Substitute

A/N: Now we get to see Olivia kick some bad-guy ass! Woo hoo! :D

Olivia pulled on her bullet-proof mesh, strapped her weapons to her thighs, clipped on her phone, and shrugged on her leather jacket, zipping it up. She grabbed her car keys and left her apartment, determination and boiling fury toward the evil in the world adding fire to her steps. She sped off in her car, right toward Liberty Island, hoping her partners were still somewhere in the tower. She would find them first.

Olivia was trained as an infiltrator since before she could remember. She was trained to sneak into places undetected, sneak passed security and take down men twice her size quietly. She didn't know why she was trained so differently than her peers had been in the past, but she wasn't complaining now. There were quite a few security checks within the tower but she got passed most of them without too much trouble... for now. When she reached the Secretary's office, she smiled at the assistant. "Hello, I'm Agent Dunham, with Fringe," she began, showing the woman her show-me. "Is the Secretary in? I have a few questions for him..." she said in as kind a voice as she could muster at the moment.

"Oh! Another Fringe officer? Are you looking for the other two? I think something happened, they were escorted out of his office a little while ago... funny, I didn't see them go in..." the assistant blinked in confusion.

"Do you know where he took them? See I need to let my superiors know about this but first I need to know where they currently are..." Olivia pressed with a shrug, snorting inwardly about the "superiors" bit. The woman didn't need to know that her superiors was one of the men and the Secretary himself.

"No, I'm sorry... he didn't say much," the woman apologized. Olivia felt anger stir in her blood, covering her fear up as it always had, but paused when she began to leave when the assistant spoke again. "Although, I think I heard him say something about the basement to one of the security guards... much more than that I don't know, I'm sorry," she apologized again.

"That's fine, I'll just wait until I hear from him," Olivia lied with a shrug and a cheerful smile. "You've been great help, thanks!" she said, turning and leaving. 'The basement?' she wondered, sneaking passed guards toward the "hidden" elevator. She was competent enough to know that when the Secretary said "the basement" he must be referring to wherever it was this elevator went... she had seen a few serious looking guards go in it. She hid on the other side of the elevator door as she rode it, below the camera. As she rode it, she worked quickly to fool the camera to thinking no one was in it and as soon as the doors opened, she stayed still, waiting for the inevitable guard to come over and see who it was in it.

Once she saw the man enter the elevator, Olivia worked quickly to take the man down. The man's eyes bugged out of his eyes as he felt the wind get knocked out of him before his world went black. Olivia caught him, easing him to the floor carefully and moving him out of sight. She made sure he was still alive and worked her way onward. The halls were crawling with security guards but Olivia was patient, watching for patterns, how many steps they took to reach doors, lights, etc... anything she could to make sure she got passed them unnoticed.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Lincoln sat in their cell quietly. They had been roughly shoved in there half an hour ago. At first, Lincoln had tried to figure out a way to escape, looking for access panels, loose lights, anything that could help open the doors... but found nothing. He had slumped onto the bed and his head hung in defeat. Charlie had wanted to say something to cheer him up but knew that nothing would work, so, he stood by the glass, watching the guards walk up and down the hall. He was a little stumped when they stopped showing up though and leaned closer to the glass, trying to peer over to the side.

Charlie was startled and nearly fell backwards when a familiar face popped into view and he grinned widely. He walked over to a still depressed Lincoln. He smiled and smacked Lincoln's arm, receiving a glower. The younger man was not in a good mood, at all. "Look! It's our knight in shining leather armor!" he said happily. Lincoln jerked his gaze up to where Charlie was pointing only to see Olivia scanning the locking mechanism of the cell.

"Olivia!" Lincoln breathed, pushing himself onto his feet and rushing to the glass window. Of course, Olivia couldn't have possibly heard him, but she looked at him anyway. She gave him a reassuring smile and placed her hand over his that was resting against the glass. In the back, neither of them noticed Charlie roll his eyes and smile knowingly. A moment later, after searching his eyes, Olivia pulled back and scrutinized the mechanism again. She huffed in frustration. She didn't have time for this! With a burst of adrenalin, and maybe a bit of madness as well, she shot her fist at the keyboard, punching through it. She'd complain about the horrendous pain later, right now she had her partners to spring and her baby to save!

