Home for the Fight
Spoilers: Season 1, Season 2, Season 3(Olivia, The Box, The Plateau, Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep, Amber 31422, 6955 kHz, The Abducted).
Disclaimer: If I owned Fringe...Olivia would be on the right side and with Peter.
The sound of laughter woke Peter, he turned over in bed to find the other side empty. Getting up, he made his way to the next room to find Olivia in bed with their son, tickling him.
"Stop Mommy!"
"I can't, I have to give you your birthday tickle." She smiled and looked up to see Peter, "be glad its not Daddy."
Peter smiled, "someone's the big number four today, how do you feel?"
The little boy that had been born a miracle sat up and looked at his father, his green eyes stared into his father's blue and his blond hair sat raggedy around his face. "I feel grown up."
"I bet you do." Peter walked over and picked up the now four year old, looking down at him. "But you're still tiny enough for me to hold...guess that means you're not all that grown up."
"I am grown up, I'm four." He smiled, "but I'm not old like you or Mommy."
"Oh so we're old...well I'd say we look good for being old unlike Grandpa."
Dunham giggled and Peter put him down as Olivia stood up. "You're still old, Ella says that thirty-five is old."
Peter chuckled, "I'm going to have a talk with your cousin, why don't we get dressed while Mommy makes..."
"Pancakes!"
Breakfast came with no disaster or phone calls, "is Uncle Broyles come to my birthday party? Is he bringing Chris and Dara?" Dunham's mouth was moving a mile a minute, "is Aunt Amy? Is she and Uncle James bringing Cassie?"
Olivia chuckled, "we won't know till they show up Aunt Sonia and Charlotte are coming over though, she called me last night saying they were coming."
"Cool, I like Charlotte...she's very pretty."
Peter busted out laughing and looked at Olivia, "those Dunham genes are at work, charming everyone in sight...he's four and already has a girlfriend who's a year and a half older then him."
"She's not my girlfriend, she's just my friend...she's a girl and girls have cooties. Just because I said she was pretty doesn't mean I like her like her."
"You hear that Bishop, your son spoke." Olivia smirked and got up, going to the phone as it rang.
"Don't get it Mommy." Dunham looked at her, "its Uncle Broyles, he wants to talk about her...the other you."
"I have to baby boy," she answered the phone, "Bishop?"
"Olivia, I need you at the detention center...I understand it is Dunham's birthday but this is an urgent matter."
Olivia looked at her son who was staring at her as if he knew what she was going to do...and he did but she sighed. "I have to be home by two, the kids start arriving at three."
"The car is already on its way, it'll be there shortly. Please inform Dunham that I will be there barring any disaster, Chris and Dara with me."
"He already knows sir, he's smiling." Olivia hung up and looked at Peter, "I have to go...could you just set up, I should be back an hour before."
"Yeah, just don't kill her."
Olivia smiled and leaned down, kissing him. "I would have thought you'd have no objections, I'll be back soon." She looked at Dunham and ruffled his hair, kissing his head. "Behave for Daddy, I'll be back in time for your party."
"I love you Mommy."
Olivia began to get dressed and found herself thinking about everything that had occurred in the past five years. She'd been home four and a half years, her son was now four and thriving, ever aware of everything. He had told her he knew that Peter wasn't his 'blood daddy' as he put it but in the end, Peter was in fact his daddy...because he loved him.
She'd yet to have a baby again...the procedure at Massive Dynamic had not worked, Mulara gave her a grime outlook long before Dunham's birth and since they had tried two different procedures but neither worked. After two years of trying to correct the problem, they agreed nothing was working and the sterility was permanent so there was no more use trying and they stopped.
But she was content with her life, she had a son and she had Peter, her only disappointment was not being able to give Peter the daughter he wanted. She'd seen him with Ella and also knew he watched other fathers play with their daughters, craving that but he never said anything because he didn't have to...she knew, they both did.
What surprised her was after four and a half years, she was going to see the woman, who nearly ruined her life, once again. The decision had been made to keep her on their side for how ever long it took to get information. She was in a high security detention center under another name: Olivia Duncan. She'd been silent for nearly four years so Olivia wondered what triggered her to talk.
After an hour ride to the detention center, she found Broyles waiting for her. She flashed her badge and the guard let her through. "What's up?"
"I can't explain it, five hours ago I was awoken to a phone call saying your alternate wanted to talk. The warden said she looked extremely scared and was quiet, not her normal self."
Olivia nodded, "how is she now?"
"Nearly dead, she attempted suicide...however this was found in her cell." He handed her a letter in plastic, she found it was in Fringe code...a code specifically taught to be used between agents on the other side. "Do you know what it says?"
"It says the war is nearly over, but due to her betrayal...she was to die with the rest of those in this world. It also says that her failure to complete Mission Gemini was part of her undoing." Olivia gasped and shook her head, "the note also says that her fiancé was killed by the smallpox epidemic in North Texas...that there was no reason to hold onto a reason to live anymore. It also states that her embryos in storage at the Fringe Facility have been destroyed."
"Are you saying that every reason for her to go back is gone?"
Olivia nodded, "they destroyed her life, much more then we did. I haven't heard of Mission Gemini though...I have no idea what it is."
The infirmary was quiet, Olivia noticed her alternate laying on the bed staring off into space. She'd heard her alternate had become used to her life as a prisoner and became a role model for other prisoners, rising high in the prison ranks and was well regarded by the warden for keeping others in line. They didn't trust her as much as the others but enough that she was allowed a bit more freedom then when she arrived.
"Olivia?" Olivia moved to the bed and her alternate's gaze didn't waver.
"Why are you here? Did you come to see if I had killed myself yet?"
