AN: Thank you to the reviewers for your kind words!

I had fully intended to get this chapter up quicker but life got in the way a bit this week, so apologies for leaving you hanging.

There is nothing but the darkness.

I have always tried to hold onto the belief that the afterlife, whatever that might mean to you, would be a warm bright place.

This is a void, an endless oblivion.

I feel disconnected from my body like I only exist in thought.

I start to panic, this place feels wrong.

The darkness shifts around me and know that I am not alone here.

"You can't stay here, Olivia."

A male voice resonates from the darkness and despite the situation I find myself in, the voice has a calming effect and I recognise it from somewhere

It's the same voice I heard backstage at the conference.

"I know you don't remember me, but you will in time. Don't be scared Olivia, open your eyes."

I didn't even know they were closed.

"Open your eyes."

"Olivia, can you hear me? Open your eyes."

I'm still lying on the ground in the train yard, it's still dark but the rain has stopped. Charlie is kneeling over me while his hands are gently cradling my head.

"Charlie?" My senses are coming back, enough to know that my Charlie is dead.

"Hey kiddo, you had me scared for a minute. You know they are going nuts over there."

I struggle to sit up but his hand on my shoulder halts my efforts.

"You should probably stay still, there's an ambulance on its way."

"I don't need an ambulance. Just, please, could you help me sit up?" This time Charlie obliges and between us both I get into a sitting position.

I've crossed over.

Now that I can look around I can see that things are quite different. There are no trains here and I am quite thankful for that. I'm lying in a large area of waste ground and off to the side I can see a building encased in amber.

"You scared the hell outa 'Liv. She got the message across when she figured out you weren't underneath a freight train. You've got some good timing there."

Something throbs on my head just above my right eyebrow and I reach up, only to wince when my fingers make contact with the skin.

"You've got a nasty cut on your head," Charlie explains

I can hear the sound of the sirens approaching.

"You need a ride back?"

The thought of being here any longer where I could be at the mercy of Walternate shakes me out of the daze I'm in. "Uh, actually." I can feel a strange pins and needles sensation at the back of my head. "Could you help me stand up?" Charlie helps me up and we take a couple of steps off to the side, I don't want to reappear in the middle of the freight train. I start to feel the pull and I know I don't have much longer.

"You know 'Liv isn't too bad when you get to know her, she was just following orders. The message she sent over, the one asking me to come here and see if I could find you, she sounded really frightened, I've never heard 'Liv like that before."

"She thought she watched me die." I remember how it affected Broyles when his double was sent over, already dead and missing some body parts, Walternate did that to one of his own people. I wonder if Fauxlivia would follow all of Walternates' orders so blindly if she knew the truth. "Thanks Charlie."

The edges of my vision seem to stretch out and speed up, even though I'm not moving.

"You're welcome." Sincere, just like my Charlie was, "And you know, drop in anytime." I can hear the smile in his voice. "Tell 'Liv I said "Hi"."

Then the nauseating disorientation of crossing between the universes as the world shifts around me. It occurs to me that this is the first time since I was a child that I have been able to cross without the use of the sensory deprivation tank.

The tank definitely smoothes out the ride.

My vision comes back into focus, Charlie has disappeared. My knees feel weak and I collapse down onto the ground retching. I can hear lots of voices round me, there are considerably more people here than there was when I left. My eyes squeeze shut as I continue to heave, a comforting hand lands on my shoulder.

"Are you ok?" it's Fauxlivia.

"Yeah, just need a minute." The world seems to be tilting back and forth in a lazy rocking motion.

"You really scared me..."

"I scared me too." I offer, sitting up on my knees as the dizziness starts to pass. "Charlie says Hi."

That breaks the air of seriousness between us.

"I wasn't sure you could do that, but I thought I better get Charlie out to find you in case you were hurt."

"Agent Dunham," It's Broyles, "Welcome back, I've got agents combing the area and temporary road blocks around the warehouse district, but it looks like he might have slipped through."

"Did you find my gun?" I'm looking around the area but I can't see it, "He's got my gun." I can't hide the alarm in my voice.

Broyles fingers the radio in his hand, "Attention all agents, suspect is armed, repeat suspect is armed, proceed with caution."

