Wow...I wasn't expecting so many responses/alerts for one little prologue. I must be pretty good at bringing in an audience. Heh. No if only my writing would get better. Believe me it's hard to write when you're ill but I'm willing to tough it out for the fans. This wasn't an easy chapter to write. I guess I have difficulty with setups. Thanks for the reviews though, they're awesome.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivia already had more than enough problems to take on…and there wasn't even a new case to add to the mix. Aside from her unexplainable crossing into the other world and her meeting with Bell…inside a building that wasn't supposed to no longer exist…she still hadn't heard anything from Rachel or Bella.

She assumed when she returned from dealing with the recent cases involving "the other side" that they had gone out somewhere for the day. It was strange how Rachel was able to afford to leave the apartment on occasion with her daughter in tow as she was unemployed at the time.

But now Olivia realized how foolish she was to not have realized it. Rachel had packed her bags and ran off with Ella. It was the only explanation as Ella's toys and books were gone as well. It didn't surprise her though that her baby sis would do something so reckless and possibly dangerous. On the other hand, she had to commend her sister for not giving in to Greg's demand for custody, but still, running away? Olivia was freakin' FBI. She had the ability to help them win the case if need be.

Her only hope now was that Charlie or the other Agents would continue to try and locate the mother and daughter pair in any way they could. But knowing that her sister was FBI, Rachel would have found clever ways of not leaving her tracks behind.

Knowing that and that she would endanger her daughter like this only made Olivia's blood boiled over the weeks as nothing seemed to progress. Much to her relief, there have been few cases to solve and little need to travel to the lab. She would often spend her time in her little cubicle at the Bureau, if not tracking down her sibling, then merely doing random paper to keep herself occupied.

She heard a knock at her office door but did not bother to pay heed. At around 9pm when the Bureau was winding down for the night it could only be either Charlie dropping in to say goodbye or it was Broyles coming in to badger her about mindlessly staying in the office later into the night than necessary.

It was neither.

"This again huh?" said the voice.

Olivia looked up feeling irritated but not surprised as she went back to her work.

"Where's Walter?"

Peter slouched himself into the chair in front of her desk. "He left me a note at the office saying he went to a movie…by himself."

"And you believe him?"

Peter's eyes were looking at the drawers against the wall. "I do now. It scares me I know."

Olivia knew what Peter was hoping to get up for but she had to stop him. "It's empty, Peter. I haven't had time to go to the liquor store and stock up."

"Damn," Peter said to himself. "You knew that's what I came all the way in here for?"

"Of course not," she said.

"So…any word from Rachel yet?"

Olivia dropped the papers she looked at on her desk and sighed. "No. I still can't believe she would do this. She didn't even think about how this would affect Ella. Does she really think that she could spend the rest of her life on the run with a child?"

"Maybe she'll come to her senses, Liv," Peter assured her.

"No, she won't. I think this is my fault. I've been so busy with all of these cases, that she probably thought I was ignoring everything going on with her and Greg. I really don't want to think about it right now. Not until I hear something."

Peter sighed. "I'm sorry, Liv,"

"No, it's alright. I'm actually hoping that we get a new case soon. I kinda miss the lab."

"Which part? Gene or the slimy eels that Walter's been gathering?"

"All of it," she said smiling. It nearly made Peter blush to see his own ability to bring a smile to her face with the smallest bit of sarcasm. Their eyes seemed to lock in on each other for one brief moment. Time had allowed them to almost read each other minds. She had a long boring day and Peter just had a boring day and a need to drink obviously. Any concern of her going out with Peter on occasion for a friendly drink by others in the Bureau were absent tonight which was unusual for her.

But before she could open her mouth and make this risky unusual request, her phone rang. She looked at the Caller ID. Unknown Caller. Her heart started skipping beats as she kept looking up at Peter and back at her phone. Even Peter was having trouble holding his breath as this could not possibly be a case-related phone call.

"Rachel?" Olivia asked as she answered. There was silence in the room and then "I'm sorry, who is this?" Peter became very suspicious as he tried to listen in but he couldn't hear who the voice was on the other end of her cell.

"No. Wait. Who are you?"

Olivia slammed her phone shut after that in frustration. "Dammit!"

Peter looked worried. "What was that about?"

"He claims to have information on Z.F.T.?"

"What? Who?!"

"The man on the phone. He told me to meet with him in an hour."

Peter shook his head. "You can't be serious. You met William Bell, the guy in charge of Z.F.T. He told you everything about it, right?"

"Only as much as he was willing to tell me."

"So what does this guy have to tell you that's so important?"

"He said, whoever he was…he said that Bell was setting Walter up…for something. I don't know what."

At that moment, Olivia got up and reached for her coat. Peter nearly leaped over to stop her. "Whoa. You can't be serious about meeting some guy calling you out of the blue. It's not even case-related."

