Fanfic: Endangered (Fringe, 3/3)
Title: Endangered (3/3)
Summary, Rating, Disclaimer, etc. same as in Part 1
Author's Notes: To be found at the end.
~
It was a half-hour drive out of the national forest to the nearest town, during which time Olivia and Peter were alternately entertained by their host's stories of past camping trips with his wife, and by a few choice stories from Peter about camping trips with his father - suitably edited, Olivia assumed, for a wider audience. She held off requests for a story from her by telling them that her family hadn't been much for camping trips, which was true.
The town of Pownal, Vermont was picturesque, and with the sun just now rising fully, it was certainly beautiful. Part of that was the simple fact that it was nice to no longer be surrounded by trees as far as she could see, Olivia thought. She had nothing against forests, but she was more than a bit tired of them currently.
Ryan Hayes dropped them off outside a pay phone in the town, graciously providing them with the quarters necessary to make the call “to their friends to come pick them up”. It was only with reluctance that he took back the footwear that he'd loaned them, after they both insisted that they would be all right until their friends arrived.
“Thanks again, Mr. Hayes,” Olivia said, shaking the man's hand as he prepared to return to his wife. “We both appreciate your help so much.”
“And your understanding, as well,” Peter added.
Hayes shook his head. “It was nothing. Glad to be of service to you two.” He grinned. “And next time you go on a camping trip with those friends of yours, you might turn the tables on them. Just a suggestion, of course.”
They waved as he got into his SUV and left. Then Peter turned to Olivia. “Well, I guess it's back to business. Who's our first call? Broyles?”
Olivia blinked. Despite how much she wanted to get back home, not to mention get started tracking down the people who had taken them, it felt strange to be shifting back into work mode after this time away from it. “Yeah, it should be Broyles,” she answered. She took a deep breath, put the coins into the machine, and dialed the number.
“Broyles,” he said.
“Sir, it's Agent Dunham. Peter is with me,” she said.
“Agent Dunham? Where are you?” Broyles sounded shocked. “Are you two all right?”
She hastened to reassure him. “Yes, we're both fine. We're in Pownal, Vermont.”
“We've been investigating your disappearance as a suspected kidnapping. Are you in danger?”
Olivia had in fact been wondering this since they'd arrived in Pownal. “I don't think so, but we can't be sure our abductors aren't trying to track us down. We are in a public place at the moment, though.”
“And I'm guessing you don't have your service weapon,” Broyles said, which she confirmed. He was silent for a moment. “All right, tell me the cross streets where you are and give me five minutes to contact the nearest local PD. I'll explain some of the situation to them, and they can provide you with a safe place to stay while we come get you.”
“Okay,” she said. “Do you know how long you'll be?”
Broyles paused again, perhaps looking up the answer to her question. “Shouldn't be more than an hour, including travel time to your location from the Bennington airport. Meanwhile, you and Peter stay put and stay alert, and I'll make sure the local PD take care of you.”
“We will. Thank you, sir.” Olivia hung up as her boss did likewise.
“So what's the word?” Peter asked. She marveled at how he managed to look completely at ease even while standing on the side of the road in an unfamiliar city, barefoot and wearing that tacky, too-big shirt.
“Broyles is going to call the nearest police department and get them to take us somewhere safe,” she reported, “just in case our kidnappers are still looking for us. He'll be on the next flight, which means he should be here in about an hour.”
Peter nodded. “Sounds reasonable. Did he happen to mention if they've found out anything on their end about who took us?”
“No, we didn't really get into that.” Olivia took a step away from the phone booth, closer to him. “All he said was that they were assuming we were kidnapped and acting accordingly.”
“Well, that's something,” he replied. “So I guess we wait for the cops to pick us up, then?”
“Yeah.” She glanced around at the town of Pownal around them. There wasn't a lot of activity on the streets, but there were enough pedestrians and cars that she at least felt like no one could try to take Peter and her again without being noticed.
Peter gestured to a bench a few yards away. “I'm not exactly feeling well-rested after last night, so I'd rather sit than stand, if you don't mind.”
“Good point,” Olivia said.
They had only been sitting for a few minutes when a patrol car rolled up, stopping a little past the bench. A young female officer got out of the driver's side. “Are you Agent Dunham and Peter Bishop?”
“That's us,” Peter said, standing up.
The officer smiled. “Good. I'm Theresa Weiss. I've been instructed to take you two to the station in Bennington to wait for Agent Broyles' arrival. It'll be about a ten minute drive to the station, and we can get you some breakfast while you're there if you need it.”
“Thanks, that would be great,” Olivia said. “We haven't eaten in … a while.” Thinking about it for even a second made her realize how hungry she was.
“Much too long,” Peter added.
“Well, we'll fix that as soon as we can,” Officer Weiss said. She opened the back door. “I'm sorry you have to ride in the back, but we'll keep the siren and lights off for you, at least.”
Olivia and Peter smiled, and as they slid into the back Peter told her, “Thank you. We appreciate it.”
As they got started, Officer Weiss introduced them to her partner, Jerry Ingram. Both he and Weiss seemed content with the few details about their guests' situation that they already had been told. They did offer their assurance that the Bennington PD would do everything they could to assist with the investigation into their kidnapping.
Upon their arrival at the police station, Olivia and Peter were ushered inside and given seats in one of the detectives' offices. “Detective Cooper is out on a case right now, and he's okay with you guys using his office for a while,” Ingram told them. “And if you'd like, we can probably find you some extra shoes somewhere.”
“If it's not too much trouble...” Olivia began, but Ingram interrupted quickly.
“Not at all. It's nothing we wouldn't do for any one of our own.”
As he walked off, presumably in the direction of the locker room or somewhere else where extra clothes might be stored, Peter leaned over and said to Olivia in a low voice, “I guess I won't remind him that I'm not technically FBI.”
She just shook her head before getting back to the pastries and fruit that had been offered to them in the waiting area. Her first reaction upon seeing the food, disturbingly enough, had been dissatisfaction that it wasn't meat - but thankfully, she was having no problem finding it appealing now.