"I could help." I try to get onto my feet but it's a struggle.

"No, we got this, let the paramedics look at you then take the rest of the night off, that's an order."

"Come on." Fauxlivia grasps me under the elbow and helps me to my feet. "They're over here."

I'm glad for the support; the ground feels like the deck of a ship in rough seas.

"Lincoln! Is he alright?" I'd almost forgotten I wasn't the only casualty tonight.

"Oh he's fine, you know what men are like when they get hurt." She brushes it off, but I can hear the concern in her voice. "They're going to transport him back home; our medical technology is a bit more advanced than yours. He'll be back when he gets the all clear."

I can see the flashing lights of half a dozen Federal cars, plus an ambulance.

"Hey! Need some help over here!" Fauxlivia calls out the paramedic exiting the ambulance.

The paramedic see's us and motions us around the back, "What's your name?"

"Olivia Dunham." I answer as I take a seat in the back.

"What happened here? Is this your only injury?" He presses a large pad of gauze to my head just above my right eyebrow.

I hold back a hiss, "No, my ribs too." I gloss over his first question.

"Can you hold that to you head please?" He instructs before there's a stab of pain from a pen light being flashed into my eyes. "Your pupils are a little sluggish, do you have a headache? Feeling nauseous?"

"Yes." I don't know if that's from my head injury or my recent trip across dimensions. I'm confused as he gets a reading from a blood pressure cuff I don't remember him slipping on, I seem to be twenty seconds behind events here.

"You're blood pressure is a bit low. With your head injury we're going to have to take you to Boston General."

"What? No, I'm fine. I don't need to go to hospital."

"What's your badge number?" Fauxlivia asks.

I forgot she was still there.

"Um..." Is the eloquent response I can muster to that question, the world in front of me is skipping about like a bad satellite signal.

The paramedic nods at the assessment of the situation, "You want to ride with us?" He asks Fauxlivia.

"Sure."

"Well it doesn't look like anything is broken. Your head and chest X-rays have come back clear." The ER doctor announces as he sweeps the curtain aside. "You've got a concussion and some bruised ribs though, so you're going to have to take it easy for a couple of days until they heal. We'll get that cut closed then you can be on your way. Also you can't be left on your own tonight, maybe your sister could stay with you?" He says.

How does he know I have a sister? Rachel's not even here, then I see Fauxlivia looking at me from her seated position in the corner of the cubicle. She is trying desperately hard to disguise her amusement, he thinks we're twins.

"I can stay with her, that's not a problem."

"Ok, well your head is going to need sutures, there's a plastic surgeon on call coming to do it. Don't want to leave a scar" He says with a kind smile. "You're probably going to have a bit of a shiner in the morning as well." He turns to Fauxlivia, "Remember if she starts getting more symptoms, headaches, vomiting, or drowsy you'll have bring her back, ok?"

"Got it." Fauxlivia confirms and we're left alone again, "You guys are so old fashioned over here." Fauxlivia muses, "It seems almost barbaric, you should have stayed over my side and they would have healed your head up straight away, no needles."

I don't want to explain it's not their medical technology I'm concerned about, it's about being over there and not being able to get back, I'll gladly take the sutures.

"I'm going to make a call, see if I can get someone to drop your SUV off here so we can get home." Seems like a good idea, I don't want to wait around here any longer than I need to.

I'm assured that there shouldn't be any permanent damage and hopefully no lasting scars, but I can tell by the dull thud in the back of my head that I have one hell of a headache brewing.

Fauxlivia comes back in just as the surgeon is finishing up. "We good to go?"

"Yeah we're all done." He finishes up before securing gauze over the wound.

"Thanks." I sign the release documents, just as we have good insurance with our job.

"Come on Sis, let's get you home." She doesn't even try to make that sound convincing, but I think I'm starting to like her sense of humour. We make our way outside as she leads me over to where my SUV is parked. "Give me your car keys, there's no way I'm letting you drive when you can barely walk in a straight line."

I hand them over without protest.

I can see her looking at me with concern, "You sure you don't need to stay in? You look really pale, well, paler than you have been these last few days."

"It's not from my head; the journey was a bit rough." I offer in explanation. Somehow I also found a place I had never gone to before, the strange dark place of the void, or was that just a figment of my unconscious mind? "I'll be fine."

