A/N: The response to this story is overwhelming and I'm honestly flabbergasted that you guys like it so much. I'm honestly just a nerd pecking away at her keyboard trying to undo some of the damage SR has done to us Olitz shippers.

Two later, Olivia arrived to cover the afternoon shift and smiled when she found Fitz at one of the sinks near the showers. In the days that she'd been caring for him, she'd developed a warm affection for him that surprised her with its quickness in taking root in her heart. Little did she know, Fitz was feeling that and so much more. He was clad in only a towel, trying rather unsuccessfully to shave again.

"Need some help?" Olivia offered, coming to stand next to him. He smelled heavenly. He looked down at her and smiled. She was so beautiful.

"I don't know what assistance you could be, what with me all the way up here and you all the way down there," he joked.

Olivia retrieved a stool from the nurse's station and returned with it a minute later. She smiled and commanded, "Sit."

He responded with a smile of his own and surprised her by lifting her off her feet, earning a shocked squeak that widened his smile, and placing her on the stool, making them eye-level. His grin was boyishly handsome as he assured, "Don't worry. I won't let you fall."

She shook her head, smiling in spite of herself as his large hands encircled her delicate waist. "You're ridiculous."

"I thought I was being chivalrous and charming," he replied. She smiled as she began shaving his face, her hands moving slowly and steadily. "So tell me about your fiancé."

"His name is Edison and he's a teacher," Olivia replied, slightly annoyed that he didn't want to hear about her. It seemed that Edison could eclipse her even though he was an ocean away.

"He sounds nice," Fitz remarked. He sounded boring but Fitz sensed that he wouldn't earn any points with her by talking down her man back home.

"He is," Olivia replied. "Tell me about your wife."

Fitz smiled. "Don't have one."

"Girlfriend?"

"I'm completely unspoken-for, ma'am." Fitz smiled at her. "Unless of course, you're offering."

"I don't think Edison would like that," she replied with a smile.

Fitz shrugged. "Well maybe we just won't tell him." Olivia laughed. He was charming if nothing else. She finished shaving the light stubble off his chin and he rubbed his smooth face. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied. He picked her up again and placed her on her feet on the floor, his hands lingering on her waist.

"You got a little something…" He brushed a stray eyelash off her soft cheek and brought it to her lips on his fingertip. "Make a wish." She smiled at him and playfully rolled her eyes before blowing the eyelash off his fingertip. She wouldn't breathe her wish to a soul. Fitz couldn't shake the smitten grin plastered on his face. "You are so beautiful."

She blushed crimson under his intense stare. "I've got to go to lunch. You should probably let me go." She smiled sweetly. He took his lingering hand from her waist.

"Can I come with you?" he asked. It was against policy to take patients from the hospital, but he wasn't exactly an invalid. He was going to be there for a few more days to make sure his wound didn't get infected and that his arm healed properly, but he was otherwise in perfect health.

"You shouldn't. I'm not supposed to," she answered, more worried by her wanting to spend time with him than the consequences potentially faced for violating hospital rules.

"Please," he implored, smiling sweetly at her. "I won't tell anyone, not even your fiancé."

Olivia laughed. "Maybe you should get dressed and then we'll see."

"Do you promise not to leave without me?" he asked as he towel to keep it from slipping off.

"Yes," Olivia said rather reluctantly. She knew she shouldn't have been going anywhere with him, not when he made her stomach quiver so violently. After he got dressed, he went to the front door of the factory that had been repurposed as the US army's infirmary and smiled when he found her waiting there with her little black handbag. She smiled at him and shook her head. "You're such a troublemaker."

"I'm a troublemaker?" He laughed beautifully. "You're the one who's sneaking an invalid out of the hospital for lunch."

Olivia pushed the door open and they stepped out into the Italian spring heat. Looking at the small city, one would never have guessed the horror of the battlefield on its outskirts. Children played football in the streets, old women watched them from stone front stoops, knitting or shucking corn as they sat. Fitz wasn't sure if he should hold Olivia's hand, if it was appropriate for whatever they were doing, but decided to reach for it anyway. Olivia knew she shouldn't hold Fitz's hand. It wasn't appropriate in the least, but she held it anyway.

"Have you had the ice cream here yet?" she asked as they approached a man with a gelato cart.

"If it isn't in the mess hall, I haven't had it," he answered with a smile. "Which is probably why I've lost ten pounds since I've been here."

Olivia laughed, stopping at the cart. She smiled at him. "What flavor do you want?"

"Chocolate," he answered. Chocolate was his favorite flavor of anything.

"I like cherry," she replied.

"I have the cherry," the man replied, surprising them both by speaking English. "I do not have the chocolate. I have café though."

