Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A summary of chapters.

Chapter 1: Here, There and Everywhere

Set just after Neither Here Not There, Lincoln encounters the Observers after Robert’s death and who say something cryptic to him about Olivia Dunham - and then he meets Alt-Liv. Up to chapter 8, the P.O.V changes from red to amber universes.

Chapter 2: One Day In September

Lincoln comforts Robert's wife Jules and talks to Walter about the shapeshifters. Meanwhile, a flashback to 2010 reveals how Alt-Lin’s dad could have died in Over There Part 1 but could still be alive in The Consultant.

Chapter 3: Second Looks, Second Thoughts and Final Answers

Olivia visits Lincoln in hospital as he recovers after ‘Gus’s’ attack and he gives her his keychain. A few days later, he encounters Olivia in the late night diner. Meanwhile, in the red-verse, Alt-Linc and Alt-Liv attend Charlie and Mona’s wedding.

Chapter 4: Blank Space

An extention to Alt-Liv and Lincoln’s chat on the bench in Enemy of my Enemy. Alt-Liv visits the Bishop lab in the prime universe to bring back Alt-Astrid, while Lincoln returns to Robert's home for his God-daughter Amy’s birthday. Disappointed that Lincoln isn’t there, she's shocked when Walter reveals something about Lincoln.

Chapter 5: Shut Up and Listen

Taking place in between Making Angels and Everything In Its Right Place in the red-verse, a late birthday celebration for Alt-Linc escalates as he tells Alt-Liv about his feelings.

Chapter 6: The Night Comes Down Like Heaven

Missing scenes from Everything In Its Right Place. Devastated by Alt-Linc’s death, Alt-Liv falls apart from grief and into Lincoln’s arms who consoles her but also feels self-conscious that he's another version of the man she loved. 

Chapter 7: Dusk to Dawn

After Alt-Linc’s funeral, Alt-Liv visits Lincoln’s motel room in the middle of the night to tell that Nina and Broyles have been murdered, and the conspiracy around Alt-Linc death is being covered up.

Chapter 8: Particles

Missing scenes from Worlds Apart. With the impending ultimatum of having to close the Bridge, Lincoln decides to stay in the red-verse permanently to the relief of Alt-Liv. The story is set entirely in the red-verse from this point on with the exception of Lincoln’s flashbacks.

Chapter 9: True Blue

A few months after the Bridge closed, Lincoln attends the Fringe Division Christmas party with Al-Liv. A flashback to 3 years earlier to 2009 when Alt-Liv, Alt-Linc and Charli had a work party reveals how Alt-Linc and Alt-Liv kissed one time.

Chapter 10: One But Not The Same

At Alt-Liv’s insistence, Lincoln moves into her apartment and they have an intimate talk about his universe and relationships. A flashback to 1996 reveals how he met Kendra, his feelings for Robert and more details of Charlie & Mona's wedding.

Chapter 11: Gods and Monsters

Lincoln meets this universe’s Robert and goes monster hunting on a case with Alt-LIv. A flashback to 2007 reveals why Robert gave Lincoln his keychain and one in 2010 shows more cracks in Alt-Liv and Frank’s relationship.

Chapter 12: Echoes

While out on a friendly dinner, Alt-Liv and Lincoln encounter an aggressive Frank and a flashback to 12 months earlier provides context to why they broke up.

Chapter 13: In My Veins

Olivia surprises Lincoln with a cake on his birthday and the next month she visits Alt-Linc’s grave on the anniversary of his death. A few months later, Lincoln returns the favour and they go out for a meal for her birthday. After drinking cocktails, the similarity of the two Lincolns affects her emotionally and they have a heart to heart, and he finally tells her what happened to Kendra.

Chapter 14: The Sandman

A flashback to January 2010 explains how Charlie became infected with his "worms" and he returns to Fringe Division after being treated for his condition, only to be dropped in the deep end as the team help out on a new case, and are introduced to a new agent called Jill Ruiz who takes a liking to Lincoln after they end up in close proximity while trying to hide.

Chapter 15: I Am Easy to Find

Liv and Lincoln go on a "double date" with Charlie and Mona - who have their own surprise - and Charlie confronts Liv about her feelings for the new Lincoln.

Chapter 16: Undisclosed Desires

Developments in The Sandman Case lead the Fringe Division team to stakeout that goes wrong, especially for Liv.

Chapter 17: Wrap Around Your Dreams

Liv and Lincoln deal with the aftermath of Liv being drugged and the implications of their feelings for each other.

Chapter 18: Sweet Disposition

After Marilyn brings Liv home from the hospital, she tries to speak to Lincoln about the things she saw in her dream, unaware he has been told about the side-effects of the drug and is concerned about what it means for them. 

Chapter 19: Made of Glass

A flashback to when Cortiphan was in her alternate's body, causing Liv’s to dream of Henry (continued from Chapter 12 "Echoes" and Chapter 5 "Shut Up & Listen") and which triggered her break up with Frank.

Chapter 20: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Triggered by the drugs still in her system from The Sandman case, Liv has nightmares about Lincoln’s death which leads to an awkward situation.

Chapter 21: Red Lines

Ruiz, the original detective from The Sandman case, reappears and asks Liv if Lincoln is single before asking him out on a date, and unaware of Liv’s feelings for him, he agrees.

Chapter 22: Bruises

While Lincoln is on a date with Ruiz, Olivia and Astrid talk about the differences between Lincoln and Alt-Linc, and when he returns from the date in the middle of the night, Liv is surprised to find him almost naked in her apartment.

Chapter 23: Mirror

Lincoln and Liv deal with the emotional fallout of their confessions from the night before, and Lincoln reluctantly confesses his feelings about Liv to Charlie while they're on a new case and Liv stays at her mom's house. Flashbacks reveal the conversation Lincoln had with Jill on their date and how Charlie was stung and infected by his arachnids just after the party in Chapter 9.

Chapter 24: Coming to Your Senses

After a chat with her mom, Liv has a revelation about her feelings for Lincoln. Meanwhile, Lincoln and Charlie struggle with the intense nature of the case they’re on and Ruiz comes to say goodbye to Lincoln before leaving. A flashback goes into more detail about Lincoln and Jill Ruiz’s date.

Chapter 25: I Found

Tensions between Lincoln and Liv come to a conclusion as she confronts him about his relationship with Jill and Mona goes into labor, leaving Lincoln and Liv to finish the case.

Chapter 26: You Belong With Me

Liv and Lincoln decide to keep the romantic part of their relationship secret for a while, but when it's revealed the Fringe Division teams' details have been hacked, they know they could all be under attack - even Charlie and Mona.

Chapter 27: Breathe Me

Olivia and Lincoln trace the source of the hack and discover how it relates to the recent case with highly emotional and devastating results

Chapter 28: Paint Me Red

Lincoln and Liv visit Charli and Mona and their new baby Nellie, still reeling after the events of the previous chapter.

Chapter 29: One Night

Liv decides to fully consummate her relationship with Lincoln who worries that he's just a substitute for Alt-Linc.

Chapter 30: Burning Low - Too Hot To Hold

Liv reassures Lincoln he's not a substitute for the other Lincoln who did, and that she loves him as his own person, in his own right.

Chapter 31: Five More Minutes

When a power cut causes Lincoln and Liv to oversleep, they miss breakfast and go out for lunch, only to bump into someone from Alt-Linc’s past.

Chapter 32: Truths and Monsters

The Violent Crimes department asks for Lincoln's help on tracking down a serial killer who plays on young men but he takes the case personally. A flashback goes back to when Alt-Linc and Alt-Liv were on the McClennan case.

Chapter 33: The Years Burn

The Fringe Division team use clues left by Dallas to find his and Lincoln's location before it's too late

Chapter 34: My Blood

Liv gets worried when Lincoln’s personality seems to change for the worse.

Chapter 35: No Smoke Without Fire

Charlie returns from paternity leave and the team starts a case about unexplained arson attacks.

Chapter 36: Foolish People

Fringe Division’s case on the arson attacks intensifies when they identify that the next two potential victims are a famous couple.

Chapter 37: Falling to your Feet

The case comes to a head when the true perpetrator is revealed.

Chapter 38: Your Eyes Could Start A Fire

The Fringe Division team stands-off with the arsonist with almost deadly consequences.

Chapter 39: April Showers and Mud Baths

While investigating anomalous readings in rural Pennsylvania, Lincoln and Liv end up in a sticky situation.

Chapter 40: Pizza for Two

Liv and Lincoln take a bath to clean up.

Chapter 41: Conspiracies and Karaoke

When Fringe Division gets orders from higher up to stop investigating the anomaly, they take matters into their own hands. A flashback to 2009 reveals more details about the party in chapter 9.

Chapter 42: Falling Through the Cracks

Astrid makes an important breakthrough on the case while Charlie and Lincoln’s lives are put in danger. Liv has another worrying dream about her and Lincoln.

Chapter 43: Should Never Be Seen

Another dream about Lincoln and his response to Liv’s concern about his car crash prompts her to see the DoD psychiatrist. Astrid’s lead takes them to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island where Lincoln makes an important discovery.

Chapter 44: Your Time Is Now

Lincoln finds Kate Green and what she was building at Brookhaven. Flashbacks reveal Secretary Bishops’s connection to Kate’s abandoned project at Brookhaven - and her motivations.

Chapter 45: Pandorica's Box

After Kate’s revelation, Lincoln struggles with what means. After his recent encounter with Alt-Linc’s step-sister Meredith, he looks for info on his deceased double’s family file for closure and decides to be more publicly affectionate to Liv. With no further leads, the Fringe Team stops investigating the anomaly linked to Brookhaven. Astrid and Liv visit a local research facility after getting reports of a monster sighting.

Chapter 46: Without Granting Innocence

A flashback shows Alt-Linc’s protective relationship with Meredith, while Liv and Astrid break into the Pandorica Genetics building after having a conversation about love and relationships.

Chapter 47: Hyde

An incursion on the Pandorica Genetics laboratory results in Astrid taking drastic action to prevent an experimental drug falling into the wrong hands, meanwhile Liv finds herself in a tense hostage situation.

Chapter 48: ...and Seek

After narrowly escaping the life or death situation, Liv visits Astrid in hospital. Lincoln receives a call from Robert asking for help.

Chapter 49: Dust To Dust

Liv and Lincoln join Robert whose brother Randy had been found turned to dust, which leads them to the Glatterflug company. A flashback reveals how Lincoln's dad died in the Prime Universe. 

Chapter 50: Deep In My Bones, Straight From Inside

The Fringe Division team makes a shocking discovery while visiting the Glatterflug ground control in Florida.

Chapter 51: Blue Moon

Unable to treat Aleks Vasiliev’s condition, the Fringe team are given extreme orders to prevent any further freakish deaths.

Chapter 52: A Giant Step Each Day

Liv, Charlie and Lincoln escort Vasiliev to the moon and arrange for the Tranquility lunar base to be evacuated, only for tragedy to strike at the last moment.

Chapter 53: So I Stayed in the Darkness With You

After losing all hope of seeing Liv alive again, Charlie and Lincoln discover the impossible.

Chapter 54: Rock Candy and Red Vines

While Lincoln is taken out for a few belated birthday drinks by Charlie and Jay Reynolds, Liv visits Astrid who has her own secret to reveal.

Chapter 55: After the Storm

In 2014, while Liv goes to visit her mom who's been ill after a contagious vomiting virus hits New York, Lincoln checks on Alt-Linc’s step-siblings from afar and the team celebrates Nellie’s first birthday with Charlie and Mona. In 2015 Liv and Lincoln visit Alt-Linc’s grave on the anniversary of his death, unaware they’re being watched. 

Chapter 56: Lost at Sea

In the late summer of 2014, Liv and Lincoln celebrate their first anniversary of consummating their relationship.

Chapter 57: Oceans

Olivia wakes in the night to discover the reason why she had been feeling nauseous and has an emotional talk with Lincoln about her health.

Chapter 58: Waiting Room

Lincoln and Olivia deal with the emotional fall-out of her miscarriage.

Chapter 59: Heartbreakers

Three years later in 2017, Fringe Division are given a case involving victims with their entire heart removed. As they delve deeper, it appears someone is removing mechanical heart transplants and that someone they thought had died years ago is still very much alive, which turns the investigation - and the lives of Liv and Lincoln - upside down.

Chapter 60: The Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion

Alt-Linc’s fate is revealed and Lincoln realises the conspiracy goes far deeper than anyone realises in flashforwards.

Chapter 61: Shudder with Blood in my Nose

In 2017 Lincoln works with an old ally to protect one of the intended victims, and a flashback to 2005 shows how Liv saved Alt-Linc from being sucked into a vortex.

Chapter 62: Thunder in Our Hearts

In 2017 Lincoln continues protecting Malcolm while being pursued by AGR, unaware Liv has been captured.

Chapter 63: Hard to be Soft, Tough to be Tender/ Chapter 64: Savage High

More is revealed about Corey - Lincoln’s ally - Charlie and Astrid desperately try to find more info that leads them to him and Liv.

Chapter 65: Beckoning Nausea

In 2017 Liv finally gets in touch with Lincoln, leading both them and Corey to a dangerous resolution with her kidnapper.

Chapter 66: The Murmur of the Land

Corey trades himself with Liv’s kidnapper without her knowing he's someone she’d recognise.

Chapter 67: Ophelius Rising

Continuing in October 2017. When Lincoln seems withdrawn and doesn't turn up for work while Liv is staying at her mom's, Charlie and Astrid decide to investigate why. Continues storyline of Chapters 39-44. 

Chapter 68: Project Ouroboros

While at her mom's, Liv wonders if Lincoln is unhappy and thinks back on happier times. She gets a message from Lincoln's kidnappers with a demand for his release - steal a classified file from the Liberty Island base.  

Chapter 69: Nagamani’s Whisper

Liv finds the file in the DoD she needs to give Lincoln's kidnappers but discovers a worrying secret of her own. Meanwhile Charlie and Astrid try to determine Lincoln's whereabouts and stop Olivia before she gets caught.

Chapter 70: Ophis’s Curse

Realising it’s a trap, Liv tries to leave Liberty Island with the classified file as Charlie and Erikson find where Lincoln had been taken, who kidnapped him and why.

Chapter 71: Ophir’s Bounty

Lincoln, Charlie and Erikson team up with an unlikely duo and make a deal with Secretary Bishop to release Liv & Astrid from DoD custody.

Chapter 72: The Aspsi and the Arachne

The Fringe Division team form unlikely alliances with Secretary Bishop and the Green's to get the downloaded file to Brookhaven.

Chapter 73: Bury Me In the Glow

Lincoln and Secretary Bishop take the USB file to the Brookhaven lab with the Greens and try to unlock its secrets. Circumstances reveal that two members of Fringe Division are not who they seem.

Chapter 74: Times & Dreams

Realising Reynolds is missing, Liv pursues him to Brookhaven

Chapter 75: So We Can Beat the End

Liv and Charlie race back to Brookhaven to stop Jay from interfering with Lincoln & Secretary Bishop' plans to reactivate Kate's machine. Tragedy strikes when their plans go wrong.

Chapter 76: The Scorpion and the Frog

Lincoln confesses a secret to Liv that could destroy their relationship. He confronts Secretary Bishop who makes a proposal that could save not only Lincoln and Liv but all of Fringe Division whose future hangs in the balance.

Chapter 77: The Golden Spiral

The first chapter of two which returns to 2015, when in September Fringe Division re-encounter the red universe's version of The Artist serial killer, which proves to be a personal case to Charlie.

Chapter 78: No Master Or Kings

The serial killer known only as "The Artist" is determined to make his last 'artwork' a memorable one - especially for Charlie.

Chapter 79: Disappear With the Night

Back in 1994 a stranger with amnesia emerges in the middle of the Adirondacks - the last site where the anomaly had been recorded ten years later. Injured, bleeding and hanging on to consciousness by a thread, he struggles to find help and who he is.

Chapter 80: Candescent Insects

Flashback to September 2016 when Liv and Lincoln look after Nellie for the weekend while Charlie and Mona spend the weekend away for their 5th anniversary

Chapter 81: I Always Want You When I'm Finally Fine

Continuing the plot in the previous chapter in which Lincoln and Olivia look after Nellie for the weekend while Charlie and Mona are away.

***

As he tucked his now late partner's ID into his bag, the thought stabbed Lincoln. He opened the envelope handed to him with trembling fingers, sighing out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding onto. Inside was Robert Danzig’s death certificate. Olivia must’ve arranged this herself.

She’d said she couldn’t officially register the death because it would draw too much attention to their work. And yet, she had. He was grateful. But also confused. Why would she go to the trouble for him?

He’d hated her when they met. Hated the way she shut him down, cold and clinical, unmoved by the fact that he had just lost not only his partner, but the last person in the world he called family. She was brilliant, beautiful, unreadable. And he couldn't forgive her for acting like Robert’s death was a footnote.

But Lincoln was nothing if not stubborn. He watched her drive away and memorized her license plate. She had to answer to someone. And he’d find them. Someone had to tell him why Robert died.

Then there were the two bald men identical suits, identical robotic, almost alien stature, walking away from the crime scene as if they didn’t belong to this world at all. He caught up to them.

“Hey! Who are you?” he called out, voice sharp with demand, convinced they were complicit somehow.

They turned in eerie unison, repeating his words like a mirror. Then one of them tilted his head, eyes calm, voice strange.

“Who we are is irrelevant. You knew her—before.”

Lincoln’s confusion only deepened. “What the hell does that mean?”

The second man added, “And you will know her again. One of the Olivias will be your destiny.”

“...But it is unclear which one, as the boy remains,” the first said, their eyes locked in cryptic understanding.

A siren pierced the silence. Lincoln turned. When he looked back, they were gone. Disappeared like ghosts.

Rattled, he returned to the FBI headquarters, determined to dig up everything he could about Agent Olivia Dunham.

At first, she resisted him. And he resisted her right back. But in the quiet, they found common ground. She’d lost someone too. She understood that hollow feeling, the quiet ache of something missing. She made sure Robert’s body was returned to his family. For that, he’d always be grateful.

And then she showed him The Bridge. Another world. Another Olivia with different hair, different smile. And different way she looked at him with a subtle intrigue.

He remembered the bald men. “You will know her again,” they’d said.

Now he did.

This Olivia, the one with the red hair and reckless charm, took his breath away. She was the same, but not. Fire where the other was ice. A bold spark that stirred something in him he thought was buried with Robert. The first Olivia looked at him like a puzzle she’d already solved. This one looked at him like a story just beginning.

And late one night, when he caught himself smiling at nothing, he realized the truth:

He wasn’t just mourning his partner anymore.

He was falling into a mystery that had only just begun.

Chapter Text

September 2011 AmberVerse

Being an FBI agent wasn’t a simple job.

Chasing criminals, working long hours and giving bad news to families was part of the territory, and Lincoln had expected that when he’d joined the bureau from the police force. His own experience with tragedy and death had given him the ability to deliver the news empathetically with a skill Robert had envied until he'd learned how Lincoln had learned it.

But when he sat with Robert's wife Julie, all of the expertise, training and experience he had disappeared like a dream on waking.

Even so, he stayed with her after the funeral and wake because he didn’t know where else to go and what else to do. The wooden box with his partner’s personal effects sat on the table where he’d left them, the contents rattling around in it like the thoughts in his head. He awkwardly tucked his hands in his pockets, feeling the native American token Danzig had given him earlier in their partnership, to show he’d always be welcome at their home and in their family. The tether felt strained and stretched, pulled to its limits and fraying with every flip in his fingers and memory of that day.

I don’t have children or a family. I don’t even have a home. It should have been me.

Their house was eerily quiet compared to usual which only compounded his unease. He was used to it being filled with the sounds of their children laughing, and as Lincoln sat with Jules, she stared vacantly, leaning into his shoulder for support, the only sound was small shudders that dripped from her lungs and a tick of clock that echoed against the empty walls.

Lifting her head she looked at his shoulder, damp with tears, and leaped out of his arm’s embrace.

“Sorry.” She sniffed, wiping her face, making him realize how wet his eyes were too.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.” He replied as she sat up. “I’m the one who should be sorry. It should’ve been… I’ll do everything I can to find those responsible.”

There’s nothing I can say. Whatever I say would never be enough. “Jules, I should go.” Lincoln added, as he leapt up and stiffly motioned towards the door, forcing a pinched polite smile as he stepped away.

“Lincoln?” Jules' voice was small but louder than a scream, and it stopped him instantly. He waited, without turning back to her as his hand reached for the handle. “Will you come back? It’s Amy’s birthday in a few weeks and I’d really appreciate it if you came.”

Turning back he nodded. “Of course.” And then he was gone, alone again in the wilderness, looking for somewhere - or someone - else to call home.

April 2010 Alternative/Red Universe

Lincoln hadn’t been seen for over a week, and eventually Olivia cornered Charlie on a quiet afternoon, concerned that he’d not been around and no one had offered any explanation.

“He’s, uh, taken some compassionate leave,” Charlie explained, awkwardly shoving his hands into his pockets, his eyes flickering to the floor with uncertainty, unsure of how much he should share. “His step-brother called out of the blue. They don’t really talk much anymore...” He sighed, pursing his lips in a sympathetic smile. “There was a car accident. His dad and step-mom were hit head on in a collision, they’re not sure if they’re gonna make it. And since his step-sister was trapped in amber a few years back, he doesn’t really have anyone else.”

Olivia nodded in understanding, recalling their conversation from a few months earlier when she’d received her first commendation only to learn a few hours later her sister Rachel and her baby had died in childbirth. Lincoln, in a rare display of vulnerability, had revealed his mother had died when he was a small boy, leaving him alone with his father until he’d remarried a few years later.

“Thanks for letting me know, Charlie, that saves me putting my foot in my mouth later.”

“No worries, kiddo,” Charlie replied, his dark brown eyes shimmering with sympathy. “Just don’t tell him I told you. He doesn’t like pity.”

When Lincoln finally returned, Charlie edged up to him, the concern for his friend etched on his face. “You sure you’re ready to be back at work? You look rough as hell…”

“Not as rough as your sister when I left her this morning.” Lincoln retorted, hiding behind the wall of his sarcastic banter even more than he usually did, but now Olivia could see the sadness in his eyes despite his disguise.

September 2011 AmberVerse

"Remind me again what this is for,” Lincoln asked, passing a large piece of material to Walter as he gestured for it and frowned in confusion. “I thought we were going to talk about the shapeshifters?”

“Pull this blanket over here,” Walter instructed, unfolding it with a quick wrist action, sending dust and paperwork flying across the room and trying in vain to fit it over a mirror. “Dammit, I have a bigger one in the lab. Can you grab it, Kennedy?”

“It’s Lincoln!” He repeated in annoyance from earlier, louder this time, as he turned back towards the main lab, stopping in his tracks when he heard Astrid and Olivia talking.

“Well, he just lost his partner… He’s probably a little lonely... Why not? He’s cute.”

“He’s not even my type.”

The two bald men’s words played back in his mind. “

"It is your destiny to be with - an Olivia…”

“...But it is unclear which one.”

He’d quickly grown to admire, respect and even like this Olivia, and appreciate her understated and unconventional beauty, realizing she was probably reserved due to previous experiences just like he was. Unsure and too cautious to make the first move. But this confirmed she wasn’t interested in him at all. 

The rejection should have stung, but the chronic pain was something he'd become so accustomed to, he didn't even feel it anymore. Then he thought about the other Olivia, with her red hair that hung freely around her shoulders and wickedly contagious grin, and couldn’t forget the way she looked at him that day on the bridge, like he should be in on the joke but didn’t know the punchline.

He continued to the lab now Olivia had taken a phone call, and he grabbed the sheet quickly, taking it back to Walter, not noticing Astrid’s blush at the thought of him overhearing her conversation with Olivia.

“Ah yes! That’s the one!” The older man greeted him enthusiastically, attempting to take it from Lincoln and he retracted, moving back slightly, which was met by a surprised expression from Walter.

He then offered the sheet with a bagged selection of candy he’d picked up on the way in; gum balls, jelly beans, vines and lemon drops.

Lincoln had remembered Walter’s fondness for sweet snacks and the way to his heart was definitely through his stomach, and he was determined to use it as a method to help his own heart.

“So you were telling me about the other Olivia, from the other side?” He smiled, “Please, continue.”

Chapter Text

Late September 2011 AmberVerse

“If you’re freaked out, and need to talk, I’m here,” Olivia said, reassuringly. 

Lincoln smiled, appreciating her kindness, although it took him by surprise. To this point, although she’d been professional, she’d always remained a little distant, unattached even. But now she seemed more accepting of him, although she still seemed a bit distracted by something she wasn’t prepared to share with him yet, they’d begun to find their rhythm and a way of working together as partners.

“You’ll be the first to know!” he smiled awkwardly, knowing that wasn’t exactly the truth, as she wasn’t the only one holding back.

In a haze of antibiotics & antifungal medications, an oxygen tank and a small transfusion, Lincoln Lee’s body was finally fighting the parasitic mold lifeform that had attacked him, and he slowly felt a bit more normal physically, although he knew mentally he'd take a lot longer to adjust.

He fiddled with the IV drip in his hand as he completed the crossword on his hospital bed, longing for a game of chess with Walter to pass the time and ease the boredom.

Suddenly, the door to his room opened, and the nurse came in.

“Good morning, Mr Lee!” she greeted him as she walked in. “Glad to see you’re awake already!”

“Hi,* he replied, appreciating the company. “Is it time for a check-up or more pills?”

“Actually, you have a visitor.” she replied as Olivia’s face peered around the door frame.

“I do? Hey!” he smiled in surprise. “Nice to see you.”

“Hey yourself!” she replied. “How are you feeling?”

“More like a normal guy and less like a fungi!” Lincoln quipped, and Olivia laughed as she sat in the chair next to his bed.

“Well, as long as you’re not freaked out!” 

He coughed as he laughed, and the nurse looked at him as she checked his IV and left the room.

“I brought you a change of clothes. I thought you’d need some as yours were contaminated by …”

“Gus?”

Olivia studied his face as he smiled and noticed how soulful his eyes looked when he was smiling.

His normal look was so contradictory. He had a cute boyish charm and looks, but in a traditional government agent suit and glasses, he looked older. Without his glasses and having not shaved since being admitted into hospital, the stubble accentuated his jaw and it made him look different, a lot like the Lincoln she’d met on the other side. Handsomer, even. Olivia stopped herself in her thoughts and looked away. Before, she had been so sure he wasn’t her usual type, but maybe he was, after all. He was a good guy; quiet and shy but clearly passionate and protective about people he cared about, it was just hidden under his conservative FBI agent appearance. And his work showed he was astute, meticulous and had a good eye for detail.

Maybe I wouldn’t get second thoughts, she thought to herself.

He smiled awkwardly at the silence and looked away at his bedside table on the other side of the bed and fished something from the drawer.

“Did they destroy the organism?” he enquired, and she nodded in reply.

“Once they had severed the connection with Aaron, the toxin along with flamethrowers seems to have destroyed any trace along the sewer line that was headed into Boston.”

“That’s good. I don’t remember much from before the medical team brought me here," Lincoln paused, thoughtfully. “I’m glad you came to see me, actually. I wanted to thank you for saving my life.”

“You would have done the same for me. You don’t need to thank me," Olivia said, flustered.

“I want you to have this,” he passed the leather chain with the metal emblem to her. “Robert gave me this Native American token when he saved my ass on an early case because he said I needed it to ground me. The picture is a maze symbolizing the journey of life, the difficulties and decisions we make that lead to the center.

“What’s in the center?”

“Home, a place for us to belong," he smiled wistfully. "You said you knew what it was like to have a hole in your life, and I never got to tell you I was sorry I made that assumption about you, so..."

“I can’t take this from you, Lincoln,” Olivia began. “I know how much he meant to you.”

“No, I want you to have it,” Lincoln gently insisted, knowing what she could mean to him if they let each other in and made the first step. “Use it as I did, as a tether, when you feel yourself floating away.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded as he curled her fingers around it in her hand and she cursed herself as she balked at the surprise of his touch, her flinch registered in his eyes and she winced at her own awkwardness.

“I better make a move and check on Walter. I’m glad you’re okay, Lincoln.”

She stood and moved towards the door as her hand reached for the handle. “Maybe we’ll get that bite to eat when you’re back?”

“Dinner’s on me as you saved my life," he replied and nodded, the corners of his lips twisting into a smile. “Anything you want, just not Italian - I don’t think I’ll want to eat mushrooms for a long time” 

Lincoln wheezed as he laughed again and Olivia smiled as she left, holding the gift in her fingers and processing their conversation and his thoughts.

September 2011 Alt/Red Verse

“Charlie and Mona, sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Charlie with his baby worms in a carriage,” Lincoln sung, the teasing lilt in his voice increasing as approached Charlie and Mona, the former scowling and the latter looking down at her feet and suppressing a smirk, whacking him lightly with the bouquet of red and white roses she gripped in her hands. "Guess that makes you a ladybug now?"

Charlie shifted in his smart black suit and shirt, adjusting a red rose in the buttonhole of his jacket as Mona smiled in her red 50s retro style halter neck dress with black spots and black patent block heels to match her glasses, her ginger hair flicked out in a bob.

“Is that your way of congratulating us?” Charlie asked, jutting his chin towards Olivia who was dancing in the arms of a tall handsome man he didn't recognise, her red and black bandeau maxi dress swishing at her ankles. “Or maybe you’re just jealous.”

“Pffft, whatever,” Lincoln replied with a scoff, “Sorry for bugging you. Just think of us when you’re on your honeymoon and we’re saving the world.”

“Trust me when I say you will be the last thing I’ll be thinking of when I’m sipping Mai Tai cocktails on the beach,” Charlie said, taking the hand of his new wife and linking his fingers with hers as he led her towards the dance floor as the song changed.

Lincoln turned as Olivia worked her way through the dancers and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the floor.

“C’mon,” her smile beaming up at him. “You can’t stand here on your own all night.”

“Oh no,” Lincoln protested as he pulled back. “I don’t dance.”

“Sure you do,” Olivia argued, linking her right hand with his left one and putting his other hand on her waist as she linked her arm around his shoulder. “This is a slow song. All you gotta do is sway with me.”

Lincoln sighed as she moved against him and they stepped in time to the song.

“You sure you wouldn’t want to dance with that other guy you were with?” he asked, his movements unsure as he felt her chest pressing against his own.

“Nope, you’re doing fine. He cornered me when I came out of the restrooms and stepped on my foot," she said as Lincoln stifled a snigger. “Twice.”

They moved further into the crowd of dancers, moving closer together as the dance floor became more crowded. The lights reflected from the disco ball above them added little specks of rainbows that glittered on her hair and shoulders, and Lincoln’s hand moved closer around her waist, joined by the other as her arms linked around his neck. She could feel the rough feel of his two-day-old stubble on her cheek and clutching strands of her hair.

“It’s a shame you were off work. You’ll never guess who I met at work yesterday?”

“Who?” he asked, his breath warm on her cheek.

“You," she smiled as Lincoln frowned in confusion. "The one from the other side, I mean."

“Oh, really?” Lincoln huffed a smile, trying to read her face for any flicker of emotion. “Is he devastatingly handsome and charming too?”

She thought of how she had chuckled to herself when she saw him for the first time, there was no mistake who it was, she would recognise him in any universe or iteration, but his conservative appearance of flat hair and glasses had thrown her off, made her laugh with a nervous energy she hadn’t expected to feel. More than that, he looked good in a suit, great even, to the point she’d forgotten about the shapeshifter tech for a second. There was something curious about him, something that compelled her to keep looking in his direction, pulling her in like a magnetic force. He’d looked at her equally surprised, but then seemed as if a flicker of recognition had danced in his eyes, like it he was expecting to see her eventually and it was just a matter of when rather than if.

“Hmmm, I just thought he was kinda funny looking," she smirked teasingly, watching Lincoln’s eyes roll back in response until they lowered, his lids heavy as he studied her face.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before,” Lincoln whispered. "In a dress, with your hair up.”

“A bridesmaid's dress isn’t really suitable for our line of work, you dumbass," Olivia scoffed nervously, biting her lip. “I’ve never seen you in a suit before, either.”

“You look beautiful," he said simply, moving his head back so he could see her face, her eyes shining in the shimmer of the disco lights that danced across her face and froze as his eyes drifted to her full lips, cherry-like, red and glistening. Lincoln swallowed thickly, worried she was about to mock him for complimenting her.

“Lincoln, is that you?” A male voice called out, shaking them up from the spell of each other’s gaze and they jumped, guiltily stepping out of each other’s grasp as if caught doing something forbidden. 

“George?” Lincoln replied, frowning in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here with Mona’s cousin. I never thought I’d see you again.” The young man smiled, his aqua eyes glinting as he tucked his long sandy blond hair behind his ears and leaned in, pecking a kiss on the side of Lincoln’s cheek, to Olivia’s surprise. “So, you gonna stand there or are you gonna introduce me to your -?

“Sure! Uh, hhis is Olivia," Lincoln interrupted as the other man offered his hand to shake. “We work with Charlie. Olivia, this is George, an old friend of mine from before I-“

“Friend?” George laughed, interrupting Lincoln mid-sentence. “Sure.”

He stopped when he saw Lincoln’s eyes widen as a warning. “Nice to see you again. Call me if you want to meet up. I’m in town for the rest of the week before I head back to Philly.”

He winked, sauntering away, leaving Olivia looking at Lincoln with raised eyebrows.

“So, who was he?” she teased, reaching out for his hand to continue the dance but he pulled it away, and stormed off in the opposite direction towards the patio doors. “Lincoln?”

Olivia called him back, but he didn’t stop, and left her alone in the middle of the dance floor for a moment until she decided to follow him.

She finally found him, away from the crowds and sat on a picnic bench in the grounds of the building, through the gazebos, arbors and pergolas decorated with red and white flowers and string lights, leaning on his elbows and cradling what looked like a large glass of whisky, swigging it back as he saw her slowly approach him.

Oct/Nov 2011 AmberVerse

Lincoln sat in his hotel room, alone. A few days ago, he’d given Olivia his keychain that his partner Robert had given him and sitting there, he shocked himself when he admitted to himself he would have given her his heart too if she asked or if he thought she’d take it.

It would be so easy to fall in love with her in this state, with no one else to fall back on, being alone in the world. He could easily allow himself to fall for her, and thought he would, but then she confessed she’d dreamed of Peter before he mysteriously appeared and as much as he tried to deny it, he knew what that meant, as one of the Olivias had been haunting his dreams for weeks too. When she confessed that to him it confirmed what he already suspected, he decided to distance himself from her for his own self-preservation - he had no desire to be a third wheel or get burned again. He resolved to call her Dunham instead of her first name, and when she asked him if he wanted to get food together again, he bluntly refused, made his excuses and left.

His suit jacket and tie laid discarded at his side as Lincoln stretched out on the top of the bed over the starched sheets and bed cover. He stared blankly at the beige walls and abstract painting in his small hotel room that rattled on the nail it hung on. He tried to ignore the flash of disappointment he’d seen on Olivia’s face when he rebuffed her offer of getting food, but he couldn’t forget it. Actually, he regretted being cold to her. It was against his nature to be hurtful towards someone he cared for, even if she had been like that to him only a few weeks ago and it meant he would get hurt eventually, and the guilt ate away at the back of his mind.

Deciding to go for a walk, he jumped up from the bed and slipped on his shoes. He’d been unable to sleep from the feeling of remorse and shame and had found a 24 hour diner that sold decent food and coffee to give him enough distraction from his thoughts and the muffled noises of couples fucking that vibrated through the thin walls of the hotel he was staying in despite the earplugs he used, the sounds seeping through as vibrations like his thoughts about Olivia and the cases did in his mind.

On the fourth night he visited the café, he found a stool at the bar like he had before, and made himself comfortable, placing his jacket down on the smooth blue Formica surface and unfolded his newspaper to reveal the crossword puzzle as the server came over with coffee. 

“Back again, hun?” she smiled, topping up his cup, and he smiled politely in reply. “What can I get ya tonight? Chef's got a ham and fries special... or a Denver omelet, chili fries, grilled cheese sandwich…” she continued slowly, noticing his reluctant expression.

“Some apple pie to go with the coffee will be fine, thanks," Lincoln replied quickly so she would leave him alone with his crossword, a new hobby he’d found that mentally wore him out enough to want to sleep. He missed the ignorance he’d had prior to meeting Olivia as devoted as he was to finding more about the shapeshifters that had killed his partner. Everything he knew about the world was completely false, which terrified him. What if he wasn’t able to get used to it, ever? Then he realized it wasn’t the world but the people - especially Olivia - and that scared him even more.

Beyond the glow of the neon signs that flashed in the window, the night was black and silent except for a couple of fleeting visitors and car engines revving at the traffic lights. He pushed the plate to the side as he finished his food and studied the last clue in the crossword as a familiar voice caught his attention from across the diner.

Looking up, he saw Olivia and squinted in disbelief as she approached, explaining she’d gone for a walk to help with a migraine.

“Eventually it will become your life.”

“Is that what happened with you?” Lincoln asked.

Olivia smiled unconvincingly, like she’d never had to get used to it or it wasn’t an issue for her as it had been for him. Had she always been this way? She wasn’t sure. She thought she had, but now sitting here she wasn’t sure anymore as he looked at her coyly through fresh eyes.

Leaving the diner, he accompanied her the couple of blocks to her building, “Thanks for the company Lincoln, and helping me take my mind off this migraine.” She smiled, and he huffed in reply, shuffling on his feet and tucked his hands in his jeans pockets for warmth.

“No problem," he smiled awkwardly, watching her climb the steps to her door, not turning away until he saw the light in her apartment flicker on.

Lincoln had noticed the way Peter looked at Olivia sometimes when he didn’t think anyone was paying attention, like he knew her, really knew her. How could he not notice? And yet Lincoln hadn’t noticed Olivia looking at Peter the same way. Yet, it felt inevitable that she would, eventually. Peter knew a lot about her - and Walter. He seemed to even know Lincoln well enough to know his first name, and yet none of them remembered him - how was that even possible? 

As he left Peter’s house for Walter’s lab after dropping off the equipment, Lincoln considered what Peter had said. They were together, he and Olivia, in his timeline, but this Olivia wasn’t his. But she had been dreaming of Peter, even before he’d arrived. Like the mice in Walter’s maze, where one was only visible in the UV light, the answer was there all along; he just couldn’t see it yet, even with the new glasses Peter had given him.

When Olivia never showed up at the diner and when he checked on her the next day, and Peter was already there, he finally had his answer. 

Chapter Text

December 2011 AltVerse

Peter asked Lincoln to accompany him to the alternative universe, and he grasped the opportunity, if it would help him find closure on why Robert had died and for the chance he might see their Olivia again. Something about her had left an indelible mark on his soul, an imprint that he couldn’t erase, regardless of how much he tried. He felt like a blank page, waiting for her to stain him with her words and smile, and then on the pier, he saw her again with the other version of himself.

If the Olivia from his universe was a closed book, who only revealed herself slowly page by page, inclined to spontaneously slam shut if you read too much into the words on her pages, this one was more like an open sky; bright, warm, and welcoming to him, even though she had every right to be suspicious of his motivations. She believed him and trusted him, and something told him he could trust her in return, despite Walter’s insistence she was immoral and evil. She was an unforgettable bright light in a damaged world, but he could tell her eyes too held secrets he wanted to know. 

“So you two were close, huh?”

Lincoln looked up to meet Olivia’s wide eyes, familiar yet mysterious, her auburn bangs making them a dark stormy sea green. She glanced at him inquiringly, a hint of a friendly smile twisting in her mouth as they sat on the bench in the busy plaza watching Jones.

“What?” he replied, squinting slightly to see her without his glasses.

“Your partner. When we captured you, you said that the shapeshifters killed someone very close to you,” she stated, looking away again towards Jones who sat at the table outside the café.

“Oh yeah, we were very close -” he began, interrupted by the other Lincoln’s voice on the tactical radio.

“Hey, Red, you got anything?”

As they sat and talked, she confessed she was close to her version of him too, but just friends, but he wasn’t sure if it was true. She looked at the other Lincoln in a way that made him feel like he was still not in on the joke, and the uncanny sense of déjà vu made him feel uneasy.

It was the way she’d looked at him when they’d met on the bridge and how his Olivia recently looked at Peter, a man who appeared out time and out of nowhere, manifested out of Walter and Olivia's dreams. If he was completely honest with himself, he felt it too in way. Like they'd met before but the memory of it was just out of reach, like a word on the tip of your tongue or an an old sepia photograph from an album kept in the corner of a dusty attic.

It made bile rise in the back of his throat and a sting in his eyes, and he resolved to return to the FBI once they’d brought Jones to justice, regardless of what the bald men had told him.

But the next day they were back, trying to predict Jones's next move after they'd lost him at the quarry.

“Did you break your glasses?”

“What?” Lincoln replied, surprised by Olivia’s sudden question that seemed out of the blue. She looked at him mischievously with sparkling inquisitive eyes that shimmered like the ocean illuminated by golden sunbeams

“Your glasses are different. When I first met you, they were thicker, then earlier you weren’t wearing any," he explained, looking away and biting her lip in embarrassment from his slightly startled gaze.

“Oh! Um - no. But thanks for noticing,” he huffed with a smile, subconsciously pushing them back up his nose. “I just was told I should try some new ones.”

“Well, they look good,” Olivia smiled back as a blush crept up his cheeks and his eyebrows raised with the compliment.

***

Through the bustle of the busy Fringe HQ rotunda, the other Lincoln eyed his doppelgänger carefully from the corner of his eye as he left Broyles’s office. They were unsurprisingly very similar physically. He could see how he’d gotten through security without too much resistance, but his mannerisms and body language were completely different; timid compared to his own confident appearance. That was until he’d seen him talk about the shapeshifters who’d killed his partner and who he’d come over to investigate with Peter, and he recognised himself in him. As much as he hated to admit it, he seemed attentive, kind, intelligent, and Olivia seemed to trust him. More than that, she liked him and that nurtured a seed of doubt in his mind that grew with each look, touch and word between them, tightening around his heart like poison ivy vines as much as he tried to cut it away. He almost wished Charlie were still here to tell him he was being ludicrous.

Lincoln walked towards them, slyly watching the other Lincoln get up and go towards Peter, the man he came with, as they both headed towards the exit.

“Hey ted, ” he nudged Olivia as he caught up with her as she went to follow the men, feeling a slight pang of disappointment when she didn’t touch him back. “What were you and your new chums talking about?”

She narrowed her eyes in a mocking expression. "We were mostly discussing Jones. Agent Lee was telling me more about his partner that was killed because of Jones’s shapeshifters, and I told him we could use both his and Peter’s help now we know what Jones is after.”

“So we just were trusting them both implicitly now?”

“We don’t have any reason not to. Everything they’ve said so far seems to be true.”

He signed and frowned, attempting, and failing, to form a logical counterargument so changed the subject. “So, where are they going?”

“We’re going to a meeting with the Secretary of Defense before they head back home. You coming?”

“Of course!” he grinned, pushing down his feelings of jealousy at her being close to another version of himself.

Being snappy about it was hardly going to help, and he knew she would say he was overreacting, but he still couldn’t help a niggling sense of doubt getting the better of him. 

January 2012 AmberVerse

After the case with Emily, who could see people’s cause of death and her own, Lincoln took a break, using his god-daughter’s birthday as an excuse.

It felt surreal to return to Hartford, seeing it exactly the same as he left it, everyone oblivious and ignorant to the fact that there was a whole other universe, where everyone has, or had, a version of themselves. Not to mention the shapeshifters, killer mold, invisible men and time bubbles in this universe. He ached to share it with someone, tell them what he knew, but there was no one to talk to. 

“I hear it's someone’s birthday today?” he smiled as the door opened and the small girl with wavy ginger pigtails bounced up and down in excitement to see him.

“Lincoln!” The girl beamed, her long auburn hair swishing as he swooped her up into a hug, resting her on the side of his slim hip. He stepped through the threshold, ducking past the collection of balloons in the hall. “Where have you been? Is this for me?” She asked excitedly, tugging the gift bag in his hand.

“Of course!” He smiled, handing her the bag. “Ah, how’d you get so big already? It'll be your turn to carry me soon.” She giggled, jumping down to the floor excitedly as her mother appeared from the kitchen.

“You look tired, work keeping you busy?” Jules asked, passing him a drink as Amy excitedly tore into the wrapping paper, pieces of shredded paper covering the carpet like dead petals.

“You could say that," he smiled awkwardly, pursing his lips. “I’ve transferred to a new division, so hopefully it will help us get closer to the people responsible for…” He stopped as Amy came back, running up to him and hugged his legs with the toy in her hand.

“Thank you!” The girl grinned, running back to the room to play, and he turned back to her mother and continued.

“How’s she doing?” Lincoln asked, waiting for her to go back out of earshot.

“Up and down. Jonathan and her have been so strong and helping each other. She’s had tummy upsets, though. I don’t know if it’s the stress or if she has Crohn’s like Robert had, so she’s going for tests,” Julie paused, looking at Lincoln as she leaned against the counter. “They miss you too. They keep asking when you’re going to babysit again.” 

“Sorry, I've been doing a lot of travelling for work. And you? How are you holding up?” 

“It’s hard sometimes, ya know?” she sniffed, and he nodded.

“It eventually gets easier, I promise," Lincoln smiled again, sighing to break the silence. “So, we’re making some progress in the case, but, uh, I…” he stuttered.

“What is it?” Julie asked, her eyes wide in concern. “Did you find something out?”

“No. Nothing concrete," he sighed. “I wanted to tell you I’ll probably be going away for a while. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone or when I’ll come back, but I promise I won’t stop until I find the answers I’m looking for.”

***

Olivia flipped her long, auburn hair out of the way behind her shoulders and hungrily stabbed the box of leftover cold chow mein with her chopsticks, humming in appreciation of the taste. She tipped them in her mouth and caught them on her tongue, her eyes rolling in satisfaction at the savory taste.

“You know, the Chinese food and coffee are two things I miss from being over here. I haven’t found any in our world that come close to matching these noodles.”

She thought about other things she missed as she looked around the lab, meeting Walter’s gaze briefly before he looked away.

“They have coffee?” Astrid replied incredulously, leaning forward to whisper. “Do you think they’d let me have some of theirs?”

“You, yes. Me, probably not," she scoffed, dropping the carton into the trash can, and stood to saunter towards Walter as he eyed her suspiciously.

“So…” she smiled, approaching the older man. “What’s a girl gotta do to get a café latte around here?”

“Not being Machiavellian and devious would be a good start,” Walter sneered as he stood, moving to the shelf behind him to move out of her space.

“Wow. Not everyone has that opinion of me, you know. Peter trusts me and says I’m a good person.”

“He said that?” Walter scoffed. “How would he know? He doesn’t even know you.”

“Beats me,” Olivia shrugged with a smile and winked. “Your Lincoln said that he said it about me when I talked to him over on our side. Is he around? I bet he’d get me a coffee.”

“Just because you can manipulate my -- Peter - and the other boy with your feminine wiles for your evil ends, it does not mean they’ll work on me!” he spat as Olivia scoffed and crossed her arms defensively. “And no, he’s not around. It’s his daughter’s birthday, so he’s away. Which is a pity, as I would really like a game of chess, and some scrambled eggs.”

Olivia recoiled and frowned as she looked speechless at the older man.

A daughter? Lincoln never mentioned he had a family, but then again, why would he? She’d assumed he was single like the Lincoln on her side. It had never occurred to her he might have children or even be married and had removed his ring to impersonate his doppelgänger. She struggled to recall their first meeting on the bridge. They’d not even spoken to each other, but she’d glanced at him long enough to laugh at the similarities and differences between the two Lincolns.

She pulled herself out of the thought, trying to comprehend why it bothered her so much as Walter emptied a plastic shopping bag in front of her, the contents spilling out and clattering onto the surface like buried memories.

“Walter, you’ve been holding onto this stuff all this time?”

Chapter Text

March 2012 Altverse

When Olivia opened her apartment door, she could barely hide her wide smile on seeing Lincoln who was unable to hide the look of surprise on his face at Olivia's appearance. Wearing a sheer scoop neck top and black skirt, she tipped his chin up with her fingertips to stop his jaw from dropping when he stepped over the threshold. He could feel himself staring on noticing the shape of her ass through the fabric, and thought he might die of a heart attack before they even ate dinner.

“What?” Olivia frowned, self-consciously looking down at herself, unaware of the effect the lighting had on the fabric of her top or of the effect her clothing had on Lincoln’s pulse.

“Y-you! You’re wearing a skirt!” he stuttered then laughed nervously, visibly shocked.

“So? You said at Charlie’s wedding when I was wearing that bridesmaid gown I should wear dresses more often, so I thought I treat you as it's your birthday but if you prefer, I can get changed?” she bluffed, gesturing to her bedroom behind her as if she hadn't already changed four times and almost talked herself out of it, and so very nearly opted for her usual utility casual style.

“Oh no, you look great! So, how was it over there? Tell me the details,” Lincoln asked, distracting himself by shrugging his jacket off of his arms.

“Okay, I guess," she scoffed, pausing as she thought back on her conversation with her double then sighed, wondering whether or not she she should vocalise what she'd been thinking of since she returned.

She looked at Lincoln as he widened his eyes expectantly.

“I think their Walter is beginning to warm to me, but their Olivia still sees me as a threat - she asked me if I liked Peter.”

“What - like him? What did you say?” Lincoln frowned and raised his eyebrows, trying to hide the twang of jealousy he felt a knot in his gut.

“Mmmm - hmmm," she replied, taking his jacket and hanging it on the hook by the door. “I told her I prefer the nice guys over the moody ones.”

“Ugh," he sighed, rolling his eyes as he mockingly winced, “Not devastatingly handsome, boyish good looks or…”

“Funny looking?” Olivia replied with a laugh, slumping down on the sofa as he sat next to her. “Nothing wrong with being nice. Nice guys are sexy, too.”

“Soooo, anyway, ” Lincoln ventured, putting two fingers in his mouth and pretending to gag, “Are we rustling up some food? You sure you don’t want to order a take out if you’re cooking?”

“Shut up!” she smiled at his teasing tone and jumped to her feet, striding to where the chopping board and knives sat on the kitchen counter. “If you’re so perfect, come and give me a hand!”

“Gladly!” he laughed. “Let’s get slicing and dicing!”

***

Olivia chopped the vegetables as Lincoln threw some diced chicken into a pan, stirring it as it sizzled in the hot oil and making a delicious aroma spread through the small kitchen.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked, after deliberating for some time by staring at the pile of peppers in front of her.

"Sure..." Lincoln replied, his voice tainted with suspicion. "But yes, I will marry you."

Olivia snorted and rolled her eyes as he turned to look at her.

"Lincoln, I'm serious!" Olivia exclaimed as she turned back, concentrating on the task with her back to him.

"So was I!" He laughed, then sighed when she didn't laugh in reply and held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, ask away."

"Have you ever had a dream you though was real and when you woke up, you felt something was missing from your life?"

"Not since I was a teenager, but I..." Lincoln joked and trailed off as the joke fell on deaf ears once more. "Like what?...Liv?"

"Do you remember Henry?" She whispered, placing the knife down, and the cold metallic blade reflected a band of light that cut across her torso.

"No, should I?" He shook his head, feeling confused and helpless, and crossed his arms across his chest, flinching at the name, trying to recall if she'd mentioned him before. "Is that a boyfriend of yours?"

Olivia felt her shoulders slump as her hands gripped onto the laminated surface. Of course he didn't remember, why should he? She wasn't even sure he was real, but when she closed her eyes she could see his face clearly and knew she was supposed to be hers somehow, only for the memory to shatter like glass when she opened her eyes.

"Liv?" He repeated, stepping towards her still body that seemed to be in suspended animation, only to stop when she suddenly stepped back and shook her head.

"No. I-it doesn't matter," she sighed, pressing her lips up into a fake smile.

After a long pause, Lincoln turned back to the pan as the meat sizzled loudly and demanded his attention.

“So, you gonna tell me what happened over there?” he asked, breaking the awkward silence between them, unsure of what else to say.  In his peripheral vision he saw her look up at him quickly before looking back down at the chopping board. “Whatever it is you’re upset abou -“

“I’m not upset!” Olivia protested defensively, interrupting him before he could finish and making Lincoln’s eyebrows shoot up. She turned around, finally making eye contact with him.

“Okaayyy, fine, whatever…” Lincoln shrugged, "don't tell me."

“I just…” Olivia began, then stopped, shaking her head dismissively.

“What?”

She turned back and began slicing the carrot in front of her as a distraction.

“Liv, c’mon,” Lincoln pressed. “I know you. Something’s been bothering you. What happened?”

She took a deep breath and sighed, almost slamming the knife down on the counter in frustration. How was he always able to tell when something was bothering her, and how was she supposed to explain it was because the other Lincoln had a daughter and most likely a partner or wife? She didn’t even know why it bothered her so much, but when the other Walter had told her, the words made a knot in her stomach that wouldn’t go away, what with the dreams she'd been having about Henry.

“If you must know, I wanted to talk to Agent Lee, but he wasn’t there. He was with his…” she stopped, frowning at Lincoln's expression. “… see, your reaction is why I didn’t want to say anything. You just immediately dismiss him …“

“I didn’t react," he scoffed.

“You rolled your eyes.”

Lincoln tensed. Not only was she was still holding something back from him about a boyfriend, but she wanted to talk to someone else about it. Not just someone else but a version of himself she barely knew, and it stung like a slap.

“I did not. I’m sorry not seeing Linc-Clone ruined your day, but you don’t need to take it out on me because Mister Seriously-Lee was AWOL" he retorted spitefully as Olivia glared back at him.

Now they were both in a bad mood, which only added to the frustration. She turned back, picked up the knife and resumed her aggressive chopping.

“You can be a real immature asshole sometimes, you know that?” Olivia snapped.

“Sorry, I'm not a mind reader. I guess we can’t all be as perfect as h…“

“Shit! Dammit!” she cursed under her breath as the blade caught the side of her hand, and a scarlet droplet trailed down to her wrist. “Can you help me with this a sec?”

“You sure you don’t want me to get the other Lincoln to kiss it better for you?”

“You know what, Lincoln? Fuck you.” Olivia spat, angrily slamming down the knife again.

I wish, he thought, barely biting his tongue in time not to say it out loud, out of guilt, as her injury was his fault for distracting her.

“You okay?” he asked, genuinely concerned, as she rinsed blood off her palm into the sink.

“Oh yeah, just fine, thanks.”

He stormed over, grabbing her hand to inspect it as she tried to withdraw it from his grasp.

“Stop being so stubborn,” Lincoln retorted. “Keep rinsing it out, in case it cut too deep and you need a stitch in it.”

Olivia put the back of her other hand against her forehead and pretended to swoon.

“What would I ever do without you to save me?” she replied mockingly.

“Bleed to death," he joked, holding her hand under the icy stream of running water. “Or die of lack of handsomeness in the workplace.” He smiled at her, trying to restore their usual banter out of guilt and redeem himself.

“Well, I’d just have to get the other Lincoln back over.”

“I see you haven’t lost your touch," he retorted bitterly, letting go of her wrist and marched towards the door indignantly.

“Where are you going?” Olivia began, in a slightly stunned voice.

“I’ve lost my appetite. You clearly don’t need me around anymore. So I’m leaving you to it," he tore his jacket from the hook, and his hand reached the door as she replied.

“Why do you hate him? You’re so alike, I’d thought you’d be the one swooning over him.”

He stopped, his back still facing Olivia, and turned quickly, placing his hand against the door with a thump.

“Shut up! Listen, okay? We’re NOT alike! We’re completely different, just like you and the other Olivia are, and that fact is you seem to like him more than me when we’ve known each other for so long, and I lo --- “ he yelled, pointing his finger accusingly then paused as he saw her flinch at his unexpected and uncharacteristically loud outburst, his chest heaving with emotion. “Tell me the truth, is that what you think of me? That I’m some immature narcissist who’s in love with himself? Just because I like men and women?”

Olivia flinched at the words that left his mouth, knowing how it must have sounded to him, and waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. He just stood there, his hands resting against his hips and his eyebrows raised in indignation.

“No, of course not," she replied softly, shaking her head as she turned off the faucet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like… Is that what you think of me? That I like him better than you when we’ve been partners for years and I barely know him? Just because I wanted his help with something.” He looked up at her, almost sheepishly. “Tell me.”

“I heard you two talking - flirting - over the radio when we were tracking Jones," he folded his arms against his chest. “You told him I was just a shoulder to cry on. Then I saw you earlier at my desk, the way you were touching his arm and… he looks like a used car salesman with Lego hair, okay?!” Lincoln blurted as he watched her holding her injured hand in the other one. Her eyes softened when she realized she'd acted the same with the other Lincoln as she had been with hers, but to him it must've looked like he was being cast aside and replaced.

“Lincoln, you’re never just anything to me. And if my memory serves, you were a lot like him when we first met back at the academy. Besides, I didn’t want to give Broyles any reason for splitting us up," she added, smiling softly.

Fringe Training Academy Marines 1998 AltVerse

Hundreds of cadets dressed in gray camouflage uniforms sat at benches in a cafeteria, eating their lunch from segmented plastic trays in the large hall.

“Who’s the blonde?” The soldier asked as he sat down next to his friend, who was pushing the food around his plate.

“What?” Lincoln said as looked up and frowned at his friend with his short dark brown hair and slim face. “Who?”

“The chick with the long blonde hair you keep looking at,” Murphy replied, tipping his chin up, and Lincoln turned to see Olivia striding down the aisle between the tables.

“Dunham?” Lincoln asked. “I’m not staring at her -”

“Never said you were staring," Murphy added. “Is she the next target in your line of conquests?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lincoln scoffed.

“So she gave you the brush off? Not surprised, she’s out of your league.”

“Thanks a lot, man," Lincoln huffed. “Actually, I just talked to her a few times, nothing like that.”

“I heard she’s got an Olympic medal or something?” Murphy said, scooping up the last of his food onto the fork and hungrily piling it in his mouth.

“Sounds like you’re the one that’s obsessed with her, not me,” Lincoln bluffed, eyeing her sideways as she sat at the bench parallel to him and looked back down at his own food as she caught his gaze.

When Lincoln saw Olivia at the academy again, she was alone, strolling from the common room, down the path towards the dorms. He jogged after her and she jumped as he tapped her on the shoulder.

“At ease. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you," he said, the flaxen hair in her bangs catching his eye as her hair glittered in the setting sunlight. “Just wanted to say ‘Hi’. I feel like I know you from somewhere, but I can’t place it.

“Really?” she smiled, eyeing him skeptically as she kept walking. “Is that a line that usually works for you?…” Olivia narrowed her eyes again as she looked at his name badge. “.... First Lieutenant Lee?”

“Cheeky,” Lincoln laughed, “You can call me Lincoln though, except for when the Captain is around, Second Lieutenant D-”

“Olivia - Liv.” she replied. “No one calls me Olivia except my Mom when I’m in trouble. But no, I don’t think we have met before, unless you lived in Florida or Illinois?”

“Nope, I was born in New Jersey and moved to Philly when I was a kid when - um -” he paused before revealing too much information. “So, Olivia-Liv, I hear you have an Olympic medal?”

“Oh, yeah?” Olivia frowned and scoffed as she reached the female dorms. “Who told you that?”

“A little bird,” he smirked, which provoked another smile from Olivia as she swiped the card to enter the building and turned back to look at Lincoln before closing the door behind her.

“Hmmm. Maybe it’s the same little bird that talks about your reputation," she smirked enigmatically, her fingers tapping against the edge of the door as she held it open enough for her face to show through the gap.

“Reputa -- I have a reputation?” Lincoln scoffed again, as his eyes imperceptibly flickered to her mouth when she licked her full lips and nodded. “What kind of reputation?” He frowned as her smile spread into a full grin as she slowly closed the door between them. “Hey! What reputation?!”

March 2012 Alt!Verse 

Lincoln sniffed and nodded, shuffling on his feet. It was true; he hadn’t always been so assertive, or confident, and if he was completely honest, there were still times he was insecure and doubtful, but his ability to hide them was a skill he’d perfected over the years since he’d joined Fringe Division. Liv edged closer to him and rested her hand on the door frame where he stood and he looked up at her through his low lashes, finally meeting her eyes, wet with pent-up emotions, reflecting a surprising intensity that made her forget their bickering.

“You’re -- jealous? Why did it upset you so much?”

“You know why," Lincoln scoffed, letting out a sigh. "I know it shouldn’t and I have no right to, but I --“ He stopped as she stepped into his space, her eyes wide in realization.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Olivia implored, as he chuffed out a mocking laugh.

“You were with Frank before, when we... And when he left, I didn’t want to take advantage when you were vulnerable and hurting.”

What he meant and what he wanted to say is he doesn’t want her to think he’s only pretending to be her friend because he wants to have sex with her, he’s her friend because he loves her and is in love with her, and wishes she was too but if she isn’t then that’s fine. Olivia shook her head, still reeling from his confession.

“It’s just been so long since that night, I just thought you’d…”

“Got over you?” Lincoln replied, cutting her off, and she shrugged. “No.”

How was he supposed to get over her when he saw her every day and fell in love with her more each time.

"But, we’ve known each other for so long and we’ve been partners for six years. You’re like my -”

“Don’t say brother.”

“I was gonna say best friend, but you could say that.”

“You don’t have a brother.”

“You know what I mean, Linc.”

“That night at the bar, you were going to say something. You said maybe we could be together if you weren’t with someone. I need to know, don't lie to me, just look me in the eyes and tell me the truth, even if you think it's gonna hurt. Tell me you’ve never thought about us, me and you together? Because I do. All the time. Tell me and I promise I’ll drop it for good," he pleaded, stopping as she shook her head.

“I can’t," she admitted, her voice small, unable to meet his eyes. Olivia thought about the time they shared a drunken kiss, her dreams of a life she'd never had when Lincoln had held as she gave birth to a son, and how he’d always been there for her.

She couldn’t deny the underlying sexual tension she has felt ever since that night, the curiosity bubbling between them but it was a step she was afraid to take, not just because of Frank’s threats but if it went bad between them, she’d lose him as a friend and as a lover and that wasn’t an option for her.

“So, what’s stopping us?” Lincoln stepped forward, tentatively brushing her hand with his as she subconsciously licked her bottom lip.

“This isn’t fair, I didn’t know - I just wouldn’t want this to come between us and lose you as a friend," she balked, stepping backwards in shock. “I - I need some time.” He nodded, watching her face for any sign he hadn't pushed her away and lost her for good.

“You always knew, Liv. I think I should… I-I’m gonna go," he replied, the door latch clicking shut before she could stop him and could change his mind.

Swearing repeatedly under his breath, he cursed himself while walking into the night until he finally found himself back in his empty, dark apartment, alone.

***

MARCH 2012 AltVerse

Half asleep from drinking half a bottle of wine, Lincoln laid stretched out on the couch when a knock at his door startled him. He ambled towards the tapping, opening the door and almost gasping at who he saw.

“Liv? You okay?”

She nodded, her face blotchy and eyes shining in a way that made him feel sick, but he let her in and she stood in the hall, twisting her thumb nervously in her other hand.

“Linc, I — I can’t stop thinking about what you said.”

He sighed, and she looked up, catching him looking at her, eyes glinting like dark gemstones in the low light, and frowned. “What?”

“I didn’t mean to upset you," he shifted on his feet, trying to ignore the weight he felt in his chest, leading her to the sofa as they sat down.

“Did you mean it?” she stuttered in a small voice. “You’re my best friend a-and I'm scared of losing you like everyone else...”

Lincoln nodded, looking at the floor as he braced himself for the words he’d been preparing himself for since he found the courage to admit his feelings to himself and her, trying to ignore the hammering of his heart in his chest. “But, but maybe I should stop being scared.” She whispered, so quietly he almost thought he’d imagined it until she moved towards him. His gaze shot back up at her eyes and he frowned, unsure if he understood her properly and she smiled watching his expression.

Before he could take in her words and comprehend what was happening, she had swung her leg over him, her hands holding onto the back of the couch on either side of his head. She looked down at him as he brushed away the curtain of auburn hair she had become an expert at hiding behind, using his fingers to carefully tuck it behind her ear, following the cascade of her hair with his hands down her back until they reached her waist. He looked back up at her, with his head resting on the back of the sofa, a look of reverence on his face that she’d never seen before from any other man, but with the same look in his eyes he’d had for her as long as she could remember and she wondered why or how she’d never noticed it before.

He gulped, unsure of whether to make the next move until she lowered herself onto his lap and he fought against the instinct to close his eyes at the sensation because he didn't want to miss one second of what came next. Unable to stop a shamelessly guttural moan from escaping his lips when she moved her hips to press herself against him, her breasts leaning into his chest, his hands spread down to her lower back to hold her in place. Trembling with nervous desire, they slowly slid down, and she leaned her face forward, gasping into his mouth as his splayed fingers cupped her ass, bringing her even closer so he could feel her heat through the thin layer of fabric on his legs.

“Liv...” Lincoln sighed in a warning. The teasing, sweet ecstasy of the friction and the sensation of her breath on his cheek as he leaned in to graze kisses on her neck was almost unbearable. “I gotta know, so tell me the truth. Look me in the eyes and tell me, do you really want… me?"

“Bedroom, now,” Olivia whispered simply in reply, her voice raspy and warm, and she slowly backed up, holding her hands out to him as she stood.

“You sure?” Lincoln asked again as he followed, holding her face to check for any doubts when she closed the gap between them before she changed her mind. They’d been in close proximity to each other countless times before, but this felt so dangerously different on a raw, intimate level.

Taboo, forbidden and exhilarating.

His kisses were soft and languid against her as he held her face, taking his time like it was the only time she would grant him permission. Snaking her arms around his neck to pull him closer was the only encouragement he needed. Parting his lips, he sucked in her full bottom lip, making her breasts ache in jealousy, her nipples tightening in response and the pressure between her legs coiled up in a delicious ache. The sensation fuelled her to open her mouth and deepen the kiss further, so he took this opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth, pushing her backwards slowly towards the bedroom, breaking away only to pull his T-shirt over his head, which carelessly fell to the floor, followed by her own.

She could taste the tang of wine on his tongue mixed with desire as he moaned approvingly into her mouth when she brazenly arched into him, desperate for more. As her back hit the wall, his hand gently held her neck to hold her mouth in place as he clumsily opened the bedroom door. They fell in, giggling with laughter and nervous anticipation when she pushed him sideways onto the bed, the dark messy bedding cool on their flushed skin. The room fell silent except for the pounding whoosh of blood in their ears and the sound of their hurried panting breaths, and he kissed her again, easing her onto her back so carefully, as if she might shatter under his touch. His hand skimmed the swell of her breasts and erect, hardened nipples through the thin fabric of her bra, making her shiver, and drifted over every curve of her stomach and hips, caressing her thighs down to her knees and slid back up her inner thigh pushing her skirt up to her waist.

Grazing the damp fabric of her underwear with his fingertips, she whimpered a plea into his mouth for his agile fingers to continue their journey, a shiver breaking into a full-blown tremble when he broke the kiss and shifted on the bed. His fingers hooked around the seam, roughly pulled them down her thighs, past her knees. Simultaneously exhaling something between a sigh and gasp as his fingertips made contact with the trimmed curls, he explored the hot, wet folds of her sex, slowly teasing until she squirmed underneath him, her legs shamelessly falling apart with each stroke, feeling her undies catch on one of her ankles. She squeezed her eyes shut in tormented pleasure and whined, practically begging for him to touch her in the one place he was avoiding. In one movement, Lincoln pulled her back across the ruched sheets to the edge of the bed and she stiffened as she felt the rough feel of the stubble on his cheek on the inside of her thigh.

“This okay?”

Olivia heard his muffled voice ask questioningly, his face hovering as he waited for her permission. The warm puff of his breath against her exposed flesh took in the briny musk of her scent that made his nostrils flare and his head feel drunk with his want.

“Mmm-hmm," she nodded desperately as she thrust up into his face so his tongue made contact with her clit, his fingers easing into her with a hard push. She couldn’t remember the last time a man kissed and loved her body in this way, especially without begging for it first and the fact he’d gone down on her, not just willingly but was seemingly enjoying giving her pleasure only made her ache more for him. “Oh, just there - please, don’t stop,” she gasped, as she arched her back, desperately trying to find something to tether her to the bed, feeling her orgasm coil into a white sweltering heat that burned under her eyes.

She swore she could hear him chuckle, then the sensation flooded her senses to suddenly tip her over into a climax, the uncontrollable spasms washing across her body as the ability to think or speak left her. When she dared to open her eyes again, he looked up at her with tousled hair and a mischievously wicked grin, his chin glistening with the wetness of her sex. She shuddered, releasing the grip on his arm. “You can stop looking so pleased with yourself. C’mere,” Olivia beckoned Lincoln, sighing, as he climbed back up to her.

Easing her head onto a pillow, he leaned over her as she grasped his face for a kiss.

She flipped him so he was on his back, and swung her leg over him, feeling him smile as she lifted her head up and pinned his arms down.

“God, you’re pushy,” Lincoln teased, happy for her to take control if that's what she wanted and needed.

“And you’re overdressed," Olivia retorted, letting go to raise her hips and fiddle with his button and zipper. His fingers scrambled to help her undo them and desperately shuffled them down his legs, taking his boxers with them. He kicked them away as she lowered herself back down onto his thighs and his breath hitched when she closed her hand around his hard length. Like his slim frame, his cock was hard and eager, and he groaned as she moved and tightened the pressure slightly, desperately thrusting up into her hand as she leaned over him, planting kisses down the plane of his firm chest and abdomen, reaching the thatch of hair at his groin. Suddenly he froze, grabbing her shoulder a second too late as her lips wrapped around the leaking, glistening head that throbbed with his arousal and her tongue swirled around the rim of his tip.

“Ooooh, Liv, w-wait, stop!” Lincoln gasped, shaking as he tried to maintain control. “Slow down a minute - I’m so close and I -“ Olivia looked up and nodded, understanding the implications of his words. His arm reached out to the bedside drawer, and he twisted at the waist to pull it open. Olivia helped by retrieving a condom from the open drawer, ripped it open and rolled it down his length as he grasped her hips through the fabric of her rucked up skirt, his fingers white with the pressure. Before she could move, he guided her forward, and she took the opportunity to unhook her bra. Helping her, he slowly run the straps down her arms, discarded the item and replaced it with his hands, tenderly cupping her breasts in a soft squeeze, brushing the rosy tips of her aching, pebbled nipples with his thumbs as she guided herself down onto him.

"I wanna feel you," she whispered, leaning down to whisper in his ear, her breath hot and hair clinging to the stubble on his cheek, "let's begin."

The feral ache she felt from the friction & stretch as he edged inside her was close to euphoric and she rocked against him, making him huff a smile of satisfaction and disbelief that only spurred the coil of her desire that was tightening in her again. His face was desperate and he bit down on his lip as he met her movements with an upthrust of his hips and gasped approvingly as she pushed in harder and deeper with each unsteady and frenetic beat. Her russet hair swayed as she bent over him, the strands ticking his arms and swishing against her shoulders with each undulating wave as she rocked. The only noises in the room were the obscene noise of their bodies as they met and the bed which creaked under their slow grinds, punctuated by their shallow panting breaths and an occasional throaty moan or approving sigh. She tried to steady herself against the headboard, her knuckles white as the bedsheets as she held on and he grasped her hips again in a futile attempt to regulate their rhythm and delay the inevitable but his eyes locked on hers, and he desperately clutched at the small of her back.

“Oh, Liv,” Lincoln choked breathlessly, “Oh God, I can’t hold on - ohhhh…” His voice broke on the last words as he let out a guttural sigh of pleasure. Straining and stiffening under her, his face contorted in pleasure. She squeezed and twitched around him in relief, the aching between her legs from rubbing against him finally resulting in her climax. She waited, then began to slide off of him as he softened and he held her in place, panting slowly. “Don’t go.”

She complied, not wanting to lose the feel of him yet. Eventually, his hands dropped, and she eased him out of her, rolling away onto her back with a giggle as he stood with a wobble. “Be right back,” Lincoln smiled, raising a finger and pointing towards the bathroom. “You can stop checking out my ass!” Her hand slid back over the edge of the bed to close the bedside table drawer, causing a photo frame to tumble to the floor. Leaning over to pick it up, she smiled at the photo inside of a young, preschool boy with a side parting in thick glasses and a bow tie grinning as he sat between his parents, the man in a suit with a thin smile and the woman beaming in a sky blue dress patterned with daisies as voluminous strawberry blonde hair hung over her shoulders and she protectively held her stomach.

Lincoln sauntered back in, not concerned with his nakedness, perhaps even reveling in it, holding a wet flannel cloth and stopped in his tracks, cringing as Olivia held up the photo to him.

“This you?” she said, turning it back, and he swiped it off of her as he passed her the cloth.

“Mmm-hmm,” he replied, and held out the covers and they tucked themselves to keep warm as they cooled down. “It’s the last picture taken of me and dad with my mom before she died.”

“Hmm, so you used to wear glasses too?”

“Yeah, as a kid, I changed to contacts when I was dating Kendra - “ Lincoln stopped, noticing Olivia’s raised eyebrow. “- Just before I joined the marines.”

“You? Dating? What happened? I thought you just love them and leave them," Olivia teased, her mouth twisted into a smile as she adjusted the pillows for them to comfortably lie down. Lincoln wrapped his arm around her as she rested her head on his chest, the chest hair tickling her cheek and he huffed out a laugh as he gently tucked her messy hair out of her face.

If only you knew, he thought. If only you knew it was only ever you that I loved.

She contentedly relaxed into the embrace as his breathing slowed and his hand went slack on her shoulder. He sighed and for a second she thought he’d fallen asleep until he spoke.

“Stay with me tonight?”

She squeezed him as she felt the pull of sleep claiming her mind, and he held her arm to keep her close.

“Mmm-hmm," she nodded against him as sleep took them both.

***

Blinking awake, Lincoln smiled, remembering the events of the night before as an unusual but pleasant sensation of warm hand lightly traced patterns across his thigh and abdomen, encouraging all the blood in his body to rush to his groin. Sighing with a mixture of amusement and anticipation, he watched the movements under the sheets and at the teasing pleasure, and giggled a little as it hit a ticklish spot on his hip. His breath hitched at a slight graze of his aching balls so the hand paused its movements. Pulling the sheet up over his head, Olivia looked up at him under it with a wicked smile in the muted light, her ruby hair wavy and tousled on her shoulders.

“Oh, I wasn’t sure if I’d had a wonderful dream or if I’d died and gone to heaven," Lincoln smiled sheepishly.

“You’re finally awake, all of you," Olivia replied huskily. “You okay if I return the favor now?” He nodded and watched with curiosity as her hand lightly stroked and cupped his balls and the length of his increasingly hardening cock, and he hurriedly pushed the sheet back over her to get a better view.

“I wouldn’t call it a favor exactly, but please be my guest -” he broke off and swallowed thickly as she increased her grip, and gasped as she lightly licked around the already slippery crown of his head, taking in the unique, salty taste of him. Barely managing to maintain some chivalry, and resisting the primal urge of grabbing her hair and thrusting up into her mouth, he enthusiastically grasped handfuls of the sheets and encouraged her with a moan every time she hit the right spot with the right amount of pressure, which seemed to be almost every touch of her hand and tongue against the velveteen skin of his hardening length.

Suddenly, he became conscious of a ringing noise and turned to the phone to see Broyles I.D flashing on the display.

“Leave it," she said quickly before continuing her act, as it rang off only for it to start again.

“Liv, I gotta take it," Lincoln choked as he pressed the answer button, and Olivia continued the actions of her mouth as she teasingly licked and sucked up and down the length of his shaft. Pausing to try to compose himself, he closed his eyes as he answered the call. “This is Agent Lee,” he stuttered. “Sorry, Sir, I was just -” He bit his lip so hard, he nearly drew blood and half-heartedly tapped her shoulder, then gulped slowly and nodded. “Yes, Sir, Understood. W-I’ll be right there and let the rest of the team know.”

He added, then ended the call just as the tip of his cock nudged her soft palette and she experimentally reached under his balls, applying enough pressure that he had to brace himself against the headboard with one hand and while trying to move her head to warn her of his impending climax with the other. She refused to stop or didn’t care, only spurred on by the look of ecstasy on his face, which tipped him over the edge. “Liv, I - please, you gotta stop, or…” he croaked, “I’m gonna…” he stuttered as his lips trembled with the intensity of the pleasure that was about to overcome him. He closed his eyes tightly and cried out an incomprehensible noise as the ability to form any thoughts left his mind. “Oh fuck, Oh - OHHHHH.” She felt his body involuntarily stiffen as he spurted into her mouth, the bitter, salty tang of him hitting the back of her throat as she slowed and tried not to gag with the reflex, then released him from her mouth, and crawled back up the bed. “That was -” he began, his breath still rough as he panted.

“Amazing? You’re welcome,” Olivia said with a laugh as she laid back on her pillow and looked at him and he turned back to her.

“I was gonna say unnecessarily cruel, but that would also be appropriate, thank you," he gingerly brushed her chin with the tip of his thumb and planted a chaste kiss on the tip of her nose.

“You know me. I’ve never been good at following orders," she replied, and he huffed a smile, acknowledging it with a small nod.

“Well, unfortunately, as much as I would love to continue this right now, Broyles has got some for us," Lincoln said, slowly sitting up and getting out of bed with a slight groan. “The Astrid on the other side is bringing over their files on David Robert Jones and the NYPD have found a body they want us to go look at that might be related to the case.” He added, pulling on his boxers and combat pants. “Broyles wants me to head straight to the crime scene if you pick up Astrid’s files on the way from HQ. Do you want some water?"

Olivia nodded, scrambling through her clothes for her bra and underwear, until Lincoln found it tangled in the bedding and threw it over.

“I’d die for a café latte now,” she replied, “but water would be great, thanks.” He nodded, leaving the room and coming back a few minutes later with a bottle of water as Olivia finished getting ready. “I’m gonna head home quickly to freshen up and change. I don’t think these clothes are suitable for work.” Olivia said and Lincoln nodded in agreement, handing her the bottle, “And you need a shave, I think the inside of my thighs have stubble burn.”

“From now on, I will shave every day and my face will be softer than a baby’s ass for you. I’ll meet you at the crime scene in an hour or so?” Olivia nodded and smiled when he pulled her in, studying her face. “Is everything - okay? I thought this might be awkward, but it isn’t. Is it?” He asked softly, his eyes wide with the fear that she regrets what they did.

“Everything is perfect," Olivia replied, and quickly kissed him quickly on the cheek to maintain some self-control, which she knew was barely holding for both of them. “I will see you later - Tiberius?”

Lincoln shook his head, laughing, making the Star Trek ‘V’ sign with his fingers. “You know the only way I am gonna tell you my middle name is if you marry me, you’re not gonna get an answer otherwise.”

“Tristan? Tyler?” Olivia continued, looking for a reaction on Lincoln’s face, and swigged a mouthful of water from the bottle.

“Nope. You know, you better watch out," Lincoln wagged his index finger in a playful warning.

“Or what?” she replied daringly.

“Or this!” he replied as he tackled her, and pushed her against the bed so the bottle went flying, spraying water across the room. “Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!” Lincoln shouted as he lightly pinned her down with his weight, jabbing her in the ribs and stomach as she giggled, squirming to get his hands away.

“Noooo, Lincoln!” Olivia cried and sobbed with laughter as poked and wiggled his fingers wherever he could get them. “We can’t - we gotta - Stop! Ahhh, don’t - Stop it!”

He did suddenly so her giggles eased off and she looked at him as he wiped away the hair and little tears forming in the corners of her eyes. His face was serious as he studied her. “What?” she asked.

She suddenly felt very self-conscious, and blushed, and looked away for a moment.

“You told me to stop," Lincoln said simply, his face solemn, and she huffed a confused smile in reply.

“Lincoln, we were joking around - I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “I just want - need - you to know that you can trust me.” Olivia realized at that moment that Lincoln had offered everything to her now. His heart was wide open and that nothing will ever change that.

“You are the only one I trust," Olivia replied seriously, and he smiled softly. He stood and offered her his hand to help her up. “Timothy?”

“Oh my Gawwwd!” Lincoln cried in exasperation as Olivia giggled, running for the door before he could reply.

Chapter Text

March 2012 Altverse

The convoy of trucks and cars drove down the urban roads of Precinct Seventeen in the Northwest Quadrant, past restaurants, offices, and commercial buildings, beating the congested traffic by using their emergency sirens, as Olivia glanced across at the hands of the man in the passenger seat next to her. There was no ring, or even a sign of one, no indentation in the skin or tan line as far as she could see.

“Tyrone? Really?” Oliva asked incredulously.

“Yeah, it was my great grandfather’s name.” Lincoln replied, and she huffed a ‘huh’ in reply. “Why?”

“No reason!” she added, as she turned the steering wheel. “Did they tell you our Astrid and I came over a couple of months ago? You weren’t around so -”

“You mean the case with Chung and how he was mercy killing would-be victims with an unknown toxin?” he said, his face twisting as he recalled the details. “Walter did mention you had both been over when Olivia filled me in on the details. How is your Astrid now? He said her father passed away.”

“She’s getting there,” Olivia paused before she looked at him again and as he raised his eyebrows, smiling thinly and uneasily as she watched him. “So what kind of ‘unforeseen side-effects’ does she have? Hopefully ones where she doesn’t see me as someone who’s gonna swoop in and steal Peter from her.”

“I, er, what?” Lincoln huffed, flustered. “No, she was having dreams about Peter before he appeared, like a premonition or something. Then eventually they completely rewrote her memories to align with a timeline where they knew each other… intimately. Wait? Y-you like Peter too?”

He looked down humbly at his feet, feeling stupid and trying to hide his disappointment. Of course she did, and he felt foolish for not realizing before. Why wouldn’t she? He was enigmatic, intelligent and had a level of arrogance many women - and men - found irresistibly attractive. 

Something Lincoln sometimes wished he had himself.

“Nooo!” she laughed in reply, making his eyes shoot back up to look at her, wide in surprise. “She all but accused me of it, but he’s not my type at all. Far too cocky and brooding and complicated. I could tell she liked him when I was there with Astrid. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of him.” 

She subconsciously thought what she would say if someone asked was her type. A few years ago she would have said tall, muscular guys with blue eyes and square jawlines, but now she wanted someone who treated her like a person rather than a possession and something to control.

Lincoln raised his eyebrows in surprise when Olivia stuck out her tongue in disgust at the thought. “Bleurgh! No! Definitely not!”

“Really?” he replied incredulously, after assuming that all Olivias would find the same man attractive, and sighed at how he’d seen the way she’d gazed at him recently. “I noticed that too.” 

“Oh yeah, nice guys are much more my thing," Olivia cleared her throat. "So, how old is your daughter?”

“My what?” Lincoln furrowed his brow as his lips twisted in confusion.

“Your daughter. Walter said it was her birthday when we were there.”

“Oh!” he huffed a laugh as he shook his head. “You mean Amy, she’s… What the hell?” Lincoln gasped as something caught his eye on the sidewalk next to them, and he craned his head behind him as they drove past, his brows furrowed in confusion and concentration as he turned back to sit forward.

“What’s up?” Olivia asked, noticing his expression. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

“I thought - no, it can’t be," Lincoln replied, trying to put the thought to the back of his mind and looked back again quickly in the wing mirror even though what caught his attention was now long gone.

“Can’t be what?”

“He looked like…” he paused quickly to make sure what he was saying made sense, then quickly dismissed the thought as that ceased to matter a long time ago. “When Robert - my partner - died, shortly after at the crime scene, there were these two men, but they just disappeared… they were so bizarre, I thought I’d imagined them for a while.”

“Really?” Olivia repeated, more concerned and confused than before.

“Yeah - and then one of them was in Walter’s lab with a gunshot wound, and then just randomly disappeared, but I could’ve sworn I just saw the other taller one again. But - how could he be here?”

“What do you mean, disappeared? What did they look like?” she replied incredulously as they pulled up to red lights at a junction.

“Err, black suits and hats, pale, bald. In fact, I think they didn’t have any hair at all," Lincoln added, thinking back, wishing he’d checked their descriptions through the FBI databases. “Peter called them observers. They only show up at significant moments so what could be…” he stopped as Olivia turned sharply at the junction and turned on the emergency lights.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Lincoln said, clutching the dashboard for balance as the car swerved.

“If you think they’re important somehow, we need to speak to them," she insisted, doubling back down the road from where they came.

“There!” Lincoln cried, pointing towards a gray stone memorial monolith standing in the middle of a square of grass as the car screeched to a halt. Olivia had released her seat belt and sprinted halfway across the grass verge before Lincoln could comprehend what was happening.

“Hey you!” she cried as the mysterious man turned to look at her. 

“Who are you?” They asked each other simultaneously, and she frowned.

“We cannot interfere. But at this place, one will die and one you will love until you die.”

“One of what? What the hell are you talking abo-?” Olivia stopped as he nodded once, gesturing behind her with his chin, and as Lincoln joined her. They both caught their breath from running and she turned back to see the man had disappeared.

“Did you just see that?” she gasped, catching her breath, her mouth wide open in shock and brows knotted in confusion. “Where the hell did he go?”

Lincoln nodded, holstering away his weapon. 

“So, did he tell you anything?”

She shook her head, jogging back to the car as Lincoln followed her.

“Nothing, I-” she paused. “C’mon, let’s go."

***

Captain Lee wouldn’t usually be happy about working separately from Olivia, but today he was thankful for it. His mind replaying memories of the night before was distracting enough, but to spend all day in the same room without touching her and worrying if anyone noticed their smiles or if their body language betrayed them would have been torture. He realized he didn’t even care that Broyles had made her the other Lincoln’s chaperone for the case and that the other Lincoln seemed to like her too. He didn’t even care that she had wanted the other Lincoln to stay and help - they were finally together and nothing would ruin that feeling. 

He saw her sitting alone at the rotunda, when everyone else was distracted by the large communication screen and shot her a little wink as she looked up at him. Olivia smiled coyly in return, blushing as he began walking towards her, then quickly looked away in case anyone might notice.

“How’s it going?” Lee said, leaning in over her shoulder, letting his finger inconspicuously brush against her hand for just a second and he could have sworn she gasped in a breath, even though she didn’t look at him. “He likes you, you know - the other me.”

“Really?” Olivia raised her eyebrow.

“Mmmm, I think I saw him checking out your ass earlier. Not that I blame him," h replied, his mouth twisting into a smile. “I guess we have similar tastes.”

“My ass is pretty fantastic. Hmmm, I wonder if he does," she laughed, wiggling her eyebrows as she watched him bite on his bottom lip. “You sure you weren’t checking out his ass?”

“Oh yeah, you’d love that, wouldn’t you? Two of us fulfilling your every… need .”

He emphasized the last word as she raised her eyebrows even higher.

“Just as much as if you like it if the other Olivia and I…” 

Lee's eyes widened like saucers and he blinked, trying to dismiss the thought as it flashed through his head.

“Honestly, either would work for me, but you’re not helping. It’s taking a lot of effort to concentrate today. I keep thinking about us - y’know .”

She coughed and blushed as she nudged him, checking the room in case anyone noticed the blush that creeped up her chest, across her neck and burned her cheeks. 

“You brought it up," she smiled coyly.

“Actually, I think you’ll find that was you - you’re driving me to fucking distraction. I can still taste you. I know what you feel like now, how you sound when you - it’s hard …”

Lee emphasized the last word, then stopped himself as he noticed Broyles and the other Lincoln approaching them and straightened up.

“Anything up?” Lincoln asked with a frown as he reached the desk and Olivia choked again, biting her lip to stifle a smile and a snort of laughter escaping.

“Nope,” Captain Lee replied, as he sauntered away with another subtle wink. “See ya later, red.”

***

As they marched to the prisoner transport van in unison and waited for Captain Lee to escort the prisoner, suddenly an icy shiver ran down Olivia’s spine as she glanced over her shoulder and frowned, lost in her thoughts.

Lincoln must’ve read the look of unease on her face as he looked around nervously and reached out quickly to get her attention. 

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just…” Olivia sighed.

“What?” 

They reached the van, pausing at the open door to see the other Captain Lee escorting Canaan.

“It’s probably nothing. Do you see where we are?”

Lincoln looked around again puzzled, quickly interrupted by the whizz of three bullets cracking through the air and the chaos as everyone dived for cover, watching the Lee from this side crouch down with the target.

Panicked, he looked around desperately in vain for the location of the shooter and where the shots were coming from, unable to make it out in the commotion of the agents running across the street from his location behind the van.

“The shooter - where is he?” he cried desperately as Olivia tried to peer through the front window of the van for a better look, moving the wing mirror to use the reflection to her advantage before it shattered, and she ducked, barely avoiding the shattered glass as it scattered over her hair.

“Down, down!” 

He barely heard from an agent on the other side of the van over the sound of the adrenaline fuelled blood hammering in his head, and the sound of rapid gunfire ringing in his ears. 

The flashing of the blue and red lights reflected against the glass of the windshield as Olivia spun on her heels, turning back towards him.

“He’s on the roof. Cover me?”

Lincoln nodded, and turned without hesitation, firing quick nine rounds from his hand gun towards the low rise building adjacent to the alley they were in, joined by the thrumming of the automatic weapons and more shouting as all the shooting directed to the roof, while Olivia turned to get her automatic sniper rifle from the trunk of her car.

He went on autopilot, his FBI training and fight-or-flight response kicking in as he shot his gun in the shooter’s direction. Lincoln’s clip emptied, and he reloaded his gun with a new one, shooting back at the roof as Olivia joined him, balancing her gun on the hood and trailing the direction of the man on the roof as he ran for cover from the hail of bullets heading his way, effortlessly taking him down with one shot.

He had no time to be impressed or to congratulate her on her skill, even when the team confirmed she was on target.

“Everyone okay?...” Lincoln called, circling the van as the gunfire ceased. He saw his double slumped on the floor, his arm covering his face. “Officer down! Officer down!” He shouted, distraught and frantically looking around for anyone to help.

Captain Lee struggled to move as Lincoln’s reached him and helped him sit against the side of their car to help feel more comfortable than lying on the rough surface of the road. Desperately pressing against the bloom of red appearing on his white shirt on the right of his chest to stem the bleeding, he tried and failed to mask the dread and terror on his face as he looked into the eyes of his doppelgänger.

He could see the fear in his eyes and knew his own were the same - Is this how he would look when he died?

“Who knew?” Lee gasped, struggling to get his breath

“What?” Lincoln replied, trying to understand his double’s rambling voice. For a second it sounded like he said 'You knew' and was accusing him of setting him up.

“Who else knew we were transporting him? We gotta find out.”

Lee’s eyes drifted shut, heavy with the effort to stay awake. Exhaustion gripped him in a warm embrace, a soft dark blanket calming him as the sharp pain he’d felt in his chest slowly edged away, the urge to sleep edging in slowly like black corners of a vignette photograph, the color slowly draining into black and white. The sensation made him light-headed, feeling like he was about to drift away.

Olivia pushed Lincoln away as she pressed against him, gently slapping his face to keep him awake.

“Hey, Linc. MedEvac is on the way. You’re gonna be fine," she smiled comfortingly, holding on to him tight, trying to reassure herself more than him.

“’Liv... I’ve been blown up before. This is nothing,” Lee wheezed, with a slurred smile, trying to reassure her and himself. “Was a hell of a shot. I guess you still haven’t lost your touch.”  

Lincoln stormed off angrily to the target, shoving Canaan hard against the fence, and screamed at him furiously as Lee looked back at Olivia, his blue eyes searching her face.

“I’m not sure if I’m gonna be up to it tonight, Liv.”

“That’s okay," Olivia smiled and rolled her eyes playfully, still pushing down on his chest and trying to keep eye contact so he knew she was there and she couldn't see the drips of red oozing through her fingers.

“You know I lov…” he began, mumbling as his eyes drifted shut.

“Don’t, don’t you dare," she interrupted as she looked away briefly, hearing the MedEvac sirens approach in the distance.

“Liv…” he insisted.

She nodded and bit her lip as his eyes drooped again.

“I know, I know,” Olivia replied as Lincoln stepped up to her again and tapped her on the shoulder, the MedEvac team pushing them aside.

“The shooter is dead. Canaan has agreed to copy him so we can use him in a sting to get to Nina and Jones. You coming?”

“I can’t," she looked down at Captain Lee on the floor as the team surrounded him. 

“Go," hr demanded as he smiled lethargically at them both. “Go!”

She nodded, and gulped, her throat thick. Taking one last look at Lee, she reluctantly left.

Looking up as she walked away, he met the eyes of his double and coughed, a metallic tang of blood on his tongue, the air cool on his chest as they lifted his shirt to survey the damage of the gunshot wound.

“Keep an eye on her for me, okay?”

Lincoln could do nothing but nod in agreement and walked away, following Olivia to their car.

***

The red trackers on the map blinked in a random pattern that made Lincoln sigh in satisfaction. Not only did they have Nina in custody, who could lead them to Jones and prevent the other Olivia from his side being dosed with anymore Cortexiphan, they now have tech that can track any other shapeshifters in their network. He looked up at the screen, showing Olivia the details as they watched the red dots on the map flicker.

“If we can hack this mainframe, we’ll have the identity of every agent in Jones’s network.” 

Olivia beamed at Lincoln, impressed with the development in the case and tapped him on the shoulder encouragingly as Agent Reynolds approached them.

“Can I have a word, Agent Dunham?” he asked warily, and she followed him over, out of Lincoln's earshot.

“We have some news to on Captain Lee. When the MedEvac team attended Captain Lee following his gunshot wound, he was in a clinically stable condition with no major vessel injury or significant blood loss. The investigation confirmed the bullet had ricocheted off a street sign, causing it to change direction from the intended target and hit him in the lower chest. Unfortunately, an unexpected cardiac arrest occurred shortly after due to a left coronary artery air embolism.”

Olivia’s smile faded in response and her shoulders slumped as he continued, his voice barely distinguishable over the noise of her heart that hammered in her ears. She met Lincoln’s eyes, and he looked like he already knew what Reynolds was going to say. Bile burned at the back of her throat and her heart thudded as if it was trying to break free from her ribcage.

Shrinking away, her hand came up to her mouth in shock and to hold in the wave of sickness she felt hit her body. “I am so sorry, Agent Dunham. Lung damage from the passage of the bullet within the chest wall close to the pleural cavity had occurred, and we were regrettably unable to revive Captain Lee - he, uh, he died at the scene.”

She fled from the room somehow, eyes stinging, as the words reverberated and broke into debris around her head and crashed in nauseating waves, until their bitter, salty tang rose like a tsunami. The room spun as she helplessly got swept up in the storm with no tether to weigh her down, and she landed in the locker room, heaving up everything that has passed her lips in the past few hours - lunch, breakfast and the only thing she had left of Lincoln inside of her. She swore she could taste him on her tongue again as she expelled it all in an exorcism of emotion, drizzled with defiant tears.

***

A cool round disc the size of a dime caught Lincoln’s attention as he shoved his hand in his pocket and he absentmindedly fondled the keychain the Olivia from his side had returned to him, twisting the leather cord and metallic disc in his fingers as he chaperoned Canaan to his universe. He had recognized something of himself in the man, the need to be remembered, needed and missed, and hoped now he found someone who would be his tether, be his place in the world, no longer waiting for someone to define him.

Specks of his doppelgänger’s blood on the cuff of his jacket felt tacky under his hand and as much as he wanted to stay, it felt wrong to keep wearing an item of clothing that was a reminder of what happened.

“Peter? Wait, a sec…” he jogged after the Bishops as they went to cross back. “I died, I mean the me here, and I, uh…” he paused as Peter sympathetically touched his arm.

“That must be - difficult,” Peter smiled understandingly as Lincoln nodded in reply.

“It’s, uh, not something I ever thought I’d ever have to deal with, but she - the Olivia here - is taking it hard and…”

“So you thought you’d stay a while?” Peter added, reading Lincoln’s expression as he nodded again.

“Yeah, I figured they might need my help now, more than you do anyway. But, uh, can you take this and get me a clean one? My other coat is still in the lab. I don’t want her to see the, uh…“

Blood .

Lincoln coughed, carefully shrugging it off his shoulders and folding it inside out for the other man to take.

“Of course you’re needed here,” Peter replied. "But I understand. I’ll get it brought over for you once we get Canaan settled in, okay?”

“Thanks Peter,"  Lincoln said, smiling thinly as he turned back to where he’d come from.

“Oh, Lincoln?” Peter called as Lincoln whipped back around on his heel. 

“Give her my condolences. She’s lucky to have your help.”

Lincoln blinked, and his mouth twitched in thanks as he turned back.

He felt lucky, but not in the way Peter meant, lucky he was still alive when he knew that once again, he should have been the one to get shot.

***

Olivia sat, holding herself, huddled on the floor, aching with numbness until she finally found the strength to stand. She found Lincoln’s old jacket in his locker that he’d impatiently shoved in there a few weeks ago when it had gotten ripped he'd chased and tackled a suspect. It smelled vaguely of his memories and she held it against her chest in the hope it would imprint him on her and so she could absorb him into her again.

Of all his photos prised into the door of his locker, she found herself in most of them. Little freeze frames of moments they’d shared when she sees him at the door, the face of his ghost in the form of another man, unsteady and unsure of himself and her, but with the same look she knows and needs.

***

By the time he comprehends the sounds from the locker room are stifled sobs, it's too late and the simple ‘hello’ has already slipped from his mouth.

Lincoln can tell instantly it's foolishly inadequate from her pink tinged eyes and the tears that have collected on the sleeve of her leather jacket that had nowhere else to go. When she speaks, her voice is nasally, congested with held-back emotions that he understands and yet could never fully comprehend, not when the subject of her heartbreak is him - or least his double. He feels like an imposter. A pathetic fraud, and absurd for even entertaining that this was a good idea. 

Her emotions transfer to him in that moment, the grief of losing a partner washing over him again, leaving him momentarily speechless.

And yet, despite that, she beckons him, looks upon him with cautious hazel eyes, barely daring to meet the shy gaze of his ice blue eyes for fear it would betray the memory of her friend, whose life slipped away in her blood-stained hands and that now cling to photos of them together. 

When he promises to stick around and help tie up the loose ends of the investigation, his heart leaps a little when she smiles - a real smile and not the one she puts on for appearances. It lingers for just for a moment, but enough to know she genuinely wants him to stay. And then he realises then he will stay for as long as she needs him.

He speaks softly in words that scatter in the air between them like photographs and he waits patiently for Olivia to pick them up, their knees bumping against each other, both of them wanting the touch.

“I thought I’d stick around for a while. I figured you’d need some help.”

“Thanks. That’d be nice," she replied, taking one last look at the photo in her hand and he looked at it too, a glimpse of a life he could have lived like the death that could have, should have, been his, he thought before he gulped. “Don’t you need to go back, won’t your family wonder where you are?”

“I don’t have anyone waiting for me,” he breathed, shaking his head, “there’s nowhere else I need to be.”

Olivia frowned, looking at the familiar blue eyes behind the mask of his glasses as they searched the depths of her own green eyes for meaning.

“What about your daughter? Amy?”

“God-daughter. She is - was - Robert’s daughter," Lincoln gulped again, then sighed. 

Olivia nodded at the thin, sad smile on his face that hid some hidden trauma she recognized the signs of and hoped he’d find the courage to reveal to her.

“W-will you come with me?” Olivia added warily in a whisper, looking at Lincoln as he registered the request, his heart aching for her when he realized she doesn’t want to ask, because she thinks it would be too much for him and it’s the last thing he’d want to do but how could he refuse when he knows what it’s like, and the other version of her helped him in his own world.

Putting the photo into her pocket, she stood and he followed, giving her space but instrumentally holding her steady as she traipsed the path until they reached their destination.

***

Her chest felt heavy, like the air had been sucked out of the room, her skin clammy despite the room being cold enough to make her shiver. The shape of a man laid concealed under a white cotton sheet, a sheet like the one they’d been under together merely hours ago but this one felt too rough, inadequate and unfit for him as she played with the corner in her hesitating fingertips and carefully pulled it back.

Olivia shook her head in defiance.

She knew his face almost better than her own. She would recognize him anywhere in any universe or lifetime or timeline, but here he was not him. He looked alien, expressionless, like a mask of the man she knew and cold, so cold.

Her lips wobbled & her breath hitched as she thought of her dream and his wishes.

“It’s not - I’m sorry," she gasped as her vision blurred, flooding with tears that burst through the dam of her resolve. The tears he never saw her cry and were only for him. Her knees buckled beneath her with the heavy weight of grief as an arm held her up.

“It’s okay, Olivia," Lincoln said in a whisper, holding her to stop her from falling. He didn't know if she was talking to him, herself or the body of the man who was laid on the table in front them; a man with the same face but different life, different mind, different paths, but he braced himself to anchor all of her weight, his arms around her as hers linked around his waist. “It’s alright, you’re gonna be fine.” 

Chapter Text

Alterverse April 2012

The rain fell heavily in the cemetery as Lincoln sat in the car, watching through the raindrops on the windshield as Astrid left him and embraced Olivia in the rain.

He wasn't able to leave the car, but he wished in a way that he could, seeing his father from this universe with his wife having lost his own father years ago who had never remarried. How was it fair that he’d lost both his parents, but in this universe Lincoln had his father, a stepmother and family, and yet their son had been cruelly taken away from them? The cruel irony wasn't lost on him, they should still have their son, as he had no one to love or love him anymore.

Olivia stood by the car shaking her umbrella, droplets of rain scattering out like prisms that were swallowed by the ground with the coffin. As she opened the door, sitting in the passenger seat where Astrid had sat before, she shut the door behind her and Lincoln caught her bleary and avoidant eyes in the rear view mirror.

She sniffed, looking at her gloved hands folded in her lap. “Will you take me home? Please.”

Lincoln frowned slightly for a second and then nodded a thin smile as he started the car, driving away. 

As they reached her apartment, he slowed to park the car, tucking into a space round the back, and turned off the engine.

“We’re here,” he said softly, “you sure you don’t want to go to the wake? I can drop you off and pick you up later. It’s no bother-”

“No,” Olivia said, shaking her head as she undid her seatbelt and reached for the door handle. “I don’t want to - I need to be alone for a bit.”

He nodded slightly in understanding, and shifted in his seat, looking away again, feeling as if his face was the last one she needed to see right now.

Her voice hitched on the last word as she opened the door and froze, sitting in the seat with the rain hitting her face.

“Actually, would you - can you…” she pointed towards her apartment and he followed her hand as her foot nervously fidgeted in the footwell. He moved without thinking, without her having to ask again or elaborate, leaving his side of the car to be at her side and escorted her up to her front door that she left open for him. He still waited, holding onto it as if he needed permission to cross the threshold.

“I can’t face them. I don’t have any information. What am I supposed to say to them?” Olivia blurted, her voice thick with emotion as it broke. “I don’t know anything. I don’t have anything.” 

“Olivia, I know it’s hard,” Lincoln sighed, his heart breaking for her, wishing there was something he could say or do but knowing there wasn’t anything that could make it better. “I - I told you about Robert and I - what I’m trying to say is you have me, if you need to talk to someone, I’m here.” He blinked and shrugged awkwardly when she didn't reply. He turned to leave and whipped back as she cleared her throat.

“Liv,” she said simply, and he frowned, unsure of what she meant. “No one calls me that. Call me Liv.” She gulped, offering a small smile as she sniffed, and he closed the door behind him with a nod, deciding to stay for as long as he was needed.

***

The white, bright corridor that linked the other side to the bridge stretched out long in front of them, the large featureless windows and metallic struts marking each step the two men took towards the sliding doors that lead to another world, another life.

“I don’t often admit I was wrong, but I was about her.” The older man with graying, wavy hair said to the bespectacled younger man, who frowned slightly and smiled gently in response. “As much as I was getting used to having someone around who is a decent opponent at chess, and she wouldn’t admit it, when I stayed at her apartment, it is obvious.”

“Obvious? Sorry, Walter, I don’t follow.” Lincoln frowned again. As much as he’d tried to get used to Walter Bishop talking in riddles, a conversation with him unsupervised by Peter or Olivia still sometimes felt broken, like he was trying to understand a film by only seeing every tenth frame.

“She needs you, this Olivia. She has a hole in her life and evidently she needs you here.” Walter replied, nodding with his chin over Lincoln’s shoulder as she approached behind them with his suitcase and handed it over. “Well dear, I guess this is it.” He sighed and looked back at Olivia as she smiled softly, her dark auburn hair framing her face as she leaned into his embrace. “Keep an eye on this universe, will you? I’ve grown quite fond of it. Same for him.”

Alterverse April 2012

The faint hum of traffic and televisions seeped through the walls as Lincoln stirred on the bed in his T-shirt and boxers. Too restless to sleep, he turned onto his side. He’d arrested Broyles for working with Jones thanks to Walter’s insight, but it hadn’t brought the closure he’d hoped. He was determined to find the people responsible for killing his partner and his counterpart in this universe, but there were still so many loose ends he needed to tie up, so many of the pieces to the puzzle were obscured or lost.

A faint tap, barely audible over the murmur of voices and engines, pulled him from his thoughts, and he held his breath and turned his head, unsure of the source of the sound. He wasn’t sure if he’d imagined it until it came again, slightly louder, and he turned back to check the door, noticing the faint silhouette through the curtain.

He jumped up, promptly grabbing his weapon next to his glasses from the nightstand and then immediately placed it back down on the table as he peered through the peephole to see Olivia walking away, then turning back to him at the sound of him opening the door.

“Liv? What are you doing here?” 

“I didn’t want to knock too loudly. I didn’t want to wake you," she began, her wide eyes flickering imperceptibly at his face and back down to her feet as she wrapped her hands around herself.

“I-I wasn’t sleeping,” he replied, holding onto the door and leaning on the door frame, the chipped, dirty paint tacky under his fingers and squinted slightly as he focused on her face, trying to regain eye contact with her. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

She shook her head as her face broke, twisting with anguish and he widened the door, letting her walk through and closed it behind her, guiding her to sit on the bed, blushing self-consciously at his state of undress.

Olivia sat on the edge, balancing her elbows on her knees as she cradled her face in her hands as Lincoln retrieved a glass from the bathroom, filling it with cold water. She felt the bed creak as he sat next to her and passed her the glass when she lowered her hands.

“They found Broyles and Nina Sharp dead in their cells,” Olivia said with a sniff, the corners of her mouth twitching as they turned back down and she took a sip of the water with shaking hands before placing the glass on the nightstand. “Now we’ll never get any justice… it’s not fair.”

Lincoln sighed, blinking and biting his own lip in shared despair, frozen in his thoughts until he heard her sob again.

The other Lincoln had told him how he’d never seen her cry, but here she was, hunched over and shaking with the injustice and heartbreak. He edged a little closer on the bed, covering her hands that anxiously twisted in her lap with one of his own, his thumb stoking hers reassuringly.

“We will somehow. One way or another, one day.” Lincoln promised as she lifted her head to look at him, her eyes like the sea in a storm - wide, wet and deep green compared to his own that were the color of clouds before the rain fell. Her full lips trembled, and he ached to still and reassure them with his own but as he studied her face, cracking under the weight of her remorse and despair, he knew she saw her friend as she looked back at him and he pulled his hand away.

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t’ve - I just thought you should know,” she stuttered and nodded as she stood.

“Wait, don’t go,” Lincoln said as he grabbed her wrist before she could leave, still passively sitting on the bed. She looked at him, stunned, his warm fingers strong as they held her limp hand before releasing it. “I don’t want you driving in this state, Liv. Stay here for a bit.”

“I’m fine.” Olivia sniffed again and shook her head, then took a step back as he stood.

“No, you’re not," he replied, his voice tinged with concern as he gestured to the bed behind him. “Lie down, I’ll take the chair. I don’t sleep much anymore, anyway.”

Lincoln shrugged as she looked at the bed behind him, the comforter and pillow disheveled where he’d been laying before she’d arrived.

Olivia sighed and nodded as she toed off her boots and placed her jacket on the back of the chair next to the desk. He was right. If she was honest, she came here tonight because she didn’t want to be alone. She laid down on the bed, facing away from him, and could feel the echo of his bodyheat in the sheets where he’d laid. The floorboards creaked as he turned off the lamp and settled into the armchair in the corner.

“Night," she whispered.

“G’ night.” Lincoln called back softly from the darkness, his voice a blanket that wrapped around her but didn’t cover her enough. She could hear the soft waves of his breathing from the other side of the room over the hum of the background noise like laps on the shore and counted every breath as she imagined the fall and rise of his chest, unlike the Lincoln from her world who was no longer breathing but in the coffin they'd buried him in only a few days ago.

“Lincoln?” Olivia choked, as she tucked her knees up and huddled into the fetal position, her voice sticking in her throat as she tried to talk.

“Yeah?” he said, his voice a breathy beacon in the shadows.

“I need - can you please just hold me for a while?” she sniffed in a sob, as she heard him move and felt the bed dip almost instantly, his warm arm snaking around her to link his hand with hers again, “Sorry, I’m just-” 

Her voice trailed away. In the dark, she could pretend he was still here.

“S’ kay,” Lincoln whispered, his breath warm against the back of her head as his fingers reached her face to catch her tears before his pillow took them.

Her hair brushed against his lips and she tasted like rain and felt like fire under his fingertips as he drifted into a dream, finally having the best night's sleep he'd had in months.

When he woke up in the morning, she was gone like a ghost in the daylight, the only evidence that she was there was the crease in the covers in the shape of her body and he wondered if her visit had been a dream too until he arrived at Fringe HQ the next day, and Astrid confirmed the news about Broyles and Nina.

Chapter Text

April 2012 

The-last-day-on-the-bridge

“ I’m afraid we have to close the bridge.”

Olivia’s eyes flickered as the words played out in her mind and she nervously drummed her fingers against the cool glass table. Closing the bridge meant they’d never see the other team again, which meant she’d lose Lincoln again, too. She hated the unfairness of it, and if she could kill Jones herself, she would. He took Lincoln’s partner, her Lincoln, and now they have to close the bridge, she’d lose the other Lincoln too, lose him for good all over again, and wouldn’t know if he was still alive or happy. She looked up at him across the table to get one last look of the man she wished she could spend more time with just as he let out a long sigh while looking in her direction, his hands nervously twitching his lap. Did he feel as much regret as she did?

As the teams left the room to make preparations with every tick of the clock, she jogged up to him, tapping him on the shoulder. He stopped and looked at her startled, as if he wasn’t expecting her to reach out to him, then shrugged a thin smile, because, if he was completely honest with himself, he couldn’t think of much to smile about right now.

“Hey," he turned and felt her touch, warm and exploring through the fabric of his suit jacket.

“So, I guess this is goodbye, huh?” she smiled in a way he'd come to recognize as her feeling nervous but not wanting it to show.

This is it. This is the last time we’ll see each other.

We’ll never see each other again and there’s nothing we can do about it and I’m not ready.

I don’t think I ever will be. Tell her you don't want to leave her.

His mind screamed out under his cool, quiet exterior and the thought caught tim unaware and held him down like a weight on his chest. He could feel the world collapsing under his feet with every second that the clock counted down, making him breathless, the air slowly sucked from his lungs and his mouth dry like the desert but flooded with words he was aching to say but escaped him Somehow, he found the ability to talk.

“Yeah, it doesn’t seem like we have much of a choice thanks to Jones,” he shrugged again nervously, pointing at the machine on the bridge. “sorry I never bought you a café latte.”

She followed his forlorn gaze briefly before turning back to him, swatting him lightly on the arm to get his attention.

“It doesn’t matter. Listen, Lincoln…” Olivia began, pausing as she struggled too, stumbling a little as she wanted to get it right if it was her last chance. The more she thought about it, the more she realized this was the first time she was utterly lost for words. There didn’t seem to be any words adequate for what she wanted - and needed - to say. She shifted on her feet and twisted her fingers nervously. 

“I just wanted to say that I, uh, I wish there was another way, that you didn’t have to…” she bit her lip nervously as she cut herself off. “You said it would get better and, uh, it did, and that’s because of you, so, um, thank you!” She leaned in quickly, feeling his body flinch in surprise as she pecked a chaste kiss on his lips, leaving a pink lipstick stain which was rapidly matched by a blush that crept across his cheeks and she turned to run, catching up with the rest of her team.

“Oh! You’re, uh, welcome!" he quietly stuttered to himself with a sad smile as she left and he nodded, straightening his tie that caught on the pocket buttons of her military style jacket.

Waiting a moment, he considered her words - and actions - and strode up to the Secretary decisively.

“Can I have a quick word?” he nodded, asking him to step out of earshot of the other Walter and staff on his team.

“How do you know closing the bridge doesn’t mean Peter stays here?” Lincoln asked directly, as he knew there was no time to make pleasantries. “I mean, because the other Walter said our universe vibrates in the key of C and this one is G. How do you know he won’t stay here?”

“We don’t know. We can only hope. Of course, there is the risk he may actually completely disappear again.”

Lincoln frowned as Walter spoke and lowered his head, and his posture slumped in resignation.

“But there is something we could do that would increase our chances," hr paused. “Come with me here, quickly.”

They rushed back to his office, where he unlocked two differently numbered cases from his safe.

“Back when our Olivia was on your side, we used harmonic rods to bring her back, in case the plan went awry. One of these sets of vials ensured the patient injected operates at 261.6 hertz and the other at 392, so it would safely bring them back within minutes.”

“So if you inject Peter with the contents of the one with his universe's frequency…” Lincoln pointed at the cases.

“Then he will be tuned to that universe long enough while The Bridge shuts down.” Secretary Bishop replies, completing the sentence.

Lincoln nodded in understanding and stepped forward.

“So could you inject me with the other ones so I can stay? I want to stay here - if that’s okay?”

“Your work has been much appreciated since you have been here and you would be a welcome addition to the team, and there is a vacancy if Colonel Broyles from your universe allows the transfer - because you do understand it would be permanent? Once you stay here, you won’t be able to go back home ever again.”

“This is my home," Lincoln replied without hesitation, the most sure he’d been of anything for as long as he could remember. “Peter told me home is where the heart is, and…“ 

“He is a smart, kind and noble man and you could do much worse than follow that advice. The device does seem to work better if there is a swap of one person for another. Very well, I’ll speak to Broyles and administer the vials to you both. Just be warned, the process may give you some temporary side-effects, such as vertigo, and feeling light-headed or short-term memory loss for a while.”

“I can deal with that,” Lincoln said with a smile as he accepted the injection, wincing as they were implanted into his palms.

Minutes later he swayed towards Olivia as the counter crept closer to 100%, feeling giddy with a mixture of excitement, anticipation and the contents of the vials the Secretary had just injected him with.

“Thought I’d stick around for good,” he stuttered under his breath, drunk on the smile she gave him as he stood next to her. “Thought you could use a little help.”

She smiled in surprise at his impulsiveness, watching the other team flash out of existence, then looked at him in disbelief, her eyes wide like saucers.

“You kished me,” Lincoln chuckled, swaying on his feet, the contents of the vial Secretary Bishop injected him with or the courage of his actions coursing through his veins.

“Did I?” Olivia asked teasingly, biting her lip with a smile which dropped from her face as Lincoln felt the blood rush from his head and be replaced with dizziness, and he fell to the floor.

“Hey!” 

Lincoln blinked his eyes and opened them slowly, allowing them to gradually refocus, until he could make out the shape of Olivia’s face, sighing in relief when he saw her long russet hair drape across him. Leaning up on his elbows, he adjusted his glasses that thankfully remained intact. “I think you fainted, are you okay?” She asked, helping him to his feet. 

“Yeah, I like making an entrance,” Lincoln replied with a chuckle, brushing the dust off of his suit, and blushing in embarrassment at passing out. 

“You wanna go get a drink of water or something?” Olivia smiled as they walked away from the bridge and she steadied him by linking her arm in his. 

“Yeah, that’d be nice," he replied, on realizing how dry his mouth felt, unsure if it was the side-effects of the technology or the warmth of her hand in the crook of his arm that he could feel through his suit jacket.

“I’m glad you stayed, Lincoln," she said, her eyes flickering as they explored and searched his familiar yet unknown face again.

“Well, there’s no place else for me to be," Lincoln shrugged, twisting his lips into his usual smile that Olivia couldn't help but mirror.

***

A few months later, Lincoln was settling into his role within Fringe Division in the alternative universe.

“So you don’t use pens and paper at all here?” Lincoln asked, his lips twisting in confusion as he quickly blinked.

“Not usually, no,” Astrid replied simply. “Since The Blight in the late 80s killed off so much organic matter, many trees and vegetation died, so we stopped using paper unless necessary. Everything is now done electronically if possible.”

“So without paper, you have no need for pens. Makes sense,” Lincoln yawned as he shrugged and sat next to Astrid as she eyed him curiously. “Another thing I’ll have to adjust to, I guess. Along with the lack of coffee.”

“I tried coffee once, when I came over to your universe,” she said as she leaned in slightly, as if the subject was covert or taboo.

“You did? I didn’t know that. Did you like it?”

“It was when you were away," Astrid explained, “Your Astrid made me a cup. It wasn’t what I expected. It was weird, very strange. But also kind of likable. A bit like you.”

As she left, Lincoln quickly raised, then knotted his brows at her statement and huffed a little laugh. He’d never been called weird before, at least not to his face. Nerdy and shy, yes. Quiet and insecure, once or twice. But strange? He knew Astrid didn’t mean it maliciously. She could be blunt sometimes, but it made him wonder if the cultural differences in their worlds made him seem even more of an outcast than he already felt he was.

He took the device and sighed, and carried on working to take his mind off thinking about it, but the more he tried to forget, the more he thought about it. He thought the team had accepted him into their fold, even though he replaced the Lincoln they had known and worked with for years, and had become close friends with. Did they really see him as some kind of outcast?

“Hey!” Olivia called, startling Lincoln from his work, and she chuckled as she saw him jump. “You okay? You seem quiet today.” 

She wondered if he missed his world and was homesick for his universe, regretting his decision to stay here.

Lincoln nodded as he put down the tablet and shuffled in his seat. Olivia perched next to him on her stool and took it to inspect the information, then smiled as she looked back up at him.

“That’s weird… Wait, you’ve finished all the reports!” she exclaimed, her smile twisting as her brows knotted in confusion. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“It kept me busy and got me up to speed with the archived cases," he shrugged. “It was no bother at all.”

“Well, I’m glad I won’t have any paperwork to do for a while. Thank you!” Olivia huffed a laugh and briefly squeezed his hand in appreciation. He blinked, looking at his own hand as the touch of her cool hand burned on his skin.

“Do you think I’m strange?” Lincoln blurted, keeping his eyes down at his hands on the table, then self-consciously folded them into his lap.

“W-what?” she scoffed in reply, her smile twisted as she frowned in bemusement. “What do you mean?”

