A/N : this chapter is rather short, but I might upload chapter 7 earlier tomorrow, just to be pardoned ;)
Walter kept working all night long, refusing to take a break until he was sure Peter and Olivia were alright. Astrid had suggested they took a break, sleep a few hours and come back to work on the bodies with a fresh mind. Walter had argued with her, something he rarely did.
"We do not have time to rest, agent Farnsworth! Olivia's state might be linked to those corpses. She had just came back, to find her world upside down." Astrid had listened intensely to Walter.
"We cannot let Peter lose her. If he does, then I will lose him for good." His eyes had watered, and Astrid had reluctantly accepted to keep working on the case. Walter had of course been eating candies, but she had kept him mostly on his tracks, and they had made some progress.
"Astaroth? Look at those fingers…" Astrid and Walter bent on Cowen's corpse, examining his left hand fingers. His index and middle finger had brown stains. They quickly checked Goltz's fingers, and they found the same color on his right hand.
"It seems they were both smokers." Walter said. Astrid checked on their files, confirming that cigarette butts had been found near the bodies each time.
"I have to study them." Walter took the samples out of the plastic bags, cutting them into pieces and placing them into test tubes. He filled them with an orange liquid and placed them into an electronic machine capable of analyzing each item on a molecular level.
"Had Peter said if Gene was alright?" Walter asked. Astrid answered that she thought he said she was okay, and still in her stab at the lab. Walter simply hummed.
"While this machine does it work, why don't we catch on some sleep?" Astrid offered. They were both exhausted, their mind refusing to think properly anymore. Walter complied and soon both were sleeping soundlessly into the FBI building.
Olivia had slept through the night, Peter keeping an eye on her, drowsing. He had found some plastic film and tape early in the night, in an old box lying in the office, and had managed to repair the broken windows without waking Olivia.
He made some fresh coffee and gently woke her up, checking her pupils once again. Nothing seemed to have changed during the night; had least nothing had worsened.
Olivia ate quite a lot of pastries, to Peter's surprise. He was glad she had her appetite back, seeing her eat almost nothing the previous night. She confirmed that she felt fine, and craved for sugar. She even added sugar to her coffee, something she never did. Of course, Peter noticed the change of behavior.
"You have a sweet teeth this morning. You usually never had sugar to your coffee." She stopped stirring her drink.
"I guess you don't know me that well, uh." She snapped at him. Peter looked saddened. Their relationship was never going to improve at that rate. He did deserve some of her anger, but he had hopped they could had least keep the easy banter they'd shared so far.
"Yeah, I guess I don't." He sighed and stood up, emptying his mug into the sink and rinsed it. Olivia hated herself for reacting so boldly to his comment, but it seemed she couldn't help it. She didn't want to hate Peter, but after what had happened, it was hard to not be angry.
Peter chose to remain silent and opened the case's files again, trying to find a link between the two victims. Olivia finished her breakfast in the deafening silence, trying to find something to say to make things better. Unfortunately, her brain was foggy, and all she could come up with was I'm sorry. It wasn't enough anymore.
Near the end of the morning, in the FBI building, Walter and Astrid were reading the tests results done on the cigarette butts. Some of them contained an abnormal level of cyanide, a highly toxic chemical compound. Cigarettes did contain some level of cyanide, but thousands way less than what they had found in some samples. Walter cursed.
"I should have guessed! The pink skin is the result of the poison action on the hemoglobin. How could I not see it?" He trotted to the corpses, draw some blood and quickly confirmed his assumption. He had finally solved the case, meaning Olivia was saved.
The lab phone rang, breaking the exhilaration. Three other bodies had been found in a vacant house in the suburbs. The description was the same; no sign of struggle, and their skin had tuned pink. However, Broyles informed Walter and Astrid that the victims didn't seem to smoke cigarette, which was confirmed by Walter an hour later, on location. They were back to square one, with no clue on how to help Olivia, if she was indeed poisoned with the same substance as the one who had killed five people.