"I want cherry," Olivia said, digging around in her purse for money.

"I'll have the café." He looked at Olivia. "That's coffee right?" She nodded, finally extracting a few rumpled dollars. Fitz shook his head at her. "Your money's no good here."

Olivia smiled at him. "I can buy my own ice cream, Fitz."

"Not with me," he replied, pulling out his wallet. He grinned at her. "This is me being chivalrous and charming again." Olivia laughed. That man could charm the sweetness off a honeysuckle. Fitz looked at the man. "Do you take American?"

The man nodded. "Am not supposed to. The government… But yes."

Fitz handed the man a dollar and the man produced two waffle cones. He filled one with cherry gelato and one with coffee-flavored. Fitz smiled as he leaned over and licked Olivia's cone.

"Hey!" She pulled it away, laughing.

"That's good," he replied, reaching for it, smiling at her as she held it out of his reach. He licked his own gelato then offered her his cone. "Come on. You can have some of mine."

"I don't know where your mouth has been," Olivia teased.

"On your ice cream," Fitz replied with a grin.

She finally licked the cone then held hers out to him. He took a bite off the top and left a glob of gelato on his chin. Olivia smiled at him as she reached out to wipe it off. He immediately licked the red confection off her finger, surprising them both. Olivia sheepishly took her hand away from his mouth, blushing so hot she was sure her whole face was red.

Fitz thought of kissing her, but that would have been pushing the boundaries too far. He wasn't sure how long it would be before he kissed her though. He was having a rather hard time holding out, especially when all he'd been able to think of was her plump lips and the red lipstick she always wore.

Olivia laughed. She liked that Fitz could make her laugh. Edison only laughed at his own jokes most of the time. She wasn't even conscious of intertwining her fingers with Fitz's until it had already happened. It felt so casual, so natural, like their hands were meant to be together. She smiled at him as they walked on. He licked it then held his cone to her lips.

"Mmm." Olivia smiled as she licked her lips. "That's really good."

"You're so beautiful," Fitz said without thinking.

Olivia blushed. "You're so sweet. How are you not married?"

"Haven't met the right girl," he replied then smiled devilishly. "Unless you're offering, ma'am."

Olivia laughed. "I think you're supposed to do the offering, Captain Grant."

Fitz held up her left hand, showing her her engagement ring. "Someone beat me to it."

Olivia's smile didn't reach her eyes. She licked her ice cream and looked around the street, not wanting to say anything. She had been growing less and less thrilled about the engagement since she'd left the states. She wondered if it was the distance but told herself that distance shouldn't matter when you loved someone. None of the other women seemed any less in love with their husbands despite the fact that they were so far apart and, given the circumstances, might not ever get back to each other. Fitz noticed the shift in her demeanor. He said, "You know it's none of my business, and I could be completely wrong, but you don't seem happy about your engagement."

"I said yes because I was supposed to," Olivia admitted, looking at her shoes.

"Who said you were supposed to?" Fitz asked, looking down at her.

Olivia shook her head. "The man you've been dating for a year proposes in front of both your families at Christmas… You say yes. You have to say yes. It's just what you do."

"The man you love proposes and you say yes. That's what you're supposed to do, Liv," Fitz replied.

"You don't understand what it's like," Olivia implored. "I'm twenty-four. We'd been together for a year. My family likes him. His family likes me. Saying yes was the right thing to do."

"Did you want to?" he asked.

"I didn't not want to," she answered hesitantly. "I just wasn't expecting it. It didn't feel right. It still doesn't…"

"Then why are you going through with it?"

"Because he asked I guess," Olivia replied. She and Fitz reached the corner of the street. She pointed out her favorite restaurant across the street and they walked on.

Fitz squeezed her hand. "You should do whatever you want, Olivia."

"I want to be married," Olivia replied. Fitz frowned and a knot formed in his stomach. He didn't know what it was about Olivia that struck him so profoundly. He was surprised when she went on, "But I don't think I want to be married to Edison."

"Then don't marry him," Fitz said simply.

"It's not that simple," she answered, frowning. Everyone was expecting her to marry Edison, to have the perfect life, and she wasn't sure she could disappoint her whole hometown. The idea of that much disappointment made her nauseas with guilt.

Fitz stopped outside the restaurant's red front door and looked at her. "Whatever you choose to do is your business, Olivia, and I'm not saying what I'm about to say because you're the most beautiful woman I've ever met and I can't stop thinking about you. You should only marry someone if you want to be with them forever. If you don't, you shouldn't. You're the most vibrant, electric, enchanting woman I've ever met and the idea of you settling is just unfathomable. If it's not right, don't do it."

