So, I kind of put this story on the back burner, then Josh Jackson had to go and mention it again at Wondercon a few weeks ago (not my story but the concept behind it that had got my gears turning in the 1st place) and so now it's sitting in the back of my brain again. I have to get it out there before the world comes crumbling down and Fringe is possibly not renewed (THE HORROR!). I didn't want to write long stories any more, but dang this one's turning into a long one. Darn you Joshua Jackson! Double dog darn you!
Just a recap: so this is an alt universe story where Peter was cured by Walter and returned safely to his home on the other side to grow up over there...
Feedback, critiques, chocolate chip cookies shoved through the internets, anything is appreciated, except flaming bags of poo. Thanks for reading!
Let's back up just a little from where we left off...
After a tense night of no changes in Peter's condition, Astrid arrived bright and early at the laboratory. Olivia was out in the field on a case and Walter was pacing, looking worried. He perked up when Astrid arrived.
Walter had been dancing around Peter Bishop's side for the better part of the last few hours, Astrid had noticed and marked it in her notebook. She was keeping both eyes on Walter today as Olivia suggested (Olivia didn't need to know that Astrid had already been keeping both eyes and both ears on Walter Bishop since the day he was sprung from the asylum). She wasn't sure how much she trusted this man and things around here just kept getting weirder and weirder. A man plucked out of thin air? From a parallel universe? Madness. When she signed up for the FBI, she'd had no idea this was what she was getting into.
Genius and madness tiptoed the same line and that line was getting smaller and smaller every day.
Walter had taken copious vials of blood earlier in the morning from Peter. Astrid feared he would drain the poor man dry, but Walter scoffed at her when she voiced the thought. He frowned a lot at his findings, took reams of notes and then asked for strange things.
Astrid's first task of the day was to go to a garage somewhere in Boston and pick up some boxes full of Walter's old files.
"Everything marked 'Peter,'" he told her. "They'll be in the back of the station wagon." He said as he handed her a set of keys.
"And on the way back, pick up a large chocolate Dr. Pepper float. I need it to think." Astrid looked sternly at him, not moving; she was his government paid errand girl, but she was not his personal slave.
He noticed she hadn't moved. "Please?" he asked, hoping that would wipe the look from her face. It did and Astrid reluctantly turned on her heel and left the lab on her mission.
Hours later, she came back covered in dust and dropped off the ice cream float. Everything was as she left it: Peter Bishop asleep in his chair and Walter stewing impatiently over computer readouts. He smiled at her and actually remembered her name (well, he came close enough so she gave him credit anyways).
"Aspirin!" He took a spoonful of the chocolate Dr. Pepper float and savored it. "This delicious concoction has given me hope. Where DID you get this?" He stared, mesmerized, into the cup.
"There's an old fashioned soda shop a few blocks away, Walter. I've become a regular there. They think I'm pregnant because of all the weird drinks I order.
"Little do they know the real story."
Walter smiled at her.
After a few hours, after he helped her lug in the dusty boxes of files from her car, they sat together on the floor of the lab, flipping through file folders. She opened a box and pulled out a stuffed bear in a faded T-shirt that read "Buddy Bear" and she glanced inside at a pile of dinosaurs and Star Wars figures.
Walter snatched the bear away from her.
"This was one of his favorites. But not his very favorite. We buried him with that one."
Astrid started to tear up, but she had nothing to say. She glanced over at Peter.
Walter jammed the toys back in the box and replaced the lid.
"We don't have time for this," he suddenly remarked and grabbed another box.
xXx
She found the file and Walter began consulting it and taking things from the cabinets and refrigerator. Only Walter knew where everything was and he grumbled loudly when he couldn't find something important.
Astrid scribbled in her notebook: buy labelmaker for Walter.
"I need more syringes, Ascot!" he barked. "Please!"
"No dilly dallying! Time is of the essence, dear. Time. Is. Of. The. Essence!"
She headed out again.
He grabbed the bag with the syringes from under her arm the moment she came in the door. He ignored the sandwiches she had picked up for their lunch. Astrid had never known him to not notice when food was in the room.
Before she could ask or object or even put down her purse, Walter had injected a series of blue-ish substances into Peter's arm.
"Walter, what was that?" Astrid dropped her purse heavily onto the table. She didn't have children, but she thought that dealing with Walter must be what it was like to have a really precocious child who was always taking apart the TV or the toaster or the family dog to try to see how it worked. She reached into her purse for her notebook.
"Walter, what did you just inject into him?" She said sternly as she opened the notebook and clicked her pen.
He smiled but did not look at her. Beguiling. "It was an enzyme. Designed to promote muscular regeneration." He checked Peter's reflexes and pupils and scrawled some notes of his own.
Astrid wished she had taken some biology classes or chemistry classes, she could never tell if Dr. Bishop was pulling the wool over her eyes.
xXx
So when Peter opened his eyes later that day and moved his feet, Walter was not surprised.
Well, maybe he was a little surprised.
He stared at Peter who also stared back for a moment.
"I knew you could do it," Peter smiled.
Walter stood there, shy.
"I found my notes from before."
"I—I- I don't know what to say-" Peter said as he tried to get up from the chair.
"Take it easy- son." Walter tried to push him back down, but Peter was determined to stand.
Walter and Astrid grabbed Peter's arms and stood on either side of him.
He stood. Shaky, but he was standing.
But then he fell back into the chair, exhausted.
Walter had so many questions, but where to begin?
"Would you like something to eat, Peter?" Astrid asked.
"Oh, I should have baked a cake!" Walter clapped his hands together.
"I'll call Olivia," Astrid spoke while dialing.
xXx
Olivia arrived quickly after the call from Astrid. She was nervous.
Peter looked exhausted. He had staggered from table to table, grabbing at chairs for support and balance and the excitement of it all had quickly drained him of energy. All he wanted to do now was fall into a soft bed. And yes he could now fall into a bed instead of being placed there and carefully tucked in by a nurse or his mother.
"Peter," She smiled at him. "You can stay at my apartment."
"Thanks Olivia. I really appreciate it."
"I rather hoped Peter would be staying here at the lab-" Astrid began.
"Oh me too!" Walter butted in.
"-hopefully it would have deterred Walter from walking around naked so much tomorrow. It is Tuesday after all," Astrid finished.
"That's a side of Walter that I have absolutely no interest in seeing," Peter winced. "I'll stay at Olivia's."
Olivia and Walter tried to help him climb the stairs up to Olivia's apartment but Peter only got up the first two and then couldn't continue. Walter heroically offered to fireman carry him, but Peter politely declined. Olivia ran up the stairs into her apartment and grabbed a chair from the dining room. Olivia and Walter easily carried him, seated in the chair, up the remaining steps.
"I think I'll need to find a new place," she said to the two men when they entered the apartment. They both smiled at her. Their smiles looked so similar, it unnerved her. She hadn't had time to properly process what had happened, she had gone through the day in a haze and now Peter Bishop, who hadn't existed in this universe 48 hours ago, sat on her couch about to pass out from exhaustion.
Walter put a blanket over him and before they could say anything, he was out like a light. They still hadn't asked any questions and Peter had not spoken about what happened between the time Olivia appeared and he had appeared, in mid air.
Walter sat at her dining room table while Olivia brewed some water for tea. Too shocked for words they co-existed in comfortable silence.
A man from a parallel universe lay there, snoring lightly, on her couch and she was having a cup of tea.
And the impetus of all this, John Scott, was driven out of her mind almost completely by a bulldozer.