With grocery bags in both hands, Peter strolled down the street to their apartment, greeting the people that he met along the way with a 'hi', a friendly smile or just a simple nod their way. Even if it was summer and only eight thirty in the morning there were a fair amount of people out already. Some were walking their dogs, some getting freshly baked bread from the small bakery a few blocks down and a few were simply taking a morning walk, enjoying the fresh and humid morning air that Massachusetts offered this time of year.

Stood up on the side of the earth
Thrown back to the track to the dirt
Two thread lose an hour a day
We're miles adrift, we're inches away...

He was almost certain that the loud music from his headphones could be heard from several feet away, considering the volume was nearly turned up as high as his phone allowed him to. The lyrics from the song were stuck, burned into his mind after having listened to it over and over for more than a week now. He blamed his girlfriend for it though, since she had been the one to introduce the electronic, yet rock based song to him. Olivia had insisted that they watch the second film based on the X-Files franchise, I Want to Believe, last weekend as they ordered take away and had their weekly movie night. They ordinarily watched some silly action movie or a cheesy horror, perhaps even an old sappy romance once in a while. Of course, sometimes they did rent movies that were actually worth the money and time they spent on the couch, when there were other things that they could be doing instead that, according to Peter, were far more important and a much better way of passing time than lying half asleep on a narrow old couch.

It was only a few minutes before he had walked up the steps leading to the apartment and fished up his keys from his pocket, balancing both bags and his phone in one hand as he turned the key in the lock and stepped inside. As he shrugged off his shoes by the door, he noticed Olivia lying on the couch, wrapped in one of the wool blankets. She had been in bed, sleeping soundly, when he left the place no more than half an hour ago. Guess she woke up and moved over to the couch instead, he figured as he walked over to the kitchen and placed the paper bags on the counter, before he made his way over to her.

"Liv?" He whispered as he crouched down beside her, reaching out to push a few strands of hair from her face.

"Peter?" She asked quietly, almost soundlessly as she opened her eyes to some extent.

"You ok?" He asked as he pressed a hand to her forehead, checking for a fever, pleased when he did not find her temperature higher than normal.

"My head hurts." Olivia whispered after a few seconds, closing her eyes. "Migraine, I think."

"Have you taken anything?" Peter asked sympathetically, slowly stroking her cheek with the back of his hand.

"No." She answered, her voice muffled by the blanket.

"I'll get you some aspirin." He told her softly. "Need anything else?"

"No, I'm good." Olivia told him as she heard him start to move, his knees popping loudly as he stood up and made his way through the bedroom toward the small bathroom. She heard him open the cabinet above the sink, the sound that, if you opened the door slowly, sounded almost like the screeching sound made by fingernails running down an old chalkboard. Peter had told her more than a few times that he was going to fix it, tomorrow, on his next day off or maybe next weekend, she had heard them all. He was typically the 'say it as well as do it' kind of guy, and most often did the things that needed to be done, though for some reason he had not gotten around to fix this yet. It had taken Olivia quite a while to come to terms with the fact that she did not have try to repair the broken pipes under the kitchen sink, the nonfunctioning television or the smoking engine on her car, by herself anymore.

"Here, two aspirin and a glass of water." Peter said as he resumed his crouching position in front of her, two small pills held out in his palm as he helped her sit up on the couch.

"Thank you." Olivia said as she tossed the pills back and slowly brought the glass to her lips, tilted, and let the cold liquid bring the pills down her throat like fish following the stream.

"Do you want me to call Broyles?" Peter asked as he looked down at his wristwatch, noticing that they had to leave in only a few minutes. "Tell him that you'll stay home?"

"No." She told him with a shook of her head. "No, I'll go in. Just give me a few minutes."

"Okay." Peter answered, knowing she would not change her mind.

Fifteen minutes later they were on their way, laughing and joking and chatting away as Peter drove the large SUV through the streets of Boston. Olivia was not sure who had started the 'what do we really know about each other after all this time' game, but they had been playing since they left the driveway.

"How can I not know your middle name?" Peter said as he looked over at her briefly. "I've known you for over four years now. It's unacceptable."

"You never asked." Olivia shrugged, amused by his behavior.

"Well, I know your birthday. October 21st." He said, smiling proudly, like it was something to actually be proud about after four years of friendship.

"At least you know that much." Olivia laughed as she looked at him. "And yours is September 18th."

"It is. I'm glad we know those at least." He joked, stopping at a red light. "It might be helpful sometime in the future, you know, when one of us has a birthday."