“Anything else you need with your breakfast? Coffee?” Weiss asked, coming into the office just as Ingram was returning with shoes for the two of them.
“Yes, please,” Olivia replied, “but first, could I use your bathroom?”
Peter set down his plate and said, “Oh, yeah, I wouldn't mind using the little boys' room, too.”
The officers directed them down the hall after they had put on the shoes. After she had used the facilities, while she washed her hands, Olivia looked at herself in the mirror for the first time in … however many days it had been since they had gone missing. She was, unsurprisingly, a bit unkempt. Her hair was tangled and needed washing - although it could be worse, considering, she mused. She finger-combed it as best as she could. Her cheeks were flushed, which she attributed to a lingering fever.
She used a wet paper towel to clean her face, and as she was throwing it away, her eye was caught by a new needle mark on the crook of her elbow - to match the faded ones she had gotten at the hands of Walternate's scientists. Her jaw clenched. There was also what looked like an IV mark on the back of her left hand.
Furious and sickened at this reminder of what she and Peter had gone through, Olivia nearly ran into Peter as he exited the men's bathroom.
“Whoa,” he said with a smile. “Careful. I'm not back to peak condition yet, so you might be able to knock me over without much effort.” He had made some attempts to tame his hair as well, she noticed distractedly.
“Sorry,” she said quickly, but her smile must not have been all that convincing, because he regarded her more closely.
“Hey, what's wrong, Olivia?”
She blew out her breath, and then pointed to the marks on her arm and her hand. “Look at this.”
Peter's eyes darkened. He was about to speak when Olivia reached for his arm and found identical marks on him. Then he swallowed, his anger still clear. “We're going to find out who's behind this.”
“Yes, we are,” Olivia declared. “And when we do, I think we can agree: they aren't going to know what hit them.”
His answering look was grim. “I like the way you think.”
Though her appetite was lessened by thoughts of what had been done to them, Olivia did manage to eat most of the food on her plate once she got back to the office. The coffee was welcome, for sure. She took a moment just to inhale the scent of it. Peter smiled at her in understanding over the rim of his own coffee mug.
Officers Weiss and Ingram looked in on them every few minutes as they waited for Broyles to arrive. She and Peter were quiet most of the time - still recovering their strength, Olivia guessed. If the chairs had been a little more comfortable, they would both have fallen asleep.
Almost exactly fifty minutes after they had arrived at the Bennington police station, there was a knock on the office door and Broyles pushed it open. “Agent Dunham, Peter,” he greeted them, with obvious relief. “How are you feeling?”
“All right,” Olivia answered, standing up.
“Yeah. I could go for a shower, change of clothes, and about a day of sleep,” Peter said, getting to his feet as well, “but other than that I'm okay.”
Broyles almost smiled. “Well, I'm sure those things can be arranged. But we should get you back home first - and if you're up for it, I'll need a statement from both of you at some point.”
They both voiced their agreement with this plan. As they followed Broyles out of the station, Olivia made sure to thank Officer Weiss and Officer Ingram, and Peter echoed her thanks. This time, Olivia decided to offer to mail back the footwear they had been loaned once they were back in Boston - but Officer Weiss just told her not to worry about it.
As they exited the police station, before Broyles could do more than point toward the waiting SUV, the back doors opened, and Walter and Astrid hurried out onto the sidewalk.
“Peter! Olivia!” Walter cried, rushing toward them. “Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!”
“I was going to tell you that Dr. Bishop and Agent Farnsworth decided to come along,” Broyles remarked wryly, as Walter pulled his son into an embrace that looked like it might knock him off his feet, “but that would be redundant at this juncture, I suppose.”
“It's good to see you, too, Walter,” Peter said, smiling widely but sounding a little strained, “but I'd be even happier to see you if you let me breathe.”
“Oh, yes.” Walter loosened his hold slightly. “Sorry, son.”
“Walter and I decided we didn't want to wait for you guys back in Boston,” Astrid explained. “We've been very worried.”
Olivia met Astrid's concerned but happy gaze. She was about to reply when Walter released Peter and immediately gave her a hug that equalled his for Peter in its intensity. “Yes, I was so worried, Olivia! When you and Peter didn't come back for dinner that night...”
As soon as she was able to breathe, Olivia said, “Well, we didn't mean to scare you, Walter - and thanks for coming to meet us.”
He pulled back to look at her face. “You're welcome, dear,” he told her, smiling again.
Broyles cleared his throat. “Our return flight to Boston leaves in half an hour, so I suggest we get moving.”
Although Walter grumbled a bit at the fairly crowded seating arrangements in the SUV on the way to the airport, the trip passed without incident. Broyles did inform Peter and Olivia that they had been missing for a week, which was at least three more days than either of them could account for in their memories. But Olivia mused that it made sense from what they did know of what had happened to them, that the transformation could not have been effected in a short amount of time.
In return, Olivia and Peter offered up the names they had overheard while in captivity, and the approximate location of the facility in the Green Mountain National Forest. “And we have a lot more to tell,” Peter added, sharing a look with Olivia, “but I think we'd both prefer to save that for when we're back at the lab.”
Walter twisted around to look at them from the passenger's seat. “Is it something that has to be kept secret, then?” he asked anxiously.
“Not exactly,” Peter answered. He paused, searching for the words to make it clearer.
“It's just ... complicated. The kind of thing that no one who hasn't spent time with Fringe Division would believe,” Olivia explained, and Peter nodded.
“Ah,” Walter said, turning back around toward the windshield. “Well, in that case, while I'm not at all pleased that either of you had to undergo an ordeal like this, I must confess I look forward to hearing more about it.”
Peter snorted. “Thanks, Walter. That's very sympathetic of you.”
“But you are going to tell us about your experience, yes?” Walter insisted, sounding slightly hurt. “All I meant was, the more I know about it, the more likely I can help--”
“Relax, it's okay,” Peter interrupted, reaching to lay a hand on his father's shoulder. “I know what you meant. And yes, we are going to tell you.”
