Stand Up and Take the War -Fringe (PG-13)

"I'll be here in case any more come across."

He says it without thinking, because that's who he is. Agent Lincoln Lee, defender and protector, not of universes (because that's always been her job), but of people. The ones he loves - he would lay down his life for them in a heartbeat. And the ones he doesn't even know - he would sacrifice himself for them as well.

Saving a universe is too big, too abstract a purpose to drive him. But putting himself in harm's way so that others may live… That, he can do.

The tension in the hallway is high for several minutes after Olivia vanishes back to her universe with the boy, fingers twitching toward triggers at every sound, soldiers and agents positioning themselves to cover every line of sight. But nothing comes through, no bald-headed Observers stepping out of thin air to strike mercilessly at the human race.

"Maybe they can't cross on their own…"

The Story Never Ends -Fringe

She's woken that morning by an overly-energetic four-year-old jumping up and down on the bed. It's got to be very early, because it's just beginning to get light outside, and she wonders for the hundredth time how on earth Etta does it. Yes, Olivia's a morning person too, but not like Etta is. Swiping her hand across her face, she reaches over to Peter's half of the bed, and is mildly surprised to find it empty - he is most definitely not a morning person, so for him to be voluntarily up this early… it's odd. She isn't given a chance to dwell on that thought, though, as her tousle-headed little girl plops down beside her on the bed.

Today, Etta is chattering happily about maybe having waffles for breakfast, and, "Momma, can we go to the park?" followed by a confusing story about the neighbor's dog, and Olivia can't keep up, not at this hour, not before a cup of coffee.

So she simply smiles and nods and, after Etta pauses to take a breath, tries to direct her daughter's attention elsewhere.

"Etta, honey, why don't you ask Daddy to make you some breakfast?"

One More Empty Night -Fringe

I spent so long imagining going down that path with you, imagining what it would be like to wake up in a bed next to you, to sit around, just the two of us, having a cup of coffee, reading the paper. And then, finally, I had it. I've seen what the two of us together looks like. And it's beautiful.
- Peter Bishop - 6B

*****

It's been a week since he found out the happiness he had was all a lie, since he discovered the woman in his bed was not really her - a week where he has gone back to sleeping alone.

But tonight is the first time his bed has felt so cold and empty, the first time he's wondered if he'll be sleeping alone for the rest of his life.

The Sum of One and One is Everything: Masterpost -Fringe

Summary: A collection of scenes from Peter and Olivia's perspectives, centered around their daughter, starting with her birth.
Rating: PG
Word count: ~13,000
Warnings: Spoilers through Fringe Season 5, Episode 8.

Part One - Beginnings

Part Two - Loss

Part Three - Reunion

Part Four - Finality

A Life Remembered -Fringe

Memory is not so brilliant as hope, but it is more beautiful, and a thousand times more true.

- George Dennison Prentice

*****

"I know who Donald is... Donald is September."

Walter delivers this stunning pronouncement with startling serenity, given the level of intensity with which he'd been pursuing this answer.

But Peter can tell that there's something more, that the boy showed him something beyond the identity of their mystery man, something that has shaken him greatly. So when Walter takes the ECOG device off his head and wanders off to his room in the back of the lab without elaborating further on what he had seen, Peter follows him, worried for his father's well-being.

A New Favorite Color -Fringe

It's a beautiful morning, just a week before their wedding day, and she's flipping through some paperwork in the office in the back of the lab while she waits for the Bishops to arrive at work, since their current living arrangements require someone to pick Walter up each morning. She is just finishing the last of this month's inventory reports when he barges in and throws himself down onto the chair across from her, clearly extremely agitated by something. She looks up as he makes his entrance, and immediately jumps to the conclusion that something terrible has happened, though she hasn't gotten a call from Broyles yet.

"What is it? What's happened?"

"What's happened? Walter is what's happened. I mean, I know he's crazy, but this? How can he possibly believe this is a good idea?"

