nightcathedral | Put one foot wrong and I'm gonna fall...

Entry tags:

Put one foot wrong and I'm gonna fall...

It's nearly three in the morning when Olivia slips out of her room and heads down to the lab where Tony Stark had a sensory deprivation tank set up for her. She moves quickly and quietly, and doesn't bother switching on the lights when she enters the lab, leaving the blue glow of the monitors around the room to light her way - she's hoping that the less she does, the less JARVIS will take notice of her, and maybe he won't wake anyone to tell them what she's doing before it's too late. There are letters on her bed to Steve, to Jane, to Tony and Bruce, and between that and her absence, and whatever security cameras she's sure are monitoring this room, that'll have to do to explain where she's gone.

She eases the door quietly shut behind her, and crosses the room to the bright steel table where the syringes full of Cortexiphan Dr. Banner managed to synthesize are already laid out. Olivia picks one up, grimaces a little, and slides the needle into the big veins just below her wrist. Maybe this is what went wrong the last time. Maybe she needs a dose of the drug to get her to the right place. She's praying that's what it is, because otherwise, she's running out of ideas or other plans.

The empty syringe makes a soft ringing sound as she tosses it back into the tray. Olivia's already all but running up the stairs to access the tank. There's a breathing apparatus dangling over the top, just like in Walternate's lab. She grabs it, fits it into her mouth and takes a breath, and slides into the water with hardly a ripple.

For a minute, nothing happens. Olivia floats in the tank, eyes closed, just breathing and thinking of letting the universe pass through her, just like Walter told her the first time. Thinking of home.

Between one breath and the next, she vanishes, with only a swirling disturbance in the water of the tank to mark that she was there at all. The room stays silent, the tank empty, for another minute or two.

Then the tank explodes in a roar of heat and light, a ring of fire spreading outward and taking hold anywhere it can, blackening what it can't. Olivia tumbles out of the tank along with the water and lands with a crunch in the shattered glass from the tank, choking and gasping while the fire that wasn't put out by the flood dances up the walls.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Olivia winces immediately. She really hadn't thought that would come up just yet - it hadn't occurred to her that Peter would know that. Maybe she should have guessed.

She shoots Steve a quick apologetic look, though she's not certain he's paying enough attention to her to notice, and leans in to murmur to Peter, "Actually, Peter... he is that Steve Rogers. The one that..."

Olivia sighs. And here she'd stopped thinking there was anything she could say that would make her sound insane, at least to anyone in Fringe Division. Apparently she was wrong.

"It's complicated."

Peter looks at her. Looks at Steve's face. Looks at her again. He can't decide whether the stranger is insane and Olivia is placating him, whether Olivia has been through a little too much lately, or if he himself has just finally lost his mind. "I think we should call Walter. I need to remember what being sane feels like."

He hesitates, not wanting to leave them alone, but really needing Walter or at least a chance to gather himself. He starts to turn back toward the lab, stops to look at Steve again, and then gives Olivia one long, appraising look before giving her a squeeze before he lets go. "I'll call Broyles and Astrid too. Olivia..."

It's good to see you. I missed you. I'm glad you're all right. Alive. I love you. He touches her cheek and vanishes into the lab.

Steve doesn't say anything for a long minute, and then decides to sit down. There's a bench, thankfully, or he'd be on the floor. "There were comics. I saw some of them once, they were... But. Here?"

He looks up from his hands at Olivia, lost. "Do- Am- Do I exist here?"

Olivia nods a little at Peter's decision to call the others. "I'll be right out here if you need me. Or if any of them need to talk to me..."

She smiles up at him as he touches her cheek, and watches him until he's out of sight, only then turning back to Steve. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't think..." She shakes her head a little and repeats, "I'm sorry."

Olivia hesitates, and then moves to sit next to him on the bench, elbows braced on her thighs, hands laced together in front of her face. "I really can't say. You don't exist the way you do in your universe, where everyone knows about you, but... different universes... They exist because people made different choices. It's possible you were never born in this universe. Or maybe you were never part of the super soldier program, or you..." Telling him he might have died here is probably not going to reassure him. She takes a breath and shakes her head. "I just don't know."

