Author's Notes:

The discussion about Beth's surprise birthday party is from one of the opening scenes of The Dreamscape where Olivia is getting dressed for a party and Broyles calls her in to work. Did anyone else think Olivia looked beautiful in that scene?

Rachael and Olivia's Aunt Missy is referenced in an opening scene of The Transformation

Charlie and Olivia were eating pancakes for breakfast out on The Ledge when her phone rang. She politely excused herself to go outside and answered it. "Hello?"

"Liv! It's Rachael."

"Oh, hey! What's wrong, is everything OK?"

Rachael laughed. "What, I call and you assume something terrible has happened? You're so serious, Liv. Cheer up, Emo."

"Sorry, Rach – and stop calling me "Emo". You make it out like I'm suicidal or something."

"You're right – you're not an Emo, I just like teasing you. But I have to admit, when you're really mad you can get a little homicidal, rather than suicidal. I make a note to always run away."

"Well, that's fair enough. So what's up? How are you?"

"I'm great, everything's great. Livvy, I have some news."

"Oh?"

"Yeah! Greg and I are getting married! Can you believe it?" Olivia swallowed. She didn't know what to say. The last thing she wanted was for Rachael to end up with a guy who adored her one day and then ignored her the next. It's not that Greg was abusive or anything – he was just unreliable. "Liv? You still there?"

"Yeah, sorry, Rach. I'm still here. Wow, you guys are really getting married? When?"

"Next month. We don't want to wait, you know?"

"Wow, that's so fast."

"I know it seems that way, but it feels perfect for the two of us."

"Rach, are you sure you're ready for this?"

Rachael's tone dropped from euphoric to defensive. "Gee, Liv, you could at least pretend to be happy for me. I don't think that's too much to ask from my sister."

"Rachael, I am happy for you. I really am. I just want to make sure you guys aren't rushing it, you know? I mean, you only just turned 20. You have all the time in the world to get married and have kids and all that."

"This is my decision, Olivia."

"I know it is, and I'll support you if this is what you really want."

"It is."

"OK. In that case, I'm sorry. I was just a little shocked, I guess. I'm right behind you on this, Rach. If this makes you happy, then it makes me happy too. I really mean that. Have you told Mum yet?"

"Yeah, she's so proud."

"I can imagine. I bet she's going to take over all the planning stuff. You guys probably won't have to organise anything."

"I know, right? She's already talking to me about flowers and dresses. I think she's imagining this huge wedding extravaganza but really we just want something small. It's all we can afford anyway. Everything's so expensive."

"How small? I'm still invited, right?"

"Of course, Liv! What kind of a sister do you think I am? Actually, I was meaning to ask you, do you want to be my maid of honour?"

"Woah, Rach, are you sure? That's such a huge gesture. And isn't it tradition that the maid of honour should already be married?"

"Screw tradition, Liv, you're my sister. I'd really love you to do it."

"Of course," said Olivia. "Of course I'll do it. I'm so honoured, Rach. Thank you. Although I have to wonder if this isn't all some con just to get me into a dress."

"Don't exaggerate, Liv, you're not that much of a tomboy anymore, and you look AMAZING when you do more than just roll out of bed in the morning. I bet you're a closet girly-girl."

"Give me a break, Rach, when was the last time you saw me in a dress?"

"Uhhh, that'd probably be Beth's surprise birthday party for Bobby, after you guys graduated. You wore that black dress and curled your hair and everything. You looked gorgeous, babe. Lauren's friend Craig couldn't stop hitting on you, even though Lucas was right there. Do you remember Craig? He's from South Africa?"

"Yeah, I remember him. That was a fun night, actually. I really miss those guys. I haven't spoken to any of them in ages."

"Yeah, it's sad how that happens, huh? Speaking of long-distance, how's Lucas?"

Shit. She still hadn't told Rachael about Lucas. It had only been a week since it had happened, and although she initially didn't want to tell Rachael because of the reaction she might get, she honestly did forget to tell her. And now she was going to pay for it – big time.

