Born of Two Worlds
Spoilers: Over There I&II, Olivia, the Box, Plateau, Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fringe, if I did I'd get the checks.
A Week Later:
Olivia stood in her kitchen making dinner when she heard giggling, she walked out into the den to find Peter with Ella in his arms tickling her.
"Aunt Liv save me!"
"She can't save you," he looked at Olivia, "you can't save her can you Liv?"
"Nope, you're at Uncle Peter's mercy…where's your mother?"
"Right here with gifts, oh come on Liv…you didn't think we'd forget did you?"
Peter put Ella down and walked to Olivia, placing his arms around her waist as he held her from behind. "Happy Birthday Sweetheart."
She reached around and pinched his side, causing him to jump back. She laughed and looked at them all. "Alright…let's have a party…alcohol free." She bent down in front of Ella, "you know where the stash of balloons are?"
"Yep, I'll go get one."
Peter shook his head, "balloon, why balloon?"
"Dunham tradition," Rachel headed to the kitchen behind Olivia and Peter followed. "Balloon volleyball…or at least we try to play. We try to see who can keep the balloon in the air the longest and Liv has been champion since she was ten."
Olivia smiled and looked at her, "that's not true, Ella beat everyone at her birthday party last year when the kids played…fifteen minutes."
Peter looked at Olivia as Rachel began to set up the cake, "what's your record?"
"Not that impressive." She shrugged and Rachel laughed and turned.
"Not impressive? Her record is an hour and twenty-five minutes, since then no one has been able to beat her."
Olivia turned the stove off and drained the spaghetti, "oh come on, its not like it's a big deal."
Rachel began putting candles in the cake, "oh yeah it is, remember your twelfth birthday party, no one wanted to play with you. Ryan Peterson made the statement 'she always wins and take forever so let's not' and Olivia was crushed that year Peter…absolutely crushed because we didn't play."
Olivia laughed and turned to her sister, "only because he wanted to kiss me behind the tree in our backyard."
"No not kiss, we found you two making out." Rachel looked at her, "seriously, how could it not be making out when his tongue…"
"I don't think I want to hear this." Peter looked at them, "I can get very jealous and I'm starting too and it was when Liv was twelve."
Olivia made her way over to Peter and kissed him, "you belong with me…no one else."
"Hmm…true, I'm going to go see what's taking her majesty so long…practice you know."
He left and Olivia smiled, going back to making dinner. "Nice words, you got it alright."
"What does that mean?"
Rachel shook her head and turned to her sister, "I just…those words 'you belong with me' are very deep words. They sound almost like…wait a minute, you're in love with Peter. Does he know?"
"Of course he knows, he tells me each chance he gets." She placed food on the table and began to pull dishes down. "I mean, we know what's ahead of us. We know marriage and kids is ahead, we just…we know."
Laughter came from the living room and both women looked in to see Peter and Ella playing with a blown up balloon. "Oh get it, get it." Ella made a slide and caught the balloon before it hit the floor and both laughed. "Got it?"
"Yeah!" Ella laughed as it hit the ceiling, Peter caught her in his arms and lifted her up to catch the balloon. "Thanks Uncle Peter."
He put her down and bowed low, "at your service your majesty, I live to serve Princess Ella."
Olivia smiled and found Peter looking at her, Rachel nodded. "Defiantly good dad material if you two have kids…not that I can say the same for Greg."
"Dinnertime, wash up you two." Olivia looked at them, "come on."
Soon all four sat around the table and were talking, "so I have some news."
Rachel looked at her sister, "what news?" Olivia looked at Peter and he nodded, Rachel gasped and shook her head. "Oh no, you two aren't getting married are you?"
Peter shook his head, "I wish…but maybe in the future."
"I'm moving to New York." Olivia looked at Rachel, "with Walter and Peter at Massive Dynamic and since they're moving…it makes sense to move."
"Its only four hours away, we'll come visit you." Rachel smiled, "besides, I'm sure eventually wedding bells will happen and you'd have to move anyways."
"Trying to play matchmaker?" Olivia looked at her sister and both women laughed as Rachel shook her head. "I'm going to miss you guys."
Rachel smiled, "it'll give us a reason to come to New York. You can take Ella to all types of places like the Statue of Liberty…"
"If I never go there again I'll be happy, no offense but I've been there a lot in the past few weeks. As for a tour, I'm sure Peter would like to take Ella."
Ella nodded, "could we Uncle Peter?"
"You bet kiddo, we'll see the Statue of Liberty and cruise around the harbor in a helicopter."
"Cool! You're the coolest uncle ever!"
Peter chuckled, "I'll take that as a good thing, considering I don't know your other uncles."
"She doesn't have any other uncles, Greg only has a sister who happens to have a girlfriend named Melissa so no uncles."
Ella smiled, "but you're my uncle even if its not official…it will be soon though right, you and Aunt Liv will get married? Can I be a flower girl at your wedding?"
