Sorry it took so long for me to update but it's here now:) I'm starting to feel pressure to finish this before Fringe Season 4 starts... WHICH IS ONLY A WEEK AWAY OMFG I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE I SURVIVED THIS HIATUS! Hope you enjoy XD
Chapter 3: It's That Tip-Of-The-Tongue Feeling
Olivia took her time dressing. It was already after 8am but she was in no hurry to get to work. For once she had been woken by her alarm and not the voice of Broyles telling her to meet him at some obscure crime scene and besides that, she was trying to remember what had happened the night before.
Her eyes found the book as it rested ominously on her nightstand. She had no memory of putting it there though. In fact, she couldn't quite remember getting home at all. The last clear image in her mind was of her standing in the book store; the book seemed to burn her hands as she held it, the title started to swim out of focus in front of her and then –
And then what? She had gone somewhere. No. She was taken. The eery tugging sensation at her middle came back to Olivia then and a cold shiver crept up her spine. Something, someone had summoned her then. Was it the same person as always? Was it the hand on her shoulder? The warm voice she felt she knew? The sudden piercing ring of her cell phone made her startle, and without looking, Olivia knew who she would hear when she answered. If she answered, the thought snuck into her mind. She needed to figure things out, to remember where she had gone and who she had seen. What would the world suffer if one of the Olivia Dunhams went awol for a day?
The phone was still ringing. And the thought came to her that maybe this was about more than finding answers. Maybe this was about the fact that she wanted to go back. That she liked it there. I don't even know where there is, Olivia thought. And she had a sneaking suspicion that it had less to do with where and more with who that made her want to go back. She didn't take the call.
"Where the hell have you been, Dunham? I've worn your voicemail out over the past two hours."
Had it really been that long? Olivia kept Broyles' angry gaze, not willing to give anything away just yet. All of a sudden she felt like this was a secret. Her secret. And she was in no mood to share.
"I had something important to take care of," she offered vaguely, a hint of a smile threatening at the corner of her lips.
She felt good. For the first time in a long time she actually felt… happy? Not sure what to attribute the change in mood to, Olivia tried to keep a straight face.
"More important than a dead body on our door step?"
Yes. "What?"
They were walking across the open plan office now and Olivia was aware of the heads turning as they watched her.
"Shapeshifters," Broyles said matter-of-factly. "It seems they're back. The body had been dumped in some bushes out front."
"A pretty strong message. What is it?"
"That's what we're trying to find out." He pushed open the door to his office and Olivia followed him in.
"I don't know what's going on with you, Dunham, but you look better than you have over the past month. Whatever it is though, I don't want it interfering with your work."
She hung her head guiltily and nodded.
"We've never had this problem before and I don't see a reason to start now. Especially now."
Broyles picked up a blue folder from his desk and handed it to her.
"What's this?" she asked and started flipping through it.
"Intel on a project they're heading up on the other side. Sources suggest that there's an uprising looming."
"Of shapeshifters?" She looked up at him now.
"They've been watching them closely over the past few months and there's a pattern, a strong one, that implies they're gathering an army. For what reason, we don't know yet."
"Or they know but they're not telling us."
"The time of being suspicious of the altverse has come and gone, Dunham. We're facing the same threat now and working together is our best option."
"Where's the body now?"
"With Dr. Bishop at the lab. The markings on the roof of the mouth were there, that's how we know. He's trying to find some more evidence that will help us find out where the murder happened."
"I'll look over this more at home," Olivia said, waving the folder at him.
Broyles surveyed her, eyebrows raised. "Why don't you go over to the lab and see if there's anything you can do there."
He was onto her. Of course he knew that she had no intention of looking through the folder just yet. Olivia had other things on her mind. And his suggestion to go to the lab was not a suggestion but an order. Olivia got the hint loud and clear as she nodded and then left his office.
"The brain is a powerful instrument, Olivia," Walter said as he pored over the body in front of him. The entire front of his apron was splattered in blood as he had carved his way into the cadaver.
"What people often forget is that it is built to do our bidding. Well, in most cases anyway. If you want to remember what happens during these… occurrences… simply instruct your brain to do it."
"And that will definitely work?"
"It should," Walter said with finality and picked something out from under the body's finger nail.
"Petri dish," was his simple command to Astrid and she obliged immediately.
"How far are we on this?" Olivia asked, motioning to the body between them.
"Time of death has been narrowed down to between two and two-thirty this morning. I'm hoping to get a location from the samples I'm rendering."
"Stomach contents are being analyzed now," Astrid offered and her statement was punctuated with a loud ping from across the lab.
"Better go and see what this young man's last supper was," Walter told her.
"What is it?" Astrid asked.
