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I. and seven different kinds of light welling up inside of you
Apparently the ZFT takes that unwilling-recruit thing entirely too seriously for Peter's taste. After the second kidnapping attempt, Broyles has them all moved to a safe house. Well, more safe than house. It's a tiny two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in the grad student district. Astrid and Charlie are there pretty much all the time so with the five of them it's cramped quarters. Walter goes back to sleeping in the closet. Olivia spends her time pacing, as if the apartment were a cage and not a safe haven. Peter observes.
Olivia murmurs to herself as she paces. Peter thinks his superior hearing might be another of those gifts from Walter but right now he's thankful for it. "John," she says conversationally. "John, the ZFT..." Whatever she's saying to the air is interrupted by Walter and a request for root beer.
Peter has noticed Olivia talking to thin air more and more since they moved into the safe house. He doesn't say anything about it, but he notices.
II. and toast the living and the dead who've gone before me
Walter is wrong. John doesn't fade out of Olivia's mind - if anything he becomes a permanent fixture in her head. He murmurs conjecture, clues, and meaningless gossip when he appears. Ghostly, he's gone again before she can pin him down.
This is how she figures out he can see everything she sees, feel everything she feels. After all, he's just another part of her brain now, so when she kisses Peter, John feels the warmth of his lips on his own. It is only one kiss, just once, before Peter spun on his foot and retreated to the room he was sharing with Walter. Once is enough for John. John with his puppy dog eyes and brain-invading ways.
III. the constellations aligned
Peter is stunned when Olivia kisses him. It's quick, soft, nice, but when she pulls away, the look on her face is so conflicted, so lost that Peter flees. Peter, however, has always been one for delayed bravery so after thirty minutes of panic he goes to find her. She's sitting at the kitchen table with Charlie and Astrid, a solid wall of FBI. She waves him off, and he decides waiting for tomorrow may actually be the better part of valor on this one.
It doesn't matter; the third time is a charm. ZFT snatches her outside the lab the next morning, the two agents on watch none the wiser. Peter never does get a chance to ask her what that kiss had been all about.
IV. preserving their poetry by oral tradition
Peter thinks Walter knows more than he's telling about Olivia's disappearance. Peter knows a good con when he sees one. It's how he's lived his entire adult life, and it takes a conman to know a conman.
It's mind-boggling, but quite possible, that the things they are fighting against now were originally Walter's plan and he just doesn't remember. That long ago, before the breakdown, or the mental institute, back when Walter Bishop and William Bell were the shining boys of classified scientific research, Walter had come up with a plan that had turned Olivia's kidnapping into destiny.
Peter wonders how Walter and Bell had danced so easily around the university's ethics board. He's had a run in or two with university ethics boards himself, and he doesn't believe that a board would approve of half the things Walter and Bell had done to unknowing people in this lab. He fears history will remember his father on the same page as the Tuskegee Institute and Dr. Mengele, or worse, that he will remember his father that way.
V. we were becoming what we are
He almost trips over her body. That's the story of his life: he's always half a step from tripping over a body. Just another reason to hate the morning slog to the lab: the memory of her body laid out for him to find.
Olivia's been missing for five days. Peter has spent those five days trying to find a single clue to follow, any lead to unravel. It's been a fruitless search, but Walter still insists on getting to the lab bright and early. That's why he's here, half-awake and almost tripping over the body of his best friend half-wrapped in an Army-issue wool blanket.
Peter crouches down beside her and checks for a pulse. She is not, as he had feared, dead. "Olivia," he says, and then repeats it louder and louder, hoping to get a response. His shouting brings Charlie and Astrid. Peter unwraps her from the blanket to reveal gauze-covered wounds. The bandages look precise, an almost military order against her pale skin. She's clad only in a black sports bra and a pair of boxers, which leaves the extent of her injuries obvious to everyone. Two hand marks burned deeply into her legs are the only uncovered wounds. Down the inside of her left arm in black sharpie there is text: YOU PASSED. Charlie immediately calls for paramedics and back up, even though it looks like Olivia's captors hadn't skimped on the medical treatment, and they themselves are long gone.
