Chapter 10

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-Harvard, Kresge Bldg, Basement

Peter walked slowly back through the lab towards the bench in front of Gene's stall where they'd set up the tv that Walter had found god knows where. He still couldn't believe what Olivia had just told him. She thought she had actually found the guy she saw in her dream, from when she was in the tank. Walter's procedure worked. The thought kept running through his mind, stuck in a loop. He couldn't process it. The implications of it were not something he was prepared to deal with at the moment. An vision of Walter struggling as he was dragged out of a courtroom, shouting that he wasn't insane, if they would only give him a chance to prove it, flashed through his mind. The guilt caused lump to begin to form in his throat, but he shook it off. Now was not the time.

He stopped at John Scott's gurney, checking his vitals on the monitor mounted to it. You're not looking so good, my friend, Peter thought, staring down through the flesh of his cheek at the profile view of his teeth. It looked like he'd had several cavities capped on his molars. Look ma, no x-ray! It was amazing what you could get used to with just a little time and exposure. When he'd first seen John Scott in this condition, he'd wanted empty his lunch into the nearest trashcan or toilet, he wasn't picky. Now, he was able to make sick jokes about it in his head without batting an eye. As he moved closer to the back of the lab, he could hear Astrid and Walter talking about the narrative qualities of Spongebob Squarepants as they ate their lunch.

Feeling his own stomach rumble, Peter walked over and sat down net to Walter on the bench, and picked up his tub of fried rice that Astrid had been nice enough to go get for them. And now he found himself sitting on a bench in front of a cow, in a secret lab in the basement of Harvard, the sworn enemy of his fake alma mater, while eating chinese carryout and watching Spongebob with his father, who'd just been released from a mental institution after seventeen years. The surreality of it all made his head spin. He ate mechanically, staring blankly at the cartoon playing in front of him, while Walter and Astrid pretended that this was all normal. He couldn't though, as the thought that Walter might not quite be the man he'd thought he was for the last seventeen years surfaced again.

Walter noticing his moroseness turned to him, a concerned look on wrinkled face. "Peter, what's the matter, son? You don't like Spongepants?" Walter poked him in the leg with a chopstick, trying to get his attention.

His prodding with the chopstick broke Peter out of the guilt-filled contemplation he'd been stuck in for the last few minutes. "No, it's fine Walter." He said, brushing the chopstick away from him. "Just hurry up and eat, Olivia called. She's going to be picking us up soon."

"Oh? What's the occasion?" Walter replied through a mouthful of rice.

"Well Walter," he replied around his own mouthful, which he swallowed down before continuing. "Apparently, the whole let's give a federal agent a massive dose of acid, and throw her into a tank of water thing worked." Seeing a blank look on his father's face, he elaborated. "The shared dream state? It worked. Olivia thinks she found the guy."

"Really?" Astrid exclaimed, "That's great Dr. Bishop, amazing actually." She seemed shocked, and Peter couldn't blame her.

"Of course it worked, son." Walter said, as if it had never been in doubt. "I told you that I'd done this before. Are you feeling ok? You never had problems with your memory when you were a boy… perhaps I could…" He made as if to grab Peter's head.

"My memory is fine, Walter." He said quickly, fending off Walter's attempts at grabbing him again. The man really needed to learn the meaning of personal space. "So, we're going with Olivia to pick up the guy. She wants you to be there when he's questioned."

"She's taking you with her on a raid?" Astrid questioned, surprised, and if he wasn't mistaken, a little bit put out. Before he could respond to her, Walter jerked off the bench, showering the floor with fried rice.

"A raid? That's wonderful Peter!" He exclaimed, shoulders bobbing in his excitement. "Do you think they'll let me wear a bulletproof vest? And one of those face shields too, it's going to be so exciting!" He was pacing back and forth in front them, gesticulating wildly.

"Walter…Walter," Peter jumped in front of him, hands raised to forestall him. "Slow down. I'm sure we will be waiting in Agent Dunham's car, far from the scene. They won't need you until after they catch the guy. Ok?"

Walter seemed crestfallen, but nodded. "I suppose you're right, son." Shuffling through the mess of rice on the floor, he entered Gene's stall and began to brush her down, ignoring Peter and Astrid as they watched.

Shaking his head at his eccentric father, he looked over at Astrid and caught her eye. "You want to go on the raid, don't you?" he commiserated.

She smiled sweetly at him, "I don't know, they haven't let me go on any yet, but I thought, maybe…" She shrugged, "It's not a big deal. I'm sure there will be other times once this over."

