Odd Squad 1. Prologue: 'The Zero Effect'

**A/N Hi guys! Since _Odd Squad_ is such a new show, and it's really meant for little kids, I don't know how many readers I'm actually going to have for this story...but anyways, for those of you who _are _reading it, welcome!  
This isn't going to be a terribly long story, probably only about four chapters at the most. My intention is to keep the plot feeling roughly episode length, as I want it to be as canon as possible. So I'm starting with an introduction adapted from the end of the first episode, "The Zero Effect". After that we'll get into my stuff for sure. Welp, enjoy!**

Prologue: "The Zero Effect"

_It is Agent Otto's tenth birthday. Chatter, laughter, music, and oodles of cupcakes fill the front room of the cupcake shop. Every member of the Odd Squad is here, celebrating the special day of their newest agent, not to mention his and his partner's latest success in defeating the Number Hog. After all, could there be any better way to get off work _and _make a new member feel welcomed—_at the same time? _Of course not._

_Otto sits at the booth in front, surrounded by a mound of presents. He is enjoying the birthday cupcake that his partner, Agent Olive, brought him earlier. Olive has just left to get the cupcake she ordered for herself, plain with no frosting, just like her personality. Otto has to chuckle. He has yet to see the day that his partner drops her no-nonsense façade and actually tries to have fun, even for a mere cupcake._

_With Olive gone, Agent Oscar, the Odd Squad scientist, gadget-builder, and favorite of Ms. O, slips into the booth beside Otto. A vanilla and blue-frosted cupcake is on his plate and a huge grin is on his face. "Glad to have you on the Squad, Otto!" he announces cheerfully. Then without really thinking, he adds with a flourish and an eyeroll, "You're _sooooooooo_ much better than Olive's _last_ partner."_

_Otto stares at him. This is new. At twelve years old, Olive is obviously a veteran agent, but Otto never really pictured Olive with any previous partners. _I guess I should've known, _he tells himself, a little miffed._ No agent at Odd Squad ever works by themselves. _He watches Oscar daintily yet eagerly cutting a bite off his cupcake with a knife and fork, and slowly asks, "Who was her last partner?"_

_Oscar opens his mouth to reply but freezes, knife and fork forgotten, as he realizes what he's said. "Uh, w- I, uh..." _Dagnabbit, Oscar! _he berates himself. _Why'd you have to go and put your foot in your mouth—again? _Unwanted memories quickly begin to resurface, one after the other, until they threaten to overwhelm poor Oscar's squirrel-like mind. A cold sweat breaks out on his forehead. He has to get out of here. Fast._

_Frantically Oscar scans the room, searching for something, anything, to distract the curious Otto. Then his eye falls on the cupcake stand in a corner of the room, where Agent Orson is shoving cupcake after cupcake into his little baby mouth. Indicating with his knife, he quickly stammers, "Uh, look at Agent Orson, haha, out of control as usual, heh!"_

"_Hmm?" Otto turns around to look. He laughs and shakes his head, tutting at the nerve of Odd Squad's youngest agent. "Crazy—baby…?" he trails off as he turns back to find the seat next to him empty, cupcake abandoned. Glancing around the room in surprise, he can't see Oscar anywhere. Otto then looks questioningly at Orson, the only other agent that saw Oscar and him together. But the baby merely giggles and reaches for another cupcake with his chubby hands._

_Meanwhile, underneath the table, hidden by a thick white cupcake-patterned tablecloth, Agent Oscar huddles in a ball. His former cheerful mood is gone, replaced with heavy guilt and shame. The tears on his cheek go unnoticed as he lets the awful memories engulf him. Above all, one thought circles mercilessly through his mind:_

I let her down…


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N Since I really liked how the prologue turned out, I've decided to make a change in plans for this story. Between each normal chapter, I'll be adding a flashback of a scene from one of the episodes to help with the clarity of what I've written. This will bring the total number of chapters to about nine, but they all _should_ be fairly short, like this one. Happy reading!**

Chapter 1

"OLIVE AND OTTO! IN MY OFFICE! _NOW!_"

_"YES!"_ Otto hopped up from the desk and did a little victory dance. "I _told_ you she would yell it at exactly two twenty-three and eleven seconds!" Showing off his watch to prove his point, Otto poked his partner on the nose. "_You_ now owe me a special trip to the donut room."

"Okay, okay!" Olive put her hands out to stop him. "You win. Now come on, we don't want to keep Ms. O waiting, or you might not _be_ here to _go_ to the donut room."

Otto's eyes widened in alarm. "You're right!" Together the pair flew up the stairs (nearly knocking over a merman riding on an albino donkey in the process) and into the office of their boss.

"You wanted to see us, Ms. O?" Olive asked, calm and collected as usual.

Ms. O was behind her desk, surveying them with her usual stern expression. Olive noticed in alarm that empty juice boxes littered the floor, and her cabinets for storing them were empty. "Yes, I did," she said in a tired voice. "Something very odd has happened. Well, no, not odd. More like disastrous. Here, at Odd Squad Headquarters."

"Lemme guess," Otto muttered under his breath so that only Olive could hear. "There's no more juice boxes left?"

Olive stealthily kicked him. "Shush!" she hissed.

Ms. O ignored their exchange. "Have either of you two ever been down to the Odd Squad Mechanical Rooms?" she asked, getting up from her chair.

Otto looked confused. "What's a mechanical room?"

"It's the same thing as a boiler room," Olive quickly explained. "It houses the heating and cooling systems for the entire headquarters building."

"Yes, thank you, Olive." Ms. O said. "Now, the problem is that something very odd has happened to the pipes that carry hot water all through the building." Turning to face the wall behind her, she held up a remote control and pushed a button. Instantly a live blueprint of the headquarters was projected onto the wall, with every pipe in every wall on every floor highlighted. "Focus your attention on the very bottom floor, over here." She pushed another button on her remote, and a laser beam lit up and pointed out the map of the bottom floor, also known as the lower basement because it was the second story belowground. "What do you see, agents?"

"Well," Otto began, "I see that all of the pipes seem to be coming from there. They all connect to those huge tanks, see?" He pointed at six large rectangles arranged in a two-by-three rectangle and divided by walls into six rooms and a central hallway.

"Thank you, Agent Otto. Those are the boilers that store the water for heating." Otto didn't see Ms. O roll her eyes. "Anything else?"

"Oh, look over at that boiler, in the top left-hand corner," Olive said, pointing. "There's a really big pipe coming out of it that runs through all the other boilers, and most of all the other pipes branch off of it. But if this is a live map, then there's something big and green clogging that pipe!"

Ms. O indicated the spot with her laser pointer. "Nice work, Agent Olive. There is indeed something odd blocking the main pipe. And what do you notice about it?"

This time Otto saw it first. "It's _growing!_"

Sure enough, the big green blob was increasing in size and spreading down either direction of the pipe.

"And that's where our disastrous problem comes in," Ms. O concluded. "If that thing completely shuts off the main pipe, Odd Squad Headquarters won't have any more heating or cooling."

Olive gasped. "Which could endanger all the rare plant and animal specimens we house! They won't be able to survive without their climate-controlled rooms to live in!"

"Not to mention all of the Odd Squad agents," Ms. O added. "It's important that we take care of every agent accordingly."

"And don't forget the food rooms!" Otto chimed in.

Olive and Ms. O stared witheringly at him.

"What?" Otto shrugged. "We all need to eat. And we can't eat if all the food is melted or frozen or rotting into compost!" He looked stricken at the thought. You might as well have told him that his Great-Grandmother Elisabeth had suddenly kicked the bucket. (Except that wouldn't have worked, since Great-Grandmother Elisabeth already died when he was seven. Plus, Otto never really liked her. She had always been a little too fond of rapping his knuckles and forehead with a screwdriver or lipstick tube. He can still point out all forty-seven of his scars to this day.)

"Whatever!" Ms. O cut in. "The point is, we need to stop that thing, and fast!" She switched off her projector and sat back down. "I've already taken the liberty of sending Oscar to begin working on it. He's down there in the room labeled with an orange triangle, and he's got a copy of the live map on his OddPad. But just in case he needs help, which he probably will, I want my top Odd Squad agents down there assisting him. Just let me know if it gets out of control and _you_ two need help."

Otto nodded. "Got it, Ms. O. We won't let you down," he assured her. But Olive tensed and didn't reply. Sure, she crossed paths with Oscar everyday, especially when on an important case, and his numerous skills were an invaluable asset to Odd Squad. But she hadn't been instructed specifically to _work_ with him since before… _Oh, stop it, Olive,_ she chided herself. _What Ms. O says, goes. No complaints or else._

Besides, Ms. O was now glaring at them. "What are you waiting for? GO!"

Immediately the pair dashed out of her office and off to the elevator.

Ms. O sighed and sank into her chair. Stress made her thirsty. Seeing Orchid pass by outside, Ms. O called, "Oh, Agent Orchid?"

The little girl popped her head in the doorway. "Yes, Ms. O?"

"Fetch me a juice box, will you? My supply has mysteriously vanished."

Meanwhile, riding in the elevator, Otto looked at Olive. "You okay, partner?"

"Hmm, what?"

"You were kind of staring off into space. You looked, um, angry."

Olive waved him off. "Oh, no. You must be imagining things, partner." _He doesn't need to know about Oscar. No need to make matters more complicated than they already are._

How wrong she was.


	3. Flashback: 'My Better Half'

**A/N Happy New Year 2015!**

Flashback: "My Better Half"

_It is a cold and wintry day outside. Mayor Macklemore stands on the icy pavement, drumming his fingers together nervously, watching his breath escape the confines of his scarf to make clouds of condensation in the air. He is waiting for someone. Or rather, two someones._

_Suddenly there is a flash of blue light, and two kids tumble out onto the pavement and straight into the mayor. With a twinge of relief, he recognizes Agent Olive from Odd Squad. "Mr. Mayor!" she exclaims as she regains her balance._

"_Agent Olive, thank you for coming," he tells her gratefully, hopeful that she can solve his symmetry problems. It is then that he notices the boy standing next to her uncertainly. "I don't believe we've..."_

_Olive looks startled as she realizes that the mayor has never met Otto, and promptly introduces him. "My new partner, Agent Otto."_

_Mayor Macklemore grins and chuckles as he shakes Otto's hand. _The fellow seems nice, _he thinks approvingly._

"_What's up?" Otto says. He holds out his fist and the mayor bumps it, then they simultaneously pull their hands back in a Spiderman gesture._

_By now the mayor is grinning broadly. "Ooh, I like him better than your last partner," he tells Olive with a wink._

_There it is again. Otto gives Olive a meaningful look. Partners aren't supposed to keep secrets between each other, and yet Olive still hasn't told him who her last partner was. What could have been so bad about her former partner that she can't tell him?_

_And still won't tell him, apparently. A panicked look crosses Olive's face, and she quickly stammers, "Uh, yes. Um, so, um, what seems to be the problem?"_

_The tense moment passes as the subject is changed back to the matter at hand. "Do you know what a snowman is?" Mayor Macklemore asks, serious again._

_Otto's brow furrows in confusion. "Uh, yeah."_

_The mayor nods. "This will be a lot easier to explain, then. Come." Turning, he slowly waddles across the ice, and Olive and Otto follow his example. The mayor leads the two agents to the end of the pavement, where he suddenly halts, points and yells, "SOMEONE'S RUINED ALL THE SNOWMEN!"_

_Of course, this is only the beginning of the many symmetry problems caused by Symmetric Al. As Mayor Macklemore calls out each one in turn, Olive is only half-listening. Sure, she gasps in horror at the cloven park bench, but she learned a long time ago how to act, especially when it comes to acting natural. After all, _he _taught her. But not directly, of course. _He may have tons of brains in that giant head of his, _she thinks scornfully, _but he's absolutely clueless when it comes to anything but lab work.

_Olive heaves a huge internal sigh. It's not the mayor's fault that he accidentally reminded her of past hurts and disappointments—although he's known Oscar for awhile now, and should have known better than to say something like that._ Especially since Oscar's the boss's favorite, _Olive thinks with an inward eyeroll. Furthermore,_ _it isn't Otto's fault that he's curious, especially when he has every right to be. _Still, _she reminds herself,_ there's just some things that Otto can never know. I don't want to hurt him like Oscar hurt me.

_Shaking these thoughts away, Olive focuses her attention back on Mayor Macklemore and her work and, at least for the time being, forgets all about Oscar._


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Which room did she say it was again?"

Olive and Otto were standing in the dimly-lit cement corridor on the very bottom floor—the oldest part of Odd Squad Headquarters. There were three metal doors on each side, behind which were the Mechanical Rooms. On the ceiling was a tangle of pipes that ran between each room, hissing yellow-tinted steam that smelled faintly like oranges. It was easy to pick out the main pipe, as it was the largest and only crossed through the hallway at either end to connect to the rooms on the other side. However, it wasn't as easy to figure out which of the six rooms they were supposed to go to.

"Let's think," Olive replied. "On the live map, the green thingie was in the section of pipe in the top left-hand corner. So that means that it can't be either of the two middle rooms."

Otto's eyes lit up in understanding. "That's right! And I just remembered something else. Look at each door. They all have different shapes and colors on them." He pointed them all out in turn. "See, there's a yellow square, a red circle, a green pentagon, a blue kite, and a purple star. But down there," he went on, pointing to the door on the far left, "is an orange triangle. See, it's got one, two, three sides. And that's the one that Ms. O said she sent Oscar to."

"You're right!" Olive exclaimed. "And look, it perfectly matches the location on the live map." She folded her arms and grinned. "Looks like we've found our room."

At that moment a metallic _bang!_ sounded from the direction of the orange triangle room, followed by shouts and some strange gurgling noises. Olive and Otto exchanged glances. "Let's go!" they shouted simultaneously, and dashed over to the door. Olive hit the triangle in the center, and with a hiss the heavy metal door slid open. They darted inside.

And stopped in their tracks. They were in a small room with cement walls and floor, like the corridor. Sections of pipe ran everywhere, but all conjoined at the massive, cylindrical boiler at the center of the room. The main pipe ran through the wall from the room next door to the boiler, then curved and ran straight over their heads and through the wall above the doorway. Standing below the closest part of the main pipe on a wobbling wooden stepladder was Agent Oscar. He was clinging onto the pipe above him while trying to regain his footing, and the side of his face was covered in bright green goo. Olive noticed that it was similar to the substance that the Blob had spit on Otto awhile back. But why was it green?