"Not right now but in the future…maybe." Olivia looked at Ella, "now that you're done with your spaghetti…why don't you go get washed up for cake."
Ella left and the adults began to clean up, Rachel cleared the table as Peter and Olivia put up food. She watched the two and smiled, there was something about how Peter and Olivia moved that spoke volumes…they had an unspoken connection. Words didn't have to be verbal, they understood each other and it seemed as if they looked at each other with utter love…nothing but love seemed to be present when they looked at each other.
It also seemed that Olivia had healed and become someone with Peter, her shell had been cracked open and a vibrant person was emerging, someone who could laugh with her heart and not just her voice. What was more, Rachel noticed that the two could stare at each other all day but tended to look away after a while.
"Okay cake time." Rachel put the cake on the table as Ella came in the kitchen, "all gather around and let Aunt Liv make her wish and blow out the candles."
They all stood around and Olivia smiled, "I don't have anything to wish for, I have everything."
"How about something random but meaningful…we seem to do 'random' rather well." Peter looked at her and pulled her now blonde locks to her back and held them as she leaned over the cake.
Olivia smiled and made her wish, knowing it was an insane wish. I wish for this war to be over.
Blowing out the candles she received claps, "good job Aunt Liv, that was a lot of candles."
"Thirty-one candles," Rachel chuckled, "I made sure there were the correct number of candles."
"Cake!" Ella sat down and grabbed her fork, ready for her piece.
Peter was the one to cut the cake as Olivia got plates, he gave Ella a small piece and she gave him a look of question when he handed her mother and aunt bigger pieces. "You have school in the morning and knowing your mother, she'd kill me for giving you anything bigger."
"I would, so…how about after cake we work off that sugar with the traditional Dunham Balloon Game…we can show Peter how it works."
Music filled the small apartment living room as they bounced the balloon back and forth at each other. Laughter filled the room as well, Olivia and Ella were going at it till Ella popped the balloon by accident.
"Two balloons this time!" Ella looked at them, "lets see if we can keep both up Aunt Liv."
Peter blew up two balloons and let the birthday girl and Ella got into a mini battle in trying to keep the balloon level. Ella was in a giggling fit as Peter stepped in and stole one of the balloons from Olivia, who stared at him in surprise.
"Okay, we need to open gifts before we have to leave." Rachel looked at all three and they gathered around the living room and Olivia sat on the couch as Peter sat beside her. Ella sat in between them both and Rachel handed Ella a gift to give to Olivia.
"Here you are Aunt Liv, happy birthday."
Olivia smile, "thank you Ella." She opened the card first and looked at it, smiling at what she had written inside. "Thank you Sweetheart." She kissed Ella's head and opened the box, finding a blue scarf. "I'll wear it as soon as it starts getting cold, I needed one of theses…thank you."
"This is from me." Rachel handed her a small thin box, she opened it to find a coupon for a spa treatment. "I thought you could use it, with your high stress job."
"Thank you, I could use it…things are only getting more stressful." She placed it down and turned to look at Peter, he took her right hand and placed a ring on her ring finger.
Looking down at the ring, she found it was a Claddagh ring, Peter smiled as she ran her finger over the gold ring. "It's an Irish Claddagh ring, with it on your right hand and the heart facing in it means you're in a relationship." He smiled, "when we get engaged, it'll go on the left hand."
Olivia looked at the ring, it was yellow gold with a small diamond in the middle of the heart, it wasn't too flashy like her ring from John but simple and perfect, just the type of ring she would want and Peter knew it.
"Thank you." She pulled him into a hug and gave him a chaste kiss afterwards, enamored by the ring she looked down at it again.
"Let me see." Rachel took her hand and looked at the ring, Olivia watched her sister eye the ring.
Ella looked at it too, "its beautiful Aunt Liv, you got a good ring Uncle Peter."
Rachel and Ella left and Olivia packed a bag of necessary items, she was taking up Peter's offer of staying with him and Walter. She wanted nothing to do with her bedroom after what had happened between her alternate and Peter there.
"Hey," she looked up to find Peter in the doorway, "almost ready?"
"I am actually." She zipped the bag, grateful Peter had bought her some clothes during her stay at Massive Dynamic…suits, shirts, lounging clothes and undergarments…he told her he didn't want her to have to wear any of the clothes her alternate had, which turned out to be almost everything.
"Good, so I told Walter you were staying over and to stay out of your room."
She looked at him, "my room?"
"Yeah, the spare room across the hall from mine…why, did I…"
Olivia laughed and looked at him, "I just thought…"
"That you'd be sharing with me? Look Liv," he looked at her, "I love you but you need time."
She nodded and smiled, "you're right, I need time to process everything but I also know I don't want to be far from you."
"Then you can stay with me but you're keep the room until we move, I know you'll get angry about something and want space eventually." He took her bag and smiled, "let's go home."
"I am home, home is with you."
A/N: So the next chapter, they get some help to win the war.