“I know being from, uh, not here, there are some differences I have to adjust to. I just - Astrid said I’m strange and I dunno… Forget it, I’m just being stupid," he said, dismissing himself and wishing he hadn’t brought it up.

“No, I wouldn’t say strange,” Olivia said, her eyes softening as she saw the twinge of concern in his eyes and reassuringly nudged him with her arm. “A bit quirky, maybe, but it’s a good thing, being different. Knowing all the odd little things from your universe and those things that make you extrinsically you. It’s part of your charm. And I wouldn’t worry about Astrid. She likes you - we all do - she just has a different way of explaining things.”

“She compared me to a cup of coffee…” Lincoln replied with a smile, which elicited a snort from Olivia in response. “Wait, did you just say I’m charming?”

“In that case, it’s a compliment. She didn’t stop going on about it for weeks, maybe months, after we visited your side. But if I think you’re being strange, you’ll be the first to know.”

She paused as she smiled back at him and reassuringly touched his hand again.

“I’m going to give Erikson the good news that you’ve filed all the reports and maybe he’ll let us finish a bit early, and we can have a look at some apartments.”

Olivia jumped down from her seat and tucked the tablet under her arm, hurriedly strutting away with a swish of her auburn hair before Lincoln could press her for a response to his question. The truth was, she found him fascinating and she couldn’t help but gravitate towards him like he was drawing her towards him with a magnetic force. Like his personality, his clothes, hair and style were different, more pensive, serious and intense than her friend’s, which had been playful, flippant and flirty, even cocky sometimes. But physically, they were incredibly similar. They had the same piercing blue eyes that changed to gray when they were upset or angry, and the same slightly gappy teeth and dimples that traced a line to their jaws when they smiled.

But that’s where the similarity between them ended, and that’s what intrigued and fascinated her the most.

Chapter Text

Christmas 2009 Altverse

Lincoln couldn’t tear himself away from looking at her. Even from the back of the crowded bar, he noticed the way the soft lighting gave Olivia’s auburn hair an ethereal glow, and her green eyes twinkled as she laughed at something Charlie said out of his earshot

A pang of unjustified jealousy, a stealthy creature that crept up on him, grasped him in its clutches and stung him right in the chest before it was too late to escape. As he noticed their hands brush against each other as he approached the bar, he wedged himself between them, resting his hands on each of their shoulders.

“So… you gonna let me in on the joke, or do you just wanna buy your handsome boss a drink?”

“Linc!” Olivia exclaimed, turning to embrace him from the stool where she sat as her eyes lit up. “I was just saying to Charlie, I wondered when you were gonna show up.”

“Well, that’s the thing, Liv. Being a boss, you always have extra work and responsibilities when everyone else has clocked off for the day.” Lincoln quipped.

“You’re not the boss…” Charlie teased, “... and styling your hair in the mirror for half an hour every day isn’t a responsibility.” He laughed as he jumped down off his stool and gestured across the noisy crowd in the direction of the washrooms. ”Nature calls.”

“At least I have hair!” Lincoln retorted, mockingly rubbing the other man’s buzz cut as he stood up. “I’ll put in a good word for you when I replace Broyles in a few years!”

“Not if you get sucked into another class 4 vortex, you won’t!” Charlie scoffed jokingly as he pushed through the throng of people battling to get to the bar and jogged towards the restrooms.

“So…” he continued, sliding onto Charlie’s seat and motioning the bartender to bring over two more drinks. “Commendation medal, huh? Pretty impressive, Liv…” 

“Thanks…” Olivia began, looking at him with sad, wide eyes as she recalled the day they gave her the medal. 

“I mean, not as impressive as me,” Lincoln interrupted, by puffing out his chest mockingly, “but you’re only human, after all.”

That comment earned a smile that he was so relieved to see, he couldn’t help but laugh back, infected by her beauty. Playfully grabbing his forearm, Lincoln stared at her warm hand that imprinted onto his skin and made his smile dissolve. Looking back up, he met her eyes with his faded smile and was startled to realize he was infatuated. There was no way he would admit it to anyone, of course, but over the past few months, she had possessed his thoughts to the extent he couldn’t think of anything or anyone else.

“Drinks are on me tonight for saving my ass,” he smiled as he paid for the drinks, slipping two 20 dollar bills on the counter with his Show Me ID, which Olivia swiped away for closer inspection. 

“Nice photo, Lincoln T. Lee," she drawled playfully in a sing-song tone, noticing the older photo with his shorter styled hair. “What’s the ‘T’ stand for?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he teased, as he snatched it back.

“Yeah, I would actually… Toby!” Olivia guessed, watching Lincoln as he shook his head, taking a sip of his drink. “Ummm… Thomas!” She pointed at him, watching his face for a reaction.

“Nooope.”

“Tate? Theodore... Teddy?”

He nearly spat out his drink. “Do I look like a Teddy to you?” Lincoln coughed and choked as she patted him on the back and laughed.

“Actually, yeah, you kinda do," she shouted, slamming her hands down triumphantly as he smiled broadly and raised his eyebrows. “Trevor!”

“Very good," ve replied, narrowing his eyes.

“Ha, I knew it. It’s a good name, nothing to be embarrassed about. It was my dad’s name too…”

“Very good, but it’s wrong,” Lincoln interrupted, trying to stifle a laugh when Olivia glared at him.

“I’ll get it out of you eventually, even if I have to get you drunk.”

“Hmm, well, we’ll have to see which one of us caves first,” Lincoln teased as Olivia took a sip of her drink too, wincing at the taste of alcohol.

“Say ZFT!” Charlie cried out behind them, and they turned surprised, smiling to see him take a picture of them with his camera.

Olivia playfully grabbed Lincoln around the neck, tugging on his gray T-shirt, which contrasted with the bright scarlet hues of her top. The bright light of the flash surrounded them and they laughed, returning to their drinks and conversation.

Later at the Christmas-party-2009

Olivia and Lincoln stumbled off their stools and out of the hot and crowded bar packed with party-goers. The contrast of the cool air was a shock compared to the humidity of the bar and helping Olivia to shrug her jacket on over her shoulders, she shivered while Lincoln called for a cab on his ear cuff. “Cab should be here in ten mins.”

Leaning into Lincoln and Olivia huddled between him and the wall to keep warm as she shuddered. “I am never drinking again… and why is it so cold?” she said through chattering teeth, the steam of her breath merging with Lincoln’s, and he nodded in agreement. 

“Yes. We…” he raised his index finger and wiggled it between them, “are… in no fit state.” Slurring the last word as he stumbled backwards. 

She grabbed him by the collar and giggled, and his arms wrapped around her to steady themselves. Suddenly, she felt very conscious of their proximity. 

“Thanks for coming out tonight, Liv," he whispered gently in her ear. “I know, despite what you say, you’re not okay.”

His eyes locked to hers, and even in the dark street, with the streetlamps barely illuminating their faces, she could see them glitter before he looked away again. She reached up, touching his stubbly chin lightly with her fingertip. “Because you know what it’s like?”

He turned back to face her, huffing a little smile as he looked at her face, barely keeping eye contact. “I never did thank you properly for saving my life, you are officially stronger than a class four vortex,” he replied, changing the subject. Closing the gap between them, Lincoln chastely pecked a friendly kiss on the side of her mouth and pulled away. Then, pausing to briefly check her reaction, he returned to gingerly graze her lips with his own, pulled back into her orbit from the magnetic force of the illicit touch, his hand sliding up from her sides to cup her face, his slender fingers threading through her auburn hair.

“What are you?..." Olivia began to feebly protest, cut off by his mouth on hers. She could taste the sweetness of rum and coke lingering on his breath, and couldn’t help kissing him back as he pressed his mouth hungrily into hers, getting swept away by the waves of his desire until she could barely keep her head above water.

“Linc, wait,” she sighed breathlessly, pushing against him as she broke away. “We’re drunk!”

“Are you? I’m not!” Lincoln protested, swaying on his feet as she raised her eyebrows. “Okay, maybe I’m a little bit tipsy…“ He slurred the last word as he straightened himself up. “… but that doesn’t make what I said or feel untrue.”

“We shouldn’t, I can’t…”

He stopped and frowned, stepping back to intently gaze at her.

“Why not? This is - we - are perfect.”

He didn’t mean to sound so desperate, and he didn’t want to beg her, but part of him feels like he would if she asked him to.

Olivia looked, suddenly unable to meet the sadness and need to belong she saw in Lincoln’s eyes. She studied her hands, pink with the cold and still trapped between their chests, and swallowed slowly. All this time, she’d been flirting with him, getting him to like her so she could get further in a male-dominated workplace, thinking it was harmless banter. But now as she felt him against her, the regret of manipulating him stung her eyes as the realization hit her - it was no longer pretence and if she wasn’t already with someone, she wouldn’t think twice about going home with him.

“I’m sorry. I can’t risk...” she pushed her hand against his chest, gesturing for him to let her go first.

“If it’s because I’m your superior, then...”

“No, it’s… I have a boyfriend.l,” she blurted, her words escaping like water from a burst dam.

He recoiled, as if the words were burning him, and looked away as if to look at her was now forbidden.

She dared herself to look back at him as he chewed on his bottom lip, mourning the loss of his touch. She wondered if he missed her too, but all she could see was regret and shame.

“You gonna say something?” she whispered, and he looked back at her, aloof.

“You should really keep your personnel file updated, Dunham," he replied coldly as she searched his face for the person she knew. Olivia shook her head slightly, and he looked away to do the same, hating himself for convincing himself she might love him back, and that he most likely had just ruined their relationship if she thought he was only her friend for one reason.

Lincoln licked his lips in the cold air. He could still taste her on his mouth and feel the pressure of her lips on his. He knew he didn’t imagine it when she had kissed him back.

“Linc… I’m sorry, I should have said something.”

He blinked, as if to say 'you think?' raising his eyebrows in response. “I never thought I was your, uh, type, anyway.” She added with an insinuation.

He looked taken aback, as if it wasn’t obvious he wasn’t interested in anyone else but her, until the realization hit him.

“You thought I was gay?” he questioned incredulously, and she shrugged.

“You never mentioned a girlfriend, and I saw the ACT UP leaflet in your locker.”

“I went on a march with my step-brother… We don’t speak much these days, but I still look out for him, ya know?” Olivia nodded as he paused, mirroring her shrug. He changed the subject, trying to make her see he was her friend more than anything and always would be. “So - what’s his name? Where’d you meet him?”

She paused before answering, still trying to make eye contact to see if he was genuinely asking or out of some morbid curiosity. He shuffled his feet, and she shrugged as she relented.

“Frank. In Hoboken.” 

“The cholera outbreak?” 

She nodded in reply.

“How romantic," he scoffed and instantly regretted it as her shoulders dropped again.

Who could blame her, really? She deserved better than someone who made immature jabs, and yet it still hurt. She must have seen the remorse on his face as he went to speak again, and cut him off before he could.

“Lincoln, I love you. You’re my best friend, and kinda my boss...” Olivia continued, pleading as he nervously ran his hand through his hair.

“Here it comes.” 

“But we’re just too alike. We need people to calm us down and ground us. We’d drive each other crazy, eventually...”

“You already drive me crazy, Liv. How do you know we aren’t supposed to be together?”

He looked at her again, her wide green eyes looking up at him, glittering black like the stars in the night sky reflecting on the water. 

She touched his cheek and moved in closer, the stubble rough under her fingertips, and her lips twitched as she looked at his mouth regretfully. 

“I don’t know. Maybe if I wasn’t with….”

They jumped as a taxi horn honked in the street, and the cab driver rolled down his window.

“Taxi for Olivia?” The driver shouted impatiently through the rolled-down window.

“Looks like it’s your ride.”

“Yeah!” Olivia replied to them both, stepping towards the curb, and Lincoln followed. “You wanna share the ride? We can drop you off on the way.” She asked as Lincoln opened the back door for her, and he shook his head.

He could see them together, the windows steaming up with their feverish bodies in the cold, dark night. Streaks of headlamps and neon lights passing them by, their knees touching, then their hands until they couldn’t resist each other and collapsed into each other like dying suns in an explosion of light.

“This is nothing, like nothing even happened. I’m just a few blocks away, anyway. I know a good 24hr diner near here, so I’ll grab a hot drink on my way back to my place and walk it off.”

“Okay,” she smiled warily, pausing before she got in. “Are we good?”

“We’ll always be good," he smiled back before she sat in the back seat, closing the door behind her, and bending to check her through the window.

“Promise?”

“I promise. But if you wanna cheat on your boyfriend, you know where I am if you change your mind," he teased and winked, his eyes wrinkling and finally reflecting his smile.

“Lincoln!” Olivia warned in reply.

“Okay, okay, fine!” He held his hands up and rested them on the rolled-down window. “Night then. Let me know when you get home, so I know you’re safe.”

“Okay. Night.” Olivia said as he turned to walk away. “Oh, Linc?”

He turned back on his heel as the cab restarted and began to pull away from the curb.

“Your secret is safe with me!”

“Yours isn’t!” he replied, as the car drove away and her window rolled back up.

***

"Okay, I’m home now,” Olivia said into her ear cuff as she closed the door behind her with a soft click. “Yeah, it’s our secret. You too, see you later.” 

She ended the call and softly toed off her shoes by the door to quieten her steps on the hardwood floor and then threw her purse on the couch to remove her jacket.

“Where have you been?” A voice asked accusingly, which came from the corner of the living room, dark with shadows. She jumped at the unexpected sound, her pounding heartbeat whooshing in her ears at the noise.

“Frank?” Olivia asked, squinting to make out the silhouette of his face in the darkness before he turned on a lamp and she blinked in the bright light. “Why are you-“

“Answer the question!” Frank replied bluntly. He didn’t need to shout for her to understand his tone and what he was implying.

“Frank… “ Olivia repeated imploringly, with a small smile. “…it was a work thing.”

“Work?” he replied skeptically as she nodded. “So why did they say when I called the office you left hours ago?” 

“Are you checking up on me?” she smirked as she threw her jacket on the chair, immediately regretting her reply as he lunged and grabbed her by the arm. His firm hands pushed back on her slim frame, forcibly shoving her against the wall before she could evade his grasp. “Ow, you’re hurting me --”

“I can smell the drink on your breath. Tell me who you were talking to!” Frank sneered, his grip tightening as her back hit the wall, trapped by his body. “Who have you been with?”

“Just the guys from work.” Olivia replied as she struggled against him. “Lincoln asked me to join them, w - we went to the Christmas party, and time just got away...”

“Of course he did, he’s always sniffing around you like a lovesick puppy dog - it’s pathetic.” he sniped, curling his lip in disgust.

He roughly released his grip and stepped back as she breathed a sigh of relief. Her arm stung where he’d gripped her roughly, and she rubbed where it felt tender.

”If I find out you’re lying to me and he doesn’t back off,” he snarled, looming back over her with his finger pointing accusingly just millimeters from her face. “You’ll both be sorry, because he won’t be a pretty boy anymore.”

Three years later - December 21st 2012 Altverse 

Olivia glanced across the crowded hall at Lincoln, who was stuffing his belongings into his leather satchel, then shrugged his coat over his suit jacket. Jogging over to where he stood, she intercepted his path before he made it to the elevators.

“Hey!” she smiled, tapping him lightly on the arm from behind, making him spin around, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Oh, hey!” he replied with a huff, smiling on seeing her face. “I didn’t think I’d see you until Monday. Have a nice weekend.”

“I got held up in a meeting,” Olivia shrugged. “Actually, I wondered if you were going to the DoD Christmas party tomorrow?”

“Oh!” Lincoln said, lifting his eyebrows in flustered embarrassment. “I, er, probably not. Parties aren’t really my kinda thing. And I don’t really know anyone except you guys.”

He shoved his hands in his coat pockets and winced a smile, then frowned as he saw Olivia’s smile flinch.

“Oh,” she echoed flatly, her voice barely containing the disappointment. “Oh, okay.”

She smiled thinly, going to turn on her heel before Lincoln whipped out his hand and nudged her before she stepped away, surprised by her response.

“Why? Are you, then?” Lincoln enquired.

“Yeah,” Olivia shrugged again. “At these events, I usually stay and talk with Astrid all night because they have a discounted bar, and being the only person who doesn’t drink isn’t much fun, but she’s still ill and I already bought a dress, and it seems a shame for it to go to waste…”

She didn’t want to mention the other Lincoln would keep her company too, in case this Lincoln misunderstood why she wanted him there.

“Oh, well, if you just want a bit of company, I suppose I can oblige…” He huffed, twisting his lips into a smirk as Olivia’s smile returned. “And I bought a new suit the other day that I could wear.”

“Great!” she said, nodding. “It’ll probably help you put some faces to the names of people in other departments you haven’t met yet, either. Shall I swing by to your hotel about 7? I might as well drive us as I’m not drinking.”

“Sure, okay!” Lincoln said, raising his arms in agreement. “See you tomorrow around 7, then.”

22nd December 2012  

At 7.13pm on Saturday evening, Lincoln was brushing down the front of his jacket in front of the mirror when a car honked its horn and flashed its lights outside of his hotel room. He grabbed his wallet and keys, and locked the door behind him, jogged across the darkened parking lot to the black Ford that had its engine running and Christmas music playing faintly from within, and opened the passenger door.

“Hey, nice bow tie!” Olivia grinned at Lincoln as he sat next to her and pulled the seatbelt across his chest. “Sorry I’m late, the traffic was crawling.”

Lincoln nodded and looked at Olivia, noticing how different she looked compared to her normal attire. She’d pinned up her hair in loose curls, revealing two golden spherical earrings that were suspended from her ears, and under her coat he noticed a stockinged knee when she hit the brake pedal at a junction.

“Everyone’s probably traveling to see their families," hesaid, shifting and re-crossing his legs, trying not to think if she was wearing stockings or pantyhose. “Are you going to see your mom over Christmas?”

“No, she’s going to France again this year, so we’ve already done Christmas at Thanksgiving.” She replied, tapping her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, deep in thought, then turned to glance back at Lincoln. “Do you celebrate it?”

“I used to,” Lincoln smiled thinly, “Robert insisted I went to his for Christmas Day and Thanksgiving as he didn’t like me being alone, but, uh, it’s no big deal -”

“Come to mine,” Olivia blurted, “- if you want and fancy some company. I don’t really cook, but we can order takeout and watch a couple of movies or crappy tv while eating loads of candy if you like.”

“Oh, er - thanks," hele gulped, “Okay, sure. I can cook if you want to get the ingredients, but a takeout is fine.”

“Okay, Bobby Flay!” she said and snorted a laugh as Lincoln rolled his eyes and the tune of Eartha Kitt’s Santa Baby played through the car speakers.

***

They arrived at the venue, and handed over the car to the valet before stepping through the entrance hall, bustling with people from various teams and departments of the Department of Defense. Lincoln stopped to glance around the room, slightly intimidated by all the unknown faces, and turned to check on Olivia, who had pushed through the throng and was removing her coat, handing it into the cloakroom. He stood staring at her wide-eyed and entranced then gulped thickly, her curves hugged by a tight, knee-length electric blue dress with bronze sequin detail. The top was asymmetrical, so a sleeve covered her left arm down to her wrist, leaving her right arm exposed and the fabric ruched across her breasts. Smiling when she caught his gaze, she beckoned him over with a hand gesture, and he worked his way through the increasingly busy throng of people to meet her, and she leaned into his ear, her hand warm through his jacket when she held onto his arm for support.

“Shall we go find some seats before everyone else gets in?” She shouted over the noise of chatter and instrumental Christmas songs in the room, her breath warm on his cheek and the faint scent of spicy floral perfume intoxicated his senses, and he nodded, following her through the crowd towards the main hall, where they grabbed a couple of drinks from the bar and found an empty table against the far wall, where large paneled windows reflected the fairy lights that decorated the room, away from the busy bar and dance floor area.

***

Soon, the wooden floor of the dance floor had filled and a spectrum of lights shimmered over the dancers, and Olivia pointed out people she knew from the people moving to the rhythm of the music. Lincoln had shed his suit jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves as the warmth of multiple bodies filled the room.

“Oh, look - Erikson just arrived,” Olivia said, nudging Lincoln by the elbow so he whipped his head in her direction, “and there’s Reeves and his husband who works over on Liberty Island in weapons development.”

“I’m gonna go grab a drink from the bar. Do you want anything?” Lincoln asked with a nod, holding up his empty glass as proof.

“Soda water, juice, something like that,” she replied, watching Erikson as he made eye contact with Olivia and made his way to their table.

Lincoln pushed his way through the heaving throng, carefully weaving through the gaps until he finally reached the bar, relieved to place his warm hand on the smooth, cool surface when a hand reached through and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Agent Lee!” The tall, broad-shouldered man exclaimed. His dark eyes twinkled as he spoke and held out his hand for Lincoln to shake.

“Agent Reynolds!” Lincoln exclaimed in reply, recalling their first meeting a few months ago on the shapeshifter case when his counterpart in this universe had died. “Lincoln. How are you?”

“Jay - Good, thanks!” he called over the loud chatter, shaking Lincoln’s hand again as agent Salerno joined him. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Thanks, but I’m just getting one for me and Olivia…”

“I insist, I’ll get her one too, then!”

Lincoln, Reynolds, and Salerno squeezed back through the crowd and made their way to the table with their drinks. They joined Erikson and his partner, whose bobbed platinum blonde hair skimmed her bare shoulders exposed by her black halter neck dress.

“Where’s Li-Dunham?” Lincoln asked Erikson as he sat down, noticing her empty seat and purse on the table where she’d been.

He pointed towards the dance floor, and the shimmer of bronze sequins caught Lincoln’s eye when he saw her moving through the dancers, then a hand pulling her by the waist to the beat of the music. He squinted, trying to make out the face of the person she was dancing with, but it was too dark and too far, and the sight of the hand skimming her lower back, dangerously close to her ass, was not something Lincoln wanted to look at.

“Agent Lee-incoln,” Reynolds slurred, pulling him away from Olivia’s direction with a tap on his arm and Lincoln looked away, losing her in the crowd. “I want you to tell me all about your universe. What’s it like?”

Lincoln cleared his throat and turned back to Reynold, then raised his eyebrows, glad for the distraction and shrugged.

“Uh, what do you wanna know?”

***

Lincoln wasn’t sure how much time had passed after being plied with multiple drinks, courtesy of Reynolds, in exchange for his anecdotes on life in another universe that the group found fascinating, but two things occurred to Lincoln through the fog of the alcohol coursing through his bloodstream; one was he was drunker than he’d been for a long time and the other was he hadn’t seen Olivia since they arrived and as much as he didn’t want to get in her way if she was having fun, it felt strange she hadn’t been back to the table for so long.

Excusing himself from the group with the pretence of visiting the washrooms, he stumbled determined through the party-goers, staggering slightly as the whisky he’d drunk took effect, eventually finding Olivia leaning with her back against the wall, talking with a man who had his palm pressed against the wall near her head, engrossed in conversation.

Nodding to himself in defeat, Lincoln went to disappear back into the crowd and get a cab back to his hotel, until Olivia looked up and made eye contact, her eyes large and beckoning, and she ducked under the man’s arm as Lincoln approached.

“You okay?” Lincoln frowned, eyeing the situation suspiciously, before tripping and swaying slightly, so Olivia reached out to steady him by the arm and nodded. “What was that about?”

“Don’t ask. You okay if we leave now?” Olivia said in reply, leaning into his space so he could hear her and give physical support, guiding him away from the other man who she could see was following them. Looking over her shoulder to see if he was still around, the decorations that hung from the arched ceiling above their heads caught her eye. “There’s mistletoe,” she added, looking back down to meet Lincoln’s eyes. "Kiss me.”

“What?!” he exclaimed, furrowing his brow as he was sure he’d misheard, and squinted as she pulled him towards her by the collar and planted a firm, chaste kiss on his mouth. The tang of whisky lingered on his lips to hers, and Olivia fought against the taste until she opened her eyes and was sure they were alone, and pulled away. Lincoln’s eyebrows raised high in surprise as his eyes fluttered open, and he swayed on his feet. “Oh!” he gasped with a hiccup, then huffed a laugh when she pulled him away by the hand to leave.

***

Gravel and shingle crunched under the car tyres as it pulled into a space in the parking lot under the amber canopy of a streetlamp, and the engine came to a stop.

“We’re at your hotel,” Olivia stated, nudging Lincoln, who jerked in response and tugged at his seatbelt repeatedly before Olivia reached over the console and pressed the release button. “You okay?”

“I, uh, yesssh. Thank you,” Lincoln slurred, pulling against the door handle, and yelping in surprise as the cold, December air filled the car and the door swung open, taking him with it.

“Oh god,” she gasped in reply with a snort. Trying to suppress a laugh, Olivia leapt out of the car and ran around the other side to help Lincoln to his feet, as he kneeled on the gravel. “Are you okay?” Olivia repeated, this time with a giggle as he wobbled, swaying side to side.

“Oww,” he exclaimed, brushing down his legs and chuckling as he replaced his glasses. “I’ll live.” His smile disappeared as the insensitive and tactless words left his lips, and he heavy handedly clasped his hands over his mouth when meeting Olivia’s gaze. “Shit. That was really… shit, I’m shorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine,” Olivia said, with a thin smile, holding out her hand. “Give me your room key, let’s get you to bed so you can sleep it off.” Patting down his pockets, he found the item and proudly pushed it into Olivia’s outstretched hand, and grinned widely. He staggered, following her across the parking lot until she grabbed his arm and opened the door to his room for them. Lincoln stumbled in and turned to look at Olivia, who leaned against the door and disapprovingly crossed her arms across her chest, trying to look annoyed but unable to stop a smile spreading across her face. “Is this what happens when I leave you unsupervised?” She laughed, watching him trying in vain to kick off his shoes and struggling to pull his arm out of his jacket, which he eventually threw inside out and it landed on the armchair in the corner.

“Ish what happens when y’leave me with Reynolds, he's a bad influence," Lincoln said, flopping backwards on the bed and turned his head to look at Olivia, who toed off her black low-heeled pumps by the door and shook her head disapprovingly. “I f’got t-tell you…” he slurred, as she sat on the edge of the bed, and the mattress sagged slightly under the weight of their bodies.

“Noted,” Olivia replied, frowning as Lincoln’s eyes fluttered shut again, and he pouted in concentration, gulping thickly. “Tell me what?” 

“You book loo-iful, I mean blue-ti-ful, true blooooo… that dress ish nice," he mumbled in a barely coherent sigh and put his glasses on the bedside shelf.

“Well, I like your suit too,” she said back with a slight giggle, amused as how silly the usually straight-laced agent was. Standing to replace the main overhead light with the bedside lamp, she could hear how his breathed had slowed.

“It wash fifty pershent off,” Lincoln murmured as he began tugging at his tie and unbuttoning his shirt half heartedly with closed eyes, unperturbed by Olivia’s presence, his usual shy and reserved persona being taken over by his drunken state.

“It would be better if it was a hundred percent off,” Olivia whispered, taking the tie out of his hands, curiously examining the silken fabric before placing it on the chair with his jacket.

“That’d be stupid. They wouldn’t make any money and would go out of business," he muttered as his hand flopped to the side and he passed out.

***

The noise of hammering vibrating through the walls made Lincoln wake with a start until he realized the noise was in his head and his mouth was so dry it felt like someone had carpeted it with sandpaper. He groaned, rubbing his eyes with his fingertips, allowing the room to stop spinning, then stopped abruptly when he noticed a bare arm and dark auburn hair protruding from underneath the blankets he was lying on top of. He sat up in mild panic, checking himself. His shirt was half undone, and on his lower half, his pants were dirty and half undone, and he frowned, trying to recall when he’d undressed.

“Hey!” Olivia smirked, feeling the bed dip as he stood in confusion and propped her head on her hand and she leaned on her elbow. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I wish I could have a coffee," Lincoln frowned and stammered as his eyes widened, on realization of Olivia's state of almost undress in his bed and the faint memory of her lips pressed against his flickered in corner of his mind. “Did we - you - uh, um… what happened?”

"You don't remember?" She asked, her face solemn with hurt until she couldn't hold in a laugh any longer and sat up in the bed, revealing a plain white T-shirt on her top half. “You passed out, and I thought I’d stay, make sure you didn’t throw up and choke on your own vomit. I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed a T-shirt from your bag, I didn’t want to sleep in my dress.”

Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief, blinked in embarrassment as Olivia swung her legs over the side of the bed to get out of the covers. "I think that's enough Christmas parties for you."

“Was I that bad?” he winced, a flush creeping up his cheeks as Olivia pursed her lips to suppress a smile.

“Yes, you were,” she nodded, “but I have seen a lot worse drunks.” Lincoln rubbed his bleary sore eyes with the palms of his hands, missing the flicker of a grimace on Olivia's face as she recalled Frank's drunken behaviour which only added to her aversion to alcohol. She shrugged her coat over Lincoln’s T-shirt and buttoned it up before easing her feet into her pumps and draping her dress over the crook of her arm. “Christmas dinner is on you. I’ll see you in a couple of days and I’ll give you back your t-shirt.”

She smiled again, closing the door behind her, and Lincoln blinked again in puzzlement with a vague recollection of her lips on his.

“Keep it - it looks better on you, anyway.”

Chapter Text

Christmas 2012 Altverse

Months after spontaneously deciding to stay in the alternate universe, Lincoln was no closer to finding a suitable apartment.

Liv had offered to help him, but so far none of them felt right and the thought niggled in the back of his head. For once, he’d been spontaneous and made a leap, but what if it was the wrong thing to do? What if he was supposed to have stayed in the other universe and had a purpose there? But even if he could go back, there was nothing and no one waiting for him there.

Lincoln sat opposite Olivia at her dinner table, blowing away the steam from his drink as his hands wrapped around the hot mug.

She must’ve sensed his disillusion as he suddenly felt her hand cover his, bringing him back from his thoughts.

“Hey, you okay?” she asked as he looked from his hand to see her faint smile and nodded as he met her eyes. “Don’t give up, Lincoln,” she continued. “Something will turn up, you’ll see.”

He raised his mug up to his lips, sipping the steaming hot drink and brought it back down to the table.

“I know, I know,” he replied blinking, “I was just thinking that maybe, I…”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing. I’m being stupid. Forget it.”

“Go on, tell me,” she implored, searching his face and biting her lower lip. “Please?”

He sighed, pushing his glasses back and leaned back into the chair, knowing she’d guess it eventually or keep asking until he gave in.

“I dunno. I just feel like, like I had this gut feeling when I decided I wanted to stay here permanently, that this was where I belonged, but now, now I just feel like...”

“What?” Olivia repeated, frowning.

“I just feel like I’m missing something.”

Her face dropped then and she tried to hide it but she knew he caught it.

“What is it? What did I say?” Lincoln questioned.

“Nothing, nothing.” Olivia replied reassuringly. “You just reminded me of something, that’s all.”

“You mean, him? The other Lincoln?” He interjected, and she looked at him as he leaned forward across the table. “It’s okay, you know. I know you were close. I don’t expect you to never talk about him in front of me.”

“I know,” she smiled. “I just didn’t want you to feel awkward.”

“Just leave that to me, right?” He laughed, and she laughed coyly back.

“You’re not awkward, Lincoln, you’re just different. Sometimes I look at you and for a split second I see him, but you’re two very different people. And I mean that in a good way.”

He smiled thinly again, as she drank down her cocoa in silence and he did the same.

“Okay," Liv announced, pushing her empty mug to the side.

“O- kay ?” Lincoln replied questioningly, as if he’d missed something, licking the foam from the corners of his mouth.

“I think you should move in here, with me.”

“W-what?” he choked, thankful she’d said that after he’d swallowed his mouthful of drink.

“Move in with me, at least until you find somewhere suitable. C’mon, it makes sense - you’re almost living here, anyway.”

Lincoln thought of the first case they’d worked together since he’d stayed.

They’d stayed up past midnight, spreading out over her living room floor, scouring photos and files and bouncing ideas off each other. Lincoln’s head had been resting on the seat of the sofa as his legs had sprawled out across the floor and he’d turned to face Olivia, blushing when he’d almost put his head on her knee, thankful she didn’t seem to notice or care.

The next night had been the same; except Olivia was cross-legged on the floor next to Lincoln and he sat on the couch. She’d swept her hair over one shoulder when reaching for a drink and he did a double take on seeing the tribal tattoo on the back of her neck, resisting the urge to touch it and looked away blushing before she noticed him staring. They’d finally made a break in the case at almost 3am and Olivia insisted he’d stay in her guest room instead of driving the 10 miles back to the hotel, as he could barely keep his eyes open through lack of sleep and caffeine. And so it continued, as they became more and more comfortable with each other until eventually they understood each other’s thought processes and theories.

“We can carpool and save on the commute too, if you want. Was the mattress okay for you?” Olivia continued. “Your Walter said he liked my spare bed when he stayed with me for a while, after… when Broyles was arrested, but if you prefer a softer mattress, then we can do that, and you’re welcome to redecorate or buy new furniture too.

She thought sadly about the night when she’d been drinking and told Walter about Lincoln’s murder. She felt so alone and helpless then, compared to now.

He’d made eggs to sober her up and sown the seeds of doubt in her mind about Broyles’s betrayal that had led to the death of her partner, and also suggested that his Lincoln might help her with her grief, just Peter had for him. He’d made her laugh when he said she’d be hard pressed to find a better chess player.

“I, er, no, it’s fine. Okay… Are you sure?” Lincoln stammered, then smiled, cursing the blush he could feel rising to his cheeks. “I mean, do you think it’s a good idea?”

“Sure, why not?” Olivia nodded. “To be honest, I could do with a bit of company, too. I’ve had problems sleeping since… with the apartment so empty. It’s been nice to have someone around.” She replied and Lincoln’s mouth twitched a smile in reply, remembering Walter’s comment about sleeping naked and also his own issues with insomnia since he’d started working at Fringe Division.

“I remember when I used to sleep like a baby. It seems like a lifetime ago.”

“Being at that hotel can’t help," she said, smiling.

“I’ve stayed in worse ones, believe it or not. When I joined the Fringe Division on my side, I was in a hotel that was close to the headquarters, but, uh…“ Lincoln paused, his face wincing at the memory. 

“What?” 

“Let’s just say the walls were a little too thin.”

“Oh!” Olivia said, twisting her lips into an awkward smirk. Lincoln looked at her, a little unsure. They had been working well together since he settled there and it made sense, but he also knew she was still mourning the death of her friend and he wondered if she was keeping him close as a reminder to help with the grief. “But you don’t want to?”

“No, it’s not that, I just, uh…” Lincoln paused again, not sure how to put his concerns delicately so as not to upset her and thought, even if his concerns were true, he could make it temporary if it didn’t work out. After all, he cared about her too and wanted her to be happy. “Okay! Let’s see how it works out.” He said as a compromise as he shrugged. “Maybe sleeping together might help the insomnia - I m-mean in the same apartment, not sleeping together! Sorry!” 

Lincoln squirmed at his words, the blush rising back up his cheeks even worse than before as Olivia raised her eyebrows and burst out laughing at him.

“Right - It’s decided then!” she announced, standing and placing her palms flat against the table. ”Let’s go get your stuff.”

“Now?” Lincoln scrambled to get up as she stood to leave.

“No time like the present. I’ve been putting off sorting out my stuff in there and donating it to goodwill, so this is the perfect excuse for a fresh start!” 

“Now you’re getting bossy.” He teased as he shrugged on his coat and she smiled over her shoulder as he caught up with her. 

“And you wouldn’t have it any other way!”

***

A few hours later, they’d moved in the few belongings he’d bought since he arrived - consisting mostly of his clothes; a few suits, casual wear, along with a few books, dvds, a cheap chess set and a little pot plant he’d bought impulsively when doing some grocery shopping. He’d never seen a plant like it before, with its leaves in shades of amber, crimson and teal, and it was a little thing he’d had in the hotel that made it feel a little more homely.

He popped the plant on the sunny kitchen windowsill as Olivia opened the fridge.

“I think this is a good reason to celebrate. Red or white?” 

“I’ve always preferred reds over…” he stopped, feeling a blush creep up his cheeks at the insinuation and turning back at the plant to save his own embarrassment. He didn’t see her look over her shoulder at him and smile. “Red is good.”

“Consider this a Christmas and housewarming present,” Olivia said as he turned back to see her approach him with a wine glass.

“Are you sure? I thought wine was expensive here.”

“It is but it’s been here for months, and this seems like an occasion to celebrate," she smiled.

He nodded, smiling and leaning back against the kitchen counter.  

“So you’re just trying to get me drunk again?”

“I don’t drink, so…” Olivia shrugged. “Seems like a waste not to use it.”

“So you don’t drink at all? I guess we won’t be playing a game of Never Have I Ever -  which is probably a good thing.” 

Lincoln smiled tentatively and sipped the wine, as if getting the courage to ask her something but unsure whether he should, the thought of her living with a violent alcoholic like the Olivia from his side causing bile to burn at the back of his throat, and decided not to ask as not to open up old wounds.

“It’s just the taste," she expanded pre-emptively, sensing his hesitation, and he nodded once in relief until he saw something flash in her eyes.

“Have you ever tried cocktails? They taste pretty much like juice - until you have five and then try to walk in a straight line!” he laughed, and she laughed too at the memory of Lincoln drunkenly staggering around.

“No, but I know you know from experience," Olivia chuckled. “Who’s trying to get who drunk now?”

“No, no, I would never -‘ he began, looking wide-eyed and panicked, as if he made a grave mistake until he caught her expression and winced a smile, realizing she was teasing him again. “I hadn’t drunk whisky since my dad died and Reynolds kept buying me doubles, it wasn’t my fault!” Lincoln protested, watching Olivia’s eyebrows skeptically rise. “Maybe I’ll take you for some cocktails one day, if you want to give one or two a try - as I can’t buy you a café latte.” Lincoln smiled shyly as he approvingly sipped the wine from the glass, and her eyebrows arched in intrigue at his proposal. “And you’re absolutely sure it’s okay that I stay here in your place? I’m not going to, uh, cramp your style or…”

“What! No!” she laughed. “Since Frank, I’ve got no desire to date anyone. What about you?”

“Well, this place is quite the date magnet. Once they know I’m from another universe, women just seem to throw themselves at me," he quipped, huffing a laugh under his breath at his inexperience with women and dating and frowned slightly when Olivia didn’t laugh in reply. He thought he saw a flash of disappointment before she snorted a smile again.

1996 Amberverse

Kendra Lane was what many would consider the epitome of glamorous beauty, with ample breasts, blue eyes, long blonde hair and a full pouty lips. Lincoln had met her at a friend’s party while living in Philadelphia after moving from New Jersey as a kid; she’d come with her brother from Florida after their parents died in a car crash and they’d become close friends almost right away.

Stunning in a classic American girl next door kind of way, she could have had any guy she wanted, but she was sitting next to Lincoln watching a movie and it completely paralysed him. 

Her knee brushed his as she shifted on the couch, and he swallowed nervously. His mouth felt incredibly dry, and the room was too warm. He rubbed his clammy hands down the front of his jeans.

“LINCOLN!” he looked up to see her face was close and full of concern.

“What?”

“Are you okay? You were a million miles away.”

“Yes - No!” he shifted, sitting up and looking away as he noticed the curve of her breasts in her low cut top. “Sorry, I was just um…” He crossed his legs to conceal any embarrassment growing in his jeans. “... Concentrating on the movie, what did you say?”

“Really? Is Julia Roberts that much more interesting than me?

“No!”

“So…”

“So?”

“What’s on your mind, Linc?” she asked, frowning, and then a few seconds later burst into laughter, which made him look and feel even more confused. "You’re really cute when you get flustered, ya know?” she teased. “Your eyes get wide and your dimples make a line all the way to your jaw.” Tracing her finger across the side of his face, then raised her hands up to touch the arm of his glasses. “Is this movie boring you? Do you wanna do something else?” She whispered dangerously close to his face, her hand resting on his denim clad upper thigh.

He swallowed again, looking at her hand touching him as if it was a venomous creature poised to attack.

“S-s-something else?” he stammered with uncertainty and blinked repeatedly, then pointed towards the door, thinking some fresh air might actually help. “Sure, we could go and…”

“Do you want to want to have sex with me?” Kendra whispered seductively in his ear, her blonde hair tickling his shoulder, and he felt lightheaded as all the blood in his body seemed to head to his groin, his eyes widened even further.

“W-what?” he looked at her almost suspiciously, as if it was a joke. “I, err, well, okay but, er, why?” he stammered.

“Why?” she laughed. “Why not? Haven’t you done it bef --“

“I mean, why me?” Lincoln elaborated. “You could have any guy and, to be honest, anyone would say you are way out of my league.”

She sighed and smiled, looking down through her eyelashes at his lips.

“You shouldn’t put yourself down, Lincoln.” Kendra replied, as her hand edged a little higher on his thigh, making him gulp.

“You have a beautiful smile. And your eyes… you should show them off more than you do," she lifted the glasses from his face without him protesting. “You should stop hiding behind these.”

Then her lips were on his, and all the other thoughts in his mind disappeared as his hand rose to pull her closer.

***

Lincoln woke up and rolled over to find the other side of the bed empty and cold, the crumpled, disheveled sheets vacant.

He slowly stepped out of bed and pulled on his clothes that lay on the floor, pulling his T-shirt over his head, which spiked up his already ruffled hair.

“Kendra? Are you still here?” he called, wandering down the hall.

“Hey!’ she replied, perched on the sofa with her knees tucked under her chin.

“There you are. I thought you’d left already.”

“Do you want me to leave?” she sniffed.

“No, No of course not. I was just checking,” he pointed towards the kitchen, “if you wanted some breakf… Wait, are you crying?”

She looked away and rubbed under her eyes with her fingertips.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice full of genuine concern as he sat next to her, reaching out to touch her arm. “Last night wasn’t that bad, was it?”

She shook her head and sniffed again as she twisted a lock of her wavy blonde hair through her fingers.

“I didn’t hurt you, or force...” he whispered, his voice breaking a touch at the end, unable to bring himself to say the words.

She looked back at him, forcing a weak smile, her flawless tanned skin blotchy with tears. 

“Oh Lincoln. You’re too much of a nice guy," she sniffed again. “I don’t think you’re capable of that.”

He squinted and studied her face.

“Well, what then? Tell me, please. I want to help, if I can.” 

“It’s my brother Nick," she sighed and smiled sadly. “He’s depressed. He’s going to a mental hospital soon in case he hurts himself. Or someone else. And I can’t even go to visit him.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s like his emotions are contagious or something…”

“Contagious?” he questioned, frowning in disbelief. “How?”

“I don’t know. He’s being treated for some kind of multiple personality disorder. He‘s convinced he was part of experimental trials when he was younger, but it’s so... I don’t know exactly how it works. I just know when he feels bad, so does everyone around him. That’s why he needs to be sent away, so he’s alone.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this last night? We could’ve just talked, or…”

“I didn’t want to talk, Lincoln. I wanted to forget for a while and I wanted you to help me by making me happy.”

He nodded, linking his fingers with hers.

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to keep helping you and making you happy.” 

She smiled back, nodding and styling the tufts and sticking up parts of his hair.

“Okay.” 

Christmas 2012 Altverse

A bottle of red wine and glass sat empty on the coffee table in front of a television showing movie credits that rolled across the screen, plunging the room into darkness as they ended.

“So what’s Never Have I Ever ?” Olivia asked, her eyes dark and glistening in the dim light.

“You never played it in college?” Lincoln replied, seeing her shake her head in response. “Well, you make a statement and whoever it applies to has some of their drink until there’s only one person with a drink left.”

He felt her body shift on the couch as she turned to face him, and he could make out the outline of her face in the dark.

“What kind of statements?” she asked again, her voice low with intrigue.

“Anything, really. For example, I could say ‘never have I ever had a tattoo’ and wouldn’t have a drink, but as you have one on your neck, you would have to.”

Olivia leaned forward as she instinctively touched the tattoo on the back of her neck, wondering when he’d noticed it, making Lincoln suddenly very aware of their proximity as her warm hand brushed against his own. He shifted on the couch, trying to reach and find the switch for the lamp on the table at his side.

“But if I said never have I ever traveled to an alternative universe…” she responded.

“Then we’d both have a drink,” Lincoln added. 

“It sounds like an interesting way to get to know someone, but I have a feeling you’d win.” Olivia laughed.

“That’s the thing, it depends what questions you ask," he replied as her laughter trailed off and the room fell silent, the air heavy with questions they wanted to know the answer to but were afraid to ask and they both moved apart on the sofa. 

“Can I ask you a personal question now?” she said cautiously in a low voice, “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, and the answer doesn’t matter. I’m just curious.”

“Umm, okay, sure...” Lincoln gulped warily as he shifted on the sofa, and looked at her shadow quickly, catching her as she studied his face. “What do you want to know?”

“You were really close to your partner. Were you two together?”

“Oh - together?! I, er, no," he said, his eyebrows twisting in confusion as he understood what she meant. “Why’d you ask?”

Olivia shrugged and blinked as she turned around.

“I just wondered, you never mentioned a girlfriend or a wife anything like that, so… Sorry, it’s none of my business.”

“Oh," Lincoln repeated and sighed, his hands fluttering up in mild embarrassment. “It’s fine. We were close, but uh, we never… he was married, anyway.” He paused again, gulping, his mouth suddenly feeling dry and thankful for the shadows that concealed his face.

Lincoln had loved Robert. He still loved him, really, but didn’t allow himself to think of him as anything other than a friend or a brother he never had. He was happily married with children, and they’d brought Lincoln into their family as he didn’t have his own.

But just that one time, just for a moment, he’d indulged himself and allowed the illicit and forbidden thoughts to consume him.

February 2007 Amberverse

Lincoln and Robert had pursued a suspect on foot to a building which had been booby trapped and Robert had pulled Lincoln out of the way just in time before a fireball ripped through it.

They had fallen through the window and hard onto the grass outside, panting as they laid prone on top of each other, Lincoln face down on the grass. The green blades had tickled his cheeks as his glasses had been thrown off and Robert’s body pressed hard against his back, protecting him from the sprinkling of shattered glass and heat from the force of the explosion.

Lincoln could smell the earthy scent of the ground in his face and scorched air once he adjusted his head to the side, and felt Robert’s panting breath and sweat dripping on the back of his neck. The firm warmth of his cock pushed against his upper thigh through the fabric of their pants, causing his own to ache with an unknown desire pushing into the cool, damp ground.

Then Robert rose to his feet, allowing Lincoln to roll onto his back before pulling him up onto his feet by his hands.

“You okay? You hurt?” Robert asked, concerned, letting his hands go to brush the grass and glass from his clothes, his voice distant compared to the ringing in Lincoln’s ears.

“Uh, yeah - no!” Lincoln replied, his chest heaving and doing the same before reaching for his glasses at his feet, surprised to find they were still intact and replaced them on his face. “I’m good, I think. Thanks to you.”

“That’s okay. I know everything happens for a reason, but I don’t see a reason for a barbequed partner.” Robert laughed, his green eyes glinting as he ruffled the last of the broken glass from his dark hair. “C’mon, let’s go.”

***

Christmas 2012 Altverse

“I do like women," he stuttered. “I just - I don’t just… It doesn’t happen very often, but I think just like people I connect with, I don’t really think about their gender. I just like who I like.” He looked away shyly after his confession, then at Olivia when he saw her nod and smile acceptingly, her teeth glinting in the low light.

“It doesn’t bother you?”

“No,” Olivia said matter-of-factly then shrugged. “Why would it?”

“I, er, I dunno," he huffed an awkward laugh and shook his head, trying to think of something to fill the awkward silence. “That film is nothing on Batman, by the way.” 

Lincoln found the switch, and the lamp flickered on, casting long shadows across the room.

“You have to agree it was an interesting take on cause and effect though,” Liv yawned as she stretched back on the sofa, closing the gap between them again so their knees bumped and she could feel the warmth radiating off his thigh.

“Yes. Talking of which...” he rose from the sofa in slight panic and pointed to the bathroom. “Fluid goes in, and so…” Lincoln swayed and stuttered slightly as he stood quickly, knocking his foot on the coffee table and making the bottle shudder into the glass. He instinctively reached to steady it with his hand as Olivia did the same, his hand overlapping hers briefly until he whipped it away. “… and I should probably hit the sack. It’s getting late, and it’s been a long day. Thanks for the wine, and for letting me stay here.”

“Do you miss it?” Olivia said as he turned to leave the room.

“Wine?” 

She giggled, “No, you dumbass. Your world, your universe.”

His face softened in contemplation, thinking of what he’d left behind and what he hoped to gain.

“Oh. Yes, sometimes," he replied carefully, and she looked away, studying her hands. “I didn’t know them for long, but I’ll never forget the time I spent with that team…”

“It’s understandable, I wouldn’t blame you if you…” 

“I don’t regret my decision though,” Lincoln added quickly, and she looked back up at him. “Even if I still haven’t found the right apartment. I’ve realized that’s not important. Peter once said to me home is where the heart is and there are some things that I’m already loving here that make up for it.” He added, breaking into a smile, and she smiled back.

“Good. I’m glad about that and I’m happy you decided to stay here.”

“I’m happy too. Especially as U2 aren’t popular here.”

“What’s a ‘You Too’ ?” Olivia asked as Lincoln sniggered in reply.

“‘I have scaled these city walls, These city walls, Only to be with you, But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’ …” He began, half singing the tune as Olivia shook her head. “‘ We’re one, but we’re not the same. We get to carry each other, carry each other’… Not ringing any bells?”

“Nope, sorry. Didn’t know you could sing though, we’ll have to get you on the karaoke. What other hidden talents are you keeping a secret?” she smiled as he blushed again.

“It’s good to know if Fringe Division doesn’t work out, I’ll get an audition on American Idol,” Lincoln laughed as Olivia snorted in reply. “Batman is still better than Mantis, though.” He laughed as he dodged a scatter cushion launched towards him as he left the room, and Olivia frowned as the lyrics he’d sung echoed in her mind.

***

September 2011 Altverse - Charlie's Wedding

“You gonna tell me what that was all about?” Olivia asked as she sat next to Lincoln on the picnic bench in the garden of the venue where Charlie and Mona celebrated their wedding. She sat facing outwards so she could look directly at him and nudged his leg as he remained silent, then leaned back onto the table. “He seemed a nice -“

“You remember that time, when we - when I - kissed you?” Lincoln interrupted, still not meeting Olivia’s eyes, and she frowned.

“At that Christmas party? When we’d had too much to drink? Yeah, of course I remember," she replied cautiously, confused and blushed. “Why?”

“You said - you thought I was gay because of the poster in my locker and I said it was from a march I went to with my brother. Well, that wasn’t exactly true.”

Olivia frowned again as his words sunk in and he met her gaze, raising his eyebrows in acknowledgement.

“He was your -- so you’re…”

“Bi? Yeah," he shrugged.

‘Why didn’t you just tell me?" Olivia questioned as she stood, feeling hurt he hadn’t told her before, trying to understand without him feeling judged. “I mean, you’re my best friend. I thought we told each other everything?”

Olivia flinched, knowing full well that there were things she hadn’t told him either, mostly about Frank and she wasn’t sure if it was out of embarrassment that she’d allowed it to go on for so long, or to protect Lincoln from his threats.

“We didn’t know each other that well back then," Lincoln shrugged again, turning to look up at her as she folded her arms. “I guess I thought you wouldn’t like me if you knew. Besides, that was ages ago. I’ve not had - I’ve been single for a long time.”

Olivia stood staring at him until he dropped his gaze and turned back to the table. She didn’t know what to say; she was surprised and yet she wasn’t, she just felt hurt he’d even consider his sexuality would make any difference to her, and then thought he might take her silence as a confirmation of his fears - she knew him better than anyone and she trusted him implicitly, if her life depended on it. 

She knew he’d always have her back, and she would do the same for him.

She leaned against his back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and neck as she had on that night, linking her hands over his heart and kissed his cheek as his eyes fluttered shut.

“C’mon, you idiot,” she smiled as she stood, pulling him up with her and he stepped over the bench. “Don’t think that you’re gonna get away with half a dance that easily.”

Chapter Text

January 2013 Alt!verse

Moving to another universe was even more complicated than Lincoln had originally envisioned.

With the transition and assimilation came a multitude of tests including medicals, psyche tests and evaluations to check the long-term effects of living in a universe you weren’t born in. Then there were the vaccinations and medications to complement the technology Secretary Bishop had given him prior to the bridge closing. Some days, he felt little more than a guinea pig or a subject in Walter’s lab. Thanks to his FBI training, the aptitude, psychology and even physical evaluations were not an issue, and he was accepted into the Fringe Division initially as a consultant then as a replacement for his double, once his meticulous instinct for detail and ability to empathize and connect with victims showed he was more than capable to fill the shoes of his predecessor’s role despite his reserved nature and opposite personality.

But what really dragged was the paperwork. He essentially had no birth certificate or any ID, and everything had to be built from scratch. He’d finally filled in the last of details, and headed to the elevator to take an extensive file to the HR department, jogging down the corridor with his hands full as he heard the doors closing.

“Can you hold the door?” he called, and edged in as the doors slid back open, spilling the files in surprise on the floor as they closed behind him. “Fourth floor please - Oh my God!" He cursed, kneeling down to pick them up and rearrange them into the correct order.

“Here you go,” said the other man, who had been holding the door open, passing him a folder. “This is yours.”

“Thanks,” Lincoln apologized. “Sorry about that, I - err-  you just surprised me.” 

He straightened up, replacing the lid and smiling at the man with a touch of emotion in his eyes. “You look like someone I used to know, back from, uh, home.”

“No problem,” he smiled in reply, holding out his hand to shake and realizing Lincoln’s hands were full so quickly retracted it. “I’m Robert Danzig, here to help with a temporary transfer from the Connecticut field office. I’d like it to be permanent, but if it is, I’d need to move the whole family down here, so…” he shrugged. “We’ll see, I guess!”

He looked at Lincoln as he smiled back, realizing he was expecting a reply.

“Agent Lee - Lincoln.” he replied disconcertingly as the elevator pinged and the doors opened. 

“This is me,” Robert smiled, turning as he held the door again. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too,” Lincoln responded, smiling as the doors closed behind him. "Maybe I'll see you around..."

February 2007 Amberverse

Hartford, Connecticut.

Robert Danzig rushed across the parking lot, dodging a car he didn’t notice as it reserved out of its space, touching the trunk as he ran past it. Tall and good looking with dark hair, the man in his late 30s sprinted across the tarmac, trying desperately to catch another man’s attention.

“Agent Lee!” He called, as a younger man, slightly slimmer and shorter in a sharp suit and glasses, turned at the call of his name, looking up from the open trunk of his car.

“Agent Danzig, did you, uh, forget something?” he replied, a little surprised by the unexpected actions of the other man as he jogged up to his car, slightly out of breath from the exertion.

His hands searched his pockets until he found the item he was looking for and offered the item to Lincoln, who accepted it with an expression of surprise on his face. 

“I didn’t realize you’d be heading off so soon.”

“Martial arts classes,” he explained, looking slightly confused, motioning to his kit bag in the back of his car. “It keeps me fit and helps me de-stress. So, uh, what is it?” He replied, narrowing his eyes in confusion while sliding his index finger under the soft, black leather and down to the silver emblem at the bottom. “Is it a — keychain ?” He questioned, and Robert noticed his slightly puzzled expression. 

“Yeah, it is. The maze on the token symbolizes the journey of life, the difficulties and decisions we make that lead to the center. I know you’ve had a hard time recently, and we haven’t been partners for long, but… I believe everything happens for a reason," he paused, noticing Lincoln’s lip wobble slightly at the kind gesture, and smiled. “My wife gave it to me a few years ago, but I think you need it more than me.”

“Um, shouldn’t I be the one thanking you for saving my ass today?” Lincoln said, his voice with appreciation at the kind gesture.

Danzig laughed in reply.

“Plenty of time for that. At least you didn’t get burned to a crisp," he paused thoughtfully. “When we were assigned as partners, I noticed your birthday was today, as it’s the same as Julie’s - my wife,” he explained, now a little embarrassed himself. “I just want you to know that this is a tether. It means you will always have a family here, with me and Jules and the kids. Plus, we could, uh, always do with a babysitter.”

“Of course," Lincoln smiled at the joke, touched by the gesture. In the few months he’d lost so much, he didn’t think he’d find a home again, but part of him hoped he would after all.

January 2013 Altverse

Newton, NY  

It had been a restless winter’s day, and they’d spent most of pacing the rotunda in the Fringe HQ, tying up loose ends to a case about rumors of a mutant until they’d finally traced sightings of the creature in industrial buildings near Newton creek.

“This is the place Astrid said the last sighting took place about twenty minutes ago," Olivia said, stopping the car in a warehouse parking lot overlooking the creek, the still water perfectly mirroring the wintry white clouds and industrial cranes. She looked at her watch, then at Lincoln as he nervously loaded his hand gun.

The low, late afternoon sun glittered amber fragments on the dull water, and cast long shadows over the grays of the concrete side road.

“So, do you really think this thing could be real?’ Lincoln said uneasily, following Olivia to the water’s edge, holding an umbrella over their heads to shelter from the drizzling rain. He shivered in the crisp January air, leaning over the bars to search for signs of recent movement.

“Stranger things have happened,” Olivia huffed, squinting as she leaned on the railing next to him, then pointed at the muddy exposed riverbed at the side and circular indentations leading up to the tarmacked path. “Look, down there. They kinda look like footprints.”

She impulsively squeezed through the gap in the railing and held on before jumping down a few feet to the stony shore, her boots squelching onto the surface as she landed before Lincoln could protest. He rolled his eyes, looking down at her, holding onto the dirty, chipped paint on the top bar. “Come down, the water’s fine!” She laughed as he sighed before folding the umbrella and jumping down to join her, stumbling slightly on the shingle stones.

“If you think it’s real, where do you think it came from?” he sighed, squinting in the low light and looking down to check his footing on the larger uneven stones, following Olivia as she traced the footprint shaped marks.

“Well, Astrid said the first victim went missing while being stationed on a Japanese decommissioned freighter, right?” 

“Right.” 

“That same one was used in the disposal of salvage material from a nuclear plant disaster a few years back. What if…” Olivia paused as she slipped, then turned around to grab Lincoln’s arm to steady her footing. “… it was born in a primordial soup of radioactive sewage and seawater?” 

“What? Like some kind of mini half-human Godzilla?” Lincoln scoffed, reaching into his pocket with his free hand for his flashlight to guide them on the slippery surface as the light slowly gave in to dusk’s grasp and color dripped from the day.

“What’s a Godzilla?” she laughed in reply, whipping her head back when a splashing noise in the middle of the creek caught her attention.

“Oh, c’mon! The giant lizard monster. A metaphor for the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War Two by the USA?” He explained, his voice raised with incredulity and eyebrows furrowing in disbelief as he stopped abruptly behind Olivia.

“Shush!” Olivia demanded in a hushed and annoyed tone, increasing her grip on Lincoln’s arm before releasing it to press her index finger against her lips, and crept slowly towards the shoreline, cocking her weapon towards the bubbles and ripples coming from the depths of the murky water. “You hear that?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Lincoln murmured in reply, reaching for his own gun and pointing it in the same direction as Olivia's and they slowly edged closer to the water’s edge, looking at each other with wide-eyed trepidation. “How deep do you think this water gets? 

“Deep enough that someone - or something - could stand in it undetected," she replied, gulping heavily, nervously watching the undulating water until it settled, then slowly lowered her weapon and replaced it in the holster with the restored peace. “Must’ve been a bird or something.” 

Olivia stepped backwards from the water, turning back to walk back to the wall to pull herself up to where she’d parked the car, the stones under her feet crunching in the sodden earth.

“That’s a relief. I didn’t want to start the year hunting a big radioactive lizard man," he chuckled, following her back towards the path. “I guess it was a duck or a… fuck !”

He slumped forward onto his hands and knees, the small flashlight smacking with a wet crunch on the stony sediment and blinking into darkness as it slipped from his hands.

Olivia laughed, until she turned around to see long, thin trails cutting deep in the wet earth by Lincoln’s fingers as he desperately tried to grasp onto something and his legs desperately kicking in the shallow water while being dragged backward.

“Shit!” Olivia cried, scrambling to release her gun from her holster and squinting to find something to aim at in the darkness without shooting at Lincoln.

“Liv? Help!” Lincoln screamed, the dirt and mud from the ground covering his face and glasses, and sticking to his clothes as he squirmed on the ground, trying to turn on his back to reach for his own weapon as the water reached his waist.

“Stop moving! I can’t see what I’m supposed to be aiming at!” she shouted back, pulling him with her right arm while taking aim with her left.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll just let mutant lizard man drag me into a polluted creek, shall I? No big… “ 

The sound of Olivia’s gun firing three times combined with the sound of an inhuman scream and rapid splashing cut Lincoln off, the flashes of light from the discharged weapon illuminating the obscure shape.

He froze and sighed in relief, lying back in the sludge with a thump on feeling the grip on his ankle disappear as Olivia dragged him back up the shore and leaned over him, her hair a dark maroon blanket that draped over his heaving chest.

“You okay? Are you hurt?” Olivia asked, pushing up his dirty glasses to see his eyes and looking down at his suit sodden with dirt and water.

“I-I don’t think so," he replied in panting breaths while bending his knee to inspect his ankle, realizing he’d lost a shoe in the struggle. “Thanks. Nice shot.”

“I just aimed for your leg," she deadpanned, helping him to his feet and grabbing his shoe that had washed up on the beach. Lincoln smiled, not sure if it was a joke or not, pointlessly trying to wipe the soil from his clothes. "Let's go get you changed into some dry clothes. So we really nuked Japan in your universe?”

February 2010 Altverse

It was a ridiculously hot day for early spring, and regardless of it being caused by environmental degradation, global warming, or just some unlikely weather condition, the oppressive heat was making Olivia grumpy. After the third time she’d snapped at him, Lincoln grabbed her by the arm out of the rotunda.

“Come on, Liv!” Lincoln announced, ushering her out of the room with him.

“What’s going on?” Olivia asked, reluctantly following him and resisting his actions as he tugged on her arm, steering her to the door. 

20 minutes later, they were facing each other in a diner, bustling with the noise of hungry people and a TV playing a show starring Tom Cruise.

“I’m going for the triple chocolate sundae. What about you?” Lincoln asked, studying a laminated menu, as Olivia placed her menu down and frowned at him.

“What’s this in aid of?”

“Well, I thought you could do with cheering up and cooling down," he explained. “And seeing as we haven’t celebrated my birthday yet, I thought I’d treat us. Charlie can come get his one once he’s got his bug shot top up.”

Olivia snorted, shaking her head. ‘Bug shot.’ She sniggered, repeating it in her head as she hid back behind the menu again. 

“In that case, if you’re paying, I’m going for the blue bubble gum sundae," she decided, despite Lincoln’s teasing look of disapproval. 

“Ugh, no one likes blue bubble gum.”

“Well, I do!” Olivia laughed in mock indignation.

Lincoln laughed too. He couldn’t help it, he’d always found her laugh infectious and couldn’t control his response when she giggled and teased him.

“So what’s up?” Lincoln asked, leaning forward and gently tapping her wrist to get her attention. “You’ve not been yourself for a while.”

Olivia sighed and shrugged as she averted his gaze. Things had been strained between her and Frank for a while. She’d been arguing more with Frank about his spending habits and possessiveness and his habit of seeking daily solace in the bottom of a vodka bottle.

“You and Frank, uh, still together?” he asked instinctively, and she scooped up a big spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. She nodded as she swallowed, still looking at her bowl, anywhere but his face. 

“Mmmhmm.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Nothing, just thought he might’ve, uh, made an honest woman of you by now. ‘If you like it, you should put a ring on it,'" he replied, holding up his hand and twisting it to mock Beyoncé, making Olivia scoff and choke on her mouthful of dessert.

“I have no plans or need to get married. Thank you," she said bluntly. Once upon a time, the fairy tale wedding had been a dream, as it was for many girls, but now the thought scared her.

“Okay, okay,” Lincoln said, holding up his hands in submission. “But, uh, if you wanted to, I’d ask you to marry me within a week of us dating.”

“Shut up!” Olivia replied, swatting him and calling his bluff, knowing he was only half kidding, and if she agreed, he’d be halfway way to the registry office before she could blink. “You’re always so impulsive, but at least then you’d have to tell me your middle name.”

“It’s not impulsive when you know it’s what you always wanted. Fine, I’d wait a month.”

Lincoln blinked as her eyes widened and shot up to look at him, his face solemn and nostrils flaring with emotion. He swallowed thickly, and he pinched his lips into a small but sincere smile.

“Something up?” Charlie asked, sliding into the booth and picking up a menu, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at Olivia’s expression and the awkward silence between them.

“Nope,” Olivia replied curtly.

“Uh-uh.” Lincoln added, looking away from her to Charlie. “So what’s it gonna be, bug boy? Don’t think they have a fly flavor ice cream for your spiders, but I can ask them…”

Chapter Text

Late January 2013 Altverse

Sat at a red melamine and chrome table in a little diner, surrounded by tacky decorations that hung from the walls and ceiling, Olivia tried to hide the smirk as it spread across her face.

Unable to control her lips as they twisted into a smile, she watched Lincoln eat his dessert, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows as rivulets of juice rolled down his forearms.

“Am I - amusing you ?” he asked, his eyebrows lifting as he smiled. He didn’t really care that her amusement was at his expense, but he wasn’t about to let her know that.

“I’m just wondering how much mess one person can make with some watermelon slices.” She sniggered, biting her lip as he dropped the peel to his plate and the juices glistened around his mouth and chin. She shook her head as it made her think of an old, inappropriate memory she really shouldn’t think about here and now.

“What? It’s really juicy!” Lincoln protested, as he wiped the sticky juice from his face and fingers with a napkin.

“Maybe you should have gone with the ice cream!” Olivia teased as she took another lick from the cone, the vanilla cream whirling on her tongue and lips that made Lincoln’s throat feel thick when he swallowed.

“Oh, yeah?” he replied, lightly shoving her hand, so it pushed up her nose and left a dollop on the end. “Who eats ice cream in winter, anyway?”

“Hey!” Olivia playfully protested, trying to whack him back before he quickly dodged out of the way. “That’s not fair! Same kind of person who eats artificially grown watermelon.”

She laughed again, the smile quickly fading as he leaned over and wiped it off with his napkin. Something caught her eye behind Lincoln and he frowned, turning in his seat to look behind him as Olivia kept her eyes on her ice cream.

“You okay?” Lincoln asked, trying to meet her gaze. He leaned in, gently tapping her hand with his finger as she sighed. “What is it?”

“I think I saw Frank," she said, her voice small as she looked up and briefly met the cool blue of Lincoln’s eyes with her own.

“Frank? Your ex?” he concluded, leaning back as she nodded.

“I haven’t seen or heard from him in nearly two years when we split up," Olivia gauged Lincoln’s expression, through the concern there was something else. Jealousy maybe, or just fear that she still had feelings for him. “I don’t still… It just feels weird seeing him after all this time.”

She smiled again, the familiar smile Lincoln already recognized as her way of building up a wall to pretend she was okay, and he nodded.

“You wanna go home?” Lincoln asked, “We’re nearly finished anyway-”

“No, it’s fine. Why should we leave because of him? I don’t think he saw me, anyway," she shrugged indignantly.

“Okay... you sure?” he replied as she nodded. “Tell me if you change your mind, okay?”

Hunched over the table, Olivia finished her ice cream in silence, anxiously looking up at the bar to see if she could see a glimpse of Frank again.

“You know what? Actually, I think I wanna go now,” Olivia said, nodding firmly as Lincoln stood.

“I’ll go wash up, pay the bill, then we’ll make a move.” Lincoln replied, pointing towards the washrooms. 

“I can pay!” she objected, her hand sinking into her pockets to fish out some cash.

“Nope, it’s my turn. Besides, I need to use the restroom," he held up his hands as proof. “I’ll be right back.”

After rinsing his hands in the basins, Lincoln turned off the faucet and left the washrooms, walking over to the bar to pay their tab. Raised voices emanated from behind him and he turned to see Olivia standing with her arms crossed defensively in front of her as a tall, stocky man with fair swept back hair pushed into her space.

“Hey!” Lincoln called as he approached them. Although he wasn’t one to be confrontational or aggressive, something about Olivia’s expression and body language threw him off and overrode any reservations he’d usually have. “Leave her alone.”

Frank turned to look at Lincoln and looked at him mockingly as a flicker of recognition reflected in his face.

“What the fuck?” he sneered, looking back at Olivia. “I didn’t realize the pretty boy had a twin. You not content with fucking him, you gotta fuck his nerdy twin brother too?”

“He’s dead,” Olivia spat quietly, her eyes glistening with unshed tears in the neon light, causing Lincoln to seethe with detestation. 

“Guess he wasn’t as much of a catch as you thought he was, huh?” Frank jeered as Lincoln stood up to him.

“I said leave!” Lincoln demanded, raising his voice slightly but calmly, as he stood between Olivia and Frank.

“Or what, Clark Kent?” Frank said, laughing scornfully as he quickly lunged his arm forward in a misjudged punch that enraged Lincoln. He felt the anger rising as he swiftly grabbed his arm and twisted it, so he went face down on the table in front of Olivia.

“Don’t make me cuff you!" Lincoln whispered as he leaned over the back of the bigger man, his face flushed with anger and adrenaline. He pushed Frank’s arm higher up his back as he struggled to free himself, only letting his grip soften when he stopped moving. He looked up at Olivia. “You ready to go?”

Olivia nodded and gulped, her eyes wide as she moved around the men and out of the diner. Lincoln let his grasp on Frank go as he followed her, glancing back in the diner quickly at Frank as he stood, rubbing his arm.

***

January 2012 Alt/Redverse

Lincoln woke up, spooned behind Olivia with his arm resting on her hip. He was still wearing his pants on top of the bedcovers, and she was still underneath them, but he cursed his body’s reaction to her ass nestled in his lap, and prayed she didn’t notice or wake up.

He slowly rolled backwards out of bed and removed his T-shirt to freshen up, looking at her breathing. It was slow and soft, and she seemed to be still sleeping peacefully with her red hair splayed across her pillow. He grabbed his boots and jacket off the floor and tiptoed out of the room to go to the bathroom, noticing his own tousled hair and chin peppered with stubble in the mirror.

He turned as the door to her apartment opened suddenly.

“Frank!” he cried in surprise, dropping his boots to the floor and holding his clothes over his waist.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Frank replied, his voice tinged with annoyance.

Olivia woke to the sound of muffled voices as the bright morning light permeated through her eyelids.

Her headache had abated, now just a remnant of a dull ache, and she rolled onto her back, noticing the empty bed, and she was sure that someone should have been there.

Frank? No. Lincoln.

She followed the sounds of hushed voices emanating from another room as they intensified.

“Shush, she’s sleeping.”

“Of course, I might’ve known you’d be here. You just couldn’t wait to get me out of the way…”

“Olivia called me, okay?”

“And you didn’t hesitate to come in here and weasel your way in…”

“She was really upset and in pain. What do you expect me to do? She said you’d --“

“She said I’d what?”

“Olivia just -- Olivia?” Lincoln questioned, noticing her as she stepped out of the bedroom behind Frank and he turned to look at her as she pulled her robe across her chest and untucked her messed up hair from around the collar.

“Liv!?” Frank repeated, his arms in an open shrug. “What’s going on? I come back to get ready for work, and he comes sauntering out of our bedroom, half naked.”

“I told you,” Lincoln interrupted, “it’s not like that --“

“I didn’t ask you," Frank growled, as he watched Olivia for her response.

She looked back and forth between them.

“Nothing’s going on Frank. I called him because you left and I…”  Olivia sighed, stopping herself and pinching the bridge of her nose as Lincoln shrugged his T-shirt back on over his head. Why did she want to say because of Henry? Who’s Henry? She looked down at her stomach like she expected it to offer an explanation, but none came and she gulped thickly, looking back at Frank as he raised his eyebrows in anticipation of her explanation. “... can you just go and leave us alone?” 

She looked over at Lincoln for reassurance and he nodded slightly, his shoulders slumping in resignation. He accepted her decision without a fight. It was her choice and if she wanted Frank, he wouldn’t argue, even if he wanted to. Any jealousy he’d felt towards the other man was slowly turning into contempt, an acrid taste burning in his throat as he gauged Olivia’s body language. A seed of doubt and suspicion had been growing at the back of his mind regarding the man and his influence on Olivia for sometime. Since he’d quickly moved into her apartment soon after they began dating, she’d become quieter and always had an excuse not to see him out of work, even when Frank was away with work. Every time he asked if she was okay and voiced his concerns, she’d brushed it off and denied anything was wrong, so he stopped pressing. She knew as well as he did if she changed her mind or needed him for anything, he would come running back again when she said the word.

“Okay, Liv,” Lincoln sighed as he wiggled his feet back into his boots and glanced over at Frank with a thinly veiled, suspicious look. “Just call me if you need me, okay?

“I didn’t mean you.” Olivia said as his eyes shot towards her, watching incredulously as she walked towards him and Frank’s expression changed from smug to barely disguised rage and frustration in a matter of seconds. He balled his hands into fists and Lincoln took a step back, bracing himself in case lashed out at him or worse Olivia, subconsciously reaching for his gun holster strapped to his thigh. He watched as Frank stepped forward into the space in front of them and looked them up and down in disgust.

“You know what? You’re not worth the bother,” Frank sneered. “Leave my stuff in the hall. I’ll come pick it up tonight.” He added sarcastically, dumping his key on the floor as he left.

“Liv,” Lincoln sighed as the door closed behind him. “I’m so sorry. He walked in when I was about to go to the bathroom to wash up. I tried to tell him --”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Olivia replied, putting up her hand to object. “It’s probably for the best, anyway. Better now than later.”

Lincoln nodded and smiled thinly as he watched her slump on the couch, tucking her feet up and resting her forehead against her palm. 

Nothing felt right anymore. Her mind felt discombobulated, unsettled and yet Lincoln and the way he looked at her was a relief and a constant. He hesitantly approached her, kneeling next to her on the floor and held her hand with his in a featherlight touch. 

She met his gaze, his striking pale blue eyes pleading silently to her, clearer than the sky on a cloudless day or the ocean that lapped the beaches on a tropical island. They said more than any words, any promise and exposed him fully in their honest aquamarine translucency.

She wondered if she looked at them long enough she might see an answer to a mystery, as if concealed behind a thick cloud or buried in the sand, but the only thing she saw was herself, reflected in his eyes.

She startled herself as she realized that was all he ever saw.

He caught her expression and took it for doubt and regret.

“You sure you don’t want me to leave, give you some space or call your mom for you?”

“Nope,” Olivia replied confidently, shaking her head, and he nodded again, this time huffing out a broader smile.

“Okay," Lincoln replied, squeezing her hand. “Okay.”

***

Late January 2013 Altverse

Lincoln ran up after Olivia who was briskly jogging towards her car, and she looked at Lincoln briefly as she unlocked the door.

“You okay?” Lincoln asked, shoving his hands in his pants pockets. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t like violence, but he wasn’t giving me much choice…”

“You shouldn’t have done that. I don’t need you to defend me or take care of me,” Olivia blurted angrily, folding her arms defensively again. “I’m more than capable of looking after myself, you know.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t - did!” he frowned in confusion, as she sat behind the wheel and he sat down next to her. “I was defending myself. Clark Kent, really? Is that the best he could come up with?”

Olivia looked at Lincoln and smiled, letting out a little laugh as he smirked and rolled his eyes.

“Where’d you learn that move, anyway?” she asked, pretending not to be impressed as she started the car.

“Oh, when I was in the FBI,” Lincoln replied as he fastened his seatbelt and the car pulled away from the curb. “I was never much of a shot, but picked up combat training pretty quickly. It’s kinda like chess. You just have to predict your opponent’s next move.”

“So you’re telling me you don’t have a Superman outfit under that shirt?” Olivia chuckled, and Lincoln huffed a bittersweet laugh in reply.

“‘Fraid not, not tonight anyway.”

Olivia nodded as they drove down the street, stopping when they reached the traffic lights at the crossroads. If it was her Lincoln, he would have half-jokingly said for her to lift his shirt and check. If it was her Lincoln, he wouldn’t have even given a warning, but would have probably jumped straight in and punched Frank first.

“I didn’t cheat on him with the other Lincoln, you know," she sighed and Lincoln frowned as he turned to look at her. “Frank thought there was something going on between us because he caught us in bed together once, but it wasn’t like that. I was experiencing these weird dreams and he…”

“Doesn’t matter,” Lincoln shrugged, cutting off Olivia before he heard something he wasn’t ready to hear. “Even if there was, he shouldn’t speak to you like that.”

“It matters to me,” Olivia states simply, meeting his gaze until the lights turn back to green. “Frank swept me off my feet and was so attractive. Until I got to know him, that is. I’m not one to be - promiscuous - regardless of what your Walter and Olivia might have said about me. Frank was getting more possessive and controlling of who I saw and where I went and with who. He was resentful of my job and my friendship with Linc, and threatened to seriously hurt him. I should have walked away long before I did.”

Lincoln nodded, unsure of what else to say. “He never said you were promiscuous - Walter, I mean," he said a few minutes later. “Not to me, anyway.”

“Really?” she asked incredulously.

“Oh yeah. Loathsome, contemptible and immoral maybe, but not promiscuous.” Lincoln added, continuing quickly as Olivia frowned. “But I think he meant your team in general, and your Walter’s motives. Not you. I, I - mean, you won him over in the end. And Olivia too.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?” He replied, swallowing nervously as they slowed down at another set of lights.

“What did you think of me?” Olivia said bluntly, shifting in her seat slightly to look at Lincoln as he pushed his glasses up his nose and opened the window. The air in the car began to suddenly feel very thick and warm. “Did I win you over too?”

“Honestly?”

Olivia nodded, watching his mouth as he nervously bit on his bottom lip, thinking of a response. Why were all the adjectives that were coming to his mind ones he wasn’t sure he should say out loud?

“I thought you were misunderstood. You were just doing what you had to do to protect your world, just like we were. You were friendly to me, and honest but driven. Peter said you were a good person, and I never doubted that he wasn’t right,” Lincoln sighed in relief, hoping she wouldn’t ask for more, then froze as he thought she might share what she thought of him. She didn’t, though. As they drove back to her apartment, she kept staring at the road. She thought of the first time she’d seen him on the bridge. Even under the thick glasses and suit, she recognized the face of her partner and best friend. There was no mistake about that. She’d recognize those eyes in any universe or timeline, but his wildly different attire had made her laugh, like he was in a poor disguise.

The next time they’d met, he was imitating her partner, and the likeness made it harder to distinguish between the two, but she could still tell them apart from the way they carried themselves in her presence. But now, if the other Lincoln hadn’t died, she wasn’t sure if she could tell the difference between them so easily if they dressed the same. There was a newfound confidence and determination rising inside of him, yet it wasn’t an arrogance.

Instead, it was complimented with a layer of empathy and sensitivity that was a trait she was pleased he hadn’t given up on completely.

Chapter Text

February 2013 Altverse

In Fringe HQ, Lincoln jogged down the steps into the rotunda, scanning the room for Olivia or Astrid, but unable to find them anywhere. He glanced up at the clear glass doors to Erikson’s office, and couldn’t see them there either. Frowning as he sat at the desk, he preoccupied himself by looking through the files on his screen, searching for information on the case they’d been working on.

Almost an hour had passed and worry niggled in the back of his mind. Were they out on a case without him? Did he forget he was supposed to be somewhere else or worse still, did they not tell because they didn’t need or want him there? Or, even worse, had something happened, and they needed help?

He shifted in his chair, nervously looking around. No one else in the room seemed to be overly concerned, but he reached for his phone to call Olivia anyway, just to put his mind at rest.

He punched in her number and hesitated slightly before hitting the call button, watching it ring and ring until it dropped off unanswered.

Now he was even more worried about her and Astrid. It wasn’t like her not to answer her calls, and considered asking Erikson to activate the Echelon protocol to check their whereabouts until he remembered he wasn’t there either.

He went to stand, thinking perhaps Secretary Bishop might know what to do as a Fringe agent approached him.

“Agent Lee?” The man asked, standing straight in his military uniform of gray camouflage fatigues. “You’re needed in meeting room two urgently. Follow me, please?”

Lincoln frowned as he stood and followed the agent down the hall.

“Do you know what this is about? Is Agent Dunham or Erikson here?” he asked, looking at the man, who continued to barely acknowledge Lincoln and stared straight ahead.

“Sorry sir, I don’t have clearance. They asked me to summon you.“ He stopped, gesturing to the door marked with a “2”.

Lincoln turned the door handle as the other agent walked away and stepped into the room.

“Surprise!” Olivia cried out, beaming with a wide smile at Lincoln’s shocked expression as she appeared from behind the door with Astrid and popped a party streamer at him.

“What the… “ Lincoln gasped. “How did you know?”

“I saw your birthday on your file,” she laughed, opening the box Astrid had been holding.

Lincoln raised his eyebrows in surprise and appreciation at the cake she revealed as she lifted the lid.

It was around 8 inches in diameter and an iced simple message sat on top of the white icing in red piped lettering.

Happy Birthday Lincoln xx

He looked back up at the women and smiled at the simple gesture as Astrid carried it to a desk.

“It’s from all of us,” Olivia explained. "Now you’re part of the team.”

“Thanks! I, er…” Lincoln smiled, still a bit shocked and lost for words. “It’s great!”

“It was my idea to do it here. I thought you might prefer it to have the whole Fringe Division sing Happy Birthday to you," Astrid added. “Plus, more cake for us.”

“Yes, I do," he snorted as Olivia handed him a cake knife.

“ You gotta have the first slice," she insisted as Astrid answered a call on her earpiece and left the room.

“If you insist.” Lincoln said, cutting through the icing and taking a generous slice, revealing the deep red sponge inside. "Red velvet?” He asked, taking a large bite from the slice in his hand, the sweet icing and soft sponge triggering an illicit response that made his eyes momentarily flutter shut.

“Yep,” Olivia replied, jealously watching the satisfaction on Lincoln’s face. “Good?”

“Mmm-hmm,” he nodded with his mouth full before quickly swallowing, “It’s really good. Thank you. Did you make it?”

”No!” she laughed, leaning in and brushing a crumb from the corner of his mouth with her thumb as he froze and nodded again in thanks. She playfully grabbed his wrist of the hand that held the last of the slice, pulling it lightly towards her mouth before he could protest.

She took the remaining slice of cake in one bite still holding his hand, and his surprised gaze, catching the buttercream on the tip of his finger and swallowed, nodding back in agreement at he stared at her stunned, his cheeks slowly turning a shade of red that he felt might be darker than the sponge inside the cake.

“Thanks for the taste,” Olivia said as she grinned, licking the buttercream from her full lower lip and letting go of his hand. “C’mon, we better grab Astrid before she tells someone there’s cake in here. Once the news gets out, there’ll be a stampede!”

She opened the door and left, leaving Lincoln standing with his mouth open and gobsmacked, until he rubbed his hands together to dust away the crumbs and looked at the cake again to try and make sense of what happened.

“Yes, right. Okay!” Lincoln said to himself as he followed Olivia, closing the door behind him. He swore he could feel Olivia’s mouth on his fingertips for the rest of the day.

March 2013 Altverse

Their living arrangements had meant to be a temporary solution, but it was coming up to a year since Lincoln stayed, and months since he’d moved in with Olivia. They’d fallen into a comfortable rhythm in her - now their -apartment. He’d half-heartedly mentioned once or twice in passing about looking for a new place, but was more than happy with their arrangement, as was Olivia. She insisted he didn’t need to move out unless he really wanted to, plus it was nice to have someone to share the bills and cooking with, especially he actually quite good at it, compared to Olivia who would live off of take out food if left to her own devices.

But only a few months after he’d moved in, Olivia became withdrawn and quiet. She stopped talking to him and spent more and more time alone. After a week, he asked if he’d upset her and she denied it, but still shied away from him compared to how they’d been over the past few months. After two weeks, he began looking for his own apartment again, and although it wasn’t ideal, he found one that wasn’t too far and was a decent price for the size. He eventually summoned the courage to tell her, but couldn’t find her at home or work all day. Concern turned into panic when he realized no one had seen Olivia and his frantic calls went straight to voicemail. Then he remembered the significance of the date. 

It was a year to the day Jones’s sniper had murdered the Lincoln from this universe when their convoy had been ambushed at the warehouse. Cursing under his breath at his absent minded insensitivity, he grabbed his coat and headed out of the door. He knew exactly where to find her.

The cemetery was empty compared to the last time he’d visited a year ago, the unique situation and bizarre feeling of seeing his doppelgänger’s father with his wife grieve over a version of himself. 

It was a gray spring morning and budding daffodils, daisies and dandelions peppered the grass, little splashes of color in the sodden ground. Even with her back to him and too far away to hear her speak, he could tell it was her, the unmistakable red streak of her hair caught in the wind. She was leaning against the gravestone of where the other Lincoln was buried, then brought her hands up to her face as she shook her head.

Lincoln felt he was intruding on something he had no business to be witnessing and violating her privacy. He turned to leave, knowing she was safe, but she stepped back and turned around, stopping to tuck her hands into her pockets and looking down at her feet as she noticed him watching her.

For a moment, he felt paralyzed with nerves, thinking he’d overstepped a boundary in their friendship, until she began slowly strolling towards him, reaching out her hand. As she approached, she looped her arms around his waist as she closed the distance between them without a word, and neither did he. He just stood there with her with an arm around her shoulder and one on her head as she leant against his shoulder.

Eventually she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up at him, wide eyed, dark green against the stormy sky as large droplets of rain fell over them. Stoically, he stood there, unsure until she reached up, her mouth grazing against his cheek, her warm breath whispering into his ear.

“Please, take me home.”

He nodded and took her hand as they made their way back home, not noticing the beams of light that broke through the clouds and a very faint rainbow appearing in the sky behind them.

21st June 2013 Altverse

“Right!” Lincoln exclaimed, slamming the tablet down on the table as he finished his report. “Let’s go!” 

Olivia looked up from her desk in puzzlement as he leaped over from his side of the desk and turned off her monitor.

“Hey! What are you…” Olivia cried out in protest as he grabbed her hand, pulling her off the stool. “Agent Lee! Where are we going?” She demanded, trying to remain professional in the middle of the Fringe HQ rotunda.

“You didn’t think you’d get away with it, did you?”He asked her, turning to talk to her as he pulled her along, and she struggled to free her hand from his grip, conscious of the other agents around them seeing them holding hands as they strolled through the hall. “It’s your birthday!” He teased, finally letting go of her hand to jab the elevator call button and leaning in as they waited for the doors to open. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”

She rolled her eyes in mock annoyance as they stepped into the elevator and the doors slid shut behind them

“Lincoln, Fringe events and work don’t just stop because it’s my birthday, we still have work to do and…”

“Don’t worry about that. They can cope for the rest of the day. I got cover," he explained as they arrived in the underground parking lot, “All you need to worry about is getting home and changing. Then I’m taking you out for a meal and a cocktail or two, just like I promised months ago.” He smiled as they reached and unlocked the car.

Olivia looked at him suspiciously as he held the door open, waiting for her to get in.

“How did you know?” she asked curiously, sitting down as Lincoln started the engine and clicked his seat belt into place.

“I saw it on your Show Me card.” Lincoln admitted as he huffed a small laugh and Olivia nodded a twisted impressed smile. “It’s kinda weird yours is three months earlier than the Olivia from my universe.” 

Olivia wondered what he’d done for her when it was her birthday, quickly dismissing the twinge of jealousy.

***

The Pimlico was a small, intimate restaurant, fairly busy but not too crowded. Flickering fairy lights hung from strings across the ceiling and low music hummed in the background, the bass a slow and steady heartbeat that echoed against the burgundy womb like walls.

A happy couple a few tables away caught Olivia’s attention over Lincoln’s shoulder as they laughed and tenderly kissed, holding hands across the table as little fragments of light from tea light candles that were nestled in small colored glass pots danced over their faces. She looked away in embarrassment, welcoming the distractions of the server taking their order and the food being served.

Less than an hour later, Olivia licked the barbecue sauce from her fingers, dropping the bone onto her plate in satisfaction.

“Oh!” she sighed, rolling her eyes back into her head, then stopped as she noticed Lincoln’s curious gaze as he watched her, his eyes wide with intrigue.

“Good?” he asked as he cleared his throat, looking down as he sipped his water and back at her with a bashful smile.

“These ribs, Lincoln! They’re amazing. I can’t believe I’ve lived in this area for years and have never been here before and you’ve been here for less than a year and found this place. You sure you don’t want to try one?” Olivia pushed her plate towards him, inviting him to take one, stopping as he put his hand up in protest.

“You have Erikson to thank for that. I asked for his recommendations of somewhere casual but nice and quiet, and he said you can’t go wrong here,” Lincoln replied, lowering his hand to point at his own plate. “But, no - thank you - I don’t really like pork. So - you, uh, feeling brave enough yet to try a cocktail as it’s your birthday?” He challenged with a smile as he continued eating his own food.

“Is that a dare, Lincoln?” she replied suspiciously, narrowing her eyes. “Because I’m not falling for it!”

He smiled again, putting his hands up in mock surrender. “I’m not doing anything. But I’m ordering one. You’re welcome to try it if you’re, uh, curious .” 

“You’re - ordering a cocktail?” Olivia laughed incredulously, trying to stifle her smile.

“What’s wrong with a cocktail?” Lincoln smiled, pretending to be offended. “What, d’you think I should drink shots or, uh, a beer or something? He mocked, huffing out his chest.

“Oh no, no," she smiled, waving her hands in protest. “You carry on.”

“Good.” He nodded, taking another bite of his food.

Lincoln sat in his seat as he returned from the bar, watching as Olivia dropped the final rib bone to her plate. He nonchalantly picked up a napkin from the table and leaned forward, reaching across the table to wipe away a smudge of barbecue sauce in the corner of her mouth. She smiled with bewilderment, mouthing a thank you as she wiped the sauce off of her fingers with her own napkin.

“Drinks on the way!” he smiled, popping one of his last few french fries in his mouth. “I asked for something sweet and fruity and not too strong. Hope that’s okay?” 

“Like a virgin cocktail, but not quite? Like it’s gone to third base, but not gone all the way?” she teased, as Lincoln’s eyes widened at the innuendo and the food caught in his throat, so he simply nodded. “Sounds good.” Olivia replied, pushing her plate aside. 

Moments later, a server approached with a jug filled with vibrantly colored liquid, fruit and decorations that rattled with ice and fizzed from sparklers that were stuck in the top. They both eyed it in disbelief and Olivia stared at Lincoln warily.

“It’s not what you think!" Hr began, turning to the server. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I only ordered a glass, not a pitcher.”

“Free upgrade. You said it’s her birthday!” The woman confirmed, nodding in Olivia’s direction as she placed the vessel on the table. “Enjoy!” Then she walked away, back to the bar before they could stop her.

“Lincoln!” Olivia gasped, her eyes widening in surprise.

“I’m sorry, I swear I didn’t know!” Lincoln objected in embarrassment.

“It’s fine. At least it didn’t cost you anything," she reasoned, trying in vain to blow out the sparklers as they fizzled away.

“Only my integrity!” he blinked in defeat as he took a sip and held a straw between his thumb and forefinger to steady it.

*

The cocktail pitcher was almost empty, the drink nearly gone. Only the crushed ice and fruit that had collected at the bottom remained. Olivia giggled when he told her about cases from his universe and Lincoln reveled in the sound, finding it irresistibly adorable, as it’s the first time he’d seen her laugh, genuinely laugh, for a long time. 

“Did I ever tell you about the time I nearly got turned into a flying porcupine?” Lincoln blurted, spurred on by the sound of her laughter as she sipped a last mouthful from the pitcher.

“A what?” Olivia gasped as she spat out her drink, then held her mouth, looking mortified seeing a few drops trickle down his glasses. He removed them to wipe them clean on his sleeve and, looking back up, saw she had closed her eyes, still covering her mouth with her hand.

She jumped as he nudged her arm.

“You okay?” he smiled with concern and she nodded, opening her drowsy, dark eyes as he returned his glasses back to his face.

“Yesh, sorry,” she replied with a slight slur in her voice and nodded again. “I’m just… I think I need to use the restroom.” Olivia announced, pushing the table as she stood, which shook the pitcher. Lincoln hurriedly steadied it with his hands as a nearby couple turned around to see the source of the commotion and she staggered away.

Lincoln smiled awkwardly at the couple as he hesitated, then followed Olivia to the small restrooms, leaning against the door of the only one that wasn’t vacant, and knocked gently through the locked door.

“Liv?” he called worriedly, his voice rising as he drew out the syllable of her name. “Are you okay in there?” 

Olivia grabbed the side of the washbasin, her knuckles as white as the cool porcelain she clung to. She stared at her almost unrecognizable reflection, her skin flushed with alcohol, her eyes dark and stormy, and dark auburn bangs clinging to her hot forehead. Trying to rid herself of the thoughts invading her mind, she shook her head. She knew they were not the same man. The one she’d known was easy-going, funny, almost silly to the point of immaturity whereas this man, the one she was only just getting to know, was serious, mature, sensible and sensitive with a dry, sarcastic humor.

And yet when she looked into his eyes, she saw the same thing - the same sadness, longing for acceptance and love.

Her eyes welled thinking of her friend, who accepted her for what she was and whatever she decided she wanted them to be, unsure of who the feelings she felt tug at her were for.

On hearing no response, the concern in Lincoln escalated to mild panic and guilt as his mind went into overdrive. His pulse and mind raced, and his palms felt hot and sticky touching the door. What if she was sick or had fainted? He cursed himself for thinking this was a good idea and called her again, breathing a sigh of relief when he finally heard her muffled reply through the door.

“Yeah, just give me a minute.”

“Okay,” Lincoln retorted unconvinced, only moving away to let people pass to access the other toilets.

Eventually Olivia unlocked the door and opened it slowly, her face damp and rosy, but she cracked a slight reassuring smile as she noticed him waiting. 

“D’you wanna head home now?” he asked as he offered his arm and guided her back through the restaurant with their arms interlocked, Olivia nodding sheepishly as he settled the bill and they left.

The ride home was quiet. Olivia leaned her head against the cool glass of the car door window as the lights of cars and neon signs glittered, their artificial rainbows streaking past them. Lincoln looked over to check on Olivia at every opportunity, a look of concern and shame that stunted his courage to speak.

The cab arrived at their street and Lincoln handed the driver a handful of notes as he stepped out onto the sidewalk, stretching out his hand as he held the car door open.

“Need a hand?” he offered and Olivia nodded, accepting the offer by putting her hand in his as he gently pulled her up from the seat. She stood, gripping onto the warm woolen material of his coat collar, feeling the warmth of his body as it radiated against her cool fingers, and he jerked away as he closed the car door behind her. The cab drove away as he guided her slowly to the door with the slightest touch of his hand on the small of her back.

Lincoln unlocked the front door and watched her clumsily kick off her shoes, flopping down onto the sofa as she made noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh.

Flicking on the light switch as he hung his coat up on a hook, he turned to see her eyes squint in the bright light as her head tipped back and rested on the top of the couch so her hair cascaded over her shoulders in streaks of rouge fire and coppery flames.

She blinked, looking at him with heavy eyes as he approached her warily.

“D’ you, uh, want a drink of water or something?" he asked tentatively, pointing towards the kitchen, stopping as she shook her head. Her hand patted the chair next to her in pronounced deliberation as an indication for him to sit and did, hesitantly perching on the edge.

He fidgeted, pushing his glasses up his nose nervously as he found the courage to speak.

“Liv, I feel terrible. This was my idea and I’m…” Lincoln paused, distracted when he took in her appearance, her bare, flushed skin exposing her freckles and met her huge eyes, shimmering in multiple shades of green from the ocean to amber and moss. “... I’m sorry I ruined your birthday.” He added with genuine, if not misplaced, remorse and she shook her head again.

“It’s okay,” Olivia smiled slightly, chewing her bottom lip. “You didn’t ruin anything. I should be the one to apologize.” She added, holding up her hand up to stop him from interrupting her. “You didn’t make me drink it. Besides, I’m not that drunk.”

Lincoln blinked in confusion, and she smiled again, seeing him trying to comprehend what she was saying. “I haven’t been drunk since… after the funeral, when Walter was here.” Her voice broke on the confession and Lincoln waited patiently for her to compose herself enough to continue. “I know you probably think I felt sick at the restaurant, but if I did, it wasn’t because I drank too much.”

She looked at him again, still unsure if he understood or if he did and didn’t know what to say. Waiting, he looked at her briefly, but unsure enough to hold her gaze contemplatively. 

“You took your glasses off," Olivia stated simply as if it should have been obvious to him, then lurched forward, the influence of alcohol in her blood making her even bolder than usual as she grabbed them off his face, deftly swiping them away, too quick for his hand that tried to reach out to stop her.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, half in surprise, half in protest as she held them up high above her head, almost daring him to claim them back.

“Why do you wear these?” she teased, still holding them out of arm’s reach, knowing full well that it took all of his willpower not to snatch them back.

“Because I can’t see properly without them?” Lincoln replied, with a slightest touch of annoyance and facetiousness in his voice at her brazen behavior. He knew she was far from shy, but this was bold even by her standards, and he held out his hand politely to request she give them back.

“I mean, why not wear contacts or have your eyes corrected?” Olivia elaborated.

“Dunno,” he shrugged. “I’ve worn glasses since I was a kid, so I never felt the need to change.” 

Olivia looked at him with an air of suspicion, waiting patiently for him to reveal the real reason. She suspected they were a mask, the same way his careful and reserved nature and appearance hid the passion she has seen occasionally bubbling under the surface like magma in a dormant volcano, waiting for something to shift to let it out, a cover he relied and depended on, a well-practiced mask that was too good to give up.

“Do you know if your - this - Lincoln needed glasses?” Lincoln asked, changing the subject, and she nodded.

“He told me once, he switched to contact lenses when he started dating someone called Kendra… What?” She asked, noticing the change in his face when his brow furrowed.

“That was Nick Lane’s sister, the guy you took over to my side before they closed the bridge. Did he tell you what happened to her?”

Olivia shook her head.

“Nothing. As far as I know, they split up when he joined the marines.”

“Nick said he remembered me from when I dated her, but…” Lincoln stopped, nervously biting his lip so she couldn’t see it tremble.

“But what?” Olivia pressed, still holding his glasses but letting her arms and hands relax so he could take them back if he dared to edge closer.

1999 Amberverse

The group jogged across the grounds, grass sodden with rain, making the ground slippery. Mud splashed their sneakers and legs, and many of them with patches of sweat showing on their backs and arms of their sweatshirts that were gray like the sky that threatened rain.

As they filed into the building, a trainer pulled Lincoln to the side.

“Okay, that’s all for today, recruits. Training resumes on Monday.” The man bellowed. “Agent Lee, you have a call waiting for you in the office.” The older man said, tugging his whistle and badge that hung around his neck. Lincoln nodded as he caught his breath, wiping the sweat on his brow across his arm, following the man to the office, who directed him to a phone with the receiver on the table.

“Hello?”

He paused, waiting for a response as he sat at the desk, trying to avoid the piles of paperwork littered across the surface.

“Hello? Is there any-“

“Linc?” The voice sobbed down the line, “I need your help.”

He felt his heart hammer hard in his chest as the panic rose like bile, a thick and burning hand strangling his throat.

“Kendra?” He replied, his voice choked as he hastily stood back up, the plastic chair falling backwards and hitting the floor. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Nick, I-“

He leaned on the desk, putting his head into his hand as his elbow rested on his knee, and sighed.

“What happened?”

“I missed him so much, Linc, you know that, right? We were so close growing up, I couldn’t bear to be away from him. I’m sorry.” she sobbed again.

“What happened?” Lincoln repeated slowly. “Where are you?”

“I went to see him. I know I shouldn’t have, but I wanted to tell him he was going to be an uncle. Linc, I thought it would cheer him up, but he was so sad. And now I feel…”

“Listen to me, okay? Just tell me where you are. I can leave now..”

The silence down the line was deafening, louder than the sound of his heart hammering in his chest and the sound of water running instead of her voice. He stood again, his hands gripping the phone as the pressure of his hand on it would command a response. “Kendra just listen to me - WHERE ARE YOU?” he demanded.

“I-I’m at home, in the bath," she replied in a whisper that was barely audible, yet he could hear the scream in her voice.

“Okay, don’t move, don’t do anything or go anywhere, okay? I’ll be right there.” 

A stream of blood, dark against the white ceramic, almost as black as the night sky until it hit the water and ran unrelenting into the hot water with full, unwanted tears, like unforgiving raindrops in a storm.

Lincoln ran through the office, down the hall to the parking lot, and got to his car as the dark sky broke and fat droplets of rain hit the windshield, hastily tugging on his seatbelt. He wasn’t sure how he drove to her apartment. The route was anonymous and forgotten as saw the flash of blue lights as he approached the building. He stopped the car hurriedly, not caring if he’d double parked or was blocking traffic, and jumped out running across the street to the building, as a uniformed police officer emerged as he got to her apartment door.

“Sorry, sir. You can’t go in there,” the officer stated defensively, putting his hand up against Lincoln’s chest. “It’s out of bounds.”

“My girlfriend is in there!” Lincoln replied in an increasingly indignant tone. “I need to see her. I need to see she’s okay!”

“You’re her partner?” The cop relaxed, still blocking the entrance. “I’m sorry,” his hand moved to Lincoln’s arm in sympathy. “They said they did what they could, but it’s too late. She’s gone.”

Lincoln blinked, looking at the man’s hand, his mouth stuttered soundless words in disbelief and denial.

“Who? W-what do you mean, she’s gone? Gone where? We only spoke a while ago. I came straight here, I need to speak to her!” Lincoln shouted, barely able to contain himself from pushing the police officer over in rage as the cop staggered back a little from his outburst. “Kendra!”

Behind him, Lincoln noticed an EMT removing his bloodied blue disposable gloves and putting them into a bag as his vision blurred, his eyes large and wet with stinging unborn tears.

“No," he stuttered again as he stumbled backwards, unable to do anything except clasp his hand over his mouth that twisted in pain and shake his head as the realization hit him like the wall against his back. “No, no!” Lincoln screamed in denial, his face breaking and contorting with the anguish that ripped through his heart. “She was fine earlier, she was fine…”

The police officer moved forward, escorting him down the hall back towards the front door of the block. As he left the building, he turned to see that the EMTs following him, wheeling out a body bag, and the ground gave way under him.

21st June 2013 Altverse

“Nick meant the other Lincoln, because I never met Nick. On my side, they committed him to an institution when I knew her, but she, umm,” he gulped and paused, looking away to catch his breath before the memory stole it away. “We were gonna… when I was in police academy training they found her in the bath and, uh,” he rubbed his wrists subconsciously as he leaned forward. “I was too late to help her.”

Olivia leaned forward, sympathetically touching his shoulder, unsure of what else to do or say, her heart aching when she saw his bottom lip wobble with the memory.

“Lincoln, there wasn’t anything you could have done. It wasn’t your fault …”

“Maybe that’s where our paths diverged. In this universe they didn’t experiment on Nick and she’s still alive and happy.” Lincoln interrupted with a small nod, as if that would make it true.

“Did you not ask Nick when you spoke to him?” Olivia asked, as he shook his head. “Do you want to? We could do some digging.”

“No,” he replied flatly. “It doesn’t matter now. If she is alive, she’s probably married and has a family of her own.” Lincoln sighed again, thinking of how he’d seen this universe’s version of his ex-partner, Robert. “Besides, it wouldn’t be the same Kendra.”

She nodded in agreement and they sat in silence, unsure what to say, until Olivia jumped in her seat as Lincoln stood up quickly.

“Oh, I forgot, I bought you a present! Wait there a second," he jogged back out to his coat and retrieved a small iridescent box from his pocket, placing it next to her on the couch. “It’s not much, just something that reminded me of you.”

Olivia smiled at the gesture which abruptly faded when she removed the lid to hold up a gold chain from the box as crystals and butterfly shapes dangled in front of her eyes, throwing out sparkling prisms of light from shades of scarlet and amber to cyan and violet that flickered across the room.

“It’s just a sun catcher," Lincoln explained as Olivia turned to look at him, her face stunned. “You said you missed seeing rainbows here, due to the environmental degradation. So I thought, with this, if you hang it near a window or light, you’ll always have a rainbow.”

“Lincoln!” she exclaimed. “No, this is…” she smiled again, putting it back in the box next to her on the sofa. “...it’s beautiful.” 

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek in thanks as he closed his eyes so she could place his glasses back on his face. 

His skin burned in the place where her lips had touched his skin, the flush traveling up his cheek, and his eyes fluttered open as she pulled away slightly.

“Thank you," Olivia whispered, her breath soft on his cheek.

“I, er, no… problem," Lincoln replied with a little huff, still looking forward when she didn’t move away fully, her soft, warm breath on his cheek intoxicating his mind, tangy with the scent of the drink they’d shared. 

“Linc?” she whispered again, his name falling from her lips like a pleading question. He slowly turned his face to look at her as her smile faded away and her lips parted while she stared at his mouth, moving closer until he backed away, opening the gap again. She looked at him, confused, and he ached at the look of rejection that flashed in her eyes.

He wanted to tell her he wanted her so much it hurt, but he knew allowing himself that indulgence would hurt them both even more.

“Liv…” he sighed, trying to explain as her face dropped. “I’m not sure this is a good idea, you’re...”

“I told you, I’m not drunk," Olivia insisted, not moving away but not moving closer, watching his face in anticipation of his next move.

“I didn’t say you were,” Lincoln replied. 

How could he explain to her that if he couldn’t allow this for her sake and his? If he couldn’t control himself, how would he be able to live with himself, when this felt like he was taking advantage of her and the situation? He could see the hurt in her eyes and all he wanted was for that to go away, but if she regretted this, it would only prolong her pain and he couldn’t live with that, either.

She moved away suddenly, after considering her actions, and went to stand, knocking the sun catcher to the floor. 

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking, you’re not…” she began, bending over to pick it up.

Him? He wondered.

Not interested ? You’re wrong, so wrong.

He begged his lips to speak, but all they could muster was her name.

“Liv, I…” he stuttered, regretting his decision, seeing the distraught look flash across her face and standing up to follow her

“No, you’re right. I’m gonna go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Thanks again for this,” Olivia blurted, holding up his gift and rushing to leave the room before he could reply, closing her door behind her and leaving Lincoln standing alone and even more confused.

Chapter Text

January 2010 Altverse

“There’s good news and bad news.”

Charlie glared unconvinced at the doctor standing next to Olivia and Lincoln through the plexi-glass shield as he nervously fiddled with his white coat. He looked through the translucent plastic screen at Charlie, who was wide-eyed and desperately trying to mask the panic he felt creeping up his face.

“The creature was what we call a chimera - a transgenic species, created using the best genetic traits of various species," he said through the intercom.

“Someone made this?” Olivia questioned, putting her hands on her hips. “To what end?”

“That I can’t say," he said and turned back to the window. “But, what we do know is that the stinger implanted embryos under your skin, which is why it didn’t eat you.”

“Congratulations, daddy,” Lincoln said jokingly. “Lucky for you, it doesn’t mate in the traditional way, huh?”

Olivia swiped his arm in response, and Lincoln mouthed ‘ow’ back at her.

“Don’t tell me that was the good news, doc?” Charlie asked, suddenly realizing he was adding nausea to the pain he was feeling in his veins.

“Oh, no!” The doctor quickly replied, looking quickly between Charlie and his colleagues standing at his side. “Well, not exactly. Dr Foster, one of our leading entomologists, developed an antidote of sorts, using samples we took from you while you were unconscious, and the creature’s blood, mixed with a type of insecticide to prevent the embryos from gestating to full maturity. It keeps them at a harmless size, but this will mean injecting the shots yourself indefinitely with this…” He paused, pulling out a silver automatic injection pen from his pocket, holding it up to the glass. “... every few hours, much in the way a diabetic injects themselves with insulin with very little side-effects.”

Charlie sighed in relief.

“Not to sound ungrateful, but I can’t just have one shot?”

“Unfortunately, no. We haven’t found another way to administer enough poison without it killing you, so until we do, this is the best we can do.”

“So no baby worms?” Lincoln smiled, to a mutual eye roll from Olivia and Charlie.

“At least it’s worms and not crabs, Lincoln,” Charlie retorted as Lincoln mockingly sneered in reply.

“Actually, technically they’d be a type of arachnid because of the scorpion type stinger, but no, no baby worms.” The doctor said, pausing. “Although you may experience some side-effects like itching. As long as you don’t forget your shots - and it’s imperative you don’t - you’ll be fine and discharged soon.”

June 2013 Altverse

By the time Lincoln left the bathroom to get ready for work in the morning, Olivia was already in the kitchen making breakfast while on a call. She’d scraped her back into a loose ponytail, padding across the tiled floor in her bare feet, combats and tank top.

“Yes sir… No, that’s excellent news. I’ll let Agent Lee know and we’ll see you at the office ASAP. Thank you, sir.”

She turned, ending the call to see Lincoln standing at the door, with a small awkward smile, dressed in his suit with his shirt unbuttoned and tie loose around his neck.

Olivia offered him a mug of tea and a sheepish smile as an olive branch.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, taking the mug from her and being mindful not to brush her fingers with his own.

“Fine. A little embarrassed, maybe.” Olivia replied, looking at her feet for a moment as she recalled her actions from her birthday drinks the previous night. “I’m sorry that I-“

“Forget about it. It was nothing.” Lincoln smiled dismissively, waving his hand to brush away the awkwardness, although they both knew it was anything but nothing and she looked back at him nodding. “Who was on the phone?”

“Colonel Erikson, he said Charlie is coming back to the Division today!”

“Charlie?” Lincoln asked, frowning as if he should know who he was. 

“Yeah, Charlie! Charlie Francis, our old partner.” 

She stopped, realizing they’d never met as he’d left before Lincoln came to their side.

“He, er, transferred when he got married. He was getting treatment for his worms, but now they’ve finally found a permanent cure, so he’s transferring back!”

“That’s great,” Lincoln smiled at her contagious excitement. “Wait - Did you say worms ?”

“Well, technically, they were arachnids. But yeah,” Olivia laughed, leaning forward to wipe away a smudge of shaving foam off the side of Lincoln’s face.

“O-kay!” he huffed a smile, accepting it like it wasn’t weird to be infested with parasitic worm spiders. “I just need to brush my teeth, and I’ll be right there.” He added, taking a last sip of his drink before putting down his mug and turning on his heel.

June 2013 

Colonel Erikson entered the Fringe HQ rotunda flanked by two younger agents on either side of him; a shorter, younger man with cropped hair, dark eyes and a scar on his cheek, and a pretty, younger agent with dark hair pulled back into a bun, who heightened her petite stature in block heels.

Secretary Bishop had promoted Erikson to run Fringe Division when the bridge closed. An older handsome man in late 50s with sharp cheekbones and cropped fair graying hair, he had a hardened face from his military background that betrayed his empathetic and understanding personality and fondness for the Fringe Team that had become his family over the past year and a half.

“Pssst," Olivia whispered. She slyly nudged Lincoln with her elbow as he sat working at his console and he looked at her, eyeing the trio. “It’s Charlie with the boss.”

Lincoln studied the group quickly before looking back down so as not to draw any attention himself.

“Who’s the woman?” Lincoln asked.

“Hmm, no idea. Erikson didn’t mention her on the phone. Maybe she transferred with Charlie…” she cut off as Erikson began speaking.

“All agents, please gather round here and listen up," he paused for a moment to allow everyone to stop what they were doing and stand up.

Olivia strode over, with Lincoln a step behind, barely able to contain her smile at seeing her old friend again, and he mirrored a little smile back at her as they stepped closer.

“Sir," she nodded, echoed by the rest of the team.

“Okay, agents," Erikson began as everyone stood by. “As you know, since they made The Bridge, our world began healing, but when it had to be closed to save our world, that healing stopped. So although we’ve reopened many areas that were previously quarantined thanks to your hard work as a team, our work here is far from done. This trend of good news and bad news will come to no surprise to you, and today is no exception. The good news is that we have one of our veteran agents of the Fringe team who had to transfer for personal circumstances back with us. I am sure he will soon integrate back into the team and you will extend him the level of courtesy and professionalism I would expect from the Fringe agents as my elite team.” He paused, looking from Charlie on his right, and turned to the woman on his left. “The same goes for Agent Jill Ruiz, who is also transferring on a temporary assignment on a case - which brings me to my bad news.”

***

“Initially it was believed they’d died in their sleep naturally from heart failure, as apart from being pregnant, there were no other similarities between the victims,” Ruiz began to explain as images of the women flashed on the screen in front of them. "All from different backgrounds, races and so on. It appeared some of them didn’t even know they were pregnant. Then a mixture of morphine, scopolamine & hydrobromide was found in a tox report…”

“Twilight sleep?” Lincoln noted, frowning and meeting Ruiz's eyes who looked at him with an impressed surprise.

“Exactly, hence the nickname The Sandman given by the local press once they caught wind of the murder investigation. We think when it was combined with the elevated levels of estrogen and progesterone, it triggered a reaction causing them to effectively overdose on dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, and their hearts to fail. We’re still trying to figure out what other effects it might have had.”

“The love hormones?” Olivia said, pausing as she pondered the information, looking at Ruiz briefly and back at Lincoln as she read through the toxicology report. “So, there’s a new drug on the streets. At least it's not Vertigo.”

“Vertigo?” Lincoln asked, puzzled. “What’s that?”

“A drug that was doing the rounds outside of San Francisco, similar to MDMA. It affected the brain’s receptors for pain, resulting in heart failure. Excuse me for a moment,” Ruiz added as she walked away to talk to Erikson, who beckoned Lincoln over too, leaving Charlie and Olivia alone.

“Good to have you back, Charlie,” Olivia smiled, tapping Charlie on the shoulder.

“Thanks, it’s good to be back," he replied, with a slight look of concern Olivia knew all too well.

“Nothing like being thrown in at the deep end, huh?” she quipped as he smiled in reply.

“So, er,” he leaned in, turning her by the elbow to face away from the group. “Erikson filled me in with what I missed while I was away.” He looked back at Lincoln, where he stood with Astrid and Ruiz, as they analyzed the data and then back at Olivia with a touch of uneasiness as he saw the sorrow in her eyes as she understood what he meant.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t around, when I got news of Lincoln.... and then Broyles’s involvement. I wish I could have made it to the funeral,” Charlie said, his voice soft with compassion and sincerity.

As much as he and other Lincoln had squabbled and teased each other over the years, they were closer to each other than they were to their own siblings in many ways.

“It’s okay,” Olivia said understandingly. “You weren’t exactly in a condition to help, what with having your treatment. I’m just glad they found a cure, and I didn’t lose you, too.” She added, stroking his arm in comfort, and smiled again forlornly.

“Looks like you had plenty of help without me, anyway," He teased, looking at the team as Lincoln looked up at them and then Olivia and smiled coyly. “How’s it going? Is he fitting in okay?”

“Actually, yeah. He’s been great," she smiled back at him. “We probably wouldn’t have got the leads we did without him and Walter - the one from the other side. It’s been kinda comforting to have him around.”

“Anddd…?” Charlie asked, drawing out the word and narrowing his eyes as he probed for more information.

“And what?” Olivia replied and raised her eyebrows as the penny dropped, and she sensed what he was insinuating. “Oh, oh no, that’s ridiculous.”

She felt her skin involuntarily blush again, and let her auburn hair fall across her face in a curtain to hide behind.

“Okay!” he quipped with a smile. “Whatever. Let’s see what they’ve got so far and we can catch up later, if you like?”

“Sounds great," she replied, jogging away, glad for the change of subject.

***

The end of the week couldn’t come soon enough. With no solid leads to get them any closer to finding The Sandman , the case frustrated the team, and tensions were getting high. 

Ruiz had stormed off in exasperation after finding another lead was a dead end. Desperate to find a new angle as they were all disillusioned with the lack of progress, Charlie cornered Olivia as she returned after trying to reassure her that a break in the case will come soon.

“What d’you say you and Lincoln join me and Mona this weekend?” he asked as she sighed. “We have a couple of spare tickets for the football game, if you wanna come with. It’ll give your mind a break for a couple of hours and we can pick you up on the way, providing nothing comes up here, of course. Consider it a late birthday present.”

“Really? I can’t remember the last time I went to a game," Olivia pondered and nodded. “Sure, why not? I don’t think Lincoln follows football, but I’m sure I can convince him to come along.”

“Pick you up tomorrow at about midday, then?” he replied. “Do you know where Lincoln lives so we can get him or do you want to tell him to --“ Charlie cut himself off when Olivia’s expression betrayed her. “What?” 

“He, er, lives with me," shehe muttered under her breath, playfully whacking his arm when he raised his eyebrows teasingly. “He couldn’t find an apartment and the hotel they put him in was a dive.” She reeled off quickly, getting increasingly flustered. 

“Uh-huh,” Charlie said, unconvinced.

“And I-I needed some company.”

“Hmmm.” 

Charlie pursed his lips in a teasing, unconvinced smile.

“See you at 12, Charlie,” Olivia smiled, walking away from Charlie’s teasing tone.

Chapter Text

June 2013 Altverse 

True to his word, just before midday a car honked its horn outside their apartment and a few moments later Olivia and Lincoln excitedly bundled in the back seat, their knees bumping against each other in the middle but neither seemed to care.

“Hey Mona!” Olivia smiled. “Nice to meet you again, this is uh…” She paused, unsure if Charlie had told her about him, until she caught his eyes the reflection of the rear view mirror.

“... Lincoln," he finished, extending his hand to the front passenger seat, and she turned to shake it, revealing her swollen stomach.

“Oh my god, Charlie!” Olivia exclaimed as she noticed her bump, and beamed a huge smile quickly at Lincoln at her side then back at Charlie and Mona sitting in front of them. “You sly… he never told us! Congratulations!” 

Mona patted her stomach with pride, her fiery hair longer and fuller than Olivia remembered, and her eyes twinkled with happiness behind her glasses.

“Surprise!” Charlie laughed. “It was another reason why we decided to move back here, so we could be closer to family.”

“Thank you!” Mona smiled as she twisted back into her seat. “Now you don’t have to worry about your shots, it made sense to us to come back, right Hun?”

“Right," Charlie confirmed as the car pulled away from the curb.

“So you two met when you treated Charlie for his, um, worms ?” Lincoln asked as Olivia burst into a fit of giggles and playfully whacked him on the leg, quickly withdrawing her hand as it brushed his upper thigh.

“Oh - my - GOD!” Charlie exclaimed in a cry of mock annoyance.

“What?” Lincoln questioned in confusion, as Mona erupted into laughter and Olivia covered her mouth in a desperate attempt to stifle her laugh.