It was then that Oscar noticed the two agents. "Oh, hey guys!" he said his usual chipper voice. "Ms. O send you to help me?"

In answer, Olive demanded curtly, "What the heck is on your face?"

"Oh yeah, that." He seemed to notice it for the first time. "It's what this here Blobisite spit on me," he explained, pointing at a section of the pipe that had been opened up.

Looking up, Olive and Otto saw what looked like luminescent green jello filling the pipe. "A Blobisite?" Otto asked.

"Yup! Cousins of Blobs, but they're parasites, so they're called Blobisites."

Olive hid a scowl. "What exactly is it a parasite of?"

"Boiler systems, of course!"

"You're joking."

"Nope! They like to get in the pipes and grow until they fill the whole network, sucking up all the warmth and blocking all the water as they do so." To illustrate his point, Oscar made a series of sucking and gurgling sound effects until Olive thought she would lose her temper, but then she heard the same noises echoing from inside the pipe. Simultaneously, several lights on the boiler blinked red, and the massive thing itself shuddered and began to rattle.

Oscar stared at it worriedly. "That's not good," he said, nervously adjusting his glasses. "The water's backing up. If we don't remove this Blobisite and stop it growing, the boiler will burst!"

"But how do we get the Blobisite out?" Otto asked.

Olive sighed in exasperation. "Why can't we just use the Shrinkinator?"

"It won't work!" Oscar said, shaking his head. "We can't use the Shrinkinator on the Blobisite while it's in the pipe. We have to get it out into the open first."

"But how do we do that?"

"Wait a second," Otto said. "Oscar, lemme see your OddPad."

Oscar quickly dug it out of his lab coat pocket and handed it to him.

"Look here," Otto explained to Olive. "The Blobisite isn't that big yet. It hasn't gotten to the room across the hall yet, the one with the yellow square, so we shouldn't have to worry about that boiler exploding. But the Blobisite _is _growing in the direction of the room next door, the one labeled with the purple star. Maybe if I go in there and wait for it, I can pull the Blobisite out and shrink it!"

"Great idea, partner!" Olive marveled. "I'll go with you!"

"Wait! Um, Olive," Oscar began, not meeting her eyes. "I kind of need you here." He tossed her a gadget. "You need to watch the boiler and use the Repairinator if it shows signs of breaking apart."

Olive gaped. "But—" she protested.

Otto stopped her. "Just do as he says, Olive. I can handle it myself." He headed for the door.

"There's a stepladder, screwdriver, and bucket already in the room!" Oscar called after him. "Use them to get the pipe open!"

"Got it!" Otto answered with a wave. Then he was gone.

Irked, Olive turned back to the boiler and glared at it. _Trust my partner to leave me alone with the person I loathe,_ she thought angrily. Glancing down at the Repairinator in her hands, she conceded, _Well, at least I can make myself useful. Plus, I don't have to talk to him._

Her thoughts came too soon. Oscar had been muttering to himself, something about wizards and armadillos with cheese sandwiches, but suddenly he spoke out loud. "Olive, whatever you do, _don't turn around._"

So of course Olive immediately whirled to face him—and screamed. She dropped Repairinator and stumbled backward. "What are you _doing_ with that thing?!" she demanded.

Oscar looked upset, and Olive wished that, for once, she hadn't ignored him. "It turns out you're not the only one afraid of pies. Blobisites don't like them, either." He held the banana creme pie up to the opened pipe. "I'm hoping to scare this big guy away from us and right into Otto's arms. Er, bucket. Whatever."

Olive's next question would have been where it came from and how he got it in here in the first place, but the rational part of her mind had completely shut down. Fear had taken over, and all she could think about was getting as far away from that abomination as possible. She took a few more steps back, until suddenly—_bang!_—she slammed into the boiler.

Somehow, through her fright, Olive sensed a warm, wet, sticky spot growing on the back of her shoulders. Quickly she spun around to see a small tear in the metal, and out of it was leaking—orange juice? But there wasn't time to speculate. Forgetting the pie, Olive dropped to the floor and frantically groped around for the Repairinator. After a long moment searching, her hand grasped the handle, and she swiftly whipped the gadget up and fired at the boiler.

Nothing happened.

Olive's eyes widened. So did the fissure. "_Oscar!_" she cried out, staring at it with rising panic. "It's not working! The Repairinator's br—"

She never finished her sentence. With a loud shriek of tearing metal, the fissure burst apart, and a blast of orange juice slammed into Olive's face.


	5. Flashback: 'Oscarbots' & 'Best Seats'

**A/N Hello there! Before I go on, lemme take a moment to give a shoutout to MinecraftDanny's cousin for his loyal support of this little fanfic. Thank you, Danny's cousin!  
So a couple things: first, like Danny's cousin has been doing, if any of you other readers out there would like to review this story (even if it's as a guest), I would really appreciate it! I'll happily take both praise and constructive criticism, but _please_ no hate reviews. No one likes those, and I _will_ delete them. Second, because I go back to school tomorrow (yikes!), it might be quite a while before the next chapter gets posted, but I promise I'll work on it and put it up ASAP. Third, this flashback is a little longer because I used two episodes and I had a lot I wanted to fit in, just so you all know. Fourth—actually never mind, I'll get to that in Flashback #3. ;)  
Okay, without further ado, I bring you Flashback #2! Enjoy!**

Flashback: "Oscar and the Oscarbots"/"Best Seats in the House"

Ms. O is never going to forgive me!

_That's all Oscar can think as, early that morning in the laboratory, he counts his Oscarbots for the seventeenth time. After returning from the movie theater's midnight special, Oscar was in the process of shutting down his robots when he noticed it. Seventeen headcounts don't change the facts: five Oscarbots are missing, and he has no idea which ones or where they could be._

At least Ms. O is out practicing her Taekwon-Do, _he reassures himself as he hides the other twenty robots around headquarters,_ and won't be back until late tonight. _Then he frowns._ But how can I look for the missing Oscarbots without everyone finding out about the top-secret machine?

_The first agents are arriving for work, and Oscar realizes he'll have to wait until everyone goes home for the night before he can begin looking. Which means he'll be cutting it close to the time when Ms. O comes back. There's no way he can find them all by himself. _Which means I'm going to need help, _he concludes. _But who can I trust?

_Poking his head out of the laboratory, Oscar scans the main room for possible agents, and his eyes fall on two empty desks near the stairs. With a sinking feeling, he realizes that the desks belong to Agent Otto and—her. But as he runs through a mental checklist of all the agents, it dawns on Oscar that Olive and Otto are probably the most trustworthy agents that Odd Squad has to offer. Not to mention the most successful. _Unlike I was, _he thinks ruefully. _That's why she got Otto as a partner in the first place. _But Oscar has no choice. He'll just have to suck it up and hope she doesn't bite too hard. Like Agent Orchid. He still has the bite marks on his left index finger from when he accidentally blasted her sandcastle with a puddinginator._

_Slowly the day goes by, during which Oscar catches a few hours of sleep, but neither Olive nor Otto return to their desks. It's a busy day for them today, and they have a lot of cases to solve. When evening falls and the two agents still haven't made it back to headquarters, Oscar can't wait any longer. He has to go find them._

_Odd Squad Headquarters thins out as all the agents head home for the night. Oscar is starting to worry that he might have missed them somehow, when he spots Agent O'Scarlett coming from the tube room, a donut in her hand. Suddenly he remembers that O'Scarlett's shift in the tube room just finished. _She would _have_ to know if Olive and Otto came back! _he thinks. Hurrying over to her, Oscar asks, "Hey, um, Agent O'Scarlett, did you see Agents Olive and Otto recently?"_

_O'Scarlett nods and gestures behind her with her donut. "Mm-hmm. They just got back. I told Agent Otto about the donut room and he got really excited, so Agent Olive is taking him there."_

"_Oh, good. Thank you so much for help," Oscar thanks her. "Have a good night!" And he darts off in the direction of the donut room._

_Sure enough, there are Olive and Otto, standing in front of the door and about to go in. Oscar doesn't hesitate. He dashes toward them and grabs them both by the shoulders. "Hey, guys! Heh-heh, uh, I need your help!" Ignoring Olive's shocked expression and Otto's protests about donuts, Oscar drags them away and steers them back to the main room._

_Once all the agents have gone, Oscar quickly and nervously explains about the top-secret machine for Ms. O, trying not to notice the _this-better-be-good _look on Olive's face. He concludes with, "so to help me build it, I made these guys!" And he blows his whistle._

_One by one, the Oscarbots power up, come out of hiding, and assemble on the stairs. Olive and Otto are dumbstruck, and stare at them in disbelief. This makes Oscar feel rather proud, in spite of the circumstances, until Olive jumps to the wrong conclusion: "You _cloned _yourself?" she asks incredulously._

Uh-oh. Play it off, Oscar, play it off. "_No! What am I, crazy?" he assures her with a _how-could-you-even-think-I-would-do-something-that-stupid-even-though-I've-been-that-stupid-before _look. So he explains, "They're robots."_

"_Mm-hmm." Olive gives him a skeptical look, but says nothing._

_After Oscar proves to her and Otto that they really are robots by opening the back panel, explains how each robot has its own special function with Ms. O's machine, and relates the events of the previous night, he finishes with, "If this machine doesn't work...Ms. O will never forgive me." He sighs. "What am I going to do? I don't even know which Oscarbots are missing!"_

_Oscar looks at Olive expectantly. He has no way of knowing what she's thinking: _Maybe I should help Oscar just this once. Frankly, he really deserves to lose Ms. O's trust one of these days. But if she finds out that Otto and I were involved and didn't help her 'favorite agent', who knows what she'll do to us? _There's another factor at play, too. What Olive won't admit, not even to herself, is that… _'it' _is still there. And even though _it _was shattered a long time ago, it's the reason Olive will never completely abandon Oscar whenever he needs help. "I have an idea," she finally says._

_Oscar breathes an inward sigh of relief._

"_We're going to the donut room?" Otto suggests._

_Olive shoots him a disapproving look. "Not even close." And she begins to outline her plan._

_A few moments later, all of the remaining Oscarbots are lined up along one side of the balcony. Olive, Otto, and Oscar survey them from the other side._

"_Huh," Oscar speculates, "when I see them all lined up like that—"_

_Olive perks up hopefully. Is he about to what she thinks he's about to do?_

"—_I realize I really do need a haircut."_

_Nope, he didn't do it. Olive rolls her eyes and shakes her head. She's irritated that Oscar didn't figure it out for once, and she also remembers that the last time he said that, he came to work with an afro the very next day._

_Nevertheless, Olive helps him determine which Oscarbots are missing. She even agrees with his idea about Oscarbot 25 and Polly Graph's sale on hot chocolate. "So a quarter is twenty-five cents!" she tells Otto. "Let's go." And the two agents head for the tubes._

"_All right!" Oscar calls after them. "I'll just...look at me, I guess." He sighs as he stares at his robots. _Trust Olive to leave me behind to do the babysitting, _he thinks dejectedly. _But I might as well do the job right. _He turns a shrewd eye on the Oscarbots. "Don't any of you move!"_

_Meanwhile, the search for Oscarbots 25, 10, and 24 proves to be successful. Olive is glad that she and Otto are doing their job, but she feels uncomfortable surrounded by so many spastic duplicates of Oscar. She makes a mental note to convince (by which she really means demand) Oscar to scrap the robots once Ms. O's top-secret machine fulfills its purpose. Furthermore, Olive feels offended when both Oscar and Otto regard her suspiciously after she mentions the Club 24. "What? I have a life outside of work!" she defends herself testily. Looking back on it, Olive knows it was unfair of her to get mad at Otto, since he still hasn't known her for very long. But Oscar's known her for years, and would have some idea about what she does in her free time. At least, he should. _Trust Oscar not to bother paying any attention, _she thinks bitterly. If only she could know that Oscar also feels guilty for not knowing._

"_Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four!" Olive counts out proudly after they return from the club. "Now we just need to find Oscarbots 4 and 8."_

_At that moment, Oscar's ridiculous ringtone goes off, followed by his equally ridiculous "Yello!" as he answers it, and Olive suppresses a huff. But as she watches Oscar's face during the phone call, she realizes that it's Ms. O, about to return._

"_Uh, actually, if I could have just a little more time, that would be great," Oscar says nervously._

_There's a strange noise on the other end that sounds a lot like growling. "Looks like you just got yourself an extra thirty seconds," Ms. O tells him. Then she hangs up._

Thirty seconds?! _Oscar's face falls. There's no way they can find two more Oscarbots in only thirty seconds! Sadly, he hangs his badge back up on his labcoat, possibly for the last time. "It's over," he moans, fighting tears. "I'm going to get kicked off Odd Squad."_

_In his despair, what he doesn't see is Olive's sympathetic expression. Even after all that she's suffered from him, and as much as she resents Ms. O's fondness for him, Olive still can't hate him enough to want him fired. She understands all too well that Odd Squad is Oscar's life, just like it is hers. Plus, she knows that he's happiest when he's at work in the laboratory. _Happier than he ever was on a case, _she muses with a pang of envy._

_As if to demonstrate Olive's mixed thoughts, Otto puts a comforting hand on Oscar's shoulder. The laboratorian gives him a half smile. "Even if my life is ruined," he continues, trying and failing to be positive, "I'm sure 4 and 8 are happy together."_

_Olive looks up sharply. _"Together?"

