Disclaimer: I wish, but no, I don't own the characters/show.
Spoilers: All of aired Season 2, especially "Fracture"
The force of her embrace sent them both flying, and only his quick reflexes managed to keep them both from a very loud and very painful fall. But, just then, he really couldn't care less.
Her arms had never left his neck while his own had come around her waist instinctively, and he kept them there as his hands splayed themselves across her back, carefully pulling her closer. He felt his heart skip a beat as she obliged, burrowing her face into the nook where his shoulder met his neck.
A perfect fit.
Leaning down to rest his own head against hers, it was a long time before he felt her murmur something against his shirt.
"Hm?"
"I said I want this. What took you so long?"
It was bossy and assertive, and he couldn't help but laugh. That was the Olivia he remembered.
"You could have come to me, ya know," he smirked, tightening his hold on her as he felt her frown against him.
"You okay?"
It was a question he'd been asking her a lot lately, but this time he felt he just might get a straight answer.
"I'm sorry."
"Okay," he raises his hands to her head, hating himself for moving her but needing to see her face, her eyes, "you're gonna have to explain that one to me in a little more detail."
She has the grace to look ashamed and he hates himself even more. But before he can try and persuade her that he's not angry with her, at least not anymore, she moves. Instinctively he follows her, not quite ready to let go of her just yet, but instead of pushing him away like she's being doing lately, she takes both of his hands and leads him over to her couch.
She wants him to stick around, he realizes, which means she probably has more than one thing she wants to say. She wants to talk, finally.
As they sit their hands remain intertwined between them, and for a moment he marvels at the differences between them, how despite said differences they mesh together so easily.
"I really am, sorry, that is," she suddenly speaks up, and before he even realizes it his eyes are on her and not their hands, happy to at last get some insight into how well this amazing woman really is fairing.
He'd only been making observations up to this point, biting his tongue and clenching his fists to keep himself from shaking some sense into her and demanding that she tell him what was going on. But as this liquid-courage encouraged night of revelations had pointed out, she wasn't the only one with issues to work out concerning the distance between them. With any luck, that distance would soon be gone, each word spoken between them bridging the gap.
Taking his thoughtful silence as acknowledgment of her apology, however, Olivia continued.
"It's scary not to know what's going on in your own head, but that's no excuse. You've given me every reason to trust you Peter, but for some reason I just couldn't let myself confide in you, even when I started to hear things no one else could and nearly blew your head off as a result."
"Super-woman complex?" he suggested with a smirk, unconsciously squeezing her hands with his, letting her know that he's there, that he's fine.
She smiles wryly, but keeps going. Apparently, this had been weighing on her as much as him, and she wanted to get it out once and for all, not that he was complaining.
"I couldn't keep my own hands from shaking, how could I keep myself from falling apart if I told you how I was really doing with all this? If I tried to tell anyone close to me? In a way that's what made going to Sam so easy, he didn't know me, but he knew enough about my symptoms to help."
"Whoa, hold on, who's Sam?"
He keeps calm despite the jealously that claws at him at the sound of another man's name on her lips, refusing despite himself to draw conclusions until he has all the facts. That was, after all, why they just now were really talking to each other again.
She takes a breath; no doubt a little leery of his tone towards this Sam guy but forges ahead anyway.
"Nina Sharp recommended him, he's the guy I mentioned earlier who works at the bowling alley, though I doubt that's his real job. I guess you could say that he's been fixing me. You'd like him I think, real pain in the ass. I finally got so tired of his attitude that without even thinking about my leg I walked right up and put my gun to his head. That's why I don't need my cane anymore."
He chuckles at the mental image, suddenly feeling just a little bit of respect for this Sam who'd pushed Olivia that far and lived to tell about it. There weren't many out there who could say the same. Even though Nina Sharp had recommended him, this guy'd obviously been able to help Olivia when not even he could. It still stung a little, but the bigger picture was more important, and whomever this Sam was Olivia would certainly have not let him into her home smelling of Jack Daniels in the wee hours of the morning.
"Peter?"
She looks like she's been waiting for him to say something for a while, and judging by her less than confident expression she probably thought he was still mad at her for waiting to so long to talk to him.
"So," he starts quickly in an effort to reassure, "you don't need your cane anymore. What about those headaches?"
"Normal for what happened to me, apparently. I'm getting flashes of memory back from my time on 'the other side', and eventually my brain will flush them all out, but until then it's just splashes of painful flashbacks," she shrugs nonchalantly, but he knows her better than that.
"How painful?"
"Like someone is repeatedly driving an axe into my brain painful."
It hurts him to associate such a visual with her, but it's an honest answer, and he feels himself admiring her even more for dealing like she's been.
Her eyes, however, look haunted by the pain such visions cause, and suddenly he's willing to say or do whatever it takes to take that look away.
"Hey, I have an idea. How about we go back to cuddling? Seems to me that we're way better at it than this talking business."
"Yeah, but I doubt it'll go over well if every time we need to talk we hug each other instead. Could get awkward around Broyles or at crime scenes."
She's smiling a little now, but not quite enough to chase all those demons away, and he won't be satisfied until they're gone.
"Pft, you kidding? I bet he's a real cuddler. He might even want to join in if he sees us. We could start a new fad at the FBI office."
She actually laughed out loud at that, her smile warming him like a shot of hard liquor never could, and with twice the intoxicating results. He can't remember the last time he's seen her smile like that, but then that was probably a good thing, considering the effect it was having on him.
But hell, he thought, grinning stupidly back, what about her didn't have an effect on him?
Her laughter had died down but her smile remained, and with it a spark in those eyes of hers that he'd been missing even more than her smile.
Gorgeous.
He didn't mean to say it out loud, but judging by the surprise that's replaced the smile on her face, he must have. Before he can take it back though, before he tries to trip through some awkward excuse or joke to ease the tension, she starts to lean towards him.
He doesn't move at first, giving her ample opportunity to realize what she was doing and break away, to keep the status quo. But she hasn't pulled away yet, and she's more than halfway across the space between them when her eyes shift to his lips then back to his eyes, and he almost loses it.
It would be so easy, so easy to lose himself in her, to show her just what she did to him, how crazy he was about her. Who knew, maybe she would realize she was crazy about him too. He knew the attraction was there, the emotion, but she'd been betrayed before, and so did whatever she could to hide it. He would do whatever it took to prove to her that he was worth the risk.
"Peter?"
"Hm?"
"Stop thinking and kiss me already."
His laughter is swallowed by her lips, and in an instant she's in his arms again, nearly straddling him as mouths and tongues and hands move like they've done this a thousand times.
Oh yeah, he smiles against her throat; they're back, and better than ever.
Fin
Author's Note: Done! Hope it was fluffy enough! Thanks again to all of you out there for reading, it was a lot of fun to write.