The Greatest of These is Love -Fringe

"Take my hand, and lead me to salvation; Take my love, for love is everlasting; And remember the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God."
- Finale - Les Miserables

"I believe you could not be fully erased because the people who care about you would not let you go, and you would not let them go. I believe you call it 'love.'"
- September - A Short Story About Love

*****

Their love has always defied the odds. It has traversed universes, weathered the ultimate betrayal, survived when it shouldn't have ever existed in the first place. And tonight, as cold rain pours down and the strength of that love is tested one more time, it proves its power yet again. Love is what brings her there to fight for him, and that same love brings him back to her, as it always has.

And as he collapses into her arms, simultaneously filled with love and sorrow and peace, he revels in the feelings, in the paradoxical emotions that flood his soul. His eyes fill with tears as he realizes what he almost lost, what he would have lost if she had not saved him. Without her, he would have lost her and lost Etta, and he knows now that holding on to the love they share, to the memories of what they had and the hope of what might be, is more important than anything else. His family is everything to him, and he can't believe that he almost allowed himself to lose sight of why that is, to forget that it is love that holds them together.

Legacy -Fringe

"I needed to see her."

He knows what Olivia thought he meant, that he was grieving her and didn't want to let her go. That he wanted to be reminded one last time of what had been theirs, to see her face and say goodbye, to take a moment away from saving the world to mourn her.

But that isn't the truth.

It wasn't some desire for closure that brought him here, to watch a distorted hologram repeating the same message over and over again. No, he came here to stare into her eyes and convince himself that she would not be ashamed of him for the choice he has made, that she would understand why he has to become more than just a man.

After all, he did this for her.

And as he sits in the darkness, looks at her face, thinks of what he knew about the woman she became, he finds the answer he was looking for.

She would have done anything to defeat them. Used any means to accomplish that end.

She was the Resistance.

And his vengeance will carry on her legacy.

Sink Like Stones -Fringe

There are some things you can't undo. He knows that firsthand, in so many ways. And he has quite the list of things he would love to go back and change, things he would do differently if given the chance. Not explain away the differences in her, for one. Or, better yet, not run away from this universe in the first place. Choose to believe her that she didn't just have his Olivia's memories but was his Olivia, and not leave her standing in the rain. Play board games that afternoon rather than going to the park. And the one that's really weighing on him at this moment: stay with her no matter what the cost.

It really shouldn't have been that hard a decision to make.

After all, he had always done anything for her before. You'd think that if he could give up his universe for her (and he's done that multiple times, even destroyed it once for her, though that didn't work out so well), he'd have been able to give up one person so he wouldn't lose her.

Probably, if it had been anyone else, the choice would have been simple, maybe even easy, but then it wasn't just anyone, it was his daughter. And that was the problem. That was the reason he made one of the worst decisions of his life, the latest of a long series of things he's really not proud of.

Always and Forever -Fringe

Every time he closes his eyes, he sees his dead, the specters that live behind his eyelids, that walk his dreams. Olivia, his wife, with a bullet hole in her forehead, unseeing eyes staring up at the sky above Central Park. Olivia, the love of his life, again with an identical bullet hole, crumpled on the floor of William Bell's boat. His mother, dead from a broken heart. Peter from this side, wasted away from the disease. Peter from the other side, drowned and frozen under the ice of Reiden Lake. Henry, whom he unknowingly wiped from existence. And now Etta, with a bloody hole in her chest, slumped against the warehouse wall.

They take their turns speaking to him. Sometimes, it is the Olivias, reminding him of the times he has failed her, of the times he left her alone, of the times he was too slow or too weak to save her. Sometimes, it is his mother, telling him again to be a better man than his father, to take care of the people he cares about. Sometimes, it is the Peters, making sure that he does not forget that he lives for all three of them, that his life has to mean something, because he has the chances they never got.

But tonight, as he paces in the hallway... tonight it is his children who call out to him.