"_Yeah, 4 and 8, they were like best buds. They did everything together."_

_And that's when Olive has her epiphany: _4 + 8 = 12_. She quickly relates her idea to the other two._

"_Twelve is a dozen! And we know what comes in a dozen," Otto says, rubbing his hands together gleefully._

"_Eggs!"_

_Just like that, Olive could smack Oscar. She doesn't think she will ever understand how he can completely miss the obvious, even when it's staring him right in the face. "Donuts," she corrects him emphatically, finally letting out the huge, exasperated sigh that she withheld up until this point. "Let's go."_

"_I guess that too..." Oscar mutters thoughtfully with a shrug as the two agents head off again._

_Finally, when all is said and done, Olive leaves Oscar with Ms. O and leads Otto to the cake room. It's past midnight and she's tired, but she feels it necessary to put her partner's needs before her own. _Which Oscar never did, _she thinks resentfully, and starts to wonder if it was really such a good idea to help him, after all… _

* * *

_Suddenly there is a loud clatter from the corner of the ball pit. Olive, Otto, Oren, and Olaf simultaneously look up from the calendar to find Oscar, hair still damp and tousled from his recent trim, struggling to sit up amidst the brightly-colored balls. "The eagle has landed!" he tells them urgently. "I repeat: the eagle has landed!"_

_All four agents stare at him blankly._

"_Oh! Also, Octavia's back," he adds, managing to stand up. "Come on!"_

_Quickly the five of them make their way out of the ball pit and hurry to the main room. Now that the mission's over, maybe Ms. O can finally settle the question of who gets the special chairs._

_Some agent dug out a trumpet somewhere, and blasts out a fanfare as Agent Octavia strides into the center of the applauding agents, the rescued Feline Ambassador in her arms. Ms. O follows her, still in her scuba gear, dripping wet and covered in river slime. "Welcome home, Ambassador," she greets the cat, stroking his fluffy head. "Nice work, Octavia," she adds._

_Octavia beams. "Pleasure, Ms. O!"_

_As she takes the Ambassador back to her desk to rest, Ms. O looks around and hollers, "OSCAR!"_

_Oscar scurries out from behind her. "Yes, Ms. O?" he answers, straightening his lab coat._

_Her face softens. "Thanks for your help." She pauses, then continues, "Sorry you had to cut your hair."_

_With a sigh and a shrug, Oscar assumes a noble pose. "I did what had to be done." Then he runs a hand through his hair and grins, and the heroic air dissolves. "Also, I kind of like it this way!"_

_Ms. O smiles warmly at him._

_Olive nearly pukes. _Seriously? _she thinks in disgust. It's not the new haircut that sickens her. Oscar was right when, two weeks ago, he said the Oscarbots made him want a trim. In fact, she likes it, as well. What gets her is the way Ms. O reacted when he cheerfully brushed off her apology. To Olive, it's just more proof of Ms. O's blatant favoritism toward Oscar, and Oscar's willing acceptance of it. Not to mention the fact that she and Otto, two of the best agents in the Odd Squad, weren't asked to help with the super-important top-secret mission, and Oscar was. It's what makes her jealous._

Never mind, Olive, _she tells herself as Oscar heads back to his lab. _What matters right now are the chairs._ "Uh, Ms. O?" she calls._

_Meanwhile, as Oscar shuts the door of his lab, he feels a giddy thrill run through him. The reason is puzzling: it's not because of the success of the mission, or even because of Ms. O's compliments, but because he's sure that Olive noticed his haircut. Trying to suppress the thought, Oscar can't help but hope: _I wonder if she finds it attractive…?


	6. Chapter 3

**A/N Hi there, I'm back! Not much to say, just that I've been swamped with homework and it's a miracle I cranked this out. FYI, I'm not totally happy with the way this chapter turned out, but it's decent enough that you'll get the idea. Sorry if Olive and Oscar get out of character a bit, especially in the bottom half. Next chapter will be a long series of short flashbacks, hinted at near the end of this chapter. Again, may be awhile before it's posted.  
Lovely reviews from all of you! I really appreciate it, you guys help me more than you realize. :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own this show. Pretty obvious, but just putting that out there.**

Chapter 3

The force of the impact lifted Olive clean off her feet, and she was thrown against the side wall, hard. Her vision spun and went fuzzy, but she could have sworn that she saw the entrance door slam shut while Oscar tossed the pie to who-knows-where. Then a sticky orange swirl blocked them both and the darkness claimed her.

When she came to, the first thing Olive became aware of was frothy orange juice lapping at her waist. "Wha...wha…?" she mumbled.

"Shh," Oscar quieted her. "You got a bad hit to the head."

Olive could barely hear him over the dull roar in her ears. Blinking, she gazed groggily at him. "Why...orange...juice…?"

"Oh yeah, that." Oscar chuckled to himself. "Guess I forgot that we substituted OJ for water awhile back. Ms. O liked the smell in the walls, I think."

The mention of Ms. O jerked Olive back to her senses, and she suddenly became aware of several things at once. One, the room was rapidly flooding. Two, the dull roar in her ears grew louder until she realized it was the sound of the orange juice flooding the room. Three, the gigantic boiler was jaggedly ripped in two and completely empty. Four, the Blobisite was nowhere to be seen in the main pipe (she guessed Oscar had done his work with the pie), and orange juice was now pouring out of there. And five, she was standing upright, leaning against the wall—with Oscar holding onto her.

Now fully awake, Olive conspicuously eased herself out of his arms. "Right, we've got to get out of here!" she urged, and started sloshing her way toward the door before she stopped as the realization hit her—the door really had shut itself when the boiler burst.

"We're trapped," Oscar said from behind her, voicing her thoughts. "The doors automatically shut and lock if something bad happens, to keep it quarantined."

Reluctantly, Olive turned back to him. "Then what do we do?"

They eyed each other for a split second, then in unison bolted for the side wall and began to bang on it. "Otto! Let us out! We're trapped and it's flooding!"

But there was no response. Either Otto was still struggling with the Blobisite or he simply couldn't hear them. In fact, Olive and Oscar could hardly hear themselves over the waterfall-like thundering of the orange juice. Then Olive looked down and realized in alarm that the orange juice had already risen to her chest. If they were trapped in here for much longer…

"The ladder!" Oscar suddenly cried. Splashing his way over to the cascade of orange juice, he suddenly ducked under and disappeared. Olive held her breath, but a moment later he came back up spluttering, soaked in orange juice, glasses askew, wooden stepladder clutched under one arm. Dragging it over to the far corner of the room, he shouted to Olive, "Come on! This'll buy us time."

Olive wanted to protest, thinking it pointless if they were trapped, but waded over to him anyways and climbed up one side. Oscar climbed up the other and began fiddling with his badge.

"What are you doing?" Olive asked skeptically.

"Trying to call Ms. O!" came the distracted reply. "She can get us out of here."

_Of course. I should've known,_ Olive thought angrily. _When in trouble, he turns to her. _Yet she watched as Oscar pried it open and held it up to his ear, then frowned and shook it a couple times, and finally pinned it back in place with a sigh. "It's no good," he said in frustration. "The orange juice damaged it. Is yours—?"

Olive's hand flew up to her badge protectively. "Don't even think about it! And no, it won't, thanks to that orange juice blast. Besides, there wouldn't be time for Ms. O to get down here before—"

And that's when it finally sank in. The color drained from her face. "Oh my God," Olive gasped, wide-eyed with terror. "We're going to drown here!"

Oscar paled and coughed slightly. "Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but—"

"Will you just _SHUT UP?!_" Olive snapped.

Oscar twisted his mouth and stayed silent. Olive glared at the orange juice stormily. It had now completely submerged the ladder and risen way past their knees. Bobbing up nearby, the Repairinator gadget floated past. Oscar halfheartedly checked his pockets, to no avail. "I don't have another gadget to help us. I wish I hadn't left my Freezerayinator back in the lab. Maybe I could've frozen over the pipe to plug the opening in the pipe..." He sighed. "I wish—"

Olive could stand it no longer. "I wish, I wish, I wish!" she mocked. "Let me tell you what _I_ wish! I wish you had just let me go with Otto, and we would've been finished by now, _not_ about to drown trapped in the basement! I wish Ms. O had never liked you enough to let you work in the lab, and leave me to solve cases _solo_ when I had only _just_ joined the Squad! No, you know what I wish? I wish you had never been my _partner!_"

There. It was out.

Oscar stared at her in utter shock, completely floored. He had known that Olive disliked him after he was moved to the Department of Science and couldn't be her partner anymore, but the poor guy could never have imagined _this_. Oscar bit his lip. "Olive, I..." The words didn't come.

Meanwhile, Olive's rage had finally melted away. All that was left behind was the agonizing pain and loss that scarred her past. That she fought so hard to stifle with anger and hate. That seldom so young have had to endure. That nearly ruined her career.

And for the first time in her life, she decided to tell him about it. All of it.

Olive took a deep breath. "Oscar," she managed, biting her lip, "if we're not going to make it out of this room alive, then...there's something I have to tell you."

Sensing her seriousness, Oscar nodded wordlessly.

"Five years ago," Olive began, "when I joined Odd Squad, I was scared. I knew that I wanted to be a part of this team, but I didn't know anybody, and frankly it was all very overwhelming. You understand. Ms. O told me that there was an opening, that a girl had been transferred, and her partner, only made an agent the year before, needed a new one. It was you, of course. I was assured by Ms. O that you would show me the ropes, help me get adjusted, help me gain experience through cases, and so on. And I believed her. I didn't know she would break her own promise soon after."

_For the first time in ages, long-dormant memories are uncovered._

"When I first got to know you, I thought you were pretty strange. You were always really jumpy, and a little distracted, not to mention really dorky. But I liked you well enough. I mean, you were always nice to me, when no one else gave me a second glance. And you always seemed to have the right gadget for every case we went on. When I asked you a question, you always answered it, no matter how difficult. I couldn't believe how much you knew about everything, even though you'd only been on the Squad for a year. Sometimes I asked a random question just so I could listen to the sound of your voice as you answered it, and that's when it dawned on me: more than just being your partner, I really liked you. And you know what? I was sure you liked me, too."

Olive was blushing. Oscar was looking down uncomfortably, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. The orange juice was past their wastes again, but Olive ignored it. She continued talking, and a distinctly accusatory tone crept into her voice. "But then something happened. You started finding excuses to run off. I had no idea where you were going, so I thought nothing of it. But one day I went into the laboratory to have one of my gadgets repaired, and that's when I saw you, tinkering on a Shrinkinator when you told me that you had to use the bathroom. Or the Math Room. One of the two, I can't remember. Of course, I felt rather betrayed, but I decided to let it go, thinking that you deserved to spend some time in the lab if you really loved it so much."

_One by one, the buried memories stir and brush the dust off themselves._

"Except things got worse. You started backing out of cases to work in your lab, leaving me high and dry on my own. You even started wearing a white lab coat! And I was being left behind. Of course I tried to tell you so, but I just didn't have the heart. So one day I couldn't take it anymore. I went and complained to Ms. O about it. I told her that you were slacking on your job with me in favor of tinkering with gadgets. She heard me out and agreed to go see you about it. But when she went to do just that, I watched from my desk as her scolding turned to compliments! Needless to say, Ms. O did not kick you out of the lab that day."

_The first memory stands up, takes to its wings, and begins to circle through Olive's mind._

"For the next three years, I was forced to watch you slip farther away from me and closer to Ms. O. She would invite you up to her office for all kinds of reasons, from helping her on a mission to giving her advice to fetching a stupid juice box! Meanwhile I had to solve nearly every case solo, which meant I had to gain experience the hard way. You know how many mistakes I made trying to figure things out? I tried to tell you to stop leaving me, to shrug Ms. O off, but you were always too busy building some new gadget or another to even listen to me!" Olive felt the first tears pricking her eyes, and she tried to blink them back. "Finally, one day, I went up to Ms. O's office to complain again, only to see her promoting you to official Head of the Department of Science! And you know what she told me? To get back to work!"

_More and more memories take flight. Olive can't escape them any longer._

"I didn't even wait to see if you'd noticed me or not," Olive choked out, the tears flowing freely now. "I just ran off and...and hid in the ball pit for the rest of the day. For four whole months I was completely alone...working overtime just to avoid everybody else...especially you. Until I met Otto. Once he was assigned to me, I not only had a partner, but someone to take my mind off you. We worked really well together—and still do, thank God—so I thought that I could finally move on. But then Ms. O kept assigning cases that forced me to cross paths with you...a-and I had to act like I didn't care...and...and… Oh, Oscar…!" Olive trailed off as her suppressed sobs finally broke free.

_She gives in, and the memories consume her… _


	7. Flashback: Various & 'Unicorn'

**A/N Lovely to see you all again, loyal readers! First off, I want to apologize for that last, temporary chapter post. It's true that some reviewers were getting impatient, but I shouldn't have gone off on ****_all_**** of you like that, let alone them. Furthermore, it was unfair of me to mislead you all into thinking I'd posted the real chapter. So, I'm really sorry for all that.  
Thankfully, ****_this_****, I promise you, is the real deal! Like I said before, this is a series of short flashbacks, except they actually turned out to be pretty long. This is definitely the longest chapter up to date, but the final two will be pretty long, as well. (That's right, people, only two more to go!) Also, after writing this, I had to go back to Chapter 3 and fix several errors, just so the continuity will make sense. Then there's that thing where in Flashback #2, I said that I had something important to tell you. Well, unfortunately, I forgot what it was. Oops. I've probably already told you or will tell you soon, I just won't remember it to be that super-important-thing.  
Not much else to say. Keep the reviews coming, I still appreciate them no matter what! Next chapter may also be a long time in coming, but I'll work as fast as I can. I promise you'll get a kick out of how it ends!**

Flashback: Various/"How to Interrogate a Unicorn"

"_Sounds like we've got ourselves a number hog!" Ms. O declares, leading her agents down the stairs._

"_A_ _what?_" _Olive and Otto ask together, confused. Neither has ever heard of a number hog before._

_Ms. O pauses to sign another agent's clipboard. "A number hog. Oscar can explain."_

Oh, no! _Olive thinks with dread. _Not him!

"_Where is he?" Noticing that Oscar is nowhere in sight, Ms. O bellows out, "OSCAR!"_

_Olive's mind is racing. _Otto hasn't met Oscar yet, has he? I think Oscar was sick the day Otto took the tour. And I haven't seen him since… Oh, what am I going to do? I can't let Otto find out about—

_At that moment, Oscar makes his grand entrance through the tube slide. "Hey, guys!" he says lightly. But what he's thinking is, _Oh, no! Not her!

