Red liquid oozed over the concrete. Many quick steps and careful paces were made just to ensure that the base of their shoes wouldn't become coated in the crimson goo seeping near their feet. The body nearest them was the one of the officer, his once brown hair matted. The eyes of the man were wide, expressing a look of shock and fear. Crouching next to the man, Olivia eyed the body with curiosity. There was nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the fact that his ears seemed to have given way for his brain. That was unnerving. A tap on her shoulder forced her gaze upwards, the officer who had given them both the ear muffs was now handing gloves in their direction. With a brief nod of thanks, Olivia slid the material over her hands and reached down to push the deceased officer's face gently to the left so she could examine the side of his head. What greeted her was a gaping hole, much larger than the average ear canal. Furrowing her brow, she lifted her gaze to the other bodies and rose to meet Peter.

The man was crouched next to the form of a young woman, perhaps no older than twenty. Her body was contorted, as if she had been writhing on the ground in pain prior to her demise. The look of horror etched upon her features matched that of the officer laying nearby. As she moved from one to the next, she noticed the same terrorized expression upon each one's face. Perhaps it was simply fear caused by the pain of what they were experiencing, perhaps it was what they were hearing, itself. Either way, Olivia had no inkling as to what could have caused this. Tapping Peter's shoulder, she jerked her head towards the bright yellow crime scene tape sealing off the area. Between the ear muffs and the disinclination to shout in order for him to simply hear her, she decided that it best they make their way away from the scene, seeing as removing the muffs could possibly cause a rather painful demise. Other units wandered about, the same black muffs covering their ears as they searched for anything that could indicate what had happened here.

Coming up on the other side of the tape, Olivia allowed her muffs to drop around her neck. Her eyes flicked over the bodies, scrutinizing them. Certainly this was a Fringe event. There was no way that it was anything else. Now, as the definiteness of that came to light, she felt her heart sinking. Walter had been such a key element in depicting what had happened in the past, and while she and Peter understood a lot more now than they had years ago, it wasn't everything. It was hardly a nick in the glass.

"It's like their brains just popped under the pressure," Peter said, dropping his ear protection to his neck with a gentle click of plastic on metal.

Olivia nodded, glancing towards her counterpart and exhaling. "What could have caused it, though? There aren't any indications around, and whatever did it hasn't seemed to pass that point."

The first conclusion she leaped to was the possibility of the Alternate Universe having some kind of effect; however, that idea was discounted in accordance to their previous experiences with the Alternates. They had never created this sort of discord in the past, though it had been turbulent when attempts to tear between the universes had been made by people such as David Robert Jones. Shaking his head, Peter gave her a knowing look. After so many years together, the two had learned to practically read the thoughts of one another. Between Olivia's photographic memory and Peter's talents at rapidly learning people's "tells", they created some kind of power team. Now, if they only had Walter's ingenuity, they would have been able to figure out the whole plot.

"Maybe some kind of ultrasonic noise? Something we can't pick up on. It could be some kind of high frequency playing on a loop. Did you notice the ground?" he questioned, pointing towards the place he had been standing in.

"No," she admitted, brow knitting tightly and her arms folding comfortably over her chest.

"It was vibrating. Where I was, right there," he told her, jerking his head towards the woman he had been crouched next to. "I didn't feel it until I was kneeling next to her."

Taken aback, Olivia stared at the position the woman was lying in. "What could create that kind of noise?" she asked. "Some kind of device?"

Shrugging in response, Peter sighed. "I have no idea."

XXX

With a caravan of vans in tow, they collected what they could from the scene and returned to the lab. Once inside, prior to allowing the coroners assisting them access, Olivia went in to collect her daughter. "I'll take Etta home, call me if you find anything," she told Peter, offering him a smile as she pushed the doors to the lab open. A loud moo bounded off the ceiling of the vast room, shortly thereafter followed by a young girl's giggle.

"She's soft!' Etta squealed, another moo from the cow echoing through the building. As the dark haired woman and small blonde child came into view, Olivia found her smile building. "Mommy!" the girl screeched, pointing in the direction of her mother while Astrid struggled to keep hold on the toddler.

Quickly, Olivia made her way towards her daughter and released Astrid from her duty as a babysitter. "Hello, my darling," the blonde crooned as she kissed her daughter's cheek, the girl fitting securely against her hip. "Did you have fun today?" she whispered, earning a grin from her daughter. "Thank you, Astrid," she said, earning a proud smile from the woman she could easily classify as "friend" now.

