"You know how this sounds, right?" Charlie would be pacing if they weren't out in public. Olivia's not entirely sure her apartment isn't bugged, so they'd kept walking until she'd finally had to ask him to stop. She sits on a bench by the pond wishing that she'd worn better shoes, while Charlie stands with his hands on his hips, chin tucked while he processes everything she just told him. "He just ordered you to go over there and sleep with the guy, just part of the job, and meanwhile we don't even know you're gone?"

Charlie's old-fashioned. He believes in chivalry. He used to hold the door for her all the time back when they were first partnered, until she gave him so much gruff for it that he finally backed off. He'd tried to save face and claimed his mama raised him better, but his dad had told him that the woman was always right. Olivia remembers ribbing him for that too, but she also knew he did it because even after only working together for a short time, he respected her ability to get the job done. She can tell he's having a hard time with the idea of the Secretary using her like that, but even more so with the fact that she'd let herself be used.

"I was ordered to retrieve several pieces of a device. Some piece of ancient technology the Secretary said was hidden on the other side. There was a box, buried in some family's basement. Other pieces scattered all over the planet," she tells him. He's still watching her though, waiting for her to tell him how the kid fits into the plan. She takes a deep breath. "He also needed a sample of genetic material from Peter."

"There's other ways of getting that 'Liv."

"Not too many ways of getting it back safely. Do you know how they brought me back here Charlie?" she asks because he's clearly been in the dark so long he doesn't want to see. "A guy shot metal rods into my hands and my back in some train station washroom. He killed a woman who walked in on us to keep her quiet. Just some random woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." She closes her eyes for a moment. "Her daughter was there. She watched Peter shoot the woman in the head, only the kid didn't know her mother was already dead."

"'Liv- "

"He's using shapeshifters. It wasn't really the woman Peter shot, but the girl didn't know that. Charlie, you should've seen her face." She remembers how it felt as the bullet hit and the body jerked under her arm, but mostly she remembers the girl's face as she realized her world was about to come crashing down. Her stomach churns and she has to lean forward with her head between her knees until it passes.

"Shapeshifters are supposed to be theoretical. The technology was flawed," Charlie says. It's a mild evening and there are other people in the park. He keeps his voice low, but his face is tight with disbelief.

Olivia shakes her head. "They're real Charlie, and he's got them embedded all over the place there."

"Jesus," he breathes.

"Yeah."

He turns to her. "So you didn't beat us to that to that field."

"You guys were the retrieval party." She can tell it's all starting to fall into place for him. A lot of lives had been put at risk that day to get her back.

"And Broyles?"

"Dead is my guess." She tells him about the lab in Boston. "I think he figured out what was going on and helped her escape."

Charlie's clearly upset. He's pacing now. She's just tilted his whole perception of this supposed war and he's trying to find his footing again. Olivia looks over her shoulder, trying to see a recognizable face in the crowd; she can't shake that feeling that she's being watched again. There's nothing but the usual evening comings and goings.

"I wasn't supposed to get pregnant. That wasn't part of the plan." She gives him a minute to process. "I was just supposed to be a courier. The Secretary had other ideas and there's no way I could refuse. Frank was a warning not to try."

Charlie turns away from her and stands with his hands on his hips, and she can't help but feel stung by his disappointment. He'd been genuinely happy for her when he'd found out, and now she's let him down somehow.

"It burns whoever uses it. From the inside out Charlie." She waits until a group of camera-toting tourists pass. It gives her a second to lower her voice and take back a little bit of control. She really shouldn't be so invested in this, but her objectivity is slipping week by week. "He's not going to fix the rifts with the device. He's going to use this kid as a weapon."

That gets him. "'Liv… " But he's got nothing. He finally takes a seat beside where she's leaning forward with her elbows on her knees to keep herself from shaking. It sounds so much worse now that she's said it out loud.

"He's going to use a child as a weapon Charlie," her voice breaks. She looks at him over her shoulder. "If that's what we've sunk to, I don't know if this world is worth saving."

Charlie touches her shoulder. She leans into him a bit. It feels good, not so lonely. They sit and watch the people pass by. Kids on bikes, parents with children and little dogs in tow, regular people. Innocent people whose only crime is hoping and praying that their world doesn't disappear into the unknown.

"No," Charlie finally says. He rubs her shoulder absently. "No, I don't believe that 'Liv. There's got to be another way."

"That's what Peter said."

" Then we're just going to have to find it."

It occurs to Olivia that until further notice, she has complete control of the child, possession being nine tenths, and all. The Secretary can't use it if he doesn't have it, though as the days tick by, he's inching closer to his ultimate goal.

Work is quiet. Very quiet. Fringe Division hasn't been out on a first response in months now; the call only comes in when they're needed for cleanup. Olivia still gets out in the field, though never without a chaperone. Sometimes it's Charlie, sometimes it's Lincoln who comes along. He tells her he misses fieldwork and needs to stretch his legs. She doesn't have to wonder where the order came from.

"You know, sometimes I wonder," Lincoln tells her as he moves through the kid's bedroom, "if this whole 'Peter Bishop Act' isn't a waste of time."

He's watching her closely. "Oh?" she answers as she flips back the butterfly printed comforter and nudges a few stuffed bears around. The crime scene unit has already been through here and done their thing. No unexpected prints, no forced entry, no anomalous readings. She and Lincoln are pretty much just a formality.

"I'm willing to bet you dinner that this is a case of a custody dispute going sideways. Mom's pissed that Dad got visitation rights, grabbed the kid and ran." There's a tech in the room with them whose photographing the closet, and a uniform right out in the hall, but Lincoln's still watching Olivia and gauging her reaction. "I mean, really, when was the last time you ever heard of someone from another universe stealing a kid? You know how much work that would involve?"

She wants to shake her head and him. He's always been ballsy. "I wouldn't have a clue," she says instead, biting her cheek to keep a straight face. "Seen Charlie lately?" she asks lightly.

"I had drinks with him the other night," Lincoln says and Olivia lets her shoulders relax a bit. "You should've come."

Olivia shrugs and gives him a smile. Things are okay between them. "I'm not that much fun at a bar lately."

"Yeah, but we could've used a ride home." The show is for the benefit of the tech and the officer in the hall. Public deniability. Truthfully, Olivia's relieved that things haven't changed as much as she'd thought. Different assignments, but the team remained the same.

Lincoln waves the scanner again for show. "I've got nothing here. No visitors from a parallel universe." He winks at Olivia as he wanders out to the hall.

She follows him. Lincoln always was the brains behind the team.

Tbc…