_Rattled, he offers a rushed explanation. "So, a number hog is basically a person who uses up a number so much that they start sucking up all that number!" Oscar notices that Olive is keeping a straight face and nodding, and he begins to relax. _Good, she's not going to bring anything up. Not yet. "_So," he goes on, "say you liked the number four, you'd be like, four, four, four, four, four, four, four—" _Oops, Ms. O is yawning. Better wrap this up. "—_and then—_" _and he tops it off with a huge, drawn-out, sickening slurping noise._

_As Otto mimes puking, Olive somehow manages to keep a straight face. But she wants nothing more than to scream at him. Besides, there's that matter of him knowing about number hogs and not her…_

"_So," Olive cuts in to stop Oscar from slurping, "if we don't find our number hog, he's going to suck up all the zeroes in the world?"_

_Just before Otto can freak out about turning ten, Olive glimpses Oscar give a quick, uncomfortable nod. _So he didn't even learn about them on a case, _she thinks in disgust. _Of course. He could never manage a case anyway!

_She gets an idea. Just to spite Oscar, she promises Otto that she won't let him down. "Somehow, some way, we _will _find that number hog. If we have to climb the highest mountains, or swim the deepest oceans, we will—"_

"_Or you could just use my number hog finder."_

_Oscar could be so infuriating. Her moment ruined, Olive shoves the invitation back at Otto, grabs the gadget, and curtly answers, "That'll work. Come on, partner!"_

_As they head out, Otto remarks, "That guy's weird. Helpful, but weird. Not sure if I like him or not." He glances at Olive. "You know him, right? What do you think?"_

Uh-oh. _Just to be safe, Olive decides to be vague. "Can't say I disagree."_

* * *

"_WILL SOMEONE SHUT THAT OFF?!"_

_The Code Ruby sirens immediately switch off as the alert lights fade out. Olive, Otto, Oren, and Olaf stand around Ms. O expectantly. "Ms. O, what's going on?" Olive asks worriedly._

"_The Blob has escaped!" she immediately answers._

_Ms. O is met with four blank stares. "What Blob?" Otto wonders, voicing their puzzlement._

_Suddenly Oscar dashes over from out of nowhere. "You know, the Blob that we have?" he breaks in. "I-I wrote about it in the newsletter..."_

_And then it hits him. "Are you guys not reading my newsletter?" he guesses, hurt._

_All except Ms. O shake their heads. Olive adds a look that seems to say:_ Why on earth would I read _your_ newsletter?

_Oscar's heart sinks. _So it's that bad, huh. She used to read my newsletter all the time. Now only Ms. O ever pays attention to anything I do.

_Poor Oscar doesn't see the connection._

* * *

"_Noisemaker chocolates?" Dr. O says in disbelief._

_Oscar feels all eyes of the Doctor, Odell, and Olive staring at him accusingly. Squirming, he tries to defend himself. "Well, I-I didn't read it like that, I thought they were French, you know, _'nwahz-makhairrh'_!" he finishes with a flourish in a mock French accent._

_Apparently the explanation isn't good enough for Olive. "Oscar," she sighs, "the Noisemaker is a villain who wants to fill the world with odd noises!" She points at the image of the Noisemaker on the chocolate box in Dr. O's arms. "Seriously," Olive continues admonishingly, "_this _didn't even make you a _tiny _bit suspicious?"_

_Oscar cringes. When she puts it that way, it really does make him look foolish. "Well, when you hold it underneath the light like that...I can see where I might've made a mistake."_

_Olive rolls her eyes. His apology sounds hollow and unconvincing, even to Oscar's own ears._

_It doesn't help that the Noisemaker chooses that precise moment to reveal himself. "And I almost got away with it!" he chimes in, shaking his jingly fist._

_Immediately Olive marches over and grabs the villain by the wrist. "Noisemaker, you're coming with me," she announces, but he groans and drags his feet. "Come on, let's go!" she prods, and with a thumbs-up, escorts him out of the room amidst a cacophony of sounds._

_The other three watch them go. Belatedly, a thought occurs to Oscar. "How did nobody hear him come in here?" He looks back at Dr. O and Odell, who both shrug._

_Dr. O decides to change the subject back to the matter at hand. "Well, the good news is, we know the chocolate caused the problem, which means I know how to cure it."_

_As he follows her out to the infirmary, Oscar breathes a sigh of relief. _Good. At least I didn't cause any permanent harm. _But then he recalls Olive's grimace and disappointed voice. She used to have the same reaction every time he bungled a case. He feels rotten just thinking about it._

_Oscar looks back longingly at his lab. _And I thought I would be safe from her there...

* * *

"_When I was five years old, I realized the Hydraclops was coming. So I created a powerful weapon in the lab and buried it."_

Five? In the lab? _Olive can't believe her ears. _There must be some mistake… _But there isn't. Olive joined the Odd Squad as a full agent when she was seven. Oscar started leaving her the summer after she turned eight. He was formally transferred to the Department of Science when she was eleven, and Otto became her partner a few days before she turned twelve. What she knew about Oscar was that he was the same age as her, became a full agent when he was six, and lost his previous partner the week before Olive herself arrived. But this new bit of information means that Oscar was an agent-in-training for as much as a whole year before he got his badge, and spent time in the lab even then!_

_Olive feels a pang of betrayal. She can picture his little five-year-old self now, donning a lab coat and building gadgets. Even after she thought all the drama was over, he still unknowingly manages to hurt his former partner._

_Nevertheless, Olive agrees to go with Otto and Oscar to find the treasure chest. Of course, neither she nor Otto expect to have to dig up _three _of them._

"_Another map?!" Otto whines in exasperation._

"_Of course!" Oscar replies defensively. "What did you think, I was gonna hand over the world to the Hydraclops?"_

_Olive rolls her eyes. _If he says that one more time, I may just slap him.

_Luckily, Oscar remembers that he measured to the next spot using a Schmumbercrunch bar. "There should be some more back at headquarters," he muses._

_Otto nods. "Okay, you two go. I'll stay here and keep guard."_

_Olive tenses. She has to go with Oscar alone? "Really? But you love food," she casually points out, hoping Otto will take the hint._

_He doesn't. "Yeah, I'm cool," he insists, clutching Norman the teddy bear._

_Suppressing a sigh, Olive shrugs. "Okay." She turns to Oscar, careful to remain businesslike. "Let's go."_

_Of course, after finding the next treasure chest, it turns out to be yet another map. Worse, when Oscar finally measures out one hundred footsteps, the Undiginator reveals nothing!_

"_What do we do now?" Otto groans._

"_I don't know!"_

_Olive stares at Oscar. "But you're supposed to know!"_

"_I know!" he growls, frustrated._

_It doesn't help that Oscar gets a phone call from Ms. O demanding the secret weapon—and that Olive has to hear that stupid ringtone again. What does help is when Otto speculates that Oscar's handwriting may have changed after seven years._

"_That's it!" Olive realizes. "You buried the chest when you were five. When you were that little, your _feet _were little! And because your feet are bigger now, it won't take as many footsteps to get to the treasure!"_

_Oscar looks confused. "So, we..."_

"_We have to measure with the length of your five-year-old foot," Olive finishes._

"_Olive's right!" Otto agrees. Then his brow furrows. "How do we figure out the length of your five-year-old foot?"_

"_Easy!" Oscar assures them. Pulling his lab coat aside, he reveals bronze casts of every single shoe size he's ever worn and triumphantly pulls off his five-year-old shoe._

_Olive is close to speechless. "I'd love to talk about how weird that is—" _not to mention about a certain person crazy enough to do that, among other things, _she thinks, feeling weirded out— "but we don't have time." Holding out her hand expectantly, she watches as Oscar drops the bronze shoe into her hand. Olive tells herself that it's because she doesn't trust Oscar to measure again. But the truth is, she secretly wants to keep the bronze cast for herself._

_Measuring device in hand, the trio dashes back to the tree to start over._

* * *

"_Olive, I need your help!"_

"_I know, Otto, I'm doing the best I can!" Olive yanks her partner's legs once more, to no avail. How he got stuck under Ms. O's juice bar is anybody's guess, but he's not coming out anytime soon._

_Otto's brow furrows. "I didn't say anything."_

"_That's because it's me."_

_Olive whirls around. Oscar is standing behind her, holding a working gadget in one hand and a broken gadget in the other, chewing on his lip distractedly. With a groan, Olive snaps, "Can't you see we're busy?"_

"_No, you don't understand. It's the villain that Ms. O and Agent O'Donahue are after. He's attacked _me!"

_Otto stops struggling, and his eyes widen. Olive stands up slowly. "Keep talking, I'm listening," she murmurs._

"_You see," Oscar begins, "I had one hundred fixed gadgets in one pile, and one broken gadget in another pile. The villain swept into my lab and knocked me over. Before I could do anything, he stole ninety-nine of the fixed gadgets, leaving me with just these—" he holds up the two remaining gadgets "—and his weird mark in the middle of the floor!"_

_Olive thinks back to earlier in the day, when she and Otto stopped by the lab to get Otto's gadgets repaired. Aside from his makeshift and stupid-looking sign (_Honestly, a gadget and a smiley-face? And how could he really be that excited?_), Olive most certainly noticed the gigantic pile of gadgets on the floor. Looking at his crestfallen face, she knows that Oscar isn't lying, either. _To lose a whole day's work…

"_We'd better call Ms. O," Otto suggests. "Any new information might help her a lot."_

"_Good thinking, partner," Olive agrees. Quickly she hops onto the desk and picks up the phone. "Ms. O?"_

"_Go for Oprah," comes the reply._

"_We've got another problem."_

"_Let me guess. Otto got himself stuck under the juice bar?"_

_Surprised, Olive shoots a look over at Otto, who's still struggling. "Seriously?" Otto pants, tired. "How does she _do _that?"_

_Olive shakes her head. "It's not that," she tells Ms. O. "The villain struck again—in Oscar's lab."_

_Without warning Oscar pops up behind her and yells, "It's true!" into the receiver. Olive jumps with a gasp, then rolls her eyes and gives Oscar a dirty look._

_But Oscar doesn't notice, as he's too busy relating the story to Ms. O. Bored, Olive drums her fingers on her lap in annoyance, uncomfortably aware of how close Oscar is leaning towards her right now._

"_Hang tight, Oscar," Ms. O reassures him when he finishes his tale. "We're on it." And she hangs up._

Trust Ms. O to only pay attention to her favorite agent, _Olive grumbles to herself. "You can leave now, Oscar. We can handle the rest of this." When Oscar doesn't move, Olive glares at him and orders, "I said you can leave!"_

"_Oh! Okay!" With a panicked look, Oscar darts out of the room._

_Otto gapes at her. "Wasn't that a little mean, Olive?" he asks, a chiding tone to his voice._

_Olive purses her lips. "Never mind about that. Now let's get you out of there."_

* * *

There were numerous other cases that Olive remembered in those few moments after her confession. Cases assigned to her and Otto, but which Oscar played a major role, as well. Some she had ignored him, others she had nearly screamed at him. Still, however painful it was, throughout all of these cases she kept her bitter enmity strong.

All, that is, except for one…

* * *

"_I call unicorn!"_

"_Mummy! Obviously."_

_The two agents grin at each other. That was easy. No fuss, no arguing. However…_

"_But what about robot?" Otto wonders._

"_Hmm..." Olive's not sure what to say about that. They could each survey the other two characters and come back for the robot later, but that would be time-consuming. Besides, in Olive's opinion, the robot seems a little intimidating. Better to find another agent willing to help. Olive scans the room, and her eyes fall on Oscar, taking Planty for a ride on his incredibly squeaky metal walker. An idea occurs to her, and she quickly jumps up from her chair. "Oh! Oscar!" she calls, waving her arms to get his attention._

"_Oh! Ah! Hey, guys!" he calls back eagerly. Slowly he wheels the unwieldy walker around and noisily makes his way over to their desks. "What's up?"_

"_Can we lock you in a tiny room with a robot?" Olive asks. A smug grin creeps up onto her face, and she tries to hide it._

_But to her surprise, Oscar's face lights up incredulously. "I've been waiting my whole life for someone to ask me that question!"_

Huh. Well, that didn't work as I intended. _Olive thought for sure that Oscar wouldn't be nearly so eager. But fully aware of her current partner standing next to her, she plays it off and gives Otto a high five. "Then you're in," she tells Oscar, taking extra care to feign nonchalance._

_About a half-hour later, Olive exits the interrogation room feeling thoroughly drained, her patience worn through. At the moment, she never wants to see another unicorn again. But now Oscar strides over jauntily, and it's clear that his experience was envyingly successful. "So, did you guys get your answers?" he casually inquires as Otto joins them._

"_Yep." Holding up her clipboard, she lies, "Turns out it was way easier than I thought."_

"_Good! Let's go to the Math Room," Otto suggests, and they nod in agreement. A twist and a spin later, the trio arrives dizzily on the origami visitors' platform._

"_Greetings, agents!" Math Room greets them cheerfully._

_Olive wastes no time getting down to business. "Math Room, please make a chart with the characters along the top and the questions on the side."_

"_Generating chart." Math Room promptly sets to work unfolding and illustrating two of her figures. Meanwhile, Olive becomes aware that Oscar is standing between her and Otto. Especially close to her. Disturbed, Olive discreetly edges away._

_As Math Room finishes illustrating the book characters, Oscar mutters to himself, "Man, I feel like I know these guys from somewhere."_

_Olive ignores him. Her first mistake._

_By the time they complete the chart, it's clear that the characters' commonality is in the author, W.W. Williams. "Looks like we need to pay Ms. Williams a visit," Olive states as Math Room applauds._

_Oscar turns to her with an expectant grin. "Hey, you guys need any backup?" he asks hopefully._

_Olive frowns and gives him a look. "I think we can handle it," she tells him with thinly-disguised contempt. _You seriously expect to be allowed to help on one of my cases after everything that happened because of you when you were my partner? _she wonders incredulously. What Olive doesn't realize is that Oscar has gotten better at not bungling a case, whenever he happens to be involved. After all, it will be Oscar that Ms. O will dispatch to deal with the vortex that Olive and Otto will unwittingly create from apples, oranges, cones, and trees._

_Oscar sees her look and, unfortunately, interprets it spot-on. His grin tightens at the letdown, but he tries to hide it. "Okay, right, 'cause you know, I've got lots of exciting...lab stuff to do in the lab, like make a sandwich. Ham or salami? Doesn't really matter. I mean, I think I'm gonna have a ham sandwich, but, um..."_

_As he trails off, Olive subconsciously can't help pitying him. A fleeting thought crosses her mind, and she wonders if she should allow Oscar to tag along, after all. _No, _she resolves. _I said we can handle it, and we will. I won't sacrifice my own morals for something like this.

