Mid-Spring, 1998: Part Two

A little more than an hour later found Katie putting the finishing touches on their dinner, while Oliver had disappeared into the living room with the express instruction that Katie wasn't allowed to leave the kitchen until he told her so—had strong-willed Angelina been there, Katie was sure the other woman would have had a few choice words for Oliver after saying that, but Katie understood what he had really meant.

"Are you ready yet, Ol?" Katie called out, finally. "Dinner's ready!" Allowing a grin to creep across her face, she continued teasingly, "What are you doing out there anyway? I thought you said we were going to be spending time together, not shouting across the apartment in order to have a simple conversation."

"All ready," Oliver stated, suddenly appearing in the doorway, wand in hand. With a flick he sent the assorted dishes Katie had laid out on the table floating past him and into the living room.

"I assume tonight isn't a night for eating at the table, then?" Katie questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"You assume correctly," Oliver replied with a slight grin, before crossing the room to Katie in three long strides. He held out a hand, "If I could have the honor, Ms. Bell?"

"You may, Mr. Wood," Katie informed him with an answering grin, placing her hand in his larger one.

To her slight surprise, Oliver pulled her straight up to him and into a sweet kiss, before releasing her just as abruptly and repositioning them so that he was standing behind her, his hands now covering her eyes.

"I still do have a surprise for you," Oliver whispered in her ear, his warm breath on her neck making Katie shiver.

"Lead the way, Mr. Wood," Katie said, noting to herself that she sounded just the slightest bit breathless.

She was quite sure Oliver noticed as well, but he said nothing as he led her from the kitchen and into the living room that she had earlier been banned from entering. When they came to a stop, Katie felt a sudden heat to her right and decided that Oliver must have decided to light a fire. She smiled slightly under his hands; dinner in front of the fire would be rather nice.

Oliver finally dropped his hands from her face, and once her eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting, Katie let out an involuntary gasp of surprise. Oliver had pushed the furniture that was usually in front of the fireplace out of the way and spread out a large blanket on the floor, with several pillows lining the edge; the food had settled itself in the middle of the blanket. In addition to the fire in the grate, there were candles on the mantle and the coffee table.

Oliver had set up a picnic for her. Katie loved picnics. Forget nice, this was the most romantic thing Oliver had done for her in ages. Not that she was complaining, of course: they were in the middle of a war, after all. A full-fledged smile—her first in quite some time—quickly spread across her face. This was just the thing to take her mind off of things for a short while.

When Oliver had dropped his hands from covering her face, they had settled at her waist. Katie now spun around in his embrace and threw her arms around him, settling her head in the crook of his neck.

"It's perfect, Ol. I love it," Katie stated, and now she had the satisfaction of feeling him shiver slightly as her breath tickled the exposed skin of his neck next to her mouth. "This is a wonderful surprise."

"I'm glad you like it," Oliver said softly.

As he spoke, Katie felt him relax slightly. Hidden from his gaze, she couldn't help as her smile widened slightly. Silly, nervous boy, worried she wouldn't like something he'd obviously put some thought into. Now she almost regretted letting herself be talked into leaving the hospital early today; this would have been a lovely surprise to return home to after a long day. But she wouldn't waste time worrying about that; she'd gotten to spend more time with Oliver, after all. Plus, she'd get to eat an edible meal—the poor man really couldn't cook to save his life.

Oliver quickly settled into the cushions, pulling Katie along beside him. He quickly served each of them generous portions of the meal Katie had prepared before handing her plate to her and sitting back to eat his own meal.

In between bites of food, the pair casually discussed how their days had been and what they had done. Halfway through a story about a pair of five-year-old's who had gotten into a stash of Fizzing Whizbees and eaten them all to disastrous, but slightly amusing, effects—honestly the only highlight of her otherwise bleak day volunteering in the hospital that was over-run with war victims—when she suddenly realized that she seemed to be the only one contributing to the conversation. Indeed, he appeared increasingly distracted as the conversation went on.

"Is something wrong, Oliver?" Katie asked suddenly, cutting herself off in the middle of a sentence.

"Huh?" Forget distracted, Oliver clearly hadn't been paying attention at all. At the sound of his name, Oliver—whose face had gotten a rather glaze-over look as he watched Katie speak—refocused his gaze and, for some reason that Katie couldn't figure out, pulled his hand out of his pocket as if something had burned him.

"Are you alright?" Katie asked him, genuinely concerned now.

"Er…yeah," Oliver replied, looking completely lost now.

"Well…if you're sure," Katie said, choosing to drop the subject and move on. Oliver had probably just zoned out because he was tired or something. He'd probably just had a long day doing…whatever it was that he'd spent his day doing.

"So," Katie began suddenly, completely switching gears, "We've talked enough about me for now, what did you do today? I mean, I know I got home early, but I wasn't expecting you to be gone when I got back."

"Oh…er…just some…stuff," Oliver finished rather lamely. "For this…er…thing I'm…working on."

Katie rose an eyebrow at him, though there was a hint of teasing in her tone. "Keeping secrets now, are we? Maybe I should have asked you a security question when you came in earlier…"

"No, it's just…it wasn't very interesting," Oliver replied with a shrug, though Katie noticed he didn't quite meet her eyes when he said that. What was going on with him? He'd been fine before they sat down to eat, or at least she thought he'd been fine…

"I have dessert," Oliver said suddenly.

"What kind of dessert?" Katie asked, putting aside her suspicions for now. She'd bring the conversation back to his day soon enough. And then she would get some real answers. After all, Katie Bell was nothing if not determined.

"The good kind," was all Oliver answered with.

"You're being incredibly vague today, Oliver," Katie said with a roll of her eyes. "I'd almost think you were trying to hide something from me."

Oliver's eyes widened in alarm. "Why would you think that?"

"I was kidding," Katie replied slowly, giving him another look and wondering if she actually should be suspicious of her boyfriend right now. She paused momentarily before continuing, "Are you hiding something from me?"

"No," Oliver scoffed, which, for obvious reasons, made Katie not want to believe him at all. "So, dessert?"

Oliver was definitely hiding something, of that much Katie was certain. And, naturally, her mind jumped to the conclusion that it was something bad, very bad. He'd probably done something reckless and foolish today that had to do with whatever resistance forces were still out there. But now he obviously didn't want to tell her about it because he was trying to get her mind off of the war. If that was the case, Katie couldn't help but think that Oliver really was being incredibly sweet tonight. She really should just let the matter drop…until tomorrow, at the very least.

"Dessert sounds lovely," Katie told him with a smile.

"I'll be right back," Oliver told her with an answering grin, hopping to his feet and walking quickly to the kitchen.

Still smiling, Katie settled back into the cushions. Oliver really was all sorts of wonderful.

"You never finished your story about those two kids!" Oliver called from the kitchen, where Katie could hear him opening and closing cabinets. "What happened?"

"There wasn't really much more to it," Katie called back with a shrug that Oliver couldn't see. "We got them to stay down from the ceiling eventua—What is that?"

Oliver had returned, but he was now holding the most delicious-looking creation she had ever seen.

"It's a cake," Oliver said simply, settling back on the ground and placing the cake in between himself and Katie. As he handed her a fork, Katie couldn't help but notice that he looked incredibly pleased with himself. "Also, I baked it."

"I think I'm in love," Katie admitted, after taking a bite of what could only be described as chocolate deliciousness. Since when did Oliver bake? And why in Merlin's name hadn't it happened sooner? She was really going to have to keep him around…

"So you were only kidding all those other times you told me you loved me?" Oliver teased.

"You want something, don't you?" Katie asked jokingly. "That's why you did all of this," At which point she very generally indicated the entire room.

"Funny you should mention wanting something…" Oliver began slowly after only the briefest hesitation, absentmindedly twirling his own fork in his fingers.

"I knew it," Katie muttered, though there was a wry grin still on her face. "What is it?"

"Well…" Oliver said, drawing the single syllable out. He suddenly looked rather nervous. "I want to give you something. And I want you to always wear it."

He reached into his pocket then—the same pocket he'd had his hand jammed in earlier, Katie noticed—and, at the sight of the small black box he withdrew, Katie was quite sure her heart stopped beating. Out of everything that had happened tonight, she had definitely not seen this coming…

"Will you marry me, Katie?"