Again, big thanks for all the support.

Chapter 4

He met her half way, his lips touching hers tentatively to begin with before he progressively increased the pressure. Their position, while good for hugging, was proving to be very restrictive, and so Olivia pulled back and moved so she was kneeling between his legs. For all of his earlier hesitation, Peter's lips quickly crashed into hers and his hands tangled in her hair, pulling her as close to him as was humanly possible. Her own fingers trailed over his stubble while the other hand was clasped to the base of his neck, holding him against her.

Before long, his lips left hers and began to trail a firy pattern across her cheek and down her neck. His stubble was scratching against her but not so much that it hurt, still in the back of her mind she made a mental note to get him to shave before next time. If, of course, there was to be a next time.

Still finding their positions too cramped, she pulled away from him abruptly. He gave her a confused look, that quickly transformed to a disbelieving smile as moved backwards, half lying on the floor, bringing him down with her. Eager to resume, Peter's lips soon found hers again and she matched his enthusiasm with her own, running her tongue along his bottom lip, melting against him when he granted her access without a second thought.

Her hand slid under his pullover, trailing the contours of his chest, and was almost surprised when she felt the size of his muscles contracting beneath her fingertips. He was in better shape than she had given him credit for, but then she supposed the last time she had the opportunity to see him half naked was over a year ago, and it seemed things had changed since then. Her other hand left his neck and found the bottom of his shirt. She began to pull it off, but was surprised when Peter's hands immediately left her face and caught them mid-action. He pulled back, and evaded her next attempt to kiss him, speaking in an undertone.

"I've got a question."

"No more questions, Peter" she groaned, kissing him again. He responded for perhaps a few seconds before he half shook his head and drew back from her again.

"It's kind of important." She stared at him for a moment, unsure whether or not he could be serious, and wondering if it was really so important that it couldn't wait until after… well after whatever their impromptu make out session had been about to develop into.

"Okay" she sighed and removed her hands from his chest, for now at least. He was still resting on top of her, one solitary hand next to her head keeping the majority of his weight from her.

"Is this a one time thing?" His voice was steady, but the look he was giving her was heartbreakingly intense and feeling almost ashamed, she had to look away, "I need to know if you're going to wake up tomorrow and pretend what happened here was nothing more than cabin fever. Because I can deal with that, I just need to know now." She recognised that he was giving her a way out, even if it was breaking his heart, but as selfish as she could be, she knew he deserved more and despite knowing it was a bad idea ,she asked softly

"What's my other option?" he raised an eyebrow, clearly not having expected this, and he smiled hesitantly

"I could take you out to dinner tomorrow night, and then maybe we could continue this in a bed," his free hand gently trailed down her jaw as he spoke, "Or not. We could take this as slow as you like." He broke off there and she stayed silence for several moments, thinking everything over. She had told him less than a quarter of an hour ago that she still had some degree of feelings for John, but her actions must have sent very clear signals that she was at least beginning to move on with her life.

She liked Peter, but the real question that was now most prominent in her mind was, did she like him enough? Enough to risk her personal and professional relationships with him? John's death had dragged her to hell and back and she wasn't sure she was prepared to risk something like that with someone else, especially with someone whose life was as danger-filled as her own. After several moments, Peter slowly sat up, and now that he was out of her personal space she found that decisions were that much harder to make.

"Can I sleep on it?" she asked finally, and sounding surprised, he nodded

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay then" she sat up and smiled softly, "I'm going to try and get some sleep" he nodded wordlessly, and she could sense he was nervous, considering the very real possibility that she might choose her job, and in fact, common sense, over a chance with him.

She moved away and settled herself on the floor, facing the opposite corner, knowing she'd never get any sleep if she had to watch him look at her. Peter waited for her to settle before he stood up and flicked the light switch off. As the room fell into darkness, he half stumbled over to that chair in the corner. He didn't move again for several minutes and she kept her breathing steady, hoping he wouldn't realise that she was just as awake as he was, until finally he shifted. Her eyes were closed, but she could almost sense him hovering above her until he placed the peacoat over her. A second later, he joined her on the floor, keeping a good foot of space between them.

She was just on the very verge of sleep when Peter's voice drew her back. However it didn't sound like he was talking to her.

"Please don't dream tonight. Please don't dream tonight. Please don't dream tonight." He was whispering his old mantra to himself, and the implications of it nearly caused her to roll over and talk to him about it. She wanted to both comfort him and confront him, for from his tone of voice, he seemed terrified of these nightmares and yet he had kept them from her. It almost seemed hypocritical, considering he always seemed to expect nothing less than full disclosure from her. He finally settled and she eventually decided to say nothing about it, now or in the morning. He obviously considered this a private matter, and he would come to her when he was ready to. His breathing finally became even and perhaps five minutes after that, she fell asleep.

