Okay. First: I am posting my quite unworthy story here^^ But since I read so many truly wonderful stories for Fringe here already, I wanted to write one, too... I hope you´ll take consideration to the fact that it´s my first Fringe Fan fiction ever! :)

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement entended^^

Jeez, how I love this TV Show! And the characters...

Days like this

She hadn´t actually believed he would do it until the door bell rang at ten in the morning and he was standing on her door mat, leaning against the door casually.

"Hi."

Olivia stared at him incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you I would take you out on your birthday, didn´t I?" Peter grinned at her, his eyes sparkling wickedly. "I asked you what you were doing today and you told me you had no plans. So I told you I`d take you out. Because it´s your 31st birthday and you were planning to spend it by staying at home and working on our cases, and that´s unacceptable."

She continued to stare at him as if he was talking Chinese. His grin deepened, something that sparked her anger. How could he dare…

"And if you try to shoot me for coming, I might just tell you I borrowed a bullet-proof west from Charlie."

He watched her scowl deepen as he mentioned her friend's name.

"Charlie knew about this?"

"Oh, come on, Liv, it´s not like you don´t want to see me, right? You´re just annoyed because now, you´ll have to leave the house. So get in and get ready, because we´re having breakfast somewhere else."

"Why am I supposed to do what you tell me?", she questioned, her interrogation-room voice not as cold as it normally was.

"You don´t have to." He shrugged. "But I thought you might want to get dressed properly. You don´t want to go out like this." His eyes took in her T-shirt and her jogging pants. Olivia almost blushed.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn´t slam the door in your face."

"Well…" He pretended to think about her question. Then his eyes lit up in mock triumph. "Well, if you really wanted to do so, you would have done it before you even got into an argument with me."

For a second, she just stared at him for the loss of words. His grin was contagious.

"I should warn you", she said and stepped back from the door. "Bullet-proof wests aren´t as safe as you believe."

He smirked. "I know. I´ll be careful. So am I allowed to step in until you are ready?"

"Where do you want to take me?"

"Oh, McDonalds or such…"

"You´re joking."

"Why not? They have good breakfast!"

Olivia sighted. "Wait here."

While Peter was waiting in the living room, the phone rang.

Upstairs, a loud noise was to be heard, then Olivia´s voice rang out. "Where the heck is the damned thing?"

"Down here", he called. "You want me to take it?"

"Hell no!" She came running down the stairs and Peter wondered for a second whether he should avert his eyes or not. He decided not to – such a sight was only granted every few millenia. Her long legs were beautiful.

"Hello", she answered breathless. Then she listened, and a smile spread across her face. "Hey, Ella! Thanks a lot! How are you doing?" Again, she listened. "Fine, hand over your Mom! Have a nice day! Hey, Rachel. Thanks!"

Peter watched her face as a dozen different emotions spread over it. She was like a book – open for him to read. She really wasn´t keeping up her guard up today. Not that he did mind.

"Oh. Yes, of course, I understand… No, no problem, I can take her! Don´t worry, Rache, it will work out. I`ll drop by to collect Ella in half an hour… Okay. See you!"

She put down the phone and threw him a glance – half apology, half relief.

"There´s a problem at Rachel´s office and she has to go", she explained. "She asked if I could take Ella for today… I`m sorry, Peter, but I can´t come."

Was there regret in her voice? His mind lingered on that fact and the obvious answer to her dilemma came immediately.

"No problem. We´ll pick her up and take her. McDonalds it is, then."

"What?"

"We´ll take her." He shrugged, as if he didn´t see what she was wondering about. "That´s a good idea. She´ll like it, too. The kid not liking McDonalds yet has to be born."

She gazed at him for a second. "You´re really serious."

"Of course. It´s your birthday. We´re going to have a party."

Defeated, she turned back to the stairs. "You better be paying."

He watched her depart, grinning widely. Oh, he was already getting something for his money.

Rachel was utterly surprised to see them both on her doorsteps.

Ella was thrilled.

They departed hastily, Olivia not wanting to have to explain this curious incident to her sister while Peter was smiling amiably, standing a little bit too close for her likes. She probably looked like a college girl, presenting "just-a-friend-friend" to her family, knowing nobody believed her although it was the truth. Ella strapped in in her car seat, already chatting with Peter, and off they went.

He really took them to McDonalds.

Ella had just fallen asleep, happily exhausted after a long day, clutching the stuffed animal Peter had fished out of one of those automates. Olivia hadn´t dared to try, she knew she was too bad in stuff like this, and when she hadn´t been watching, Peter had inserted a single coin and gotten the pink elephant in one try. Ella hadn´t let go of him – the elephant, not Peter – for the rest of the day, claiming his name was "Pete". He really had a hand for children, she had noticed, and she told him when they were sitting on the sofa, each of them holding a glass of wine.

"Somehow", he said and shrugged. "I don´t know why, but they like me."

Olivia leaned back and watched the light sparkle in the deep red of her beverage.