"Come on you two, let's go," Olivia said in a rush, grimacing slightly, starting to turn and run off. Lincoln's hand caught her wrist, halting her steps.

"'Liv? Your hand..." Lincoln took her hand in his, pulling her toward him slightly and looking at it in concern. Her hand was a bloody mess from what she had done and would no doubt be useless to her until she got it looked at. It looked pretty painful but when he looked up into her eyes, he didn't see pain, he only saw raw determination.

"I'm fine, there is no time for that, come on!" Olivia said, obviously distressed and in a hurry, but didn't extract her hand.

Lincoln nodded, running his thumb over the uninjured part of her hand, watching the hard look in her eyes soften a fraction, before reluctantly letting her go. They stole a meaningful, lingering glance at each other, their eyes speaking of support and love when the rest of them could or would not. While Olivia tried to figure out what it all meant, Lincoln tried not to read too much into it. "Lead the way," he said and the men followed Olivia to the camera room.

While they went, Lincoln filled Olivia in on what he had found on Secretary Bishop. Olivia felt sick to her stomach. Not only was she played, manipulated into ruining the lives of perfectly normal people, good people, herself ...she had helped him find a "tool" to be used to destroy an entire universe! "Olivia," Lincoln said sternly, seeing the self-deprecating expression on her face. Charlie saw it too, but Lincoln beat him to it. "None of this was your fault, okay? So stop whatever it is you're thinking of, right now. That's an order," Lincoln commanded. Olivia shook out of her dark thoughts and smiled weakly at him.

"Yes sir," she obeyed. Soon they made it to the camera room. Olivia knocked on the door with her good hand.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked on confusion.

"If we bust in there they'll alert the whole place, we need to bring them out to us," Olivia explained, gesturing for the men to hide. They looked confused but did as she asked, moving out of view. When the door opened, one of the two men looked at her in surprise. Olivia gave him her most "damsel in distress" expression – which wasn't too hard to do, all things considered – and spoke in what she thought would be a "sexy" tone. "Can one of you nice men help me? I was on my way for a meeting with someone down here but I managed to get lost... this place is oh so big..." she said, trying not to laugh.

Charlie and Lincoln almost choked on amusement as well but stayed silent. "A meeting, huh?" the man grinned, catching on to what Olivia was trying to say. "I bet I could certainly help a pretty miss like you out.." he grinned lewdly.

"You could? Oh that would be wonderful..." Olivia smiled seductively. The man looked back to smile at his partner, receiving a thumbs up from the other man, and followed Olivia out. When the door was closed, the man felt himself getting tapped on the shoulder. When he turned he saw two other men standing there. He was about to call for help when the taller of the two men shot his fist forward, right into his face, knocking him flat on his back.

Lincoln shook his hand. "Christ, that man had a hard face," he hissed, wincing in pain and gave Olivia a raised eyebrow. "This is your idea of espionage?" he asked in amusement.

Olivia smiled and shrugged. "It seemed to work in the movies," she smirked. "I guess now we're even," she teased, though her heart really wasn't in it at the moment, then sobered. "Come on, let's take care of this other guy..." she said, gesturing for Lincoln to handle this guard. Lincoln walked over to the door and opened it but making sure that he wasn't in view as he did so. He whistled and waited. In no time at all, the curious guard, who called for his partner curiously, exited the little room. Again, the man was overwhelmed by the ambush and knocked out just as quickly. The three moved the unconscious guards back into the room and shut the door.

"You think this place could have enough monitors?" Lincoln muttered as they glanced around.

"I think this place could use a few more, sure. You think anything good is on? Maybe the game is on! How do you change the channels on these things?" Charlie said playfully.

"Maybe later, Charlie," Olivia said quickly, distractedly, walking over to where Lincoln had seated himself and leaning slightly to watch.

It took him a few moments but he finally had something. "I think I found the Secretary... he's alone and one level below us, what is he doing?" Lincoln wondered, looking at the man displayed on the monitor. So far the Secretary had his back to the screen and the place looked pretty dark.

