alchemyalice: (fringe olivia)
[personal profile] alchemyalice
Title: Frequency
Fandom: Fringe
Genre and/or Pairing: Peter/Olivia
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: all of Season 2
Word Count: ~1,500
Disclaimer: I am not nearly as awesome as J.J. Abrams, and thus, I own none of this.
Summary: Olivia speaks. Peter hears her.

A/N: Written for [livejournal.com profile] kissbingo , prompt 'ear'. I don't know what it is about prompts, but I can never do them straightforwardly.



Peter.


The first time is like a feather touch, hollow and breathy.

He barely notices except for how his name sounds beneath the vibration.

Peter. Oh god, Peter. They aren't going to let me go.

He closes his eyes, and listens.

***

He knows from the start that she’s not the same. This Olivia is doing a great job—she’s a smart, adaptable woman with a mental toughness most Marines couldn’t grasp, and she’s mostly kept to herself, citing various ailments and exhaustion that would be totally understandable anyway, given how she just leapfrogged back and forth between worlds. But Peter knows his Olivia too well for that; he knows that she wouldn’t stop for such trivial things like health, and he knows the raw spots of her that they don’t speak about.

He mentions her stepfather once, so gently and quickly, but it takes a half-second for this Olivia to flinch and look accusingly at him.

One half-second too long.

Oh god almighty.

***

Peter walks the halls of Harvard and makes his way down to the basement. Students are beginning to recognize his face. It’s a little odd.

He nods at one of them before ducking his head and then opening the lab door.

“Hello, Walter.”

They’re back to ‘Walter’ now. A superstitious part of Peter thinks that the day he started calling Walter ‘Dad’ was the day the universe decided to fuck everything up. Probably because it didn’t like the lie. Considering the things he’s seen, he’s really not surprised he’s started to characterize the universe (well, both of them) as one fickle bitch.

Not to mention how he can’t really forgive this Walter. Not yet, at least. He understands him in a way he wishes he didn’t, but that doesn’t really shake the jar of not belonging.

Especially with Olivia being…not.

“Peter! You simply must come and see what I’ve managed to create. It’s been far too long, and I was having such trouble remembering, but now it’s here!”

Walter is gleeful in the way that could either mean insanity or mundanity, or both. It’s been quiet enough in the past week. Whatever is happening in the alternate universe, Walternate is keeping it quiet and fairly non-invasive, so far.

Peter looks at not-Olivia, who is leaning against the piano with her arms crossed, looking dubious. He catches her eye like nothing’s wrong, and asks the question with his eyebrows. She tilts her head to indicate greater chance of mundanity than insanity. Okay then.

He tromps down the stairs into the lab and says, “Yeah? What is it?”

“Strawberry banana milkshakes! My original recipe! I had forgotten the true proportions of the ingredients, but I’ve since remembered. Along with the components of my secret ingredient.”

“May I ask—“

“Don’t,” Olivia interrupts, more sharply than she would, though she tries to soften it with a smile. “You don’t want to know. And don’t drink it.”

Walter looks vaguely hurt. “You had some without complaint.”

“That was before you told me it had LSD in it.”

Peter looks at the ceiling. “I’m so many kinds of not surprised.”

“You’ve had far larger doses than that, Agent Dunham,” Walter says with a sort of amused reproof. “That much will barely give you a buzz. Even better, though, is how it enhances the strawberry flavor!”

He continues to list the other ingredients with alarming vigor, which Peter tunes out for the sake of his own sanity, and because he’s watching the emotions on not-Olivia’s face. Confusion first, then alarm followed by cautious acceptance of—what? Peter wonders. It could be any number of possibilities, with only Walter’s reminder of something that happened to someone that isn’t her. He lists the possibilities he can see in the narrowing of her eyes, the twitch of her jaw muscle. That Olivia-from-here was into drugs, that Walter uses drugs on a regular basis, that she’d had a crazy hippy upbringing…all not the truth (well, okay, the second one was the complete truth), but Peter had every confidence that the truth of her counterpart's dosing would be the last thing to occur to her.

When she notices him looking, he blinks, smiles, and looks away. Astrid suggests gently that Walter make a batch of milkshakes without hallucinogens.

