ScienceQueen18
01-04-2011, 05:12 AM
Title: Only Time Will Tell
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Astrid, Peter, Peter/Olivia , Astrid/Peter friendship.
Spoilers: All of S3 including the spoilers for 'Firefly'
Summary:Nobody realized how stressful things had become until they appeared. It was subtle at first, one appeared in the little kitchen space they had in the corner of the lab one day.
Warnings:Errr...it's kinda dark?
Disclaimer:I do not own Fringe or it's characters. All rights are reserved to Fox and JJ Abrams.
Nobody realized how stressful things had become until they appeared. It was subtle at first, one appeared in the little kitchen space they had in the corner of the lab one day. It was well received by all who worked there. Then, things started increasing. Two of them appeared on that table, along with a basket of muffins. Before they knew it, it was difficult to locate the bowl with the sugars and Splenda, and finding the basket with the stirrers? Forget it. No one had seen those in days.
Walter was delighted of course. He went on a sugar binge and ate half of the table’s worth of pastries and other baked goods in half an hour. Not that that was a problem. She had more in her car. The table was refilled in ten minutes.
When Peter went to Astrid’s house for their standing ‘Poker and Foods that Are Bad For You’ date ( something she had initiated when he got back from the Other Side because she had thought of all the bad food they’d eaten over the past two years, and she had missed him terribly), he noticed her kitchen counter …or rather…the lack of one. It was filled with pans, baskets, Tupperware, and other such storage units, filled with baked goods. When he went to grab a beer from her fridge, there were more containers in there. When she asked him to grab something from her pantry for the macaroni and cheese she was making, he noticed her shelves were stocked with an unusual amount of flour, sugar, and other such baking essentials. He had to look for five minutes for the box of macaroni. When he asked her about it, she just smiled and grabbed the box from him, saying something about how she didn’t like seeing her family in pain. Then, when he asked her about that, she acted like she had said something different.
Walter noticed the change too. His face became worried and concerned as he watched her working one day. There was something different about how she moved, how she spoke, her mood. He deliberately called her Esther to test her. She just smiled, laughed, and did what he asked her to do. Something was wrong. Well, obviously something was wrong everywhere they looked, their current situation. But now, he noticed, something was wrong, specifically with Astrid.
Olivia noticed it as well. When she got home one day, her entire welcome mat was filled with pies, muffins, tarts, and iced cakes. A note simply saying ‘My kitchen counter was getting crowded.’ in her handwriting, told her who it was from. Then, the next day, her desk was crowded as well. She tried to make a joke that Astrid was trying to fatten her up for some sinister plan to eat her, and Astrid laughed, but the look in her eyes made Olivia frown. Astrid was upset. Astrid was worried. Astrid was heading towards an emotional break down, just like everyone else.
Logically Astrid knew they’d figure it out. She hung out with a top-notch FBI agent and two 190+ IQ geniuses every day. Of course they would find out. She was just hoping they wouldn’t put two and two together until she was able to work through the anxiety she was feeling. She knew she had plenty of opportunities to unburden herself of the stress she was feeling. To Peter during their ‘Bad Foods’ dinners, to Olivia when they met for coffee every Friday, to Walter when they were working in the lab…but…
She knew they were all avoiding this elephant in the room. When Olivia had returned they had tried their best to go back to the normal routine. The routine they had before this all happened. Before Peter went home, before the alternate Olivia came to them . Before…just before. But then, she noticed after the Barrett case that Peter and Olivia distanced themselves from each other. They only talked to give each other bits of information about a case. The air of ease and flirtation that used to be how you could tell they were in the room was gone. It was replaced by a stony silence and a new, less welcome, less warm air. So they had a falling out after all. She wondered who said it to who.
Everything was just falling apart, and she didn’t know what to do. She was upset and nervous, she didn’t like seeing them hurt by other , outside people, criminals creatures, it hurt even more when they were harming each other. She had almost cried a few times, but was able to hold it back. She was a strong person, she could hide her emotions well. She usually didn’t get upset enough to be at this point but now… their world had been turned upside down, punched, put through a tree chopper , and burned, and she didn’t like it. Sure, their world was weird before this all happened. Not many people can come home at the end of the day and say they got an image of the last thing a dead person saw before they died. And sure, after Olivia’s first trip to the other side, things had gotten a bit tenser, but they weren’t like this. They weren’t this bad.
It was a combination of everything really, not just the falling out between Peter and Olivia. It was the increase in events, the increase in deaths. It was the fact that the universes were starting to fall apart, and they weren’t sure how to fix it. It was knowing that any day now one of those universes could be gone, and they didn’t know which one it would be. Working with the weird was taking it’s toll.