_Her second mistake._

_For after she and Otto visit W.W. Williams, get a call from Mr. Fonts about the fourth book character, and head over to the library to check out his chart, Olive could kick herself._

"_Agent OSCAR?!"_

"_He's the one with the overactive imagination?" Otto blurts out._

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no… _It all makes sense. If there's one thing Olive has known about Oscar from the beginning, it's this: his brain is like a laser-shooting squirrel swimming in coffee inside a disco ball—quantity cubed. Give him a good book, and he'll become so involved in the story that he'll outshine the main character many times over. "We need to find him. NOW!" she exclaims urgently. But to her dismay, it's too late. Totally oblivious to his part in the matter, Oscar sits in an alcove reading __The Wonderful Wizard of Oz__,_ _completely unaware of the tornado he's about to unleash upon the library._

"_OSCAR! PUT THE BOOK DOWN!" Olive and Otto shout simultaneously, and tear across the room to stop him. Again, they're too late: with a loud_ whoosh! _a horrifying cyclone whirls out from the book and begins to tear up the library._

_Olive, Otto, and Oscar are knocked to the ground. "How do we stop it?" Otto hollers above the roar, terrified._

"_I don't know!" Olive shrieks. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Oscar screaming in sheer panic. _It's all my fault! _she blames herself._ If only I'd listened to him when he mentioned déjà vu. Better yet, if only I'd put aside our differences and brought him on the case. None of this would have happened!

_Thankfully, in the end it is the sorcerer who pulls through and casts the spell to dissolve the tornado. Impressed and grateful, Otto promises to read the sorcerer's book, to which Olive breathlessly agrees. Even better, the sorcerer's spell answered the question of how to return each character back to their respective books._

_Once the job is done, Olive and Otto hand all five books over to Ms. O for her to look over. One by one she scans through each, checking to make sure each book character made it back safely. "Good work, agents!" she congratulates them as she puts down the last book, __The Second-to-Last Unicorn__. "All the characters are back in their books."_

_The two partners high-five in satisfaction._

"_And, Oscar," Ms. O adds, peering over her reading glasses with a sidelong look, "you only need to wear that thing when you're reading."_

_Oscar smiles sheepishly. His outrageous helmet emits a series of beeps and sends off a few electric sparks. "Oh, haha, I-I know," he half-giggles, "I just really like it. It's tingly," he explains, wiggling his fingers._

_It isn't until Oscar steals a glance in her direction that Olive realizes she's been gazing at him for some time now. Her expression is unreadable, but fittingly reflects her mixed feelings. Everything today may have turned out alright in the end, but Olive came pretty close to screwing up the case by not paying more attention to Oscar. Sure, it was his fault that the characters escaped their books, but it's not like he could have known. She begins to realize that perhaps it was wrong of her to judge Oscar for who he is and where he belongs—a contented scientist working in the lab, not a struggling investigator out in the field. What's more, deep down Olive misses him. Misses his friendship, his knowledge, even his stupid jokes. And although all of these speculations will be tossed out the window and forgotten about the moment Ms. O sends the three back to work, the tiny seed of doubt in her once-steadfast morals has been planted:_

Maybe I _have_ been too hard on Oscar…


	8. Chapter 4

**A/N Alright guys, so here's the deal: this chapter was supposed to be longer, but I'm having a little writers' block on how exactly to put the resolution I have planned into words. So I decided to cut the chapter off here, and I'll post the rest next time. (Yes, Shenokzo, this means there will be more chapters :) ). This also means that I'll break with the pattern a bit and won't post another flashback until the epilogue, so I hope you're all okay with that. Thanks again for all your patience and wonderful reviews, the DISCLAIMER still stands, and...yep.**

Chapter 4

For once in his life, Agent Oscar was utterly at a loss for words. The one thing he'd never thought he'd ever have to see was someone as tough as Olive break down. Yet here she was crying on his shoulder!

Oscar suddenly remembered Otto's tenth birthday party. How he'd tried to welcome Otto with a compliment, and nearly ended up revealing his and Olive's secret. How he'd crawled under the table to hide as the memories came back: screwing up cases, enduring Olive's exasperation, and that awful interval four months after his promotion before Otto arrived to keep her busy. Even before Olive told her story, Oscar had somehow innately known exactly what he had done to hurt her, no matter how much he tried to deny the truth to himself.

But no more. Now, it was his turn to tell her about it. All of it.

"Olive?"

She looked up at him, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Yeah?" she whispered.

"There's...there's something I have to tell you, too."

Olive sniffled and made an effort to straighten herself up. "Okay."

The orange juice was back up to chest level for Oscar, but he saw with alarm that it was already up to Olive's shoulders. They didn't have much time. Oscar took a deep breath.

"I wish I'd told you this a long time ago, but...I never wanted to be an investigator from the start. Since day one, I had my heart set on the lab. Building gadgets was how I passed the Odd Squad Test, anyhow. But in order to work in the Department of Science, I had to spend three years doing Investigation as part of my training. Opal had to do the same thing."

"Opal?" Olive interrupted. "Was she your first partner?"

"Yeah, you know, Dr. O."

_Dr. O?! _Olive gaped in bewilderment. _Wait, she—you and her—how did I not know this?_

"Anyhow," Oscar continued, "I was put with Opal because she and I were both only temporarily in Investigation. The problem—well, for me, anyways—was that Opal finished her medical school two years early, so she got transferred to the Medical Department and became Dr. O ahead of schedule. This meant I wouldn't have a partner for my next two years." He looked at her. "And that's when you came along."

Olive nodded. "Go on."

"Well..." Oscar began to fidget guiltily. "At first I didn't think it was such a good idea, you being my partner, only because I knew I'd have to leave. But Ms. O insisted that you'd be fine, and we'd deal with that later. I wasn't so sure. But then I actually met you. Olive, I-I don't think I've ever met another Odd Squad agent that was as—well, skilled, promising, ambitious, capable—as _worthy_ as you. And I knew it even then, the second I laid eyes on you. From that day on, I wanted to help you be _that_ agent in any way I could. I tried to answer every question you had, helped you with any gadget you needed, and let you take charge of every case." He smiled ruefully. "I guess that last part was a mistake. I-I never realized that you _wanted_ me to help you. I'd thought that every time I did, I just screwed things up. What the hey, I was worse than Agent Oz with his gadgets. Like that one time I tripped over that super-long striped scarf and nearly turned all the lemurs into jelly babies...ahem, yeah.

"I guess the point is, I thought for certain that I was letting you down. I-I didn't realize that you—you know, um, liked me back. That you didn't care if I screwed up, as long as I stayed loyal. Gosh, I was blind. At the time, I thought you needed space. So I started spending more time in the lab, figuring I was going to be there soon anyways. Why not then? Also, I thought it might, you know, impress you that I could actually be good at something. But it didn't. The only person that I impressed was Ms. O.

"You gotta believe me, Olive, I had no idea whatsoever of what she may have been trying to do. It never occurred to me that she might have fancied me, or that I was her favorite. I just didn't want to make her mad. If she asked for help or advice, I was only too willing to give it. You understand. I-I should've known...I got so busy, I-I stopped paying attention to you. But that's no excuse," he hurried on, his voice choking up a little, his soft brown eyes misty. "I even asked for a few years' delay before I was transferred, intending to talk to you about what I'd chosen for my career...but it never happened. I—I chickened out. By then I figured out that you were really angry with me, but I didn't know why. I-I-I don't know, I just...those first four months after I was finally moved to the Department of Science were the hardest of my life. I suppose I had suspicions before, but...it wasn't until then that I finally figured out what I'd done to hurt you. I just—I felt awful. I tried to deny it—wouldn't let myself believe it—but deep down I just knew—that..."

Oscar bit his lip and wiped his eyes. _Be strong, Oscar. For once you gotta be strong. For her._ "Olive...what I did was not okay. I can't even begin to apologize—"

"Then don't."

He looked at Olive in confusion. "Wh-what? But I—"

"Shhh." A small, hesitant smile crept across her lips. "You've said enough. And you're right. There's a lot you never explained to me and should have. But there's a lot that _I_ never explained, either." She chuckled slightly. "I guess we're just really bad at telling each other things."

Oscar laughed softly. "Yeah, I guess we are."

"Mm." Olive nodded—and her chin got wet. Reality suddenly flooded back. Her eyes widened in fear. "Oscar…?"

Oscar looked down and gasped. The orange juice had risen up to his shoulders—chin height for Olive. "Here, quick!" Reaching underwater, Oscar grabbed Olive around the ribcage and hoisted her up slightly, so that she was at about his height. Olive clung to him tightly.

"It's no good, you know," she murmured into his ear so he could hear over the roar. "We're going to drown here anyways."

"I know," Oscar murmured back. "But I'd rather go like this. Doing the job I love, with the agent I—well, you know. And I'm glad I finally told you all that."

"Yeah. Me too." With nothing else to do, Olive rested her head on Oscar's shoulder. "You ready?"

"Honestly? No."

"Neither am I." Olive closed her eyes. "For Odd Squad?"

"For Odd Squad."

Their visions were flooded with a bright, searing light. There was silence.


	9. Chapter 5

**A/N Lol so I just found out today who Olive's _real_ former partner was...and it's not Oscar. Oops! :\ More A/N at the bottom.**

Chapter 5

"Hey! You two alright?"

Olive opened her eyes.

They were still in the boiler room, perched on the ladder. But neither Olive nor Oscar could move. The orange juice was somehow frozen solid. A thick coating of ice blocked the open pipe. And climbing up on top of the frozen surface through a sliver in the open doorway, bucket in one hand and Freezerayinator in the other, his uniform speckled with bright green goo, was Agent Otto.

Olive blinked. _We're...alive?_

"Sorry I couldn't get to you earlier," Otto panted, army-crawling his way over. "Had some trouble next door. I had to get the pipe _open _to pull out the Blobisite, then I had to _shut _the pipe before the orange juice came shooting out—and by the way, orange juice? Seriously? Anyhow, I heard you guys shouting, but _that's_ when the Blobisite attacked me, so I had to stop it from escaping the room _and_ Shrinkinate the whole thing—do you know how hard it is to Shrinkinate something _that big_ when it's _moving? _Not to mention it takes _forever?!_ But I finally did get it in the bucket. Look—whoops!" Otto slid on the ice and fell flat on his stomach. Luckily he managed to keep the bucket upright and held it out to reveal a thick, bright green mass sloshing around inside.

Olive and Oscar could only gawk at him.

"Of course," Otto continued, oblivious to their disbelieving stares, "then I had to figure out how to get you guys out of there without flooding HQ. _That_ was the tricky part. So I dug around in my pockets, and guess what I found? My Freezerayinator! So I figured I could fire it at the orange juice, freeze it, and stop it from flooding everywhere! Then when I did that, I froze the open pipe over so that no more could come out!" Otto paused to catch his breath, propped himself up on his elbows, and raised his eyebrows hopefully. "So? Whaddya guys think? Did I do a good job or what?"

No answer. Still shaken, neither Olive nor Oscar knew how to react. It didn't help that they were growing quite chilly from the ice. Finally, Olive said slowly and quietly, "Otto...we nearly drowned a minute ago. It was terrifying. I thought for sure we were going to die. Do you realize that?"

The cocky, carefree grin disappeared. Otto bit his lip, suddenly serious. "Yeah, I do. I was scared, too. I almost panicked and couldn't hardly focus. It was all I could do to think to use the Freezerayinator. If I hadn't..." he trailed off. Nobody really wanted to think about the alternative.

It was Oscar who eventually broke the ice—not literally. "Well, heh-heh, we're glad you saved us, Otto! But, um...how do we get out of the orange juice now?"

"Aha. Here, I thought of that, too." With some effort, Otto reached back into his pants pocket and pulled out a gadget. "It's my Heat-zap-inator. If I can fire it just on the frozen orange juice around you guys, then it'll turn into a puddle that you guys can climb out of. Then I'll freeze it back up again, and we'll have Ms. O send other agents to deal with thawing all of this and getting it back in the pipes. Sound good?"

Teeth chattering, Olive and Oscar nodded. Otto quickly set to work, and before long the two agents were clambering out on top of the frozen surface to join him. That done, Otto set the Heat-zap-inator aside and began to freeze the orange juice back up again.

While he was doing that, a thought struck Olive. "Wait a second. Otto, if the door to this room was locked, then how did you get in here?"

Otto paused and gave her a quizzical look. "What are you talking about? The door wasn't locked at all."

"_WHAT?!"_

"Yeah. It was unlocked—oh. Oh."

Olive's and Oscar's jaws dropped. They looked at each other, then at Otto, then at each other again, then back to Otto. While they were trapped, Oscar was so sure that the door had locked when it shut itself, and Olive had believed him.

Yet neither had thought to check.

Oscar was flabbergasted. "So, all that time...we could've just...left?"

There was a long pause.

Then, unexpectedly, Olive broke out grinning. "We—are—idiots!"

Afterward, no one would remember who started it. But next thing they knew, the trio were rolling on the ice and howling with laughter.

* * *

"...and that's what happened."

Olive glanced at Oscar to her left, then at Otto to her right. They were standing in Ms. O's office in front of her desk, and had just finished relating all that had happened in the boiler rooms. Naturally, in telling their sides of the story, Olive and Oscar had deliberately left out all that happened between the two of them, merely saying they'd huddled at the top of the ladder and shouted for Otto—which was technically true. Otto, of course, had nothing to hide, so he'd told Ms. O everything from his point of view. But what would the boss's verdict be?

"Hmm. I see." Ms. O scrutinized them long and hard from behind her desk. Her expression was unreadable. All three became uncomfortably aware of their appearances: Otto's hair and uniform were spattered with numerous splotches of green goo from the Blobisite. Oscar still had crusted remnants of green goo on the side of his face, his glasses were bent at a weird angle, and his hair was plastered to his forehead. Olive's neatly-curled ponytail was tangled and sticky, and a painful lump had formed on the side of her head. Both Olive and Oscar were still soaked to the skin, their uniforms sticky and dripping orange juice all over Ms. O's carpet.