“Good.”
“Whatever it is you went through, will you two be needing a hospital?” Broyles inquired. “I can have transport ready for you both when we arrive.”
Olivia had already considered this idea. “I don't think so,” she told him. “Any tests and bloodwork that need to be done can be done at the lab.” It was a mark of how much her trust in Walter had grown over the years that this option didn't disturb her at all.
“All right.” Broyles met her eye in the rearview mirror for a moment before returning his focus to the road.
If the flight back to Boston had been any longer than it was (once they got into the air it was less than twenty minutes), Olivia might have found herself giving in to her exhaustion and falling asleep in her seat. As it was, it must have been nervous energy that kept her awake and alert throughout the trip. Peter stayed awake as well, although that might have had more to do with the fact that he was sitting across the aisle from her, next to Walter, who seemed to think it was necessary to bring Peter up to speed on everything he had missed while he was gone, including such important details as the menu for every single meal Walter had eaten.
In contrast, Olivia's seatmate was Astrid. Beyond telling Olivia again that she was glad to see Peter and her back safely, Astrid was her usual perceptive self and didn't try to engage Olivia in conversation.
Olivia was so wrapped up in her own thoughts about the past few days that the pilot's announcement that they were about to land almost made her jump. She looked across the aisle at Peter and saw that he was looking her way as well - and his amused/concerned expression told her he'd witnessed her reaction. She just shrugged and gave him a wry smile.
Broyles' authority got their group through security with a minimum of hassle. As their vehicle took them along the familiar roads leading to Harvard, Olivia felt herself relax. It was good to be back, in this place that had come to feel more like home than anywhere else she had ever lived.
“Home, sweet home, huh?” Peter said, echoing her thoughts as he bent forward to look out her window.
“Yeah.”
As soon as they were inside the lab, Broyles said, “Now, Dunham, Bishop, if you're feeling up to it, anything else you can tell us about your experience would be useful.”
Peter nodded, but Olivia said, “Before we do, can you tell us what you'd found in your investigation?”
“Not a lot, unfortunately,” Broyles replied.
“We had security camera footage from the zoo,” Astrid put in, “but the angle wasn't great. All we could see was you guys walking toward your car, then being hit by something we couldn't see and going down, and then four men dressed in black dragging you out of sight.”
“Yes, and no matter how we tried,” Walter added, looking distressed at the memory, “we couldn't get anymore useful information from the footage. And there wasn't any evidence left at the scene, as I recall.”
“That's correct,” Broyles confirmed. “Apparently no one at the zoo saw anything, either, although they thought they remembered you entering and leaving.”
“So, you were pretty much at a dead end, then,” Peter summarized, and Astrid nodded regretfully. “Well, we'll fill in as many blanks as we can.”
The two of them began their tale. Olivia started, but Peter chimed in frequently. Their audience had almost identical expressions of shock and amazement when they each described waking up in the back of the truck in tiger form, and Walter was fairly vibrating with excitement when they passed along their theories as to how this could have happened.
“Oh, yes, it would have had to be very advanced sort of genetic manipulation for you both to be completely transformed in the way you're describing,” he said, hurrying over to a specific shelf and getting out two empty vials. “If you will permit me, I would like to draw some of your blood as soon as possible, to see what - if any - traces might remain. This could not only shed some light on how whoever it was managed to modify your DNA, but it could also help us track them down, depending on what we find.”
“Fine,” Peter said. “I'll go first.” He sat down in the chair in the middle of the lab, and while Walter and Astrid worked together to draw a vial quickly and efficiently, he continued the story. “So after we figured out what had most likely happened to us, the next thing we tried to figure out is why - why someone would expend the effort to kidnap us and change us into tigers.” At that, Peter laughed and rubbed his other hand across his face. “Listen to me, talking like it doesn't sound completely and utterly insane to use the phrase 'change us into tigers,' in reference to something that actually happened.”
Walter looked up from putting the stopper on the vial of Peter's blood. “Yes, it certainly isn't something you hear about every day - not even among the sorts of cases we usually investigate!” He was delighted, but at Peter's look he cleared his throat. “Uh, Olivia, may I--?”
“Sure.” After Peter had vacated the chair, Olivia sat down, exchanging an amused glance with Astrid at Walter's excitement. As the younger agent prepared Olivia's arm for the blood draw, Olivia took up the tale. “So, our best guess was some kind of a smuggling operation, and since we weren't dead already, we figured they wanted us alive for whatever their end goal was.”
“A reasonable deduction,” Walter agreed with a nod. “This may sting a little, my dear.”
Olivia turned her gaze away as the needle went in, and continued, “Since tigers are endangered, we thought maybe they were planning either to sell us to the highest bidder among zoos or collectors, or that our kidnappers were eco-terrorists who were planning to bring us to some place in the world where tigers naturally live.”
“Oh, wow,” Astrid remarked, eyebrows raised. “That's taking efforts to save endangered animals a little too seriously, I'd say.”
“It gets better,” Peter said darkly, crossing his arms. “We found a case labeled with ID numbers for each of us in the back of the truck, with some kind of chemical or something inside. That, on top of the fact that they took us both at the same time and had two cages set up in the truck, made us pretty sure that they were hoping for an end result of more than two tigers to contribute to the wild population.”
Astrid's face showed her outrage, as did Broyles'. Walter took another moment before he made the connection, but then he looked indignant. “Well, that would be simply intolerable! When you and Olivia have children, Peter, you're going to be somewhere nearby so I can see my grandchildren often - not somewhere halfway around the world, in who knows what terrible conditions.”
Olivia saw Peter's mortified expression for a moment before he covered his face with his hands. She was sure she was blushing, herself.
“Walter...” Astrid shook her head, hiding a smile.
Broyles cleared his throat. “You said you were able to find that case in the back of the truck, Peter, but you were both in cages. How did you manage to get out to search the rest of the truck?”