Olivia sat down on the opposite bed, "I'm sorry about Frank, he was very sweet and caring. When I thought I was you...I loved him too, now I just care. More so about the embryos...your children, children Frank could have still had, are gone."
Her alternate looked at her, "doesn't matter, I'm here...not going back. I accepted that, learned to live with it because I knew those I cared about were happy. I understand what it was like now for you...alone in a strange world, not having the people you love most." She looked down at her bandaged wrists, "I just want to die...you know we never consider death but now all I want is to die."
Olivia pulled out a picture and laid it on the bed, it was of Dunham. "That's my son."
"How old?"
"He turns four today, he's also...he's Frank's son...so there is a part of him still alive."
Her alternate picked up the picture and ran her finger over it, "what's his name?"
"Dunham." Olivia looked down, "I can't have children, Dunham is my only child because the Secretary made me sterile, because of my abilities."
"He didn't want anyone else crossing over effortlessly." Alt-Livia looked at her, handing her back the photo. "What about him, does he have abilities?"
"Dunham is a normal healthy child."
"I wish I could meet him, just to tell him how much he is loved and to never take it for granted but that will never happen. Could you just tell him that someone you know said for him to live each day as if its the last and to never regret his family?"
Olivia nodded, "I'll do that...but I need to know what Mission Gemini was and why you failed."
"It was the Secretary's personal mission for me, no one knew what it was expect us two. I was to seduce Peter and get pregnant...returning to the other side with the baby, one that I now know holds DNA to the Vacuum. I failed because I couldn't get pregnant...you know for a guy who likes kids and wants a family, he's very cautious about preventing pregnancy." She chuckled, "needless to say it was Peter who prevented the mission from going through."
"Because my career is important to me, he would have never allowed anything to interfere with that, which includes pregnancy." Olivia looked down, her heart was pulling again...every time the 'P' word was said her heart got heavy.
She and Peter were still hopelessly in love with each other, almost always together whether at home, at the labs or on a case. His words from the past about wanting her and only her rang true and he never strayed in any form...not even his eyes. Women, women more beautiful then her, would throw themselves at him and he'd dismiss them without even a glance, saying he was happily married.
Their marriage wasn't perfect but it was happy and full of love, in fact Olivia would have to say love was in every room of their house. Peter always greeted her with a kiss and a hug when she arrived home without him, even if it was just from the grocery store. The only thing they lacked was additional laughter in the house, only a single child was present and it cut at them especially when Peter's dream of a daughter would never be fulfilled.
They treasured Dunham, their miracle and never thought ill of him, in fact when another kid called Dunham a freak, Peter went off on the kid's father...telling the man that his kid better stay away from his son. He was everything to Dunham and despite Dunham knowing the truth, they were father and son, best buddies who enjoyed playing tricks on her and ganging up on her when she least expected it.
One fight, right after they were married when the procedure failed the second time, Olivia begged him to divorce her and to find someone who could give him the life he deserved. She said he didn't deserve to have a wife who was broken, sterile and had baggage the size of New England. Peter just pulled her into his arms and held her as she cried, telling her she was all he wanted, her and Dunham.
He was never angry about the fact she couldn't conceive, but extremely understanding. The only anger he held was towards his biological father, who he still wanted to murder after four years.
"Where is Peter?" Alt-Livia sat up, "I expected him not to stray far from your side or did things go wrong after he found out about Dunham or was it like that from the beginning. I'm sorry for what I did to become between you, I did care for him...even when I shot him, that's why I shot him in the shoulder." She looked at Olivia, "you know I could have killed him if I really wanted to."
Olivia looked at the picture, "he's watching Dunham, working on his birthday party...its today. He's a very important part in Dunham's life, the only father he has." Olivia chuckled, "they gang up on me, play pranks that make me jump."
Alt-Livia allowed her finger to touch the band on Olivia's hand, "you married Peter didn't you, you think I'll be angry...but I'm not. I learned in these past few years that anger and hatred just eats at you. I cared for Peter and you make him happy...you're the only person he will ever love, there is no changing that...even we look the same but you are the one he loves. Not even Frank loved me that much, its strange...I don't think I'd cross worlds for him but you crossed for Peter, that shows a deep love that can't be broken no matter what."
Olivia nodded, "you need to keep on living, do you really think Frank would want you dead or Charlie...or Lincoln?" Her alternate stiffened, "yeah, I know about that little affair you two had on the side. Didn't last long once he found out about Frank but he still cared for you and you for him."
"I was falling in love with him." She picked at her nails, "for an ass, he's a sweetheart...kind of like Peter is. You must know I was considering leaving Frank but eventually didn't."
"Yeah, but you always wondered what life would be like with Lincoln if you hadn't stayed."
Alt-Livia smiled, "I still do sometimes...problem is, he'll never know what happened to either of us."
Olivia stood, "I have to go, I'll come back next week." She smiled, "try to get past the depression Olivia."
Olivia found Broyles outside the infirmary and he nodded, "how is she now?"
"I don't know, she wants to die...I know what its like to have everything you care about taken away and I don't wish it on anyone. I never thought I'd suggest this but can we maybe get her some time out of here...maybe an hour or two a month. I think she'll attempt it again if she doesn't see there's more to life then a five by seven cell."
Broyles looked through the door at Alt-Livia, who was curled back up staring off into space. "You think she'd do it?"
"Next time we'll find her dead...she's no longer the vengeful agent she was, now she's just a broken woman with nothing left to live for."
A/N: Just so you know, Olivia's alternate isn't as strong as she once believed she was. We find out she does something unexpected and then turns around and preformed a self-less act but in the end...everything was a lie.