Ok so I am so sorry that this was updated soooo late! Between finishing up at work, xmas, going away, it just go way too hard! Also I am a bit hesitant to upload as my reviews are going down, which makes me think people are not reading this anymore, but I am still going with it so hopefully now that the holidays are over I will get a better gauge of if this fic is still good.

Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and New Year…Enjoy the next chapter and please review :D

References: Rachel living in Chicago (Amber 31422), "…can't say that I don't think about it…" (The Day We Died), "…every time we get close to getting the answers, someone changes the question…" (The Firefly)

Chapter 23 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Peter moved closer to Olivia and pulled her towards him, "Olivia Dunham, you listen to me and you listen closely, you have done nothing to deserve all of this ok. What Walter and Bell did to you was inexcusable but you never did anything to deserve it…ok?" They sat for a moment, just being with each other on the couch, taking in the feeling of being so close, but it wasn't until Olivia turned her head and crushed her lips on Peter's did he realise how close she was and how much she was effecting him already. Letting her continue a little, Peter let his hands glide over her shoulders, pulling her closer. It wasn't until her hands slid down his chest and began pulling at the knot in his belt did reality come crashing back at him, "Livia, no please, come on, Ella is in the other room and I don't want it like this…your tired and stressed." He pushed her gently away before taking her hand in his and kissing the top of it. "Maybe we should slow it down…like you wanted to…" He watched as her eyes glazed over and she sighed, she knew he was right but just being close to him again was enough to drive her crazy. They were silent for a moment before he realised that someone was missing from the house.

"Where is Rachel?" He looked behind him, hoping to maybe spot something that belonged to her, other than the sleeping child in the next room but all he saw was Olivia's phone, wallet and gun, nothing of Rachel's. "Oh she is out of Boston for a couple of days, dealing with some stuff, so she asked me to look after Ella, so far, its been going ok." Olivia smiled to herself as if for reasurance. Olivia knew he was going to start asking about Rachel, wondering where she was and Ella's father, she just hoped that he didn't explode like he had almost done years ago. Pulling Olivia to lay with her back against his chest and his back against the couch arm, he started running his hands through her hair and down her arms, smoothing away any worries she had. "Where is Ella's father?" He left Olivia sigh against his chest but he still waited. "Well after we left high school and we went to college and Rachel graduated she went away for a few years, moved out of home and all that. I get a phone call in the middle of the night one night about 2 years ago and she is crying and sobbing. She told me she was pregnant, Greg is the father…you remember Greg don't you…?" Olivia looked back against Peter to see if he showed any reaction to knowing him, but she didn't have to, she could feel him tense against her back at his name, "…well they apparently had been seeing each other in Chicago and when he found out she was pregnant he left, just walked away, leaving her with nothing. She has been staying here ever since…"

Olivia became silent, not really sure how to continue or what he wanted to hear and so she thought it would be better if she didn't say anything at all. With the silence stretching between them, Olivia made sure to leave an ear open for Ella, being in the house, in the next room, she didn't take the monitor with her but she knew that if they made too much noise, she wouldn't hear if she cried or called. The warmth of Peter's hand on her arm caught her attention. "Livia, tell me what your thinking...about my father, the drug trials..." His voice carried through the silent room and all that he got in return was a soft sigh and felt her shoulders drop. "I can't say that I don't think about it, I mean do, what they did to me, but Peter I honestly don't even know where to start to comprehend it. They drugged me..." her voice trailed off, feeling Peter nod against her. "I know sweetheart. I know I'm angry with him. I don't even think I can face him anymore..." It seemed hard for both of them to finish sentences during this conversation.

Standing suddenly Olivia pushed herself away from Peter, suddenly frustrated. "What are we supposed to do Peter, we still have this bloody case and the safety deposit boxes and Leob! Every time we get close to getting the answers, someone changes the question!" Throwing her hands up to her face and groaned. "Livia, come on, we will figure it out. I told you I would work out who kidnapped you and at least we are closer that answering that. At least we know it's all connected, solving one mystery will solve the others, you need to calm down a little and take a step back..." He reached out to take her hands but she stepped back, angry. "Peter! He kidnapped me! How can you ask me to be calm about this! I mean someone wanted something from me so desperately that they kidnapped me!"