“That,” Peter replied, “is a very good question.” He looked from Broyles to Olivia, meeting her gaze with pride clearly visible in his own. “It was all thanks to Olivia.”
Olivia dropped her gaze to her hands. Even after the additional evidence their escape had provided of the existence of this facet of her abilities, she still didn't exactly feel comfortable with it.
“She unlocked the cage doors,” Peter continued, when she didn't speak. “And then later, after the truck exited the highway, she opened the back of the truck, too.”
Walter's eyes widened, and he turned to regard Olivia. “You mean, just like that case with the light box a few years ago, Olivia? You used your mind to move objects?”
“It was the only way we could think of to get out of there before we got wherever we were going,” she said, shrugging and looking down again. “I didn't know if it would work or not, but I had to try.”
“Fascinating. So whatever procedure was done to transform you, it must not have altered your brain chemistry enough to remove the effects of the Cortexiphan.” Then he pointed between her and Peter. “And during all this time, how were you communicating with Peter?”
“As bizarre as this whole thing continues to sound,” Olivia answered, “telepathy.”
“Really?” Walter beamed. “That's wonderful! Are you two still able to communicate in the same fashion?”
Olivia looked at Peter. She hadn't considered it, but obviously nothing was too bizarre at this point. He returned the look, smiling, and said, “Okay, what are am I thinking right now?”
Half-serious, Olivia listened, but didn't get anything. “I have no idea.” She thought at him, How about you, are you getting this, Peter?
Peter didn't reply, which she took as a negative. “I don't think it works anymore, Walter.”
Looking highly disappointed, Walter turned his attention back to dealing with the blood samples from her and from Peter. “Hmm. The sudden appearance and then disappearance of telepathic abilities between the two of you while in tiger form will require more thought. I can't explain it at all at the moment.”
“If anyone can figure it out, Walter,” Peter said with a note of affection in his voice, “it's you.”
The two of them resumed their telling of the past few days' events. After they once again passed along the names of the doctors that they'd overheard, Broyles looked at Astrid - but before he could speak, she was already nodding. “I'll do a search for any Dr. West or Dr. Berg operating out of the Massachusetts or Vermont area, to see if anyone by those names who specializes in bioengineering or related fields shows up, or anyone who might have ties to eco-terrorist groups.”
“Good,” Broyles said. He turned back to Olivia and Peter, who were now standing next to each other in the center of the lab. “Can you remember any other details that might help us track down the people behind this whole operation?”
“Uh, well, when we left the highway, it sounded like we were slowing down to prepare to stop,” Olivia told him. “That was about two hours after the truck met up with Dr. West - and she said it would take about two hours from where we stopped to get to the facility.”
The agent nodded. “All right. That will help us narrow down a search radius. And you said after you got out of the truck, you found yourself in the national forest next to Highway 7?”
“That's right,” Peter confirmed.
“How did you guys end up as humans again, anyway?” Astrid asked, looking up for a moment from her computer.
“Yes, I was going to ask the same question,” Walter remarked. He was still busy with their blood samples, but clearly still listening in.
Peter shrugged. “Well, we can only guess, but based on the fact that we both started to feel progressively more sick as we were trying to head further south through the forest, and then it got incredibly awful, and then we woke up as ourselves again, we're guessing it was--”
“Rejection of the foreign DNA, of course!” Walter interjected. To Broyles and the room at large, he explained, “Our immune system will reject anything foreign that enters the body, which is why transplant patients must always receive anti-rejection drugs even if the donor is a family member - unless the transplant occurs between identical twins, of course, as they share nearly all of their DNA in common.” Then he looked at Olivia and Peter again. “I would theorize that the people who took you administered anti-rejection drugs when they first modified your DNA, and then perhaps another dose before you woke up in the truck. They no doubt intended to give you more after you arrived at the facility where you were being taken.”
“That would make sense,” Olivia replied. She was just glad that Dr. West hadn't decided to try to administer their next doses when she met with the truck, although of course she and Peter would not have passively allowed her to do so. “Could traces of those drugs show up in our bloodwork?”
Walter frowned. “Well, it has been a significant amount of time since you last received a dose, as indicated by your immune response and subsequent return to your human forms. It's worth checking for, though.”
A yawn cut off Olivia's attempt to continue the story, and Broyles quickly said, “What you both have told us so far will give us enough to begin our search for your kidnappers. For now, I want you to go home and get some rest, and be ready to give your official statements tomorrow.” His gaze traveled from Peter to Olivia. “It's good to have you back.”
“Thank you, sir,” Olivia said, smiling a little. She figured getting to sleep tonight would not be a problem; in fact she was fairly certain that she'd have trouble staying awake at all after she showered and changed.
“Good to be back,” Peter said.
With another nod to each of them and a promise that he would get the ball rolling on a search for the facility, Broyles left.
Peter looked at Olivia. “I don't know about you,” he said, “but I don't think I'm safe to drive at this point.”
“No,” Olivia agreed, “I don't think I am, either.” She turned to Astrid. “Could you...?”
Astrid smiled. “Yeah, I'll drive you two. Just let me get my keys.” She got up from her computer.
“Peter,” Walter said, leaving the various pieces of equipment he had been monitoring to hurry over to his son, “do you want me to come with you? I know this analysis is important, but I don't want to leave you by yourself at home.”
Peter put his hand on Walter's shoulder and said, “Thanks, Walter, but I'll be okay.” He shared another look with Olivia. “There's no need for me to be alone, either.”
As Olivia returned his smile, Walter glanced between them. “Oh! Well, in that case, I won't worry.” He gave Peter a pat on the arm, and then turned to Olivia. “You look after each other, my dear.”
“We will.”
~
Author's Notes: This is a very odd story, I realize. Furthermore, I realize that if readers of this story happen to have read certain of my X-Files or In Plain Sight stories, they may notice that I seem to have a thing for writing this kind of storyline. I can't give you an explanation for this fact, but I can thank you for reading in spite of it!
Also, I sincerely apologize for any geographical errors regarding Vermont and/or Massachusetts. I did research the geography of the area as well as I could, but I have no personal experience to go on.