***

They found their seats at the stadium, Charlie holding Mona’s arm as they climbed the concrete steps.

“You sure you’re okay?” Charlie asked protectively as they reached their row.

“I’m fine. Stop fussing. We’re months away from this one making an appearance,” Mona smiled, holding his hand as it rested on the swell of her abdomen. “Just let them two go in first. I’m probably going to need multiple trips to the restrooms the way this wiggly worm sits on my bladder.”

"That's enough of the worm talk," he nodded, stepping aside to let Olivia and Lincoln pass them by.

Olivia headed down the row first, followed by Lincoln, then Mona, and finally Charlie, who helped her to lower herself down on the plastic, folding chair.

“New York Titans versus the Bills,” Olivia said towards Charlie a few seats down. “I’m impressed. What did you have to do to get these seats?”

“As I have come to realize - it’s best if you don’t ask.” Charlie replied cryptically.

*

Mona made it through nearly 45 minutes of the game before she began fidgeting and poked Charlie in the ribs while the game engrossed Olivia and Lincoln.

“Nature’s calling,” she winced slightly as she moved to stand.

“I’ll give you a hand," Charlie insisted, standing carefully to help her up. “We’re off to the restroom before it gets busy during the break. Do you guys want anything?” he asked, looking down at the other two by his side.

“No, I’m good,” Olivia held up her disposable cup in reply and rattled the icy fluid in it as proof.

“Lincoln?”

“Hmm? Oh no, thank you," Lincoln replied, shaking his head then looking back down at the field.

“Right, we’ll be back in a few minutes. Let me know if you think of anything,” Charlie added as they sidestepped to the end of the row and tentatively navigated the steep concrete steps.

*

The next break began, and they hadn’t returned to their seats yet. 

“Do you think we should check on them and make sure they’re okay?” Lincoln asked nervously, glancing down the steps, anticipating their approach.

“They’re fine. Charlie would call me if anything was wrong …”

Olivia stopped as the surrounding people began cheering and reacting to the display on the screen in front of them. To her horror, it was her and Lincoln surrounded by a frame of red and blue hearts, emblazoned with the words “KISS CAM “ in bold, blazing letters on the screen. 

Lincoln must have noticed it at exactly the same time as he turned to look at her, his face in shock and wide eyed with panic.

“C’mon dudes!” A man said behind them, tapping him on the shoulder impatiently.

Lincoln gulped as Olivia half shrugged a smile, raising her eyebrows in surrender. As Lincoln leaned in quickly to kiss her cheek, she moved in her seat, so the kiss landed on the side of her mouth. Cheers began rippling through the stadium with a plume of red and blue ticker tape and confetti that sprinkled over them before the screen focused on the next couple.

Olivia’s lips barely had time to register the touch of his lips on hers before Lincoln pulled away quickly, blushing and shifted in his seat, accidentally kicking Olivia’s drink on the floor by their feet as he moved.

“Shit! Sorry!” he blushed, hurriedly bending over, attempting to catch it before it spilled, but only knocked his head clumsily into Olivia’s as she attempted to pick it up at the same time. “I’ll get you another one.”

“It doesn’t matter," she said honestly, as he took the cup from her to inspect it and noticed Charlie and Mona walking back up towards them.

“No, I won’t be long, I’ll be right back," Lincoln replied, his face flustered as he bolted up and out of the seats.

“Where’s he rushing off to?” A perplexed Charlie asked Olivia, who huffed out a long sigh as he sat next to her.

Charlie paused, looking at Mona, who smiled back widely and patted him on the knee encouragingly.

“You know, kiddo, you should ask him out," he said, leaning in without making eye contact. “Because, let’s face it, you'll be waiting years for him to make the first move.”

“It’s not like that,” she sighed, and Charlie raised his eyebrows.

“Mmm-hmm. You keep telling yourself that. I’ve been back a week and Mona met him less than two hours ago and she’s already noticed the way you two look at each other.”

“Even if you’re right, I’ve made things awkward enough as it is. I don’t want to make them any worse," Olivia replied quickly, folding her arms across her chest defensively and looked back at the field, away from the scrutiny of Charlie's gaze.

“Liv…” Charlie stated insistently. “He defected to our side and moved across universes to be with you.”

She shook her head, and thinking back to that day when they had tried every other solution, but the only one left to stop Jones’s plan was to close the bridge, the portal between their universes. The whole day had been a rollercoaster of emotions; the ache she had felt when she thought she’d never see him again, then the joy when he’d surprised her and said he would stay there. How he’d been there, a constant when she’d been grieving for their Lincoln and everything they could have been and never were.

“No, it was because of the shapeshifters that killed his partner and killed m- our Lincoln," she quickly corrected herself, justifying half to herself and half to Charlie, as she continued to look forward, rubbing her hands sticky with soda residue or sweat on her thighs.

“Is that what he told you or is that what you tell yourself?” he replied, his voice low and serious, and loaded with the accusation. The excuse reverberated in her head, breaking apart with every thought she had about Lincoln. Whenever she caught him looking at her and he smiled so widely that his dimples showed and creases appeared in the corner of his eyes. “Look, I know why you’re fighting it, Liv and I know it’s not really the same, but when I met Mona, after I lost Sonia, I was scared. I didn’t want to love someone and lose them again. But…“

He looked back at Mona and drew in a long breath as she grabbed his hand in her long delicate fingers, the red varnish on her nails shimmering as she interlaced their fingers and squeezed tightly.

“In this line of work, we need to have someone, ya know? Someone we can rely on who has our backs. And you guys have the bonus of shared trauma!” Charlie laughed, but his attempt at making her laugh too fell flat.

She pressed her lips together and gulped, folding her arms again and leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, well. It’s not that simple, it’s complicated.” Olivia sighed dejectedly.

“Complicated because you work together or because he’s staying at yours?” 

Olivia made eye contact with him then and his eyebrows raised in realization, his dark eyes widening in surprise. “You and our Lincoln…” She nodded slightly, turning her mouth up in confirmation, and Charlie took his turn to huff a sigh. “Yeah, I guess that would complicate things a bit.”

“You weren’t here, Charlie! There was so much weird stuff going on. Frank left me and Linc told me…” she said, her voice rambling in protest. Cutting herself off when she felt her eyes prickle, she looked away towards the screen and crowd, anywhere but at Charlie. “I’m sure he thinks I see him as a substitute for our Lincoln and I’m settling for him.”

“Are you? Because if you are-”

Olivia shakes her head defiantly.

“I know how it looks like that, but it’s not. I can’t explain why, but it isn't like that.”

“Did you love him, our Lincoln?”

“Of course I did!”

“But?”

“I don’t know, this is different, but I’m so… torn. I can’t stop thinking about how this feels like I’m betraying our Lincoln and his memory, but I also can’t help myself from feeling this way.”

“I think he’d just want you to be happy,” Charlie admitted, nodding.

“Even with his double? The one he was jealous of when they first met?”

“I think so. If he was jealous, it was only because he was afraid.”

“Afraid?” Olivia scoffed. “Lincoln wasn’t afraid of anything.”

“Sure he was,” Charlie replied. “He was just great at hiding it. He was probably afraid you’d want him instead,” he nodded inconspicuously towards Lincoln as he carefully climbed the stairs to their seats with two drinks in his hands. “Because he knew he is the only other person in this universe - or any universe - who could love you as much as he did.”

Olivia felt her heart skip a beat. He was right. Of course Charlie was right. He'd seen it all along, the looks and touches between them suffocated under layers of flippant comments and teasing glances.

Looking back now it was obvious. Lincoln had found the courage to tell her once, under the influence of alcohol and had put it down to being drunk. But it was true.

All that time, he'd felt that way about her, but was too scared to admit his real feelings to her, scared he'd push her away because she thought he was only her friend with an ulterior motive. Until he was faced with the possibility she'd prefer another Lincoln over him, and he'd seen no other option but to reveal his hand and his heart on that night they'd spent together. Lincoln had been afraid, and so had she. Scared of admitting what they meant to each other, scared of what it meant for them.

And now a second chance was slipping through her fingers again and the irony stung like bile at the back of her throat.

Charlie wrapped an arm around her for a brief hug before Lincoln took a seat at the end of the row. “Don’t tell him, Charlie,” Olivia begged in a whisper as they released from their embrace.

“Okay. Your secret is safe with me,” he said, looking quickly at Mona again as she passed along the drink for Olivia from Lincoln. “But you really should.”

Chapter Text

July 2013 Altverse

“Look at this,” Astrid noted, as the rest of the Fringe team assembled around her to look at the information on the screen. “When we analyzed the pheromones found in the victims, we found they had a unique chemical composition and contained a very rare chemical not easily available even to chemists.”  

“So, can we trace the companies who have used it?” Olivia asked impatiently as she fidgeted nervously.

“Already done,” Astrid replied almost proudly as Olivia smiled, looking at the other woman impressively. “We found three buyers of the chemical compound within 50 miles of the murders, two were companies that checked out…”

“And the other?”

“Was a Dr Alwold Erasmus who was, until recently, head of Molecular, Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. Until he was relieved of his position for a reason they refused to disclose and went freelance.”

“Do you have an address for him?” Lincoln said urgently, looking from Astrid to Olivia, who shared his concerned expression.

“I can do better than that. He’s due to present a conference soon in West Haven, Connecticut, with the so-called dream analyst Reve Janak.”

“So, what are you proposing?” Charlie added, scratching his jaw as he considered their options. “That we track him down at the venue?”

“Statistically, it is riskier with the public in the vicinity but if we continue the current method of investigation…” Astrid retorted, cut off by Ruiz as she nodded in agreement.

“But we have a much higher chance of success attending incognito and going undercover as attendees of the seminar, we can catch them out that way.”

“Exactly!” Astrid confirmed.

***

"We're here." Erikson announced as the Fringe Division van pulled up near a large beachfront building. "For obvious reasons we're keeping a distance of four blocks. Dunham and Francis, you're tailing Janak while posing as subscribers to his podcast, so leave your jackets here and remain in plain, civilian clothing. Lee and Ruiz follow Dr Erasmus so wear your flak jackets. Farnsworth and I will remain here monitoring communication via these pins," he paused, handing out the pins to Charlie, Olivia and Jill who fastened them to their collars, and watched the feed appear on Astrid's monitor. Erikson then handed a pair of glasses to Lincoln that were almost identical to his old pair that he used to own, and he replaced them, tucking his spare pair in his pocket. "Agent Lee, these will give us a clearest view of the situation and determine if you need backup who will wait here in case you need it. Any further questions?"

The team shook their heads in reply and left the van for the building, separating into two groups. Olivia took one last glance at Lincoln as she entered the tall, glass revolving front door with Charlie, watching him and Jill as they disappeared around the side to use the trade entrance. They found Janak but the venue was crowded with attendees and they lost him in the throng of people, and Erasmus left the venue once it was discovered Fringe agents were in attendance, causing a commotion.

Lincoln and Ruiz caught up with Erasmus at a nearby hotel, following him to a function room's storage area.

“He’s going to see us and blow our cover! What do we do?” Jill cried out in panic, desperately looking around her surroundings for somewhere they could remain undetected on seeing him approach them. 

“I don’t know…” Lincoln looked around frantically for an escape, unable to find a solution until he locked eyes with her. “I'm sorry.”

He pushed her against the wall, covering her mouth with his and passionately holding her face with his hands to conceal their faces and maintain their cover.

Lincoln closed his eyes as Jill’s mouth opened up to his and began caressing his own lips in response. Her hands slid over his jacket to conceal the Fringe badge, and he moved one of his legs between hers to help. It had been so long, he could barely remember the last time he’d kissed someone this way. He didn’t realize how much he’d missed the thrill of it; he felt like a reformed drug addict finally scoring a hit after years of being clean.

He’d accepted being alone for so long out of fear. Fear that he’d lose someone else he loved and for fear of falling for someone that didn’t reciprocate his feelings, to protect himself from getting hurt. Instead, he distracted himself with his career in the FBI, staying detached and uninvolved.

It felt taboo, illicit and yet so fucking good to finally lose his inhibitions, like finally releasing all the love, desire and sensuality that he buried deep down for so long.

And yet wrong somehow, like it should be someone else.

Liv.

He pulled away quickly, straightening his jacket and fixing his skewed glasses as Jill looked at his mouth with dark, hooded eyes, her mouth still open and gasping, her bottom lip swollen and glistening, hoping it had worked and Erasmus was no longer nearby.

“Apology accepted.” She gasped in reply, biting her lower lip when he pulled away.

Olivia stopped when she heard the unmistakable noise of their lips moving against each other’s mouths, their heavy breathing from their mics and the approving moans and heaving sighs echoing in her ears. She leaned against a wall pulling the cuff out of her ear to avoid the sound, her mouth down-turned and eyes flickering as she looked at her feet, stubbing the toe of her boot on the floor, unable to disguise her disgust and disappointment. Charlie grabbed her, pulling her with him and laughing in amusement at her reaction until he realized from his own ear piece their attempt at avoiding being noticed didn’t work and Erasmus had overpowered Jill and taken her gun, trapping her and Lincoln in a stand-off, and he sprinted off after them with Olivia following in pursuit.

Charlie and Olivia tracked them down and burst in on them, taking Erasmus down as he fired Jill’s gun at them, shooting bullets that strayed across the room. Olivia and Jill ducked for cover as Lincoln pushed Charlie out of the way of the gunfire, as a bullet hit the briefcase he’d been trying to take from Erasmus.

Olivia ran over to Lincoln as he fell down holding his arm, his glasses gliding across the floor as Charlie and Jill left to go after Janak, Erasmus’s accomplice.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Olivia cried angrily in concern as blood seeped through his sleeve, holding pressure on the wound on Lincoln’s arm as he winced. “You lucky bastard, you could have got yourself killed!”

“Yeah, I’m so lucky!” Lincoln quipped, carefully shrugging off his Fringe jacket to look at the damage. Although it seemed to be a superficial graze, blood seeped through the thin blue material of his shirt and he quickly removed his belt, gingerly and deftly tying it one-handed around his arm as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.

“You already lost your Lincoln. I didn’t want you to lose Charlie too when he’s only just come back and gonna be a dad soon. It’s not like I have anyone that…“

He stopped abruptly as Olivia slumped down hard on the floor next to him, noticing the contents of the briefcase he had dropped had been escaping through a hole, made by the bullet that had grazed his arm, and she’d been breathing in the gas as it hissed out of the bullet hole.

“Olivia?” Lincoln cried out in alarm. He quickly threw his Fringe jacket on the case and forcefully pushed it away to stop any more gas escaping and watched it slide away on the cold concrete floor. Lincoln laid her flat on her back and pressed his fingers against her neck to check her pulse. “Somebody help me!”

He cried out, panicking as he looked at Olivia, feeling the heat from her skin searing his fingertips before hitting the button on his ear communicator. “This is Agent Lee requesting urgent backup and a MedEvac team to this location right now!” 

He looked down at Liv, trying not to panic as she panted, her eyes rolling in her head as they fluttered shut. “Liv? What’s wrong? Talk to me!”

Tenderly touching her face, her eyes shot open again to look at him, exposing her dilated pupils, blacker than the night sky, the usual green and hazel tones barely visible around the periphery as they rolled back, and she squeezed her eyes shut again.

She began heaving in heavy breaths, bending her legs to bring her knees up as she dug her heels into the floor and grabbing fistfuls of his shirt drawing him so his face was dangerously close to hers, her breath coming in rapid puffs of air against his cheek.

“Oh god, Linc, I’m gonna… please, oh!” she sighed against his mouth, so close he could feel the warmth of her breath on his lips. “Kiss me like you kissed her. I need you to touch me.”

Stunned, Lincoln tried to pull back from her grasp, narrowly avoiding her as she strained up to reach him.

“What? No, Liv. Stop it. Please," he whispered firmly as she tried to close the gap between them again. “I can’t, not like this. You’ve been drugged, you’re… I couldn’t forgive myself.” Lincoln added, still straining to pull away from her. “I need to get you out of here.”

He looked down and studied her face, as she let him go and slumped lifeless back down to the floor, sucking in a sharp intake of breath as she froze.

“L-Liv?” he whispered, as the fear that her heart was about to stop gripped him, and her brow furrowed in concentration as her face contorted in what he thought was pain, coated in a fine layer of sweat.

“Oh God. Lincoln, I… ohhhhh !” Olivia gasped as her body suddenly stiffened under his and her head lolled back, another flush creeping up from her chest to her neck.

He realized it wasn’t pain she was experiencing; it was pleasure. Extreme pleasure. 

Tenderly grazing her neck with his fingertips, he pulled away quickly when the heat of her skin felt like it might burn him, and her racing pulse vibrated through his fingers.

“Oh my god, ahhh, ahhh ahh," she cried in sharp gasps, biting hard on her lip. Her hands began wildly lashing out to find anything to grab onto and he took her warm hands in his, linking his cool fingers through hers as ripples of pleasure spread through her body, making every nerve in her body ache in rapturous satisfaction. “Ohhhhh.”

Letting one final long gasp, Olivia’s body slackened again, her face pale, her lips and skin deathly white as her hand released her grip on his. Leaning forward to check her breathing and pulse, Lincoln jumped as she gasped again, unable to stop a smile from spreading across his face as her eyes opened, looking more normal and she focused her gaze on his face as he leaned over her.

“Oh, thank God!" he smiled in relief as she looked away self-consciously, his hand still on her neck from checking her pulse, tipping her chin to turn her back to him, as her rushing pulse slowed and her eyes drifted shut. “Try to stay awake, Liv.”

Charlie burst back through the door with Jill and a MedEvac team who pushed Lincoln out of the way, placing an NRB mask over Olivia’s face and loading her onto a stretcher. “She was exposed to an unknown aerosol chemical that affects the heart rate, hormones and neurotransmitter levels,” Lincoln explained, trying to remain calm and hide the panic in his voice as he followed the puzzled medics, holding the side of her gurney as they wheeled her to an ambulance.

“Let’s give her 0.5ml of Narcan,” the main medic said to his colleague, “check her pupils for dilation and blood pressure. Let’s get an IV in her. Pulse is 95. Make sure they do full serum barb, bloodwork, gas and electrolyte checks at the ER. Babinski reflex, too. 1,2,3, up.” He added as they loaded her into the ambulance and Jill caught up with them.

“I want to go with her,” Lincoln insisted as the medics stepped up into the vehicle and Ruiz held his shoulder back.

“Sorry, one patient only. You can meet us at the hospital.” The medic replied emphatically.

Lincoln frowned in protest, feeling anger and fear rising like a monster from the pit of his stomach, burning his throat until Ruiz pulled his arm back again. 

“She’s in the best hands and you need to get your arm looked at.”

He relented, as his emotions finally gave way to logic and reason, and he watched the ambulance door close and drive away, the adrenaline of the moment subsiding so he began to feel the sting where the bullet had grazed his skin. Lincoln fished his own glasses out of his pocket and sighed with relief when he realized they were still intact, and put them back on his nose.

“Charlie and I caught Janak, he’s being detained for questioning.” Ruiz said, as another EMT approached to check and bandage up Lincoln’s arm. “And we have sealed the briefcase as evidence, so let’s see if we can get him to confess and confirm what Agent Dunham was exposed to, because right now they're unsure if Erasmus will survive.”

“We need to get that stuff analyzed,” Lincoln replied, his voice determined as he sighed in relief, “ to see if it matches what was used on the victims. I’m just glad she didn’t breathe more of it in.”

Chapter Text

In a gray, bare room, Lincoln and Jill sat opposite Reve Janak, who sat handcuffed to a metallic table.

Interrogating him with evidence on a tablet in front of them as Charlie observed through the two-way mirror, Ruiz looked at Lee worriedly as he glared at the suspect, as if Janak’s unrelenting arrogance was about to tip Lincoln over the edge.

“Dreams are answers to questions we haven’t yet figured out how to ask… my drug merely helped them to understand the question.” Janak sneered calmly, meeting Lincoln’s eyes.

“You nearly got my partner killed. She’s in hospital in a critical condition because of you,” Lincoln seethed through gritted teeth. “Your accomplice is in a coma, and he's not expected to wake up, so you two are the ones dreaming if you think you're gonna get away with this. Tell us everything, and maybe you won’t be spending the rest of your life in a room like this, dreaming of your old life.”

“Everyone consented to being part of the drug trial,” Janak snapped. “They knew the risks and ignored them for the sake of a high.”

“We’ll see about…” Lincoln whipped his head around as the door to the room creaked opened and Charlie beckoned Lincoln over.

“It’s Liv," he began in a low whisper, “She’s fine, but she’s awake and asking for you.” Charlie  added quickly, as Lincoln’s face filled with dread. Lincoln turned back to look back at Janak sitting behind him, his mind conflicted. “Go see her buddy. I’ll take over here.” Charlie continued, lowering his voice further as Lincoln went to leave. “Just talk to her, like really talk to her, okay?”

Lincoln nodded in reply and frowned to himself a little as he left the room, promising to himself he would find the courage to finally explain to Olivia what he wanted and needed her to know.

***

After dashing through the long, busy halls of the hospital, Lincoln approached the closed door to Olivia’s hospital room and tapped on it lightly, waiting for a moment with his hand leaning against the veneered surface, paused until he heard her reply faintly and smiled with relief as he entered.

“Hey!” Lincoln said as he walked in, sitting in the chair next to her bed. Olivia turned her head to slowly look at him and smiled back as he offered her a disposable cup of tea he’d picked up from the machine down the hall on the way. She looked pale and tired, her face unusually white and dark circles under her eyes, contrasted against her hair on the pillow, fanned out like fiery halo but she was alive, and that made him happy, more than he could say or express, as he felt tears of relief pricked the back of his eyes and made his throat feel thick. “I brought you a drink. Don’t worry, it’s just camomile, no caffeine.” He explained as she frowned slightly, and he left it for her on her tray table, and shrugged off his jacket, folding it across his lap. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t really remember what happened. The doctors confirmed they found the same stuff they found in the victims in my blood but they think it wasn't a high enough dose to cause a cardiac arrest,” Olivia said groggily, clearing her throat. “Hopefully they’re gonna discharge me soon, they just wanna run some more tests. How’s the gunshot wound?” 

“It’s just a scratch,” Lincoln said with a shrug then froze as she lifted her hand slowly to brush her fingers against his upper arm where the bullet had grazed him, her warm hand burning through the material of his shirt. “At least we caught the perps. Are you sure you’re okay?” He added, covering her hand with his own.

“I’m fine, Linc,” Olivia replied with a small nod. “Apart from a thumping headache, which they said is to be expected. The doctors said I just need to rest for a bit, which is easier said than done as every time I doze off I have some very vivid dreams.”

Lincoln frowned and narrowed his eyes in concern, blinking as he recollected the interview from earlier.

“What is it?” Olivia asked as she noticed his concerned expression, her hand twitching under his.

“Janak said something about dreams when we interrogated him earlier.” He surmised. “What kind of dreams?”

Olivia strained to think of the images she’d seen in her sleep, ones she didn’t know and some she didn’t want to see again. Lincoln laid on the floor in a pool of blood, merging into him laughing, holding her face as they kissed, then naked while leaning over her, his face flushed with desire as they made love, then sobbing with his head in his hands as he sat in a car surrounded by a spectrum of lights that glittered through the glass windows.

“I don’t know, I only remember fragments, like they’re hazy memories, but I don’t remember living them. I remember you, and a ba…“

Baby.

Olivia stopped herself shocked and looked away from him in horror, snatching her hand away from him to clasp her mouth, desperate to stop the thoughts and words from escaping. 

How? Why?  

It felt the same as the dream she had before Frank left. A dream that felt like a lost memory that she had no recollection of but finding its way to the surface despite being weighed down by other choices and lives not lived.

Lincoln’s heart sank as he felt tears prick the back of his eyes again. What was the use of telling her he loved her now? It was happening again. How many times would this happen? How many Olivias would he come to know, only to find that their memories and minds were eventually replaced by a new one that no longer wanted him or needed him in their lives?

“I don’t know," she repeated, turning her head to look at him again through heavy eyes as he fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair. He looked different somehow. His suit jacket and tie were missing, his tanned forearms were exposed and an unusual shadow of stubble spread across his jaw. But that wasn’t what was different. It was his eyes and the way they glistened, begging for her to see him, to want him, and a rainbow momentarily surrounded his silhouette like a shimmering aura. “Thank you," Olivia added, reaching for the cup as he looked back with a slight smile.

“It’s nothing, it’s just tea.”

“That’s not what I meant. For before, I…” Olivia added.

“You’ve got nothing to thank me for. I was just doing my job," Lincoln blushed, looking away, recalling how she had looked at him, how she’d spoken to him, and the feelings of desire it had ignited in him.

“Yes, I do," she insisted, touching his arm again, surprised by how warm and smooth his exposed skin was under her fingers and he looked at her hand in shock. “I can’t really remember much but I’m sorry if I said anything I shouldn’t have.”

He turned back to face her, his eyes shimmering like a crystal clear lake on a cold winter’s day. "It doesn’t matter, it’s not your fault. The drugs you were exposed to...” Lincoln said simply, and he shook his head slightly, twisting his mouth into a thin smile.

“No. Linc, you don't understand, I- I’m in…‘’ Olivia interrupted, shaking her head in protest, her voice stuttering with the confession she wanted to say and her frustrated with her foggy mind refusing to help her find the words.

Lincoln swallowed hard and bit his lip when it began to tremble, remembering how her warm breath and low voice on him felt, causing an uncontrollable heat to creep up from his chest to his cheeks.

They jumped at a knock at the door, turning to see a nurse behind him, and he broke eye contact with Olivia.

“I’m sorry, Sir. But Agent Dunham really needs to rest now.”

“You’re right,” he declared, standing up, pointing to the door, his insecurity winning the battle against courage once again. “It’s been a long day, and I need to freshen up. I’m gonna go home and take a shower. I’ll be back later, okay?”

“Lincoln?” Olivia protested groggily as the nurse fussed around her. “I need to tell you, I-”

“You need to rest, ma’am.” The nurse said insistently, lowering her bed and escorting Lincoln out of the room, closing the door behind him.

***

As soon as Lincoln got home, he stripped off and headed for the bathroom, letting the hot water in the shower run over him to wash away the frustration and carefully checked the scrape from the bullet on his arm. He didn’t know whether he wanted to scream or cry as he caught his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Without his glasses and his hair spiked from the shower, he felt like it was the other Lincoln’s ghost looking back at him. Two versions of the same man, in love with the same woman, except his reflection died from his bullet wound and his own wound, like him, was superficial, trivial and insignificant.

Wrapping a towel around himself, he walked out of the bathroom back through the lounge, as the phone began ringing.

“This is Agent Lee,” Lincoln answered.

“Lee? We’ve had more information regarding the contents of that case you and Dunham were exposed to,” Erikson’s voice said down the line. “As suspected, it causes an overdose of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin which in turn can cause cardiac arrest, but there was something else.”

“Go on,” Lincoln replied, wearily sitting down on the couch.

“Thanks to your quick action, Agent Dunham wasn’t exposed to high enough levels to cause her heart to arrest, but as it affects the thalamus part of the brain, it will most likely affect her sleep and memory recall in some way. But the reason it didn’t have an effect on you was it requires elevated levels of specific hormones to activate.”

“Sorry Sir,” Lincoln said in confusion as he stood, jogging back to his bedroom to get dressed. “I don’t understand, do you mean that -“

“It is triggered by emotions, similar to Cortexiphan, a drug you’re aware of from the other side. But is ineffective if there aren’t already high enough levels of hormones in the body, which is why many of the victims were pregnant; they had abnormally high levels of estrogen and progesterone in their system. The higher the levels of hormones combined with an emotional state, the more intense the reaction and side effects will be. As you don’t have estrogen or progesterone in high enough levels in your body being a man, it had no discernible effect on you.”

Lincoln sat back down again to process the information, frowning as he stared vacantly in shock into the distance thinking about Olivia and his mind drifted away on a tangent. What if her memories would be replaced like the Olivia from his own world, and she’d forget how close they’d become in the last year? He could understand the hormones, but why was she emotional? It concerned him that she wouldn’t tell him if there was when they’d become so close and told each other things they’d never shared with anyone else before.

“Are you still there, Agent?” Erikson said on the line, shaking Lincoln from his thoughts.

“Yes sir. I, uh, thank you.l,” Lincoln replied with a choke as the line disconnected. He dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and simple plain shirt, after carefully re-bandaging his arm and left the apartment to drive back up to the hospital.

***

The hospital ward was dark and quiet and Lincoln convinced a trainee nurse to let him pass for a quick out of hour’s visit after showing her his Fringe badge.

“You have 5 minutes until the ward sister gets back,” she urged as he turned from the desk to motion towards Olivia’s room.

The light in Olivia's room was even dimmer than the hospital ward hallway, lit only by the flashing LED screens on her medical equipment and the low lighting from the corridor. Her slow, soft breathing echoed in the room in tandem with the reassuring beeps of the monitor of her heart rate, and her eyes flickered slightly with the dreams that played out in her mind.

“Liv?” Lincoln asked in a low whisper, brushing her hand with his as he eagerly checked her face for a response, and sat next to her as she remained sleeping.

“I’m in love -” he paused as her breathing hitched and then returned to being slow and soft. “- with you.”

He reached across again, pulling the blanket from the foot of the bed and draped it across her, tucking stray auburn hair off of her face.

“I love you, but I wish I didn’t because you don’t love me," he sighed bitterly, choking on his words as his sight blurred with the mist in his eyes. “I wish I was someone else and didn’t remind you of him. I wish I was the one from this universe and I wish I’d been the one who met you first. Maybe in another timeline I did.”

His voice trembled as he wiped a stray tear as it crept down his cheek. “And most of all, I wish I had the courage to tell you," he sniffed, standing up and walking back out of the room, his shoulders slumped in surrender and his heart stuck in his throat.

Chapter Text

July 2013 Alternative/ Redverse 

The door to the apartment opened and Olivia stepped in, her mother carrying her bag behind her and leaving it on the floor as she placed the kettle on the stove.

“Mom, I can do that!” Olivia protested, stopping as she noticed the frown on her face.

“No, you need to rest,” Marilyn argued, shooing her away towards the couch. “Sit down, put your feet up and let me do it for once.”

Olivia obeyed, slumping down on the couch and resting her head back, knowing that there was no point arguing with her mother as she was even more stubborn than Olivia was and because she was right. She let her eyes drift shut, opening them a few minutes later when Marilyn brought over two hot mugs of tea.

“Are you sure you’re okay to be home? It seems you were discharged very quickly.” She asked, a concerned expression spreading across her face. "I’d prefer it if you came to stay with me for a while so you’re not alone."

“I’m fine, mom,” Olivia replied, taking her mug. “Being in hospital drives me mad. Besides, I’m not on my own. Lincoln should be home from work soon. He’ll keep an eye on me.”

Marilyn nodded, looking at her daughter suspiciously with narrowed eyes. She knew they could both be as stubborn as each other, especially when asking for help. 

“Is it working out well with him being here?” She replied.

“Oh yeah, good. I wouldn’t even know he was here, except the place is probably tidier since he moved in and he cooks, which is probably for the best.”

“Mmm, I always said you could burn water!” Marilyn laughed. “Remember that pie you made that looked like it was cremated and you tried to blame the oven?”

“It was the settings!” Olivia cried out defensively, playfully whacking her mother on the arm. “And we have a movie night most weeks, and we talk about what’s diff-“ 

She trailed off, remembering she wasn’t supposed to disclose his identity and where he came from.

“So, you two are serious, then?” Marilyn replied, taking a mouthful of tea as Olivia’s head jolted to look at her.

“What do you… noooo… It’s not, we aren’t… “ Olivia stuttered, her eyes wide. “He’s just a friend. A good friend, but a friend.“

“- that you live with.” Marilyn finished suspiciously.

“That I live with.”

“Right…”

“Right,” Olivia replied as Marilyn gulped down her drink and the front door opened. 

Lincoln appeared with a bag of groceries in his arms and grinned when he unexpectedly saw them on the couch.

“Hey!” He smiled as Marilyn stood to move Olivia’s bag out of the way. “You’re home already. I would’ve picked you up if I’d known you’d be allowed to come home today.”

“That’s okay. My mom was there when they discharged me, so she brought me home. Mom, this is Lincoln. Lincoln, this is my mom.” Olivia explained.

Lincoln put the paper bag down on the counter and regarded the older woman, holding out his hand in a greeting.

“Nice to finally meet you, Mrs Dunham," he smiled, firmly shaking her hand and looking briefly at Olivia, who had an expression he couldn’t quite place.

“Marilyn, please,"she replied, and he nodded in reply. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Lincoln’s eyebrows raised as his mouth twisted into a smirk at the revelation.

“Is that right?” he scoffed, noticing Olivia trying to hide her embarrassment. “Are you staying for dinner? I didn’t get much food in as I wasn’t expecting you, but I have some soup or we can order in.” Lincoln added, motioning to the bag on the kitchen counter.

“No, No. Now I know you’re here, I’ll leave you to it," the older woman interrupted. “I just wanted to make sure she was okay and in safe hands before I left.” Marilyn added, watching him packing away the contents of the bag, then looked back at her daughter with a little wink and nod, mouthing “He seems sweet” as he turned his back and Olivia glared back at her.

“I’ll call you later?”

“Thanks Mom!” Olivia said, watching her shrug her coat over her shoulders and went to stand as her mother protested. 

“Don’t get up, I’ll see myself out," she replied, returning to where Olivia sat. “And you could do a lot worse, you know,” she added in a whisper, as Olivia’s eyes widened, looking at Lincoln, then back at her mother in warning as she looked over at him. “Look after her, won’t you? She can be pret-ty stubborn.”

“You should know!” Olivia protested.

“Of course, Mrs, uh, Marilyn” Lincoln said, correcting himself, as she left with a quick wave, closing the door behind her. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he offered, taking Marilyn’s place on the sofa next to Olivia, hoping she’d take the invitation to tell him anything was on her mind.

“I’m good," she said simply, finishing her drink and shifting slightly to make some room between them when his knee brushed hers, causing a nervous spark to jolt through her body.

“Good," he repeated back, nodding slightly in relief and pausing when he felt her flinch on contact, and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on one of his hands.

“I’m still getting messed up dreams, though. Hopefully that won’t last much longer…” Olivia began, stopping as he looked away and fiddled with his tie distractedly. “…Lincoln, is everything okay with you?” 

She leaned forward, her eyes wide with concern as she tried to make eye contact with him and brushed his hand with hers to get his attention. His face whipped to the side at the call of his name and warmth of her hand on his. Just like at the hospital, he seemed different. The usual light blue of his eyes had darkened, like the sky before a storm breaks, gray and colorless. Shadows cast over his face, making him look weary and unsettled, and she could feel it as if his mood was contagious. “I-I thought you would come back and see me at the hospital again.”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” Lincoln said dismissively, unable to stop a hint of sarcasm tainting his voice as he withdrew his hand from hers and nervously pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. “I did, but you were asleep when I came back and I didn’t want to wake you.”

She looked at him again, unable to read his expression as she usually could and so was unsure what to say or think. He was unusually stoic and emotionless, almost cold towards her and she felt herself recoil and her eyes prickle with emotion as she tried to fathom his response, what might have happened that would cause him to be this way to her so suddenly when he’d been fine the last time they'd talked.

He held his distance despite catching the sadness he saw in her face, refusing to be drawn in again for the sake of his own self-preservation.

“Lincoln?” Olivia implored again, her voice barely louder than a whisper, as she tried to vocalize the words she wanted to say to make him understand, but how could he if she didn’t understand herself? She felt her mouth tremble slightly and bit down on her bottom lip when he looked away again.

A kiss, a cry, a laugh, death, life, love.

Rights and wrongs of a life she didn’t know flashed before her eyes.

Flashes of dreams or memories like lightning strikes in the middle of the night, still hazy but enough for her to see the moments between them through the mist.

Moments that didn't happen but now she'd seen them, she wanted them. Wanted him.

“Just let me know when you want me… to make you something to eat," Lincoln said with a sigh as he stood and she watched him leave the room, powerless to explain or stop him.

Chapter Text

January 2012 Alt/Redverse

“Just squeeze my hand. As hard as you need to...It’s you and me...I love you... I promise... you have a son.”

Olivia woke up with her heart thumping so hard in her chest, it felt it might break through her ribcage and land in her arms like the baby from her dream. Her skin was clammy to the touch, and she wiped hairs that stuck to her face as she blinked her eyes open. Adjusting to the dim light that filtered through the curtains, a crack highlighted the screen of the electronic alarm clock on her bedside table, glowing the time of 4.27am.

In the darkness of the room, the vibrant echoes of the dream played back in her mind; Lincoln was holding her in his arms and she was holding a baby - her baby?

The feeling of fear & pain had been overwhelming, and yet she felt so much love and joy when he’d looked at her and when he’d handed her the child. She rubbed away the last of the sweat from her forehead with her palm and moving her hand down, she realized her eyes and cheeks were wet with tears. It was the third time she’d had this dream in the past month, but this was the first time it had felt so intensely real and vivid, like a memory more than a dream.

She rolled over in bed, confused. Why did it feel so real, so authentic? It didn’t seem right that she would think of her best friend in this way, even subconsciously, but through the haze and colors, they suddenly all made sense. It was where she was supposed to be and yet she wasn't. She was here, and he was not.

She jumped with shock as an arm snaked around her waist as a body tucked in behind her, the hand prone against her flat stomach, and a gasp escaped her mouth at the loss she felt knowing the child from her dream was never there.

“You okay?” The male voice asked groggily, and she moved the arm back as she rolled onto her back again. “What’s wrong?”

“Frank?” 

“Yeah, who else were you expecting?”

“But we… you… the baby…” she stuttered.

“Liv, what are you talking about?”

He sat up and she flinched in the bright light as he turned on the bedside lamp. “What baby? Wait, are you - pregnant?” 

“No. I don't think…” Olivia replied, tripping over her words and thoughts and shook her head.

“So, you wanna try making one?” Frank smiled suggestively when she looked away. His hand snaked back around her waist, and up to her breasts as his mouth made contact with her neck and trailed down to meet his hand.

“No!” she retorted quickly, trying to push him away. “I’m never gonna have... my son.” She whispered with a sob, mourning for the baby she knew she loved in another life.

“We might,” Frank tried to say reassuringly, “Or a daughter. Just because your sister…” he paused, “...it doesn’t mean we can’t have a family. You might not even have VPE.”

Olivia shoved him back again and pushed back the covers, jumping out of bed to put a T-shirt she put on over her head, untucking her hair from the neck.

“It’s a 4 in 5 chance I’m a carrier, Frank. I can’t risk it.” She retorted angrily.

“Can’t or won’t? Maybe we could adopt or…”

“With our jobs? We’d never get through screening.”

“Other options then? What about surrogacy?” He lifted his hands up, exasperated.

“NO!” she snapped loudly. “We've talked about this before, I don’t want to have a baby -“

“Why the hell d’you bring it up then?” He roared in reply as Olivia stepped back, recoiling at the outburst.

“I don’t want a baby with you."

He nodded, also getting out of bed on this side, pulling on his jeans discarded on the floor from the night before. 

“Well, thanks for letting me know at nearly 5am in the morning, I guess it couldn’t wait, huh?” he spat sarcastically as he left the room.

Then he was gone, slamming the door behind him.

Olivia slumped down on the bed, shaking and sobbing, still reeling from the dream that wouldn’t disappear, as if she’d unlocked a traumatic memory that she’d tried so hard to bury. Her head throbbed with the intensity of the emotions and experience, and she turned off the lamp to kill the light, to help relieve herself of the increasing throbbing pain behind her eyes that seemed to get worse with every moment, plunging herself back into the welcomed darkness. She pinched the bridge of her nose as the excruciating pain pulsated in her head and curling up on the bed, she reached out, desperately scrambling for her ear cuff, and pressed it as she attached it to her ear.

“Hello?” A male voice groggily answered after a few rings. She paused, trying to talk through the pain. “Hello?” The voice repeated, more annoyed this time. “Who is this?”

“Linc?” Olivia could barely talk, her voice croaking as she broke through the pain. “I need help, I can't--“

“God, Olivia, what’s wrong?” Lincoln demanded, the worry in his voice carrying through the crackle on the line and the throbbing whoosh of her pulse in her ears as it faded out into a ringing white noise. She could only muster a groan as a reply. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was him trying to reassure her on the phone. “Don’t move. I’ll be right there, okay?”

***

She felt the sensation of cool hands on her forehead trying to open her eyes, a relief on her hot, clammy skin. Slowly opening her eyes into flashes of light, Lincoln’s shadowed face emerged, leaning over her, the relief in his face obvious as he beamed a large but concerned bright smile.

“Hey!” he gasped, breathing a sigh of relief. “God, you had me worried for a moment. I know I wanted to do mouth to mouth but this wasn't the type I had in mind.”

“Lincoln?” she replied in confusion. “Are you really here?”

“Yeah, you called me, remember? You sounded awful.” The nausea and anxiety he felt when he rushed there - breaking all the speed limits and red lights, that she wouldn’t be there when he arrived or worse still, dead - was fading, but the dread still hung like a stone in his core; cold, heavy, and unbreakable. “I let myself in. What happened, Liv? Do you need an ambulance?” he asked worriedly, gently wiping away the strands of hair matted to her face and searching her for signs of injury.

“Frank. He…” Olivia stuttered, holding her head and groaning as she tried to sit up and ignore the pain behind her eyes, but Lincoln’s hands stayed on her shoulders to steady her, pressing down lightly, knowing her sitting up could make things worse. “Oh God, my head."

“Frank?” Lincoln replied, puzzled. His brow knotted in confusion as she rubbed her closed eyes with her fingertips. The pressure was either beginning to subside or she was getting accustomed to it, she wasn’t sure which. “I don’t understand. What did he do? Did he hurt you?” He demanded almost impatiently, the anger rising in his voice at her distress, then lowered it as she winced at the sound. “If he hurt you, I swear I’ll…”

“Yes -- no, I don’t….” she mumbled, interrupting him quickly through her hands. Breathing heavily, he nodded. “Lincoln, I thought I had, that we…” Olivia sobbed as she stopped herself, meeting his gaze, his eyes full of concern and uncertainty as they studied her face. He didn’t know or seem to remember what she did, and it shattered her heart like it was made of glass. She felt ashamed and ridiculous, and looked away.

“We what? We like you and me, or we like you and Frank?...” Lincoln gulped, trying to understand as she groaned again in frustration and pain, pressing her palms against her eyes. “Just try not to move, okay?”

He wanted to help her, save her, do anything for her, but he didn’t know what to do and it worried him almost as much as her being in pain.

“Can you just stay here with me, please?” Olivia pleaded, as if understanding his expression, her green eyes wide as she looked back at him.

“Of course, there’s no place else for me to be," he smiled, trying to reassure her.

He quickly dumped his jacket and shoes on the floor and jogged around the side of the bed, curled up behind her on top of the comforter and wrapped his arm around her until he felt her body relax and her breathing slow.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” Lincoln whispered, and he felt the movement as she shook her head slightly in reply against him. “And you’re sure you don’t want me to hit him?” he smiled, his voice soft and low, his warm breath next to her ear. “He’s twice my size and will probably whoop my ass, but I’d do it for you if you want me to.” 

Olivia let out a little huff of laughter, shaking her head.

“Just promise you’ll stay.”

“I promise.”

Chapter Text

Olivia entered the eerily empty Fringe HQ hub and looked around the rotunda area. The air seemed blurred somehow, as if time and space had been fragmented or she was in a movie that had missing frames, and she ran through the hall in confusion at not finding anyone she knew. She was about to call out for Lincoln or Charlie or Astrid, even Erikson, when she saw a group of junior agents huddled together around a desk that she hadn't noticed before who lowered their eyes and voices as they noticed her approach them.

As she drew nearer, the indistinguishable mumble of their words became clearer until suddenly the room was deadly quiet, as if she wasn’t privy to their conversation 

“Why is she here?”

“Does she know?”

“Has anyone told her?”

“Has anyone told me what?” she demanded defiantly, as annoyance and concern rose from the pit of her stomach and tightened in her chest when they all stopped, lowering their eyes from her challenging gaze. “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Olivia added, staring at the blank faces in front of her when they refused to answer, the words laced with panic as they spilled from her mouth.

“Agent Dunham,” a young male agent rose from his seat and smiled sympathetically after being nudged by his colleague sitting next to him, and straightened out his gray, camouflage uniform. “I’m so sorry to hear about Agent Lee. He was a good man, and agent.”

Olivia sighed with slight relief, and relaxed her posture slightly when nodding in gratitude.

“You mean Captain Lee? I know, and thank you -“ she interrupted, smiling in slight confusion at the junior agent.

He coughed awkwardly, then looked look at his colleagues briefly for help before turning back to Olivia.

“No ma’am,” he corrected as he frowned and cleared his throat to get the courage to continue. “Agent Lincoln Lee, from the other side. When he was killed by a single gunshot in the line of duty earlier today.”

He said it so softly and compassionately that she could barely hear him over the pounding of the blood rushing through her ears.

“No, you’re mistaken!” Olivia cried as the panic she felt stinging her eyes and the back of her throat turned into hysterical fear. “He was just here - I was with - He’s not dead! I’ll prove it!”

She backed away, turning to run out of the room as a hand grabbed her by the elbow.

“Agent Dunham? Come with me, please?”

The voice urged as an older man with long, stringy black hair and a white coat over a suit pulled her to one side.

“Who are you? Where’s Lincoln? Do you know where he is?”  she asked angrily, pausing when the man nodded. “Take me to him!”

He led Olivia down a seemingly never ending cold, gray corridor, and turned at the end to open a metallic, featureless door, gesturing her through to the small room where a body laid supine on an aluminum trolley, covered only by a white sheet so she could see the outline and shape of the person underneath it.

The man in the white coat approached her again, and silently extended out his gloved hands to pass her a pair of cracked glasses caked in dry blood that made her shudder when she recognized them as the ones Lincoln wore. Olivia could barely look at the face under the sheet as the man folded it back. Unable to focus on the features, she felt the room spin around her, just like before when she'd visited the other Lincoln in the morgue. She finally willed herself to glance down and focus on his face, only this time there was no one to hold her up when she felt her knees begin to buckle underneath her, and she gripped the side of the cold table so hard her knuckles were white peaks, like icy mountain ranges. Lincoln looked he was in a deep sleep, but his skin was so pale as if she was viewing him through a blue filter, except for a circular maroon hole in his forehead and flecks of blood peppered through his hair.

“No, No. He can't - he needs his glasses to see,” she sobbed, placing them over his closed eyes and shaking his shoulders as his head flopped back, she could feel the man grab her wrists to restrain her through the fog of grief and confusion.

“It’s your fault - you killed him," he said plainly, as if it was obvious that Olivia should already know.

“No, no it be true!” Olivia shook her head in denial. “Not again. Lincoln, please wake up! WAKE UP!”

JULY 2013 Alternative Redverse

In the middle of a deep, dreamless sleep in a warm, summer's night, Lincoln jumped awake, blinking and rubbing his eyes as he acclimated to being awake again so abruptly. Shifting in his bed and pulling up the covers he'd kicked away in the muggy night, he looked at the clock in confusion, wondering what had stirred him from his sleep. The room was still dark, and dawn was hours away, but he deliberated for a moment, then threw back the blankets to get a drink of water when a noise stopped him dead as he stepped out of bed and onto the carpet.

It was quiet but unmistakable - it was Olivia’s voice - she sounded like she was in danger and was calling out to him for help. Without putting on his glasses or getting dressed, he stumbled as quickly as possible out of his room towards the sound of her voice in the T-shirt and boxers he’d been sleeping in, his hair spiked and disheveled, grabbing his weapon from beside the bed on the way.

“Lincoln, wake up!” her voice sobbed as he burst into her room, the shape of her arms and legs thrashing against the confines of her sheets as her hands escaped the bedding.

He stopped, looking at her confused. There was no intruder or attacker, she was in the middle of another nightmare. Lowering his weapon, Lincoln hastily placed it at a safe distance on her bedside cabinet drawers, and rushed to try to hold her reassuringly.

“Liv,” Lincoln said firmly, desperately trying to wake her without alarming her. “You’re dreaming, ‘Livia.” he begged as he grasped her flailing arms by the wrists until she stopped moving, slowly releasing her as she stilled, except her chest that continued to heave with her labored breathing, her eyes still clenched shut. “Liv?...” he repeated, as her eyes fluttered open.

“Linc?” Olivia gasped with a sob, her eyes springing open as she sat up and she pulled her arms from his loose grasp to fling them around his neck. “You’re really here? You’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m f…”

Fine, he began, stopping himself when he remembered his doppelgänger’s last words to Olivia. “...here. I’m okay, you’re okay.” 

His hands held her softly in reassurance until she pulled away to look at him to confirm he was really there, then she rubbed her eyes, dropping her hands down to look at them in her lap.

“Sorry I woke you," she sighed, her chest still heaving and she pulled the blankets up over her exposed chest, realizing her breasts were only covered by a cropped camisole top, a thin layer barely separating them from touching.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about that," Lincoln whispered as he shifted on the edge of her bed, leaning forward towards her so he could see her face in the low, dim light without his glasses and gripped her hands in his. “I know you must miss him.” 

He stopped as she vigorously shook her head, looking up through her heavy eyelids.

“I wasn’t dreaming about the other -.” Olivia intoned, as she sniffed and shuddered, trying to stop her voice from breaking. She pulled her shaking hand away from him as he realized what she meant. “You were - I thought I’d lost you too.”

“It’s just a dream. I’m not going anywhere,” Lincoln replied simply, withdrawing his hands back into his lap and paused, waiting patiently for her to respond.

“Promise?”

“I promise. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again as she nodded and gulped, and he reached out for her arm again, finding her in the darkness. Lincoln flinched slightly when he came to the realization he was in her room in the middle of the night, and they were both in state of undress that was far from appropriate. He cleared his throat nervously, “God, you’re really shaking, Liv. Do you want me to get you some tea or water, or something?” he added as an excuse to leave the room and put on some sweatpants or pajamas.

“No!” Olivia exclaimed loudly, startling him again and then herself, and he shuffled back to the edge of the bed. “Please don’t go. Can you just stay here with me?” Olivia could just make out hesitance flicker across his face in the low light as leaned back, and loosened his grip on her arm, and she looked up to meet his eyes again. “Please ?” 

Lincoln nodded silently, shifting on the bed so he sat at the pillow end of the bed instead of the edge and lifted his feet up, feeling the warmth of her body on the sheets where she’d been laying.

Just like her Lincoln had held her after her bad dreams, the dreams she’d had felt so real she could swear they could be repressed memories from a life she didn’t live, this Lincoln did the same as she fell back asleep, silently praying this dream wouldn't become a reality.

He leaned against the wooden headboard, pulling the covers and blankets up over his legs and placing his hands in his lap until she reached her arm across his chest, pulling him against her like an anchor and he unfolded his arm from under her so it covered her shoulder and held her in.

He could try to swim against the tide all he wanted, but there was no point. He was being swept away, destined to drown and smash against the rocks.

*** 

Lincoln stirred uncomfortably. Somehow he’d fallen back asleep sitting in Olivia’s bed, and woke up with a jolt, remembering where he was. The wooden frame of the bed dug into his back as he slumped against it, and his neck was stiff from the awkward position. He shifted to help fix the crick in his neck, causing Olivia to stir and sigh, and he froze as her arm stretched out across his lap, holding his body close to her face. His eyes widened in mild panic, realizing if she woke now, she would certainly feel his growing morning erection under her arm with the thin covers between them.

Slowly sliding his hand down his side to meet hers, he took her wrist in his hand and gently tried to lift her arm back towards her as she stirred again in her sleep and pressed her warm, almost naked body against his. Panicked, her arm slipped from his grasp so her hand landed millimeters from his semi-hard erection he was desperately willing to disappear, but only seemed to get harder with the proximity of her hand.

Trying to subtly nudge her arm back so her hand was further down his thigh and closer to his knee or her own body, she stirred again and woke up from her sleep.

“Mmm,” Olivia sighed contentedly as her eyes blinked open and Lincoln froze. Coming to the realization of their position, she suddenly whipped her arm away in horror. Olivia withdrew her body, dragging the covers with her as Lincoln scrambled to keep them to preserve his own modesty as the thin material of his boxer shorts would not disguise his hardening cock as well as the blanket had been when it was covering him.

They simultaneously cried out, both equally embarrassed. “Sorry!” 

“Oh god, I didn't - I don’t know what…” Olivia turned away, hiding her face in embarrassment for herself and him, as Lincoln took the opportunity to quickly toss the remaining covers aside and quickly jumped out of her bed.

“It’s fine. I - you didn’t do anything, nothing happened...” Lincoln awkwardly babbled as he bolted from the room. “...I’m gonna get dressed.”

He hurriedly ran back to his room, where his bed remained unkempt and how he’d left it in the middle of the night. Lincoln closed the door behind him, half horrified and half disgusted with the level of arousal he was currently feeling. 

He sighed, and leaning against the back of the door, covered his eyes with his hands in mortified shame then gulped and cupped himself to relieve the aching pressure in his groin.

***

A while later after getting dressed in his usual suit and tie, Lincoln passed the kitchen and saw Olivia making breakfast. He hesitated then walked over when she glanced up and caught him in her peripheral vision and passed him his gun that he'd left in her room.

“Call me if you need anything," he said quickly, after nodding a thanks and holstering his weapon. ”You sure you’ll be okay? Your mom might have something to say about me leaving you alone to go to work.”

“I’ll be fine. Lincoln - wait!” Olivia called, as he turned on his heel to leave the room. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for the - um - for earlier.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Liv," Lincoln smiled with a shrug as he turned back to her but looking down, trying to avoid eye contact and any further awkwardness.

“No, I do,' she interrupted, twisting her lips into a small, apologetic smile. “I woke you up screaming and then practically assaulted you. If this situation was reversed, it wouldn’t be acceptable, and this isn’t either. So I’m sorry, I hope you don’t, but I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to... go."

Lincoln shook his head slightly, pursing his lips and rolled his eyes in frustration and disagreement.

“You didn’t assault me. We were both asleep, and it was my - a man’s - normal biological reaction..." he elaborated as he gesticulated his hands out in front of his body. “…to, uh, waking up. I was trying to move your arm away before you woke up, but I failed.” Lincoln shook his head again, daring to briefly meet Olivia’s eyes that were wide as she realized what he meant, and she bit down on her bottom lip to hide a smirk. “But about last night. I don’t want you to think you always have to be strong. Liv. No one will think any less of you." Lincoln stopped himself as he blushed and her smile dropped just for a second at his plea for her not be afraid to show her emotions and be vulnerable around him. "Anyway, I should be the one to apologize for my, uhhh…” 

“Your biological reaction?” Olivia chuckled when her smile returned and he laughed in relief too and shrugged. “I guess we should be glad you don’t sleep naked like Walter did.” 

He looked up at Olivia, meeting her eyes and they both laughed again less awkwardly, happy to clear the air before Lincoln left for work, leaving her alone.

Neither realized the other spent the rest of the day thinking about what nearly happened.

Chapter Text

August 14/8/2013 Alternative/ Redverse

It was a usual day, as normal as it could be for the Fringe Division. Events had settled down since the bridge was formed, and eventually closed, but there was still enough unexplained events to keep the team occupied, especially as Olivia was only just back at work following the Sandman case they'd been helping with. Lincoln and Charlie were out in the field, investigating reports of a microquake in Albany, New York and an atmospheric disturbance off the coast of Nantucket that they thought could be a class-three breach, but had frustratingly hit a dead end with the lack of evidence and leads, so were returning back to the office to go through any missed details.

As Olivia was still stuck on desk duty until deemed as recovered well enough and without any lasting side-effects from the chemicals she’d inhaled on the previous case, she flicked through the photos Charlie had through on her monitor, frustrated at not being able to go out on the field until cleared to go by occupational health but determined to check if any detail had been missed by him or Lincoln.

Engrossed in the details and hunched over her desk in concentration, Olivia barely heard a female voice call her name through the chatter of voices in the Fringe HQ rotunda that she was trying to block out.

“Agent Dunham?” Olivia looked up to see Agent Ruiz, her dark brown hair tied back in her usual bun and dark eyes smiling nervously.

“Oh, hi!” Olivia smiled politely, having not seen her since their case and looked up from her screen briefly. “How’s it going?”

“Good!” Jill lowered her voice and leaned in a little. “I was wondering,” she bit her lip nervously, “Can I ask you something - privately?”

“Um, sure!” Olivia nodded, her auburn hair swishing as she spoke and leaned into Jill with a concerned expression. “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, I, uh,” Jill paused, looking around her nervously and briefly before leaning on the desk. “I was just wondering, you and Lincoln, I mean Agent Lee. You’re pretty close, right?”

“Yeah, I guess we are,” Olivia smiled and the other woman nodded in reply.

“He's single, right? Do you think I should ask him out on a date?” She blurted out quickly and noticed as Olivia’s jaw dropped in response. “That kiss we had keeps playing on my mind and - oh god!“ she stepped back, putting her hand over her mouth as she looked at Olivia. “Oh gosh, are you two a couple? I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize.”

“Oh, oh no!” Olivia quickly corrected her, her hands fluttering up, sweeping the accusation away, but surprised and disappointed in herself to feel an unwarranted twang of jealousy in her stomach. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to her that Agent Ruiz would think of him that way. Even though they’d kissed when undercover, she had assumed it had been an act for both of them. “We’re not together, we’re just friends.”

“Oh. Oh good,” Jill replied, still unsure.

“That was just unexpected, that’s all! But to answer your question, I honestly don’t know. I mean, don’t think he’s dating anyone, but I - here he is,” Olivia gestured as Jill’s eyes widened and she straightened up from her relaxed pose. “So why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“Ask me what?” Lincoln enquired nonchalantly as joined the women and sat at his desk with a box of files, pulling the top one out to inspect it.

“Lincoln, I just need to go to a meeting with occupational health. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” Olivia said, as he nodded in acknowledgement, leaving him and Ruiz alone.

He raised an eyebrow and opened the top file in front of him, scanning through the contents.

“So you wanted to ask me something?” He asked obliviously, studying the photos in the top file without looking up.

“I, er, yes, I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink or something," Jill stuttered quickly.

“I’m fine, thanks. I grabbed some lunch on the way back from checking out that anomaly with Charlie," he replied, scanning through the files in front of him.

“No, I meant with me, just us, like after work sometime.”

He looked back up at her slowly as he realized what she meant and she gave him a coy smile, the dark brown of her eyes meeting the cool blue of his, looking away shyly as he raised his eyebrows.

“Oh! Oh, I see. I’m very flattered, but I -” Lincoln began, resisting the urge to play with his glasses as he often did when he was nervous and unsure.

“If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I just thought maybe… if you wanna think about it," she said with a shrug and smiling as he smoothed down his tie and his eyes fluttered.

“No, yes, sorry! I didn’t think that, ummm…” he said, stunned. “Sure well, I’ll think about it and let you know. Right now I just really need to focus on this.” He gestured at the files on the desk in front of him.

“Of course, yes, I understand. Just let me know.”

Jill smiled politely as she turned to leave.

“I will definitely let you know.," he huffed, too surprised to say much else as she left.

Having finally reached the bottom of the file, Lincoln noticed Olivia entering the room, speaking to Agent Ruiz briefly. He looked at their expressions, trying to gauge their conversation as Jill left and Olivia strode over to their desk. 

“Hey!” he greeted her as she reached him. “How was the meeting?”

“Good, thanks. They think I should be able to be back in the field in a few days pending a psych review, I'll need to see Dr Anderson in a few days. What’s all this?” 

“Nothing much,” Lincoln replied with a sigh. “Just remaining paperwork from my side. What did Jill want?”

“Why do you wanna know?” Olivia teased, and he blushed a little and looked down at the file.

“Did she tell you she asked me out?”

“Out out ? Like a date?”

He nodded simply, and bashfully lowered his eyes in embarrassment.

“What did you say?”

“I said I’d think about it and let her know…” he began before Olivia interrupted.

“Oh, come on!” she exclaimed, grabbing him by the arm away from the nearby desks and listening ears. “You can’t leave a girl hanging if she likes you. Don’t you think she’s pretty?” Olivia reasoned, hoping he’d say he didn’t want to go on a date with Jill because of her, but he just sighed.

“Yeah, I suppose she is… so she did tell you?” 

“She asked if you were single, and if I thought you’d be interested.”

“And what did you say?” he replied, his brow furrowed.

“I said I don’t know. She should ask you, as I didn’t want to assume anything. Take her out for dinner or something. What’s the worst that could happen? You’ve already kissed her, so that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about," she teased, trying to double bluff him.

“I suppose you’re right. Although it was hardly romantic circumstances," Lincoln said, oblivious to Olivia's intent and nervously playing with his tie as Olivia did her best to hide her disappointment. “So, they don’t forbid you from having relationships here?”

Romantic .

Olivia wasn’t going to admit it, but hearing him say that about someone else made her stomach flip and a lump form in the back of her throat. The other Lincoln had women - even men sometimes - flirting with him all the time, but he'd never acted on it, at least not in front of Olivia and it surprised her somehow that this Lincoln would. Then Olivia considered how other Lincoln had eventually confessed how he'd felt about her for years but this one who she could feel herself falling for didn't reciprocate her feelings. The irony of the situation stung like a slap across her face and she quickly shook herself out of the thought. 

“Um, no. She’s only here on a temporary assignment, anyway. Isn’t she?” Olivia added.

“Yeah, I guess.” 

Lincoln had taken a chance to stay here when the other Olivia began rekindling her feelings for Peter. He’d liked her, of course, really liked her, and would have easily fallen for her if he let himself, but as much as that was true, this Olivia intrigued him more. She was more sure of herself, and sure of him. He swore he had caught her looking at him in the corner of his eye when she thought he didn’t notice, even flirting sometimes, but he’d put it down to the similarities between him and her Lincoln. She must have realized by now she was the reason he’d stayed and yet, as much as he wanted what she had said to him to be true, he resigned himself to the fact that although he was in love with her, she didn’t feel the same and he might as well do whatever he could to get over her as quickly as possible and preserve himself from any further heartbreak.

“I suppose there’s no harm in one date to test the water," Lincoln said decisively as he pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and briefly nodded, pursing his lips as he left before he could talk himself out of it and before Olivia could change her mind and protest.

Olivia watched, almost horrified, as Lincoln approached Agent Ruiz, who’d re-entered the room while she'd had faced the other way during their chat. The younger woman smiled slightly at Lincoln as he spoke, which spread into a beaming grin and she couldn’t believe it when she saw Lincoln wink in reply. 

Was he flirting with her? In all this time, Olivia had never seen him wink at anyone, not even her. In that moment it reminded her of her own Lincoln, a cheekier and more outwardly self-assured version of this one, and yet here he was with the same charm and smile. His hips swayed as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants, and Olivia almost felt like throwing up from jealousy when Jill quickly stroked down the length of his tie as she turned on her heel to walk away, looking at him over her shoulder.

“Agent Dunham?” she jumped at the sound of her name coming from behind her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She turned to see Col. Erikson, Broyles’ replacement, standing behind her.

“Sorry Sir, I was just…”

“I understand you spoke to occupational health earlier about going back in the field?” he motioned to his office, and he escorted her to his office.

“Yes, Sir.” she began as she followed him, no longer able to see the interaction between Lincoln and Jill.

***

By the time Olivia’s meeting with Erikson was over, Lincoln had vacated his desk as had most of the team, and Olivia returned to her own desk to pack up her things to leave for home, bumping into Agent Farnsworth on her way out.

“Astrid!” she exclaimed as they collided when turning the corner. “I thought everyone had left by now. Have you seen Agent Lee since this afternoon?”

“Yes,” she confirmed in a typically flat response, “I saw him leave with Agent Ruiz about an hour ago. He told me to tell you not to wait for him.”

“Oh.” Olivia nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. "I see, thanks."

“Judging by their tone and body language, there is an 89% chance that they are going on date and a 68% chance of sexual attraction and chemistry, as they worked closely on the last case," Astrid continued in her analytical manner. “And so, there is a very high probability they will be compatible and initiate a sexual relationship.”

Astrid’s dark eyes widened as she spoke, characteristically avoiding contact with Olivia’s gaze.

“I guess that means I shouldn’t wait up, huh?”

“No, you should not,” Astrid agreed with a nod. “Have a nice evening, Agent Dunham.” Astrid said as she walked back towards the main office.

“Yeah,” Olivia replied, sighing heavily. “Actually, as we’re the last ones here, would you like to go for a bite to eat before going home - if you don’t have any plans?” Olivia asked impulsively as Astrid stopped and removed her military Fringe beret that sat on her tight, dark curls, exposing the scarlet highlights that were usually concealed by the uniform headgear.

“Yes, I would like that. Very much.”

Chapter Text

August 14/8/2013 Alternate/Redverse

 It was late evening and Olivia and Astrid were still talking after getting dinner, sitting in Olivia’s apartment and catching up on work. How their world was healing, discussing their counterparts in the other universe and laughing about old times.

“Do you remember that time when Charlie found those bugs, and Captain Lee said they were his babies…” Astrid trailed off in embarrassment as Olivia’s smile dropped from her face.

“Yeah,” she replied, with a hint of sadness as she played with her straw, checking the clock again for the time. Olivia didn’t expect Lincoln to call if he was going to be home late, but that didn’t stop her from looking at the clock, wondering what he was doing with Jill and where they were. 

“I miss him too,” Astrid said, and Olivia looked back at her. “But I do like the Lincoln from the other universe, too.”

“Me too,” Olivia replied ruefully in a small voice. “I don’t think I could have gotten through it when our Lincoln… I couldn’t have coped without him being around.”

Astrid narrowed her eyes when sensing Olivia’s nervousness and Olivia swallowed the rest of her drink to avoid her gaze.

“You - like him?” She blurted out, emphasizing the word while widening her eyes, making Olivia nearly choke on her drink.

“WHAT?” Olivia almost shouted in denial, wiping the droplets from her lips and shaking her head. “I - no - What are you talking ab…”

“Lincoln. I have seen the way you look at him,” Astrid finished matter-of-factly. “Initially, I thought it was because of their physical and genetic similarities. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? You should have told him. The probability of him feeling the same about you and not going on a date is very -”

“Astrid!” Olivia cut her off quickly. “I don’t want to know, and I don’t know how I feel. Sometimes I think about me and him together and then I…”

“What?”

“I think he thinks I see him as a substitute, a reminder of the Lincoln we knew,” Olivia sighed. 

“Is he?” Astrid enquired. “In that case, wouldn’t it be preferable you choose to believe he is yours? And then you could love him and be happy. Or do you think he sees you as one too, for the Olivia on his side? Is that what’s stopping you both from saying how you feel about each other?”

Olivia contemplated it as she had many times. For all their similarities, they were very different people ruled by different circumstances and forks in the road that had taken them down different paths.

She had almost hated her Lincoln when she first joined Fringe. He was too flippant and cocky, bordering on arrogant, with his over-styled hair and biker jackets. When she had heard he’d got the job in the Fringe Division because of his dad’s connections with the Secretary of Defense, the nepotism annoyed her even more. But over the 6 years they’d known each other in the academy and at work, she realized his confidence and narcissism were a façade and a fucked-up coping mechanism. He wasn’t her usual type, her exes had all been tall, square jawed and broad-shouldered men who spent too much time at the gym and who left her weeks at a time to help save the world from whatever the threat was in the news. But since she broke up with Frank, it was like she’d flicked a switch somewhere and he was suddenly the only person who would understand her and she could ever imagine herself with, his eyes were so full of intense sadness and longing as he gazed at her, she felt like she had been blind for years. 

This Lincoln didn’t seem to be arrogant or assertive at all, or he was just adept at masking it behind his reserved exterior, his passion and determination just bubbling under the surface, waiting for release. He was hesitant and meticulous with a quiet conviction, but behind his glasses she saw the same unmistakable look of hurt in his eyes, the desperate need to love and belong. She wondered how and if he compared her to the other Olivia. Did he see something in her that reminded of the one he left behind, who chose another man over him?

“Sorry, that was inappropriate of me. I should go,” Astrid stated as she moved to stand, interrupting Olivia’s thoughts.

“Oh no, it’s fine!” She protested, “I didn’t mean to snap -“

“No, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s none of my business.” 

Olivia grabbed Astrid’s arm as she went to leave.

“No, Astrid. You see things, things people don’t usually see. And you’re right.”

“About what?”

“Everything. All of it,” Olivia sighed, pausing as the younger agent left. “And now I feel like, like it’s probably too late.”

Olivia tidied up after Astrid left, washing up their mugs and trying not to think about what Lincoln and Jill could be doing when it was already so late. The scenarios played through her mind, augmented by the memory of the sounds of them kissing permanently tattooed in her memory.

***

A noise woke Olivia suddenly from her dark, dreamless sleep. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, pitch black except for the faint glow of light that bled through the edges of the curtains. Hearing it again, she instinctively reached for her weapon where it sat on the bedside table with her alarm clock, its red LED display flashing to show it was almost 3am.

Gingerly opening her bedroom door, which she’d left ajar, she peered around as a shadow moved into the dark kitchen area and she crept through the entrance, swinging her gun around the corner.

“Don’t move!” she demanded loudly as the sound of a glass dropping and shattering on the floor ripped through the air between them.

“Jesus, Liv! What the hell! It’s me!” A male voice cried out in surprise from the shadows.

“Lincoln? What are you doing sneaking around in the dark at this hour?”

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she realized he was almost naked, and was standing in his underwear. Suddenly, in her own state of undress, she felt self-conscious and lowered her weapon to cover herself with her arms.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” Lincoln began. “it’s so late, I assumed you’d be asleep. I’m sorry.” He replied guiltily, carefully stepping over the shards of glass on the floor.

“I was. I wasn’t expecting you back tonight,” Olivia replied defensively, crossing her arms against her chest and looking past him towards the door of his bedroom. “Is she here? Is that why you’re… “ she asked, jutting out her chin almost accusingly, looking at his state of undress.

“What? No!” Lincoln exclaimed. “Is that what you really think of me?”

She shrugged, averting her eyes in embarrassment from his nakedness and from her accusatory tone. He turned and bent over to search through the cupboards, the contents rattling as he rummaged through them.

“I don’t know.” 

“You’ve got it all wrong,” he replied, his voice muffled from the cupboard. “Can you switch the light on? I can’t find the dustpan to clear up this broken glass.”

She hit the switch hard with the palm of her hand and squinted as the bright fluorescent light flooded the room. Looking down at his sinewy body as he knelt on the floor, she glanced quickly at his almost naked form, having never seen him this way before. She could tell under his fitted suits he was slim and toned, but as he stretched and stood up before her, it exposed the taut muscles across the plane of his chest, covered with a fine layer of coarse hair. The mark on his arm where the bullet had grazed it, along with a healed scar on his left shoulder, caught her attention until she realized she was watching him too intently and she silently walked back out to her room. Lincoln tipped the broken glass into the trash and left the dustpan and brush on the kitchen counter, then followed her across the apartment, waiting outside her semi-open door that swung behind her on the hinges.

“First of all, it was one date, I like to get to know someone a bit before I think about…" Lincoln's voice trailed off as he felt a blush rise in his cheeks. "And this is your apartment, I wouldn’t bring anyone back here without asking you first." Lincoln paused at her door, not wanting to go again uninvited but waited for her to respond. When she didn’t, he continued anyway. “If you must know why I’m almost naked, it’s because just before you pulled your gun on me, I put all my clothes in the washer as soon as I got in so I didn't make a mess of the place.”

She opened her door again, pulling a navy blue T-shirt over her head and handed him a bath robe in the same color, and he shrugged his arms into it, noticing it carried the faint scent of her.

“Thanks,” he said as he squinted down at himself and frowned as he realized what he was probably wearing an old robe of Frank's she'd held onto after he left.

“You’re already close because of work," Olivia stated, crossing her arms across her chest again as she leaned against the door frame. The sounds of their soft moans, heavy breathing and gasps as they kissed she'd heard moments before being exposed to the drugs echoed in her mind and she looked down at the floor, away from his eyes that were studying her face. "It's not like you're complete strangers."

"We’re not - I don't know her like I know you," Lincoln blurted, watching Olivia as her eyes shot up from looking at the floor to meet his gaze briefly, before looking away again.

"What happened?” she asked tentatively,  her voice small and unsure of if she wanted to know.

“We went to dinner and took her car as she suggested a place to go and obviously I don’t know many places around here, and I didn’t want to leave you stranded at work. We had some nice food, a few drinks, you know…” Lincoln rambled and Olivia nodded, prompting him to continue. “... It was all going okay…”

“Just okay?” she echoed as she passed him on the way to the living room, and he shrugged following her path..

“It was fine, nice. Until we got back to her car, and it wouldn’t start.” Olivia winced, and he nodded. “It gets worse. I tried to help, but of course I know nothing about cars, especially the type of cars over here, so I just ended up getting covered in oil and dirt, which didn’t help the situation at all. In the end I said I’d wait for a tow to turn up and stay with her so she wasn’t on her own with some guy she doesn’t know, which took about 3 hours!” He exclaimed in frustration as Olivia burst into laughter, the relief overwhelming her and admiring his resolve to stay there and make sure Jill was okay, and she covered her mouth to stifle her laughter.

“I’m glad you think it’s funny!” he laughed in reply.

“Why didn’t you call me or Charlie? We wouldn’t have minded coming out to help.”

He scoffed, flopping backwards onto the sofa.

“I’m not gonna bother Charlie when Mona is heavily pregnant,” Lincoln scoffed. “And as I had to spend half the evening convincing her we’re only friends and aren’t involved with each other, I don’t think she would have been too keen to have you turn up.”

“Seriously?” Olivia asked, looking away from him guiltily, thankful that he seemed preoccupied with tying up the robe around his waist to notice her expression. “Why would she think that?”

She thought about what Astrid had said earlier, how she said she had noticed the way they looked at each other, especially since he’d moved in.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged again. “Maybe she…“  Lincoln stopped, pursing his lips.

“What?” Olivia asked, looking back over at him.

“Nothing.”

“Lincoln, tell me.” She demanded, her hands on her hips, and he sighed.

“Maybe she got confused and meant him. Your - the other Lincoln.” 

The words spilled from his mouth, spurred on by the courage alcohol had given him and he regretted them as they hit her like a slap in the face.

The sudden change of atmosphere in the room was palpable, like a summer storm that hits without warning and she recoiled, stepping back into the kitchen as if the bitter implication of his words had stung her.

“Liv, Olivia, I…” he began in an apologetic tone on seeing her smile drop as she moved away. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I…”

“Shit!” she cried from the kitchen and he jumped up from the chair rushing after her, entering the kitchen as she removed a shard of glass from her foot, glaring up at him as he stopped at the door and a droplet of blood bloomed on the sole of her foot.

“Damn, I thought I’d got it all. Let me get that.” Lincoln said as he reached out to her, watching the scarlet bead roll down her heel. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine, it’s just a scratch.” Olivia replied stubbornly, dabbing the sole of her foot with a paper towel as he retreated. 

“I mean, I’m sorry about what I said," he breathed, leaning against the counter. “She probably heard some rumors. I shouldn’t have said that.” 

She discarded the piece of glass into the trash and leaned her on her hands on the side of the counter, next to his glasses, where he’d removed them to undress quickly.

Lincoln watched for her reaction, waiting for a response, but she froze with her back to him. He turned to leave and as he did, she spun back to face him.

“No.” she said simply, unable to bottle in her thoughts anymore, releasing them under the pressure, letting them erupt and spill out like suffocating volcanic ash and burning magma.

“No?” 

“You’re right. We were, we did just before he died…”

Lincoln nodded as his eyes drifted away in avoidance, trying to hide the disappointment in his eyes as he acknowledged her words and his suspicions were proved to be correct. 

“You don’t owe me any explanation, Olivia,” he began, lifting his finger to stop her. “It’s none of my business what you two were or did.” 

He shuffled his feet awkwardly as she shook her head, the thoughts still spilling out into words, overflowing like a river about to flood and burst from its banks.

“When we were tracking Jones in the park before he escaped, you asked me if we were close,” Olivia interrupted. “And what I told you was the truth, but he heard our conversation over the radio….” 

Olivia paused to inspect her foot. Lincoln was so quiet, for a second she thought he’d left, but she could see him in the corner of her eye, leaning against the doorjamb, completely motionless as he stared at her. The sense of déjà vu hit her hard, seeing him in the same place and position where the other Lincoln had stood moments before he’d confessed he was in love with her.

“He was always in love with you, wasn’t he?” he stated simply and matter-of-factly, like it had been obvious all along. If he loved her himself after knowing her for only a few months, of course the other Lincoln loved her too when he’d known her for years.

She looked back up at him again, unable to speak, unable to meet his eyes.

Lincoln didn’t need her to. Her expression was all the response he needed. 

“You were…” he began slowly, trying to disguise the catch in his voice, “...in love with him too."

It sounded more like a statement than a question but either way she couldn’t answer.

In truth; Olivia didn’t know what to say.  She had told herself she was because she wanted to be so much but was it love or grief for what they could have been?

After being let down so many times, Lincoln had always been there for her, unwavering in his support, friendship and had only ever hoped, not expected, anything in return. She wanted to love him the way he wanted, the way he deserved, especially after the dreams she’d had when he’d held her when she gave birth. But she knew she had just become tired of being disappointed and looking, just as he’d become tired of hoping. She was confusing loving someone for being in love because of her grief. Her heart burned in remorse, shame and guilt when she realized she'd indulged because she thought the Lincoln in front of her wasn't interested.

Lincoln took her silence to confirm his suspicion. He’d stayed here with her because he’d lost a partner, two in a way if you count the other Olivia, and he knew the emptiness it left behind, naively hoping that their counterparts wouldn’t be a barrier for them and they would offer each other some comfort. He watched helplessly as two tears slipped down Olivia’s cheek, hitting the counter next to the bloodied tissue.

“I shouldn’t have left him,” she sobbed, breaking the awkward silence. “If I’d just stayed with him a little longer, I would have been with him when he…”

Lincoln stepped back towards her, shaking his head in annoyance with himself and tenderly rubbing her shoulder as she hunched over the counter.

“Liv, don’t. It’s not your fault. Broyles gave us up, but I’m the one you should blame.” 

Her eyes shot back up at him again, frowning as he blinked back at her, unable to take the burden anymore. “It was my lead that took us to that site, even though Broyles tried to throw us off the scent. I caught the suspect. If I hadn’t questioned him there and we’d taken him back to the HQ like you said, we’d have been long gone before the sniper arrived. Your Lincoln took a bullet for me and he’s dead because of me!"

It was her turn to shake her head as she saw the regret and guilt flashing in his eyes. “It’s true though," he gulped as his eyes misted. “When I saw your face in the locker room that day, I could tell you knew, but what was I supposed to say to you when it was all my fault?” 

On that day, panic and fear etched across his face seeing his doppelgänger on the floor, the coppery scent of the blood blooming through the white cotton of his T-shirt and his fingers. He wondered if he would have the same look of fear when he died as that Lincoln did that day.

His warm hand was still on her shoulder as she hadn’t moved away from his touch. "I think he knew - he told me to take care of you after you left and that might have been the last thing he said. I just wanted to stay here to help you but I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to live with that or how you can live with me here knowing it’s my fault, and it should’ve been me that di-- that was in the morgue, not him.”

Lincoln’s lip trembled as the words spilled from his mouth with the relief of admitting all the guilt he’d been carrying around since that day when he’d watched a version of himself slip away in his hands. If he was honest, he’d stayed for that reason, his heart full of regret for causing her pain and hoped he’d be able to mend the hole left in her life somehow.

Olivia’s hand went to cover her face and there was nothing he could do but wrap his other arm around her, holding her tight in his embrace. They stood silently, closing their eyes as they clung to each other, time slowing as they dissolved into the comfort and warmth of each other’s bodies, allowing themselves to drift together into the abyss of uncharted waters. She sighed and shifted, opening her eyes to see Lincoln’s mouth, his lips trembling so close to her own and his eyes deep and dark, and searching her tear-stained face. Olivia’s eye drifted imperceptibly to his lips, his slightly imperfect teeth she found strangely endearing glistened as he subconsciously nervously licked his bottom lip.

“I don’t blame you for any of that,” she sighed under her breath. “I’m just so…”

Her words dropped away as his fingers deftly moved to brush a hair that had stuck to her cheek, wet with tears and tucked it behind her ear, gently running his finger back down her neck to her shoulder, nestling his thumb on the protruding edge of her clavicle. She could feel his hand tremble as it traced against the collarbone and the warmth of his wine tinted breath enveloped her with the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Heat radiated between them, edging their faces closer and yet they both hesitated, their uncertainties causing a resistance. 

“I should go,” Lincoln gulped, breaking the silence, hovering a millimeter away from her lips grazing his.

“You want to go?”

“No.” He said simply. He wanted this, more than anything, but like this? He couldn’t let himself love her if she didn’t love him back, and in this emotional state they were both in. “But I should, I'm sorry.”

His heart ached and mouth twitched with the words he wanted to say.

“Just tell me not to go, tell me to stay. Tell me you love me like I love you.”

But they refused to rise to his lips, instead they sank under the weight of his anxiety, fears and hesitation.

Olivia nodded and sighed, blinking slowly and taking a small step backwards to release him, and he let his arms passively slip down to his sides again, stepping back too.

Lincoln looked away guiltily, anywhere but at her, and gulped again, then shivered with the lack of her warmth.

“I’m sorry too,” she sniffed, going back to her room, closing the door behind her, leaving him to stand in the same spot she’d found him in. He put his glasses back on, pushing them up the bridge of his nose and folded his arms, more unsure than he’d ever been.

Chapter Text

Late afternoon, August 14/8/2013 Alternative/ Redverse

"Hey! Agent Ruiz!" 

Jill turned on her heel at the sound of her name being called, her dark brown eyes widened to see Lincoln walking quickly towards her with a jog in his step as he made his way across the Fringe HQ rotunda and through the other members of the team.

"Oh, hey! Jill, please." 

"Jill," Lincoln said, correcting himself with a slight nod. "Sorry. I just wanted to say, about what you asked earlier-"

"It's okay," Jill interrupted, waving her hands up dismissively. "If you're not interested, you don't need to let me down gently, I'm a big girl now."

"Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to head out once I wrap up this paperwork?" he replied with a slight smile, and raised his eyebrows quickly.

"Tonight?" she asked, eyes wide with surprise before glancing down at her plain, formal work attire of a dark suit and white top.

"No time like the present," Lincoln shrugged, catching her self-conscious gaze. “I don’t have any plans for this evening, if you’re free.”

Although he didn’t have a particularly active social life as work often impacted on his hobbies, Lincoln tried to keep Fridays free for his and Liv’s movie nights, where they'd pick a random film and discuss any differences that he knew of. Thursdays were for a martial art class he’d managed to enrol in to continue the one he’d enjoyed in Hartford, and Tuesdays were for chess club. He liked to keep weekends and Mondays reserved for reading and keeping up with the technology and cultural differences of this universe, and occasionally indulging in some new music.

“Sure,” Jill relented and smiled. “Why not? Shall I meet you in the parking lot in half an hour? I know this place called Winks a couple miles from here that has decent beer, and great bar food - no tie needed. I can drive us there if you like?"

“Great!” he replied, his eyes flickering and he recoiled slightly as she touched his tie. “I’ll see you then for winks - and drinks!" 

Jill nodded as he punctuated the sentence with an accentuated wink, and she walked away, trying to understate the grin she felt spreading on her face.

***

7.12am Aug 15th 2013 Alternative/Redverse

Despite having a restless sleep from thinking about what had happened, and had nearly happened between him and Olivia, Lincoln was up and dressed early.

Dressed in his usual suit, he adjusted his tie and glasses in the mirror, preparing to leave for work when he saw Olivia opened the door to her room in the reflection behind him, stopping abruptly when she noticed he was there.

“Hey,” He smiled awkwardly, shifting slightly on his feet and turned on his heel. Her face looked red and puffy, and he wondered if she’d been awake for most of the night too, and despised him as much as he despised himself. “I was just about to go. I left your robe there.” 

He pointed towards the sofa, and she glanced over at the dark blue fabric of it draped across the back of the chair and frowned, folding her arms.

“You’re leaving already?” Olivia questioned, looking down at her feet. "Where's your case?"

“I got a call from Charlie, Erikson wants us in the office A-SAP,” Lincoln explained, then frowned, catching her pained expression. “Wait - case?"

The double meaning of the word sunk into his thoughts like a pebble thrown into the ocean that had worked its way through the depths of the salty turbulent waves, debris and the reaches of sticky seaweed until finally landing with a thump into the sediment on the seabed, leaving a crater in the gritty dirt and sand, away from anyone's gaze and the reach of the sun's rays. "Did you think I was leaving for good?” She didn’t look up as she silently picked at an imaginary piece of thread on her t-shirt, and leaned against the wall by her door. “Liv?” he pressed gently, daring to step slightly closer, holding his hand out in peace as if trying to win the trust of a feral animal. “Did you think I was leaving here?” 

She dared herself to look back at him, taking in his appearance. He looked like his normal self in his suit and glasses, unlike last night when she’d felt confused, vulnerable and exposed, exacerbated because of his uncanny resemblance to the Lincoln she’d known before.

“No! Do you want to? I didn’t get a call from work. Do they need me to come in too?” she lied, rambling quickly as her flustered hands moved around, distracting them both then stopped, looking at his hurt expression.

“I think Erikson just wants you to rest and make sure you’re well enough before you go back in the field, and so does Charlie - and me," Lincoln said and paused, shuffling another step forward. “Listen, Liv. I don’t want to go, but I didn’t mean to, uh, freak you out, so I understand if you want me to move out...” 

It was his turn to sweat now and, oh god, he felt like he was a teenager again and winced at himself.

“You didn’t freak me out,” Olivia replied softly. He stared as her hand reached out to his, and she thought back to his words from the night before. “I like having you here, I don’t want you to move out. And for the record, this isn’t my apartment, it's our apartment.”

He nodded then jumped as the shrill noise of a phone ringing filled the room and quickly jerked his hands back to his jacket pocket.

“That’d be your call,” he smiled. “If you get dressed, I’ll go bring the car around and we can grab a couple of breakfast pastries from that place you like a couple of blocks away on the way in.”

She nodded once in reply, turning back into her room to answer the call, not noticing Lincoln's regretful expression he made at himself when she closed the door. 

***

Late evening, August 14/8/2013 Alternative/ Redverse

Lincoln slumped in the front passenger seat and futilely rubbed at the oil and dirt on the front of his pants, unsure if he was making the palms of his dirtier or cleaner in the low light.

"I'm so sorry about your suit," Jill cringed, ending the call on her ear cuff and watching him from the driver's seat. “Valiant effort though"

"No - bother," Lincoln sighed as he continued rubbing the fabric then shrugged in resignation. "What did they say?"

"They're sending a tow as soon as possible but it could be a couple of hours," she replied, shifting in her seat, "so if you wanna call a cab and get home to get changed into clean clothes -"

"- I'm not leaving you on your own for two hours in an empty parking lot." He protested. 

"I have my weapon," she reasoned, meeting his eyes before shrugging, "besides it's not even that dark yet."

"It could be, by the time the tow company gets here." Lincoln argued. "I'd rather stay, for my own piece of mind - if it's all the same to you?"

"Okay, if you insist," Jill smiled in defeat, then raised her index finger as an idea appeared in her mind. Brushing his knee briefly as she reached across to open the glove compartment, she pulled out a pack of cards, and began shuffling them deftly in her small hands. "Fancy a few games to pass the time?"

***

7.33am Aug 15th 2013 Alternative/Redverse

Twenty minutes later, Olivia left the apartment and walked towards the car. She could see the animated shape of Lincoln moving as she approached it, his hand outstretched as if he was in a deep discussion, only stopping when he noticed her through the window. He'd had spent the whole time deliberating on if he should tell her how he felt but every time he made a choice, he’d talk himself out of it until he saw her leave the apartment and approach the car.

She opened the door but didn’t sit down, instead she leaned down and rested her arms against the door and roof.

“You ready to go?” Lincoln asked as he went to place his card against the dash to start the engine and paused as she shook her head. “What is it? Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, that was my mom on the phone. I’m gonna take a week’s leave and get a cab to stay with her up in Tarrytown for a bit,” Olivia said flatly with a thin smile. “She wants me to stay over for a few days, she’s still feeling sick.“

She shut the door, and he opened the window as she took a small step backwards.

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” he repeated worryingly. “If you need space, I can stay in a hotel or look for an…”

“No, no. It’s fine.” she smiled again before he could finish, sincerely and bigger than before but still reservedly. “I’ll be back in a week, tops, as I need to come back for my psych review.”

Lincoln hesitated. Something didn’t seem right about her leaving for her mom’s and him leaving her now, but he wasn’t sure what to say or what to do about it and sat silently, almost in shock, watching her face for a cue, his lips quivering as they attempted to find the words and courage to speak them.

“Go! You’ll be late for work!” Olivia insisted, breaking the silence and spell of the stasis between them and shooed him with her hands.

“I’ll see you in a few days, then. Have a safe journey.” he said with a shrug, accepting her excuse unenthusiastically, and he reluctantly started the engine. 

The stormy gray sky began splashing fat droplets of rain on the windshield as Olivia stepped further backwards away from the curb and turned towards the apartment. Lincoln drove away, watching her run out of the rain back into the building in the rear view mirror, resisting the urge and compulsion he felt in every cell of his body to turn back.

***

2.03am August 15/8/2013 alternative/ Redverse

Jill sat in silence, intently studying her hand, and glanced up at Lincoln in the low light who was sitting opposite her. He raised his eyebrows and twisted his lips expectantly, before glancing down at his own hand.

“Well?” she ventured, shifting slightly in the car seat. “What are you going to do?” Lincoln sighed, looking at the cards indecisively. He was so close to the number he wanted but if he hit, he could go over and lose. Jill leaned over and touched his hand teasingly, “C’mon, make a decision -”

“Fine,” Lincoln relented, “I’m gonna stay.”

“That’s your final choice?” Jill replied, pretending to peer over the top of his cards.

“Yep.” He nodded once, holding them against his chest, unwilling to take the risk. “You?”

“Oh you want me to choose right now when you took two hours - sorry, years - to decide?”

“I did not!” Lincoln protested, as he frowned and checked his wristwatch, checking to see only two minutes had passed. “Besides, if you’re gonna nag me to make a choice, I’m not gonna let you off the hook.”

“You’re not, huh?” She huffed out a laugh, then reached for the top card of the pack that they’d placed on the dashboard under the windshield. “I’m gonna hit.” Jill’s smile dropped as she pulled the card out and tucked it with the others in her hand, and she winced when she added the total. “Dammit.”

“Not what you were hoping for?” He noted, noticing her disappointed expression.

“Three over,” Jill shrugged, holding out the cards of a King of Spades, four and six of clubs and a three of diamonds.  “What did you get?”

“Twenty,” Lincoln replied proudly, holding out an Ace of Diamonds, and a three and six of hearts. “Only one away.”

”Hey, you finally won a round of Blue Jay!” She teased, holding out her hand to Lincoln to return the cards to the pack. The game was identical to Blackjack, except their cards were red and blue, instead of black, and they called their jack card a jay, which was an odd difference between their worlds, but one Lincoln could at least easily comprehend compared to the other games they’d attempted to play. He frowned and huffed a laugh, watching Jill tuck the pack back into the glove compartment.

“I don’t suppose you have a chess set in there?” He asked, before she clicked it shut. “‘Cause if you do, I’d whoop your ass at that.”

“Oh, really?” Jill snorted, chuckling again before turning on the radio and fiddling with the buttons to find a decent station. “Sounds like a challenge. Not sure where we could have put a chess board in here though, even if I did have one stashed away.”

“We could have done it on the back seat,” Lincoln blurted before realizing how it sounded and met Jill’s eyes that glinted in the dark as she reclined back into her chair. The words and sounds of Justin Timberlake merged into Jason Derulo and they stuck between them in the heavy air as they simultaneously looked at each other, waiting for the other to respond. Lincoln shifted in his seat as he looked down, and absentmindedly picked at the muck and dirt on the thighs of his pants then sighed. “Sorry -” 

“- Don’t be.” She interrupted and smiled as Lincoln looked back up at her, his eyes flickering from surprise and bewilderment to shock when she leaned forward towards and covered his hand with her own. “Why’d you kiss me?”

Her voice came out low and husky, barely louder than a whisper but the question screamed like his heartbeat that rattled against his ribcage.

“I, er, thought it would conceal our faces so Erasmus wouldn’t see us, I guess it wasn’t the greatest idea I ever had,” he gulped nervously, watching as her thumb lightly traced his hand and her warm fingers linked with his.

“Really?” Jill asked, shifting in her seat slightly to lean further in towards Lincoln's space and gently squeezed his hand, watching him silently nod as she tentatively edged closer. “I don’t think it was a bad idea. You wanna do it again?”

Lincoln barely had time to respond before she leaned in more to close the gap between them, then jumped in shock at the sound of something hitting the window behind them, and turned around to see an older man in a bright orange luminous jacket peering through the glass from outside the car.

“Tow for a Ms - “ The older man with weathered skin, balding shaved hair and a light beard paused to check the small tablet device in his gloved hand before scratching his chin, “- Ruins ?”

“Ruiz,” she replied, rolling her eyes and turning back to exit through the car door to join him as he disappeared behind the open hood, exposing the engine and mechanics inside, and Lincoln let go of the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding onto.

***

7.53am August 15/8/2013 Alternative/ Redverse

Charlie jogged into the Fringe HQ rotunda, watching Lincoln as he jumped up from his seat to get his attention as he approached the desk and looked puzzled to see he was alone at the podium

“Boss wants to see us in his office right away,” he said, before the other man could sit down. 

“Where’s Liv?” Charlie asked as they approached Erikson’s office.

“She’s on leave, gone to her Mom’s for a few days,” Lincoln replied simply, reluctant to divulge any further information as they walked through the office.

“What happened?” he said, his voice low with dread as he reached for the glass door, Erikson urgently beckoning them in.

“Nothing. You wanted to see us, Sir?” Lincoln asked, turning to his boss from Charlie, standing in front of his desk as Charlie joined him, looking at Lincoln sideways.

“Thank you for getting here so quickly. As you know, Dunham has taken a few days’ leave. Agent Ruiz is returning to her unit shortly, as The Sandman case is being wrapped up and the suspects are in custody,” Lincoln flinched slightly as Erikson spoke, looking at Charlie as he frowned. “In the meantime, we have another case; A convict on the loose.” 

Erikson passed over the tablet with photos and details on the suspect as the two other men scanned through the information.

“They just let her go?” Charlie asked incredulously, looking back at his superior, his dark brown eyes widening in disbelief.

“The theory is she used some kind of telepathic link to make people do her will and convinced them to release her from jail,” Erikson said.

“Like the power of suggestion?” Lincoln replied suspiciously, “You’re sure the person who let her go isn’t implicated somehow?”

“It’s unlikely. She knew too many details, ones that were only in the police reports.”

“And it’s certain she doesn’t have contacts inside the police?” Charlie added, his voice gruff with skepticism. 

“You mean like a mole?” Lincoln added, raising his eyebrows to look uneasily at Charlie, remembering how he and Liv had uncovered Broyles - Erikson’s predecessor - and his plot with Jones that resulted in the deaths of both their partners.

“That’s for you to determine, and liaise with the field office to help locate and detain the suspect.” Erikson added as Lincoln and Charlie left the office and returned to their desks in the rotunda to look over the details.

***

January 2010 Alternative/ Redverse - 3 years and 8 months earlier.

“What’s going on?” Charlie said as he jogged up to Lincoln, who was leaning against the slick black surface of a Fringe van, studying information on the screen in his hand.

“Broyles has asked us to go check out reports of an unidentified beast of some kind coming through in Newtown Woods.” Lincoln replied without looking up from the tablet. “We’re just waiting for backup.”

“I’m not talking about this monster thing,” Charlie sighed, interrupting him before he could finish, “I mean you and Liv. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Lincoln said dismissively, turning back into the van and sitting on the bench in the back, and catching Charlie’s raised eyebrow and narrowed eyes. 

“C’mon, buddy. You too are always smiling and flirting with each other, but the last couple of days you haven't been able to even look at each other or spend five minutes together alone. You two have a fight?” he frowned when Lincoln shook his head. “You got a thing for her?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lincoln scowled and sighed, placing the device on the bench by his side as he wavered under Charlie’s gaze, and leaned forward to lower his voice. “Fine. If you must know, I kissed her.”

“You? Kissed... Liv?” 

Lincoln pinched a smile and raised his eyebrows in response as he leaned back. “I take it you didn’t get the response you hoped for?” Charlie replied as he sympathetically mirrored Lincoln’s expression and winced as Lincoln shook his head.

“Not exactly. Apparently she has a boyfriend, so...” Lincoln shrugged, “I dunno. I just thought there was something between us, but... What if she thinks I’m a creep and leaves the department? Or worse, doesn’t trust me as a friend anymore?”

“You ARE a creep,” Charlie joked. Lincoln rolled his eyes and nudged him on seeing Olivia approach the van with the rest of the team, her red hair catching in bright winter sunshine between the black uniforms and helmets of the others, like a painting of a sunset on an exotic, tropical island framed by silhouettes of inky palm trees, and they shuffled down to the back of the van.

“Just apologize and put it down to the drink and adrenaline,” Charlie whispered quickly as the team started filing in. “She’s probably just feeling as awkward as you are.”

Lincoln nodded and gulped as he looked sideways at Olivia as she sat by the back door of the van, watching her nervously play with her fingers as the engine started and they pulled away.

“You okay?” Lincoln asked, nudging Olivia's arm with his elbow as they stepped out of the van half an hour later. She nodded in reply, trying not to wince at the bruise on her arm where Frank had grabbed her a couple of nights ago after the Christmas party. She could feel the ghost of Frank's grip, the purple and green finger shaped lines spreading like tendrils across her skin and infecting her body like an invading parasitic fungus. “Liv, I wanna apologize for the other night. It won’t happen again, I promise. You’re right, I was drunk, and it was unprofessional. We’re friends and we - I - shouldn’t have betrayed that…” he blurted and rambled, his cool blue eyes flickering with concern at her quietness and recoiling from his touch, unaware of the marks on her skin concealed by her clothing.

“It’s fine,” Olivia blushed, cutting him off before he could finish, and avoided his gaze, knowing full well that if she met his eyes, she might admit she kissed him back, and would do it again. “It’s fine. Forget about it.” She watched Charlie as he moved in front of them, stepping over fallen branches and crisp leaves in shades of amber and russet peppered across the floor, unaware he was deliberately giving them space to talk without worrying he'd over hear their conversation. “So…” she said, trying to keep her balance while holding her weapon, changing the subject as she carefully stepped over the fallen branches and tree roots on the uneven floor of the woods, concealed by the dead, dry leaves, moss and bracken. “A monster, huh?”

“That’s what the report said,” Lincoln replied, slightly in front and to her left, scuffing up some reddening leaves with the toe of his military boot. 

“Except monsters aren’t real,” Charlie retorted, fifteen feet ahead of them and forking off the path to Olivia’s right, moving deeper into the forest and stepping over the twisted and withered exposed roots of the old trees.

“Really?” Olivia and Lincoln said incredulously in unison, to a look of disapproval from Charlie.

“So you two finally got your Vulcan mind meld thing back?” he jokingly sneered, and they looked at each other, mocking his expression when he turned his back and bent over to inspect something at his feet. “It’s probably a bear, either that they made it up, or…”

“Or what?” Olivia replied and turned to see Charlie hold up some of the undergrowth saturated with fresh, warm blood, the sticky red splatters shiny and vibrant against the dull khaki green of the leaves.

Before the look of silent terror on Olivia’s face and Lincoln’s scream could register in his brain, a grotesquely and elongated segmented tail unfurled from the branch above him and swung down to coil around Charlie’s neck, cutting a line on the side of his face into his temple terrifyingly close to his left eye, so a line of blood slowly dripping down from his brow.

“Charlie - DON’T MOVE!” Olivia slowly demanded, as if he wasn’t already completely paralyzed in its grip, her gun aimed at what she could see of the creature. Charlie coughed and struggled with it as it tightened its grip around his neck, and he gasped when the sound of Olivia’s shot rang through his ears and whipped through the branches, the bullet grazing the top of his head.

“Nice shot,” Lincoln said, walking up and placing his hand on her back, congratulating her as the creature fell down to the floor, releasing Charlie from its grasp.

“And there you were thinking you didn’t need an expert shooter on the Fringe team.”

“The thought never crossed my mind," he quipped, holstering away his weapon.

“Uh, guys?” Charlie said, slumping to the floor, holding a stinger the creature had injected from its tail into his side. Olivia ran over, pressing on the wound, the blood seeping through her fingers.

“This is Agent Lee. I need MedEvac teams and backup sent to my location, now!” Lincoln shouted as he kicked the creature to confirm it was incapacitated, and Olivia inspected Charlie’s side.

“You’re gonna be fine. They’re on their way now” she said reassuringly, as he nodded.

“Don’t even think about saying I told you so," he laughed nervously through shallow breaths.

“We told you so!” Lincoln and Olivia cried out in unison, then looked in each other’s direction as Charlie rolled his eyes and blacked out.

***

August 15/8/2013 Alternative/ Redverse 8.45am (present time)

“This is bizarre,” Lincoln said to Charlie without looking up as he scanned over the reports. “It says here witnesses to her interview claim Ashlyn Montgomery killed the detective in charge of the investigation merely by convincing him he was falling off a skyscraper, making his mind think believe his greatest fear. His internal organs were consistent with those who fallen high distances but he didn't leave the interrogation room the whole time.”

He looked up at Charlie to see him silently staring right back at him with an expression that was somewhere between irritation and frustration that Lincoln found unsettling. “Apparently it was well known in his team he suffered from acute acrophobia and vertigo - what?” Lincoln frowned accusingly, putting the tablet down when Charlie refused to budge with his look.

“Spill it, what happened with Liv? Really?” Charlie demanded.

“I told you - nothing!” Lincoln held his hands up in surrender. “She just wants to go visit her mom for a while.”

“That’s what she said?”

“Yes, that’s what she said. Why?” he replied defensively and naively.

Charlie shook his head and sighed.

“Because you look like you haven’t slept all night and I don’t know you that well, but I know her and she always runs off to her mom when she’s upset.”

Lincoln’s eyes widened and moved as he recalled the night before. The feeling of her breath on his face when he could have leaned in just a millimeter to close the gap between them, but told her he would leave instead as the fear of her heart belonging to his predecessor gripped him. He didn’t want to fall for her anymore than he had already. He couldn’t allow himself to make that error again.

“Okay. We, uh,” he relented, pausing, then cleared his throat. “I got home really late from, uh, a date.” Charlie raised his eyebrows as Lincoln continued. “We had a bit of a thing -”

“A thing? Like a fight?”

“Not exactly. But, uh, we nearly kissed.”

“You nearly kissed?” Charlie said, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. "Didn't you kiss her at the football game?"

“How did you - Yeah I did,” Lincoln sighed regretfully, remembering how he'd run away both times and looked down at his tie to avoid Charlie’s stare. "But, uh, this was - it felt different. And she told me how she and the other Lincoln were..."

In love. Lincoln paused, unable to finish the sentence and cement what he'd suspected and feared all along, and looked up to see Charlie scratching his stubble in frustration and then frown.

“Wait a second, who’d you go on a date with?” he asked, still confused.

“Agent Ruiz - Jill from that first case we had,” Lincoln replied. “She asked Olivia if I was single and Olivia said I should take her out, so…”

“Jesus Christ! You two are idiots” Charlie exclaimed. “I swear to God, you two need your heads banging together!”

“Wait, what?” he replied, puzzled, his brow knitted in confusion. “You told me to talk to her when I went to the hospital, but I couldn’t. What did you mean by that?” 

“You couldn’t, huh?” Charlie retorted, his voice dry with skepticism and sarcasm. “Tell me something. Do you like her?” 

“Who? Jill or Liv?” 

“Liv. Do you ‘like’ her?” His eyes emphasized the word like, and Lincoln’s lip twitched as his face involuntarily flushed and Charlie sighed in relief as he noticed his reaction.

“I, uh, yes,” Lincoln admitted with a sigh, “Of course I do. I more than like her. Why wouldn’t I? She’s incredible. When she laughs, like really laughs, her eyes and nose scrunch up and her eyes shine and turn into little half moons. Then she makes this funny little snort noise… “ He broke off again as someone walked past. “But every time we get close, I feel like I’m taking advantage of her grief, like she is clinging onto his memory through me and I push her away for both our sakes. I don’t know what’s the right thing to do?” he asked ruefully and shrugged in defeat.

“Why did you stay here, in this universe?” Charlie said bluntly. “Honestly.”

“Because it felt like the right thing to do at the time.” Lincoln replied candidly, with a deep sigh. “I finally felt like I was home, and Liv, she - needed someone here.” 

He thought about what the Olivia on his side said about finding answers and of his previous partner’s words;

Everything happens for a reason. Like we were meant to be.

“Look,” Charlie said firmly. “It’s not really my place to say anything, but that isn’t what Liv thinks. She thinks you stayed to get closure on your ex-partner’s murder.” Lincoln frowned and blinked again, his mind whirring as he absorbed Charlie’s words. “I know you think she sees you as some kind of substitute, so you two really need to talk when she comes back - properly this time.” Charlie stood, smiling as he shrugged on his jacket, watching Lincoln’s dumb-founded expression as he tried to grasp Charlie’s words of advice. “C’mon,” he said, running his hands over his buzz cut as he left. “Let’s go speak to the local P.D office and chase up these leads.”

Lincoln jogged after him, tucking the tablet under his arm.

“W-wait, hang on!” Lincoln stuttered in protest as Charlie smiled smugly, pleased with himself he'd finally pushed them in each other's direction. “What else did she say to you?”

Chapter Text

21/8/2013 Alternative/Redverse

Tarrytown

A blade of bright midday summer sun streamed through the large windows of the busy restaurant, catching a small crystal ornament of a seahorse that had been placed on a wall shelf next to a vase of white tulips, making little fractures of light sparkle like glittering confetti against the dark walls. Olivia smiled absentmindedly as she watched the dancing prism of colors as they reminded her of the suncatcher Lincoln had given her for her birthday a couple months previously. She'd decided to hang it over his pot plant that sat on the east facing kitchen windowsill so it could catch the bright sunshine early in the morning before they left for work. Despite them forgetting to water it occasionally, they'd nurtured the little plant and it had flourished in the bright spot since he’d placed it there eight months ago. A multitude of leaves in shades of amber and teal with crimson veins had unfurled from its center until eventually a lone stalk had appeared, producing tiny buds which sprouted into little white, star-shaped blooms that filled the room with a heady, floral scent.

“And in other news, I’ve developed heat ray vision and can melt walls made of solid steel,” Marilyn said, as she leaned back and crossed her arms against her chest, watching Olivia sitting opposite her in the diner, staring over her shoulder into the middle distance. After a long pause she looked up, her hazel eyes catching her mother’s accusatory silent glare.

“What?” Olivia asked defensively, frowning at her mother’s expression and tucked her red hair behind her ear before leaning her chin back on her folded hand, her elbow resting on the table between them.

“That fell on deaf ears. You didn’t hear a word of what I just said, did you?” Her mother replied, her eyebrows raising in suspicion.

“Of course I did -” she asserted, then gave up when she realized she couldn’t actually remember anything her mother had told her since they’d sat down and the server had brought over their drinks. Olivia stirred the drink with the straw, noticing the ice cubes had nearly all melted and sighed as she relented, leaning back in her chair in defeat. “Fine, I might have missed some of it. What did you say?”

“I was just saying my hospital appointment tomorrow - you know, the reason why you came to stay with me - is at 4.15pm," Marilyn paused to sip her own drink, and smiled smugly as raised her eyebrows again at Olivia. "So are you gonna tell your poor mother what’s on your mind, or are we gonna have to play a game of ‘What’s making you mope’ like we did when you were a teenager?”

“I’m fine, Mom…” Olivia objected, stopping when her mother snorted sarcastically in reply.

“Sure, whatever,” she interrupted, “but you were like this when you were with Frank - which you never told me the reason for, by the way. I wasn’t gonna ask why, as you broke up, but now two and half years later, you’re moping like a teenager again.”

“I’m not moping!” Olivia protested, more strongly this time, and sat up defiantly in her seat. “It's probably just PMS.”

“So you are going to make me guess?” Marilyn pressed, not believing Olivia’s excuse. “Are you seeing him again?”

“No!” She shook her head vigorously in protest, making her auburn hair tousle over her shoulders. “I haven’t seen him since he left, at least a couple of years -'' she stopped the words trailing off when recalling their encounter in the diner when he’d confronted her about their break-up, “actually I saw him a few months ago when I was out one evening with Lincoln, but no, we're done, finished.”

"I never did understand what you saw in those cocky, arrogant types. So Lincoln then?" Her mother probed, narrowing her eyes again suspiciously when she caught a flicker of something on Olivia’s face when she mentioned his name. “Have you two finally come to your senses?”

"Mom! I told you before - we are just friends," Olivia insisted again, punctuating each word in deliberation even though they stung her lips to speak every letter and she twisted her lips into a smile of resignation. "There is nothing going on between us."

“Have you talked about it with him then?” Marilyn asked, sipping her drink again unconvinced. “Because talking about your feelings never was your strong point. When Rachel died, you didn’t speak about it for weeks, and when your father… well, I had to read about your feelings in your diary.”

“Thanks a lot, Mom!”  Olivia interrupted sarcastically, mocking her with wide eyes and from the confession. She’d always suspected her mother had read her diary, using the thoughts Olivia had written to finally open up and break through their mutual stubbornness so they could help each other heal as Rachel had been so much younger at the time, but she never expected her to admit it. "There is no 'it ' to talk about."

Marilyn's expression softened, recognizing she’d hit a nerve and her daughter’s defenses would only go up further if she pushed due to her stubbornness. The server returned to their table, placing their plates in front of them and Olivia obstinately snatched her cutlery, purposely stabbing the salad leaves with her food, causing the metal to clatter against the smooth ceramic surface of the plate and the sound punctuated the air between them.

“You don’t need to stab your food, you know,” Marilyn smirked. "It's already dead.”

Deliberately taking a delicate bite of her own food and grimacing slightly at the wave of nausea that followed, she swallowed it down with a mouthful of water before Olivia could notice her discomfort. Olivia barely glanced up at her, unwilling to disclose anything, partly because she wouldn’t really know where to start and how to explain - even if she could share details about an alternate universe and Lincoln not being from this one - and partly because even if she could explain, she wasn’t sure what she felt. 

That was a lie, she did know how she felt. Despite the dangerous nature of working for Fringe Division, Olivia had never thought she’d be without Lincoln; he’d always been unwavering in his support and friendship, and if he’d been sucked into a vortex or encased in amber, she assumed she would have been too, both entombed together for eternity in an oblivious state of stasis in some quarantined area in Manhatan, while the sky fell down and the world ended in a ball of fire around them. It had never occurred to her he’d leave her forever without even saying goodbye and she’d be here, carrying on without him.

Sometimes she hated herself that she'd been blind to his affection that had been unconditional in so many ways for so long, and had been too scared to realize it, until that one night she’d finally opened her eyes as if she’d been sleepwalking for years. It was a revelation that seemed so ridiculous, almost cliched, that she'd made that night after his confession when she realized he'd disguised his sensitivity and emotions because he thought she preferred more confident and self-assured men and she'd pretended she didn't care because she thought he didn't.

But life had betrayed them in a series of cruel twists of fate. She'd finally got what she needed, what she’d missed and denied herself - and him - for so long out of fear; fear of losing her best friend, or getting him hurt, or believing he'd be better off with someone else who was more deserving of his affection than her. Then it had all been snatched away from them hours later.

She'd been given a second chance with another Lincoln, a man with the same name, same face and same soul but he had a different heart and the irony taunted her every day that how she felt about this Lincoln was how the other one had felt about her for so long. 

Even if there was a chance that he felt the same about her as the other Lincoln had and she did about him, it was clear he was reluctant and afraid to admit it, and wasn’t willing to complicate things between them both any further. And Olivia knew if she tried to show him how she felt again, he’d panic and run away like all the other times she’d tried to show him what he meant to her.

She stopped suddenly, realizing her mom was right - she’d only tried to show him, she hadn’t told him and explained what he meant to her. He could have been mistaking her unsubtle advances for flirting at best and at worst him being a substitute for what she’d lost, but he was wrong - he was so much more than just an inferior facsimile of the other Lincoln she'd known.

He wasn’t trying to be the other Lincoln or anyone else, he'd always just been authentically him. She could no longer deny it; he was meant to be her Lincoln and the compulsion and need to tell him overwhelmed her. 

Olivia gasped, swallowing the mouthful of food with it on the inhale of making the epiphany and choked slightly.

"You okay?" Marilyn asked concerned, watching Olivia who held up a finger while she swigged her drink to clear her throat then nodded.

"Yes. No - I've been so blind, mom," Olivia croaked with a cough, eyes watering with the effort of trying to dislodge the last of the food catching in her throat and all the emotions that had been had been swirling around inside her mind over the past year that had started in a breeze and had gained momentum until they'd become a storm that showed no signs of fading. "Why didn't I see it before? I've made a mess of everything and now it's too late."

"No, it isn't," she replied simply. "Go back home before it is too late. Trust me, you don't know what you've got until its gone."

"What?" Olivia protested, frowning at the suggestion. "No, I can’t, what about your tests?"

"Go home and talk to him," Marilyn interrupted insistently. "It's to draw blood and a colonoscopy, it's not like they're gonna tell me results there and then. I can call you when I get them."

"No, I came here for you, for moral support," she continued stubbornly, despite Marilyn’s look. "I'll pack my case up in the morning and leave right after the appointment. It shouldn't take me more than an hour to get back. But, for the record, I do actually have PMS. "

*** 

After days of following dead end leads and a breadcrumb trail left by the suspect to taunt them, Charlie and Lincoln had finally tracked down Ashlyn Montgomery to a government administration building a few miles away. Fringe Division had stormed the location only for Lincoln and Charlie to listen horrified through their ear pieces as the team turned their guns on each other while Ashlyn Montgomery used her ability against them, and the sounds of the bullets and confused screams of their team ripping through Charlie and Lincoln’s ears via their cuffs.

Outside in the surveillance van, Lincoln hurriedly removed his jacket and grabbed the last Kevlar vest from a crate, putting it on so quickly over his shoulders that Charlie barely had time to comprehend what was happening and grabbed his wrist when he went to check the clip in his handgun.

“Where the hell d'you think you're going?” He gruffly exclaimed as Lincoln pulled his wrist free from Charlie’s grasp.

“What does it look like?” Lincoln retorted sarcastically, replacing his gun in his holster and picking up his jacket to disguise the vest.

“Oh no, you can’t go in there, it’s insane -” Charlie began to protest

“I can't just sit here and listen to this,” Lincoln interrupted indignantly, pointing at the cuff on his ear, then stopped abruptly at the thought of what horrors he might be walking into. “I have to do something.”

“Why doesn’t this surprise me?” Charlie sighed, shaking his head, realizing the other Lincoln he knew would have done exactly the same thing. He stood, defiantly meeting Lincoln’s eyes and stubbornness. “I’m coming with you.”

“No!” Lincoln argued, shaking his head adamantly.

“So you can’t stay here but you expect me to?” You need someone to have your back,” Charlie spat, squaring up to the other man. Lincoln blinked at the confrontation then pursed his lips stubbornly.

“Look, if we both barge in there, then she’s just gonna turn us against each other like everyone else in there. If I go alone, then -” Lincoln began, his voice softening. “Charlie. You have Mona, who is expecting your baby, to think about. Where as I - I don’t have anyone.“ he added, with a shrug, zipping up the jacket and shoving his hands in his pocket, ignoring Charlie's look of disgust at Lincoln's direction pointing out the obvious of how his double had died.

“What’s stopping her from making you turn your gun on yourself?” Charlie asked as he stared back at Lincoln, his dark brown eyes imploring Lincoln to understand he wasn’t the only one who had someone he cared about, and needed him too. Lincoln blinked back, his eyes flickering when his fingers found a small case in his jacket pocket and stared at Charlie wide-eyed in realization. “What?” Charlie said to Lincoln in response, as he excitedly whipped out the small box and handed them to Charlie. “What’s this?”

“My ear plugs!” Lincoln exclaimed in reply, his eyes widening as he motioned for Charlie to open the case. “I wore them at night before I moved in with Liv to help me sleep, they’re noise canceling.”

“So?” 

“So - when we read the files on Montgomery, and what we’ve learned so far, I think her voice triggers something in the brain, allowing her to project what she wants people to see so she can control them for her own agenda.”

“So, if you can’t hear her, she can’t control you?” Charlie replied, as Lincoln raised his eyebrows in response. “You know, that’s so stupid it might just work. But it’s too risky, what if you’re wrong?”

“It's still our best chance to stop her,” Lincoln shrugged, taking the box and opening it, to place one of the buds in his ear.

“I hope for your sake - and Liv's - you’re right,” Charlie said, the last of his words muted to Lincoln as he put the other earplug in his ear and nodded, turned around and walked out of the Fringe Division van into the building.

Lincoln slowly and carefully followed the trail of bullets and scent of blood down the length of a corridor. The coppery tang stung his nostrils and provoked crimson tinged memories of Robert's and his own double's death, when he had desperately clawed onto a life as it slipped away through his scarlet stained fingers. Drawing his weapon before turning the corner, he walked further through the building, a slight movement in the corner of his eye catching his attention in the eerie silence and he turned on his heel to see a door swinging slightly on its hinges.

Nudging the door with the end of his handgun, he pushed it back further with his foot on seeing the trail of blood leading to the body on the floor in front of him. The man in Fringe uniform was sitting against a desk, holding his upper left chest, blood seeping through his fingertips like sticky red ribbons.

“Agent Lee?” he gasped, as Lincoln replaced his gun in the holster and crouched to check the one on the floor next to the man, its clip empty. The man looked at him, his eyes wide in distress and confusion, as Lincoln looked under his bloody hand pressed to his chest.

“Reynolds?” Lincoln exclaimed in surprise, not expecting to find anyone alive and pulled one of his plugs free. “You should be fine, Jay - it's just your shoulder, just keep pressure on it. MedEvac’ll be here soon - “

“She’s in the Records Archive,” Reynolds gasped through shallow breaths, watching Lincoln stand to his feet. “Be careful, she can make you see things -” 

Lincoln nodded, replacing the earbud and nodded as he cocked his weapon, leaving the room and following the signage down to the archives.