His brain feels a little bit like it's been set spinning like a top. Half-finished thoughts chase themselves around and around until he can't keep them straight any more and he's left feeling much the same way he did standing in Times Square after waking up that first day.

Deep breaths, Rogers. Deep breaths, focus, one step at a time. "It doesn't matter right now," he says, and it almost sounds convincing. He tries to smile. "Sorry to complicate your homecoming."

She shakes her head firmly at that. "It's not your fault. If anything, it's probably mine, and I am sorry for that."

Another moment of hesitation, and then she reaches out to touch the back of his hand lightly, eyes fixed on his. "I understand how you're feeling, and if I had a choice, I never would have put you through this, but... we will find a way to send you back. I promise, if I have to take you there myself, we'll get you home."

"No," he says, startled out of his funk at least briefly. "No, you're staying here."

He takes her hand, voice and face stiff. "You know what it feels like, but I've done this before. If I have to, I'll do it again. I'm not going to let anyone else lose-"

Lose the kind of love he saw between her and Peter. "We'll figure something out. And if we don't..."

He manages a smile. "If we don't, you might have to get used to having me around."

Olivia's lips flicker in a brief smile, and she squeezes his hand a little. "Well, that's not exactly my first plan. Walter's a genius - so is Peter, for that matter - and I'm sure they can come up with something. But if not..."

She's not tearing him out of his life for a second time. They came here, so there must be a way back, and if the only way is through her...

"I think I owe you. For... a lot of things, by now. Dragging you here, if nothing else. You can't tell me not to do everything in my power to make it up to you." She smiles again, this one a little crooked. "Or I guess you can, if you want, but I don't think I'm going to listen."

He sighs, looking down at their linked hands, that quiet selfish part of him wishing for the infirmary, the mansion, New York, wishing that whatever happened to bring them here.... hadn't.

"You don't owe me anything," he says. "But you probably aren't going to listen to that either."

That's when Peter comes back, his gaze flicking between the two of them in silence before he says, "Astrid is bringing Walter. Broyles will probably beat them here." He smiles, just a little. "I don't think anyone but Walter believed me when I said you were here."

Olivia gives Steve's hand one last, reassuring squeeze before letting go and rising to her feet. "I didn't expect them to," she answers with a smile. "Um... do you think I could get a change of clothes? If you're still keeping any of my spare clothes in the lab, that is... Steve, I'm sure we can find you a change of clothes too."

She hasn't changed since the explosion in Stark's lab. Walter and Astrid, at least, have seen her in worse states than this, but she'd still rather greet them feeling like herself.

Another though, less pleasant, follows on the heels of that one, and she hesitates for a second before asking, "Peter... am I going to have to convince them I'm not... the other one?" Her concern's not as well-hidden as she'd hoped. Peter knew, right away - a part of her knew he would - but the others... She'd like to brace herself for whatever's coming, if she can.

"...Oh, right." He looks down at the hospital gown and grimaces a little. "I'd appreciate it."

Peter, meanwhile, looks like he just took a punch to the side of the head. In some ways he feels like he has. Just thinking about that other woman makes him feel like he's trapped in that chair again, eyes wide open, frozen and sick and wondering what she's doing while he's stuck and unable to move. He looks away. "You won't have to do much. She's - she made it pretty clear she wasn't you before she left. Drugged me, ran for it. She made it back to the other side. They all thought you were dead."

Steve looks between the two of them, something setting off alarm bells beyond the fact that there's another Olivia and she's clearly not friendly. "I'm getting the feeling it would take a lot of effort to explain the things you haven't."

"There's a lot I don't know." Her voice is quiet, almost uncertain. There were things she could guess, things she could be almost certain about from what she saw in the alternate universe, things Walternate and Brandon and the other Broyles said, what she knew of the other Olivia, but...

She ducks her head. Something in Peter's reaction sets off a fluttering fear in her chest, and she just knows if she looks at him now, she'll see the glimmer of the other side dancing around his face. She doesn't need that reminder right now.

