Title: Son of Men
Epilogue
Rating: T
Summary: When a message comes through the typewriter, it's going to turn everyone's life upside down.
Author's Note: So here it is - the very last chapter of this fic. I'm kinda *sniff*sniff* that I'm actually putting an end to this, but alas, I think if I didn't, I'd go on forever XD That being said, I am already working on a "sequel" to this one which will fit in the little gap between chapter 16 and the epilogue. My working title currently is "vitas redux". I hope to actually get some down time from crazy work to put all my notes into some readable form and be able to put them online. Feel free to pester me if you want, sometimes I just need a little extra nudge to get something done after all. Until then - so long and thanks for all the fish! ;)

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When Olivia opened the front door and walked into the house, she found the Bishop household dark and silent. With a sigh, she dropped her keys on the small hallway table and took off her high heels. Even after all those years of fighting freaky monsters, insane professors and the end of the world, she still liked working at Fringe Division - except when work kept her at the office until after working hours. She had never been very fond of paperwork, not as a field agent, and especially not as the team leader, and when it kept her away from her family until well after sunset, she really started to loathe it.

Silently, she crept towards the back of the house where the kitchen lay only to be startled by Peter who emerged from the living room. Her whole face light up immediately at what she saw – her husband, clad in nothing but shorts and a tank top, carrying a little brown haired girl in his arms who was fussing and whining.

"How is she?" she asked and placed her hand against the toddler's back, gently rubbing it in small circles to calm her.

"The fever went down a bit but the ear infection still seems to bother her," Peter told her calmly while he rocked his daughter in his arms, trying to soothe her the best he could, "She hasn't gotten any rest all day."

"You're tired, baby girl, aren't you?"

Olivia placed a kiss against the girl's temple which prompted the toddler to stop her fussing for a moment and look at her wide eyed before a weak and tired smile appeared on her face.

"Let me get changed real quick and I'll take her off your hands."

"We're okay here. It's been a long day for you, you need some rest."

Olivia gave Peter a look from head to toe, "So do you by the looks of it. I'll be right back."

She kissed him quickly before she headed up the stairs and down the long hallway towards the master bedroom at the end. She had just shed her skirt and blouse, pulling out a shirt and a pair of shorts from the dresser when she heard tiny feet shuffling behind her and a low voice pipe up, "Mommy."

She turned over her shoulder to see Henry stand in the doorway. He was dragging his favorite stuffed toy - a pirate monkey - at his side and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"You should be in bed, monkey," Olivia replied while she put on her shorts, "You've got to go to school tomorrow."

She slipped the shirt over her head before she went over to the door and crouched down in front of the boy. Her hand immediately reached out, pushing a strand of hair out of Henry's forehead before she gently smoothed the tangled fuzz of blonde locks that made the boy quite uncanny a Bishop, "You had a bad dream?"

"You didn't read the good night story," Henry pouted, sticking out his lower lip like he always did when something did not go just the way he wanted.

"I'm sorry, monkey. Mommy had to work late today. But daddy read you the story, didn't he?"

"He doesn't do the voices right. And Ava was crying all the time."

"Let's get you back to bed," Olivia sighed as she picked up her son, "When have you gotten so heavy, hmmm?"

She made her way down the hallway towards the first room on the left. A dark blue rocket was painted on the white door, letting everyone know that this room was definitely a boy's room. The door made a low squeaking sound as she pushed it open, revealing a room that just had to be every boy's delight. It was like stepping into the universe when she entered. The different planets of the solar system were painted on the walls while stars and the moon were shining down on them from the ceiling, accompanied by airplanes and rockets that were hung from above.

Olivia made her way through all the toys that lay scattered on the floor, careful not to step on any and break them, until she finally reached the twin bed that stood on the far right of the room. As she sat down on the mattress, she noticed a small foot dangling out from under the comforter that lay seemingly carelessly discarded over the bed. A low chuckle escaped her when she pulled the blanket away to reveal her younger son sleeping soundly in Henry's bed.

"Noah didn't want to sleep alone," Henry told her as she shifted him into her lap.

At the sound of his name, Noah opened his eyes sleepily. Upon recognizing his mother, he smiled weakly before turning over and snuggling closer to her and his brother. A long time ago already, Peter and Olivia had given up on keeping each of the boys in their own beds. They'd put them down each in their own bed at night, but in the morning they'd find them both curled up under one blanket in bed together.

Ever since they were babies, Henry and Noah had been inseparable. Henry had always been hovering at his brother's side, wide alert that something was wrong even before Noah would let out a cry for his parents. Noah had taken his first steps at Henry's hand, the older toddler leading the younger. The first word to be heard from Henry had been 'Nono' while Noah's had been 'Ennie'. They still called each other that to this day.

At the beginning, it had been a bit scary to see just how close the boys had been, in pretty much almost everything. Both boys were the first born of Peter Bishop and Olivia Dunham, just one from the other side, the other from this. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a smile that could melt your heart... the boys were the same in every regard. People often mistook them for twins, even with an age difference of a year.

Olivia gently shifted Noah towards the wall, then lifted Henry off her lap and placed him down in the bed next to her. The older boy immediately turned towards the younger, wrapping a protective arm around his little brother and pulling him close to his side.

"Can we finish the story?" Henry asked, pointing at the book that lay on the bedside table.

"Of course we can."

"With the funny voices," Noah added just as Olivia turned on the night lamp and reached for the book of mice and monsters that a long time ago already had become her children's favorite bedtime reading.