Finally Ms. O spoke. "Well, great work, Otto. You singlehandedly caught the Blobisite _and_ rescued two of your fellow agents. I'm very proud of you for that. Oscar and Olive...I'm very grateful that you two made it out alive. Don't worry—I take full responsibility for what happened. I should have known how dangerous Blobisites can be in the pipes, and I should have sent you and Olive with more backup. Also, Oscar, I should have remembered to tell you that Agent Owen removed the locks on those doors in case anyone got trapped. Like today"

Olive kept a straight face, but inwardly, she rolled her eyes and smiled. _Trust Ms. O to only pay attention to her favorite agent,_ she thought. This time, it was without a hint of complaint.

"I've already sent Oren, Olaf, Octavia, and other agents down to the boiler rooms to deal with the mess," Ms. O went on. "As for you three, first I want you to go clean yourselves up. Then I want you to take the rest of today and tomorrow off. You've all been through a lot today and need lots of rest before you can work again."

"Yes, Ms. O, thank you, Ms. O," the three agents replied. Relieved, they left to do as she said.

A little while later, Olive and Otto were at their desks straightening things up before they went home, while Oscar was doing the same in his lab. Having showered and put their uniforms in the Odd Squad laundry, each was wearing the alternate grey T-shirt and navy shorts.

"So, Olive," Otto casually remarked at one point. "Before we leave, remember how we agreed earlier that you owe me a special trip to the donut room?"

Glancing at the clock on her desk, Olive saw that it was 3:45. Was it only an hour before that Otto had won their bet? It seemed like ages ago. "Let me guess. You want to go now?" Olive said wryly.

"Well, yeah! I mean, I _totally_ deserve it for my heroicness, right?"

Olive chuckled. "Of course you do. Tell you what, you go on ahead. I don't really feel like donuts right now."

Otto didn't need a second prompting. He eagerly bolted off like a rocket and was soon out of sight.

Olive watched him go. Without turning around, she said over her shoulder, "Have I ever actually seen you wear the grey T-shirt before, or is it just me?"

Standing behind her, Oscar started. "No, you're right, I never liked them." Surprised, he added warily, "How did you know I was here?"

Turning to face him, Olive gave him a mysterious smile. "Your shoes. They squeak when you walk."

"Oh. Funny, heh, I never noticed." Oscar hesitated, then cleared his throat and began shuffling his feet. "Um, Olive," he began, not meeting her eyes, "about what I said earlier—y-y'know, in the boiler room..."

"Mm-hmm?" She took a step closer and wrung her hands absentmindedly.

"Well...I-I just wanted you to know that—I mean, e-even though we thought we were going to, um, you know—I still meant all of that—y-y'know, everything I said. I mean, I was telling the truth and—um, how I really feel, I guess." There was a pause. "I-I just didn't know if you, I mean, if what you said wasn't, y'know—"

"If I told the truth?"

Oscar bit his lip and looked away. "Yeah," he mumbled. "You know what, never mind, I-I-I'll just go back to my lab, I need to...do lab stuff." Yet he lingered. As if waiting for something.

Holding his nervous gaze, Olive took another step forward until they were less than a foot apart. "It's alright, Oscar. I spoke from the heart. After everything we've been through, you deserve nothing less."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh."

They stood in awkward silence for several minutes, until suddenly both became aware that they were holding hands. Olive blushed and eased her hand away self-consciously. "You know, it's funny. I believe it was a year ago today you got promoted. August fourth, right?"

"Oh. Heh, yeah, that is funny. Full circle, eh?" Oscar coughed slightly, his face bright pink. "So anyhow, um, maybe not today, but tomorrow—maybe we could, um, hang out?"

Olive looked at him and smiled. "You live on Fourteenth Street, right?"

Oscar nodded. "Yup! But I have to warn you, I've still got my house full from last winter's bunny storm."

Eyes sparkling, Olive giggled. "I love bunnies. It's a deal. I'll meet you there tomorrow."

Reconciled at last, the two former partners strolled off together, hand in hand.

* * *

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Olive and Oscar, observing them from her usual post at the top of the stairs, stood Ms. O. Mentally she was kicking herself. Sure, working for Odd Squad could be dangerous at times, but never _mortally_ so. Yet she had almost lost two, possibly three, of her best agents today. If that had happened, this agency would have been disgraced, and Ms. O would have been forced to resign, of course. _But I would have done so willingly, _she told herself. _I couldn't live with myself if I lost any of my agents. Especially…no, stop it, Oprah. He was never yours to have and you know that. Besides, you were never really _that _interested in Oscar. He was just your replacement, to keep your mind off the emptiness left by O'Donahue._ **A/N But that's a story for another day :)**

Ms. O heaved a theatrical sigh. She'd seen the glances that Olive and Oscar stole at each other earlier in her office, and could easily tell that they weren't telling the whole truth about what happened down there. But she let it slide. Somehow, Ms. O got the feeling that neither of them had told Otto yet, nor did they want to.

She watched Olive and Oscar leave together. Clucking her tongue and shaking her head, she laughed under her breath. _So Oscar and Olive are a thing now, huh? I must remember to put them to work together more often._

Ms. O allowed herself a broad grin as she remembered something else. After sending the three agents to clean themselves up, she'd phoned Agent Owen about the orange triangle boiler room. For there was one other minor little detail needing attention. One that Olive and Oscar would never think of, but Ms. O would always remember.

_Security cameras._

**A/N Hope you enjoyed the last official chapter! Especially all those plot twists I threw in for good measure. ;) Only one more chapter to go, but it'll mostly be flashbacks. My school just finished our spring play "And Then There Were None", so I should have some more time to write now. In other news, for those of you that have a Pinterest, I have a board called "Odd Squad FTW!" if any of you would like to follow it! I currently have about 70 pins on there (including some homemade memes!), but I won't be pinning anything from Feb. 18 until April 5 because I'm giving up Pinterest for Lent. Still, you all should follow it! Also, I have a contest planned to help me choose what story to write next, but more on that later.  
And now to answer some Guest reviews: (you all should get accounts so I can PM you!)  
Ashley - that was Olive speaking.  
****Maggie - I have no idea why Olive hates pie, but it's in the episode "The Briefcase".  
Guest 123 - thank you for all your faithful reviews! I might write an Olive/Otto story, but I'm not shipping them. :)  
****Chriskratt99 &amp; TheRobot 1 - no idea if you're reading this or not, but I promise I'll get around to reading your stories, too! After all, it's only fair. :D**

**See you all for the epilogue!**


	10. Epilogue: Flashforward

**A/N Hello there, loyal readers! Yes, I have FINALLY finished this last chapter! Took me long enough, and I'm sorry about the wait. This entire epilogue is probably totally unnecessary to the story, as it is totally unnecessarily LOOOONG, but I had a lot of episode scenes I wanted to fit in. If it's too long to read in one go, I understand. But again, reviews are appreciated!  
**

**Now for some other housekeeping issues. First, some of you reviewed on the last chapter asking who Olive's _real_ former partner was. Well, I'm a little disappointed that that's _all_ some of you wanted to know. The entire reason I wrote this story was to imagine Olive and _Oscar_ as former partners. But that's alright, I understand you were curious. If I am correct, you will find out who her real former partner was on May 25... ;)  
****Second, the contest. Here in about a month, at the beginning of May, I will post a one-chapter story, and this will be the contest. Anyone can participate, but it'll be easier if you have an account on this site, because then I can PM you. The contest will consist of three parts, and the winner of each part will have a say in the next three fanfics that I write. (One will get to pick from my ideas, one will create a one-shot idea of their choice, and one will create a 3-5 chapter story of their choice.) I will explain more about it when the time rolls around, but this is just to get you all thinking about it. I highly recommend you start doing your research on the show now, though. Trust me, it'll help!  
Third, I'll be back on Pinterest a week from today, and I've got LOADS of pins ready to put on my board for the show, called "Odd Squad FTW!" I'll appreciate anyone who wants to follow my board. :) [hint, hint, it'll also help for the contest!]**

**Okay, that should be it for housekeeping. And now comes the end of three months of hard work for me, and three months of reading and waiting on chapters for you. Enjoy the epilogue, and I'll see you all again soon!**

Epilogue: Flashforward

"And _ACTION!_"

"My name is Oscar!" Agent Oscar announced, hopping off the lab table and gesturing at his surroundings. "I work in the Odd Squad lab—" he picked up a random gadget and fumbled with it, "and I build gadgets to help with cases—oh!"

Accidentally pulling the trigger, Oscar fired the gadget at who-knows what, and a second later Ms. O's distant voice was heard yelling his name in anger. "Sorry!" Oscar shouted back apologetically.

Sitting with Otto behind the cameraman, Olive let out a snort of laughter. Quickly she clapped a hand over her mouth and hoped it hadn't been too audible.

"But I'm not all about gadgets," Oscar continued, holding out the side of his lab coat. "This white coat has seen some dirt."

Otto's gaze flitted to the Centigurp boxes stacked in the corner of the room.

"Now, do I make mistakes? Yes," Oscar admitted. "The question is," he hurried on, "do I make the same mistakes _twice?_"

_Hmm, let me think, _Olive thought sarcastically. She leaned out from behind the camera and shot him a meaningful look.

Oscar winced. "...Yes," he reluctantly confessed. Then he recovered his composure and added jokingly, "Sometimes twenty-five times in a row!"

"Cue the Oscarbots," Otto whispered in her ear with a grin. This time Olive had to fight to stifle the bubble of laughter rising up inside her.

The cameraman glared at them, then turned back to Oscar. "What was your favorite day at Odd Squad?" he prompted.

"Hmm..." Oscar thought for a moment until his face lit up with the memory. "Aha! One of my favorite days at Odd Squad was when I ran a top-secret mission with Ms. O. It was actually really fun! See, there was this big canoe, and the Sword of Antioch, and we got to use brain helmets, and I even had to cut my hair for it!"

Otto looked at Olive sharply. "Should he be saying all this?" he muttered. Olive shook her head no, a knowing smile on her face.

At that instant, Oscar realized the exact same thing. Eyes widening, he drew in a sharp breath. "Ugh, I guess I shouldn't really be talking about this..." he muttered awkwardly, twisting his mouth. "Guess that's twenty-six mistakes."

_Oh, crud. Don't laugh, Olive. Don't laugh don't laugh don't laugh._

"And _CUT!_" the cameraman called out, switching off the camera.

Instantly Olive and Otto collapsed in a fit of giggles. "That was _golden_, Oscar!" Otto managed in between titters. "Just _golden!_"

Oscar's face flushed slightly. "Oh gosh, um, thanks! I think…?"

The cameraman gave Olive and Otto another dirty look. "Well, we don't have time for another take," he cut in, packing up his equipment. "Your boss wants me to interview three more agents in the next hour, er..." He put a checkmark next to Oscar's name on his list and read the names below it. "Next up are Olaf, Orchid, and Dr. O."

"Oh, um, Olaf's right over there at his desk." Oscar pointed him out.

"Thank you. Have a nice day." And with that, the cameraman sauntered out.

By now Olive and Otto had calmed down somewhat. "Oh, man," Olive said, wiping stray tears of laughter from her eyes. "Oscar, that was absolutely hilarious. I hope Ms. O keeps it as the final promo video."

Since winning the Jackie Awards, Ms. O had received plenty of honors for their Odd Squad agency. One was that they would get to record promotional and commercial videos representing the entire North American Division of Odd Squad. As far as video content went, one of Ms. O's ideas was to interview her top ten agents about their experiences in working for Odd Squad. Olive and Otto had already filmed theirs earlier in the day, and came to watch Oscar's after getting lunch.

Everyone was really excited about the promos. Olive was looking forward to narrating the Odd Squad historical documentaries, although she didn't know how she'd fit the recording hours into her busy schedule. Otto couldn't wait to act out a series of chase scenes in front of a green screen, especially since it would be with Ms. O, Oscar, and Olive. Meanwhile, Ms. O and little Orson were to do the commercial and recruitment ads. O'Connor, the Odd Squad journalist, even offered to pitch in the old mock "Odd Reports" that he and Oscar had once recorded together for fun, which were based on actual cases. But first, after the interviews were done with, Oscar was going to film a series of training videos, then team up with Oksana to do some HQ tour videos. He had the most filming work to do by far, but everyone agreed that the camera loved him and he deserved it.

Oscar scratched his head and shrugged. "Heh, yeah I suppose it was pretty funny. I just hope nobody got hurt when I accidentally fired that gadget."

"Well, what gadget was it?" Olive asked.

He picked it up and examined it. "Oh, phew! It was only the Soundcheckinator."

Right on cue, the "Take Away/Gonna Add 4 Remix" began playing faintly. Olive groaned.

"They'll probably also edit out the part where you talked about the secret mission," Otto reassured him. "At least, the details of it. The rest was probably okay."

"OLIVE! OTTO! OSCAR! IN MY OFFICE! _NOW!_"

Otto gasped in excitement. "The chase scenes! We get to film them now!" He did a little dance and took off toward the stairs, calling, "_Boom_-camera-lotta!" over his shoulder.

"More filming?" Oscar sighed. "I'd hoped for a bit of a lunch break."

"Oh, really?" Olive dug around in her pocket and pulled out a small capsule. "Here, I got you covered."

Oscar's eyes lit up. It was one of those pills he'd invented a couple years back after reading _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_, because it turned into whatever food you wanted after putting it in your mouth. "Gee, thanks!" He popped it in his mouth and closed his eyes. "Mm, delicious."

"What is it this time?"

"Mmph," Oscar mumbled around the food. "Fish fingers, celery, and banana custard for dessert." Swallowing, he added with a wink, "But don't worry, no orange juice."

Olive giggled. "That's quite a combination." Several months had passed since the boiler room flood, and now the two of them joked about it freely.

"Y'know, it's funny," Oscar suddenly remarked. "I thought I ran out of those pills a long time ago. Where'd you find this one?"

A slight flush crept up Olive's cheeks. "I saved it. From your first batch."

_From my first batch… _Oscar slowly turned his head to stare at her. "But that was over a year ago. I thought you..." he trailed off. "Then that means—even when you hated me—"

"It never really went away," Olive finished quietly.

There was a pause. Oscar didn't really know what to make of that. _Even when she hated me, she still _liked _me...? _Finally, noticing that she was embarrassed, he reached out and squeezed her hand. "Well, I uh—I always like learning new things, heh."

Olive grinned and shook her head. "Oh, you." Keeping a tight hold on his hand, she said offhandedly, "We should probably go up there. Don't want to keep Ms. O waiting."