"I guess I'll get the rundown when the others show up." She glances up at Steve, and starts a little when she sees a glimmer around him too - she'd forgotten about that, and it takes her a second or two to stop staring at him and shake it off. She nods toward the door to the lab. "Come on. Let's see if we can find you some actual clothes."

Steve follows, flicking an uncertain look at Peter. The other man looks like he wants to go after Olivia himself, but he stays put, so Steve walks into the lab alone.

"Agent Dunham?" It's tentative. He doesn't exactly loom- doesn't try to, anyway - just sort of sticks slightly closer than is necessary for his own comfort as much as hers. "They're- You'll be all right, won't you? They won't try to hurt you."

Because if they do there are going to be some very awkward concussions in the near future. He'd rather not have to mow through Olivia's friends.

Olivia glances up at him in surprise - both at his use of her title and at how close he is. He's stopped glimmering, thank God. Everything's going to be fine, and there's no reason to be nervous. She even manages a smile and a little laugh at Steve's question, and shakes her head as she turns away again, heading for one of the cabinets where they usually keep spare clothes in case of blood or slime or... whatever.

"I'll be fine. My boss is going to interrogate me about everything, and Walter's going to want to run a lot of tests - don't be alarmed if he comes at you with a Geiger counter - but they're not going to hurt us." Not that he'd asked about him, but she wants to make sure that's clear anyway.

"They're not like the other Fringe Division. The one I escaped from." She winces a little, feeling that's unfair - they all had their reasons for what they did, misguided though they may have been - and adds after a moment, "They haven't had to be."

She does still have clothes here in the lab. She pulls them out, along with a spare outfit of Peter's - it won't be a perfect fit for Steve, but better than a hospital gown - and holds that out to him. "You can change in one of the offices. Just don't touch... anything, really - I have no idea what Walter has lying around these days, so it's probably best to be safe."

Steve takes the clothes, looking down at them as he tries to remember how they work. It's funny, the things that unexpected trauma do. You feel fine, and then all of the sudden...

"I don't agree with that," he says, very quietly. "The Strategic Scientific Reserve could have just been the Allies' Hydra. In some ways, we had chances to be as bad as Sk- as Schmidt and his people. It would have made things easier."

His hands fist around the clothes. "There's no excuse for treating someone the way those people clearly treated you."

Before she can answer he bobs a little nod and shuffles off to the office to change, leaving her alone - and Peter standing in the door.

"He likes you," Peter says. He doesn't sound surprised, even though there's something protective and a little scared swirling in his gut.

Then he stops to think about what he just said and says, a little incredulously, "Captain America has a crush on you. Here I thought I was done thinking the things to come out of my mouth sound strange."

Olivia doesn't know what to say to that even if Steve had given her time to respond. She turns toward Peter as he speaks, her expression immediately going incredulous.

"No he doesn't," she answers with a flickering almost-smile, shaking her head. "He's just a friend, and he's worried about me."

She pauses for a moment, and then turns away from Peter just a little and starts changing as quickly as she can. He saw her in her underwear shortly after they met, this shouldn't be more awkward than that... but it is, somehow. Trying to ignore it, she goes on, "I was kind of shaken up when he met me, after I got away from the other Fringe Division, and I looked worse than I do now. And tonight was..."

Olivia laughs softly, turning back toward Peter as she buttons up her shirt. "I blew up the tank Stark set up for me in his lab, when I tried to get back here. Set the lab on fire, Steve had to pull me out... I guess he has reason to be worried." He doesn't have to be, but she can see why.

Peter doesn't say anything to that. Given how long it took her to accept the idea that the two of them could-

It's a relief. That's all. And that's all he's going to think about it. A smile breaks across his face as she describes an above-average week. "Sounds like you've been busy. When you say Stark, do you mean 'I am Iron Man' Stark?"

He's not looking forward to when Walter and Broyles and Astrid all get here. Yes, it will be an indescribable relief to have the entire team together again - but he'll also have to explain what happened between him and the other Olivia. All of it. No one else can break that news.