"I'll go, you guys stop anyone else from coming down, okay?" Olivia said, already leaving through the door before either men could stop her.

"She's going to get herself killed," Charlie hissed, watching her run off toward the elevator down the hall.

"She'll be fine, she's a trained agent, she can take care of herself," Lincoln reminded him, confident in Olivia's skills. "I'm going to try to mess with some of these cameras to hide what's going on down here and then get into contact with the President, let him know what's going on and who he put in charge of the DOD. Stand guard, will you?" He asked.

"Sure boss," Charlie nodded and went over to the door.

Olivia made her way down to the underground laboratory, slipping taking down anyone foolish enough to get in her way, including a few scientists that were stupid enough to think they could stop her. When she finally reached the entrance to the laboratory, paused at her last obstacle. This guard she knew though, what was he doing here? "Eric?" She questioned, her fists still up, even if one wasn't working too well.

"I'm sorry Olivia... I can't let you pass," he said regretfully. He and Olivia went on a few missions in the past. They weren't exactly buddies but they knew each other well and had watched each others' backs before.

"Eric you will either move out of my way or I'll make you move, understand? He has my son! Now, MOVE!" Olivia growled. Eric knew who he was dealing with and threw up his hands, backing away. He knew that even though he had an advantage over her in strength, Olivia Dunham could still kick his ass, no problem. Normally, you don't mess with an angry Olivia, but now she was angry and an angry mother! "Don't do anything stupid, Eric, just stay put," Olivia warned as she headed through the door. Eric sighed in relief and did as he was told, figuring she had a good enough reason to do what she was doing... wait.. she was an angry... mother? Since when?

Olivia burst through the last of the doors, weapon at the ready, making Walter Bishop whirl around in surprise. "Ah, if it isn't Ms. Dunham... it's so good of you to join me," Bishop smiled.

"Don't play this off like you've been expecting me, Mr. Secretary," Olivia snarled. "Give me my son back!" She ordered, her grip on her pistol tightening.

"I'm afraid I can't do that..." Bishop's smile disappeared. "He is vital to the good of this universe, you must understand that," he explained.

"I must nothing, you're a mad man and nothing you're doing is for the good of anyone - except yourself!" Olivia countered.

"You are wrong!" Bishop yelled, pulling out a pistol from his pocket. Olivia froze, her own pistol still pointing at him but unsure of how crazy the man was... one false move and he could shoot, if only from fear. Instead, Olivia decided tricking him would be easier. All she did was glance over his shoulder, a momentary flicker away from his eyes... but it was enough to make him think there was someone behind him, enough to make his own eyes leave her's. Olivia rushed in, knocking the pistol out of his hand. Unfortunately, Bishop was quicker than he looked and surprised her by shoving her back and turning to grab something from behind him... a sleeping baby... her baby!

"What are you doing?" She questioned, trying to keep her voice from giving away how frantic she was. She was Olivia Dunham, so she succeeded.

"One more step and I'll crush his throat, understood?" Bishop threatened. As if to emphasize that he meant business, Henry started balling is eyes out. Olivia felt her heart go to her son, wanted desperately to grab him and keep him from all the harms of the world... but she didn't move an inch.

"This is crazy, you need him, for your plans, remember?" Olivia said as calmly as her shot nerves would allow her to.

"I know very well what I need him for, foolish girl," Bishop snapped. "But he was just a substitute... all I need to do is get my son over here and I can still complete my work and save this universe!" Bishop explained. Olivia was no longer dealing with a sane man here, a man who just wanted to get his son back, no, Secretary Walter Bishop was completely insane.

Meanwhile, while Charlie continued to stand guard, Lincoln was deep in communication with the President... who didn't exactly believe him. "I know Mr. President, but you have to understand, he went through great pains to hide all of this from us, even you, sir," Lincoln explained.

"I just don't believe that gentle, kind, man could be the sociopath you're describing!" The President argued.