***

The flickering glow of one the screens in the room illuminated the dark, determined eyes and pale skin of the girl hunched over the desk, giving her face a ghostly white hue. Her slim fingers furiously typed at the keyboard then she screamed and slammed the desk in frustration when the screen beeped and flashed red, messing her sleek, black bobbed hair, only to calmly tuck it back behind her ears before she continued typing. 

Lincoln slowly edged around the periphery of the room and her eyesight until he was behind her and slowly stepped forward until less than ten feet away. Raising his weapon so his arms were outstretched, he clicked off the safety catch, warily eyeing the back of her head with suspicion.

“Put your hands up where I can see them,” he demanded watching her hands stop typing on hearing his demand. She turned her head slightly to look at the gun coated in blood on the table next to her. “Don’t even think about it.”

“You won’t shoot me,” Ashlyn said calmly, smirking as she swiveled in her seat to watch Lincoln slowly edge closer, still pointing his weapon in her direction, unaware of his concealed defense. “You’re gonna allow me to get what I came here for, and then I’m gonna walk straight out of here.”

Lincoln lowered his gun slightly as her hands slowly moved down, he could she was speaking when she moved her mouth but couldn't make out the sounds.

“I don’t want to shoot you,” Lincoln wavered, not looking away from the gun on the table, and lifted his weapon up again, oblivious to her words. “But I will if you don’t keep your hands up.”

Her mouth moved again, the smug smile on her full lips widening as she looked at Lincoln, her black obsidian eyes meeting his in the blue glow that emanated from the screen behind her, making her little more than a silhouette to Lincoln. But her words didn’t reach him and he pursed his lips in concentration, trying not to look at her face.

She rose to her feet, her face twisting in anger and frustration at Lincoln's disobedience to her command and the chair behind her skidded on its wheels, hitting the desk. This time Lincoln didn’t hesitate and discharged his weapon, watching the flash and her expression as Ashlyn fell back against the desk to the muted sound of the bullet firing.

***

Lincoln leaned against a wall, wearily wiping his hands across his face in relief, and returned his glasses to his nose as he watched Charlie traipse towards him down the hospital corridor from the information desk. His reflection in the glass panel of the ward door startled him as it looked as bad as Charlie’s; Heavy and dark eyes, disheveled hair and over a weeks worth of heavy stubble peppering his cheeks and jaw.

“The doctors think she might survive the gunshot, but doubt she’ll regain consciousness,” Charlie said as he approached Lincoln, nudging him gently in comfort. “You did the right thing, you know. I have no doubt she could and would have kept on killing people if you hadn’t taken that shot.”

“Yeah, but now we might never know where her ability came from or what she was looking for,” Lincoln sighed in resignation, shoving his hands in his pockets, and Charlie sensed his uncertainty of if he really made the right choice.

“Local P.D said she was trying to access birth certificate records, they’re not sure why yet,” Charlie shrugged as they began walking in unison towards the underground parking lot. “Listen, I’ll wrap this up with Erikson, and get the paperwork sorted. You head home. Liv is due back in a day or two, and you need to clear your head so you two can talk. And probably the apartment.” 

“I’ll have you know I’m the tidier one!” Lincoln smiled thinly in protest, watching Charlie smirk and nod in agreement. “You sure you don’t want me to take care of the paperwork?’

“Nope!” he said, strolling to his car and unlocking it. “It’s my turn, and do I have to get used to doing it again. Go, before I change my mind!” Charlie added, shooing him away.

“Okay, okay!” Lincoln nodded gratefully as he unlocked the door to his own car and turned when Charlie called him again.

“Oh and Lincoln, talk to Liv or I swear I’ll make you two do all the paperwork for a year!”

Lincoln nodded as he watched Charlie drive away, thinking as he sat down in the car and loosened his tie before driving away into the night. 

***

The apartment was empty and cold as he arrived, exactly how Lincoln had left it. He shrugged off his coat, hanging it on the back of a chair. Unholstering his weapon, he placed it on the table and loosened his tie further as he unbuttoned the top button of his shirt to release the restriction of the collar around his neck. Slumping down on the couch, he toed off his shoes and sighed. The exhaustion finally caught up with him as the adrenaline from the case wore off, and he closed his eyes as his head lolled back and drifted off to sleep.

Some time later, Lincoln woke with a jolt, and sat upright, rubbing the sleep from his bleary eyes as they adjusted to the low amber light of the early evening filtering through the windows. Looking at his wristwatch, he realized he’d dozed off and been asleep for nearly an hour, and pangs of hunger coaxed him back into consciousness as he struggled to remember the last time he’d eaten anything substantial.

Rain spat at the windows, leaving spots of water that reflected light into little drops of glittering crystals that twinkled as car headlamps passed in the street below.

He stood slowly, pondering if he should eat or shower and shave first and jumped as a knock came from the front door. Making his way over to it, he peered through the peephole and frowned in confusion when he saw who was there.

“Hey!” He said, blinking in surprise as he opened the door. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi,” Jill smiled, a little sheepishly, sweeping her saturated hair from her face that was damp with rain. “I was just heading back to my field office, it felt rude just to leave without saying thank you - and goodbye.”

“Oh!” Lincoln said in reply, still a little in shock as his mind caught up with his body.

“I wasn’t sure you were home as the lights were out and I knocked a few times. Did I interrupt something?” She held up a bottle of wine and a doggy bag of takeout food from a local restaurant as an olive branch, flooding his senses with a delicious aroma that in his ravenous state was in no position to resist. “I brought some refreshments, if I can tempt you?”

“No! Oh you’re wet, sorry - yes, come in," he gestured, widening the door so she could come through. 

“Thanks,” Jill smiled again, walking through the door as he closed it behind her.

***

14th Aug 2013 Alternative/ Redverse 

Lincoln loosened his tie and hastily rolled it into a rough ball before shoving it into his pocket as he slid into the booth opposite Jill.

"So," she smiled, shrugging off her blazer and loosening her dark hair from the bun so it fell in soft, coffee waves over shoulders. Lincoln’s eyes imperceptibly flickered across her chest when he noticed the seam of her bra could be seen through the fabric of her white blouse, and distracted himself by loosening the collar of his own shirt. "How did you end up working for Fringe Division?"

"Oh, it all happened by accident, actually," Lincoln sighed, and folded his own jacket, tucking it on the seat next to him, then caught Jill’s inquisitive expression as she prompted him to continue. He wasn’t sure if it was the bar that was hot, or he was just flustered with nerves and her scrutinizing gaze, but he unbuttoned his cuffs to roll his sleeves up to his elbows as a distraction. “I had, um, just lost my partner and so did Liv, so we worked together to find those responsible. And then circumstances led to me making a fresh start here.” He added simply and sighed again with a slight shrug, not wanting to reveal the real impulsive reasons he’d stayed. “That was almost two years ago but it seems like a lifetime ago now.”

She caught his eyes with a sympathetic gaze after a brief pause, sensing his regret around the memories of his partner's murder.

“You felt guilty that you didn’t protect her?” Jill asked tentatively, then stopped as Lincoln nodded then shook his head.

“Him,” Lincoln swallowed thickly, “And that I survived and he didn’t. We both knew it was a risk you took every day in this job, but - ”

Jill nodded in understanding watching Lincoln shift uncomfortably in his seat at sharing such personal information.

" - it doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. What was his name?" 

Lincoln paused briefly before replying.

"Robert." 

“Couple of years ago before I transferred to the east coast, I was stationed in the Sacramento PD. September 20th my partner Quentin and I were on this stakeout, tracking some dealers we suspected to be part of this drug cartel operating out of San Fran,” Jill paused, taking a large swig of her beer to get the courage to continue and placed her bottle deliberately back down on the table between them. Lincoln watched as some of the liquid inside spilled over the top and pooled on the beer mat underneath it. “Anyway, they must've got spooked, 'cause we ended up chasing after these kids. Quentin and I separated as they split up in two directions and I called for backup 'cause I’d been sick and I knew this kid was gonna get away. Then I hear this loud bang, right? I thought it was a car backfiring or something, I dunno. So I’m distracted, and I’m tired, so I stop and before I can shoot, I hear another bang, and I get this searing pain shooting through my stomach, I thought I had a stitch from running. I look down and see blood seeping out the bottom of my vest. Anyway, I woke up in the ICU the next day minus some of my insides and a partner.” she gulped again, nervously biting her lip. “That bang I heard was the other kid blowing Quentin's head off, we never caught them. He used to say everything happens for a reason, but I had a hard time believing there was a reason for that."

Lincoln looked up in surprise at her choice of words, the similarity of how he'd felt when Robert had died was spooky. That reason had led him here, to this place and this very moment and he wasn’t sure what that meant, if it was a sign or just coincidence of two law enforcement officers who had to deal with the guilt and sorrow of losing partners they cared deeply about. Jill sniffed as her voice wobbled, thick with emotion and she swigged back more from the bottle. She deliberated for a moment before unbuttoning the waistband of her pants and pushing it down slightly to show a dark pink scar blooming in her olive skin just below her belly button. 

"Funny how your whole world can end, just stop, like a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence, huh?" Jill shrugged, her lips twisting into a sad smile.

Lincoln’s eyes widened in realization why she'd been so detached from the team, determined to wrap the case and why she'd been so anxious when they'd ended up going undercover. 

"That's why you were so apprehensive about us staking out Janak and Erasmus -" Lincoln began, and she replied nodding slightly.

"- I panicked, and froze. Then he grabbed my weapon, I thought it was happening again. I thought he was gonna kill you, kill both of us."

"I think he would've if he was a better shot," Lincoln contemplated, not realizing how flippant it sounded until he saw her eyes flicker. Lincoln smiled at her sympathetically and lightly brushed her hand that gripped onto the bottle with his cool fingertips. “It wasn’t your fault, it was a risky plan, we were lucky it ended well.”

“You say that, but you got injured, and Olivia -”

“- She'll be fine, she is fine.” He interrupted, not wanting to think about or reveal the spectrum of emotions that they’d both been through that had only been mixed up and magnified into a kaleidoscope since the case had begun. Lincoln stretched his arms out in front of him, narrowly missing Jill’s drink. “And my arm is practically all healed up now.”

“So you two definitely aren't… a thing?” Jill asked, making him retreat his arm back out of her space with a quick jerk, and he tucked his hands under the table on his lap.

“A thing?” Lincoln frowned.

“Yeah. You're just - friends ?”

“That's right, just friends, I mean we’re good friends but, uh, nothing is - what ?” 

Lincoln stuttered slightly, stopping when he noticed Jill's inquisitive expression, her eyes narrowing as he averted his eyes from her gaze.

"Nothing, I just -" Jill shifted in her seat, remembering the look Olivia had given her when she asked her if Lincoln was single, and a snippet of a conversation she'd heard between Charlie and Olivia a few weeks ago when they weren't aware she was in earshot.

."- I probably just misunderstood. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't stepping on any toes."

"Well, no toes have been injured so far," Lincoln scoffed, and Jill nodded, twisting her lips into a small smile and clinked her bottle of beer against his glass of wine. 

"Okay, well, here's to new fresh starts and uninjured toes," Jill laughed.

"Fresh starts and uninjured toes."

***

Alternative/Redverse today

Barely talking while they ate, Lincoln devoured his food ravenously and he pushed his bowl to the side once he finished, taking a swig of wine from his glass as he watched Ruiz finish her meal, a towel around her shoulders as her coat and shoes dried on the radiator.

“Hungry?” she laughed, taking another bite of the sauce-covered noodles wrapped around her fork.

“Sorry,” he said, holding up his hand as he took another mouthful from the glass, its contents hitting his stomach faster than the food. “I was starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten properly for days.”

She smiled again and leaned back in her chair, mirroring his body language.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You look exhausted,” Jill said, concerned, eyeing his heavy stubble and dark eyes, their usual light blue turning into a dark stormy gray.

“Yeah, it’s just been a tough week,” Lincoln replied with a sigh, shifting his glasses up on the top of his head for a moment to rub his eyes with the balls of his palms, which messed his hair into spiky tufts.

“Sounds like you need to unwind and get some R&R,” Jill smiled suggestively, meeting his eyes briefly. “Oh, I bumped into Charlie. He said that Olivia might be back in a couple of days? Tell her I’m sorry I didn’t get to thank her before I left.” She added, changing the subject when she noticed a blush high on his cheeks.

He nodded, standing to take their bowls to the sink and left them on the countertop next to it while he turned on the red and blue faucets and let the stream of water run over his hands to gauge the temperature.

“She, uh, needed a break. She hasn’t been quite herself since she was exposed to those chemicals,” he said, deliberately skimming over the finer details and avoiding giving away too much information while he rinsed out the bowls in the warm water.

Ruiz stood up and sauntered towards him with the glasses as he leaned back against the kitchen worktop.

“I hope she feels better when she gets back,' she replied, studying his face as he offered a thin, appreciative smile. “I’d better make a move now the rain is stopping, before I drink too much and have to pay for a taxi home.”

She stared at him while she paused, hoping he’d take the hint she wanted to stay, but Lincoln shook his hands dry then reached for her coat behind her that had been drying on the heater while they ate. Quickly slipping on his own coat and shoes, he followed her with an umbrella, holding it up over them as they walked out of the building and towards the row of cars parked by the curb. The air smelled refreshed from the cleansing rain hitting the ground, the scent of petrichor wafted through Jill's hair and giving her encouragement to confess her real motive for visiting.

“Actually,” she said, spontaneously turning back to him as he leaned against her car and she opened the door. “I kinda lied. The reason I came here was to apologize. I’m sorry for ruining your suit and our date the other night, I felt awful about it.”

“Oh! I, uh,” Lincoln stuttered slightly in surprise, raising his free hand up in objection and smiling again. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I was told I should ditch the suits anyway, but you know what they say about old habits.”

“I also hoped we could’ve had another date before I left,” Jill added, stepping forward under the umbrella to lightly tug on his tie and bit her bottom lip. "And I really hoped we could recreate the kiss we had when we were undercover, without being under duress this time.”

Lincoln had little time to respond as she impulsively leaned up with her hand on his chest to cover his lips with hers, her hand snaking up to hold his face. Lincoln slipped his free hand that wasn’t holding the umbrella between them to hold her hand away and quickly leaned back before the kiss could properly materialize, holding her hand with their fingers interlinked at their waists.

“I’m sorry,” he smiled awkwardly, stuttering slightly in embarrassment from not being been completely honest with her, and himself. “I - I can’t, I’m not…”

Ruiz nodded, as she looked down in embarrassment and snatched away her hand, sitting down into the driver’s seat and shutting the door behind her. Starting the car, she rolled down the window a little, as the streetlamps made warm amber streams of light across the windshield and cast long shadows over the sidewalks.

“Maybe I’ll see you around then?”

“Maybe,” Lincoln replied with a little huff as her car pulled away behind a cab as it drove down the road, leaving trails on the rain-soaked deep gray tarmac.

“Lincoln?” A small voice enquired, calling out through the wind and rain, and he whipped around to see who’d called him, surprised to see Olivia standing there with her travel case, looking at him with an open mouth and eyes wide in disbelief.

“Liv?” 

Her name tumbled from his lips in a gasp as he froze like an animal on desolate road at night in the headlights of her stare, squinting to see her through the droplets of rain that fell from his umbrella onto his glasses until she turned and walked away.

Chapter Text

Alternative/Redverse Manhatan

All the words Olivia had rehearsed in her head during her journey from her mother’s house in Tarrytown back to the apartment she shared with Lincoln in Manhatan shattered when she stepped out of the cab and saw him holding hands with Jill as they sheltered under the umbrella from the heavy rain. She felt compelled to look even though she knew she shouldn't, like a voyeur of a tragic accident, her eyes magnetized to the movement that seemed to happen in slow motion, their hands on each other's bodies, them leaning into each other until their faces were obscured from her prying eyes by the umbrella that dripped fat tears onto the sidewalk, like how his name fell from her lips in a voice she barely recognized as her own. Lincoln looked at her stunned as she turned on her heel, dragging her case up the steps to the front door and then ran to catch up to her once he overcome the shock of seeing her unexpectedly.

"Surprised to see me?" Olivia spat, unable to bring herself to say Jill's name. "What was she doing here?" 

“Why do you care?" He called back, barely making it through the door as it closed behind her and shook the excess rain from the umbrella. “Yes, actually. I thought you weren't coming back for another day or two?”

“I don’t care who you date.” She lied, glaring as she stormed into the apartment and saw their two wine glasses, empty bottle and take away food containers.

She couldn’t believe this was happening, she'd finally admitted to herself how she felt about Lincoln and decided to explain it all to him, despite her fears about being exposed and vulnerable, but now it was pointless because he didn't reciprocate them. Worse than that, she'd trusted him. She'd let her guard down and the rug was being pulled from under her feet. Lincoln knew how her relationship with Frank had ended badly, and how he had manipulated and gas lit her and despite that Lincoln had lied about his relationship with Jill. Olivia turned back towards her room in disgust at seeing the evidence of what she thought was their date, deliberately and spitefully running over Lincoln’s foot with the wheels of her case as she turned and he closed the front door behind him. “But you lied to me about her after everything I told you about Frank.”

“Ow!” Lincoln cried out in pain and frustration, raising his voice, not threateningly but loud and forcefully enough that was out of character for him and made her stop abruptly in her tracks. The thought that she didn’t trust him and believed he’d lie to her completely floored him, and he didn’t know what else to say or do. "I didn’t lie to you -- I wouldn’t. Talk some sense to me, Liv."

“But you two have been - together,” Olivia insinuated, looking down at the floor and not turning around to see him. It all made sense why he didn’t want her now, why he'd declined all of her advances and she hated how foolish she felt for thinking he might like her like the other Lincoln had. She shrugged in defeat thinking about his appearance. He looked exhausted, like he'd just got out of bed, and her imagination taunted her with images of them kissing, and fucking and laughing at her naivety and gullibility. "Jill was leaving before I got back. So, you two are sleeping together?”

“What? No!” Lincoln scoffed in disbelief and reeling back, stunned by her accusation. “We're not… we’re not even dating!” he replied, almost in a roar, taking a breath and softening his tone as he saw her flinch, realizing she’s never seen him lose his temper like this before. And as much as the thought of her thinking he would do something like that - to her of all people - exasperated him, he knew being confrontational was only going to push her further away from him and make her compare him to Frank and his temper that would flare up at something so trivial she'd spent the last few months of their relationship walking on eggshells for fear of the repercussions.

Olivia had reluctantly told Lincoln one evening after they'd finished a film about the literal bruises Frank had left on her body - and emotional ones on her heart - and even though her words had made enough hate and bile to rise in the back of his throat, Lincoln had sat patiently in silence as the unspoken words spilled from Olivia’s lips. He could tell from the way she'd strained to talk about that time in her life that she'd never told anyone about it before, not even her mother or the other Lincoln, he guessed out of misplaced shame in admitting she needed help and didn't know to ask for it or how to escape.

Lincoln passively moved his hands out to Olivia as a peace offering but she didn’t hold hers out to him this time like she had before. “Jill called in unexpectedly on the way home with food to say ‘bye. I only invited her in because she got soaked in the rain, that’s all. She wasn’t here for much more than an hour and all we did was eat, talk and have a glass of wine. Ask her, she'll tell you that's all we did.”

“I saw you two kissing, again…“ she sniffed as her voice broke on the last word. Admittedly from her angle, Olivia hadn't been able to see much, especially with the umbrella concealing their faces, but she could tell from how close they were standing and leaning into each other they’d embraced each other.

He hopelessly watched her chest slowly rise and fall as he stood behind her, and he felt like his own heart might shatter and break if she was crying and he was the reason for it, and if she didn’t believe him and thought he would ever choose someone else over her. Pursing his lips with a sigh, Lincoln realized that the option was to lay his cards out on the table and tell her everything.

“Okay, I did lie. But not about what you think," he implored with a sigh, desperately reaching out for her arm to get her to turn around. “I need to be honest with you about something that I haven’t told you before, please turn around and look at me, Liv. Please?”

Olivia turned around slowly, her eyes large, wet and mossy green. She bit on her full lower lip, attempting to stop it from trembling. She refused to cry in front of other people, even more so when it was out of anger, and crossed her arms across her chest. When she had started working at Fringe Division, Olivia had promised to herself that no one at work would see her cry, even Lincoln - especially Lincoln. She wasn't willing to show any sign of weakness that she wasn't capable or one of the boys in a male dominated workplace.

It wasn't that hard really. When Rachel and her baby had died she had been in shock that it took weeks to process, by which point she didn't have any tears coming to fight, and even when she'd broken up with Frank it came more as a relief than heartbreak, but when Lincoln had died everything she'd been holding in for years was no longer a trickle but gushed past the walls of the dam and she was unable to hold it in any longer. “We weren't kissing, I swear to you. She went to kiss me because she thought when I kissed her that it meant something to me, which is why she asked me out, but I only went out with her because you said I should. But it meant nothing to me, and I feel nothing for her.”

Lincoln shuffled on on his feet and his eyes begged hers as he slowly stepped towards her. "The only thing I felt kissing her was when I closed my eyes and imagined it was you, your lips on mine, your mouth on mine.” Her eyes dropped again as she sniffed and he gulped, daring to take another step closer. “Charlie told me you said you thought I’d stayed here when the bridge closed because of Robert’s death. But I lied. I stayed because I -- because of you.”

“Then why did you run away from me at the football game, and the other night in the kitchen and on my birthday?” Olivia whispered, trying to catch her breath as Lincoln’s shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'd already kissed you at The Bridge and at the Christmas party, you must've known I wanted you to…"

“Because I’m a coward - and an idiot,” Lincoln replied, his voice full of regret and sadness as he thought of when her face had been so close to his, but he couldn’t find the courage to close the gap between them. “I wanted to so much every time, but I was scared I was taking advantage of your grief. I convinced myself I'd dreamed you'd kissed me as you never mentioned it, or that you only wanted me because of the other Lincoln. And because if I kissed you back, I could no longer deny to myself how I feel about you.”

Lincoln looked at Olivia sheepishly and earnestly studied her face, his blue eyes wide and brimming with the emotion of his confession, and waited for hers to meet his, and as they did, he smiled softly.

"H-how do you f-feel about me?" Olivia said simply as she gulped, realizing the reason for his hesitation. “You thought all this time that I only wanted you here as some kind of substitute?”

“I feel like I’ve been living in the shadow of his ghost. I know I’m a constant reminder of him.” Lincoln sighed, breaking eye contact. “And there’s nothing I can change about that, but I didn’t want to allow myself to be in love with you - if you didn’t love me back. I've been lying to myself as well as you because I found love where I wasn't supposed be, with the person right in front of me. That's how I feel about you. "

Olivia stepped towards him, closing the gap further until they were merely a footstep apart, smiling in relief on understanding his resistance.

“I’m not saying it was wrong or I regret what happened between him and me, but I do feel guilty. We were both feeling vulnerable and too scared to reveal our true selves to each other for fear of rejection. So you aren't the coward, he was, and so am I - for pretending for so long. I did love him, and I love you too, but not because you remind me of him. It’s because you’re everything he wasn’t and everything he - and I - were afraid to be.”

Lincoln looked back at her, him mouth open and stunned, his lips trembling as her words hit him like a tidal wave, his chest relenting under the rhythm and his nostrils flared as he inhaled every one of her words. 

“Liv, I’m so sorry, I -'' Lincoln stammered then blinked his stinging eyes that met hers glistening in the low light to guide him through the air that hung charged between them.

“S'okay,” Olivia sniffed and shrugged, and Lincoln, still stunned, watched her turn to take the handle of her case to wheel it to her room. He twisted on his heel where he stood, then stopped, turning back to her as she closed the door, courage finally winning the fight over diffidence and uncertainty. Bracing the door with his hand before it could close, the sudden movement surprised her. Olivia gasped, turning around as Lincoln closed the gap between them and took her face in his free hand that wasn't pushing on the door, leaning into her space. 

Olivia didn’t dare to meet his eyes as he intently gazed at her, shimmering bottomless blue pools that could drown her, but glanced down at his face to his lips, so close she could count and see the different shades of hair in the stubble of his chin. She felt his breath warm on her cheek and the familiar scent of him flooded her senses, her eyes were unable to look away from his lips, transfixed as they inched closer to hers. Time slowed to almost nothing as Lincoln leaned in further, the heat on his firm chest pressing against her breasts as his breath mingled with hers, his finger and thumb gently holding her chin as his trembling lips gently brushed against hers, warm and soft, tentatively drawing her in with a firm, yet slowly sensual and tender kiss.

She shivered as she felt his hand flutter towards the back of her neck, threading her auburn hair through his fingers to cup her face to hold her in place. His lips moved slowly with hers, confirming his approval and reciprocation with little sighs, taking his time to explore every millimeter and taste of her while she grasped handfuls of his jacket to steady her body that swayed in the pull of his tide. Everything he saw and knew turned from black and white into an explosion of color that sparked between them, setting his soul alight as she molded into him, her body responsive and pliant under the coursing river of his shaking hands as they made their path over her, until he broke away to recover, breathing heavily. 

Olivia barely had time to register the kiss before it was over, and in the moment she thought Lincoln would run away again, afraid and panicking over what he’d allowed himself to do. Then he sighed “fuck it” under his breath and swiftly removed his usual caution and reservations along with his glasses, carelessly throwing them over his shoulder, not looking or caring where they landed and not even hearing the sound as they clattered to the floor when his mouth was back on hers, except this time he didn’t hold back. Any thoughts of hesitation or indecisiveness left him when he connected with Olivia and he realized there could be no more sitting on the fence. This was his chance to become the man he wanted to be, and who Liv needed, he was going to take that chance to offer everything he had.

Lincoln had kissed Olivia like she thought he would; gently, and with caution and reverence until he couldn’t hold back anymore, and he urgently pressed his lips hard against hers in desperation, as if his life depended on it. Moaning into his mouth when his tongue sought permission, she let him in willingly, gripping onto the collar of his suit jacket like an anchor against the waves that rocked her. He tenderly vocalized his pleasure with soft moans of satisfaction and she took each one gladly, the soft pillows of her lips softly caressing him in return, the pressure of his kiss making the back of her head press so hard against the door, she was certain the grain of the wood imprinted her skull like the kiss burned on her lips. When they finally separated again, they breathlessly rested their foreheads against each other, their eyes still closed, letting the moment last, not wanting to sever the connection.

“We never kissed like that,” Lincoln gasped, smiling into Olivia's mouth as her breathing slowed and her grip on him relaxed. "Was that... are you okay?"

“Uh-uh, I’m happy,” Olivia said, as a satisfied smile spread across her face when he pulled away slightly to check her eyes.

“Then I’m happy too,” he replied, his smile turning into a wide grin that made his dimples deepen all the way to his jawline and his thumb traced along hers from her earlobe to her chin, back to where it had begun it's journey.

“You really need a shave though,” she added, rubbing her cheek slightly to soothe the friction caused by his stubble.

“I’ll get right on it,” Lincoln smiled again, turning towards the bathroom with a huff, as Olivia bit down on her lower lip, pink and swollen from their kiss.

***

The clutter of the razor hitting the basin of soapy water welcomed Olivia as she leaned against the bathroom door jamb, watching Lincoln as he peered into the mirror, dragging the razor over the last remaining patches of hair on his neck. He turned to smile softly at her as she slowly pushed the door open with a fresh pile of towels and her toiletries from her suitcase in her arms.

Lifting his hands out of the warm bubbly water to pull out the plug, he shook them before taking a towel from Olivia and patted his face dry.

“Did your glasses survive the fall okay?” Olivia scoffed as she watched him squint at his reflection in the mirror. Lincoln nodded, and cleared his throat when he flicked the towel over his shoulder. “You missed a bit," she added, taking the razor from his hand and lightly moving it across a little patch on the side of his cheek.

“Um, Liv, I, uh…” Lincoln began with a huff, gulping as he tried to find the words he wanted to say, his eyes flickering in nervous panic on feeling her hand brush his jaw. “I don’t want to make any assumptions, but do you want to, at some point, um, y'know...” Olivia raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips to contain a smile as he wiggled his finger between them and blushed slightly, and looked away for a second as she felt his second hand embarrassment.

“- have sex?” she added bluntly, helpfully finishing the sentence for him and he nodded awkwardly in relief, and Olivia tried not to laugh at how innocently embarrassed he looked, resisting the urge to tease him like she was used to doing.

“I was gonna say make love, but yeah," he smiled, hoping the thoughts he suddenly had of Olivia being naked with him wouldn’t cause all the blood in his body to rush to his dick with her standing so close while he was only in his underwear, but hope lost the battle when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips firmly against his, softly caressing the back of his neck with her fingertips.

"Does that answer your question?" Olivia smiled into his mouth, continuing until he agreed with a soft groan from the back of his throat and pulled back slightly without releasing him from her grasp. "Do you?"

“Hmmm, I can’t lie. The thought has crossed my mind once or twice,” Lincoln replied with a nervous chuckle and raised his hands in surrender before resting them on the curves of her hips.

"Just once or twice?" Slshe teased, feeling the hardness growing in his boxers that pressed against her lower stomach where their bodies met.

"Okay, more than a couple of times...”

"Of course," Olivia huffed a laugh in response, and tapped his bare chest. “But we need to wait a few days, if that's okay?”

“Yes!” he blurted out in relief. “I mean, of course it is. I’ve not been sleeping well 'cause of the case and I've not had you here to talk to. Charlie’s great, but he's not...” He rambled, trailing off and looking down coyly. "...you." Olivia smiled widely and reassuringly at his apprehension, taking his face in her hands to make him look at her and kissed him again, dotting little kisses across his mouth and smooth cheeks as he sighed, closing his eyes. “C-could we just sleep together tonight - just sleep - and take it from there?” he asked, and she nodded slightly.

He followed her as she led him by the hand to his room and closed the door behind them.

***

The diffused early morning sunlight seeped through cracks in the drapes, making patterns that cut across the cool, white bed linen that molded to the shapes of two warm, contented bodies.

Olivia blinked, reeling from the remnants of her dream, then opened her eyes. Turning to the warm body by her side, she smiled at Lincoln sleeping on his back, hypnotized by the slow rise and fall of his breathing cocooned in the soft comfort of the bedding.

Stroking his chin with the pads of her fingers, tracing the smooth sensitive skin around his mouth, his lips twitched and let a sigh escape as his eyes fluttered open.

“Hey, good morning,” Lincoln smiled shyly, looking down at her in the corner of his eye as he turned on his side to face her and raised his hand to lace with hers.

“Hi,” Olivia replied, as he hesitantly leaned forward and kissed her softly, his free arm snaking around her body to pull her in close.

Their hands and lips languidly and carefully caressed and traced patterns of adoration and desire on each other’s skin, the pressure and intensity increasing until their breaths came in frantic gasps, their bodies pressed against each other as they rocked in unison until Olivia gasped at the unfamiliar feel of his erection that rubbed against her lower abdomen.

“This okay?” Lincoln whispered, prising an arm between them, gently brushing against her breasts and pebbled nipples. Olivia nodded and sighed contentedly, wrapping a leg around his waist on feeling the warmth of desire and arousal pooling inside her when his lips trailed down the side of her neck. Her pulse quickened under his kisses as they slipped lower to her clavicles, drawing a line down the plane of her sternum to her breasts, gently caressing and teasing her hardened nipples lightly with his tongue as she reveled in the sensation of its warm wetness trailing circles around them.

Squirming in pleasure as his hand left her breast and slid quickly down the plane of her stomach to squeeze the top of her thigh, she gasped when it moved around to her ass to push her hard flush against him.

Moving her leg up to his waist, and pulling him so his weight was leaning on her, she was aware of a low hum vibrating as he stopped mid-action and rolled back, leaning behind him to take something from the bedside table and looked at her in apologetic frustration.

“Hello?” he answered groggily, rolling on his back and frowning as he looked at Olivia. “What? When?... No, that’s fine… Is everything okay?... Yes, yes - of course.”

He ended the call with a gulp and flopped his arm across his eyes and forehead.

“That was Charlie,” Lincoln explained. “Mona’s gone into labor, so we’re taking over wrapping up the case. I'll fill you in with the details when we get back to work.”

“Already?” Olivia questioned, sitting up as she snapped back to reality. “She’s not due for at least a few more weeks. Is everything okay?”

“He said she’s fine. The contractions started a few hours ago and are pretty close now, so they’re heading to the hospital.” Lincoln replied, smiling as he replaced his glasses and rolled back to look at her, tracing her spine up from the waist of her pajamas with his fingertips until it reached the ends of her auburn hair and threaded his fingers through it as she smiled at him over her shoulder. “Liv, I…”

Love you, I'm so sorry I'm an idiot, I'm so happy. I want you and, oh god, I really fucking love you, so much. 

His brain screamed the words in a huge chain of emotion that he couldn’t decipher and were cut off before he could verbalize the thought by her finger across his lips .

"I know,” Olivia smiled, leaning across him, her hair red cascading across his face so it draped and tickled his shoulders, hearing every word as they reflected in her eyes from his own, “me too.”

Chapter Text

Olivia and Lincoln arrived in the Fringe HQ parking lot a little later than they intended, their skin flushed from hastily leaving the apartment twenty minutes late due to being distracted by the other's damp body barely covered by a towel, despite having the temperature of the water on the shower as cold as they could bear it, and Olivia barely stifled a smile as she backed into the parking space and unbuckled her seat beat to lean into Lincoln's space across the console.

"Ready?" she smiled into his mouth as they kissed, his hand hesitantly fluttered up to graze her face and then rested on her shoulder, making her smile fade slightly on noticing his serious and nervous expression. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, huh, I -" he shifted uneasily in his seat to pull back slightly, and pushed his skewed glasses back up his nose, "should we, um, keep this between us for now?"

"You mean keep it professional while we're at work?" Olivia huffed, her brows knotting in confusion. "Are you embarrassed?"

"No!" Lincoln exclaimed, then nodded slightly in admission, unbuckling his own seat belt and grasping her hand before she pulled away again, running his thumb gently across the tender skin on inside of her wrist. If it wasn't for the glances he'd received and whispers he'd overheard when he'd first transferred from his own universe and replaced their own Lincoln, which made him feel even more self-conscious until Liv, Astrid, Erikson and a few others in the team had stepped in, he would happily scream it from the rooftops if she wanted him to. "I mean, not really, I've never - just don't really feel comfortable being the subject of workplace gossip. Do you mind?"

"Of course not," Olivia smiled reassuringly, understanding his trepidation but slightly disappointed, "we can do that. Anyway, I have to go and meet the DoD psychiatrist first thing anyway so I can be cleared to go back in the field, I'll see you in a couple of hours?"

"Okay, I'll see you later," he replied, stepping out of the car and slamming the door shut to quickly walk around to Olivia's side of the car as she locked the door to grab her hand again to bring it up to his chest. "I belong with you, and you belong with me, right?"

"Right," she nodded, tapping her fingers lightly in Lincoln's before nudging him and they walked towards the elevator.

***

After her psych review, Olivia joined Lincoln in the interview rooms where they'd been given the unenviable task of speaking to the survivors and witnesses of Montgomery's attack.

“The last two days have been a nightmare,” one man said, pausing to sweep his long black hair back off of his face and behind his ears, meeting Olivia’s green eyes directly with his own dark brown eyes briefly then resuming his intense stare in Lincoln's direction who was stood at the desk behind her. *A nightmare I keep hoping I’ll wake up from. I can’t believe this… is real.”

“We’re sorry for your loss,” Olivia replied, narrowing her eyes as she left the room and nudged Lincoln to join her on her way out. "Thank you for your assistance. We’ll be in touch when we know more.”

“He knows something he’s not telling us,” Olivia said, motioning with her chin towards him through the one-way window and impatiently tapped her fingers on the cold, metal surface of the windowsill as she pressed against it. She couldn’t explain how or why she knew or why he looked so familiar, but she knew she knew him somehow. “He's teasing us, playing a game. Talking about dreams and nightmares, who talks like that about a traumatic event they've witnessed a few days ago?”

“Liv? Are you sure you’re okay? Maybe you’re just not ready to be back…” Lincoln said concerned, stopping abruptly as Olivia glared at him. He sighed and shrugged in defeat, knowing she was more than capable and definitely didn’t need his protection, or appreciate his concern. “… sorry, I’m just worried about you.”

“You don’t think he seemed - detached ?” 

“Maybe he’s in shock. Some people don't process trauma for years -” he stopped abruptly, knowing all too well himself he'd surprised himself with how well he's coped with the death of Kendra, his father and then Robert, bearing the burden of paperwork and funeral plans when no one else could bear to do it, only to be hit with waves of grief and weight of remorse on his shoulders when he least expected it.

“Or maybe he’s in on it. He was the only person there to have walked away unharmed.”

"Apart from me," Lincoln shrugged, shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants, watching Olivia's expression soften as she reached out to brush his arm with her hand.

"So you're buying his story on why he was there? I know I wasn't there with you and Charlie, but something just isn't adding up about this whole thing," she argued, leaving the room with Lincoln following her when Erikson had escorted the man from the office, and leaned against the main rotunda podium as he joined her. They turned to watch the man disappear behind the sliding doors of the elevator and Erikson return to his office, frowning at a conversation he had over his ear cuff behind the glass door.

“All I'm saying is, if you think there's something suspicious about-"

“Oh, I don't think, I know it,” Olivia insisted, straightening up in determination. "I'd bet my life he knows more than what he's telling us."

The words slipped out of her mouth before she could even realize what she'd said and by the time they registered in her own mind, she saw the fear flicker across the watery ocean blue of Lincoln's eyes.

"Liv,” Lincoln repeated, dragging out the syllable like a warning and grasping her wrist briefly, letting go before anyone noticed them. "Don't say that."

“I’m going to ask Astrid to run a full background check, see what she can find out.”

Lincoln nodded as he watched Olivia stubbornly march around central console to where Astrid stood at the other side.

“I want to know everything about this guy Harry Allinson - his employment history, where he grew up, his parents, everything.”

Astrid nodded in understanding as she tapped the screen, glancing at Olivia and Lincoln as he joined them both, before bringing up the details of the man up on the screen. The photo showed his pale, gaunt features and long, black hair swept back off his face as his cool, detached stare looked at them from his Show Me photograph and file.

“I’m confused. Why are we doing this, exactly? The likelihood of finding anything relating to the suspect has a probability rate of one in three point two thousand, at best,” Astrid asked as she looked at the information. “And as we are still unclear what Montgomery’s was after we should be figuring out what her motives were.”

“Call it a hunch. Just go with it,” Olivia replied, tapping her on the shoulder encouragingly. “We can still look into Montgomery too. Any news from Charlie yet?”

“Not yet,” Astrid confirmed, typing out the details into the keyboard and standing up straight as Erikson approached.

“Agents, we have a problem," he announced, making the agents glance up at his presence and folded his arms across his chest. “I have just been notified of a cyber attack of unknown origin on Fringe Division that happened last night. It appears they accessed only three files; yours Agents Lee and Dunham, and Agent Francis’s, and because of the timing, we should assume it is in relation to this case.”

“Last night?” Lincoln gasped, looking at Olivia with wide eyes as she looked back at him briefly, recalling how'd they'd been oblivious to anyone except each other last night, and if anyone was spying on their apartment they could have heard sensitive details in their conversations that could used against them.

“Wait - Charlie!” Olivia began, the panic straining in her voice. “Mona went into labor this morning. They’ll be easy targets.”

“We’ve sent two units to guard the hospital,” Erikson replied. “They’ll be under constant watch until they can leave to get escorted to a safe house.”

“With all due respect, Sir,” Lincoln retorted quickly, his blue eyes narrowing, “The last time we did that, the team turned their weapons on each other until I… until Montgomery was stopped.”

The memory of the carnage in the hospital replayed in Lincoln's mind, as he considered he’d barely had time to process the events, the shock of seeing the result of so many fellow agents turning on each other without hesitation still vivid in his mind.

“I am aware of that, Agent Lee, as per the report Agent Francis filed on your behalf. We will begin issuing all personnel with bespoke headgear as a precautionary measure, assuming whoever is responsible has the same latent ability as Ashlyn Montgomery. Do you need to step away?”

“No, sir,” Lincoln replied defiantly, shaking his head.

“I want to go check on them, sir," Olivia demanded, shaking her head. “If you're right and this is related to the case, why my file? I wasn’t even on the case.” She questioned as Astrid raised her hand so the others turned to watch her and listen to her reasoning.

“Statistically, I would say it’s because yours and Agent Lee’s files are linked," Astrid added cautiously so as not to embarrass them. “Agent Lee has you added as his next of kin and you're both registered at the same address. They may have concluded that you’re in a relationship . “

Olivia held her hands up in protest as she looked at Erikson, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“Sir, I…” she huffed, trying not to sound flustered at their secret being discovered so soon, and Lincoln interrupted.

“When I came here, I didn’t have anyone else to add as a next of kin on the HR form," he explained, standing up straight and defensively. “Agent Dunham is a good friend, as well as a colleague, and the closest thing I have to family here.”

Olivia suppressed a smile again as Erikson nodded.

“Your personal relationships are irrelevant right now," He began, seemingly nonplussed by the information. "The fact is that whoever is responsible will now know a lot of personal information about you both and Agent Francis which will almost definitely be used to their advantage, so the priority is to find where the attack came from so we can stop them before they strike again. Farnsworth, see what you can find on the details I've sent you, and I’ll see if I can get some more plugs for you, Dunham, as I know you’ll end up defying my orders if I tell you not to go. You will, however, have to surrender your weapon to me.”

“Sir, I…” she repeated in protest, looking back at him, then at Lincoln, who looked back at her sympathetically. 

“With your marksmanship skills, you could easily take out the rest of the team on your own should you be influenced like the team was in your absence.” Erikson replied sternly.

“He’s right,” Lincoln added, his eyes wet with emotion as he noticed a flutter of betrayal cross Olivia's face. "Trust me, you don't want to be in that situation."

Olivia removed her gun from the holster and slammed it onto the surface of the podium as Erikson picked it up and left the area.

***

Lincoln pored over the files as Astrid continued her background checks on Harry Allinson and looking anything that could trace back to the hackers as Olivia paced nervously beside them.

“Agent Dunham?” A younger agent in uniform gear approached her. “Col. Erikson told me to give you these, the ear plugs they requisitioned for you.”

“Great, thank you," she replied, taking them from the other agent.

“You should be aware they block out a lot of sound and you might find that disorientating. It could affect your speech and balance, so only wear them when necessary.” They added before leaving, and Olivia nodded before nudging Lincoln with her elbow, making him peer up from squinting at the files on the screen in front of him.

“I’m heading off to see Charlie to make sure he and Mona are safe," she said, holding up the small package her palm as proof then turning on her heel, wanting to leave before Lincoln could protest but he reached out and brushed her arm as she turned.

“Liv, are you sure you want to go? I’m not sure it’s a good idea with you just coming back to work,” he replied protectively, his eyes wide and voice thick with concern, and his touch on her arm soft and warm through her jacket as she shook her head. “I can go if you want to look into this with Astrid.”

“Yes I'm sure, I need to get back into work. Besides, if anyone is a target here, it would be you, if the hack is related to Montgomery. I’ll meet you back here once I’ve got Charlie and Mona settled in the safe house," Olivia argued.

Lincoln realized she was right. There wasn’t much he could say or do to convince her otherwise anyway and he yielded despite his reservations, knowing Olivia was more than capable of looking after herself, even though she wasn't still entirely back to normal, she had been cleared to work back in the field.

“Okay,” Lincoln reluctantly agreed with a slight nod and shrug of his shoulders. “We’ll call you if we find anything out. Drive safe, okay?”

“See you soon," she replied as she left, smiling slightly at Lincoln before breaking eye contact and turning to leave.

***

A doctor and team of nurses hurried past Charlie, who sat on a plastic seat in the hospital ward corridor. He glanced up at the movement that pulled him from his thoughts, doing a double take as he saw Olivia approaching, her expression full of determination as he met her eyes.

“Liv? What are you doing here?” he asked in surprise, his raised eyebrows turning into a frown and his shoulders slumping in alarm as he saw the team of armed agents follow her. “What’s going on?”

***

Streams of data flickered across the screen, the navy and turquoise typeface reflecting in Astrid’s narrowed eyes as she analyzed the information on screen then she stood up suddenly, urgently marching towards Lincoln with her findings as he sat at a desk across the HQ office.

“Agent Lee?” she said in her small voice, looking away from him as he looked up at her to meet her gaze from his files. “Sorry to interrupt your work, but I think I found an an anomaly while running the trace on Harry Allinson," she paused briefly, then continued when Lincoln nodded for her to continue. "He grew up in foster homes because his parents were murdered when he was a young boy, their killers were never found. This was also the case with Ashlyn Montgomery.”

“That’s an unusual coincidence," Lincoln observed, sitting up straight in intrigue. 

“It is not a coincidence,” Astrid replied matter-of-factly, “statistically, the odds are approximately one in 650 thousand. When I did a background check on both their parents, I found they both used the same fertility clinic to get pregnant.”

Lincoln’s eyes widened in panic as he realized the connection, and he hastily stood up so that the stool nearly toppled over and he turned to steady it as it wobbled.

“We need to speak to the clinic right now,” he began, almost running towards the glass doors of Erikson’s office. “And tell Liv - Agent Dunham.”

Astrid stopped him in his stride before he reached the door. "We’re still running the trace to find out where the hackers came from. Should I wait until I find out more before I call her?”

“Let’s okay it with Erikson first. I think we’ll need a warrant to get access to confidential files from the clinic,” he replied, gesturing for her to enter before him as he opened the door.

***

As Olivia explained the situation to Charlie as they entered the hospital room to get Mona and gather up her belongings to prepare to leave.
Olivia followed him in and paused, looking open-mouthed at Mona as she laid in the bed, holding a small bundle wrapped in a blanket against her chest. Her hair was still damp from sweat, and she looked pale and exhausted but genuinely smiled at Olivia when she entered, then flashed a look of concern on realizing it was not a social visit.

Brushing away a pang of jealousy Olivia felt tainting the happiness for them both, she smiled. The bitter thorn of grief pierced through the fabric of her memories, reminding of her sister and niece, how they should have had this, but smiled in relief that Charlie had the family VPE had denied her.

Olivia had lost them to a condition she most likely had herself. A condition that not only robbed her of her sister and a niece but a chance of motherhood. As much as she knew that she didn’t need to have a child to be fulfilled, and she was happy not being a mom, especially in the job she had, she still felt bitter the choice had taken away from her. Until now, it really hadn’t really bothered her, but the flashes of her dreams returned, taunting her with memories of what could have been. Cradling a swaddled baby in her arms, tired and aching but overwhelmed with love, as Lincoln looked at them both, his eyes full of emotion. She blinked and walked into the room, masking her heartbreak as she’d done so many times before with a wide smile and swallowed down the jealousy that stung her throat. 

“Congratulations! How are you both?” Olivia asked through her forced smile.

“We’re good, even though madam here decided to arrive early,” Mona said smiling back lethargically. “Say hello to Nellie.”
Olivia mouthed her name as she delicately traced a finger across the top of her head where her bonnet met her forehead.

“Hey Nellie,” Olivia whispered apologetically. “I’m so sorry about this. We just need you to move to a safe location until this is over.”

“Do you really think we’re in danger? Because of the case Charlie and Lincoln were working?” she replied, looking between Charlie and Olivia, then down at the baby in her arms.

“We’re not sure. This is just a precaution until we know for sure.”

***

The glass door swung vigorously as they pushed hard, almost hitting the wall with the force as Lincoln & Astrid rushed out of Erikson’s office towards the central stand in the rotunda.

“I’ll call Agent Dunham right away,” Astrid said, bringing up the details on her computer screen.

“I’m heading over to the fertility clinic now to see if I can find out more about the parents of Allinson and Montgomery. Let me know right away if you or Agent Dunham find out anything new,” Lincoln replied in agreement as Astrid nodded in reply as he left.

...to be continued next chapter.

Chapter Text

August 2013 Altverse

Olivia took the overnight bag from Charlie so he could help Mona and their baby into a wheelchair and push them out of the room into the corridor, and she followed to join them and the two guards to escort them as they walked through the hospital. They passed medical equipment and personnel, nervously checking every door and elevator until they reached the parking lot, finding the unmarked protected vehicle that would transport them to the safe house.

“We’re keeping two units stationed with you at all times with specialized equipment. If you need anything or if anything feels weird, just call me, okay?” Olivia explained, tucking her ear plugs into her pocket and closing the door of the black SUV with darkened windows, as one rolled down.

"You not coming?" Charlie asked, peering out from the back seat next to Mona who was distracted by adjusting the car seat.

Olivia shook her head, and motioned with her hand to the area behind her.

"I gotta head to HQ, see if Astrid or Lincoln have traced the hackers yet or found any info," Olivia shrugged trying to disregard Charlie's look of concern. 

"You know, it was Lincoln who shot Montgomery," he replied after a brief hesitation, and watched Olivia's eyes as a flicker of agreement went across her face before her stubborn nature claimed control again, "so if they're right and this hack is related, it should be you two going to the safe house, not me."

"I'm heading straight back, we'll be safe there."

She said it confidently, and patted the hood of the car so the engine started and they pulled away, but Olivia didn't believe her own lie.

Something was still niggling her about Harry Allinson and she couldn't rest until she found out what it was.

***

The director of the clinic shifted uncomfortably in her leather office chair as Lincoln glared at her from the other side of her mahogany, green leather topped desk in the small, traditionally decorated office that was packed with old, almost antique wooden furniture. Large wooden bookcases that stretched almost from the floor to the ceiling towered behind her small frame, and were packed with scientific journals theses on genetics, fertility and biology.

A mature woman dressed in a dark, tailored suit with a graying blonde bob, she sipped some hot tea from her decorated fine china cup knocking her name plate that read Dr D. Wuhlman as she placed it back on the saucer.

"These are the files of the patients who had the same fertility treatments," Doctor Wuhlman said, passing them from a filing cabinet behind her and offering Lincoln a professional smile even though he could sense that she was reluctantly giving the information.

Lincoln looked through the photos as she spoke, seeing those of Ashlyn Montgomery and Harry Allinson's parents with a few others he didn’t recognise.

“The patients you mentioned had the same doctor, Doctor Aureoles. He had a doctorate in Bio Genetics from England and I was thrilled with the novelty of having another Brit to work with. He had such a high success rate, we thought it was too good to be true." 

She sighed as Lincoln looked up, his eye brows raised then furrowed as the change of tone in her voice. “Turns out he was. We found out after one of his early successes ended up with a rare form of cancer that he was tampering with genetic material and experimenting with eugenics."

She cleared her throat, prompted to continue by Lincoln who leaned forward in interest. "We ran tests, and discovered a range of defects caused by an extra set of chromosomes.”

“For what purpose?” Lincoln frowned again, glancing at her before returning to the notes in his hands.

“In his disciplinary, he said - boasted - he wanted to improve them and speed up evolution to make a better, no - a super, human. But the replication of chromosomes also produced additional genes, which not only seemed to give them side-effects that were often deadly but also some unforeseen... skills.”

“Skills?” Lincoln enquired, narrowing his eyes as he looked back up at her. “Like what?”

“Things like strength and intelligence, depending on what chromosome they duplicated. He said they showed signs of psychic ability, bio-kinesis, and mind-control. Unfortunately, those skills came with side-effects like reduced life span, accelerated aging, aggressive cancers, inoperable brain tumors, and psychosis. Your suspects are the final and only results left alive from his experiments that we know of before we stopped him.”

***

Watching Charlie and Mona’s car drive away, Olivia sat in the driving seat of her own car, rubbing her eyes into the palms of her hand in relief that Charlie, Mona and their baby were safe - at least for now - and she could head back to HQ to join Lincoln and Astrid. Feeling the vibration of a call come in, she pressed the button on her ear cuff communicator.

“Dunham," she answered as she shut the car door beside her.

“It’s Agent Farnsworth,” Astrid replied down the line. “We have some developments. We think we traced the origin of the hackers to an industrial property on Salem Street, Hackensack. I’ll send you the address now.”

“That’s over half an hour away,” Olivia observed with a sigh of frustration, pulling her seatbelt across her chest, “they could be long gone by now. Can you tell Lincoln and arrange a team to meet me there?”

“Of course. There’s something else you need to know about what we found out…” Astrid added as the line crackled.

***

“They sound almost like superhuman abilities rather than skills. So what happened to this Doctor Aureoles?” Lincoln replied. “How did he manage to do this? This is completely unethical, not to mention…”

“We fired him, of course,” Doctor Wuhlman interrupted as she handed over another folder containing the doctor’s information. “The AMA censured him and we wanted to do a complete investigation. But then he, well, disappeared off the face of the planet.”

Lincoln opened up the file and almost gasped at the photo inside. His eyes widened and felt his palms begin to sweat as he looked at the information, then back at the doctor sitting opposite him in shock. The photo was old and grainy, but Lincoln would recognize that face anywhere - he’d met him before when investigating the Sandman case - Doctor Aureoles was Erasmus, who was still in a coma from his confrontation with the Fringe Team. His mind eventually registered the sound of an incoming call in his earpiece over the whoosh of his heartbeat in his ears and Lincoln clicked it to answer it as he stared, stunned, at the information in front of him.

“This is Agent Lee,” he stuttered, his throat dry as he tried to speak.

“Agent Lee, this is Agent Farnsworth,” Astrid spoke down the line, her voice typically flat but still strained with urgency. "We traced the source of the hack. Can you meet a unit and Agent Dunham there, we are sending you the address.”

Lincoln stood quickly, mouthing a thank you to the woman behind the desk as the chair toppled slightly behind him.

“Yes, I’ll be right there," he replied, ending the call and turning to the director as he went to leave. “I have to go - can I keep these?” 

He barely had time to see her nod as he left, tucking the files under his arm to dash out of the building towards his car.

***

Rough gravel crunched under the wheels of Olivia's car that bumped over potholes and loose tarmac as she arrived at the address Astrid had given her. Pulling up to a parking space, she leaned forward to peer through the windshield at the old, stone brick building in front of her. Even in the dark and poorly lit parking area, it was unassuming and apparently abandoned, close to derelict with the few intact windows that weren't cracked and smashed caked in smoke, grime and dust. She looked around the area tentatively, unable to see any other activity or cars in the area. Impatiently glancing at her watch to quickly check the time, Olivia impulsively left her car, jogging over to the building to cautiously push the main door open. Caked in flaking blue paint, it creaked open, revealing the dusty cemented flooring of the dark industrial warehouse. A little of the outside street lamp light streamed through high cracked windows casting long, twisted shadows through the musty air, tainting everything with a violet hue as disturbed dust particles danced across the faint beams of light like dainty snow falling in the middle of a December night and illuminating footprints in the dirt at Olivia's feet.

A red blinking light on computer equipment and monitors stashed on racking in the far corner caught Olivia’s eye like a beacon through the dark and she edged closer to look at the screens, stopping as a strained voice called her from deeper inside the building.

“Olivia?”

She followed the voice to see Lincoln standing alone, a few rows of racking away, surrounded by rows of rusting metallic cylindrical tanks and empty cardboard boxes, his arms huddled around his chest.

“Linc? How did you get here so quickly?” Olivia said, puzzled. “Where’s your car and back up?” 

“You were right about Allinson, Olivia. Erasmus genetically engineered him and Montgomery,” he replied flatly, raising his weapon and pointing it at her unsteadily.

“Lincoln?” she questioned, her voice strained with alarm. She instinctively reached for her holster, then stopped remembering she no longer had her gun. “What are you doing?”

“Allinson wants me to shoot you because I shot Montgomery and you put Erasmus in a coma.” Lincoln whispered urgently as Olivia held up her hands, gingerly stepping towards him, stopping as he cocked the hammer of his gun, the click loudly echoed and punctuated the air.

“Give me the gun, Linc. I'll find him, where is he?” Olivia replied in frustration, straining to find anything to help in the muted light of the warehouse.

“He’s right here. Please make him stop, Olivia.” He begged, his hand shaking in fear. “Please. I… I can’t stop myself... him.”

“Give yourself up right now!” she turned and screamed desperately into the darkness, her voice breaking with panic. “It’s over, you’re surrounded. There is no way out!”

“Olivia?” Lincoln cried out, turning the gun on himself with a trembling hand and slowly pointing it at his head.

Olivia swiveled on her heel and immediately ran towards Lincoln, panic and adrenaline urgently pushing her forward, feeling like the faster she pushed, the slower she went as a single crack of gunfire pierced her ears. She skidded to a stop, watching Lincoln’s body limply fall backwards like a rag doll onto the hard and dusty concrete floor, layers of dust and dirt rising around him as his body hit the ground.

Her voice was so raw and animalistic, she didn’t recognize it as her own. She pushed back the urge to vomit from the senselessness, the knot in her throat threatening to rise and to choke her. 

“No, no, no!” Olivia cried as she reached him, desperately scrambling on the cement ground and slipping on his blood as she crawled towards him, feeling his neck for a pulse. “This can’t be happening.” She told herself, anything to disprove what she has seen and give her some hope.

“L-Linc?” she begged in a whimper, her voice breaking as she pushed against his chest with trembling hands, hoping the movement would cause him to open his eyes. “Please wake up.” 

But there was nothing. No pulse and no breathing. No signs of life at all, just his expression of shock and his blood that splattered across the floor and his shirt like red rose petals, pooling into a halo around his head, with his cracked glasses an island in the middle of the deep red sea.

The noise of footsteps behind her shook her from her grief, converting it into anger, as she grabbed his gun out of his listless hand and looked up to see Harry approaching, also with a gun in his hand. 

“I’m gonna kill you, you fucking BASTARD!” Olivia screamed again, manic with rage, as he stopped, pointing his gun at her.

“It's me, Liv. Don’t shoot,” Harry replied calmly, his jaw clenched in concentration and determination.

“W-what?” Olivia faltered, the desire to shoot him dead impeded only by the inability to focus on his body in the low light because the tears welling in her eyes.

“It’s me, Lincoln,” he replied calmly, stopping abruptly where he stood, the low light shining off of his straight black hair. “You were right about Allinson. He and Montgomery were results of Erasmus's experiments. They found each other somehow and were working together to avenge you shooting Erasmus, that's why she was in the archives when we caught her.”

“No. I don’t believe you…” she stuttered, wavering slightly as she held Lincoln’s gun, sticky with his blood, and patted her pockets of her combat pants with her free hand, desperately trying to find her earplugs.

“Harry is behind you. He’s telling you he’s me and I’m him.”

Olivia blinked away the tears and forced herself to look down again at Lincoln’s body once more. There was still a bullet hole in his head, just like her dream. His blood seeped out in rivulets, ebbing out behind him. The rage and nausea rose in her gut in waves, sweeping across her and pulling her down. It was then Olivia realized how she recognized Allinson, he was the man from her dream who'd led her to Lincoln’s body in the morgue.

“You! Y-you killed him! He’s dead again, because of you! “ Olivia shrieked through her trembling lips, her cheeks hot with anger and tears spilling out that impaired her vision.

“Liv, I’m here, I'm not dead,” Harry begged softly, his eyes squinting and long hair swishing as he shook his head in desperation. “He wants you to kill me. He read our files and knows you’ll never forgive yourself after what happened to…”

The other Lincoln. He wanted to say before she screamed again, cutting him off.

“SHUT UP!”

“Liv please! Listen to my voice!” he shouted back, his voice wavering and steadied his shaking hand by holding the gun with both hands, trying to think of anything that'd they both know but wouldn't be in their Fringe Division work profiles. “Your favorite flowers are daisies, you always pick raw tomatoes out of your food, and I-I belong with you just like you belong...”

“I said shut UP!” Olivia desperately screamed her reply, her finger twitching on the trigger as she watched him step forwards, his gaze moving to over her shoulder at the floor behind her.

Lincoln paused before trying again, remembering what he'd been told. Make sure she hears you and your voice. Tell her who you are.

“Last night was the best night of my life since I moved…” his voice cracked as he cried out, his eyes catching a movement in the shadows. ”…MOVE, NOW!” Harry shouted, his face distorted with the fear and desperation that pushed up through his body. 

Olivia barely had time to register his words but quickly jumped to the side as he repeatedly fired his gun in her direction. She fell down onto the dusty floor and rolled over, to look at the body next to her, then back toward the shooter to see Lincoln standing above her, lowering his discharged weapon with shaking hands as a wisp of smoke escaped the chamber. She turned back in disbelief at the body of Harry next to her, a fresh bullet wound blooming in his chest, his face contorted in astonished agony and his dark, stringy hair fanned out around his head.

“Liv?” Lincoln sighed, his voice hitching with relief and emotion when she looked back up at him again, stunned but recognizing him as the man she loved and thought was dead. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

He slowly stepped closer to Olivia, taking the gun from her hands and helping her to her feet, then led her away as the backup unit stormed into the building, barely registering their voices as her legs buckled underneath her again.

“It's you… I nearly…” she whispered in a sob as the gravity of the situation hit her. Olivia covered her eyes with her hand in shame and relief as he wrapped his arms around her, trying to keep her up and not to let her feel how much his own body was shaking.

“It’s okay, nothing happened. We’re good," he whispered, as the rest of the Fringe team assembled around them, to evaluate the scene and attend to Allinson.

“Shot fired, repeat shot fired, suspect down”. Were the last words they heard echoing around them before Erikson took them away.

***

Staring at the digital file Lincoln handed him, Erikson inspected the details, then placed it down on his desk.

"So Erasmus was working on some kind of experiment to control consciousness through dreams, for what end?” Erikson queried, folding his arms.

“It’s unclear what his motives were, these two were the last two surviving results of his experiments - that we know of,” Lincoln replied confidently. “We haven't yet discovered how many other covert experiments were run at other clinics without their consent or knowledge.”

“So, there is a possibility there could be others out there with similar abilities?”  Erikson replied uneasily as he leaned back, looking up as Olivia entered and picked up the file from Lincoln.

“Sir,” Olivia interjected, stepping forward. “I suggest we keep a close eye on any cases like this as a precaution. In the meantime, Agent Farnsworth is running more data on similar fertility clinics to see if we can find any further information.”

“Good work agents, dismissed,” he nodded, placing it down and they turned to leave.

“Agent Dunham?” Erikson called again as Lincoln left the room and she turned on her heel, holding the door. “I have something for you.”

He leant to his side to reach into the dark teak wood drawers of his desk and sat back up, placing her weapon on the desk and she looked at it with confliction and repulsion - she’d been comfortable around guns for such a long time, even being an Olympic sharpshooter, that they’d become an extension of her being. But she had almost killed her partner and the man she recently realized she loved, and thought of that repelled her, the images washing in her head with waves of nausea.

“You did good, Agent,” Erikson said with praise and consolation in his voice, sending her hesitation. “You saw through his lies and games and won.”

“So why do I feel like I've lost everything?” She replied as she slowly picked up the gun and returned it to her holster as she left the room.

***

Lincoln watched Olivia as she followed him down to where he and Astrid stood at the rotunda's central podium, his eyes heavy with concern that she would never trust him - or herself - again.

He wanted to ask if she was okay, but he knew she would say she was even though he knew she wasn't and smiled thinly she joined them.

“We’re releasing Agent Francis and his family from protective custody as the statistical likelihood of any direct threat has been reduced,” Lincoln said, looking back at Astrid quickly unsure of what else to say.

“I’m sure Charlie and Mona will be glad to get Nellie home,” Olivia replied quietly.

“Nellie? Like in Charlotte’s Web?” he smiled to himself at the coincidence as the women looked at him with vacant eyes. “The book? About a spider who is best friends with a pig?”

They looked back at each other, puzzled, then frowned and shook their heads.

“Nope, no idea,” Olivia replied with a snort, a sound Lincoln was happy to hear considering the circumstances, and he shrugged in resignation at another difference between their universe and his. “Mona said it is a mix of names of her dad and Charlie’s mom.”

“Just in my universe, then. Shame, I would have bought them a copy for when she gets older. You wanna pop in and see them on the way back?”

“No, not today. I just want us to go home,” she shook her head, offering him another thin smile and nodded at Astrid who also turned to leave.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Agent Dunham, Agent Lee."

They replied with a nod before they left, then Lincoln slipped his hand in Olivia's and they interlaced their fingers, not caring who saw them as they went home.

***

Olivia hardly said a word on the car journey home or when they got back to the apartment, only speaking when Lincoln asked her a question and even then her replies were short, as if she couldn't hear his words. Lincoln made dinner, and put a plate in front of Olivia, only to watch her push the food around her plate for half an hour until she declared she wasn’t hungry, and left the table for the bathroom. She didn’t know how long she was standing in the shower, but she was there until it ran cold, her body shivering under the icy water and the thought of what could have, and nearly, happened. On the other side of the door, Lincoln watched it nervously from afar, twisting his fingers as he considered going in there after her until he finally heard the water stop running and Olivia opened the door, wet hair dripping on her shoulders and she walked to her room to lay on her bed in the dark behind the closed door. Finally retreating to his own room, Lincoln did the same. Supine on his bed on top of the covers, he watched the shadows cast by headlamps dance across the ceiling for an hour, unable to sleep until sighing, he stood, and padded lightly out of his room into the darkness of the apartment and into Olivia’s room.

In the shadows, he could just make out Olivia’s shape in the dim light, her curves mountain ranges on the flat mattress, curled up on her side and facing away from him towards the empty side of the bed.

He ambled around the bed to the other side, stopping when she stirred.

“I didn’t think you were going to come in here tonight," she mumbled sleepily, her hand that was on the pillow sliding down to the covers to pull them back, inviting him in.

“I wasn’t going to. I thought you might want some space and be on your own for a while,” Lincoln replied as she shook her head.

He barely had time to lie down before she wrapped the cover across him and pulled him in close, her arm holding him tight across his chest as her hand desperately gripped fistfuls of his T-shirt. 

Lincoln overlapped her arm with his, resting his chin on the top of her head. He thought she was asleep until her breath shuddered, and he felt wetness on his T-shirt, blooming in spots across his chest and a patch sticking to the side of his ribs under his heart.

“Liv?” he whispered her name like a question into her hair.

“I can’t stop seeing you d…” Olivia softly sighed her reply, the image of Lincoln's body fallen back dead into a pool of blood replaying over and over in her mind “… I can’t stop thinking how I nearly, I almost…”

She sobbed again, rubbing her eyes and turning away, like showing her emotion and vulnerability to him was the final chink in her armour that she wasn’t ready to reveal despite everything they’d been through and confessed to each other.

He stopped for a moment, wondering if she wanted him to leave but decided not to, instead spooning up behind her and wrapping his arm around hers, pulling her back flush against his chest.

*

When he had arrived at the warehouse, his heart had sunk on seeing Olivia's empty car outside, knowing she was already inside and what he'd learned from files Doctor Wulman had given him. 

"Do not enter. You will die here," the voice behind Lincoln said matter-of-factly, making Lincoln spin on his heel, his gun poised at the pale man. He strained to make out of the shape of him in the darkness, his black suit blending into the shadows of the abandoned and derelict parking area.

"You again?" Lincoln frowned, as the bald suited man copied his words and paused to tilt his head to the side, his hat casting shadows across his face. "I have to, Liv is in there with Allinson…"

"She will kill you," he repeated flatly, "Allinson will convince her you are him, and she will shoot you dead."

"Why would she kill him?" Lincoln began, eyeing the man suspiciously, his pale skin glittering in the flickering lamp.

"Because she thinks you are dead, and she cannot live with that."

"And if I stay here - outside?" Lincoln sighed. "What happens then?"

The observer paused for a moment, tilting his head to the side to consider all the possibilities of what might happen with a change of variant. 

"He will kill her," he concluded.

"Then I'm going in," Lincoln replied, cocking his gun again, his eyes widening with fear and the gun slipping in his shaking hands when he heard the sound of a single gunshot echo out from the building.

"Make sure she hears you and your voice, tell her who you are," he added, watching Lincoln pause briefly and swallow thickly before entering the warehouse. "If you tell her how you feel, make her hear you, it may give you a chance."

Lincoln nodded, turning away briefly, only to see the man had disappeared once again.

*

“It’s okay, I’m here. I told you I’m not going anywhere,” he said reassuringly to the back of her head, brushing away stray strands of her auburn hair from her face and gently kissing the side of her cheek. “You trusted me, you heard my voice, and you knew the truth. It doesn’t matter what anyone says or does, you’ll always be able to rely on that.”

Chapter Text

“So beautiful.” 

Holding the baby in his arms, Lincoln looked at her intently, his pale blue eyes wide in awe, like it was a rare, fragile and priceless jewel from a museum that should be under layers of security rather than blankets. Nellie was only a few days old and still so small, but her skin was peachy and soft, and he gently stroked her tiny fingers as they grasped his. He tried to dismiss memories of his old life of getting so close to having the family he needed, only for it to be snatched away from him before it could ever materialize, but they bled through his mind, tattooed like splashes of ink blots in an old notebook from a broken pen. Standing at the graveside under a sky of royal blue, he'd watched in silence as his only remaining family after his parents were lowered into the ground, bound together in the same wooden walls to rest together, marked by gold writing on the headstone that glinted in the sunlight. They'd never said it, but the way Kendra's parents looked at him made him feel they held him accountable, if not responsible, as if he should have stayed with her to stop her from visiting Nick instead of accepting the FBI training. Shortly after passing his FBI exams that he'd passed with flying colors, as the studying a been a welcome distraction, Lincoln had been offered a post in Hartford. He had welcomed the new start and Robert's surrogate family as his own even though he knew, deep down, it wasn't where he belonged because there wasn't anywhere he felt was his home. Until now.

“She obviously takes after her mother.” Olivia joked as Charlie rolled his eyes and pulled a face, being both thankful and sad that this Lincoln didn't tease him much as the other one did.

“My partner Robert," he paused briefly, unsure of Mona's knowledge of alternative universes, "before I moved to Fringe Division, had kids, but they were nearly two and four when we began working together, so I never knew them when they were this small. It’s just incredible.” He smiled, catching Olivia’s contemplative gaze and blushed slightly as he handed her carefully back to Mona. “I baby sat them sometimes when he and Jules needed an evening off. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get a little practice, just in case...”

I might ever get the chance again. Lincoln's voice trailed off when Olivia looked at him, as she was the only one he'd dared to tell about Kendra and their unborn daughter, watching the smile on her face quickly fade and step back, reeling as the flash of a familiar distant dream or memory of a life not lived echoed in her head. 

The original Lincoln beaming with joy and relief, his face wet with tears as he handed her a baby, its skin tacky and warm under her fingers, screaming with the trauma of birth as he held them both close and cried.

“You have a son.”

Then as fast as it came, it went, replaced by another flash or memory or reality or timeline or fantasy, she didn't know which, only that they all felt as real as each other, cutting into her mind and heart like splinters of broken glass that shattered her and clouded her mind. But she could tell it was this Lincoln, with his side parting and the surroundings merging into cool blues and flickering fluorescent bulbs and the hum of hospital equipment from deep reds and flashing lanterns, and the chatter of concerned onlookers.

He cried, literally sobbed with relief and overwhelming emotion.

“W-w-we have a son?”

Looking at him now, she knew he had to be part of a family, his need to belong and find a home so deep within his core, it couldn’t be any more obvious, and the knowledge that she couldn’t give him what would make him happy made her heart crack, the shards catching in her chest because she wanted him to be happy, he deserved that more than anyone she knew.

Catching the flicker of sadness in her expression, Lincoln tried to meet her eyes again with his own look of concern, but she focused on Charlie, scared to look at Lincoln or the baby again in case her thoughts were revealed to everyone.

“So, are you volunteering your services buddy?” Charlie said, breaking the silence and Olivia from her reverie, teasing Lincoln while wrapping his arm around Mona and their child and raising his eyebrows when Lincoln nodded in reply.

“I’d be happy to help, if I can. Liv?” 

“Of course!” Olivia replied, her deceptively wide smile that she used as a defense back again. “Maybe we should give you guys some space now. We only popped in to say hi and make sure you’re all okay.”

Lincoln nodded again in agreement and followed her as they left and got into the car. Olivia caught him looking at her from the corner of her eye and sighed as she started the engine.

“What?” Olivia spat, her tone tinted with annoyance, but it still came out more bitterly than she intended and she saw him flinch, recoil at her voice.

“Nothing.” Lincoln replied calmly, dismissing her look with a little huff and shake of his head, trying to diffuse her frustration.

“No, you looked at me like you want to say something, why don’t you spit it out?”

“You just looked like you were a million miles away in there,” He began, trying to find the words to explain, “and when you came back, you were…”

“What?” she repeated, annoyed at herself for giving herself away so easily and at him for his gift of always being able to read her mood so well.

“I don’t know. Are you sure you're okay?” Lincoln added softly, “You’ve been through so much the last few weeks, you know you can tell me anything if you need to talk, or…”

He could sense something behind Olivia's eyes, one last secret behind her walls that she refused to disclose. His heart ached for her, not because he needed to know everything from her past but because he feared she felt she couldn't share everything with him, like there was one thing she couldn't trust him to know. Lincoln couldn't think of what she could be reluctant to tell him, but he also knew she didn't wear her heart on her sleeve like he did and the more he pressed, the more her stubbornness would defend it.

“Anything? Talk or...?”

“Yeah, anything. Anything you need. Anytime.” He added simply, fidgeting and shifting in his seat again before looking away at a butterfly that landed on the flowers on the verge at the side of the road.

Lincoln gulped, hoping Olivia would read between the lines of his words to see the invitation to take all of him whenever she wanted to, and left it open for her to take it when she was ready. 

Chapter Text

September 2013 Altverse 

Lincoln laid flat on his bed in a simple t-shirt and pajama pants, barefoot but warm, his skin still a little damp from a shower and his arms folded behind his head. Soft sounds of an acoustic guitar and violin, mixed with a murmur of a low tenor voice, emanated from the speakers on his nightstand and synchronized with the raindrops that pattered against the windowsill, surrounding him in their rhythm like a blanket in the fading daylight. The bedside lamplight encased his slim frame in soft amber shades, fractured with flashes of light from outside as the thunder of an impending storm crept closer, almost disguising a soft knock at his bedroom door. 

“Come in!” Lincoln answered, startled by the noise and glanced in the direction, watching as Olivia appeared at the door wrapped in her bathrobe, her hair damp and curling at the edges.

“Hey," she replied, offering a small wary smile, while hesitating at his door, afraid she was intruding.

“Hey! I didn’t hear you get back in. How’s your mom?” he asked as he returned the slight smile and sat up on his elbows.

“She’s okay, she said they want to run some more tests, they’re thinking it could be IBS or Crohn’s.” Olivia sighed.

"Like Robert," Lincoln muttered, thinking back to his partner in the FBI and continued on seeing Olivia's brows knit together in a puzzled expression. "He had Crohn's. He took iron tablets for it."

“We got caught in the storm so we came home,” she continued, nodding in understanding and tapping her fingers against the edge of the door indecisively as she leaned against it.

“She came back with you?” he squinted, looking behind her as if he half expected her to appear behind Olivia.

“No, she dropped me off outside," Olivia added solemnly, shaking her head as she closed the door and ambled towards the bed.

*

They'd visited Rachel's grave to commemorate her 30th birthday, and had stood on the neglected brown grass, hard as needles and crunching like broken grass underfoot from months of drought.

“Mom?” Olivia whispered under the swollen red sky, watching as she placed a small bunch of tulips next to the headstone with a white inscription carved into the dark stone, “If you could talk to Rachel again one last time… what would you say to her?”

When she had been impersonating her counterpart on the other side to retrieve the pieces of the machine for Secretary Bishop, Olivia had read her personnel file to help convince Walter, Astrid and Broyles on that side she was their Olivia and maintain her cover for as long as possible. However, the discovery that VPE wasn’t a condition in the other universe and Rachel had survived labor with her daughter was not something she'd anticipated, and the news had knocked the air from her lungs and caused tears to prick the back of her eyes to the point she'd almost inadvertently exposed her true identity, until she'd blinked them away under a pretense she’d managed to concoct before arousing their suspicions.

She'd quickly dismissed it as an unnecessary distraction from the classified mission, trying to convince herself that it was enough for her to know they were alive and were living happily with Rachel's husband Greg, that they’d named their daughter Ella and son Eddie after their grandparents. But it continued to niggle like a splinter where she had buried it in the back of her mind, twisting deeper until it was almost infused into her memories and she couldn’t ignore it any longer. 

Olivia had arrived at their address in Chicago that she'd found through the FBI resources, and had sat frozen behind the wheel of the hired vehicle for hours, thinking what she could say if she found the courage to leave the car. Whatever words she thought of seemed inadequate; there was no way she could explain what she felt and what she'd lost, and she knew that would reveal her as an imposter before she even opened her mouth. She watched entranced and astounded on seeing the figure at the window of the red brick building, the woman with a small child on her hips had a halo light blonde hair when illuminated by the amber street lamps and a silhouette of a girl with bobbed hair at her side as she paused briefly to check the sunset before she closed the drapes. Falling dead leaves crinkled like paper, hitting the car windshield against the backdrop of the sky that had dripped through the muted colors in the spectrum from cerulean blue into lilac and fuchsia, before she could find the strength to drive away into the inky black night. 

“I do talk to her,” Marilyn replied simply, grasping her daughter’s hand in her own. “And I still hear her voice every day, you just need to listen - here.” She placed it over Olivia’s chest as heavy raindrops fell from the gray clouds overhead and saturated the dry earth, just like the day she was buried with her stillborn child almost ten years ago. “Hear.”

*

“I'm not interrupting anything, am I?” she added, pulling herself out of the thought by focusing on Lincoln’s concerned expression as he gazed intently at her.

“Uh, no, of course not! A band I like made an album that wasn’t released in my universe, side, whatever…” he shrugged then fluttered his hands up as he explained. "So I’m just catching up on what I missed.” Lincoln replied as he watched Olivia fidget as she stood in front of him, picking at the trim on her bathrobe before she shivered, and crossed her arms against her chest. “Umm, is e-every-” Lincoln began nervously until Olivia interrupted him.

“Can I get in?” Olivia gestured at the bed, pulling back the covers when Lincoln nodded and quickly stood to get off the bedding, and she turned to discard her robe, briefly exposing her skin to the air before lying down. She turned her head to the side to look at Lincoln who stood by the other side of the bed where he’d been, watching his eyes widen and Adam's apple bob when he saw a glimpse of her naked body before she pulled the bedsheets back up to her chest. “You getting in too or what?” Olivia huffed. He finally unfroze and nodded before sitting down on the edge for a moment with his back to her before turning around and lying down next to Olivia. He swallowed thickly as she leaned into him, her fingertips tracing the line of where his dimples met his jaw, to make his lips meet hers.

Mapping every crease of her lips and taste of Olivia’s mouth, Lincoln’s arms snaked around her waist to keep her close while he kissed her back tentatively and languidly, trying to calm the pace of her movements and revel in the warmth that ebbed from her body in waves, grasping her wrists as her hands scrabbled at the sensitive skin at his hip to tug at the waistband of his pajamas and ruck up his T-shirt. Breaking away to catch his breath, he leaned back slightly to search Olivia’s eyes - dark, mossy green in the low light. The sound of rainwater lashed against the window outside, barely audible over the rush of blood in his ears.

“Liv?” he whispered shyly, his warm breath tickling her cheek. “Do you w-want to --” Lincoln stuttered, pausing when Olivia smiled slightly and nodded, before leaning back in to resume the embrace only for him to pull back before their lips could meet again, and Olivia frowned at his hesitation. He smiled nervously, lying on the bed next to her on his side, taking her face in his hands, his eyes and brows furrowed with concern meeting her eyes that looked teary and tinted pink with sadness in the corners. She never explained how her sister had died and he'd never found the right time to ask, knowing it had most likely been unexpected and a wound she didn’t want to reopen, “You sure? If you’re upset we don’t hav-”

“Linc, I promise I'm fine. I don’t want to wait any longer," she replied, barely able to see his features from their close proximity and the desperate desire she felt pooling in her core when he nodded.

“Say it to me,” Lincoln implored, his voice was low and husky with the hunger he felt burning deep inside, that had been desperately waiting for someone - Olivia - to release it from where he’d caged it away so many years ago. “Please.”

“Make love to me, Lincoln,” Olivia sighed, never breaking eye contact with him, recognizing his need to hear her vocalize it to assure him she wanted him like he wanted her, sparking to the fire in the pools of his eyes that burned in a white-hot heat, glittering like the transparent cerulean blue of an early morning summer sky.

He stood to strip down quickly so they were equally undressed, pulling his T-shirt over his head, and pushing his pajama pants down over his hips and already semi-hard erection, nearly tripping over as he stepped out of them, causing a little nervous giggle from Olivia. Lincoln looked at her to see her meeting his gaze with wide eyes and swallowed thickly, seeing him completely naked for the first time, taking in the subtle differences between him and the Lincoln she used to know.

“What?” He questioned self-consciously, his eyebrows raised as looked down at himself. “Is something wrong?”

“No - no!” Olivia quickly replied reassuringly, beckoning him over as she shifted to make space for him. “C’mere.”

He nodded back, tucking her hair behind her ear to pull her in for another kiss, his mouth playfully teasing hers until her lips opened and his tongue slipped in her mouth, making them both groan with pleasure as he leaned into her, sinking forward onto the bed.

Feeling the warmth of desire building and arousal pooling inside her was a stark contrast to the rain falling outside as the storm approached, the howling wind making the raindrops lash against the window with the intensity of the cloudburst. Lincoln’s lips left Olivia’s mouth, slowly trailing down the tender skin on the side of her neck, making her pulse quicken under his kisses as they slipped lower to her shoulders and breasts. Her eyes involuntarily drifted shut and mouth opened to let a long contented sigh escape, as she felt his hand join his mouth gently caressing her breasts, teasing her aching taut nipples lightly with his tongue, the slow and deliberate sensation of its warm wetness trailing circles around them making her squirm.

Raising her knees slightly, Olivia squeezed her thighs together to help relieve the pressure building inside her, the featherlight touch of his hand on her breast sliding down to the plane of her stomach to squeeze the top of her thigh, the tip of his thumb dangerously close to her junction. He was barely grazing her through her underwear when her eyes shot open and she gasped at his thumb’s sudden proximity to the area that was growing more and more sensitive.

Lincoln looked up and stopped as she gasped, the coolness of his blue eyes dark and dilated with worship and his cheeks flushed in adoration.

“This okay?” He whispered, his voice an octave lower than normal.

"No."

"No?" Lincoln replied, his hands pausing while his eyes checked her face, eyebrows raised in concern.

"It's not okay, it's perfect," she nodded, biting down on her full bottom lip with a slight smile.

“You sure? I don’t want to be putting my hands anywhere they’re not wanted, we can stop if you --“

“I'm sure," Olivia smiled again, this time bringing her hand up to cup his face to reassure him and to to give him the confidence to touch her with no self-doubt or hesitation, the way she had been aching for him to do for so long. “I want you to touch me. I want you. Please, don’t stop.”

Lincoln smiled and nodded as he knelt up so the covers fell off the bed, exposing their warm bodies to the cool air. As the light outside began to fade, the curves of their entwined bodies became engulfed with shadows like the determination to consummate their feelings consumed them, and they were illuminated by the soft blue glow of the music player and amber streetlights that flickered through the swaying tree branches behind the window’s thin drapes.

Running his hands slowly down her sides and over the curve of her hips, he reached her thighs again, so his slim, long fingers fanned across them and his thumbs lightly traced in tandem against the bottom hem of her underwear until they edged under the lace to the dip where her thigh joined her hip. Moving back and forth in a slow, deliberate rhythm, eventually his thumbs paused at her crease, hesitating slightly on making contact with the thatch of trimmed hair and the warmth within.

Her breath hitched in shallow gasps at the touch as he tenderly explored every inch of her skin, his heavy eyes seeking her face for permission to go further. 

She felt like wildfire under his fingertips, searing hot and dangerous, tearing uncontrollably through every cell and fiber of his being, and it took every drop of his resolve to pace himself and not allow himself to be consumed her and his desire.

“Are you trying to tease me?” Olivia sighed, a hint of frustration and anticipation in her voice.

“No -" he paused. “Do you want me to?” Lincoln added, slightly smirking in reply, his eyebrows high as he mentally explored the possibility.

“Not now," she replied without hesitation.

“Then tell me what you like,” Lincoln pleaded, his voice low and deep with a desperate desire to please and still afraid of not being enough, the tips of his fingers so close to where she wanted him to be that she almost felt like crying. “Tell me what you want, Liv.”

“Please,” Olivia sobbed with a gulp, unashamed by the desperation in her voice, “I just want you to touch me --"

Not even waiting for her to finish the sentence, he took that as all the permission he needed before deftly hooking his fingers under the waist hem of her panties again, pulling them quickly down her thighs as she raised her hips until they were free. The contrast of his eager, hard cock against his slim, toned frame compared to her previous muscular lovers was strangely refreshing, and she reached for him and looking at him, puzzled, when he moved back to kiss her knee, then the other, slowly trailing kisses down the tender, soft skin on the inside of her thighs. Olivia clasped her eyes shut in realization of his intention and smiled to herself as she thought maybe both Lincolns weren’t that different after all and she’s the only person to have had the privilege of experiencing this from them both.

“You don’t have to --“ she sighed, smiling as his mouth reached the crease at the top of her thigh.

“You don’t want me to?” he replied, his small nose bumping the mound of trimmed hair, and he lifted his head to check her face, his eyes narrowing slightly in confusion.

“Yes, I do, but it isn’t neces -- Oh!" Olivia cried out as he returned his mouth without hesitation and any argument she had disappeared with the sensation of his firm tongue against her sex, the warm wetness of his mouth teasing, parting and dipping through the folds of her sex, and teeth grazing her clit. “Ah... ohhhh! ”

Squirming again, her back arched as she pushed her feet flat on the bed, trying desperately to anchor her body while her hips rose involuntarily, feeling she might float away with the pleasure coiling deep within her. It didn’t really surprise her that the same determination, attention to detail and methodical nature he had at work also applied to his attitude in the bedroom.

She tasted even better than he imagined, and God knows Lincoln had imagined this moment more often than he’d ever admit to. Sweet yet salty, her hot briny, exotic tang flooded his senses as he allowed himself to drown in her humid scent, the only downside being he couldn't see the expression on her face from this angle. He lifted his head for a second to look at her, but when Olivia whined at the lack of contact Lincoln continued with his enthusiastic and unwavering pattern, teasing with each lick, suck and kiss, slowly exploring every millimeter of her folds with his tongue, guided by her delirious whimpering and moans. Pinning her hips to the bed with his hands until the warming pressure crept up on her, she turned her face to the pillow to stifle her moans, her hand brushing against the back of his head to encourage him until he shifted a little and stopped. 

Gently taking her clit between his lip covered teeth and sucking hard, then flicking it with the tip of his tongue, Lincoln shifted on his elbows to slip one finger followed by another deep into her wetness, curving them up, making her come undone. Olivia shamelessly and involuntarily bucked her hips against his face, grabbing handfuls of the sheets when his name sobbed from her mouth, and she clenched around him, feeling herself fall over the edge that she barely comprehended she had been climbing. 

“Linc, I’m… Ohhhhh!” Olivia gasped in surprise as she broke into a sob, unable to speak or think as her world disappeared into a spark of bright light, her breath shallow gasps with the sensation exploding in every cell of her body.

She reopened her eyes as she recovered to see him kneeling over her, his hair spiked and disheveled, his chin and mouth glinting with her wetness and a beaming smile, wide with wonder and amazement that she couldn’t help but reassuringly smile back at. The familiarity of his face and situation struck her then, and threatened to cause tears to sting in the corner of her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away before he could see them. She pulled him back up to her, shifting her hips as he leaned on the bed with his bent arms either side of her body, his hands cradling the side of her head, and she felt the throbbing heat of his hard cock as it brushed against the inside of her thigh. 

“Liv, wait!” Lincoln gasped, moving his hips back as she pushed up to meet him, and the head of his cock brushed against her wet folds, eagerly aching with anticipation and arousal. “Do we need some… I wasn’t expecting this tonight and I haven’t bought any, uh, things.”

“Condoms? I have an old packet in my room. Do you want me to get them?” Olivia replied, tracing his mouth with her fingers, his lips swollen with kisses and damp with her arousal.

He shook his head, straightening his arms and swallowed thickly.

“Stay there. I’ll grab them. Where are they?”

“Left side nightstand, top drawer," she replied, and instantly he pushed himself back up out of the bed towards the door, stepping over his discarded pajamas and her robe on the floor.

“Don’t move, I’ll be back in one sec," he smiled as he left the room, holding up a finger as confirmation.

He jogged into her room and opened the drawer. Finding the packet, Lincoln hastily grabbed it and checked the date on the side when something underneath it caught his attention before he could close the drawer - photos of Olivia with the other Lincoln, the ones he saw her take from the locker. Little freeze frames of moments they'd shared, smiling and laughing at jokes he never heard, making him feel like an outsider all over again. He hurriedly shoved them back down, remembering what he was there for and that going through her possessions wasn’t the right thing to do, especially now.

“There you are. I was about to send out a search party!” Olivia laughed, looking up as he swiftly walked back into the room, holding up the packet in evidence. He sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress creaking slightly with his weight as he nervously unwrapped the packet. His hands trembled as he rolled it down the hard shaft of his cock, feeling her warm hand encouragingly stroking his back. Lincoln gulped, trying to wash away the thought that the last time she’d had sex was most likely with his double as it gnawed away at the corner of his mind and fed his anxiety, feeding his inadequacies. 

Rolling back over towards her on the bed, he smiled nervously, moving his slim legs between her firm thighs. She smiled back reassuringly, her arms wrapping around his neck and he nodded, jaw slack when she linked her legs around his waist, drawing him back down and he slowly and deeply slid into her wet heat. He wasn’t the most endowed of all her lovers but he was more than well-proportioned to his slim frame, and where she hadn’t been anyone since the other Lincoln or even used a toy inside her for sometime, his cock inside her created a delicious ache as she stretched to accommodate him moving inside her. The friction caused them both to sigh simultaneously when Lincoln tentatively began rolling his hips and any trepidation he'd had disappeared with the sensation.

“Okay?” he gasped in a low voice, biting down on his trembling lip and searching Olivia’s face for confirmation, then scrunching his eyes shut in concentration on the backstroke when Olivia nodded wide-eyed in reply. It had been a long time since Lincoln had a sexual encounter with someone else, and the sensation of Olivia's body and scent surrounding him overwhelmed his senses.

Although he'd casually dated Alicia briefly in high school, his last relationship with Kendra had been an awakening, and he’d learned - and never forgotten - how to be a generous and attentive lover in the bedroom, her subtle vocal cues that guided him forever imprinted on his memory on realizing that giving pleasure to his partner was his greatest motivation and turn-on. Since her death, Robert had tried setting him up a few blind dates but they hadn't gotten past the first date stage. He'd indulged in aiding his own satisfaction occasionally but it always felt empty and a means to an end, not to mention pathetic and cliched, and almost seedy in the hotel rooms he'd stayed in before living with Olivia. He'd resisted any urge while living with her when she was at home in case she heard him in the next room and was repulsed by his behavior.

He'd given in once though, when a bout of insomnia had struck and on hearing her movements through the bedroom wall, the creak of her mattress and her sigh a melody in his ears, incited by the thought if she was doing the same as him, and who she thought of when she touched herself, but stopped abruptly and guiltily repressed the thought and actions of his hand when it occurred to him she could be having a nightmare or just crying herself to sleep.

“I-I’ve not… for so long… you feel so good," Lincoln gulped thickly and dropped his head down to her neck again to brush his lips against the soft skin under her jaw, trying to think of anything to distract him from the aching pleasure rippling up from his groin as he cautiously pushed forward again.

“You don’t have to hold back,” Olivia replied, shifting her hips and legs up encouragingly so her ankles crossed higher behind his back and lowering an arm to link her fingers with his hand that pushed into the mattress next to her head. "You can let go.”

“Good, because I really don’t want to be thinking of my Walter naked to put myself off,” Lincoln quipped nervously as Olivia giggled breathlessly, a sound that quickly disappeared when he raised his head back up to look at the dark green of her eyes, and thrusted harder. She gasped at the sensation, her hands sliding up his arms to grip onto his shoulders to anchor her with his increasing speed and panting breath coaching her on, the friction of his pelvis pushing against her making a warming pleasure course through inside her again. His pace became faster and erratic, a slight raspy moan escaping his lips with every downstroke.

Pausing briefly to raise one arm to lean on the headboard and lower the other, he hooked it under her knee so her hips shifted even further upwards, her leg leaning over his upper arm to deepen the last few hard thrusts and improve the angle of their movements. He bit down on his lip and clenched his jaw in a last attempt at self-restraint, accentuating the dimples in his cheeks.

“Oh, oh... don’t stop," she panted, her breaths punctuated by every deep thrust, the feel of his coarse chest hair brushing against her nipples, sensitive with arousal while he pursed his lips, biting down hard on his swollen bottom lip in concentration.

Olivia drank in the unmistakable scent of his fresh sweat, and the look of concentration, adoration and dedication in his flushed face as he watched her reaction to every movement of his hips with wide-eyed incredulity as he pushed further into her.

Without his hand cushioning her, the crown on her head thumped as it hit the headboard, but she was beyond caring when she glanced down to where they joined, entranced by the vision of him sliding deeper and deeper into her with deliberation, hard and slick with her wetness. Looking back up, she saw he’d been watching her the whole time to ensure she wanted this as much as him, and she twisted her hand back to link with his one that was holding the headboard, knuckles white as the sheets, her other hand grazed down his side to spur him on.

“Linc?…” Olivia choked reassuringly through gasps when she met his gaze. He leaned his face down, meeting her halfway to catch her lips for a kiss as she reached up for him, tasting the tanginess of her arousal on his mouth when his thrusts turned into a faster, erratic rhythm.

“Oh Liv, I’m gonna co… can I?” he stammered into her mouth, replying in broken breaths as his body stiffened. A long, guttural sigh escaped his mouth as he buried himself in her as deep as he could go one last time and his body shuddered against hers before releasing her leg and wrapping her in the comforting blanket of his embrace. Their bodies laid flat against each and slick with sweat until Lincoln rolled onto his back, sighing sorry under his breath.

*

Allowing her breathing to subside and her temperature to cool for a moment, Olivia sighed, feeling her body relax. Standing quickly on unsteady legs before sleep claimed her, she jogged out of the room, quickly grabbing her discarded panties and robe from the floor at the foot of the bed on the way, not noticing Lincoln's arm that reached out for her on the space she left in his bed. When she chucked her damp panties in the laundry basket and hung the robe back up on the hook behind the bathroom door, she caught her unusual reflection in the mirror. Her hair looked disheveled and skin flushed, her full lips dark as they twitched to curl upwards in a smile before she used the toilet, then sauntered to her room to get her T-shirt she slept in.

The drawer in her bedside cabinet was still open and the photos of her with the other Lincoln caught as she closed it, making the bittersweet memories flood back until she realized how this Lincoln must have seen them too. She gently touched the photos of his face then tucked them away, not wanting to rid herself of them completely but knowing she had finally found where she was meant to be.

Shrugging the navy T-shirt over her head, she ambled back to Lincoln's room, smiling on seeing the naked shape of him still lying on his back, with his arm flopped across his face into the crook of his elbow. Her smirk faded quickly at the sound of his breath hitching, unaware she had returned. For a second she thought his heavy breathing was due to exertion - strange as he was just as fit and physically active as her - until his whole body began to shake and she hoped, almost prayed, it was laughter until she heard him gasp a sob.

“Lincoln?” Olivia asked, the concern in her voice palpable as she moved closer to lean over him and tried to lift his arm to look at his face. He flinched at the touch, bringing his hand over his face to shamefully cover his eyes. She could still see enough of his face contorted with emotion and tenderly stroked the bare skin of his arm as a single tear drop escaped his fingers and traveled down the side of his face, making its home in the shell of his ear. “What’s wrong?” 

She didn’t press, in case there was some untold history there that he wasn't prepared to share with her yet but kept her hand on him to ground him and let him know she wasn't going anywhere even as fear grew in her stomach, replacing the joy she'd felt like an invading parasite.

“You saw the photos, didn’t you?” She asked as his shoulders slumped. “I forgot they were there. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to see them.”

He nodded, then shook his head.

“Yes, but I… that’s not what… I’m sorry,” Lincoln sniffed, catching his breath.

“You have nothing to apologize for!” Olivia exclaimed adamantly. He nodded again, wiping his eyes with his fingertips, but kept his eyes closed as his damp hand fluttered away and she linked it with hers. “You don’t have to tell me, I just want you to be okay.”

Olivia laid down next to him, watching the rise and fall of his chest as his breathing settled, her thumb stroking the side of his hand, still damp with tears. She adjusted the bed covers and blankets over them, and settled by his side until the pull of sleep beckoned her like darkness edging closer like a vignette photograph.

“I thought you were going back to sleep in your room, because you thought it - we - were a mistake," he whispered with a sigh, his lip wobbling and voice suddenly pulling Olivia back from the clutches of sleep, and she frowned as she tried to comprehend how he could ever think that.

“I just needed to pee, and clean myself up before I fell asleep, silly!” she smiled, placing a hand reassuringly on his chest as she watched him nod, still avoiding her eyes. “I’ve had a UTI before, and it’s not something I want to have again, so I prefer not to risk it.”

“It’s just… I haven’t had - been - with anyone properly since...” Lincoln blurted, his red-rimmed eyes, watery and clear thinking of the love he'd lost before. “After she died, I couldn’t… It didn’t seem right, so I haven’t...”

Olivia frowned in puzzlement as she tried to make sense of what he was trying to explain and shivered, thinking of what he was doing to her body less than an hour ago. Surely, he didn’t think he was inadequate, and she was regretting being with him. Did he still not believe and understand what she felt?

“No, no!” Olivia objected in disbelief, shaking her head. She touched his jaw so he looked at her, his eyes glinting like obsidian in the low light. “We - this - is not a mistake, and if it was, it'd be the best mistake I’ve ever made because I made it with you.”

Lincoln blinked slowly and huffed bitterly through his nose, like he wanted to believe her but couldn’t. Olivia’s eyes clouded as sleep tried to claim her, and she struggled to find the right words. “Lincoln, tonight was perfect,” she blurted out, desperate for him to understand. “I love you and I want to be with you.”

“Y-you do?” he looked at her incredulously, still unsure, his lip quivering in uncertainty.

“Yes, you dumbass!” Olivia smiled reassuringly, lifting his arm up to tucking herself under it in the faded silence and darkness, wrapping an arm around him like a tether and resting her cheek against his chest as his lips brushed against the top of her head.

Lincoln mumbled something Olivia couldn't quite make out as he drifted asleep, entwined in her arms with his wrapped around her too, but it didn't matter because he was where he was supposed to be and so was she.

Chapter Text

September 2013 Alt/Redverse

As speckles of dawn light danced through gaps in the drapes, Lincoln woke first to find Olivia’s arm stretched across him, and her hair fanned across her back. Tucking it carefully over her shoulder and lightly tracing pleasure lines on her skin from her shoulder to her wrist, his fingertips danced up and down her arm as he laid flat on his back with his eyes closed, breathing in the unfamiliar scent of their combined bodies. She sighed contentedly as she stirred, and moved so her palms pressed down on his stomach and then upper thighs, her fingers curving around them as her thumb teasingly grazed his against his balls.

Smiling against his chest as his breath hitched encouragingly at the slight touch, she moved her fingertips to trace around his balls and his already hardening length, wrapping around him from the base up to the tip and down again. Lightly pressing the skin behind his balls to make him shudder out a breath, she returned her hand to his now taught cock, hardened with arousal, rising against the firmness of his stomach as his breath came in rapid pants.

She looked at him curiously, how he remained passive and accepting, but he squeezed his eyes shut in twisted pleasure. One of his hands gripped handfuls of the sheets and the other stroked her encouragingly down her spine, but without any obligation to continue. Increasing the pressure slightly, she continued stroking him, her thumb tracing around the crown of his head and then back down to the root again until she shifted onto her elbow and side, so her mouth was in line with his hips. As she edged closer, he felt her warmth breath on his exposed skin and the tickle of her hair on his thighs as she lowered herself, the sound of her wetting her lips slightly before she tentatively took him into her mouth. The tang of pre-cum glistened on his head as she sealed her lips around him and slid her hand back down to lightly press his perineum.

“Liv, wait…” he strained out in a gasp as she felt the head of his cock brush against her tongue and inch towards the back of her mouth. “Don’t, oh, please -- stop.”

His hand brushed up against her face, gently pressing her away, which confused her compared to her previous lover who had forcefully pushed her down with a hand on the back of her neck on more than one occasion. She released his firm dick with a wet audible pop, as it slipped out against his thigh.

She gazed up at him, puzzled, catching his eyes for a second before he looked away like he was almost ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, resting her head back against him so he didn’t have to see her eyes, trying not to feel rejected. “I thought you’d like it - I thought you’d want me to.”

She stated it simply, not really expecting a response but just so he knew and waited for his breathing to slow again.

“I do like it, uh, it’s just… I don’t want you to feel obligated. It won't take me long and you don't get any enjoyment out of it either.”

“Who says I don’t? I don’t feel obliged, I’m offering," she gesticulated down to her legs and raised her eyebrows teasingly. “Anyway, it’s only fair after last night, when you, um…” 

Lincoln’s expression remained serious when he licked his bottom lip, partly with nerves and partly remembering her taste on his tongue.

“I just wanted to make sure you enjoyed it," he shrugged, solemnly. “I don’t want you to think I expect to receive it just because I, uh, gave it.”

“Oh, I did - a lot,” Olivia smiled honestly, wanting him to experience as much pleasure as he deserved like she did. She looked up at him and met his gaze as he brushed a few strands of her auburn bangs away from her eyes, seeing the truth in her face and maintained eye contact, even on feeling the sensation of her hand edge back up his thigh. “And I know you don’t. So - can I touch you? I won’t use my mouth until you want me to.”

Lincoln nodded slightly in confirmation, watching curiously as her delicate fingers held him in a firm grip, massaging his length until the combination of feeling the sensation and seeing it became too much for him to bear. Biting down on his lower lip, he squeezed his eyes shut so tightly he could see sparks behind his eyelids and his hips thrusted into her hand as he felt the heat of his orgasm rising, feeling impossibly hard straining in her hand.

“Liv, I…” ge warned, his voice punctuated by whimpering sighs, cracked between his panting breaths, hitching on every quickening stroke, his fingers gripping her shoulder so hard he left white pressure marks in the skin before his body involuntarily jerked and stiffened against hers. “Oh, shiiit!” Lincoln gasped as he suddenly climaxed, unable to control himself and shot ribbons of his sticky white cum across his bare, toned stomach.

***

After a moment, he pulled himself out of bed and walked to the bathroom to clean up, smiling sheepishly at Olivia as he returned to the bedroom to get back in between the warm covers.

Leaning into him as he raised his arm, she began peppering light kisses against his mouth and jaw until she realized he wasn’t returning the kiss.

“Linc?” Olivia whispered into his mouth. He didn’t answer, so she raised her head back to look at his face. His eyes were closed as he chewed on his bottom lip where she had left her kisses. “You okay?”

“Are you sure it doesn’t bother you?” he blurted, before continuing to bite his lip.

“What? Does what bother me?” she asked back, puzzled, still checking his face for a reason for his hesitation and frowned in bemusement.

“That I’m not your Lincoln," he stated simply with a sigh, because he had to know for sure even though he knew these five words could easily ruin everything they’ve just started to build.

Olivia stared at him, open mouthed, unable to speak out of shock, then thinking he might take her silence as proof he’s right, resisted the urge to tease him for his insecurities that she suspected others had before. She knew it took a lot of emotional courage for him to verbalize to her what made him unsure and anxious because they had grown tall and strong over the years, nurtured by fear of rejection and ridicule, just like hers had been rooted in being worn down and gas lit over the course of two years with Frank.

“Do you really still think that I only want you because you remind me of him? Because I don’t. You might have the same name and face, but that has nothing to do with why I want to be with you,” Olivia blurted out. She didn’t mean it to come out so accusingly, but it hurt her to think there was still part of him that didn’t believe she loved him for who he was. He nodded hesitantly, as she brought her hand up to brush his face and his eyes fluttered open at her touch as her expression softened. “You’re not rash or brazen. You’re more serious, sensitive, considerate, and caring…  and definitely unsure when you shouldn’t be. You're authentic and honest and don't try to be something you're not to impress people. You’re completely new and yet I feel like I’ve known you my entire life. You’re everything I need - and love.”

She smiled at him again, hoping he could finally accept her words as truth and will believe he is worthy of her love and deserving of happiness. "Tell me something. When you look at me, do you see her, the other Olivia? Honestly?"

"No! Of course not, I -" Lincoln stopped as he realized the question and suddenly felt incredibly foolish, and cursed himself for ever doubting her, or himself. He may not have had a sexual relationship with the Olivia on his side, but he would be lying to himself if the thought had never crossed his mind, even if it was for a brief moment before Peter arrived and her memories changed. “I think I realize what made me and your Lincoln so different. I never had you or anyone in my life to help me become the man I wanted to be.” He choked with a small nod, and sniffed.

Looking back, Robert had been the only person who had really been a constant in his life in recent years. Even so, as much as he tried to help and include Lincoln, he'd always been preoccupied with his own family, which Lincoln understood. Like a dandelion on the breeze, Lincoln had drifted through the past thirteen years of his life, floating from one place to the next, preoccupying his mind with work and distracting his mind with hobbies like chess, anything to push away the thought he would forever be out of sync with his life, always finding the right person at the wrong time, or the wrong person at the right time.

“So you and your Olivia -“

“She never was my Olivia. I hardly knew her, really. I mean, there was a point when I thought it could have been a possibility. We were getting close and then, well, she became another version of herself and any connection that we might have had was gone. I grew to like her a lot, and I could have easily fallen for her, but even if she hadn’t realized she was in love with Peter, it wouldn’t have worked," he paused, finally realizing how similar they were in many ways, two lost souls with holes in their hearts, coasting through life and looking for a home. "I don’t think we could have ever been that for each other, not in that way. She fell in love with a man from another universe, or another timeline. And I just kept on... drifting.”

Lincoln let out a long sigh, shifting his eyes back to Olivia who nodded, understanding where all his hesitation came from; The worry that both Olivias were already in love with another man, fear he was prolonging a broken heart again niggling in his mind like a splinter.

“She’s not the only Olivia to do that, you know. The other Lincoln and I were too similar too. We wouldn’t have worked either, not really. I think you and I both need someone who is our opposite, to balance us out, give us confidence when we’re unsure, or tell us when we’re being too hasty and stubborn. You are my perfect opposite, and you are my Lincoln - my Lincoln - and I wouldn’t want you any other way.”

When he looked at Olivia, he realized it was the same for him. 

He saw her for who she was, and didn’t wish for her to be anything or anyone else.

There was a soft light in his heart that had been burning low for so long and now was a flame, strong and melting through his layers of icy insecurity, too hot to hold inside anymore.

***

The next day in the busy rotunda in Fringe Division HQ, multiple agents in the gray camouflage uniform bustled past the busy Fringe team at their podium consumed with a new case. Astrid looked up at Lincoln curiously as Olivia briefly squeezed his hand before walking away to talk to Charlie, causing his sky blue eyes to flicker as his gaze drifted over her body, until she disappeared with a swish of her red hair. He kept wanting to pinch himself out of disbelief that this was all too good to be true; the fear that she felt the same way about him and they'd consummated their relationship was all a dream and he was about to wake up, alone in the other universe again twisted in his mind. Yet when he caught her gazing back at him from across the room, her eyes glittering and the small smirk on her lips that she hid by biting her lip and breaking their eye contact, he saw the truth; a look of knowing in her eyes that only he understood and it made looking at her even more addictive. 

“Agent Lee?” Astrid said quietly, leaning forward and interrupting his thought. “Do you think Agent Dunham is attractive?”

“W-what?” Lincoln spluttered, fidgeting with his glasses as he felt a blush creep up his face and frowned, trying to disguise his embarrassment.

“You blush a lot when she speaks to you - although you do seem to blush at everything,” she continued, matter-of-factly and unaware of how self-conscious he felt.

“Oh. Thanks," he said, pursing his lips into an awkward smile, trying to hide how flustered he'd become.

“I guess you have one of those pale complexions. You’re blushing now, actually,” Astrid added, narrowing her eyes to study his face while he tried to avoid her eye contact.

“Thanks for making me aware of that,” Lincoln said in reply, perhaps a little too sharply. He’d been told he had an expressive face before, but felt dismayed it had betrayed him so quickly and wondered how obvious his attraction to Olivia had been to everyone else except her all this time.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. I can see she likes you too. It’s kind of cute.” 

“Great!" he sighed as Astrid casually left the area.

Chapter Text

LATE SEPT 2013 

Amber had been designed and used by the Fringe team since the mid 80s to stabilize spatial rifts and prevent the spread of severe toxic air conditions, but since the machine on the bridge had activated, the tears in the fabric of their universe had not only stopped, they’d begun to heal. Nevertheless, when she and Lincoln had been assigned the unenviable and tedious task of sorting updated Show Me ID for people who'd been released after spending years - some almost two decades - suspended in amber, Olivia groaned. The thought of all the paperwork required and their families who had protested en masse outside Fringe HQ when it had been revealed they were not dead as previously told, but had been alive in suspended animation all along, filled her with dread.

After ten hours of continuous work, they had given into their growling stomachs and ordered in boxes of chow mein, washed down with tepid cups of tea that they both wished were coffee. Despite that, Olivia sat crossed legged on the office floor and smiled to herself thinking about how the day didn't seem as long or tiring as it could have been with Lincoln's methodical and organized nature helping to condense what could have taken almost a week of work into not much more than a whole day even though the names and details had begun to blur into one. She looked up bleary-eyed from the final pile they had to work through, catching Lincoln's gaze as he knelt in front of her on the rough nylon carpet.

"I can't believe we've reached the last box from the past eighteen months -- what?" Olivia asked, frowning at the a curious look on his face that she couldn't quite place until he leaned across the piles of paperwork that they'd strewn across the floor between them and wiped a drop of noodle sauce from the corner of her mouth with the pad of his thumb. He looked over his shoulder at the closed office door quickly to check there was no one outside and on seeing the main office lights dimmed, he replaced his hand with his mouth, in the briefest of stolen kisses.

"Sorry, I know I said we shouldn't be doing that..." Lincoln smiled bashfully, as he leaned back, then shrugged when Olivia began to grin, her eyebrows raising up at his boldness, "...but I've been thinking about it all day, I couldn't resist any longer." 

"Me too. I don't think anyone else is left in the office anyway," she replied reassuringly, watching the blush travel high on his cheeks, his tie loose around his neck where he'd undone the top button of his dress shirt and she tugged on it to pull him back, and rose up to press her lips against his again, unsatisfied with his self-restraint, then pulled away not wanting to embarrass him any further, "besides, we've been here all day, we deserve a five minute break."

When they'd finally gotten home, they had discarded their clothes in a pile in heap on the floor, too tired to shower and barely awake enough to brush their teeth. Exhausted, they collapsed in Olivia's bed and spooned in the comfort of each other's embrace, their hands linking up over her stomach, and Lincoln's voice whispering 'G'night, Liv. Love you' into her hair the last noise and thought Olivia heard before she drifted to sleep seconds later.

**************************************************************************************************************************

Olivia blinked as early morning autumn sun streamed through the thin red drapes at her bedroom window, clouding the blue walls in a hazy violet hue. She stretched, stiff from not moving for hours in her sleep, feeling Lincoln's right hand still linked with hers and tucked under her chin, his stomach pressed against her back. Contentedly nuzzling back into him, Olivia felt the soft breeze of his warm, slow breaths on her shoulder that hitched as he stirred, disturbed by Olivia's movements. Her eyes flew open again at the realization that it wasn't their day off and they should've got up for work hours ago and Olivia jolted in panic, attempting to leave the bed and confines of the covers, held back by the constraint of Lincoln's arm around her who tightened his grip when she wiggled against him.

"Mmm, five more minutes, Liv," He protested groggily into her hair, his lips grazing the back of her neck, beginning a trail of kisses over the tattoo he hoped he'd find the courage to ask about one day and his fingers slowly drifted across her chest.

"No, we've overslept, its already getting light outside, there must've been a power cut--" She argued feebly, her focus on the dead electronic alarm clock on the stand blurring when his finger tips made contact with her pebbled nipple, causing her to instinctively roll back her eyes arch her back in pleasure, "--oh!"

She swore she could hear a smirk in his breath when she gasped, knowing she was close to surrender and his hand drifted down to hip to pull her flush against his hardness, and teasingly dipped futher between her thighs, causing a spark of arousal to jolt up her spine.

"If we're already late, what's five more minutes?" Lincoln reasoned, his voice rough with sleep and low between insistent kisses. His other hand eased under her pillow to twist her neck and tilt her head back so his mouth could meet hers, his skin rough against hers with two-day old stubble on his jaw. The ministrations of his hands pleaded his case and dissolved any rationalization Olivia had until he paused. "If you want me to stop, I will, but fuck work."

"I'd rather you fuck me instead," Olivia sighed a laugh and relented, lifting her leg slightly to grant him better access, covering his warm hand with hers to encourage him to continue the movements and felt the crown of his cock nudge lightly at the back of her thigh. "F-five minutes?"

"Mmm-hmmm, as you wish," he replied, his breath hot on her cheek as he trailed miniscule circles in the humid creases around her clit, fuelled by the breathy mewling sounds that were increasingly falling from her mouth. "But, uh, if you keep making that noise it's gonna be three."

She snorted, stifling a laugh that disappeared when she felt the aching warmth of an orgasm creeping up from her core, and firmly gripped his hand slick with her arousal, desperately holding it in place in case he dared to call her bluff and stop.

"Oh, oh god, I'm.... ohh..." Olivia gasped sideways into Lincoln's mouth, the ability to form sentences leaving her brain as she stiffened against him. His arms braced against her, holding her in place as the waves of pleasure rippled through her body, making her toes curl against his shins and her legs uncontrollably spasm around his hand. After a few seconds, he leaned back and she could hear him rustle in the drawer by the bed before shuffling back behind her.

"Okay?" Lincoln sighed as he slowly edged himself into her warm wet heat from behind, watching her nod her permission. He began lightly rolling his hips before increasing the pressure and speed, his thrusts erratic and sighs shallow and breathy. His fingertips dug into her hips as he groaned under the strain of holding himself back until her name fell out of his mouth into hers in a low gasp.

He slid out his softening cock and rolled onto his back, his other hand still trapped under Olivia's neck pulling her back in an embrace before she could escape and his fingers danced across her back when he chuckled.

"We still have one minute left."

***************************************************************************************************************************

The power hadn't returned by the time they'd left their apartment, so Olivia's hair was still damp from the shower when they arrived at the office, curling in soft waves around her shoulders. Worse still, the lack of power also meant she'd skipped breakfast. Lincoln had hastily gobbled down a bowl of cereal but Olivia's stomach growled with hunger, protesting at the lack of buttery granary toast she usually enjoyed in the morning. Now it was nearly midday, and the emptiness in her stomach from eating from more than twelve hours ago wasn't going away, despite swigging back a large bottle of water and working her way through a whole packet of Bobbins.

She strode up to Lincoln and tapped him impatiently on the shoulder from behind. Turning around in his seat, his eyebrows raised in surprise, softened by a smile that twitched in the corner of his lips.

"Hey! You okay?"

"You wanna go grab something to eat? I feel like I haven't eaten in days," Olivia asked insistently, jabbing her thumb in the direction of the door, too hungry not be direct.

"Sure!" Lincoln chuckled. He tapped his pants pocket to check his wallet as he stood, before jogging after Olivia who had already turned on her heel and headed out of the door, knowing he'd follow even if he'd just spent all morning at an all you can eat buffet.

Less than twenty minutes later they were at a local deli café, and Lincoln was grinning at Olivia as she devoured her food in a few minutes.

"You weren't lying when you said you were hungry," he laughed, taking a bite of his own food and washing it down with a mouthful of soda, "I don't think you could have tasted that sandwich, you look like you inhaled it!"

"Sorry, I was starving, I would have eaten anything!" Olivia said, covering her mouth as she chewed then swallowed and smirked until a wistful look flashed in her eyes. "Although, I still can't bring myself to eat beef, after being in the lab with Gene."

"No apology needed. And me neither," Lincoln agreed, then huffed a laugh, "even if she stunk out the lab with her huge cow pats."

Olivia snorted, pursing her lips to contain her laugh before it escaped anyway.

"God, she really did stink, didn't she? I mean, she was lovely but I swear that smell haunted me for days when I got back here. I was never sure if it was from the lack of fresh air in that place or if Walter was feeding her stuff other than plants. Or some illegal substance."

"What, like peanut butter and bacon sandwiches?" he asked, picking at the remainder of his sandwich as the memory of the ones he'd eaten in the lab flashed in his mind. He never really liked bacon but the smoky, salty scent of it turned his stomach even more now, and the texture of peanut butter still made him gag. "Did you have to help with grazing day when you were there?"

"What's grazing day?" 

Lincoln smirked dismissively and shook his head, a brief look of hurt flashing in his eyes that made Olivia's stomach flip.

"Doesn't matter."

The silence hung between them and they paid for the food, grabbing two fruit muffins and some iced tea to eat on the walk back to the office, the autumn breeze causing them to shiver as the sun disappeared behind a blanket of a stony clouds

"I would've brought you a café latte if I could, you know," Lincoln confessed, swigging back the drink from the disposable cup and avoiding Olivia's eyes, so she took his hand in hers to make him look at her.

"What?" Oliva replied in a surprised laugh that came out in a huff, then felt almost guilty when she recalled how she'd teased him for not bringing her one from his own universe on the day her Lincoln had been killed. "I was only teasin--"

"What Walter said was true. The next time I crossed over, they told me drinks were forbidden perishables."

Olivia's mouth twitched into a smirk, then a wide smile, nudging him playfully with her elbow.

"You actually did try and bring me one over, didn't you?" she asked, watching Lincoln as he shrugged his shoulders and pinched a reluctant smile. He thought back at how he'd impulsively walked into the coffee shop local to the Fringe HQ  on the way into work one day and spent most so long choosing a mug he'd almost been late for work. Eventually he'd chosen the a tall insulated lidded mug that was adorned with a pattern of flowers in rainbow colours as it was the last one on the shelf. He'd carefully filled it up with fresh coffee from the cafeteria before walking to the bridge - remembering that unlike himself and the Olivia on this side, their Olivia liked her coffee with milk - only for it to be confiscated, mug and contents, at the entrance as there was nowhere to tip it away.

"Maybe," he paused, turning back to look at Olivia, watching her as she looked down, preoccupied with stuffing the empty muffin wrapper in her pocket, a quick burst of the bright midday sun through the clouds making her hair shine in shades of rust and amber. "I guess I was jealous."