Almost instantly as she spoke Olivia could see Peter's face change from one of calm to one of complete anger. Turning from her quickly he clenched his fists, "You have no idea how hard it was for me to hear that you had been kidnapped, to know that after we were together, where I should have driven you home, someone came into your home and knocked you out. Olivia I am anything but calm!" his voice rose as he spoke, his hands shaking. Olivia's matched his "Peter, tell me again how this affected you-" creaking of floorboards caused Olivia to turn around and she found Ella standing in the doorway, her left hand rubbing her sleepy eyes while her right hung at her side, the bear in her hand dragging on the floor. "Baby, what's wrong? Did we wake you?" Olivia came to stand in front of Ella and knelt down, watching as she sleepily nodded and looked up at Peter, a smile finding it way into her lips. She dropped the bear and made her way to Peter, running the short distance before wrapping her arms around his legs. "Hey Ella, we are sorry we woke you, how about we get you into bed…" he lifted her into his arms, but as he started to move back towards her bedroom, Ella's arms tightened around his neck and she held on tightly. Olivia smiled at how loving he was towards her but as far as she knew, he had only ever met her once.

Seeing the confused look on Olivia's face he smiled gently before it fell from his face, "When you were missing, Rachel was frantic, I think I ended up holding and looking after Ella more times than I can count. Although if I completely honest I think I offered all the time because I knew it was going to be about the only thing that would stop me from going crazy trying to find you or from hurting one of the other agents at the FBI. She kept me stable…" he looked back at the young girl and brushed some of her light brown hair out of her face. They stood there for a moment, Olivia watching as Peter held onto Ella and Ella who had wrapped her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. "El, I think you should be in bed, come on how about Aunt Liv and I read you a story or something?" Sudden recognition light up on the young girls face and she wiggled her way out of Peter's arms, landing with a thud on the floor and running into her room, taking her aunt's hand as she did. Peter laughed and followed them back towards the bedroom, picking up the forgotten bear as he did. Looking in he found that Olivia and curled up on the bed already, with Ella wrapped in her side and the book sitting on her lap.

It didn't take long before Ella was asleep against Olivia's side, snoring lightly, it was also something that Peter didn't want to disturb but knew that his conversation with Olivia wasn't over with just yet. Feeling his phone buzzing in his pocket, Peter moved away from the doorway and back towards the lounge room, trying to be quiet so he didn't wake Ella again. His face became stone like as he spoke, "Hello Walter…ok…no, no I'll let her know and we should be around tomorrow morning…no she is looking after her niece so we can't come tonight…it'll be fine Walter, even if the body isn't there it's not a big deal…alright, thanks." Hanging up from his conversation he really didn't want to turn back to Olivia because he knew they would be back in business mode and he would have given anything to just continue with feelings right now. Groaning slightly he turned to find Olivia standing no more than two metres from him, closing the door slowly but he knew she had heard the conversation. "What is Walter still doing at the lab? It's late…" She moved back towards Peter, just not as far as he would have liked. "Oh, well he has just finished with the autopsy of Jacobson's body…he was telling me what he found…" he trailed off when he saw her nod gingerly.

Olivia knew that this was coming, she knew that she would have to know about what happened to her former friend, she just didn't know if she would be able to handle it or not, "…and…" was all that came from her mouth when Peter didn't continue. "Well, Walter said that the cause of death was poisoning, he is still trying to work out what it is but he said he found the scratches on his face and neck appear to be self inflicted but there was no evidence of skin or blood under Jacobson's nails, so Walter, with his very far out there thinking, has come to the conclusion that the drug that was giving to you, the one that made you see your stepfather was also injected into Jacobson, Walter found needle marks and is running a tox screen against your blood test to see if there is a match…" He watched as Olivia only nodded, still trying to grasp exactly what was going on but seemed to be struggling, but in classic Olivia Dunham style she wasn't sharing anything at all. "Ok…" Olivia suddenly stood from where she had seated herself and moved passed Peter towards the kitchen, Peter following closely behind her. He found files and papers placed all over the kitchen table, in no particular order that he could see.

"…what I think we should do it go over everything that we have, these are all the files we have, ranging from the bank robberies to Loeb, to my kidnapping, there has to be something that connects them all together, we just have to find it." She had already started to sort through the information she had and so when Peter sat with her, he was jumping in to an already sinking boat. "Right, so what do we have already?" Olivia was a little shocked that Peter was so willing to help without any argument and so she smiled at him, placed a gentle kiss on his lips before moving away from the kitchen, only to come back moments later with what looked like whiteboard. "…This is what I have so far…" she motioned towards the board, not much was on it but it already had bits of information, mostly what they already knew. "What I was already able to find was that Loeb is involved with the bank robberies, along with three other people, one of which is in a coma in the hospital, one of which is in police custody and the other one we have no idea where he is. So Loeb is involved with my kidnapping, which we still need to find more evidence of but I think we need to talk to Broyles tomorrow about that, he needs to know…" She turned around to Peter who was just watching her work, he loved to see how her mind made sense of all the different things that happened in the world. Seeing him smile at her the way he was sent a blush creeping through her cheeks, Olivia turned away from him, trying to keep her composure.