"Anytime," Astrid assured her, squeezing her forearm. "I didn't have time to check the security cameras or-" Instantly, the smile upon her lips faltered and Olivia waged an inner war to maintain it. Noting the change in demeanor, Astrid quickly shook her head. "I'll be able to go through the tapes, don't worry," she added, nodding her head.

Exhaling, Olivia tightened the smile, adding a nod to fit it. "Sure. We have... evidence. Peter's going to probably need your help," she told her, avoiding anything that could indicate the battalion of bodies resting just down the hall. Astrid made a small noise of disappointment, but nodded in acceptance. This was the part she hated the most and growing used to it seemed hardly possible.

"We'll get right on it," she said, moving away from Olivia and her daughter in order to prep the lab for what was to come.

That left just the two of them. "Do you want to say bye to daddy?" Olivia leaned in, kissing her daughter once more. The statement earned an excited cheer from the child before they headed off to track down Peter.

XXX

Home, sweet home. As she clicked the lock on the door behind her, Olivia felt a wave of relief wash over her being. This place was safe, it was always safe. All of the things they had seen, the troubles they dealt with outside of its walls, it was like they couldn't get to her there. As her fingers tugged at her shoes and she set them ceremoniously down within the closet, she could feel the weight of the day lift off her shoulders. With her cell phone still safely within her pocket, she turned back to her child and watched as the girl grinned up at her. Pretty blue eyes, matching those of her father, gazed at her mother with such adoration. Such love.

The smile that tugged at Olivia's lips came effortlessly as she reached down and lifted her child. "Cartoons, baby?" she questioned, running her fingers over her daughter's cheek. The perfect little creation nestled closer in her arms, sliding one arm around the back of her mother's neck and tucking her head down against her shoulder with an exhausted, "Yeah."

Apparently, the day had been wearing on more than just Olivia and Peter. It had been long for their daughter, as well. Brushing soft, golden locks away from the child's face, she smiled at her and nodded before toting her off to the living room and setting her before the television. Collecting her blanket and a small, worn stuffed panda that she had ingeniously named "Teddy". While neither Olivia nor Peter had said a word about her choice of names, Walter had questioned the girl on the choice. An extensive lesson was attempted as to what the small black and white plush toy actually was, and where Pandas came from. Peter had not hesitated to put a stop to it immediately. At the time, Etta had hardly been two and a half, and frankly, the mating rituals of Pandas were far from something necessary for a toddler to know.

Without hesitation, the child coiled up on the sofa with her bear wrapped in her arms and her head against the cushions. Olivia flicked on the television, glancing to her daughter. "Which show did you want to watch?" she asked, smiling at her daughter.

"Sponge Bob!" she cheered. Briefly, Olivia felt her heart stammer in her chest before nodding and scouring the recordings for her show. Many things had been brought to the home by Walter, and of course, Sponge Bob Square Pants had been one of them. He found the show endearing, and never paused his excitement over being able to share it with his granddaughter.

As the characters blossomed on the set, the telltale theme starting up, Olivia rose from her place. Lovingly, she touched her daughter's head before heading off to the kitchen in order to tidy up their borderline immaculate home. It was something she found herself compelled to do, simply in order to keep herself busy until the phone call Peter had promised.

Dishes had piled up, though she had no idea how it had happened so quickly. Suddenly, they were just there. As she lifted one plate and set it in the dishwasher's rack, she made her way to the next and followed suit once again. Still, the sounds from the living room could be heard as she kept audible track of her daughter's whereabouts.

Suddenly, a shift in the atmosphere that was hardly noticeable at first. Her fingers tightened around the plate on instinct. In an instant, the feeling vanished once again. Exhaling, she moved to set the plate alongside the others in the rack when the dark leather sheen of shoes caught her eye.

The plate dropped from her fingers and her right hand lunged for her piece. It wasn't there. Racking her thoughts, she searched for the possibility that she had set it down. No, she hadn't. She would have known. Panic built within her chest, fear for her daughter's safety, as well as her own. Everything she had been trained in, dealt with, how could she have possibly lost her weapon?

It wasn't lost. As her gaze shifted towards the man standing totem still behind her, she saw the small black metal gun hanging limply at his side.

"Hello, Olivia."

A/N: Thank you to castlefringereader, Rebecca & Guest for your reviews! They were lovely! Hope to have the next chapter up soon! xox.