Summary, Rating, Disclaimer, etc. same as in Part 1
Author's Notes: To be found at the end.
~
It was a half-hour drive out of the national forest to the nearest town, during which time Olivia and Peter were alternately entertained by their host's stories of past camping trips with his wife, and by a few choice stories from Peter about camping trips with his father - suitably edited, Olivia assumed, for a wider audience. She held off requests for a story from her by telling them that her family hadn't been much for camping trips, which was true.
The town of Pownal, Vermont was picturesque, and with the sun just now rising fully, it was certainly beautiful. Part of that was the simple fact that it was nice to no longer be surrounded by trees as far as she could see, Olivia thought. She had nothing against forests, but she was more than a bit tired of them currently.
Ryan Hayes dropped them off outside a pay phone in the town, graciously providing them with the quarters necessary to make the call “to their friends to come pick them up”. It was only with reluctance that he took back the footwear that he'd loaned them, after they both insisted that they would be all right until their friends arrived.
“Thanks again, Mr. Hayes,” Olivia said, shaking the man's hand as he prepared to return to his wife. “We both appreciate your help so much.”
“And your understanding, as well,” Peter added.
Hayes shook his head. “It was nothing. Glad to be of service to you two.” He grinned. “And next time you go on a camping trip with those friends of yours, you might turn the tables on them. Just a suggestion, of course.”
They waved as he got into his SUV and left. Then Peter turned to Olivia. “Well, I guess it's back to business. Who's our first call? Broyles?”
Olivia blinked. Despite how much she wanted to get back home, not to mention get started tracking down the people who had taken them, it felt strange to be shifting back into work mode after this time away from it. “Yeah, it should be Broyles,” she answered. She took a deep breath, put the coins into the machine, and dialed the number.
“Broyles,” he said.
“Sir, it's Agent Dunham. Peter is with me,” she said.
“Agent Dunham? Where are you?” Broyles sounded shocked. “Are you two all right?”
She hastened to reassure him. “Yes, we're both fine. We're in Pownal, Vermont.”
“We've been investigating your disappearance as a suspected kidnapping. Are you in danger?”
Olivia had in fact been wondering this since they'd arrived in Pownal. “I don't think so, but we can't be sure our abductors aren't trying to track us down. We are in a public place at the moment, though.”
“And I'm guessing you don't have your service weapon,” Broyles said, which she confirmed. He was silent for a moment. “All right, tell me the cross streets where you are and give me five minutes to contact the nearest local PD. I'll explain some of the situation to them, and they can provide you with a safe place to stay while we come get you.”
“Okay,” she said. “Do you know how long you'll be?”
Broyles paused again, perhaps looking up the answer to her question. “Shouldn't be more than an hour, including travel time to your location from the Bennington airport. Meanwhile, you and Peter stay put and stay alert, and I'll make sure the local PD take care of you.”
“We will. Thank you, sir.” Olivia hung up as her boss did likewise.
“So what's the word?” Peter asked. She marveled at how he managed to look completely at ease even while standing on the side of the road in an unfamiliar city, barefoot and wearing that tacky, too-big shirt.
“Broyles is going to call the nearest police department and get them to take us somewhere safe,” she reported, “just in case our kidnappers are still looking for us. He'll be on the next flight, which means he should be here in about an hour.”
Peter nodded. “Sounds reasonable. Did he happen to mention if they've found out anything on their end about who took us?”
“No, we didn't really get into that.” Olivia took a step away from the phone booth, closer to him. “All he said was that they were assuming we were kidnapped and acting accordingly.”
“Well, that's something,” he replied. “So I guess we wait for the cops to pick us up, then?”
“Yeah.” She glanced around at the town of Pownal around them. There wasn't a lot of activity on the streets, but there were enough pedestrians and cars that she at least felt like no one could try to take Peter and her again without being noticed.
Peter gestured to a bench a few yards away. “I'm not exactly feeling well-rested after last night, so I'd rather sit than stand, if you don't mind.”
“Good point,” Olivia said.
They had only been sitting for a few minutes when a patrol car rolled up, stopping a little past the bench. A young female officer got out of the driver's side. “Are you Agent Dunham and Peter Bishop?”
“That's us,” Peter said, standing up.
The officer smiled. “Good. I'm Theresa Weiss. I've been instructed to take you two to the station in Bennington to wait for Agent Broyles' arrival. It'll be about a ten minute drive to the station, and we can get you some breakfast while you're there if you need it.”
“Thanks, that would be great,” Olivia said. “We haven't eaten in … a while.” Thinking about it for even a second made her realize how hungry she was.
“Much too long,” Peter added.
“Well, we'll fix that as soon as we can,” Officer Weiss said. She opened the back door. “I'm sorry you have to ride in the back, but we'll keep the siren and lights off for you, at least.”
Olivia and Peter smiled, and as they slid into the back Peter told her, “Thank you. We appreciate it.”
As they got started, Officer Weiss introduced them to her partner, Jerry Ingram. Both he and Weiss seemed content with the few details about their guests' situation that they already had been told. They did offer their assurance that the Bennington PD would do everything they could to assist with the investigation into their kidnapping.
Upon their arrival at the police station, Olivia and Peter were ushered inside and given seats in one of the detectives' offices. “Detective Cooper is out on a case right now, and he's okay with you guys using his office for a while,” Ingram told them. “And if you'd like, we can probably find you some extra shoes somewhere.”
“If it's not too much trouble...” Olivia began, but Ingram interrupted quickly.
“Not at all. It's nothing we wouldn't do for any one of our own.”
As he walked off, presumably in the direction of the locker room or somewhere else where extra clothes might be stored, Peter leaned over and said to Olivia in a low voice, “I guess I won't remind him that I'm not technically FBI.”
She just shook her head before getting back to the pastries and fruit that had been offered to them in the waiting area. Her first reaction upon seeing the food, disturbingly enough, had been dissatisfaction that it wasn't meat - but thankfully, she was having no problem finding it appealing now.