***

Broyles knows something is wrong, knows it in his gut, even when Peter won’t tell him yet what it is. So he barely raises an eyebrow when Peter puts in a request for a couple of days off. “I just need to straighten things out,” he says. “In my head. What with the parallelisms and—“

“It’s fine,” Broyles interrupts. And then looks at him in that solemn way that makes him seem even taller, if that’s even possible. “Do what you need to.”

And that’s some smooth doubletalk if Peter’s ever heard it. He nods, and slips out of the FBI building.

He drives, first on the MassPike and then down I-87, silence from the radio, windows up. He doesn't know what happened to her, but considering the switch, he can guess.

Peter.

It’s stronger now, the signal. She’s working, that's the only thing that can explain it; she's putting all of those fucked up skills and childhood drug trials to use. Peter doesn’t know how to encourage her, but he can damn well listen.

Peter, she’s not me.

This is all wrong.

“I know,” he murmurs, and can barely hear himself over the car engine. “I know.”

He remembers the address of the Secretary’s office. It’s just a normal corporate skyscraper here, all glossed windows and leather chairs. He goes through the revolving doors and shows his badge to the woman at the front desk. When he gets to the elevator, he punches the button for the basement level.

He exits with a janitor who doesn’t blink an eye at him.

He finds the place like he’s dowsing for water. There’s a static feel to the spot, tucked in among ventilation shafts and piping.

Peter. Come on, dammit.

“I got you,” Peter says. “I'm coming.”

He can’t see her. She’s tucked out of sight in a way only electromagnetics could reach her. But there’s a waver in the air, like a heat shimmer. She resonates here, like the other universe is trying to spit her out.

Peter wants to reach through to her.

He’s pretty sure that if he tries, he’ll lose a hand.

“Olivia?”

Peter! Where are you?

“Same place as you,” Peter says, “On the other side.”

Oh god. How is this…?

“It’s all you, I’m guessing.”

I keep trying to cross by myself, like Walter said I could, but I can’t, there’s not enough power, and something’s blocking me, even when it feels like I could.

“I’m sure Walternate had anticipated something like that,” Peter says. “Are you okay?”

I’m fine. Even through the static, she’s dismissive of herself. Peter can’t help but smile, just slightly. I’m confined. They feed me regularly, and every once in a while Walternate or someone else who I know but don’t comes and stares at me. They haven’t started asking questions yet.

He hears the tamped down dread in her voice, but knows she won’t appreciate him calling her on it.

He says, “Your counterpart does a pretty good impression of you. It’s not perfect, though.”

He realizes belatedly that he’s sat down on the floor, knees tucked up in the circle of his arms, back to the wall. He can feel the crackle and shimmer next to him, the press of someone who doesn’t belong where she is.

“We’re gonna get you out, Liv. We haven’t figured out how yet, but we will.”

There’s a pause, and then, You’re really right where I am?

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sitting next to a patch of air that won’t stop warping. I think you’ve destabilized it or something.”

Olivia doesn’t answer, but he can tell she’s thinking. What of, he can’t guess.

And then he feels it, like a buzz of electrical current. It shivers across the shell of his ear and hovers like breath, vibrating against his cochlea. He imagines her, a mirror image of him, legs tucked up in that small cell, harsh lighting overhead, head turned so her lips brush delicate skin over cartilage. He wants to turn, but she’s got it just right, this contact that isn’t contact, just far away enough not to cut the both of them in half, close enough for it to feel like what they want it to be.

Flawless instincts, Peter thinks.

How long can you stay? Olivia asks in his head, but he almost feels the exhale like a charge.

He settles, keeps his head still so that he can still feel the echo of her lips. He can already sense how Olivia has recharged, her tone shifting from scared and desperate to solid, competent. She doesn’t need him to stay any longer, not if he has better things to do, now that she knows that they’re doing everything in their power to get her back.

But he wants to stay. He wants to stay until Walter figures it out, he wants to stay while they set up whatever they need to break through, he wants to just stay. “As long as it takes,” he says. “We’ll come to you.”

He pulls out his phone, and calls Broyles.

