A/N: So NaNoWriMo is over, and yay, I made it. Now after nearly a week and a half of editing I am still not done. I did it as a Fringe fanfic, a zombie one, but it is nowhere near finished, so a few edits, a touch up and give it a month or two, I can start posting :D

Chapter 9 - The Murky Man And The Camera

Olivia woke with a start. The sheets around her were damp and she felt sweat on her forehead. It was the third one this week, not that Peter knew of. As far as he was concerned he only knew of the one that she woke screaming from. She'd woken Lacey, who had curled up next to her. Lacey, scared, ran to find Peter, thinking her mum was hurt.
Olivia had lied and told Peter she was having nightmares about losing Lacey, which prompted another round of constant apologies for not knowing, and leaving her behind when they came for Olivia.

But it was far from the truth. Olivia found herself being haunted in her dreams. A murky man. A blur of grey. Some unseeable figure who lurked in every corner, behind every door. She had no idea who it was. It only spoke to her once, "my little Olive." and it had freaked her out.

Peter watched her as she trudged down the stairs, baggy t-shirt and shorts, hair all messy. She looked extremely tired. But he decided not to push it. Push her, and she'd retreat. Instead, he made pancakes. Blueberry and Ice-cream pancakes.

Walter was sitting at the table, waiting eagerly with a bowl of corn chips and sweet and sour sauce as Olivia took her seat next to Lacey as Peter placed the pancake-stacked plate in the middle of the table and placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of Olivia. She clasped her hands around the warm cup, staring off into space.

Lacey was in a high-chair staring wide-mouth at Walter as he placed several corn chips in the middle of his selected pancake, folded it in half and covered it in sweet and sour sauce before taking a large bite.

A high pitch 'Ewwwwww' stirred Olivia out of her trance.

"Mummy! Walty being silly!" she laughed, watching Walter take another crunchy bite, sauce dripping down his chin.

Lacey's face looked a mix of disgust and curiosity. She was peering over her chair, trying to get closer to Walter and his 'creation'.

"Olivia? Are you alright, my dear?" Walter asked, thankfully, having swallowed the pancake-creation first,

"Yeah, Walter, I'm fine, just haven't been sleeping too well lately."

"Ah, well we should get you outside, out and about. You haven't left the house for longer than 20 minutes." He took another bite of his pancake before adding, "We could go to the park!"

"Park, mummy! We go to park?" the little girl clapped her hands at the idea,

"The park sounds like a wonderful idea, Walter." She forced a smile.

It felt like a dream. Where everything feels too good to be true, to be real. It felt like time had slowed down, for just this moment, letting her watch it closely, like something was telling her that this moment was important.

Watching as Peter pushed Lacey on the swings. Her hair fluttering around in the wind, a huge smile on her face. They were both laughing.

"Olivia! Come on!" Peter waved her over from her seat place at the bottom of the slide.

There was no one else around. The park, empty, silent, but in a good way.

"Sit. I'll push both of you."

She did as he said, settling into the 'larger' swing seat next to the kiddies one Lacey was strapped in. He started pushing her, a single hand pushing softly against her back, just below her shoulders. She lost track of time after that, next thing she knew, Lacey was running towards the playground, sliding down the slide.

Peter hadn't known this side of Olivia, this carefree side. When they'd gotten together, after everything with her step-father, and the birthday card, sure, she was more open, willing. But he never knew of her like this. Her laughter was infectious. He couldn't help but laugh too.

Little did they know, a man sat across the park, camera in hand. He snapped off several shots of Olivia and Peter on the swings, Lacey on the slide and a few of them together, Lacey being swung between them as they made their way back to the car. He cared little for the older man with them; all he cared about was the 'family'.

oOo

It was later that night, much later, and Walter was sitting on the couch with one of his multi-unusual-ingredient milkshakes, watching some late-night program about octopuses.

When he stood to go back to bed, he saw something white at the foot of the front door. Wondering if he had missed some mail, he picked it up.

It wasn't an envelope, just a photo-holder, one of those paper carriers you get at a Kodak store after printing several photos. On the front of the sleeve/flap someone had written 'I Will Always Be Here'.

Inside were 8 photographs. Peter and Olivia on the swings. Peter and Olivia swinging Lacey. Olivia and Lacey. Lacey and with Walter in the background on the slides.

The last one was Olivia and Peter unknowingly facing towards whoever had taken the photo, Lacey in Olivia's arms reaching out to Peter, a perfect photo, that Walter secretly wished could be in his Family Photo album.

This one had 'you thought you could hide for 3 years?' written over it.

Please Read A/N:

In all honesty, I've lost inspiration for this story. It's not my best work, It was really just two ideas wanting to be written that I tried to put together, and I'm not sure that it worked as well as I had planned.

I'll try and keep everything plain and simple, but I want to move on from this one, have it complete, so I can start on finishing my NaNo novel.