A/N: I love the reviews. Y'all make my day and some of you crack me up. Y'all are really not here for Edison. People rarely are, but I digress. This chapter is setting the stage for Liv and Fitz's big date. It happens after they get home from dancing.

"Are you really not gonna tell me where you've been?" Abby asked. Olivia nearly jumped out of her skin. She whipped around and found Abby sitting up in her single bed, eyeing her intently.

"I haven't been anywhere," Olivia lied.

"Really? Because I haven't seen you all evening," Abby replied with a smirk. She had a good idea of where Olivia had been, especially when Joanna told her a handsome man had come looking for Olivia. Abby had a very good idea of who the man was. Now she wanted to know where they had gone. "Tell."

"Fitz came by and asked to take me dancing. I went," Olivia answered. She didn't want to go into detail. She wanted to bury everything about their day together in a safe place in her heart to keep forever.

"And?" Abby knew there was more to the story.

"We kissed. We shouldn't have. He asked me on a date. I said yes. I shouldn't have." Olivia heard the reality of everything she'd just said and lay back on her bed in her white slip. "Oh, God. What have I done Abby?"

"You've caught the love bug, Liv," Abby replied.

"I can't be in love with someone else. I'm supposed to go home and get married in a month. And Fitz is going to France in a few weeks," Olivia whined. "This is a mess."

"This is the kind of stuff great love stories are made of!" Abby gushed. "I've got this feeling that the two of you are special."

Olivia covered her face. "I'm going home to get married and he's going to France. It's kismet."

"Stop being so cynical. My George is in Norway and I'm not worried about him coming back to me," Abby replied. "You and this Fitz have crossed paths for a reason. Have a little faith, Liv."

Olivia shook her head. "In what? A kiss with someone I've known four days?"

"People have a lot more faith in things a lot less promising," Abby insisted. The meaning wasn't lost on Olivia.

XXXXX

In the infirmary, Fitz tossed and turned on his cot, waking Stephen. The colonel turned onto his side and squinted at his friend in the darkness. "You wanna come off it over there, pretty boy?"

Fitz sighed as he rolled onto his back. "Sorry man."

"What's got you all wound up?" Stephen asked. "Is it that girl you bugged the doc about getting out to see? Who is she anyway?"

"Just a girl," Fitz lied. Olivia was many things, but she wasn't "just a girl" by any stretch of the imagination.

"Bollocks," Stephen scoffed. "She's something special, special enough for you to dream about anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Fitz couldn't remember what he'd dreamt, just that he'd woken up dry-mouthed and sweating.

"You were calling out for someone named Olivia for a while," Stephen answered. "You kept rolling over and calling her name. Who is she?"

Stephen knew his friend was lying. In the week they'd been in the infirmary together, Stephen had learned that Fitz was honest almost to a fault. He wondered why Fitz was being so cryptic. Then it clicked. "You were dreaming of the nurse! The black one with the accent! You dog!"

Fitz blushed. He had never blushed over a woman before. He replied, "It was just a dream."

"Is she the one you went to see?" Stephen had noticed the way Fitz became goo-goo eyed and slack-jawed when Olivia was around. Fitz didn't reply, just looked away from his friend. Stephen grinned. "She is! You've got a thing for her."

"Go to bed," Fitz replied. He didn't want to talk about Olivia. Well, he did, but he didn't want to deal with the reality that she belonged to someone else, that what they had didn't hold a candle to the commitment she had back home.

Stephen grinned in the darkness. "I can't blame you for wanting her. She's a cute little thing. Nice bum."

"Shut up," Fitz replied.

"Pretty face too," Stephen went on. Fitz glared at Stephen but didn't reply. "Nice pair of melons on her too."

"We're not having this conversation," Fitz insisted. He didn't want anyone talking about Olivia that way. Her body was something he wanted to keep reserved for his own private thoughts.

"And all that buttery brown skin… I wouldn't kick her out of bed." Stephen laughed when Fitz reached over and punched his shoulder. "Don't like me talking dirty about the missus, pretty boy?"

"Shut up," Fitz groaned. "I don't wanna talk about her."

"What's wrong with her?" Stephen sat up and looked at his friend.

Fitz sighed. "She's engaged."