It was three months and two days after Olivia had returned home when Astrid finally had her breakdown. She and Peter were in the old lab testing some new substance that was found on a victim , while Olivia agreed to take Walter to see someone in China Town. Peter still had a sling, and he had to write with his right hand ( he is left handed). Thankfully he was ambidextrous , but it was still a reminder of all the chaos. Her baking frenzy started to die down about a month and a half after Olivia got back. But then, two months and two weeks after she had started to stop, Peter was shot by an Observer and she started up again. She couldn’t stand seeing the people she cared about get hurt. Peter had accidentally knocked his pen off the desk and when he went to pick it up, he had forgotten his left arm was in a sling and went to pick it up when he had to stop and look. He had forgotten for a minute that he couldn’t use that arm. It broke her heart to see the pain and frustration in his face. He was like a brother to her, and seeing him like this was killing her. She hopped off the stool she was sitting on and got the pen for him, handing it to him with a fake smile on her face. He returned the sentiment, his smile equally as fake.
“How does the arm feel today?” she asked, sitting back on her stool. He shrugged, or attempted to at least.
“Alright I guess. Walter has been giving me pain meds that take the pain away for a good six hours straight. I‘ve been to weak and tired to argue, so I‘m just taking them. He‘s quite happy about that.” they shared a real chuckle.
“Well I’m glad.” she replied, a somewhat genuine smile appearing. “Peter…”
“Yeah?” he asked absentmindedly, not look up from the book and notes he was taking.
“ How did it feel? When you got shot?” Peter looked up at her. “I‘m sorry. I shouldn‘t have said anything. I‘m so…”
“No, Astrid, it’s fine.” Peter replied, a sad smile accompanying it. “Um… at first it hurt like hell. Worst pain I‘d ever felt. Worse then heartbreak almost…” she noticed the sad look that flashed across his eyes at that and she felt her own heart clenching in pain. “ It hurt pretty bad for a few seconds and then I passed out. From shock . When I woke up I was in the hospital. That’s all I can really remember about it.”
“I see…” Astrid felt the tears well up inside her. She looked around the lab and couldn’t help but feel the coldness that had come over it in the past months. It no longer had the warmth and playfulness it once held. Now it felt cold, angry …sad. She looked again to Peter, his arm in a sling, his eyes portraying heartbreak and another sadness she couldn’t quite pinpoint. The tears started to flow before she could stop them, and she felt her body slip off the stool, and a pair of arms …or rather, one arm pressing her against another in a sling, encircle her. She pressed her face into his jacket and let herself cry.
“It‘s ok. Everything will be alright.” Peter tried to calm her, but he knew it wouldn’t work. She needed to ride out this storm before she could feel better. “ It’s been difficult, I know.” he began “But we‘ll be ok. Everything will be alright. We‘ll find some way to fix the universes. We‘ll reset everything. One day we‘ll all live happily ever after , and it will be sickeningly adorable and happy. In fact, it will be so fluffy and sweet, we‘ll all have huge dentist bills because we‘ll get a lot of cavities.” he heard her laugh through her tears and smiled sadly. “We’ll get through this Astrid. Don’t worry.”
“How though?” she said, the tears still flowing, the fear still solid and present. “ Peter, how can this not end badly? How…” she felt her strength regain itself just a bit , enough to be able to pull away and look at him, or attempt to, through her tear filled eyes. “…how can this not end with the death of billions of people? How can it end without us losing someone on the team? You almost died Peter, who knows who else will face that too? Can you tell me that this will end without death? ” She looked at him, and his eyes betrayed the calm he was trying to emulate.
“No.” he admitted.
“No.” she repeated. She leaned against the railing and let the tears fall. Peter scooted over and sat to the left of her against the railing. The sighed at the same time. Peter held out his good hand to her and she took it. “You‘re like an older brother to me Peter.” she admitted, the tears had subsided by then, and she felt the numbness start to set in. “Walter is like…that weird uncle everyone says is the black sheep but secretly they love him. And Olivia is like that really cool cousin everyone aspires to be. Broyles, even Nina, you‘re all my family and I just can‘t…”
“I never thought I‘d see you break down.” Peter said smiling. He squeezed her hand and she smiled back.
“It’s a rare occurrence. Savor the moment.” he chuckled.
“I can’t assure that everything will be ok.” Peter finally whispered , after a minute of silence. “ I can’t … assure you we will all survive this physically or even mentally. But I can assure you that no matter what, we’re all in this together, and we will find some way to fix this. Without the cost of billions of lives. We’ll find a way. There has to be a way.”
And at that moment, when Astrid looked over at her friend, her brother, she felt, for the first time, a small flicker of hope. Maybe, just maybe, they would all get a cavity inducing happily ever after.