Olivia looked back up at him slowly and frowned when Lincoln blinked, and swallowed thickly before speaking again as if anticipating her next words. "When you asked him to stay with you. I thought if I bought you a latte like you asked, you might like me enough to ask me too."

"Linc--" Olivia began. His eyes looked almost shameful when they drifted down to his feet and he absentmindedly kicked at a cracked red brick paving slab on the sidewalk. Olivia ached for him knowing she should be the one feeling the shame, and his anxious fear of rejection was still bubbling under the surface of his growing confidence. "-- I already liked you. A lot. Even when I shouldn't have because you were pretending to be our Lincoln. I knew I liked you when I first saw you on the bridge and when we were sat on that bench tracking Jones. I just..."

She reassuringly grabbed his spare hand, pulling him back towards her and out of the way of a crowd of pedestrians that were coming towards them from the busy crosswalk so they were flush against each other, her back pressed against the cool brick frontage between two boutique stores. Olivia had felt bad enough about her time in the other universe and stealing parts of the machine when she realized they weren't her enemies like Secretary Bishop had said they were, but Walter's fatherly kindness and comfort towards her that night in her apartment had made her feel even worse, even if it was relief to talk about Lincoln's murder. If she was honest, she wouldn't have been able to unload all those feelings on this Lincoln, and would have kept them bottled up for even longer.

"...I asked him to stay and not you because I felt guilty for deceiving him when I was in your universe and pretending to be your - his - Olivia. I would've liked - loved - for you to stay over, but I don't think either of us were ready for that yet."

"Me too," Lincoln smiled and nodded again, side stepping when a younger woman, that looked barely older than twenty with wavy caramel blonde hair that skimmed her shoulders, nudged him with a slight touch on his elbow to get past them.

"Excuse me, can I get th-- Lincoln?" She exclaimed, frowning in confusion when checking his face and formal suit. "How can you be here?"

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Lincoln replied, looking equally bewildered, blinking at Olivia in an unspoken request for help who pushed down a twang of jealousy over an unknown past love that Lincoln had held secret from her, even if it wasn't this Lincoln that she'd known.

"Mom said you'd died in the line of duty when I was still in amber. She told me when I got out a few months ago that she went to your funeral with your dad and Marcus turned up with his husband. Apparently he was inconsolable that he'd been such a jerk to you when we were smaller, as you were the only one who looked out for him when he came out a few years ago."

Olivia barely managed to contain in a gasp of surprise as the penny dropped and she realized who it was. Lincoln had only mentioned his step-siblings a couple of times in passing. He had told her how Marcus, the older of the twins, had teased him about liking science and playing chess as a child but had dreamed of a life in the theater, eventually ending up in choreography and dragged Lincoln along for support to pride marches. His twin sister, Meredith, had then taken the crown of the proverbial black sheep of the family by dropping out of pursuing a doctorate at college to work in a strip club, much to the disdain of Lincoln's dad and step-mom, until the whole area had been sealed in amber due to a spatial rift. Being sealed and then released from amber, she hadn't aged at all and it had seemingly absolved her of her actions deemed as transgressions by her family. Olivia realized this Lincoln's dad must have never remarried when his face still looked completely discombobulated and having a lonely childhood would be another reason why they turned out so differently.

"I'm sorry, you're mistaking him for someone else. C'mon Kevin," Olivia improvised in a lie and smiled politely, hurriedly pulling Lincoln by the elbow away from the woman before she could speak again and they walked briskly in the direction of the nearest subway station entrance, where the hot diesel tainted steam jetted from beneath the sidewalk, "we'll miss our train."

They walked around the block in silence for almost ten minutes, not letting go of each other's hand until they somehow found themselves back at the Fringe HQ. Olivia's light chestnut hair caught in the breeze and she stopped to tuck it behind her ears, when she realized Lincoln had stopped a few paces behind her.

"I never had siblings. When I read his file when he was kil..." Lincoln cut himself off, unable to complete the sentence. He'd felt enough survivor guilt at the funeral, watching Liv and the other Lincoln's parents mourn their loss, but to know he'd had a brother and sister that Lincoln never had made it even worse, somehow. He nervously twiddled with his ID, before stopping at the main door. "When I joined your side, it didn't say he had a brother or a sister. Did you know?"

Olivia paused then brushed his arm briefly, stopping him before he turned to the door and noticing how his eyes were glittering gray like the sky.

"He only mentioned them once or twice in the whole six years we worked together, they were his step-mom's kids from her previous marriage before she met your - his - dad. I don't think they were very close," she replied reassuringly as Lincoln nodded in acceptance, thankful that his dad had lived longer in this world and had a longer, happier life than the man he'd known, even if his own son had been killed. "C'mon, let's get inside before it rains. We can find out more about them, if you like?"

Chapter Text

"The only difference between good and evil is the circumstances under which we’re allowed to hurt others."

The light glinted off the pen knife's steel blade that crudely carved slashes in the pale flesh mottled with rainbow bruises until droplets of blood oozed from the lines like rubies. Then it was hidden with a black blanket of darkness.

When Olivia and Lincoln had left Fringe Division HQ mid-morning after being briefed on a new case, the weather had been so gloriously warm for winter that it could have been mistaken for late spring. But less than an hour later, they were standing by a dumpster that had such a pungent stench despite the torrential rainfall, that Lincoln had no choice but to breathe through his mouth. Olivia struggled to keep her umbrella upright in the strong wind that howled down the dingy alley that was in Van Cortlandt Park, one of the few remaining ambered areas in New Yonkers. Walking back to their car, they barely managed to dodge a sheet of water that rose up from under an anonymous van’s wheels as it sped past them through the rivulets coursing on the saturated roads, making waves in the heavy traffic.

“I guess the machine on the bridge didn’t stabilize all of the atmospheric conditions after all, huh?” Olivia said through chattering teeth as they drove back to HQ.

*

By the time they got back to HQ with the crime scene details, they were irritated and shivering, their clothes soaked through to the skin. Lincoln threw his dripping coat and suit jacket over a bench in the locker room, the wet patches of rain dark in the shoulders of the navy fabric. Tugging at his tie to loosen the knot, he lifted it over his head and pulled his shirt free from the waistband of his pants, trying in vain to find a piece of dry fabric. Removing his glasses, he wiped away the fat droplets of rain that had been hindering his vision. 

He spun on his heel to the sound of Olivia’s voice behind him, who stood shivering in a gray Fringe training uniform hoodie and sweatpants, her damp hair curling at the edges around her face and the red logo on the front obscured by a pile of clothes in her arms crossed against her chest.

“Is the coast clear?”

“If by that you mean are there any naked men in here, ‘fraid not, it’s just me and the janitor," Lincoln huffed as she approached him and placed the change of clothes on the bench, freeing her hands to unbutton his shirt, peeling the soaked fabric from his chest.

“Hmmm, I'll just have to make do with you, then," Olivia teased jokingly as she leaned towards Lincoln, then stopped and blinked. Moments like this, when Lincoln didn’t have his glasses on and his hair was spiked up from the rain and he looked at her through his long lashes, his eyelids pink and heavy, reminded her of the other Lincoln and still caught her unaware. 

Sept 2011

The steel locker door made a metallic clunk as it swung back on its hinges and Olivia hurriedly threw out its contents, finally finding the item she needed and shoved the items back inside on hearing a familiar voice call her name from the other side of the main door.

“Liv? You in here?” Lincoln’s face peered around the edge of the door, slowly revealing his grin and dark blonde hair in its usual messy tufts. He scanned the room quickly before walking through it, adjusting the thigh holster on his beige cargo pants while he walked towards her, regarding her unusual clothing of a dark suit, white shirt and her dark auburn hair scraped back into a bun. “Their Olivia is bringing McClennan through the bridge in a few minutes so we can take him down to Norristown. You ready to get wiggy with it?”

He hesitated at the door, held back by something he couldn’t quite sense when Olivia didn’t laugh at his pun like she usually did. Instead she slowly nodded without making eye contact, and he frowned in response, twisting his lips into a thin smile that deepened the dimples in his cheeks that were peppered with stubble. “Is something wron--”

“No, nothing,” Olivia interrupted bluntly, dismissively huffing a noise through her nose and shrugged. Before she could comprehend it, Lincoln was standing close enough for her to feel his warmth radiating off him and his familiar comforting scent, and he grabbed the wrist of her arm that she’d been holding behind her back, making the item she’d been clutching fall to the floor, the blonde strands catching like spun gold in the light.

***

“You okay?” Lincoln asked, his voice soft and concerned and fingers tapping lightly at her hip, breaking her from her thoughts. His eyes, so pale blue in the harsh fluorescent lighting they looked almost transparent, blinked and searched her face for a clue. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Olivia nodded, her lips twitching back into a smile. She pressed a brief kiss to his mouth then leaned back, and jabbed her thumb back in the direction of the door, “C’mon, get changed. Astrid has been running face rec and traces on traffic cams in the area of the alley we were at earlier, to see if we can get a lead on the suspect.”

Lincoln smiled thinly and sighed to himself, watching Olivia as she turned and left, and resumed changing his clothes, aware she was most like thinking of his predecessor but was too afraid to mention it for fear of upsetting him. When he returned to the rotunda, Astrid was still preoccupied with the task of checking recent activity in the area and Olivia was by her side, hunched over the desk and engrossed in the files they'd been handed by the New Yonkers PD.

“So what have we got?” He asked, tapping her arm lightly before sitting down opposite the two women. He pushed away the urge to feel self-conscious when Astrid briefly looked up at him wide-eyed, slightly taken aback by his clothing that was unlike anything he usually wore to work, and was a lot more like what the other Lincoln would've worn.

“Two victims found in dumpsters in different areas of the city,” Olivia replied, fanning her hands out across the screen that displayed the information and she shivered, unsure if it was because she’d caught a chill from the rain, or from the images in the file. "The bodies are clean, no trace of DNA from any of our databases. The profile from the local PD says the perp is likely to be white, male and of above average intelligence, but probably works in a menial job where he feels frustrated and unsatisfied. He may have priors for assault or GBH as both men were found mutilated, presumably tortured to death within twenty-four hours of being reported missing.”

“That’s a grizzly deadline. But, uh, shouldn’t this be a case for violent crimes?” Lincoln grimaced, recalling the image and unmistakably rancid stench of the disposed torso they’d seen earlier. The pale blotchy skin was marked with contusions and cuts which had hardly been concealed by black plastic garbage sacks, sticky with blood and bodily fluids, the barely recognizable face had two seared black holes where the eyes had been. “I’m not sure why it comes under Fringe’s jurisdiction.”

“They asked us for help,” Olivia shrugged. “Apparently they hit a dead-end with the first murder and now they realize it isn't just a one-off they want to use our resources to find who’s responsible before they strike again. One of the resources being you.”

“Me?” He huffed, pointing at himself incredulously and frowned, “I’m not sure I follow.”

“Eriksson said you spent some time in the BSU of the FBI on an old case before you joined the Fringe team on your side, maybe you’d notice a detail they missed?”

“The Ripley case?” Lincoln blinked and leaned back in the chair. It was one of the first cases he’d worked on with Robert, where a copy-cat killer was recreating murders from thirty years before. They’d finally caught the suspect - Leo Ripley - once they’d made the connection his childhood babysitter was one of the victims from three decades prior, and he had not only seen the murder but had wanted to emulate the original killer and had visited him at the secure retirement hospice where he lived. It had been a disturbing case and not one he particularly enjoyed or wanted to experience again, but he was also determined to stop whoever was responsible for the recent deaths and a return to detective work after the weird events that were a daily occurrence of Fringe Division could be a welcome change. He pulled up the images and details of the two victims to compare them on the screen. “Has any connection between the victims been determined?”

“Not that I can see,” Olivia replied, scanning through their details. “I mean, apart from them both being male and between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five there doesn’t seem to be any obvious connection. They’re from different neighborhoods, and worked at different companies. If there is one, I’m not seeing it - it could be anything. Astrid?” 

“We could check their telephone records and credit card history. Statistically it is common for victims to have visited the same location at some point if it is familiar to the killer.” Astrid offered, her thumb and fore-finger rubbing together at the suggestion.

“Sure, if the PD hasn’t checked that out already,” he frowned. “Why dumpsters? Sure they’re out of sight but the bodies weren’t hidden well, they weren’t even wrapped or bagged.”

“You think the killer’s choosing them deliberately and leaving them at these locations for a reason?" Olivia asked, her voice thick with disbelief. “Like they think the victims are trash?” 

“I don’t know, possibly. I wouldn’t dismiss it just yet,” Lincoln retorted, turning his attention back to Astrid. “How’s the traffic cams and face rec search of the area going?”

Astrid looked up and over at Lincoln who met her gaze before her dark eyes looked away.

“The alley is used for emergency exit access and trash collection for a commercial building that is currently home to eight registered companies over thirteen stories, however none of them reported any suspicious activity to the authorities in the twenty-four hours up until when the body was found,” Astrid paused, her voice typically soft yet direct. “And we have not been able to find anything conclusive from traffic cams as that part of the alley is obscured from the cameras on the main road.

“Hmm, so maybe he chose this place as he knew he could stay out of sight?” Olivia surmised, impatiently tapping the surface of the desk. “Maybe we should look into that - interview their employees in case they saw something they didn't think to report. Or maybe the killer even works there.”

“Maybe… but if so, why did he choose the other location first in East Yonkers where the first victim’s body was left?” Lincoln chewed his lips and frowned while deep in thought, and then raised his index finger up when a thought occurred to him. “What days is the trash collected from the dumpsters where they were found?” 

Astrid tapped the buttons on the digital keyboard and Olivia straightened up, motioning at the requested information that flashed up on the screen in front of them.

“Huh. Both victims were found the day after a collection by the garbage collectors, but that could just be a coincidence.”

“That is highly improbable, the odds would be approximately one in over twenty-two thousand,” Astrid noted. "And therefore a clear statistical outlier. We need another variable to determine an anomaly.”

“Okay…” He dragged the word out and sighed again, pushing up the sleeves of his borrowed sweatshirt to his elbows, moving his hands in a forward rolling motion. "Can you run the traffic cam scan again but this time after the body was discovered and up to seven days before, and cross ref it with the same info from the other location?”

“Yes - but analyzing the footage to that extent will take a lot of time,” she replied. Even though her tone remained flat and neutral as always, Lincoln couldn’t help but detect a tint of skepticism in her voice, and her eyes flickered up in slight displeasure. "What exactly should I be looking for?”

“Anything you think is unusual, there has to be something linking these two places with the killer that we’re not seeing,” Lincoln asserted. "It could be he’s been there before, and if not, many killers like to revisit the scene of previous crimes in an attempt to relive the thrill. We just have to catch them out.”

“Yes, Cap--” -- tain Lee. Astrid cut off the word before she said it fully, but she could see the momentary flicker of shock in Lincoln’s eyes when she stuttered, “Agent Lee, I will start the scan now.”

“Okay, great,” He smiled thinly, ignoring her error outwardly but inside replaying it over in his mind like a stuck record. “Liv, let’s get a list of employees from the building that uses the alley and compare it to the ones of the other crime scene and where the victims worked, see if there is any connection between them.”

***

“Everyone always talks about the banality of evil, but what they should really talk about is the evil of banality."

The tip of the blackened iron bar, heated up by a blow torch, glowed an ominous shade of orange in the darkness of the room and the smoky metallic scent of seared flesh filled the air with the sound of a male voice that cried out agony, as a trail of blood dripped down his stubbled cheek. 

"The self-righteous, the good, they justify themselves by telling themselves we're evil but they're the monsters - they tell us we are the monsters but they are the ones lying. We are the truth!"

***

“Anything?” Lincoln looked up from his device hours later to see Olivia sit down beside him and pull up files on her screen, pursing her lips into an exasperated smirk. Scrolling though pages of data may have been tiresome but at least it distracted from the graphic images he'd seen of the victims and wished he could forget.

“I’ve gone through all the current employees of the companies in the buildings that had access to both crime scenes and even previous employees that left in the past year twice and found nothing to implicate any of them. Everyone checks out and there's nothing at all out of the ordinary, you?”

“Not yet,” he sighed, frustrated. "Even both of the victims' employment histories seem pretty average and unremarkable.” Olivia’s laminated Fringe ID pass dug into her hip as she perched on the stool and she flung it down on the desk in annoyance. It slid against the smooth glass surface and Lincoln leaned over to catch it before it fell to the floor. “Why do I even need that thing? I've been working here for over eight years, they don’t even look at it anymore. We only get checked if we’re--”

“Visitors,” Lincoln interrupted, his eyes twitched and his eyebrows knitted in concentration while he absentmindedly studied the item until Olivia lightly snatched back from his grasp. "We haven’t found anything because they’re not staff, they’re visitors. They should have visitor logs in case of emergencies for insurance purposes. We need to go back and check their sign in sheets for any similarities.”

***

Olivia looked up at the sky as she stepped out of the car so her feet stumbled slightly on the damp and loose tarmac. The rain from earlier had almost evaporated in the persistent blades of bright sunlight that pierced their way through the clouds and reflected on the few remaining puddles, making the small clear pools of water glitter in the light. It had become a ritual for her to look up, in the hope of glimpsing even the lightest of rainbows through the sullen clouds but she could only see shades of ashen gray, just like every time before. Disappointed but not surprised, she despondently shrugged and joined Lincoln who was still dressed in the usual Fringe uniform of combat pants, sweatshirt and jacket and they entered the stylish and expensive looking lobby and reception of the building that backed onto the alley. 

“Fringe Agents Dunham and Lee,” she said, holding her ID up for inspection and gesturing to herself and Lincoln as she introduced them both to the desk clerk, who was sat behind the glossy white desk, illuminated by bright LED backlights and the reflection of the modern dropped pendulum light that hung from the vaulted ceiling. "Can I get your record of all the visitors who have signed into the building?”

Giving them tablet that gave details of all the people who had signed in, Lincoln impatiently took it and began to swipe the screen to scroll back through the digital register. 

"Wait!" Olivia cried out, grabbing his wrist to stop him moving and swiped back in the opposite direction. "There -- look!"

One line stood out among the list of names as it was only partially filled in, the company name abbreviated into a three letter acronym that repeated on various dates on the data sheet.

“Hey," Olivia called over to the young woman behind the desk. Her hair was cut into a blunt, platinum blonde bob and she was was dressed in pristine button down white shirt and neckerchief in pastel shades that matched the abstract art on the walls, which were the only source of color in the clinically bright white lobby. She stared back in a mixture of disdain and inconvenience having been interrupted twice in ten minutes. Olivia held up the device to show her as Lincoln stepped outside to answer a call on his ear cuff. "What's CCC?"

"Corporate Cleaning Company, all of the maintenance and janitorial work in the building is subcontracted out to them, just like a lot of other commercial buildings in the city," sighed the receptionist, in an annoyed tone that would have been appropriate if she’d repeatedly been asked the total of one plus one. "He's called Freddie or Farley. Something like that. I'm not sure, I’ve only seen him here the last couple of months.”

“Okay, thank you.” Olivia frowned and instinctively reached for her earcuff to call the company as Lincoln burst back through the glass doors, his expression urgent. “What is it?”

“That was Astrid, she found something on the traffic cams - the same commercial vehicle visited both crime scenes in the week before and just after the bodies were cordoned off by the local PD. She checked the route and it was also seen in the locations of where the victims worked.”

“Let me guess, a janitorial company? They would know the dates and routes of when the garbage would be collected too.”

“Yep - wait, how did you know that?” Lincoln asked, his eyebrows knitting and then rising in surprised confusion when he met her eyes. “There’s something else too -  a front desk clerk found another body, eight miles away in the Irvington district.”

***

“Astrid is going to call the HR of the cleaners to find out who was driving that van on the days it was picked up on the traffic cams,” Olivia shouted over the sirens as the car cut through the late afternoon traffic filled with people leaving work for the day. "She’ll call us back with their details.”

As before, the male body was left partly exposed in a grimy dumpster which was guarded from the curious onlookers by a uniformed police officer who held up the police tape cordon when they arrived and showed their badges.

“No formal ID has been found but the description matches those of Lucas Norton who was reported missing yesterday,” Lincoln noted through a thinly veiled look of disgust while Olivia lifted the lid so they could peer at the body and gulped, swallowing down the urge to vomit. "Is it me or do the cuts to his chest seem more pronounced and, I, uh --” 

Olivia watched the blood drain from Lincoln’s face, his nostrils flaring slightly as he turned away and grimaced.

“--haphazard?” Olivia finished, lowering the lid back down. "Yeah, and only one eye has been scorched. Maybe he knows we’re onto him and he’s getting sloppy.”

“If that’s the case, he’ll probably keep escalating before he makes a mistake that's big enough for us to catch him. He’s getting more practice, they look kinda like letters but I can't tell what he’s trying to spell out. ” 

He sighed, bending to move back under the crime scene tape with Olivia that the police man held up for them and walked back through the crowd towards the car as her ear cuff rang.

“This is Agent Dunham,” Olivia answered, nodding as Astrid’s familiar voice gave her the details of the suspect. “So the driver of the van the last week was a Carl Douglas Fadley, he got cautioned for affray a couple of months ago but the charges were dropped. C'mon, we should get going - Astrid’s paged us his home address and dispatched a back-up team with a warrant to meet us there to bring him in for questioning.” She tapped her fingers against the car roof impatiently noticing Lincoln’s hesitation to open the door on his side, his hand hovering over the handle. “What’s up?”

“I-I wanna question the receptionist here first,” Lincoln frowned and stuttered, then waggled his finger across his chest. ,"And, uh, get photos of the body to compare against the others. I think there could be a pattern with the cuts, they might have a significance. Can I meet you back at HQ in a while?"

"Lincoln...?" Olivia asked softly, her voice thick with concern. Despite his stoic and professional façade, Lincoln had gotten increasingly quiet throughout the day, and it was obvious to her the gruesome details of the case were clearly affecting him - and understandably so. Olivia had learned how to detach herself from the worst aspects of human behavior a long time ago for her own sake, but even so this was one of the worst she'd seen for some time and she could see why he would find it hard to stomach, even more so as he could empathize with the victims. "...if its too much, you can tell me, we can get someone else to work the case or --"

"I'm fine," he interrupted before she could finish, forcing a thin smile. "It's not too much." 

"You sure? I'd understand if you were freaked out. It's hard to stomach. I've seen agents with ten or twenty years of experience struggle with cases less grizzly --"

“-- I said I'm fine!" Lincoln snapped and his eyebrows knitted in aggravation, then he sighed on seeing Olivia recoil at the uncharacteristic outburst. His eyes softened, knowing she was only concerned because she cared, and not because she thought he was incapable as a Fringe Agent. The case was gruesome and a stark reminder of his days back at the FBI. He also remembered how the other Lincoln had told him how Liv had never been affected by a case like he had, and he was determined to be the same, and not show it bothered him, even though it did. “Look, you don't have to worry, Liv. I’m not freaked out. I’ll get a lift back to HQ - I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll see you soon, then," she replied with a shrug, as he turned away and walked towards the front of the office block that backed onto the area

“Okay, drive safe,” Lincoln called back dismissively without turning around as he opened the front door, leaving her sight. Olivia paused for a moment, contemplating following him but considered if he was her, she would get even more agitated and accuse him of doubting her ability as an agent and the case was hard enough already without things being tense between them. 

***

“Hello,” The clerk glanced up at Lincoln from behind the modest front desk decorated in beech colored veneer and writing in a deep shade of plum that matched her blazer and the bruises left on the victims. He approached holding up his ID and she checked it, her expression professional yet affable when he tucked it back in the inside pocket of his jacket. "Can I help you?”

“Hi. Agent Lee - Fringe Division,” Lincoln replied. He looked down at the badge on the breast of her jacket and pointed over his shoulder to the door behind him. “I just have a couple of questions regarding the crime scene out the back if you don’t mind, Tammy?”

“For me?” she tucked her dark wavy hair behind her ear, her blue eyes flickering nervously behind her round, gold rimmed glasses, “I don't really know anything.”

“It’s just procedure, nothing to worry about,” he said, shaking his head lightly and forcing a thin smile. "Was it you who discovered the body and called it into the police?”

“Oh no, that was Crystal, she got sent home because she was so upset,” Tammy gulped, picking guiltily at her painted nails. She leaned forward towards Lincoln and lowered her voice. “She took out the trash because the janitor hadn’t turned up and she said the packet of tuna salad I ate for lunch break was making the office smell real bad.”

Lincoln nodded sympathetically and blinked. "So are the janitor services sub-contracted out to the CCC group here?”

“Yes sir. She should’ve just waited another half an hour for Fin to turn up.”

“Is that the janitor? Is he still here?” Lincoln asked, his brows knitting in concern, and she nodded in reply. “Do you know his whereabouts? I'd like to ask him some questions about one of his colleagues as part of the investigation.”

“The underground car park I think - he signed out just before you arrived but his vehicle is still registered as being on the premises according to the system,” Tammy replied, motioning to the beech door with a small panel of glass in the corner of the lobby.

“And his name is Fin?” Lincoln confirmed.

"Uh-huh - Finley Dallas." She nodded again, swiveling on her seat as he jogged towards the door and pushed it open.

“Thank you for your help," he said, disappearing behind the door.

***

“Down on your knees - hands on your head, now!” Olivia's voice commanded. The man’s hands slowly raised to the back of his head as he sank to the floor and the front door to the small and sparsely furnished apartment swung open behind her where it had been forced open by the uniformed Fringe agents at her side. “Where’s your Show Me?"

“In my wallet, up there.”

The man gestured with chin towards a small cabinet in the corner, his voice wobbling. “What did I do?”

“Carl Fadley? Do you work for the ‘Corporate Cleaning Company’ group?” Olivia looked down at his long dark blonde hair tied back into a small ponytail and slight paunch exposed between the hem of his creased T-shirt and joggers, and thumbed through his wallet to retrieve the card.

“Yes, I do, did. But--” He nodded, shaking as he was cuffed and dragged to his feet by an officer.

“You’re being arrested in connection with the murders of Lucas Norton, Isaac Adams and Erick Darling,” Olivia interrupted, her face contorted in disgust. Despite working for Fringe for many years, it never failed to surprise her how someone who looked so average and unassuming could be being capable of the crimes they were guilty of.

“What - who? This has to be a misunderstanding,” he protested, struggling against the restraints as the officer pulled him away down the hall to the car. “I dint kill nobody!”

“Save it for later, we're taking you in for questioning," se sneered, watching him being pushed into the back seat of the car.

***

Lincoln’s steps echoed as he jogged down the four flights of concrete steps in the stairwell and pushed open the door to the half-empty parking lot. The fluorescent lighting flickered and buzzed in the far corner and reflected off the royal blue curves of the three interlinked 'C's’ on the hood of the white van that was stationary in a parking space but rumbled softly with the sound of the electric engine and music playing from the radio inside it. 

“Excuse me, are you Mr Dallas? I’m Agent Lincoln Lee with Fringe Division,” Lincoln said as he held up his badge and cautiously walked over to the vehicle on noticing a stocky, bearded man in a blue overalls sitting in the front with one of his hands resting on the wheel, covered with a black nitrile glove. "Can I ask you to step out of the vehicle? I’d like to ask you some questions regarding one of your colleagues.”

“Oh, yes, that’s me,” the man said, his mouth twitching to contain a smirk as he opened the door and exited the van as Lincoln approached. “Of course you can, I’d be more than happy to answer your questions.” 

***

The young, slim man twitched nervously against the steel gray table so his handcuffs made metallic jangling noises on his wrists and his sweaty hands left patches of moisture on the cool surface that he wiped with his forearms. He looked swamped in the loose overalls they’d put him so his clothes could be analyzed in the labs. Olivia and Erikson walked in the room, placing a file down on the desk in front of them before sitting at the table opposite him.

“Why’d you leave them in the dumpsters? Do you hate them?” Olivia asked, glaring at him with a look that dripped with revulsion and shoved the digital file towards Fadley, exposing him to the images of the recent murders and he turned his face away. “Look at them! Are you jealous of these men? Where’d you kill them?”

“I don’t know!" Fadley sobbed, trying to rub the tears from his face with his hands that were restricted and tied to the table. “I told you, I din’t do nothing!”

“The commercial vehicle you drive for work has been sighted on traffic cams in the location of all these murders and the victim’s work addresses this week,” Erikson swiped through the images, showing the van with the distinctive company livery pulled from the footage. “East Yonkers, Van Cortlandt Park, Irvington. Where did you leave it?”

“But I-I haven’t been at work, I’ve been seeing my shrink all week. Someone at work offered to cover my shifts--” Fadley stuttered nervously, then cut himself off and sighed, unsure of whether or not he should continue. “I don’t wanna get in anymore trouble, my attorney said I had to stay outta trouble since I got arrested or I’ll go to jail.”

“Listen, you need to choose your next words very carefully,” Olivia said as she leaned forward, snatching the tablet back before glancing back at Erikson. “Because they will determine if you spend the rest of your life in prison or leave with a caution. Who covered your shifts?”

“The new guy,” he replied, his face contorting with distress as he tried to maintain his composure. “We got tanked one night after work and he got in a fight, I don’t even remember why. I convinced the guy he cut with the bottle not to press charges, and so he took my shifts at work as a thank you, we didn’t tell them so I’d get paid instead of him.”

“Who, Carl? We need a name,” Erikson replied impatiently, his hand hitting the surface of the table with such force it shuddered and made Fadley flinch.

The sound of a knock at the door caught Olivia’s attention, and she turned to see Astrid’s face peering through the glass panel. She stood to meet Astrid outside the door, leaving Fadley alone with Erikson.

“Agent Dunham. I am sorry but I can confirm his alibi checks out,” Astrid confirmed. “His calendar showed he was at his psychiatrist's office at the times the van was seen on the traffic cams, we already called them to confirm it is true. Also, his clothes and apartment are clean, no trace of any DNA from the victims. He’s not our guy”

“What about the carvings on the chest, has the analysis come back from the crime labs yet?” Olivia asked, crossing her arms against her chest and huffing in frustration.

“What analysis?” Astrid replied simply, frowning in bewilderment. “You didn’t ask me to run one.”

“Didn’t Linc -- Agent Lee ask you?” Olivia said, her expression also confused and he scratched her head. “He said he wanted to check if there was a pattern when he got back.”

“Agent Dunham, I haven't seen Agent Lee since earlier this afternoon when you left to check the visitors log, I thought he came back with you?”

“He’s not got back yet?” Olivia gulped, trying to swallow the sense of dread she felt in the pit of her stomach, hoping the reason was something as mundane as traffic and jumped as Erikson left the interrogation room.

“I got a name,” he said, joining the two women as they peered through the one-way mirror at Fadley, whose pathetic figure was hunched over the desk, his head in his arms. "We need to find Finley Dallas.”

Chapter Text

Pain reverberated through Lincoln’s skull like the heavy bass of a dirge throbbed through a wall and he blinked as his eyes adjusted to the blurry shapes of light that slowly began to form into objects. The stink of the stale, damp air, blood and chemicals filled his senses and lungs and he coughed as they dragged him back into consciousness. Trying in vain to move, his feet kicked against the cold floor, making crop circles in the dust and grime, held back by restraints. Grimacing and groaning at the agony of the rough rope tied around his wrists with his arms pulled behind his back, he felt the warm drip of blood run from his temple down to the shell of his ear, and he twisted to sit up from lying on his side, only to be met by the glowing point of an iron bar.

***

The Fringe HQ hummed with nervous energy when an agent in gray camo uniform jogged across the situation room towards Olivia, Erikson and Astrid. 

“Sir, we sent a team to the address you gave us but it was empty, no one has lived there for months," the young junior agent said, before being dismissed by her superiors.

“So the address on Dallas’s Show Me is bogus,” Erikson said matter-of-factly, trying to disguise the disappointment in his voice and placing his hands on his hips turned to the female agents at his side. “What else do we know about him? Any family that could give us an insight into his mind or tell us his whereabouts?" 

Astrid read as she displayed the brutal images of his art. "None. He has no significant other or children. His mother was jailed for killing his father when he was a teenager and died in prison. He was put in foster care before he went to Queens College. He graduated three years ago with a thesis titled 'The Problematique and Contradiction of Good and Evil'. He wanted to be an artist but was employed in various menial jobs before CCC." All of the commotion and chatter died down as the images flickered onto the main screen, the hushed silence spreading across the room like snowfall in a forest on the sight of the disturbing glimpse into his mind; empty and emotionless white faces stained with blue distorted eyes in circular blotches of brown and deep, blood red.

"That kinda makes sense, it gives him a key to the city. He can go almost anywhere undetected and without anyone questioning him. So how do we predict what he’ll do next?” Erikson said, breaking the eerie silence. He walked towards the images to study them further, fascinated by the insight into the troubled mind so the colors on the screen projected in a high albedo onto his own gray-green eyes and cut deep shadows under his defined cheekbones.

“I don’t think we can,” Olivia gestured up at the screen that displayed the information, turning to Astrid and Erikson while adding photos of the victims to the display. “I mean, I can’t see any pattern here, other than a bitter and perverted sense of morality. The eyes could be symbolic as they’re considered to be windows to the soul by many cultures, but then… maybe not. ”

Olivia stopped suddenly on catching a detail of the three victim’s profiles, and frowned, then zoomed in on the screen.

“What is it?” Erikson queried, his eyes following Olivia’s gaze towards the display in an effort to understand.

“I just noticed - all the victims had blue eyes like his paintings. Maybe he was burning their eyes as he considers them as a reflection of evil… like evil eyes.” 

“We also ran the photos of the markings like you asked Agent Dunham, and as Agent Lee suspected, there is a pattern to the cuts in the skin,” Astrid interrupted. "The results from the lab verified there is between a seventy-eight and eighty-nine percent probability they are not random as previously thought, and he was carving the following letters in their chests.”

“What?" Erikson and Olivia replied and looked up in unison, their voices strained with disbelief as Astrid displayed the manipulated photos with overlays that accentuated the slashes in the skin and blended out the burn marks, scorched flesh and bruises that had obscured the pattern.

“They each had three letters. Isaac Adams was VIA, Lucas Norton had INL and Erick Darling was EFD.” Astrid added simply.

“So, they have to be a clue, right? Is it an anagram?” Olivia thought out loud, mentally rearranging the letters in her head, impatiently tapping the podium stand as she paced around it, “Denial… devil…leaf… divine. None of them make any sense, like we’re only seeing pieces of the puzzle. Maybe he doesn’t intend for this to be the last victim.” 

“Logically, I would conclude there is a high probability the victims are not random, but he is choosing them because their initials match each consecutive letter of his name,” Astrid said quietly, her eyes widened as she worked her way through each name. “Erick Darling, his first victim, was born Frederick Darling. The other letter could indicate where the body was left - East Yonkers, Van Cortlandt, Irvington. Or they could be --”

“Spelling E-V-I… evil?” Olivia interrupted and triumphantly slapped the smooth glass surface of the display. “That would make sense, it seems from his thesis he has been nurturing some kind of fascination with the notion of good and evil for some time. So, if that’s right, the person’s initials in the pattern would be--” 

Olivia choked on the letters and she pushed them down with the sudden urge to vomit when she met Astrid’s wide eyes, black and bottomless as the night sky. Stumbling when her vision began to blur and the room spun around her as if the whole universe had just tilted on its axis, she gripped the desk to stop gravity pulling her down, her hair cascading over her shoulders like a river of fire.

Erikson’s voice echoed through every cell in her being when he spelled out what she had just figured out.

“Two ‘L’s’.”

***

“You have to let me go,” Lincoln said calmly, choking back the fear that hammered in his chest and vibrated in his veins, hoping that reasoning with his captor would at least buy him enough time that his team could find his location. He strained against his restraints again and squinted in the low light, trying to make out the man’s face behind the blue glow of the blowtorch in his hand. “Do you understand what the consequences will be for kidnapping, not to mention killing a Fringe Agent?”

The man’s face emerged from the shadows as Lincoln’s eyes adjusted to the light, his skin tainted with rusty hues and eyes black pools that narrowed when he sneered at Lincoln’s words.

“Do I look like I care about the consequences?” Finley mocked, rising to his feet and bringing the bar closer to Lincoln’s face so he could feel the heat of the iron bar’s amber tip at his cheek. “If you’re an agent, why haven’t they put out an alert for you? Fringe Agents are considered superheroes right? They’re like gods! Untouchable saviors of the world, held above everyone else and outside of the laws the rest of us have to obey. They should be searching for you, if that were true.”

“We’re not--” Lincoln stuttered, flinching at the searing metal, unable to hold back a scream when edged closer and singed his temple, barely remembering to keep the knowledge of an alternative universe classified. “ --I’m… I’m undercover. And they will already be searching for me--”

Lincoln stopped abruptly, and shook his head to move away even though it still throbbed with pain and the metallic scent of his blood filled his nostrils. “P-please! Look, I’m not lying to you. If you let me go now, then maybe…”

Finley lurched to snatch at Lincoln’s short hair in his large hand and yanked his head back, holding his face in place, centimeters from the heated bar.

“Why should I let you go? You think all the others didn’t beg for their lives? You think you’re better than them? Better than me?”

“No... no I don't,” Lincoln sobbed, trying to stay focused over the pain of his skin burning under the intense heat.

“Yes, you do, you all do - you all think you’re above the law.” He growled back, his face so close to Lincoln’s that his warm breath merged with the panicked huffs Lincoln pushed through his nose while biting on his bottom lip, desperately trying to contain the pain and fear that rose up in waves. “I will leave you like the others, like they left me, to wither in denial over the years that burned like your eyes will burn.”

“No, I-I can help you, because once they realize you took me, they will look for me, Finley. And when they do find me, you will spend the rest of your life in prison.”

***

Despite ignoring all the speed limits and traffic lights while she drove back to the office block in Irvington, and narrowly missing a collision with another car at a junction while she tried Lincoln’s number on her ear cuff for the third time, when Olivia pulled up outside of the building where she’d last seen him, it had already been closed for the day and was shrouded in darkness. The desperate panic that something had happened to Lincoln consumed her like a black hole - even all the monsters and freaks of nature she’d seen over the past eight years working for Fringe Division didn’t make her feel this terrified. The thought heaved its way up to the back of her throat like a splinter of a lost memory and stung like acrid bile. Erikson and a security guard eventually joined Olivia in what felt like a lifetime later with every moment stretched out infinitely through her fear.

The guard checked the lobby security camera, which led them down to the empty parking lot, and the chipped lilac paint on a rectangular concrete pillar displayed a smear of crimson, the only sign of a struggle. Olivia closed her eyes as she picked up Lincoln’s crushed glasses and ear cuff on the parking lot floor, trying but unable to shake the mental image of the larger man shoving Lincoln against the cold, stone column to render him unconscious and compliant, and leaving a trail of blood as he hit his head on the corner before being bundled into the van and driven away.

“He put up a fight. We’ll find him, Dunham,” Erikson remarked, on noticing the scarlet streak of blood on the pillar. 

Olivia knew they would - they had to. It was just a question of if they’d find him alive, and unharmed.

“Of course he did, he’s tougher than people give him credit for," Olivia heaved through gritted teeth, determined to find him as soon as possible. “Sir, we need to put out a Fringe alert for a missing agent right away --”

“Dunham.” 

“--and get Echelon to activate his tracker. It can take a few hours for the satellite to get an accurate location. Lincoln will do his best to stall him but we only have a short time before he’ll start --” she gulped, her throat thick, not wanting to imagine what Dallas could already be doing to Lincoln.

“DUNHAM. Stop,” Erikson repeated, his graying eyebrows furrowing and he pulled her away to focus on his face and not the thoughts that had begun to infest her mind. "We can't put out an alert, it would be seen by the original Agent Lee's family and as he is from the other side, he never had an Echelon tracker fitted. We can run another trace on the van’s license plate but we are working against the clock, so we have to focus and do our jobs properly. This isn't just about Agent Lee. It's about Isaac, Lucas, and Erick. It’s about all the other victims that will be next, if we mess this up. "

"Sir," Olivia said, taking a deep breath and nodded, then walked back to her car before anyone could see the fear manifesting as tears pricking the corner of her eyes. Of Erikson was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

***

“Why are you doing this?” Lincoln gasped, fighting the urge to pass out from the agony of the throbbing singed skin at his eyebrow that crept into the corners of his subconscious like a vignette photograph. Squinting, his eyes adjusted to the light and he began to make out angular shapes in the wall behind the man’s silhouette, sepia squares that rippled and faintly glowed in the ochre light. "If you’re not going to let me go, why don’t you tell me why you’re targeting innocent people?”

“Innocent people? No one is innocent, especially all of you people! The only difference is, people like you…” Finley screamed, lurching towards Lincoln and pressing the cold blade of the pen knife against the clammy flesh of his collarbone. “...try to justify the pain you cause to others with your self-righteousness, because you’ve been granted the permission to inflict it.”

A scream ripped through Lincoln’s lungs when Finley pushed the knife into his skin and slowly carved a four inch long vertical line from his collar bone before, twisting his hand ninety degrees and slicing another four inches left to right.

***

“Okay, from when the van Dallas was using left Irvington, we tracked it via traffic cams where it traveled for five miles due south, then we lost sight of it when he diverted from Jackson Avenue,” Erikson said, pre-empting Olivia’s question as she approached him and planted her hands defiantly on her hips, “We’ve put out alerts and notifications for his license plates and description too--”

“Sir, I think that is a waste of time,” she replied, gesturing towards the screen in a determined stance. “He’s not gonna reveal himself until he is ready to find his next victim, and by then it will be too late for Lincoln. If we can’t find him now, maybe we can figure out where he is if we know where he’s been.” 

Olivia paced back and forth by the screen, studying the photos of the victims and then turned on her heel to look at Astrid. “There were no contusions or marks around the mouths and necks of the victims. He only tortured them around the chest and eye area. What does that tell you?”

“He fixated on their eyes, we already know that Dunham,” Erikson interrupted, his tone impatient and unsure of Olivia’s objectivity. “What’s your point?”

“My point is there was bruising and rope burns on the wrists from where he’d tied them up but there wasn’t any on the mouth or face--”

“He is isolated,” Astrid said, looking up to meet Oliva’s eyes whose mouth twitched into a slight smile at the affirmation. “I would say that he has taken them all somewhere that is private and quiet, away from anyone who could hear them. I will scan the traffic cams again and focus on any activity in areas or buildings that are remote and weren't on the list of properties serviced by his employers.”

***

The hazy pain lifted enough for Lincoln to summon the strength to move his head from the rough, bare brick surface of the wall that dug into his back and skull. His heavy eyes flickered open and glanced down at the dark, sticky pool of blood on his chest that had coursed down his stomach and pooled in the fabric of the gray combat pants.

Light cut through the shadows from a paltry window in the far corner obscured with dirt and a makeshift covering. It illuminated the dark rectangular shapes on the far wall and dancing particles of dust, revealing a collection of paintings, all of which featured distorted blue eyes warped with streaks of red and brown that spread and metastasized over the canvas with every movement Dallas made. 

Lincoln gulped at the intimate and disturbing insight into the other man’s psyche who still seemed to be engrossed in smearing patterns of the dark liquid on the paintings while muttering strained noises under his breath, oblivious to Lincoln’s subtle movements and intent gaze. Dallas suddenly manically screamed in frustration and started stabbing the canvas with his penknife, carving gashes in the fabric until he slumped to the floor in front of it, making Lincoln flinch.

“Why are you destroying your painting?” Lincoln asked, his words catching in his throat and voice rough from his earlier screams. For a moment he thought Dallas hadn’t heard him and he considered speaking again until the man jumped to his feet and spoke, without turning back around to look at him.

“Why? You don’t care. None of you cared why,” He said simply and turned to face Lincoln still slumped on the floor, and scoffed bitterly, “You all pretend to care, but no one cares. I’m always left alone. And they say I’m the evil one!”

“I want to know,” Lincoln replied, his feet pushing as he tried to get leverage against the rough brick wall. “I-I want to understand.”

“You’re just saying what I want to hear, you just want to save your own skin," Dallas said, stepping closer, and pointing at Lincoln’s face with the penknife still in his hand. “You don’t know what it’s like to be left alone.”

“True,” Lincoln agreed, with a slight nod of his head. If he died here and his body was left in some filthy dumpster with the trash and rats, he knew Olivia would not rest until she shot this man dead, consequences be damned. She would be ruthless and relentless in her vengeance, because when she had pointed a gun at him, convinced he was his own murderer, fear and anger had ripped through her veins as she’d screamed at him, convinced that she’d lost him again. He would do the same too. Lincoln’s eyes widened when he noticed the momentary soft expression on Dallas’s face disappear. "But I do know what it's like, to be alone and unwanted. I was like that too, once--”

He stopped abruptly, and gulped hard when Dallas pressed the penknife into his chest again and tore a line straight down the front of his chest and a scream from his lungs, just as before.

“You don't, but you will know. You will understand,” Dallas smirked, cupping Lincoln’s dripping blood in his hand like falling rubies and garnets before walking back to the paintings and streaking it over the canvases. "When I am done, all of you will care.”

***

“Agent Dunham?” Astrid beckoned, presenting a map of various points on the screen that pulled Olivia away from intensely studying Dallas’s file.

“What have you got?” Olivia asked as she stood and rubbed her bleary eyes, focusing on the screen’s display of lines and dots in a spectrum of colors superimposed onto a map of the area. 

“This is all of the van’s movements we have managed to find over the past weeks, all of Dallas’s activity,” Astrid replied, zooming into the area of New Yonkers. “But there are a number of anomalies with the patterns of his behavior, we need to deduce another variable so we can determine which is statistically likely to be his current location.”

“Show us which ones you’ve got, agent,” Erikson said. Olivia turned around surprised on hearing his voice and as he walked towards the women.

The screen flickered, reducing the overlays to a handful spread across the city map. Olivia’s eyes intently studied the screen, looking for any pattern that might help, noticing a cluster of activity within a a mile radius surrounding a rhomboid patch of green.

“What’s that?” she pointed at the area so Astrid could zoom in to get more details. When she did, the picture changed from a 2-D into a satellite image, showing a grassy area lined with the deep green and thick foliage of old, tall trees and peppered with the mottled rectangular shapes of a few rooftops.

“That is Reddick Road cemetery,”  Astrid replied. "Although it is isolated, due to the pattern of activity, the odds of him being in this area are approximately one in two hundred. He most likely uses this route as a shortcut due to current roadworks on Jackson Avenue and because the area is not covered by traffic cams.

“No, he’s somewhere in there,” Olivia gestured to the epicenter on the map where the cams had picked up the van numerous times. “That’s the area we need to search.”

“How do you know? I know you’re determined to find Agent Lee but if you’re wrong we it could cost us time we don’t have--”

“Because that’s where his mother is buried.”

***

Dallas towered over Lincoln’s unresponsive body that slumped against the wall, and kicked him in the stomach, making him jolt awake with a gasp. Lincoln reeled back, fighting the urge to throw up as his heavy eyes blinked open and he gulped thickly. He felt lightheaded from the blood loss, the odds of anyone finding him in time was dwindling with every second he spent there, and every second felt an eternity with the pain that made him wish he was unconscious or even that Dallas would get this over and done with and kill him already.

“No sleeping, pretty boy. I’m not done yet.”

“Who is Grace?” Lincoln muttered, subconsciously recalling something Dallas had said earlier when he was painting and thought Lincoln was knocked out. The man glared at Lincoln, his eyes flashing in a mixture of surprise and disdain as Lincoln’s head rolled back against the wall. “When you were painting, you said this is for Grace.”

He shifted against the cold and dirty flooring again when Dallas kneeled in front of him and peered over the man’s shoulder at the paintings again, trying in vain to decipher the painted images and forced a smile, in the hope it would be seen as empathy and admiration and would disarm him.

“Do you give in. Do you want me to finish you off already?” He sneered, holding up the glowing iron bar towards Lincoln’s face again so he could feel the searing heat and scent of the heated metal on his face. “‘Cause I think you do.”

“I just want to know why you’re doing this. If you tell me and let me go, then I can convince them to help you, and not--”

“Do you think Dahmer cared? Or Berkowitz or Ramirez or Bundy? They only wanted to live their truths. They were the gods.”

“They were people, just like their victims, just like your victims. Just like you. Our flaws are what make us people,” Lincoln protested, pulling against the rope on his wrists, his shoulders stiff from being forced behind his back for so long distracting him from the agonizing cuts in his chest.

“No, their actions revealed secrets about ourselves about our desires, that there is no good, no evil. It’s all an invented construct. Their actions transfigured them and made them into gods. That’s why we're fascinated by them, why we read so many books and why they make countless films and tv shows about them.”

“Is that why you’re doing this? You want people to talk about you? Write a book or a thesis on you, so you become a god, or a myth?”

“No, I’m doing it to prove that there is no good or evil. We are all the same, there are killers in all of us. There is a killer in you just like there is inside of me,” Dallas shrieked, pointing the dying glowing tip at Lincoln then back himself then stood, grabbing the blowtorch from the bench again.

***

The screech of tires on the gravel cut through the peaceful woodland area as the group of agents in black Kevlar vests and helmets jumped from the back of the Fringe Division trucks, flattening the green spikes of the grass with their heavy boots.

“We have an area of almost two square miles to cover so you have all been assigned a section of the park and cemetery to search.” Olivia instructed, swiping her auburn hair out of her face in the wintry breeze before walking in front of the lined up agents and turned to Erikson who joined her.

“It is imperative that we search thoroughly but quickly. Remember, we are here to not only catch someone responsible for multiple homicides but also a kidnapped Fringe agent, who could be seriously injured. If you find him, call for MedEvac assistance immediately. Report back to me or Dunham,“ he said, pausing to motion at Olivia at his side, “on your comms right away if you spot the suspect, Agent Lee or anything even slightly unusual.”

“For those of you who don’t know already,“ Olivia added, trying to steady her voice that wobbled with adrenaline and determination. “This is really important to me, so, uh, let’s get it right. Okay, let’s fan out.”

Stepping around the assorted tombstones that were placed across the lush lawns and fanned out across the verge, Olivia searched each epitaph for the details of Dallas’s mother. Having obtained the approximate location of the grave from the cemetery office, she hoped it might give some clue to his - and Lincoln’s - whereabouts before it was too late. Every stone monument was a stark reminder of her guilt - the guilt she carried every day that she didn’t visit her sister’s or the other Lincoln’s grave as often as she should, and guilt for leaving Lincoln at that office alone. The memory of the way he looked at her the last time she saw him, his sky blue eyes nervously blinking when he walked away from her like he hoped she would follow crept into her thoughts like smoke from a fire under the crack of a door she couldn’t open, slowly suffocating every inch of hope from her lungs. 

Unable to push away the image of his eyes scorched beyond recognition, it rose like black smoke and smothered everything until she couldn’t see anything else and she leaned onto a gravestone to steady her steps, the smooth marble cool under her fingertips.

Defiant tears swelled in the corner of her eyes and she stumbled on the lumpy ground, tripping backwards on a tuft of uneven grass, collapsing onto the damp ground in defeat. She knew he must be close, she could feel it, just like she could feel the wind sighing through the trees.

A flock of pigeons urgently flew up from the nearby woodland like gunmetal whistles scattered against the silver sky and Olivia watched as they settled on the nearby verge and headstones. She jumped to her feet to walk back to the thicket of trees they’d flown from, intrigued by what had disturbed them in the eerily quiet cemetery. Making her way through the coppice, the wiry branches snatched handfuls of her clothes and shards of light cut through the leaves igniting the woody scent of pine and amber leaves, damp moss and bracken. It thinned out to where a rough gravel drive barely wider than a footpath and overgrown with weeds crunched under her feet, leading her up a slight incline to a row of four dilapidated and abandoned garages, shaded by swaying evergreen trees.

Olivia inspected the writing on a small laminated sign nailed to the end brick wall which confirmed their old purpose before they were condemned - storage for a funeral company's fleet of hearses - and checked the doors, straining on her tiptoes to peer into the small windows placed high on the shutters. The first two garages seemed untouched for years, a coating of dust on the door handles remaining intact and the edges sealed with leaves and debris caught in the grasp of grime and cobwebs. Handprints and finger marks smeared through the layers of dust on the third one showed it had been recently used and in the small window in the top of the roll door, she could just make out the shape of a white van with a familiar blue triple C shaped symbol emblazoned on the hood through the shadows.

“This is Agent Dunham. Urgent request for backup and MedEvac to my location immediately,” she whispered into her ear cuff, her voice shaking as she took a deep breath to find the courage to check the windows of the fourth and final garage door, only to see they had been blacked out and lined with black garbage bags. The unmistakable sound of Lincoln’s voice, distorted in a horrified scream, bled out from behind the door and pierced her eardrums. Olivia wrapped her clammy fingers and palm around the door handle, unable to wait for backup.

“LINCOLN?” 

His name was barely ripped from her mouth when Olivia rolled up the door with such force that it rattled on its hinges as it opened and flooded the extended garage with light. The horrific stench of burning and stale blood hit her immediately and gushed out into the air as the door creaked open, stinging like bile at the back of her throat. For a brief moment, sunlight illuminated the bare breezeblock walls that were decorated with Dallas's canvas paintings. Olivia gasped, stunned yet compelled to stare at them, despite being even more disturbing than the pictures that she’d seen earlier. Unable to pull herself away as if watching a car crash in slow motion, the graphically realistic images of men’s faces were distorted and twisted with swirls and drips of deep red and gaping black holes. Her morbid fascination was broken within seconds when a figure hunched in the corner jumped up in response to being exposed and lurched forward towards Olivia, then fell back to the ground with the force of three shots being fired from her gun into his broad chest as she instantly recognised his features from Dallas’s file, the iron bar making a metallic clunk as it fell from his large hand to the floor.

If the last few moments had passed in seconds, then each and every second she moved further into the garage stretched out like hours. The crude equipment Dallas had used on his victims - a blowtorch and pen knife with leftover rope and tape - were displayed on a metallic bench to the side and were all coated in splodges of dried paint and blood. Olivia stepped over Dallas’s inanimate thick body, the bullets she’d fired at him without hesitation making red flowers bloom in his navy overalls and the circular rips black holes that bore into his chest, to see another figure slumped and inert behind him in the far corner, that she knew was Lincoln even though he was faced away and still shrouded in the shadows.

She dared herself to edge closer, even though she was petrified it would be her greatest fear realized; that she was too late to save him, and she’d lost him like she'd lost the other Lincoln and how she’d been forced to imagine when Harry had almost convinced her Lincoln had killed himself by a gunshot to the head.

Except this time it wasn't a dream or a hallucination. It was real and would be an eternal nightmare she'd never wake up from. She knelt on the cold concrete floor and gingerly shoved his lower leg with her hand, her dark auburn hair blanketing her shoulders as she leaned forward.

“Linc?” Olivia choked, barely able to speak with the knot in her throat threatening to choke her but he didn’t respond. She edged closer, nudging his thigh that was sticky in her trembling hand and dark with warm blood that had oozed down from his chest. “L-Lincoln? It’s me, you can wake up now. It’s okay, he's gone.”

The sight of his blackened face blurred under the hot flood of tears that filled her eyes and stung as they fell from her cheeks into fat droplets on the dusty stone cold floor, and they coursed into little rivulets that pooled at his side when she finally broke. Her face contorted with her anguish, the sound of the ambulance outside not registering in her consciousness over the sobs. “Linc. C'mon, get up. GET UP!”

Her voice changed from a whimper to an animalistic scream so suddenly, she didn't recognize it as her own. Anonymous arms pulled her up and dragged her unwillingly out of the garage before she could feel his neck for a pulse and dragged her back into the daylight, replacing her at Lincoln’s side with medical staff who wheeled in a gurney.

Chapter Text

Burning bright light ripped through the darkness, slowly morphing from shadows and nondescript, blurry shapes into squares that either glowed or were beige and speckled.

The organic lilt of a familiar voice bled through, whispering like the wind or a ghost trapped between the crumbling walls of an abandoned mansion, to the rhythm of repetitive, mechanical beeping slowly saturating the air as it repeated incessantly.

"Linc?"  

Shades of peach, pink and ginger focused into a wide smile, and Liv's large watery dark green eyes laughing in relief as tears threatened to spill over onto her cheeks. "Oh --," she gulped again, swallowing down the relief past the lump in her throat. "How are you feeling?"

She didn't want to think of how many nights she'd spent in this room, holding his hand as tight as the desperation gripped her, refusing to let him die again, refusing to believe outside her car was their last moment together. Every night was spent hoping with every fibre of her being and praying, making a pact with any deity that might listen that he should have another chance.

She thought how her prayers had now been answered.

"I, uh," Lincoln cleared his throat and smiled thinly, unable to resist on seeing Olivia's contagious grin, and instinctively lifted his hand to touch the bandages he could feel on his chest when she stopped him, grasping his hand in hers. "I'm okay, I think. Better on seeing you."

“Good,” she huffed a little laugh, unable to contain the relief of seeing him awake and gestured across her chest to the place where he’d been slashed. "They gave you a couple of packs of B positive and a nanite wrap on your chest so the scarring should completely fade within a few months…" Her words trailed off when he nodded, knowing he understood and didn’t want to be reminded of the trauma and she pulled her hand away to reach into her jacket pocket, pulling out his cracked glasses.

“I was holding onto these for you,” She added, wiping the glass with the pad of her thumb. "But the docs said you won’t need them anymore - they had to do some laser surgery to heal your left eye, so they corrected your sight at the same time.”

Lincoln stared vacantly past Olivia at the hospital’s light gray walls and the red painted door in the corner, helpless as it faded out and he was transported to the breezeblock walls and paintings smeared with his and other men’s blood. Suddenly, the knife was carving into his skin and the heated bar was burning into his skull again, ripping through every cell with excruciating agony. Fear grasped him in it's claws and rammed in his chest, burrowing into his stomach like a mutated parasite, twisting around his lungs and squeezing out the air and poising it's stinger ready to attack.

Then soft and warm hands took his again, linking their fingers together and cupping him in their embrace, breaking the spell of the memory that bled from his unconsciousness with their soothing touch. He coughed again, shifting to sit up slightly and turned to look at Olivia who bit down on her bottom lip to stop it trembling as she reassuringly squeezed his hand, her eyes brimming with concern through low lashes. “We found you just in time, you know.” Olivia croaked, her thumb brushing the fine hairs on the back of his hand, as she couldn’t quite believe he was okay, afraid to let go again in case this wasn't real.

Erikson had struggled to restrain Olivia, his arms wrapped around her stomach to hold her back from seeing Lincoln’s deformed and mutilated face while the medics attended the scene. A gasp of relief had slipped through her hand that was clasped over her mouth when they had eventually found a weak pulse and had rushed him back to the DoD hospital for treatment and surgery. Permanently tattooing her impatient footsteps on the waiting room's linoleum floor while waiting for news, they had finally let Olivia see Lincoln. He was unconscious and wrapped in a blanket of bandages, but he was alive. The equipment by his side had been her dependable companion, gifting Liv its reassuring beeps while Lincoln slept, healed and recovered for almost two months.

“H-how did you find me?” he replied quietly. His bloodshot eyes blinked quickly and he gulped, pushing away the images of Dallas's face that flashed behind his eyes. 

“We traced the van to the cemetery where his mother had been buried. In some messed up way I think he was avenging her and punishing anyone he felt responsible - people in law enforcement, attorneys, psychologists - anyone he thought that failed them. He’d started renting old garages that were tucked behind the main building in the cemetery a few weeks before.”

“Grace,” Lincoln said, his voice soft as the name caught in his throat like a needle on an old record. He turned to face Olivia again, his eyes watering as he gripped her hand in response. 

“Yes, her name was Grace Goodwin,” Olivia confirmed and frowned. "How did you know?”

“He said her name, when he was painting and thought I didn’t notice. It was the one time he was…”

Lincoln’s words cut off in his throat. For all the pain and hurt Dallas had caused to both him and the other victims that hadn't been so lucky, there was a glimpse of something Lincoln had noticed in the man’s expression  that he recognised in himself, even though he’d never admit it. A glimmer of the person Dallas had been and could have been before hate and revenge consumed him. Lincoln knew the pain of being left alone all too well - from when his mother had died when he was a small boy, then his father in a car crash and Kendra who’d been infected by Nick’s depression. If Lincoln was a different person he could have easily become like Dallas, and twisted the despair and loneliness he'd felt into acrid anger.

Instead he’d found Robert, and although he’d been taken away from him too, he’d eventually found Liv and his home, where was accepted and loved and wanted and was supposed to be.

“What?” She asked, searching his face while waiting patiently for him to finish and he met her gaze with a little nod.

“... Human.”

***

Little more than a week later, Lincoln’s wounds had almost healed and his vision was not only restored but better than it had been since he was a child, and he was discharged from hospital under the caveat he’d wear sunglasses when outside and check regularly with the DoD’s psychiatrist.

Erikson insisted Lincoln remained on desk duty for at least another week to ease himself back despite Liv’s objections - he welcomed the slower pace of work that reminded him of the FBI and almost relished in the opportunity to temporarily swap roles with Astrid who was also apprehensively excited about the new responsibilities and joining Olivia out on the field.

*

One afternoon was quieter than most, and with access to the internal staff archive, curiosity got the better of Lincoln and he typed out and deleted the names into the database three times, looking over his shoulder before hitting the enter button.

When Olivia returned to the Fringe HQ with Astrid, she was surprised to see Lincoln had already left for the day without her. She called his number, but when it reached the third ring and he didn’t pick up, the irrational fear that something bad had happened to him began to knot in her stomach until a familiar voice answered.

“Hello?” Lincoln said, his voice slightly crackling and quiet over the line.

“Hey, it’s me,” Olivia replied, sighing in relief, her brows narrowing in confusion to what sounded like chatter and music of a bar in the background. “Are you okay? Is everything alright?”

“Umm, yep.” His tone sounded unusually blunt and annoyed, and it stung, making her cheeks flush red. “I’m fine. What’s up?”

“Nothing, I -” She sighed again and straightened up, subconsciously folding her arms across her chest defensively and frowned. “I just thought you’d still be here when I got back with Astrid.”

“Oh I… few things... see you… get home later…dinner…you,” Lincoln’s distorted voice came back in shattered sentences, metallic noises interfering with the signal before it disconnected and left her in silence. Liv returned to the rotunda to debrief Erikson on the case before leaving for the day with Astrid, pushing down the unjustifiable knot of anxiety every time she felt it rising up and catching in the back of her throat.

***

When Liv got back after taking Astrid home in the busy rush hour traffic, the apartment's dark corners were cold and quiet with late autumn chill and Lincoln’s absence. The only time their apartment had been this empty since he’d moved in almost a year ago was while he’d been recovering in hospital and she found the silence eerily disquieting as she’d come to be comforted by his tranquil and steadfast presence.

Streetlamps outside flickered their amber light through the blinds as Liv paced the kitchen, her finger twitching on her ear cuff wanting to call  Lincoln to reassure her nerves, but the reminder of Frank’s reaction held her back - how he’d drunkenly accuse her of checking up on him when he eventually fell into bed in the early hours with the smell of alcohol on his breath.

The chain on the front door jangled unexpectedly, startling Olivia out of her thoughts as she leaned on the kitchen counter top, and she jolted upright. Lincoln nonchalantly walked through with a paper bag in his arms that filled the apartment with a delicious aroma that made her stomach uncontrollably rumble.

“Hey! Why are the lights out? I got us take out as a treat. I hope that’s okay, I can’t be bothered to cook tonight," Lincoln rambled, hitting the light switch with the point of his elbow so the fluorescent lights flickered into life around them. When he moved past her and began unloading the various plastic tubs onto the small dining table and opened the cutlery drawer, oblivious to Olivia’s concern, she was sure she could smell the faint tang of beer and cigarette smoke on his clothes. “I need these as I got us Chinese ‘cause I know you weren’t keen on the Damiano's we had last time and you remember the mess I made when I tried using chopsticks? I got chow mein, sweet and sour, egg fried rice and… What’s wrong?”

Lincoln’s voice trailed off, finally noticing how Olivia hadn’t moved or spoken since he’d arrived and was still leaning against the kitchen cabinets twisting her fingers in one hand while observing his behavior. He sat at the table and fiddled nervously with the tubs, eventually removing the lids from the containers, licking the spilled sauce from his fingers. Sitting opposite, she silently pulled the one filled with hot noodles towards her with a fork and began stabbing the food. “Liv? Did something happen at work --”

“Where did you go today?” Liv blurted confrontationally, blowing on the fork of hot food before taking a mouthful to swallow down any further words that might spill out. A tiny flicker of guilt flickered across his eyes that disappeared almost as soon as it arrived, replaced with a frown when Lincoln finally met her enquiring gaze, and it made her stomach sink. “I got kinda worried.” 

“I met up with someone,” he shrugged, pushing a bean sprout out from inside his cheek with his tongue before gulping. “I guess you didn’t hear me trying to explain when you called because the phone service was so bad where we were. Like the service, which is why I'm starving.”

He'd been waiting almost an hour for the food to arrive when Liv had called, and when it arrived as they were on the phone, he was ashamedly abrupt to the server for bringing them food that was not only cold but wrong.

“No, I didn’t. So who were you seeing?” 

“Liv…” 

Lincoln shook his head slightly. Something about the tone of her voice hinted at an accusation which he knew wasn’t necessarily intentional and more born out of concern, and even if it was, it was a learned behavior from previous relationships that he knew he shouldn’t take personally. That didn’t mean it hurt any less when he realized there was still a small part of her that didn’t trust him.

Her attention returned back to her food when he paused, almost in fear of the repercussions of what he might say next and she shook her head dismissively.

“It doesn’t matter --”

“It was Robert, my old partner who died,” he admitted, his voice tinged with sadness as he interrupted her. "When Dallas was…  It made me realize meeting Robert - the other one - when I did, pulled me out of a depression I could have easily spiraled into. Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything about over there .”

Lincoln shifted nervously in his chair and smiled thinly, patiently waiting for her reaction before returning to his food.

“You miss him. He was your… he is what you are to me,” Liv said quietly after a long moment of silent consideration. Like her, he’d needed the comfort of knowing his dead friend’s alternate was alive, getting closure on what had been left unsaid between them. The similarity sank like a stone down until it hit the depths of her heart, making the fallout rise and scatter up and sting the back of her throat that made her words tremble. “Do you wish you two were…”

Her voice trailed off again, unable to finish the sentence until his hand covered hers.

“Liv, no. No.” Lincoln insisted, shaking his head harder this time as the implications of her words rippled around him. “I just wanted the goodbye we never had. I loved him, but as a friend. I’m in love with you. I never really understood the difference until I met you.”

He didn’t even realize a tear had sneaked out of the corner of his eye until Liv wiped it away with the warm pad of her finger, a small smile turning at the corners of her lips when she whispered.

“Me too.”

Lincoln smiled as they finished their food. He decided to wait until later to let Liv know Robert's file wasn't the only one he'd downloaded.

Chapter Text

Chewing her pen and tucking a loose ringlet of dark hair behind her ear, Doctor Anderson's eyebrow arched curiously at the man who was sitting across the room from her in an old leather chair. 

“I understand you’ve been back at work for almost a month now,” she said, the light hazel tones of her eyes catching his avoidant gaze. The leather armchair creaked under the movements of Lincoln shifting, his palms warm against the smooth worn arms of the chair. “How has it been for you?”

“I, uh, it’s going well," he smiled thinly, his lips dismissively twisting into an upside down smirk, flattening down his tie as he stared at the fine woven pattern in the silky fabric. "There haven’t been any major cases since I came back, so -”

“Okay,” she interrupted, nodding. Lincoln’s voice trailed off as he shrugged. “Let me rephrase that. How are you feeling being at work?”

“I’m fine,” Lincoln said dismissively, blowing a little huff through his nose, his shoulders shrugging.

It wasn’t untrue, he did feel fine, more than fine. But he didn’t feel the same as he did before. He thought he should feel afraid, traumatized, even more wary than he used to be. But he didn’t. He felt reborn. Released from the depths of self-doubt and waves of trepidation that had weighed him down by the ankles every time he tried to get to the surface for air. He felt like he'd finally emerged, soaked and freezing, gasping for air that fill his lungs, like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis after spending a lifetime as a caterpillar.

“You know, the human brain is an incredible thing,” Anderson continued, her voice tinted with skepticism. "It has a way of repressing the memory of trauma as a coping mechanism for self-preservation called dissociative amnesia, but adapting emotional avoidance behavior to avoid your feelings -” her voice trailed off as Lincoln frowned.

“If you’re telling me it's because I don’t remember what happened, you’re wrong. I remember every single second of what happened to me," he continued, his eyes stormy gray and narrowed when they met hers. “I remember the exact color of his eyes, the way the rope cut into my wrists, the heat of the blowtorch and the sound it made. The scars on my chest are gone but I remember the pain of him cutting into me, and the smell…” Lincoln paused, as unwanted memories grew up in mind like weeds. “...the smell of my flesh burning when he pushed that heated rod in my face.”

“And this doesn’t bother you at all?”

“If I think about it, sure. And I have thought about it. A lot. But I've come to terms with it. Despite that, and everything else in my life, I’m still here, and he’s not. I know I nearly died, and part of me did that day, the part that was always anxious and over-thought everything.”

“So you’re not scared anymore?” The doctor asked curiously.

“I wouldn’t say that, there are still things I worry about,” Lincoln’s voice trailed as his mind inadvertently thought about Olivia. Even though he knew she was capable of looking after herself, he couldn't help but worry about the nightmares that still plagued some of her dreams. Some nights she’d still wake up screaming, her skin clammy as she clung to him in the dark until her breathing slowed, insisting it was nothing. “But I feel like I’ve been given a second chance, so I’m not going to waste it worrying about what could have happened or what might have been. I just want to enjoy every moment of my life that I can.”

***

“How did it go?” Olivia asked, watching Lincoln who seemed preoccupied with adjusting the settings on the car’s center console as he sat down in the passenger seat next to her.

“Good, they seem to think I’m okay to go back in the field. You should make an appointment, maybe it’ll help with the nightmares you've been having.”

“Yeah, or maybe they’ll think I’m insane and leave me to rot in a padded cell somewhere," she laughed dismissively, only half joking. The visions she’d experienced since being drugged almost four months ago had become less frequent, slowly succumbing to the blackness of sleep and buried under the soil of denial but occasionally a buried splinter of a dream rose up, catching all the colors in the spectrum as it flashed through like a rolodex of memories that she didn’t recognise but knew were hers. “Besides, I only have them once or twice a month now. They’ll probably disappear on their own eventually.”

“That’s once or twice too many, if you ask me,” Lincoln smiled briefly as Liv laughed. He knew she found it hard to talk about her fears because she’d always been afraid to let down her guard and let people in, believing it was a sign of weakness and a level of vulnerability she wasn’t prepared to reveal. Since they’d met, several layers had peeled back on both of their defenses, blowing away like the velveteen petals of a centifolia rose in the wind, their confetti teasing each other with the heady scent of what lies in the center but there were still so many left to unfold.

“Fine, I’ll make an appointment if they get bad again," Olivia retorted, which elicited Lincoln’s eyebrows to raise, half in surprise and half impressed by her lack of resistance while she tugged on her seatbelt. “Can you help me with this for a sec?”

As he leaned forward to inspect the buckle, she grabbed him by the collar of his coat and forcefully pulled him towards her seat so hard he had to brace himself against the steering wheel, causing the horn to honk. The noise echoed through the concrete walls of the parking lot and made him flinch until Olivia planted a kiss on the side of his mouth.

“C’mon you,” she sighed, smiling into his lips as his head craned so his lips could meet hers. "Let's go home.”

***

The next day, Olivia and Lincoln rushed into the Fringe HQ late after being held up in a traffic jam caused by a cluster of amber protesters, the streets filled with sirens and flashes of blues and red, and chants of justice for those trapped so long. With the elevators busy, their cheeks flushed as they ran up the stairs from the parking lot to the rotunda, only to be met by a familiar face with soft dark brown eyes that was waiting for them.

“Charlie?” Lincoln smiled, wiping the thin layer of sweat on his brow with the back of his hand while offering the other to Charlie who took it and pulled him in for a brief hug, before releasing him and doing the same to Olivia. “You’re back already?”

“Yep, those few months really flew by, huh?” he smirked, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Mona told me I’m driving her crazy, fussing over her and Nellie, so at least I won’t be in the way here.”

“It’s good to have you back again. I hope Nellie hasn’t been giving you too many sleepless nights,” Olivia chuckled, nudging his arm, not letting on she was still having a few of her own.

“Not as many as this job gives me,” Charlie said, playfully rolling his dark brown eyes and regarding Lincoln’s glasses-free face, “Something looks different about you, you changed your hair or somethin’?”

“Something like that,” Lincoln snorted, glancing at Olivia who smirked at Charlie’s teasing tone, comforted by how he teased both Lincolns. “So what’s the plan?”

“Erikson wants you to bring me up to speed with the case,” he replied. "And Liv to take Astrid to pick someone up, and bring them back here.” 

“Okay, I’ll grab Astrid on the way out. See you boys soon.” Olivia smiled, nudging Lincoln’s arm with her elbow, her sleek auburn hair swishing over shoulders as she left.

“Drive safe,” Lincoln replied, watching her join Astrid towards the exit that led to the underground parking lot. The words were innocent and innocuous, used as a cover at work to avoid gossip or unwanted questions, but Lincoln’s gazing at Olivia while watching her leave didn’t go unnoticed by Charlie.

“I heard about what happened to you while I was on paternity leave,” Charlie said, smiling thinly, his hand warm briefly placing a comforting touch on Lincoln’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’re covered but I’m here if you need anyone to talk to who knows the pitfalls of this job.” He paused, pointing to the scar that coursed from just under his left eye down to where his stubble began before he twisted his lips into a smile, making quote marks with his fingers. “So you and Liv finally, uh, talked , huh?

“I, uh, no… yes!” Lincoln relented, averting his gaze down to his feet as they gathered up the files to take to Erikson.

“Finally. I thought you two had a challenge to see who would give in first or something!” Charlie laughed, nudging Lincoln playing with his elbow, stopping as he noticed Lincoln sigh and frown. “What’s up?”

“It’s just, uh, early days. We agreed to keep it professional between us at work, so don’t mention it to her that you know, she might not want people to know we’re a couple. ”

“Just because Liv isn’t being affectionate at work, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t want people to know you two are together.”

“I know, I get it,” Lincoln sighed, shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants and really hearing Charlie's response. “I do. We have to be professional and careful. But having this kind of relationship with someone I work with is completely new to me, whereas she seems to be completely unfazed and takes it all in her stride.”

“Buddy, I’ve known Liv for a looong time, and she's definitely, uh, fazed,” Charlie snorted. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you, it’s exactly the same way you look at her. But I know you’re a private and reserved person and so does she. She probably doesn’t want you to feel embarrassed or self-conscious.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Lincoln said, pushing his bottom lip up into an upside smile as he considered the possibility. “So, you think if I was more affectionate towards her at work, she wouldn’t mind?”

“Wouldn’t mind? You know how touchy-feely she usually is. It’s probably driving her mad, holding back all day,” Charlie replied, laughing again and shaking his head in disbelief at how oblivious Lincoln was that Olivia was clearly smitten with him.

Lincoln sighed again and cursed himself for being such an idiot, again. Of course Charlie was right. Every day she compensated for the lack of contact between them as soon as they were out of the office and away from prying eyes, grabbing the first opportunity offered to link her fingers into his and pull him into her personal space. Even when trying to prepare dinner, she’d wrap her arms around his waist, pressing her chest against his back so he could feel her small, firm breasts against his shoulder blades and lips on the nape of his neck.

“You’re right," he nodded, nonchalantly opening the digital file on the tablet as they paused outside of Erikson’s office. “The other day we were having -”

“Woah, let me stop you right there!” Charlie interrupted, holding up his hands in protest while lowering his voice. “Look, I love you guys and I'm very happy for you both, but I do not need to hear the sordid details of what you two get up to when you’re doing… it.”

“I was gonna say having a meeting,” Lincoln blushed as he held open the door and they walked into the office, mortified that Charlie thought he’d divulge that kind of information. "About the case.”

“Right, of course," Charlie said almost apologetically, forgetting how different the two Lincoln's were now they looked so similar. "So what have we got?”

“Fire,” Erikson confirmed, as Charlie took the file from Lincoln and began swiping through the images of severely charred bodies. "As we touched on a few days ago when Senator Dunkley brought this to our attention. Three women, all members of congress burned alive in the past six months, with no evidence left at the crime scene. The last victim went up in flames while at a park with her partner who had to watch helplessly as she went up in smoke.”

“Political rioters?” Charlie ventured. “All these people being released from amber after so many years is causing a lot of discontent in the general public.”

“We thought that might be it too until we saw this,” Lincoln added, swiping through the file in Charlie’s hands until he reached a photograph of a handwritten note. "The local PD found this at one of the victim’s homes, it seems the suspect might be sending love letters to his victims' partners.”

“There’s been a development since then,” Erikson said, reaching into his desk drawer to pull out a torn piece of paper sealed in a clear evidence bag and passing it over to the other men. "This was received by the husband of The Honorable Samantha Stroud a month ago, who is a congresswoman in the House of Representatives. He didn’t mention it to her until they narrowly escaped a fire that burned their house to the ground yesterday.”

“Why wouldn’t he tell her?” Lincoln replied, comparing the note with the one on the screen. They were almost identical, written in the same graphite scrawl, gray smudges of carbon tarnishing the paper with one perforated edge where it had been hurriedly torn from a pad.

“Her husband is tv actor Arnold Grant," Charlie noted, still scanning through the documents.

Lincoln raised his eyebrows in a puzzled expression, turning from Charlie to Erikson. "Should I know who--"

"Their marriage is a favorite topic of the paparazzi, and has been plagued with rumors that he has a string of affairs, not exactly good press for the clean-cut wholesome congresswoman but all kept quiet thanks to a list of NDAs as long as your arm. Agent Dunham and Farnsworth are collecting them and their child so we can keep them safe until we catch the culprit," Erikson added matter-of-factly, before dismissing the two men from his office.

Lincoln turned to Charlie, holding up the love letters as they headed back down to the rotunda and they glanced at each other with the same look of intrigue and concern.

"I'm gonna run this through forensics, see if they can tell us anything about who wrote this and their state of mind. Make sure it's definitely a match and not a copycat or coincidence." 

"Good idea. We can speak to the other victim's families when you get back, see if they received a note too or have any info that might help us catch who's responsible," Charlie replied gruffly, his lips twisting up into a smile. "First day back and I’m on a glorified bodyguard duty for a celebrity power couple, never thought I'd see the day!"

Chapter Text

Driving through the crowded Manhatan streets, Astrid and Olivia glanced in the rear view mirror at the familiar faces of the couple and their child in the backseat of the car behind them. Even though Olivia had no interest in celebrity gossip magazines, she had been unable to avoid seeing their faces in the moving front pages of the tabloid newspapers sold on every street corner and supermarket, and to have two of the most well-known faces in the country in her car and be responsible for their safety felt surreal.

Their relationship had been spun as a fairy tale romance and the all-American dream by the press, with Arnold's conventionally handsome good looks; square jawline, thick dark hair, striking turquoise eyes and tall, broad shouldered, muscular physique and Samantha's delicate features, petite frame, blonde bob and gray, soulful eyes. Although indifferent to celebrity gossip, looking at them Olivia could understand why they’d become the public’s newest obsession, especially as he was also the only heir and offspring of an 80s Hollywood royalty couple and she'd come from a working class background to become of the most admired and respected members of congress.

As their car approached the Fringe HQ, they turned the corner to be met by the familiar throng of amber protesters on the street outside the building. The sea of faces and voices buzzed with a new level of excitement until their banners and signs behind the cordoned area gave way to reporters and fans holding zoom lens cameras, movie posters and autograph books.

“How did they know and get here so quickly?” Olivia asked rhetorically, frowning and honking the horn to pass through the dawdling people obstructing the drive to the underground parking lot.

"Good news travels fast," Grant muttered sarcastically under his breath.

Ushering in her passengers from the car, Olivia and Astrid walked them to an empty waiting room that was small but private and furnished with sofas. “Just wait here, I need to get details of where we need to take you. There's vending machines and restrooms across the hall if you need them.” 

Closing the door behind them, they returned to the central rotunda office to join Charlie who was hunched over a screen, looking through the case details.

“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked, looking up from the screen as they approached him, noting their furrowed brows.

“Ugh, fine. It’s already a circus out there, and if the press gets wind of the fact their house fire wasn't an accident, it’s only gonna get worse,” Olivia sighed, slumping down in the opposite stool and shirking off her leather jacket to cool herself down. “So - what do we know so far?”

“Well, crime labs couldn’t find anything conclusive at the scene of the fires, no evidence of the source of the fire or what was used to ignite it, just traces of magnesium,” Charlie replied, scrolling through the information on screen. “And it was hot. Really hot. They reckon from the extent of the damage the temp could have hit seven thousand degrees Fahrenheit, too hot to be hosed down with water.”

“Really?” She winced, “How’s that?”

“Because the reaction is so intense that the hydrogen and oxygen in water splits and adds fuel to the fire,” Astrid added quietly, straightening up when Olivia and Charlie looked at her impressed. “Magnesium is a by-product of aliphatic pyrolysis, the residue left after an exothermic reaction.”

Olivia huffed, tapping the surface impatiently. “Right, well once Erikson sends me the details of where we need to take - oh!” She gasped as a hand unexpectedly curled around her waist, pulling her towards a familiar firm body, the warm fingers trailing protectively down her spine to the small of her back, stopping just above the waistband of her cargo pants and burning her skin through the thin fabric of her clothing in a brief hug. “Hey!”

“Hey,” Lincoln smiled coyly at Olivia, glancing at her sideways as he joined the group. She looked up at him, casually standing next to where she sat, still possessively holding his hand against her back while he turned his attention to Astrid and Charlie. “I just got back from forensics, they’re gonna analyze the notes but the preliminary findings suggest they have traces of highly refined kerosene mixed with liquid oxygen - that’s rocket fuel to us.”

“I guess that definitely rules out spontaneous combustion then,” Charlie said jokingly as he stood, oblivious to the movement of Lincoln's hand and the reaction happening within Olivia at the teasingly soft strokes he marked on her skin through her T-shirt. She could feel his warmth of his skin spreading like a contagion over her, causing heat to begin to simmer in her core and her pulse quicken. "We should speak to the other victim's families like we said while we wait for news.”

"Sure, see you soon, Liv," he replied, squeezing her hand briefly before jogging after Charlie who had already begun to leave. Olivia blinked repeatedly, watching the back of the two men as they left, and gulped thickly.

"Agent Dunham, are you feeling okay?" Astrid asked, her deep brown eyes wide with concern, pulling Olivia out of her trance.

"I, uh, yes," Olivia stuttered breathily, clearing her throat. Something about the way Lincoln had stroked her back while appearing so indifferent in front of everyone was so unusually sensual and titillating. It felt incredibly intentionally erotic and left her body aching for more. She felt the double warmth of arousal and embarrassment rise up and stain her cheeks and she forced herself out of drifting into an inappropriate thought. "Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

“You look hot, do you feel ill? If you have a fever you should go to sick bay to be tested for --”

“I’m fine, honestly,” Olivia interrupted, standing quickly to avoid the conversation before Astrid began to suspect anything else or asked more questions. “I’m gonna see if Erikson’s got the details for the safe house yet and check on our visitors. I’ll be right back.”

***

“Okay, this is the apartment of victim number two,” Lincoln said to Charlie as he parked their car in an average looking street, and they walked towards a five storey brick apartment block. "Hopefully her partner will be a bit more useful than the one we just visited.”

They'd called at his work address, only to be met with blunt answers and a defensive posture to the extent that they were confident he would've had them escorted from the building if he could. It made them suspect he was hiding something, they just didn't know what.

“He can’t be any worse!” Charlie huffed as a tall, bleary-eyed man opened the front door of the apartment. Gesturing to himself and Lincoln with the badge in his hand, Charlie continued. “Are you Mr Parker? We’re Agents Lee and Francis with Fringe Division. We'd like to ask you some questions about the circumstances surrounding your partner’s death. May we come in?

He nodded, letting the agents through and closing the door behind them, guiding them through to the living room. Lincoln observed the man's appearance as he cleared a space for them to sit down on the messy sofa. Underneath the unkempt hair and stubble, he reminded Lincoln of Robert, with his dark brown hair and green eyes - he looked like he could be a model, if it weren't for the puffy red eyes and disheveled appearance that matched the cluttered state of the room. Charlie subtly covered his nose and mouth to dampen the stench of stale sweat, alcohol, cigarettes and greasy food that hung like a stagnant cloud in the air of the dingy room as they entered.

"Sorry for the mess,” he muttered apologetically in a slurring voice. Watching him take the empty boxes of take-out encrusted with oily leftovers and beer bottles away and shoving them hurriedly into an overflowing trash can, an expression somewhere between pity and disgust flashed over Charlie’s face. But Lincoln recognised hole of despair, he knew where this man was, knew the pain of it all too well, and he smiled sympathetically at the man who was a shell of the person in the photographs strewn across the coffee table. The man walked back towards the two Fringe agents, pausing as if struck by a sudden thought. "So what do you want to know?”

“No problem,” Lincoln replied sympathetically and smiled politely, shifting on his seat. “Mr Parker, all I can say is we’re investigating a series of deaths that we feel might be connected to the accident. Did you receive any unusual letters or post in the months prior to the fire.”

“Call me Jesse, please. Letters?” He asked, his red-rimmed eyes blinked in confusion. “What kind of letters?”

“Handwritten and anonymous,” Charlie added with a sigh. "Oerhaps of a, uh, romantic nature.”

“You mean like a secret admirer?” Jesse frowned, his face darkening suddenly as he twisted the band on his finger, “No, I -- are you suggesting that someone killed Miranda out of jealousy?…” His voice trailed off when Lincoln and Charlie looked at each other.

“Sir, I know this must be very hard for you but if you have any information about any unusual activity that might help us, we would really appreciate your assistance in this matter," Lincoln said softly. "Even if it’s off the record and stays between us.”

“I haven't had any letters but a few months ago, my night school class got canceled so I went for a beer to watch the game, y’know…” Jesse rambled after a slight hesitation, pausing as Lincoln nodded in understanding. "It was only gonna be one beer.”

“Sure, go on,” Charlie prompted.

“Anyway this girl walked in while I was there, and she was, well, really hot.”

“What do you mean… like, sexy?” Charlie replied, frowning suspiciously at the man who, in contrast to the previous one they'd spoken to, was losing the battle with an inner turmoil.

“No, she looked… ordinary, like you wouldn’t even notice her in the street but she felt literally hot,” Jesse added. “She touched my arm at the bar and her skin was scorching. I thought it was gonna burn me but then I felt weird, dizzy, and then I couldn’t resist her, like she made me want her… Anyway, the next thing I knew we were outside in the alley and if we hadn’t got disturbed by some homeless folk, then we would've... You gotta believe me, I didn’t want to, I loved my wife. I didn't tell her in case she thought I was cheatin' on her.”

“-- I believe you.” Lincoln said sincerely and calmly, his voice soft and comforting as he pulled his pad from the inside pocket of his coat. Jesse hung his head, cradling his face in his palms and looked up surprised when Lincoln didn't scoff at his claim. “I know this must be hard for you, but can you tell us where this bar is and what she looked like? Do you have any idea where she might’ve gone?”

“I don’t really remember anything. I think the bar was called Jerry’s or Jersey’s, something like that. The only thing I remember was coming to hours later and throwing up in an alley with the local drunks and bums.”

“Don’t worry about it, thank you for your help,” Lincoln smiled, handing Jesse his card as the agents stood to leave. “If you think of anything else, give me a call.”

“You buying his story?” Charlie asked skeptically as they reached the car.

“It sounds like he might’ve been drugged,” Lincoln shrugged. "He seemed distressed and he had no reason to lie about it.”

“Unless he’s making up a cover story because he’s feeling guilty and knows he’ll be found out eventually,” Charlie replied matter-of-factly as they drove away. "So what’s next?”

Lincoln knew that could be a possibility, but something about the way Jesse spoke made him believe he was genuinely upset about not being able to remember what had happened.

“Let’s see if we can find the bar and if we can shed some light on our mystery woman,” Lincoln said decisively. "We haven’t got much else of a lead to go until we hear back from forensics.”

***

“This probably isn’t as luxurious as you’re used to,” Olivia smiled thinly to the couple, ushering them over the threshold of the modest and secluded home. "But it has some state-of-the-art tech; viral purging and air filtration, and you’ll be safe here. There’s only four of us who know where you are and that includes the security detail that are parked outside.”

“This is fine, thank you,” Samantha said sincerely, her gray eyes fluttering under the bangs of her honey blonde bob. She smiled back at Olivia and shrugged off the jacket of her designer pant suit. "As long as I have internet and electricity to work, the rest doesn’t matter. I appreciate your help.”

Opening up her leather case to retrieve her laptop, she placed it on the table while Arnold ushered their young son to the sofa, patting his mop of blond hair. He looked up at Olivia shyly, his big blue eyes wide and doe-like before turning to the television as it flickered into life.

“Call the number we gave you if you need anything, the agents outside will monitor for any unusual activity,” Olivia added before returning to Fringe HQ.

***

When she arrived back, Lincoln and Charlie were already there, discussing information about the case as they stood around the central podium.

“How’s it going?” She asked, her sleek auburn hair rising like flames as she jogged down the steps to join them.

“Oh hey!” Lincoln said simply, briefly squeezing her hand under the counter so no one noticed, trying to repress the flicker of a smirk that infectiously twitched at the corner of his mouth. “So we have good and bad news, what do you want first?”

“Hmmm, bad,” Olivia shrugged, easing herself onto a vacant stool.

“Bad news was the other two victim’s partners didn’t receive any declarations of love in the post --”

“-- Or they didn’t wanna tell us about it.” Charlie interrupted, making Lincoln nod in half-agreement. "But we did find... her.”

Charlie opened up a digital photo on the screen, a blurry screen capture of grainy black and white CCTV footage showing a petite, average looking dark haired woman sitting at what looked like a busy bar.

“Who is she?” Olivia asked, her eyebrows knotting with confusion.

“Currently unknown but we’re trying to get a match through facial rec,” Lincoln said, touching the man in the photo next to her. "This person sitting here is the partner of Miranda Parker, who informed us she approached him.”

“We need to run this by the other victim’s partners too, see if they can ID her from the surveillance footage,” Olivia added. "And put this out to local PD, maybe even the press.”

“We’re working on that,” Charlie replied in his usual gruff tone. "But his recollection of their encounter is patchy so Lincoln thinks he may have been drugged and if he was, the others could’ve been too - if she is responsible and this isn’t just a coincidence. Astrid, what did forensics find on those notes.”

“Some of the ascenders and descenders are heavier on the handwriting, but there is a ninety percent chance they were written by the same person,”  Astrid said, her eyes flickering as she read out the information. "And although we can’t distinguish their gender from their handwriting, from the wording and chemical analysis of the paper, there is a seventy-two percent chance the perpetrator is a woman. They also found traces of an unknown organic compound as well as traces of fuel on the paper.”

“Okay,” Charlie sighed. "Hopefully the FRS will get us a match soon before the paps connect the attacks to Grant and Stroud, otherwise it’ll be even more of a circus out there.”

“Sure,” Olivia smiled, standing up to leave with a decisive nod. "Let's see if any of the victim's partners can ID her while wait to see if there’s a match on the system.”

Olivia left the building shortly after with Lincoln, only to be met by the scattering crowd outside. Amongst the slowly dissipating throng of journalists and fans on the streets, the buzz dying down with the disappointment of not seeing their idols, revealed the face of a loner, her unremarkable face black and expressionless and her eyes dark with determination and resolution.

***

Later, Lincoln sighed in frustration and tugged at the tie around his neck as Olivia started the car engine.

“So of the remaining three victim’s partners, one is nowhere to be found and the other doesn’t recognize the suspect. Maybe Charlie was right and it was just a coincidence.”

“Well, she’s definitely real and whether the victims encountered her or not, or did and just don't remember, it was worth following up on the lead,” Olivia shrugged, touching his arm reassuringly. “Let’s go speak to our celebrity couple and see if they know anything--” she cut herself off abruptly as  the shrill noise of her ear cuff echoed in her ear. “Dunham.”

Despite the voice on the call being inaudible to Lincoln, he could tell it wasn’t good news. Olivia’s eyebrows knitted together as the voice continued their instructions and she looked at him sideways, shifting uncomfortably in the car's seat. 

“Sir, I don’t think this is a good…” she began to protest, only to be interrupted. “... but what if they -- Yes, sir. Understood, I’ll meet them there with Agent Lee within the hour.”

“Who was that?” he asked, his voice low with concern as Olivia ended the call and she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. 

“Erikson. FRS picked up a seventy-eight percent match for the woman in the bar to a Blake Ryan, who lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania - before she died in an explosion almost a year ago.”

“What!?” Lincoln exclaimed in an incredulous huff.

“It gets weirder,” Olivia sighed, noticing how Lincoln looked just as confused as she must have while on the call. “Apparently Astrid ran the name through the database, and she got a hit on a Show Me registered to someone of the same name who works for an elite personal assistant service used by people employed by the federal government, most notably --”

Lincoln interjected before Olivia could finish. “Members of congress?” 

“Yup, you guessed it.”

“W-we should get her address from Astrid, see if we can track her down,” he began, his eyes widening with panic as the car turned the corner and came to an abrupt stop in a traffic jam.

“Erikson’s already sent her and Charlie with a back-up unit to check it out, he wants us back at the safehouse I took our celebrity couple to earlier," she replied with a sigh, avoiding Lincoln’s inquiring gaze with the pretense of concentrating on the traffic.

“Why am I sensing there’s something more you’re not telling me?” Lincoln asked, shifting uneasily when Olivia sighed again. “Liv?”

“Because they’re contractually obliged to attend a red carpet premiere this evening, and Erikson wants us to chaperone them until the suspect is in custody.”

“Really?” he retorted, now understanding why Olivia’s tone had sounded so frustrated.

“Uh-huh," Olivia snorted in thinly veiled contempt. "I hope you have a bow tie!”

Chapter Text

“Linc?”

Olivia called out, standing at the hallway mirror while staring at her reflection and self-consciously fiddling with the silver embroidered straps to her long black dress that crossed over her shoulder blades. When she'd first begun working at Fringe Division, she'd worn dresses and skirts more frequently when not at work than she had before to balance out the uniform of combat pants and T-shirts, to help her feel more feminine even though she knew it was a ridiculous notion and most likely some version internalised misogyny. But when Frank had asked her why she was bothering to dress up and for whom when he was out of town, and told her repeatedly looked better in 'normal' clothes because dressing up would give the wrong impression, she'd eventually given them up altogether and donated most of them to goodwill. This was the first time she'd worn anything remotely dressy or glamorous since then with the exception of the DoD Christmas party and like that evening when she'd lied to Lincoln about being caught in traffic, she'd spent most of the time worrying about how she felt like a phony dressed that way. She called out again impatiently when Lincoln didn't answer. “Lincoln? You ready?”

“Yeah, I'm here...” Lincoln replied, walking out of the bathroom, the steamy air escaping behind him from having shaved away his two day old stubble. His voice trailed off and his eyes widened when he caught sight of Olivia in her floor length gown, her dark auburn hair falling in soft waves over her shoulders and her eye makeup smoky and dark under her long bangs. She caught his gaze in the mirror reflection as he gasped, blinking in disbelief. Everyday she took his breath away with her beauty - not to mention intelligence and humor - to the extent he had to pinch himself that he wasn't dreaming, but it was so unusual to see her not dressed in her usual Fringe uniform or casual wear, he actually consciously felt his jaw drop at how stunning she looked. The last time he'd seen Liv dressed in anything as glamorous as this was the DoD Christmas party but that was before they'd fully realized and admitted their feelings for each other, and that evening was a hazy memory thanks to Reynolds plying him with multiple glasses of whiskey as a show of welcoming gratitude that Lincoln had felt obliged to accept, being new and uninitiated in the team.

“Good.”

Liv's full lips, tinted with a deep berry pink lipstick, smirked into a knowing smile and she tipped up his jaw to close his mouth as her stood behind her and she turned to face him. Her hands drifted down to his collar, adjusting his bowtie as his hands snaked around her waist to hold himself steady, unable to resist touching her as if he couldn't believe she was real, let alone his partner and lover. She exhaled a little gasp as he quickly pulled her closer to him by her waist so their hips hit each other, and his eyes darkened as his gaze drifted to the silvery sequins that decorated the low neckline of her dress, showing a teasing glimpse of her cleavage. Liv had always had a soft spot for a gentleman in a good suit, but the black tie wear had unlocked a new level of desire in her and she found it irresistible. Combined with how his smooth, clean skin, hint of sandalwood cologne and the lingering feeling of how his illicit touch earlier in the office had ignited a new level of desire, she smiled coyly, gripping his shoulders as she looked up at his bashful blue eyes. "You look very dapper, like a secret agent."

“The name’s Lee, Lincoln Lee,” he replied jokingly, making her snort and playfully smack his chest. Shaking his head in disbelief with how incredible Liv looked, the words caught in his throat with their inadequacy to describe how amazing she looked. When Lincoln spoke again, his voice was dangerously low and husky. "And you look so… perfect."

He leaned in towards her so their breath mingled and lips almost touched, whining petulantly at the lack of contact as she strained to push away from his grasp, her hands flat against his firm chest.

"You'll smudge my lipstick," Olivia reluctantly protested, twisting her head back at an angle so the warm wet heat of his mouth planted featherlight kisses over the sensitive skin on her neck. "And we need to leave soon - ohhhh."

Lincoln angled his neck and bent his knees slightly so his warm lips could slowly move lower, gently brushing away the errant strands of her fiery hair to graze the protruding line of her collarbone with his tongue and down to the top of her cleavage, teasing the crease between her breasts. His fingertips were firm against her hips bones and then cupping the curve of her ass, gently rucking up the fabric underneath them to slowly access what was underneath. Liv could feel the heat of desire begin to pool inside her, she began to feel woozy and her legs wobbled, and the firmness of his arousal began to press against her lower stomach. She sighed, partly in desire, and partly in frustration because if she didn't stop now, neither of them would want to stop at all and she tugged at the collar of his jacket as a car horn honked outside. "Linc, we can’t…"

"You're right," Lincoln said begrudgingly but understandingly, playfully tapping Olivia’s pert ass as he released her from his grasp and smoothed down the front of his suit as the hem of her dress slinked back to her ankles.

"Hold that thought, we’ll resume this later," she smiled, grabbing her purse and his sunglasses as they left, and closing the door to their apartment behind them, driving away in the limousine that was waiting for them. They arrived at the event after picking up the couple en route, and Lincoln put on his sunglasses to protect his sensitive eyes from the flash photography and excited fans as they exited the car.

He leaned into her space slightly as they stood in the side lines. “Any more news from Charlie?” Lincoln asked, as Olivia joined him to link her arm in his while they scanned the crowd beyond the red carpet for anything unusual.

“Not yet,” Liv said, shaking her head as they walked twenty feet behind the couple who signed autographs for fans earnestly leaning across the barriers and holding movie paraphernalia. "He’s keeping surveillance on Blake Ryan’s apartment with Astrid to see if she returns, but it’s not looking hopeful, none of her neighbors have seen her around for months.”

“Have they put out a photo of her on a Fringe alert yet?” 

“No, the image you guys pulled from the bar’s cameras is too grainy so they’re trying to get a better image and confirm it definitely matches the one on the Show Me we have on file,” she replied, walking up the steps to the auditorium entrance with Lincoln behind their targets. "Then we can ask Grant and Stroud if they can ID her.”

***

The ground-floor apartment was small, having been converted from an old, detached house and was tidy, plain and unremarkable, with sparse furnishings and very few personal belongings.

“Not much to see here,” Charlie muttered, slamming the barren kitchen cabinet door shut, exasperated. He leaned over the counter, watching Astrid as she looked around the in the living room that let on from the kitchenette and she picked up a book from a small corner unit, thumbing through the pages on as a piece of paper tucked inside fell to the floor. “What’s that?”

Astrid bent over to pick up the item and stopped, frowning at a gap in the skirting behind the cupboard and following it to a scrape on the dusty wooden flooring that was partially obscured by rug tassels.

“Agent Francis, I think there’s something back here," she replied, kicking away the rug with her heavy utility boots and pushing the unit away from the wall when Charlie joined her to help, revealing a narrow concealed opening. They hunched over to get through the gap which led into a dark and cramped room, not much larger than a closet, lined with numerous metallic tins that were emblazoned with flammable symbols.

“Jackpot!” Charlie huffed, picking up a tin before hurriedly pulling Astrid back out into the living room, the realization wide in his eyes. “Go, now - get out of here!" He shouted, his gruff voice strained with panic. "The whole place could be rigged with the stuff, all it takes is one spark.” 

They ran out of the building and down the street towards the Fringe van parked by the curb sixty yards away, falling to the ground as the sudden and intense noise and heat of an explosion roared behind them, shattering glass that sprinkled over them like crystals that tinkled against the cars and sidewalk.

“You okay?” Charlie asked concerned, pushing himself up from his prone position, the sound of car and smoke alarms muffled in his ringing ears and the road’s asphalt rough under his hands as he kneeled back to pick up the tin of accelerant that had rolled to the side of the road.

“Yes. Thank you," Astrid replied politely, brushing the remnants of glass from her tight black curls as she rolled onto her back and handed him the photo. "I am not injured, I have minimal lacerations which appear to be superficial and will not require stitches." The tattered photograph, crumpled from her grip, unfurled to reveal a younger version of the Blake Ryan they’d seen earlier in the Show Me with a woman who looked almost identical to her, only without glasses and blonde hair, and a young, college age Arnold Grant.

“I’ll be damned,” Charlie huffed, scrambling to his feet, helping Astrid up. "We need to phone Olivia and let her and Lincoln know about this right away.”

***

Lincoln had walked the perimeter of the lobby and auditorium numerous times from his bird’s eye view via a mezzanine balcony floor and he jogged down the first floor via an ornate stairwell as Olivia exited through a set of double doors, the roars and explosions of the movie momentarily escaping before the door swung closed behind her.

“How’s it going?” Lincoln smirked as he sidled up to her in the lobby. The crystal chandelier glittered above them, causing little fractures of light to sparkle over their faces as they moved into each other's orbits and linked hands.

“I just watched our leading man narrowly escape being eaten various dinosaurs on the big screen,” Olivia snorted, looking around briefly to ensure they were alone before linking her arms around Lincoln’s neck. "But I’d rather be doing this.”

“Hmmm, me too,” he hummed approvingly, and gulped thickly as their cheeks brushed together while they looked over each other's shoulders for any unusual activity. Lincoln's hands slowly drifted to her hips as they swayed to the instrumental music that was piped through the lobby speakers. "It seems our fire starter won’t be making an appearance tonight.”

“Doesn’t mean there won’t be any sparks flying,” Olivia purred, her breath hot on his face before she moved in to press her lips against his mouth, stopping abruptly when she was merely millimeters away.

“Lipstick?”  Lincoln asked as Liv moved away reluctantly, shaking her head as her hand left his shoulder to answer the call on her ear cuff.

“Dunham, I-”

The deafening sound of the smoke alarm suddenly interrupted her call and their embrace, making them both jump away from each other, startled. The shrill siren filled their ears, making the call completely inaudible and they barely had time to look at each other before the door behind them flew back on its hinges with the force of the frantic herd of people pushing quickly towards the exit. Lincoln's and Olivia's voices drowned under the panicked chatter and incessant wailing horn as the acrid scent of smoke filled the air. She called out again, her voice strained and screeching with the exertion of trying to talk over the deafening noise and met Lincoln’s wide-eyes while trying to push towards him through the sea of people that pulled them apart with each swell of the crowd’s movement. “I can’t see Stroud or Grant, we gotta find them!” 

He nodded in agreement, mirroring Olivia’s movements and shoving his way against the flow of the throng rippling towards the main door to try and find them, pushing his face into the crook of his arm before the smoke stung his eyes and lungs.  

Crouching down and partially crawling to avoid the cloud of gray smoke that leaked through the crack in between the double doors that connected the lobby to the theater, he shrugged off his suit jacket to cool down and cover his face, calling out again while sensibly pulling a fire extinguisher from the wall and tentatively pushing against one of the swing doors with his shoulder. “Liv? LIV?”

“I’m here, I got your back,” Olivia replied behind him, retrieving her handgun from her thigh holster concealed under her dress and pushing the other door with her other hand. "Ready?”

He nodded once in reply, pursing his lips in determination and pausing for a moment to take a deep breath. “Ready.” 

***

“I’ve tried three times and I still can’t get through to Liv or Lincoln,” Charlie huffed to Astrid in the back of the Fringe van as it dodged through the Manhatan traffic towards the theater. "Something must be wrong.”

Astrid stared at the information flickering on her hand-held tablet screen as she counter-balanced herself against the sudden motion of the truck speeding around a corner and frowned.

“Using the information provided by the previous victims, there is a seventy-two percent probability that Blake Ryan is there to target Ms Stroud, however…” she trailed off, her dark eyes widening momentarily before she frowned, her eyebrows knitting together in concentration.

“However?” Charlie asked gruffly, raising an eyebrow in concern at her stretched out pause. “What do you mean by ‘however’?”

“Her twin is an unknown variant I did not factor into the equation before,” she continued, rubbing her fingertips together and raising her gaze but still not fully meeting Charlie’s worried look. "Therefore I am unable to predict with certainty what her - or their - next move may be.”

The van shuddered to a sudden stop, and they opened the back doors, stepping out onto the sidewalk to be met by the chatter of a dense crowd congregating behind an emergency services cordon and a collection of fire trucks as smoke poured from a window and infected the sky with cloudy swirls of anthracite.

“I guess that answers your question,” he huffed, holding up his I.D as they approached the fire officers behind the barrier of the crowd. 

***

The smoke cleared slightly as Olivia and Lincoln approached the theater stage in parallel aisles, stepping down the slope past the row of seats towards the two figures huddled together on the floor as coppery flames slithered up the side drapes, crackling under the duress of the relentless fiery heat that was resistant to the water spraying from the overhead sprinklers.

“I don’t know what happened, they just suddenly burst into flames in front of us!” Samantha cried out, cowering and trapped behind the hot wall of orange fire that licked around them. Arnold was slumped, barely conscious and wrapped in her arms, and their wet faces were smudged with sooty black marks.

“We need to get you out of here - now,” Olivia said, her voice strained with smoke and urgency. She holstered her weapon as Lincoln directed the fire extinguisher at the base of the fire, covering the floor with enough white foam to give them a momentary window to escape before the fire regained it's strength. "Emergency services will be on their way soon.”

Sparkling embers danced through the air like fireflies as the two women pulled Arnold to his feet, dragging him through the dampened line of fire, assisted by Lincoln once he’d discarded the spent extinguisher. He could feel droplets of water and sweat pooling on his brow and spine, so the thin material of his shirt clung to his skin before evaporating with the heat. They stumbled up the aisle, following Lincoln as he guided them through the seats obscured by the dark and smoke towards the doors until he stopped abruptly just a few feet away from the exit.

“There’s someone else here - I can’t see who,” he called back, squinting in the hazy atmosphere of the room as he made out the shape of a diminutive silhouette in the shadows of the air rippling with heat.

“What?! I thought everyone got out, I --'' Olivia replied, her voice trailing away as the person stepped forward to slightly reveal their face, their eyes glittering in the dark.

“Sorry, you can’t exit here,” the woman's voice interrupted before Olivia could finish. "But you look like you need to be … enlightened. Allow me.”

A sudden glowing ball of fire bulged up and drifted up from her palm then hung in the air, spinning and undulating like a miniature sun that orbited around her outstretched hand.

"Get back,” Lincoln warned, protectively stretching his arms out to his side to push the three others behind him backwards down the aisle.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you," she smirked sarcastically, moving further towards them as Olivia reached for her weapon again, molding the glowing orb with the movement of her hands and making it precariously hover over their heads. "Or you might experience a real… baptism of fire ."

Blake laughed mockingly, pushing the fiery globe up over Samantha. Olivia and Lincoln watched it descend towards her in the air, flinching just before it made contact, only to watch in disbelief as it stopped abruptly just above her head as her hands reached to deflect it. 

"Get out of my way, Blake!" Samantha shouted back, holding the ball in the air as it rotated as if suspended like a heated disco ball.

"We won't let you hurt her like the other victims," Olivia added defensively, stepping beside Lincoln and in front of the couple as Arnold slumped back down to the floor. The bangs of her auburn hair, damp with sweat and water from the sprinklers clung annoyingly to her face, and she pushed them away, blinking away the stinging tears in her eyes that had smudged her mascara and eyeshadow, darkening her eyes. "This ends here, let her go."

"Why would I hurt her?!" Blake screamed, as the frown on Lincoln’s face slowly morphed into a look of realization when he turned in Samantha's direction. "She’s my sister! She is the one responsible and I'm just here to stop her."

Chapter Text

"This probably isn’t as luxurious as you’re used to,” Olivia said as she turned to Samantha, “but it has some state-of-the-art tech; viral purging and air filtration, and you’ll be safe here. There’s only four of us who know where you are and that includes the security detail that are parked outside.”

“This is fine, thank you,” Samantha replied, “as long as I have internet and electricity to work, the rest doesn’t matter. I appreciate your help.”

Opening up her leather case to retrieve her laptop, she placed it on the table and a pile of handwritten notes fell out, scattering to the floor like autumn leaves. Olivia reached down to helpfully pick them up, glancing briefly at their indecipherable scribbles before they were snatched from her hands by Samantha who shoved them back into the case and out of Olivia’s sight.

***

“Blake, stop! You can’t lie your way out of this anymore!” Samantha cried out as Olivia and Lincoln tentatively straightened up from cowering from the white hot glowing ball. Their sodden faces followed its movements, their eyes wide with astonishment and realization that Samantha was controlling it, and how similar the two women looked. 

Looking at them both in close proximity, with their slight petite frames and delicate features, it seemed an obvious detail the Fringe team had overlooked even though Blake had longer, darker hair, and concealed her face with glasses and body with baggy clothing that was dull and dowdy compared to Samantha’s glamorous outfits and designer stiletto heels. Lincoln knew how easy it was to disguise yourself as your double, and how a simple change in hair style, clothing or accessories was enough to trick most people and felt foolish for not noticing the resemblance between the two women before.  

Samantha motioned the gyrating incandescent orb further upwards towards the elaborately decorated ceiling with an invisible force where it slowly dissipated, and she looked past the agents and Arnold to her sister. “You’ve always been jealous of me. Jealous I’d made something of my life, jealous of my marriage because you were left behind! I even helped you get an apartment and a job, and this is how you thank me? It stops right now, right here.”

“We both know you did that because you felt guilty for starting that fire!” Blake spat, her face reddening with anger and embarrassment. Beads of sweat dripped down her flushed skin and evaporated with the heat. "Why would I be jealous of your fake marriage? You’re the one who was jealous.”

Samantha sneered, rubbing the damp soot from her face and scoffed mockingly as she stepped up past Lincoln and Olivia to confront Blake, shrugging off their attempts to hold her back. “Jealous of you? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“No. Jealous of his lovers that he wanted more than you. Your marriage was a sham - nothing more than a PR stunt to improve his reputation and your career,” Blake retorted. “You can try to bury the truth all you want, but we both know you killed those women because you found out he’d rather be with them than you.”

“Shut up!” Samantha screamed manically, as if Blake’s words had chipped away at the crumbling walls of the façade she’d maintained for the last few years. “I don’t care about them! They deserved it. He loved me. ME!”

Olivia’s eyes widened at the words between the exchange of words between the women, and she nudged Lincoln to help her pull the almost unconscious Arnold to his feet, stepping out of the crossfire between the two identical women as they squared up and glared at each other aggressively like two apex predators. Olivia slowly removed her gun from under her dress and pointed it at them, the click of her cocking the hammer punctuating the air while they were distracted with mirroring each other’s postures.

“Put your hands where I can them - both of you!” she demanded, stepping backwards towards the door and holding up Arnold with Lincoln with her other hand who wrapped his arms over their shoulders, his head slumped down in both defeat and exhaustion.

“Liv?” Lincoln croaked over the sound of the wailing alarm and crackling fire, blinking and frowning in confusion. His eyes stung from the poor light and smoky atmosphere and he rubbed his face with the crook of his elbow of his free arm. It left a black smudge on the white fabric as it wiped away the mask of soot from his face that was damp with water, tears and sweat to reveal a look of growing panic. He searched Olivia’s face and coughed to clear his throat again, his voice low with a warning. "What are you doing?"

“You should listen to him," Samantha mocked, before Olivia could answer, but held up her hands regardless which, like Blake’s, smoldered as tiny flames glittered harmlessly over her fingertips. “Do you really think I’d set myself on fire twice just to frame her?”

“No… ” Olivia replied raspily between increasingly harsh coughs as Samantha turned to Blake and smiled smugly, “... at least not on purpose. Maybe you can't control it and you literally explode when you're emotional. Maybe discovering his affairs made you fly into an uncontrollable rage that triggered your ability. Or maybe you staged all of this to cover your own tracks so we’d automatically assume you were a victim and not the suspect."

"Right, right, that's brilliant," Samantha retorted sarcastically and nodded, rolling her eyes as she turned back to Olivia. Tiny balls of fire drifted away from her fingertips like bubbles and merged in the air like mercury, pulsating and growing in size until they were an orb the size of a golf ball, then a baseball, then a basketball. "Or maybe you're insane and I'm a victim in all this."

“She’s right.”

Olivia shook her head unconvinced as Lincoln looked down at Arnold slumped between them, who wearily raised his head and coughed out a few wheezy breaths before speaking again. “It's Sam, she said ‘loved’, not love. I'm sorry I -” 

The gun in Olivia’s hand fell to the floor as she dropped it, glowing red hot like a burning ember and it singed the plush carpet with its heat. She cried out, inspecting the burn on her palms before jumping back in shock at the sound of the ceiling suddenly groaning in pressure as it lost its integrity to the persistent flames, announcing its defeat with a crash of a wooden beams and plaster that hit the rows of seats nearby and covered them with a blanket of snowy dust.

The door suddenly swung open, breaking the stand-off and causing them to turn around and flinch in surprise with the burst of light that streamed through the open doorway. Silhouettes of two figures appeared, their faces almost obscured by portable masks and the taller one wielded a large hand-held extinguisher that they pointed at the sisters, while the other person pointed a weapon in their direction.

“Charlie? Astrid?” Olivia exclaimed through coughs, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light. “It’s Samantha.”

“We know, get out now, this shit is toxic!” Charlie replied, kicking the swinging door open so Olivia and Lincoln could pull Arnold out of the room to safety, and then triggered a powerful jet stream of gas directed at the sisters, covering them and knocking them to their feet and dampening the wall of flames that was quickly spreading across the room towards them.

MedEvac staff decorated with the glowing reflection of dancing blue and red lights from the awaiting vehicles outside dragged Olivia, Lincoln and Arnold through the building's lobby doors as they collapsed to the floor on their hands and knees to desperately gasp mouthfuls of air, replaced with a team of masked firefighters in protective gear took their place who began flooding the building with jets of gas to subdue the fire. Fitting oxygen masks over their blackened faces when they reached the row of ambulances standing by, a team of medics pushed Lincoln and Olivia onto gurneys in one ambulance, and Arnold in another and drove away. Reaching across the gap between the two gurneys and medics, Olivia linked her fingers with Lincoln’s hand that flopped limply to his side the last thing she saw before she succumbed to the void of unconsciousness was his passed out body relenting to the effects of the fire.

***

EARLIER.

Olivia walked into the Fringe HQ rotunda and spied Lincoln and Charlie stood around the central podium, their body language animated while discussing the case. She turned to the glass doors of the side office, her knuckles knocking the transparent surface as she entered. 

"Sir?"

"Dunham?" Erikson replied, looking up from his desk. "Have you taken the targets to the safe house?"

"Yes sir," Olivia nodded, uneasily shifting on her feet like a diver pausing for breath before leaping off a 30 foot diving board.

"Is there anything else?" he added, his gray eyebrows raising expectedly as she hesitated.

"Sir, I -" she cleared her throat and stepped forward again. "I have a hunch Samantha isn't a target. I think she might be responsible."

Erikson’s arms crossed defensively as his eyebrows moved from being raised to knotted with disbelief. "I hope you have more proof than just a hunch, Agent."

"Stroud had some handwritten letters in her carry case when I took her to the safe house and I want to compare them to what I saw -"

"Writing letters, although uncommon, is not a crime, Agent Dunham," Erikson interrupted skeptically. "How sure are you that they were a match?"

"Honestly, I dunno," Olivia sighed in frustration. "Can I have a look at the ones the victim's partners received and compare them?"

He sighed, then leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hand over his graying stubble and planes of his high cheekbones. "They're still with forensics - see if Farnsworth has received anything back from them and come back and let me know if it matches anything you saw."

She nodded in acceptance at the compromise and jogged down the steps to join the others.

“How’s it going?

“Oh hey!” Lincoln said simply, briefly squeezing her hand under the counter so no one noticed, trying to repress the flicker of a smirk that infectiously twitched at the corner of his mouth. “So we have good and bad news, what do you want first?”

***

Olivia hurriedly blinked away the shadows as she adjusted to the bright white hospital lights and coughed hard, her lungs straining to cling onto the pure oxygen being pumped into her damaged airways. Eventually the silhouetted figure sitting on the edge of the hospital bed next to hers through a parted nylon curtain came into focus. Their face was partly obscured by a mask but she could still recognise the relief in Lincoln’s concealed smile and she grinned in reply, despite feeling exhausted and light-headed. 

"Charlie and Astrid!" She gasped suddenly, jolting upwards with concern as the last memory came flooding back. Lincoln leapt up from his bed to retrain Olivia as she began coughing again, hyperventilating with such force it assisted him with stopping her, and she slumped back into the starched white sheets.

"They're fine, they’re fine - they were discharged earlier before you woke up," Lincoln explained reassuringly as her cough receded and breathing settled. Olivia nodded appreciatively as he sat on the edge of her bed and patiently waited for her to catch her breath, replacing the cotton blanket over her legs that she'd kicked off. "They subdued Samantha and Blake with specialist halon extinguishers. It was touch and go for a while due to the toxic fumes but they’re expected to recover too. Secretary Bishop wants to study them to find out how they developed their ability of both controlling fire and being impervious to it. "

"What about Arnold? Is he okay?” Olivia asked raspily, removing her mask to sip the glass of water Lincoln decanted from the pitcher on the nightstand. 

“Apart from his pride and reputation, he seems okay. I’m sure his PR team will sweep it all under the rug. We all have to stay in for a day or two for observation due to the smoke inhalation.”

