Hello all. Due to my crappy internet setup here in Auz, this is only going up now when i would have preferred it to be up nearly a week ago. Sorry about that! Anywho, I hope you enjoy this latest bit, you get a few answers......

As always i do not own anything fringe related.

"Bishop, I need to know what all that was about."

Broyles sat at his desk, hands clasped on the desk before him. Peter was sitting white-faced in the opposite chair. His tongue was a lead weight in his mouth.

"How the hell does that man know your name and where you work? And who is he?"

Peter ran his hand through his hair like he always did when he was nervous or anxious. "He knows me… because I owe him money."

Broyles's eyebrows shot up in unison like timed rockets. "His claims were true?"

"Yes," Peter sighed. "The guy who has Olivia… it's Big Eddie. I have no idea how he knows where I am, but I can believe that it's true. He's got almost unlimited resources. This is what happens when I stay in one place for too long…" Silence reigned for a minute, only broken by the sound of Peter slamming his fist on the arm of the chair. "I never should have stayed, I knew that this could happen one day, but I never dreamed that he would go for..." Peter swallowed down the lump in his throat, hastily trying to conceal that he couldn't finish his sentence.

"Bishop, since you're our foremost expert on Big Eddie, I need your help to pick his brain. We need to know what his next move may be, if he's going to cross us, and his usual hangouts. As well, any names of people he's affiliated with. We can bring your father into this when we've got something tangible to work with, something that I expect to see very soon. But the question is, can you do this without letting your emotions take over?"

"Yes." Peter was stunned at his boss's calm exterior, but one glance to Broyles's eyes told Peter that he was just as furious.

"Good. We will find her, Bishop. I'm not going to let the majority of those beatings fall on her."

"Whatever brings her back, sir."

A small smile lit up Broyles's face. "I knew I could count on you for this one in particular. It hits home for all of us, but for you even more so."

Peter looked up with a quizzical expression. Was Broyles suggesting what he thought he was?

The corner of Philip Broyles's mouth twitched ever so slightly. "Seeing that you have a strong connection with not only the victim but her captors as well."

"Right," Peter shook his head. Stress and anxiety had him on a short leash, and his brain was thinking things it shouldn't. "So," he began again, standing as he did so, "let's get started, we're wasting time."

For a moment, Peter was convinced that he had angered his boss by being so blunt, but Broyles nodded and rose as well. "I couldn't agree with you more."

X

Someone was gently pushing her hair back from her face, waking Olivia with a groggy start. She opened her eyes and tried to roll away from the touch, but a hand grabbed her gently yet forcefully by the shoulder.

"Shhhh, it's ok. You're alright now…"

Olivia couldn't see his face in the dim light as her eyes struggled to adjust.

"Peter?" She whispered hopefully. It took a moment for her to realize that she'd actually spoken coherently; her gag must have been removed.

"No, not Peter. Lay still," the voice chided her and she obliged all too happily, momentarily forgetting to care that it wasn't Peter after all. Olivia felt a cool cloth on her face as the man wiped away the blood and sweat that had dried in a crackly shell over her skin. She winced when he passed over certain areas, her left cheekbone, her chin, just below her eye, feeling the sharp sting of her bruises and the swelling that came with it.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, noticing her winces.

Olivia mustered up as much strength as she could and made her dry, cracked lips move. "Why are you helping me?"

A small sigh, then, "I need to make sure that you're ok, and that you will be able to last a few more of those… assaults."

"You're making sure I'm not dead so that your boss can keep his insurance," she rephrased for him dryly.

No reply, just the sound of the cloth being dipped into a bucket of water, and the feeling of the cool liquid on her neck. Olivia's vision was improving by the minute, so she attempted to roll onto her back as much as she could while bound to get a better look at the man. She discovered that twisting her abdomen was a bad idea when piercing jolts of pain shot through her torso. A loan cry escaped her lips, and Olivia cursed herself for being so weak.

"I think you may have cracked a rib or two," the man said. His hands moved to her midriff. "May I have a look?"

Olivia barely nodded, now able to make out the figure of a man in black clothes and a black balaclava; she couldn't see his face, only the faint shimmer of his eyes. It was undoubtedly the kind man she had met earlier, that much she could tell for sure. His hands were both expert and gentle as they pulled her used-to-be-white blouse up to expose once pale skin now bruised black, blue, yellow, and every color in between.

