It's strange, she thinks sometimes, how things work out. Take, for example, she and Alistair: they'd been friends for decades, and then he came to visit during her long convalescence from the Agent Yellow contagion and never really left. He still has a house in the country, but to all intents and purposes they live together.
She's lying on her front on the bed, her papers fanned out around her in some sort of chaotic order, trying to find the pages of notes she took in the morning's lecture. For some reason that entirely escapes Alistair and even confuses her sometimes, she decided to start another degree: working for PROBE and UNIT left her high-level scientific skills in dire need of refreshing, so after some brief consideration she reapplied to Cambridge to study mathematics.
It's not difficult by any means - she's worked on a similar level for her physics degree - but it gives her a great deal of pleasure to rediscover areas of the subject she's almost forgotten existed; the tutors probably think she's mad.
Alistair appears at the door. "Oh, you're studying, are you?" he asks in an amused tone.
"Trying to," she shoots back with a smirk. "I find myself being disturbed again."
"Hmm. Well then, perhaps I should leave you alone."
"Don't you dare." She turns her head to smile at him. "I haven't seen you for all of three hours."
"That long?" With a laugh, he lowers himself to sit beside her. "Well, we can't have that, can we?"
There's a comfortable silence broken only by the rustle of paper as Liz moves on to her side and a few sheets flutter to the floor. There's a tiny breeze coming in from the open window and playing across her face, and the sunshine is hot against her skin. It's hardly the time to be studying.
"Are you happy, Liz?" Alistair asks suddenly.
She raises her eyes to meet his, a smile playing around the corners of her lips. "Do you even need to ask that?"
"I rather think I needed to ask that before I ask this," he responds, and she raises an eyebrow at his cryptic tone. "The thing is - well - I was rather wondering if - if you would marry me."
She stares at him and then grins. "I repeat my previous statement: do you even need to ask?" And then, because she really is happy, she kisses him.