Still making up the science as I go along, so don't fault me for that. Also, this is unbetad so any mistakes are my own.
ACT II
Peter and Olivia were sitting in traffic in Manhattan. Peter had been very silent the entire trip, and Olivia hypothesized it had something to do with Broyles' not pulling her from the investigation. She'd heard him call Broyles back in Boston to update him on the case, as she organized the meeting with Nina, and overheard a few expletives.
"You gunna talk over there?" She looked over at Peter, who was stoically maintaining silence.
"What do you want me to say. You shouldn't be working this case."
"Peter, I of all people, should be investigating it. Not only were these women experimented on as children but now they're being targeted again. I can help them. I know I can."
"But we don't know how's he's taking his victims, where he's grabbing them from. All we know is that he's a pervert who has it out for cortexiphan subjects."
"I've been in dangerous situations like this before, though. I've handled them fine. I don't understand why you're suddenly acting like my life being in danger is a big deal."
Peter looked over at Olivia and scrunched up his eyebrows. The line on his forehead that often appeared when he furrowed his brows was deep and cavernous.
"'Livia. In the three years I've known you, I've watched you put yourself in danger case in and case out. Not to mention the number of times you've had your body, your mind completely violated. From my father's experiments, to your step-father, to—" he paused when he said the next word. "The other Olivia, and now William Bell. For once I'd like to be able to protect you from that, in a way that no one ever did before. You're always fighting these battles, and I get it, it's your job, the life you chose."
He looked at her and inhaled deeply, drumming his fingers along the steering wheel of the car. "We're together now, Olivia and every time I think about all the dangerous situations you get put in, I literally ache inside. And I worry."
"You don't need to," Olivia said, placing her hand on top of his, which was resting gently on the gear change.
"I'm just tired of seeing you hurt. It makes me feel like I'm not doing my job as the man in this relationship."
"You're doing your job just fine," Olivia said, unable to hold back a bit of laughter.
"Okay, I express concern about my girlfriend and get laughed at. Fantastic."
She looked over at him, to see he was biting the inside of his lower lip. She smiled, and gripped his hand tighter.
-MASSIVE DYNAMIC-
"Someone is hunting down Cortexiphan subjects?" Nina said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," Olivia said, nodding her head. "And given the fact that in the past, you seem to be holding more cards than you're showing, I would like to know who was in that trial."
Nina paused, looking from Olivia, to Peter, who was standing leaned up against the bright wall, gazing out the abstractly shaped windows of her office. She mused he was being stoic due to his dislike of this particular fringe case.
"When I told you that I didn't have a list of cortexiphan subjects, I may not have been being entirely truthful. The truth is, the list was kept in a storage facility that was the target of a break in some years ago. A Massive Dynamic employee was fired for stealing data that was stored in that facility. Among the boxes taken, was the list William Bell kept of his cortexiphan subjects."
Olivia, pursing her lips in anger, said, "The name, of this employee, Ms. Sharp?"
"Jeremy Webster."
-FEDERAL BUILDING, BOSTON-
"We have a suspect," Olivia said, entering Broyles' office. "His name is Jeremy Webster. He was a former Massive Dynamic who may have stolen information about the cortexiphan trials. He was fired six years ago after breaking into a storage facility. He lives in Connecticut."
"Goodwork, Dunham. I'll get a search warrant for his house." Broyles was picking up the phone on his desk, dialing as Olivia exited his office.
In her own office, Peter was waiting patiently, sitting in a chair in the corner of her office, fiddling with a large gold coin.
"Broyles is getting a search warrant. We should get on our way to Connecticut. Can you call Walter? I want him there if we find anything." She slipped behind her desk and started filing away a manila folder in the bottom drawer of her desk.
Peter pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, standing up and walking behind the desk. He leaned against the desk, and looked down at Olivia.
"Peter don't start," she said, shaking her head. "You know I'm just doing my job."
"I know," he said, quietly. "I just really don't like this case." He leaned down to kiss her, but just as their lips touched, they heard a low coughing.
"Am I interrupting," Broyles asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorry, sir," Olivia said, blushing fervently. "We were just about to leave for Connecticut."
"There's no need. When I called to get the search warrant, I was made aware that one had already been issued. It seems an Agent Lincoln Lee was investigating the Connecticut victim and had already made that connection."
