Fic: In The Dark (Fringe, 1/2)
Here we go - my first finished Fringe fic.
Title: In The Dark
Spoilers: Nothing too specific, but set in later season 3.
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Established Peter/Olivia, Walter, Astrid, Broyles
Summary: A discovery, a kidnapping, an escape, and a reunion. AU.
Disclaimer: I don't own this show or these characters.
Author's Note: Thanks to mack_the_spoon for her beta reading and comments.
Further notes can be found at the end of the story.
~
Somehow, the fact that the last few months have been so quiet does not prepare Olivia for how quickly everything changes.
She has almost reached the front steps of the house. Her thoughts are in turmoil as she considers the magnitude of what she might discover when she uses what she has just purchased. Then she thinks she hears something behind her. Nothing is visible when she turns around; the street out front is mostly empty.
Shrugging it off, Olivia begins to climb the stairs. She is halted again by what sounds like a footstep behind her - and this time, when she turns around, there's a masked figure standing right there.
“Hey!” She reaches for her gun immediately, but the man is too fast for her. In an instant, he has grabbed her and, despite her struggles and the elbow that she drives into his ribcage, he manages to cover her mouth and nose with a cloth. It's chloroform-soaked, apparently, since she blacks out seconds later.
Olivia is dragged out of unconsciousness some time later by the sound of conversation taking place very near her. She tries to open her eyes, but she's still so groggy. It feels like she's being moved, maybe on a gurney.
“--confirm it first.”
“It's not too early? There's a question of safety...”
“We've received the go-ahead, and the doctors have--”
Everything fades out again. Olivia only awakens again when she feels something cold on her stomach. She moans, once more trying to open her eyes. Then she gasps as she feels the pressure and then pain of a needle entering the same spot on her stomach. She manages to open her eyes.
“She's awake,” a voice near her head says.
“Make sure she's immobilized,” another voice replies.
Instantly, there are hands pushing down on her shoulders. There's a bright light overhead that makes it impossible for Olivia to see the faces of the figures bending over her, but she fights against them all the same. There is a corresponding immediate increase in the pain in her stomach, and she cries out.
“Okay, put her back under,” the second voice says again, sounding irritated and alarmed. “She's going to cause serious damage.”
Olivia tries to take a deep breath. She turns to the figure who is nearest to her and gasps out, “Wait! Please ... what are you doing to me?”
There is no reply, other than a feeling of heaviness settling over her seconds later. As much as she fights to stay awake, she can't prevent her vision from darkening to black.
~
When Olivia's phone goes to voice mail for the third time, Peter can no longer ignore his building panic. He leaves Astrid at the lab, telling her to call right away if she hears from or sees Olivia, and then he calls Broyles as he heads for his car.
“What is it, Peter?” Broyles asks after he takes the call.
“It--” Peter sighs. “It's probably nothing, but I've been trying to reach Olivia and she isn't answering. Astrid and Walter haven't heard anything from her since this morning.” Walter has been at Massive Dynamic all day, and he has assured Peter that Olivia hasn't dropped by.
“She's not at home?”
“I'm on my way to check right now,” Peter says, turning the key in the ignition.
Broyles is silent for a moment. “Let me know what you find,” he says. “I'm sure it's just that she forgot to charge her phone - but I appreciate you keeping me in the loop, regardless.”
The sight that greets Peter upon getting out of his car at home makes his heart plummet: Olivia's car is parked where it should be, but the house is dark. There's a plastic grocery bag spilled on the front steps. A closer look reveals her cell phone at the bottom of the stairs, as well.
“Olivia?” Peter calls, running up to the door. It's locked. He goes inside, calls her name several times as he moves from room to room, but the house is dark and silent. She's not here.
Now starting to feel sick, Peter goes out to the front steps again. He has to call Broyles, he knows. Even if that means acknowledging the fact that something has happened to Olivia.
