Chapter 14:

(Thanks again for your continued patience and your extremely kind words. I love hearing from everyone!)

"No, no, hell no!" Peter's negative answer to his father's request echoed through the lab so that even Gene quieted at the noise. "I will not, nor will I ever, get into that torture device. I do not see how that could possibly help me." He looked over at Olivia for support and she looked at her shoes. She had spent more time in the tank than anyone else whom Walter could remember. She was hardly the person to counsel against such an action.

"Son, it could help you to resolve some the…symptoms you've been having. It will help to normalize the chemical balance in your brain…."

"I don't care if it solved world hunger; I am not getting into that death trap!" A red flush was slowly creeping up his neck and was now turning the tops of his ears red with the effort.

"Peter, stop getting so worked up. It was just an idea of something to try, right, Walter?" Olivia put her arm around his shoulders and guided Peter to a seated position on a nearby lab bench.

Walter had the distinct impression that something was going on between the two of them that he had definitely missed. He dismissed it as Olivia walked away to take a cell phone call. Peter's haggard appearance and lack of energy despite the one outburst was decidedly not Peter-like. Walter would have to think of something else, something that Peter would have no choice but to accept.

Astrid kept quiet as she observed the dynamics of the group. She knew that Peter looked like hell and both Olivia and Walter were very worried about him. Peter was scrambling to make sense of things and gain some semblance of control. She continued to mentally catalogue her observations per usual, maybe they would be needed later. Astrid brewed a cup of tea for Peter, she thought he would have appreciated something stronger, but it was the best thing she could think of as a pick-me-up. It didn't feel like much as Peter gave her a weak smile when she handed over the steaming beverage.

Peter was struggling to stay upright and give the appearance of being alive. His head felt like it was being split open an inch at a time and he couldn't believe that no one else could feel it. He bit his tongue to keep from groaning. He glanced at the cup before he blew on it to cool the liquid and noticed the steam was curling up very slowly from the surface. His ears felt stuffed and all the sounds around him became muffled. His arms and legs became leaden as if he were becoming a statue. What now?

Olivia was just about to hang up the phone when a flush of nausea washed over her. She stopped and waited. A headache flushed into her head and she turned to look back into the lab. Peter seemed to staring off into space and about to fall off his chair. She pushed her phone into her pocket and ran back into the lab. "Peter!"

Time seemed to slow as Peter watched the steam tendril curl ever so slowly up into the air. The people around him were moving so slowly and now everything sounded as if he were underwater. He felt no panic as the light in the room began to dim and he was only slightly aware that he was losing his battle with gravity. He could no longer hold the mug and it crashed to the floor only seconds before he joined it.

He felt warm, surrounded, and comfortable like he had just woken up from a long nap under a quilt on a cold winter afternoon. He struggled to remember how he got there, but gave up when it just wouldn't come. "Pe-ter. Pe-ter." He heard his name being called in a sing-song voice like his mother used to use. "Mom?"

"No, Peter, it's me, Olivia. Can you hear me?" She was in this comfortable darkness with him, where he couldn't tell, and he really couldn't bring himself to care very much. He just felt too good to give a shit about anything. He felt something behind him, but he wasn't sure what. He just didn't care to find out.

Olivia had convinced Walter to let her bring Peter into the tank while he was unconscious in the hopes of bringing him back before he figure out what happened. Walter had concocted a "splitter" for the neural interface that allowed for the two of them to be connected to Walter's device. He was very excited when she had suggested it. "What a wonderful solution, Olivia! This is really the best thing for him, you know." She sure as hell hoped so. Peter would be supremely pissed when he woke up and realized that they put him in the tank without his permission, but by then, he would feel a whole lot better. It'd always helped her. She had slipped into the tank and helped Walter and Astrid pace Walter in her arms to make sure that he didn't drown during his session.

"Don't think I don't know what you did." Olivia turned around and found herself sitting at a table in a diner. Peter was sitting across from her and looked at her accusingly.

"What do you think you know about what I did?" Olivia said lightly back.

"Don't play games with me. Why are we here?" Peter's hard expression did not lighten.