You Stay with Me

Disclaimer: I don't own either the show or the song.

Wow, I did it again, I wrote another Fringe fic! It's just a quick and angsty piece but I hope you'll like it. Sorry for the mistakes!

For the sake of this story, let's assume that Olivia returned with Peter at the end of the second season and that Walternate didn't really plan the destruction of the other universe... if it makes any sense.

"And I still hear the current of the freeway in the distance
But I stop listening
'cause I know you'll stay even though the waves are always shifting.

We're fighting our way through.
I guess I always knew."

("You Stay with Me" by Faith Hill)

The room was dark, illuminated only by the flickering of the muted TV which cast colorful shades on the walls, making everything seem almost surreal in the late hours of the night. In the silent play of colors and darkness was Olivia sitting on the couch staring at the TV screen but paying no attention to it.

Her thoughts were a million miles away, leaving her mind no rest.

Her troubled gaze slowly shifted and tilted her head to look at the face of the man who was sleeping with his head resting on her knees. She gently brushed her fingers along his hairline then lower, over his eyebrows. In his sleep, his expression was peaceful. His troubled features smoothed out if only for a couple of minutes but even in that unconscious state Olivia could clearly discern the lines on his face that were the result of the stress of his job… their job. Their life.

With a sad sigh she lent down and kissed the corner of his closed eye, willing those wrinkles to go away. She didn't like them. She detested them because she knew that she was the reason of their existence. She had changed his life in a way that left its marks on him. And the wrinkles were not the only ones. There were marks that weren't visible for untrained eyes.

But Olivia knew every single one of them and felt their weight on her soul.

She could still feel the guilt over tricking Peter into coming back to his old life in Boston, even though she knew that his life as a nomad hadn't been a life insurance, either. Still, she hadn't really given him a chance to choose for himself.

She made him face his past… face his father who was the owner of secrets nobody should hold. And there was nothing that could have stopped them from blowing into his face, leaving him feeling betrayed and completely alone.

She closed her eyes, the agony of those few weeks, when she was fighting with herself over that secret that wasn't hers to begin with, coming back at full force. She was selfish back then and if she wanted to be honest with herself she was more selfish over there when she asked him to come back with her… to come back to a world that wasn't his and which he had left with the conviction that it had betrayed him.

But he came back with her… he came back to her and she knew that she should feel the happiest woman on Earth because of that but all she could feel was her ever growing guilt. From what kind of a life had she dragged him away? He had his parents over there, his mother and his sane father. And only God knows, maybe he would have met another version of her there, a version who wasn't so completely screwed up.

And being as selfish as she was – because she was only human after all –, that was the thing that bothered her the most. The possibility of an Olivia Dunham who had undoubtedly more right to be with Peter than she had and who might be able to provide him a life he deserved and she so desperately wanted to give him but was unable to do so.

She gently cupped his face, letting her thumb draw soft circles over his freshly shaved cheek, and smiled when he leant into her touch, sighing contentedly in his sleep.

What did she give Peter? That was a question that kept popping up in her mind every single day.

A life tied to a father who had done terrible things to people, including both of them, and who had lied to him through his whole life and who, after all those things, was unable to fully comprehend the consequences of his actions.

A life filled with terrible things and spent in a never-ending fight against forces nobody could completely understand, and in all honesty, nobody should understand. As a result of that, the nightmares of his childhood had turned into something else… something more horrifying and more imminent. Those dreams came not from his unknown past, which had filled his whole life with uncertainty, but from his present, a present Olivia had dragged him into and which was just as uncertain as his past.

A relationship which might have never been based on a solid foundation simply because whatever they had done or said the truth had always stood: universes separated them. And in the face of that gaping hole she felt insecure. Her mind kept telling her that it could never last... that she had never been meant to meet him.

And there were the 'what if's that never stopped torturing her already battered mind.

What if one day he realized that he had been stuck with her? What if he realized that it wasn't the life he had imagined when he had returned? What if it wasn't her anymore who could give him the feeling of belonging? What if he had regretted everything and wanted to go back to his universe? He had already left once so what was the guarantee that he wouldn't do that again if given the chance?

What was the guarantee that her heart didn't get broken all over again?

She felt him stir in her arms and watched as he slowly opened his eyes and smiled at her from behind hazy eyes.

"Hey," he greeted her while his blue eyes were shining with something that Olivia didn't dare to name but that made her heart both dance in her chest with excitement and stop completely still with anxiety.

"Hey yourself," she replied and leaning down, she pressed a soft kiss on his lips. Peter's hand on her cheek stopped her from straightening up and looking into his eyes, his heart finally decided on dancing with excitement. She waited patiently as Peter seemed to be studying her face.

"What?" she asked finally with a little chuckle, feeling self-conscious under his intense gaze.

"Marry me," he asked in a low whisper, not letting her go.

She was stunned for a few moments. Was it that simple? Her heart was screaming at her that yes, it was that simple but her mind kept replaying her troubled thoughts from earlier.

She slowly closed her eyes, willing her mind to stop over-analyzing something that really shouldn't be that complicated. She was so tired of questioning her whole life... of questioning herself... and Peter.

The smile that she gave him after she had opened her eyes once again was the most brilliant one he had ever seen her wear and Olivia knew that, too. That was the first smile since their first meeting in Iraq that wasn't tinted by uncertainty and guilt. It was a smile of pure joy and love… and relief because, pushing every rational thought aside for once, she came to realize that whatever kind of life they were living, whatever hopeless fights they had to fight, Peter wanted to be a part of it. Peter did want to be a part of her life.

Maybe her heart had never doubted that.

THE END

Thanks for reading!