Her eyes blinked open an indeterminable amount of time later. The lack of windows in the room made it impossible for her to have any real grasp of the time. Peter was still asleep beside her, snoring lightly. She sat up and rubbed a hand over her neck, before yawning, realising it was the overall discomfort her entire sleeping situation was bringing her that had awoken her and she still hadn't received nearly enough sleep.

Stretching, she heard a faint ticking noise and she remembered Peter's watch. Easing closer to him, she tilted her head to peer at the clock face in the almost total darkness. Eventually she found the little button to light up the screen, and winced. Half two. It would be another five hours at the very least before anyone walked by the door.

The quietness unnerved her, and she supposed that the best thing she could do was return to sleep for now. But the floor was just so hard, and now in the dark, she craved some sort of human contact. She still hadn't formed a real decision, but right now at least lying down close to the one man left who seemed to unabashedly adore her was seeming like less and less of a bad idea. So she very carefully eased herself down next to him, trying her best not to wake him. However it seemed she'd moved less delicately than she'd meant to, for she brushed against him, and immediately he stirred.

"Liv?" she turned over to face him, and smiled when he blinked blearily at her

"Hey" she whispered

"Are you okay?" he mumbled, sounding far from fully awake

"Yeah."

"Is it time to get up?" his utter confusion in his half awake state was decidedly cute, and she hid a smile.

"Not yet. Just go back to sleep, Peter"

"Okay" he replied, sounding as if he was just about there already. A few moments later, his snores resumed, and finally she felt herself being tugged back to unconsciousness.

"No" It was Peter's low moan that next caused Olivia to awaken, "No! Stay away from me" She sat up quickly, regarding him with uncertainty. She had the strange urge to wake him, to rescue him from his own mind, but she was unsure if he would want her to or not. He was shaking in his sleep, a few beads of sweat running from his brow even in the relative cold of the in all, he didn't look in a good way at all so, half frightened for him, she made her decision

"Peter" she hissed gently in his ear, "Wake up." Her whispers had little effect however, and so she took a hold of his shoulder and shook him perhaps a little too roughly. He jolted awake immediately and gave her the same confused look as last time.

"What's wrong?"

"You were having a nightmare" she replied, feeling her cheeks begin to burn a little. Perhaps she had indeed overreacted. He probably didn't even remember it now. However, then she recalled his tone of voice when he had been pleading with himself not to dream that night, and she knew that the bad dreams couldn't be a one off occurrence.

"Do you have them a lot?" she asked, hoping he wouldn't realise she already knew the answer.

"Sometimes" he admitted, in a begrudging tone

"Do you want to talk about them?"

"No" although his tone was firm, he also gave her a small smile, and he continued, "Thank you, though. For waking me up, I mean."

"No problem" she smiled shyly back, but she couldn't help but wonder what now? She still wasn't particularly in the mood to talk about what she knew Peter wanted to, and the best solution for them both would be to go back to sleep for now. But that was easier said than done when she knew Peter was inches from her in the dark, studying her. She could turn her back on him, but that felt unnecessarily unkind, especially since his breathing was yet to return to a normal rate.

Almost unconsciously, she moved closer to him, and better arranged his coat to at least make an attempt of covering them both.

"Are you sure you're okay? She asked, because she was sure he wasn't, and also because she could think of nothing else to break the heavy silence.

"I'll live" he murmured back, then without warning he leant in close to her again and kissed her, with less hesitation and half the passion of last time. He was gentle, affectionate and yielding and made no attempt to even deepen the kiss, much less take things any further. He let her set the pace, and indeed it was her who finally pulled back, nervously avoiding his gaze.

"I'm still thinking" she knew she was breaking a perfect moment between them, but she needed to make sure he understood that although she was certainly becoming more and more open to the idea of a relationship with him, she had decided nothing yet.

"I know" he answered, a touch of sadness in his voice that just killed her to hear.

"I'm going to try to get some more sleep" she whispered, and he simply nodded. Rolling over, she shut her eyes and tried not to think too much about the man next to her.

There may have been a few mistakes in this, and for that I apologise, but I'm rushing to get it done before I go away on a university visit.

Because of that, I'll be away until Sunday, so don't expect anything from me until Monday at the earliest

Please drop in a review on your way out. :)