"You're right." Olivia told him, thinking of anything else to tell him. "Okay, I don't think you know this. I wasn't due until mid-November."

"You were premature?" Peter asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah, I was fine though, just a little small…four pounds." Olivia said with a smile, remembering a moment from when she was younger and sat on the couch with her mother, looking through photos from when she and Rachel were younger. "Why, how big were you?"

"How much did I weigh?" Peter asked as he looked over.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"I think I was almost 8 pounds." Peter said with a shrug.

"That's a joke, right? You're joking?" Olivia asked as she looked over at him, chocked by his revelation.

"No. Why?" He replied, a slight frown above his eyes.

"Can you really come back from that? My God…" Olivia said, still trying to fathom the idea.

"Well, think about it this way, if we have a kid it will almost certainly be just the perfect weight." Peter pointed out, smiling.

"True." She agreed, nodding slowly.

"So when did you lose your virginity?" Peter asked casually, his lips curved up into a grin.

"Peter!" Olivia exclaimed, laughing at his innocent yet curious look.

"What?" He asked simply. "We should know these things about each other. You know, the "ex-files" and all that."

"'Ex-files'? Seriously?" Olivia said with raised eye brows.

"Fine, I'll go first then." Peter told her as he turned right and slowed the car down in front of the caution tape at the crime scene. "I was sixteen, there was a beach party, she was a senior in my high school and I'd just gotten my license and a car with a nice backseat…and, well, I think you know the rest."

"Backseat of your car? That's such a cliché." Olivia said, grinning as she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car.

"You're one to talk." He said as he came up beside her. "The car's like your favorite place to-"

"That is not true." Olivia protested as they walked toward the building where Astrid and Lincoln were waiting for them.

"You keep telling yourself that, honey." Peter said, simply smirking at the glare she gave him. "So when did you, you know, lose your cherry or whatever?"

"I am not going to answer that." She told him, shaking her head.

"Oh, come on." He pressed on, nudging her shoulder as they walked. "I told you."

"I never asked you to tell me." Olivia answered, smiling as she walked up the steps, where she was met by both Lincoln and Astrid. "Hey, what do we got?"

"Victim's name is Jack Zoephel. At approximately three A.M., his wife placed a call to 9-1-1 after talking to her husband, who believed that he was being followed home. His wife was still on the phone with him when he was attacked, and the police arrived less than two minutes after she called them. But when they got here, he was already dead." Lincoln told them as they entered the building, Peter and Astrid following close behind.

"I'm assuming he didn't look like this before he left his work for the night?" Astrid pointed out as they looked at the pale and white-haired body on the lobby floor.

"No." Lincoln replied.

"Walter is certainly going to love this." Peter said to no one in particular as he crouched down beside Astrid and studied the corpse a little closer.

"What did the officers say about it?" Olivia asked Lincoln, nodding at the two officers who stood outside the apartment building.

"They didn't see anything, but they said that they did feel something." Lincoln told her slowly.

"What do mean?" Olivia asked, looking at him with frown. "What did they feel?"

"They were not too happy to explain it, or maybe they were embarrassed, but they described it as some sort of ghost." Lincoln explained.

"Are you saying a ghost did this?" Astrid asked as she stood up beside them.

"No." Lincoln told her, holding out a plastic bag with a piece of bloody bandage in it. "We've already ruled that out, since ghosts don't tend to bleed."

"Then let's talk to the neighbors and see if anyone heard or saw anything last night, and then we'll take the body back to the lab." Olivia told them, already heading for the doors.

"There have been four bodies similar to this one found in the surrounding area over the past three weeks. And why is this the first we're hearing of it?" Olivia asked as she looked over the files Broyles had sent them, Peter and Lincoln doing the same while Astrid helped Walter with the autopsy.

"It says here that before they ran the medical records, the police just assumed that all the victims were suffering from albinism." Peter told her. "It's more common than people think."

"Any luck with the DNA?" Olivia asked as she looked over at Lincoln, who was currently typing away on the lab computer.

"I've checked all the law enforcement databases, including Interpol, but it's possible that this person's DNA is not in any criminal database." Lincoln answered with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Hospitals?" Olivia questioned.

"That's my next move." Lincoln told her, nodding, as he continued typing on the computer.

"Walter, you got anything yet?" Peter asked as he dropped the files and went over to where his father was standing, eyes pressed against his microscope.

