Into the next week, routine was slowly starting to return for the Fringe group. Even Olivia was doing plenty of paperwork in her wheelchair. The important thing now was to continue on with the cases. Even though Reginald Thorton, the alleged kidnapper and serial killer of Cortexiphan children was dead, it didn't hurt to research his history just in case. They didn't want to risk the possibility of anyone connected to Thorton who might have been informed about Cortexiphan and the experiments.
All the while, Ella remained quiet, distant, and isolated. Peter's dreamless potion helped her get some rest without making anything happen. Walter was watching Ella like a hawk…not as a babysitter…but for observation purposes. Since he was not to experiment on Ella, he would take notes and ask her weird and relentless questions only to back off if anyone else made him. So far his notebook was halfway filled with notes from a week's worth of observation.
But Olivia was taking note of Ella as well. She didn't smile anymore. It used to be that Ella would interrupt Walter's stories to question the sense in them but now she just kept quiet. Sometimes she would sit on the couch all curled up silently praying that she wouldn't cause anything bad to happen. No matter what Olivia or Peter did to make her feel better, she showed very little emotion or response.
It wasn't until Olivia was alone in her office when she finally broke down. Ella wasn't Ella anymore but rather a shadow of her former self. So much like her aunt, Ella had lost her innocence to pure fear. In way Olivia blamed herself. Thorton came for her. If Ella hadn't been with her the moment they were taken, she could've been spared and she wouldn't have to be here, hiding from the world in shame of her strange "illness".
"Aunt Liv, how long can I stay here?" she asked her.
"As long as you want," said Olivia, although she knew that Rachel was only going to allow a month at most before making Ella come home.
"I'm scared to go home. I'm scared that the other kids at school will think I'm weird…or that I'll hurt mommy again."
"Well, Ella. Everyone's a little weird…even me. I know what you're going through, Ella. This illness that you have…I know it cause I had it too, when I was your age."
Ella was looking very hopeful now. "Really? Did you get better?"
"I…" Olivia struggled to find the right words. "It's not as bad as it was, when I was a child."
Ella frowned. "It's never gonna go away, is it?"
Olivia shook her head. "No."
"But I don't want to do bad things, Aunt Liv." A few tears cascaded down Ella's cheeks.
"Come here."
Ella went over to Olivia so she could out and wipe the tears from her niece's eyes. "What you and I have…it doesn't have to be a bad thing. You know, a long time ago someone told me that you have to imagine how you want things to be and then you can try and change them."
"Who told you that?"
Olivia smiled. "That's the funny thing. I don't remember. But when I found out about my illness, those words really stuck with me because I wanted so bad for this to be anything but horrible. And I really believe that you can do good things, Ella. You just have to see it and want it to happen and they will."
Peter came into the living room. "You ready to go, Liv?"
"Where are you going?" Ella asked.
"Peter's taking me to the hospital for a checkup. Are you going to be alright with just Walter here?"
Ella, in all honesty was unsure, but this time around she seemed determined to put on a brave face for her aunt.
"And remember," said Peter. "If my father asks you to do anything, you don't have to do it. You just say 'no', okay?"
"Yes, Uncle Peter." She wrapped her arms around her aunt. "I want you to be all better, Aunt Liv. So you can do good things again." Ella was willing it with all her might and even imagined her aunt getting up free of her casts becoming her normal self for the first time but when she let go, nothing changed. She understood, that these things take time but still. She wanted her aunt to get better so she can show and teach her more about their strange illness.
When she let go, Olivia felt very strange, almost numb, but she shook it off. "Thank you, Ella."
Olivia began to feel more unusual as she was getting her x-rays done. She was no longer feeling any pain in her broken limbs and started to worry as if something was wrong. She wasn't going to let Peter know that though.
"Do you it was a good idea to leave your niece alone with my father?" Peter asked her.
"I wouldn't worry," said Olivia. "Ella's a smart girl and I've warned Walter to not do anything stupid.