VI. we will recognize each other
John wakes up, blinks, and proceeds to panic. He has a body. He thinks and his eyes blink, his hands move. It's been months. He reaches up to rub his nose. It itches. It's also not his nose, not his hand. He retreats back into his skull, except, it's not really his, is it?
John is not alone in this brain. There are barricades - barricades and too familiar paths. He's still in Olivia's brain, but she is nowhere to be found. Worse, the memories she's left him are patchy and scattered. He doesn't know what happened and she's left him no clues to figure it out.
VII. boats ease into the harbor bearing real suspicious cargo
Olivia opens her eyes, but whoever is in charge in her brain, it's not her. Peter's spent enough time that he can tell the speech patterns aren't hers. Plus, the first question out of her mouth is, "Who are you?"
It takes him longer to figure out it's John Scott in the driver's seat. Peter wonders what happened that was so horrible that it has Olivia hiding in her own skull, and how long John Scott has been lurking in the background, waiting for this opportunity.
"Play it cool," Peter whispers to John in Olivia in a hospital bed. It's the sentence structure that will drive him crazy first in this situation. He considered just turning John in, but if the FBI or, knowing their luck, Massive Dynamic, finds out John Scott has taken up residence in Olivia Dunham's skull there will be hell to pay. Peter thinks it would be bad enough that they'd never even get a chance to try and recover Olivia from wherever she's hiding in her own head. "You'll never get out of there if the doctors think Olivia isn't running the operation."
Olivia's head nods slowly under John's volition, and the cognitive dissonance is almost too much for Peter. When John isn't talking, it's hard to remember that this isn't really Olivia.
VIII. there was a feeling of approaching doom
John does a passable Olivia impression. It must be easier when you can use the person own vocal chords. Either way, it's enough, and he's released into Peter's care. John is silent in the car, still in a way Olivia never is.
Astrid hovers over them, knowing something is wrong. Peter hasn't decided what to tell her yet. Worse yet, what to tell Walter. They'll figure it out. They are both too smart, and John isn't good at being Olivia beyond the surface level. John runs ahead where Olivia would have circled slowly in on her prey.
John isn't very steady on Olivia's feet. It's like he's still operating on his own sense memories and the difference in centers of gravity is too much for him to overcome without practice. Peter sits in the hall outside the lab watching John try and find his sea legs, while Astrid supervises Walter and his latest idea. Watching John learn to walk should be comedic, but it's just painful.
It doesn't take long - less than sixteen hours - before Walter says, "Hello, John," to Olivia's face.
John doesn't even bother to deny it with Olivia's lips, and he and Peter try and explain the situation the best they can. At least Walter has a new puzzle to work on now.
IX. our shared paths unraveling behind us like ribbons
John glares at Peter with Olivia's eyes. They are back at the safe house. Not-safe house, Peter has taken to calling it, with all his fourth-grade poser irony intact.
"I do have access to most of her memories. I promise not to roll in feathers or something stupid like that," he says. Feathers are a crazy thing to be allergic to, but Olivia is, and John knows it. He plans on returning Olivia's body in the best shape that he can.
John hates being stuck in Olivia's body. Mostly because Olivia is stuck, too, behind those barricades he can feel in their shared head. He knocks at the walls, but there is no answer.
He keeps trying. John stands in front of a mirror and stares into Olivia Dunham's face, pushes at her. Come back, come back, come back. He doesn't want this. Doesn't want Olivia's body, Olivia's life, Olivia's memories. He just wants Olivia. What's the point of surviving death, if this is the reward?
X. oh when shall we meet again
Broyles doesn't know John is currently behind the wheel of Olivia's body, but Peter thinks Charlie is beginning to suspect something is wrong. Charlie was there, though, when they found her body, and Peter's pretty sure he knows the track Charlie's mind has gone down and it doesn't lead to John Scott and the invasion of the body snatchers. Not that the track Charlie's going down isn't worse and something Olivia will have to deal with when she takes the wheels again. The burn marks are too suggestive.
Even though he doesn't know, Broyles won't clear Olivia for active duty quiet yet and that's a good thing, at least for Peter. Peter doesn't know what he's going to do if he has to let John, traitor-to-his-country John, investigate the Pattern. Of course, putting them in that situation might get Olivia to reclaim her body and brain. Peter just doesn't know, and he's not willing to force anything yet.