Only time could tell.
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Astrid, Peter, Peter/Olivia , Astrid/Peter friendship.
Spoilers: All of S3 including the spoilers for 'Firefly'
Summary:Nobody realized how stressful things had become until they appeared. It was subtle at first, one appeared in the little kitchen space they had in the corner of the lab one day.
Warnings:Errr...it's kinda dark?
Disclaimer:I do not own Fringe or it's characters. All rights are reserved to Fox and JJ Abrams.
Nobody realized how stressful things had become until they appeared. It was subtle at first, one appeared in the little kitchen space they had in the corner of the lab one day. It was well received by all who worked there. Then, things started increasing. Two of them appeared on that table, along with a basket of muffins. Before they knew it, it was difficult to locate the bowl with the sugars and Splenda, and finding the basket with the stirrers? Forget it. No one had seen those in days.
Walter was delighted of course. He went on a sugar binge and ate half of the table’s worth of pastries and other baked goods in half an hour. Not that that was a problem. She had more in her car. The table was refilled in ten minutes.
When Peter went to Astrid’s house for their standing ‘Poker and Foods that Are Bad For You’ date ( something she had initiated when he got back from the Other Side because she had thought of all the bad food they’d eaten over the past two years, and she had missed him terribly), he noticed her kitchen counter …or rather…the lack of one. It was filled with pans, baskets, Tupperware, and other such storage units, filled with baked goods. When he went to grab a beer from her fridge, there were more containers in there. When she asked him to grab something from her pantry for the macaroni and cheese she was making, he noticed her shelves were stocked with an unusual amount of flour, sugar, and other such baking essentials. He had to look for five minutes for the box of macaroni. When he asked her about it, she just smiled and grabbed the box from him, saying something about how she didn’t like seeing her family in pain. Then, when he asked her about that, she acted like she had said something different.
Walter noticed the change too. His face became worried and concerned as he watched her working one day. There was something different about how she moved, how she spoke, her mood. He deliberately called her Esther to test her. She just smiled, laughed, and did what he asked her to do. Something was wrong. Well, obviously something was wrong everywhere they looked, their current situation. But now, he noticed, something was wrong, specifically with Astrid.
Olivia noticed it as well. When she got home one day, her entire welcome mat was filled with pies, muffins, tarts, and iced cakes. A note simply saying ‘My kitchen counter was getting crowded.’ in her handwriting, told her who it was from. Then, the next day, her desk was crowded as well. She tried to make a joke that Astrid was trying to fatten her up for some sinister plan to eat her, and Astrid laughed, but the look in her eyes made Olivia frown. Astrid was upset. Astrid was worried. Astrid was heading towards an emotional break down, just like everyone else.
Logically Astrid knew they’d figure it out. She hung out with a top-notch FBI agent and two 190+ IQ geniuses every day. Of course they would find out. She was just hoping they wouldn’t put two and two together until she was able to work through the anxiety she was feeling. She knew she had plenty of opportunities to unburden herself of the stress she was feeling. To Peter during their ‘Bad Foods’ dinners, to Olivia when they met for coffee every Friday, to Walter when they were working in the lab…but…
She knew they were all avoiding this elephant in the room. When Olivia had returned they had tried their best to go back to the normal routine. The routine they had before this all happened. Before Peter went home, before the alternate Olivia came to them . Before…just before. But then, she noticed after the Barrett case that Peter and Olivia distanced themselves from each other. They only talked to give each other bits of information about a case. The air of ease and flirtation that used to be how you could tell they were in the room was gone. It was replaced by a stony silence and a new, less welcome, less warm air. So they had a falling out after all. She wondered who said it to who.
Everything was just falling apart, and she didn’t know what to do. She was upset and nervous, she didn’t like seeing them hurt by other , outside people, criminals creatures, it hurt even more when they were harming each other. She had almost cried a few times, but was able to hold it back. She was a strong person, she could hide her emotions well. She usually didn’t get upset enough to be at this point but now… their world had been turned upside down, punched, put through a tree chopper , and burned, and she didn’t like it. Sure, their world was weird before this all happened. Not many people can come home at the end of the day and say they got an image of the last thing a dead person saw before they died. And sure, after Olivia’s first trip to the other side, things had gotten a bit tenser, but they weren’t like this. They weren’t this bad.
It was a combination of everything really, not just the falling out between Peter and Olivia. It was the increase in events, the increase in deaths. It was the fact that the universes were starting to fall apart, and they weren’t sure how to fix it. It was knowing that any day now one of those universes could be gone, and they didn’t know which one it would be. Working with the weird was taking it’s toll.