Sinking down onto the top step, Peter takes out his phone again. His eyes are drawn to the bag Olivia must have dropped on her way inside ... and then he sees it. The contents of the bag include shampoo, disposable razor blades, and a box of pregnancy tests.
Hand shaking, Peter calls Broyles again. He clears his throat. When Broyles answers, he says without preamble, “She's gone. There's signs of a struggle. I think she's been taken.”
“I'm getting a team together now,” Broyles replies. “We'll find her, Peter.”
Peter hangs up. God, this can't be happening. He looks again at the box Olivia had bought. What if she's ... She has to be all right. She has to.
~
Olivia has no idea how much time has passed when she next wakes up. Her stomach is still sore at the injection site, which suggests it hasn't been too long - but wherever she is, it's almost completely dark and she seems to be alone, so she has no other reference points. As her mind finally becomes less drug-muddled, Olivia discovers that she's lying on a cot, wearing something like a hospital gown. The cot is against a concrete wall, and the air around her is still.
It's almost uncomfortably warm, but despite this, Olivia shivers as she sits up. This is all reminding her a little too much of her time at the hands of Walternate's scientists after she regained her memories Over There. This time, though, her abductors seem to be after something else.
She raises a hand to her abdomen, her fear increasing. She herself had only begun to suspect that she might be pregnant. Could whoever has taken her know before she did? She doesn't even want to consider how that could be possible - or what they could want with her and this child, if it does exist.
When Olivia goes to stand up, a wave of dizziness overtakes her, and she has to sit down again quickly and lean her back against the wall. She closes her eyes and takes several deep breaths.
Eventually, it passes. She opens her eyes and notes that she seems to be adjusting to the darkness of her cell. She can now see that it's about twice as large as the cell Walternate had kept her in, with nothing else in it but a metal door across from her with a small window at the top. There is no handle on the inside of the door.
Olivia decides it's worth a look, so she takes another deep breath and then attempts to stand up again - more slowly, this time. Her efforts are rewarded, though she sways a little at first. Ignoring the relative chill of the floor on her bare feet, she crosses the cell to peer out the window.
Not surprisingly, there is not much to see. It appears that she's being held at the end of a dimly-lit hallway. The walls are the same dull gray as the inside of her cell. There seems to be at least one other door in this hall, and another door at the very end. It's too dark to discern any other details.
As another thought strikes her, Olivia steps back from the door and looks up. There it is, on the ceiling in the opposite corner from her bed: a surveillance camera. Although this is also not a surprising discovery, it adds another layer to her feelings of dismay. Still, she stands up straight and faces the camera head on. “What do you want? Why are you holding me prisoner?” she demands.
The sudden sound of her voice in the silence almost startles her. She waits in front of the camera for what seems like a long time, but there is no noticeable response of any kind.
Olivia is about to return to her bed when she hears what sounds like the door at the other end of the hall opening and shutting. Quickly, she positions herself near her cell's door, in front of the window. She wishes for something she could use as a weapon. Of course any element of surprise she might have would be spoiled by the camera above her.
Footsteps approach her door. The man's face, when it appears in the window, is too shadowed for Olivia to be able to see much, but she has no trouble hearing him. “You are going to be moved to another room. Please don't resist or try to escape, Agent Dunham. We don't wish to cause you or your child any harm.”
Olivia takes a step back. My child ... So she is pregnant? Or are they lying out of some attempt to get her to be more compliant? “You say you don't want to hurt me,” she says. Attempt to establish meaningful communication. “So what do you want with me? Why are you holding me prisoner?”
The man sighs. “We are insuring your safety and health, as well as that of your child,” he answers, in a tone that suggests she's inconveniencing him by making him explain at all.
“I don't understand,” she's about to say, but the door is unlocked and thrown open before she can do so. Almost involuntarily, she takes another step back. The two orderlies accompanying the man who had spoken (who's wearing a doctor's lab coat) must take this as a sign that she's planning to resist, because they instantly grab her by her arms and slam her against the wall of the cell.