She passed him back the glass and laid back, sighing in relief and fiddled with the white gauze bandage tightly wrapped around her right hand. He leaned in to speak again, his voice a hoarse whisper. "How did you know it was Samantha? FRS matched Blake on the CCTV with Jesse Parker.” 

“Facial rec wasn’t a 100% match, all Samantha would’ve had to do is wear glasses and change her hair and clothes to disguise herself and pass herself off as Blake, just like we did when we pretended to be our doubles," she shrugged, distracting herself from the accusatory look of discomfort that momentarily registered in Lincoln’s eyes at her admission by watching the swirling water in the plastic beaker.

When she’d gone to the other side and pretended to be their Olivia, it was before this version of Lincoln had joined their Fringe Division and she often wondered if things might have turned out differently for them both, and her mission, if he had met their team earlier and had been there then. On more than one occasion she’d almost been found out by Walter and risked the mission until she exploited his vulnerable and gullible naivety. She’d disguised the guilt she felt of betraying Walter’s trust, lying to Lincoln and Charlie from her universe and pretending to be her double behind the mask of her smile, her tried and tested method of defense that few people were able to see through.

The night before Olivia had returned home, she’d glimpsed her sister and the family she never knew and a rainbow decorating the unblemished sky, and for a moment she wished the switch could be permanent. Then she remembered in this universe her mom had died, Charlie had been murdered and Lincoln wasn’t around and was unaware that she, or any of this, existed. Without them, she understood why their Olivia found it hard to smile - she felt empty, because her life was too, without them. Not only were they her reason to smile but the only ones who saw past it when it was fake.

She cleared her throat, daring herself to meet Lincoln’s gaze and the hospital bed creaked as he shifted while sitting. “If she found out about Arnold’s affair with Miranda Parker, she could have followed Jesse to that bar and drugged him, for revenge or for information.”

Lincoln nodded in understanding. It had been pretty easy to assume the other Lincoln’s identity when he had traveled with Peter through the portal Walter had made, yet something about it had made him feel uncomfortable. Perhaps it was the way people had treated him when he gave the impression of confidence and being self-assured. 

He blinked again, pushing away the memory of the moment when he first began to realize that this universe felt more like home there than any of the other places he'd floated to in his life. “What about the letters?” he added, scratching the irritated skin under his mask. "Arnold received that anonymous letter but so did one of the other victims. Why would she do that?”

"They were a red herring to try and throw us off the scent. All of this was orchestrated by her." Lincoln twisted around as Erikson spoke in the doorway behind him, pulling up the chair to sit between the beds. "There were others stashed in her possession that you assumed she planned to plant at the other victim's homes before you discovered them. Isn’t that right, Dunham?"

***

Olivia had answered her ear cuff when she'd arrived at the event with Lincoln as they watched Arnold and Samantha talk to the crowd.

"Dunham."

"Farnsworth and Francis are investigating Ryan's apartment and the security team on surveillance at the safe house have checked it while it is vacant." Erikson’s voice said over the crackle of feedback and excited voices as he continued warily. "They have found no trace of any handwritten letters but there was a smudge of ash in the kitchen sink, so it is advised you keep a close eye on Samantha as a precaution until we can put out a Fringe alert."

***

"I thought it was odd she was so calm about having her life threatened, but when I saw the stash of letters in her bag, I thought it was too much of a strange coincidence, no one uses pens and paper or writes letters anymore,” Olivia replied.

“She might have destroyed her copies but analytics have matched the handwriting on the ones the victims received to autographs she signed for fans, so it seems you were correct, Agent,” Erikson added as he stood and turned to leave. “Good work. Get some rest, we’ll see you both back at work in a couple of days.”

“Thank you sir,” Olivia nodded and coughed wheezily then smiled, gently brushing the hospital gown on Lincoln’s knee with her uninjured hand. “Not quite as glamorous as what we were wearing earlier.” 

“I still think you look hot,”  Lincoln smirked in reply as he leaned forward towards her. He chuckled breathlessly which turned into a cough until he caught his breath. “You’re no match for me, I didn’t pick up on her at all.” 

“Maybe it was her claim to flame," she snorted, making Lincoln grin and shake his head at the pun as he returned to his bed next to hers.

“I guess it wasn’t the flarey-tale ending she was hoping for,” he sniggered, laying down on the starched sheets as their laughter died down and the only sound was the periodic beeping of the hospital machinery and distant chatter in the halls.

“Lincoln?” Olivia asked one their giggles disappeared into silence, her voice solemn compared to how they’d spoken a moment before, unable to hold in the question that had been niggling in her mind like a thorn.

“Yeah?”

“If you had been in your universe's Fringe Division when I was pretending to be her, would you have known it was me and not her? Could you tell the difference?”

The silence stretched out between them, loud with the pounding of their hearts and possibilities of what could have been if their lives and situations had been different. It was an impossible question that no one really could know the answer to but it was still a thought that resurfaced in her thought, despite her telling herself it didn't matter. “Forget it, it doesn’t matter -”

“-- Maybe.” Lincoln’s voice was small and uncertain, and as she turned to her side Olivia could see his silhouette shift behind the curtain. He cleared his throat and spoke again. “I’d like to think so but I don’t know. Probably. It depends.”

“On what?”

“If I knew there were two versions of you then. And if you acted like her, that would make it harder for me to tell, I guess. I don’t think there would be any doubt now though.”

“No? Why not?” 

“Your eyes," Lincoln swallowed thickly, and blinked, sitting up on his elbow to look back at her as she parted the curtain and stood between their beds. “They’re almost the same. The same shape and almost the same shade of hazel that looks dark green in certain light, except… the way she looked at me and the way you look at me are completely different. I think I could tell you apart from a million other Olivias now because yours have one thing hers never had when you both look at me.” Olivia frowned as Lincoln coughed again, licking his dry lips and gulped.

"Love."

Chapter Text

Even when they’d been cleared for work by the Fringe medical team, Lincoln still insisted on doing all the driving until the burns on her hand had fully healed, despite Olivia’s insistence that the injury wasn’t painful and had almost healed. At first she’d appreciated the slower pace of work they'd been given, but by the end of the week the combination of the mundane tasks and wet weather was making her increasingly frustrated. They’d been given the assignment of taking atmospheric readings and witness reports after alarms in obsolete systems had picked up degradation that signaled a possible breach and start of a vortex, and split up into two groups to save time, with Charlie and Astrid covering half the workload on other sites.

The penultimate site was a rural area in Pennsylvania, and when they'd finished, Olivia determinedly jogged ahead of Lincoln to the car and opened the door, sitting on the driver’s side. Starting the engine with her Show Me before he could protest, the sky behind him darkened, the anthracite clouds hanging menacingly in sky over the horizon.

“I’m driving,” Olivia said quickly before he could speak, more abruptly than she intended. She looked at the dashboard display to avoid the flicker of hurt that flashed across Lincoln’s face as he leaned between the open door and the car. As his lips moved without words, knowing her stubborn nature meant arguing would be futile, he sighed.

“Liv…” 

“I'm capable of driving, I don't need you fussing over me,” she snapped, looking at the heavy sky that was as gray as his eyes that she refused to meet. "So you can either sit down or walk.”

Shrugging in defeat, he slammed the door shut and walked to the back of the car. She could feel her heart sink when, for a moment, the possibility crossed her mind that he was walking away until she remembered he was carrying the kit they’d used to monitor the atmospheric readings and he opened the trunk, carefully placing the large black box inside before lowering the door and obediently sat down beside her.

The short drive to the final site seemed to last for hours to Olivia as Lincoln was uncharacteristically silent for the whole journey, and only spoke when Olivia asked him to check directions on the navigation system. When they finally arrived at the coordinates, which was a huge sodden field with nothing else as far as the eye could see in all directions, the taut rope of her patience finally snapped. Frank had given her the silent treatment too many times when he was too indifferent or didn't want to be fully passive-aggressive when they were together in public, and the similarity grated against her already fraying rope of her composure. 

“Looks like we’re here,” Olivia announced, unbuckling her seatbelt and turning off the engine at the same as hefty raindrops began to hit the windshield, trapping them in the car and adding to the waterlogged pasture. She held out her hand for Lincoln to inspect it, withdrawing it when he barely looked in her direction. "And my hand feels fine, so you can stop sulking.”

Dense raindrops distorted the glass when the wipers stopped, making the scenery outside morph into an impressionist work of art with blobs of gray, brown and green dripping down the impermeable glass canvas of the windscreen. Waiting for Lincoln to reply and for the rain to stop, Olivia sighed as he shifted in his seat before speaking, his voice low and soft. He'd seen her wince in pain a few times when she moved, despite her insistence, and knew it was due to independence and her reluctance to rely on anyone so decided not to mention it.

He turned to look at her then, his eyes stormy gray and watery like the sky and his mouth a thin, straight line. “I’m not sulking, I was thinking.” 

Pouting her full lips expectedly, ignoring the sense of dread that hung like a thundercloud between them, she raised her eyebrows and shrugged slightly. “Thinking about what?” 

“Thinking about us. And what to say, and do, I guess,” Lincoln said slowly and sniffed, smoothing down his tie. He knew her knee-jerk reaction wasn't personal and he tried not to take it that way, but it was his own innate reaction to feel rejected and unwanted like so many times before. That wasn’t her fault either but after having no one to care for and care about him for so long, looking after and helping Olivia was the way he expressed his love for her. The lingering memory of loneliness stuck at the back of his throat and he gulped it down, the taste bitter on his tongue. “I know better than anyone what hyper independence is, Liv. I know it’s easier to reject help and be alone because it’s better than being hurt because everyone leaves but I told you, I’m not going anywhere.” 

Olivia nodded silently, her deep forest green eyes wide with shame that she’d forgotten he knew how it felt to feel alone in the world. Suddenly, the thought of him leaving or her being alone without him struck her like a thunderbolt.

“You say that, but I’ve already nearly lost you…” she choked, her mouth twisting as she fought the memories that threatened to manifest into tears again, tears he hadn’t seen while he’d laid motionless and unconscious in the hospital, his face and chest wrapped in layers of bandages.

There had been more nights that he’d ever know and she'd ever admit to, when she would wake slumped against his bed in the middle of the night in the shadows of his hospital room after falling asleep with only the incessant beep of medical equipment and hushed chatter on the ward for company, refusing to leave his side like she had with his double in case it would be the last time she saw him alive.

“But you didn’t, I’m still here annoying you by fussing over your injuries, just like you did with me when I was recovering,” he huffed with a laugh, as if sensing her apprehension and trying to disperse the growing tension. “I know you don’t need me ...”

“- I do need you,” Olivia said, interrupting Lincoln, her bandaged hand resting on his knee, her mouth sliding into an oblique grin. “I do, I -”

“...need me to take care of you,” Lincoln continued, tentatively covering her hand with his as he smirked at her confession. “But can you just let me try? We could just keep looking after each other? If you want to?”

“Fine,” she relented, unable to suppress a smirk and a tiny raindrop tear from escaping her eye as their fingers linked and he pulled her hand up to his mouth, the tentative kiss warm on her skin even through the bandages. “I’m still driving though.”

Lincoln huffed a smile. “It’s a deal.” The rain lashing against the windscreen began to subside and the mossy green fields stretched out in front of them towards the horizon as the cerulean blue sky pierced the waning clouds. He huffed, gesturing towards an old building that was barely visible through the hedgerows and trees that bordered the lay-by where they’d parked. “Let’s go check the readings before the rain starts again. It looks like there’s a house over there, if someone lives there, maybe they saw something?”

They made their way down the makeshift dirt road, the rough shale stone crushing under their feet until they reached the tired, almost dilapidated ranch that had loomed on the horizon, scanning the air with their equipment.

"The readings seem to be normal,” Olivia observed, peering over Lincoln’s shoulder at the beeping display in his hands before staring intently into the distance at the field he was squinting at. “I can’t see any evidence of cohesion failure or spatial discontinuity.”

He nodded in agreement, knocking the side of the machine with his palm as a last ditch effort. “Doesn’t seem to be any molecular dissolution, either. Maybe it was a system malfunction.”

“I’m gonna knock on their door, just in case. I don’t want to drive all the way out here again because Erikson isn’t happy we checked it out thoroughly.”

“You think someone might actually live in there?” Lincoln remarked, looking up at the building with a thinly veiled look that was somewhere between disgust and trepidation as it appeared considerably more derelict than it had from a distance and behind the cover of trees. Chipped and faded paint on the porch was peeling away in large flakes and the wooden planks of the walls and decking creaked under the weight of their feet as they approached the screen door.

Olivia knocked on the door and rang the bell, turning to watch Lincoln as he impatiently tucked the device in his pocket and checked his wristwatch for the time.

She shrugged when no one answered, crouching to peer through the letterbox causing the cover that had been hanging on by one hinge to clatter onto the rotten wooden deck.

“It doesn’t look like it…”

“What is it?” he replied, frowning in concern as her voice trailed off and she stood to carefully remove her handgun from the holster at her hip and pressed her other finger against her lips as a warning to be quiet.

“Looks like an illegal badger mill,” Olivia whispered, hastily pulling Lincoln by the arm to the side of the building and away from the large bay window in case there was anyone inside who might see them. “At least thirty cages of them are stacked up against the wall in there, could be more.”

"I still can’t believe you have them as pets here," Lincoln remarked, removing his own weapon as a precaution. He knew this wasn’t exactly within their department’s jurisdiction or level of expertise but he also knew she wouldn’t leave before she was satisfied the animals were safe and the perpetrators were in custody. “So how do you wanna play this?”

“I wanna check ‘round the back, get a better look at what's going on in there. Cover me?"

He nodded, wistfully looking towards their car and how close they'd come to leaving - she knew she didn't have to ask and that he would.

"You sure you don't want to call for backup -" Lincoln's voice trailed off when he turned around to look at Olivia only to realize she'd already disappeared behind the back of the building, her long auburn hair streaking behind on the humid breeze. "- first? Never mind."

There was barely time for him to roll his eyes in disapproval before she swung back the back door and stepped over the threshold, pointing her gun from outstretched arms that she gripped between her determined fists. An overwhelming musky stench of animal waste hit them in an oppressive cloud as they opened the door, making them retch and grimace, then ominous querulous chitter and screaming barks of the animals filled the air when the caged badgers sensed them intrude on their space. Trying to ignore his body’s urge to vomit as the foul odor filled his nose and made him gag, Lincoln followed Olivia through a cluttered and dirty kitchen swarming with flies and shadowy concealed rooms to the cages she’d seen through the post slot.

“Doesn’t seem like anyone is here,” she noted, returning her gun to its holster to inspect the stacked cages that held over three dozen young badgers, their gray and white faces watching her curiously. “Looks like we found the cause of the smell.”

A semi-decomposing furry form laid slumped in one In one of the enclosures, completely unmoving unlike the others who rattled their cages covered with maggots.

“Ugh!” Lincoln gulped, his face twisting in disgust as he staggered backwards away from the rancid body into the kitchen, his voice muffled as he covered his mouth and nose.

“You okay?” Olivia asked, trying to suppress a laugh at the noises in the next room as Lincoln retched over the grimy sink. After gently stroking the nose of one of the tamer animals through the cage bars, she joined him in the kitchen as he pulled away a sheet of paper to wipe his mouth.

“Mmm-hmm,” he nodded, turning on the faucet to rinse away the contents of his stomach that he’d projected into the basin. Cupping some water in his hands as they looked cleaner than any cups in the room, he held them up to rinse out his mouth. “Sorry.”

She chuckled again, scratching her face and jabbing her thumb in the direction of the door. “No need to apologize, I think your barf actually made this place cleaner. Let’s call this in and check out the coordinates of the reading. Hopefully you’ll feel like refilling your stomach once we’re done.”

“If it means getting out of this place, it sounds good to me,” Lincoln nodded, holding the back door open for her as they left. They jogged back down the rickety wooden porch steps, and Lincoln followed the coordinates on the device he withdrew from his jacket pocket as Olivia called through what they’d found on her ear cuff to their headquarters.

“They told us to wait here until the IACUC turns up which should be within half an hour,” Olivia said, shrugging as she joined Lincoln who stood frowning by a broken boundary fence as he looked at the waterlogged field from the edge. “Then we can go grab something to eat. What’s up?”

He pointed towards the field where a perfectly circular crater had formed, but instead of the bowl shaped dent being filled with water, it held a shimmering semi-transparent orb that suddenly glitched and burst like a bubble, leaving a hole in the soggy field as if it had been scooped up by giant invisible ice cream scoop. “What was that?” 

“I dunno, but that hole looks nearly ten feet in diameter and pretty deep," she remarked, fearlessly stepping towards the perimeter of the crater before Lincoln hurriedly reached out to grab her arm and pulled her back.

“Where are you going?”

Olivia’s voice was sharp with sarcasm and frustration when she spoke and she lightly whacked his arm, glaring at him in annoyance when he released her. “To check it out!” 

“Liv, we don’t know what thing is, it could reappear and chop you in half while you’re in it! Or make you disappear altogether!” he exclaimed. The thought of the device he and Peter had used to cross universes like Jones resurfaced, and the time bubble that had surrounded Raymond and Kate Green’s home.

“Chop me in half. Really?”

She looked at him, frowning skeptically, but could see the obstinate concern in his face and knew he was saying it out of genuine concern and wasn’t exaggerating,

“Trust me, okay?” Lincoln shrugged and continued, knowing Olivia was probably itching to investigate the anomaly. “We had this case, on the other side where certain places were reverting back to how they were four years before and it turns out it was due to a couple who created a machine that kept them in a 2007 time loop.”

“A time loop?”

“Yeah, so what if this is the same thing? The couple here are doing the same thing they did in my universe.”

“Maybe, we should look into that when we get back to - ahhh, shit!” Olivia cried out in surprise as another rippling rainbow dome appeared. Much closer to their feet than the first, it glitched and shimmered for a few seconds before disappearing and leaving another crater, causing the ground beneath them to collapse into a quagmire, pulling them down and they slid into the swampy pit.

Straining to keep their heads above the gloopy mud, their efforts were rewarded by lumps of soil splattering their faces, sticking their hair to their skin in sticky clumps, as they struggled to stand and clung to each other’s arm for support.

“This isn’t the kind of mud pie I was hoping for," Lincoln remarked, causing Olivia to roll her eyes and groan. He motioned up to where they’d been standing a few moments ago as they squirmed in discomfort as more of the cold and gooey mud seeped into their clothing. “Do you think you could reach that fence post stump that’s up there and pull yourself up if I give you a hand?”

“It's gotta be worth a try,” Olivia said, twisting around to hold onto Lincoln’s shoulders to steady herself as he held her by the waist. His lithe fingers slipped on her mud-coated clothes, making him cup her ass as she herself pushed up. "You getting a handful back there?"

His eyes widened at the little gasp that she expelled against the top of his head as his hands gripped her thighs and she wrapped her legs around his upper body. Pressing her abdomen against his face, Olivia climbed up his body to get herself higher and could feel him trembling with the exertion of holding her up in a sitting position against his chest, or having his face so close to the apex of her thighs.

“Schlurrrry.”

She laughed, responding to how comically incomprehensible and muffled his reply was, from the combination of straining to lift her up and his face pressing against her lower stomach. Her fingernails scraped the wooden stump but not close enough to grip it and she huffed in annoyance. "Just a little closer…"

Swaying precariously, Lincoln awkwardly wiggled, restrained by the gluey mud to edge nearer to the post until eventually they were close enough and Olivia could grip onto the wooden stump.

"Got it -  ahhhhh!" Olivia exclaimed triumphantly, pulling up against it to free herself from the swamp, only for the fence post that had loosened due to the saturation of the earth to disconnect from where it had been wedged. She lost her balance and toppled backwards, taking Lincoln with her while still holding the stump in her hands, making them both fall backwards to the sound of a loud ‘ oooof’ and a splatter of squelching mud.

Lincoln eventually raised his head from resting against Olivia's stomach to see her chest heaving and her arms flop to the side, the wooden post rolling from her grasp to sink into the marshy pit. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she snorted, failing to suppress a laugh at his mud-encrusted face. Lincoln slipped trying to sit up and with nothing sturdy to counter balance his weight, his face landed back on top of her breasts with a splat. "You feeling my breasts now as well as my butt?”

“I said sorry!" He frowned indignantly, finally managing to find a root to grip on and he sat up, pulling Olivia up by the hand so she sat next to him.

“Lincoln, you've felt my ass enough times to know I'm just teasing you, you don’t need to apologize for it." 

“Yeah, but this time I didn’t mean to!” Lincoln replied, trying in vain to move the dirt from his face but making it worse so it was almost completely masked in the gunky soil.

“You want some cucumber slices to go with that?" Olivia joked. "For the face mask.” She elaborated when Lincoln frowned in confusion. "Got any other ideas?”

“Yeah, I'm complaining to the front desk, this spa is terrible!" he quipped, slumping in defeat.

Olivia shivered and edged towards Lincoln, the noisy squelching mud underneath giving little comic relief, then sighed. "Ugh, I'd give anything to be in a jacuzzi or sauna now."

Nodding agreement, Lincoln frowned as the noise of a car engine appeared in the distance, then stopped, followed by the sound of a door slamming shut.

"HEL-"

Opening his mouth to shout, Olivia quickly clamped her hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.

"Shhh!" she whispered, holding her finger up to her mouth as her eyes widened and she slid to lie down. "It could be the people who've been breeding the badgers. We can't let them find us down here before back-up arrives."

Nodding in understanding, Lincoln copied Olivia and laid flat in the mud by her side, almost completely concealed and camouflaged in the dirt as they listened to the distant voices 

"The report came from a Fringe Agent, we were told to meet them here but it looks abandoned. You sure this is the place?" 

"These are definitely the correct coordinates. Look, there's a car."

"So where are they? Do you think they're inside?"

Glancing at each other to confirm what they'd heard, Olivia and Lincoln sat up and began screaming.

"Hey! We're down here, we need help!"

A young woman with platinum blonde bangs and hair tied back into a straight ponytail tentatively peered over the edge. "Are you Agent Dunham? What are you doing down there covered in mud?" 

"Waiting for a spa treatment," Lincoln replied sarcastically as he struggled to sit up.

"What?" An older and balding man with kind and puzzled features said as he joined the blonde woman.

"Nothing, ignore him." Olivia said, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I called it in. You got a rope to pull us out?"

"I think so!" The man replied, his voice a long southern drawl as he disappeared from their view. "I'll check the trunk. Don't go anywhere!"

She shook her head, exasperated, trying not to notice Lincoln’s obvious eye roll. "We'll try not to."

***

Within fifteen minutes the animal control agents had helped them out of the swampy quagmire and Olivia retrieved their device from its shallow grave where Lincoln had dropped it at the edge of the paddock while they watched them rescue the animals and load them into their truck.

"I think it's busted," Lincoln sighed, fastidiously folding his long coat that had been on the backseat over the passenger seat before sitting down."Hopefully we can still sync it to the systems and access the readings to find out whatever is causing… whatever that was."

Olivia smirked, knowing full well they'd have to take the car to get valeted anyway. "Right. But before we worry about that, I have something more important to do."

Lincoln replied, missing Olivia’s hint as he fiddled with the device in vain, "You do? What's that?"

"Eat takeout in a bath with the water as hot as I can stand for as long as possible," her voice lowered to a sultry tone as she leaned towards him and smiled seductively. "You wanna join me?" 

Lincoln froze and blinked, pushing away the memorized photos of Kendra's police report that had been tattooed in his mind. With his background, getting access to the forensic photographs was the only closure he'd been granted and had been easily accessed compared to her apartment and peace from feeling responsible.

In the photos, contrasting deep crimson gorges on the alabaster skin of her inner wrists, like the scarlet drips on the white porcelain, had mapped out roads and valleys that he’d walked through like a maze, deeper and deeper until he'd lost all sense of direction. Her hands, no longer able to grip, had let the blade she'd held in one hand fall away to the small, pink mounds of her breasts and the phone she'd called him on had found its resting place on the tiled floor in a small puddle of pink-stained water, his phone number immortalized on the display.

"What’s up?"

"Nothing, I -," he paused, finding the courage to meet her puzzled gaze, "-I'm just not much of a bather, I've stuck with showers since, uh..."

Clasping her hand over her mouth, Olivia bit her bottom lip in embarrassment for not remembering - his insistence of sitting on the toilet with the seat down and looking through her various bottles of bubble bath while she bathed suddenly made sense.

"Lincoln, I'm so sorry, I didn’t mean to -"

"It's fine, honestly," Lincoln huffed, twisting his lips into an upside down smile and shrugged. "I think it's a good idea. I want to... And I am starving. Pizza okay?"

Olivia smiled, starting the car. "Sounds perfect! Papa Joe's do a Manhatan mud-pie that's incredible if you want dessert." 

"If it's all the same to you," Lincoln huffed as the car pulled away from the curb. "I think I'll stick to the cheesecake."

Chapter Text

The bathroom door thudded hard against the tiled walls, swinging back quickly with the force of Lincoln clumsily opening the handle with his elbow and pushing it with his back, allowing a suffocating wall of hot steam to escape. "One large chicken and vegetable supreme and one large spicy mushroom pizza for the lady!” He announced, his voice distorted by the slice he’d hungrily and hurriedly shoved into his mouth in the short walk between the front door and the bathroom.

“You were really hungry, weren’t you?” Olivia smiled, catching his puffed out cheeks and a smudge of tomato puree on his bottom lip and shuffled forward in her sitting position in the bath to turn off the water pouring through the faucet. “You want some of mine too? I doubt I’ll eat all that.”

“Uh-huh!” Lincoln nodded with a gulp, placing the boxes at the corner of the tub before pulling his T-shirt over his head and allowing his boxers to slip off his slim hips and fall into a pile on the floor. Gingerly toeing the water behind Olivia, he began lowering himself into the water. “No thanks, save it for lunch tomorrow, I don’t eat mushrooms since I - Ohhh, ahhh!”

She craned her head and twisted, causing some of the bubbly water to slop over the side onto the floor to see him straighten up. "What’s wrong?”

“It’s too hot on my, uh, you know ...” he gestured, tenderly cupping himself in his hands so as not to dangle his genitals near Olivia’s face.

Trying to disguise a smirk that twitched at the corner of her lips at his cheeks flushed bright pink with a mix of embarrassment and heat, Olivia leaned forward to reach the faucet and ran some cold water, swishing it behind her to mix it up for a couple of moments. “Sorry! I like my bath water really warm.”

Lincoln frowned, wiping the beads of sweat emerging on his brow against his forearm and sat back down in the cooled water, allowing Olivia to lean back against his chest as he held onto the cool porcelain edge of the tub with his hands. “That’s not warm, that’s practically boiling hot! How can you like that?”

“I guess I like hot things," she smiled softly, looking up at him as she rested her head against his shoulder and linked her fingers with one of his hands to place it on her chest and keep them close together. "Better?”

Brushing his lips against the top of her head he blinked, his teasing smile fading when he wiped her bangs damp with sweat out off her dewy forehead. “Much better. Shall I wash your hair?”

"You're still wearing your watch, you should take it off."

"S'okay, it's waterproof up to fifty meters so unless the bath is deep enough for me to go diving, it should be fine."

Olivia’s smirk was barely visible from Lincoln's angle when she replied. "You're welcome to try."

Squirting some shampoo into his palm when she nodded and sat forward, he adoringly massaged the creamy liquid over her scalp and through the long lengths of her saturated coppery hair that had become dark chestnut brown with water and low light with his fingertips while she hummed approvingly. The little gasp she made as he pulled her hair into a pony tail to coat the ends with conditioner as he'd watch her do a few time before didn't go unnoticed by Lincoln and he was concerned he'd been too rough until she twisted between his thighs to quickly look at him with an expression that was somewhere between surprise and intrigue.

In the dim candlelight of the bathroom, the green in her hazel eyes was barely visible and it made Olivia’s pupils appear darker and dilated. Her cheeks flushed dusky rose through faint freckles as she lowered her gaze to his serious mouth that was in her eye line, and subconsciously bit her bottom lip as the tip of his tongue flickered out to lick the sauce away. Rinsing her hair with a small plastic pitcher, the water coursed over her shoulders and chest, exposing the deep pink buds of her nipples from where they'd been hidden behind the bubble bath foam, causing an involuntary rush of blood to Lincoln’s groin and the hardness to press against her ass.

More than that, he could feel his chest and the back of his throat tighten and tears sting the corner of his eyes as it dawned on him how deeply he was in love with her, something he never thought he'd find or experience. The wave of love caught him unaware, and drowned him with the fear that this could be gone again. He could wake up one day, in his own universe, alone again once more and all of this between them would be gone, nothing more than a memory or a dream.

Olivia snorted, oblivious to his tumultuous thoughts as he shifted behind her, foolishly trying to disguise his arousal pressed against the small of her back. “We need to eat the pizza before it gets cold, besides I don’t want you to pass out." 

“What if I’m not hungry for food anymore?” he quipped, his hand smoothing across her abdomen to lightly cup the underside of her breasts and ribs to distract himself and stop her from drifting away.

“Linc - “ she teased, her voice tinged with a warning tone she only half meant, as they both knew she was unable to resist his reverent touch. Raising her eyes, she met the cool blue of his through her heavy lashes in the flickering candlelight, the shimmer of tears pooling at the corner of his red-rimmed eyes. Concerned he was feeling uncomfortable by being in the bath, she linked their fingers again and softened her voice. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry," Lincoln said sheepishly. "You're right, let's eat."

"Don't be sorry, I'm glad you're comfortable,"  Olivia replied, breaking away to reach the pizza boxes he'd placed at the end of the tub making the water ebb and tide around their legs and passed him another slice of pizza before taking a slice of her own. "So why don't you like mushrooms?"

"One of my first cases with Fringe Division on my side,"  he began, pausing to take a bite and swallow it down. "There was this huge fungus that was growing out of this service tunnel in Boston."

It still felt weird to talk about the cases he'd had with the other Olivia, especially as at that point in time, he'd only met the woman he was currently naked and in the bath with for a moment. Their meeting had been brief but there had been a look of mutual curiosity between them that, looking back now, was the reason why he'd begun to be confused about how he felt about both of the Olivias and had almost been torn between them like the sea tide being pulled by two moons in contradicting orbits.

In particular that case was the first he'd realized he liked Olivia, he enjoyed her company, appreciated her sharp mind and unconventional beauty, and had passed her Robert's keyring as a meager token of his appreciation, foolishly believing it would be enough to tether them together and stop her gravitating to Peter.

It was barely three and half years ago since Robert had been killed by Jones's shape-shifters and Lincoln had transferred from the FBI to Fringe Division but it felt like a lifetime ago and he felt like a different person. He was a different person - he didn't feel confused anymore, he knew where he was supposed to be and who he was supposed to love.

"Anyway," he continued, pulling himself out of his thoughts, his voice distorted due to a mouthful of pizza he gulped down. "Long story short, it attacked me, and I was in hospital for a couple of days while they made sure I wasn't infected."

"Infected? Makes it sound like a zombie bite."

"Thankfully we got it under control before it got to that stage."

"Just as well, there ain't mushroom in here for any more fun guys!" Olivia quipped, playfully slapping Lincoln on his damp thigh that was uncovered by the blanket of bubbly foam, causing him to make a noise halfway between a laugh and a groan. She took another slice and leaned back against Lincoln's chest. "So, what d'you think about those bubbles?"

"They smell good, but did you put the whole bottle in? There seems to be a lot -"

Her laughter cut off his words and she rocked the water again as she laid on her front to rest against his warm, flushed body, her dark auburn hair stuck against her shoulders. "I meant the ones on the field, silly! Have you ever seen anything like that before?"

"Not exactly, it's like the ones we saw in Boston but those ones caused time loops so the affected area temporarily reverted to how it was four years previously," Lincoln said, smiling softly as he swept her wet hair away with his fingers. "I didn't see that where we were but I guess it could have been at one of the other sites. We should check with Charlie and Astrid when we get back to the office in case they saw something at the locations they went to."

"Good idea." Leaning up to reassuringly kiss his jaw, Olivia linked her arms around his neck, the cool ceramic behind his back smooth as held her by the waist and slipped down slightly so their lips met, and she planted soft kisses on his mouth before pulling away and smiling coyly. "Thank you for doing this."

"Least I could do for the woman I love," he replied, the words involuntarily slipping out into her mouth before he could stop them, causing Olivia’s grin to fade more and more with each syllable until she was just staring at him open-mouthed as if in shock. Lincoln’s knee-jerk reaction was to apologize and brush it off, until her smile returned, this time even wider than before.

"Say that again."

"Least I -" Lincoln slowly began before Olivia interrupted him and leaned back up so their faces were millimeters apart. 

"Just the last part."

He blushed, unable to resist her request. "Oh, uh, woman I love?"

"Now just the last two words," Olivia whispered, brushing her lips against his.

"I love - hmmmph ." He replied as they made contact, the soft full pillows of her lips hungrily massaging his as the water sloshed over them and her breasts pushed against him.

"You."  They said simultaneously as they broke apart with a gasp, their chests heaving and holding onto each other as the water rippled around them. Lincoln frowned as Olivia pulled herself to stand, unable to pull himself away from the sight of the droplets that coursed down the curves of her toned body and olive skin and dripped onto him.

"I thought you wanted me to eat first?" 

"I changed my mind," she smirked, stepping onto the bath mat and offering her hand to Lincoln to help him out of the warm, bubbly water. "I want you in the bedroom."

"Fine by me, I can do some eating and diving," Lincoln quipped, unbothered by his damp skin as he quickly followed Olivia to her room.

***

“Oh - oh fuck!” Olivia cried out in a gasp less than twenty minutes later, her face flushed and hair damp. Her back arched uncontrollably as she gripped handfuls of the sheets, then slumped sated onto the bed, allowing each ripple of pleasure to slowly subside from her body before she could move.

“You okay?” Lincoln chuckled in reply, biting on his lower lip to get a last taste of her before crawling back up her body.

“Oh yeah. Just give me a sec," she said breathlessly and panting, wiping away the strands of her auburn hair stuck to her damp face and he nodded, lying next to her. Turning to look at him, his chest heaving with shallow breaths and his face flushed with a fine coat of sweat, Lincoln turned back to look at Olivia as his face broke into a shit-eating grin when they made eye contact. He gripped his swollen, aching cock to help relieve the pressure while he patiently waited for her to recover and Olivia turned on her side, leaning on her elbow and smiling to look at him curiously, sighing breathlessly. “Do you like it?”

“Like that?” Lincoln replied, his brows knotting in confusion, then gulped, watching her hand that was pressed against his chest push sweep across his abdomen and down to his groin to take the place of his hand and loop around the velveteen pink shaft. “Of course I do, it feels amazing.”

“No, I mean, y’know, doing what you were doing, with your mouth,” Olivia blurted coyly, chewing on her lip as her hand began gently stroking his hard length.

“Oh! I, uh, yessss," he hissed, his eyes scrunching shut at the sensation of her fingers looping around the glistening head of his cock, the sensation igniting every cell in his body so it ached with pleasure.

“Really? Because all the time I was with Frank, he only went down on me for three times that barely lasted a minute and that was when I practically begged him." She added, continuing by slowly increasing her hand’s movements and moving up and down his hardened shaft, and teasingly cupping his balls on the downstroke. "I mean you don't have to, if you don't want to, its not necess-"

“Three times?” he gasped incredulously. “Yes, I… fuck!” Lincoln gulped, his voice strained as her fingers pressed against his perineum, making his whole body spark and he desperately tried to think of anything to distract himself before things finished a lot earlier than he intended. “Why wouldn’t I? I never want to hear that it isn't necessary, okay?” he demanded softly, looking at her through hooded eyes and waiting for her to nod in agreement.

“He said he didn’t like the taste," Olivia teased, shifting to trail kisses on his slim hips. Lincoln looked down and traced her jaw lightly with his fingertips, his thumb featherlight against her full lips, which caused another bolt of arousal to shoot to her core.

“Did he expect you to taste like fruit or something? I bet he doesn’t like pineapple on pizza either," he huffed, then sighed as her tongue flickered out across his thumb then teased the rosy pink tip of his cock. Trying not to let the thought of another man fucking her piss him off, he reveled and lost himself in the sensation of her ministrations. He wasn’t a naturally jealous person, but the thought of Frank refusing to pleasure her while expecting it in return annoyed him enough that he wished he could see him again just to tell him he never deserved her. “I love doing it because I love you and -- oh shiiiit -- do you have any idea how much it turns me on that I do that to you?”

“Oh, I think I do," she said, slipping on a condom from the nightstand and raising her leg over his waist to straddle his hips, slowly and teasingly grinding her wetness against his hot, firm cock that throbbed with anticipation. “Wait, they put pineapple on pizza in your universe?”

“Yeah, Hawa-OOOH!”

Was the only reply he could muster as all thoughts and abilities disappeared from his brain and she slid down onto his length, and began rocking against him, pinning him to the bed.

Chapter Text

February 2014

“So the good news is our techies managed to get readings off the reader that got busted in our mud bath,” Olivia said, twisting her lips in frustration as she sat in the free stool next to Lincoln and opposite Astrid and Charlie at the rotunda’s central desk in the Fringe HQ.

“What’s the bad news?” Lincoln asked, his eyebrows raised with intrigue lowering into a blush as Olivia made brief eye contact and smirked at their private memory of the bath and other things they’d done after slipping into the field and being coated with layers of mud.

“The bad news is they’re inconclusive,” she added with a sigh, loading the report onto the screen at the center of the table. “There weren't any signs of molecular incohesion but it did pick up a magnetic anomaly and high levels of neutron radiation in the atmosphere that aren’t consistent with typical vortex behavior.”

“Same for us,” Charlie agreed, studying the readings that flickered on the LED screen. "There was definitely some kind of irregularity with the atmospheric readings at one of the sites where we were but not anything I recognized from old cases.”

Lincoln frowned and squinted at the screen that showed the two identical readings. “So two seemingly completely random and unrelated places experience identical and unique phenomena. What are we thinking? Do some digging to see if there is a connection between them, and take it from there?” 

“Three actually. I found another one,” Astrid added, her eyes wide as the other three glanced up at each other in surprise and then at the map of the three points. “Approximately 300 miles north of the site Agents Dunham and Lee visited in Pennsylvania, in the Adirondacks close to Lake Placid.” 

“So what does a field in New Bethlehem and a mountain in upstate New York have in common with -

“-Upton, Long Island.” Charlie said, finishing off the sentence that Lincoln started as the screen abruptly locked and shut down. “What happened? Did you touch something?”

“I didn’t touch anything!” Astrid protested, frantically typing the screen to no avail. “I don’t understand, all the files have been locked --” Her voice broke off as Erikson called from the glass door of his office and sternly beckoned them to his office.

“Agents!” They all filed into his office silently as he closed the door behind them. “What have you found?”

Olivia paused to glance at Astrid, Charlie and Lincoln at her side in puzzlement before speaking, "nothing, sir. We were just following up on a possible connection between those obsolete system alarms and a similar incident in the Adirondack mountain range.”

“Whatever it was raised a red flag over at the DoD. The Secretary has confirmed it was a glitch with the sensors and locked it all down. It is now under the jurisdiction of Military Command.”

“What!? Why would he remove us from what is clearly a Fringe case? We’re in the DoD too,” Charlie protested, characteristically blurting out his thoughts without thinking of the repercussions. “We got there first, not to mention we’re more qualified than them to deal with this too.”

Lincoln nodded in agreement. “Agent Francis has a point, what we saw was --”

“Regardless of what you saw, it's out of my hands, and yours,” Erikson interrupted gruffly, crossing his arms across his chest. “Secretary Bishop is top in the chain of command, so we don’t get to question why, just follow orders. Do you understand Agents?”

“Sir.” They reluctantly surrendered and left together as they were dismissed and returned to the office.

“That went well,” Lincoln quipped and shrugged in defeat. "So what now? I guess we have to drop it and move on to the next case.”

“The hell we are,” Olivia whispered, leaning into his personal space. "But Erikson doesn’t need to know.”

"I was hoping you'd say that." Lincoln smirked. 

***

The team preoccupied themselves with other tasks, tying up loose ends and obediently writing up reports of what they’d found as the day went on until they were satisfied that they’d given enough information to convince their boss they weren’t about to directly and defiantly disobey his and Secretary Bishop's orders. They reformed at the end of the day in a dark corner of the underground parking lot away from the view of the security cameras before they left.

“Neutron radiation doesn’t occur naturally on earth, it has to be generated by something man made. So there’s gotta be something Secretary Bishop doesn’t want us finding out, and I wanna know why,” Olivia murmured as she scanned the parking lot to ensure they were alone. 

"Right, if it was a glitch with the sensors why is under Military Command jurisdiction?” Lincoln blinked and nodded in agreement. “Not to mention we’re senior Agents, especially you, Liv. I can’t understand why we're being kept in the dark.”

“Okay, sure. What’s the plan?” Charlie asked, his widening deep brown eyes glinting like onyx in the shadows when he looked at Lincoln in surprise at his reluctance to accept the orders from Erikson. Unlike Lincoln's doppelganger who had always followed the rules and regulations to a T, this Lincoln seemed much more rebellious despite appearing considerably more straight-laced than this version. Charlie couldn’t help but let a small chuckle escape his mouth at how despite being the same person, they were complete opposites in so many ways and realized this is what Liv saw too - at a glance they looked identical but there were those little subtle differences between them that placed them at two ends of a spectrum. “How we gonna follow up on this without being detected and being suspended for subordination? All our systems are monitored, as soon as we search it up, the DoD will lock it down.”

“May I make a suggestion?” Astrid said softly, catching the three other people’s curiosity. “There is an internet café a few blocks away, I pass it on the way to work when I take the subway. Since the Amber Act, all reports of atmospheric disturbances have to be made public knowledge, we can cross reference them against historical land and property registries. Statistically, we should be able to locate enough valuable information this way to get a lead.” 

“Sounds like a good place to start,” Olivia smiled thinly and nodded, then gestured towards her SUV with another slight nod. "Let’s go and give it a shot.”

***

“I tracked down the IACUC agents who helped us out of the ditch in New Bethlehem,” Lincoln said, nudging Olivia’s hand as she sat to his left in the diner, blowing the steam off a mug of hot tea until she playfully kicked his shin under the desk for revealing what happened.

“Ditch?” Charlie teased, his eyebrows knitting into a curious expression. “I don’t remember seeing anything about a ditch in your report.”

“It was a minor detail,” Olivia began, trying to ignore the skeptical look in Charlie’s face as he smiled smugly opposite her. 

“A minor detail?”

“Yes, irrelevant.”

“Irrelevant?”

“That’s what I said, yes.”

“Hmmm, sure.”

“Anyway, I tracked them down,” Lincoln continued, lowering his eyes from Charlie’s inquiring gaze to prevent a blush burning up his cheeks which would give Charlie more ammunition. “I asked them to send over a copy of their report and I’ve just received it, and I may have found something useful.”

“I don’t follow. What does this have to do with anything?” Charlie asked gruffly, pinching the bridge of his nose in slight annoyance, then took a deep breath when Olivia and Astrid frowned in response at his blunt reply. “Sorry -- What did you find?””

"No problem," Lincoln said understandingly, not taking Charlie’s abruptness personally. "So, in the report it says the perps of the illegal badger farm don't own the property, it's been vacant and was condemned years ago but it was forgotten about, which is how they went undetected for so long." 

Olivia shrugged her arms. "So, who owns it?"

"I'm still working on finding that info but I do have the names of the last known tenants."

"And?" Charlie added as he sensed the slight excited tone in Lincoln’s voice. "Who are they?"

"Jimmy and Dylan Smith."

"Their names don't ring any bells with me..." Olivia said with a sigh.

"... didn't with me either." Lincoln continued, before twisting his monitor for the others to see. "So I searched their names on the internet and got a hit. Looks like they made the cover of their local newspaper who have recently digitally archived all their articles."

Olivia, Charlie and Astrid scanned the article, their widening in surprise as they turned to look at each other and at Lincoln.

"Help - Our House Is Haunted!" Astrid read out the headline above the photo of the two men on the porch of the house which looked in much better condition than when Lincoln and Olivia had been there. "There has to be a logical explanation for that, ghosts don't exist."

"Try telling that to the Smiths," Olivia huffed. "According to this follow up article, less than a month after this photo was taken, they cut their lease short and that was the last time anyone officially occupied the building - not counting the badgers."

Charlie shrugged, looking at them sheepishly. "You wanna go check it out?" 

"Sure. According to records, their current address is only an hour’s drive away in Bridgewater, New Jersey. I tried calling their number but it must be disconnected,” Lincoln nodded to the door as he stood and glanced expectedly at Olivia, nudging her shoulder gently. “Liv?”

She looked up from her seat and smiled warmly, “Do you mind taking Charlie with you? I wanna stay here with Astrid and keep digging to see if I can find anything else.”

“Sure,” he repeated, as Charlie stood up from the table and joined him. "We'll give you a call when we get there and let you know what we find out.”

“Okay, drive safe.”

“I will. See you soon.”

***

As Charlie and Lincoln’s car made its way out of the congested city traffic and through the suburban streets, the shiny, metallic monolithic skyscrapers of Manhatan were slowly replaced with tree carcasses decorated with the bright green shoots of new leaves bursting out of the tips of their bare, knobbly branches.

“I didn’t mean to snap at you earlier,” Charlie said suddenly, as they stopped at a red light. “I’m just tired. I shouldn’t’ve taken it out on you.”

“It’s fine,” Lincoln replied, his lips twisting into an upside down smile as he tapped at the steering wheel. “Forget about it. You okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just Nellie,” Charlie sighed gruffly, scratching at his stubble and catching the shadows under his chocolate brown eyes in his reflection in the rear view mirror. “She’s not settling at all at the moment, I think she might be teething or something.”

“She’s nearly six months now, isn’t she?” Lincoln asked as the traffic began moving again, and they followed it up towards the highway. Charlie looked at him in surprise that he’d remembered, unaware that the day before Nellie had been born, Lincoln and Liv had admitted how they felt about each other.

“Yeah,” Charlie nodded. "Don’t get me wrong, I’m in constant awe of her and Mona and how we could have made something so beautiful and perfect, but sometimes, I… it’s so hard. I do what I can when I’m not working but I don’t know how Mona does it on her own. It’s exhausting.”

Lincoln nodded sympathetically. The reasons behind it were very different but he still remembered trying to drown insomnia in steaming mugs of bitter coffee on his own in a 24 hour diner at 3am when his world had turned upside down. Nowadays, most nights he would fall asleep easily with his limbs wrapped almost possessively around Liv. She still occasionally jolted him awake with a scream, her skin clammy with sweat, eyes black as the night while clinging onto his body for reassurance, the lingering fragments of a disorientating dream he didn't want to ask about in case it made her clam up again. Sometimes he wondered if she too had a nightmare that they’d never met and he was stuck in a universe where he’d never felt was home, left alone in the void only to be brought back by the tether of Liv’s warm body and soft snores.

"You have some family nearby though, right?" He replied, the sudden thought of how he and Liv would manage if in the same situation with only her mom around to help out. They'd only been together for a few months so hadn't talked about it but something about the possibility of settling down with Liv and eventually making a family filled him with nervous excitement and trepidation.

"Sure, we have my folks but they're in they're elderly and her family have their own lives and careers," Charlie began, interrupted by the horn from a car behind them that abruptly shook Lincoln out of the reverie knew was way too premature and presumptuous, but he couldn't resist dreaming of. "You okay buddy?"

"Yeah, of course!" Lincoln bluffed, and exhaled dismissively through his nose. "Listen, if you and Mona need a sitter once in a while, I'd be happy to help. I used to babysit Robert's kids when he and Jules needed a break."

"Be careful what you wish for," Charlie huffed a laugh in reply. "But thanks, I'd appreciate that and I'm sure Mona would too."

“You’re welcome,” Lincoln said as he leaned over the dash and turned on the radio, filling the car with pop music and laughed as Charlie cringed at the music. “Might as well, we’re gonna be in this traffic for a while. You, uh, don’t like Katy Perry?”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you do?” 

He smirked, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel again in time to the beat and took the opportunity to tease his friend and colleague. Truth be told, when Olivia had put this particular song on at home a few weeks ago, things had gotten very heated pretty quickly, but that was a level of intimacy between him and Liv that everyone would appreciate being kept between them, and he cleared his throat dismissively. “Not particularly, although this song’s pretty catchy. She’s a beast, I call her karma, she’ll eat your heart out like –”

“STOP! PLEASE!” Charlie exclaimed in a loud groan causing Lincoln to abruptly stop singing.

“What’s wrong with my singing?” Lincoln protested mockingly and lifted his hands up slightly in the steering wheel in surrender as Charlie stared him down. “Fine, I can take the hint.”

“It’s your birthday coming up soon, isn’t it?” Charlie asked, changing the subject to avoid awkwardness as he checked the Sat-Nav for directions. “You got any plans?”

“Not really.” Lincoln shrugged, shifting in his seat. “Why? Do you, uh, know any good karaoke bars around here?”

Lincoln was unable to hold back the laugh as Charlie frowned deeply and narrowed his eyes in annoyance, his voice cracking with laughter on the last word as Charlie groaned again. He’d only been working with this Lincoln for a few months, a short time compared to the Lincoln he’d known before but he was already aware of the differences between the two men. However singing along to pop music was not something he thought they would ever have in common and of all the ways they could have been similar, Charlie cursed his luck that had to be one of them.

****

December 2009

Pushing through the noisy crowd to make his way from the restrooms where he'd bumped into an old friend from the training academy and had caught up on a few years of news so Liv and Lincoln could have some time together, Charlie frowned as he finally reached the bar through the crush. The two stools that Olivia and he had sat on before Lincoln had joined them were now occupied by strangers and he turned to scan his eyes across the bustling throng of party-goers, buzzing with the end of year celebrations. He almost gave up looking for his friends through the horde, until the music faded out to a faint round of applause. 

"Thank you!" The male host's voice, tinged with amusement, said through the speakers from the small stage area in the far corner. "Next up we have Olivia singing 'I Kissed A Girl' - don’t forget the participant with the biggest crowd reaction gets free drinks tonight, so let's give her a big cheer!"

As another tame round of applause rippled through the crowd, Charlie watched open-mouthed and wide-eyed in shock as the beat of the intro began and Liv's familiar red hair swung to the beat just above the crowd as she held the microphone to her mouth.

"This was never the way I planned, not my intention. I got so brave, drink in hand, lost my discretion…" 

Her voice held the tune but was quiet until her gaze moved from the screen where the lyrics rolled down in neon letters to something - or someone - in front of her and she motioned her hand down as the next verse began, her voice getting stronger with confidence.

"...It's not what I'm used to, just wanna try you on, I'm curious for you, caught my attention… " 

As she pulled someone up on stage with her, Charlie could hardly restrain a laugh as Lincoln, clearly under the influence as he was even more of a lightweight than Liv, began swaying on stage next to her, flinging his bomber jacket to the floor as the host handed him the spare microphone. "He kissed a boy and he liked it, the taste of his cherry Chapstick -"

"- she kissed a girl just to try it, I know but I don't mind it!" Lincoln added in a lilting voice,  pointing at Liv next to him on the stage.

"It felt so wrong…"

"...it felt so right!"

"It doesn't mean that…"

"...I'm in love tonight!" 

They continued back and forth until they sang the next line simultaneously, goaded on by the crowd who had been amused by their performance.

"I kissed a girl and I liked it… I liked it!"

"Hey Charlie," Liv smirked a few minutes later after they’d finished their rendition to rapturous applause and a round of free drinks at the bar where they were reunited with Charlie and his bemused expression. "Where'd ya go?"

"Bumped into a friend and got chatting," he shrugged, reacting quickly to steady Lincoln who swayed towards him. "You okay? What was that all about?"

"Lost a bet!" Lincoln muttered, his words slurring as he spoke and leaning over the bar. "Or did I win? I forgot - Ohhh, shots!"

"Okay, I think you've had enough, buddy," Charlie added sternly, moving the shot glasses out of Lincoln’s reach who frowned and exclaimed in protest. "Time for us to go home, you don’t wanna be nursing a hangover at work tomorrow. You want me to call you a cab?"

"Nooooo, we'll be fine, right Liv?" Lincoln insisted, wobbling slightly and looping his arm with hers as she perched on a vacant stool at the end of the bar and nodded. "I'll call a cab, you shoot off." 

“Of course we will - Teddy!” She teased, trying to hold back a smile at Lincoln’s frown and Charlie’s increasingly confused expression.

“Okay, kiddo. See you at work in the morning, I’ll bring some Tylenol just in case.”

Olivia and Lincoln stumbled off their stools and out of the hot and crowded bar less than an hour later, gasping in shock at the contrast of the cool air compared to the humidity of the bar. Helping Olivia shrug her jacket on over her shoulders as she shivered, Lincoln called for a cab on his ear cuff.

“Cab should be here in ten mins.”

Olivia leaned into Lincoln and huddled between him and the wall to keep warm as she shuddered, and giggled as she grabbed his collar and his arms wrapped around her to steady themselves. 

“I kissed a girl, and I liked it…” he whispered, to himself as she suddenly felt very conscious of their proximity. 

****

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Lincoln chuckled, quickly turning his head to see Charlie press his palm against his forehead as if trying to rid himself of a headache then returned to navigate the narrow residential street. “How far away are we now?”

“Not far, about half a mile away.”

“Liv bought me a cake last year before you came back to HQ,” Lincoln sighed loudly then paused and shrugged when Charlie looked up from the console in surprise. “It was the first time I’d celebrated my birthday since Robert died. When he found out Jules and I had the same birthday, he’d always insist I join them as I didn’t have any family.” 

Charlie’s eyebrows quickly dropped from being raised in surprise to a solemn expression and twisted in sympathy as Lincoln continued, lowering his voice awkwardly. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be depressing.”

“At least you’re not singing.” Charlie quipped as the Sat-Nav beeped and confirmed their location. “Here we are, it's just up here on the right.”

They parked the car by the curb and strolled over to the modest home with a smaller porch than the old house Lincoln had visited with Olivia but in much better condition, with the steps painted in various colors leading up from the tidy front lawn and manicured hedges. Charlie jabbed at the bell with his fingertip next to the white front door while Lincoln patted his pocket for his ID, retrieving it just as a person appeared behind the door’s window panel.

“Hi, can I help you?” 

Lincoln smiled at the man behind the door, who seemed to be around the same age as him but slightly taller and muscular, with black eyes, cropped charcoal hair and medium brown skin and he looked at the two Fringe Agents skeptically through the window.

“Sorry to bother you, sir, we’re Fringe Agents Lee and Francis. Are you Mr Dylan Smith?” Lincoln asked, holding his ID up to the glass for inspection before pointing to himself and Charlie, and the man nodded. “Did you used to live in New Bethlehem in Pennsylvania?”

“Yeah, a few years back.” Dylan replied. 

“We’re investigating reports of unusual phenomena at the property and the possibility they could be connected to other events.” Charlie added, “Atmospheric disturbances and so on. You experience anything like that while you were living there?”

Charlie and Lincoln turned to look at each other with identical looks of concern as Dylan’s expression suddenly changed and he stepped back to fully open the door and gestured for the two agents to enter. “It’s been such a long time, I thought no one in your department cared. Please, come on in.”

*

In the cozy living room, Charlie and Lincoln sat on a plush mustard couch furnished with large cushions opposite Dylan whose voice stumbled over words as he hurriedly tried explaining everything that had happened while he had been living there.

Dylan paused to take a deep breath before continuing, and arms flaying out with his animated gestures. “Objects would disappear and reappear, change appearance, like they were a hologram or glitching in and out of existence. The landlord didn't help so we reported it to you but we were fobbed us off with excuses.”

“Just slow down a minute,” Charlie interrupted, frowning half in confusion and disbelief. “Did you say you reported all this to Fringe Division when it happened, and no one came out to investigate?”

“Over four years ago now,” he replied. "We thought a vortex would swallow the whole place up but they didn’t care one bit! So we sold the story to the local paper to try and get attention. When that didn’t work and it didn’t stop, we refused to pay rent and moved away.”

Lincoln scratched his head and blinked, turning from Dylan and back to Charlie. “That was way before my time, I assume this isn’t ringing any bells with you?” He paused as Charlie shook his head in response and turned back to face Dylan. “I know it isn’t much comfort now, but I assure you we're taking this seriously. Can you tell me anything at all about the landlord at all that might help us find out more?”

“We only had their bank details to pay the rent, and we deleted them from our bank account when we moved out in case they tried to take more rent money from us,” he shrugged, noticing the flicker of disappointment on Lincoln’s face having not received the information he was hoping to get. “Sorry.”

“No problem, thanks for your help,” Charlie said, standing to leave with Lincoln and fished around in his pocket for a card. “If you think of anything else, call this number and you’ll get through directly to one of us in Fringe Division.”

“The plot thickens.” Lincoln huffed, taking his turn to sit in the passenger seat and pulled the seat belt across his chest.

“It sure does,” Charlie remarked as he started the car with his Show Me and they drove away. “The more we hear about this, the more I’m convinced there’s something Secretary Bishop is covering up something he doesn’t want us to know.”

Lincoln chuckled, “No shit, Sherlock. I’ll call Liv, see if she’s got anywhere with Astrid and found out anything useful.”

“Sure, but what the hell is a ‘Sherlock’?”

Chapter Text

Olivia’s ear cuff buzzed with the notification of an incoming call and she sighed at the interruption of her scrolling through the screen in front of her. "Dunham." 

"Hey Liv, it's me," Lincoln’s voice said, crackling with interference as the call transferred to the car's loud speaker. "We're just leaving from speaking to Dylan Smith, we should be back within an hour if the traffic doesn’t get any worse although the snow is starting to really come down thick up here.”

She smiled in relief at hearing his voice and adjusted the cuff settings so the call simultaneously played into Astrid’s one. "Did he say anything useful?”

“Yeah, it seems that someone in the DoD is trying to cover up what's been going on, he said they reported this to Fringe Division back when it happened but were ignored."

"Did they say who they reported it to?" Astrid asked, her voice similarly echoing through the speakers of Charlie and Lincoln’s car. "Agents Dunham and Francis were both working for the Fringe Division around the time the article was published, as was, uh..." Her voice trailed off, unsure of how to say “their Lincoln Lee” without making the one who had lived in their universe for a few years uncomfortable.

"The other me? Yeah, I know and I don't think it even made it that far,” Lincoln’s voice continued, saving Astrid some awkwardness.

“It seems someone made sure we weren't told about it to make sure we didn't investigate it," Charlie added gruffly against the rumble of distant traffic.

“Sounds like we need to keep digging then, we’ll see what we can find out.”

“Okay Liv, we’ll see you soon.” Lincoln said, just like he always did when they said goodbye.

Olivia smiled, and nodded briefly. “Drive safe boys.” 

“So buddy,” Charlie smirked, looking at Lincoln when he ended the call as they joined the freeway. “I’ve been thinking what you said earlier. You still up for looking after Nellie one evening so Mona and I can have a night off?”

“Of course!” Lincoln replied with a nod, checking the flurry of snow outside the car window that settled on the other vehicles, signs and roadsides. “Anytime. You sure you wanna go back this way?”

“Yeah, looks like Nixon Parkway is jammed for miles, we'd be stuck in a traffic jam for hours - check out the live feed on the display.”

The road lines on the map display confirmed his statement, glowing red with congestion.

"Fair enough," Lincoln smirked in reply. "I guess we can always make the time go faster by listening to the radio."

"Sure, just as long there ain't any singing!"

***

Blowing steam off her mug of tea, Olivia sipped a small mouthful of the drink and grimaced at the unusual taste as she resumed scrolling through the information on the digital display, looking at the glaring snow-white screen bleary-eyed.  She was used to the notoriously unpredictable weather that came from the combination of living in Manhatan and the occasional extreme atmospheric disturbances, but today she felt the late winter chill stronger than usual and the niggling worry it was the start of a cold or flu festered in her mind. She resented getting ill anyway, but she didn’t want it to scupper the plans she had for Lincoln’s birthday which was his first since they’d become a couple.

“Does your drink taste okay to you?”

Astrid jerked her head up from her screen to look curiously in Olivia’s direction when she spoke, her voice rough and deep. “I did not notice any significant difference in taste,” Astrid replied, inspecting her own mug and gulping some down to verify her statement. “It appears to be normal, although it has declined in temperature very quickly. Are you okay Agent Dunham?”

Olivia frowned and shrugged dismissively before bringing the cup back up to her mouth. “Hmmm, sure - but check this out,“ Clearing her dry throat, she pointed to her device’s screen to get Astrid’s attention. “Charlie said you both noticed the same readings Lincoln and I did when you two were in Long Island, right?”

“That is correct.”

“This might be a coincidence, but I think I might’ve found a connection to the previous owners of the property I went to with Lincoln with your site,” Olivia paused to swig back some more tea before continuing. “In the Amber public records, there’s an entry for someone who was ambered in 2005 and released a couple of years back. Their zip code at the time of being ambered matches the one on the house’s address. I didn’t take any notice at the time when we were updating the records but their next of kin is listed as a Kate Green.” 

“What is the connection?” Astrid asked, confused until Olivia smirked and flipped the screen to a second page.

“This - they’re head of DoD contracts at the Brookhaven lab in Long Island.”

“Doctor Kate Green, PhD!” Astrid gasped, her dark eyes wide and daringly met Olivia’s in admiration. “That must be why the Secretary didn’t want to look into this further. But how does this connect to the site in the Adirondacks?”

“I haven’t figured that part out yet,” Olivia said triumphantly, fidgeting in the booth to keep warm, making the PU leather of the red seats creak underneath her. “I’d say we should pay Doctor Green a visit at the lab but it’s a two hour drive from here and they’ll be closed by the time we get there, maybe she has a home address that’s closer.”

Even with the caffeine and extra spoonful of sugar she’d stirred into her mug of tea, Olivia could feel her eyes getting heavy as she looked for the doctor's details, weighed down with the weight of sleep. She tried to fight against the lull as it wrapped around her, the black foggy blanket coiling around her like iron chains and dragging her below the surface, making the dark waves seep into her consciousness and the bright snow-white glare of the screen blur away to a sepia vignette. It bled into her peripheral vision so her mind, obscured by thick fog, surrendered to the static.

Unable to resist, her head lolled back on her shoulders to rest against the back of the seat.

***

When she opened her eyes again, she could make out the flurry of large flakes of snow caught in the bitter breeze silently piling up against the outside window frame, collecting in large clumps against the sill. The night, black as soot behind the thin glass, surrounded the ghostly, transparent reflection of her face in the glass as if she was an apparition or a statue carved from ice. 

“Liv, it’s okay, you fell asleep.”

She turned suddenly, to see Lincoln sitting stiffly beside her. There was a large gap between them, a chasm compared to their usual close proximity, as if she was a wild animal and Lincoln was wary of getting bitten, his lips twisting into the quickest of smiles before it fell away and his eyebrows furrowed with concern.  Turning back to glance at the window that rattled against the howling wind and branches scratching their claws against the glass outside, Olivia could've sworn the window was double glazed before and the walls a dark plum with large black and white photos of the city in silver frames. Instead, they were thin wooden panels where the wind whistled through the gaps and made gooseflesh infect her skin and the cold wrap around her bones like a python. Even Lincoln’s face, that she knew almost better than her own reflection, had an echo of an unfamiliarity that made her uneasy. His hair was slightly longer and more disheveled than it should be, and four-day old stubble dotted his jaw and neck. Pink blotches dotted his cheeks as if his skin had been recently burned or grazed, and the translucent cerulean blue of his eyes were shaded with flecks and shadows of granite. Their gaze assured her that there wasn't anything to fear, but the pink tinged corners that barely clung onto teardrops that threatened to spill from the red rims betrayed them. "What's wrong? You okay?"

"Yeah, nothing. I -" she sighed through chattering teeth, shivering again despite being aware of being fully clothed under the soft feel of a sheepskin blanket that was the bottom layer of multiple comforters that covered her body from her chest to her feet. "How did we get here?"

A small bitter huff escaped Lincoln’s mouth, coating his warm breath with frozen particles that hung in the air between them before dissipating like a cloud after a burst of rain. He blinked again, still unsure if she meant it literally or figuratively, and when she seemed as genuinely as confused as he was. "We drove up to find Charlie. You don't remember? You sure you’re feeling alright?"

"I guess, I think so," Olivia replied, somewhere between the truth and a lie. Of course she remembered they’d all driven to the café but this didn't seem the same place, and she didn't remember Lincoln and Charlie getting back from speaking with the Smiths. She blew her warm breath into her frozen hands, futilely rubbing them together. "I'm fine. Apart from being freezing cold."

Lincoln fidgeted in his position, trying to keep warm while turning to face her, the spring mattress creaking with his efforts. "Me too - that blizzard out there is literally zero degrees and there's only a thin wall between us and it, until it passes."

"So why are you over there? Come over here," Olivia demanded as the realization that were in a bed dawned on her, her eyebrows flickering expectedly when he hesitated. “C’mon, we’ll be warmer if we share each other’s body heat.”

Blinking rapidly as if confused, he relented at the sensible suggestion and shuffled closer so their thighs were touching, and almost flinched at the warmth of her body against his.  The familiar subtle scent of Olivia’s color shampoo wafted into his nose as she nestled her head against his knitted sweater and he sighed into her hair, brushing her grown-out auburn bangs out of her eyes while his chin rested on her crown.

“It didn’t work,” she whined impatiently, clinging onto his body like she was afraid she’d be consumed by the cold if she let go. Lincoln pulled the blankets up, cocooning them inside before squeezing his arms under the layers to rub warmth into her back and arm that she’d wrapped around his chest and tucked it into his sweater. Her thigh rested over his as their legs entwined, her foot furiously caressing his shin through the stiff fabric of his jeans and her thick socks that she could have sparked a static charge if they were acrylic rather than woolen.

“Give it a moment,” Lincoln replied, shaking his head and unable to stifle a smile at her annoyance at being cold because he knew how much she hated it and would search for warmth wherever she could. "Try to think of hot things, maybe that’ll help.” 

“Hot things?” Olivia said, her voice unconvinced through chattering teeth and her body shaking against his in the bitter cold.

“Mmm-hmm, like a tropical beach with the ocean gently lapping against the warm sand under your feet,” he chuckled softly into her hair. "Or those steaming hot bubble baths you like and that Mexican restaurant we went to. Remember you laughed at me because the food was so spicy it made my face sweat and you said I looked redder than the walls at HQ.”

She frowned and twisted in his arms to look up at him and meet his gaze, but he’d closed his eyes and his long lashes cast dark shadows under his eyes and upper cheeks. “I don't remember doing that.”

“Doesn’t matter. The point is, thinking you’re warm is worth a try if it tricks you into thinking you aren’t cold. ”

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” Lincoln whispered, pausing as his blue eyes flickered open again to see Olivia’s hazel eyes hold his gaze in the dim light. “You’re welcome.”

The both froze, trapped under the avalanche of each other’s stare. The weight the unknown dissolved in their breath that mingled together in rapid puffs of air between them. He broke the silence and looked away, hoping to hide the tears that were uncontrollably brimming at the corner of his eyes and threatened to spill out, and to put distance between their mouths that were dangerously close to each other. “You feel warmer now?”

“I’m thinking of the hottest thing I know of, and I’m still really cold,” Olivia answered, her cool fingertips tracing the rough edge of his jaw to bring his mouth closer to hers again, his pulse buzzing with anticipation under her touch. “I’m thinking about you and me together and I still can’t warm up –”

“-- Liv.”

Lincoln interrupted her, his voice a warning, although he knew it was useless because it was for himself and not her. He was teetering on the edge of a precipice, clawing on by one white-knuckled finger, and one slip, or push from Olivia and he’d be falling, regardless of how much he tried to cling on. 

“Y’know, they say the most effective way to regenerate body heat is to be naked into a sleeping bag with somebody else who is naked,” she hinted, smiling and snuggling closer as Lincoln’s posture stiffened in response. “I know this isn’t a sleeping bag, but I wouldn’t mind improvising if you don’t.” 

“I think that’s a myth, besides you said that we were – hmmmpppphhh!”

Olivia cut off his words by impatiently pressing her full lips, pale with cold, against his mouth, the spreading warmth encouraging her to caress his mouth with hers as he automatically reciprocated and greedily kissed her back, gripping onto her shoulders to pull her even closer as if starved of affection for years. “I don’t care if it’s a myth or what I said, keep me warm,” she insisted in a gasp, pulling away slightly so they could both catch their breath then unbuttoned the waistband of her pants, wiggling them over her hips before rolling onto her side so he could spoon up behind her. She dragged his arm with her so his hand cupped her breast through the fabric of her fleece zipper. “Please Linc.”

“Y-you sure you want to?”

She could still hear the uncertainty in his voice, just like she could when they’d first met, before he’d become more confident in himself and their relationship. Olivia’s reply was simple and direct without any hesitation, and she nodded with the warmth of his breath that blew through her chestnut hair and every fiber of her being to caress every cell in her body. “Yes, of course I'm sure.”

The familiar way he touched and kissed her dispelled any feeling of unease, and his hands took the same path they always did, languidly mapping every curve, line, bump and hair of her body with his fingertips as if he was reading her like braille. With each new word he read, she felt he was relearning a forgotten language and she sighed in approval, crying out as the warmth finally radiated from her core and spread a flush all the way to her cheeks. When she guided him inside of her, Lincoln accepted the invitation and pushed tentatively in, sighing out her name through gritted teeth in one long breath against the sensitive skin and racing pulse of her neck a few moments later. They slumped, sated and still entwined in each other’s embrace. 

“You’ve stopped shivering,” Lincoln noted when he finally spoke again and she nodded in approval against his chest, yawning, her eyes drifting shut again. “We should get some sleep, we might be able to leave in the morning if the blizzard has stopped and the roads are safe to travel.”

”Okay,” She mumbled, pressing her mouth against his hand in a soft kiss as she often did to show her appreciation. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Liv, I always will..." His voice hitched on the last word and he continued before she could find out why, the volume increasing with every word. "...whatever happens, Liv. Liv, Liv… OLIVIA! AGENT DUNHAM!”

She jolted back up from being slumped in her chair, disoriented and confused to find Lincoln gone and replaced by Astrid who was gently shaking her shoulder to wake her up. “Agent Dunham, you need to wake up, we have an emergency, we should leave right away.”

“What? What do you mean? Where’s Lincoln?”

Astrid’s deep brown eyes widened at Olivia’s words, betraying her monotone voice. “That’s the emergency. Agent Francis just called me because you didn’t answer. They were in an RTA, he thinks the other car skidded on black ice and hit them so they flipped over onto the verge –”

The room began to spin around Olivia like a hurricane, the walls closing in while simultaneously blurring back out into oblivion, and she felt the familiar sting of bile burn her throat and panic flush her cheeks. “What about Lincoln? Is he okay?” 

“Agent Francis said the other car was driving from the right hand side when it hit them head on, Agent Lee was in the passenger seat. He is alive but unconscious because he hit his head. They are in the ambulance heading to the ER now, Agent Francis said we should meet him there.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Olivia replied, her voice deep and strained with urgency. Hurriedly shoving her belongings into her pocket while tossing a handful of notes on the table for the drinks, Olivia ran out of the door, while Astrid logged them out of the software and jogged after her.

“Agent Dunham, if Agent Lee regains consciousness quickly, statistically the chances of him sustaining any long term effects from a head injury are very low.”

Driving away from the parking space with a loud screech, Olivia nodded and silently prayed to any deity that would listen that Astrid was right. She stabbed at the dashboard button to turn on the sirens so they could ignore all the speed limits and traffic lights that got in their way, consumed by the familiar fear that Lincoln was seriously hurt. Neon lights blurred across Manhatan's skyscrapers and through the dark, late winter sky as their car sped through the city streets. Somehow they arrived at the hospital although she couldn’t recall how they’d got there, where the dark brick building was covered in a layer of snow and the ambulances in the bay outside flashed beacons of red and blue in the pitch black night to show the way. They ran down miles of endless corridors lined with glaring fluorescent lighting and gray linoleum, separated by automatic doors that sighed to let them through until Astrid stopped and double-backed on their steps. She called out, the large signs catching her attention on the wall, below them a lone figure dressed in black sat slumped forward in a chair. “Agent Dunham.”

“Charlie?”

The way his dark brown eyes refused to meet Olivia’s gaze made panic twist in her gut like a festering parasite, its grip terrifying her more than anything else she’d seen working for Fringe Division and it heaved its way up to the back of her throat and stung the corner of her eyes.

“Liv, I–” his voice cracked as he spoke and he gulped, swallowing down the emotion when Olivia hugged him. “I’m so sorry, it was my idea to take the freeway, the other car came from nowhere."

“S’kay, it's not your fault," Olivia replied understandingly. "I’m glad you’re alright. Where’s Lincoln?”

“Are you Agent Dunham, Agent Lee’s partner and next of kin?” They turned in the direction of a female voice to see a woman in her early fifties with black hair graying at the temples scraped into a french braid that was tucked into the collar of a white coat, the fine lines in her forehead creased with concern.

“Yes, I’m Olivia Dunham,” she said earnestly. "Can I see him?”

Opening the door at her side, she motioned for Olivia to follow her through. “Of course, but I’m afraid your colleagues will have to wait here in the general waiting area.”

“Go on Liv," Charlie added, stepping by to stand next to Astrid and let Olivia through. "We’ll be here if you need us.”

Chapter Text

Flashing headlights faded into white snow and the screech of tires echoed away into a fragmented memory, broken away into fractured glass that chimed away into nothing. Dancing crystals suspended in the air as the world spun. The blur of green glittered like emeralds and pearls in an unfocused vision, indistinguishable angles and lines that converged and bled into each other, melting into the snow tipped pines, fir and cedar trees that daggered the stone gray sky. Unnaturally tall trees, towering like green skyscrapers as their branches sighed in the icy breeze, strained under the weight of their snow laden blades. Crisp snow crackled under Lincoln’s feet as he brushed away ice crystals that clung the fabric of his clothes like barnacles and he slowly stepped towards the edge of the treeline. A lightning bolt of pain struck his skull, making him wince and keel over from the sharp shock of pain that radiated from his skull like an explosion, burning through every nerve ending until everything disappeared into opaque white mist and faded into black.

When he opened his eyes again, a familiar face's concerned frown gave way to a relieved smile in a plain white room. Olivia’s eyes glittered with unborn tears as Lincoln’s eyes focused, and he leaned to take her hand that was next to his arm on the bed.

"Hey," Olivia stuttered and gulped thickly, as if saying anything more would make the dam burst open.

"Liv? What are you doing here?" Lincoln blinked repeatedly, trying to understand how the frozen forest had disappeared in the blink of an eye and he'd woken up in hospital. His head felt heavy, as if every neuron was fighting against fog just to function. "What happened?"

Olivia felt her heart drop and her throat thicken. Apart from a few scratches of broken glass where the windshield had shattered around him and a bandage on his temple he looked unharmed, but if he didn't remember the crash, that could all be a deception.

"Your car was hit head on driving back to Manhatan a few hours ago, you don't remember?"

"I …" he paused as the flash of a vague, distant memory echoed back through his mind. A screech of tires, Charlie's panicked voice calling out, breaking glass and metal folding, giving way to the incessant beep of hospital equipment. "Yeah, I remember. It just seemed a lot longer ago than a few hours ago."

Nodding, she gripped his hand reassuringly. "You hit your head and you're lucky you didn't break anything considering the car is a write-off. The doctor said you can go home if they're happy with your CT scan and you're not concussed."

"That’s good, I don’t think I could handle any more hospital food,” he chuckled, his smile quickly fading when the joke fell flat and instead of smiling, Olivia’s full lips only twitched and pressed into a thin line. Sitting up, he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and walked around to meet her to prove he was okay. “Liv, I swear I feel fine. Apart from a few cuts and bruises and slight headache - which isn’t half as bad as the one I had after that Christmas party when Reynolds got me drunk. But if you wanna play ‘doctors and nurses’, I won’t protest -”

“Agent Lee? Nice to see you up and awake. Glad to hear you feel fine.”

Twisting in her chair to see the door behind her, Olivia watched as the doctor from earlier entered the room and checked the equipment surrounding Lincoln before examining his eyes with a small pen-sized flashlight. “I’m Doctor Brubaker. Are you experiencing any blurred vision, dizziness, ringing in your ears…”

“Nope. Head hurts a bit here,” Lincoln replied, gingerly touching the small lump on his forehead just above his right eye under the bandage. "But it's not the worst headache I’ve ever had.” 

She nodded. “Hmmm. Any sensitivity to light, nausea or tiredness?”

Lincoln shook his head again, glancing at Olivia before returning his gaze to the doctor who was studying the tablet she came in with.

“Confirm your full name and birth date please?”

“Lincoln Tyrone Lee, February twenty-second, nineteen seventy-eight.” 

“Who is the president of the United States?”

“Barack Obama.”

Over the next few minutes, the doctor continued working through the list of questions that Lincoln answered until she was satisfied he wasn’t affected by the injury while Olivia watched silently from her chair. “Your CT scan results aren’t showing any major issues,” Doctor Brubaker said, looking up from her device as she gestured for Lincoln to sit back down on the bed. “So I don’t see any reason to keep you in any longer if you insist on being discharged. However, you did sustain a head injury so I will insist with your superior that you are given at least forty-eight hours before returning to work and come back immediately if you feel unwell or experience any symptoms at all. Understood?”

Lincoln nodded in agreement at the doctor who left the room as he began to remove his coat and shoes from the bedside locker. “So what’s the plan, Liv? Did you find anything else out about our case since we spoke - ”

“Lincoln, don’t even think about it!” Olivia protested, standing up with her arms defiantly crossed over her chest. “The doctor told you to rest for at least two days, so there’s no way you’re - “

“Why not? You wouldn’t,” he said, matching her tone as he shrugged on his coat, and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Every time you’re told to rest, you defy orders and do the opposite. And so will I.”

“Yes, but I’m -”

“What?” 

I’m the one who takes risks. You’re the sensible one, Olivia thought. Her eyes, dark mossy green in the unforgiving glow of the hospital’s fluorescent lighting, glittered with a mixture of annoyance and desperation as they met the icy blue gaze of Lincoln’s under raised, expectant eyebrows. She knew he was right, but it didn’t mean she had to like it and hated that she couldn’t think of a valid reason or reply. Olivia hated that they were back in the hospital, that familiar clinical stench of disinfectant and blinking fluorescent bulbs and beeping medical equipment was infecting her senses and life again. She did the only thing she could think of and petulantly shoved Lincoln’s hands off of her shoulders, pushing past him to rush out of the door as the knot of panic that had taken root in her gut  burned like splinter in the back of her throat.

“Liv? Hey! What are you -” His voice trailed off like a rumble of thunder in the distance as she marched angrily back through the corridor towards the waiting area, ignoring his cries for her to wait for him, and Lincoln sighed in annoyance, muttering under his breath before calling out again. “Liv, will you just wait a minute? OLIVIA!”

Blushing slightly at the shocked faces of the nearby medical team on hearing his unusual outburst, his voice loudly reverberating around the washed out hospital walls, Lincoln sprinted the small gap to catch up with Olivia as she reached the exit, and reached for her arm to pull her back. “What is wrong with you? Why are you walking away?”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?” She spat, pushing his arm away as he held up his hands in surrender. “All this time you’ve insisted I take it easy when getting injured and you can’t even do it yourself. Isn’t that hypocritical of you?”

“So? The doc said I was fine, that’s just a precaution to cover their backs,” he sighed, daring to step closer and tapped her lightly on the arm with his fingertips, his familiar touch warm through the fabric of her top. “C’mon, Liv. I don’t want us to fight.”

“You hit your head, Lincoln! You were unconscious!”

He pouted and stepped back, knowing full well how stubborn Olivia could be but refusing to give in without a final word he decided to fight fire with fire, just to see what she'd do. 

“Fine, I'll make a deal with you. Look me in the eye and promise me you haven’t had any more disturbing dreams since you were exposed to that toxic gas in July last year and I’ll take two, actually no - make that three, days off of work sick.”

She paused. Just for a second, but it was enough for him to know the next few words that would come out of her mouth weren't going to be the complete truth, because even if there was still part of her she was reluctant to reveal, his FBI training and background in psychology meant he'd learned to tell when she was hiding something, just like he'd learned to tell when she was happy, or sad, or aroused. Most of the time he let it go because her stubborn nature would only make her clam up further, but he'd had enough of being placid and diplomatic for the sake of keeping the peace. “I haven’t had any -”

“- you’re lying. Now who’s the hypocrite?” Lincoln interrupted, his voice low and calmer than before but trembling with the realization there was still part of her that she refused to reveal to him and, nostrils flaring, he silently reached behind her to open the door to the main ward.

“Buddy, you have no idea how relieved I am to see you, I was fearing the worst!” Charlie exclaimed, smiling in relief. He rose to his feet from the plastic bench he was sitting on next to Astrid on seeing Lincoln push through the door with Olivia following a step behind. Lincoln's eyes were dark, stormy gray and his brows furrowed, but Charlie assumed that was due to the accident rather than his mood. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, thanks to your quick reaction. I just want to get out of here. Any developments in the case?" He frowned at the brief glance between Astrid and Charlie. "...What?" 

"You remember Jimmy and Dylan Smith?" Charlie replied, as Astrid stood up and Olivia leaned against the wall, rubbing the corner of her eyes with her fingertips.

"Of course. Well, I remember we were talking to Dylan. What about them?"

"They're dead," Astrid said solemnly, holding out a device to show the police report and images of their slumped bodies. "Autopsies haven't been carried out yet but the initial police investigation suggests it was murder/suicide."

"W-WHAT! How? I mean, it must have happened right after we left!” Lincoln stuttered in disbelief, grabbing the tablet from Astrid as if looking at it closer would disprove what she was saying. “Charlie and I were only there a couple of hours ago…"

“The local PD responded to 911 calls of hearing gunshots and found their bodies alone in their living room. We wouldn’t have even been informed about it if it wasn’t for the fact that Agent Francis’s card was found at the scene,” Astrid retorted as Lincoln handed her back the device.

"I'd bet you anything you like it wasn't suicide," Olivia remarked quietly but so confidently that it silenced the others and they turned to look at her curiously. "I bet they were murdered before we could find out anything else and it was made to look like they'd killed each other."

Charlie nodded in agreement, his lips twisting into an upside down smirk. "I had the same worrying thought but what if that means they aren't the only target?"

"You mean like Doctor Green who used to own the house?" Astrid replied. “We need to find her current address before anything happens to her.”

"No, I mean us,” Charlie added uneasily, his gaze catching on the angry bruise on Lincoln’s forehead. “What if the car accident we were in wasn't actually an accident and we were deliberately ran off the road to warn us? Make us back off the case?"

“All the more reason for us not to quit,” Lincoln retorted.

****

Particles of dust, barely illuminated by a shard of daylight that cut through a crack in the boarded up window, drifted in the stale air of the dark room like the snow outside. Mechanical beeps and flashing lights began to radiate through the dingy basement, piercing colorful points of light through the damp air and shadows like Christmas decorations then abruptly died away again, returning the room into a state of darkness and silence. Adjusting settings on a watch device on their wrist, the person quickly peered at the equipment’s display before leaving.

***

When they left the hospital, the sky was a deep indigo and the inky road glittered with ice crystals reflected by the amber streetlamps and car headlights. Mutually deciding it was best to return home to rest and eat, and meet early again the next day, Olivia dropped off Charlie and Astrid to their homes before driving her and Lincoln back to their apartment in silence. 

“We’re home,” she said bluntly, pulling into a curb side space outside their apartment building and turning off the engine. "Are you coming in? I’d rather not freeze out here, so if not I’ll see you later.”

Olivia released her seat belt and opened her door, placing her hands on her hips expectedly.

“That was quick,” he remarked, looking up from his tablet and frowning as he craned to peer up through the windshield. "Wait, we’re here? At the apartment? What about the house?”

“What house?” Olivia stuttered through chattering teeth, pulling her coat around her chest as her warm breath produced steam trails in the cold air, her concern for Lincoln outweighing any annoyance she felt at his unusually carefree attitude from earlier. “You sure you’re okay?”

Lincoln blinked and rubbed his eyes before leaving the car, dismissing the lightning bolt flash image of how he was sure they should be living in an old house another twenty minutes away. He jogged after Olivia who was already nearly at the apartment building’s main entrance and shook his head dismissively. “Yeah, fine. Let’s get inside where it’s warm and get something to eat.”

They ate dinner quietly, the only sounds their cutlery scraping their plates as they twisted tomato saturated spaghetti around their forks and the clink of their glasses of water, stealing brief glances until Olivia looked up from her food to watch Lincoln through low lashes. The bump on his head was a smudge of ochre and violet where he'd removed the bandage, speckled with spots of dried blood like an Arizona canyon at sunset, keeping them them apart.

“You mind if I have a bath to warm up?” She blurted, the earthy green of her eyes meeting the stormy gray of his as he washed down his last mouthful of pasta with a gulp of water. "I haven't stopped shivering all day."

“Sure,” he said, his voice flat as he shrugged. "Can I shower quickly first though? I know you like to be in there for at least an hour. I won’t be long.”

"Of course, I'll tidy the kitchen and fill the dishwasher while I wait for you to get out."

Lincoln stood, sullenly tucking his dining chair under the table and walked towards the bathroom. "Okay." 

By the time he'd finished showering and strolled from the bathroom to his room with a towel tucked around his waist in a trail of steam, his hair and chest damp with droplets, Olivia was taking sips of hot fruit tea and honey from a mug while tucked under a blanket on the couch. "Bathroom is all yours."

Nodding, Olivia had considered calling her mom but she felt too weary to explain the whole situation now, especially knowing she'd be told she had always been too stubborn for her own good. Besides, it was getting closer to midnight and although Marilyn would insist she didn't mind, Olivia would feel guilty for waking her mom when she was still feeling ill.

When she entered the bathroom, Olivia's mouth twitched into a bittersweet smile. Not only was the scent of Lincoln’s favorite shower gel lingering in the steamy air, the familiar mix of mint and earthy herbal scents that was both masculine and comforting, but he'd run hot water into the tub and filled it with bubbles from the same bottle, reminding her of the first time they'd showered together. His sky blue gaze had watched her intently as her palms desperately slipped against the smooth, cool ceramic tiles while his warm, calloused fingers fastidiously mapped every millimeter of her damp and flushed skin to his memory. It had been one of the most tender and yet erotic moments she'd experienced and she realized that it was her favorite scent too ever since.

Peeling off her clothes and dumping them into the hamper, Olivia sunk into the hot water, the crackling bubbles covering her like a blanket, and she contemplated why she hadn't told Lincoln everything about her dreams, even though he'd accepted everything she'd told him before without any signs of jealousy or anger, with only concern for her health. Even when she'd confessed that she'd slept with his double, he hadn't reacted as she'd come to expect. She couldn't bring herself to tell him what she'd seen for them. A few times, he’d looked happy and content, smiling widely and revealing his slights gaps in his teeth that Olivia found so adorably irresistible. But they were outweighed by the visions where Lincoln was broken and defeated, his face sunken and rough, etched with tears and despair. Olivia wished more than anything that she'd never seen him that way and hoped - prayed - that she never would in real life, but if she told him, she'd have to admit to herself they were inevitable.

***

Lincoln's soft snores and heavy breaths echoed through the cold, dark apartment from behind his bedroom door when Olivia emerged from the cooled bath water. Leaning against the frame, she could make out the faint outline of his body in the inky shadows and dared herself to cross over the threshold, padding gently on the carpet with her bare feet before pulling back the duvet and comforter to get underneath the layers of blankets.

Stirring when the bed dipped and Olivia nuzzled against his warm chest, Lincoln sleepily rolled onto his side towards her.

"Hey," he mumbled sleepily in surprise, his voice rough with sleep and he wrapped his arm around Olivia’s waist to pull her close. "I thought you were pissed at me and would wanna sleep in your own bed."

"I was... but it's warmer to sleep in here with you than on my own," she teased, unnecessarily holding him by the waist in case he pulled away like Frank would when he was angry, refusing any physical touch or gestures of affection. "Besides, you ran a bath for me. Why did you do that? Aren’t you pissed at me?"

“Just because I was pissed, doesn’t mean I stopped loving you,” Lincoln's breath hitched as Olivia's hand tucked into the space between them and teasingly drew a pattern from his upper chest to the line of hair at his navel where the waistband of his pajama bottoms were and he huffed a little laugh in response. "And no I’m not. Not anymore, anyway." 

"Good," Olivia smiled into his mouth at his vocal and almost instant physical response to the dexterous movements of her hand and his breaths quickening into short, frantic puffs. "Linc, when I was in the bath, I was thinking…"

"Oh yeah… 'bout what?"

"Once we've finished this case, I'm gonna go and see the work shrink about my, um, dreams."

"Doctor Anderson? You are?" Lincoln gripped her hand at the wrist to stop her movements, his eyes shining in the dark when he pulled back slightly to check her face in disbelief. "What changed your mind?"

"You," she replied simply. It wasn't untrue but it wasn't just a simple case of being persuaded either. "So will you please just take it easy for a few days? Let me look after you for a change?"

"Fine," he sighed, relaxing his grip and rolling her back so he was covering Olivia’s body with his own without weighing down on her. "Wait a minute, did you just admit I was right and you were wrong?"

"Don't get used to it."

Lincoln smiled again as he pressed his lips against her jaw and trailed kisses down to her collarbone. "I wouldn’t dream of  it. This, on the other hand, I could definitely get used to."

***

"Mommy, Mommy! C’mon!” The little boy called, tugging hard on the woman’s hard as he ran down the bright hall, lit by hazy amber sunlight that streamed through a long row of windows. “Daddy’s waiting for us.”

Following him in rushed steps while clenching his small hand in her own, her other hand held onto a modest bouquet of rainbow flowers and the material of her floor-length white dress trimmed with embroidered blossoms in blues, reds, purples and oranges, her footsteps echoing with his through the hall.

He led her through glass-paneled wooden patio doors at the end of the corridor that opened out to manicured gardens. A a party of people sat in two groups of seats, decorated in multi-colored ribbons and flowers, turning to smile at her as she walked past them - Charlie, Mona and Nellie, Astrid and Erikson among them, making her smile with happiness until realized she couldn’t see Lincoln anywhere.

“Where’s Lincoln?” dhe frowned, her smile fading as she panicked in annoyance that no one else seemed to be bothered he wasn’t there. “Will someone tell me where…“

“Daddy’s there!” The boy called as a familiar voice whispered behind her.

“Hey Liv."

She whipped around to see Lincoln, dressed in a simple navy suit and waistcoat, white shirt and burgundy tie with a small posy of flowers pinned to his jacket lapel. Beaming in a wide smile, his blue eyes sparkled like a crisp winter sky. “I can’t believe we finally did it.”

Taking her hand in his own, the white gold ring on his left hand glinted in the pulsating light, which flashed faster and faster and increased in brightness, surrounding them until she could barely see.

“I don’t understand,” Olivia stammered, stepping backwards and holding up in her hands in uncertainty, the bouquet dropping to the floor so the petals scattered like confetti at their feet.

“Daddy!” The boy smiled, trying to reach for the flowers on Lincoln’s lapel as he picked the boy up, holding him on his hip, his fine dark hair and aquamarine eyes glinting in the light.

“Henry?” Olivia replied, squinting in the light as surprise spread over Lincoln's and the boy’s face.

“Who’s Henry?” Lincoln scoffed. “Liv, are you okay? We need to get going if we’re gonna make the airship. Charlie and Mona are ready to look after Trevor for a few days for us.”

“Trevor?” she gasped, the boy outstretching his hands to Olivia to be held on hearing his name. “Where are we going?”

“Uh, our honeymoon?” He replied, his face twisting with concern, then the light finally absorbed him into one last flash of light.

*

“Liv? You okay?” Lincoln asked through the cloudy haze of Olivia’s dream, slowly bringing her back to reality. “You were talking in your sleep. Nightmares again?”

“Yes. I - no,” Olivia sighed, pushing down the sheets that felt claustrophobic and heavy on her chest. “I don’t know. What was I saying?”

“I couldn’t make it out, something about your dad, I think. His name was Trevor, right?" he replied sleepily, rubbing his eyes and peering at the neon alarm clock before stepping out of bed with a groan. "We've got about half an hour or so to get ready if we wanna get to Long Island and pick up Charlie on the way. Do you wanna get a couple of those cinnamon malasadas you like for breakfast from Padaria de Divina’s?” 

The thought of her favorite pastries made Olivia’s stomach growl with hunger and they hurried to leave early, grabbing an ample amount for them all along with disposable cups of hot tea for the journey. They were gratefully received by Charlie who slumped sleepily on the back seat of the car when Lincoln and Olivia picked him up from his house as the sun began to rise.

“Astrid is headed back to HQ to cover for us two so Erikson doesn’t get suspicious,” Charlie said to Olivia. He took a large mouthful of muffin and scrolled through the tablet, missing the glance Olivia threw at Lincoln, that as far Erikson knew, Lincoln was resting in bed. “The Brookhaven site is a 13 square mile campus, that’s a big area to cover.”

Olivia nodded in agreement and sniffed as she took a sip of her tea. “We should split up and search separately rather than in a group.”

“I agree, if that’s okay with you?” Lincoln said to Charlie as Olivia drove their car towards the Queens tunnels looming like black holes on the horizon, pulling in the lines of cars whose scarlet rear lights dissolved into nothing as they drove inside. 

*

By the time they arrived at the campus, the crimson and inky violet sky had melted away into crystal clear aquamarine dotted with islands of low, gray clouds and frosting on the parked cars glittered in  the sunlight. The three agents split up once parked, walking in different directions across the immense research campus, blending in with the students and research scientists to locate the directors’ offices in the maze of buildings and trees in the grounds. After walking for twenty minutes, Charlie noticed a dirtied sign faded by the weather and partly obscured by an overgrown thicket. 

BNL

Dir…ctors

Dr Kate…en DoD Research

Dr M..vin Aur…las Biop…sics

Dr B Ry…   Par…hology and Genet…sc..nce

Pushing some of the bare, scrawny branches aside, he peered closer at the pale and worn-out words, tracing the lettering that were barely readable but revealed enough to convince him to begin walking down the nearby footpath towards an unassuming low-rise building.

The loose stone shingle rattled under Charlie’s boots as he stepped over the bumps of exposed tree roots and trails of ivy that spread across the path from the overgrown hedges lining the path, guiding him to the small, unassuming building which was isolated from the main campus. Squeezing through the chain mail fencing around the perimeter, Charlie approached the main door which, once white, was now stained with dark brown smudges the same color as the brickwork. A point of amber light caught his attention as it flickered for a second behind the frosted glass panel in the front door and cautiously, he reached for the metal door handle and turned it. Surprised it opened without much effort, he stepped inside.

The air was stale and musty from years of being undisturbed, and a layer of dust laid over plastic sheeting covering the low table and chairs in the small waiting area, leading to a vacant reception desk with filing cabinets and drawers to the side, emptied apart from a few discarded papers. Charlie moved around it to flick a light switch and, on realizing it wasn't working, entered the long dark corridor that stretched out in front of him. With slow, deliberate movements, he retrieved his handgun and flashlight from their holsters and stepped forward, following the beam of light from his flashlight that highlighted the dusty particles in the air and the pale patches on the walls irregularly blemished with holes where pictures or equipment had hung before. 

Stepping further down the dim corridor, locked doors appeared from the shadows in the beam of light, blocking the way to disused offices and labs, and lowered blinds concealed the rooms behind their windows. Charlie turned the corner and ended at a chained door locked by a padlock and reached up to press his ear cuff, clearing his dry throat while waiting for the call to connect.

*

At the main building, Olivia’s long, dark auburn hair swished on her shoulders as she jogged up the broad outer steps to the main door of the bright and airy reception area that opened automatically to let her through. Bright early morning light streamed through the three story, ceiling high windows, casting light shadows over the white polished flooring and groups of people who congregated around the minimalistic decor and modern furniture. 

Sat behind the reception with short light brown hair and jade green eyes, a young man looked up as Olivia approached the long desk, and he smiled slightly as she leaned on the glossy white surface. “Can I help you?”

“Agent Dunham, Fringe Division,” Olivia said, holding up her badge for inspection while cheerfully smiling back. Her hazel gaze flickered across his young, delicate features briefly towards his name badge before continuing. “Daniel, I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of Doctor Green’s office?”

Daniel frowned, tapping the keyboard attached to the screen. “I’m sorry, we don’t have any staff of that name registered in the system. Are you sure you have the correct name?”

Nodding, Olivia held up her finger to excuse herself as her ear cuff buzzed with an incoming call. “Dunham. Charlie? What’s up?” His voice crackled with interference as he spoke, making his voice barely audible to Olivia so it skipped like a broken record. “I can’t hear you, have you found something?”

The connection cut out abruptly, leaving the echo of a deadline in Olivia’s ear as she turned back to the main desk. 

“Doctor Green, they’re the Head of DoD contracts here," she replied, still being met with a confused look from Daniel as he shook his head and blinked at the screen in confusion. "Is there someone here I can speak to who can help?"

“Sorry, the system doesn’t have any record of that name. I’ll call a Director for you, please take a seat while you wait,” Daniel gestured to the seating area that was gradually emptying as the crowd of people moved away.

Stepping away to wait by the chairs, Olivia tried calling back Charlie while she waited and when it rang out, she called HQ.

"Astrid? It's Olivia," she said, pacing back and forth through the sunlight streaming in the fifty foot high windows. "Can you run a trace on Charlie? He tried calling me but I couldn't get a decent signal."

"Agent Dunham," Astrid whispered, her eyes flickering across the rotunda to ensure no one could overhear her. "I am forwarding Agent Francis's location which is approximately three miles south by southwest from where you are to you now. Is that all?" 

"That's it for now, thanks Astrid," Olivia disconnected the call and immediately started another. 

'Liv? You okay?" Lincoln's voice asked casually.

"Yeah, where are you?"

"I just passed the NSRL building," his voice changed slightly on processing the hint of concern in Olivia’s voice. "What's up?" 

"Charlie called me but we got cut off and he isn't answering. Can you look for him if I send you his coordinates?"

"Sure, of course," Lincoln paused as he stopped to check his device for the location and double-backed on his steps. "Any joy in finding Doctor Green?"

"Nothing yet, in fact they're denying she even works here."

"Huh, that's an, uh, interesting," he said, following the map's direction. "So what now - find Charlie and head back to HQ?"

"I'll keep you posted," Olivia replied, hanging up the call as a man dressed in a white coat with salt and pepper hair and a light beard approached her with an outstretched hand.

"Are you the Fringe agent?" he asked, shaking Olivia’s hand as she nodded and gestured for her to sit on the padded seat opposite. "Professor Robert Gerrold. I'm the deputy director for science and technology here. I understand you're trying to locate someone who you believe to be a member of our team?

"Yes, I need to locate a Doctor Kate Green," she explained, her mind whirring curiously at the micro expressions on Gerrold's face at the mention of the woman's name and leaned forward when he dodged her gaze. "So you do know her? If you know where she is you have to tell me. Her life could be in danger."

"I think it's too late for that," Gerrold retorted, scratching the graying hairs of his beard. "As far as I know, Doctor Green died four years ago."

***

Something about this part of the campus began to feel eerily familiar to Lincoln, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, like the feeling of when a horror movie soundtrack would indicate a serial killer was concealed behind the curtains or paintings followed your movements around a haunted house. The abandoned building’s front door swung open as Lincoln nudged it open and approached the location on his device. Following fresh footprints on the dusty linoleum floor, Lincoln cocked his handgun and flashlight in reaction at the sight of a figure slumped on against the door frame of an open door, a metal chain swinging from the bar behind.

He called out, his voice tight with panic as he checked the still body for signs of life or injury. “Charlie?”

“Lincoln?” Charlie groaned, clutching a bloody wound on his thigh. “I didn’t see them coming, it’s like they literally appeared from nowhere.”

“Who?” Lincoln replied, preoccupied by tugging at his tie to loosen the knot and making a tourniquet around Charlie’s thigh.

“I didn’t see their face,” Charlie winced as Lincoln tightened the fabric and motioned through the door behind him. “Whoever it was, they went through there. I tried calling Liv, but there seems to be a signal black spot here.”

Pulling him to his feet, Lincoln wrapped Charlie’s arm around his shoulder and helped him to hobble to the small, two foot high brick wall at the entrance where he sat down. “You should get a signal here, call Liv again while I go check it out.”

“You know she’s gonna lose her shit with you if you get hurt again!” Charlie shouted, making Lincoln stop as his hand rested on the door knob.

He smirked, his eyebrows twitching in a way that caught Charlie unaware. It was a blasé look Charlie would have expected from the original Lincoln but seeing it on his doppelgänger was almost disquieting when he was usually so cautious and diligent. "I guess I better not get hurt, then.”

With that, Lincoln disappeared from Charlie’s view back into the disused building.

***

“I was never told exactly what happened," Gerrold continued, passing an old file to Olivia as they walked towards his office. "Because her work and team had all been classified since the 90s, and was strictly out of bounds for anyone not authorized by the DoD. But not long after I started working here, back when I was just heading my own research team, I arrived really early for work one day to meet a deadline and she’d been here all night, finally completing a formula for a theory that she’d been working on for years, possibly decades. She was almost catatonic with shock that she’d finally fixed the problem that had eluded her for so long. Within a year, her lab had been shut down and was moved to its own department on the outskirts of the site with their own security guard and completely out of the way of prying eyes.”

“Was that anywhere near here?” Olivia asked, pointing to Charlie’s last known location on her device’s map to the professor.

“Err, yes… I think so,” he frowned. His kind, cognac eyes narrowed and flickered wistfully as he searched his memory for confirmation. “I'm pretty sure that was the place.”

Olivia nodded, sliding the device back into her pocket.

“We have Fringe Agents checking out that area now, is there anything else they should know?”

“All I know is… something went wrong with the experiments. Wrong enough that that whole thing got shut down and everyone working on her team was dismissed and silenced by the DoD.”

“But you said that Doctor Green died. If no one saw the body, could she not have just left like the rest of her team?” She quizzed, looking over the little information in the file that Gerrold had handed her.

When Olivia looked up, he shook his head solemnly and sighed.

“That day, before the DoD arrived, I heard someone say she was completely…”

“What?” 

“They said she’d dematerialized,” Gerrold said, his voice taught with incredulity. “Effectively evaporated into atoms, that was why they got shut down.”

***

Tracing his and Charlie’s dusty steps, Lincoln strode back down the long corridor to the end door and pushed it aside. The rusty chain clattered in protest at being disturbed and Lincoln peered around to find it wasn’t a room behind, just a small hall area with an elevator and staircase that spiraled down so many flights of stairs, the light from his flashlight was barely able to distinguish the bottom floor. Unsure that the elevator was safe or would even work, he began to descend the steps, the air getting more damp and musty with each flight of steps. Eventually, on reaching the lowest floor, Lincoln stepped towards the distant hum and red glow that came from the end of the long hall, only to be stopped in his tracks by the click of someone cocking the hammer of a gun behind him, the noise ominously punctuating the stale air.

“Drop the weapon and kick it away," they said and he obliged, holding his hands up obediently. “Agent Lee, I knew we’d meet again.” Lincoln froze at the female voice he thought he should recognize but couldn’t, like the memory was a name or word on the tip of his tongue and just out of reach. The gun barrel poked his spine between his shoulder blades, pushing him forwards. “Let’s go.”

They slowly walked forwards, eventually reaching a metallic circular platform that housed a ball of glowing energy held within a mirrored cage. It unsettled him to look at the ruby red glow of the machine, like it was forbidden or impossible to exist and yet Lincoln couldn’t look away, the curiosity and compulsion pulling him towards the undulating glowing mass. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch out like years, Lincoln pulled his gaze away from the orb’s magnetic view and back to reality to follow the movement of the figure who was still pointing her weapon in Lincoln’s direction. “Do we know each other?”

“You don't know me, but I know you, "she replied, stepping forwards to reveal her face in the crimson glow. 

“What?” Lincoln huffed in disbelief, stepping toward her only to step back as she raised her gun and pocketed his. “Who are you?”

She smiled knowingly, “I’m Kate Green.”

Chapter Text

Early 2007

The white Egyptian cotton bed sheets were cold when he slipped under the layers of blankets in the early hours of the morning. In the deep blackness of the room his eyes could barely make out the form of the woman sleeping in the bed who sighed as the mattress creaked with his movements. It was an empty obligation and perfunctory ritual considering he'd barely slept for the last twenty-two years; instead he'd spent most nights at his desk with a glass of whiskey, often more than one, pondering how he could reverse that fateful winter night when his world had both ended and doubled at the same time. 

He'd used every waking moment to write formulas and equations, consumed by the numbers and figures. Every moment spent asleep was a mere waste of time, and step back from pulling the puzzle apart. But it had been a futile endeavor that had slipped through his fingers like grains of sand in an hourglass and the progress in science had faded away with every tick of the hand, the only solace the emptied crystal glass that made his mind forget the pain.

***

When he abruptly woke, the other side of the bed was empty and the wintry amber light pushed through the heavy gray drapes of the large bedroom window. The sickly scent of breakfast pulled him from the murky clutches of a dream, where the lake and time was frozen, and he descended the stairs, following the sound of a whistling kettle and clatter of utensils to the large open plan kitchen.

“You’re up already, I thought you’d stay in bed for a while longer,” Elizabeth said bluntly, without even turning around from the stove to acknowledge him, her soft Irish accent hardened with a sarcastic tone, bitter with resentment. “What time did you get in last night?”

“I don’t know, I was working at the DoD lab…” Walter paused, noticing the slump in her posture as he sat at the breakfast bar. He sometimes considered that if he’d lied and said he was having an affair, she would prefer it to hearing he was there instead of being at home. Truth be told, it was easier for him to be at work than home when everything - but especially her - was a painful reminder of their son’s fate.

He frowned, deepening the lines on his weathered face as a small envelope with tattered corners propped against the fruit bowl caught his attention. It was highly unusual to receive letters in the post, never mind to see one with his name scrawled on the front of the creased paper in blotchy ink without an address or stamp. “What’s that?”

“It came yesterday, I assumed you were expecting it," she shrugged, tucking her dark brown curls tinted with gray behind her ears and crossing her arms over her chest as Walter leaned across the table and unfolded the back, lifting the unsealed flap. Elizabeth leaned across the counter and grabbed his wrist when she realized he was as surprised to see it as she was. “Are you sure you should open it? What if it's contaminated with something?”

As she spoke, a small piece of folded paper fell out from the envelope like confetti and fluttered to the floor, and he picked it up, unfolding the page carefully with his creased hands to reveal a handwritten note in the same writing on the envelope. “Tachyons, Dark Matter and the Philosophy of Time Travel’ by Doctor K. Green. ” Elizabeth read out as Walter held it up to inspect it under the flickering fluorescent light in vain. “What does it mean?”

“I don't know, it's probably nothing, ” Walter replied dismissively, tucking the note into the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket and taking a sip of the pungent artificial coffee from the steaming mug in front of him. "But if it is anything important, I'll find out.”

***

Early 2009

Gerrold's footsteps echoed as he walked on the tiled flooring of the dark and empty corridor, causing the overhead automatic lighting to gradually flicker on. He moved towards the end that was still cloaked in shadows, where glowing light bled under one of the laboratory doors caught his attention, the only room in the campus that displayed any sign of activity at the early hour. He peered around the heavy wooden door and watched the figure of the woman hunched over the desk, furiously typing at the keyboard, the shadows on her face illuminated an alien shade of green by the glow of the beige, bulky monitor. The lines on her forehead were made prominent by her intense frown but he guessed that she was around the same age he was and in her mid, maybe late, forties. Oblivious to his presence as she concentrated on her work, she scratched at her scalp in frustration, messing her caramel blonde bobbed hair and sighed, absentmindedly taking a large gulp of a tepid drink from her chipped mug and grimaced at the taste of the stale, lukewarm beverage.

“It’s Kate, right? Here, I made a fresh brew - have mine,” Gerrold said, venturing into the lab as she flinched in surprise, looking up at him with hazel eyes wide with concern and weary determination. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Thanks, I just - didn’t think anyone else was in yet," she nodded, gratefully taking the steaming mug of tea from his hands and smiling briefly at the caption on the side of the ceramic cup that read ‘No Flux Given’. “I would’ve locked the door if I knew, we’re not supposed to allow people who aren’t in the BNL/TDP team in here.”

“I thought I was the only one crazy enough to get here this early too. I gotta few loose ends to tie up on my project before I drive up to Montauk, thought I’d beat the morning rush on the Throgs Neck bridge,” he muttered quickly and shrugged, leaned awkwardly against her desk so a small framed photograph of a bespectacled man with brown hair wobbled slightly against the varnished surface. “I just thought… you look like you could do with a hot drink. What time did you get in?” The window behind them rattled suddenly with the force of the howling autumnal wind that lashed leaves in copper and rust against the glass, the crystalline raindrops that reflected the glow of the flickering street lamps outside making them stick against the shivering panes. Startled, they turned in tandem to the window before catching each other’s gaze again. Gerrold frowned as she wearily looked away and the realization hit him. “You’ve been here all night?”

Kate pinched the bridge of her nose and pushed the balls of her palms into her bleary eyes and rubbed them. “I’ve been working on these calculations and formulas but every time I feel I am getting close to solving them I have to start over,” she sighed, pressing her lips together in frustration. “I don’t know. I know it’s there, I just can’t --”

“See the woods for the trees?” Gerrold added as Kate nodded, and studied the patterns in the leaves that were stuck against the window. “So maybe that’s what’s the matter. Instead of looking at each problem as a single tree, look at the whole thing as one entangled phenomenon…”

“That’s not…” her voice trailed off as she frowned and then blinked repeatedly, tapping the windowpane. "It’s not the tree. It’s the leaves.”

“The leaves?”

“They’re symmetrical. That’s it!” Kate sat back at the desk and began to furiously type again as the screen flickered back on and rambled excitedly. “Everything needs to be balanced. Time and the fourth dimension is not affected when the geometric coordinates are transformed by means of symmetry operations. If you impact the Jozsa particle with a tachyon, the singularity should split into two perfectly symmetrical…” 

“T-t-the Jozsa particle?” Gerrold interrupted with a huff, his voice strained with incredulity. 

She paused briefly, as if suddenly aware of not being alone, then hit the enter key to start the simulation regardless. “Yes.”

The spherical 3D object on the screen, rotated and split like two cells, perfect mirror images of each other reflected each other’s movements as they moved apart in identical motions. “So, one is going forwards, and the other is going… backwards?”

“Correct. Two particles, simultaneously going both one second into the past and traveling one second into the future. And the system has not collapsed.”

“How?” Gerrold frowned, staring at the screen in disbelief. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I've seen this.”

Kate nodded. She’d been sworn to secrecy through NDA’s through the DoD but somehow she trusted Gerrold more than anyone on her team, as if she knew his whiskey eyes and his soul from an echo of a time they’d both forgotten that was bleeding through the cracks of her memory. “The interaction of dark matter with the Jozsa particle created a naked singularity, but the tachyons meant as they separate they become quantum entangled, eventually making a stable and manipulated Einstein-Rosen bridge.”

He huffed another laugh before his eyebrows knitted again, causing the fine lines on his forehead to crease even deeper than before. “Wait, you can’t be serious! You're not saying what I think you’re saying?”

“That this proves time travel, going both backwards and forwards, is possible? That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

***

February 2014

Her army boots made heavy steps on the wide open stone steps as Olivia jogged down them, the glass walls of the reception behind her as she followed the map to Charlie’s location. Leaving the students and scientists behind, she looked up from her device and realized the area was now virtually deserted compared to where she’d been. There were few cars or signs of activity and the plants were not pruned or landscaped and had been left to get overgrown and wild, and their bare winter branches grasped out at her as she brushed past them.

Pressing her ear cuff, she leaned against a rusting chain mail fence that rattled and shivered with the touch of her arm “Dunham.” 

“Hey Liv, it’s me,” Charlie’s voice said down the line. “Where are you?”

“Charlie? Is Lincoln with you? He should be there by now.”

 “Yeah, he was here, Liv. But, uh, you need to get down here.”

Her eyes widened. Olivia had known Charlie long enough to know the slight change in intonations and inflections in his voice that occurred when he was trying to hide his concern, and she swallowed thickly as she picked up her steps again in his direction. “What do you mean, ‘was’?” 

“Someone jumped me and I hurt my leg as I fell on some old equipment," his voice juddered with the unsteady signal and he winced uncomfortably. Sitting on the crumbling brick wall to inspect the wound through the tear in his pants, his blood was warm and sticky under his palms. The metallic tang flooded his senses in the crisp cold air, untouched by the winter sun. His wound had stopped bleeding and seemed superficial but would likely need a couple of stitches and so a believable excuse as it would be hard to explain to Erikson and the Fringe medical team.

“Lincoln followed them but I haven’t heard back from him yet.”

“I’ll be there in ten, hang in there Charlie.” Olivia replied, unaware she was almost running in the direction of Charlie’s location.

***

Boston - 2005

The small shop was crammed with flowers and the heady scent filled the air with an intoxicating perfume that wrapped around him like a blanket. 

“I’ll take a bunch of the roses,” the man said, pointing to the display behind the florist who pulled one out from the various floral bouquets and posies. "A-actually, make it two but can you wrap them together?”

“Of course,” she smiled at the older man with chestnut brown hair and warm hazel eyes behind his thick reading glasses. "If it’s a special occasion, I can add a message on a gift card for you.”

“That would be wonderful, thank you. They’re a surprise for my wife, she doesn’t know I’m back early from a work trip for our anniversary,” he paused, trying to think of an appropriate message and stuttered for a moment, flustered with trying to convey what he wanted to say. “Can you just write, ‘My Dearest Kate, I will always be here for you, every time you need me. Your loving husband, Raymond.”

He carried the large bouquet down the busy street towards the ornate, Tudor-esque building of the local college, its Gothic tower looming over the pristine manicured gardens and casting shadows on the bright green blades of grass that crumpled under his brown leather oxfords. The air, crisp and cool, nipped at his skin and he pulled the coarse fabric of his woolen coat across his chest as he sat on a secluded wooden bench hidden behind a thicket of elm trees, watching a crowd of students hurry away towards the main road. Placing the bouquet in its crinkling cellophane shroud next to him on the varnished timber planks of the bench, he adjusted his audio implant to fade out the background noise before pulling out a small paperback book from his coat pocket. Dabbing his fingertips with a slight lick of saliva from tip of his moist and deep pink tongue that flickered out between his lips, he thumbed the creased, dog-eared page where the bookmark had laid, still and stiff as a corpse in the mortuary under a paper blanket and scratched his graying beard in concentration with every word he read of the book bound in embroidered burgundy fabric. The familiar scent of the ink-stained paper blended with lingering ozone, the fresh cut grass and the flowers in their sunset shades of crimson, butterscotch and salmon and the pages rippled in the faint breeze. Only a handful of tiger stripe clouds blemished the clear and calm sky, barely containing the shards of sunlight that seeped through as the ochre sun edged towards the horizon and it reflected off the building’s glittering windows.

A distant rumble announced an airship that hovered overhead behind him like a suspended sarcophagus but he continued reading, oblivious to the mechanical reverberations that crackled with a sudden surge of energy and increased into a booming roar, as a rippling circular portal ripped through the air like a giant invisible pencil stabbing through the crepe paper-thin atmosphere and rippled outwards in a shock wave. Engrossed in the story of Renfrew's paradox, heavy tires scorched marks on the asphalt road as the black trucks abruptly screeched to a halt nearby and spilled out various military personnel in gunmetal gray uniforms that cordoned off the area with yellow tape and flashing red lights.

"You’re with me, red! Nothing like jumping in the deep end on your first week on the job.” 

 A younger man with messily-spiked, mousy blond hair and beige combat pants jumped down from the back of the van, removing a device from the strap around his toned but slim thighs, and spoke to a woman of similar age in her mid-20s, with long dark auburn hair and a wide smile. He turned to a slightly older man with cropped black hair and kind ebony eyes. “Charlie, you get the others and liaise with emergency services. The molecular incohesion looks like it’s off the scale.”

They jogged up the stairs to the building, disappearing inside.

“Let’s see how those skills translate into the real world. What do rapid shifts in barometric pressure and static electricity mean to you?”

She looked back at him, her green eyes widening as the beeping on his device quickened. “50 bucks says it’s a class 4. Sir.”

He grimaced, his sky blue eyes narrowing at the screen “I hope you’re wrong, Dunham, or this whole area is gonna be lost.” 

***

February 2014 

Present Day

In the mesmerizing and ominous scarlet glow that flooded the room,  Lincoln blinked repeatedly and frowned in disbelief as Kate moved around the shimmering curtain of light turned back to him. “You want to run and hide, but feel compelled to look at it, don’t you? The throat has that effect.”

The whole room seemed to vibrate with the undulating movement of the wall of light, as if they were in the belly of a huge industrial machine or in the eye of a storm and a hurricane or tornado was turning around them.

“I --” his voice trailed away and he nodded, gulped thickly and slowly extended his arm and then fingers, unable to resist the urge to touch it, surprised at how it seemed to feel impossibly freezing cold when his mind expected it to be emitting heat. The closer he reached, the more his hand seemed to vibrate unnaturally, his splayed out fingers flickering in and out of existence in intervals that lasted nanoseconds.

“I wouldn't get too close if I were you,” Kate smirked as Lincoln reluctantly withdrew his hand and quickly held it back up with the other in surrender as if suddenly remembering that not only did the woman have his weapon but she was pointing a gun directly at him.

“-- What is it?”

She circled around the podium before turning back to him, her eyes almost black in the infrared light. “You could analyze it using every device imaginable but nothing could answer that question. It doesn't exist. It has no atomic mass, it weighs nothing, it doesn't change or decay. It gives off no heat, no radiation, no energy. So really, there is no way I could tell you what it is.”

“But, that’s impossible, it's there, I-I can see it!” Lincoln argued, unable to accept what Kate was saying, “It must be something. What’s it for? What does it do?”

“Did you know when you look at snowflakes under a microscope, everyone is unique but perfectly symmetrical? Just like everything in the universe, in all ten dimensions, stabilized and balanced in beautiful geometry.” Kate said cryptically, barely looking up from the equipment, confident that there was no need to be concerned about Lincoln’s movements as he was captivated by the glow of the machine. “And everyone has millions of moments in their lives. Each one lasts a couple of minutes, maybe even a few seconds. Like snowflakes, each one is unique and eventually melts away, forgotten and insignificant, replaced by the next, over and over until --”

“-- No,” Lincoln interrupted, shaking his head subconsciously and pursed his lips in disagreement. He'd never been particularly religious but he’d begun to believe in Robert’s philosophy of everything happening for a reason, clinging to the belief that every moment was joined to the one before and the one previous, just as everything in the world was connected. “I refuse to accept that. Every moment and action has significance whether we realize it or not. Each one has an effect on the next, like a butterfly beating its wings making a hurricane on the other side of the world.”

