A/N: So, my roommate, the biggest slash fan you could possibly imagine, came up to me, waving this fic, and demanded very insistently "FIX THEM." And well, she threatened to stop helping me and some of my fics live and die with her. THUS, I must fix them. "Not easily fix them" is my caveat :P

So this is how three in the morning on 5 hours sleep in 48 hours felt. Liv ran her hand through her long red hair in utter frustration, bouncing Henry in what she hoped was a soothing motion, to no avail. The boy simply wailed louder, and Liv heard another insistent pound on the wall from her neighbors.

"Henry, please, go to sleep, baby. Mama has to work tomorrow."

But his cries only grew louder.

It had been a week since Lincoln had walked out on them, a concept that still felt very surreal to Liv. The condo would have been quiet without him, but Henry had been taking it upon himself to let her know exactly how much he missed his Daddy. He had been fairly calm through dinner that first day, but bedtime was a routine where Lincoln was usually a key player (Olivia had tried playing The Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" to him, because Lincoln had always sung it to the little boy at night, but it only created a brief moment of silence).

She was losing her mind. She had a brief break from Henry at work, but the awkwardness between her and Lincoln was to the point that she'd rather listen to her two-year-old scream all day.

As she picked the boy up from daycare (and didn't miss Henry's face falling when he saw that she wasn't Daddy), one of the teachers mentioned that Lincoln had been by at lunchtime.

An inexplicable rush of anger ran through her. She hoisted Henry onto her hip, and marched back into the main Fringe headquarters. Lincoln was at Astrid's desk, conferring with her as she stared stoically at her computer.

"Daddayyyyy!" Henry called, stretching his hands toward Lincoln. His head snapped up and he jogged to them.

"Hey, buddy," he smiled, reaching for Henry, but Liv yanked him out of his grasp. Lincoln's face fell immediately, drawing into a mask of anger.

"Oh, now I can't even hold my son? Or are we even allowed to call him that anymore?"

"Hard to think you want to amicably share him, sir, when you sneak daycare visits with him to make me look like a neglectful parent."

"Oh, yes, Liv. That was absolutely my aim. One other possibility though, and this is just purely hypothetical, just a remote possibility: maybe, just maybe, I missed my son?"

"Heyyyy," Charlie cut in between them briefly, sweeping Henry from Liv's arms. "Hey buddy. Come see Uncle Charlie. Hey Liv, you look great. Is that a new haircut, Linc? It's not important. Let's not discuss it now. We're gonna go."

And with that, he had retreated with Henry to safety in Lincoln's office.

Lincoln ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"I have a right to use my lunch break to do whatever the hell I want, Agent Dunham, so stop trying to keep me from my son. Being a vindictive bitch doesn't suit you."

Her head snapped up at that.

"Oh you want bitchy, Agent Lee? Really, you want me to go there? You say I meant what I said that night? You have no parental rights to Henry. Legally, I could claim you as nothing more than a babysitter, and never let you see him again."

That certainly got his attention. Lincoln's face blazed with anger. He stepped right into Olivia's personal space, his height leaning over hers with their noses practically touching.

"You cannot keep me from my son," he hissed, pure hatred lacing his voice, so much to the point that it honestly scared Liv.

And then, of course, the only other thing that could possibly make this worse, happened.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Frank's voice cut in, as he stepped in between the two, hand on Liv's shoulder.

"Come on guys, let's take this somewhere quiet."

"Oh you'd love that, wouldn't you, Dr. Outbreak?"

And then Lincoln's fist was colliding with his face, and Olivia was gaping in shock.

"Oh my god, Lincoln, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Lincoln got back into her space immediately.

"You want to jump back into bed with the guy who abandoned you the first chance he got? Fine. But he does not get to take my son."

Olivia Dunham was a fighter by nature. She beat her way out of a basement lab at nine months pregnant and in labor, for fuck's sake.

But for some reason, in this moment, she couldn't. She could only flee the headquarters, grabbing her son on the way, and run home.

Which brings us back to tonight.

Liv had seriously considered throwing back a bottle of bourbon, but figured lowering her inhibitions might not be beneficial at this point in time.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Henry sobbed over and over, and it was all Liv could do to stumble into a chair and hold her baby close to her.

And cry for the father she'd just thrown out of her son's life.

She woke up, startled and out of sorts, with a painful crick in her neck. She wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep, or when Henry had finally managed to cry himself to an exhausted sleep, but Charlie was banging on her door, and she was two hours late for work.