"Uh, we broke up."

"WHAT? That bastard! When?"

"Last week. It's not a big deal anymore."

"When were you planning on telling me this?"

"I'm sorry. I meant to call but things have been a little crazy."

"What happened? I thought you guys were working things out. Who dumped who? Why? You have to tell me everything."

"It was a mutual decision," Olivia lied, wishing she didn't have to keep talking about Lucas. She just wanted to forget it ever happened and move on. "He's being deployed to Germany next week and then the Middle East after that. It was just going to get too hard, in the end. It's better this way. I think part of me knew for a long time that our romantic relationship was long over. It was more the fact that I'd lost my best friend that kind of hurt. But, you know, it's over now, and I'm on top of it."

"God, Liv…I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have brought up Greg."

"Don't be silly, you're getting married. That trumps whatever dramas I'm having. I'm OK, I promise. If I wasn't I would have called you when it happened."

"OK…I know you don't like to talk about this kind of stuff. Sorry if I kind of bombarded you with questions there. I just want to make sure you're OK."

"I'm fine, Rach, thank you. The Academy can be a living hell sometimes, but I'm managing, we all are."

"It'll be worth it in the end. Just imagine yourself in a year's time, with your badge and your gun and everyone calling you 'Junior Agent Olivia Dunham.' You'll be kicking criminal ass in no time, sis. I know it."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think I kind of needed that."

"No worries. Listen, I have to go, Mum's calling me to go looking at dresses for all of us, but I'll keep you in the loop, OK? And I promise I'll get you a pretty pink gown with tonnes of bows and everything."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh yeah? Make a bet?"

"No, Rach, you can't! I'll never forgive you!"

"I'm just kidding, Liv, jeez. OK, I promise to get you a nice, simple dress as long as it's not black or grey. It's about time we broke you out of that greyscale colour palette. Deal?"

"Deal. I can live with that…I think."

"Excellent. I can't wait. I'll let you know as soon as we have a date so you can get the weekend off. Do you want to invite some of your Quantico friends?"

"Are you sure, Rach? I mean this is your wedding – the guests should all be people you actually know, especially if it's just going to be small. It wouldn't be fair."

"Don't worry about it, I want you to have a good time, and it'd be good to meet some of your friends. Bring one of your hot FBI boys as a date!"

"You've never seen them, how do you know if their hot or not?"

"Are they?"

"You know I can't answer that, they're my friends. It'd be weird to think of them that way."

"You know, if you did have a date, Aunt Missy probably wouldn't harass you so much about when you're going to get married. People always do that when you're at someone else's wedding."

"Eugh, kill me now. I think if I had a date with me she might even harass me more. You're worse off than me, though - she'll start bugging you soon about when you're gonna have kids."

"God, she's relentless, isn't she?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm hanging up now, Rach. Give Mum my best for me. Tell her I'll call her in a few days."

"OK, bye Liv."

Olivia hung up the phone and bit her lip. Rachael was marrying Greg. Damn it. She went back outside to Charlie. "What's up?" he asked her.

"Rachael's getting married," she replied, her tone dead.

"So why the long face, Livvy? Shouldn't that be a good thing?"

"You remember how I told you what her boyfriend was like?"

"Yeah, I remember. You think she's making a mistake, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do," Olivia said. "But I can't tell her that. He's going to hurt her, Charlie, I know he will. But she loves him too much to see it. Marrying him is what she wants, and as her sister, I'm supposed to support her. But the thing is, I don't know how to be a good sister to her without being a liar."

"You don't have to be a liar, Livvy. Just respect her enough to let her make her own decisions, even if you know it's the wrong one. You can tell her how you feel, but in the end you can't make her choices for her. It's her life. You can't protect her from every mistake she'll make."

"I know."

"You OK?"

"Yeah, thanks Charlie. Come on, we'll be late for Psych."

As they set off for class, Olivia couldn't get Rachael out of her head. She had really wanted to tell Rachael that there was no way she should marry Greg. He was never going to change his ways - not even for her. Now all she could do was worry that this was going to end badly, and that her little sister would never recover. She sat through what should have been her favourite class, but felt that she could barely concentrate. At the end of the lesson, Colonel Jacobsen called after her so she could stay behind for a moment.

Olivia approached his desk hesitantly, knowing that he was too observant for her to be able to use the "I'm fine" routine. He looked at her warmly, like a father would. "Olivia, how have you been finding the class?"

"I love it."

"Not too easy for you?" he joked, knowing she'd already studied some of it at Northwestern.

"No," she smiled slightly. "It's still hard enough. I'm handling it, though."

"Usually, yes - but not today."

"I apologize, sir, I'll do better - "

"That wasn't an accusation, Olivia. I'm asking because I'm concerned. You seem upset. What's bothering you?"

She bit her lip, knowing that she couldn't get away with telling him anything less than the truth. "It's just home stuff."

"Anything I can help with?"

"No. Thank you."

"It's difficult to deal with family issues when you're so far away. I'm married, and it's never easy for Jessica and I to be apart – unfortunately it's a necessity of the job sometimes. I know how hard it is to feel like there's nothing you can do, being a long way from home. Let me know if you need an extension on your deadlines or anything, if it's something serious."

"It's not. I just worry too much sometimes. It really is nothing to be concerned about."

"Well, that's good to hear." He took a breath. "This school breaks a lot of people. Every student is smart, they're all good kids – but what determines who passes and who doesn't is whether or not they have the drive to work harder than anybody else here. The ones who go on to join the Bureau are the ones who don't just want to win; they want to be the best. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but you seem like one of the good ones, Olivia. You're certainly one of my best students. Attentive, intelligent, relentless…You'll make a good agent someday, I'm sure. But the reality is, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. So keep up the good work, but don't be afraid to ask for help. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

Grateful for his insight, she left to go to Harris' law class with John and Charlie, who were waiting outside. "Hey Liv," said John. "What did Jacobsen want? Is everything OK?"

"Everything's fine," she replied. "I can't say the same for you, though. Don't you have Loeb's torture session in an hour?"

"Don't remind me."

"I'm just pissed he's not letting anyone watch," said Charlie. "I can't wait to hear what he does to you, though. I bet he's going to make you do push-ups while he sits on your back or something equally excruciating."

"You can joke all you want, Charlie. I'm resigned to my fate at this point. Speaking of Judgement Day, Harris said we're getting our Bill of Rights essays back today."

"We better get good marks for that," Olivia said. "You know, after all that study we did in the library and everything. I swear that guy's been giving me bad marks for no reason."

"I think he's just a hard man to please," Charlie reasoned as they found their seats in the classroom.

Minutes later, Harris walked in and the room went deadly quiet. He began to toss essays back to each of the students, marching around the room in all his intimidating glory. "Here are you marks back for the last assignment. Mostly disappointing. A fair few of you are going to have to work a hell of a lot harder to…."

Olivia stopped listening. Her whole brain zeroed in on her score. She'd passed, which in itself was a relief, but it was no where near the mark that she deserved, considering how hard she'd worked. She heard Charlie's gravelly whisper in her ear. "What'd you get?" They showed each other their marks. "How did I beat you?" Charlie asked, shocked. "That's impossible. You get this stuff way more than I do and I only wrote my essay like the night before it was due. Something's up with that mark, Livvy, I'm telling you."

She nodded, not sure what to make of it. She and John looked at each other's marks. They had studied together for their essays, but his mark was considerably higher. "Woah, Liv, what happened? That doesn't make any sense."

"This has been happening all semester," Olivia muttered. "At first I thought he was being hard on everyone but this is getting out of control. Look at the end of his annotations. He wants me to do extra credit hours to make up the marks."

"That's bullshit, Liv."