"Engagements break off," Stephen offered. "And she went out with you tonight." He couldn't make out Fitz's face in the darkness. "Plus, she looks at you just like you look at her. I've been with enough women to know the eyes don't lie."

"Eyes? That's all the romantic advice you got?"

"Give her a go. What've you got to lose?"

"What am I supposed to say? 'Hey I know you've been with that guy for a year and you've only known me for four days but you should give him the boot and be with me instead.' Do you really think that'll work?"

"Crazier things have happened," Stephen pointed out. "Don't count yourself out just yet, pretty boy."

XXXXX

Fitz found himself wandering into the book storage room looking for Olivia. He spotted her immediately, loading books from a box onto the cart.

"Hi," he said, leaning against the shelf and smiling at the top of her head as she knelt next to him, arranging books on the bottom of the cart.

"Hi," Olivia replied. She looked up at him and smiled softly. "Did you need something?"

"No. Just…" His sentence trailed off as he stared at her with a dreamy smile.

Olivia stopped loading books on the cart and stood upright. She looked at him with wide, serious eyes. She had awoken that morning intent on finally replying to Edison's letter, having already mailed a postcard to her parents, but when she sat down to write all she could picture was Fitz's eyes and his smile. It was all so wrong. She started, "About last night…"

"Before you say anything else, just stand here with me for a minute. Just one minute. You're just a girl and I'm just a guy and none of that other stuff matters. Just for a minute." He gave her that charming Grant smile. "Please?"

There was nothing she could do when faced with those eyes. She simply replied, "One minute."

He smiled at the smile that slowly spread across her face as he reached over to interlace his fingers with hers. She looked down at their hands for a moment before looking up at his face. He smiled at her, looking at her in a way that no one else ever had, like she'd hung the moon. After a short while—much longer than Olivia had intended to be standing out in the open holding his hand—Olivia slipped her hand away from his. "I should get to work."

"Okay," he replied reluctantly letting her hand go. "Are we still going out? I promise I won't make you dance with me again."

Olivia laughed. "I suppose we can still go out."

Fitz couldn't stop the toothy grin from spreading across his face. He pushed his errant Superman curl back from his head. "So tomorrow at 8? I was thinking we could go back to that little place with the good wine. Unless you want to do something else."

"Dinner sounds lovely," she replied, smiling at his smile. He was so excited to be with her. Fitz couldn't resist reaching out to caress her cheek before he went back to his cot.

XXXXX

Dear Eddy,

Things are good here, much better than they were in Berlin. I've ever made a friend. Her name is Abby and she's a surgical nurse. Her husband is in Norway. They're so in love. It's almost too cute. The days are long but they're rewarding. I wouldn't mind re-enlisting for a few more months. I know how you feel about it, but I love it so much. I wish you wouldn't discuss the wedding this way. There's nothing to be accomplished through letters. We'll talk when I get back.

I miss you,

Liv

Olivia stared at her small, neat handwriting. She wished her letters were long and filled with sweet things like the letters Abby and George sent back and forth. It amazed her that they talked about their days like they were on the phone instead of hundreds of miles apart. But that was all she had to say to him. She'd often thought they were more good friends than lovers, but her friends back home insisted that passion was fleeting, that love wasn't always fireworks. She didn't want fireworks all the time, but it would be a nice change if Edison drove her crazy for once. It seemed everything with them was always lukewarm. They never even raised their voices. Honestly, he was a good man. Perfect in some aspects. But they weren't compatible where it counted.

She sighed as she put the letter in an envelope and addressed it. She thought of ripping the letter up and writing a new one, one where she told him find someone new, that they weren't right for each other. She could put the ring in the envelope and unchain herself from the anxiety that had been plucking her nerves for months. But breaking up with someone in a letter was an ill-mannered, cowardly thing to do. Breaking off an engagement in a letter was a positively shitty thing to do. Plus there was a part of her that enjoyed Edison's company. And what would her parents say if she broke off her engagement without at least talking to them? And her friends? And Edison's family? By the time his mother got through tarnishing her reputation, she'd never be able to show her face in her hometown again. Besides, she only had a month until her enlistment was up. By then she would know exactly what she wanted. Hopefully…

A certain pair of blue eyes was complicating already muddy waters…

A/N: Next up is the big date! That chapter should be up in a few days. Don't forget to leave your reviews!