Walter swears Olivia is still in there, inside her head, and so does John, so Peter tries to believe them. He wants her back, but not until she's ready.
John was allergic to peanuts before he died, which is funny because Olivia isn't and John still won't eat them with her body. Somehow this makes Peter feel better about the whole situation. If anything, John will keep Olivia's body in better shape for her than the ventilator and IV that Walter thinks would be necessary without him.
XI. and something has got to give
They spend their time in the lab even though Olivia isn't cleared for duty. It's bigger than the safe house and a bored Walter is a dangerous Walter. So far he's almost set the safe house on fire twice, flooded the bathroom once, and was stopped from rewiring the whole place six or seven times. It's safer at the lab with it's toxic chemicals and science fiction machines.
Astrid and Walter have come to an unspoken agreement about lab behavior. Walter doesn't endanger Astrid's life, listens and actually considers Astrid's objections, and doesn't let rodents run lose. Astrid keeps Walter in root beer and jelly beans. She also listens to him, which Peter admits isn't always something either he or Olivia ever did. Though, Peter's still a little peeved about the time that she let him dose himself with Walter's homemade chemically-enhanced pop rocks. It's weird, but of all people, it's Astrid who is firmly on Walter's side.
Walter seems to enjoy John-in-Olivia, for as much as he confides in Peter that he misses Olivia herself. This is a chance for interesting experimentation and that makes it a puzzle and not a crisis for Walter. He's sure he can get Olivia to come back.
John wanders around, touching Walter's scattered inventions with Olivia's finger. Walter even manages to make him smile. For a moment, Peter forgets that it's not Olivia in there.
XII. and you or your memory
Olivia is screaming, which really means John is screaming, but all Peter can hear is Olivia's voice, so he runs. They are all still in the safe house, so Peter doesn't have to run far.
Olivia is screaming, so Peter wraps his arms around her, sits there rocking her until it stops. Astrid and Charlie hover in the doorway. Who knows what Walter is doing. "Olivia," Peter chants her name over and over until she stills.
"Her memories are starting to leak through," John says. "I remember a warehouse. A warehouse and pain. I think she electrocuted a man."
"Olivia?" Charlie asks, confused. Peter silently curses John for blowing their cover with the FBI. Astrid doesn't count; she is one of them now.
XIII. things will shortly get completely out of hand
"We'll put them in the tank, yes," Walter says, once Peter explains that Broyles knows and Broyles is angry. "Peter, too. You can go in together and free Olivia."
Peter isn't sure Olivia needs to be freed, and dragging her kicking and screaming back into the real world when she doesn't want to be there could be a catastrophe. "No."
John swears Olivia is still in their shared brain somewhere. She's just barricaded herself in and taken all the clues to why with her. Peter has some ideas, and a list of people to kill when this is all over, but he doesn't actually have any proof with Olivia not even talking to John. Or if she is, John isn't telling.
John is hesitant to allow Walter to experiment on Olivia's body anyway. "This will be the fifth time you've shot her up with LSD? No," he says when the procedure is explained to him. For good reason too: no one knows what will happen if Walter manages to banish John, but can't put Olivia back in control of the body. Will they die with no one there to animate the flesh? Walter doesn't know, and that means Peter and John are in agreement: a first.
It's hard to keep up his suspicious nature while looking at Olivia's face and he kicks himself for trusting her, because now he can't not. That and he thinks he's starting to trust John too. What a strange world this is.
XIV. You've got whatever's left of me to get
Olivia opens her eyes and it's Olivia. Electricity is crackling over her skin and Peter keeps his distance; those burn marks on her legs are making an odd sort of sense right now, and he's afraid he'll leave similar marks if he touches her. Who knows what condition it would leave him in. If John is right, Peter could be a charcoal briquette.
The crackle of electricity and the screaming stop at the same time. Olivia takes one breath, than another. "John?" she asks, and then cocks her head to the side. Peter knows she's seeing him, solid but ghostly all at the same time, and that John must be talking, explaining everything. Peter waits.