"Yes, chromatophore cells." Walter told him as he angled the scope to Peter. "You mostly find them in chameleons. They're cells that have the ability to translocate pigment in the body, and it is what many creatures use to blend into their background, just like chameleons."

"Okay, we've just got an I.D. on the blood sample I ran through the hospital database." Lincoln informed them from his position at Astrid's usual workstation.

"A name?" Olivia asked as she walked over.

"Baby Boy Bryant, a baby born on June 6, 1986 in New York." Lincoln explained. "According to this he died a week later."

"So we're saying that the blood we found on the crime scene belongs to an infant who died 26 years ago?" Astrid asked skeptically.

"Maybe he is a ghost after all." Walter said, munching on a piece of red licorice.

"Does is say what happened to him?" Peter asked.

"He died from complications from a genetic abnormality." Lincoln read as he scrolled down the pages. "Jeffrey West, the doctor who delivered him also wrote the infant's medical journal. And it says that he was deathly pale, the lights burned his skin as they held him up which made the doctors put him in some sort of special ward with no windows or lights. It doesn't say anything about his death though."

"Surprising." Olivia commented sarcastically. "Does it say anything about what happened after his death, with his body?"

"It was taken to a private insurance company." Lincoln told her, squinting as he tried to read the next words. "The handwriting is really bad, I think it says something Colies…or maybe Cyrpol…"

"Cyprox?" Walter mumbled, starting to connect the pieces of information.

"Yeah, that could be it." Lincoln answered with a nod.

"How'd you know Cyprox?" Olivia asked as she, as well as the others, looked over at Walter, who still stood by the half-finished autopsied body, chewing on his colorful licorice.

"Cyprox was a subsidiary of a larger company called Kelvin Genetics." Walter informed them, his face now taking on a stern and slightly concerned expression.

"And why does that give me a bad feeling?" Lincoln asked, half kidding.

"Because Kelvin Genetics became Massive Dynamic." Peter answered before Walter could.

"And that means we have to talk to Nina Sharp." Olivia said, already reaching for her leather jacket.

"How could they do that?" Olivia said angrily as she and Peter walked toward their car after their interview with Nina only minutes earlier. "How could they do genetic experimentation on a dying infant?"

"It's what made him survive though." Peter pointed out as they neared the car.

"And you think that makes it okay?" Olivia asked as she stopped and looked at him, her eyes staring straight into his.

"No, of course not." He answered quickly. "I'm just saying that that child would have died had he not been part of that experimental program."

"Maybe that would have been better." Olivia told him, and he knew this was not only about the baby infant anymore. This was about her childhood, the experiments done on her as a small child.

"Maybe." He said slowly, taking a few steps closer to her. "But in your case no, and yes I know that's what's on your mind too. I know you still think that you're different, but it's not a bad thing. It's what has made you who you are, and I would never want you to be any other way than you are."

"So you're saying it's good that your father pumped my body full of drugs for months?" Olivia asked, a small smile forming on her lips.

"No." He said as he cocked his head to the side, smiling softly before pulling her against him in a comforting hug. "It means I love you for who you are."

"Who would've thought that you were such a sap?" Olivia joked as she pulled back slightly, still keeping her arms around his waist, resting her hands on his back.

"I am not a sap." He said, feigning hurt. "It's called being a loving boyfriend."

"Is there a difference?" Olivia teased, smiling as she looked up at him.

"Maybe not." He answered, shrugging before placing a tender kiss to her lips. "Come on, let's go back to the lab and see if Walter has found anything else on the autopsy."

It was only about ten minutes later that they walked hand in hand down the corridors, along with several students who still had classes in the building, until they reached the doors that lead into the basement lab. As they entered, they spotted Walter and Astrid in the center of the room, discussing something while leaning over a small aquarium with something Olivia couldn't distinguish what it was.

"Oh! Peter, Agent Dunham!" Walter exclaimed happily as he looked up, a wide spreading on his face. "I have certain things to tell you about the chameleon man."

"Chameleon man? Really Walter?" Peter shook his head and sat down on one of the stools close by.

"Yes, and unfortunately, he is dying." Walter told them as he too sat down, but in front of a wooden maze at knee level.

"Who's dying?" Olivia asked as they all, including Lincoln who had just came out from the office, gathered around the scene.

"Our suspect of course." Walter answered as he slowly picked up a small white mouse from a glass box, and then carefully placed it down in the labyrinth. "I believe that he is killing people to try and take their pigments."