“Anything else you need with your breakfast? Coffee?” Weiss asked, coming into the office just as Ingram was returning with shoes for the two of them.
“Yes, please,” Olivia replied, “but first, could I use your bathroom?”
Peter set down his plate and said, “Oh, yeah, I wouldn't mind using the little boys' room, too.”
The officers directed them down the hall after they had put on the shoes. After she had used the facilities, while she washed her hands, Olivia looked at herself in the mirror for the first time in … however many days it had been since they had gone missing. She was, unsurprisingly, a bit unkempt. Her hair was tangled and needed washing - although it could be worse, considering, she mused. She finger-combed it as best as she could. Her cheeks were flushed, which she attributed to a lingering fever.
She used a wet paper towel to clean her face, and as she was throwing it away, her eye was caught by a new needle mark on the crook of her elbow - to match the faded ones she had gotten at the hands of Walternate's scientists. Her jaw clenched. There was also what looked like an IV mark on the back of her left hand.
Furious and sickened at this reminder of what she and Peter had gone through, Olivia nearly ran into Peter as he exited the men's bathroom.
“Whoa,” he said with a smile. “Careful. I'm not back to peak condition yet, so you might be able to knock me over without much effort.” He had made some attempts to tame his hair as well, she noticed distractedly.
“Sorry,” she said quickly, but her smile must not have been all that convincing, because he regarded her more closely.
“Hey, what's wrong, Olivia?”
She blew out her breath, and then pointed to the marks on her arm and her hand. “Look at this.”
Peter's eyes darkened. He was about to speak when Olivia reached for his arm and found identical marks on him. Then he swallowed, his anger still clear. “We're going to find out who's behind this.”
“Yes, we are,” Olivia declared. “And when we do, I think we can agree: they aren't going to know what hit them.”
His answering look was grim. “I like the way you think.”
Though her appetite was lessened by thoughts of what had been done to them, Olivia did manage to eat most of the food on her plate once she got back to the office. The coffee was welcome, for sure. She took a moment just to inhale the scent of it. Peter smiled at her in understanding over the rim of his own coffee mug.
Officers Weiss and Ingram looked in on them every few minutes as they waited for Broyles to arrive. She and Peter were quiet most of the time - still recovering their strength, Olivia guessed. If the chairs had been a little more comfortable, they would both have fallen asleep.
Almost exactly fifty minutes after they had arrived at the Bennington police station, there was a knock on the office door and Broyles pushed it open. “Agent Dunham, Peter,” he greeted them, with obvious relief. “How are you feeling?”
“All right,” Olivia answered, standing up.
“Yeah. I could go for a shower, change of clothes, and about a day of sleep,” Peter said, getting to his feet as well, “but other than that I'm okay.”
Broyles almost smiled. “Well, I'm sure those things can be arranged. But we should get you back home first - and if you're up for it, I'll need a statement from both of you at some point.”
They both voiced their agreement with this plan. As they followed Broyles out of the station, Olivia made sure to thank Officer Weiss and Officer Ingram, and Peter echoed her thanks. This time, Olivia decided to offer to mail back the footwear they had been loaned once they were back in Boston - but Officer Weiss just told her not to worry about it.
As they exited the police station, before Broyles could do more than point toward the waiting SUV, the back doors opened, and Walter and Astrid hurried out onto the sidewalk.
“Peter! Olivia!” Walter cried, rushing toward them. “Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!”
“I was going to tell you that Dr. Bishop and Agent Farnsworth decided to come along,” Broyles remarked wryly, as Walter pulled his son into an embrace that looked like it might knock him off his feet, “but that would be redundant at this juncture, I suppose.”
“It's good to see you, too, Walter,” Peter said, smiling widely but sounding a little strained, “but I'd be even happier to see you if you let me breathe.”
“Oh, yes.” Walter loosened his hold slightly. “Sorry, son.”
“Walter and I decided we didn't want to wait for you guys back in Boston,” Astrid explained. “We've been very worried.”
Olivia met Astrid's concerned but happy gaze. She was about to reply when Walter released Peter and immediately gave her a hug that equalled his for Peter in its intensity. “Yes, I was so worried, Olivia! When you and Peter didn't come back for dinner that night...”
As soon as she was able to breathe, Olivia said, “Well, we didn't mean to scare you, Walter - and thanks for coming to meet us.”
He pulled back to look at her face. “You're welcome, dear,” he told her, smiling again.
Broyles cleared his throat. “Our return flight to Boston leaves in half an hour, so I suggest we get moving.”
Although Walter grumbled a bit at the fairly crowded seating arrangements in the SUV on the way to the airport, the trip passed without incident. Broyles did inform Peter and Olivia that they had been missing for a week, which was at least three more days than either of them could account for in their memories. But Olivia mused that it made sense from what they did know of what had happened to them, that the transformation could not have been effected in a short amount of time.
In return, Olivia and Peter offered up the names they had overheard while in captivity, and the approximate location of the facility in the Green Mountain National Forest. “And we have a lot more to tell,” Peter added, sharing a look with Olivia, “but I think we'd both prefer to save that for when we're back at the lab.”
Walter twisted around to look at them from the passenger's seat. “Is it something that has to be kept secret, then?” he asked anxiously.
“Not exactly,” Peter answered. He paused, searching for the words to make it clearer.
“It's just ... complicated. The kind of thing that no one who hasn't spent time with Fringe Division would believe,” Olivia explained, and Peter nodded.
“Ah,” Walter said, turning back around toward the windshield. “Well, in that case, while I'm not at all pleased that either of you had to undergo an ordeal like this, I must confess I look forward to hearing more about it.”
Peter snorted. “Thanks, Walter. That's very sympathetic of you.”
“But you are going to tell us about your experience, yes?” Walter insisted, sounding slightly hurt. “All I meant was, the more I know about it, the more likely I can help--”
“Relax, it's okay,” Peter interrupted, reaching to lay a hand on his father's shoulder. “I know what you meant. And yes, we are going to tell you.”