"But he knows about Z.F.T. and he knows that Bell's connected to it. He knows your father, Peter. How many people do you think could possess that kind of credibility?"

"I still don't trust this guy."

"I don't either," said Olivia. "For all I know he could be tricking all of us. Trying to set all of us up against Bell. I'll just have to observe this guy when I get there."

Peter grabbed Olivia by the arm lightly. "You mean when WE get there."

She sighed. "Of course."

Peter smirked as she followed her out of the office. Never had he been so grateful to make a surprise visit to her office than he did tonight.

~*~*~*~

Guinevere marveled at the glass tube and its contents. "It's beautiful, William."

Bell smirked. "It doesn't look any different from the others you've seen. I think this is our most accurate copy, though." Bell took a tiny straw and inserted into the tube. The liquid inside turned from clear to a neon blue. "This should do the trick," he said. "Provided that nothing bad happens to it."

"It's time then?" the old woman asked. "You have a plan to get this in her?"

"I do have a plan. But I won't be able to perform the procedure myself. It would get through to Walter if Miss Dunham knew I was behind this. We need someone else to do it."

"Well…" Guinevere coughed. "My assistant could..."

Bell scoffed at her suggestion. "You mean, Mark? I didn't realize he was even capable of following orders."

"He's a doctor, William. I take it that the young lady has never met him so we should have no problem. He'll want to assemble his own team though."

"Of course he will," said Bell. "This time though, let's hope he doesn't end up beating another person to death."

~*~*~*~

They arrived at the dock exactly when their caller expected them too. It seemed like the perfect hour for such a meeting as it was pitch black with the exception of the city lights in the distance and it was quiet. They were in a rarely used area of the Boston coastline where the water had become too shallow for boats to frequently travel.

"Okay," said Olivia. "Here I go, so you…"

She stopped to looked at Peter they both shared the same look, one that screamed 'don't be serious' to Olivia.

She laughed to herself and shook her head. "Oh, who am I kidding?"

Then Peter laughed with her. "Yeah, you know me better than that now."

"Just get out of the car if you're coming with me," Olivia said rolling her eyes at him. Peter stepped out of the car quite proud of himself, knowing that she would probably never order him to stay in the car ever again.

Although it was dark, Mark could see two shadows stepping out of the car from both sides. He began to curse in his mind knowing that she didn't come alone. But thankfully it was just one other person. He would have to quickly improvise the plan he was given in his mind.

He watched the two of them look the opposite way as to observe their surroundings. He quickly got out a flashlight and lifted it up until the light captured Olivia. She and Peter turned around to face him.

Mark didn't even flinch when Olivia pulled out her gun and pointed it at him, but merely lifted his arms up in the air to signal that he was indeed unarmed.

"You didn't come alone like I asked," Mark said. His voice expressed his annoyance at the situation. "Guess I shouldn't be so surprised. I rather expected it actually."

Olivia crept closer to Mark with Peter following closely behind. He heard rustling coming from the side and although it was too dark to see anything, Peter could detect movement that was neither his nor Olivia's.

But Olivia seemed to catch on quickly. She turned to Mark and said "you're not alone either, are you?"

Before she could wait for a response. She heard Peter yell loudly. "Shit." Olivia immediately whirled around and pointed the gun at the two men who had jumped Peter and had now knocked him unconscious.

"Stop!" called Mark. Olivia turned and saw five other jumping out from behind aiming guns at Olivia's direction. Several of the men joined the ones who were trapping the unconscious Peter to the ground.

"So is that it?" said Olivia. "You know he's Dr. Bishop's son?"

"What are you talking about?!" Mark said in his rather annoyed tone.

Olivia's eyes kept darting back and forth between Mark and an unmoving Peter. "You said that Walter Bishop was being set up."

Mark laughed at her. Bishop was a random name I stumbled upon in your file.

"My file?"

Olivia sensed two gunmen were now trying to jump Olivia from behind but Mark caught her looking. "I wouldn't or else your friend gets it. Now drop your gun."

The temptation to smack down the two potential jumpers would not cease but Olivia saw Peter was in a helpless situation. Even though she could fight the two gunmen off, the others had their guns ready to kill Peter. She didn't have a choice she let the gun slip quietly from her hands into the ground.

"We couldn't care less about him," said Mark as Olivia was grabbed and pinned down to the ground. "We came here for you."

As one of Mark's team knocked Olivia out with the butt of his gun, he had to reevaluate what to do with her friend. Damn Bell, he didn't want anyone to get hurt…or be more involved than necessary. But if it were really up to Mark, well…

"We'll have to take this guy with us as well," Mark called out to his team. "Hopefully he'll be out as long as her till we finish this."

Mark lifted his flashlight out to the water turning it on and off signaling the boat in the distance. A small light from the boat signaled back.

It was time for the plan to take motion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Btw, if you hate cliffhangers, you WILL hate this story. I warn you now! Haha!