Some Forgotten Name, Carved Upon A Stone
Title: Some Forgotten Name, Carved Upon A Stone
Characters: Blue!Lincoln, Red!Olivia, Red!Robert Danzig.
Pairings: Lincoln/AltLiv.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers up through S4.
Summary: When Lincoln decides to track down Over There's Robert Danzig, Altlivia shares her experience with Over Here's Rachel.
Lincoln knew it was unlikely that they would have known each other. The two men’s paths had diverged too long ago (he still wished he knew exactly when and how that had happened, knew that there was so much more he wanted to know about his counterpart. Olivia might be able to tell him some of it, but it was still very raw for her, and he didn’t want to upset her by pushing it. Besides, he still wished he could have heard it all from the other Lincoln.)
“Sorry, I don’t recognise that name.” Liv had said when he eventually plucked up the courage to ask her. “Lincoln and I were partners for six years, as you knew, and before that he’d been paired with Charlie for a while. That’s Charlie Francis, who used to be in our division until he married this bug girl called Mona and moved away. You probably heard me talking about him before, and he was at the memorial. But no, I can’t ever remember him mentioning anyone called Robert Danzig.”
“He was my partner over there,” Lincoln explained. “You know, before I joined Fringe Division.”
“And you were wondering if there was a Robert Danzig over here too.” Olivia nodded. “It’s okay. I get that. In fact -“ She seemed as though she was about to say something else, but then broke off. “Well, I can see if I can find out anything for you about him if you like. And obviously it’s up to you if you do decide to look for him. But just to warn you, you may not find what you were hoping to.”
Lincoln wasn’t sure what she meant, and there was a look on her face which told him not to push that one. But he thought that if he did get the opportunity, he would want to know what had happened to the Robert Danzig in this world.
There he was, living at a different address than in the other universe. Olivia had found it for him, despite some obvious misgivings she hadn’t shared. Lincoln wasn’t going to push her on that. She’d talk about it when she was ready. (With this Olivia, he felt that she actually would, whereas he would never have been quite sure with the other.) The street Lincoln once knew was gone, ambered in a Fringe event according to Liv. Yet as Lincoln walked closer to his goal, to Robert, he felt an odd sense of familiarity.
“Robert?” Julie Danzig stepped out of her front door, then turned back towards the house. “You better get a move on, you’re going to be late.”
“Can I help it if the toaster’s acting up?” came a voice from inside the house. Robert Danzig made his way to the door.
“No, but you can help it that you didn’t get up a few minutes earlier, then maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if the toaster was acting up. Or maybe you could think about eating something simple, like cereal, that doesn’t need a toaster.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Robert laughed as he kissed his wife. “Gotta run.”
He didn’t notice Lincoln as he walked past him. Why would he? This man had never known either version of Lincoln Lee. He was nothing to him. He had no idea how much Lincoln was longing to walk over to them, join in the conversation about the temperamental toaster. They’d been talking about Robert’s crap toaster on that last morning before he died, Lincoln remembered. If they’d known that it was the last time, what would they have talked about? Lincoln didn’t know. He did know that there was a lot he still wished he’d said to Robert. He was pretty sure that Robert knew that he and his family were the closest thing he’d had to a home ever since he’d left the Academy and been paired with him, but he still wished he’d actually told him that.
Jonathan and Amy had stepped out of the door now, and Amy was looking at him oddly. Lincoln hastily walked away before he attracted any more attention to himself. The Amy Danzig in his original universe had been his goddaughter, had drawn pictures that she claimed were meant to be him for him to stick on his fridge, and this Amy had just looked through him as though he were a stranger to her. Which, of course, she was, he hastily reminded himself. He hadn’t had time to say goodbye to Julie and the kids, and he wondered what he could have said, anyway. If he’d said that he was moving away and left it at that, they would have asked if they could keep in touch, and Lincoln didn’t know how he would have explained that that wouldn’t be possible. But this way, they would just think that he’d disappeared from their lives, so soon after Robert had, and they wouldn’t understand that either.
Maybe Liv was right. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.
“You picked the right day to take personal time,” Olivia said as she walked into the apartment. “The date’s been set for Broyles’s trial, and the atmosphere’s been kind of weird all day...” She broke off as she saw the look on Lincoln’s face. “You went to see him, didn’t you?”
“I think I maybe should have listened to you,” Lincoln admitted. “I hadn’t really prepared myself for seeing him, listening to him moan about his toaster as he always did, and him not knowing who I was.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you would have listened to me if I’d explained myself a bit better.” Olivia replied. “When you were over there, did Olivia ever say anything to you about her sister, Rachel? Or did you meet her?”