“Good.”
“Whatever it is you went through, will you two be needing a hospital?” Broyles inquired. “I can have transport ready for you both when we arrive.”
Olivia had already considered this idea. “I don't think so,” she told him. “Any tests and bloodwork that need to be done can be done at the lab.” It was a mark of how much her trust in Walter had grown over the years that this option didn't disturb her at all.
“All right.” Broyles met her eye in the rearview mirror for a moment before returning his focus to the road.
If the flight back to Boston had been any longer than it was (once they got into the air it was less than twenty minutes), Olivia might have found herself giving in to her exhaustion and falling asleep in her seat. As it was, it must have been nervous energy that kept her awake and alert throughout the trip. Peter stayed awake as well, although that might have had more to do with the fact that he was sitting across the aisle from her, next to Walter, who seemed to think it was necessary to bring Peter up to speed on everything he had missed while he was gone, including such important details as the menu for every single meal Walter had eaten.
In contrast, Olivia's seatmate was Astrid. Beyond telling Olivia again that she was glad to see Peter and her back safely, Astrid was her usual perceptive self and didn't try to engage Olivia in conversation.
Olivia was so wrapped up in her own thoughts about the past few days that the pilot's announcement that they were about to land almost made her jump. She looked across the aisle at Peter and saw that he was looking her way as well - and his amused/concerned expression told her he'd witnessed her reaction. She just shrugged and gave him a wry smile.
Broyles' authority got their group through security with a minimum of hassle. As their vehicle took them along the familiar roads leading to Harvard, Olivia felt herself relax. It was good to be back, in this place that had come to feel more like home than anywhere else she had ever lived.
“Home, sweet home, huh?” Peter said, echoing her thoughts as he bent forward to look out her window.
“Yeah.”
As soon as they were inside the lab, Broyles said, “Now, Dunham, Bishop, if you're feeling up to it, anything else you can tell us about your experience would be useful.”
Peter nodded, but Olivia said, “Before we do, can you tell us what you'd found in your investigation?”
“Not a lot, unfortunately,” Broyles replied.
“We had security camera footage from the zoo,” Astrid put in, “but the angle wasn't great. All we could see was you guys walking toward your car, then being hit by something we couldn't see and going down, and then four men dressed in black dragging you out of sight.”
“Yes, and no matter how we tried,” Walter added, looking distressed at the memory, “we couldn't get anymore useful information from the footage. And there wasn't any evidence left at the scene, as I recall.”
“That's correct,” Broyles confirmed. “Apparently no one at the zoo saw anything, either, although they thought they remembered you entering and leaving.”
“So, you were pretty much at a dead end, then,” Peter summarized, and Astrid nodded regretfully. “Well, we'll fill in as many blanks as we can.”
The two of them began their tale. Olivia started, but Peter chimed in frequently. Their audience had almost identical expressions of shock and amazement when they each described waking up in the back of the truck in tiger form, and Walter was fairly vibrating with excitement when they passed along their theories as to how this could have happened.
“Oh, yes, it would have had to be very advanced sort of genetic manipulation for you both to be completely transformed in the way you're describing,” he said, hurrying over to a specific shelf and getting out two empty vials. “If you will permit me, I would like to draw some of your blood as soon as possible, to see what - if any - traces might remain. This could not only shed some light on how whoever it was managed to modify your DNA, but it could also help us track them down, depending on what we find.”
“Fine,” Peter said. “I'll go first.” He sat down in the chair in the middle of the lab, and while Walter and Astrid worked together to draw a vial quickly and efficiently, he continued the story. “So after we figured out what had most likely happened to us, the next thing we tried to figure out is why - why someone would expend the effort to kidnap us and change us into tigers.” At that, Peter laughed and rubbed his other hand across his face. “Listen to me, talking like it doesn't sound completely and utterly insane to use the phrase 'change us into tigers,' in reference to something that actually happened.”
Walter looked up from putting the stopper on the vial of Peter's blood. “Yes, it certainly isn't something you hear about every day - not even among the sorts of cases we usually investigate!” He was delighted, but at Peter's look he cleared his throat. “Uh, Olivia, may I--?”
“Sure.” After Peter had vacated the chair, Olivia sat down, exchanging an amused glance with Astrid at Walter's excitement. As the younger agent prepared Olivia's arm for the blood draw, Olivia took up the tale. “So, our best guess was some kind of a smuggling operation, and since we weren't dead already, we figured they wanted us alive for whatever their end goal was.”
“A reasonable deduction,” Walter agreed with a nod. “This may sting a little, my dear.”
Olivia turned her gaze away as the needle went in, and continued, “Since tigers are endangered, we thought maybe they were planning either to sell us to the highest bidder among zoos or collectors, or that our kidnappers were eco-terrorists who were planning to bring us to some place in the world where tigers naturally live.”
“Oh, wow,” Astrid remarked, eyebrows raised. “That's taking efforts to save endangered animals a little too seriously, I'd say.”
“It gets better,” Peter said darkly, crossing his arms. “We found a case labeled with ID numbers for each of us in the back of the truck, with some kind of chemical or something inside. That, on top of the fact that they took us both at the same time and had two cages set up in the truck, made us pretty sure that they were hoping for an end result of more than two tigers to contribute to the wild population.”
Astrid's face showed her outrage, as did Broyles'. Walter took another moment before he made the connection, but then he looked indignant. “Well, that would be simply intolerable! When you and Olivia have children, Peter, you're going to be somewhere nearby so I can see my grandchildren often - not somewhere halfway around the world, in who knows what terrible conditions.”
Olivia saw Peter's mortified expression for a moment before he covered his face with his hands. She was sure she was blushing, herself.
“Walter...” Astrid shook her head, hiding a smile.
Broyles cleared his throat. “You said you were able to find that case in the back of the truck, Peter, but you were both in cages. How did you manage to get out to search the rest of the truck?”
“That,” Peter replied, “is a very good question.” He looked from Broyles to Olivia, meeting her gaze with pride clearly visible in his own. “It was all thanks to Olivia.”