Steve eases back into the room, looking like he would happily sink into the floor. The pants aren't a terrible fit, but... Well. He and Peter might be similar heights, but their build couldn't be more different. The sleeves of the shirt look like they're about to rip open, and he can't even get the buttons to properly close. He finally gave up rather than risk tearing the shirt, leaving it hanging open.

"Um."

Edited 2011-10-29 03:34 (UTC)

Olivia snorts a little at Peter's question, grinning in amusement at the fact that he even knows that. And she apparently just spent weeks living in a mansion with Peter's childhood heroes. Their life is so strange. "Yeah, that's the one. He wasn't happy with me."

She's still buttoning up one sleeve when Steve comes back out, and she has to bite back a laugh when she turns to face him and sees the trouble he's having with the shirt. "Oh. Um... we'll get you clothes that fit better as soon as we can."

Footsteps echo down the empty hallway outside the lab - just fast enough to be pointedly not running - and a few moments later the rest of the team rounds the corner and bursts through the door. Astrid and Broyles pull to a halt a couple steps inside, looking like they hadn't actually expected to see Olivia here. Walter doesn't.

"Olivia!" She barely has time to brace herself before Walter reaches her and pulls her into a tight hug. He lets go after a few seconds, only to take her face in his hands and meet her eyes for a long moment, like he's searching for something. Apparently he finds it, because he smiles at her and says, "Oh, it's wonderful to see you, dear!"

Olivia finds herself grinning despite herself. Yeah. She's definitely home. "Hello, Walter. I missed you too."

Steve gives the shirts one hopeless little tug before the real welcoming committee comes pouring in, somehow managing to seem like far more people than they are. Steve is a little startled by the man running over to grab Olivia's face, but she's clearly used to it, and he's clearly happy to see her.

...Right, that's probably Walter.

Peter grins, a proper one this time. "Walter, don't make her want to leave again before she's been back a day."

To Broyles and Astrid, he says, "It sounds like she's had a more interesting time than we have the past few weeks - and not on the other side."

Broyles glances to Peter at his words, but doesn't say anything. Astrid, however, frowns and asks quietly, "If she wasn't on the other side, where was she? How did she get back? Does she-"

She cuts off abruptly as Olivia manages to extricate herself from Walter and looks back toward them. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see all of you," she says, still grinning. She glances back to Steve for a second before gesturing to the rest of her team. "Steve, this is Walter Bishop, Agent Broyles and Agent Farnsworth. Captain Rogers was helping me in his universe, and he seems to have been pulled over with me when I crossed over. Which... I wasn't trying to do at the time, so I honestly don't know how I'm here."

She's not complaining, but she does need to understand. That's the only way to be sure she doesn't do it again, and for them to find a way to send Steve home.

Walter turns toward Steve as if noticing him for the first time, and studies him for a moment before walking past Steve to a set of shelves, where he starts searching for an instrument of some kind - Olivia doesn't want to know what.

"Perhaps you don't need to try. When you were a girl... Your ability, your crossing over is triggered by emotion, rather than intention - in this case, a combination of fear and... love." He finally finds what he's looking for, turns with the Geiger counter in hand, and calmly walks back to start scanning Steve with it. "What were you doing at the exact moment you arrived? Were you in physical contact with each other at the time?" He flicks a glance at Steve's borrowed clothes. "Holding hands, perhaps, or having interc-"

"Walter!" Olivia snaps, looking utterly mortified.

"Not a judgment, Agent Dunham, simply a question. If you were in a heightened physical and emotional state, it would explain-"

"No!"

"No!" He yelps it at the same moment Olivia does, recovering from his personal horror long enough to manage the word. He takes the geiger counter - gently, but firmly - and plucks it out of Walter's hands, setting it safely aside before he edges around the man to join Olivia at the other side of the room.

Yes, she said not to be alarmed if he did what he just did but - it's kind of hard not to be. "We were asleep. Agent Dunham had injured herself trying to cross over, and I'd been pretty badly burned pulling her out. We weren't- we didn't-"

He manages several more half-formed syllables before taking a deep breath and composing himself. He nods to the two others present, throwing a small salute and somehow managing to look serious despite the ridiculousness of his outfit and his own temporary speechlessness. "Agents."

