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Chapter 4:

Her head throbbed and as she shifted on the floor. She felt a pool of blood beside her. "Bell?" She rasped remember the gun firing and her eyes further opened seeing the crimson stain beside her.

"No, that's your blood," Bell stood over her, offering her a hand, helping Olivia to her feet. "You missed," he gestured to the bullet beside the desk. "Close shot though."

"How?" Olivia remembered the gun beside his head. If she shot him, she wouldn't have missed. Then again how did she hit her head? Where had she gone? None of it made any logical sense.

"That's not to concern yourself with," Bell answered, "the rest of the answers will come when you're ready to accept them. Now that I've shown you Peter, you're indebted to Massive Dynamic."

"Great," Olivia muttered beneath her breath, running a hand over the swollen bump on her head. It hurt that was for sure. "And if I don't do this the easy way?" She asked wondering what he'd do to her.

"Do you really have to ask?" Bell stared, the smile falling from his face. "I can't let company secrets, big secrets leave this office. You work for me. You chose the answers, it comes with a price. It's considerably a small one with the knowledge you'll gain while you're here."

Olivia nodded and grimaced. "Right. I want answers then. What happened to Peter, the little boy."

Bell walked over, resting a hand on her shoulder, "you should sit down for this."

"You couldn't have said that earlier?" She rolled her eyes falling into the chair across from his desk.

"Let me start by explaining where you were. That will help you understand where Peter has gone to," Bell offered seeing the puzzled look on her face. "For every choice we make, there's a road not taken." Bell described, "a path if we would have gone on, the choices we make would have further branched out other paths and so on. You've heard of alternate realities, parallel dimensions?"

"Yeah I've seen an episode or two of Sliders," Olivia nodded.

"It's a bit like that." Bell explained, watching Olivia intently.

"So you're the scientist in all this? Wait, you kidnapped Peter?" She was trying to wrap her head around the particulars.

"No," Bell shook his head. "The man that did that, is not from this world. Though," he smiled, "neither am I."

Olivia stared at his deadpanned expression. "I don't believe it."

"You meeting with Peter didn't prove that to you?" Bell asked her.

"Hardly. It just proves that Peter or whoever that was when I hit my head," she reiterated, "knows everything in my file. Again, I hit my head. What do you expect from a head injury?"

"You're just like her." Bell sighed should having expected as much. She was tough, stronger, a pain in the ass. It reminded him of the drug trials on the other Olivia. The one from his reality.

"Enough with the identical twin crap!" She was getting fed up. "Fine, there's alternate realities, Peter is in one. Great! So am I. So is everyone else! What is your point?" She was getting fed up with his games.

"Peter Bishop the one you're looking for was kidnapped and taken to the other reality." Bell answered watching her expression. She actually believed him.

Olivia nodded slowly. "Okay." She paused thinking it over, trying to make sense of it. Peter was in the other world. "What about the original Peter?" She frowned trying to speak of it was chaotic.

"He's dead, that's what brought on the kidnapping. His father couldn't deal with his death," Bell sighed. "I was also around to help him."

"Wait what do you mean you were around to help him?" Olivia stared up at Bell with a curiosity she didn't know she even possessed. The questions coming at her were on a level she never anticipated. She'd dealt with suspects, terrorists even. Bell, she didn't know what to classify him as other than a royal pain in the ass.

"He needed some help. Between us we got the science figured out. Walter actually kidnapped Peter, I was the getaway driver, if you want to call it that." Bell smiled weakly.

"So you are an accessory to the kidnapping." Olivia stared at him.

"There's no crime punishable by current law," Bell answered, "that's the kicker. We didn't do anything wrong."

"The hell you didn't!" Olivia shook her head, "you kidnapped a seven year old boy from his bed! Did you not think about what that might do to Peter?"

"We had to," he breathed. "I can't explain the reasons why but it wasn't his time to die."

"So kidnapping Peter from this world is what your solution?" She laughed at the absurdity. "Do you hear what you're saying?"

"Walter had another son, he's moved on. You've met him actually." Bell answered. "I didn't want to do it but I've seen the difference a wrong choice makes."

"What makes you think kidnapping Peter was right?" Her eyes were wide, she couldn't believe this man, the arrogance of him!

"You are too young, too fresh to understand the consequences of travel between dimensions. Of death and of what each world will become. You are but a pawn Olivia, a pawn with the FBI and I'm trying to let you fulfill your destiny, to reach it and become what you're ultimately supposed to become."

"This is crap," she shook her head. "You're crazy."

Bell didn't deny the eccentricities of the job. "I very well might be but in the end you will be beside me in all this."

"In what?" Olivia shook her head. "What the hell is going on! Why would you steal Peter and think it's the right thing to do?"

"I can't tell you that. I'm sorry. You are too young, too green to understand the complexity. With time you'll grow an understanding. This is your first day here, Olivia."

"Great," she shook her head. "I made a deal with the devil."

"I'm not the devil," Bell shook his head. "There are worse things in this world, things you can only dream about, Olivia."

"Why can't I go to the other world? You sent Peter, why can't I see it with my own eyes? Why the blackness, the cloak around it?" She tried to understand, gain a greater knowledge.

"You would be ripped apart. Peter is unique." Bell surmised, "only a select few have the ability to travel."

"You're one of them?" She guessed.

"Yes but not very easily," Bell shook his head. "I won't go back, not for a long time." He didn't elaborate as to why. "The blackness is a tunnel from one dimension to the next. A rest stop, so to speak, where the two sides can communicate without stepping too far into the other dimension. The meetings can only last a short duration and are without the ramifications of inter-dimensional travel."

Olivia nodded slowly. "I get to keep my body parts."

Bell smiled, "yes, Olivia."

"Who else knows about the other world?"

"In theory, many. In reality, a select few." Bell nodded. "I'm trusting you with this secret." He knew she didn't understand how the gateway opened and telling anyone about it would destroy her credibility.

"Does Walter know?" Olivia had to ask.

"The Walter that had his son taken?" Bell nodded, "he suspects but can't prove it."

"You were the one, that broke into his lab, stole the mirror, and any work he had relating to Peter's disappearance." It wasn't a question, more of an accusation.

"If I had, it wouldn't have been difficult since we shared a lab together," Bell smiled, "some things never change." He glanced briefly at the clock, "you should get your head looked at. I'll see you first thing on Monday."

"So that's it?"

"What were you expecting, Olivia?" Bell asked her.

"I really don't know."