“I never met her,” Lincoln began. “She’d moved to Chicago before I joined Fringe Division. Olivia used to talk about her, though. Her and her kids, Ella and Eddie. I remember that Olivia didn’t have a very high opinion of her husband Greg. In fact, when Peter came back and Olivia started remembering the other timeline, she thought that Rachel and Greg had actually separated. From what I remember, they had come close to it at one point, but when they found out they were expecting Eddie, they decided to make it work.”
Olivia snorted. “Well, if he was anything like the Greg Blake over here, then I’m with Olivia on that one.”
Lincoln laughed. “So, I’m guessing that your sister actually went through with the separation?”
Olivia shook her head. “No, Rachel died of VPE.”
“Um...what?” Lincoln asked. “I mean, I’m sorry.” Brilliant, Lincoln, he thought. She just told you her sister died and you’re wondering about the stupid disease?
But Olivia didn’t appear upset by his question. “Viral Propagated Eclampsia. You don’t have that over there?” As Lincoln shook his head, she continued. “It’s a disease that stays dormant until pregnancy. It can be tested for, but there’s no cure yet. There’s only ever been a handful of cases where a mother with VPE has survived delivery. I know I shouldn’t have, but I allowed myself to hope that Rachel would be the one who would survive. My ex, Frank, who was a virologist, did a lot of work with her, and he helped me track down this well known fertility specialist, Juliet, to help. And for a while, we thought it was working.”
“But it wasn’t.” Lincoln reached out and took her hand. “I’m sorry, Olivia.”
“There’s a chance I’ll have it too.” Olivia continued. “The risk’s higher if a family member was a carrier. That’s partly why Frank and I split up. He wants kids, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to give him any.”
Lincoln was silent, not really knowing what to say.
“But enough about that.” Olivia shook her head. “I’m off the point. I’m guessing you know that I took the other Olivia’s place in your world for a while last year?”
“Walter did mention something about it,” Lincoln admitted, deciding not to tell her what he had actually said.
“Oh, I bet he did.” Olivia laughed. “And I can guess what he said as well. But I think he did get to like me by the end.”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Anyway. Rachel had moved to Chicago not long before we switched. From what I picked up, she and Olivia had had a fight not long beforehand, because Olivia didn’t think Rachel was doing the right thing in moving to Chicago with Greg. Rachel thought Olivia - thought I - was keeping my distance from her because of that argument. But it wasn’t that at all.”
“So what was it?” Lincoln asked.
“After my sister died, I thought the one thing I wanted in the world was a chance to see my sister again. And now, I had the chance to see Rachel, to see what her child would have been like had she survived. But it wouldn’t have been the same. That woman wasn’t my sister. She wasn’t the person who’d laughed with me over bad dates, who’d cried with me when our dad died. And if anyone was going to know that I wasn’t their Olivia, it was her. It was easy enough for me to study popular culture, and I’d studied the cases that their Olivia had worked, so that I could talk about them as though it was me who’d worked them if the subject ever came up. Not easy, with her photographic memory, but I knew enough to get by. But the person who’d helped me with both those things couldn’t help me with my history with Rachel. If anyone was going to catch me out, it was going to be Rachel. And for a while, I didn’t think it mattered. I didn’t tell anyone else this, but I took a plane to Chicago one time, in the hope of seeing her, just like you and your friend Robert.”
“And what did you do?” Lincoln asked.
“Pretty much the same as you. I hung around the house for a while, trying to work up the courage to go in, but I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t replace my Rachel with the version from your universe, because it would never be the same. Just like it would never be the same with your Robert.”
The sensible thing to do would have been to walk away. Just as the Rachel in Lincoln’s own universe wasn’t Olivia’s Rachel, so this man was not Lincoln’s Robert Danzig. They wouldn’t be able to share the memories of all the cases they’d worked together, they wouldn’t share the in-jokes about Robert’s temperamental toaster.
But it didn’t have to matter. After all, the Olivia with whom Lincoln spent all his time now wasn’t “his” Olivia, the one from his universe. And he wasn’t “her” Lincoln either, and that hadn’t been an issue for them. They’d made it work, and Lincoln knew that he and the other Robert could as well. He took on board what Liv had said, but he thought that this time things could be different.
There he was, outside his apartment struggling with some big box.
“Hey, uh, would you like a hand with that?” Lincoln called out to him.
Robert wiped the sweat from his brow. “Thanks, man, that would be great.”
Lincoln held out his hand. “I’m Lincoln, by the way.”
Robert took his hand and shook it. “Robert. So, are you new in this neighbourhood? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
If only you knew, Lincoln thought. “Yeah, I only just moved here. I’ve been staying with my friend Liv until I find somewhere new, and I’m hoping to move into a place on this street.”
“Well, if you get it, let me know. I’ll have to introduce you to a few people I know round here. In fact, I’ll start with my family. My wife, Julie, is just inside with our kids.”