Peter nodded agreement, then looked down at the mess on the floor. He sure as hell wasn't cleaning that up. Looking up, he saw Astrid watching him, a knowing look on her face, lips pursed. Their eyes locked for a moment, before he nodded and looked again down at the floor meaningfully. Her eyes narrowed in response, causing him to smile wide.

"So Astrid," he said smoothly, "We've known each other what, two days now? I think that makes us friends, don't you? And in the interest of friendship, what do you say to you cleaning up Walter's mess on the floor, and me watching you from a safe distance?" She didn't look at all convinced, so he continued. "Did anyone ever tell you that those curls in your hair are just lovely," she was smiling now, trying not to laugh, "they really set off the color of your eyes, and-"

"Fine, fine, I'll do it," Astrid said, cracking up. "We're not making a habit of this though, Peter."

"I wouldn't dream of it." He replied, grinning at her amusement.

As he watched her go about it, he heard his phone vibrating on the table where he'd left it. Picking it up, he saw it was a text from Olivia, indicating she would be there in a few minutes. "Walter," he called over to his father where he was busy digging through an old box of vinyl records. "Olivia's almost here, let's go."

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They only had to wait for Olivia for a few minutes before she pulled up in her sedan, and let them in. She had looked excited, her face flushed, as she talked on her phone with someone, he guessed it was Agent Francis, about the upcoming raid. Olivia was in full Agent Dunham mode, all business and no fun.

When they had arrived at the scene, which he happened to be familiar with from his early teen years, she'd instructed them in her agent voice that they were to stay in the car and not leave it, until she came back for them. Then she'd passed through a police barricade that had been set up, and he'd seen her join Agent Francis and other agents pulling vests out of a black SUV. His eyes widened when he saw her pull on a gas mask. It made sense, considering who they were going after. He tried to avoid thinking of what would happen if the toxin could enter your body by just coming in contact with skin, but failed, and a vision of finding Olivia's body, face translucent behind her gas mask, dead on the floor of some apartment building went through his head. I'm not worrying about her, he told himself. She can definitely take care of herself. It wasn't like he could do anything about it anyways.

Staring out the window at the falling snow, Peter realized that the raid was a first for him, especially from this side of the law. He remembered the close call he'd had once, back when he was associating with Big Eddie. He had left a backroom high stakes card game only minutes before the place had been busted in a raid by Boston PD. His lucky departure had not helped his reputation among the other associates of Eddie's. That close call was the start of the events that had ultimately forced him to flee Boston, just ahead of Eddie's goons, leaving Tess, and everyone else behind, he realized. It seemed like another lifetime ago, and with all the places he'd been since then. He wondered what Tess was like these days, if she was still around, if Michael was still harassing her. He supposed it didn't matter at this point, she was his past, he'd let her go long ago.


Olivia hated wearing gas masks. They obstructed her peripheral vision, and her long hair always got tangled in the straps. Once Charlie had told her she should cut it short if it was such a problem, which had earned him a bruised bicep for his trouble. She smiled behind her mask as she remembered the moment. Seeing that Charlie was about ready to go, she quickly began her before-raid ritual that she always ran through. Pulling out her Glock, she cracked open the slide, ejected the bullet, and chambered the next round as the slide clicked back into place. Releasing the clip, she reloaded the ejected bullet, and slid the clip back home in the grip of the pistol. Then she re-holstered the weapon, bent down to check that her shoelaces were securely tied, which they were, and she was done. Olivia wasn't sure when she'd started doing this before every raid, but it always seemed to calm her nerves to a flatline.

"You ready?" Charlie asked her, his voice muffled from his mask.

She nodded affirmative, and he turned and gave the signal to the surrounding agents. They moved in a single file down the snowy sidewalk and around the corner of a building on the other end of the block, from what she hoped was Richard Stieg's hideout. Eventually they came to an alley that would that run the length of the block behind both buildings. Hustling down the narrow passage, the line of agents approached the target house. The lead agents wearing the full tactical gear and carrying the H&K's took up their positions on either side of steps leading up to the rear door. Others circled around the corners of the house and would be rushing in through the front door. Olivia pulled her Glock from its holster as they moved into position behind the lead agents and waited for the go signal.

The rear door of the home next to Stieg's suddenly swung open and a woman with a young boy suddenly stepped out and froze at the sight of all them, weapons drawn, about to converge on the space she was occupying. Olivia watched the closest agent direct her and her son quietly down the alley away from the danger. She exchanged glances with Charlie, he shook his head at the close call.