He’ll stay right here.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 13:10 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cut-thestring.livejournal.com
I love this. I love your take on how Peter finds out about Alt!livia. Admittedly, I haven't been reading much Fringe fic lately, but I thought it was refreshing to see him not flip out on her or even confront her at all, and just go to help Olivia directly. I also like how you wove Olivia's 'powers' into the fic, in the beginning and coming back to it in the last half. :D Cleverly done.

Again, this is great. Good fic makes me happy! (:

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:52 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I've only just gotten into Fringe fic, though I've loved the show from the beginning, but it seems to me like Peter would play it stealthy.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 13:59 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] piratesmiley.livejournal.com
I love this. It seems very plausible to me, strangely enough. I feel like there's precedent enough in the show for this kind of cosmic connection between them.

I love that Alt-livia thinks our Olivia is into drugs. That's so funny.

This is really great! Thanks for sharing!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:54 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you, I'm really glad you found it believable. I wanted to work a little bit of ridiculousness, and a little bit of mad science into it :)

Date: 21 Jul 2010 14:17 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] trilliane.livejournal.com
Wow. I absolutely love this!

I think it's perfect that Peter keeps a cool head when he realizes that Alt!Livia isn't his Olivia and how our Olivia isn't freaking out and is trying to remain calm and in control. All very in character. I even like how you hinted at Peter and alt!Livia's ability to communicate without words, as if that transcends the universes. So eloquent! 2 thumbs way up!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:55 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I'm glad to hear you found it in-character; I really hoped to make it believable. Glad you enjoyed it :)

Date: 21 Jul 2010 14:28 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sonneta.livejournal.com
Oooh, nicely done. I like Peter's internal monologue here, and I like that he goes to seek her straight away.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:56 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked Peter's voice, he's an interesting tone to explore.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 14:29 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pirateygoodness.livejournal.com
This is just lovely.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:56 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thanks very much!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:46 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lone-pyramid.livejournal.com
Wonderful story! I love (of course) that Peter's figured it out, and that Broyles suspects somethingn even if he isn't sure exactly what. That Peter's able to "find" Olivia like that, and that his presence calms her down and focusses her.

And this made me smile:

Walter looks vaguely hurt. “You had some without complaint.”

“That was before you told me it had LSD in it.”

Peter looks at the ceiling. “I’m so many kinds of not surprised.”


Such a Fringe moment. ;)

Great work!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 15:58 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the Walter moment--Peter's dialogue of disbelief in the lab is always the best part of every episode, so I had to add some in.

Glad you enjoyed it :)

Fringe Fic!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 16:16 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] danakate.livejournal.com
Very nice. :D A friend of mine pointed me to this fic and I really like it. I love the premise and I love that you get to prompts in a roundabout way. I like Peter's observations...Peter's POV is interesting to me, really. Thank you for sharing. :D

Re: Fringe Fic!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 20:17 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you! I'm glad you liked how I worked with the prompt--I tend to do them in a very roundabout fashion, so I'm not always sure whether I've actually done them properly in the end. Glad you enjoyed! :)

Date: 21 Jul 2010 17:01 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ciderapples.livejournal.com
This is so sweet and evocative...I love your imagery. Dowsing, static, all quiet and seeking. You have a great, great Peter-voice, and I could feel your Olivia too. The relationship you suggest between them feels exactly like the one on the show, with Peter's not-quite-brotherly, not-quite-unbrotherly feelings for Olivia. I enjoyed the weirdness of the situation, too; there was something lethargic and inevitable going on in your cadence that appealed to me.

Have you ever read Jonathan Lethem's "As She Climbed Across the Table"? You have this sweetly soporific tone that I love and it reminds me vaguely of that book (which I also love, and which shares an interdimensional portal [but not too much else] with this fic), so you might enjoy it.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 20:18 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you, that's really kind of you to say, and I'm really happy you found the voices authentic enough. I've not read Lethem, but now that you've recommended him I'm very intrigued. He shall go on my Amazon wish list for sure!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 18:02 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sugangel7.livejournal.com
Oh, I love this alot alot alot alot. I really adore your version of how Peter figures out it's not Alt-livia. How he doesn't dismiss the fact that Olivia's alternate is doing a good impression, but it's just not perfect. There's that half-second or the fact that she's using her health as an excuse and Peter -- so attuned to Olivia's every move and word -- notices it.

