Here's the next chappie!!! Hope you all enjoy reading it 'cuz I had fun writing it!

I don't own Fringe or the characters, 'cuz if I did... well, you can finish the end of that sentence on your own!

Peter tried to keep him mind on the tasks that Walter had assigned him, but found it hard to concentrate. His mind kept wandering back to Olivia, sitting in her office doing paperwork all day… and that gray cloud that he found he under when he walked into her office. She'd looked terrible, but then the cloud vanished in a matter of seconds, replaced with that smile of hers that could illuminate a whole room. Women, he thought, rolling his eyes.

As the day progressed, Walter became bored with his experiments and openly expressed his wish to go and find a nice old-fashioned diner that served a decent root beer float. And in the blink of an eye, the man was out the door and Astrid was kindly driving him downtown to find his drink. That's when Peter remembered that they had taken his car. Groaning at his own stupidity, he ran off to try and find Olivia to beg for a ride. He sure wasn't going to walk home with the clouds hanging ominously low and dark, threatening to rip open and send down buckets of water at a moments notice.

He ended up having to call Olivia and she agreed to swing by the lab to pick him up. After Peter hug up, he noticed that her voice had an odd lift to it, like it had earlier this morning. Man, that woman was having a good day. If Peter knew anything, he knew that this was not by-the-book Olivia Dunham behavior. He'd only ever seen her smile like that once before – last night, when she was drunk as hell. It made Peter smile as he remembered the happiness he saw in her eyes, not twenty-four hours beforehand. She had been happy. Truly, utterly, ecstatically happy. Ad it had made his heart race more than once, just seeing Olivia so free and… stress-free, for once.

"Peter!" Her voice broke into his thoughts. He looked up to see that the black SUV had pulled up to the curb, and she was waving him over.

The drive home was mostly a quiet one. They didn't say much to each other except the quick greeting upon Peter's entry into the vehicle. He was wrapped up in his own thoughts concerning the woman who sat beside him. Some days, he could understand her perfectly. But other days, like today, he didn't have a clue what was going on inside that clever brain of hers.

By the time that Olivia had pulled up in front of the hotel, the clouds that had been threatening to rip open had done just so, and the heavens sure hadn't held back. Visibility was, needless to say, rather low.

Peter turned to Olivia. "Thanks for the ride. I'm sure glad I didn't have to walk instead."

"You're welcome." Her response was quick and to the point, but her eyes still said that she was happy. And, quite frankly, that was all that mattered to Peter right now. Her happiness.

"See ya tomorrow," he said and winked at her like he had that morning. The corners of Olivia's mouth curled into a smile.

"Tomorrow then," she said softly, almost in a whisper.

Peter waved and bolted from the car to the foyer of the hotel. Even though he only took a few seconds for him to dash from the car to the safety of the hotel, Peter found himself nearly drenched. "Of course…" he murmured. First things first, he was jumping in a hot shower the second he was in the room.

X

Knock, knock, knock.

Peter gave his damp hair one extra ruffle before going to answer the door. His shower was short, but wonderful on a damp, dank evening like this one. He opened the door to find Olivia - looking like she had just jumped in a lake. Little streams of water were rolling off the ends of her jacket, the bottom of her ponytail and just about every part of her. What's more, she was shivering severely.

"H-hey Peter," she chattered.

Peter was stunned. "Did you just come from that…?" He jerked his thumb behind him pointing to the window opposite the door.

"Yeah, m-m-my car hit a nail by that big construction site d-down the road…"

"You mean the one eight blocks down??" Peter asked, his eyebrows raised.

"That's the one," Olivia shrugged. Peter stared at her, astounded. Then he realized that he hadn't asked her to come in yet, that he was leaving her shaking and dripping wet in the middle of the hallway.

Shaking his head, he stepped back and let her in. Olivia smiled graciously at the gesture and Peter helped her take off her sopping wet jacket. When he removed the garment from her shoulders, Peter saw that the rain had penetrated her jacket and soaked through to her blouse. He looked away quickly – the fact that she was wearing a white shirt, which happened to turn translucent when wet, wasn't going to affect him.

He took his mind off her shirt by talking. "Why didn't you call a cab or something? You really didn't have to walk that whole way and nearly freeze to death."