-HARVARD UNIVERSITY-
"We meet again," Lee said, extending an arm to Peter to shake his hand, whom he had gotten along well with during their last case. He nodded to Walter, who was concentrated on looking at something through his microscope. "Peter," he nodded, adding "Dr. Bishop, Agent Farnsworth."
Olivia entered the lab shortly after Lee had, hanging up her cell phone. "Broyles has arranged for the evidence Agent Lee found at Webster's house to be transported here.
It should be here within the hour."
She stepped down from the platform to where everyone else was standing.
"You must be Agent Lee," Olivia said, extending a hand.
Peter laughed, resting an arm on Olivia's shoulder. "Yes, you remember Agent Lee, from the Amanda Gray case a few weeks back." Olivia began to pick up on what Peter was hinting at.
"Oh, right," she said. "I must have forgotten."
There was an awkward silence, and Peter tried to break it. "Lee, did you bring any new files on Webster we can sift through while we wait for the evidence?"
"Yes," Lee said, still looking at Olivia, who was shifting on her feet. "We found a strange radio device in his house, but we can't seem to decipher what it's for. I was hoping Dr. Bishop would be able to help us with that. As for his motives, I'm still at a loss."
"Okay," Olivia said, offering her hand so Lee could give her the file. "I'll take a look at these and see if I can make any sense of it. Peter, why don't you and Walter update Lee with what we've got so far."
Olivia left the boys standing there, walking towards the office where she often went to go over paperwork. Lee's eyes lingered on Olivia as she walked.
"Is it just me, or does she seem different than when I was here last time?" Lee offered.
Peter laughed. "You have no idea."
When the evidence from Webster's house arrived, Olivia had made some headway with theories about why Webster was doing what he was doing.
"Is it possible that he's using these cortexiphan subjects' pheromones to attract men with sensitive information? It says here that the Connecticut victim, Allison Jacobs, was last seen near a military testing base by civilian witnesses who called in when her picture was on the news. And Petroski was seen in a bar frequented by military personnel. He's stolen information before. If the military testing base has something that he wants, it doesn't appear he'd have any ethical boundaries with enhancing these women's pheromones to seduce information out of powerful men."
"You think he's using these women to get information from high up military personnel?" Peter asked.
"Its possible. Why else would he be enhancing their pheromone levels?" Lee added. "If he stole from Massive Dynamic before, maybe he's selling the information."
Olivia furrowed her brows and looked at Walter. "Walter, have you made any headway with the radio device Lee found in Webster's laboratory at his house?"
Walter looked up from the strange device where he was connecting red wires to it. "I have a theory." He picked up the device, which seemed to have an antenna as well as a small screen to display some form of information. "This device seems to be broken, but it appears to be a device that identifies subjects of the cortexiphan trials. If Webster had a list of the subjects, he would need a way to confirm they were indeed in the trial. We know that David Robert Jones had Olivia kidnapped and a spinal tap to confirm. But that would hardly be practical. This device seems to pick up the heat signature of particular brain waves having to do with perception. Because cortexiphan works on perception, they're waves would be enhanced and Webster has capitalized on this. This device seems to be an identifier of sorts."
"If this one is broken, do you think he has another?" Olivia asked.
"I would imagine so."
"Okay, well how do we know who he's targeting next. Where is he looking for these victims."
"That's something I might be able to help with, Agent Dunham," Lee said holding up his smartphone. "My techs back in Hartford were working on unlocking some of the files Webster kept on his computer. They emailed me one just now. Supposedly a map."
"A map?" Peter asked.
Lee put his phone on the laboratory counter. On the screen, a tiny map of the north eastern part of the United States appeared, with bulletin pins marked throughout. "These seem to be the homes of the victims Webster has already killed. What about this forth pin, it's here in Massachusetts."
Lee tapped the screen and the phone zoomed into the pin. It hovered over Brighton, Massachusetts.
"Olivia," Peter said, panic spreading over his face. "That's your—"
"Apartment," she finished for him. "My apartment."
"I'm calling Broyles. He's pulling you from this case." Peter pulled his phone from the pocket of his faded jeans and stalked off into a corner.
"Let me get this straight," Lee said, pulling off his black, plastic framed glasses. "Webster is targeting you, which means you were…"
"A subject of the cortexiphan trials. Yes." Olivia looked at Lee's phone, which sat immobile on the counter, a small pin flashing over Olivia's home.
"Well, I think I might have an idea." He slipped the glasses back on and a smile spread across his face.
A/N: More to come. There will be five acts, if I have calculated my story correctly. Please review! I love them!