Moving back to the computer equipment in the shadows, Kate tapped at the keyboard. Flashing lights flickered over the machinery, piercing points of light through a spectrum of colors in the darkness that caused the door to reconfigure into a metallic glittering sheet of light that eventually morphed into a cloudy mirror, reflecting Lincoln’s face back to him, his eyes wide in disbelief. “And if you could eliminate that butterfly, stop the hurricane that had affected so many people's lives and devastated the world, would you?”

He paused, entranced by the shifting perspective of the morphing curtain of light then huffed in disbelief at the implications of the question. “That would be impossible. And even if it was, there's no way to know what the repercussions would be. By killing the butterfly, it could cause worse damage than the hurricane.” 

Lincoln considered the circumstances that had led him to this very moment. If Robert hadn't made them late for work, they wouldn't have been given the case that led them to chase the suspect who was dealing illegal weapons, Robert wouldn't have been killed by a shape-shifter and Lincoln would have never met the Fringe team, leading him to this universe and the only place he'd ever felt was home.

On the other hand, his alternate would still be alive. 

The guilt of the other Lincoln’s death was still an invisible weight he carried around his neck that weighed him down when the tidal waves of self-doubt hit. But the one thing in his life that he'd wished he'd prevented more than anything was Kendra's death. If he'd been with her, instead of focusing on training for the police as a way of rebelling against the career path his father had pushed him towards, he could have stopped her from seeing her brother that day, taken her away where she - and he - could have been happy. Two beautiful butterflies that could have been pinned up in a display and preserved forever, confined and restrained by the frame of predestination.

“You sound like I did ten years ago,” Kate continued, making the mercurial wall appear almost solid as the rippling blemishes smoothed outwards like a still body of crystal clear water. "If you knew it would be for the better, would you do it?”

“Our experiences, our lives, are what make us… us ,” he shook his head, trying not to think of the man he might have been if Kendra had survived and knowing that he'd finally found someone who accepted him for who he was in Olivia. "If you take them away, we wouldn't be who we are. We would be someone else…” Lincoln trailed off as Kate’s cynical laugh interrupted his answer, and she huffed bitterly then stepped to the glittering door and pressed a device attached to her wrist. “...what?”

“When we meet again for the first time, you won’t say that,” she replied, pausing to turn to Lincoln. She pushed away her hood, revealing a barely healed scar on her cheek in shades of plum and maroon, then stepped forward. The room began to violently pulsate and glow around them and the vibration traveled up through Lincoln's spine, making his whole body feel like jelly and his skull ache, making him feel nauseated and travel sick. Kate’s silhouette flickered as if she was on an old black and white analogue television that was unable to get a good signal and she dropped his gun to the floor. “You’ll want me to stop the butterfly and the hurricane.”

The throbbing vibration boomed into a ear-splitting crash, like a thousand panes of glass falling on stony ground and shattering into tiny glittering shards as she stepped through the reflecting door. Lincoln barely had time to cover his eyes as a flash of light emanated outwards, consuming the whole room and pushing him backwards onto the floor with the force of a shock wave. 

When he opened his eyes again, the room was dark, cold and eerily silent, and he pulled himself up from the dirty floor, dusting the dirt off his clothes. The lights and noise had died, leaving no evidence of the machine working or that Kate had been there and Lincoln picked up his weapon that she'd discarded. A muffled voice called out, indistinguishable as if they were calling from the shore and he was submerged under the ocean's waves. “Lincoln?”

“Doctor Green?” He called out tentatively, his voice echoing in the silence as his fingertips brushed the cold metal surface of the inert machine’s frame but the only reply was his own voice echoing back to him. “Kate?”

Closing the door behind him which clicked shut as the lock latch connected, he cocked his weapon as the metallic cage to the elevator rattled and began to pull back, and a person stepped out into the dark foyer.

“Lincoln?”

“Liv? What are you doing here?” Lincoln gasped, holstering his weapon in relief as Olivia did the same. 

“I was looking for you! Charlie said you'd gone after the person who'd knocked him down- which was incredibly stupid without waiting for backup by the way,” Olivia sighed in annoyance and pulled him roughly into the elevator, pressing the illuminated buttons to take them back up to the first floor.

“We aren't supposed to be here, I can't call for backup,” he smirked, knowing she would be unhappy that he'd done it but was thankful she didn't seem as annoyed he thought she would be. “If Erikson finds out we've defied the Secretary's orders, we’ll be in deep sh --”

His voice broke off as the elevator shuddered to a halt and he pulled the creaking metal cage door open and waited for Olivia to step out before closing it behind them.

“You could've waited for me," she said as they walked towards the corridor that led to the main entrance, stepping over the discarded equipment in the shadows and making their way to the front door where Charlie was waiting. He looked up, sighing and smiling in relief as Olivia and Lincoln approached, and gingerly stood, flinching in pain. “Do you think you can walk back to the car okay? I can go grab the car if Lincoln helps you to the end of the path where there's vehicle access.”

“I'll live,” Charlie said, his voice gruff but appreciative, and he turned to Lincoln. "Did you find anything or who it was?” 

Lincoln paused for a moment and then shrugged, his lips twisting into an upside down smirk and he huffed dejectedly. “No, nothing. Just a load of old abandoned equipment. Whoever it was, they disappeared into thin air.”

***

2007

“The Secretary will see you now.”

The personnel officer dressed head to toe in the standard DoD uniform looked over at the disheveled woman who sat in the headquarters foyer, nervously fidgeting with the zipper of her laptop case as she paced the marbled flooring. “Ma’am? He's waiting.”

She blinked, as if she'd been woken from a trance, the hypnotic formulas and simulations folding away like the velveteen drapes on a stage to reveal the mechanics behind and stuttered. “Y-yes, of course. Thank you.”

Flattening down her unkempt dark blonde hair, she hurried after the uniformed officer into the large office. Bright autumn light glowed through the windows that stretched from the floor to ceiling, revealing a perfect view of the river, obscured only by the back of the gargantuan bronze Statue of Liberty that looked out over the bay and towards the blue abyss of the ocean. Behind her, three squares in blue, red and amber hung on the wall.

“Doctor Green,” the Secretary smiled in greeting, the wrinkles on his weathered face deepening as he smiled briefly. “Thank you for attending, I appreciate you traveling down from Boston on short notice. I trust that the journey via airship was comfortable?”

“Yes. Thank you, sir,” Kate said as a frown line deepened between her brows. “Although, I'm not entirely clear on why you requested me.” 

He slowly walked around the long desk that looked to be very heavy and made of solid wood so probably worth more than all the furniture she owned and pointed to the wall mounted map to her right. “Do you know what this is?”

“Of course,” she replied. Her hands felt clammy with nerves and she tucked them into the pockets of her pants. “It's, uh, a map. A map of all the tears we've experienced in the universe in the past two decades.”

“That’s right,” Secretary Bishop nodded, his curls the same shade of stormy gray as his designer pinstriped suit. “Every environmental disaster we've experienced since the zero event twenty two years ago. Now do you see why I've asked you to come here?” 

“I'm sorry, I'm still unsure, sir,” Kate shuffled on her feet uneasily and the powerful man walked back to his desk.

“When I wrote the ZFT over ten years ago, I stated that the tears were natural decay, but this is not the case. They are man-made vortexes. Some are tiny holes, little more than a crack or fracture but they all have the potential to expand into hurricanes and shatter everything around them. But - because they are man-made - they have the potential to be fixed.”

“You mean with amber?” Her tone changed from confused to bitter. Thousands of people had become trapped in the substance since it had been invented and authorized to be used by the DoD to prevent the tears from getting bigger and destroying their world. But for every area they filled, another two sprung up in their place. Some extremists theorized eventually the whole world would be encased in it so earth would be called the amber planet instead of the blue planet. But she didn’t care about them, she only cared about one person who had accidentally become trapped when an event in Boston had resulted in an area the size of two football fields being quarantined. Two thousand people were there - many of them students - with her husband who had been patiently waiting for her to finish work to surprise her. She hadn’t even realized he was there for days until she'd filed a missing person's report and the police investigation had placed his Show Me being used in the area minutes before it was sealed in amber.

The man grinned as if smiling at a joke that only he knew the punchline to. “No, Doctor Green, not amber. What if I told you we could stop - reverse - every single one of them, return our world to the way it was before, the way it should be so there were no rips and no one would have ever become trapped, what would you say?”

“I'd say that is a fantasy and irrefutably impossible!” Kate blurted and laughed scornfully, then gulped expecting Secretary Bishop's expression to darken into a scowl, angry that she'd defied his opinion but his smile didn't falter. “Any physicist would say that --”

“-- the laws of quantum physics do not rule out the possibility of time travel.” Doctor Bishop retorted, cutting off Kate's reply so she stopped abruptly. “Since my son was taken in 1985, I tried to find the man responsible, only to discover he had died along with my son when he was taken from my home. When I discovered that Peter had drowned in Reiden Lake where his kidnappers --”

“Wait, Reiden Lake?” She interrupted, her eyes widening. “That’s where the first event occurred.”

“Exactly. If we could prevent that event which started the chain reaction, then there would be no more tears in the fabric of our universe. We would not have to stitch them up with amber if we removed what was ripping them open. Every one we've loved and lost to these tears and amber would be back where they belong, with us.”

“You know about Raymond, don't you?” Kate said quietly, her lips pressing into a thin line as the realization hit her. The Secretary not only knew of her work as a physicist but also her personal reasons for her focusing recently on a certain area in her field. She felt uneasy, almost violated that something so private was knowledge at the Department of Defense. “You know why I've been studying tachyons over anything else.”

“I do, Doctor Green. I believe we are motivated by the same desires, "he grinned again, his intense blue eyes focusing on hers. “I think you know my agenda is not entirely altruistic because neither is yours. The DoD can fund your research, give you whatever equipment and materials you need at our facility here in New York state. With your mind and knowledge, and my power, we can manipulate history to our advantage. Your time is now.”

Chapter Text

Lincoln blinked in the inky shadows of the bedroom as he stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Like the cogs in a clock, his mind whirred while replaying Kate’s words and how she had disappeared in front of him in a flash of light. The distant sounds of the city chattered far away in the distance outside the window, muffled by the falling snow that glittered miniscule rainbows under the neon streetlights, mimicking the noise of the machine that echoed back in his mind like a stuck record. He tossed and turned, trying in vain to comprehend where - or when - Kate might have gone when she vanished, assuming that his fantastical notion that the machine was actually some kind of time machine was correct and that she hadn’t been vaporized into atoms like her colleagues assumed she had been so many years ago.

Convinced that understanding what she was so determined to change the outcome of, and how they’d already met in her past but in his future, was the key to finding her again, Lincoln vowed to himself not to give up on the case until he found an answer.

What he didn't dare to imagine and was scared to understand, was what might happen in the future that he’d ask her to go back in time and change. But the feeling of dread bled in from the shadows and infected his mind. Possessively wrapping his arm around Liv’s waist who muttered incoherently as she stirred in her sleep by his side, he prayed silently under his breath as panic knotted at the back of his throat and stung the corners of his eyes.

Please, not her. Be anything, just keep her safe from harm.

When sleep finally came in a quiet flood, it took him back to the forest with the flow of its ebbing tide, surrounding him with the towering pines and their snow-tipped spires.

By the time morning came around, the Manhatan snow had almost melted away. Only small mounds on the sidewalk and icicles that dripped slow tears down from the rooftops and ledges to glistening puddles on the pavestones remained. Olivia started the car as Lincoln joined her a few minutes later, yanking on the locked-in seatbelt, irritated.

She sniffed, rubbing her hands together as the car heating kicked in and leaned over to touch his unshaven face. “Hey, you okay? Is it your head?” 

“Yeah, I'm fine. I just, uh, didn’t sleep well,” Lincoln explained, finally clicking the belt into the fastener. Liv tenderly grazed the bruise above his eyebrow that was slowly fading from violet into chartreuse yellow and he brushed away her hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “What did Charlie say on the phone?”

He’d decided to take a shower instead of shaving before leaving for work to help wake himself up, only to miss the tail-end of a phone call between Charlie and Olivia.

Olivia quickly withdrew her hand and steered the car away from the curb, clearing her dry throat. “Not much, he said Astrid gave an eighty-nine percent probability Erikson was convinced by her cover story, and his leg only needed a couple of stitches so –”

“-- I mean about the investigation," he blurted. "Has he found out anything else?”

“No," she said curtly, her voice coarse. “There haven't been any further leads. Astrid did some more background checks at the cafe we went to while we were out yesterday and couldn't find anything more about that house or Kate Green. Even the crime scene at the Smith's residence came back clean, no prints or fibers and neighbors couldn't identify anyone that we could run on the face rec software, so we're back to square one.”

“So everything disappeared without a trace?” Lincoln exhaled a large huff of breath in frustration. “What about the traffic cameras about the car that hit me and Charlie?”

“Plates couldn't be identified,” Olivia shrugged, tapping the steering wheel impatiently. “Either there’s nothing to be found, or someone is doing a really good job of clearing away the evidence before we can get to it. I know it’s frustrating, but we don't have to give up. Maybe there’s a lead that –.”

Turning to look at Lincoln, she frowned, her voice trailing off while the streetlamps rushed past the window, punctuating the growing silence. “Linc?”

His motionless aquamarine eyes, reflecting light from the windshield like crystals set in jewelry, stared out of the window, hypnotized by the blur of green outside. He suddenly blinked as if pulled from a trance, meeting her concerned gaze that had turned from exasperation, his own red-rimmed eyes shadowed and hollow. “Yeah. What is it?”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I'm just tired.” 

“Okay, well Charlie and Astrid will update you when we get to HQ while I see Doctor Anderson,” she said, her mouth twitching into a line, unconvinced by his reply as she knew it all too well from her own repertoire of responses. "But nothing disappears without a trace, Lincoln. We’ll get to the bottom of this eventually.”

***

“Miss Dunham?” A woman’s voice called out as Olivia twisted her fingers nervously, fidgeting on the uncomfortable hard plastic of the waiting room seat. Looking up with wide eyes she saw an older woman with dark brown wavy hair and kind face dressed in a long navy cardigan enter the room. Olivia stood to follow her to her office, sitting when she gestured to a black leather couch. “So, Miss Dunham.” She began, sitting in the armchair opposite, crossing her ankles. “My name is Doctor Anderson. I don’t know if you remember, but we spoke a year or so ago when you were referred by your superior before being allowed back on the field. I understand you’ve been experiencing some difficulties the last few months.”

Looking around the room that was painted in a simple petrol blue with frosted windows, Olivia took in her surroundings and nodded, tapping her fingers nervously against her bottom lip. “Let’s talk about that then,” the doctor continued, folding her navy cardigan around her chest. “You can call me Rose if you like, may I call you Olivia?”

“I prefer Liv," she corrected, tucking herself against the arm of the chair, the leather creaking with her movements.

“Okay, Liv,” Doctor Anderson said, smiling slightly and nodding while intently watching Olivia. “Tell me about what you’ve been experiencing.”

Pausing briefly to take a breath, Olivia took her time to describe everything she’d seen, starting with the confusing dreams about her universe’s Lincoln and Henry from when she’d broken up with Frank, up until her recent visions about that were still so clear in her mind. Her cream bridal gown, adorned with embroidered multi-colored daisies, Lincoln’s navy three-piece suit and the ring on his left hand, and the small boy that called them mommy and daddy.

“I can't be sure, but I think it was suppose to be our wedding, and there was a boy around two years old, I think he was our - my - son," she sighed sadly, raising her hands in defeat then crossing her arms. “That basically sums it up.” Doctor Anderson nodded, thoughtfully stroking her chin while she processed the information. “So, what do you think, am I crazy, doc?” Olivia asked, nervously huffing a laugh as she fidgeted on the sofa.

“Do you think you’re crazy?” Doctor Anderson replied, narrowing her eyes and sucking in air through her lips.

“I feel like I’m going crazy sometimes,” Olivia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “None of it makes sense, and yet it kinda does. They feel too real and repetitive to be just dreams, more like a type of deja vu or pieces of a puzzle but I can’t see the full picture.”

“So you think they might... premonitions?”

Olivia closed her eyes again in concentration, searching for the jumbled fragments of the dreams that came in flashes of color, like she was watching them through a kaleidoscope. So far, none of the scenes had come true yet except one. She hadn’t got pregnant, let alone had a son with either of the Lincolns, which taunted her even more knowing she couldn’t, nor had she got married. One had come close, when she had almost killed Lincoln believing he was Allinson in that old, abandoned warehouse, and she hated herself that in one timeline or universe she might have murdered the one person she couldn’t see herself living without.

So far the only one that had come true was they’d admitted their feelings for each other and consummated their relationship, but she couldn’t tell or remember if she fell in love with him because of the dream, or dreamed of him because she fell in love with him. It was like an endless loop and there didn’t seem to be a way that one could exist without the other.

“I don’t know, maybe. Or… maybe they're visions and memories of a life I didn’t live or choices I didn’t make. Like I’m simultaneously skipping between living two lives or timelines.” 

“The thing is with crazy people, they don’t think they’re crazy,” Doctor Anderson said sympathetically, placing her tablet on the side table to lean forward. “It is plausible that the drugs you were exposed to worked like a catalyst for this condition, but the thing I’m struggling to understand is, how did you experience a similar phenomenon nearly two and a half years prior to being exposed to them?”

It was a question that Olivia had pondered relentlessly since it had happened. She'd even got a tox screen from work when their Lincoln had insisted in case Frank had dosed her with something and it had come back clean.

“That’s what I don’t understand. I was hoping you could help me with that, and something to help them stop,” Olivia grimaced.

“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, if you’d seen me earlier, perhaps we could have helped before it escalated to this stage. This is an unprecedented condition,” Doctor Anderson continued after a brief pause. “Do you talk to your partner about what you see in your dreams… visions?”

“Every time it happened, I thought it would be the last time, and I thought I’d fail psych review and lose my job, or at least it would be a black mark against my record,” Olivia pondered, it felt like a poor excuse but it was the truth and she could see in Anderson’s empathetic stare she understood how difficult it was to be a woman in this field. “I told him a little, he’s the one who convinced me to come here, but not as much detail.”

“He sounds pretty sensible,” the doctor replied, as Olivia nodded in agreement. “Can I ask, what is holding you back? Is it a matter of trust?”

Olivia pondered her reply, and gulped thickly. “No, trust him more than anyone. I trust him with my life. But since Rachel - my sister - died, I've not had anyone outside of work to talk to who understands except my mom and I don’t want to worry her, as she doesn't have anyone left and she's been ill recently. Doing this job is hard, but as a woman, I’ve just always found it easier to pretend everything is okay because showing any kind of emotion is seen as a weakness. I love this job and I don’t want it to be taken away from me. I love him too, and I want to tell him about them but because the dreams involve him, I'm scared it will freak him out.”

“Why is that?” Doctor Anderson queried.

“Because it would give him false hope. I can't ever be a mom so we can't have a child together, even though I would like to, one day,” Olivia paused for a moment, remembering when her mom had called to tell Olivia they had died from a condition no one knew Rachel had until it was too late to detect. “Rach had VPE and so statistically it's likely I do too, and I won't know for sure unless I get pregnant and they can test for it past in the second trimester.”

Doctor Anderson nodded sympathetically. “I am sorry to hear that.” 

“Plus, a few years ago he told me the other version of me - the one from the other universe - experienced a similar thing. She forgot all of the memories they shared and I don’t want…”

To put him through that again. Olivia’s eyes widened like saucers as her jaw dropped in realization and her words drifted into silence. She sat up straight on the couch, the soft leather of the sofa creaking as she moved and her eyes darted in thought as the pieces of the puzzle she’d seen, finally began to fit together.

“What is it?” Doctor Anderson enquired, her eyebrows raised in concern.

“When we first met, just after we first started using the bridge, he said she was being drugged with Cortexiphan to trigger some kind of latent ability. Emotions triggered it in her system, but the side-effects had been it had made her dream of another timeline - until it eventually replaced her memories altogether. The first dream I had was around the time Jones and Nina Sharp began drugging her with it. Then just before it closed, we spoke to this man she knew as a child, who was in the same drug trial. His double on our side could see what he saw even though they didn’t have the experiments in our universe… What if it happens to me and I forget everything and become a different version of myself?"

Her voice, usually deep and husky, raised and became higher pitched, and she felt a fine layer of sweat coat her skin as she panicked. Her chest tightened with the thought of forgetting everything that had happened in her life, replaced with another version, another reality.

“Unless someone repeatedly dosed you since childhood with the same drug they exposed their Olivia Dunham to, I think it is highly unlikely,” Doctor Anderson explained, trying to reassure Olivia by covering her hand. “And this stopped when they closed the bridge.”

“Yes, but what if the second lot of drugs have the same effect on me?” Olivia replied. “The report said they work in a similar way to Cortexiphan.”

“But the fact remains you were exposed to a different chemical and it was only once, although admittedly it does appear to have some similar side-effects,” the doctor added calmly, trying to ease Olivia’s distress. "And you are only just mentally processing some traumatic and life-changing events, which left you extremely emotionally vulnerable. I think this is just your way of processing them subconsciously and at this stage, if you can still remember your life, then it should not be a long-term concern. I recommend you start with a prescription of medications designed to help with sleep disorders and migraines, and review in a few months, sooner if they increase or new symptoms develop. Perhaps we could try some hypnotherapy if they don’t help. How does that sound?”

“I’m willing to give anything a try,” Olivia nodded, her labored breathing slowly settling back to normal. 

“I’ll get a preliminary three month prescription arranged for you to pick up at your pharmacy by the end of the day,” Doctor Anderson smiled softly, standing to see Olivia out. “And instead of repressing your emotions, you should find someone to talk to who understands your work, that you can speak to confidentially as a friend - or confide in your partner, I think it could really help you.”

“I’ll try,” Olivia smiled and blinked as she left. Admitting she needed help and making Lincoln hurt were two of the handful of things that truly scared her, but she knew she had to face her fears eventually, and the longer she left it, the more painful it would be to tear off the band aid smiles that was the facade her emotions were buried under. 

***

As the elevator doors pinged open and slid apart to reveal the main rotunda office in the Fringe building, the back of Lincoln’s head immediately caught Olivia's attention. Stood next to Astrid and Charlie, who was sitting with his cane resting against the desk, she could tell they were deep in discussion, even from the angle Lincoln was standing at and through the bustle of the room as he shook it vigorously in protest.

Charlie’s brow furrowed, then his posture relaxed as Olivia approached and he shrugged, turning to look at Astrid as Lincoln defiantly placed his hands on his hips. “So, they think this is what? Some kind of mutant?” He asked.

“Yes. We are trying to determine if it was a genetic anomaly or purposely created,” Astrid confirmed.

“As long as it doesn't drag me into a river, I don't care either way,” Lincoln replied dryly, remembering when Olivia had saved him from being mutant food on their first case.

“Sorry I’m late,” Olivia interrupted as she approached the team, standing next to Lincoln and her lips twisted into an apprehensive smile, widening when he beamed back at her. “I had an appointment and it ran a little later than expected, and then I had to go -- mmmpphhh!”

She stopped suddenly as Lincoln brazenly leaned in and tipped her face towards him with his warm fingertips grazing her chin for a full kiss on her mouth, seemingly uncharacteristically nonplussed even though they were in view of the entire team. It was subtle and reserved, and he pulled away almost instantly, but it was enough to take her and everyone else by surprise. When their lips parted with slight pop, Olivia blinked repeatedly, staring at him curiously and open-mouthed while she composed herself. As her smile returned, it was accompanied by a slight blush high on her cheeks when she noticed the other's reactions - Charlie covered his smug smile with his hand and looked down knowingly while Astrid’s eyes widened in realization as she watched them in shock. “W-what was that for?”

“I just wanted to,” he shrugged, before leaning back into her space, his breath hot on her ear and voice dangerously low. Olivia could smell the faint intoxicating scent of his sandalwood shower gel and the warmth of his hand that reached around and pressed at the small of her back and it made her feel giddy. “Is that alright with you?”

Olivia nodded as he pulled away. Strands of her auburn hair caught in his stubble like a tether and she gulped thickly, feeling the warmth growing her cheeks, down her neck and flushing her chest. “Mmm-hmm.”

Lincoln nodded, confidently swaying on his feet and grinning at her while Astrid and Charlie resumed studying their screens. “Good. So, how was the appointment?” 

“I, er – it went well, thank you,” Olivia said, unable to contain the smirk that twisted on her lips.

“That’s great," he nodded, smiling back at her knowingly before turning to Astrid. “So what else do we know about this creature? Please don’t tell me it’s another mutant lizard man.”

Looking up from the screen, Astrid looked briefly at the couple and tapped the pads of her fingers subconsciously against her thumb as if she was trying to figure something out mentally. “According to the eyewitness the creature is red or magenta, possibly purple, so the probability of it having amphibian DNA is not likely.”

“Unless it's Randall?” Lincoln quipped, frowning at other’s blank stares. “Randall Boggs? From Monsters Inc?” He sighed, shaking his head. Amy and Jonathan had watched that film so many times when he'd babysat as a favor for Robert and Julie, he was sure he could quote it if his life depended on it. “Never mind. So shall we go check it out?”

“Astrid and I will, you two stay here and make sure you don't get into any more trouble,” she replied, pulling Lincoln away by his elbow to give them some privacy to talk when he began to protest, glancing at the bruise on his forehead. "Remember your side of the deal?”

Lincoln nodded reluctantly and sighed. “Okay, fair enough. I'm sure Charlie and I will have plenty to keep us occupied here, just give us a call if you need us.”

“Always,” Olivia smiled again before turning to leave, then stopped and touched Lincoln’s hand as he sat at the desk. Biting her full bottom lip to taste where he'd boldly kissed her a few minutes before, she lowered her voice to a husky whisper. “Linc, why did you kiss me just now? Really?”

Looking up through his long lashes, his crystal gaze drifted over her full lips, dark pink with lipstick and glistening with a trace of saliva and met the inquisitive expression of her hazel eyes. It had been idea to keep their relationship a secret to avoid unnecessary attention but his reasoning behind that suggestion no longer made sense to him. “Because I want you to know what you mean to me and I don't care who else knows it.” Lincoln shrugged then paused, stretching out his hands. “And I feel bad about snapping at you this morning. It wasn't your fault…”

It was mine, he thought, slumping in the office chair and pulling himself to the desk.  I should have known Kate would disappear. I should have stopped her. 

He could still feel the echoes of the electro-magnetic whirl vibrating through the atoms of his body like the ocean water through sand and stones on a shore. It rang through his ears and made his fillings ache, and he felt displaced and out of synch with time like a broken record skipping on a player. The only time he’d felt like this before was when the bridge had closed and he’d stood next to Olivia, teetering on the precipice of the limbo between two worlds like Dorothy, holding his breath and closing his eyes for both milliseconds and millenia. He split down the middle between neither here nor there, then sighed in relief when his body settled in Oz where Olivia had pulled him back to reality with the tether of her hand.

“Lincoln, it's okay,” unaware of the turmoil in his mind, Olivia sighed sympathetically and tilted her head. “You’re exhausted, not to mention you hit your head. It doesn't matter, I understand.”

“It matters to me, you're my partner and my, uh –” He stuttered, struggling to find an appropriate way to describe their relationship but they all seemed inadequate.

She leaned on the smooth glass surface, cool under her flushed palms and splayed out fingers as it reflected their faces back at them. “-Girlfriend? Lover?”

“Uh-huh,” Lincoln huffed with a slither of an upside-down smile. Now it was his turn to blush and his eyes fluttered away, unsure of where his rush of boldness had come from. “Anyway, you better get going with Astrid, Randall will be waiting.”

Olivia snorted in laughter and turned on her heel. With a swish of her chestnut hair, she was gone, leaving the rotunda with Astrid following close behind. Charlie was engrossed in his own computer so Lincoln took the opportunity to turn to the keyboard, hesitating briefly before typing in a name. One of the two Show Me files he’d downloaded previously flickered up on the screen. The photo was of a young woman with caramel hair cut just below her chin and blue-gray eyes and he quickly scanned over the details that illuminated his face with its LED glow.

Chilton-Lee, Meredith 

DOB: 5/10/85

GEN: F HT: 5’4”

No: 15FV81M5

EXP: 5/10/18

As Lincoln’s gaze reached the bottom of the page, a new addition to the ID system appeared in a flash of orange in the same way all those who had been released from Amber in the past few years did, followed by a file of her family’s Show Me information that Lincoln scanned over quickly before anyone could notice.

AMBER STATUS: Freed 1/17/13

FAMILY:

• Lucas Chilton ~ Father (Deceased)
• Clara Chilton-Lee ~ Mother
• Thomas Lee ~ Legal Step-Father
• Marcus Chilton-Lee ~ Fraternal Twin
• Lincoln Lee ~ Step-Brother (Deceased)

Blinking again, he rubbed the stubble on his jaw and minimized the file before continuing his work.

***

“So this is the location of the sighting, huh?” 

Astrid’s army boots splashed in the small puddles of melting snow on the sidewalk as she stepped from the passenger’s side of the car and Olivia stepped up onto the curb to join her. She glanced at her handheld tablet briefly as they walked then looked up at the imposing building in front of them, the side of which was painted in bright white paint and adorned with their company signage shaped like a 2-D box with a double helix inside. “That is correct, Agent Dunham. Pandorica Genetics.”

“Hmm, given the nature of what they're rumored to do here, suddenly the chance of this being an anomaly doesn’t seem very likely,” Olivia chuckled as they approached the front door that led to the building's reception area. 

The relief of finally talking about her experiences after spending so much time worrying about the consequences of what her dreams might mean, and finishing a stretch of cases that had put a mental and physical strain on both her and Lincoln, felt like a weight had been finally lifted from her shoulders. A shard of muted light broke through the blanket of clouds with the promise of spring as Olivia looked up to the sign in Astrid’s eyeline and she stopped to check just for a second - as she always did - to see if a rainbow would appear. For a moment it almost seemed like it would, and she held her breath as she hoped and willed it to materialize, imagining seeing the spectrum of colors stretching past the horizon for the first time since she was a girl, but the light faded away and Astrid’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

“Agent Dunham, are you okay?”

Turning to look at her colleague whose black and scarlet curls peeked out from under her beret and dark eyes widened with concern, Olivia smiled. “Yeah. Astrid, would you like to hang out sometime? We could go and see a movie or just catch up? It seems like we've not got together outside of work for such a long time.” 

“I would like that, thank you for asking,” Astrid replied, obviously taken aback by the seemingly out of the blue request and then frowned thinking back to what she'd seen in the office before they'd left. "But would you not prefer to spend time with Agent Lee?”

“Oh, we get to see plenty of each other,” Olivia laughed again, thinking of how the double-entendre might sound to Astrid who confirmed Olivia’s suspicions by raising her eyebrows in intrigue. Flippantly tucking errant strands of her auburn hair behind her ear Olivia shrugged, considering how Lincoln’s rekindled friendship with the alternate Robert and budding friendship with Agent Reynolds had helped him. It had eased the transition to permanently living in this universe easier and slowly helped him to be more confident and self-assured. Plus it allowed them some time apart so they didn’t feel smothered with each other’s company and appreciated each other more. “We aren't joined at the hip, you know!”

“Then, yes I would. I think that sounds like a good idea as it would beneficial to our friendship.”

Olivia nodded and grasped the cool aluminum door handle to pull it open. “Great!”

***

Charlie jogged over to Lincoln’s work station from his own desk a few rows behind. “Hey buddy, look at this, I tried calling Liv but they didn't pick –” up. He cut himself off as Lincoln hurriedly shut down his screen, startled by Charlie’s unannounced arrival. 

“Look at what?” Lincoln asked, jumpily, his eyes shifting to avoid the gaze of Charlie's intense stare.

“What was that?”

Lincoln impatiently rubbed his eyes with the pads of his fingers. “It's nothing, what did you want to show me?” 

“Didn't look like nothing to me,” Charlie said, leaning forward to lower his voice. "It looks like you were checking out info on the case we were told to drop. You know if Erikson catches you, you could get a disciplinary on your record?”

Of course Lincoln had considered that, and in any other circumstance he would have followed orders without question and let it go without a second thought. But the echo of Kate's words still held him in a python-grip choke hold, slowly consuming his thoughts and refusing to let him go.

“I know, I know,” he admitted with a huff. “I just feel like there's some major detail we're missing. If we could figure out that piece then the others would fall into place.”

Charlie shifted his weight onto his uninjured leg as he straightened up from leaning on the desk. “You know Astrid went over everything, right? If we missed something, she would have found it.” 

Unless it wasn't for her to find, Lincoln thought, even though he nodded in reply. “Look, you sure you're thinking straight, Lincoln?” Charlie continued, his dark brown eyes furrowed with concern as his gaze settled on the purple and green hues of the bruise on the other man’s head. “You should get your head checked out again. “

“I'm fine,” Lincoln said bluntly, dismissing Charlie's stubborn apprehension. “What did you want to show me?”

“You sure about that? You don't–”

“I said that I'm fine,” he insisted, his voice tainted with mild irritation. He smiled apologetically, knowing Charlie was only asking out of genuine concern and softened his voice in apprehension “What did you find?”

Nodding, Charlie continued. He was still getting to know this version of the man he'd worked with for many years and although there were some obvious differences between them, like the other Lincoln - and Liv - he knew when not to push it because their stubbornness would just take hold and he'd just hit a wall. “So, I did some digging on the company where that thing was sighted, you know where Liv and Astrid are headed to,” Charlie replied gruffly, while handing Lincoln his tablet and he nodded in reply. “Check this out.”

Lincoln scanned the text on the screen. “Pandorica Genetics. Leaders in genetics advancements, they were one of the teams responsible for cloning Gene the cow in 1996…” he snorted a laugh at the coincidence and blinked at Charlie’s confused look. “The Walter on my side had a cow called Gene in his lab.”

“Seriously?” Charlie frowned. “A cow? In his lab? That sounds... interesting.”

“Yep, it was actually the most normal thing about it, if you ignore the smell, which was the worst thing that had ever been inflicted on my nostrils - if you don't count the roadkill Walter had us smell once.”

Charlie smirked and nodded at the screen text. “In that case, I don't blame you for moving here. Keep reading.”

“...Their main rivals are AGR who have been accused by Pandorica Genetics of attempting to steal their research. AGR was founded in 1994 by a group of international scientists including Dr Bernard Ryan, renowned for his work in pathology and genetics, and Yale educated British Doctor Melvin Drew Aureoles.” Lincoln’s eyes widened as he recalled where he'd heard the name before. “That was an alias used by Erasmus who researched biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, and developed that drug that Olivia was exposed to.”

“Right. So do you think we should try calling Liv or Astrid again to let them know?”

“I think…’ Lincoln replied, standing to hurriedly grab his coat off of the back of his chair, “...we should get down there, now.”

***

The receptionist directed Olivia and Astrid to a laboratory on the eleventh floor where a young assistant, swamped in a white coat that looked three sizes too big, met them from the elevator, nervously extending his hand out to greet them. “I take it you're from Fringe Division? My name is Sanjay Kumar, I'm one of the leading assistants in this laboratory.”

“Yes, Agents Dunham and Farnsworth,” Olivia replied, holding up her badge and motioning between herself and Astrid before tucking it back in her pocket, politely ignoring how clammy his hand was. “Can you tell us what you saw?”

Kumar swept his wavy, black hair from his face and cleared his throat before looking around nervously, guiding the women to a seating area away from the other lab assistants.

“I didn’t really see anything,” he continued, his obsidian eyes darting shamefully. "It was just a glimpse of… something, I think.”

“Your name is on one of the reports,” Astrid blurted. “You must have seen something.”

Olivia leaned forward, her hazel eyes imploring to gently persuade him to reveal more. “We’re investigating reports of similar sightings, so anything you might have seen might help, even if you think it is insignificant.

Kumar's eyes widened in surprise and he nodded in compliance. “I was working late on a project here one night, I thought I was alone but…” he paused to fiddle with the ID clipped to his breast pocket. “I think I fell asleep at my station for a moment. When I woke suddenly, I saw something reflected in my monitor. But when I turned around it had disappeared. I thought I dreamed it but then I saw the damage behind me. The equipment was smashed up, broken glass was everywhere. I think the other assistants said I did it, that I'm refusing to take the blame, but I didn’t –”

“Have you checked the security cameras?” Astrid asked hopefully. “Perhaps what you saw is on there and can verify your account of what happened and help us identify what you saw.”

“We only have cameras in the lobby and communal areas, not in the labs to protect our experiments and clients from rivals,” he said, sighing and shaking his head in resignation, then handed her a tablet. “There was nothing out of the ordinary but you're welcome to look over it yourself.”

“It's okay Sanjay, we believe you,” Olivia coaxed empathetically. “Just describe what you saw.”

“It was humanoid, I suppose… it had a face, and muscular arms and torso, I couldn't see lower than that. I guess it was purple or red with the tints of the monitors we use. And it was big, huge.”

Astrid frowned. “How big?”

“Umm, maybe thirteen or fourteen feet, I guess,” Sanjay continued, looking up at the ceiling as if trying to mentally work out the measurements.

“Mind if we take a quick look at the area where you saw it?” Olivia insisted, standing quickly when she noticed hesitation flicker over Sanjay's face. “We won't take long.”

“Sure, follow me," he gestured reluctantly towards the frosted glass door across the hallway and punched in a security code before swiping his badge on the entry device. The door swung open to reveal a sealed off laboratory fitted with state of the art equipment and bathed in bright, fluorescent lighting. It was white and pristine with the exception of the small area where Sanjay led them to, where a cardboard box housed the damaged equipment. He moved the swivel chair away from the desk and sat facing the screen. “This is where I was sitting at the time.” 

Olivia glanced around the area, taking in the view of her surroundings while Astrid continued with quickly scanning the security camera recordings. “That’s great, thank you Mr Kumar. We'll be in touch if we have any other questions.” 

He nodded, watching them leave the building and walk across to their car from the window of his laboratory a few minutes later, then made a call on his ear cuff. A gruff male voice answered, tinged with an unusual accent that Kumar couldn't quite place. “Did you get rid of them?” 

“Yes, I stuck to what you told me to say. They asked to see the security camera footage and seemed satisfied with the reply.”

“As I knew they would.” The disembodied voice replied. 

“But they said there had been other sightings in the area, what if --”

“We'll handle it," he responded, and hung up, leaving the assistant with just a ringing tone in his ear.

Olivia waited until they'd left the building and were approaching the car before addressing the curious expression that had possessed Astrid’s face. “What's up?”

“I am unsure about something,” Astrid replied. “I believe there is a thirty-two percent chance that he is lying or at the very least not telling us everything. Shouldn't we bring him in for questioning?”

“I got the same impression. Did you see the ceiling tiles above his work station?” Olivia continued when Astrid shook her head. “The pattern was in the wrong place compared to the rest of the room, like they had been removed and replaced in a hurry. So, I'm thinking if the cameras didn't pick up anything unusual and the lab is ten floors up, it's not likely anyone - or thing - climbed in through the window.”

“The windows would not open wide enough to let something that is over thirteen feet tall and muscular in anyway,” Astrid nodded. “But neither would the air vents.”

Reaching their car, Olivia shrugged and turned to look up one last time at the imposing building and the cloud-flecked sky. “Right, which leaves two options - either the whole thing was an hallucination, although that doesn't explain the damage to the lab, or –”

“Whatever it was, it was in the building the whole time - and is still there.”

“Exactly, so let's move the car round the back and see if there's another way in so we can find out what they're hiding,” Olivia smiled, as they started the car and pulled away from the curb.

Chapter Text

Early 2010

The stench of sweat, stale alcohol and cheap perfume permeated the air with the deafening bass of sensual music, deliberately loud so conversations could only be heard by putting your ear to someone's mouth. It reverberated through the man's chest, disrupting the rhythm of his heart and making him feel slightly light-headed. This was a place where many women seeked refuge from the outside world, where an alternative waited for them which was far more unbearable and unthinkable than a few lustful glances or unwanted hands on their bare skin. It was a safety many paid for with their dignity, but a price they were willing to pay.

There were no windows or lighting in the large, dark club to keep shame and sins concealed, the exception was a few dimmed colored spotlights that flickered to the beat of the heavy dance music. They weren't bright enough to reveal more than the almost naked women who walked around the bar and suggestively danced on stage in little more than just their skimpy underwear and acrylic skyscraper heels were willing to show.

He walked past them, barely looking as they gyrated around poles that stretched from the stage to the ceiling and danced to whoops and wails that drowned out the thumping bass of music less than ten feet away. Grazing their hands over their breasts and crawling towards the tip bar on all fours as the clients and a large, surly guard watched, he slumped down in his usual armchair, a spot where he wasn't too close to the stage but could get the best view of the entire room without being detected by anyone. The rowdy group of men roared at the women on the stage, enticing them with green notes that littered the floor and they eagerly stuffed them into the strings of their thongs. Pulling himself to sit up to get a better look he frowned, until a semi-naked body with caramel skin obscured his view and slowly ran extra long painted fingernails across his stubbled jaw and the beige fabric of his cargo pants that covered his thighs. 

“Hey gorrrrrr-geous,” the woman purred seductively, placing her hands on his shoulders as she leaned in over him, draping him with the curtain of her long ebony locks. Her voluptuous bare breasts were dangerously close to his face as she ran her hands through his messy sandy-blond hair but he leaned back so his head rested on the back of the chair and looked up at her deep brown eyes, lined thick with liner and glittery eyeshadow. Smiling thinly, he kept his hands firmly on the armrests. "Would you like a dance, sugar?”

“I, uh, ahem -” he stuttered, gulping thickly. His blue eyes widened and darted away from hers in panic, then he sighed in relief when she moved back, disturbed by someone in her eye line but was out of his.

Another voice called out as the song faded and the woman hurriedly stood and moved away apologetically. “Coco, he’s my client, go check on the group over there.”

She moved into view, gesturing towards the stage and took the other woman's place, keeping a much more respectful distance than Coco, whose glittering thong caught the lights as she walked down towards the front. “Sorry about that, she's new. I haven't seen you for so long, I was beginning to think that something had happened to you, otherwise I would have warned her to stay away.” 

“No problem,” he shrugged and smirked an upside down smile. “Work's been busy, I kept meaning to come and see you Roxy, but you know how it is.”

“Too busy saving the world, right?” Roxy retorted, nonchalantly flicking the strands of her long honey-blonde wig off her shoulders, revealing her small pert breasts that were almost visible through the shimmering mesh top that clung to her skin.

He nodded, pretending not to notice that he could see the dark outline of her nipples through the material and huffed a small laugh, meeting her gaze again. “Something like that, yeah.”

“Well, let's go somewhere more private,” Roxy said, extending her arm and offering her hand to pull him up and lead him away from the main area. "We have a lot of catching up to do, Lincoln.”

***

Present Day

Olivia drove the car to a parking lot a couple of miles away and led Astrid to a quiet bistro diner, where they ordered a late lunch and sodas. She insisted on paying  when Astrid offered and they sat on mismatched dining chairs at the wooden table painted with quirky patterns, waiting for their food to arrive. 

“This is a really cool place,” she remarked, looking around at the diner adorned with retro framed art and mirrors with tasseled lamp shades that hung from the ceiling and leaned in. “And it's so nice to be able to chat outside of work.”

“It is, thank you Agen - Olivia,” Astrid said appreciatively, quickly correcting herself as the server placed their plates of food on the table. “But I am confused, why are we here? I thought you wanted to go back into the building?”

“See, I was thinking,” Olivia replied, pausing to greedily take a large bite of her grilled cheese sandwich when it arrived. "We should go back in a few hours once people have left for the day. It'll be quieter and should reduce the chance of anyone seeing or stopping us, and this way we can also use this time to catch up. What d’you think?”

Astrid nodded, “That does make sense.” She took a bite of the salt beef bagel on her plate and swallowed, considering an idea. “I could also use the time to download the building's blueprints and use the camera feed Sanjay showed me to identify the most efficient route to take, and any other information that would be helpful to us.”

“There you go, it works out perfectly!” Olivia smiled, gulping down a mouthful of her fizzy drink before taking another bite. Astrid had stopped chewing and blinked in contemplation, her gaze almost meeting Olivia’s before she looked down at her plate. “Everything okay?”

“Yes. I - may I ask you a question?” 

Olivia huffed a wide smile and contemplatively placed her hands on her lap, meeting Astrid’s gaze who looked up through her lowered lashes at the senior agent. “Sure, what's up?”

“You and Agent  Lee… you two are, uh, dating?”

“We haven't really been on many dates...” she snorted in reply and chuckled, unable to hold back another smirk. It wasn't for want of trying but both being senior Fringe agents was not conducive to an active love - or social - life. “But yes, I guess so. I mean, we've been, you know, more than just friends for about six months or so.”

“I see.” Astrid nodded again, and sipped her soda. She’d had her suspicions of course. She noticed how their stolen glances at each other had become more obvious and relaxed, and body language towards each other suggested a new level of intimacy, yet they'd begun to deliberately keep their distance from each other at work as if trying to give the impression that nothing had changed and not to arouse any suspicions. Or perhaps it was to ensure they weren't distracted by each other so their work wasn't impacted.

“You’re wondering why him and not Captain Lee, aren't you?” Olivia blurted, preemptively answering her friend's question because it was one she'd asked herself a few times.

The two Lincolns were very different to each other in so many ways, despite their physical similarities. Even though this Lincoln was being more confident and self-assured than he was when he first met Olivia, he wasn't as cocky or arrogant as the other Lincoln had been and had a layer of empathy and vulnerability his predecessor kept well hidden under layers his defense of fake or exaggerated self-aggrandizing narcissism.

Even through that façade, she knew deep down Lincoln had loved her, she just wished that they had both been brave enough to admit it - and that she loved him too - before it was too late, even if it wouldn't have worked between them. Maybe if she'd taken a risk in the one part of her life she was never reckless - because she was scared of losing a friend - they might have been happy together.

Instead, she had been caught between fear and blame, left to wallow in the bitter memories of the years she wasted with Frank and how he'd tried to drive a wedge between her and Lincoln. She thought she'd done what was best for her and Lincoln but had ultimately been unable to save his life and lost him for good. The other Lincoln was not the same man but he'd followed her to this universe and stayed, guiding her like a beacon through all of her darkest nights and she took comfort in their physical similarities in a way few people could understand.

***

Early 2010

The front door of their apartment slamming shut with a loud bang pulled Olivia from her fractured sleep, dispersing with the glare of the hall light that bled under the cracks of the bedroom door that burst open a few moments later as Frank stumbled through.

She sat up in bed, pulling the blankets up to her chest and yawned. “What time is it?”

“Just gone 3am,” he replied, shedding his clothes in a heap on the floor and getting under the bedcovers. Rolling towards her, he wrapped his arm around her waist and grazed his mouth against her ear, “but the night is still young."

“Your breath stinks, Frank,” Olivia recoiled, the pungent smell of beer hitting her senses like a wave. "Where have you been?”

Undeterred, Frank continued moving his hand across Olivia’s firm stomach and under her tank top, roughly pressing his mouth against the soft skin of her neck. “Phil’s bachelor party, remember? He's getting married in a couple of weeks. We went to a few bars and clubs, your pal was there at one of them, getting a lap dance before he went off to a private room with a blonde, she looked a bit like you from behind before you dyed your hair red, had a nice ass.”

“Who?” 

“I think her name was Roxanne or something,” he drunkenly mumbled, distracted by his actions.

“Not the stripper, I mean who was there?” 

“Your boss, the young one who's always flirting with you.”

Olivia froze and felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment and repulsion, her heart thumping in her chest. He was young and careless and renowned for his flirty nature with everyone he was comfortable with, but she never thought Lincoln was the type to go to strip clubs. If anything, he was the first to call out anyone who displayed even a hint of sexist or misogynistic behavior but it planted the seed that perhaps it had all been an act. She managed to stutter out a few words through trembling lips. “Y-you're drunk, are you sure it wasn't someone else?”

“I'm pretty sure it was him, unless there's another pretty boy with a thigh holster around here. Why do you care anyway?” Frank grunted, his voice tinged with annoyance as he leaned over her.

“I don't,” she snapped, and swallowed down the burn of what felt like misplaced betrayal and jealousy, and clamped her eyes shut in denial as Frank's hands continued to drunkenly paw her body. “I don’t care.”

***

Present Day

"Actually I was wondering,” Astrid paused to take a deep breath. “Agent Francis has Nellie with Mona and you and Agent Lee have each other and Colonel Erikson has a family, but since my father died, I was thinking it would be nice to have someone to talk to or share hobbies with, but when I meet someone I think I like, I never know what to say. I would like it very much if you would help me.”

“Oh Astrid!” Olivia gasped, guiltily thinking of how she'd neglected their relationship recently. “Of course I will, but I wish you'd told me before, I didn’t realize! We could've done it sooner.”

Astrid blinked and took another bite of her food. “I did not know how to ask, I could never find the right time.”

“I'm really sorry,” she replied, genuinely remorseful and nudged the junior agent affectionately, narrowing her eyes in determination. “C'mon, we've got some time to kill while we wait for the building to clear out. Let's get some practice for next time you meet someone you like.”

*

After a few hours had passed, Olivia and Astrid left the bistro and parked the car around the corner from the Pandorica Genetics lab, observing the building from a distance through a pair of binoculars as the sun began to set behind it and cast amber light and shadows on the concrete ground below. An exodus of people left the building, walking to the company's shuttle bus or their cars parked in the lot, or towards the main road, headed for the local subway station. When the parking lot was almost empty and only a few stray cars remained, Olivia and Astrid covertly headed back towards the building from behind, sneaking back onto the grounds through a hole in the chain mail fence. 

Circling the perimeter of the site, Olivia paused to watch the security guard disappear around the corner from their hidden vantage point behind the dumpsters. It hadn't been more than a few months since they’d had the case that had nearly cost Lincoln his life and although she'd shot and killed Dallas, the familiar stench of the industrial sized trash bins incited an uninvited recollection of that time. The feelings of fear came flooding back to her in a wave, buried memories when she had waited and hoped and prayed in his hospital room night after night for him to recover, unearthing in her mind.

“Agent Dunham?” Astrid said in a whisper, pulling Olivia away from her distracting thoughts. “It appears most of the staff have left for the day now, are you sure you don't want to call for backup?”

Olivia shook her head and motioned at a nondescript backdoor partially concealed by being tucked into an alcove. “It'll be easier and quicker if we keep it between us instead of waiting for clearance from Erikson. I noticed that a lot of the people leaving through that exit had the same lanyards Kumar had, but it has a keypad entry for staff only. Do you think you can override it and get us inside?”

Astrid nodded. “I think so.”

Retrieving her device from her pocket, she pulled herself up onto her feet, her petite frame still concealed behind the dumpsters and sprinted the short distance from their position to the door. After a moment of studying the keypad, she pressed a few of the worn out buttons on the keypad so it unlocked with a click and she beckoned Olivia over from where she'd been hiding.

“That was impressively quick, even for you,” Olivia smiled as she joined Astrid, placing a congratulatory hand on her shoulder as they sneaked in and closed the door behind them. Grabbing a couple of white lab coats that had been left on a coat rack on the way, they scurried down the corridor and followed the signs to the elevators and stairwells. “We’ll use these to blend in so security doesn't see us.”

“That will help us to look inconspicuous and increase our chances of not being questioned by any remaining staff,” Astrid agreed as they stopped at the corner of the hall to check the coast was clear then jabbed the elevator call button, ducking behind the sliding metal doors as they closed with soft ping. “I downloaded the building schematics from the county records earlier and I have also accessed the security camera feed that Kumar showed me earlier.”

“Right,” Olivia nodded, quickly peering around the elevator door as it reopened on the floor they'd visited earlier. "Is that so we can monitor activity to make sure no one sneaks up on us?”

Astrid smirked. “That is one reason, however there will be an approximate delay of sixty seconds, but it also means I can loop the feed to the security office so they won't detect us on their screens.”

“Like that Bruce Willis movie when there's a bomb on the bus?” 

She nodded. “Exactly! Okay, we're in.” 

They stepped off the elevator into the dimmed lighting of the deserted lobby area, their combat boots echoing slightly through the eerily quiet air on the smooth flooring. Stepping softly, they arrived at the door leading to the lab that Sanjay had taken them through earlier in the day.

Retrieving her device from her pocket for a second time, Astrid detached the outer case of the keypad and carefully attached it to her device with a small wire, revealing the access code on the display only for it to glitch and flash for a second. They jumped in surprise as the building's alarm system activated, the sound of the ear-splitting klaxons screaming from the overhead speakers while the lights flickered from static white to flashing red.

“Astrid! Turn it off, quick!" Olivia yelled urgently, struggling to shout louder than the sirens that she tried to dampen by covering her ears. “Someone is gonna find us.”

“It wasn't me!” Astrid shouted back. Her face dropped with panic as she checked the camera feed she’d hacked into on her device. “Oh no.”

“What? What is it?”

Astrid grimaced from the combination of the shrill wailing alarm and the images of the live feed that appeared on the tablet that she flipped around to show to Olivia.

A group of four or five men burst through the building's main door. Dressed entirely in black with ski masks and balaclavas concealing their faces, they held up guns in their fists towards the security guards sitting at the welcome desk. One of the masked men fired point blank at the guards and jumped over the counter, pushing their lifeless bodies slumped in the office chairs away as the rest moved deeper into the building.

“I don't think we need to worry -” Olivia shouted, pausing to lower her voice as the alarms flickered off, “- about the security team anymore…”

The elevator bell chimed again, announcing its arrival on the floor they were on.

“Yes, I think we have something worse to worry about,” Astrid remarked, as Olivia quickly pulled her through the unlocked door and carefully closed it behind them so they could hide before the elevator doors could fully slide open and whoever was inside would see them.

***

Early 2010

Pushing a handful of junior notes into the bouncer’s hand to maintain their privacy for a few minutes, Lincoln followed Roxy into one of the back rooms. It was cozy and quieter than the main area and the bass of the music was dulled, gently vibrating through the maroon walls like a heartbeat, giving the room a womb like quality and an impression of intimacy, although there was no door, just heavy devoré drapes over the frame. 

He slumped down in the large leather couch that had been placed against the right wall, facing a small bar that held a mini-fridge, ice bucket and a selection of liquors in bottles of various shapes and sizes with a few glasses tucked in the corner shelf.

“So what’ll it be tonight? Your usual?” Roxy smirked, looking over her shoulder at Lincoln as she fastened the curtains together. 

He loosely crossed his legs by resting his left ankle on his right knee and spread his arms across the back of the sofa, trying to ignore the stale scent of disinfectant and other men's cheap aftershave that saturated the air. “Sure why not? I can't stay long tonight though so we're gonna have to make it a quick one.”

Huffing a small laugh through her nose, Roxy nodded and stepped closer to affectionately tap Lincoln’s knee through the rough beige cotton of his combat pants, making his foot clad in a heavy army boot slip down back to the wooden floor with a thud. Leaning back with her elbows against the bar counter she looked at him for a moment before spinning on her heel and grabbing a glass bottle of caramel colored liquid and two small tumbler glasses from the minibar. “One dram of whiskey it is!” 

Handing him a glass and pouring out a generous measure, she kicked off her six inch stilettos that had made them almost the same height and curled her legs up to sit on the sofa next to the Fringe agent, looking at over the edge of her tumbler towards him as they both swigged down the contents of their glasses.

“Everything okay here?” he asked, sucking air through his teeth as alcohol burned his through on the way down. “You and the other ladies all okay?”

“We're fine, a few problematic characters here and there since you last came but nothing we can't handle. Our bouncers throw them out before they get too rowdy.”

“Good,” Lincoln nodded, letting his eyes drift shut as the whiskey warmed through his body. “That's good.”

“So how you been keeping, Lincoln? Fringe Division keeping you out of trouble?”

“I don't think anything could do that,” he laughed, the smile fading as he thought of their newest recruit with her freshly dyed dark red hair and big hazel eyes that had captivated him the moment they'd met. It had been a few years since Olivia had joined Fringe Division as his partner but felt like they'd known each other for a lifetime. “Trouble follows me around doing this job.”

Roxy laughed and shook her head. "You can't blame work for that, Lincoln. You could be a librarian and still get in trouble.”

“Meredith would use to say it was my middle name,” Lincoln joked as Roxy poured him another measure that he gratefully swallowed down in another quick gulp.

“So that's what the ‘T’ stands for!” They chuckled again, as Lincoln relaxed with the flow of the whiskey coursing through his veins, the sound of their laughter dying down as their blue eyes locked gazes. “You know I appreciate you visiting and it's always nice to see you here Lincoln but you don't have to check in anymore, now Misty - sorry, Meredith - is, uh, gone. We're okay.”

In truth it had become more than just a force of habit or obligation to Lincoln even though Charlie had always teased him about it. When Meredith had stopped studying and started working at this club under the stage name Misty, their parents had not been understanding of her choice when they'd found out. Lincoln had visited her there initially to talk her out of it on their behalf, barely recognizing her dressed as Misty in a see-through, skin-tight glittery bodysuit and long pastel blue wig but, on realizing that she was just as stubborn as he was, compromised by checking up on her regularly to check she was safe and happy and not being mistreated.

Occasional calls to the club eventually became regular visits, despite not indulging in the services they offered - even though he'd been tempted on a few occasions. When Meredith had become trapped in amber within a year of working there, Lincoln still took time to visit the faces he'd come to know at the club, especially Roxy who had been Meredith's closest friend. Had she not missed the usual subway train that she took to get to work or not stopped to take a phone call a few blocks away, Meredith would still be here and not frozen with everyone else like prehistoric insects in resin in that section and he wouldn't have had to inform their parent's and Roxy, which was the worst and hardest thing he'd ever had to do, along with breaking up with Kendra to save her heartbreak in the long run.

“I know, I'm no bodyguard, not like Karl out there,” he nodded at the curtain, knowing that the burly man with a shaved head, muscular body and biceps twice the size of Lincoln’s thighs was just the other side, listening out for any indication that the conduct in the private rooms was getting inappropriate, and he contemplatively rubbed the light stubble on his chin. “But that doesn't mean I don't want to look out for you. But if I'm bothering you, I'll take the hint.”

Roxy smiled softly and briefly covered his hand with hers, her long nails painted in a deep red like the walls. “You're never any bother to me, Lincoln. I just don't want you to feel like you have to worry about me or anyone here, you have enough to think about saving the world. And maybe finding a girlfriend - or boyfriend, if that's your thing.”

He raised his eyebrows, turning his lips into an upside down smile and sat up to rest his elbows on his knees. “Not easy as it sounds with my job.”

“There's those excuses again,” she winked, affectionately patting his knee once more. “You sure you don't want any of our extras? The amount of money you've spent in here over the years, you could probably have all the girls we have to yourself for the night. Doing your job must be pretty stressful, you look like you could do with some r&r.”

“That won't be necessary, thank you. I'm just happy to know that you're not not getting any aggro from your clients,” Lincoln stood to leave, deftly parting the heavy drapes with his long fingers. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

“My personal hotline to Fringe Division, you'll be the first to know if we need anything.” Roxy replied, watching Lincoln disappear through the gab in the fabric.

Chapter Text

"Any luck yet?” Lincoln asked anxiously for the third time since they’d left HQ. His sky blue eyes widened with worry as he glanced up at Charlie who sat opposite him in the back of the Fringe van which sped through the congested New York traffic, mirroring a similar look of concern.

Charlie shifted nervously, trying his ear cuff again. “Nothing, the call isn’t even connecting. It's as if their numbers don’t exist.” 

“But their Echelon trackers are showing they’re still in the Pandorica Genetics building?” Lincoln sighed, trying to be optimistic and not daring to state the obvious that their subcutaneous trackers could have been surgically removed, and even if they weren’t, it didn’t mean Liv and Astrid were safe or unharmed.

“Correct,” Charlie replied, checking the flashing dots on his device then continued without looking up, as if sensing what Lincoln was afraid to vocalize. “But, uh, Lincoln…”

He gulped thickly, fastening his Fringe Division issued flack jacket across his chest. “Yeah, I know...”

“Look, just ‘cause we can’t get through to them, it doesn’t mean the worst. Liv can look after herself, so can Astrid.”

Lincoln nodded in agreement. Even though he hadn’t heard from either of them since they’d left the office a few hours ago, he could still feel the ghost of Liv’s surprised smile pressed against his mouth when he leaned into kiss her, and her sultry voice echoing in his ear, that had suggestively deepened when she’d called him her lover. He was used to expecting the worst out of every situation but refused to believe it this time. They were both capable agents, even more so than he and Charlie, and he had to believe they were fine, whatever situation they’d found themselves in.

“I'm sure they're gonna be fine too,” Lincoln said, repeating it over and over in mind like a mantra and swallowing down the knot of fear and panic that refused to go away and burned at the back of his throat, making his palms sweat. “They’re gonna be fine.”

***

Crouching to shuffle away from the door and hide behind a workstation at the end of the laboratory, Astrid pressed the button on her ear cuff as Olivia joined her at their hiding place. “I am trying to call HQ for backup but it won't connect.”

Olivia nodded, quickly peering over the top of the desk to look at the door that rattled with the force of the group of masked men’s equipment as they attempted to break in. “They must have used signal blocking tech to stop anyone left behind from calling for help," she slumped down to sit on the floor and pressed her back against the side of the desk, staring up at the ceiling covered in cellulose tiles. “Do you think you could reach that air vent up there if I give you a lift up, maybe you could find a way out to call for backup while I hold them off? 

When Astrid followed her line of sight and nodded, they removed the white coats they'd stolen to disguise themselves and Olivia linked her fingers to hoist Astrid up. Pulling herself up and scrambling into the ventilation shaft cover, Astrid disappeared bit by bit in front of Olivia’s eyes until only her boots protruded from the small gap. Crawling through the narrow metallic tunnel, she peered through the holes in the panels, watching Olivia unholster and click the hammer of her weapon through the gaps below and duck back down behind the workstation as the door burst open with a deafeningly loud explosion that rippled through the room, upturning all the equipment and furniture in the blast wave in her direction.

Two figures, their faces still concealed with masks, emerged from the backdrop of thick white smoke caused by the explosives forcing the door open and stormed into the lab. Holding out their powerful handguns, they strode forward in Olivia's direction, who jumped to her feet and expertly fired in their direction. Narrowing her hazel eyes, she expertly discharged her weapon towards them while shouting a warning. “Agent Dunham, Fringe Agent! Drop your weapon and stand down!”

Hitting one of them squarely in the chest, one man cried out as he fell backwards and hit the floor. Undeterred, the other continued forward, ducking down to dodge her shots and began firing back in retaliation. They bullets rattled out in a furious flurry overhead, ricocheting off the steel beams in the walls causing Olivia to dive back down to the floor and take cover from the attack against the far wall, which she quickly deduced to be the safest spot with the most cover and advantage of a view of most of the room.

“Or what?” His voice sneered, muted from behind the fabric of his tight mask. “If you think I'm going let you, Fringe Agent or not, get in my way of accessing that SCIF behind you, then you're very much mistaken.”

The sophisticated biometric scanner on the metal sealed door above Olivia's head flickered. Unlike the previous doors that had only had simple keypad access that they'd easily been able to hack and the men had burst through, this one required a fingerprint or retina scan to permit entry, granting access to the rare few who had been given biological permission.

Hoping Astrid had managed to crawl to safety and somewhere she could call for backup, Olivia lined up her weapon and straightened her arms ready to fire as her fight or flight instinct kicked in, the imaginary crosshairs in her eyes waiting for a target. Her damp auburn bangs stuck to her forehead while the adrenaline rushed through her blood stream like rapids and pounded in her ears, ticking as she waited like a cheetah lying in wait in the long grass of the serengeti for a gazelle to pounce on. Clearing her throat, she called out a final warning. “I’m not moving so you're gonna have to get through me first.”

“Deal accepted.” 

His voice was the last thing Olivia heard before a small metallic ball slightly smaller than a baseball rolled down the middle of the room and clinked against the door as it rolled to a stop, the small button built into the surface of the mechanism popping out as the countdown beeping inside ceased. Her eyes widened and she dived for cover behind a glass fronted refrigerated cupboard to shield herself from what she instantly recognized as a ferrocene grenade.

Within seconds it exploded in a sudden flash of light so bright she could see every vein and capillary in the inside of her eyelids until the dark pink glow faded into black and she slumped against the wall, losing her grip on consciousness, buried under a pile of rubble and debris of damaged equipment that warped and shook in the blast.

*

Continuing through the air vent after crawling on her stomach for a few minutes, Astrid stopped to check her ear cuff at a junction where the vent split into two directions, sighing in frustration when there was still a block on the signal.

Unsure of which way would be faster, she contorted her petite frame in the restricted space to retrieve her tablet and check the building schematics. With the cold tomb-like brushed steel surface encasing her, she thumbed through the blueprint for anything that might be an indication of the best route to take.

The device almost slipped from her hands when the vents started to violently vibrate, rattling and shaking around her as an explosive boom suddenly ripped through the air from outside the shaft. Wiggling forwards towards a grill, she laid prone on her stomach to peer through the gaps to look for the source of the commotion, discovering Sanjay Kumar - the laboratory assistant who she'd spoken to earlier with Olivia - hurriedly pull a clear box marked with four letters out of the stainless steel refrigerator in the lab directly beneath her. 

The airtight door seal opened with a sigh of cool air and he gently placed the cube on the aluminum countertop before closing the fridge again. Carefully pulling the top half of the perspex cube between his hands so it split in half, he removed the top half and lid to access the small injection gun and two vials cushioned inside. One was empty but the other was filled with a fluorescent purple liquid that appeared to move of its own violation within the sealed glass container as he held it briefly up to the bright ceiling light to inspect it before placing it in the jet injector. 

Sighing to himself as he tucked an envelope into the breast pocket of his white jacket, Sanjay held the needle of the gun against his jugular with a shaking hand, taking a final deep breath. “I have to do this. I can’t let it fall into the wrong hands.”

The small windowless room filled with scientific equipment and cabinets shook suddenly for a second time, even more violently than before, so the clinically bright white walls bleached out into a bright flash of light and the outer door disappeared, as if its atomic structure had completely dissolved.

In a domino effect that echoed outwards, rippling like water when a stone skims across a lake, the room wobbled and the metal in the vent began to collapse in on itself and disintegrate, falling away like ash in a fire. Barely having enough time to scream out once she realized what was happening, Astrid scrambled to desperately cling onto the remaining vent before she tumbled down and crashed onto the work bench and Sanjay below, who also cried out in shock at her unexpected arrival.

“What is H.Y.D.E?” Astrid asked, spelling out the letters on case’s label as she grabbed the injection gun that Sanjay had dropped and rose to her feet.

He cried out, scrambling to take back the jet injector that had slid across the tiled floor. “Agent Farnsworth. What are you doing back here? Give it back!” 

“Are they after this? Do you know who they are?’ She demanded again, stepping backwards as she watched the dark silhouette move towards the gap where the door had been, impatiently waiting for the area to settle before crossing through to break through the barrier of the inner blast and bulletproof glass door. “Fringe Division can protect you, but you need to start telling the truth.”

Sanjay sighed in resignation, accepting he had nothing left to lose as he was probably going to die there and then anyway and the small chance he survived would be down to the Fringe Agents' help. “I--Its HYDE, it stands for Hyper-Yttrium-90 DNA Enhancer. It's a serum I was contracted to make for the DoD. to make soldiers temporarily stronger during battle and be impervious against injury but…”

“But what?” Astrid said, flinching as the man fired at the tempered glass door, trying to weaken the material then looked back at Sanjay. She'd had a strong sense when they'd talked earlier that he was hiding something and sped through all the equations of the reasons and scenarios in her mind, choosing the one that was the most likely as she always did. “There were unexpected side-effects, weren’t there?”

“Yes, I cloned chimera cells and genetically modified them so they would not be rejected by human DNA and fine-tuned the dose exactly so it would remain innate in the body and only be activated by a spike in three hormones - cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine - but it effectively rewrote the subject’s biology,” he paused his rambling to take a deep breath before continuing. "It made them into two people...”

“...physically?” she interrupted, the neurons in her brain making the connections faster than Sanjay could explain them.

“Yes exactly! They physically transformed into a completely different person when the serum became active, t-triggered by the body’s fight or f-flight response. How did you know that?…” Sanjay stuttered, recoiling as the reinforced glass shattered in another section, the cracks spreading and deepening with every strike. “...we need to do something, we have probably thirty seconds until they get through and there is no other way out of here!”

“Ferrocene grenades don’t work on non-conductive materials, so based on the current rate of decline, there is a fifty-eight percent chance the door will lose all integrity within the next minute, and a ninety-two percent chance it will be completely destroyed with two,” Astrid asserted. "But I agree, we need to figure out a way to stop them from stealing it and using it for themselves right now!”

They moved back to huddle in the far corner, their backs leaning against the smooth white surface of the walls. Sanjay moved instinctively in front of Astrid to protect her against the impending attack, his back towards the entrance.

Looking down at her, a flicker of a nervous smile rose up and twitched in the corner of his mouth. Being so close to each other, he couldn’t escape how delicately beautiful she was. The faint freckles on her tawny skin dotted over her nose and cheeks like distant constellations and her rounded, heart-shaped lips pouted as her brilliant mind whirred, weighing up every outcome and solution to think of how they could escape. “I destroyed all my research. The only way we can destroy this completely is to inject it into a subject, so it merges with their DNA, that way it cannot be duplicated. That’s what I was going to do before you fell on me… Argghhhh!” 

Doubling over suddenly, Sanjay gripped his stomach and screamed in pain as he hunched down and his clothes began to rip and tear with the force of his slim body rapidly expanding, the light brown color of his skin slowly giving way to a fuschia tint that bloomed in patches and spread, out of control, like dandelions on grass in springtime. His hands swelled up, doubling, then tripling in size, followed by his arms, torso, legs and feet, and he straightened up, his head hitting the ceiling of the room.

Astrid’s deep brown eyes widened as she looked up at him in bewilderment, meeting Sanjay’s gaze properly for the first time. His eyes were inky black but still looked at her tenderly and with shame, as if he’d never wanted to put anyone - especially her - in danger. Barely a few inches taller than her before, he was now more than twice her height and towered over her, and he braced himself between her and the glass door that rattled with dull thuds as the men penetrated the weakening glass. “But you didn’t, you stopped yourself. Why?”

“I was a coward - It is fatal for human DNA to take more than a single dose, it would break down every cell in my body,” Sanjay replied, his voice strained from the transformation and emotion. “When I discovered this, I refused to test it on anyone else but myself and vowed to destroy the remaining serum but it was too late, the result of my research had already been leaked. But I am prepared to sacrifice myself now, give me the serum - right now!”

“No! There has to be another way. You don’t have to die!” Astrid argued, cowering behind him as the door finally gave way and the masked man showered bullets in their direction that merely bounced off of the protective layer of his thickened skin on his back like rubber on concrete.

“Yes, I do. This is the only option, we can’t let them take it. Go - now!” he roared, turning to the man behind him and effortlessly flipping the aluminum table over, pinning the masked man to the floor. Astrid blinked and placed the needle against her jugular like she’d seen Sanjay do before and took a deep breath to brace herself before pressing the trigger, flinching and gasping in pain as the needle pierced her skin and the serum flooded her bloodstream.

“NO!” Immediately dropping the table, Sanjay ran towards Astrid as she slumped to the floor, her body limp and lifeless, trying his best to gently brush the tight black and red curls from her face with his enlarged fingers. “Agent Farnsworth?”

***

In the building’s darkened lobby, Lincoln and Charlie tentatively moved forward, flanked by junior agents Salerno and Reynolds and dressed in protective gear. They ducked down out of the way of the gunfire that exploded in a glitter of light from the men hiding behind the front desk.

“GET DOWN!” Salerno cried out, retaliating with his own gunfire and a grenade back towards the assailants that hit the lobby’s glass wall panels, causing it to shatter and rain over them as it tinkled onto the floor. 

Diving to the ground as it ruptured into a fiery flash of light within seconds, it caught the two masked men that had been hiding behind the desk in the blast so they flew into the air with the desk and landed with a deafening crash on the floor in front of the four agents.

“It’s a damn warzone here!” Charlie quipped gruffly, wincing in pain while holding his stitched up leg as he scrambled to his feet. “Everyone okay?”

Lincoln blinked, brushing the dust and debris off of his suit and rubbing his ears. “I’m fine, not sure about my eardrums though. Are we clear?”

“Clear,” Reynolds confirmed, striding forward as the ceiling sprinklers automatically started, shutting down the elevator functions and soaking the area as well as the four agent’s hair and clothing with heavy drops of water who moved towards the stairwell, peering up through the steps that spiraled upwards for any signs of movement.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Charlie groaned, following Lincoln and the other agents up the first flight. "According to the trackers, they're ten floors up.”

***

Excruciating pain tore through every cell of Astrid’s body like wildfire, ripping her out of the shadowy, comforting blanket of unconsciousness and she jerked awake, bolting upright in Sanjay’s bulging arms, and watched alarmed as her body began to enlarge and mutate.

“Agent Farnsworth, are you okay?” Sanjay asked, his deepened voice softening with concern as he helped her to stand.

“Ohhhh!” she exclaimed, blushing as her Fringe uniform tore at the seams and barely held together enough to cover her body in scraps and she mentally thanked fate for making her choose underwear made of a stretch material that morning instead of her usual cotton ones. “This is most unusual.”

Sanjay shook his head in disbelief, respectfully keeping Astrid’s modesty by trying to make eye contact, even though she did not reciprocate and focused on the space just above his right shoulder. “Why did you do that?”

“I concluded it was the most logical solution,” she retorted, standing fully and feeling empowered, almost reveling in the sensation of no longer being petite and diminutive and all the negative associations that came with it. "Also, I can do this!”

Reaching around Sanjay, she roughly pulled a large centrifuge machine from the counter, the cable plug and socket trailing behind, and threw it over Sanjay's shoulder, knocking down the man behind them who had crawled out from under the upturned aluminum table and he slumped back down to the floor.

“Nice shot!” 

Astrid blinked, and smiled up at Sanjay. Although she was twice as tall as she should be, as well as twice as strong - her slim thighs and arms were now bulging with muscles - she was still at least ten inches shorter than his enhanced frame but she didn’t care. She felt alive for the first time for as long as she could remember, no longer bound by the restraints of her body or her mind. “You're welcome.”

***

Peering around the stairwell door to check for any activity before walking through, Reynolds silently signaled with his hands for the others to proceed.

“Readings say they're less than thirty yards in that direction,” Charlie said to Lincoln as they turned right in the plain and clinically designed hall, and checked the signal of Olivia's and Astrid’s trackers on his device. 

As they approached the main door that had been blown off its hinges, their eyes met and widened with concern at the damage. The wall had partly crumbled and disintegrated into rubble around the frame, barely leaving enough room for them to comfortably pass through. Stepping over the pile of wrecked bricks coated in plaster dust, Lincoln nodded and turned on his pocket flashlight. “Yeah, it definitely looks like this is the place. The hell happened here?”

Flecks of dust and particles scattered through the air, falling like fine snow in the glow of the flashlight, settling on the damaged furniture and remnants of broken equipment, and flickering fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, hanging loosely from the fixings like tentacles of dead mechanical kraken.

“I’d say three pounds of plastic explosives and some kind of a ferrocene drill or weapon, judging by the state of his door and the hole in that far wall,” Charlie remarked, looking incredulously at the damage around him as he followed Lincoln into the laboratory.

Shards of glass from broken tumblers that had smashed to the floor in the blast crunched under their shoes like shattered ice as they stepped forward, following the direction of the beep on their tablet until the sight of a size 7 boot came in to view in the beam of light from Lincoln's flashlight, and he froze immediately, recognizing it as Olivia’s. He manically sprinted forward towards her with Charlie seconds behind and he skidded to a stop, stumbling on the slippery jewels of broken glass under his feet.

“Liv?”

Olivia’s voice called back, soft and emotionless. "Lincoln. He took my gun."

His eyes widened further as his gaze traveled up from her feet and legs to her body and face. Olivia was slumped on the floor and was leaning against the bottom of a cabinet that had toppled over. She smiled at him wearily, her face dotted with micro cuts from the force of the shattered glass and flinched at the cold metal that was being pressed against the crown of her head by the final masked man that was standing behind her.

“That is close enough, all of you drop your weapons,” he warned, carefully eyeing the guns in the Fringe Agent’s hands. "Or this grenade will be the last thing she feels before every cell in her body turns into negative matter."

Chapter Text

Something about the detached tone of the man's voice made Lincoln’s hair on the back of his neck prickle and stand on end, like the air was charged the way it is seconds before lightning strikes, and he obediently placed his gun on the floor without hesitation and kicked it away. Holding his hands up in surrender, Lincoln nodded to Charlie, Salerno and Reynolds to do the same.

Once he would have refused to capitulate and back down to anyone demanding this of him. Even now, in any other circumstance, he would have risked calling the man’s bluff. But that was before he'd met Olivia, before he’d looked death in the eye when being tortured by Dallas and before Kate had warned him of what their next meeting would involve, and he was sure as hell not going to do anything to risk whatever she had insinuated becoming a reality.

“Take it easy…” Charlie said, his gruff voice low and calm. Lincoln nodded in agreement, realizing he'd been trying to speak the whole time but could only muster his mouth to tremble with silent panic. “...no one needs to get hurt. Just put it down and we can sort something out, ‘kay buddy?”

“Just go in there,” the man demanded, jutting his chin towards the wall behind him that had a whole section clean cut out as if it was made of paper. "And give me what I came for, and your friend will live to see another day. The box containing the Hyde serum - you have two minutes.”

Charlie nodded and tapped Lincoln on the shoulder, signaling for him to stay with Olivia before he stepped towards the gaping hole where the door to the SCIF had been. “I’m on it.”

“You hurt?” Lincoln asked, his words deliberately slow and protracted so she couldn't hear the strain in his voice when he finally summoned the courage to speak.

She shook her head slightly, restrained by the man’s arm. “I’m fine, apart from a few cuts and a sprained ankle.” Her eyes were wide and dark in the low light but glistened with the flickering bulbs overhead like the moon reflecting on the ocean at midnight when she nodded. “Did Astrid manage to reach you?” 

“Astrid? No, we've been trying to call you both but couldn’t get through, that’s why we grabbed Salerno and Reyolds and came up as fast as we could.” 

He smiled thinly, in a desperate attempt to comfort and assure her that she would be fine, even if he didn’t entirely believe it himself and was afraid to move closer as the man’s python grip tightened threateningly around Olivia’s neck.

“Linc?”

“Don't worry, Liv, Charlie will find it and then we’ll get out of there. We can go to that Mexican restaurant you mentioned that just opened up on Hastings Street, my treat," he knew she could tell his smile was phony but it was all he could muster, and he continued to talk to distract her from the device pressed against her skull.

“Juan in a Million?”

“Yeah, I’ll even try the habanero salsa and promise not to cover everything in sour cream.”

She snorted, in the way she always did when they playfully teased each other. “Now I know you’re lying.”

“Nuh-huh, I promise. Scout’s honor,” Lincoln smirked, holding up two fingers in the salute against his temple.

“Thirty seconds," the man interrupted, roughly pulling Olivia to her feet, making Lincoln glare in his direction. His jaw clenched with seething, pent up anger that swelled in his chest with the compulsion to kill the man just for daring to touch a single hair on her head, and shame for doing nothing but watch while the man taunted him and threatened to hurt Olivia. “If you have anything meaningful to say, I suggest you say it now.”

“Agent Lee,” Reynolds leaned into Lincoln’s space and whispered, nodding to the area where Charlie had gone to. "Over there.”

They turned to see Charlie emerge from the doorway, holding the clear plastic box triumphantly in his hand, his dark eyes wide and unfaltering as he looked at the man holding Olivia with loathing and contempt.

“This is what you want, let her go and it's all yours.”

“Not yet,” the man retorted, backing away while pulling Olivia with him who winced with the pain of walking on her sprained ankle as she hobbled backwards. "Pass it to me first and I’ll let her go.”

“Sure, no problem,” Charlie said gruffly, tentatively approaching them. Olivia gripped onto the man’s arm that tightened around her neck, constrained in the crook of his elbow, her knuckles as white as her face. “But you’ve only got one pair one hands. You can’t hold her and the ferrocene grenade and this box at the same time. What’s it gonna be?”

As the man contemplated Charlie’s question, he hesitated. It was just for a second but enough for Charlie’s eyes to meet Olivia’s. In an unspoken language that they’d perfected from knowing each other and working with each other for years, they instantly made the connection and realized the other was thinking the same thing with just the slightest flicker of their eyes and subconscious twitch of their mouths. Charlie threw the perspex cube at the man without warning who instinctively loosened his grip on Olivia to catch it, allowing her to duck down and roll out from his arm towards Lincoln. He rushed to catch her in his arms as she stumbled on the fragments of smashed equipment that littered the floor. 

“No matter. It was a pleasure meeting you again,” he sneered, eyeing the contents of the plastic case. Stepping backwards again towards the exit, his eyes locked with Olivia’s and Lincoln’s as he continued in his mocking tone and held up the metallic orb that he'd held against her head. "Especially you Agent Dunham. Don't try anything stupid though, this is still armed and will detonate if I drop it.”

The man paused at the pile of rubble that partially obscured the door and smirked again as he turned to face the agents for the final time, holding the polished grenade in his outstretched hand. “Consider this an insurance policy.”

He threw the metallic orb into the air towards the agents who watched horrified as it flew towards them in seemingly slow motion, no longer concerned with stopping his escape but preoccupied with where it might land and bracing themselves for what damage it would cause, and they dived in the opposite direction to avoid being in it’s blast radius. Weapons and tools using ferrocene had been outlawed many years ago when it had been discovered it caused molecular degradation, but their effects and properties were still covered in basic Fringe Agent training, due to there still being a demand for it on the black market.

It landed with a thud on the floor, cushioned by the debris from the earlier explosion and rolled slightly before coming to a stop against a desk, every tick of the internal mechanism getting increasingly louder as it echoed ominously throughout the room. Braced against the far wall, Olivia flinched and held her breath as she subconsciously linked her fingers with Lincoln’s and Charlie turned to face her with Salerno and Reynolds at his side. 

“Brace yourself, kiddo.” 

Charlie’s words were the last thing she heard as her vision went black again and she tightly scrunched her eyes, ducking down and feeling the familiar warmth of Lincoln’s body cocooning her from behind and then everything around them violently shook in a vibrating, chaotic cacophony. The ringing in Olivia’s ears abated slightly at the comforting sound of Lincoln’s soft, familiar voice calling her name a moment later. “Liv? You okay?”

Olivia nodded as she slowly opened her eyes and her blurred vision cleared to see Astrid in her shredded uniform that hung from her petite frame in torn pieces under a dusty white coat. She screamed in wide eyed desperation, trying to escape the grasp of Salerno and Reynolds who desperately held back her shrinking form as she clawed at their arms. Following Charlie’s concerned look towards the middle of the room, a giant deformed figure with fuchsia colored skin inhumanly howled in pain as it twisted in agony and mutated back into Sanjay. He looked at Astrid a final time before every molecule and atom in his body folded in on itself and he disappeared in a dull flash.

***

After being helped to the foyer to have her injuries checked by a MedEvac team, Olivia winced as they bandaged her sprained ankle while she laid on an ambulance gurney. Lincoln walked over to join her from the one across the parking lot where Astrid had been treated and had been explaining what had happened to Erikson while tucked under a blanket and attached to a drip. Meeting Olivia's gaze as he approached, he smiled thinly again, but this time it was genuine, and his dimples deepened with the relief that everyone was okay.

He gestured at her leg as the medic moved away. “How’s the foot?” 

“It’s okay, nothing an ice pack and some Tylenol won’t fix," she sat up, pushing the blanket off her and swung her leg over the side to gingerly step down as Lincoln braced her by the arm. “What’s the deal with Astrid?”

“From what I can tell, she was exposed to the same serum that Sanjay was and what the perps attempted to steal. You know, he deliberately laid on the grenade before it exploded to sacrifice himself, protecting her and us out of guilt for creating that stuff.”

Olivia nodded and watched forlornly as Astrid’s ambulance drove away, recalling how distraught she had been at being unable to stop Sanjay's noble gesture. “Wait, attempted to steal?”

“Yeah, whoever those mercenaries were, they left empty handed. Kumar gave me a placebo he used as a control drug in his tests,” Charlie interjected, joining Olivia and Charlie from where he’d been talking with Reynolds and Salerno. "We were lucky they didn’t call my bluff and test it before they left.”

When Charlie had entered the secure lab, he'd barely recognized Astrid as she towered over him in her bulky, enhanced form until she'd explained why there wasn't any of the serum left. Sanjay had scrambled to find the two remaining cartridges of the harmless and innate control drug for Charlie to substitute in the case with just enough time for him to run back with it.

“So the only evidence that this serum exists… now only exists in Astrid,” Lincoln added, blinking with the absurdity of the situation. “Secretary Bishop has requested her to be sent to science division in the hope they can reverse engineer it and find a cure of some kind, as it was originally developed for the DoD by Sanjay Kumar.”

“Maybe they did call our bluff, that’s why they threw the grenade at us,” Olivia surmised, limping slightly as they walked the short distance towards the car.

Lincoln shrugged, opening the passenger and back seat doors before walking to the driver’s side and pensively drummed his fingers on the car roof. “Maybe. Or maybe they planned on killing us all along."

***

Leaning over the rustic wooden table to talk over the loud mariachi music, Olivia smirked.

“So? How is it?”

“It's, uh, interesting…” Lincoln replied cryptically, trying to downplay how spicy he found the food and gulped it down as quickly as possible before the chilies had time to register on his taste buds. 

“You're a terrible liar, Linc,” Olivia huffed and rolled her eyes in a playful way, pushing the pitcher of iced water towards him. “But I do appreciate the effort.”

Gratefully topping up his own glass and swigging down the entire contents in one go, he nodded appreciatively. “Thanks. At least I don't have glasses anymore, or they'd be steamed up by now.” 

Laughing again, she dropped her cutlery to her emptied plate and leaned back in her seat. “It's nice to get out though. I was saying to Astrid we don't get to go on many real dates. Even if your face is nearly as red as the walls.”

Olivia frowned as a sudden sense of déjà vu washed over her, as if they’d spoken those words to before even though it was impossible when this restaurant had only opened recently and she hadn't been to any other like it with either of the Lincolns.

“Does it bother you?” Lincoln's voice pulled her out of her reverie and back to the moment, with his pale eyes pensively wide and she reacted after a moment of being frozen, her hands flying up in protest before resting on his reassuringly.

“What?... Oh no! No, of course not!” She paused for a moment to meet his almost shameful gaze, his eyelashes fluttering down to watch her hand squeeze his. “With our line of work, we're lucky to have enough time or energy to eat when we get home, of course we're not going to be going on dates all the time! And to be honest, I'd rather be at home with you in private in the little free time we do have. Besides, I didn't mean it like that. She just asked about us dating because you kissed me at work.”

Nodding with acceptance, he linked their fingers in agreement. “Good. For the record, so would I. Any news from Erikson on how she is?”

“Not yet,” Olivia shrugged, her lips twisting into an upside down smile. “They're keeping her on a cocktail of mild sedatives at the DoD hospital to ensure her adrenaline doesn't reach dangerously high levels until they figure out how to treat her… condition. I said I'd visit tomorrow after work and see how she is.”

“I'm sure she'll appreciate that,” Lincoln said sincerely, recalling how much he'd appreciated it when the Olivia on his side had visited him in hospital when he'd been quarantined and recovering from a fungi infection in isolation. He tucked a handful of notes on the table and stood to hold out his arm for support as Olivia hobbled on her feet slightly, holding out her coat so she could slip her arms into the sleeves. “Would you like some company?”

Stepping out of the warm restaurant onto the street, the cool evening air and flickering neon street lights replaced the soft glow of candlelight and the chatter of patrons and music, and Olivia shook her head, thinking of how Astrid had confided in her before. “I think she'd prefer it to be just me, at least for the time being.” 

“No problem. I think I'll ask Robert if he's free, I haven't spoken to him for a while," he paused as they reached the car and blinked, deep in thought. “Do you think we'll find out who they were and if they were working for Erasmus - the men from the building?”

“I think so," he huffed a small laugh, tugging Lincoln by the collar of his coat so he stumbled forward and pressed flush against her, the coarse woolen material warm from his body. Pressing her mouth against his stubbled jaw, her breath was teasingly hot in his ear as her words dripped in sultry tones from her tongue. “Please can we stop talking about work and go home?”

Lincoln gulped thickly, looking around nervously in case anyone noticed but the streets were almost deserted except for a couple leaving the restaurant behind them, who were too distracted with each other to care about what he and Olivia were doing. Public displays of affection were still something that made him slightly uneasy and he had to push himself out of his comfort zone and fight feeling self-conscious to ensure Olivia received the love language she deserved and craved from him. “Sorry, it's quite hard not to when we, uh, live and work together.”

“So I noticed, Agent Lee,” Olivia teased suggestively, tucking her hand inside his coat to pull him closer by his waist so their hips were touching. “Is that your gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?” 

“I'm always pleased to see you, Agent Dunham," he replied, cupping her face in his hands before his resolve melted away with her wicked half-smile and he leaned in for a kiss, her full lips warm and pliant as they pressed against his, tingling with traces of the spicy food and illicit promises. “You convinced me, let's go.”

Laughing at his eagerness when she'd only slightly encouraged him, Olivia grinned like a teenager all the way home. It stopped when they got home and he'd hurriedly kicked the front door to their apartment shut behind them, removed her coat and kneeled in front her to remove her shoes. They'd lined the hallway path from the door to the bedroom with every item of clothing they had been wearing, their approving sighs and soft moans cocooning their warm, naked bodies behind the closed bedroom door.

Despite that, Lincoln’s sleep was still restless compared to Olivia's who slept peacefully next to him like the night before, for the first time in months. Like a scorpion’s stinger that was slowly infecting every cell of his body with its venom, his mind drifted back to Kate's deserted laboratory under the Brookhaven site every time he closed his eyes. Consumed by the thought there was something he'd missed, the determination to return alone to find out at the next available opportunity resurfaced.

***

The team was thankful the next working day in the Fringe HQ was quiet, as it allowed them the rare luxury to reflect on how, once again, events could have easily escalated into any number of tragic scenarios and to search for evidence on the mercenaries in the hope it would lead them back to AGR and their founders, especially Melvin Aureoles who they knew as Erasmus.

Waving goodbye to Olivia in the DoD hospital through the windows in the double doors as she checked in to visit Astrid, Lincoln checked his wristwatch on reaching the car door and groaned at the time; he was supposed to be meeting Robert in Chelsea in less than half an hour and the traffic was still congested down most the avenues. A call buzzing into his ear cuff startled him as he checked the SatNav for an alternate route and he clicked to answer, tugging on the seatbelt and starting the engine with his Show Me.

“This is Agent Lee.”

After a brief pause, a male voice softly spoke, as if the speaker was trying to stop their voice from cracking. “Lincoln? It's Robert, I…”

“Robert!” Lincoln sighed in relief, his eyes flickering as he waited for a gap in the traffic before driving into the road. “I was about to call you, I might be a bit late, the traffic is bumper to bumper here in Manhatan…” his voice trailed off as the line went silent except for a sniff and a long sigh. “...you okay?”

“Not really, I need your, and Fringe Division’s, help. It's my brother Randy,” Robert paused again to catch his breath and steady his voice. "His wife Natalie found him. He's been dissolved into dust.”

Chapter Text

February 6th 2014

The modestly sized TV that was mounted on the corner of the wall flickered, displaying muted news channel presenters. Closed captions overlayed the bottom of the screen as the presenter silently mouthed a report about the thirtieth anniversary of the first wormhole as Secretary Bishop’s face appeared, proud and determined in front of the Fringe Division emblem and the President’s seal as he congratulated everyone involved for their hard work in ensuring no more had opened in almost two years.

Suddenly the mature man’s face was replaced with the backdrop of solar and lunar images and bold capital words flashed across the screen in bright lettering in the colors of bees, wasps and other flying insects notorious for their sting.

“BREAKING NEWS.” 

The blood-red ticker tape flashed as it rolled across the bottom of the screen. “Astrophysicists have confirmed strong solar flares have been detected and warn this activity could impact communications and flights to …”

Saturday, February 13, 2014

“I’ve seen a lot of weird things in the eight years since I joined Fringe Division, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Olivia winced as she stood up and straightened her knees from crouching down on the carpeted floor of the master bedroom in the Danzig family home. There wasn’t any use trying to examine the remains of Randy Danzig that laid supine on top of the covers at the end of the king sized bed, surrounded by blood red rose petals. Lying parallel to the pillows with his feet on the nylon carpet, in between his feet and torso his legs had almost crumbled away into dust like an ancient statue eroded by the elements over thousands of years. Even Olivia’s calm breathing and the subtle vibration of her miniscule movements caused enough disturbance in the air to disintegrate his remains just like the tide of the ocean wore down the grains and microscopic particles in a forgotten sandcastle. “Any thoughts on what could have caused this?”

Blinking away a look that was somewhere between a frown and repulsion despite the heady floral scent in the room, Lincoln shook his head. “I vaguely recall a similar archived case from my, uh…” he paused to lean into Olivia's personal body space and whisper against her ear so their conversation wouldn't be overheard by the local PD and forensic team in the hallway, “... universe. I remember reading about it but I can't recall the exact details of the case, it was from before my time with the team.”

Smiling back at Lincoln who shoved his hands in his pockets as he smirked coyly, she gestured to the bed decorated with the flowers. “So what's the significance of the petals?”

“They aren't significant - unless you count romance.”

Olivia and Lincoln met each other's gaze quickly with knowing looks and raised eyebrows before quickly moving apart and turning on their heels to the sound of the voice behind them. Leaning against the wall by the door frame, Robert loosened his tie to reveal a growth of stubble that ran down his neck from his jaw to his shirt collar. Rubbing his red-rimmed eyes in a futile attempt to make sense of the scene, he gestured towards the items on the nightstand. “Randy was surprising Natalie for Valentine's Day, she wasn't expecting him back for a few more days.”

Lincoln smiled sympathetically and pointed towards the dresser near the window, his expression turning into a frown as the blinking light of the smoke alarm caught his attention. “That explains the box of chocolates and gift bag on the drawers over there but what could have caused this without showing any evidence of a fire. Did your brother work at a science laboratory or have contact with anyone in that field?”

Robert paused. “No, not to my knowledge - he worked for an investment firm. Actually, he used to say that was enough excitement for him and he didn't envy my career in the DoD at all.” 

“We should look into his movements over the past week or two, see if there was any unusual activity,” Olivia mused, twisting her mouth into an upside down smile and subtly brushing Lincoln's arm with her hand as she left the room. “I'll go speak to Natalie and see if she can tell us anything that might help.”

Nodding in reply, Lincoln turned back to Robert and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder sympathetically. It was already a strange situation - how he'd lost his friend, only to find him again in this universe - but it helped him to empathize with how Olivia saw him compared the Lincoln from this universe. As much as he appreciated the friendship, he knew that this Robert wasn't the same man he'd been partners with for six years and it didn't distract from the memories they'd shared, but it was still a comfort to know this new version of him, especially when he’d been the closest thing to family that he had had for a long time.

“Robert, I'm so sorry for your loss. I promise we will do everything we can to find out what happened to your brother.”

“Thank you,” Robert smiled thinly and exhaled a long sigh. “Natalie and I appreciate your expertise and any insight you might have.”

***

In a few hours, the forensic team had sealed the Danzig property behind them with plastic tape. Olivia left the building as she ended a call on her ear cuff and joined Lincoln who stood at the side of the road by their car, looking up at the sky where salmon pink clouds bled away onto the inky blackness, revealing stars that glittered in small pinpricks of light and a crescent moon glowing bright against the obsidian backdrop of space. The distant hum of an airship echoed through the still night air, its ghostly shape concealed by the low light behind the suburban family house. “How's he doing?”

Sighing, he watched as Robert’s car drove away, taking Natalie with him, and smiled wearily at Olivia. “As well as can be expected, seeing as he just lost his brother in unusual circumstances.”

Shrugging himself out of the intrusive memory of when he'd found Robert’s lifeless corpse, drained of color and opaqueness in his universe, he turned to open the car door for Olivia before walking around the car to sit behind the steering wheel. “To be honest, I think he's still in shock. I don't think it's fully sunk in yet.”

“It’s understandable.” Nodding, Olivia buckled her seat belt as Lincoln started the car and pulled away from the curb, the headlights casting shadows over the gray tarmacked road. Driving away in somber silence, Olivia comfortingly brushed his upper arm again with her palm, stroking his broad shoulder gently with the pad of her thumb through his suit jacket. As much as they complained about excessive paperwork and the long, unsociable hours, this was easily the worst part of the job, and it hit harder when it affected someone they knew personally, especially as they’d experienced their own losses. Shifting in her seat as the car slowed to join the wall of evening rush hour traffic on the Nixon Parkway, Olivia turned to look at Lincoln, his aquamarine eyes glittering with the reflection of the scarlet tail lights. “When I spoke to Natalie, she mentioned that Randy had just returned back from a corporate excursion. He’d visited the Tranquility base on behalf of one of his most prolific clients who had stressed concerns with him about their investment.” 

Frowning, he turned to look at Olivia briefly, blinking in puzzlement before looking back at the row of cars stretching out in front of them. “Tranquility Base? Is that a DoD base?” 

“No,” Olivia repressed a snort, realizing that Lincoln wouldn’t know about the base as it didn’t exist in his world and paused to explain. "It was built in the late nineties as a joint effort with NASA, ESA and the USSRSA and is run by the Glatterflug Group who’ve been funded by private investors ever since.”

“Wait, NASA and Glatterflug?” He gulped thickly as he comprehended Olivia’s words. “A lunar base?”

“Yep, Natalie said he was sent as part of a team of three as a PR exercise due to concerns of investors due to reports of equipment malfunctions since the solar flares. ”

“What about the two other members of the team?” Lincoln blurted, interrupting Olivia, his voice taught with urgency. “Are they okay?”

“I called Charlie, he’s at HQ tracking them down now and is gonna meet us at the Glatterflug headquarters in the morning so we can speak to their base commander via their internal communication system. I said we'd take the night airship down so we can at least try and get some sleep.”

Lincoln huffed nervously. “Sounds good to me, although I'm not sure I'm gonna get much sleep until we find who or what is responsible for that.” 

***

By the time they’d checked into the mooring station on the top of the Empire State building and were shown their small sleeping quarters in the airship, the early evening had succumbed to the night and shrouded the ship in a pitch black blanket as it made its steady journey down the east coast. Outside of the port side viewing platform windows, the Atlantic sea glittered under the moonlight while on the right, the distant glow of Manhatan’s neon lights dissolved into the night as the blimp rumbled south towards Florida, its engine emitting a comforting rumble that vibrated throughout the ship.

Their cabin room was very compact with a low ceiling and barely enough room for the bed, but had all the creature comforts they’d need overnight - a queen sized bed with pillows and starched white covers, a wall-mounted lamp and shelf each side of the bed, a modest rail for clothes and a small bathroom in the corner with a toilet, washbasin and concealed wetroom shower.

“This cabin is very, uh, cozy, but it’s certainly a lot more comfortable than trying to get some rest in an airport or a plane with no leg room,” Lincoln observed, tucking their carry-on cases under the double bed. “Less likely to experience turbulence too, which is always a bonus.”

Despite having something of a nomadic lifestyle since Kendra's death and knowing that it was still one of the safest methods of transportation, Lincoln had never really warmed to flying and felt an irrational fear from being thirty-thousand feet in the air in little more than a thin metal case and took a long drive over a short flight in most circumstances.

Olivia laughed, pulling back the sheets and allowing Lincoln to lie down before pulling them back up, and rolled over so he was almost pinned underneath her, grinning mischievously. His hands drifted down to her hips, passively holding her in place as she straddled his waist and leaned over him. “I dunno, we could try causing some motion.”

He gasped, clamping his eyes shut to try and ignore Olivia as she teasingly trailed her fingertips over his chest, her trimmed nails catching on his fine chest hair and hardening nipples. His hands snapped out and grasped Olivia’s wrists before they could reach the waistband of his boxers. “I thought we were keeping it professional when at work?” 

“Technically speaking, we’re not at work, she argued, shifting her weight slightly so her ass nudged his growing hardness and smirked, intently watching the mixture of pleasure and frustration contort his features. “Anyway, you kissed me in the office the other day, so now everyone knows we’re together. We don’t need to keep it a secret.”

“Liv…” Lincoln warned, his voice and self-control dangerously low. He knew she knew what she did to him, how easy it was to get him to submit to her, and as much as he loved it - and her - and despite everything they’d been through, there was still a grain of doubt in his mind that held him back. Those deep-rooted insecurities and self-doubts that fed his hesitance and fear, seeping through the cracks in his growing confidence in himself and taunted him that this was all a joke. “... No, but we are on a case and so we shouldn’t - ohhhh!”

He growled, his voice low in his throat. The thin fabric of their underwear was barely separating them and he could feel the damp heat of her dissolving his increasingly diminishing resolve as she dragged herself over his body, and pressed her palms against this firm chest.

She stopped suddenly as if sensing his trepidation and leaned forward, draping her long, dark auburn hair over one shoulder, her smile fading as her brows knitted. “If you don’t want to…”

There was still something about this position that made him uneasy but he knew Olivia liked the intimacy and power of having him under her body and under her control. His eyes that had been clamped shut sprung open at her words, cursing himself for mistaking this moment for an invasive distant memory with someone else.

“-- I do,” Lincoln interrupted, cursing himself for the familiar flicker of rejection that appeared in her broken smile for a second during his hesitation. His hands immediately moved back to her hips to hold her in place as she tried to move away and traveled up her sides to cup her face to make her avoidant eyes look at his own. “Oh I do, Liv. How could I not want to, with you? But your leg is still healing --”

“-- and you hurt your head, but you said you’re okay. Aren’t you?” Olivia retorted sullenly. Her hormone levels had mostly regulated along with her dreams since she’d been put on a course of medication and birth control since the exposure on The Sandman case but they did nothing to numb how much she yearned for how he worshiped her as if every moment was their last night together.

He stuttered as his fingers linked with Olivia’s. “No - I mean yes!” 

It wasn’t a complete lie, physically he did feel fine. The residual throb of the machine that had echoed through him had almost rippled away into a faint tinnitus, leaving only the worry of Kate’s words behind that had embedded themselves in the back of his mind like seeds, desperate to pollinate. They had taken root and grew his determination to find out the meaning of Kate’s words and his desperation to prevent whatever it was she thought he wanted to change. 

Lincoln smiled thinly and craned his neck so his mouth could meet Olivia’s in a reassuring embrace and she took his invitation and greedily responded. Her kisses were hot and needy, dispelling any flickering doubt in his mind that his feelings for her weren’t completely reciprocated just like they always did and they moaned approvingly into each other’s mouth in pleasure. Breaking away to catch their breaths that came out in erratic gasps, he held her face as she leaned over his body, brushing away errant strands of her fiery hair. “Let there be no doubt in your mind that I will always want - and love - you, Liv. Whatever happens, nothing is going to change that.”

Pulling away, her eyes heavy with desire, Lincoln’s hands lovingly and fastidiously caressed every inch of her skin with a featherlight touch as if he was afraid she’d break. His fingers drew patterns on her skin that spelled out everything he found impossible to convey and she gasped as they expertly reached the rosy buds of her pebbled nipples that hardened against his fingertips. They uncovered the last dream she remembered of him, when he’d felt familiar and yet not the same, and they’d been so distant and cold until they’d warmed in the glow of their love-making, and she blinked in confusion as his hands adoringly cupped her small breasts. Olivia gulped thickly, her voice soft and raspy. “What do you mean?”

“Hmmm?” Lincoln mumbled his reply, oblivious and distracted with granting Olivia’s request. His fingers splayed across the ridges of her ribcage while his chest rapidly rose and fell under his labored breaths, admiring her lithe body that rocked against him. “I mean I love y--”

Freezing her movements, she stroked his jaw, slack with growing desire, so he would raise his gaze back up to hers. “No, you said whatever happens. What did you mean?” His flushed skin was searing hot and his pulse raced under her touch as he met her gaze again under heavy eyelids, his sky blue eyes so dilated the iris had almost entirely disappeared

“I just…” his voice trailed off, unable to explain the feeling of impending doom that had been weighing on him since he’d seen Kate disappear and had been unable to shake off her words as if she’d permanently tattooed them into his consciousness. “...I can’t see my feelings for you ever changing, whatever the future holds for us. Why?”

“No reason,” Olivia smiled dismissively, believing his words were a mere coincidence. Pushing back to slide off her underwear and allowing Lincoln to do the same, she straddled him again, lowering herself onto him and surrounding him with her wet heat, sighing at the sensation of the delicious ache of him penetrating her fully.

“Fuck, Liv...” Lincoln groaned breathlessly, his voice barely more than a rasping whisper as he desperately clung to her body when she leaned back, the tips of her straight chestnut hair trailing over his knees and shins, his brain short-circuiting from a combination of the view and the sensations of her movements. That first glide was always so perfect, like an effortless slip of two puzzle pieces literally sliding into place, that it never failed to take his breath away. It was as if they were two sides of the same coin, a scale in perfect balance. Olivia paused, mouth slack, allowing the sensation like a strained pearl necklace seconds away from snapping and spilling its precious plunder to engulf her as she erratically grinded against him. “You’re perfect.”

"We’re perfect," she countered shakily, moaning as the heat of an orgasm began to coil in her core and desperate to chase it, placed a hand between her legs while Lincoln steadied her hips and rhythm with his, her skin glowing with a sheen of light sweat, “- together.”

He gasped, trying to slow her movements for fear he wouldn’t be able to control himself much longer. “I can’t argue with you on that.”

Barely holding on long enough to allow Olivia’s release, her body convulsing around him, Lincoln quickly followed her over the edge as she pulled him with her, moaning in relief as she collapsed onto him, their clammy bodies sticking to each other and hands interlocked until she rolled away.

“It’s not quite the mile-high club, but it was certainly a lot more comfortable than an airplane washroom,” Olivia remarked with a smirk. She sauntered to the tiny bathroom and after the sound of the toilet flushing and water running, she emerged pulling her t-shirt over her head. “Not that I’ve ever tried it out.”

Lincoln nodded, appreciating the clarification before the intrusive and disturbing thought of Olivia having sex with someone else properly formed in his imagination. He wasn’t naive or stupid enough to think it hadn’t happened, but he preferred not to be reminded of it. “Actually, planes fly at an average altitude of six to seven miles. If this ship reaches five and a half thousand feet, it will count as being a mile high.”

“Really? That is good to know!” Huffing a laugh, Olivia climbed back into the bed as Lincoln took his turn in the bathroom and turned out the small lamp when he returned, their limbs entwining as he shifted under the bedding. Muttering contentedly in his arms as she began to feel drowsy, she wrapped an arm around his waist. “That’s why I love you…”

“Because of my random general knowledge or willingness to let you have your way with me on an airship?” he asked teasingly, only to be met by a playful swipe on his chest.

“No, because you always know the right thing to say to make things better, dumbass. Although that helps too.”

Their chuckles faded as sleep claimed them, and they awoke a few hours later as the airship crew announced their impending arrival at Port Canaveral’s zeppelin port over the tannoy. A chauffeur waited for them and escorted them to Glatterflug's sprawling launch complex and when they arrived at reception, they were driven to the main control building on site via an electric motorized cart, one of many that acted as a shuttle service between the launch and landing sites, the departure and arrivals centers and the main control building where all of the Glatterflug flights were monitored.

On every story, large digital clocks more than five feet wide displayed blinking red numbers that had been paused in their descent, suspended to the millisecond from counting down to the next launch and images of space exploration. Some Lincoln recognized from his own world, but many were completely new and unheard of in his universe.

He gasped in surprise as they were ushered in the direction of the mission control’s offices and stopped to inspect a giant poster depicting old space missions of the Glatterflug commanders, “Look at that, the Columbia shuttle!” 

“What about it?” Olivia asked, turning on her heel to turn back to where Lincoln stood, staring at a framed print that was almost five feet tall.

“In my universe, it exploded on re-entry eleven years ago due to debris hitting the wing, killing everyone on board,” he paused in reflection at how different his life had been then. Reluctant to get close to anyone and consumed with finishing his detective training after Kendra’s death, the Columbia disaster had been one of those tragic historical events that he would always remember due to the timing and his childhood interest in astronomy and space exploration. “I remember it happening three weeks before my twenty-fifth birthday. It was the same weekend my dad was supposed to come to the police academy in Philly to see me graduate to a detective, but he never made it.”

Saturday, February 1, 2003

Anxiously adjusting his badge that was pinned on his cerulean blue shirt, Lincoln stood among the rows of newly graduated officers facing the presentation stage. His eyes flickered around the room for a familiar face amongst the family members who proudly watched from the wings and balcony areas. The ceremony came and went, and the two groups dispersed to the street where cameras flashed as parents and siblings, beaming with pride, immortalized their uniformed relatives in photographs. Disappointed but not surprised by no one showing, Lincoln loosened his tie and turned to leave, slinking away from the crowd to walk back to his car as the heavens opened for the second time that day and drenched him in rain before he drove home alone.

Lightly jogging up the six steps to the small, red brick fronted house where he’d lived alone with his father since Kendra’s death, Lincoln opened the front door to eerie silence compared to the typical sound of sirens and traffic that he had become used to since living in Philadelphia.

“Dad? I’m home," he called out, craning his head to look upstairs while shedding his dripping coat and shoes. “Dad?”

Shrugging at the lack of response, Lincoln walked through the living area to the kitchen, led by the growl of his empty stomach. Checking the refrigerator for food then his watch for the time - it was after 6pm, and his father was usually home by now, but it wasn’t unheard of that he’d work late checking the shop’s inventory or be stuck in the downtown evening rush hour traffic - Lincoln retrieved the ingredients and began preparing dinner for them both as he had done most evenings since his mother had died. He ate the meal alone, watching the national bulletins of the Columbia disaster as news pundits and space experts speculated on the cause of the tragedy, and then wrapped the uneaten and cold leftovers in plastic cling wrap as the doorbell rang.

Opening the door to reveal an officer in a familiar uniform, Lincoln frowned. “Officer Carter? Jane, right? How can I help?”

The officer, who also recognized Lincoln, smiled thinly as she pulled their hat from their head, revealing their sandy blonde hair tied back into a tight ponytail.

“Offi -- Detective Lee! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize… it was your father --.” She gestured to the couch in the living area behind Lincoln as leaned against the door frame. “Please may I come in?”

“My dad isn’t here,” Lincoln retorted, pushing his glasses up impatiently, “so you’ll have to come back later --”

“I know, that’s why I’m here,” Jane’s eyes softened as she awkwardly played with the decoration on her patrol cap. “A truck lost control in the downpour we had just after lunchtime and ran a red light at the Byberry road intersection. It hit a car head on, killing the driver instantly on impact. I’m so sorry Lincoln. As the only next of kin to Thomas Lee, we’ll need you to come down to the morgue and ID his body.”

Lincoln knew the junction well, he’d driven through it plenty of times as it was on the main route between his father's hardware store and the academy. Within days, once again, he’d shifted into an emotionally detached autopilot and arranged the funeral service, where he’d numbly accepted polite words of condolence from attendees, the second time he’d received the hollow words in less than four years.

Within two years Lincoln had sold the family home and hardware store to buy a modest apartment in Virginia to fund his FBI training. Finally having to face sorting through his dad’s belongings, he found a faded photo sandwiched between a few of his parents before he’d been born and lots of himself between the ages of newborn and young adult. In the faded photo of them all, his mother was beaming widely at an infant Lincoln while she cradled her rounded abdomen and his father looked proudly at them both. Underneath was a year planner for 2003 where the first day in February had been heavily circled in thick felt tip pen and words in his dad’s handwriting

‘IMPORTANT - LINCOLN’S CEREMONY 1PM. DON’T BE LATE’.

Saturday, February 13, 2014

Catching his forlornly vacant expression, Olivia tenderly brushed Lincoln’s shoulder, patiently waiting for him to continue. His glistening gray eyes gazed at the photo of the astronauts taken a decade ago in front of the Space Shuttle where they’d landed at the Kennedy Space Center, just a few miles away from where they stood now. Nodding as the buried memories of his early twenties came flooding back in a tidal wave, Lincoln’s lips twisted bitterly as he turned to face Olivia. “My dad wasn’t happy I left my job in his shop to join the police force. I always thought it was because he wasn’t proud of me, but it wasn’t that at all.”

Nodding in understanding, Olivia linked her fingers with Lincoln’s and tenderly squeezed his hand. Her mom had the same attitude to Olivia’s career choice and the same same motivation behind it. Fear. Both her mom and Lincoln’s dad had lost their partners and a child and were afraid of losing another and ending up alone. Her voice was soft as she rested her head on Lincoln’s shoulder. “He was just trying to protect you. He was afraid of losing all he had left.”

“And I lost him instead,” Lincoln said flatly. 

“You’ve lost so much," she countered softly, her mossy green eyes wet with empathy as they met the aquamarine color of his that had hidden so much tragedy for so long, they looked like they might crack under the weight of carrying it alone. It was the one thing she needed and had been looking for without realizing it, until now. Lincoln had been the only one who truly understood her pain and hurt, and more importantly understood why she kept it locked away under thick, impenetrable walls of fake smiles and sarcasm. And he was the only one she trusted to let past them.

“We both have," he replied wistfully, squeezing her hand in response. “But now I have you and you have me.” 

“Agents Dunham and Lee?” A male voice called out from behind them at the end of the corridor, interrupting Olivia before she could reply and they stepped away from each other, their linked fingers quickly separating and their hands falling to their sides.

A stern-looking older man with receding hair and wearing an expensive suit beckoned them over to his opened office door, gesturing them to enter the spacious room filled with modern furniture. A glass wall made of windows that stretched from floor to ceiling ran from the door to the far back wall. “Agents, please take a seat. My name is David Rosen, I’m one of Glatterflug’s directors.” He paused to close the door behind them and gestured for them to sit in the plush office chairs. “May I ask the reason for your visit and delaying today’s flight? Your colleague was not clear on the details yesterday.”

Lincoln and Olivia exchanged glances before she spoke. “We’re investigating the unusual death of a civilian passenger from yesterday’s flight who was last seen alive here, so we need to ascertain if there is a risk to the other passengers, crew and the general public.” 

Rosen frowned, deeping the wrinkles on his weathered face while resisting the urge to defensively cross his arms as he sat opposite the agents. “May I ask who?”

“The deceased’s name is Randy Danzig,” Lincoln replied. Sensing the older man’s unease, he turned to check Olivia’s reaction again before watching Rosen’s face for any micro-expressions that might betray his corporate facade. “Is there something wrong?”

Rosen paused for a moment and sighed before continuing. “I assume you already know he wasn’t a paying customer, he was one of three visiting the base on behalf of our investors to evaluate if it was worth continuing financing us. I am sure you realize our customers pay a lot of money for the privilege to stay on Earth’s only natural satellite, not to mention the concerns of our investors who would like to get this resolved as quickly as possible.” 

“We’re already working on the list of other passengers' information,” Olivia added. "But any further information could be vital for the investigation. We also need to speak to the base commander regarding the alleged reported issues that prompted this expedition to rule out if it was related to Danzig’s death.”

“I’ve already arranged a call with Commander Krueger to take place as soon as possible,” Rosen said, reaching for the touch screen display on his desk, and twisting the screen to show the Fringe Agents two digital passenger files. "In the meantime, I can provide you with what information we have on the two other passengers, one of whom is head of our PR department and the other is an engineer trying to determine the source of the system malfunctions that --”

He stopped abruptly and looked in the direction of the door to his office as it swung open. Olivia and Lincoln did the same, revealing the receptionist who greeted them at the entrance to the building. “The third Fringe Agent is here.”

“Sorry I’m late - I missed the earlier flight,” The receptionist disappeared as Charlie walked through the door, nodding slightly at his colleagues and introduced himself apologetically. “I'm Agent Francis, we spoke on the phone," sitting on the empty seat next to Lincoln, Charlie’s deep brown eyes widened with concern as Rosen continued. 

“No problem, I was just advising your colleagues that the call has been scheduled with the commander of the Tranquility base as soon as possible. In the meantime I’ve downloaded the files of Amy Emmerson who is head of our PR team and a computer engineer Aleks Vasiliev who were also on yesterday’s flight.”

“Did you say Amy Emmerson?” Charlie asked, shifting uneasily while wearily exchanging glances with Olivia and Lincoln.

“That’s right,” Rosen replied as Shaw’s file appeared on screen. “Why? Have you located her already?”

“Kinda,” Charlie continued apprehensively. "That's the reason why I was late. I found her in the same condition as Danzig.”

Chapter Text

Charlie had apprehensively entered Amy’s shadowy apartment a few hours previously, with his weapon tentatively cocked for no good reason other than the flickering lights made conspicuous shadows dance on the walls and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, only to find her sat motionless in front a glitching television screen. The tv picture had flickered and crackled in front of her lifeless body, reflecting distorted rainbows over her as if corrupted by interference from an electromagnetic pulse. Just the subtle action of Charlie reaching for the remote in her hands to turn off the tv had caused her preserved remains to crumble away in a domino effect into a pile of dust. 

Repulsed, Charlie wiped the ashy residue off his hands and called in the discovery to Fringe Division, waiting patiently for the forensic team to take over, unable to locate the remaining passenger Aleks Vasiliev before leaving for Florida. “We’ve been unable to locate Vasiliev who will probably be the next victim," Charlie whispered huskily, leaning into Olivia and Lincoln’s space as they followed Rosen out of the room towards the control room. “Science Division analyzed the remains but they came back with nothing…”

“Nothing at all?” Olivia sighed, lowering her voice in reaction to the confidential information Charlie shared. “ We need a lead to find Vasiliev.” 

She twisted her lips in frustration. This was when she missed Astrid’s logical insight the most - she would be able to deduce the likelihood of Vasiliev’s location ten times faster than any of them.

Charlie shrugged. “Zilch. Although readings did pick up on an unidentifiable compound in the surrounding area that was a mixture of organic and inorganic materials, there was nothing detectable except for carbon, calcium and a few trace elements. Science Division are working on what it could be.”

“Readings didn't pick up on radiation levels?” Lincoln interjected, pausing to allow Charlie to pull his tablet from his jacket pocket and to show them the readings. “Zero? That's impossible. Outside of Earth’s atmosphere, humans are exposed to much higher levels of radiation that would remain in their bodies for, well, forever. But even in normal life our bodies have trace levels, enough to show up on a reading anyway.”