As Lincoln followed Robert into the house, he knew that Olivia was wrong. This time, there was hope.
Characters: Blue!Lincoln, Red!Olivia, Red!Robert Danzig.
Pairings: Lincoln/AltLiv.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers up through S4.
Summary: When Lincoln decides to track down Over There's Robert Danzig, Altlivia shares her experience with Over Here's Rachel.
Lincoln knew it was unlikely that they would have known each other. The two men’s paths had diverged too long ago (he still wished he knew exactly when and how that had happened, knew that there was so much more he wanted to know about his counterpart. Olivia might be able to tell him some of it, but it was still very raw for her, and he didn’t want to upset her by pushing it. Besides, he still wished he could have heard it all from the other Lincoln.)
“Sorry, I don’t recognise that name.” Liv had said when he eventually plucked up the courage to ask her. “Lincoln and I were partners for six years, as you knew, and before that he’d been paired with Charlie for a while. That’s Charlie Francis, who used to be in our division until he married this bug girl called Mona and moved away. You probably heard me talking about him before, and he was at the memorial. But no, I can’t ever remember him mentioning anyone called Robert Danzig.”
“He was my partner over there,” Lincoln explained. “You know, before I joined Fringe Division.”
“And you were wondering if there was a Robert Danzig over here too.” Olivia nodded. “It’s okay. I get that. In fact -“ She seemed as though she was about to say something else, but then broke off. “Well, I can see if I can find out anything for you about him if you like. And obviously it’s up to you if you do decide to look for him. But just to warn you, you may not find what you were hoping to.”
Lincoln wasn’t sure what she meant, and there was a look on her face which told him not to push that one. But he thought that if he did get the opportunity, he would want to know what had happened to the Robert Danzig in this world.
There he was, living at a different address than in the other universe. Olivia had found it for him, despite some obvious misgivings she hadn’t shared. Lincoln wasn’t going to push her on that. She’d talk about it when she was ready. (With this Olivia, he felt that she actually would, whereas he would never have been quite sure with the other.) The street Lincoln once knew was gone, ambered in a Fringe event according to Liv. Yet as Lincoln walked closer to his goal, to Robert, he felt an odd sense of familiarity.
“Robert?” Julie Danzig stepped out of her front door, then turned back towards the house. “You better get a move on, you’re going to be late.”
“Can I help it if the toaster’s acting up?” came a voice from inside the house. Robert Danzig made his way to the door.
“No, but you can help it that you didn’t get up a few minutes earlier, then maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if the toaster was acting up. Or maybe you could think about eating something simple, like cereal, that doesn’t need a toaster.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Robert laughed as he kissed his wife. “Gotta run.”
He didn’t notice Lincoln as he walked past him. Why would he? This man had never known either version of Lincoln Lee. He was nothing to him. He had no idea how much Lincoln was longing to walk over to them, join in the conversation about the temperamental toaster. They’d been talking about Robert’s crap toaster on that last morning before he died, Lincoln remembered. If they’d known that it was the last time, what would they have talked about? Lincoln didn’t know. He did know that there was a lot he still wished he’d said to Robert. He was pretty sure that Robert knew that he and his family were the closest thing he’d had to a home ever since he’d left the Academy and been paired with him, but he still wished he’d actually told him that.
Jonathan and Amy had stepped out of the door now, and Amy was looking at him oddly. Lincoln hastily walked away before he attracted any more attention to himself. The Amy Danzig in his original universe had been his goddaughter, had drawn pictures that she claimed were meant to be him for him to stick on his fridge, and this Amy had just looked through him as though he were a stranger to her. Which, of course, she was, he hastily reminded himself. He hadn’t had time to say goodbye to Julie and the kids, and he wondered what he could have said, anyway. If he’d said that he was moving away and left it at that, they would have asked if they could keep in touch, and Lincoln didn’t know how he would have explained that that wouldn’t be possible. But this way, they would just think that he’d disappeared from their lives, so soon after Robert had, and they wouldn’t understand that either.
Maybe Liv was right. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.
“You picked the right day to take personal time,” Olivia said as she walked into the apartment. “The date’s been set for Broyles’s trial, and the atmosphere’s been kind of weird all day...” She broke off as she saw the look on Lincoln’s face. “You went to see him, didn’t you?”
“I think I maybe should have listened to you,” Lincoln admitted. “I hadn’t really prepared myself for seeing him, listening to him moan about his toaster as he always did, and him not knowing who I was.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you would have listened to me if I’d explained myself a bit better.” Olivia replied. “When you were over there, did Olivia ever say anything to you about her sister, Rachel? Or did you meet her?”