"Why?" Lincoln asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, glancing between Walter and the small white mouse running through the labyrinth on the table. "What is he trying to do to himself? Except for, you know… trying to re-pigmentize himself."

"Well, the condition that he was born with was evidently killing him." Walter explained, not removing his gaze from the running, searching mouse. "I believe that if he is now attempting to reverse what was done to him and therefore to make himself normal again. Or at least what he thinks of as normal…and then he is, in fact, committing suicide. "

"You're saying he's poisoning himself?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, somewhat." Walter continued as he leaned over the maze and picked up the mouse at the end-point of it. "His body is returning to the deadly state that he came into this world with. Although…I don't think he is aware of it."

"Then how long does he have until he dies?" Olivia asked as she, as well as her colleague, crossed her arms over her chest.

"I can't say." Walter told them. "But I suppose it depends on how successful he is."

"Well, that doesn't change anything." Peter pointed out. "We still have to find him."

"But how do we find something we can't see?" Lincoln asked them.

"Oh! That was another thing I had to tell you." Walter exclaimed as he clapped his hands and as the lights in the room dimmed, he grabbed a wand with ultraviolet light and moved it over the maze. "Come on, where are you?"

"Walter, what are you-" Peter started to ask, but stopped as another mouse suddenly appeared in one of the corners as the UV light shone over it.

"Has it been there the whole time?" Lincoln asked, stunned, before looking over at Astrid who had just answered the phone. "What's up?"

"That was Broyles." Astrid informed them. "Another body's been found."

As they, Olivia and Peter and Lincoln and Astrid, walked through the parking structure toward where Broyles was waiting with the dead body, they watched as the search dogs were given the scent they needed to find the suspect. Even though their suspect was invincible, obviously he still smelled.

"What do have?" Olivia asked as they reached Broyles.

"The doorman was just starting his shift when he found the body." He told them. "He has identified him as a Mr. Ryerson who works in the lower parts of the building."

"Do we know if the suspect is still in the building?" Lincoln asked as he looked around briefly.

"According to the doorman, no one has left." Broyles replied. "There is an emergency alarm on the back door, and he said that he was standing by the front door until the police arrived. Even watched the security footage three times to be sure."

Just as Olivia was about to ask something, one of the canine handlers called out to Broyles, signaling that one of the dogs had picked up a scent by one of the doors leading to the upper levels of the building.

"Are there any building exits on the floors?" Lincoln asked quickly.

"No." Broyles replied, and the four agents took off running as he ordered a complete lockdown on the building. "He's still up there."

"We have to move fast." Olivia said as they reached the dark stairwell, each holding a UV flashlight in their hands. "Peter and Astrid, take one team down and clear the basement and the garage. We'll start on the highest floor and work our way down. You start here and we'll meet in the middle. Okay?"

"You got it." Peter said, the others nodding with him as they went their separate ways.

Ten minutes and several floors later, Olivia and Lincoln opened a door to the next floor to search through for the suspect. It was an area under renovation, dark and filled with ladders, wooden boards and several kinds of tools. Lincoln held up his hand and pointed to the right, silently signaling that he would go left and she right to clear every surface of the floor. With an agreeing nod, they separated and quietly, carefully, walked around. The plastic hanging from the ceiling made the place look like something from a dark thriller or horror movie, where you just waited for the killer to come up behind you. Luckily, Olivia had never been afraid of horror movies, quite the opposite in fact. That did not mean that she would like for this suspect to come up behind her, seeing that she may not even be able to see him.

Suddenly there was a loud thud, the sound of a body hitting the floor kind of thud, coming from the direction where Lincoln had gone.

"Lincoln?" Olivia called quietly, but high enough for him to hear if he was there.

No answer.

Her heart was beating faster for every second that passed, thudding firmly against her ribcage as she quietly walked through the halls. She pointed the flashlight high up in front of her face as she tried to spot something, or someone.

So high up in front of her that she didn't see the large hole in the floor.

One second she was walking with both her feet on solid ground and the next she was hanging down a deep gaping hole, her elbows the only things holding her up and keeping her from falling. She could feel the edges digging into her upper arms as she tried to drag herself back up, unsuccessfully. Her leg hurt and she could feel the warm blood trickle down the side of her shin, down to the edge of her shoe. Her tactical radio and the UV flashlight were lying on the floor less than a meter away, though, reaching for them would make her loose the poor grip she already had on the flat surface. That did not stop the other agents, and Peter, from calling on her radio.