She shrugged again. "My phone battery was dead and I'm really not that cold…"

Peter impulsively reached up and placed his hand on her cheek. Her skin felt like ice. Olivia's eyes went wide. "You… you're so warm…"

Peter was caught off guard. She was so, so cold to the touch, and he could feel the tremors that shook her body beneath his fingertips. He frowned. Where was his hospitality?

"Tell you what," he began, "I'm gonna get you something warm to change into, or you're gonna to freeze. And no, I won't take no for an answer," he quipped just as she opened her mouth to kindly reject his offer. Rummaging through his closet, Peter found a warm flannel shirt and a pair of sweat pants (with a drawstring, or she'd never fit into them). The last time I was giving a woman my clothes to wear… he chuckled to himself at the thought and at how entirely different this situation was from that one.

He returned to find Olivia standing and hugging herself, trying to keep warm. His heart went out to her, and he handed her the clothes. "Change into these and I'll get you a coffee." She nodded once and headed into the bathroom. "There's towels in there you can use too," Peter called after her.

He made two large, steaming mugs of hot chocolate with a hint of coffee to give it a kick. A hot mocha was one easily of the best things to drink when you were trying to thaw out.

"Well, at least they're warm…" he heard Olivia say from behind him. Peter turned to see her standing before him in his clothes (which was exceptionally weird since he had only ever seen her in pants suits), which did not fit her tiny frame whatsoever; So much so that the bottoms of the pants covered her feet and that the shirt had slipped, leaving her left shoulder exposed. He blinked. She actually looked good, despite the massive size difference in her attire.

"Fits like a glove," Peter joked. Ruffling her wet hair with a towel, Olivia laughed at his teasing just a little bit, but it was enough to light up that brilliant smile of hers once more, despite the fact that she bent her head in an effort to hide it.

They sat together on the tiny couch in the 'living room' of the suite with their mochas. "Thanks for the drink, it's wonderful," Olivia said as she sipped the drink.

"Yeah, this is one of my favorites," he confessed. "Are you warming up yet?"

She nodded and took another sip. "Much, thanks."

But Peter wasn't a guy known for being able to read people for nothing. He gently brushed his fingers against her cheek again. Her temperature hadn't changed that much since the first time he'd touched her. She turned and froze as his fingers came into contact with her skin. She was still trembling, both literally and not. Peter could see the spark wariness in her eyes at his caress; she was scared of getting involved, of getting too far in and liking it at the same time… of getting the rug pulled out from under her feet with no one to help her up when she least expected it. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her, set her on edge, especially in her current state. "I think you're in shock, Olivia, it's ok, just try to relax," he coaxed her, dropping his hand from her face.

Again, she merely nodded and Peter reached behind him to grab her a blanket. Olivia took one last swig to finish off her drink and wrapped herself in the blanket. She shivered in place, hugging her knees to her chest. Peter wanted nothing more than to comfort her, but he didn't want to scare her or force anything on her. This was a woman who'd been through so much in the last few months alone, never mind the rest of her life.

Even so, it killed him to see her so low, at such a polar opposite from the previous night. So he reached over and, wrapping his arms protectively around her trembling form, pulled her in close. He expected her to stiffen or to push away from him, but instead she leant into his embrace and let herself go limp in his arms. Her hair was still slightly damp and Peter rested his cheek on top of it. Wet or not, Olivia was loosing most of what little body heat she possessed through her head. She snuggled in closer to him. Peter held her tighter.

She needs this, he thought. She needs to feel safe; she needs someone to be there for her.

So Peter held her for a long time.

He was starting to drift off to sleep when Olivia's lethargic voice reached his ears.

"Peter?"

"Yeah?"

Silence; then, "You're a good friend."

"Thanks, 'Livia," Peter slurred.

"Thank you," she mumbled into his sweater.

Peter couldn't help but smile (sleepily) at her words. The last thing he remembered before slipping into oblivion was feeling Olivia shift her position against him and sighing contentedly as he too shifted, feeling her head loll against his chest as she too slipped into unconsciousness.

Ok, so...? Thoughts, comments, etc, all lovingly accepted in a review, pretty please?

I'm deciding if I should write an epilogue or just leave y'all hanging... hehe.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and thanks for the lovely comments for chappie 1, you guys are awesome!!!