked me to dance," she smiles sadly at Astrid. "I like dancing."

Olivia.

Across the street, a bald man tilts his head to the side as Olivia steps away from the car and looks around in confusion. She gestures for Astrid to wait for Agent Lee and drive back to Boston with him so she herself can go on ahead to the Lab. She feels the world shifting to the left, and it has nothing to do with whisky.

Flesh-Eating Virus v DNA-Altering Virus

Olivia is exhausted. Three days of chasing leads and suspects, of talking and writing, analysing and reporting, of saving lives and taking it. She's also hungry, she realizes distractedly as the sergeant swipes her ID into the slot. The red glow of the scanner light makes her a little dizzy. There's no way she'll make it back to Boston tonight, but the Massive Dynamic apartments will do. She checks her watch. She's an hour or so from food, a drink, and sleep.

Out of the three though, she decides she's most looking forward to her bed.

"Olivia," her steps falter as she hears his voice. "I mean, Agent Dunham. What are you doing here?"

"Agent Lee," she says politely, and barely holds in a sigh as she sees the other Dunham. "Just entering a case-file into the system, you?"

With a cocky grin, Liv replies instead, "Us too. Another criminal put to justice and millions of lives saved."

"Actually, thanks in part to you," two identical eyebrows rise, and Lincoln fights the urge to blush. He clears his throat. "I mean your file on Conrad."

"Oh. Right," she nods in acknowledgement. "Glad it helped."

Olivia begins to type a brief summary of her most recent case. In a slightly paranoid part of her mind she wonders if she needs to change her password yet again. She tries not to pay too much attention to the two Agents from the other side in front of her.

Liv rocks slightly on her feet as she enters her report, humming a U2 song under her breath. Olivia barely stops herself from rolling her eyes. Lincoln looks up and grins, he nudges a small punnet of white strawberries toward her. Without thinking, she reaches for one and pops it in her mouth.

The humming stops.

There's an expectant silence in front of her, but she steadfastly ignores it. Lincoln does the same. When she is finished with her report, she quietly bids them both a pleasant night and leaves without a backward glance.

Lincoln follows her with his eyes, until Liv leans close and whispers, "What was all that about?"

He jumps. "What," he smiles, but avoids her eyes. "Nothing."

"Your nothing is never 'nothing'," her voice now has a slightly possessive undercurrent to it, one he'd been waiting to hear for a very long time. "You two friends now?"

"Are you jealous?"

She laughs, honestly surprised. "You want me to be jealous?"

"No," he lies, though maybe the lie isn't fully a lie now. "I just meant- Well, you have Frank-"

"What does Frank have to do with this?"

"-and Charlie has Bug- has Mona," he continues, pretending not to hear her question. He shrugs, "I dunno, I do have friends you don't know about."

"Huh. Really?" she aims for a light-hearted tone but fails. After a pause, Liv frowns, "But her?"