Olivia fights back, ignoring the shouts from the man in the lab coat for everyone to calm down. She manages to kick and struggle her way free from one of the men holding her, but before she can get away from the other guy, the doctor finally manages to get through to his hired goons and his captive with a bellowed, “STOP!”
Jerking her arm out of the other guy's grip, Olivia glares at him. He doesn't seem to react, although she notes that he's breathing heavily. She tries to recover her breath as well. She aches all over, including at the site of the injection. Distracted by this pain in particular, Olivia isn't aware of the doctor's approach until he's within inches of her. Then she looks up and sees the syringe in his hand. “No!”
The combined efforts of the orderlies and the doctor himself overwhelm her renewed efforts to break free, and as the sedative hits her bloodstream, the world around her fades away again.
~
Peter reaches for the tumbler on the coffee table and drains the last of his drink. He sighs, leaning back against the couch. For the hundredth time, he tries to think of some clue he might have missed that will lead to finding Olivia safely.
“Peter.”
Peter looks up to see Walter standing in the entrance to the living room. His worry and care are obvious even in the poor light of the single lamp. Peter has a pretty good idea of what his father is going to say, but he waits for him to speak anyway.
“Son, you can't do this to yourself,” Walter says gently. “How long has it been since you've slept?”
Peter shakes his head. “I don't know.” How long has it been since Olivia was kidnapped? “I note that you're not asleep, either.”
“Because I'm worried about you!”
“Worried about me?” Peter stares at him. “I'm not the one who's been missing for days, with no leads--”
“Well, of course I'm worried about Olivia, too!” Walter interrupts. “But you're here in front of me, tearing yourself up with guilt and thinking about what you could have done differently. This is not a path you want to start following.” He steps closer. “I know this from personal experience, Peter.”
Setting down his empty glass, Peter nods once. He's so tired, emotionally and physically drained, but he can't sleep. “I get that. But what else am I supposed to do, Walter? She's out there somewhere, having God knows what done to her, and...” He swallows. There's also the whole possibility that she might be pregnant with his child - a possibility he has kept to himself, that adds an extra layer of pain to his anxiety about her. “Do you expect me to be able to stop thinking about her?”
Walter sits down next to him. “No, no, of course not.” The lamp's light reveals his father's own pain at the thought of what Olivia might be enduring. “But if there is any way for you to convince yourself not to dwell on your fears and anxieties so much, please try to find it. After all,” he smiles sadly, “you'll need your strength when you resume your search for her tomorrow.”
Peter nods again, with a bitter smile of his own. He knows Walter isn't really happy about his daily attempts to track down anyone who might know anything about what happened to Olivia, but he also knows Walter won't try to stop him, either. In return for his understanding, Peter does his best to keep in touch with his father while he's out searching ... and if he doesn't always avoid risky situations, well, Walter doesn't need to hear about them. He's managed to stay out of serious trouble so far.
“Do you want some tea, or something else to help calm you?” Walter asks after a moment. “I have several recipes of my own that you could--”
“No, thank you, Walter,” Peter says. He stands up and rubs a hand across his face. “I think I'll try my luck just lying down for a while.”
“All right.” Walter watches him leave, and then calls after him, “Goodnight, son.”
“Goodnight.”
Maybe he is at least somewhat successful at getting himself to think about something else, or maybe he's just too exhausted to stay awake any longer. Regardless of the cause, Peter does find himself drifting off only a few minutes after he's gone to bed. His dreams, however, are anything but restful, as his mind translates his fears about Olivia into terrifying images of what could be happening to her.
~
Olivia has no idea how long she's been here - wherever and whatever 'here' is. There is no way for her to keep track of time. She knows that she should be trying to get out, to get away, but it's so hard for her to think, much less move. So she never progresses beyond that knowledge.
There's something else important that's hovering at the edge of her memory. It's something she had just found out before-- before she ended up wherever she is now. It has to do with ... But whatever it is, it continually eludes her foggy memory.