Olivia couldn't help but smile as she pulled the book into her lap and opened it. She had always thought of Peter as the storyteller of the family, the one who could even make the driest piece of science a fully colored and most of all interesting and invigorating fairytale. But both her sons had told her differently at a young age already, when all they had wanted was to sit with mommy and listen to her rendition of whatever book they had picked. While they accepted daddy's bedtime stories, mommy always had to come and read them another, even if it was in the middle of the night. It was as if the boys had a sixth sense that initially would allow them to fall asleep while Peter was reading them a story, but would keep them in a state on twilight until they both would hear their mother return and be able to claim their nightly bedtime storytelling.

Sitting on the bed, with both her sons curled up next to her, was something Olivia had started to cherish over the years. The short period of time each night that she was able to leave everything behind and just be a mom while she took her boys to far off places and experience the tales of knights and dragons, of kings and monsters, of heroes and princesses together with them.

And just like every night, by the time she finished a story with the words 'the end', both boys had fallen asleep in each other's arms. Silently, Olivia placed the book back on the table at her side and turned off the lamp, then got up from the bed as careful as possible as to not wake her sons.

"Don't let the bed bugs bite you," she whispered as she bent down to place a kiss first on top of Henry's head, then on top of Noah's before she made her way out of the boy's room, trying to make as little noise as possible while she maneuvered around the scattered toys on the floor that obviously had been forgotten to be put away for the night.

"Mommy," she heard Henry mumble into the pillows behind her just as she reached the door, hearing a faint "I love you" as she turned back over her shoulder to glance at the children one last time before she finally would have to bid them goodnight.

"I love you, too, my little monkeys," she whispered back into the darkness of the room, then closed the door behind her. For a moment, she stood facing the closed door, her fingers still lingering on the doorknob, before she turned with a sigh only to find Peter standing not two feet away from her in the dimly lit hallway. The little girl he was still carrying in his arms had stopped fussing and now lay slumped tiredly against his chest with her head resting in the crook of his neck.

"They give you grief again for not reading them their bedtime story?" he asked, a little hint of amusement in his voice as he knew exactly just how insistent their sons could be when it came to their nightly bedtime reading.

"Henry was complaining about you not using the right voices for the different characters," she told him earnestly while she reached out to take her daughter from him.

Peter grimaced as she shifted his daughter into her waiting arms, "Guess my wife spoiled the little monsters."

"Maybe she did," she replied with a smirk, as she started to rock her daughter gently back and forth in order to keep her in that state of serenity that she obviously had relented to after a day's worth of uneasiness and crying.

"There's some leftover from dinner. Want me to heat it up for you?"

"All I want right now is put my little girl to bed and have some mommy time with her."

She gave him a warm smile before she turned and headed for the master bedroom instead of her daughter's room that lay just to her right. Her hand was gently rubbing the toddler's back as she first placed a tender kiss against the girl's temple and then mumbled, "Is that stupid ear still troubling you, baby girl?"

"Big owie," Ava replied as she wrapped her arms tightly around her mother's neck, seeking the comfort that her mother's arms were offering her.

"Let's see if mommy can kiss it and make it all better."

The bedroom lay dark and silent when they entered, with a large king sized bed inviting mother and daughter to take their place for the night. Ava didn't leave her mother's arms willingly when Olivia put her down in the middle of the bed, fussing and whining until she settled down next to her and pulled her back into her arms.

"Mama, kiss kiss," the girl immediately said, indicating her ear with her finger.

Olivia smiled as she bent forward and placed a tender kiss against her daughter's ear. The toddler rewarded her with a faint smile before she snuggled her tiny body against her mother's, making herself as comfortable as she could. Laying in the darkness with Ava cuddled up next to her was something Olivia enjoyed immensely. Being so close to her daughter that she could feel her breath tingling against her skin, take in that sweet baby smell that her baby girl hadn't lost yet and just lose herself in a pair of blue of eyes that were so uncanny her father's... it was something she had never really experienced with her sons, with both of them being so close to each other that she never really got any mommy time with just one of them alone. If she had cuddled up with just one of them, the other had never been far off, demanding the same motherly attention from her. But with Ava, it had been different from the day she was born.

She still cherished the nights that she got to spend with her daughter after she had put her sons to bed. The tiny little moments that she was able to hold Ava in her arms and offer her full attention to just one of her children without being interrupted by another, demanding the same kind of devotion that very instance.

Olivia was broken out of her revery when the mattress dipped slightly and Peter slipped under the covers behind his daughter, causing the little girl to moan when her tiny body was rattled slightly by the mattress's movements. She quieted immediately though when Olivia's arms tightened around her just the moment that both mother and daughter were enveloped in Peter's comforting embrace.

Six years ago, when the Selectric had spat out that first message for Peter, neither him nor Olivia would have even dared to imagine what would lay ahead of them. Fighting for and saving the universe had always been the one thing they both had lived for. That all had changed the moment a little boy named Henry had entered their lives, just to be joined by another little boy called Noah only a mere six months later.

It hadn't been easy, saving the universe while being parents to two little boys. But they had learned to battle the challenges that fate had put in front of them, mastering each one that had came with a little more experience and wisdom than the one before. And with Ava joining their little family two years ago, life was complete now. It wasn't looking as bleak anymore as it had been when they had first met. For they both now truly knew that family was the most important in the world and that for their kids, for every single one of them, for Henry, Noah or Ava, they would fight to save this universe.