“So what are you saying? Some kind of radiation vampire is draining the passengers of their radiation and turning them into dust in the process?” Olivia snorted.

“Dust-oratu?” Charlie quipped, his gaze moving to Rosen who was walking ten feet in front of the trio of agents towards the elevator. “Hey! What measures do you have to protect your staff on the lunar base and clients from radiation?”

“The base is fully equipped with sensors to detect the levels of ionizing radiation,” Rosen retorted, jabbing the call button. "It uses cutting edge technology such as BNNTs to shield visitors and base crew against the impact of all galactic radiation, as do our ALVIN shuttles.”  

“BNNTs?” 

“In layman’s terms, they’re nanobots made from carbon, boron, hydrogen and nitrogen molecules, laced into the fabric of the suits and walls to absorb the radiation and reduce the levels to a more acceptable level for long periods of exposure,” Rosen explained, guiding the three Fringe Agents into the elevator which carried the four of them down to the first floor.

“Like the vest radiographers wear when they operate an X-Ray machines?” Olivia countered.

Rosen nodded as they left the elevator and he directed them down the hall, the sound of their hurried synchronized steps echoing on the impeccably scrubbed linoleum tiles that lead to the large doors to the control room. “Yes, except they're thousands of times more powerful.”

On entering the room, the agents stopped in awe, impressed by the scale of equipment they’d only ever seen in science fiction movies. Three imposing tv screens, twelve feet high and twenty feet wide, were mounted on the walls painted in the Glatterflug colors of black and sky blue. Rosen motioned at the screens that displayed exterior and interior live feeds of the lunar base, diagnostic information and the launch site, and loomed over multiple rows of desks that were fitted with individual computers. “As you can see, no expense was spared - we used the funding from our investors wisely to source the best equipment, staff and crew, ensuring every traveler has the best and safest possible trip.”

Watching on the edge of the room as Rosen moved towards one of the desks, the Fringe agents observed the room from the periphery to keep their conversation confidential and not to disturb Glatterflug staff from their crucial tasks, the room buzzing with activity as technicians and scientists monitored the various systems and feeds from the Tranquility base. 

One of the six staff, dressed in the classic black Glatterflug uniform trimmed with light blue piping, looked up from their station to acknowledge the three agents as they descended the stairs from the observation deck with Rosen. Continuing to monitor the feeds at her desk, the glow of the screen reflected off her ebony eyes and skin as she talked through procedures and protocols with the Tranquility base team, their disembodied voices distorted with radio static echoing back in her headset after a three second delay.

“Sir, we have secured the telecommunication channel with Commander Krueger,” she said, directing Rosen and the Fringe Agents to the display of the lunar base on her monitor which was mirrored on one of the larger displays at the front of the room. 

The live feed of Krueger came into view, the futuristic onyx and tourmaline decor of the lunar base behind her. Adjusting her headset, her golden hazel eyes blinked as she looked directly into the camera with a grave expression. Her graying honey blonde hair was scraped back into a tight ponytail and she nodded firmly as the ground control audience, the intercom crackling to life as she spoke. "GGC, it's good to see you again. How can we help?”

Rosen briefly explained the Fringe Division’s investigation and introduced the agents to the base commander, General Tamsin Krueger. Olivia stepped forward to stand next to Rosen and swallowed thickly before taking the mic and pressing the talk button. “We’ve been told the purpose of the team’s visit but we'd like to know if anything unusual happened during their time there as it could be invaluable to our investigation.”

Pausing for the question to reach the base and consider her answer, Krueger took a deep breath before replying. “We had experienced some problems with the systems that started with the solar flare around a week ago - power fluctuations, glitches in our screens and lights, things like that. Our onsite staff weren't able to stop the issues and ground control couldn't do it remotely, so an engineer was sent up here to run diagnostics and reset the systems manually, along with two others at the insistence of the investors.”

“So the problems were fixed?” Olivia asked.

“I assumed so as we haven't experienced any problems since. But, uh…” she paused to scan through the electronic logs, while twisting the length of her ponytail absentmindedly. “...There was some kind of malfunction with ALVIN-3’s systems on the return journey.”

Lincoln’s eyes widened and he leaned into Olivia's personal space so his calm and authoritative voice would be heard through the mic. “What kind of malfunction?”

“As the shuttles are unmanned and completely automated to keep costs manageable and affordable for customers, but every trip is fully relayed to us as a precaution so we can intercept and override the controls to manually change their course if needed. But it appears our Lycaeus system lost contact with their ALVIN shuttle about halfway through the return journey.”

“Do you have a recording of it we can watch?”

Nodding, Krueger’s face disappeared as she played the recording of the flight, speeding through around thirty-five hours of footage. Danzig, Emmerson and Vasiliev jittered in the sped-up movements that documented their flight back to earth until the film reached the middle of the flight. Vasiliev began to twitch unnaturally in his seat as if having a seizure, the spacesuit and seat harnesses restricting his jerking, spasmodic movements until he slumped back down a moment later. The room fell silent for a moment, as everyone processed what they’d seen, their eyes wide while they looked at each other for an explanation replaced with a collective gasp as the recording suddenly glitched, the shapes of the three people barely recognizable as it became grainy and distorted with spots and rainbow-colored patches. Eventually the glitching subsided and the footage returned to normal, revealing the faces of the three passengers behind their visors, the blinking lights and black void of space in the windows just in view at the side.

“That glitching lasted for approximately twenty minutes,” Krueger continued, as if pre-empting the questions the Fringe Agents might ask.

“Can you rewind it back to when it started and play it again at normal speed?” Charlie asked, his eyes still fixed on the screen as the recording reversed to just before Vasiliev began to convulse and played back at a normal speed. “Did Vasiliev suffer from epilepsy?”

Rosen shook his head defiantly. “Absolutely not. All of our passengers and staff have to declare any health conditions verified by their physician that could endanger them or others during the trip. Plus he was a cosmonaut for USSRSA before he was employed by us, so any neurological disorders would have appeared on his recent medical examination.”

“STOP! Go back a few frames!” Olivia cried out, her voice strained with urgency, unconcerned with interrupting Rosen’s statement. “Stop it right there - Look!”

Pausing the playback that showed the three members of the passengers, Charlie, Lincoln and the Glatterflug ground control team studied the frame for what Olivia had seen. Frustrated, she pointed up at Vasiliev who was sat on the right end of the row opposite to Danzig on the left and Emmerson in the middle. “Look at his visor. Everyone else looks clear but his face looks… clouded, like it's darkened by shadows.”

*

The stark and unforgiving sunlight bleached the desolate gray landscape as the airlock door opened with a loud hiss of decompressed air. Heavy reinforced black boots weightlessly bounced over the threshold, leaving deep imprints on the untouched floor and casting charcoal shadows across the motionless dusty surface.

The deep male voice, distorted by static and a strong Russian accent, spoke as he stopped after a few exaggerated paces. Leaning over an outer control panel, he began to carefully unscrew the casing with a gloved hand. “This is Vasiliev, I have accessed the ERS. I am rebooting the control system now, do not attempt to remove your suits until it is back online.”

“Copy that,” Krueger’s voice replied in Vasiliev’s suit as she watched Vasiliev’s movement via a camera attached to his helmet. “All staff and visitors inside the base are suited and strapped down in precaution of decompression or the air circulation system failing. I’ll let you know if any errors appear on the Lycaeus displays when it wakes back up. If not I’ll meet you back at the airlock once you’re done.”

“It’s a date. Dinner is on you tonight, American,” he joked, methodically pressing the hidden buttons and switches so their flashes and beeps momentarily faded away.

“Best I can do right now is a re-hydrated goulash heated in our convection oven,” Krueger retorted flirtatiously as the interior fluorescent lights and monitor flickered and died, plunging the base into almost darkness, the emergency strip lighting giving it an eerie glow.

“Lucky for you I'm a cheap date.”

Intensely studying the control panel to ensure the power returned as it resurrected in a cacophony of activity and the circuits burst back into life, Vasiliev smiled to himself in relief. He replaced the cover, screwing it back into place then gasped, his voice tainted with shock when an ominous shadow began to creep up the outer wall of the base in his peripheral vision, jittering like a horror film from a hundred years ago. Instinctively spinning 180° on his heel as fast as the spacesuit would allow, Vasiliev's cyan eyes widened until they resembled the distant azure blue globe of earth that was partly obscured by the moon's shadow and hung just over the horizon. “Kakogo d'yavola! Eta ten’…prizrak?”

*

An eerie silence fell across the Glatterflug's control room as everyone stared at the freeze frame image on the over-sized television screens. The three astronauts, preserved on screen like fossilized prehistoric creatures, all looked unremarkable and calm considering they were on a return journey from the Tranquility lunar base. All except Vasiliev, whose face was unnaturally submerged in dark shadows and was contorted as if in extreme agony. 

“What is that?” Rosen asked. The words slipped from his mouth like overripe fruit from a tree before he could catch them and he pursed his lips into a thin line when Charlie turned to meet his gaze with an expression somewhere between surprise and fear.

“You don't know?” Charlie countered, turning on his heel to answer an incoming call on his ear cuff before the other man could reply.

Rosen shook his head in disbelief and straightened up defensively, as if suddenly more concerned with liability than empathy for the three astronauts. “I mean, I… there must be an explanation. It could just be an illusion of the shadows and l-lighting…” he stuttered, and gestured up at the screen, “...or the recording was corrupted and distorted the image. This doesn't prove anything.”

Scrambling for the tablet, his fingers flew over the screen’s keyboard searching for information. “You see?” Rosen declared, holding it up triumphantly, “Nothing unusual was reported by the arrivals team when he was scanned through before being discharged.”

“Or they didn't know what to look for,” Lincoln surmised, his voice contemplative but firm. “Especially if he wasn't continuously symptomatic. If this was only twenty minutes out of a seventy hour long journey, that's like point five percent of the journey, maybe no one noticed.”

“It is our policy that all passengers are administered a mixture of a sedative and a cryogenic once they pass lift off. It puts them into a state of stasis for the majority of the journey and helps to make the journey seem faster and less tedious, and reduce any anxiety brought on by space travel. It wears off less than an hour before landing so the other two would have been oblivious to this,” Krueger explained. Her voice broke with a tinge of barely concealed emotion, hardly distinguishable over the radio static except to Olivia and Lincoln who both knew the struggle of hiding that familiar feeling of heartbreak behind the thin veneer of a fake smile and assurances of being ‘fine’. She shook her head, denying the obvious. “I’ve never seen anything like it before and I don't know how it could be shadows or interference as there weren't any other shuttles in transit that day and at that point ALVIN was over eighty thousand miles away from the orbit of any satellites that could cause radio-frequency interference. It can't be a coincidence…”

Lincoln’s voice softened in empathy but remained firm and determined. “What isn't a coincidence?”

*

“Kakogo d'yavola! Eta ten’…prizrak?”

“Do you copy Vasiliev?” Krueger asked, her voice strained with worry at the burst of unintelligible words coming from his mic. Craning her neck to see his view point through his head cam, she frowned as she was met by dark streaks of static on the screen that obscured her view. “There seems to be some kind of interference, you’re breaking up.”

His shattered voice continued, warped and buried under an avalanche of white noise and unidentifiable noises. “Did you see it?... moving… shadow… for a second.”

“What? No one is out there, all personnel and visitors are still inside Tranquility.”

Unbuckling her seat belt, Krueger bounced in the low gravity through the lunar base corridor and pushed herself towards the airlock. Gasping in shock as the fluorescent lights suddenly flickered back to life and gravity increased, pulling her feet to the glossy black tiles, she peered through the small airlock window. The monotone computer’s voice announced the Lycaeus system had successfully rebooted and all support systems were functioning as normal. Using the keypad to lock the outer door, she opened the airlock and closed it behind her and stepped towards the outer door, pausing to check her suit before her hand rested on the controls, hesitating to open it.  In any other circumstance Tamsin Krueger would have followed the Tranquility base protocol and designated a lower ranking crew member to check on Vasiliev, but it wasn’t a normal circumstance. He was an engineer she’d personally requested despite being on a leave of absence because he knew the systems better than anyone else. He had installed them when the base had first opened to private paying customers and was the first base commander. Krueger had always admired Aleks’s leadership skills and selflessness, and when she had replaced his second in command who had been unable to return from an earth break, she had proudly taken on her mentor’s role when he’d stepped down to take an extended leave. 

“Look, there it is… smotri, vot ono!” Vasiliev’s disembodied voice cried out again like a starter’s pistol pushing her hand to sprint forward, racing to hit the hatch release. Slowly the door opened with a hiss, sucking out the air into the cold, dark as coal unforgiving void of space and Krueger stepped forward over the threshold.

“Aleks? Do you copy?... Are you ther - JESUS!” Krueger screamed inside the claustrophobic suit so suddenly that her visor steamed and her heart hammered in her chest like a marching band drum. A black gloved hand gripped hers, using her as a tether to pull the body it was attached to into the airlock. “What happened? Vasiliev?”

Shaking his head and stepping into the airlock with Krueger, the door hissed closed behind them, sealing them against the freezing and deadly void, the Lycaeus system beeping a confirmation the pressure was enough to open the inner door.

Her voice was strained with urgency when she spoke again and removed her helmet. “ALEKS?” 

“Nothing, it was trick of light. My overactive imagination from being away from here too long," he shrugged dismissively, removing his own helmet. “Now where's that goulash you mentioned, Tamsin?”

*

“I don't know,” Krueger said slowly, her brows knotting as she met Rosen’s gaze. She looked more than concerned, she looked afraid.

“What is it?” Olivia said softly, carefully trying to persuade the other woman to open up. It was understandable she didn't want to say or do anything that might affect her career - it was hard enough being a woman in a male-dominated workforce and Olivia didn't want to coerce Krueger into saying anything that would have a detrimental effect on her reputation.

“Vasiliev had to manually reboot the systems so he went outside to access the secondary panel as the one inside was jammed, he shouted out as if he'd seen something but when I met him at the airlock, he dismissed it and said it was his imagination.”

“Seen what?”

“I don't know,” she repeated, shaking her head. “He was speaking in Russian and there was interference so I couldn't make it out… it sounded like he said pritz rack or preshrack, I think.”

Ending the call with a press of his ear cuff, Charlie beckoned Lincoln and Olivia over to where he'd walked off to. “That was Science Division on the phone. Secretary Bishop heard about the case and is helping to identify the compound they found at the scene, apparently he has some familiarity with it.”

“That doesn't surprise me,” Olivia countered, her voice low, knowing all too well there was plenty within the DoD that was classified, even from high up in the chain of command in Fringe Division.

“No but this might, they traced Vasiliev's whereabouts and they found him at his brother's house in Boston.”

“Are they bringing him in for questioning?”

“That might be a problem,” Charlie said, his dark eyes wide as Lincoln’s brows knitted and he blinked in confusion. “He's been in what they think is a coma for the past twelve hours but they've never seen anything like it before.” He held up the photos of Vasiliev in his brother's home, lying supine on a small single bed caged by metallic wires, steel mesh and car batteries. “It looks like his brother Tomas was experimenting on him. Tomas has been taken in for questioning but he doesn't speak English well enough so they're looking for a translator. Apparently he's been putting up a fight and resisting arrest, he attacked two cops.”

“I suppose that rules the astronaut out of being a suspect,” Olivia shrugged, chewing her bottom lip. “Unless… maybe it's his brother who's the perp.”

“What about Aleks Vasiliev?” Lincoln asked, taking the tablet from Charlie and studying the disturbing images that looked like he was wired into a crude torture device. 

“They're moving him to the local hospital for observation to try and figure out why he's in a coma,” Charlie replied gruffly. “I'm thinking if we head back on a flight now, we might get back in time to talk to him ourselves if they're struggling to find a translator.”

“It’s at least three hours back to Boston on a standard flight,” Lincoln groaned, unhappy with the prospect of flying again so soon, especially on a plane. 

Tucking the tablet back into his pocket, he smirked as Olivia patted his shoulder in a show of appreciation.  “Don't worry buddy, you two stay here and enjoy the sunshine state for a while longer. I'll head back and keep you posted on any developments.”

“Thanks Charlie,” Lincoln echoed, exhaling a sigh of relief. “We will too.”

“You're welcome, I'm sure Mona will be happy to have me back a bit closer to home anyhow.”

The two remaining agents turned back to the screen as Charlie left the room and the conversation between Rosen and Krueger came to an end. 

“Thank you for your time, Commander,” Olivia said simply, her lips upturned into a thin smile. “We'll let you know if we have any further questions.” The screen flickered back to the general view of the base as the commander’s face disappeared and the call ended. Turning back to Rosen, Olivia rested her hand on her hips defiantly. “All flights have been grounded since this was reported, right?”

“That's correct, the shuttles are still docked in the launch bay across the site as Fringe Division advised,” Rosen replied, punching in a few words in the keyboard at the workstation so the screen display changed again to show the video feed of the shuttle bay and the hangar that dominated the local landscape. “Why?”

She smirked again, exchanging glances with Lincoln. “’Cause we've still got a few hours to kill so I want you to take us over there so we can take a look at the ALVIN shuttle they came home in.”

Chapter Text

After traveling across the Glatterflug site in another electric motorized cart, the agents exited the small vehicle and entered the hangar which held the grounded Glatterflug fleet of space shuttles. Although about half the size of the traditional and iconic monochromatic space shuttles Lincoln knew from his own world, nothing could have prepared him and Olivia for the sight that awaited them. Behemoth-esque sleeping giants encased in matte black shells and hidden in the shadows, their diminutive windshields above the nose blinked in the strong Florida sunlight as the hangar doors rolled open. 

“According to our logs, they came back on ALVIN-3, which is this one here,” Rosen said, motioning to the shuttle closest to the door, its name in blue two foot high lettering on the side of the ship near the Glatterflug branding. A loud beeping behind them announced the arrival of a stair truck behind them that aligned with the back of the shuttle, leading up to the open hatch doors. Once it had parked, he led the agents up the portable metal steps to the cavernous opening and handed them a flashlight that had been in the stair truck’s cabin. “You'll need this, we don't turn on the systems or lighting unless preparing for launch.”

Nodding appreciatively, Lincoln took it from Rosen and turned it on, directing it over Olivia’s head who was already stepping over the raised threshold. Following her steps, Lincoln shone it out over the claustrophobic interior of the shuttle, the powerful beam revealing the intricate details in the anthracite walls and highlighted Olivia's hair into a vibrant orange. 

“What are we looking for, Liv?” He asked, jumping slightly in shock as the beam caught the dark silhouette of the space suits and golden bubble of the poly-carbonate helmet visors.

“I dunno, just call it a hunch,” she shrugged. Pausing as she met Lincoln's inquisitive gaze, Olivia sighed and pulled her analysis device from her waist band clip. “I just feel like something isn't making sense about this. Do you really think Vasiliev would be in a coma just from his brother putting him in whatever that contraption was?”

Lincoln huffed an incredulous puff of air out of his nose. “So what are you thinking? Tomas put Aleks in that to, what, help him? Why?”

“That's what I wanna know. Don't you think it's a weird coincidence he's the only one out of them to have gone outside of the main Tranquility compound and not be completely turned to dust when returning to Earth?”

Olivia directed the device towards the space suits and seating areas where Vasiliev, Danzig and Emmerson had been seated during their return journey. Although now vacant, it made them pause their conversation momentarily so a somber silence fell over the ship and their footsteps on the metal floor broken voices of repressed ghosts echoing around them. Suddenly, the device in Olivia’s hand beeped, the mechanical signal cutting through the silence to announce its discovery and she jolted in shock, grasping onto the device with two hands so it didn't slip through her fingers. 

Lincoln peered over at her as she studied the glowing screen, her face illuminated in the flickering glow. “What does it say?” 

“It's picking up on the residual traces of GCR and solar particles. Nothing dangerous but this suit seems to be the culprit and is giving off much higher levels than the other two.” Olivia observed, moving towards the last suit while keeping her eyes on the screen of her device and enlarging a 2-D rendering of a chemical compound that appeared on the display. “Does that look like the compound Charlie showed us earlier to you?”

Squinting at the display, Lincoln exchanged the device for the flashlight and shook his head. “I'm not sure, chemistry was never my strong subject. I would've flunked it at school if I hadn't got tuition help from a girl in my class called Alicia.”

“Your girlfriend Alicia?” Olivia snorted, making a blush appear high on Lincoln’s cheeks. “Never thought putting moves on a girl when you were supposed to be studying would be your style.”

“How did you --” he protested, cutting himself off when he realized the Lincoln on this side had dated her and probably would have told Olivia about it at some point. Looking at the screen sheepishly to avoid Olivia's raised eyebrows and teasing gaze, he shifted on his feet and gulped.

Lincoln’s mouth twisted into an upside down dismissive smirk. “It wasn't like that.”

“Okay, whatever,” Olivia shrugged, unaware of the micro expressions on Lincoln’s face as the memory invaded his thoughts, making panic burn through his veins and his body freeze. She continued reading out the information, her voice fading into white noise. “I think it looks the same, the readings are saying it contains various compounds and elements that have bonded with titanium tetra-chloride and carbon… Linc?”

“Hmmm?”

She frowned, holding the flashlight beam higher towards Lincoln’s face so his features were highlighted. “Are you listening? This could be important.” He nodded slightly, blinking in the strong beam. “What is it? Do you have a headache?”

“I'm fine, but I will if you keep shining that beam in my eyes through," he retorted bluntly, pushing the flashlight away as an excuse.

“Well, I'll send it over to Charlie ready for when he lands back in Boston, just in case." Turning back to the hatch door, Olivia peered through so her long auburn hair draped across her shoulders and hung down vertically towards the floor as she looked down the mobile steps at Rosen who was standing at the bottom with the stair truck driver. “Hey! Can we get someone to help bring one of the space suits down?”

“Sure, I'll get one of the team to retrieve it for you when you're finished and take it over to the lab back in the main building,” Rosen called back, disguising his growing annoyance with a thin smile. He loosened his tie and turned back to the driver to continue his conversation with the driver out of earshot of the agents.

*

Once the suit had been retrieved and taken to the laboratory, the agents followed it back on the electric cart, and were directed back through the corridors decorated with symbols and posters depicting the history of space exploration towards the Glatterflug science and research labs.

The stark white walls of the laboratory rooms contrasted with the colorful embellished corridors where the spacesuit was laid out on an aluminum gurney, the helmet detached from the body of the suit at the shoulders like golden bubble headstone rising over the coffin of the black space suit.

Olivia and Lincoln looked over the lightly padded anthracite suit, complemented with the uniform sky blue trim and Glatterflug badge, the removable boots and gloves detached on a separate tray to the side.

“Y’know, it's not as big as I thought it would be,” Olivia observed, walking around the metal table and brushing the fabric of the spacesuit with a gloved hand.

“I hope you're not making a personal comment about me," Lincoln quipped and winked mischievously, enticing an illicit snort to escape from her nose in response. "Y'know, it's not the size of the ship, but the motion of the ocean..."

His voice trailed off as Rosen joined them, bringing a lab assistant with him. A tall, younger man in his early thirties who had cropped tight black curls, a trimmed beard and rich sepia skin, Rosen introduced him to the couple of Fringe agents.

“Agents, this is the suit you wanted to see. Doctor Bradley here will be able to answer any questions you might have regarding our suit and equipment.”

“Could you tell us about the suits and how they work?” Olivia asked, stopping next to Lincoln and facing the two Glatterflug employees across the brushed aluminum table.  The suit laid displayed on the top of it between the two pairs like the skin of a hunted animal.

“Of course,” Bradley smiled, looking briefly for reassurance from Rosen’s authority before continuing. “They work pretty much like traditional spacesuits with the usual built in bodily function filtration systems and so on, but by reducing the thickness of the various layers and new advances in technology in the last ten years, it's been possible to make them considerably less bulky and more comfortable to wear and even safer for our customers.”

“How so?” Lincoln added, impressed with how thin it looked compared to those from his own world - it resembled a dry suit used for deep sea diving more than spacesuit and if it wasn't for the circumstances and helmet, he would have assumed that's what it was.

“Well, it uses an ultra-thin patented fiber to ensure the body temp is continuously regulated and to keep body fluids, uh, fluid - plus the helmet synchronizes automatically to the ambient air pressure, reducing oxygen waiting time to just ten minutes and therefore risk of decompression sickness. It also contains LiOH tubes that are much more efficient at expelling CO2, and outer layers made from a type of Kevlar fused with nanobots to protect against micro-meteoroids and radiation.”

“That's pretty impressive.” Olivia nodded. "But what about this one in particular? Our device picked up some anomalous readings compared to the others, so we're wondering if you could tell us if you noticed anything unexpected in your analysis.”

Nodding, Bradley turned to a terminal in the corner of the room and tapped the keys on the keyboard. Instructing them to step back from the table, he waited until they had cleared a distance from the suit before continuing. A clear lid revolved from underneath the medical bench and sealed the suit fully under the transparent dome, followed by a bright glowing red line which appeared at the foot of the bench, parallel to the bottom edge and traveled the length of the table and back down, completing its journey with a beep. The results flickered up on the computer terminal screen in a series of undulating graphs and lines of analysis, and Bradley slumped down at the chair in front of it, his brows knitted as he scratched the coarse hair on his chin in obvious confusion.

“What is it?” Lincoln asked, immediately picking up on the other man's unease who gulped thickly when looking up at the Fringe agents. 

“There is some kind of malfunction with the nanobots in the outer lining, they're showing signs of ionization but it doesn't make sense, they're supposed to block out SFP and not absorb them.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means whoever was in the suit should be suffering from acute radiation sickness, if they're still alive,” Bradley continued, his voice strained with shock.

Olivia exchanged glances with Lincoln before speaking. “Who did this suit belong to?”

“We have a collection of over fourteen suits we reuse for our passengers that are rotated between each flight, as they can stretch to accommodate anyone deemed physically fit enough for space travel. We can run this diagnostic on them but looking at the records the last person to wear suit seven was Aleks Vasiliev, the head engineer of the Lycaeus Program that they use on the Tranquility base.”

Lincoln’s eyes widened and darted between Bradley and Rosen as his mouth dropped open, his lips twitching with words he couldn't quite comprehend or vocalize, but Olivia had no chance to react as her train of thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an incoming call

“Dunham.” Olivia said, breaking eye contact with Lincoln's probing gaze to step away, pressing her ear cuff to accept the call out of earshot of the Glatterflug employees.

“Hey Liv, it's me,” Charlie's familiar gruff voice replied down the end of the phone as she stepped through the laboratory door. “Got your message about that chemical compound and it does appear to be the same as what was found near the remains of Danzig and Emmerson, whatever it is.”

“Have you spoken to Vasiliev’s brother yet?” She countered. The frustration of the case began to gnaw away at her patience, exacerbated by the grumble of her empty stomach from not eating anything substantial for eighteen hours.

Making his way through the bustling airport, Charlie was rushed through security checks on showing his Fringe Division credentials and jumped into the first cab in a line of many that snaked around the building in the taxi rank outside. 

“On my way now, I should be there in twenty minutes.” 

“Okay, Charlie. It's possible this was caused by a malfunction with his spacesuit but we don't know how yet. We'll stay in touch.”

Lincoln joined her in the hall, the door closing behind him with a hiss. Outstretching his arms so his fingers spread out and his palms faced Olivia, Lincoln huffed. “If Vasiliev's suit malfunctioned, how - and why - is he the only one still alive? I mean, by rights, shouldn't he be the one turned into dust?”

“I don't know,” Olivia shrugged. “Nothing about this seems to make sense. C’mon, let's go grab something to eat from the cafeteria lounge and take a break, we've barely eaten anything in the past twenty-four hours and I’m so hungry, I can’t think or make of any of this anymore.”

*

The rolled steel bars cast vertical shadows on the crudely painted breeze block walls of the windowless cell as the heavy keys twisted and opened the lock. It alerted the prisoner slumped on the bench to the two men that stood in the doorway as the door creaked open on its rusty hinges.

One was dressed in the local police force uniform that barely concealed the middle-age paunch that was threatening to burst through the straining buttons of his navy blue shirt. The man to his right was a couple of inches shorter but appeared to be in much better shape under his charcoal shirt and jacket with an upturned collar and faded denim jeans.

“You're welcome to him, Agent Francis. We had to keep Mister Tomas Vasiliev here on his own until a translator arrived as he was disturbing the other detainees with his screaming,” the uniformed police officer explained, turning to the other man who removed his sunglasses and perched them on top his slicked back hair, revealing a fading pink scar that snaked from the corner of his left eye down to the middle of his cheek. “He finally wore himself out before you got here, he's all yours just don't rile him up again.”

“I can't promise anything…” Charlie retorted, cutting himself off as Tomas jumped up from the hard bench, his eyes wild like an animal’s.

“Brat moy Aleks - ty dolzhen yemu pomoch', eto ne on, on bezzashchiten! Ty dolzhen ostanovit' ten', inache prizrak prevratit nas v pyl!”

*

In the bright and airy cafeteria, Lincoln and Olivia made a path from the service counter and through the uniformed Glatterflug staff to a vacant table with two servings of food. Tiny specks of dust flickered down in the sunbeams that penetrated the large window like minute flakes of gold chipped directly from the sun itself.

Pulling out the acrylic sky blue chairs from under the shiny black Bakelite table, Lincoln sat down opposite Olivia and took his plate and glass from the tray, thirstily swigging down mouthfuls until it was almost gone and placed it down as she took a large bite of her baked potato. “So I was thinking, as Vasiliev is in a coma, maybe if we could figure out what he was saying while he was outside servicing the lunar base computer system.” 

“You mean Lycaeus?” Lincoln asked through a mouthful of food as Olivia nodded. “What are you thinking? That it could have caused his suit to malfunction?” 

Olivia shrugged, taking another bite of her own lunch that was identical to Lincoln’s. Admittedly there hadn't been much variety to choose from in the canteen but it tasted surprisingly good, when she had half expected to be served novelty freeze-dried space food.

“It's just a thought, if it was experiencing problems before he fixed it, maybe he didn't fix it all. Maybe it jumped from the mainframe to the nanobots in his suits?”

His eyebrows raised again. “Jumped? Really?” 

“Figuratively speaking, yeah. Like a virus.”

“But how? And if you're right, how did it get in the Lycaeus Program in the first place?” 

“That's one question I have about this case, one of many," she said quickly before hungrily devouring more of the piping hot fluffy root vegetable that was coated in melting soft cheese and chopped chives. “You know, this isn't half bad.”

“It's pretty nice, although not exactly the romantic meal I had planned for Valentine's day,” Lincoln agreed halfheartedly with a small shrug as Olivia stopped mid-chew and raised her eyebrows intrigued with what he’d meant. 

“What did you have planned?” 

“Oh, nothing much," he replied cryptically, retrieving his tablet from his suit breast pocket, thinking of the greetings card and small jewelry box still hidden in his underwear drawer, he shook his head dismissively. “Anyway, while you were on the call with Charlie, I got them to download the recording from the helmet Vasiliev was wearing and send me a copy, we might be able to pick up on what Krueger couldn't.”

Once they'd finished eating, he linked his tablet to their ear cuffs and played the audio recording. At first it appeared to be normal, with Vasiliev’s deep voice and thick Eastern European accent clear as he opened the access panel but was suddenly interrupted by a buzzing noise that hissed as his voice broke up into unintelligible fragments, patchwork words sewn together with EMI static.

“Kakogo d'yavola! Eta ten’…prizrak?”

“Do you copy Vasiliev? There seems to be some kind of interference, you’re breaking up.”

“Did you see it?... moving… shadow… for a second.”

“What? No one is out there, all personnel and visitors are still inside Tranquility.” 

“Look, there it is… smotri, vot ono!” 

“He sounds scared of something,” Olivia observed, the food suddenly heavy and indigestible in her chest.

Lincoln nodded. “He sounds terrified. And I don't blame him.”

Rotating the tablet so Olivia could read the display, the FDA program had automatically translated the non-English conversation between Vasiliev and Krueger and highlighted the subtitle text on the screen.

What the hell! Is this a shadow? No, it is a ghost! Look, here it is!

“A shadow ghost, like what we saw on their return flight when he was supposed to be sedated?” He added. “Maybe you were right after all.”

The shrill ring of an incoming call in Olivia's ear cuff interrupted her reply and she answered the call, the sound echoing simultaneously through Lincoln's cuff and ear as they were still connected by the tablet.

“Liv? It's me!” Charlie's familiar deep raspy voice strained with urgency. 

“Hey Charlie, what's up? –”

“We got a situation down here," he continued, barely giving her time to respond. “I used my tablet instead of waiting for a police translator and found out what was causing Tomas Vasiliev to go bat-shit crazy. He wasn't angry - he was desperate. That stuff he'd wrapped around his astronaut brother wasn't there to hurt him, it was a crude, homemade Faraday cage.”

“He was protecting his brother from electromagnetic interference?” Lincoln replied, his brows knotting in confusion.

“No, he was protecting everyone else from his brother,” Olivia corrected with a shake of her head, her auburn hair rippling like fire over her shoulders.

“Right okay -- he's been unprotected in a coma ward for over four hours. Charlie, do you know if he's shown any signs of radiation sickness?”

“That's the other thing I needed to tell you and Liv,” Charlie added with a sigh. “Once Science Division’s analysis was complete on that chemical that was found at the ship and near the two victims and I scanned over a transcript of the conversation to HQ, Secretary Bishop ordered the DoD to retrieve him.”

“Retrieve him to go where?”

Exhaling a long breath he didn't know he was holding onto, Charlie replied as Sergeant Elias Kane entered the building behind him flanked by DoD personnel and followed by the Secretary of Defense, Doctor Walter Bishop. “I'll call you back.”

“So what now?” Lincoln asked as Olivia pressed her cuff to end the call.

She shrugged. “Now we wait.”

*

The monolithic shell of the outer hangar that housed the ALVIN shuttles glistened in the near distance, its walls an inverted contrast to the bright cerulean sky and graphite shades of the launch pad approach. It had been almost an hour since Secretary Bishop had called to tell them he had demanded an immediate transfer of Aleks Vasiliev back to the Glatterflug site via the DoD’s own supersonic jet to make the journey as fast and as low-risk to others as possible.

Lincoln blinked as he followed Olivia through the back exit of the Glatterflug building to the outside area. Sparsely decorated with palm trees whose swaying leaves provided little relief from the intense Florida sun that beat down on the tarmacked runways and roads between the buildings on the Glatterflug complex, the structures appeared to tremble in the hazy heat.

“How much longer till they get here?” He asked, rolling up the sleeves of his white dress shirt and loosening his tie. The humid climate was a stark contrast to the freezing New York air and snow they'd experienced little more than a week earlier and outside they were no longer in the cool embrace of the air conditioning. Almost immediately Lincoln could feel a bead of sweat making its slow descent from his hairline through his side burn and towards the collar of his shirt as his fair skin fell under the mercy of the sun’s veracious power.

Shrugging off her utility jacket, Olivia threw it down on the bench in the little area of dappled shade and sat down next to it, flexing her arms to stretch them over the back of the bench as Lincoln joined her, immediately feeling the man-made fibers in his charcoal work slacks cling to the clammy skin of his thighs. “Not long, five or ten minutes probably.”

As she spoke, the deep rumble of the sonic engine shattered the serenity of the calm cerulean sky and the white jet appeared in a haze of cloud from just over the horizon, dissecting the empyrean with a vapor trail that gradually fizzled away as the state of the art airplane landed on the strip outside of the hangar.

They drove over on another cart to where it had landed, arriving as the passenger door unfolded and the air-stair led down to the scorching surface of the runway, allowing Charlie to disembark and greet his colleagues with a somber expression.

“Aleks Vasiliev is ready for his onward journey, courtesy of Science Division,” he explained as the astronaut was lowered down from the plane. Confined in a metal Faraday cage coffin much more advanced and sophisticated than the one his brother had made, it was a mechanical mixture of interconnected wire mesh and lead bars, powered by a shoe box sized battery under the bench where the wheeled legs extended out of the underside.

“Where's that?” Lincoln said, squinting through his sunglasses, wiping the thin layer of sweat from his brow.

“The Secretary wants us to escort him on the fleet of ALVIN shuttles back up to the base. Whatever is inside him, they can't get it out and want to take him back up there to see if it willingly leaves his body again.” 

He nodded at Charlie's words, then pulled off his sunglasses as the implications sunk in, unable to hold back or disguise the panic tainting his voice. “They want us to do what? The ALVIN shuttles are all automated, that's what the name stands for, right? So why do we need to escort him?”

“They're not expecting for him to return, are they?” Olivia guessed, her voice solemn and her hazel-green eyes meeting Charlie’s which reflected the answer to her question in their deep brown hues.

He shrugged, watching the DoD soldiers transport Vasiliev in his lead sarcophagus through the dock and into the hangar. “We've been told to leave him there if it doesn't work and evacuate the base, making sure all personnel return with us as long as they're not showing the same symptoms.” 

“Just when I thought I'd got away with not flying anywhere for a while.” Lincoln huffed in displeasure.

***

Chapter Text

As one of the shuttles were loaded with the Faraday cage containing Vasiliev, the agents were taken to the departure lounge where they were given a body scan to ensure they were fit enough to travel and were fitted into their spacesuits, then given masks to breathe a purer oxygen to adjust to the level they'd have during the flight. 

Lincoln sat alone while Olivia left briefly to call her mom and Charlie called Mona to let them know they would be gone for a few days, even though it was statistically not much more dangerous than flying in a normal airplane. Watching the shuttles roll out onto the tarmac in preparation for their lift off, he swallowed down the sting of jealousy that everyone he'd loved or had cared about him was already gone and that if something were to go wrong, there would be no one to miss him or mourn his death, apart from Olivia. Once they'd adapted to their spacesuits, they filed out to the ships on the runway and strapped into their seats with Olivia in the middle, exactly in the way Vasiliev and his team had traveled. Gulping nervously as the engines roared into life and tilted the nose of the ships up at a ninety degree angle, pointing them up at the azure sky while they laid on their backs, Lincoln gripped his seat arm rests. If his hands had been bare instead of covered by the rubbery layers of the space suit’s glove, his knuckles would have been whiter than the cirrostratus clouds that streaked in the sky above them. 

One by one, the convoy burst upwards in a trail of roaring smoke and fire, onward on its vertical journey. Gigantic black bullets fired upwards to pierce the atmosphere, violently shaking with the force against gravity for almost ten minutes that felt like both instant and an eternity at the same time to the agents inside, until the cerulean sky was engulfed in a blanket of indigo and the metallic artificial satellites glittered under the unforgiving glow of the distant sun.

“It's so beautiful!” Olivia gasped over the comms as earth shrunk below them in the void of space until it was almost entirely visible, a perfectly turquoise gemstone in the onyx landscape, the diamond sun shining the multiple facets over the jewel. “Don't give me diamonds, give me the moon.”

“Incredible...” Charlie added, prompting Lincoln's eyes that he'd tightly scrunched closed to tentatively open. Blinking, he watched the desk’s screen that reflected the image of earth shrinking back in real time in a mixture of disbelief and vertigo-induced nausea. His body was frozen, pressed against the seat with the gravitational force of the propulsion so he couldn't see Olivia, but she could make out the shudder of her suit and helmet in the corner of his eye to his left and he pressed them shut again as the granite orb of the moon slowly began to loom closer towards them.

Olivia spoke again, her voice calm but strained with concern over the internal radio. “You okay Linc?”

He gulped, swallowing down his fear as his words caught in his dry throat. Some people enjoyed the thrill of adrenaline coursing through their veins brought on by things like roller coasters, fast cars and sky diving, but Lincoln was not one of those people. He was happy with his two feet on solid ground and getting his thrill from day to day joys like winning a chess match or just watching Olivia sleep contentedly at his side in the early hours before the world woke up and the only sounds were the birds outside their window and her soft breathing. This was like every plane journey, roller coaster and car chase he'd been on rolled into one and magnified by a hundred, and his thumping heart rattled nervously and accordingly in his chest, triggering his mind's automatic response of sarcasm which appeared whenever he was under extreme duress. “Oh yeah, I'm great.” 

“The other shuttles are still en route behind us,” Charlie noted, checking the analytics that appeared on the screen. "Everything seems to be going normally, no faults or error messages.”

“Let's hope it stays that way,” Lincoln nodded pessimistically despite Charlie's attempts at reassuring him. “Even if this all goes well, we still have to get back home.”

As he spoke a notice appeared on screen, warning that the sedatives and cryo-gases would soon filter through their masks and render them unconscious for the next seventy hours and their vitals and bodily functions would all be controlled by their suits. The countdown ominously counted down, every second that ticked away filled Lincoln with dread until eventually the minutes disappeared and only seconds remained.

“It's showtime!” Olivia said, taking a deep breath as the halothantamines and gasses hissed from the tanks behind their seats through the tubes into their helmets.

“Liv, if I don't wake up, or something happens to either one of us...” Lincoln paused, to swallow down barely disguised dread, his voice broken and distorted with emotion and interference over the radio. “I just want you to know that I…”

His words drifted off as his body immediately absorbed the drugs and he slipped into the void of unconsciousness, with Olivia and Charlie following, his words the last thing they heard as they drifted forwards to the lunar base in little more than an advanced tin can, their only defense against space. 

***

As the ship’s automated system piloted them through the scattered atmosphere and towards the the blinking lights of the Tranquility base beacon, the concrete gray terrain dotted with prehistoric craters, loomed closer through the reinforced glass of the compact window, teasing it's secrets concealed in the pewter dust and charcoal shadows.

Incessant beeping pulled Olivia out of unconsciousness cryo-sleep, the shrill alarm notifying them of their impending arrival and close vicinity to the lunar base. She cleared her dry throat to speak. “Hey! You boys awake yet?”

“Hmmm...” Charlie grunted, his voice groggy as he woke to Olivia's voice and the alarm, the unique and breathtaking view of the arid dusty terrain jolting him awake from a dreamless sleep. “Wow, that's unbelievable. Yeah, I'm pleased to report I'm back in the land of the living.”

Floating over the bright spot of the Tycho crater in the southern highlands, the silver streaks that emanated north-east like city roads guided them on towards the darker jet gray basins of the lunar seas of solidified, iron-rich lava. The convoy of ships trailed the valleys that stretched out below them and ripped through the blemished landscape speckled with pockmarks, the rilles holding them in the grasps of its spindly legs up to the ridge of the Mare Fecunditatis basalt basin, pitted with small meteoroids which bordered the original landing site along with the Mare Tranquilitatis. 

“Linc?” Olivia added, trying not to let fear overwhelm her as he has still not responded. Raising her gloved right hand, she leaned to nudge him, barely able to make an impression with being restrained in her seat. “Lincoln! Wake up, we're almost there.”

The silence hung between them for what seemed like an eternity until the sound of Lincoln gasping awake filled their suit’s built-in speakers and she and Charlies simultaneously sighed in relief.

“We're there?” he said, the relief evident in his voice even through the sleepiness. “Oh, we're still here.”

“Hmm-hmm. We're approaching, and should be docking with the base in just over half an hour according to the on screen information," she replied, watching the trajectory and base approach on the onscreen simulation. “How are you feeling?”

“I'm feeling like this trip is the last one I want to take for a very long time.” Lincoln quipped, clearing his throat. The ship jolted as it piloted itself through the sparse atmosphere via the pull of Tranquility’s tethering beam and slowly began to descend towards the lunar surface.

“Welcome passengers,” Krueger’s disembodied voice automatically relayed through the speakers. “Thank you for flying with Glatterflug and visiting Tranquility. By now the simulated sleep should be wearing off. Please do not be concerned if you feel dizzy, drowsy or slightly nauseous, or have a dry mouth. These side effects are normal and should wear off by the time you land - remember to drink some water from the built in hydration line in the right of your helmet should you need it. Your seat belts and doors to your shuttle will open automatically when it is safe to do so, thank you for your patience…”

Her voice continued reading through the information that had played out before the shuttles had launched and while the suits were fitted in the departures suite, similar to the way air hostesses reinforced safety announcements on terrestrial flights, while the thrusters fought against the air resistance of the moon’s gravitational pull and meager atmosphere, making the shuttles shake under the duress and turbulence. 

They landed in a plume of regolith dust adjacent to the base that was housed inside at the northern ridge of the large crater and bordered the Marsh of Sleep. Once the cargo doors had been sealed to the docks, the seat belts unlocked and released the Fringe Agents, allowing them to leave the confines of the ship through the loading bay airlock, where they proceeded through the inner doors which adjusted them to the change in air pressure. As the last door slid open, Krueger met the agents and ushered them through to the main observation deck where the Lycaeus system applied artificial gravity and air pressure similar to Earth’s, and they could safely remove their helmets.

"Agents," she said, addressing them formally. "Rosen updated me on the developments during your flight up here. I want to confirm that there have been no incidents of malfunctions since Aleks fixed the Lycaeus system and returned home."

"I understand," Olivia replied firmly, "But please also understand we have to verify that before we can continue. Please can all staff move to the medical bay so we can scan the system and then everyone's bio-metric readings?"

Tranquility's medic Doctor Bautista had rushed Aleks Vasiliev off the shuttle on the caged gurney down the sterile corridors of the base, and Krueger trailed closely behind while the agents gazes fixated on the remaining staff members, hoping that none of them showed the telltale signs of the shadow infection Vasiliev had as they would not be allowed to return.

One by one, Krueger and her team were checked for levels of radiation and the unidentifiable chemical while Vasiliev was confined in a separate medical bay, away from everyone else. Their relief of the negative readings was interrupted by a sudden commotion from the side room and as the only person with access to override the system, Krueger punched in the code and ran through the door, her face pale and drawn with what she saw. Vasiliev was awake, clawing at the inside of his cage like an animal, so desperately his fingertips were bloodied and burnt stumps from grating at the steel mesh.

He screamed out, his face pressed through the gauze so much it carved and slashed into his skin, and tears of bloods dripped down his cheeks. "Ono khochet vybrat'sya! Ne vypuskay eto naruzhu!"

"Aleks!" She cried out, desperately pulling the wires from the plug to disable the mechanism and pulling at the lid to free him as the agents burst in behind her. "I'll get you out!"

"No, don't do it!" Charlie shouted out, trying to grasp Krueger in vain while Olivia and Lincoln stood watching open-mouthed and frozen with shock. The grill swung off and clattered to the floor, shattering the stunned silence as the hinges snapped under the force. Vasiliev rose to sit up, like Frankenstein's monster reanimated by a bolt of lightning. His face, obscured with blood and patches of the black fog, flickered like a broken monitor as he battled in vain for dominance with the shadowy entity. 

"We need to get out of here before he loses control of it completely," Olivia hissed at Krueger, her voice barely above a whisper and she pulled the other woman back out of the room. "Now."

As they hurried out, Krueger struggled to keep up with Olivia's pace who was tailing Lincoln, Charlie and the four other Tranquility base staff. "Wait," she gasped. "We can't leave him like this."

Lincoln paused, glancing back at Krueger and Olivia. "We have no choice," he said, his voice laced with urgency and regret. "We have to keep it contained and make sure it doesn't kill anyone else. Those were our orders, right?" His eyes widened as Vasiliev lurched towards them in the corridor, his appearance distorted with a glitching silhouette. The fluorescent lights illuminating the onyx and tourmaline colored walls flickered out as he edged closer as if infected by the shadow. "C'mon, we have to move!"

They reached the three airlocks where the shuttles had docked, and Charlie and Lincoln hurriedly ushered the staff towards the shuttles who replaced their helmets ready for the airlock's doors to open. "Liv - we need to get in the shuttles, right now!" 

"Wait, he designed Lycaeus. I need to get to the main bridge to shut it down in case he tries to override the shuttle controls,” Krueger explained, her eyes wide as she looked at Olivia, even through the helmet. "I can't do that from here."

"Let's go, I'll keep an eye out for Vasiliev in case he tries to interfere," Olivia ordered as the airlock door shut, sealing her off from the ship that Lincoln and Charlie had boarded onto with Bautista.

"Liv, wait! Liv!" Lincoln called out as it locked, helplessly hitting his hands against the glass as hard as he could. Watching Olivia disappear from view through the small window, she was unable to hear him through the glass panel in the airtight door, as he desperately called out her name to summon her back. "I'll go, LIV!"

Unaware and determined, the women rushed back around the corridor that circled the perimeter of the base in the opposite direction of the way they'd come, the door to the bridge opening with a hiss as Krueger pressed her hand, clammy inside the glove, against the beeping door release pad. She gestured at the built-in monitor where she'd sat while speaking to the Fringe Agents a few days before and she had monitored Vasiliev's space walk out to the service panel. "The console is right here."

Her fingers flew over the keyboard, typing in commands so one by one the systems shut down while confirming each step with a beep until the only system left operational were the basic life support and launch countdown systems. "Lycaeus is almost entirely shutdown," Krueger announced. "I've timed the shuttles to automatically launch in ten minutes which should give us enough time to get back to the docks and I've rerouted the ALVIN manual controls back to ground control to take over if they experience any problems."

"That's good," Olivia noted, gripping onto the corridor's built-in handrails for support as the artificial gravity system failed and returned to the natural sixteen percent of Earth, the concern in her voice evident. "Because we have company."

Vasiliev's body menacingly floated towards them like a faceless specter, haunting the sky blue halls as they succumbed to the darkness that enveloped them in his wake.

"This way," Krueger replied, pulling Olivia with her and away from the approaching shadow. "We'll have to be quick if we go clockwise around the base to the airlocks." 

*

“T-minus four minutes and fifty-nine seconds until take off, all passengers must prepare for imminent evacuation. Full system failure is imminent.” The robotic voice warned over the lunar base's speaker system as the crew strapped themselves into the ALVIN shuttles, their suits automatically adjusting to the pressure in preparation for the launch. Lincoln tried in vain to detach his own helmet as Charlie shoved him towards the seats, and fastened the belt around his torso. 

“We can't, I refuse to leave Liv behind,” he protested, frustrated at being unable to move against the restraints that had locked him in place.

Sitting in the spare seat between him and the medic, Charlie sighed and closed his own belt. “We don't have a choice, the airlock is sealed and the systems are locked down, we couldn't open them from inside here even if we wanted to.”

“He's right,” Bautista confirmed. “It's a security measure that can only be overridden by the panels outside the airlocks or GGC if the control is being rerouted there. ”

“If something happens to Liv,” Lincoln snapped, glaring at his colleague from the corner of his eye. He refused to believe this was their only option. The terror gripped his chest so the words caught in his throat and stung his eyes. Was this the thing Kate Green warned him about that he'd so desperately want to change when he met her in his future? "I swear to God, Charlie, I -”

The shuttles jolted as the engines and displays burst into life in preparation for lift off, showing the analytics of the three shuttles and passengers, the vacant seats waiting for Olivia and Krueger.

“She's gonna make it, she always does.” Charlie said softly over the mic, his words somewhere between a promise, a prayer and a wish. 

*

“The docks are just around this bend,” Krueger said, propelling herself to the final set of automatic interlinking doors that sealed off the outer ringed corridor into four equal segments as a safety measure. Placing her hand against the door panel, she muttered as it remained unresponsive. “Dammit.”

“What's wrong?” Olivia asked urgently, looking at the dead display, spurred on by the robotic voice that was counting down the minutes over the speakers.

“It's not responding to my commands, Lycaeus must be almost entirely shut down already," she replied, her voice strained with frustration as the distant hallway lights died one by one. “I don't know what we can do… we're trapped.”

Pressing her lips into a thin line, Olivia's mouth twisted with determination. They were probably less than twenty feet and thirty seconds away from the shuttle airlocks but separated by what they'd hoped would protect them. “Can we prise it open with something?” 

“It's impossible, there are no manual door handles, they only work this way to prevent damage or maintain air pressure if there's a fire or a hull breach. Our only way out is… No, it's too risky.” Krueger countered, twisting to look up to the service hatch in the ceiling so the bright fluorescent lights reflected off the visor of her helmet.

“Can't be any riskier than that,” Olivia stated as the last few remaining lights began to fizzle out with the approach of the silhouette apparition that they could barely see in the shadows. 

“Okay, follow me up here.”

They effortlessly pushed themselves up vertically into the small gap after unlocking the hatch door with the hand wheel and pulled it shut behind them. Krueger turned to look at Olivia solemnly in the cramped, claustrophobic area that was barely high enough for them to lie horizontally in. “Each segment of the corridor has these service crawl spaces as an extra layer to protect us against a hull breach and radiation, the BNNTs which are nanobots –”

“--Rosen explained them to us already.” Olivia interrupted.

“Right, well they're contained in the floor of this space, so we won't be protected by them here, although our suits have enough charge to do that for a few minutes, that should be as long as it takes.” 

“Long as what takes?” 

Krueger paused, taking her tether from the waist of her suit and clipping it to the handle bar then did the same for Olivia. Her gloved fingers wrapped around a second hand wheel in the lowered ceiling above them that was decorated in warning stickers. “Hold on and brace yourself, we're gonna go over the top and re-enter in the service hatch outside the shuttle docks.”

Turning the hand wheel, the upper hatch seal opened with a hiss and gushing rush of air that sucked them towards the hole and the vacuum of space. Once her suit had adjusted and regained control, Krueger pulled herself head first up into the hatch to get her bearings. “I can see the hatch from here, it's about ten or fifteen steps away. You ready?”

“Ready as I'll ever be,” Olivia quipped, pulling herself up through the hatch and following Krueger into the inky void, gasping at the sight before her. She'd seen it on the shuttle journey but here the view and severity of space was intense, unadulterated and inescapable, illuminated by her space suit's helmet lights as the power to the base ebbed away and shut down. The distant azure orb of Earth hung like a deathly still pendulum, suspended in a jet black limbo and decorated in pinpricks of light that rolled out endlessly behind the unforgiving platinum gray alien desert stretched out to her right. She stepped slowly, holding onto the tether as taught as their nerves and strung out like an acrobat's tightrope as it unreeled with each step.

“You're doing great, you should be an astronaut instead of a Fringe Agent,” Krueger observed encouragingly from the second hatch. Her voice crackled through the mic, guiding Olivia's feather-light steps across the roof of the base that ran the perimeter of the central dome. Turning the outer hand wheel on the hatch door as Olivia approached her, Krueger pulled up the door which heaved out the air in its section as it swung open and she gestured down at the hole. “After you.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I'm gonna have to decline - I prefer being on Earth,” Olivia retorted, sliding feet first into the hatch, the way she'd pushed herself into a slide at a water park when she was a teenager.

“Did you -–” said Krueger, her voice distorted and out of Olivia's sight from the way she stood behind the hatch door. A second glitching ghostly figure appeared, rising from a cluster of dust and rocks on the landscape like a sand sculpture rebuilding itself after being destroyed by the tides. “Oh my God! There's another one out here, it's coming this way.”

Her helmet peered over the rim of the hatch door, a hazy glowing smudge in Olivia's peripheral vision, the blade of her suit’s inbuilt utility pocket knife in her gloved hand. Krueger's eyes were dark and wild behind the visor of her helmet, and Olivia flinched as she lunged the knife towards her, severing the tether that linked her to the base like an umbilical cord.

“Go on… the shuttle docks …fore it… late,” Krueger yelled, her voice twisted and distorted by the increasing interference. “Get … no time!”

Leaving Olivia no time to argue, she slammed the door shut between them and locked it, sealing it shut. 

Opening the second hatch and pushing herself down to the corridor that housed the docks, Olivia’s suit skidded on the polished walls and floors as she turned the bend and reached the airlock to the empty shuttle as the timer counted down and reached zero, and she watched helplessly as the three shuttles that contained Lincoln, Charlie and the other passengers left her behind.

*

His eyes were closed, his face pale and drawn as Lincoln sat deadly still, the tension in his body radiating outwards. The silence was deafening, the air heavy with fear and despair. He couldn't do anything but sit there helpless, unable to move, as the shuttles counted down the last few seconds to lift off. 

No. No. No.

The time had crawled while they waited. The silence was broken only by the countdown, and they'd watched every second and every chance of Olivia making it back in time slip through their fingers until the timer had counted down the final seconds, each one of them a diminishing heartbeat and a funeral march. 

And then, with a final shudder, the shuttles were gone, ripped from the Tranquility base in a blast of dust and smoke. Olivia watched in disbelief through the small dock windows as the ships left the station and began the long journey home to earth, her face insignificant and hidden through the glass as they launched, never to return to the moon again, leaving her alone with the possessed Vasiliev and Krueger.

Effortlessly the shuttle tore away from the moon’s reduced gravity and atmosphere, leaving the flint gray land behind them until they were blanketed by the blackness of space and the moon was little more than an antique silver coin disappearing behind them. Displaying the three shuttle’s passengers and the vacant seats, Lincoln took one last look at the screen as it was replaced with a notice, warning them of the impending gasses that would be filtered through their space suit helmets.

As before, they would be in cryo, their minds and bodies preserved and their memories stored in the cold metal coffins of their space suits until they reached Earth. Determined, Lincoln’s last thought was of Olivia, just as it had been on the journey to the moon. The slight look of concern through the airlock window concealed by a smile on her face before she disappeared would be forever etched on his mind like the craters on the surface. He would come to dread every night, each sunset would be a bitter reminder as the moon rose in the blood red sky, taunting him with its victory. Now his heart and the moon were identical, a matching pair of cold iron spheres, a heavy place that held her perfectly preserved memory, and it weighed him down in a sea of regret and despair. He vowed to spend his whole life hunting down Kate Green if he had to and put this right.

Lincoln slumped back in his seat, defeated, Olivia’s name falling from his lips and a single tear escaping his eye that trailed down his cheek and froze as the gasses held him in their grip. The shuttle continued its journey home in the convoy, the stars outside their windows a constant reminder of the vastness of the universe, and the infinitesimal place they all held within it. Everything that awaited them - the endless stream of bureaucracy and red tape that would consume them for weeks, even months to come - seemed almost irrelevant now, in the face of the loss they had suffered. And so they drifted through the cold, dark void of space, their hearts frozen and their minds adrift, the ghosts of Olivia, Krueger and Vasiliev haunting them like specters, refusing to let them find peace. The shuttle carried them home, away from the moon and toward the earth, but it could not carry them away from the truth: that they had failed Olivia, and that they would carry the burden of that failure for the rest of their lives.

*

When they finally awoke in the final descent, the ebony skies faded away into a midnight ombré and then into the crystal aquamarine shade that reflected Lincoln’s own eyes, that clung to the tears that threatened to spill and drown him in their flood. The shuttles docked, the hatches opening with a hiss as the vacuum of space was replaced by the sterile air of the recovery center. The Glatterflug crew members emerged followed by Charlie and Lincoln, their faces pale and drawn, their eyes haunted. They were led through the maze of corridors, their every step echoing on the linoleum flooring as they passed by the walls adorned with images of successful missions and lined with judgmental Glatterflug staff. Lincoln felt as if he were being marched to the gallows, each step bringing him closer to the inevitable fate that awaited him, mocked by the images of the triumphant crews returning home. 

They were debriefed, their memories examined, their actions scrutinized. They were asked to explain their choices, to defend and relive their decisions. They said they understood how Krueger and Olivia had sacrificed themselves to stop the creature inside of Vasiliev from sabotaging the base and returning on the shuttles. Charlie's hollow words of condolence fell flat on Lincoln’s deafened ears, thinner than ozone and like the punchline to a joke that he would never understand. Because Lincoln would never truly be free from the weight of that failure, from the ache in his heart that would never, ever go away. Charlie sat across from him, his expression a mixture of sorrow and despair but Lincoln didn't meet his gaze, he couldn't even look him in the eye.

It was only when they were finally finished and he was left alone, back in the cramped bed of the medical bay that Lincoln allowed himself to break down. He curled into a ball on his bunk, his fists clenched, his breath ragged and his body wracked with sobs. He cried fat, resentful tears for Olivia and for himself that stung as they carved deep riverbeds into his cheeks. He cried for the loss of everything that their future that was stolen from them both and how he was forced to leave her behind. Despair and fear intruded into his imagination, forcing him to envision that she'd stepped out into the airlock, choosing to die instantly instead of slowly suffocating as the air ran out inside the base or that she had been dissolved into a perfectly preserved dust statue like the regolith outside the base walls, once Vasiliev’s shadow had caught her.

He cried for his bitterness against the moon being her eternal grave, and for the empty void that would forever be between them. And as he cried, he vowed to find a way to make things right, his heart as cold and heavy as the moon itself, but his determination burning brighter than any star in the sky. He had failed her once, but he would not fail her again. He would find Kate Green, and he would make her help him stop this from ever happening.
And in doing so, he might just find some semblance of peace for them both.

Chapter Text

The sound of Glatterflug's medical bay door creaking open was drowned out by the noise of Lincoln's sniffs as he failed to stifle the sobs that shook his body and heaved air from his lungs. Synchronized with the mechanical beeping of the equipment, he couldn't hear Charlie approach until the curtain track rattled, disturbed by the nylon drapes that divided the medical bays being pulled back.

“Lincoln…” Charlie began tentatively, his dark brown eyes wide and tinged pink like Lincoln's with the emotion of losing not only a colleague but a dear friend he'd known for years. 

Clearing his throat of the regret that had settled there, Lincoln's words were slow and deliberate when he spoke, his voice rough and barely recognizable, loaded with a mixture of loathing, pity, pain, regret and self-hatred, and he rolled on his side to avoid Charlie's presence, his face a reminder of what they'd lost. “Leave me alone.”

“Buddy,” He continued, slowly moving around the bed.

“I said, get OUT!” Lincoln spat and glared spitefully, jumping up from the gurney to shove Charlie away. Even though he knew it wasn't Charlie's fault, it helped to shift the blame on someone and it was a load Charlie was happy to share the weight of. He stood fast, bracing himself to catch the force of Lincoln’s unfiltered anger and grabbed Lincoln's wrists as he halfheartedly thrashed out at Charlie's chest again and again with balled up fists until Lincoln slouched in defeat and whimpered. "Liv was all I had, Charlie. All I ever wanted. How am I supposed to go on without her?"

“I know, I know,” Charlie whispered sympathetically in his low, gruff tone as Lincoln gave up fighting and let himself drown in the grief. Charlie knew this feeling all to well, when he'd cradled Sonia's limp and bloodied body in his arms while she'd taken her last breath. Slumping his broad shoulders, Lincoln's legs buckled under him like a puppet with cut strings. Holding him up and together against his own chest, Charlie waited for the second wave of sobs to subside before speaking again. “But you've gotta come with me and see this, right now.”

***

In the Glatterflug Ground Control room, the atmosphere buzzed with nervous excitement and trepidation when Charlie and Lincoln burst through the doors, just as they had done a few days before with Olivia when they'd spoken to Krueger on the Glatterflug internal communication system. But this time, there wasn't any live feed with the moon's Tranquility base that Lincoln had expected to see, or a confirmation of the fate of Olivia, Krueger and Vasiliev. Instead, it showed a map of the earth and a trajectory line of an aircraft that was being tracked on its journey towards Earth.

Lincoln frowned, turning his attention to the huge monitors. “What's going on?”

“They've been tracking a small craft that’s about to enter earth’s atmosphere, they estimate it will land somewhere between Puerto Rico and the Bahamas in the next few hours. They're gonna send out a boat to intercept and retrieve it.”

With his head swimming with grief and confusion, he was unable to grasp what Charlie was trying to say. “I don't understand, what craft is this? All the shuttles came back in our convoy.”

“About an hour after we evacuated the Tranquility base, they detected someone had activated an EEP --” Charlie continued, when Lincoln shook his head, still unable to see the dim light of hope in the fog of despair. “--Emergency Escape Pod. They've picked up a faint signal of a distress beacon coming from it and have managed to remotely steer it as close to the Glatterflug HQ as possible.”

Lincoln blinked, allowing Charlie's words to sink like a stone to the depths of his soul. “Someone? Or something?”

“Honestly, we don't know who it is yet,” Rosen added, stepping up to the two agents. “We've managed to determine there is one life form on board but other than that the attempts to communicate with it have failed. They either can't hear us, or can't respond, out of choice, mechanical failure or, well, ummm...”

Or death. Rosen's words trailed off and the implications stung Lincoln like a slap - even if someone had escaped, the likelihood was that they were dead. The capsule could be little more than a coffin, automatically projecting their body back to Earth. Worse still, it could be Vasiliev in there, returning to Earth to feed on the Earth’s inhabitants radiation again. If Astrid was here, she would tell them that the odds weren't just bad, they were almost certainly against them and most likely impossible. But Lincoln didn’t care. He gulped and nodded decisively. “Tell them to wait for me, I'm going to be on that boat when it leaves.”

“Wait, Lincoln…” Charlie rushed, grabbing the other man's arm, his eyes blacker than the night sky with worry. “You understand what he's saying?”

“I understand,” Lincoln said, the fiery determination evident in his watery blue eyes as he stared back at Charlie. “But I'm going. I need to be there.”

***

On the choppy waves of the Atlantic ocean, the buoy tender ship bobbed over the stormy tropical seas, its powerful searchlights highlighting the peaks and troughs of the sea foam against the aqua depths that extended to the horizon in every direction. 

“The last known location of the beacon was in this approximate area according to the GPS coordinates,” the helmsman said, checking the black and green circular display of the marine radar for a reading as the line rotated from the center across to the diameter like the sweeping second hand of an analogue clock. “But we have no visual ID on the capsule yet.”

Another seaman spoke. “Perhaps it's drifted on the tide or isn't being picked up by the radar -–”

“Wait! I think I've got something!’ A younger skipper called out from his position on the poop deck, raising his binoculars back up to his face to check before racing up the steps to the bridge. Gesturing towards the horizon, he shoved the binoculars at the seaman’s chest and pointed with an outstretched arm towards the horizon. “Look over there, that way.”

Holding up the eyepiece, he peered through, adjusting the thumb wheel and scanning the glittering waters back and forth until finally - finally - he saw what the younger man had glimpsed. A millisecond flash of glittering gold and orange, partially concealed by deflated parachutes on the rippling waves. Immediately dropping the binoculars from his face, he turned to the skipper. “Let's get closer and prepare to deploy the dinghy.”

***

Bleary-eyed from exhaustion and grief, Lincoln squinted through the same binoculars, desperate to glimpse the dinghy's crew members as it approached the semi-submerged capsule. Tentatively cutting away at the parachute that had also acted like a makeshift sail and caused the pod to drift away from where it had landed, they revealed the hatch door. Clearing his throat nervously, the technician's voice spoke over the radio, his face wet with tiny droplets from the sea splashing his skin and anxious perspiration. “We're at the hatch door, permission to proceed with opening?”

Elias Kane, the sergeant directly under Secretary Bishop in the Department of Defense who had escorted Vasiliev's body back with Charlie on the DoD’s own supersonic jet, stepped forward on the bridge from where he'd been standing between Lincoln and Rosen, and held his own radio up to his mouth. “Permission granted.” 

Turning to the technician, a dinghy crew member nodded the permission to go ahead and the technician pulled the hatch door open with bated breath, his gasp synchronizing with the air inside the capsule as it escaped, making a soft hissing sound as the stale air dissipated into the salty atmosphere around them. Waiting nervously, the crew held their equipment ready and their weapons drawn while the technician threw open the hatch and peered inside. Lurching forwards, the capsule undulated on the sea waves they heaved to pull out a limp body, unidentifiable under the spacesuits and from where Lincoln had rushed to watch from the closest point on the main deck. With his heart pounding in his chest and the salty air stinging his cheeks, he could barely hear technician's voice crackling over the radio. "They are unconscious and not responsive but they have a weak pulse." 

The dinghy's journey back to the buoy tender seemed to take forever, as if it was caught in a black hole's event horizon, but eventually it tethered to the boat and the passenger and capsule were lifted on board. As they lifted the unconscious person into the medical bay, the doctor stepped forward between the survivor and Lincoln, giving him grim look. "They're in a seriously critical condition. We'll have to stabilize them first and run tests to check for any signs of infection or radiation before we can confirm their identity or allow you any contact."

Time seemed to slow down as Lincoln waited for them to finish their evaluations. His thoughts raced in a dozen different directions while he paced the decks, the salty scent of the sea stinging his eyes, and the endless salty abyss stretching out for an eternity before him. Intently watching the medical team work in stolen glimpses through the door's porthole window, their hands moving with practiced efficiency as they worked to stabilize the patient, eventually they ushered him into the ship’s tiny cabin. The ship’s medical team left him alone with the unknown passenger and he approached gingerly, afraid of what or who he'd find until a tiny lock of familiar auburn hair peered out from under the cap of the insulated body suit.

“L-Liv? Is it really -- you?" Lincoln croaked, his voice breaking as the words stuck in his throat, trapped under his hammering heart and layers of disbelief.

Olivia's chest rose and fell with a shallow breaths, her eyelids fluttering open. For a long moment, she just blinked and stared up at the ceiling, unseeing. Then her gaze followed his voice and drifted to the side, and she saw him, braced against the rusting door, afraid that was his eyes was telling him was a lie. When a flicker of a smile drifted across her face, Lincoln could do nothing but only mirror it, and he huffed a laugh in relief even though she was so pale, so fragile, and he could hardly believe that she was here and alive.

Her eyes widened as Olivia tried to speak, her throat hoarse. "Lincoln? What day is it?” she whispered, her voice growing stronger. "I'm sorry, I didn't make it to the shuttle in time, I--."

He couldn't speak, couldn't find his voice as he moved closer, finally taking her hand in his. "Shhhh. It's the twenty-first of February," Lincoln said finally in a murmur. Her grip on his hand tightened when they finally touched and the small smile that curved her lips faded, mouthing ' your birthday'. “I thought I'd never see you again,” he sighed, brushing the small lock of her auburn bangs from her clammy forehead. "I don't care we missed Valentine's Day and if we spend my birthday on this crappy little rust bucket of a boat, I'm just happy you're here and we're together, that's all I need. Try to get some rest." 

"But, I need to tell you something, Linc," she insisted, unable to let it go. "It's important." Her eyelids grew heavy again, and she fought against drifting back off to sleep, her breathing becoming deeper. Outside, the wind and waves battered the hull of the ship, but inside this cramped and claustrophobic room, with Olivia clinging to his hand, nothing else mattered. Lincoln leaned in closer, watching her face, and waiting patiently for her to talk again.

"What is it?" he whispered, his heart aching. Squeezing her hand reassuringly, he felt torn between desperately wanting to hear her voice to selfishly prove this wasn't just a dream or his imagination, and also wanting to let her rest.

Closing her eyes, Olivia gasped a shuddering breath before she spoke again. "I was trapped with Krueger, we were trying to escape Vasiliev and whatever was in him, and we went over the top to try and reach you in time but I was too late. I saw you all leave the base, and us, behind." Her voice broke, and fresh tears welled in her eyes. “But I refused to give up. I found an escape pod and launched it, but I could only do that because she sacrificed herself to save me.”

Tenderly stroking her forehead with his spare hand, Lincoln shook his head helplessly as he tried to make sense of her words. "You know didn't want to leave you there, it wasn't my choice. We couldn't override the shuttles." He said softly, confirming what she already knew, but as he looked into her eyes, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of nightmare she'd lived through after the shuttles had deployed.

"There was another one - another thing - outside, on the surface. She let it take her so I could escape - Krueger, I mean." Olivia added in little more than a whisper, her words slow and deliberate. Sensing his confusion, her voice barely audible over the howl of the tropical storm outside, her eyes fluttered with determined exhaustion. Their depths were haunted with a mixture of fear, regret, and trauma as she recalled the crackling sound of Krueger's voice that had directed Olivia through the comms while fighting against being possessed by the shadow. The voice had haunted Olivia as she'd hurtled back towards earth in the tiny escape pod, tumbling through the abyss with only Krueger's ghost, the GGC radio and the will to make it back alive to keep her going. "She told me how to launch the escape pod."

"Maybe Krueger didn't want to leave him - Vasiliev, I mean," Lincoln replied, knowing that he would have stayed there with Olivia if they hadn't been separated or if he'd had a choice. "They both saved us," he said finally, his voice barely audible over the hum of the engines. "They gave their lives to stop those things, whatever they were."

“Maybe those things, whatever they were, just wanted to be together too.” She nodded, causing the tear that had been clinging to the corner of her eye to finally spill over the rim and roll down her cheek. As Olivia fought against unconsciousness and she muttered incoherently one last time, her eyelids grew heavy again and she slipped into a deep sleep. 

Lincoln sat watching her chest rise and fall with each breath, feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude, disbelief and guilt wash over him while imagining what had become of Krueger and Vasiliev, and what had really happened on the lunar base once the shuttles had vacated it. The events on the moon replayed themselves in his mind like a horror movie on an endless loop, spurred on by Olivia's tormented accounts. He would always feel an immense gratitude for Krueger's sacrifice, and a sense of awe and admiration for her and Vasiliev. They had given their lives to save them, and in the process, they had saved countless others from the horrors that lurked beyond the walls of the Tranquility lunar base, possibly triggered by the anomalous solar flares from a few weeks before.

The boat continued its journey back to Florida, the stars passing overhead like distant memories and the gentle rocking of the boat lulling them both back to sleep when the storm abated, allowing their exhausted bodies to finally give in to the rhythm of the ocean. Shards of light broke through the clouds while the sun rose over the horizon, painting the waves with shades of orange and pink, and piercing the circular portholes with glittering rays.

When Olivia woke again, the boat was approaching the dock and she became aware of the noises of gulls, the chatter of busy personnel and ship horns outside the cramped medical room that bled through to her senses while her levels of awareness returned to normal. Smirking on realizing they were on a boat, Olivia coughed to clear her throat to speak, alerting Lincoln that she was awake.

Linking their fingers, he smiled reassuringly. “Hey.”

“Linc," she coughed. "We’re on a boat.”

“Hey! Yeah, we’re nearly at the port and back on solid ground,” he confirmed, unable to hold back a puzzled smile as she began to smirk at him. “Why? What is it?”

“Oh, I was just thinking, you were right about what you said before.”

Lincoln shook his head, even more confused and concerned she'd suffered an undetected head injury until she finally spoke. 

“It’s all about the motion of your ocean.”

Chapter Text

March 2014

“You sure you're okay to go back to… work ?” Lincoln asked, his words trailing off when Olivia threw him a disapproving look as she looked up at him from lacing up her utility boots. It had only been a few days since they’d returned from the lunar base and had been debriefed by the DoD, Bishop Dynamic and Glatterflug. Sighing, he shrugged in defeat when Olivia's eyebrows arched in defiance and challenged him to continue. “I’ll get the car.”

“Linc, wait a sec -” Olivia blurted, grabbing his arm before he could reach the front door to their apartment. For a split second before she spoke again he foolishly thought she'd say he was right and they should both stay at home for the day. “You forgot this.”

Delving down the side of the couch, she retrieved a small square box that had been tucked between the arm of the sofa and the side table that usually held a pile of precariously balanced hardback books that consistently threatened to topple with the slightest provocation. Grinning in response to Lincoln's slackened jaw, his mouth wide in surprise and confusion, a slight blush rose high on his cheeks when Olivia placed it in his outstretched hand. “Uh, what's this?”

“Just a little something as we didn't get to celebrate your birthday properly - open it!” 

He nodded understandingly and in appreciation at the surprise gift. Spending his birthday and valentine's day in the Glatterflug HQ was definitely not what either of them had planned but the gift of them both being there to experience it together had been the only gift he'd needed after the emotional roller coaster. Lifting the lid of the box and delving into the shredded tissue paper, his fingertips hit a smooth and polished object, and he pulled it from its cushion by the handle. “It's a coffee mug -- Babe-raham Lincoln. Really?” he sniggered in disbelief, reading the words on the side of the mug, separated by an illustration of thick eyeglasses.

“I saw it and thought of you, babe -raham,” Olivia smirked, her playful gaze meeting Lincoln's. She edged closer and lowered her voice before talking again. “I was gonna go for the one that had SCHWING! and the lyrics to Hard Candy written on it, but I didn't wanna explain that to my mom when she visits next.”

Remembering when they'd watched Wayne's World together one evening and Lincoln had been left speechless when instead of Bohemian Rhapsody , in this universe the characters had rocked to Fleetwood Mac's The Chain , they giggled together until he pulled Olivia flush against him by the waist and she let out a little gasp. Biting her full raspberry pink bottom lip, Olivia gulped thickly as he leaned in towards her, the subtle scent of him saturating her senses. His breath was hot against her ear and his voice was dangerously low when he spoke again, his sky blue eyes darkening as his gaze flickered imperceptibly over her mouth when the tip of her tongue emerged to moisten her dry lips. “It might have been more accurate though.” 

“Why'd you say that?” she teased, leaning back against the dining chair, daring him to move closer into her space. Accepting the challenge, he carefully placed the mug down on the table and splayed his fingers out on the surface, the curves of the wood grain reflecting the swirls of his fingerprints and trapping her between him and the back of the chair. Olivia nodded, provoking Lincoln to go further. “Hmmm... Is it because you don't wear glasses anymore?”

“You tell me,” Lincoln whispered, his voice low like gravel while his lips grazed a millimeter away from her skin. Calling her bluff, his lips grazed her jawline, tracing a path of feather-light kisses across the sensitive skin where her carotid artery ran through her neck down to her collar bone, his skin rough with stubble teasing hers until her breathing became shallow and turned into little rapid puffs of air against his ear that only tantalized him to continue whispering the lyrics as he kissed her skin. "I've made up my mind, I'm tired of wasting all my precious time. You've got to be all mine, all mine, foxey lady."

Olivia gasped, unable to form his name on the throaty sigh that slipped from her mouth. The texture of his tie was silky smooth as she wrapped the fabric around her hand to pull him closer while his hand snaked under her jacket and t-shirt, his fingertips following the curve of her spine to keep their bodies flush against each other. She could feel the familiar warm ache of arousal beginning to flutter in her abdomen and Olivia knew it would be so easy to let Lincoln continue and let them both get swept up in the rush of mutual desire. The images flashed in her mind like skipping forward to a favorite movie scene - with very little encouragement from her, Lincoln would gladly follow her lead and within seconds both their jackets would be pushed off each other’s bodies with greedy and impatient hands, discarded in crumpled piles on the floor. The waistbands of their pants would be hurriedly undone and shoved down with trembling fingers and fall to their ankles, the metallic belt buckles the percussion to the bass of their rushing heartbeats as they hit the tiled kitchen floor. Lincoln would ruck up her top to grant his mouth access to her sensitive breasts while he kneeled on the floor in front of her, and when she wasn't able to take anymore of his worship, she'd turn around, pushing her panties down to her knees to guide him inside her from behind, while his fingers dug into her hip bones to steady her erratic movements. With his deliberate, hot and needy breathy sighs against her shoulder, she'd brace herself against the table, unable to feel the corner digging into her thigh with every thrust even when the opposite side of the table chipped paint off the wall with their movements. Olivia sighed and reluctantly placed her palms against his shoulders to pause the playback in her head, her voice breathy and low when she spoke. “Linc, w-wait -- stop a sec.”

Immediately his hands froze and he raised his head, his blue eyes apologetic and searching her face for forgiveness and assurance for getting carried away, his a blush high on his cheeks with a mixture of desire and embarrassment. “Sorry, I was, uh, …sorry, you're right we should leave for work.”

“Don't be sorry, you dumbass, I want this to keep going as much as you do,” Olivia smiled, her hands moving up to cradle his face and she pressed her lips against his, leaving an imprint of her lipstick on his mouth. “But I got you something else to go with the mug.”

Twisting slightly to pull out a small gift bag she'd tucked behind her, Olivia blinked, her mossy eyes sparkling mischievously. Taking it from her hands, Lincoln jostled the contents, his brows knotting and eyes narrowing in confusion until he peered inside and beamed a large smile at the contents. “Coffee? Where'd you get this?”

“Uh-huh! I have my ways…” she said cryptically with a nod, causing Lincoln’s animated eyebrows to raise and then furrow. “I know it's one thing you really miss from your universe so I thought I'd treat you to a bag as you might need it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Ummm, why?” Lincoln asked, a nervous smile twisting on the corner of his mouth. 

“A little bird tells me Charlie and Jay are planning on taking you out for a few belated birthday drinks after work,” Olivia said, straightening his skewed tie with a little wink. "Even Robert wants to join you boys to thank you for investigating his brother’s death. But don't tell them I told you, it's supposed to be a surprise.”

“Party on Wayne!” he quipped, making the rock sign with his fingers and causing Olivia to shake her head in mock disapproval. “Wait, you’re not coming?”

“Strictly boys night only,” she replied, stepping back to allow him to straighten his jacket on his shoulders. “Besides, it's not much fun being the only one that doesn't drink.”

Lincoln huffed a small snort, and raised his eyebrows in appreciation. “Fair enough, but, uh, are you sure you don't mind?”

Nodding, Olivia sauntered to the front door, ready to leave for the second time and paused to open the latch. Compared to her previous relationship, this time she was genuinely fine with them spending time apart and wouldn’t spend the whole evening thinking about who Lincoln was with or what he was doing. If anything, they seemed to appreciate each other more after being apart for a few hours. “Mmm-hmm, you could do with a night out. Besides, I'm gonna go and check up on Astrid - just watch out for Jay, he might try giving you doubles again.”

“Oh I will,” Lincoln said, rolling his eyes as the thumping rhythm of the Christmas party hangover played back in his head in technicolor flashbacks and he closed the door behind them. “Don’t worry, I don't intend on repeating that again.”

*

Relieved to have had a relatively easy day at work which was mostly spent filling paper about the lunar base and Glatterflug, when Olivia arrived at the DoD hospital she found Astrid's room was unusually vacant. Concerned, she jogged down the hall to the nurse’s station, and impatiently tapped her fingers on the smooth polished surface of the raised desk until a medical staff member appeared. “Excuse me, can you tell me where Agent Farnsworth is?”

“Who?” The nurse said flatly, not even looking up from her screen to acknowledge Olivia.

“Agent Astrid Farnsworth, she was in room eleven down the hall but she's not there,” Olivia replied, gesturing down the hall and barely concealing the agitation in her voice at the nurse’s apathy.

“Are you Agent Dunham?” A voice asked behind her, causing Olivia to whip around in a flurry of red hair to see a slim junior doctor with cropped black hair and soft brown eyes who smiled shyly to reveal a flash of white teeth. They adjusted their white coat nervously before offering their hand out for Olivia to shake it. “My name is Doctor Kwon, but you can call me Jun if you like, Astrid does. Please come this way, she's been looking forward to seeing you again.”

Gesturing down the hall, Jun began to walk towards the elevator when Olivia followed. “Where is she? Has she gotten worse?”

“Far from it actually,” they continued as the elevator doors slid closed and traveled up a few levels. “She's doing extraordinarily well, I'm really impressed with her improvements. She's actually responding very well to the treatment that Doctor Bishop and I have been working on, we think she might be well enough to go home within a week or two, and just return for assessments and follow-up treatments.”

Stopping at the top floor, they stepped out of the elevator and into the nano-tech ward where Astrid was sitting on the edge of her hospital bed, eagerly waiting for them to arrive. No longer under the influence of heavy sedatives or restraints, she beamed widely on seeing Olivia approach through the door’s window pane and then blushed, her eyes darting to the floor on seeing Jun was there too. “Agent Dunham!” 

“Astrid!” Olivia exclaimed in relief, regarding her friend’s appearance that was a vast improvement to the last time Olivia had visited. At that time, Astrid had been barely conscious, held down by restraints and kept isolated from other patients in a restricted area. “You look great. How are you feeling?”

“Much better, thank you,” she nodded, shyly glancing at Jun who stood behind Olivia while smiling softly back at Astrid. As they made eye contact, oblivious to her being there, Olivia suddenly felt as if they were speaking a language that only they could understand and smirked to herself on realizing how it must have looked to those on the outside when she and Lincoln had unknowingly made that connection with each other. 

Breaking the spell, Jun cleared their throat and shuffled on the spot. “Anyway, I’ll leave you to, uh, yeah…” Stuttering apologetically, Jun headed for the door and paused before leaving. “I’ll see you later, Ast-, uh, Agent Farnsworth.”

“Yes, goodbye Jun,” Astrid replied as the door shut and Olivia raised her eyebrow in a teasing expression, pursing her lips into a thin line to prevent her racing thoughts growing into words and spilling from her lips like ripe fruit. Catching the look Olivia shot at her, Astrid blinked and looked away, avoiding eye contact even more than usual and fought the blush she felt rising high on her cheeks. “What?”

Smirking, Olivia slumped in the chair next to Astrid’s bed and picked a couple of grapes from the fruit bowl on the miniature locker that was used as a makeshift bedside cabinet. “So you and Doctor Kwon have been spending a lot of time together, huh?”

“Jun has been keeping me company most evenings while administering my course of treatment,” she explained, deliberately keeping her voice flat and emotionless in a vain attempt to convince Olivia that there wasn't anything worth knowing. “I am very thankful for their help.”

“Really?” Olivia shook her head, unconvinced, familiar with the denial and uncertainty but also how easy it was to recognize those signs when on the outside. “C'mon, you know that isn’t normal to be on first name terms with your doctor, right?  I think they’re making excuses to spend time with you.”

With her eyes bright and alert and wide like saucers, Astrid dared to look back at Olivia and straightened her posture in an attempt to hide her surprised relief. “That is impossible, they were just…” Her voice trailed off as the freight train of realization hit her. Jun had spent so many extra hours and late nights on the ward, only to leave flustered under a flurry of excuses when Astrid questioned why they were there. Once or twice she'd even returned to her room from having treatments to find a hot drink and a candy bar or snack from the vending machine down the hall on her table, placed anonymously in her absence. Blushing, Astrid rubbed the sheen of sweat caused by nerves and naivety she felt beading at her temple. “Oh! I see...”

Reluctant to admit to anyone, even herself, Astrid had had her suspicions that Jun might've been responsible but had talked herself out of it, rationalizing that it was someone else - anyone else - for fear there was no intent behind Jun’s kindness and she was just being foolish. 

With her increasing heart rate and blood pressure, the monitor's alarms announced Astrid’s internal panic, causing the seat’s vinyl covering to squeak when Olivia sat bolt upright in the chair, her brows knitted when she spoke. “Astrid? I think you need to try and relax. Take some deep breaths.”

“But what do I do? I mean - should I  -- what if I?” Astrid continued, her eyes wide and mind racing. Wiping her clammy palms against her hospital gown he tried in vain to fight against the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions stirring inside her to try and steady her heartbeat for fear of it triggering a transformation and undoing all the progress she’d made. Reaching out a comforting hand, Olivia covered Astrid’s hand with her own, her touch grounding Astrid in the midst of her swirling uncertainties.

"Take a deep breath," Olivia said softly, her voice a soothing contrast to the chaos in Astrid's mind. "Jun seems to genuinely care about you, if you feel the same, this could be a good thing."

Astrid nodded slowly, trying to calm the storm of doubts raging within her. She found herself contemplating every interaction she had with Jun, every smile exchanged, every shared moment of laughter. Could it be possible that there was more than just professional courtesy between them? She felt the weight of uncertainty pressing down on her chest like a heavy stone and she knew that the next time she saw Jun, there would be an unspoken tension hanging in the air between them, like a delicate spider's web waiting to be disturbed. “That’s what scares me.”

As if on cue, the door to her room creaked open, and Astrid's heart skipped a beat as Jun burst through, their eyes wild with fear on hearing the call of the medical equipment and for it to only worsen when Astrid noticed them enter.

“Astrid - uh, Agent Farnsworth?” Jun stuttered, a nurse behind them with an aluminum tray filled with needles and sedatives, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Leaping to her feet, Olivia reached Jun before they could get close to Astrid. “She’s fine, she just needs a minute - can we have a quick word in the hall?”

Without taking their gaze off of the nurse and Astrid to ensure the situation was under control, Jun nodded and reluctantly followed Olivia out in to the hall. Waiting until they were out of earshot from Astrid's room before turning to Jun, Olivia’s expression became sympathetic before she began to speak over the muffled sounds of the busy hospital. "Jun, I need to ask you something important regarding Astrid," she began, her expression serious yet tinged with a hint of warmth. Jun furrowed their brow in concern, sensing the gravity of the situation. Taking a deep breath, Olivia continued, "I couldn't help but notice the way you look at her, the way you care for her. And I think Astrid has started to feel something for you too."

Jun's eyes widened in confusion, unsure of how Olivia had noticed when they’d tried so hard to keep a professional distance and disguise their growing feelings for Astrid in case it made her condition worsen. A mix of emotions flickered across their face - disbelief, hope, and an underlying fear that this revelation could change everything. "I-I didn't want to say anything," Jun began, their voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't want to complicate things for her, especially with everything she's going through."

Olivia placed a reassuring hand on Jun's shoulder, keeping their conversation private in the sterile hallway crowded with busied hospital staff, lamenting the time her and Lincoln had wasted when the were unsure of their feelings for each other. "I understand why you’re holding back, but take it from me, life is too short to deny your feelings when you both feel the same about each other. Sometimes the heart knows what it wants regardless of circumstance. And Astrid deserves to know the truth."

Taking a deep breath to steady themselves, Jun nodded in resignation, swallowing thickly when their words caught their throat. "You're right. I'll talk to her." With newfound determination, Jun turned back towards Astrid's room as the nurse exited behind them.

Stepping through the door, Jun hesitated for a moment, taking in the sight of Astrid on her bed. Barely conscious and heavily sedated, she was vulnerable yet stronger than anyone they knew. With their heart pounding in their chest, echoing the tumultuous emotions swirling within them, Jun finally spoke, their voice soft yet filled with a newfound resolve. "I think you can hear me, I hope you understand why I haven’t said anything before.” Charged with a different kind of energy, one tinged with determination, anticipation and apprehension, Jun’s dark brown eyes searched Astrid’s peaceful face as if trying to decipher a hidden message or try to find evidence she could hear and understand. “I’m going to wait for you to wake, and if you want me to, I’ll stay with you and take care of you for as long as you want.”

*

Fighting through the crowded bar, busy with chattering groups fighting to be heard over the throbbing beat of the music, Jay sighed in relief when he finally reached the bar table where Charlie and Lincoln were perched on stools, hemmed in by others too busy with their conversations to notice the two Fringe agents. Smirking, Charlie gratefully took one of the bottles from the tray and stuffed the lemon slice down the neck before taking a large swig and wiped the excess from his mouth onto the back of his hand. “Buddy, I was beginning to think you'd got lost out there.”

“It felt like an expedition to get to the bar and back, it's your round next so you might wanna set off now!” Jay exclaimed, passing a bottle to Lincoln who was leaning his head against the wall with his eyes closed. His bottle wobbled in his hand slightly as he took it, causing a little froth to escape and spill onto the beer mat. Leaning over towards him, Jay’s eyebrows furrowed with concern and he placed a hand, damp with condensation, on his friend's shoulder. “You okay Lincoln?”

Blinking his eyes open, Lincoln nodded. “Yeah, it's just, uh, it's…” his voice trailed off, unsure of how to explain the sudden wash of relief he felt how normal things were when less than a few weeks ago when it had been his birthday, he'd come so close to losing everything. Lincoln broke away from Charlie’s worried gaze, the bar's fairy lights glittering on his eyes making them even darker then usual. Ashamed how he'd blamed Charlie for how they'd been forced to leave the base, he hung his head and inspected the label on the bottle, peeling it off from the loose corner that had curled and detached itself from the glass surface. Shaking his head, he swallowed thickly before daring himself to meet Charlie's eyes and took a deep breath. “... I never apologized for how I reacted back in Florida. You were right, I -”

“Forget about it, no apology needed,” Charlie interrupted. Smiling thinly, he sincerely met Lincoln's gaze. “I've known Liv for a long time and I love her to bits, but if I'd had to have left Mona behind up there, wouldn't have coped either. What you two have is something some people never find. I'm just glad she found a way back home, you both deserve to be happy.”

“Thanks,” Lincoln said, a grateful smile twitching in the corner of his mouth as he took a swig from his beer bottle.

“So thirty-six, huh?” Jay added, changing the subject to break the ice when Lincoln nodded. “You're getting old. I thought you were younger than that.”

“Hey!" Lincoln frowned in protest. "How old are you then?”

Jay smirked. “Thirty in August.”

“Jeez…” Charlie shook his head disapprovingly, figuring out Reynolds hadn't even started the academy when Charlie was recruited into Fringe Division. “...you sure you're allowed to be out without your mom’s permission?”

“At least I'm not as old as you, Charlie,” Lincoln teased, letting out a small laugh at Charlie's look of mock-hurt.

“You know full well that there's less than two years between us - it's not my fault you stopped aging at twenty-five.”

“Maybe he's born with it, right belated-birthday-boy?” Jay added, knocking their bottles together. “Drink up, we've got shots to follow these beers.”

*

As Astrid slowly began to stir and shake off the tranquilizer induced fog that clouded her head, the gentle hum of the machines pulled her awake. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she focused her sight to find herself staring up at Jun’s familiar face, their kind eyes filled with a mixture of hope and apprehension as they met hers. "Hi, Astrid," Jun said softly and reassuringly, on noticing Astrid’s gaze turned to her hands and looked relieved to see they were still the usual cappuccino brown and not pink and enlarged. Their voice was barely above a whisper when they spoke again. "I'm here. You're going to be okay, the treatment is still working well."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Astrid felt a strange sensation wash over her as she took in Jun's words and presence. She realized she'd never felt so cared for or safe in her life. Her mother had died when she was a child, and her father had tried his best but had always been cold towards her. Even up to when he'd died, she thought it was because of her autism and he didn't know how to love her.  "Jun... I have to ask you something."

Jun leaned in closer, concern etched on their features. "What is it, Astrid? You can ask me anything."

Astrid took a deep breath, mustering up the courage to speak. “I heard what you said when you thought I was sleeping, did you mean it?” 

With a solemn and sincere expression, Jun nodded, still not taking their gaze from Astrid's face and they reached out to tenderly brush the ebony and scarlet curls from her forehead. “Yes, of course I did. From the moment you became my patient, I wanted to spend all my time with you and not just to cure you, although I want to do my best to make sure you're happy. I just can't stop thinking about you. But I also know as long as you're my patient, we can't be together.”

“I know,” Astrid replied, her voice trembling with emotion. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized why Jun had been so unclear about their feelings and why she'd felt so confused. “And the candy bars and drinks? That was you?”

Registering a soft, gentle smile on their face, Jun huffed a little laugh through their nose. "Yeah, it was me, I just wanted to make your stay in this place a little bit better.”

“But once the treatment is over?" Astrid asked, her voice was barely audible, her throat tight with anticipation. "When it's finished and I'm no longer a patient here, could we go out for a proper drink and some food?

Jun's face lit up at the question, and a genuine smile spread across their features at the thought of spending time with Astrid alone, not as a doctor and patient and away from the sterile confines of the hospital. “Of course, Astrid. As soon as you're well enough, we can go anywhere you want. There is nothing else I'd like more, if you want to see me too? In the meantime, I have these, if you want to share them.”

Pulling a packet from the inside breast pocket of their white coat, Jun ripped it open and pulled out a red straw shaped twisted stick of candy. “Red vines!” Astrid exclaimed, recalling her time with the other Walter in the alternate universe and his fondness for the same snack. She willingly took it from Jun, allowing their touching hands to linger. “Thank you, I'd love to share them with you.”

*

It was a little after midnight when Olivia heard Lincoln fumbling from outside at the front door, eventually managing to get his key in the lock and shushing at the chain that jangled loudly as he slid it across into the holder. Smiling to herself, she listened to him turn on the kitchen light which bled through the chink under the bedroom door and use the cold faucet, followed by a satisfied sigh after gulping down a large glass of water that clattered in the aluminum sink, then stumble to the bathroom to use the toilet. Waiting for him to fall through the door and into her bed, Olivia frowned and sat up when after ten minutes Lincoln still hadn't appeared and concerned, she pulled back the covers and got out of bed to investigate. 

Being early spring, there was still a chill in the air, especially at night, and Olivia shivered, tying her robe tight around her middle while she followed the trail of items that led from the front door of the apartment to the spare room. One discarded black leather derby shoe laid on its side in the middle of the hall, with another less than meter away half buried under his crumpled wool overcoat. A necktie, loosened enough to pull over his head but still in a loop was hanging off the back of a dining chair and navy pants were in a pile at the foot of the spare bed where Lincoln laid face down on top of the covers and naked except for his underwear and half unbuttoned shirt. 

“Linc? You okay?” Olivia asked, leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed over her chest. Barely able to make out his form in the dim light, she wasn't too sure if he'd passed out or not. She wanted to be irritated by his behavior but she knew it wasn't a usual occurrence and after everything he'd been through, he needed - and deserved - to relax and have fun with his friends. 

“I'm fineeee,” he slurred, annoyance tinging his voice while he mumbled into the pillow. “I'm sure you're a lovely pershon but I have a girlfriend who I love very much. And Olivia will kick your asshhhh. So if it's okay with you, I would like to be left alone so I can get some sleep.”

Nodding, Olivia pursed her lips into a thin line to stifle a laugh and smirked into her palm while the other hand rested on the door handle to pull the door closed behind her. “Of, course. Goodnight. But if you blow chunks, keep it in the bathroom.”

Chapter Text

March 2015

The spring showers had taken a respite just before sundown to allow shards of sunlight in amber and ochre to break through the graphite clouds. They hung heavily in the sky over the emerald grass, still sodden with rain under Olivia’s utility boots as she approached the symmetrical row of gravestones. There was still damp in the air and tiny droplets clung to her loose chestnut brown hair like glittering barnacles, making strands stick to her face and neck like vines climbing a statue of Athena. Kneeling down to carefully remove the wilted and dried bunch of flowers with a fresh rainbow-colored bouquet, she tidied away the debris of dead leaves and browned petals that had collected around the stone base, in the same way she'd brushed lint off the shoulder of his jacket more times than she could remember. Like her sister’s grave on the other side of the cemetery, Olivia vowed to make this pilgrimage as often as she could but especially on the day when he'd been killed.

Shaking her head, Olivia sighed, her forefinger tracing the name engraved in the marble headstone. Her voice was soft when she finally found the strength to speak, even though she was alone except for a figure more than two hundred feet away at the edge of the cemetery. “I can't believe it's been three years already, Linc. I’ve… You've missed so much.” Pausing for a moment, she rose to her feet and pressed her lips into a thin, bitter smile. There was no logical way to explain how she had felt about him, and still did. To outsiders and anyone who didn't know her, or their relationship, it would look like she'd moved on and replaced everything about him - his body, his memory and his love that they'd denied for so long - with another version of him.

But it was more than that, so much more. Physically, the two Lincolns were almost identical except for a couple of minor differences but for all their similarities Olivia knew they were two very different people. And she loved them both for who they were, even though she knew that if she'd been given the change of a real relationship with this Lincoln - the one who had been snatched away from her and was becoming just a memory - it would have burned twice as fast and half as long than with the Lincoln she knew now. That didn't stop her yearning for him and for what had never been given the chance to become a reality.

Ultimately, it was the new Lincoln - the one who had left his own universe to join hers and ensure Olivia wasn't alone - that she really needed. Someone to ground her, counteract her impulsive and reckless behavior and open her eyes to what mattered. And just like Lincoln had helped her in a way she never admitted she needed help, she in return had encouraged him to become the man he never would've been if he'd stayed behind. 

Like so many times before, as if he sensed her emotional distress, Lincoln’s silhouette caught her attention as he tentatively walked along the gravel from their parked car towards the grassy knoll where his doppelganger was buried, the collar of his coat turned up to protect him against the fickle weather.

He'd waited in the car until the coast was clear, in case his double’s parents or siblings had visited while they were there. It was still the almost out-of-body experience it had been on the day of the funeral - there was no one else he could speak to who could relate what it felt like to see yourself die and be buried, see your own family mourn for another version of you and be unable to console them for their loss.

Smiling softly at Olivia, he reached her side. Lincoln had buried more than his fair share of loved ones, starting with his mom when he was just a child and then Kendra, his father and then finally Robert, but seeing a gravestone bearing his name was still a unique experience he hadn't got accustomed to and wasn't sure he ever would.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Olivia echoed, linking their fingers together. “I'm nearly done.”

“Take all the time you need,” pressing his lips into a thin reassuring smile, he rubbed the pad of his thumb over the top of her hand in a responsive act of comfort and slight unease at being somewhere that he felt like an intruder. “Do you, uh, want some privacy?

She instinctively tightened her grip as he tried to pull away and blinked away the confusing avalanche of emotions that she'd been buried under that past few years, as they slowly melted away, drip by drip. “No, I'm good. Let's go home.” 

With a slight nod, Lincoln followed Olivia towards their car and drove them away from the cemetery, leaving it empty except for the lone figure. Although their face was mostly concealed under the peak of a baseball cap, dark glasses and scruffy facial hair, their brows furrowed together watching the black SUV drive out of the cemetery gates.

***

By the time they reached home, the sun had dipped behind the horizon and the salmon pink clouds had bled away into inky blackness. The luminous slither of the crescent moon was just visible in the gap between their apartment block and building next door, disguised behind the glow of the streetlamp that hung over their parked car.

Once, the moon had been a thing of beauty to Olivia, comforting constant in the sky but now it was a scar or a bullet hole, that had caused all their fears to spill out through their fingers like blood.

“Did Erikson tell you they've been closed down?”

Olivia jumped as Lincoln's voice pulled her out of her contemplative, runaway thoughts and the satellite’s albedo light that had caught her in its gravitational pull again. “What?”

“Glatterflug and the Tranquility base. They've been officially closed down by the DoD. There won't be any further lunar flights for the public or private investors.”

“Really?” Even though her voice was little more than a whisper, it wavered slightly. Expelling a long breath she didn't realize she'd been holding onto, Olivia blinked away tears of relief that were beginning to pool in the corners of her eyes.

“Yeah, officially the reason was due to lack of public funding due to a technical failure. Space agencies are training telescopes to watch for any unusual activity around the Sea of Tranquility but so far nothing has been reported.”

Olivia nodded, her gaze drifting back up to the charcoal sky and the abandoned grave in the moon's gray desert, a somber reminder of what they had almost lost. “I'm sure if someone does see something, they'll cover it up with a story about equipment malfunctions or atmospheric disturbances.”

Stars appeared in pricks of light that perforated the sky around the moon as their eyes adjusted to the dim light, twinkling like distant fairy lights and reflected on their eyes.

“That's Polaris, the north star,” Lincoln observed, drawing a line in the air with his finger across the constellations. “And the Big Dipper, the Great Bear.”

“Land among the stars.”

The night was so unusually still and quiet, the usual distant hum of the city was muted under a blanket of silence, but he could barely hear Olivia's trembling voice when she spoke again. “What?”

“Something Rachel said to me when I told her I was going to join the Fringe team,” Olivia explained. That night, almost eight years ago to the day in early 2005 had brimmed over with contagious excitement and anticipation when the two sisters had shared their news, unable to contain their secrets that had spilled from their lips like sweet ripe berries in the fall. With their mother being away in Paris, Olivia had been unable to wait to tell Rachel she'd been accepted to join Fringe Division once she'd graduated from the academy and Rachel had explained that for all the titles Olivia would be given in the new role, her newest and favorite would be auntie. “Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss you'll land among the stars.”

“Hmmm,” he nodded thoughtfully. “I prefer saying I love you to the moon and back - emphasis on the back part. Do you know the reason for that?”

Shaking her head, Olivia followed Lincoln up the front steps to their apartment block’s entrance and closed the door, locking out the night behind them. “No. What's the reason?”

Her hair had begun to curl slightly at the edges with the damp air, and he watched as she wearily slumped onto the couch then leaned forward to unlace her boots.

“The human heart pumps the same amount of blood in its life to the equivalent of gasoline needed to drive to the moon.” Hanging his coat up on the hook by the door, Lincoln toed off his shoes and emptied his pockets onto the hallway console table before turning back to Olivia. “So basically, it means I love you with every heartbeat of my lifetime.”

June 2014

“Sorry I'm late,” Charlie said, his gruff voice pulling Lincoln's attention and gaze away from the monitor.

“No-- problem,” Lincoln frowned as he looked up to see his colleague. Charlie's skin was unusually pale, masked in a ghostly pallor and dark shadows loomed under each of his eyes. “You okay?”

Nodding slowly, Charlie nodded while gulping down water from his bottle, then screwed the lid back on. “Nellie had a bug, she's been sick for a few days and Mona spent most of last night getting sick too.”

“Joys of parenting, huh Charlie?” Olivia smirked, joining them from the central podium. 

“Oh yeah, it's wonderful, just when we'd stopped doing nighttime feeds too,” Charlie lamented sarcastically, resting his forehead on his palms. “Okay if I take you up on the offer to babysit tonight, Lincoln?”

“I'm gonna have to pass on that, but, uh, thanks anyway,” Lincoln grimaced, turning his gaze to Olivia who huffed out a snort while shaking her head. 

“So, Astrid has been telling me about this potential case that we're gonna run by Erikson. The remains of a young married couple who were reported missing less than three days ago have been found near Lake Placid," Pausing to load the details on screen, Olivia continued when the photo of two entirely naked skeletons appeared on the monitor, surrounded by earth and grass. 

“This is exactly how they were found? In less than three days?” Lincoln interrupted, his voice strained with incredulity. “It’s been pretty warm recently, definitely not cold enough for hypothermia or decomposition. How would this happen?”

She shrugged, throwing him a knowing glance and nudged him playfully with her elbow. “That’s what I wanna find out, detective.”

“There's plenty of natural predators up in those woods, probably bears, maybe coyotes,” Charlie added skeptically, his voice flat. Shifting in his seat, he cleared his throat and swallowed more water when Olivia shook her head dismissively. "Are you sure it's them?"

“They were identified using dental records, and if that was the case, the bones would be scattered and not arranged in this way. Anyway, they're completely naked, no trace of clothing, not even their hiking boots. Nothing left except the bones. Don’t tell me you still don’t believe in monsters, Charlie, when one nearly took your left eye out.”

Olivia traced a jagged line from the corner of her eye and down her cheekbone to mimic the fading scar on Charlie’s face and cause of his bug infection almost four and a half years ago.

Frowning to take in the details and unwelcome reminder, Charlie blinked. “Right, so then what? They have been murdered and then their remains boiled down and arranged like that by the killer in some kind of satanic ritual?”

“That was my first thought too but that kinda stuff was debunked years ago, not to mention nothing was found at the scene, no evidence of vehicles, not even anyone else's no footprints. Zero, zilch, nada --”

“-- giant crocodile, then?” Lincoln blurted, causing silence to fall across the group. Charlie and Olivia exchanged glances that flickered between concerned and confused until Olivia shook her head and stifled a laugh with her palm. “What? You've never seen the Lake Placid movies?”

“No!” They replied in unison, their voices trembling with thinly veiled snickers and friendly mockery.

“A giant crocodile? In Lake Placid. Seriously?” Olivia continued, her voice cracking under the pressure of trying not to laugh. Unable to hold it in, she burst out in a contagious school-girl giggle which immediately spread to Charlie, made all the worse by Lincoln’s serious expression. “That’s so ridiculous!”

Lincoln brows knitted in protest and he held his hands up in a sign of surrender to object. “Hey! I didn't make the films!”

“I know, I'm sorry,” she added, affectionately holding onto Lincoln's shoulder out of guilt and pursing her lips in a line in a futile attempt to stop laughing. “I'm sorry, it's just a giant croc--”

The sound of Charlie's chair falling backwards as he rushed from the desk and ran from the room towards the locker rooms with his hand over his mind silenced Olivia's chuckling and she glanced worriedly at Lincoln. “Maybe he didn't dodge the stomach bug after all?”

“I guess not,” Olivia replied, shrugging her shoulders when Astrid joined them.

“Agent Dunham, Agent Lee - What's so funny?”

Seeing Olivia straining to keep her resolve and not crack again under Astrid’s question in his presence, Lincoln awkwardly gestured towards the door in resignation. “I'm gonna make sure he's okay, I'll be right back.” 

***

Slamming the car door, Lincoln huffed as he slumped in the passenger seat of the car. Tugging at the seat belt, he sighed under his breath in annoyance as it caught in the safety mechanism. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Muttering under his breath, he calmly let go of the buckle stuck above his shoulder and huffed a succession of slow breaths through his nose before pulling it down slowly and clipping it into the fastener.

Turning to watch him, Olivia's eyebrows cocked in curiosity at Lincoln's unusual display of short-tempered behavior and out-of-character unprompted cursing. “What's wrong? Is it the case?” 

They’d spent most of the day filing the paperwork on the missing couple, which they’d discovered had been the result of a mutant carnivorous plant that had broken down their remains with its acidic secretions, causing a whole section of the forest to be sealed off to the public until it had been disposed of. “It’s nothing.” He pouted, sullenly looking through the windshield at the sterile concrete landscape of the half-emptied parking lot. “Are we going home or are we just going to sit in the car all fucking night?”

“We're not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong. C’mon spill it, you were fine a couple of hours ago - more than fine, actually.” Turning off the engine, Olivia obstinately folded her arms across her chest and smirked on locking her gaze with Lincoln's.

A blush appeared high on Lincoln's cheeks and he broke away to loosen his neck tie with the heat he felt spreading up from his chest. The memories of their brief but illicit lunchtime tryst in the janitorial closet where she'd handcuffed him many years ago came flooding back to them simultaneously. Desperate for some alone time while wrapping up the tedious paperwork, Olivia had enticed him down to the basement’s storage rooms while on a break, and the contrast of the cool steel supporting beam against the back of his head and Olivia's hot, greedy mouth on his face and warm, fumbling hands under the hem of his shirt had overridden any reservations or concerns he'd had about getting caught. Instead, he'd spent the rest of day on a high, despite the mundane activities, that was until HR’s email had arrived in his inbox. 

Lincoln shrugged in defeat, knowing only Olivia could meet his stubbornness and would probably out-do it eventually. “They declined my holiday request for your birthday. Said they don't have cover.”

Almost all of the Fringe Division HQ had ended up falling victim to the virus that had spread from Charlie. Some of the staff, Lincoln and Olivia included, had been intensely sick and had spent the majority of a 48 hour period between the bathroom and a bed, but were fine after a couple of days rest. Unfortunately more than half the team, especially those with underlying health conditions like Charlie, had been hospitalized due to dehydration and had been required to take time off work until they were fully recovered.

“Awww. That's okay, we can do something nice on the weekend before. Or naughty,” Olivia replied flirtily, covering Lincoln's hand with her own. Hiding her own disappointment, she consoled herself with a sudden thought. “It kinda works out well though, I was thinking of driving up to Tarrytown to see my mom for a couple of days. I haven't seen her in months and she keeps asking when we can meet for lunch and not cancel our plans, so I'll go and stay with her for a couple of days.”

“You sure you don't mind?” 

She snorted, starting the engine and drove them out into the evening traffic that was slithering towards the Nixon Freeway in a ruby serpentine trail. “Of course not, you dumb ass. I'm sure Robert or Jay will be happy to keep you company, I know you get lonely without me.” 

Lincoln huffed a snort through his nose. “Actually, you know what? I think I'll pass and just try to catch up on some sleep.”

“That's probably a good choice, I think the coffee has nearly run out.” Olivia chuckled, recalling how hungover he'd been three months ago when he’d last been out, despite the cocktail of Tylenol and vitamin c he'd taken the next day, swallowed down with coffee and donuts from Padaria de Divinia's.

***

After waving goodbye to Olivia and watching her taxi cab until it disappeared and turned off onto the street at the end of their road, Lincoln logged onto his tablet to find the file he'd secretly downloaded at the start of the year. Information of his doppelganger’s parents and step-siblings, photos and personal details, everything he needed to know about them were unfolding like a flower under his fingertips. Since the accidental meeting with Meredith, he'd felt like a drug addict, unable to shake the desire to absorb the knowledge into his veins. It was a bitter pill that stung in his bloodstream - once again he’d been denied what the Lincoln from this universe had been given and had taken for granted. Even though it was forbidden by the DoD, he wanted to reach out to them and tell them although their son and step-brother had died, and he could never take his place in their lives, maybe they could accept him and be the family he never had but had wanted.

Impulsively starting the car, he drove into the midtown district, the opposite direction to which Olivia had traveled, eventually parking on the opposite side of the street to the staff door entrance to an off-Broadway theater. Keeping an inconspicuous distance from the door to remain undetected and to avoid suspicion, Lincoln watched from the driver’s seat of the car, concealed by gaudy neon lights that reflected over the car’s windshield like rainbow butterflies. He felt like a voyeur, and it felt almost taboo watching them from the outside in the impenetrable fish bowl of his alternative world. Always watching but never able to touch left him with an uneasy sense of self-deprecating curiosity. He knew that it wasn’t his family, but seeing Marcus enter the stage door gave Lincoln a strange sense of relief that he was safe and happy, and something inside him felt like the other Lincoln would have wanted him to check up on them and make sure they were okay. 

Keeping checks on his doppelganger’s family also worked as a distraction from Kate's words that had weighed on his back like a boulder, chipping away until eventually it was little more than a tiny stone trapped in his shoe. On the days that he thought about it, he dismissively shook it away, convinced it must have been about their lunar trip or a mistake from an alternative future. He revisited the old site at Brookhaven once while Olivia was away, but it remained silent and empty, devoid of any signs of life and was resealed like an ancient crypt as the upper building was condemned and listed for demolition, just like Kate’s old house that had started the investigation.

***

A pot and two mugs filled with steaming hot tea sat on a melamine tray, accompanied by an untouched birthday cake decorated with the number 33, protecting the wooden circular coffee table below from the heat. The homely lounge, decorated in a soft summery yellow, was scented by a vase of large pink peonies in the corner of the room where an old Labrador dog laid flat on the floor with a mournful expression, his tail eagerly wagging as he patiently waited for permission to lick the the sweet vanilla frosting that was smothered over the cake. His fur was golden in the hazy summer light that streamed through the paneled patio doors and kitchen windows onto the polished oak floor and plush beige rug under his body.

“Are you sure you’re okay Mom?” Olivia guiltily eyed her mother who was sitting on the other end of the cream colored couch, her white blonde hair in wispy strands around her face. She didn’t want to be tactless about Marilyn’s appearance, but her face was noticeably thinner than the last time Olivia had visited and she stared absentmindedly at the television with her feet tucked under her legs oblivious to her daughter’s concerned stare.  “Mom?”

“Hmmm?” Marilyn looked up, her eyes a little more sunken than before when she met Olivia’s gaze.

“Are you - sick?” she was surprised to hear her own voice break on the last word, as if it was betraying her calm exterior.

Pausing before answering, Marilyn gulped thickly. Olivia had always been the strong one, able to cope with losing her father, sister and niece much better than Marilyn had with losing her husband, youngest daughter and first grandchild. It was a gift she’d always envied but the last few years had almost broken her daughter’s resolve, and she had seen the walls slowly chipped away to reveal Olivia's hidden emotions. “I’m fine sweetheart, it’s just that same damn virus that you said you and Lincoln had, I think it spread through the whole of New York like wildfire. It sure knocked your poor ol’ mom out.” She huffed, breaking eye contact to turn her attention back to the screen. “I guess the body takes it harder when you’re not young and healthy like you two.” Marilyn continued, deflecting the subject of the conversation and pinching her lips into a thin line. “You look like you’re glowing on the other hand, being happy and content suits you, Olive.”

“Thanks,” Olivia replied unconvinced with her mother’s excuse but also relieved that the visions that had cursed her own dreams had finally disappeared, presumably due to the medication she had been taking. She did still feel queasy occasionally, certain smells seemingly hitting her body with unpredictable waves of nausea but Olivia also appreciated both she and Lincoln had gotten off lightly compared to some people’s symptoms. Reaching for the cake, she licked a little of the frosting off her fingertips despite her mother’s disapproving tuts and the dog’s envious whining. “So, are we gonna have some of this before Bertie steals it?”

“Of course!” Marilyn exclaimed, cutting them both a slice and holding out a small piece to the Labrador who gratefully wolfed it down. “You're a good boy, Bert.”

***

August 2014 

Nellie’s cake, decorated with chocolate frosting and topped with a candle in the shape of a “1” and candy that spelled her name, took center stage on the patio table, surrounded by balloons and animal-shaped bunting.

“Wow you guys, this looks great!” Olivia exclaimed, taking a bite from a pickle she plucked from the finger food buffet that was arranged around the cake. Smiling at Nellie who was propped on Charlie’s hip, Olivia passed her an egg sandwich that had been cut into a small square and laughed as she smashed it into her mouth. “Your mommy and daddy are really spoiling you, huh?”

Flicking the bit half-chewed sandwich that landed on his shoulder to the floor, Charlie’s lips brushed the top of his daughter’s head. “She can’t even eat half this stuff. I told Mona it was overkill. We’ll probably be eating the leftovers for a week.”

“Ignore Mr Grumpy,” Mona said as she emerged from the patio doors, holding a tray of drinks that she placed on the table. “I just wanted to thank you and Lincoln and the rest of the team for helping with work and Nellie while Charlie was ill. I was sorry you got sick too.”

“It wasn’t your fault, we would’ve caught it eventually,” Olivia replied sincerely as Nellie tried to pull a fistful of her auburn hair and giggled when she pretended to be hurt. “How is it I always forget how much you like playing with my hair, Nellie?”

Smiling appreciatively, Mona separated Nellie’s grasp from Olivia’s hair. “First rule of this household, keep your hair short or tied up or you’ll regret it around this madam. Is Lincoln coming too?”

“Oh so that explains why you don’t have any hair.” 

They turned in the direction of Lincoln’s teasing voice that came from behind them to see him appear from the side of the house, holding a small gift box in his arms. “Sorry I'm late, I was just getting this from the car and got distracted - look who I found outside!”

Behind Lincoln, Astrid and Jun followed him along the side path to the back yard, carrying a gift bag in bright primary colors while smiling shyly with their hands interlinked. Her dark brown eyes twinkled with happiness as Jun’s hand moved to rest their arm protectively on Astrid's shoulder. 

“This is Jun, they are my, uh -”

“- significant other.” Jun finished, holding out their hand to Charlie and Mona. 

“This is Charlie and Mona, you already know Olivia and have met Lincoln.” Astrid added, looking reassuringly at Jun whose angular features softened with her tender gaze. “They are a doctor who specializes in nano-tech medicine.”

“Welcome Jun, it’s very nice to meet you.” Mona smiled, gesturing at the table of picnic food. “Now, please everyone eat before the local critters turn up and steal our lunch.”

A little later, Lincoln and Olivia watched over Nellie as she played in the backyard while Charlie and Mona tidied away the food and said goodbye to Astrid and Jun. “She loves that Noah’s ark toy you bought her.” Mona remarked, picking Nellie up from the grass, only to be met by wails of protests until she was placated by a bottle of warm milk.

“We know she loves animals, but we especially liked the rainbow carry handle on the top,” Olivia contemplated, smiling softly at Lincoln while she recalled when it caught their attention in the window of a local boutique baby gift store. “There’s always a rainbow after the storm.”