A/N : thank you everybody for reading and reviewing, it means a lot :) On with the story!
Broyles' phone rang, breaking the nightly silence of his house. The fire department had had his phone number through the administrator of Harvard, who had been woken up by a call from the police, informing him the basement of a building of his school had exploded. Knowing the lab was used by the now FBI consultant Walter Bishop, he immediately gave the FBI agent's number to the police, not wanting to deal with classified – and perhaps illegal – matters.
Broyles quickly left his house and rushed to the campus, where a dozen of glaringly lighten cars welcomed him. He immediately got the confirmation that, indeed, the lab used by the Bishop had been damaged by an explosion. Not knowing if the med team could go in yet, he called agent Farnsworth, who confirmed that she and Walter were safe in the Bishop's house, but wondered about Peter and Olivia's well being.
"We don't know if anyone was inside when the incident happened. The med team is waiting for my approbation before going in." Walter swiftly grabbed the phone from Astrid's hand, alerting Broyles.
"Good evening, agent Broyles. I must have forgotten to turn off my latest experiment. As of now we don't know what was in Cowen's blood, I was trying to synthetize it in order to determine what could have been the cause of his death. I would not go into the lab until I have find what killed those people."
Meanwhile, in the lab, Olivia was slowly regaining consciousness, her head throbbing, her ears ringing. Her eyes focused on her hand, lying in front of her face. She winced as she tried to sit up, her whole body aching. As her mind cleared she saw Peter, unconscious, a few feet from her. She remembered him going to the open the door, his hand on the door knob, when he was suddenly projected against her, sending her to the ground with him. What had happened next was a blur.
She could taste blood on her lips as she wet them, quickly asserting her wounds before moving. She must have bitten her tongue when she fell, she had a few cuts on her hands and forearms, but as far as she could feel, she was okay. She crawled to Peter and shook him. He cracked his eyes opened, immediately bringing his hand to his head, groaning.
"Humph…what happened? Are you okay?" He instinctively brought his hand to her arm, regretting it almost immediately. His shoulder had probably taken his fall, cushioning his head.
"I don't know, I think there was an explosion." They both stood up and smelled smoke, their eyes scanning the area to assess the damage.
As they walked into the hallway, Peter stopped Olivia, who was behind him.
"There's a fire. Do you know-" He couldn't finish his sentence, Olivia having grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher and being already working on figuring out how to use it.
"Here, let me." Peter quickly sprayed the fire, blowing it out efficiently.
"Don't tell me you've been working as a fireman?" she asked.
"Almost; with Walter's crazy habits, you learn early how to kill a fire before the house burns down." She smiled at that and they both staggered into the lab, debris cluttering the ground.
The lab was partially destroyed, half of the objects laid broken, others seemed to have melted. A few papers were still slowing consuming, setting the lab in a smoky mist. They could see the flashing lights of either the police or the ambulances thought the window, expecting to see a medical team rush into the lab at any minute.
"Either we were bombed, or Walter forgot to turn off something." Peter remarked.
Olivia's phone vibrated in her pocket and she quickly scanned the screen, seeing Broyles' name on it.
"Dunham." She answered.
"Olivia! Were are you? There was an explosion-"
"-in the lab, we know. Peter and I are still inside." He made sure they were both safe and unarmed before telling her the bad news.
"Walter believes the explosion probably happened because he forgot to turn off a Bunsen burner." Broyles explained. "Given we don't know the nature of the component that killed Cowen, you will both have to sit tight and wait for Walter to figure it out, before we let anyone in or out. As long as you feel fine, we'll proceed that way." Olivia told him there was plenty of food in the office's fridge, as well as bottled water. Broyles promised to send them the second victim's file through a secure server before hanging up.
"Well?" Peter inquired.
"We're stuck here." She explained briefly what was going on before they both decided to clean up summarily the lab. They split in two, trying to salvage what could be.