When everyone was in their place, the signal came, and an agent carrying a heavy ram, ran up the steps and bashed the ram into the door knob, popping it out like a cork. The door swung open to reveal a dark interior, and they rushed up the steps and into the home, weapons drawn and ready.

Olivia followed Charlie broad shoulders through the door and into a dimly lit kitchen. Looking around, she noted the dishes in the sink, on the table, it looked lived in, and recently. Through a doorway to a family room, she saw a tv turned on, but muted on some shopping channel. She heard agents further into the house clearing the rooms one by one, until it became obvious that Stieg wasn't there. As she started to head to the next room, she heard the floor let out a squeak beneath her. Glancing down she noticed the carpet she was on was actually a rug, and it had been moved recently, exposing a line hardwood that was much darker than the surrounding.

Narrowing her eyes, she crouched down and grabbed the edge of the rug and pulled it back. There was a string tied to the bottom which she assumed was supposed to hold it place. As she pulled it back farther she saw a handle set into the floor, and she realized she was looking at a trap door.

Olivia threw the rug aside, and pulled open the door to expose a ladder, leading down to a basement. Motioning for Charlie to cover her, she slowly descended the ladder into what appeared to be another lab, similar to the ones she'd seen with John. She heard Charlie come down the ladder behind her and she turned to face him.

"This is it, Charlie!" She said through her mask. "It's the same as at the storage facility."

"I see that." He replied grimly, looking around the space with his flashlight.

She heard the agent with the biological agent detector call out that the air was clear, so she removed her mask, and moved further into the lab.


Peter was feeling bored at the lack of action so far, the raid was not living up to its Hollywood cousin's standards. Looking around Olivia's car, he spied the file on Richard Stieg that Olivia had left behind on the passenger seat. With a shrug, he reached over the seat and grabbed it, then opened it and looked at the photos of the man. So that's the face of a mass murderer, he thought. He looks an average guy. Peter wasn't sure what he was expecting, maybe an evil glint in his eye, or something obvious to indicate he was not an average guy.

Peter felt Walter shift on the seat next to him. "What is it Walter?" He said keeping his eyes on the file.

"I'd like to take your blood pressure, son." Walter asked.

Take my blood pressure? "No thanks, Walter. My blood pressure is fine. Why don't you check your own?" He said sarcastically.

"Your skin tone suggests you might be suffering from arterial hypertension, Peter." Walter insisted, not ready to give up.

Peter shook his head. "Walter, don't tell me what I'm suffering from." He was beginning to feel annoyed with the situation. Being stuck in the car with his father in one of his moods, was something he could only tolerate so for so long. "Oh, and there are no visible signs of hypertension." He added, hoping Walter would drop it.

After a few moments of silence, Walter spoke again softly. "When this over Peter, please don't send me back. I don't want to go back."

Peter looked over at his father, feeling the guilt again, "Look Walter, it's not my-"

"This experience son," Walter went on in a broken voice, "it's...woke me up...and...you can't put me back to sleep again, Peter, please."

"Walter, none of this was my idea, any of it. What do you expect me to do? My life, it's…it's not here." Peter tried to keep his voice calm, but he didn't want to be having this conversation. He looked out the window, not wanting to see the look on his father's face. They were parked adjacent to an alley that he could see the length of from the car window. It was empty at the moment.

"Whatever punishment you think I've deserve, I swear to you that I have already endured it. I was in there for seventeen years, son. Please, don't send me back." Walter voice sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

Fuck, Walter, don't do this to me. He felt his throat constrict at the pain in his father's voice. He was about to respond when he saw movement from the alley in his peripheral vision.

He leaned forward curiously to take a closer look. It was a man, about half way down the alley. He was coming out a basement, closing the door behind him very carefully, as if trying not to make any noise. The man looked up and down the alley in both directions, before quickly turning and heading in Peter's direction.

As he came closer, and Peter could see him more clearly, he thought he'd seen him before. Recently. Glancing down at the open file on his lap, he realized that it was Richard Stieg.

Not sure what to do for a second, he looked around and saw that there were no agents in sight that he could alert. He hesitated, then made his choice. I'm probably gonna to regret this, he thought, before opening the door and getting out.

"HEY!"

Stieg froze, shocked at Peter's shout. Their eyes met. He slowly began to move back down the alley away from Peter.