Silence fell over them as nobody knew what to talk about now. They somehow had exhausted their topics – at least their simple, normal topics which weren´t Pattern-, work- or science-related, but it didn´t matter much. Olivia watched him take a sip of wine, watched his hands move to put down the glass and then his arm, lazily thrown over the back of her couch. She watched his face, his dark eyes, stubble on his chin – and suddenly, fear gripped her so tightly her hand broke the glass.

With a shattering noise, too loud in the silence of a Saturday evening, red wine and red blood spilled on the floor.

"Liv!"

Peter was next to her immediately, shaking her, but she didn´t hear what he was shouting into her ear. Numbly, she stared at her bleeding hand, blood oozing from the cuts the broken shards had made. It didn´t hurt.

"Olivia!" Peter had grabbed her face and was talking, she watched his lips move. The only thing she recognized was her name when his lips formed it. The fear threatened to drown her.

This had been such a perfect day. When she´d brought Ella to bed, the girl had reminded her that she had promised to take her out with Peter again soon – and she had promised, she really had, so she said "Of course. There are many days to come, Ella."

And she had been lying.

She noticed only now – remembering that she wasn´t living a normal life, that this world wasn´t as normal as this young, innocent girl believed. That this world was at war and that she, standing in the first line of fire, could be dead the next day. That there might never be another opportunity for her to spend a day with her niece and Peter, that she could be the next to die – or, worse, Peter could die. And Ella could die. Everyone could die. And as she knew her luck, she´d be the last one to survive, the one left behind, forced to continue living in a world shattered and dead. She could see the ruins, could see broken remains of what once had been living people, now dead, killed in the worst possible way…

Peter slapped her.

She snapped out of her bad dream immediately, looking for and finding his eyes in a matter of seconds, seeing he still had his hand raised and was staring at it disbelievingly. Then his eyes travelled back to her face and he saw she was with him again. Guilt was replaced by relief.

"Are you okay?"

Numbly, she wanted to nod but shook her head instead.

"Let me see your hand", he said, and gently took it, examining the cuts. Most of them weren´t deep. "Let´s get you treated", he said, pulling her up by her wrist and she followed him into the bathroom. Gently – she never had thought his hands could be so gentle – he cleaned her wounds and wrapped her hand in a white bandage. Then he looked up from where he was crouching on the floor while she was sitting on the bathtub edge and his frown increased.

"What´s the matter, Liv?"

Olivia opened her mouth to tell him, but instead of words, tears came. Embarrassed, she tried to hide behind her left arm – he was still holding her right wrist – but he gently pulled it away and forced her to look at him.

"What´s the matter?", he repeated and she told him. He listened silently while her voice died out in a whisper.

"Days like this make you believe the world is normal", he said and she nodded fervently. He had understood. He thought about it for a while.

"You know, Liv, that´s the way life should be. There shouldn´t be monsters roaming in the street, people bursting into flames easily, mad scientists experimenting in College Labs, keeping cows next door…"

She almost smiled. He could see he was getting somewhere.

"Days like this are normal days. And from them, you take your faith and your determination to get everything right. So that one day, everyday can be like this. You have to believe everything will be alright. What else could you believe in instead?"

In you, she wanted to tell him, but because she knew how much it was costing him to be honest now and how much it would damage their friendship if she said silly things like that, she simply nodded. He smiled at her genuinely. He had been willing to leave behind his mask of the cynic today, so she had to try and start believing.

His phone rang, which made them both jump."Peter Bishop", he answered, his gaze still locked to hers.

Olivia heard a voice she knew. Peter listened a while, then he sighted.

"It´s okay, Walter. I´m coming."

He closed the phone and got up.

"Walter can´t sleep", he said and there was something in his eyes – regret? "I guess it´s time for me to leave, anyway."

Olivia got up from her seat on the bathtub edge and made her way out of the bathroom to the front door. Peter followed her silently. He grabbed his coat and stretched out his hand for the door handle, then turned around one last time.

"Well, did you at least enjoy your birthday a little bit?"

Suddenly, she was able to smile again. "It wasn´t all bad."

He looked back at her, mock-hurt. "So it wasn´t the best birthday you ever had?"

"Maybe." She felt her smile widen.

"So… see you on Monday." Peter´s voice sounded like he wanted to say more, but instead, he turned and headed out of the door. Olivia watched him walk down the small path to his car.

"Peter?" Hearing her voice, he turned on the spot, just to find her standing directly behind him.

"Thanks", she said earnestly. "I really loved this day."

"You´re welcome."

They stood there, not knowing what would happen next. Peter decided it was his turn again to take action. After all, he had been the one who had forced her to go out today, and she had just admitted the result hadn´t been bad. Carefully, he took her right, bandage-wrapped hand in his. Without a word, he pressed a light kiss on it. Olivia watched, thunder-struck. Seeing her expression, he decided to pull back. He put on a teasing grin.

"Try not to break too many glasses, okay? Otherwise you can´t shoot me on Monday."

The last thing he saw was her figure, standing stock-still in her front-yard. He pushed down the strange aching and focused on the street in front of his car. It wasn´t as easy as it should have been.

Am I still alive? It seems so... I hope you enjoyed reading! Thanks a lot! Hmmm... Reviews certainly are appreciated!