"Ok, but no puking in the car."

Back in my apartment, I make my way to the kitchen to find some Advil.

Fauxlivia walks in behind me and leans against the doorway into the kitchen, "I could do with a drink."

"Help yourself." I pop two pills into my mouth.

She hands me a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Why are you being nice to me?" This is without doubt the longest we have ever gone without trading insults.

"You scared the hell out of me, I thought you were dead." She pauses as she gathers her thoughts, "In a way, it was like seeing myself die. I guess, working with you and being over here, you're not the monsters we were lead to believe you were." I take a seat at the table as I watch her move about my kitchen with ease.

I'm slightly taken aback, "Are you trying to apologise?"

She sighs, "Yes, and I don't do it very often."

"Really? I couldn't tell." I reply sarcastically, but with a glint in my eye.

"When I got back, Broyles went missing-"

I'm thankful that she has her back to me at the moment; she missed the alarm that flashed across my face at the mention of Broyles, but I manage to regain my composure before she turns around.

"He just disappeared, we couldn't trace him and I thought it might have been connected to the last case you worked on. I pulled the files, you killed the Candyman, you saved his son and no doubt hundreds of others. That was the night you were captured on Liberty Island trying to escape. You knew then who you really were didn't you?"

"Yes." I keep my tone even, but my heart is pounding at the direction this conversation is taking.

"But you still saved Christopher."

I nod; I couldn't speak even if I wanted to.

"That's not the actions of a monster. Things are not as black and white as they first seemed." She takes a breath and looks up from her glass, "I'm sorry for what we did to you."

I'm speechless. I haven't given her enough credit; maybe she isn't so blind after all. This puts a new perspective on things, I always knew that one day I would talk to her about Broyles and the sacrifice he made for me, but up until this moment I didn't think she would have believed my explanation. Now she might.

"How do you do it?" the question is asked quietly.

I'm completely thrown by the question, I'm still not over the fact that she apologised to me. "How do I do what?"

"When you travel to other realities?"

Somehow I knew she was asking about that, I would be curious too had our roles been reversed. It wasn't going to be easy to explain, I certainly have never verbalised the experience before. "Well before tonight, I thought I could only do it with the help of a sensory deprivation tank, I've not been able to cross over without one since I was a child. It all happened so fast, it was over before I realised I had done it. Normally I've got to clear my mind and relax, and then I start thinking about one thing."

Fauxlivia sits down opposite me, intrigued.

"That I am nothing. It's not so much that I travel somewhere, more like everything passes through me as I stay still."

The condensation that's forming on the outside of the bottle runs down my fingers and reminds me I'm holding a drink, taking a small sip of water I continue. "You ever had that feeling, when you're drifting off to sleep and you feel like your falling?"

Fauxlivia nods in agreement.

"It's like that, you're falling, but you're not going anywhere."

We're quiet for a while, letting the words hang in the air. I blame the concussion for loosening my tongue, but it's out before I know what I've said, "It must be nice to know you're not the broken one."

She's taken back by the comment, before the words tumble out "What? No that's not..."

I hold my hand up, cutting her off "It's ok, forget I said that."

"You're not broken." There's a steely look of conviction in her eyes that almost convinces me of that fact.

"I just mean that you're happy, you have friends, a loving fiancée, a life outside work, you're not a cortexifan freak..." I pause before adding quietly, "Mom." Oh god, don't choke up, that's it, no more talking tonight. I stand and turn to head into the living room.

"But you do have a photographic memory, a sister and a beautiful niece-"

I smile at the thought of Ella

"Not to mention super powers."

I laugh at that one as I turn back round to face her.

She quirks her eyebrow "And don't forget the most important thing."

"What's that?"

"Unlimited supplies of coffee." She says in a mock serious tone. She polishes off her drink and stands, "I'll sleep on the sofa."

I'm too tired to argue about that one, so I nod in agreement, "Help yourself if you need anything, you probably know where everything is anyway." The last part laced with the acknowledgment that she did spend two months living in my apartment.

I still don't know if I can trust her completely, but after tonight I will definitely have to re-evaluate some of my opinions.

AN: As always, thank you for reading.