She drifts in her sea of confusion for some indefinable length of time. Occasionally, she thinks she hears something nearby, but it's all but impossible for her to focus on it.
Suddenly, she manages to grab onto one of these important memories, and it shakes her to awareness. Peter. Peter has to be wondering where she is. He's probably close to frantic, in fact. Especially since...
Olivia is jolted by another returning memory: she is pregnant, or at very least there is a high likelihood that she is. People are holding her captive. They're doing something to her, and to her baby as well. She's at their mercy right now.
At this realization, panic floods through her. What are they doing to her at this very moment? Why can't I move? I have to get out of here. Peter!
Her fear and anguish build until she can't contain them - and then the feeling escapes out of her in a rush of white-hot energy that flashes outward in all directions. There is a shattering sound, and suddenly Olivia is freed from whatever has been holding her. Just as suddenly, she's falling off something metal onto the ground. It's not a long fall; she manages to catch herself well enough now that she's able to see, hear, and move freely.
Blinking rapidly, Olivia coughs and pulls herself to her feet, staggering a little as she does so. She seems to be standing in the splintered remnants of some kind of glass and metal case. There are wires and thin tubes among the shards, twisted and burnt by the heat of the fire raging all around her. There are also several pools of some unknown liquid. These are evaporating even as she watches. She herself is not burnt, although she notes in a detached way that her throat is raw and that she feels like she has several cuts on her body. She also feels like she's not wearing a stitch of clothing - a suspicion that is confirmed when she looks down at herself.
Wrapping her arms around her body, Olivia looks for a way out of this room. There is a door across from her, and thankfully the flames are now dying down since there is little else in the room to provide fuel.
As carefully as she can, Olivia picks her way through the scorched room to the door. I have to get out and find Peter, she tells herself. Keeping focused on this goal is the only way she's keeping the terror at bay for the moment.
There is an alarm sounding, she realizes, and once again she remembers with terrible clarity her desperate attempts to escape the facility at Liberty Island. But when she looks out the window into the hallway, she sees with a tiny bit of relief that it's just a fire alarm.
Yeah, just a fire alarm, she says to herself sarcastically. Just a fire alarm set off by the firestorm you unleashed *with your mind,* while trying to escape from having who knows what done to you.
Shaking off these less-than-useful thoughts, Olivia takes a deep breath and pulls open the door. The air in the hallway is much cooler. She's grateful to whoever left their lab coat on the gurney that is a few yards away. It's not really adequate covering, but it's much better than nothing.
As she is trying to decide which direction to go, Olivia hears the sound of running footsteps over the continued wail of the fire alarm. She tries to make a break for the door to her right at the end of the hall (she thinks she sees stairs leading up behind it), but within a minute she's surrounded by armed, uniformed men coming from either side.
Olivia backs up against the wall. This can't be happening. She stares at the faces of the men around her as they order her to surrender, looking desperately for anything she could use to break through their ranks. Then she notices something interesting: fear. Almost every single one of the dozen or so guards looks afraid of her.
Oh, God. The solution is obvious. She has to use her ability again - her wildly unpredictable and clearly quite dangerous ability. If Peter were here, she thinks, it would be easier for her to imagine this working. But of course, if Peter were here, a lot of things would be different.
Olivia takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and concentrates, as best as she can with multiple armed guards yelling at her to surrender. Seconds later, the yelled orders change to cries of fear. She opens her eyes to see a path cleared in both directions. The men are being held against the opposite wall by an invisible force: her.
Olivia walks up to the nearest guard, trying not to show too much of her surprise at the success of her maneuver. His eyes widen and he tries even harder to break her hold. He doesn't succeed.
“Which direction gets me out of here?” she demands.
The man flinches, as if he's expecting an outright attack. When nothing else happens, he seems to debate for a moment. He clears his throat. “Uh, the-- the door to your right. Go up the stairs and then take a left.”
“Okay." Olivia starts toward the door. She turns back when she reaches it, meeting the eyes of a few more of the guards. "I think you should go ahead and let me leave."