Olivia had followed her across the lab to check the results and she was shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. Astrid knew she wanted to say something but was questioning whether she should.
"Me or that?" Olivia asked, pointing to the vial of goop Astrid held in her hand.
"I know what this is, I'm talking about you. You look… great," she finished.
Olivia's face broke into an uninhibited smile that she was instantly aware of seeing as how it was something she rarely did of late.
"What? Tell me."
"Honestly? I don't know," she was still smiling as she spoke.
"Olivia –"
"I can go there whenever I want," she broke in. "Just this morning I was thinking about it and thought about how I wanted to go back and – I did."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that. Only thing is, I can't remember what happens or who I'm with-" she stopped there. Olivia knew that who she was with was the key to the whole thing and the urge to go back started up again, tugging at her middle like before.
"Well maybe you should try what Walter said. If you can go there at will then I think there's a really good chance you can get the answers you want really soon."
Olivia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She could still feel the remnants of a smile on her lips.
"I'm close to figuring this whole thing out. I can feel it. I can feel –" Him, Olivia almost said but stopped herself.
"You can feel what?" Astrid prompted when Olivia fell silent.
"You know that feeling you get when you're trying to remember something and it's right there but you just… can't… put your finger on it?"
"Tip-of-the-tongue syndrome yeah, I get that a lot. More than I would like actually," Astrid mused.
"Exactly, tip-of-the-tongue!" Olivia exclaimed a little too animatedly and Astrid jumped. "That's exactly what this feels like. I know I'm close, I know that I know what this is but-"
"I'm waiting!" Walter's voice boomed at them which made them both jump this time.
Astrid grabbed for the print out of the results from the analysis and, with a resigned shrug to Olivia, hurried over to where Walter was standing.
Are you here? Her voice echoed in her head because that's where she said it. Olivia didn't know where she was but it felt familiar. She couldn't see anything save for the bench she was sitting on but she knew it. This was a place she had been before.
Olivia. He was there. He had come to her.
I came back. She waited for him to sit before she spoke. He wasn't there, but she could feel him. Hear him breathe. He was close.
And then her hand was no longer empty. He had taken it and put his inside. It rested there so perfectly like it had been there a million times before. Olivia held on tighter, not completely aware of what she was doing.
Don't forget this, Olivia. You're the only one who can do this.
I won't.
They're watching, and they won't let me help you. So I need you to do this. I need you to remember.
Who are they? What do they want?
Me.
What for?
He didn't answer but she felt his thumb softly stroke the hand he was holding. And then she started feeling a shift. He was leaving again. Olivia gripped his hand tighter in a bid to stop him from fading away.
Please don't. She was pleading.
Olivia.
Not yet. Don't go. Her hand was now in a fist but there was nothing inside it anymore. Olivia's heart sank but her hand remained clenched.
Remember me. She heard his voice in the nothingness; it was no more than a whisper.
I will. Her voice was soft when she spoke.
I do. Now it trembled. I remember you.
Olivia opened her eyes to darkness and immediately recognized her room. Every word, every sensation was still there with her. She remembered. And she had told him, the voice, that she remembered him too. But that wasn't entirely true. She felt like she did but Olivia had no idea what it was that she remembered. She flicked the light on in frustration and leaned back into her pillows. The book. Olivia tentatively reached for it as it lay untouched on her nightstand and taking a deep breath, she started to read.
"Could it be John? It's happened before and maybe-"
"It's not John," Olivia cut Astrid off.
The two were at The Bridge for their weekly brief. Olivia had picked up Astrid and Walter and they had arrived ridiculously early. In an effort to speak to Astrid alone, Olivia had one of the techs distract Walter with a new toy in the lab just off the room. She wasn't ready to give up her secret for poking and prodding by the genius doctor and she made Astrid swear to silence before telling her the story.
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I can feel it," Olivia said with certainty.
"So you know what he feels like but you don't know what he looks like… because you can't see him… you just know that he's there."
"Don't start this again," Olivia said as she sensed where Astrid was going with her line of reasoning. "I'm not making this up. It's real. He's real."
"Okay," Astrid conceded slowly. "So how many times have you… felt him?"
"Almost every night this week," Olivia responded with a soft smile. Her features took on a wistful expression that Astrid surveyed with worry.
"Sometimes I can't do it. I'll try but it won't work. I think it has to come from his side too or something, I don't know."
"Olivia," Astrid couldn't keep the concern from her tone, "what is really going on here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you sound like you're… like-" she struggled to say the next words because they sounded so absurd to her. "Like you're starting to have feelings or… with this – I don't even know if I can call it a person."
She watched Olivia closely, expecting her to emphatically deny the accusation. But she didn't. she simply nodded slowly and Astrid saw her eyes mist over.