"I'm sending you the evidence, sir, it'll tell you everything you need to know," Lincoln said, forwarding all the information they found to his computer. As he watched the increasing look of surprise and revulsion spread across the President's face, Lincoln took a moment to glance at the other monitors. His own eyes widened at what he saw. He saw the Secretary holding Henry menacingly and Olivia kicking her gun away, putting her hands up. No! "I'm sorry Mr. President, something urgent has come up, please review what I sent you. I'll be sure to contact you again, sir," Lincoln said, cutting the connection and rushing out.

"What's going on?" Charlie asked on high alert, following his still more or less limping friend down the hall.

"Charlie, I need you to get reinforcements, I don't care how you do it, how you convince whoever the Secretary told about us being traitors, just get them to listen and get me a squad down here," Lincoln instructed without looking at him.

"You got it boss," Charlie nodded and rushed off in the opposite direction.

Back at the lab, Bishop was still trying to convince Olivia to let him use her son, that it was for her own good, for the good of their universe, that the other universe was full of monsters, impostors and wickedness... Olivia tried her best not to snatch her baby and blow the man's head off his shoulders. She narrowed her eyes in caution when she saw another figure slip into the lab.

"I'll make you understand! You'll all thank me when this is done! I'll be a hero!" Bishop said vehemently, Henry still crying quite loudly in his hands. "You'll see! I'll-" Bishop's rant was interrupted when he felt immense pain shoot through the back of his head and his vision get fuzzy. Lincoln surged forward and fell to the floor, catching the falling baby from Bishop's hands when said man tilted over.

"Lincoln!" Olivia gasped, running over to them. The moment she recognized him, she was almost overwhelmed with emotion. He had come for her! He had saved her son! Of course he would... he always did. Lincoln sighed in relief and shushed and soothed the baby a bit before Olivia reached them. He managed to quiet the uncertain baby down a bit just as his mother arrived. Lincoln smiled and handed the baby to a now nearly tearful Olivia. "Thank you, Lincoln, so much," she said, hugging and kissing her baby. The baby seemed to realize he was in his mother's arms again and quieted down.

"Any time," Lincoln replied, slumping to the ground from his awkward position and trying his best to ignore the throbbing ache in his leg. However, this wasn't the time or place to relax. Lincoln reluctantly forced himself to his feet and pulled his handcuffs out of his jacket. He moved over to the unconscious Secretary and cuffed him. Once he finished, he allowed himself to relax a little and glanced over at Olivia and Henry.

Olivia held Henry on her lap, caressing his cheeks, checking for injuries, and trying her best not to break down. Her tears she had tried to hold back all this time had stopped falling but she still looked like she was about to start crying. Lincoln limped his way over to her and slid down next to her on the floor. The two sat in silence but Lincoln could still see how fragile Olivia's nerves were, she was on the edge and shaking quite a bit. He drew his arm around her and pulled her against him. Olivia leaned her head against his shoulder and allowed the baby to sit on both of their legs - making sure it wasn't his injured leg first of course. She watched Lincoln rub her son's head and face gently, soothing the whimpering baby, and shut her eyes, feeling safe and warm once again, allowing herself to drop her guard, trusting that Lincoln would keep them safe.

Why was she fighting this again?

She couldn't remember.

And didn't care anymore.

It wasn't too long before Charlie arrived with a squad. He had to show them the evidence and let them hear the one-sided conversation Lincoln had with the Secretary to convince them, but it finally paid off. Charlie took one look at his two friends and decided to keep up the leader act for now. "Come on, let's get the Secretary outta here," Charlie ordered, glancing worriedly at his two best friends. They weren't going to move for a while, he figured, so instead turned to follow the other agents out, deciding to give the two some time alone.

TBC...

End A/N: Secretary Bishop is just the perfect antagonist to use lol... I'm sorry if someone didn't like this but oh well, the actual show probably won't turn out like my story... maybe... I hope SOME of it will though! Hehe.

Shout-Outs:

Fallen Heart: Thanks! I hope I'm not writing them out of character lol I was worried Olivia might be a little out of character in this chapter...

katiekayx: Thank you! I'm happy you think so! Yes, Walternate is a bad, bad man... XD