The doctor came into the room with a very baffled looked on her face as she flipped through the X-ray photos. "Um…Agent Dunham, how long ago did you say that the injuries occurred?"
"About two weeks ago."
Instantly Peter became worried. "Is something wrong?"
"Well…no," said the doctor. "That's the funny thing. Agent Dunham, our X-rays show that your leg and arm are completely healed. It's unheard of to have those kinds of injuries heal in only two weeks."
"I haven't felt any pain since we left home to come here," said Olivia. Slowly she got out her wheelchair and managed to stand up without feeling any pain. She managed to wobble several feet across the room until she nearly collapsed but Peter was there to help her. "Peter, I don't feel pain anymore."
The doctor said, "let's get those casts removed," and then left the room to make the necessary arrangements.
"Wow, talk about a miracle, Olivia," said Peter.
"It's not a miracle," she smiled. "It was Ella. She wanted me to get better. She healed me."
With Peter and Olivia gone, Ella stayed in the living room. She did not feel comfortable being around Walter at the Bishop home. Sometimes she would explore the room only to find a few filled with junk and paper work and funny smells. Walter used one room for experimenting and it smelled like a moldy refrigerator when Ella walked by it.
"Oh, there you are, Elmo." Walter came into the living room chewing on some red vines. He was sporting an unusual pair of gray sweats and a body suit. He was also wearing a sweatband. "It's a lovely day out. I'm off to do some yoga on the front lawn. Care to join to me?"
Remembering Peter's warning, Ella was right to ask, "Is this an experiment?"
"Of course not, my dear. Yoga is a calm soothing exercise. A stress reliever for both the mind and body."
Ella felt a bit naïve but yoga did sounded soothing. She needed something comforting to do, something to take her mind off the terrible things that kept going through her mind. "Okay."
Walter placed a blanket on the lawn for the two of them. Ella followed Walter's lead as he sat on the blanket Indian style.
"Oh!" moaned Walter. "I haven't sat like this in a long time."
"What do we do?" asked Ella.
"Well, the first and foremost is to shut the mind of all the senses."
"How do we do that?"
"You just close your eyes and allow yourself to remain in complete darkness and silence. And then you take deep breaths."
Walter went first, closing his eyes and taking unusual breaths that sounded more like a horse. Ella slowly closed her eyes.
"Pay no attention to what you hear or feel," said Walter. After a few more seconds of unusual horse-breaths he finally opened his eyes. "Now, the next step is to…"
Walter found himself talking to thin air. Ella was no longer sitting across from him on the blanket. In fact, Ella was nowhere to be seen.
"Ellie?"
Walter got up and went up to the front door. Perhaps the child had gotten bored and when back inside. As soon as he opened the door, he called out "Little girl, are you back inside the house?"
There was only silence.
"Hello?" Walter began going through all the rooms in the house, his frustrations increasing with every second. Then he went back outside again. "Little girl? Little girl, I'm afraid this is a very inappropriate time to play games. Your Aunt Olivia and Uncle Peter will be home soon."
The girl wasn't answering to his responses. Walter must've walked around the outside of the house at least five times.
"Oh dear," he cried.
Ella had closed her eyes to follow Walter's example. For a few seconds she felt nothing but then she felt a cold chill. Wasn't it supposed to be a good day outside? She opened her eyes and nearly fell back in fear. It was suddenly dark now. She looked around and found nothing but a deserted land and scorched trees. There were no houses, no cars, and no Walter.
"Uncle Walter?"
She stood in silence waiting for an answer that didn't come.
"Where am I?"
But she got no responses. She began walking wrapping her arms around herself to fight off the eerily cold chill. She hadn't seen a speck of grass on the ground. After a few steps, she almost tripped over something and looked back to see what it was…it was a pile of old rotting bones. There was nothing more she could see as a fog began to build up around her.
"Aunt Liv!" She cried out into the nothingness around her. "Aunt Liv, help me!"