~
Title: In The Dark
Spoilers: Nothing too specific, but set in later season 3.
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairing: Established Peter/Olivia, Walter, Astrid, Broyles
Summary: A discovery, a kidnapping, an escape, and a reunion. AU.
Disclaimer: I don't own this show or these characters.
Author's Note: Thanks to mack_the_spoon for her beta reading and comments.
Further notes can be found at the end of the story.
~
Somehow, the fact that the last few months have been so quiet does not prepare Olivia for how quickly everything changes.
She has almost reached the front steps of the house. Her thoughts are in turmoil as she considers the magnitude of what she might discover when she uses what she has just purchased. Then she thinks she hears something behind her. Nothing is visible when she turns around; the street out front is mostly empty.
Shrugging it off, Olivia begins to climb the stairs. She is halted again by what sounds like a footstep behind her - and this time, when she turns around, there's a masked figure standing right there.
“Hey!” She reaches for her gun immediately, but the man is too fast for her. In an instant, he has grabbed her and, despite her struggles and the elbow that she drives into his ribcage, he manages to cover her mouth and nose with a cloth. It's chloroform-soaked, apparently, since she blacks out seconds later.
Olivia is dragged out of unconsciousness some time later by the sound of conversation taking place very near her. She tries to open her eyes, but she's still so groggy. It feels like she's being moved, maybe on a gurney.
“--confirm it first.”
“It's not too early? There's a question of safety...”
“We've received the go-ahead, and the doctors have--”
Everything fades out again. Olivia only awakens again when she feels something cold on her stomach. She moans, once more trying to open her eyes. Then she gasps as she feels the pressure and then pain of a needle entering the same spot on her stomach. She manages to open her eyes.
“She's awake,” a voice near her head says.
“Make sure she's immobilized,” another voice replies.
Instantly, there are hands pushing down on her shoulders. There's a bright light overhead that makes it impossible for Olivia to see the faces of the figures bending over her, but she fights against them all the same. There is a corresponding immediate increase in the pain in her stomach, and she cries out.
“Okay, put her back under,” the second voice says again, sounding irritated and alarmed. “She's going to cause serious damage.”
Olivia tries to take a deep breath. She turns to the figure who is nearest to her and gasps out, “Wait! Please ... what are you doing to me?”
There is no reply, other than a feeling of heaviness settling over her seconds later. As much as she fights to stay awake, she can't prevent her vision from darkening to black.
~
When Olivia's phone goes to voice mail for the third time, Peter can no longer ignore his building panic. He leaves Astrid at the lab, telling her to call right away if she hears from or sees Olivia, and then he calls Broyles as he heads for his car.
“What is it, Peter?” Broyles asks after he takes the call.
“It--” Peter sighs. “It's probably nothing, but I've been trying to reach Olivia and she isn't answering. Astrid and Walter haven't heard anything from her since this morning.” Walter has been at Massive Dynamic all day, and he has assured Peter that Olivia hasn't dropped by.
“She's not at home?”
“I'm on my way to check right now,” Peter says, turning the key in the ignition.
Broyles is silent for a moment. “Let me know what you find,” he says. “I'm sure it's just that she forgot to charge her phone - but I appreciate you keeping me in the loop, regardless.”
The sight that greets Peter upon getting out of his car at home makes his heart plummet: Olivia's car is parked where it should be, but the house is dark. There's a plastic grocery bag spilled on the front steps. A closer look reveals her cell phone at the bottom of the stairs, as well.
“Olivia?” Peter calls, running up to the door. It's locked. He goes inside, calls her name several times as he moves from room to room, but the house is dark and silent. She's not here.
Now starting to feel sick, Peter goes out to the front steps again. He has to call Broyles, he knows. Even if that means acknowledging the fact that something has happened to Olivia.
Sinking down onto the top step, Peter takes out his phone again. His eyes are drawn to the bag Olivia must have dropped on her way inside ... and then he sees it. The contents of the bag include shampoo, disposable razor blades, and a box of pregnancy tests.