It was three months and two days after Olivia had returned home when Astrid finally had her breakdown. She and Peter were in the old lab testing some new substance that was found on a victim , while Olivia agreed to take Walter to see someone in China Town. Peter still had a sling, and he had to write with his right hand ( he is left handed). Thankfully he was ambidextrous , but it was still a reminder of all the chaos. Her baking frenzy started to die down about a month and a half after Olivia got back. But then, two months and two weeks after she had started to stop, Peter was shot by an Observer and she started up again. She couldn’t stand seeing the people she cared about get hurt. Peter had accidentally knocked his pen off the desk and when he went to pick it up, he had forgotten his left arm was in a sling and went to pick it up when he had to stop and look. He had forgotten for a minute that he couldn’t use that arm. It broke her heart to see the pain and frustration in his face. He was like a brother to her, and seeing him like this was killing her. She hopped off the stool she was sitting on and got the pen for him, handing it to him with a fake smile on her face. He returned the sentiment, his smile equally as fake.
“How does the arm feel today?” she asked, sitting back on her stool. He shrugged, or attempted to at least.
“Alright I guess. Walter has been giving me pain meds that take the pain away for a good six hours straight. I‘ve been to weak and tired to argue, so I‘m just taking them. He‘s quite happy about that.” they shared a real chuckle.
“Well I’m glad.” she replied, a somewhat genuine smile appearing. “Peter…”
“Yeah?” he asked absentmindedly, not look up from the book and notes he was taking.
“ How did it feel? When you got shot?” Peter looked up at her. “I‘m sorry. I shouldn‘t have said anything. I‘m so…”
“No, Astrid, it’s fine.” Peter replied, a sad smile accompanying it. “Um… at first it hurt like hell. Worst pain I‘d ever felt. Worse then heartbreak almost…” she noticed the sad look that flashed across his eyes at that and she felt her own heart clenching in pain. “ It hurt pretty bad for a few seconds and then I passed out. From shock . When I woke up I was in the hospital. That’s all I can really remember about it.”
“I see…” Astrid felt the tears well up inside her. She looked around the lab and couldn’t help but feel the coldness that had come over it in the past months. It no longer had the warmth and playfulness it once held. Now it felt cold, angry …sad. She looked again to Peter, his arm in a sling, his eyes portraying heartbreak and another sadness she couldn’t quite pinpoint. The tears started to flow before she could stop them, and she felt her body slip off the stool, and a pair of arms …or rather, one arm pressing her against another in a sling, encircle her. She pressed her face into his jacket and let herself cry.
“It‘s ok. Everything will be alright.” Peter tried to calm her, but he knew it wouldn’t work. She needed to ride out this storm before she could feel better. “ It’s been difficult, I know.” he began “But we‘ll be ok. Everything will be alright. We‘ll find some way to fix the universes. We‘ll reset everything. One day we‘ll all live happily ever after , and it will be sickeningly adorable and happy. In fact, it will be so fluffy and sweet, we‘ll all have huge dentist bills because we‘ll get a lot of cavities.” he heard her laugh through her tears and smiled sadly. “We’ll get through this Astrid. Don’t worry.”
“How though?” she said, the tears still flowing, the fear still solid and present. “ Peter, how can this not end badly? How…” she felt her strength regain itself just a bit , enough to be able to pull away and look at him, or attempt to, through her tear filled eyes. “…how can this not end with the death of billions of people? How can it end without us losing someone on the team? You almost died Peter, who knows who else will face that too? Can you tell me that this will end without death? ” She looked at him, and his eyes betrayed the calm he was trying to emulate.
“No.” he admitted.
“No.” she repeated. She leaned against the railing and let the tears fall. Peter scooted over and sat to the left of her against the railing. The sighed at the same time. Peter held out his good hand to her and she took it. “You‘re like an older brother to me Peter.” she admitted, the tears had subsided by then, and she felt the numbness start to set in. “Walter is like…that weird uncle everyone says is the black sheep but secretly they love him. And Olivia is like that really cool cousin everyone aspires to be. Broyles, even Nina, you‘re all my family and I just can‘t…”
“I never thought I‘d see you break down.” Peter said smiling. He squeezed her hand and she smiled back.
“It’s a rare occurrence. Savor the moment.” he chuckled.
“I can’t assure that everything will be ok.” Peter finally whispered , after a minute of silence. “ I can’t … assure you we will all survive this physically or even mentally. But I can assure you that no matter what, we’re all in this together, and we will find some way to fix this. Without the cost of billions of lives. We’ll find a way. There has to be a way.”
And at that moment, when Astrid looked over at her friend, her brother, she felt, for the first time, a small flicker of hope. Maybe, just maybe, they would all get a cavity inducing happily ever after.
Only time could tell.