He wouldn't have two weeks ago even. Two weeks ago he'd been almost willing to take up Walter's offer to stick them both in the tank, just to try and get this over with. Now, well, he's starting to think of John as a friend.
Olivia sighs. "Hello, Peter."
"Olivia." Half his brain is telling him to hug her, to wrap himself around her and the other half says flee, so instead he hovers just outside arm's reach.
"Peter," she says again, but this time, it's John.
"John." Peter waits a beat. "So you're in there together now?"
It's weird to watch the ping pong game that is John and Olivia sharing Olivia's face.
"Yes, something like that." He's not sure which one of them that was.
XV. you reminded me of all the things you'd given up forever
They go back to the lab. A whole parade of people: Walter and Astrid, John and Olivia, Peter and Charlie.
"The ZFT, they didn't know about John. And from what I gathered, it made whatever they wanted me to do harder," Olivia explains. She's still patchy on what happened in the warehouse, which is why Walter is currently hooking her into one of his inventions. She loosens her grip on the reins, and lets John explain the next bit.
"I was like a big block stuck in the place in Olivia's brain that they need to get through so she could pass their test. They decided the only way to get through was if she thought she was going to die, or worse. It worked, sort of," John says. Now that he can see those memories, he's outraged.
Peter sucks in a breath, but doesn't say anything, and John knows they are in agreement on this, too.
Walter nods and sticks another electrode on their forehead as Peter and Astrid watch. Charlie paces behind them, uneasy with the situation.
"I suspect," Walter says, in his best lecture tone, "John's consciousness resides in several normally unused portions of the brain. When you electrocuted that fellow, whatever happened seems to to have burned the pathways of John's consciousness on to Olivia's brain. Which makes it both their brains now, I suppose."
"So this is permanent?"
"Yes. The burning-in process was traumatic. Literally, it caused brain damage," Walter says, pointing to the monitor they are hooked up to. "The brain needed time to recover, and to build new structures to handle the two consciousnesses at once."
"And the other part," Olivia asks, pushing John out of the way, "the part where I electrocuted a man with my bare skin?"
"As far as I can discern, a totally unconscious ability. The trauma involved coupled with your brain rewiring itself makes it more difficult for my little machine here to detect, but unless something else comes along to prove me wrong, the ability is permanent. Future kidnappers should have a much harder time of their job," Walter says with a smile.
"But," she says, "how do I avoid accidentally electrocuting people, Walter?"
"Not a problem. See this line here?" Walter asks, pointing to the monitor.
Olivia nods, but doesn't understand the techno-speak Walter produces.
Thankfully, Peter interrupts with an English translation. "What Walter is trying to say is that you can't electrocute people unless you think you are in a life or death situation. Plus, the person in question has to be in direct contact with you at the time. And he'll try and come up with something to give you a little more control."
Walter nods and smiles. "Exactly."
XVI. like a half-remembered conversation, i let it slip away
Broyles finally reinstates Olivia, with the promise that John Scott has been permanently exorcised from her brain. It's a lie: John is alive and well, but Walter pronounced it so and the brass believes.
Astrid is in on the secret. Walter has decided she's family and that's good enough for Peter and Olivia. Charlies assumes, but won't let them confirm or deny, so he can't be forced to compromise them.
There are still holes in both Olivia and John's memories. Days when John and Olivia fight and try to pull the body in two directions at once. Days when neither one of them wants control. It becomes normal. Nothing compared to the other oddities they see on the job.
XVII. some things you do for money and some you do for love love love
It's been three month since that first kiss back in the FBI safe house. Peter's world looks the same, but everything has changed.
He's gotten used the the amalgam. Gotten used to Olivia talking to thin air, gotten used to the almost imperceptible blankness when Olivia and John trade control of the body, gotten used to being part of a five person team. He doesn't even wonder who has control any more; it doesn't really matter.
Olivia is supposed to be the strong one. Walter is the crazy one. Astrid the calm and collected one. Lately, John had been the patient one.
It's Peter's job to be the schemer and the babysitter, and the guy with the shady contacts. He's doesn't want to be the strong one, and he really doesn't want to be the crazy one. Maybe kissing her, kissing him makes him crazy. Maybe it makes him strong. He leans in anyway, and kisses them both. Neither pulls away.