"I'm not starting to have," she said eventually. "It feels like I already have them." She looked at Astrid then, her eyes brimming with tears and confusion.
Olivia's life came to a stand-still. She didn't care about the growing number of bodies that were turning up, signaling a rise in shapeshifter attacks. In fact, she didn't spend too much time thinking about work at all. Her thoughts belonged to the man she knew she remembered but couldn't quite remember; the fleeting moments they spent talking about nothing and yet everything. What was said was hardly as important as how she felt during these moments. When he touched her, said her name.
Olivia.
I was waiting for you but you didn't come.
It was her bedroom but not really; Olivia picked up on the surreal sense of things. She knew that she was not in her reality at all but in his and she knew without a doubt that this fact didn't make it any less real.
I need your help. He was always saying that.
I'm trying. I want to help you. She always replied.
Remember me, Olivia.
I will. I do! I just can't… when I go back… I can't remember…
Her voiced trailed off as she felt his hand gently brush against her cheek. It was a touch strongly familiar and strangely comforting, eliciting emotions that she had never felt but in some strange way was used to. She had felt this way before. And it was this man that made her feel it. Olivia's mind raced to grab a hold of something solid, some true fact that will entrench all of what she was feeling and make it real. Out of the darkness she felt his breath on her lips, she couldn't see him but that was because her eyes were closed. Open your eyes, she told herself but didn't listen. He was so close she could feel the warmth from his body envelope her.
The brush of his lips against hers was soft, almost not there at all but it jolted through her body right to her very fingertips. Olivia was warm all over, her skin hyper-sensitive to every last touch.
His lips.
They held hers perfectly and beautifully as if they had done so a hundred times before.
Hands… intimately familiar… they traced patterns along her bare shoulder blades all the way down to her lower back. Yes, she knew those hands and more importantly, they knew her; evoking a primal reaction her body didn't know it had been missing all this time. They moved with the knowledge of a long lost lover, igniting little balls of white hot heat every place his fingertips went. Olivia felt the heat in her core start to swell as his hands brushed against her taut nipples, teasing…begging her to remember. She didn't. She was close but…
His mouth found hers again, this time she was open and waiting. The feel of his warm tongue as it found hers made her moan out loud, a sound that filled the stifling silence between them and reverberated through every muscle in her now trembling body. Olivia felt his hand find its place between her legs and became aware for the first time that she was wet. A practiced finger slid between her slick folds and gently started stroking her, each movement an erotic plea… Remember me… Help me… their sole intention to ultimately and consummately bring her to the edge of all that was pleasurable and sensual… and push her over.
Olivia. His voice came through the dark, thick with arousal and it rang in the deepest, darkest and most guarded corner of her heart.
She had heard him say her name before… say it like that… filled with want and unbridled desire. Olivia drank in the sound of him, the feel of him, allowing her body to submit to every last touch under his command. And for the first time in forever, she let go. She let herself be consumed by him, drowned in the intensity of their connection.
The kisses that had started off gentle and hesitant had mirrored her growing need for him as Olivia's tongue clashed hungrily with his. Her breath was coming hot and fast as his fingers knowingly worked her swollen clit. She felt the air around them grow heavy, electric and she opened her eyes for the first time. It was as if they were encased in a glowing orb as time-space itself started to shift around them but it wasn't the orb that was glowing. Olivia looked up at him and realized that it was there that the glimmer was coming from and it was so strong she could barely make out his features as it surrounded them both.
Let go, Olivia. Trust me.
She found his eyes then, through her increasing arousal and the blinding glimmer she found them. And they swallowed her in.
I trust you. She managed to say through trembling lips as her the building pleasure in her core started to erupt in waves and the muscles in her body tensed up in their wake.
Suddenly it was like a lifetime of memories flooded back to her all at once and everything Olivia didn't know – the whispers, the cryptic messages, the blurry visions… this man – burst into her mind with crystal clarity and so loud that it echoed and she opened her mouth to let it out and she heard it before realizing what it really meant… The one word, cried out at the height of her passion, felt in every fiber of her being, with a need and ferocity she didn't know she had:
Peter!
They were in her bedroom. Really her bedroom this time. Tears ran unbidden down Olivia's face as she held his in both her hands.
"I remember you."
"I know," he said, a soft smile playing at his lips.
"What happened? The machine! And then you… What's going on? Peter…" she ended with his name simply because she could. If it were up to her she would make his name the only thing she ever said for the rest of her life.
"I saw the future," he started solemnly, and paused to give her a chance to say something but she was only looking at him with deep confusion, her fingers now tightly laced through his as if she had no intention of ever letting go. Peter didn't have a problem if this were in fact the case.
