Home
Written by: Addie Price
Summary: Olivia makes her way home, but things are not the same. They never will be. Set after 3.04 'Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep?'
Words: 1,336 words
Note: My first multi-chaptered fanfic, Home is loosely based on my earlier one-shot, 'Broken' however you do not have to read that in order to understand this.
As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: FRINGE is the property of FOX Broadcasting Company and its associates. I am in no way affiliated with FOX nor do I own any of the characters depicted in this story.

"Real is just a matter of perception."
-Peter Bishop

An explosion shook the campus, but no bomb had been planted. No fire broke out in the woods where the explosion occurred, no smoke filled the air. There was no evidence of the explosion seconds after it happened save for the ringing in the students' and faculties' ears.

Campus police found the young woman moments after the explosion, collapsed in the center of John F. Kennedy Park. She was unconscious and barely breathing, but alive. One officer knelt next to her, yelling at his colleagues to call an ambulance. He placed two fingers against her neck, checking her pulse. It was weak and shallow but there. The officer only hoped the ambulance would arrive soon.

"Hey, Mike." The second policeman pulled a badge off of the woman's belt. "She's FBI."

Mike took the badge from his partner, reading it. "Agent Olivia Dunham, Fringe Division." He looked up at the other officer. "You ever heard of it?"

His partner shook his head. "We definitely need to report this to them, though."

The sound of sirens filled the air, signaling the arrival of the ambulance. "Let's make sure she lives, first."

"Broyles."

Special Agent Philip Broyles could count on one hand the times he was genuinely surprised. When the woman on the other end of the line told him that Agent Olivia Dunham was found collapsed in John F. Kennedy Park on the Harvard Campus and was currently being rushed to the hospital in critical condition, he made a mental note to add another tally to his moments of surprise. Especially since said Olivia Dunham was standing in his office, eyes questioning as he carefully said "Thank you," and closed the phone, ending the call.

He turned his gaze to the woman before him, brown eyes steely. "What is it?" Olivia asked, giving him a small smile. "New case?"

Broyles didn't know what to suspect at first. Either the Olivia from Over There had found her way to their side or Olivia had never really returned home in the first place. The only way to find out would be to interrogate the two of them separately, to find out which was which. And he couldn't let on that he knew something was off.

"No, I have a meeting I forgot about. Excuse me."

"Of course."

As soon as Olivia left the room, Broyles took out his phone, dialing the one number he never thought he would've learned by heart. "Peter. It's Broyles. I need to speak with you and Walter. At the lab, immediately. We need to talk."

Peter and Walter were already at the lab when Broyles arrived. They were sitting in Olivia's office, Walter fixing an old record player while Peter drank his coffee, silently watching him.

"What's this about?" Peter's voice was careful, calculating. "Do we have a case? Because I talked to Olivia and she said that you didn't say anything about a case. And since it's six AM on a Saturday, I doubt this is just a friendly chat."

Broyles eyes turned steely. "You spoke with Dunham?"

Peter shrugged. "Of course. Should I not have?"

Sighing, Broyles sat down at Dunham's desk, placing his head in his hands. It occurred to Peter just then that Broyles was not as young as he seemed; that maybe the difficulty of the line in work they were in was finally catching up to him.

Broyles watched Walter work for a few minutes before speaking again. "Olivia Dunham is currently at the hospital after having collapsed in John F. Kennedy Park after an explosion. She is in critical condition. They don't know if she'll survive."

Peter straightened, taking a few steps towards Broyles. "That's ridiculous. I just talked to her."

Walter spoke, not even looking up from the record player. "Perhaps the Other Olivia has found her way to our side."

Peter looked at his father. "That would mean that they've successfully made a bridge. That they can cross at will."

"Not necessarily." Walter placed a side panel back on the record player, screwing it into place. "The Other Agent Dunham may have been treated with Cortexiphan just like ours was. Perhaps she's triggered her ability."

Peter shook his head. "Didn't William Bell on that side die at seventeen? How could he have conducted the Cortexiphan trials with Walternate when he was dead?"

Walter ignored him, placing a record on the player and starting it. "Aha! It works! Son, you used to love this song."

"I've never heard it before, Walter."

Walter nodded, dejected. "Right."

"May I say something?" In their banter, Walter and Peter had almost forgotten that Broyles was in the room. Broyles continued. "The possibility came to my mind that the Olivia Dunham we recently found is in fact our Olivia Dunham, not her alternate. Perhaps she was trapped on the other side and it was her doppelganger who returned with you."

Peter scoffed. "No, no way. There was no way that a switch was made. And I would know if she was a different person."

"But they're not really different people, are they?" Broyles voice was low, serious. As an FBI Agent, he had to consider every possibility. Even the far-fetched ones. "Olivia Dunham is Olivia Dunham, whether she's from this side or the other."

Shaking his head, Peter put out a hand to stop the conversation before it went any further. "No. You didn't meet the other Olivia. You didn't see how different they were. I would know!" His voice had risen to a shout, though whether he was angry at Broyles or himself, it was hard to tell.

A silence settled over the trio as Peter stood, panting, staring at the other two men. Walter was the first to speak up, raising a hand towards Peter. "Son, think about it rationally for a second. Has Olivia seemed at all . . . off to you since our return from the Other Side? Have you noticed anything different about her?"

Peter shook his head and threw up his hands, storming from the office. "I can't believe we're even talking about this."

"Son, wait!" Walter went to follow his son but Broyles put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Let it go, Doctor. Peter will come around eventually. For now, I need you to do something else."

"Oh?" Walter turned to look at the agent, his excitement at the prospect of an experiment clear on his face. "What is it?"

Peter walked towards Gene's stall, fuming. He would have known if Olivia had remained on the Other Side. He would have known the differences between the two. He would have known.

As he patted Gene's head, trying to calm his anger, Peter thought about his time with Olivia ever since they returned from the Other Side. He remembered small differences he had seen in her, the little things he had noticed about her. Her sudden interest in pop culture and music. Her shock and surprise at seeing Ella and Rachel when they returned, as if she were seeing ghosts. The slight confusion she had when they were at her apartment having dinner the same night they'd returned, as if she were a little bit lost in her own home. He had been making excuses for her, had been attributing the differences to the large changes in her life: in her relationship with him, the after-effects of seeing a different version of her own life, the very real possibility that their world may soon come to an end.

Walter and Broyles emerged from Olivia's office, the excitement on his father's face unmistakable. Peter pushed the thoughts of Olivia's odd mannerisms out of his mind and made his way towards them, knowing he would have to keep Walter under control if experimental drugs were involved.