"HEY!" Peter bellowed again.

"What is it? Can I get out?" He heard Walter say from in the car.

"Stay in the car, Walter!" Peter said quickly as Stieg turned and ran the other way down the alley.

"HEY! HE'S IN THE ALLEY!" Peter yelled as he sprinted after Stieg's retreating form, trying not to slip in the snow and ice.


Olivia had just discovered that there was door to the outside near the back of the basement lab when she heard a muffled shout.

"What was that?" she asked Charlie who was in the middle of climbing the ladder to the floor above

"I don't know," he replied, pausing in his climb. "Sounded like-"

"Hey! He's in the alley!"

Olivia heard it again, much closer this time. Is that Peter? I told him to stay in the car!

"Who was that? Was that one of ours?" She heard Charlie say as she opened the door to the outside and looked out.

She saw the back of Peter's black coat as he raced after another man towards the other end of the alley.

"It's Stieg!" She shouted to Charlie, and darted through the slushy alleyway after them. They had a good head start on her, with Stieg almost to the street when she joined in the chase. She saw Stieg turn the corner, with Peter just behind him.

Olivia sprinted to the end of the alley and made the turn after Peter and Stieg. She could see Peter's tall form ahead of her, as he zig-zagged his way through the pedestrians, and then though traffic as he crossed the street. Cars honked and tires screeched in protest, in the wake of their passage. With the two of them breaking a trail through the onlookers for her, she was able to make up considerable ground on them as they both turned down another alleyway ahead of her. Seeing a chance to make up some more ground, Olivia turned down a parallel alley that would take her to the next street over.

As she came out on the next street, she heard loud honking and the shrieking of rubber sliding on pavement, then a crash. Hoping Peter hadn't been hurt, she looked in direction of the ruckus, and saw him standing in the middle of the street, trying to get around a car that had been rear-ended. He must have had to stop to avoid being hit. Their eyes met for a moment as she ran by him down the sidewalk. Bearing down, Olivia forced herself to run faster, until she could feel the burn in her thighs as she pounded down the sidewalk.

She could see Stieg ahead of her now on the opposite side of the street, running through the pedestrians, shoving them out of his way. Olivia stayed on her side of the street pacing him, hoping to find a break in traffic so she could cross safely. Suddenly, he stopped and yanked open a door between two storefronts. He glanced over his shoulder, and tore through the doorway.

Olivia angled towards the door, and just missed getting clipped by a passing truck. There was a loud honk and the driver rolled his window down and hollered at her, wanting to know what the fuck she thought she was doing. Olivia ignored him, and crashed through the door Stieg had gone through moments before.

The door opened on a stairwell that led up to the apartments above the stores below. There was woman's scream ahead of her as she started up the stairs. A bag of groceries came tumbling down the steps towards her, ejecting fruit and vegetables in all directions. She dodged the culinary bullets raining down on her, narrowly avoiding a head of lettuce as it hurled by at head height. She reached the top of the stairwell and leapt over a woman with a dazed expression on her face, attempting to pick herself up off floor. At the end of a narrow, dimly lit hallway, a door stood open, and through it she saw Stieg throw a man out of his way and disappear farther into an apartment. She sprinted down the hallway to the open door and then through it, and into the dingy apartment. The man was on his hands and knees on his living room floor, cowering, when Olivia ran by him shouting, "FBI! Stay down!" and into a kitchen where a young boy was frozen, sitting at a table eating his dinner, eyes wide and fork half-way to his mouth. There was a woman, backed up against the countertop, hands over mouth as she gaped at Olivia. She heard a muffled, "What the hell is going on, lady?" from the room behind her. On the far wall was a door to the fire escape, and she could see Stieg's feet heading up the treads through the window over the sink.

Quickly crossing the kitchen floor, she threw open the door and charged up the fire escape. There was a shower of snow from above as Stieg's feet knocked the powder through the grated treads. Rubbing her eyes, she ran to the top to see him already half way across the rooftop. She wasn't sure where he thought he was running to, there was nowhere to go up here. Olivia continued the chase, leaping over low walls and dodging exhaust fans and air conditioning units. When he reached the edge of the roof, he jumped off without hesitation to her surprise. Oh shit! She thought as she quickly approached the parapet he'd leapt off of herself. She saw that he'd landed on the fire escape balcony of the next building over, and before she could think about it, she followed him over.