“I never met her,” Lincoln began. “She’d moved to Chicago before I joined Fringe Division. Olivia used to talk about her, though. Her and her kids, Ella and Eddie. I remember that Olivia didn’t have a very high opinion of her husband Greg. In fact, when Peter came back and Olivia started remembering the other timeline, she thought that Rachel and Greg had actually separated. From what I remember, they had come close to it at one point, but when they found out they were expecting Eddie, they decided to make it work.”
Olivia snorted. “Well, if he was anything like the Greg Blake over here, then I’m with Olivia on that one.”
Lincoln laughed. “So, I’m guessing that your sister actually went through with the separation?”
Olivia shook her head. “No, Rachel died of VPE.”
“Um...what?” Lincoln asked. “I mean, I’m sorry.” Brilliant, Lincoln, he thought. She just told you her sister died and you’re wondering about the stupid disease?
But Olivia didn’t appear upset by his question. “Viral Propagated Eclampsia. You don’t have that over there?” As Lincoln shook his head, she continued. “It’s a disease that stays dormant until pregnancy. It can be tested for, but there’s no cure yet. There’s only ever been a handful of cases where a mother with VPE has survived delivery. I know I shouldn’t have, but I allowed myself to hope that Rachel would be the one who would survive. My ex, Frank, who was a virologist, did a lot of work with her, and he helped me track down this well known fertility specialist, Juliet, to help. And for a while, we thought it was working.”
“But it wasn’t.” Lincoln reached out and took her hand. “I’m sorry, Olivia.”
“There’s a chance I’ll have it too.” Olivia continued. “The risk’s higher if a family member was a carrier. That’s partly why Frank and I split up. He wants kids, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to give him any.”
Lincoln was silent, not really knowing what to say.
“But enough about that.” Olivia shook her head. “I’m off the point. I’m guessing you know that I took the other Olivia’s place in your world for a while last year?”
“Walter did mention something about it,” Lincoln admitted, deciding not to tell her what he had actually said.
“Oh, I bet he did.” Olivia laughed. “And I can guess what he said as well. But I think he did get to like me by the end.”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Anyway. Rachel had moved to Chicago not long before we switched. From what I picked up, she and Olivia had had a fight not long beforehand, because Olivia didn’t think Rachel was doing the right thing in moving to Chicago with Greg. Rachel thought Olivia - thought I - was keeping my distance from her because of that argument. But it wasn’t that at all.”
“So what was it?” Lincoln asked.
“After my sister died, I thought the one thing I wanted in the world was a chance to see my sister again. And now, I had the chance to see Rachel, to see what her child would have been like had she survived. But it wouldn’t have been the same. That woman wasn’t my sister. She wasn’t the person who’d laughed with me over bad dates, who’d cried with me when our dad died. And if anyone was going to know that I wasn’t their Olivia, it was her. It was easy enough for me to study popular culture, and I’d studied the cases that their Olivia had worked, so that I could talk about them as though it was me who’d worked them if the subject ever came up. Not easy, with her photographic memory, but I knew enough to get by. But the person who’d helped me with both those things couldn’t help me with my history with Rachel. If anyone was going to catch me out, it was going to be Rachel. And for a while, I didn’t think it mattered. I didn’t tell anyone else this, but I took a plane to Chicago one time, in the hope of seeing her, just like you and your friend Robert.”
“And what did you do?” Lincoln asked.
“Pretty much the same as you. I hung around the house for a while, trying to work up the courage to go in, but I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t replace my Rachel with the version from your universe, because it would never be the same. Just like it would never be the same with your Robert.”
The sensible thing to do would have been to walk away. Just as the Rachel in Lincoln’s own universe wasn’t Olivia’s Rachel, so this man was not Lincoln’s Robert Danzig. They wouldn’t be able to share the memories of all the cases they’d worked together, they wouldn’t share the in-jokes about Robert’s temperamental toaster.
But it didn’t have to matter. After all, the Olivia with whom Lincoln spent all his time now wasn’t “his” Olivia, the one from his universe. And he wasn’t “her” Lincoln either, and that hadn’t been an issue for them. They’d made it work, and Lincoln knew that he and the other Robert could as well. He took on board what Liv had said, but he thought that this time things could be different.
There he was, outside his apartment struggling with some big box.
“Hey, uh, would you like a hand with that?” Lincoln called out to him.
Robert wiped the sweat from his brow. “Thanks, man, that would be great.”
Lincoln held out his hand. “I’m Lincoln, by the way.”
Robert took his hand and shook it. “Robert. So, are you new in this neighbourhood? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
If only you knew, Lincoln thought. “Yeah, I only just moved here. I’ve been staying with my friend Liv until I find somewhere new, and I’m hoping to move into a place on this street.”
“Well, if you get it, let me know. I’ll have to introduce you to a few people I know round here. In fact, I’ll start with my family. My wife, Julie, is just inside with our kids.”
As Lincoln followed Robert into the house, he knew that Olivia was wrong. This time, there was hope.