"Ah. Of course." They started out of the lab together, hand in hand. As they began climbing the stairs, Oscar asked, "Hey, um, after we're done filming today, do you want to go to Ms. Baker's bakery?"

Olive gave him a curious look. "Are you wanting to take me on a date?"

"No!" he blurted. "Well, wait, I mean, um—I hear she's got a half-price sale on her pies—"

"_Pies?!_" Olive jerked her hand away, a look of pure terror on her face. "Why would I—no! How dare you forget—" It was then that she saw the mischievous grin on his face. "Why, you little—hey! You get back here RIGHT NOW!"

But Oscar was already up the stairs and bolting down the walkway. Exasperated, Olive took off after him. He'd definitely spent too much time with Otto to have the guts to pull _that_ one off. She'd have a word with Otto about that. Yet even as she chased him around the walkway hollering angrily at the top of her lungs, Olive was grinning broadly on the inside. It didn't matter that he'd made a fool of her with that stunt. Everything Oscar meant to her was enough.

_**Enough**_ for her to forgive his little practical joke.

_**Enough**_ to accept his invitation to the bakery.

_**Enough**_ to enjoy filming on the set with him during the chase scenes, especially when they got to army-crawl through a green-screened tunnel side-by-side.

_**Enough**_ for many more adventures together…

* * *

_**Enough to calm him down from the threat of a Timetastrophe.**_

"_So through process of elimination," Olive reasons, "the other Ms. O is most likely from the winter months: December, January, or February."_

"_But that's still so many days!" Oscar moans. "I don't wanna meet a 1920s businessman!"_

_Olive and Otto look bewildered. "Excuse me?" Olive asks._

"_What?" Otto also wonders._

_Oscar looks stricken. "The next stage of the Timetastrophe," he says in a low voice. "After the time-quake, time holes will appear, allowing things from different times to travel to _our _time. A 1920s businessman, a-a-a viking, and worst of all...a go-go dancer...!"_

_He trails off, and Olive notices in alarm that he's hyperventilating. "Oscar!" she cuts in, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder. "That's not going to happen. We _will _figure out which day Ms. O came from." Her voice softens. "Got it?"_

_Pressing his lips together to slow his breathing, Oscar nods._

"_Good," Olive says with a smile. "Now, there must be more clues..."_

* * *

_**Enough to see him first thing after she was cured of the skips.**_

"_How long did you say Olive had to be quarantined?" Oscar asks his first partner, worriedly staring at Olive through the glass._

"_A week," Dr. O promptly answers. "So since they've been in there since yesterday afternoon, it'll be about six more days."_

_The two watch Olive and Ms. Baker tirelessly skip in circles. Otto has long since gone off to get his work done, trying to compensate for the absence of his partner. But Oscar put his work aside, letting the other Odd Squad scientists cover for him, and has come to watch over Olive instead._

"_I don't know," he finally says. "It's just_—_a whole week seems like an awful long time, you know? She hasn't even stopped to eat, drink, or sleep."_

"_Olive will be fine, Oscar," Dr. O reassures him. "When you're getting rid of the Skips, you don't feel the need to_—_hey, where are you going? Oscar, I said she'd be fine! You can trust me, I'm the Doctor!"_

_But Oscar isn't listening. He has an idea. Back in his lab, he searches through his pile of gadgets and finally pulls one out, then rushes back to join Dr. O. "See, it's my Speedupinator," Oscar explains with pride._

_Dr. O stares down her nose at him dubiously. "What are you saying, Oscar?"_

"_Well, you said that it takes a week of skipping to get all the Skips out. So, if I speed the time up inside the quarantine room, it'll take way less than a week, right?"_

"_...Right, but—"_

"_So then it should work!" Oscar whips up his gadget and aims at the glass._

"_Oscar, wait! This hasn't been medically tested—" Dr. O puts out a hand to stop him, but Oscar has already fired the gadget. A pink mist swirls around the two occupants, who suddenly begin to skip so fast that it looks like they're on forward-rewind._

_Dr. O observes them nervously. "Oscar? How fast are they skipping, exactly?"_

_Oscar checks two dials on his gadget. "According to these, one minute for them skipping is one second for us, which means they'll be done skipping in..." he does the math in his head, "...one hundred and forty-four minutes. So about two-and-a-half hours! Good, right?"_

_Dr. O frowns at him. "No, because _now _I have to stay and watch them for two-and-a-half hours to make sure nothing goes wrong, but I can't afford to because _I've _got a _lot _of medical cases to treat today, so now _Odell _has to take over for me, but he doesn't know what he's doing because _he's _not a doctor, _I'm _a doctor!"_

_There's a pause as the two former partners stare each other down. Oscar presses his lips together, upset that he angered Dr. O, but before he can offer to do it instead, she cuts him off with a sigh. "No, Oscar, it has to be me that watches them. This procedure hasn't been medically tested, so a qualified doctor has to oversee it." She makes shooing motions with her hands. "Go on. You might as well get your own work done in the lab. Don't worry, I'll call you back when they're done."_

_Reluctantly, Oscar does as she says. Luckily the two-and-a-half hours pass by without a hitch, and Olive and Ms. Baker exit the quarantine chamber completely cured of the Skips. Ms. Baker thanks the Odd Squad for curing her and immediately heads back to her bakery, but Olive lingers. "Has it really been a week already?" she asks in perplexity, fingering her hospital gown._

"_No, it's been a little over a day," Dr. O answers curtly. Then she turns toward the lab and calls, "Oscar! Your Speedupinator worked! They're out now!" That done, Dr. O makes a beeline for the medical room to begin catching up on her work._

_Immediately Oscar dashes over. "I knew it would work!" he says excitedly. "Glad to have you back, Olive!"_

_Olive shakes her head and smiles. "Should've known you'd do something like that." Then without warning her smile disappears, and she bites her lip. "Oscar...I almost died. Again."_

_His eyebrows go up in shock. _Really? She didn't tell me this. "_W-what happened?"_

"_The last thing on my to-do list yesterday was to go skydiving," Olive explains quietly. "But I skipped the part where I should've put on a parachute. If Otto hadn't gotten the jetpack and come after me...I would've fallen to my death..."_

_Oscar is at a loss for words._ I nearly lost her, _he manages to think. _Oh, God, I nearly lost her! _Overwhelmed, he suddenly finds himself embracing Olive tightly, as if she could slip away any moment._

_Neither of them can be sure how long they stand there. But eventually Olive pulls away and says, "It's alright, Oscar. I'm not going anywhere."_

"_Promise?"_

"_I promise. Well," she amends, "I _do _have to go tell Otto that I'm cured."_

_Oscar chuckles. "Yeah, yeah you should—probably go do that."_

* * *

_**Enough to give him an early birthday present—a big one.**_

"_Hey, Olive," Otto chokes out, his face green. "Can I borrow your trash bin?"_

_Hand over her mouth, Olive shakes her head no. Then her eyes widen, and for the umpteenth time she leans over and throws up into her trash bin. "Mine's full," she groans afterward, wiping her face with her already dirty sleeve. _**A/N Sorry if this is too gross!**

"_Oh." Reluctantly, Otto turns around and grabs their ninth egg salad pizzas. "Guess we can use the empty boxes, then." _

_Earlier, of course, Ms. O ordered the two agents to "get rid of" all the egg salad pizzas from Delivery Debbie and Delivery Doug. Halfway through their second pizza, both Olive and Otto started throwing up on Ms. O's carpet, due to both the sheer amount of food they were eating as well as how disgusting it was. Hand over her mouth and nose, Ms. O quickly brought them both purple trash bins, and even more quickly rushed out of the office. "Don't come out until you're done eating!" she ordered. "And clean up your mess, too!" Then she slammed the door._

_Olive takes her next pizza and makes a face. "Okay." She pulls the pizza out of its box and takes a deep breath. "Keep going, partner. We're almost halfway there."_

"_Hey, guys!"_

_The two agents jump and drop their pizzas. Standing in the doorway of the office is Agent Oscar, wielding a nose-shaped gadget. "Ms. O told me you needed an Unsmellinator. So what's going on h—? Oh..." He takes in their green faces, the vomit-filled trash bins, and the pile of pizza boxes behind them. "Um, what happened here?"_

_Olive blushes and looks away. _Great. Of all the people to see me like this, it has to be Oscar. Just super.

_"We helped Delivery Debbie and Delivery Doug with a case," Otto begins. "And after we solved it, we told them that they should try working together sometime."_

_"But they took that to mean combining not only their _businesses,_" Olive goes on, "but also their _foods."

"_So they came up with egg salad pizzas."_

"_And to say thanks for giving them the idea, they gave Odd Squad _thirty-seven _free egg salad pizzas."_

"_But Ms. O doesn't want them because they're disgusting."_

"_So she's forcing us to eat them all because we gave Debbie and Doug the idea," Olive finishes with an embarrassed look._

_Oscar looks at the two agents, then at the tower of pizza boxes, then at the vomit-filled trash bins, then back at the agents. Finally he kind of points at the egg salad pizza in Olive's hands and half-stammers, "Could I, y-you know, maybe, um...try that?"_

_Olive and Otto exchange glances. Otto shrugs. Olive looks back at Oscar with a _you're-doing-this-at-your-own-risk _look and tells him, "Sure, take it."_

"_Thanks." Putting aside the Unsmellinator, Oscar steps forward and relieves Olive of the pizza. Slowly he takes a bite, chews it thoughtfully, and swallows it. "Wow. This is really—delicious!"_

_Otto's jaw drops. "Seriously?"_

"_Yeah! It's, I mean, the egg and the pepperoni—_great _combination! I absolutely love it." Oscar takes another bite._

_This gives Olive an idea. Eyeing the remaining pizza boxes, she slowly asks, "Oscar? When did you say your birthday was, again?"_

_Oscar swallows and looks at her curiously. "Not for another few weeks. Why?"_

_Without a word, Olive gets up and walks behind the couch, gesturing for Otto to follow. She hands him ten pizza boxes, then grabs the other nine, and carries them over to Oscar. "Happy early birthday, Oscar," she says with a grin, dropping the boxes at his feet with a punctuating _thump.

_Now it's Oscar's turn to drop his jaw. He looks at Olive, then at the pizza boxes, then back at Olive again. Suddenly he lunges forward as if to grab Olive in a great bear hug, but remembering the presence of Otto, grabs her hand instead. "Thank you, Olive!" he exclaims, pumping it up and down vigorously. "Now I can pack my lunch for three whole weeks!"_

_Olive chuckles and shakes his hand back. "Anything for you, Oscar." _Not to mention Otto and me, _she adds mentally._

* * *

_**Enough to take him out to lunch—even if he didn't show up for nine hours.**_

_For the seventy-eighth time, Otto checks his watch. "How much longer do we have to wait?" he gripes. "Work ended an hour ago, and everyone else is already gone! I need to go home and—"_

_Olive holds up a hand to quiet him. "I told you before, it would be another nine hours before Oscar's done with the pictures. And we _did _promise to take him out to eat. You said so yourself."_

_Otto rolls his eyes and groans. "That was before I knew we were staying until nine o'clock at night!"_

"_Okay then, tell you what. You can go on home, and I'll take him out for dinner myself. Sound fair?"_

"_Mm..." Otto shakes his head. "No, you're right. We made a promise, and we'll both keep it."_

_Thankfully, the accurately-predicted nine hours ends shortly thereafter, and it isn't long before the lights go off in the photo room and Oscar jauntily comes down the slide. "Hey, guys! Sorry that took so long. We ready for lunch?"_

"_Technically," Otto corrected in annoyance, "it's more like supper now."_

_Oscar glances at his watch in surprise. "Huh, sure enough! Gosh, I'm really sorry—"_

"_It's alright, Oscar," Olive breaks in with a warm smile. "Tell you what, why don't we make a special trip to the Club 24 for dinner? On me. They save the best food and drinks for after dark, you know."_

"_Sure!" Oscar agrees eagerly. "Oscarbot 24 told me all about the place, and it sounds like a blast!"_

"_And I'll get to dance!" Otto chimes in, his face brightening._

"_Then let's do it!" Olive says._

_Later, at the nightclub, Otto grabs a quick snack and makes a beeline for the dance floor. Olive chuckles and clinks glasses with Oscar. "Should we go join him?"_

"_Oh, definitely," Oscar says over the loud music, sipping his sparkling white grape juice. "But," he adds with a grin, "I'd rather hang out here with you for a little while first."_

* * *

_**Especially enough to stop him from revealing one of Odd Squad's most forbidden taboos.**_

"_Did you say _shrinking potato?!" _Olive, Otto, and Oscar simultaneously gasp._

_Oren gives them an annoyed look. "No, he said shrinking potato _salad!"