"Frankly I don't care enough to argue with every student who feels I'm being unfair," Harris continued, raising his voice over the class's whispers and groans. "If you've got a problem with the mark, send me an email or take it up with Broyles. Now, onto today's lesson we're going to be recapping what we've learned about Constitutional Law…"

"Oh, he's not getting off that easy," Olivia said.

"What are you going to do?" asked John.

"I'll stay after class, see if he'll talk to me."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Livvy?" Charlie responded. "What if that just makes things worse?"

"If I keep going this way I won't be in the top half of the course. I have to try."

"You want me to stay and hold him down so you can beat him up?" John joked, trying to cheer her up. "Harris is an idiot. You're smarter, you're stronger, and you're much better looking. He's jealous." He saw that she was still worried about her marks. "Hey…You're gonna work this out."

Olivia just nodded, and looked through her essay over and over again, finding no fault with it. When the end of the class finally came, she hastily packed her things. "I'll see you guys at the Whitehorse later. Good luck with Loeb, John."

"Thanks Liv, good luck with Harris."

"You're gonna be fine, Livvy," said Charlie.

She thanked them both and as everyone left, she went charging up to Harris' desk as he was preparing to leave. "Agent Harris," she called, but he didn't respond. "Harris! Can you stop?"

"What is it, Dunham?" he said, irritated, as he set his things back down on his desk. "As I've already said, I just don't have the time to mark people's essays twice, so you got a problem? Take it to the course coordinator."

"Your note said you wanted me to do extra credit?"

That got his attention. "That's right. I'm concerned for you."

"Why? I have worked harder than half the people in this class, and I'm just as capable as any of them - "

"Well, you're marks aren't reflecting that, Miss Dunham," he stopped walking, facing Olivia head-on and towering over her.

"Then what am I doing wrong? Because I've looked through your annotations and they seem to be contradicting what's actually in the essay."

"Listen, Dunham, you contribute in class enough for me to see you have potential, but you've got to put the effort into your written work - which is why it's become necessary for you to do extra credit hours. But quite frankly, I think that even then you'd be wasting your time."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

He leaned in closer – much too close for her comfort. She'd heard some of the older female students say that he could get really sleazy, but she'd never seen that side of him up close and personal until now. Trapped between him and the desk behind her, she could almost feel his breath on her face, and she fought the urge to squirm. She stood her ground, chin up. She would never let this son of a bitch see her scared.

"Well, Olivia," he hissed. "This job is intense, and agents need to be able to separate their work from their personal life. And if I recall, the week this assignment was due your boyfriend left you, is that correct?"

Olivia gulped. Although she'd come to realise that the lecturers kept close watch on all of their students, she never got used to the times when they admitted they knew things about her they hadn't told them. "Yes, that's correct – not that it's any of your business."

"Well, it is my business, honey, because I need to know that you won't let emotion cloud your judgement and so far you've failed that test at every turn. And I know you girls are bad at that but if you want to be here you're gonna have to suck it up."

"This has got nothing to do with my ability to pass this course," Olivia spat, struggling to keep her cool. "This is about something else. This is about some kind of personal resentment -"

"This is exactly what I'm talking about, because right now, you are acting emotionally." He looked her over, still in her face, leering. "Look, you can color this any way you like, Dunham. But I am still your superior and that extra credit time is a direct order." He smiled, seedy and underhanded. "You know, the Bureau's no place for a pretty little thing like you." He reached his hand out to her and she instinctively shrunk away from his touch, soon finding she didn't have much room to move. As if for no reason but to scare her, he tried to tuck some hair behind her ear, but she brushed his hand away.

"Are we done?" she asked steely. She moved to leave, but he still blocked her path. She tried again. He wouldn't budge, still standing over her. "Do you mind?" she spat.

He smirked down at her and moved enough only to let her just brush past him. Gritting her teeth and giving him the best death stare she could muster, she fought the itch to run as she left the room. Once she was out, she took a deep breath, and it was only once she closed the door behind her that she realised her hands were shaking.

Please, pretty please review! It makes me write faster, I'm not lying.