"Olivia, there's nothing down here." Peter's voice came through at the same time as she heard the movement behind her. "Olivia? Olivia, can you read me?"

She could see him. The ultraviolet light in her flashlight had worked, and now she could see their suspect approaching her. His skin was pale, almost white, and his eyes dark. He really did look like a ghost as he slowly walked towards her. But he did not look like a murderer, more like a man who had lost everything, even though he had never truly had anything at all.

"Please, help me." Olivia found herself pleading as she struggled to maintain her grip.

"Right now you understand how important it is to be seen." He said sharply as he looked down at her. "In this moment your life depends on it, depends on me seeing you."

"Okay, please, listen to me." Olivia said, trying to negotiate. "Listen, whatever it is you're doing to yourself, it's killing you. Please let me up, and we'll try to help you to-to heal you."

"Help me to heal?" He said bitterly. "You're just here to take me back to them so that they can run their tests and their experiments."

"No, no I am just trying to stop the killing." Olivia told him, her arms starting to get tired and ache from the effort of holding her up. "Please just hel-"

She did not get to finish her sentence before something struck the back of the man's head and he fell to the side, Lincoln standing behind him with his gun in his hand. He quickly fell down to his knees before her and helped her get up, and she noticed the small trail of blood trailing down the side of his face. Evidently he had been knocked out before, just as she had thought. She held onto his arms as he pulled her up to safety, hissing somewhat when her leg hit the edge. Their radios had not stopped calling and buzzing since she had fallen, and Peter's voice was frantic and rushed as he shouted.

"Liv! Please respond!" He called, and from the sound of it he was running. "Are you okay Please tell me where you are!"

"Peter, we're on the construction floor." Lincoln said as he picked up his radio. "Seventh from the top, I think."

"Is she okay?" Peter said quickly. "Did you find him?"

"Yes, he's right…" Lincoln started to answer, and then stopped when he turned to where the suspect had been lying only seconds before, but was now nowhere to be seen.

"Lincoln?" Peter said loudly. "What's going on? Is Olivia with you?"

"Yeah she's here." He told him, briefly looking at where Olivia sat next to him, before glancing around, not finding anything. "Bryant was here, but he's gone."

"Olivia? Lincoln?" Peter shouted as he reached their floor, the canine team following close behind him. "They're in here!"

"Did you see him?" Lincoln asked, referring to the fleeing suspect.

"No." He responded quickly as he crouched down beside Olivia, who was still seated on the floor, swallowing as he saw the hole in the floor. "What happened?"

"I was walking and it was dark, I didn't see the hole until I fell." Olivia told him honestly. "I'm fine Peter, it's nothing."

"I'll let the paramedics be the judges of that." He told her as he helped her up, keeping an arm under her right shoulder as they went for the door, Olivia hobbling slightly.

An hour or so later Olivia sat in the passenger seat of their car as they drove towards her apartment after they'd dropped Lincoln off at the office. Broyles and the rest of the team had found the suspect, only half an hour after he had left the building, sitting with his back against an elevator wall, dead. The paramedics had cleaned the cut on her shin and put a small bandage over it. It was a pretty long cut, but not very deep, and the bruises were what hurt most.

Lincoln had then offered to take care of the paperwork for the case, even after Olivia had protested and pointed out that he needed to rest after having been knocked out cold back at the scene. Lincoln had not, or Peter for that matter, let her stay at the office, and despite her protests Olivia was silently glad that she would get to go home instead. She just wanted to take a long, hot bath and then get under the cover in her bed and just sleep.

"You okay?" Peter asked as he heard Olivia let out a long sigh.

"Yeah." She answered softly. "Just tired. Exhausted actually."

"Let's just get home and eat something, a sandwich maybe, and then go to bed." Peter suggested as he grabbed her hand and rested them on her thigh.

"That sound good, but I want a hot bath before bed." Olivia told him, smiling as she squeezed his hand gently. "And a beer."

"That's sounds really good right now." Peter said with a small laugh. "Am I invited to the hot bath, though?"

"Get me a beer, give me a massage and I'll let you in anywhere." Olivia said as she leaned her head back and smirked at him.

"Okay then." He replied, grinning as they drove down the streets to their apartment.

Chances are I'll see you
somewhere in my dreams tonight
You'll be smiling like the night we met

AN: Hi again! I know it's been a while, and I truly am sorry for that!Have had other things to do, and never got around to continue with this.

Hope that you are still with me, and will continue to read!

Thank you all for the reviews and support, you guys really are amazing!