Chapter 8: Kettle Black

Rating: T

"What are you thinking?" Peter asked her; genuinely curious about what was going through her mind as she watched the boy on the screen play through the melancholy piece of music he had created. When the three of them were together in one room, there was no limit to the ideas they could come up with and Peter was already beginning to feel the adrenaline rush of another such session.

"You know, Ben's father said that Ben became obsessed with this one piece of music." She paused to look up at the ceiling for inspiration, "and he couldn't complete it either."

"I've been listening to it. It's very beautiful." Walter said. "He's light years ahead of where even you were at that age." He said as if lost in the memory of a smaller Peter playing for his dad. But Peter interrupted him; the adrenaline rush was rising as a new idea occurred to him.

"Walter, take a look at this." He pointed to a portion of the equation on the picture of Dashiell's work. "See this function? It appears here, here, here – " he pointed around the picture at different locations. "It just keeps on repeating over and over."

"Yes – yes it's a recurring expression." Walter nodded quickly.

Peter looked up at him grinning, "or it's a rhythm."

Walter returned the smile, clearly happy to see his son getting excited about an equation. "Well yes, I suppose." Then he really thought about what Peter was saying and his eyes lit up. "Are you suggesting –"

"Can you convert that into standard musical notation?" Peter turned quickly to the piano so he could be ready and waiting.

"Oh-oh-oh, I can try!" Walter practically bounced to a lab table behind him, taking the pictured equation with him so he could convert it.

Olivia, having gotten a bit lost in her own thoughts perked up when she saw how excited Walter was. "What's going on?" She turned to Peter knowing it would be him who had answers. He waved her over and started into an explanation.

"Music is a mathematical language." His fingers were already itching to splay across the ivory and black keys. "Chords have numerical values and their notes; quarters, eights, sixteenths – they're all just fractions, variables." He let his fingers drop to the keys in that old familiar way.

"Okay, I took the oboe for six months and then quit." She said as if it explained everything.

Peter almost laughed at her, but shoved the impulse down deep, but could not keep the look off his face.

"Almost there, Peter." Walter drew in the bars. "That's nine bars." He carried it over to a waiting Peter who anxiously soaked in the notes before him.

"Okay, listen to this." He stared up at Olivia making sure that she was paying attention and then he played. The notes haunted the air around them as Olivia shut her eyes involuntarily. Having heard Peter play on a few occasions she knew she couldn't help it. He had greatly increased her appreciation for musical instruments, especially when he played them. It only took a few notes before she knew; before they both knew, but he asked anyways. "Sound familiar?"

"That's Ben's song." She said softly, still in slight awe.

"Yes." Walter had a haunted look on his face as he agreed. "Ben's piece is the musical equivalent of Dashiell's mathematical formula."

"So how is that possible?" Peter asked. Stating what was all on their minds out loud. "They'd never even met each other."

"It's not so surprising, actually. Curious minds often converge on the same idea. Newton and Leibniz, independently without knowing each other, invented calculus. The relevant question is, what is it?"

Olivia had prepared herself for a Walter-explanation but like most times, wasn't prepared for it. "What is what?" But Peter the genius was right there with translation.

"What is it that both Ben and Dashiell are trying to solve?" His hands were folded on top of the piano and his brow was creased in his famous thinking face that Olivia had grown to recognize.

Walter hurried off to the back room that held are their filing as if he was on to something. Olivia and Peter shared a look as if to say 'do we follow?' and they smiled and never budged. Peter stared back down at the notes in deep thought. After a few seconds of silence he took up Ben's piece from the beginning and played it while his face stayed firm in concentration. Olivia watched as he reached the end and faltered a bit before trying a few extra notes and then stopped. He was trying to solve Ben's puzzle.

Moving around the piano, she took a seat beside him.

"Close your eyes and play it." She instructed. "Feel the music."

He looked at her like she was the pot calling the kettle black. "Says the girl who played the oboe for six months and quit."

She grinned at him and elbowed him lightly in the side. "Yes, but I know you. You think too much. Just feel the music and let it roll over you." She had described what she had done every time she heard him play.

"You know me, huh?" He said laughing.