"And then bringing this all together is Jacobson…but why…" Olivia trailed off when she turned back to the board, still not completely believing that he was involved in her kidnapping, although all the evidence pointed to it. "Livia, we still don't know what was in the safe deposit boxes do we? I mean, Walter isn't going to remember and until we find those last three I don't think we are ever going to find out. I think our best chance of finding out what is going on is to talk to Loeb…" He looked up from he file that was in his hand to see the back of Olivia's head nodding at his statement. Tapping the marker on the whiteboard Olivia sighed, "There has to be something else that ties Loeb to all of this. I mean, there has to be something…right?" as her last words fell from her mouth she spun on her heels and faced Peter, his nose buried deep inside the file he had in his hands. "Well how about the fact that he requested you specifically on the case of the bank robberies. Is he allowed to do that?" Peter held up the file for Olivia to take, she had never noticed that she had specifically been asked for.

There was nothing against requesting a specific agent for a case but what got Olivia was that there was no reason as to why he would ask for her. She had no special interest in the case nor had she had previous knowledge of the case, this maybe the little thing that would prove what they already knew, she hoped.

Broyles' night was far from the best, it was now almost midnight and he'd been on the phone with the Senator in regards to the robberies and the kidnapping of a federal agent for over an hour trying to explain the situation and also to explain why they hadn't found any solid leads and what he planned on doing about that. Needless to say, when the Senator had found out that they had no solid leads he was less than impressed, thus beginning the longest hour of Broyles career. "Senator, I understand your concern but we have our best agents on the-" Broyles was cut off as he tried to calm the senator down, he really was more any than ever. It wasn't until his office door suddenly swung open and Olivia walked in did he falter on what he was saying to the senator. "Ah, Senator, I think we may have a lead, let me get back to you…" he hung up before the senator could say another word, noticing that Peter had followed very closely behind her.

"Sir…I think we found something, I have a feeling it links my kidnapping with the robberies…" Olivia cam to take the seat in front of Broyles desk, holding out the file ready for him to take, he vaguely noticed Peter letting the door close quietly behind him. "Now, sir…Peter found this…we think you should take a look at it, because honestly we don't know how to proceed." She handed him the tape recorder and placed it on the desk, letting him take it, tension building as he pressed the play button. "We tried, we did the best we could but there wasn't enough time. But we know it's the right one, the strongest…" Broyles looked up at Olivia, confused for a moment but with a small incline of her head he continued to listen. Then suddenly the all too familiar voice registered in his mind, "Well how about you make sure about that huh?...If not, it's on your head…" His head shot up suddenly and it was at that moment that Olivia and Peter both knew that their boss had heard the same thing they had. Broyles sat frozen in his seat as he listened, his hands clenching into fists as the voice continued, the voice he had heard so many times around the office, Mitchell Loeb.

There was silence between them for a few moment, Broyles still coming to terms with the fact that one of his own agents was involved. "Sir, I know what you are thinking but we ran it through voice recognition and it was a match to Leob's voice. I heard him say the exact same thing when he visited me in the hospital, he thought I was asleep and Peter noticed that he had requested me specifically for the bank robbery case. Sir, it all points to him…" Olivia tried to explain herself to him, although knowing that she probably didn't really need to. Broyles stood from his seat and turned away from her. He paced the length of the window, his mind trying to come to terms with that was going on, trying to see if there was any way the evidence that had could be wrong or forged but he trusted the agent in front of him, she had never been wrong. Sighing he brought his hand to his forehead and turned towards her, "Dunham, do you know what this means?" He turned towards the large window he had that overlooked the rest of floor, Mitchel Leob was nowhere to be seen. "Yes sir, I am fully aware." She believed it to be a rhetorical question but for the benefit of arguments sake she answered. "Sir, what are we going to do?" This was when Broyles turned around to face Olivia, noticing that Peter was now standing behind her with his hand on her shoulder. He sighed, "You are going to go home and rest for the night. I will have something in place ready to go by midday tomorrow, I will inform you of what is to happen." When it looked like Olivia was going to argue, Broyles places his hand up, "That's an order…" Before waving them both off and watching as they left the office.

Sighing to himself, Broyles tried to keep down the anger that was rising inside of him. One of his agents had kidnapped Olivia, although he was her boss, she was like a daughter to him, they were like family and knowing that someone on the inside had hurt her like that, he was going to come down hard on them.

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