It almost galled her to admit that Lincoln was too much of a professional to punish her at work. There were no crap assignments or ridiculous job requirements. He kept everything as professional as he could when his jaw was clenching so tightly he was lucky for the federally funded dental care. If anything, the only thing that changed at work was Charlie.

Her mother dropped by after dinner, and she avoided the entire subject of Lincoln as best she could. It didn't get her out of a twenty minute lecture, but she did her best.

She probably would have been okay, had Henry been able to sleep through the night. But it was another two a.m. of finding another stuffed toy, or a fresh bottle, desperately trying to find something to coax her son to sleep. And failing.

She couldn't keep it up like this.

The papers were waiting in her desk drawer, and had been for the last six months. She settled Henry into his car seat, and let him cry as she retrieved the folder. She tried brushing her fingers through her hair, but didn't really worry about it too much. If Lincoln wanted her to look fantastic after a week without sleeping properly, then she really couldn't help him.

BREAK

Liv really did want to ruminate on what Charlie and Mona had been doing when she opened the door in a spider nightie (really. Let's not make her revisit that.)

As Charlie appeared behind Mona, he sighed, passing a hand over his face.

"Hey Liv. You are aware that it's 4AM and you're holding a crying baby, right?"

"Thanks, Charlie, the ringing in my ear kinda clued me into that."

She peered around Charlie, trying to see into the dark of the house. She bit her lip as Henry's tears dripped onto her neck.

"Is he here?"

A wide-awake Lincoln appeared from behind Charlie. As soon as he took in her disheveled appearance and her crying son, his eyes hardened, but he didn't walk away. With a sigh, Charlie let her in and pulled Mona by the hand back into their room.

"No sex in front of the kid, boss, or your ass is out on the street."

"Linc…"

He scooped Henry out of her arms without a word, and the baby instantly stopped crying, snuggling into Lincoln. He kissed the boy's curls, whispering "I love you" into his ear.

Henry was asleep in less than two minutes, still pressed into Lincoln. He rocked the boy gently, and laid him on the couch, combing his fingers through Henry's hair.

"You're a great father," she said softly.

"Yeah, isn't that funny," Lincoln retorted. "Kind of a revelation of sorts."

Her eyes closed, her head pounding harder.

"Please, Lincoln. I didn't come here to fight with you."

"Well then why did you come here, Liv? Just because Henry was crying? You couldn't figure out how to calm him down on your own?"

"No! I came here…to talk to you. Not fight, not run out mad, just…talk."

Lincoln folded his arms. "About what?"

Liv stepped closer and laid a hand on his arm, hoping fiercely that he wouldn't shake her off and shut himself down. Thankfully, he let her hand rest there, but his face retained its mask of anger.

"I am…so sorry, Lincoln. There is nothing going on with Frank and I. Actually, I…I asked him to leave today. I should never have said what I did."

Her eyes searched Lincoln's face, but his expression didn't change.

"Please, Lincoln, I'm trying here. I want to fix this."

"Why? You said it yourself, I'm nothing in Henry's life, and I'm apparently nothing to you," he retorted.

"That's not true."

"Again, why? Why should I believe that?"

Liv reached into her bag and pulled out a folder, silently handing them to Lincoln. He flipped it open and read the headline "Certificate of Adoption."

"What's this?"

She passed a hand through her hair. "Adoption papers. I want you to be Henry's father officially."

Lincoln's mouth fell open. "You…want me to be his official father?"

She nodded, and then produced another flap of paper out of another envelope.

"I've had them for the past six months, just waiting for the right time. And then there's this, but this depends on tonight."

Prior to this, Lincoln didn't think she could shock him even more. However, the headline made him fall back onto the couch, careful not to crush Henry.

"Application for Marriage License."

He looked up at her to find her biting her lip in nervousness.

"Liv, you want to marry me?"

"Yeah, kinda."

He stood, his legs still shaking a bit.

"So we've gone from hating each other's guts, to threatening to deny me visitation, to me moving out, to you wanting me to adopt Henry and marry you."

Her face fell ten stories. "Is that a no?"

"No! No, its not a no, it's just…"

"Look, I know we have a lot to fix, Lincoln. But…I want to fix it. I want you to come home. And yes, I want you to officially be Henry's father and eventually, I want to marry you, but please, please come home. I was being an idiot but we both need you. Please?"

For the first time in what felt like days, Lincoln felt a smile break over his face. He scooped up his son in his arms and carefully weaved his fingers through Liv's.

"Let's go home."