Walter's surprised enough by the geiger counter being taken from him that he doesn't respond immediately. Olivia can't help but be deeply grateful for that. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she murmurs a brief, "I'm sorry, he's always like that" to Steve as he reaches her, and lets out a slow breath before lifting her head again. Not even that can make her wish she hadn't come back, but she does kind of want to melt into the floor at the moment.

Broyles is doing an admirable job of not reacting to that momentary outburst. "Captain." He nods in response to Steve's salute, just as serious. His gaze flicks back to Olivia after a moment. "Dunham. I understand you've already been through a lot, but if you could explain what you do know-"

"Where were you burned?" Walter asks abruptly, now eyeing Steve with a frown that might be suspicion. "Agent Dunham has obvious cuts and abrasions, but you, Captain Roberts, appear to be unharmed."

"My back, my feet, and from the feel of it, minor burns on my arms and ribcage. And you can call me Steve, if that's easier to remember." He answers calmly, without hesitation, and then turns his attention to Broyles. "It might be easier to explain who I am and where she's been, and work backwards from Agent Dunham's arrival in my universe, sir. If you don't mind my saying so."

"He won't remember," Peter says, vaguely amused. "And Walter, he's not burned because his genetic makeup was altered as part of a supersoldier program and his cells have a self-insulating system of regeneration. If I'm remembering that right. Right?"

The last is directed at Steve, who stares at Peter like the other man has once again given him an unexpected punch to the psyche.

He kind of has. Strangers - strangers who aren't part of SHIELD in some way - shouldn't know that.

"Peter..." Olivia says, shooting him a warning look. Calling him Captain America was bad enough - she doesn't even need to look at Steve to know how he'll react to Peter having that knowledge.

"How did you know that?" Walter asks, obviously speaking to Peter though he's still staring at Steve with a combination of suspicion and, now, very obvious fascination.

Olivia takes a breath shifts her stance a little, straightening and drawing herself up a little as she focuses on Broyles again. She's starting to feel like she might want to get Steve out of the room before Walter comes at him with a syringe or something. "Sir, I'd be happy to explain everything, but Captain Rogers has been through more today than I have, and there's nothing he could tell you that I don't know." Not strictly true, but details on SHIELD and the Avengers probably aren't necessary for Fringe to know.

Astrid glances between Steve, Olivia and Broyles, and offers, "I could arrange for a hotel room for him, if..."

He collects himself enough to smile at Astrid. "I'll be fine with whatever arrangements you make."

As for letting Olivia deal with this on her own, he appreciates the offer, but-

But Peter has other plans at the moment. "Actually, I'd like a word with Olivia, if you wouldn't mind explaining your part in things, Captain Rogers," Peter says. He does his best to sound apologetic. He didn't want to gutpunch a childhood hero, but sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Without waiting for an answer he, comes over to rest a hand on Olivia's arm and guide her over to a corner of the room. "Please listen before you lecture me. I'm assuming you want to help him get home?"

A pause, but only a brief one. "Based on what I know- based on the way he reacted to it- I don't think that's a good idea." Peter kind of can't believe he's saying this. "I haven't read anything new in a while, but Olivia, if what's written in the comics here holds true for him there, he's going to get killed. Tony Stark is going to kill him."

As soon as Steve confirms that he's okay with it, Olivia nods to Astrid - and as soon as Broyles gives her the nod too, Astrid moves to a computer to set it up. Whether or not he goes now, they're not getting him home tonight, and he's going to need a place to stay sooner or later.

Olivia's a little taken aback at Peter's interruption - and a little annoyed, to be honest - but murmurs a quick "excuse me" to Steve and lets Peter lead her across the room. And his explanation... is the last thing she expected to hear.

"What?" Olivia whispers sharply, flicking a glance back to Steve before focusing on Peter again. "Peter, just because you know who he is... that doesn't mean everything you read has to be true. I've met Tony Stark, Steve trusts him... They're friends. He was ready to tear my head off when Steve got hurt because of me, he wouldn't..." She can't see him doing that. Not to Steve.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject