Chapter 1

A Lot of Heart

Walter Bishop was prone to getting up in the middle of the night and wandering anywhere from the kitchen downstairs to his laboratory at Harvard. This was why, when Peter suddenly woke up at 4:07 in the morning, he didn't have to hear the soft pad of footsteps outside his door to know that Walter had just passed by.

Oh boy, Peter thought, here we go again.

With a small groan, he got up out of bed and shuffled towards the door. He took his time—Walter wasn't going to get into any trouble…probably.

Peter caught up with Walter in the front hallway. He was wearing his ratty, old bathrobe and staring at the front door more intently than when he checked his records for scratches.

"Um, Walter? What's going on?"

Walter turned from the door. "Oh, hello, son! I had trouble sleeping, so I started monitoring the radiation emission spectra around the greater Boston area. At 2:25 and again at 2:27, I tracked a spike in the tau band that was almost ten times the normal levels."

"That's great, Walter, but why are you staring at the front door?"

"Oh, that's something else entirely. After studying the spike, I began nibbling on these—" Walter produced a cluster of Red Vines from the pocket of his bathrobe. "—and all of the sudden I had this great epiphany!"

This can not be good. "So…does your epiphany involve going outside?"

"I certainly hope so," Walter replied. And then he walked right into the door.

Whump!

"Walter!"

Peter ran over to his father, who had crumpled to the ground. He reached down to help Walter up, but he was shaken off.

"I'm fine, Peter," Walter assured his son as he got to his feet. "No harm done."

"Walter—what were you doing?" Peter tried to sound reprimanding, even though he knew it wouldn't do any good.

"I was convinced that I had discovered how to successfully migrate my atoms so as to pass through solid objects—such as that door there…" Walter's face took on a disappointed expression. "It appears that I was wrong."

Peter sighed. "You can try again tomorrow, Walter." He placed a hand on the older man's shoulder and gently led him to the stairs. "Right now you need to get back in be—"

Bzzzzzzt! Peter's cell phone vibrated on the small table in the hallway.

What now? Peter grumbled to himself as he snatched up his phone. His mood brightened considerably when he checked caller ID.

"Hey, Olivia. I'm guessing this isn't a social call?" Peter could picture the FBI agent crack a smile on the other end of the line.

"Afraid not. Tell Walter to grab his kit and meet me at Boston General ER in fifteen minutes. They just brought in a man they found in the park. He flat lined as soon as he got through the doors. They've moved him down to the morgue."

"Why are they bringing us in? What's so special about this guy?"

"When the EMT got to him, they detected an irregular heart beat, so they attempted to defibrillate. That's when they found what caused the irregularity—two hearts."

"Now that's more like it."

Peter and Walter dressed quickly and took off in their car for the morgue.

"So, what bizarre and mysterious happenstance are we investigating today?" Walter asked, sounding entirely too gleeful.

"Well," Peter told him, "there's a guy in the Boston General morgue with a lot of heart!" He couldn't help but grin at his admittedly cheesy joke. Maybe Walter was starting to rub off on him.

Walter looked confused. "Was he exceptionally kind?"

"No, he literally has a lot of heart. Two, to be exact."

Walter's eyes widened. He got a look on his face that generally meant he had solved a complicated formula or remembered that there was banana pudding in the fridge. "It couldn't be…" Walter muttered to himself. "Why would he come back now?"

"Walter, are you okay?"

Walter turned to Peter, looking very excited. He grabbed a Red Vine from his pocket and took a bite out of it. "Hurry, Peter, there's no time to waste. It must be the Doctor!"

"Doctor who?"

Walter shook the Red Vine in Peter's face to emphasize his words. "Exactly, Peter! Exactly!"

Olivia had already made it to Boston General. She was in the morgue with a short, balding man who'd introduced himself as Dr. Winters, and was examining the body. The biological oddity himself was lying on a metal operating table, a sheet covering most of his body.

"You can see it for yourself in the x-ray," Dr. Winters said. He was standing in front of an x-ray in a viewer. At that point, he switched it on. Sure enough, there were two hearts.

"Are the two hearts the only thing that's unusual about this body?" Olivia asked.

"Actually, no," Dr. Winters answered. He couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. "Once we discovered that this man had two hearts—well, naturally, we ran all sorts of tests. There is a tremendous amount of redundancy built into his body, from the circulatory system to the endocrine system—"

"Built?" Olivia repeated. "Are you implying that he was designed?"

"Designed?" Dr. Winters looked shocked at the suggestion. Then again, to someone not working with the Fringe team, it probably did sound strange. "No, I don't think that's the case, but there are features I cannot explain. Like this whole system of glands and nodes, which runs throughout his body. I've never seen anything like it. It's almost like a whole different biology applies to this man, like he evolved—"

At that exact moment, Peter and Walter walked through the door. "From another place," Walter finished.

Dr. Winter's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes, that's just what I was about to say. Another place."

Olivia turned to the doctor. "Thanks for all your help, but we'll take over from here." She steered him to the door.

"But there are so many other tests…" Dr. Winters protested, sounding like a small child begging for a toy.

"We'll keep you informed," Olivia promised before shutting the door firmly in his face.

Peter walked over to the body. "He looks normal enough."

"Check out the x-ray," Olivia replied.

Peter walked over to examine the x-ray. Walter set his kit down on the metal slab and began unloading objects. Olivia joined him.

"Walter," she said, "what exactly do you mean 'another place'? He's not from the other universe, I would know."

"Indeed not, Olivia," Walter agreed. "You are quite correct; he is not from another universe. When I said another place, I meant—"

Suddenly, the apparently-not-dead body sat upright, with a gasp. Walter seemed unfazed by this turn of events. Olivia drew her gun and pointed it at the two-hearted man.

Walter placed his hands on the "body's" shoulders and calmly set him back down. "It's alright," he murmured soothingly. "You're okay."

A look of recognition came over the man as he looked up at Walter's face. "Walter?" He began feeling his face with his hands. "Did I regenerate?"

"No," Walter answered. "We arrived before they could do any damage. Although they were going to defibrillate you because of your 'irregular' heartbeat." Walter broke out in laughter. "I don't know what would have happened if they had applied the current. They probably would have gotten the shock of their lives!"

The other man began to laugh, too. "That's the Walter I know!" For the first time, he took in the whole room and saw Peter and Olivia, who was holstering her gun. "Right. As I said, Walter, I know you, but who are you?"

Walter nodded. "Of course, how rude of me! Allow me to introduce you to Special Agent Olivia Dunham of the FBI and—" He turned and gave his odd friend a meaningful glance. "—my son, Peter."

"Your….son?" The tone was at once confused and understanding.

Peter got the distinct impression that he was missing something. "Walter?"

"Yes, yes," Walter rejoined with a wave of his hand. "Peter, Olivia, allow me to introduce you to the Doctor."

The Doctor sat up again. "Well, now that we have the pleasantries taken care of; four things: Where are my clothes? Where's the Tardis? Where's my sonic screwdriver? And where did we get those delicious drinks we used to have—what were they called again?"

"Slushos," Walter answered. He pulled another Red Vine out of his pocket and handed it to the Doctor. "I'm afraid you'll have to make do with this, for the time being."

Olivia stared at the corpse happily munching on a piece of candy. "Walter, I need some answers here."

Walter hurriedly repacked his kit. "Yes, of course, Agent Dunham, but we should get the Doctor to my lab as soon as possible." He turned to his strange friend and, lowering his voice, said, "I think there is something you need to see."

"Well, I'd love to, Walter," the Doctor began, then looked down at the sheet covering him. "However, as I mentioned before, I've got no clothes on under this."

They quickly recovered the Doctor's clothes. Seeing the Doctor fully dressed did nothing to help Peter's and Olivia's unease. The man wore a bowtie.

As soon as he was finished tying his shoes, he stood up and pointed dramatically in the direction of the door. "Well then, off to the lab! (I love saying that.) Lead on, lovely Olivia!"

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Walter, are you sure it's not dangerous for him to be out of the hospital?" She glanced at Peter, but he only shrugged.

"Quite to the contrary, Agent Dunham," Walter countered. "I am afraid the danger lies in not getting him to the lab at once."

A/N: First fanfiction ever! As you can tell, it's a crossover between Doctor Who and Fringe. Please review! Constructive criticism is welcomed, but flames will be deleted.