"Our world… Olivia, it was dying. It was dying because of me." He found the words easily because he had spent so much time in limbo, practicing what he would say if he ever got the chance. Olivia let him speak, her tears slowly subsiding.
"And you," his composure broke a little as he thought about her death and what that was like for him. Peter took a deep breath before continuing, "I had to make a choice. To save both worlds… to save you. I didn't know what the consequences would be but I didn't care… I couldn't let you…" The end of his sentence faded as he looked at her and smiled again.
"But where have you been? I don't understand."
"I don't know what to call it but it's not like here… or there for that matter. Time doesn't exist, or feelings… but I remembered you."
For the first time a smile broke onto Olivia's face as a warmth spread through her body, starting in her chest. "I remembered you too. I had this feeling, like I had lost something… someone."
"I know. But they wouldn't let me get to you. I didn't have the power to change anything."
"Who's they?"
"It doesn't matter now. Your memories were taken but I knew you had the power to get them back. The connection we have is not bound to this world, or time and space. We can find each other no matter what. They said that if you found me, if you remembered… we could have a chance to change things. Olivia you fought for me even when you weren't sure there was a me to fight for."
"So now what? You say we have a chance. What do I have to do?"
"You have to decide, Olivia… You have to choose whether you want a world without me or not."
"Then there's no choice," she said as she tightened her grip on his hands. "I don't want a world without you, Peter. I can't…" She flung her arms around him then and he returned her embrace, holding onto her as if it were the last time.
"I have to go." His voice sounded far away when he spoke and a frantic desperation sprang up in Olivia's chest.
"What? No! You said-"
"I know but you need to make your decision." He loosened himself from her grip with some effort and stepped back.
"I have! I made my choice. I want you Peter!"
"So then you'll have me," he said smiling. "But for now you need to go back to sleep."
"I don't understand. Why can't you stay?"
"When I made my choice to change the future, it had consequences that changed the very reality of our worlds. Your choice will do the same, once you make it. Things will change."
"I've already made my choice," she said again, this time the anger in her tone was evident. She didn't want to let him go when she had only just found him again.
"Good," was his only response and he bent down to lay a kiss on her forehead. Olivia closed her eyes to the feel of his lips, working hard to commit them to a memory she wouldn't forget.
The sound of her ringing cell phone tore through the quiet apartment and ripped Olivia from her sleep. Still groggy and disoriented she lunged for the phone on her otherwise empty bedside table.
"Dunham," she answered, her voice still full of unshaken sleep.
"We've got a situation," Broyles' voice filtered through to her. "I've sent you the address, be there in fifteen. Oh and Dunham, we got word that the other side is taking point on this. Apparently a high profile case with an even higher profile captain so try not to step on any toes."
The line went dead before she had a chance to say anything else. Olivia flopped back onto her pillow with a heavy sigh and gave her body a chance to get used to the fact that it was now awake. A few minutes later she was out her door without a shower or coffee and pulling her unbrushed hair into an untidy bun.
Charlie was there to meet her when Olivia arrived at the crime scene exactly seven minutes later. The whole area was abuzz with uniforms and Olivia cursed herself for not stopping for coffee first.
"An army of shapeshifters out to destroy the universe."
"Good morning to you too, Agent Francis. Don't you look lovely today. What, me? I wake up looking this good but thank you." Olivia gave him a cheeky smile as she fell in step next to him, making her way to the center of the action.
"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed I see," he shot back playfully. "Oh wait, every side of your bed is the wrong side."
"You wish you could wake up in my bed, don't you?" Charlie broke out laughing at this and Olivia did too.
They were now close enough for Olivia to make out at least fourteen bodies strewn across an open square. Her face clouded with horror as she did a mental body count.
"Yeah, it's bad."
"What is it?" Olivia asked, not taking her eyes off the chaos unfolding in front of her as people hurried back and forth collecting evidence, taking pictures, asking questions and some even shooting the shit with partners and colleagues.
"Don't know. And the head prick in charge is not being very forthcoming either. They ask for our help but they won't tell us anything. Go figure."
"Why have they not cordoned off the scene?" Olivia asked breaking away from Charlie's side as she approached what looked like a civilian.
"Olivia Dunham, FBI." She said as she held out her badge. "I'm sorry, sir, but you're going to have to step back. This is a closed crime scene." The man surveyed her with amused interest as she spoke. He was sharply dressed in a designer suit with his shades perched on the top of his head.
"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, sweetheart, but this is my show." He reached into his inside jacket pocket and brought out his show-me. "Peter Bishop, NSA."
Okay so this is where the fun starts! Peter's back but the whole reality has changed. I'm having so much fun with this because I get to start my OTP all over again :) Will update soon! This story will find it's way before September 23 because I'll be too busy flailing to get much done after that.