Olivia landed hard, the shock running all way through her up to her shoulders, and then her momentum carried her into the brick wall of the building, knocking the breath out of her. Looking down, she saw Stieg about halfway down the fire escape steps, and was about to follow him when she noticed an open dumpster directly below her. It was overflowing with black trash bags from tenants of the surrounding buildings. Without thinking again, she vaulted herself over the railing and fell the two or three stories into the dumpster below, the trash bags doing an excellent job of mostly breaking her fall. As she quickly climbed out, Stieg reached the end of the stairs and sprinted past her down another alleyway.

She was about to give chase again when Peter suddenly came hurtling out of nowhere, and tackled Stieg hard to the ground. They rolled around in the slush and snow for a moment before Peter came out on top, driving his fist into the other man's face repeatedly, knocking his head back into the pavement.

Olivia approached, pulling out her weapon and placed her foot on his chest, just below his chin, then put her gun to his head. "We've got some questions for you, Mr. Stieg." she said grimly.

"Fuck you!" he spat back.

Peter hit him in the face again, splattering more blood from his nose. "That's no way to talk to the lady." he said nastily.

He looked like he was about to hit him again, so Olivia put her hand on his shoulder, stopping him. He looked up at her and nodded, getting to his feet.

"Roll over. Hands on the back of your head." she instructed Stieg, keeping her gun on him. "Now."

He complied after a moment, and she knelt on his back, pulling her cuffs out and snapping them on, making sure to wrench his arms as much as possible as she did so. When she was finished, she stood and pulled out her phone.

Charlie picked up on the first ring. "What's your twenty, Liv? You ok?" he said anxiously.

"I'm fine." Olivia replied. "We've got Stieg. We're uhh...where are we?" she asked Peter.

"We're about two blocks southwest of where we started." he replied. She noticed he was looking at her strangely, with wide eyes.

"We're two blocks southwest of Stieg's lab. We need transport for him back to the office for interrogation." She told Charlie, and heard him giving orders to someone nearby.

"Who's we?" He questioned when he was back on the line.

"Me, and uhh…Peter." she replied after a moment, slightly uncomfortable with his line of questioning. She was aware that if word got back to Broyles that she had taken the Bishops on a raid, and that Peter had actually participated in apprehending a suspect, it could mean trouble for her.

Charlie didn't respond for a moment, before saying, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that, Livvy. I'll be there in a few."

"Thanks Charlie." Olivia said sincerely, ending the conversation.

"Charlie will be here in a few minutes with transport for our friend here." She told Peter, nudging Stieg with the toe of her boot.

He didn't say anything in response, just nodded, still giving her that look and rubbing the knuckles on his left hand. Olivia noticed they were bleeding, whether scraped from Stieg's teeth, or from contact with the pavement, she wasn't sure. She hoped he hadn't broken anything, she'd never meant for him to get so involved with any of this.

An uncomfortable silence grew between them as they waited, and Olivia wasn't sure of the source of it. Was he mad at her? His expression was unreadable, with him just looking at her pensively. She heard approaching sirens and looked down at Stieg. He had a resigned look on his face.

"You wanna have the honors?" she grinned at Peter, nodding down at Stieg.

A wide smile appeared on his face, breaking his strange demeanor.

"Sure thing." Peter reached down at hauled Stieg up to his feet by the handcuffs, causing him to let out a gasp in pain. "Now that's a lot more fun from this end." he said, still grinning madly.

Olivia wasn't sure what he was referring to for a moment, until she remembered he'd been arrested seven times before. It made sense that he might have been on the receiving end of such treatment before. It was strange, she hadn't really thought too much about his criminal background for a while, not since he'd brought her that cup coffee, she realized.

She shook her head in amusement at his pleasure. "Well, don't get too hooked on it, I don't think we'll be doing this again."

"Yeah, I suppose not." He replied, looking away from her, his smile fading and that pensive look returning to his face.

The sirens were quite close now, and she turned to face Charlie's black SUV as turned down the alley. He pulled up next to them and hopped out. Olivia was thankful that he'd come alone. Charlie covering for her was one thing, expecting anyone else to was something else.

"So this our guy?" he said nodding in the handcuffed mans direction.

"That's him, let's get him back to the Federal Building."

Charlie grabbed Stieg by the elbow and roughly forced him into the back his SUV, before turning back to face Peter.

"What the hell are you doing here Bishop? Don't you know that you're being here could get her in serious trouble?" he said confrontationally, letting his obvious displeasure show at Peter's presence at the scene.