Hand shaking, Peter calls Broyles again. He clears his throat. When Broyles answers, he says without preamble, “She's gone. There's signs of a struggle. I think she's been taken.”
“I'm getting a team together now,” Broyles replies. “We'll find her, Peter.”
Peter hangs up. God, this can't be happening. He looks again at the box Olivia had bought. What if she's ... She has to be all right. She has to.
~
Olivia has no idea how much time has passed when she next wakes up. Her stomach is still sore at the injection site, which suggests it hasn't been too long - but wherever she is, it's almost completely dark and she seems to be alone, so she has no other reference points. As her mind finally becomes less drug-muddled, Olivia discovers that she's lying on a cot, wearing something like a hospital gown. The cot is against a concrete wall, and the air around her is still.
It's almost uncomfortably warm, but despite this, Olivia shivers as she sits up. This is all reminding her a little too much of her time at the hands of Walternate's scientists after she regained her memories Over There. This time, though, her abductors seem to be after something else.
She raises a hand to her abdomen, her fear increasing. She herself had only begun to suspect that she might be pregnant. Could whoever has taken her know before she did? She doesn't even want to consider how that could be possible - or what they could want with her and this child, if it does exist.
When Olivia goes to stand up, a wave of dizziness overtakes her, and she has to sit down again quickly and lean her back against the wall. She closes her eyes and takes several deep breaths.
Eventually, it passes. She opens her eyes and notes that she seems to be adjusting to the darkness of her cell. She can now see that it's about twice as large as the cell Walternate had kept her in, with nothing else in it but a metal door across from her with a small window at the top. There is no handle on the inside of the door.
Olivia decides it's worth a look, so she takes another deep breath and then attempts to stand up again - more slowly, this time. Her efforts are rewarded, though she sways a little at first. Ignoring the relative chill of the floor on her bare feet, she crosses the cell to peer out the window.
Not surprisingly, there is not much to see. It appears that she's being held at the end of a dimly-lit hallway. The walls are the same dull gray as the inside of her cell. There seems to be at least one other door in this hall, and another door at the very end. It's too dark to discern any other details.
As another thought strikes her, Olivia steps back from the door and looks up. There it is, on the ceiling in the opposite corner from her bed: a surveillance camera. Although this is also not a surprising discovery, it adds another layer to her feelings of dismay. Still, she stands up straight and faces the camera head on. “What do you want? Why are you holding me prisoner?” she demands.
The sudden sound of her voice in the silence almost startles her. She waits in front of the camera for what seems like a long time, but there is no noticeable response of any kind.
Olivia is about to return to her bed when she hears what sounds like the door at the other end of the hall opening and shutting. Quickly, she positions herself near her cell's door, in front of the window. She wishes for something she could use as a weapon. Of course any element of surprise she might have would be spoiled by the camera above her.
Footsteps approach her door. The man's face, when it appears in the window, is too shadowed for Olivia to be able to see much, but she has no trouble hearing him. “You are going to be moved to another room. Please don't resist or try to escape, Agent Dunham. We don't wish to cause you or your child any harm.”
Olivia takes a step back. My child ... So she is pregnant? Or are they lying out of some attempt to get her to be more compliant? “You say you don't want to hurt me,” she says. Attempt to establish meaningful communication. “So what do you want with me? Why are you holding me prisoner?”
The man sighs. “We are insuring your safety and health, as well as that of your child,” he answers, in a tone that suggests she's inconveniencing him by making him explain at all.
“I don't understand,” she's about to say, but the door is unlocked and thrown open before she can do so. Almost involuntarily, she takes another step back. The two orderlies accompanying the man who had spoken (who's wearing a doctor's lab coat) must take this as a sign that she's planning to resist, because they instantly grab her by her arms and slam her against the wall of the cell.