I really love how he can hear her, the idea of him actually going to the exact spot she is in our universe and sitting there and imagining her sitting there and feeling her breath like a kiss on his ear...*sigh* It's so soft, intimate, and understated -- exactly how I see their relationship on the show. There's trust, affection, companionship, the slightest bit of romance.

Thank you for sharing this!

Date: 21 Jul 2010 20:20 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I'm really glad you enjoyed both the story and the moment of the kiss--considering the prompt, that part was really important for me to get right. I'm pleased that you enjoyed it :)

Date: 21 Jul 2010 18:48 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ariadnes-string.livejournal.com
What a wonderful take on the prompt! And I love your Peter voice--tough, skeptical, and a little bit broken.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 20:20 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked Peter's voice, he's a really interesting character to get into.

Date: 21 Jul 2010 23:03 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spaciireth.livejournal.com
I hadn't even thought of Olivia's powers being able to do something like that. This is really clever! Nice work.

Date: 22 Jul 2010 03:44 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
To be honest, I don't think there's any real precedent, but I liked the idea of her being able to do it anyway :P

Glad you enjoyed it!

Date: 22 Jul 2010 01:42 (UTC)
ext_1310: (don't see the edge before you drop)
From: [identity profile] musesfool.livejournal.com
Oh, I like this a lot.

Date: 22 Jul 2010 03:44 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thanks very much!

Date: 22 Jul 2010 03:57 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xylaria.livejournal.com
Nicely not over the top, it's something I could actually see happening in the show. I especially liked the end, the description of "contact that isn't contact." I can practically feel it myself. Well done.

Date: 22 Jul 2010 09:20 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you, I'm really pleased that you found it plausible and understated, that was exactly what I was going for. Thanks for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Date: 3 Aug 2010 04:13 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/spyglass_/
This was really, really excellent. :)

Date: 3 Aug 2010 20:44 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much!

Date: 7 Aug 2010 13:02 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bofoddity.livejournal.com
This is wonderful. Excellent characterization and perfectly in tune with the show.

Date: 7 Aug 2010 17:10 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I'm glad you found it in the spirit of the show. Thanks for reading :)

Date: 14 Aug 2010 02:41 (UTC)
ext_11786: (fringe:peter&olivia)
From: [identity profile] dotfic.livejournal.com
I love that Peter just figures it out, and the weird beauty of the connection between him and Olivia.

Date: 15 Aug 2010 20:00 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thanks very much! I do really like their relationship, so I'm glad you like how I've drawn it.

Date: 18 Jan 2011 23:46 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tidbit2008.livejournal.com
Awh man, now why couldn't the show have done that? Lol.

This is just lovely. Well done ♥

Date: 19 Jan 2011 00:21 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! I'm glad you found it feasible :)

Date: 25 Jan 2011 19:38 (UTC)
ext_1358: (fringe)
From: [identity profile] grav-ity.livejournal.com
THIS IS WONDERFUL!

We can never have too many fics like this. This is how I wish it was. I love the idea of them breaking through to one another once Peter thinks to look.

This is just marvelous.

Date: 25 Jan 2011 23:26 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you so much! I do really love the idea of how the universes can collide and the walls between them become thin, so I'm glad the exploration of that worked for you. I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading!

Date: 31 Jan 2011 03:34 (UTC)
ext_2131: picture of a fish with lots of green (Default)
From: [identity profile] holdouttrout.livejournal.com
Very, very nice. I love fics where Peter is smart and does the things I think he should have done in canon. *g*

Date: 31 Jan 2011 17:50 (UTC)
ext_443402: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alchemyalice.livejournal.com
Thank you very much! Peter is awfully smart, so it makes sense he should do stuff like this :)

Profile

alchemyalice: (Default)
alchemyalice

January 2019

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
131415161718 19
20212223242526
2728293031  

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated 11 Jun 2025 10:54
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios