A/N: **anything in italics is thoughts.

PREVIOUSLY

She must have heard his dream. Knowing Olivia, Peter knew she probably freaked out. It explained her awkwardness.

"Astrid, can you take care of Walter for a few? I need—"

"Go." Astrid nodded, knowing what he planned, "Just don't do anything stupid!" she called as he sprinted out of the door.

6. Truth or Consequences

Peter must have waited outside her door near ten minutes. Considering all the different ways to talk to her, apologizing and trying to explain everything, his motives, all the while trying not to aggravate her, she was the one, after all, who carried the gun.

He had gone to her apartment expecting the worse. He had prepared himself for all the consequences of his actions. Olivia yelling at him. Olivia ignoring him, pretending like nothing had happened. Olivia being extremely calm about everything, accepting it, but deep down hating him.

He lifted his hand, fisted; about to knock when the door flew open and his body collided with another, both crashing to the ground.

As they fell onto the floorboards their heads slammed together.

Olivia stood up, rubbing her forehead. "Peter, what the hell are you doing here?" she asked, she was dressed in jeans and a light tee-shirt, mobile in hand and 50 dollars in the other.

"To apologize." He stood up, standing a foot away from her.

The proximity caused Olivia to step back, back into her apartment. Peter followed her inside.

"Do you, ah, want a drink?" Olivia asked, setting her phone on the kitchen bench and hunting around the lounge room for something.

"You don't have any whiskey, beer?" he asked,

She shook her head, holding up the $50's. She found her wallet, stashing the money back inside.

"I've got juice and milk. But, I'm pretty sure the milk's off." She walked back to the kitchen.

"I'll pass." A smile crept over his face. Trust Olivia to go shopping at the last minute.

Peter stood near the kitchen bench, Olivia standing on the other side, leaning against the cupboards, arms crossed.

After several awfully long minutes, Peter finally spoke,

"Look, I'm sorry, that I didn't tell you. But if I'd told you, you probably would have hurt me in some fashion."

Olivia knew that to be true. People around me drop dead like flies. My father, John, Charlie. Trust me, it's easier to block people out, if I hurt them enough they stay away for good. She watched his face as he heard her, gauging his reaction as he played around him her head.

'Livia, let me in. Talk to me.

"Stay out of my head, Bishop. Not everything I think about is for you too hear."

"Everybody has secrets. Best friends are the people you can trust with them. Talk to me."

"Some things are meant to stay hidden away. Friends aren't meant to know everything." She glared at him. Her eyes ice cold. Peter found he was frozen on the stop, unable to move under her piercing glare.

After a few minutes of silence, Olivia's face calmed down, her posture relaxed.

"Tell me one thing, Peter. Why didn't you tell me? Me hurting you couldn't have been the only reason, huh? Why did you continue to poke around in my head? Tell me the truth."

"You never would have told me. When I first meet you, you always seemed troubled, always holding back. Like you carried a long-since-hidden burden that wasn't yours to bare. But I'd known you three days, I didn't care then. But as I got to know you, I could tell you didn't have many friends, people to talk to, and so your burden remained. Did Charlie know?"

No. Olivia's face crumpled a little at the thought. Charlie was her best friend (before Peter), she told him everything, but had always kept her childhood a secret.

"Exactly, you never told anyone. No one knew the real you." Peter explained. "I wanted to know the real you."

"But I didn't want you to know. I never wanted anyone to know. It was my life. And then you come along and open it, reading it like it was a book in a library. You had no right!" she yelled at him.

"Neither did you. You poked through my head. Heard my thoughts, my dreams."

"I didn't mean to hear them! I didn't purposely go looking through your head. Sure, I wanted to know what went on in there, but . . ." she trailed off, unsure as how to finish, "I didn't tell Walter because I knew he would make a fuss, poke and prod me."

Peter read her thoughts, this was true.

She looked at the ground shyly, guiltily. "I heard things I didn't want to hear. I didn't tell you because I closed your mind off. I wanted to pretend like I never heard anything." She admitted.

"It scared you. My dream."

All she did was look at him, neutral. Peter couldn't hear anything in her head.

"I love you, Olivia. But I need to know who I am in love with. I wanted so desperately for you to tell me, to let me help you with the burden you bared. But you never told me. In the year, nearly two now, that we've known each other, all you ever said was that you shot him. You never opened up completely to me.

She looked up from the floor again,

"I love you too, Peter." She smiled slightly.

He walked over to her, kissing her ever so lightly, before hugging her.

"You know, we should really tell Walter his experiment worked. He'd been fretting for ages thinking it failed." Olivia said against his chest.

Peter only laughed, remembering Walter's confused ramblings and equations during the night, trying to figure out where he went wrong.

"Come here." He walked over to the couch, sitting down.

She sat down on the couch with Peter and began to talk, Peter holding her hand comfortingly.

"Rachel and I, we were both so young. We didn't know any better. We knew what he was doing wasn't right by the way our mother would cry. She cried like she was losing something, but she never did anything to stop it. She just cried."

They sat there, Olivia telling him everything.

She was finally opening up to him.

A/N: The End.

Sorry I ended this suddenly, but I really want to focus on my other story In 10 Months. So read and review, how did this one go? My third fan-fic, how am I doing so far?

Thank you for reading and sticking with the story