Olivia nodded. She wasn't sure what to say, how to reply. Nothing was definite. For all she knew, she could get home and find herself head over heels for Edison. But a part of her knew that wouldn't happen. Her gut told her he wasn't the one, and her gut was almost never wrong. She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back. They shared a small smile as they entered the restaurant.

XXXXX

"See anything you like?" Fitz asked.

Olivia looked up at him. "I think the gelato spoiled my apetite."

He grinned at her. She was so cute. "We can share spaghetti. Or is that too cliché?"

"Sounds perfect to me," she answered. She reached across the table and placed her hand on his, rubbing his roughened knuckles and the downy soft chestnut hair on the back of his hand. He looked down at her little cinnamon-colored hand atop his and felt a sense of rightness, like his hand had never truly belonged to him until she coupled hers with it.

"Wine?" They were broken from their intimate staring at each other by a tiny waitress with a curtain of espresso-colored hair hanging down to her waist. The little woman held a large ceramic jug in her child-sized hands.

"It's not too early is it?" Fitz asked, looking at Olivia.

"I haven't had wine in months," Olivia answered, already offering her glass to the waitress.

Fitz smiled at her. "You're so cute." The waitress filled their glasses then took their order for a plate of spaghetti and left. Fitz raised his glass to her. "I'm not really sure what to toast to, but it seems appropriate for the moment."

"How about to serendipity?" Olivia suggested.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Finding something good when you least expect it," she answered with a soft smile.

"Can't argue with that." He clinked his glass with hers and they took sipped their wine.

"Oh that is magical," Olivia cooed, licking the sweet wine off her lips.

"I'm not really a wine person but this is good," Fitz agreed. "I'm more into single malt scotch."

"I love wine," Olivia agreed. "Eddy hates when I drink though."

"Why? Do you take your clothes off or something?" Fitz hoped she did. His mind had wandered to the wonders hiding under her uniform on more than one occasion.

Olivia laughed. "I keep my clothes on. I dance a bit though. He doesn't like to dance so it's a little contentious."

"I couldn't imagine not wanting to dance with you," he replied. The waitress arrived with a steaming plate of spaghetti which she placed between them. Fitz immediately dug in and declared, "I haven't had food this good in… I can't even remember."

"How long have you been here?" Olivia asked, twirling pasta around on her fork.

"I've been here for 3 months. Before that, I was in Berlin for a year," he replied. Olivia took note of the haunted look that crossed his face when he said Berlin. She understood.

"I've been here for 4 months. I was there for 2 months. I've never begged for anything, but I begged for a transfer," she said. She still sometimes dreamt of the place. Blood-spattered baby shoes in the shoes. Women picking the corpse of a horse clean of everything. Rotting bodies in heaps in the street.

Fitz smiled at her. "How is it we've been everywhere together and haven't run into each other?"

"Let's call it kismet," she replied with a smile.

"I love your smile." Olivia blushed as she reached over to wipe a little tomato sauce off the corner of his mouth.

"This old thing," she joked. Fitz twirled pasta on his fork and held it out to her. "Now that's cliché." Fitz laughed as she leaned over and ate the pasta off his fork.

XXXXX

Later that evening, as the sun set over the old city's crumbling skyline, Olivia and Fitz found themselves still together. They had eaten lunch and walked through the park. They lay on a hillside and talked about everything and nothing, never running out of things to say. Olivia knew it was illogical, that you didn't fall in love in a day, but she was certainly feeling something for Fitz. Fitz was perfectly okay saying that he was falling in love with Olivia. She was everything he had ever dreamed of, an absolute delight.

Fitz reached out and brushed a curl back from Olivia's face. "I love your hair. It's magical."

"Magical?" Olivia laughed. "I don't think so. It's just hair."

"It's so soft." He scooted closer to her, closing the little space between their bodies in the grass, and inhaled the scent of her ebony curls. "It smells heavenly."

Olivia shook her head at him and his dreamy oceanic eyes. She took his hand from her hair and was going to put it down but found herself holding onto it. "You and your way with words… If I could marry half the sentences that came out of your mouth, I'd be the luckiest woman in the world."

It was Fitz's turn to shake his head as he caressed the back of her soft little hand with his thumb. "If I could marry you, I'd the lucky one."

Olivia frowned as she looked at him. "Why didn't I meet you sooner? What kind of coward was I to say yes to him and not wait for you to come along?"

Fitz smiled and squeezed her hand. "If you want, we can run away. Somewhere no one would ever look, like Canada."

Olivia laughed, laying on her back in the warm grass. Fitz watched her, thinking that he'd like to make her laugh for the rest of his life.

A/N: So that was fluffy. I can't help it. These two knuckleheads make me all starry-eyed and romantic. It's not gonna be all rainbows and butterflies though. Don't forget to leave your reviews! XOXO