Olivia dropped her gaze to her hands. Even after the additional evidence their escape had provided of the existence of this facet of her abilities, she still didn't exactly feel comfortable with it.
“She unlocked the cage doors,” Peter continued, when she didn't speak. “And then later, after the truck exited the highway, she opened the back of the truck, too.”
Walter's eyes widened, and he turned to regard Olivia. “You mean, just like that case with the light box a few years ago, Olivia? You used your mind to move objects?”
“It was the only way we could think of to get out of there before we got wherever we were going,” she said, shrugging and looking down again. “I didn't know if it would work or not, but I had to try.”
“Fascinating. So whatever procedure was done to transform you, it must not have altered your brain chemistry enough to remove the effects of the Cortexiphan.” Then he pointed between her and Peter. “And during all this time, how were you communicating with Peter?”
“As bizarre as this whole thing continues to sound,” Olivia answered, “telepathy.”
“Really?” Walter beamed. “That's wonderful! Are you two still able to communicate in the same fashion?”
Olivia looked at Peter. She hadn't considered it, but obviously nothing was too bizarre at this point. He returned the look, smiling, and said, “Okay, what are am I thinking right now?”
Half-serious, Olivia listened, but didn't get anything. “I have no idea.” She thought at him, How about you, are you getting this, Peter?
Peter didn't reply, which she took as a negative. “I don't think it works anymore, Walter.”
Looking highly disappointed, Walter turned his attention back to dealing with the blood samples from her and from Peter. “Hmm. The sudden appearance and then disappearance of telepathic abilities between the two of you while in tiger form will require more thought. I can't explain it at all at the moment.”
“If anyone can figure it out, Walter,” Peter said with a note of affection in his voice, “it's you.”
The two of them resumed their telling of the past few days' events. After they once again passed along the names of the doctors that they'd overheard, Broyles looked at Astrid - but before he could speak, she was already nodding. “I'll do a search for any Dr. West or Dr. Berg operating out of the Massachusetts or Vermont area, to see if anyone by those names who specializes in bioengineering or related fields shows up, or anyone who might have ties to eco-terrorist groups.”
“Good,” Broyles said. He turned back to Olivia and Peter, who were now standing next to each other in the center of the lab. “Can you remember any other details that might help us track down the people behind this whole operation?”
“Uh, well, when we left the highway, it sounded like we were slowing down to prepare to stop,” Olivia told him. “That was about two hours after the truck met up with Dr. West - and she said it would take about two hours from where we stopped to get to the facility.”
The agent nodded. “All right. That will help us narrow down a search radius. And you said after you got out of the truck, you found yourself in the national forest next to Highway 7?”
“That's right,” Peter confirmed.
“How did you guys end up as humans again, anyway?” Astrid asked, looking up for a moment from her computer.
“Yes, I was going to ask the same question,” Walter remarked. He was still busy with their blood samples, but clearly still listening in.
Peter shrugged. “Well, we can only guess, but based on the fact that we both started to feel progressively more sick as we were trying to head further south through the forest, and then it got incredibly awful, and then we woke up as ourselves again, we're guessing it was--”
“Rejection of the foreign DNA, of course!” Walter interjected. To Broyles and the room at large, he explained, “Our immune system will reject anything foreign that enters the body, which is why transplant patients must always receive anti-rejection drugs even if the donor is a family member - unless the transplant occurs between identical twins, of course, as they share nearly all of their DNA in common.” Then he looked at Olivia and Peter again. “I would theorize that the people who took you administered anti-rejection drugs when they first modified your DNA, and then perhaps another dose before you woke up in the truck. They no doubt intended to give you more after you arrived at the facility where you were being taken.”
“That would make sense,” Olivia replied. She was just glad that Dr. West hadn't decided to try to administer their next doses when she met with the truck, although of course she and Peter would not have passively allowed her to do so. “Could traces of those drugs show up in our bloodwork?”
Walter frowned. “Well, it has been a significant amount of time since you last received a dose, as indicated by your immune response and subsequent return to your human forms. It's worth checking for, though.”
A yawn cut off Olivia's attempt to continue the story, and Broyles quickly said, “What you both have told us so far will give us enough to begin our search for your kidnappers. For now, I want you to go home and get some rest, and be ready to give your official statements tomorrow.” His gaze traveled from Peter to Olivia. “It's good to have you back.”
“Thank you, sir,” Olivia said, smiling a little. She figured getting to sleep tonight would not be a problem; in fact she was fairly certain that she'd have trouble staying awake at all after she showered and changed.
“Good to be back,” Peter said.
With another nod to each of them and a promise that he would get the ball rolling on a search for the facility, Broyles left.
Peter looked at Olivia. “I don't know about you,” he said, “but I don't think I'm safe to drive at this point.”
“No,” Olivia agreed, “I don't think I am, either.” She turned to Astrid. “Could you...?”
Astrid smiled. “Yeah, I'll drive you two. Just let me get my keys.” She got up from her computer.
“Peter,” Walter said, leaving the various pieces of equipment he had been monitoring to hurry over to his son, “do you want me to come with you? I know this analysis is important, but I don't want to leave you by yourself at home.”
Peter put his hand on Walter's shoulder and said, “Thanks, Walter, but I'll be okay.” He shared another look with Olivia. “There's no need for me to be alone, either.”
As Olivia returned his smile, Walter glanced between them. “Oh! Well, in that case, I won't worry.” He gave Peter a pat on the arm, and then turned to Olivia. “You look after each other, my dear.”
“We will.”
~
Author's Notes: This is a very odd story, I realize. Furthermore, I realize that if readers of this story happen to have read certain of my X-Files or In Plain Sight stories, they may notice that I seem to have a thing for writing this kind of storyline. I can't give you an explanation for this fact, but I can thank you for reading in spite of it!
Also, I sincerely apologize for any geographical errors regarding Vermont and/or Massachusetts. I did research the geography of the area as well as I could, but I have no personal experience to go on.