_The trio roll their eyes._

"_Anyhow," Oren continues arrogantly, "Olaf _clearly _marked it in the fridge. See?"_

_To prove his partner's point, a scowling Olaf holds up an empty paper bag marked with an O and jabs a finger at it._

"_How was I supposed to know?" Otto defends (rather comically, as he is a foot shorter than the other four agents). "Every agent that works at Odd Squad's name starts with an O!"_

_Oscar cocks his head thoughtfully. "Well, there was this one agent—"_

"_We're not going to talk about that right now," Olive smoothy cuts him off. Laying a kindly hand on his shoulder, she gives Oscar a warning look and almost imperceptibly shakes her head. His eyes widen in realization and he closes his mouth sheepishly._

_Luckily no one else notices, and the conversation shifts to Regrowinators and the Magical Growing Potato. But Olive knew what he was going to say. There _was _that one agent whose name started with a T, so he added the word 'Odd' to the front of it so his name would start with an O. Plus, it fit with his career. But the agent had actually been banished from Odd Squad for _causing _odd activity—and worse—and now the entire situation surrounding him was completely confidential. With the exception of Ms. O, no one, not even Olive or Oscar, knew the full story of what this agent had done. But those who knew about him were ordered to keep the subject strictly taboo. Not even his name could be mentioned._

_Oscar is well aware of this, but he also knows that he makes mistakes from time to time. Later, as Olaf leads the group to the Potato Door, Oscar falls back and mutters to Olive, "Man, thanks for saving my neck back there!"_

_Though too worried about Otto's shrinking problem to smile, she winks at him. "No problem," she mutters back. She'll tell Otto about the agent if the need ever arises. But as long as the subject is forbidden, he'll have to wait._

* * *

_**Now, there would still be the occasional quarrel between the two. Like when Olive upset O'Brian and Oscar kept forcefully dragging her out of the tube lobby.**_

_Olive gets up from her tube for the second time and looks around. Nothing has happened. "What's going on?" she demands._

_O'Brian shrugs. "Sorry, Olive. Guess that one's broken, too."_

_Olive stares at him in disbelief as the door hisses open. "But Otto just used this tube—"_

"_Hey! Hi! Uh, uh, how's it going? Hey, uh, Olive, can I please speak to you just for a little second here—" "But I—" "Here, come on—!" "But Oscar I have to—" "No, no, come on, Olive!" "Let go! Oscar, I have to go—!"_

_The door hisses shut behind them. O'Brian laughs mischievously to himself._

_Outside the lobby, Oscar finally releases his grip on Olive's wrist, and she staggers to catch her balance. "O'Brian is tube-blocking you," he explains._

"_Tube...blocking?" Olive asks, to which Oscar nods knowingly. "What's that?"_

"_Well, you did something to make him angry and now he's not gonna let you use the tubes until you apologize," he tells her, as if this should be obvious._

"_Well, what'd I do?"_

_Oscar shrugs. "I'o'no."_

_Olive huffs in exasperation. "This is ridiculous! I'm going to settle this," she resolves, pointing at Oscar as if telling him not to interfere._

_Of course, this doesn't end up working. O'Brian refuses to tell Olive what she did wrong, and to make matters worse, denies tube access to her completely._

_The door hisses open as Olive protests, "What?! But I have to go—"_

"_Hey! Hi, uh, I like your hair this morning, uh, uh, excuse us—" "But—" "Just a second—" "But Oscar—!" "Come _on, _Olive!"_

_The door hisses shut again as Oscar steers Olive back outside the lobby. Angrily she wriggles out from under his grasp. "Oscar, _again?!"

_But Oscar merely frowns at her in disappointment. Olive feels stung by this, but she's also annoyed that Oscar can't let her do her job, not to mention that he's been spying on her. With another huff, she starts to march off and declares, "I'm talking to Ms. O—"_

"_No, no-no! You can't!" Oscar stops her yet again. Close to snapping, Olive gives him a _this-better-be-good _look. "The last agent who tattled on O'Brian was Agent Orbot..."_

"_But I need to use the tubes!" Olive argues. "Otto is out there all alone!"_

"_If you want to help Otto," Oscar tells her patiently, "then you gotta figure out what you did to make O'Brian angry."_

"_But I have no idea what that is!" Olive puts her hands on her hips._

_Oscar perks up at this. "_I _could help you figure it out! I've always wanted to solve a mystery like a _real _detective, heh!" To prove his point, he whips out a green plaid Sherlock Holmes cap and fixes it neatly on his proud little scientist head, beaming happily._

"_Oh, no," Olive groans to herself. _He's never going to let up, is he?

* * *

_**Or when Oscar forgot the pattern of the booby traps and got Olive turned into stone.**_

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH! ! !"

"_What happened?!"_

"_Olive turned to stone!"_

"_I know!"_

"_Why did you ask?!"_

"_Because I'm STILL FREAKING OUT! ! !"_

_Otto is stricken, his face a mask of horror. Oscar is still trembling, but somehow his brain tells him to _Get a GRIP, Oscar! _Quickly he grabs Otto by the shoulders and shakes him. "Otto! What's my name?"_

_Otto looks him in the eye. "Oscar," he manages._

"_What's my middle name?"_

_Confused, a slightly calmer Otto says, "You never told me."_

Of course, _he thinks._ Only Olive and Opal know. "_And I never will! The point is, you have to _focus!" _He points at the statue of Olive. "I can fix Olive back in my lab, but we can't _get _there unless we STOP THIS ALARM!" _Great, now _I'm_ freaking out, _Oscar realizes. Looking back at the booby trap, he holds out his hand and changes the subject. "I could use something else to throw..."_

_Five minutes (and half their uniforms) later, Otto and Oscar discover the pattern to be pink-green-green, pink-green-green. They begin hopping on the safe squares to get to the other side. In front of him, Oscar watches as Otto pauses by Olive's statue and murmurs, "See you soon, partner. I hope..."_

_As Otto continues on, Oscar also pauses for a brief second by the statue of Olive. It's true that he'll be able to fix her with an Un-statue-inator, although he'd only expected to use that gadget in case headquarters were invaded by Weeping Angels. But Oscar recalls the frustrated look on her face when he admitted that he'd forgotten the pattern, or when Otto's shoe got zapped into stone. And now, thanks to him, the same fate has happened to her… _No, stop it, Oscar. It may be your fault, but she's not stuck this way forever. You can fix this. You know you can. _Checking to make sure Otto isn't looking, Oscar impulsively leans forward and gives Olive a quick little peck on her stone cheek. "I-I'll be back for you soon, Olive. I promise."_

* * *

_**Or when he was convinced that she purposefully endangered an agent-in-training.**_

"_Ori, you _really _have to stick with us," Otto pants, still sweating from the heat of the volcano room._

_Ori points at Olive. "But she said, 'Go in the volcano room'," he states matter-of-factly._

_Olive looks flabbergasted. "What?! I did _not _say that, I—" but with considerable effort she stops herself, chokes back her words, and forces a smile. "Ori, you are...one of a kind."_

"_You led an agent-in-training into the volcano room?"_

_For a split second Olive and Otto stare at Oscar, who seemingly popped up out of nowhere. Then Otto quickly begins to explain, "No-no, you don't understand! We turned around for a second—"_

"—_and he was gone!" Olive chimes in._

_Peering at them over the tops of his glasses, Oscar gives them the critical eye. "You expect _me _to believe that two experienced agents can't keep their eyes on _one _recru—…where'd he go?"_

_Simultaneously, both Olive and Otto do a double take. Once again, Ori is gone. Olive glares at Oscar, but all he does is casually say, "Okay. Now I believe you!"_

_And the chase begins again. But as the trio runs after him, Olive is hurt. _Since when does he think I'm a liar? _she wonders bitterly._

* * *

_**But in the end, Olive knew that Oscar was only trying to help her solve her problem.**_

_The door to the tube lobby hisses open, and a ragged-looking Ms. O swaggers out, casually dusting off her hands. "There! The laser chicken egg is all taken care of."_

_Every agent gathered outside the lobby cheers and applauds, most of all Otto (who was too tired from his first laser chicken battle to help her), Olive, and Oscar. With the tube lobby safe for travel—and with O'Brian on forced vacation—the other agents can now disperse and go about their daily work._

_As Otto hurries off to go get himself cleaned up, Olive sits down at her desk and begins filing some loose paperwork. She's nearly finished when she comes across a stray photograph at the bottom of the pile. It's the selfie that she and Oscar took on their way to the showers the day they were trapped in the boiler room. Olive chuckles at the state of them in the picture, all soaked in orange juice with sticky and tangled hair. Glancing over at Oscar at work in the lab, she feels a guilty pang as she remembers how she treated him earlier in the morning. _It's almost like I went back to before that day, _she thinks ruefully with another look at the photo. _I better go apologize to him.

_Olive slowly gets up and strolls over to the lab. "Hey, Oscar?"_

_He looks up from the test tube he was examining. "Yeah, what's up?"_

"_I, uh..." She shuffles her feet guiltily. "I just wanted to apologize for how I treated you today. I was impatient and short with you and I shouldn't have been. And, you really were an amazing detective. I don't think I could've figured it out without your help. Plus," she adds with a grin, "that Sherlock hat looks really good on you."_

_Oscar returns the grin. "Trust me, I know." They both laugh._

* * *

_**Or that he would turn her back to normal.**_

"_Otto, I've got it!" Oscar's voice yells from down the hallway. A few seconds later he rounds the corner and skids to a halt, Un-statue-inator in hand._

_Otto, anxiously waiting beside his stone partner, takes a few steps back. "Please tell me this'll work."_

"_It will, I promise." Holding up the gadget, Oscar takes aim and fires. Han-Solo-in-carbonite-style, patches of red appear on the statue and begin to spread, melting through the stone as they do. Then with a bright flash, Agent Olive reappears—and crumples to the floor._

_Worried, Otto dashes over and kneels at her side, Oscar close at his heels. "Olive?" Otto says, shaking his partner. "Olive, are you alright? C'mon, wake up!"_

_Olive stirs. Blinking, she rolls over and peers up at Otto. "Agent...Otto? ...Oscar? Mm, what happened…?"_

"_You got turned to stone, but you're alright now," Oscar tells her. "We disabled the alarm system, so everything's safe."_

"_Here, we'll tell you all about it on the way back to Ms. O," Otto offers. He and Oscar help Olive to her feet and slowly walk her to the next hallway, where another agent is chipping away at the large ice block encasing their boss. (It isn't until later that anyone thinks to use the Heat-zap-inator.) On the way, and as they sit Olive down in the corner to rest, Otto and Oscar take turns telling Olive the rest of the story. And even though Oscar clearly exaggerates his version of the tale, Olive is still very impressed with both of them. The story told, Otto pulls out two juice boxes and offers them to his friends. Oscar declines the offer, but Olive, who needs her strength back, gladly accepts. With one extra juice box left, Otto gets up to offer it to Ms. O._

_As Otto leaves, Oscar turns to Olive. "Hey, um, I-I'm sorry I got you turned into stone today. If only I'd remembered the pattern—"_

"_Mmph!" Olive holds up her hand to stops him while she finishes slurping the juice. "Don't worry about it, Oscar. We all forget things. Besides, _I _should've waited to test the pattern longer."_

"_So...we're good now?"_

"_Yes, Oscar," Olive laughs. "We're still good."_

_They sit in silence for a moment before Oscar recalls something from earlier. "Oh, um, Olive? When you were a statue...were you—y-you know—_aware _of anything? Like, what was going on in your surroundings?"_

_Olive cocks her head. "No, not really. Why?"_

_Oscar_ _turns red_ _and looks away. "N-no reason, heh."_

* * *

_**Or that he would cover for her when Ms. O grew suspicious.**_

"_Agents…?"_

_Olive, Otto, and Oscar jump. Quickly they turn away from the dinosaur room door and try to act casual. "Ms. O…?" they chorus._

"_Where's Ori?" she demands._

"_Uh, bathroom!"_

"_Lunchroom!"_

_Awkward silence. Olive and Otto glance at each other. _Oops, _they both think._

"_Um..." Oscar thinks fast. "I-I think what Olive and Otto are trying to say is that he's...eating lunch in the bathroom!"_

_Ms. O doesn't even so much as bat an eyelid. "Well, I'm glad someone's finally using the bathroom lunch table." She turns back to her agents-in-training. "Let's go!"_

_The trio waves as Ms. O leads them away on her leash. "Bye! Good luck!" Olive calls after them. But what she's thinking is, _Thank you Oscar, for saving our necks!

_Oscar ends up saving their necks a second time by volunteering to go in the dinosaur room and nab Ori. Of course, a distraught Olive and Otto watch from the peephole as Oscar accidentally provokes the T-Rex and, several _bangs! _and_ booms! _later, staggers out of the dinosaur room a filthy and scraggly mess. But after Ori is made a full agent—and tracked down once again so he can receive his badge—Olive is happy to help him clean off his lab coat while he combs his hair. His fast thinking was enough for her to forgive him for doubting her, so much so that she never needed to breathe a word to him about it._

* * *

_**And it was still enough to congratulate him on his dressmaking skills at the Jackies.**_

* * *

_**Enough to work with him in preparing lunch for the Featherites (especially since Ms. O knew to send Otto out to greet the Featherites so Olive and Oscar could work alone together).**_

* * *

_**Enough to run and tell him the relieving news after she passed Agent Obfusco's Odd Squad Test.**_

* * *

_**Enough to be really creeped out when he and Ms. O switched bodies—and equally relieved when they were switched back again.**_

* * *

_**Enough to thank him for unflattening her from Fladam's attack (though not enough to avoid teasing him about his sentimentally valuable retainer case).**_

* * *

_**Enough to mention his fearlessness around black holes when telling Otto about Agent Oz—even though the deed had taken place during those four months after Oscar's promotion.**_

* * *

_**Enough to invite him to share a jar of jelly beans with her and Otto (never mind that none of them got the last one).**_

* * *

_**Definitely enough to want his help in figuring out Odd Squad's computer system before the New Year's Eve Countdown.**_

* * *

_**And the list goes on and on…**_

* * *

With the chase scenes done, it was time to start the recruitment advertisements. At the cameraman's call of "_ACTION!_" Olive zipped up her tie, laced up her shoes, straightened her lapels, and fastened on her badge. Then the camera focused on her face, and she began speaking:

"I joined, because grass shouldn't grow in your shoes."

The camera then panned to Otto, standing back-to-back with her, and he began speaking:

"I joined, because bees should make honey, not tiny napkins."

Right on cue, Oscar popped up in between the two of them, and the camera panned over to him. Olive held her breath. Oscar had joined because he himself had too many oddities to count, and he'd agreed to show off each one in turn for each video they shot, no matter how embarrassing they were. But which one would he do first?

"_I_ joined," Oscar began, "because you shouldn't be able to do this: "

He held up his right hand and snapped. Instantly green lightning bolts shot out of his pointer finger with an electrical humming sound.

Olive gaped at him in admiration. _Oscar's related to _Nikola Tesla?! _Why didn't he tell me this?_ She smiled. _Of course, it all makes sense now. Oscar's got scientist's blood in him. No wonder he had his heart set on the lab._

His stunt done, the camera zoomed back to Olive, and she quickly suppressed her smile. "We are..."

The camera went back to Otto. "We are..."

Then back to Oscar. "_We_ are..."

Finally Ms. O appeared in front of them as the camera zoomed out, and she finished with, "We are Odd Squad."

She, Olive, and Otto all folded their arms to pose, while Oscar gripped the sides of his lab coat and grinned. Just before the cameraman's call of "_CUT!_" Olive and Oscar stole a glance at each other and smiled. Yes, it was true.

They were Odd Squad.

Odd Squad was them.

And that's how it was going to stay.


End file.

Odd Squad, Angst, Suspense