Fandom: Fringe.
Character: Walter.
Number of words: 250.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fringe and cannot in any way be held liable for Walter Bishop's actions ;p.
Spoilers: up to season 2, around episode 19, for a secret about Peter; further events are more or less referred to, without any spoiler or real need to have seen the episodes to understand it.
Author's note: I first thought of this fanfiction while watching season 1 again. When Walter first describes the different realities, he uses the expression "the road not taken", which is also the episode's title (1.19). I immediately thought would be an awesome starting point for a fanfic that would mention events from the next seasons. So I wrote this. And I just might write the equivalent for other characters, if I find inspiration. But for now… Enjoy and review!
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
(The road not taken, a poem written by Robert Frost in 1915)
For most people, what shapes a life is what happened, happens and will happen. But Walter often thinks that it is rather what could have happened, that the absent, the unrealized, the nonexistent linger and give sense to what we call our reality. A little bit like that image that can be seen as a stemmed glass or as two faces. Which reminds him of that barmaid that he once met in Providence… Wait, where was he? Uh, yes, what could have happened, the road not taken. Obliviously, we think about it all the time. What if I'd chosen the other line in the supermarket, what if I had tried my luck in Broadway, what if I could still save Peter? And the truth is another version of you probably did. And surely these other versions in this other reality also wonder: what if? Of course, it's supposed to remain nothing more than what ifs, passing impressions. You're supposed to get but a glimpse of the road not taken, certainly not to cross over to it. That's an easy rule to follow so long as it's impossible to break. But then it's not anymore, you start to bend the laws of the universe and you wonder, what if you could still save Peter? Who would pass on that opportunity? Walter knows how arrogant he was back then, before he understood the road not taken should not be taken. But still. Who would let Peter, any Peter, die all over again?