Olivia fights back, ignoring the shouts from the man in the lab coat for everyone to calm down. She manages to kick and struggle her way free from one of the men holding her, but before she can get away from the other guy, the doctor finally manages to get through to his hired goons and his captive with a bellowed, “STOP!”
Jerking her arm out of the other guy's grip, Olivia glares at him. He doesn't seem to react, although she notes that he's breathing heavily. She tries to recover her breath as well. She aches all over, including at the site of the injection. Distracted by this pain in particular, Olivia isn't aware of the doctor's approach until he's within inches of her. Then she looks up and sees the syringe in his hand. “No!”
The combined efforts of the orderlies and the doctor himself overwhelm her renewed efforts to break free, and as the sedative hits her bloodstream, the world around her fades away again.
~
Peter reaches for the tumbler on the coffee table and drains the last of his drink. He sighs, leaning back against the couch. For the hundredth time, he tries to think of some clue he might have missed that will lead to finding Olivia safely.
“Peter.”
Peter looks up to see Walter standing in the entrance to the living room. His worry and care are obvious even in the poor light of the single lamp. Peter has a pretty good idea of what his father is going to say, but he waits for him to speak anyway.
“Son, you can't do this to yourself,” Walter says gently. “How long has it been since you've slept?”
Peter shakes his head. “I don't know.” How long has it been since Olivia was kidnapped? “I note that you're not asleep, either.”
“Because I'm worried about you!”
“Worried about me?” Peter stares at him. “I'm not the one who's been missing for days, with no leads--”
“Well, of course I'm worried about Olivia, too!” Walter interrupts. “But you're here in front of me, tearing yourself up with guilt and thinking about what you could have done differently. This is not a path you want to start following.” He steps closer. “I know this from personal experience, Peter.”
Setting down his empty glass, Peter nods once. He's so tired, emotionally and physically drained, but he can't sleep. “I get that. But what else am I supposed to do, Walter? She's out there somewhere, having God knows what done to her, and...” He swallows. There's also the whole possibility that she might be pregnant with his child - a possibility he has kept to himself, that adds an extra layer of pain to his anxiety about her. “Do you expect me to be able to stop thinking about her?”
Walter sits down next to him. “No, no, of course not.” The lamp's light reveals his father's own pain at the thought of what Olivia might be enduring. “But if there is any way for you to convince yourself not to dwell on your fears and anxieties so much, please try to find it. After all,” he smiles sadly, “you'll need your strength when you resume your search for her tomorrow.”
Peter nods again, with a bitter smile of his own. He knows Walter isn't really happy about his daily attempts to track down anyone who might know anything about what happened to Olivia, but he also knows Walter won't try to stop him, either. In return for his understanding, Peter does his best to keep in touch with his father while he's out searching ... and if he doesn't always avoid risky situations, well, Walter doesn't need to hear about them. He's managed to stay out of serious trouble so far.
“Do you want some tea, or something else to help calm you?” Walter asks after a moment. “I have several recipes of my own that you could--”
“No, thank you, Walter,” Peter says. He stands up and rubs a hand across his face. “I think I'll try my luck just lying down for a while.”
“All right.” Walter watches him leave, and then calls after him, “Goodnight, son.”
“Goodnight.”
Maybe he is at least somewhat successful at getting himself to think about something else, or maybe he's just too exhausted to stay awake any longer. Regardless of the cause, Peter does find himself drifting off only a few minutes after he's gone to bed. His dreams, however, are anything but restful, as his mind translates his fears about Olivia into terrifying images of what could be happening to her.
~
Olivia has no idea how long she's been here - wherever and whatever 'here' is. There is no way for her to keep track of time. She knows that she should be trying to get out, to get away, but it's so hard for her to think, much less move. So she never progresses beyond that knowledge.
There's something else important that's hovering at the edge of her memory. It's something she had just found out before-- before she ended up wherever she is now. It has to do with ... But whatever it is, it continually eludes her foggy memory.
She drifts in her sea of confusion for some indefinable length of time. Occasionally, she thinks she hears something nearby, but it's all but impossible for her to focus on it.