Peter seemed startled at Charlie's outburst for a moment, then his back straightened and his face darkened with anger. "For your information, Francis, it wasn't my idea to-" The way he'd said Francis, like that, was sure to set Charlie off, so she stepped in quickly.

"Charlie," she said stepping between them. "I brought him here. He was supposed to stay in the car," She looked at back Peter intently, then back to Charlie. "but if he had, we wouldn't have caught Stieg. We wouldn't have known he was even here."

Charlie looked back and forth between them, eyes narrowed. After a while he nodded in Peter's direction. "Alright." He said, letting his anger go. "Just leave it to the professionals next time. Ok?"

Peter relaxed and let out a "Don't worry about that." with a shake of his head before, turning and walking away from the two of them.

Charlie stared after him for a moment before turning to Olivia. Seeing the look on her face, he said a bit sheepishly, "Alright, I may have overreacted a bit, but let's not do this anymore, ok, Liv? He's not even close to a trained agent."

"He's probably not even going to be around much longer, Charlie." She defended him softly. "Give him a break. I wasn't lying when I said we wouldn't have caught Stieg without him. Peter caught him, not me."

Charlie looked over at Peter with some little grudging respect. "You need a lift back?" he said keeping his eyes on Peter's back.

"No," she said shaking her head. "My cars only about a block from here. We'll walk."

"Ok, see you at the office." He replied and slid into the driver's seat of his SUV. Before closing the door he called over to Peter, "Hey Bishop!"

Peter turned around inquiringly, eyebrows raised.

"Nice work with Stieg." Charlie said and closed the door, and accelerating away, heading towards the main thoroughfare.

They both watched his receding taillights for a moment before Peter turned to her with a bemused look on his face.

"Is he always like that?"

"Who, Charlie?" she replied with a laugh. "Yeah, he can be a bit overprotective sometimes. But he's good guy to have on your side, you know?" She turned, and started walking in the direction of her car, leaving Peter behind. After a moment, she heard Peter's swift footsteps as he caught up with her, then matched her pace.

"So, how did you even know where we were, to ambush Stieg like that?" she asked him as they walked. The way she'd seen him come out of nowhere like that, it was like he'd been expecting them to be there.

Peter glanced at her with a half-smile on his face. "I have my methods, Agent Dunham." he replied cryptically.

Olivia rolled her eyes and elbowed him lightly in the side. "Out with it Bishop. I want to know. Really." she added, meeting his blue eyes with her own.

"Ok, ok…" He said before looking away from her, "Well, I saw you follow Stieg into that building and I knew that there were fire escapes he could potentially escape down on this side, so I thought I'd cover them. Those things make quite a racket when there are two people running down them. So that's how I knew where you were." He finished, giving her that look again.

"And how did you know about the fire escapes?"

"I grew up in Boston, Olivia. There aren't a lot of places here I don't know about." he said, his voice unexpectedly morose.

"Well, thank you. For choosing to help, I mean." Olivia said. "If you hadn't been there…" She trailed off, not wanting think about what that would have meant.

They walked a little farther and she caught him looking at her several times, with what she thought might be wonder on his face.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" she asked curiously.

He stopped walking and made as if to grab her arm, but then thought better of it. "Olivia, are you Ok?"

She stopped and turned to him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I just saw you jump off a two, maybe three story building, and then walk away without a scratch. Is that normal for you?" he asked in shaky voice.

Olivia hadn't really thought about it until that moment. She had done exactly what he said. Her shoulder hurt from when she'd slammed into the side of the building though, so she wasn't completely unscathed. It wasn't something she wanted to think about right now. "I'm fine. Let's get back to the car." She said and resumed her walking.

He caught up a moment later and they walked the rest of the way to her car in silence. Walter was almost beside himself when they opened the doors and got in, Peter sliding in next to him in the back seat.

"Peter!" he said "Where have you been? I almost pissed myself I've been waiting for so long." he complained.

"Walter, I was gone less than an hour. If you need to go, there's a coffee shop right there." Peter pointed out to a place across the street from them. "Go in there and come right back."

"You're not going with me, son?" Walter asked, surprised at Peter's letting go of the leash.

"I'm not holding your hand while you go to the bathroom, Walter. I gotta draw the line somewhere. If you're not back in five minutes, I'll come and look for you, Ok?"

Walter got out and hurried across the street to the coffee shop. While they waited for his return, Olivia met his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"You're not Wonder Woman in disguise are you?" he asked conspiratorially, "Cause if you were? That would be pretty cool."

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