He ends up not sleeping with Tess that night…
Not because he couldn't, because it would have been a simple matter of asking, a question asked and a question answered.
He had seen the willingness written all over her face, a glint of desire that warmed her amber eyes, like liquid gold, the flush of her cheeks, hinting dangerously of things to come, of a deeper, more translucent afterglow that would bathe her in later hours of the night, inviting him to come and bask in that light too, experience a satisfaction his body and mind had not known for so long.
And Peter would be lying if he wasn't tempted to do just that. But he resists on acting on that particular urge for that night. He simply dances some more with Tess, laughs a lot more than he has in a very long time and at the end of the night, asks if he can see her again.
If she is surprised by that, she hides it well (which of course doesn't deceive Peter, because after all he knows all her tells). And even as he thinks, he might have lost out on the only opportunity to reconnect with her, Tess laughs and wordlessly takes his hand in hers and writes her phone number on his wrist and the sense of déjà vu that washes over Peter, almost overwhelms him.
In the wee hours of that first morning, when she'd been curled up against his warm chest and Peter remembered thinking he hadn't even bothered to ask her what her last name was. Absently, he'd brought his hand to her hair and whispered softy, afraid of stirring her from her slumber- words meant for himself really and not so much for her.
"I think I'd like to do this again… I think I like you,"
"I think I like you too..."
He hadn't really expected her to reply, he didn't even know she'd heard. But she simply turned towards him and took his hand in hers, "How good is your memory?" she'd asked him with a teasing smile.
"Exceptional actually," he had teased back, intrigued by the note of challenge in her voice
"Well then, if you can remember this, we can do this again," she'd said softly as began to trace digits with her finger nail, leaving the softest indentations on his flesh that disappeared just as soon as she's made them. It occurred then to Peter that she was tracing her phone number on his wrist, and he couldn't help but chuckle and as he found himself committing her actions to his nearly eidetic memory, he thanked in that moment whatever combination of genetics made him the exceptionally smart man that he was,
She might have as well branded the digits into his flesh because he'd remember them for the rest of his life.
The number she writes this time around is a different one, but the action bears such a startling resemblance to the previous time that Peter can't help thinking that maybe this is a sign, that maybe he needs to move on..
That maybe he should stop looking for something that isn't there
Some days, Olivia feels that there is a point when things just can't get weirder,
Gets too much…
And lately she feels that more and more. Like maybe, this pseudo-science universe that makes up her job and her life (the two of which are effectively interchangeable) is just so completely fucked up that nothing will ever maker her eyebrows rise in surprise again.
That point has long past, since after a man emerges from nothingness in the middle of a lake, claiming to have shared a life and a timeline with her once, claiming a legacy of rich and vivid memories of which when he talks about, she can almost taste them if she closes her eyes.
Even in that cold interrogation room, where nothing can possibly lend itself to imagination, his words make everything come alive, make her come alive.
And she can't help but want to believe in that moment, in the absurdity of it all.
Peter is an enigma and she has never really liked puzzles she can't solve. His blasé zen like quality about the conundrum of his very existence is unnerving to say the very least and it sets her on edge in a way that few fringe events have.
She knows that in some other reality, there exists an iteration of herself that he cares deeply about. He's admitted that to her and while she can't quell that wave of exhilaration that rises within her at the revelation, she doesn't reciprocate and tells him that in no uncertain but not unkind terms.
Because why on earth would she have feelings for a complete stranger.
Ever since she has treated him with professional cordiality and Peter to his credit has not asked for anything more. If he feels their partnership lacking in any way, he doesn't express that to her. But she catches him at times, staring off into space, lost in memories that obviously never transpired and it makes her heart ache in the worst possible way, which is something she really doesn't understand.
She wishes for him some kind of relief from the torment of a past that seems to taunt him so much, freedom to live in the present, unburdened and unencumbered by shadows of relationships that will never be.
She wishes it so much...
She finds him on a bench on the lawn outside the lab.
There is a dazzling smile on Peter's face, not the cocky grin that he wears so often after having delivered one of his snarky comments, but one that pulls at the heartstrings and reaches those impossibly blue eyes, striking a warmth and signifying a genuine happiness, a simple satisfaction with the events of the day.
She's never seen anything like it and she can't help thinking how beautiful a man he really is. And just as she can begin to get at the source of his happiness, she follows his eyes as they focus on a woman who is steadily making her way towards him, a pretty blonde who smiles at him with an expression, that Olivia knows all too well.
She sees Peter get up to greet the woman, sees him as he pulls her into a close embrace and then brush her long tresses to kiss her lingeringly on the cheek, give her a look that says more than words ever will.
She watches as the woman links arms with him and leads him away with her.
She takes it all in, the manner in which their bodies keep brushing up against one another, the ease of the woman's gait that Olivia would never have, the way she stops him before they get into the car by putting her hands on his chest and tiptoes to briefly but furtively lock lips with him.
And in that moment, she sees Peter's dazzling smile again and realizes that maybe he has found a way to break free of the past after all.
And the fact that it makes her want to cry, makes her feel inconsolable and betrayed in a way that none of the actual relationships in her life have ever made her feel, has Olivia thinking
Maybe there is a point when it gets too much after all