"Tell me when it hurts," the kind man said, applying slight pressure to each of her ribs and noting when Olivia gave a grunt or moan of pain. "It looks like you've got three or four cracked ribs, and possibly just as many bruised ones." He sat back and pulled her shirt back down slowly to avoid grazing any of her wounds with a surprising amount of care. "But you're a strong one, you'll be alright."

Olivia shifted gingerly into a more comfortable position on her back. "It doesn't look like you enjoy working for your boss," she mused aloud.

"I never said I did," the kind man replied flatly.

"So why do you do it then? Did her bribe you? Blackmail you?" This wasn't the kind of interrogation that Olivia was used to, but it didn't feel like one either. Despite everything that had been done to her in the last hours, she did not want to hurt this man.

Initially, he did not reply but then he spoke quietly. "Let's just say that it was a combination of the two and leave it at that."

Olivia pressed on, hungry for information of any kind. "What did he promise you? Money? Safety?"

The man stood up abruptly. "If I were you, I'd save my strength. I don't have to tell you what's to come."

"Once he gets what he wants, he won't have any reason to reimburse you, or keep you around." Olivia grew frantic that she couldn't make him understand just how much danger he may very well be in. "Don't expect to get whatever he's been promising you!"

Olivia was panting from the effort of raising her voice. The man stopped with his hand on the handle of the door. He spoke without turning around. "That's a chance that I have to take," he paused and then said so quietly that she could barely hear, "You have thirty-two minutes left." And he slipped away without another word, leaving Olivia and the bucket of water alone in the gloomy light that seeped through the filthy windows high above her head.

"Shit," Olivia cussed quietly. She wanted so badly to know more about her situation, or she'd never be able to find a way out. But at least there was a video that had been sent to the Bureau, Peter in particular... she frowned. How did the boss know Peter? He'd said that he wanted his money, the money that was rightfully his…. Then Olivia gasped, making all the muscles in her upper body scream in pain. Her mind was floating back to an early conversation she'd had with Peter as her brain began connecting the dots.

"You owe money to a guy nicknamed 'Big Eddie'?"

"No, I owe money to a guy named Big Eddie. He had it legally changed."

Yes, she definitely knew who the boss was.

The door to the warehouse-sized room opened and Olivia looked up to see the kind man again. He was holding a long strip of cloth in his hand. She guessed he'd forgotten about her gag and blindfold.

"Wait, wait!" Olivia pleaded as he reached out to re-administer her gag. "I know who your boss is! I know because he's been after a friend of mine for a while, and I… I think it's why he has me," Olivia took a shaky breath before continuing; it was clear that she'd gotten the man's attention, "His name's Big Eddie, isn't it?"

The man's eyes, the only part of his features that Olivia could see, went wide for a moment before he was able to collect himself.

"My friend will make the exchange with Big Eddie. Whether it's in twenty-three hours or less, he will make it. And then Eddie will be done with this job, and I'd guess that also means done with you. Why does he need you now? What does he keep you around for? You're obviously not like his other men." Olivia already had a good guess as to exactly who he was – many of the loose ends were beginning to come together with this breakthrough of information.

The man crouched down, hoisted her up into a sitting position, and held her shoulders firmly. "Listen to me, because I'm only going to say this once," he said; his voice was laced with mild traces of anger and annoyance, "lots of people have made deals with Big Eddie for different reasons because they saw no other alternative. I'm just another one of those poor bastards trying to get through life in one piece, but finds themselves in a situation where they know that getting out of it in two or three pieces would be asking for a lot, much less one solid one. Don't you dare think for one minute that I would be doing this if I had any other option!"

Olivia took a breath, feeling both intimidated and impressed by his resolve. "I understand," she said softly, "But please, just tell me what he's done to you. I need to know what I'm up against."

The man's eyes were saddened by her words, she could tell. They were young eyes too – she guessed he was her age or even younger.

"Please, rest, you need your strength," he shook his head and looked away from her as he tied the gag. Olivia tried to meet his eyes, but he wouldn't even glance her way, and he didn't blindfold her either.

Only seconds later he was out the door, previously forgotten bucket in hand, speaking calmly and evenly over his shoulder as he exited, "Twenty-five minutes left."

Alright, talk to me! you know how awesome reviews are and how they can just make a girl's day :D