Suddenly, she manages to grab onto one of these important memories, and it shakes her to awareness. Peter. Peter has to be wondering where she is. He's probably close to frantic, in fact. Especially since...
Olivia is jolted by another returning memory: she is pregnant, or at very least there is a high likelihood that she is. People are holding her captive. They're doing something to her, and to her baby as well. She's at their mercy right now.
At this realization, panic floods through her. What are they doing to her at this very moment? Why can't I move? I have to get out of here. Peter!
Her fear and anguish build until she can't contain them - and then the feeling escapes out of her in a rush of white-hot energy that flashes outward in all directions. There is a shattering sound, and suddenly Olivia is freed from whatever has been holding her. Just as suddenly, she's falling off something metal onto the ground. It's not a long fall; she manages to catch herself well enough now that she's able to see, hear, and move freely.
Blinking rapidly, Olivia coughs and pulls herself to her feet, staggering a little as she does so. She seems to be standing in the splintered remnants of some kind of glass and metal case. There are wires and thin tubes among the shards, twisted and burnt by the heat of the fire raging all around her. There are also several pools of some unknown liquid. These are evaporating even as she watches. She herself is not burnt, although she notes in a detached way that her throat is raw and that she feels like she has several cuts on her body. She also feels like she's not wearing a stitch of clothing - a suspicion that is confirmed when she looks down at herself.
Wrapping her arms around her body, Olivia looks for a way out of this room. There is a door across from her, and thankfully the flames are now dying down since there is little else in the room to provide fuel.
As carefully as she can, Olivia picks her way through the scorched room to the door. I have to get out and find Peter, she tells herself. Keeping focused on this goal is the only way she's keeping the terror at bay for the moment.
There is an alarm sounding, she realizes, and once again she remembers with terrible clarity her desperate attempts to escape the facility at Liberty Island. But when she looks out the window into the hallway, she sees with a tiny bit of relief that it's just a fire alarm.
Yeah, just a fire alarm, she says to herself sarcastically. Just a fire alarm set off by the firestorm you unleashed *with your mind,* while trying to escape from having who knows what done to you.
Shaking off these less-than-useful thoughts, Olivia takes a deep breath and pulls open the door. The air in the hallway is much cooler. She's grateful to whoever left their lab coat on the gurney that is a few yards away. It's not really adequate covering, but it's much better than nothing.
As she is trying to decide which direction to go, Olivia hears the sound of running footsteps over the continued wail of the fire alarm. She tries to make a break for the door to her right at the end of the hall (she thinks she sees stairs leading up behind it), but within a minute she's surrounded by armed, uniformed men coming from either side.
Olivia backs up against the wall. This can't be happening. She stares at the faces of the men around her as they order her to surrender, looking desperately for anything she could use to break through their ranks. Then she notices something interesting: fear. Almost every single one of the dozen or so guards looks afraid of her.
Oh, God. The solution is obvious. She has to use her ability again - her wildly unpredictable and clearly quite dangerous ability. If Peter were here, she thinks, it would be easier for her to imagine this working. But of course, if Peter were here, a lot of things would be different.
Olivia takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and concentrates, as best as she can with multiple armed guards yelling at her to surrender. Seconds later, the yelled orders change to cries of fear. She opens her eyes to see a path cleared in both directions. The men are being held against the opposite wall by an invisible force: her.
Olivia walks up to the nearest guard, trying not to show too much of her surprise at the success of her maneuver. His eyes widen and he tries even harder to break her hold. He doesn't succeed.
“Which direction gets me out of here?” she demands.
The man flinches, as if he's expecting an outright attack. When nothing else happens, he seems to debate for a moment. He clears his throat. “Uh, the-- the door to your right. Go up the stairs and then take a left.”
“Okay." Olivia starts toward the door. She turns back when she reaches it, meeting the eyes of a few more of the guards. "I think you should go ahead and let me leave."
~