"Do I have to get the blindfold out?" She countered teasingly. He gave her his 'yes, mam' look and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath he began to play again. The notes he had just seen, now floating in his head. He was still thinking furiously though and Olivia saw it on his face. Standing up, she moved behind him and rested her hands on his shoulders and leaned forward. "Relax," she whispered into his ear. This caused his fingers to falter on the keys for a moment but they returned to normal a couple of beats later.

Now all he could think about was how he could feel the heat radiating from her body that was only a few inches away. His fingers continued to play without him though and the music went on past Ben's song. He knew it wasn't the actually continuation for his piece though – could feel it in his bones. Sighing Peter let his fingers drop in unison on whatever key they had been hovering over and then gripped the edge of the piano.

"I'm beginning to understand how Dashiell went mad trying to solve this and I've only been working on it for ten minutes." He chuckled.

Olivia dropped her hands down and around the front of him and hugged him from behind. "Thanks for trying though." Her forehead was resting on his left shoulder and he wondered if she could feel his heart beat speeding up at her proximity. He forced himself to stay still and relaxed so that she might not notice, but when she drew away slowly and he felt her breath on his neck his whole body shivered in pleasure. Olivia couldn't ignore that kind of reaction and before she could stop herself, she felt her lips brushing across his neck causing Peter to gasp softly. She saw his fingers grip the piano until his knuckles were white. Realization of what and who she was doing this to hit her hard and she backed away and retreated to her office. She shut the door quietly behind her and rested her back against the door, visibly shaking and trying to calm herself down before she went out into the real world again. When the shaking stopped she moved over to her desk and began organizing the files she had planned to take with her to the bureau that day.

She should've known he'd follow her though. Peter just wasn't good at leaving well enough alone. She heard the door open and close as softly as it had opened. Olivia thought if maybe she ignored him he would just take a hint and leave but he remained.

She was about to spin and ask him what the hell he wanted when she felt his hands go around her waist and she jerked in surprise and whirled to face him with a look of shock and anger on her face. But then his lips were on hers and just as quickly as the anger had come upon her it left and a rush of desire flooded through her as she found her lips responding to his.

When she felt his teeth gently nibble on her lower lip she could only whimper into his mouth.

"God, the things I've wanted to do to these lips of yours," he murmurs close to her lips. Her knees buckle in shock, but he's there to support her and sits her on top of her desk, spreading her legs apart so he can stand between them and lavish her mouth with attention.

Olivia digs her fingers into his shirt and knows that the shirt has to go and it has go now. She begins to fumble with the buttons and when they don't give as easily as they should've she began to just tug the shirt from his pants and pull the shirt apart.

"Hey, I kinda like this shirt." He pauses from the kisses and finishes undoing the remaining buttons and Olivia is pretty sure her eyes are no longer in their sockets. Tentatively she touches his chest, feather light and looks up into his face as if for permission to touch more. When their eyes meet she knows they're both lost in lust. She can feel his gaze burning through her body, lighting every part of her on fire and leaving it sensitive to the air and she gasps softly. His fingers make quick work of her buttons as she shrugged off her suit jacket and begins touching his bare chest again, relishing in the heat and gooseflesh she leaves as she touches him. Olivia needs to feel more of him though and she begins to work at his belt buckle and pants button but he catches her hands and forces her to look into his eyes. "'Livia – I – are you sure? I mean this is pretty fast and – "

"Peter! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes." She giggles at him and pulls his face close for another kiss. He groans into her mouth as he pulls her body flush to his.

"PETER!" Walter is shouting. "PETER?!?! SON??"

"You have got to be kidding me…" Peter groans.

"PETER, WHERE ARE YOU?" He shouts again.

"I'm not going to forget that you said 'yes', 'Livia…" He stares into her eyes searching for her reaction.

"I hope you don't," she smiles while buttoning up his shirt for him, prolonging the feeling of his skin on her finger tips. She stands up and lightly kisses him on the lips and pushes him out her door playfully.

She doesn't think she can let him forget that she had said 'yes'. Grinning Olivia finishes getting dressed and returns to organizing the files on her desk even though her mind is miles away.