fic: four times Peter Bishop almost asked Olivia Dunham to marry him (and the one time he did)
A/N: This is a result of what I now call my JJ Abrams Proposal Theory. In every show, JJ has ever created, the OTP has gotten engaged in the 4th season. I'd say 100% is pretty good odds for the same thing happening to Peter and Olivia. Hope you enjoy!
***
I.
It was a mundane task, sifting through endless boxes in the stifling attic, but someone had to do it, and Peter was pretty bored anyway. For the first time in months, Fringe Division was having a bit of a dry spell, so it was spring cleaning time at the Bishop house. Only it was summer, and Walter was busy making a mess in the kitchen rather than doing any cleaning. If Olivia had been here he would have spent the day with her, but she had taken the much needed time off to visit some of her family. Despite the fact that they been together for about a year now and it would have been perfectly natural for him to go with her, he’d decided to stay behind. At the time, he figured she needed to be alone with them. Now he regretted that little act of selflessness.
He could admit it to himself, he was lonely. The pathetic thing was it had only been four days. Four days down, three to go, he thought miserably.
He began opening some of the boxes in the back corner, uncovering old relics from his childhood and some really odd looking contraptions that only Walter could have made. He still felt a bit of a pang any time he’d come across some old family albums. He’d wonder if it was him in the picture or the other Peter. He’d miss his mother, the one he knew and the one he never really got to know. After awhile he just stopped looking and put them in a pile on the floor to be dealt with later.
About an hour into it, he found a box marked ‘Our Wedding’, and ripped it open carefully, hoping to find some documentation of his father’s infamous purple tuxedo. Instead he found the real thing, and it was just as ghastly and gaudy as he had imagined it to be. He let out a little chuckle, and carefully placed it back in the box. I’m definitely hiding that, he thought.
“What’s so funny?” He heard from behind him. He knew that voice, but he tried not to look too happy as he turned to face her.
“Walter’s wedding tuxedo.” She looked a tad bit confused at that. “It’s purple.”
“Oh, I’ve got to see that.” She said, coming to sit beside him. Peter opened the box to display it to her, and she actually giggled. “Ok, that’s worse than I thought it would be.”
“Tell me about it,” he said. “He told me once he wanted me to wear it to my wedding,” he paused for a second before adding, “I’m thinking about burning it.”
“Invite me if you do,” Olivia said. She looked around her at all the chaos and asked, “Need a hand in here?”
“Well, considering I’m not even sure what I’m doing, I should advise against that, but you seem to be a glutton for punishment, so I’ll let you suffer,” he grinned offering her a box.
As she began digging into the box, he just watched her silently for awhile. Why was she back so early? Had something happened? There was no way this was work related because they would have already been out the door. He figured if she wanted to tell him, she would eventually, so for the time being he let it go.
Peter closed the box with his father’s tuxedo, and thought back to that conversation with Walter.
“Do you think she’ll call me Dad?”
“Who?”
“Agent Dunham of course!”
He had laughed at the time; now that idea didn’t seem too funny. Except he hadn’t really thought about it until this moment.
He looked at Olivia again, watched her tuck her hair behind her ear, and was encompassed with a longing for her that was pretty much uncontrollable. Maybe he did want to marry her.
He could have asked her right then and there, so sure he was of how he felt, but he really had never been impulsive. So he settled for pulling her in for a long kiss instead.
“What was that for?” She asked a bit breathlessly right after.
“For coming home early,” he said honestly, but he wouldn’t have been Peter if he wasn’t a little bit cheeky. “You missed me? Didn’t you?”
Her slight blush gave her away, but as she leaned in to offer him another kiss, resting her hand on his cheek, she whispered seductively, “not at all.”
Maybe they’d finish spring cleaning in the fall instead.
***
II.
He goes to buy a ring two weeks after because he still hasn’t gotten the idea out of his mind. He’s even thought of ways to ask her, but nothing seems right and she does carry a gun, so there’s always that factor to take into consideration. He thinks getting the ring will make it easier, but hell, he doesn’t know. After all, he’s never done this before. Never wanted to do this before.
He goes to the lab right after picking it up a few days later. It’s safely tucked into one of the pockets of his black peacoat, but sadly he realizes that the ring hasn’t given him any answers, the magical way to ask her, and suddenly he’s stuck at square one. He’s a fucking genius and he can’t even figure out how to ask his girlfriend to marry him.
It’s just him alone in the lab, at least for a moment. He’s tinkering with his latest project when she comes through the door.
“Hey,” she says as she walks towards him, giving him a quick peck on the lips before surveying the contraption in his hands. “What is that?”
It does look a little, well….it really doesn’t look like much, but Peter has been trying to work on that. “You know two weeks ago when we were going through those boxes?” Olivia nods.
“Well, I found this, and I think it might be an instant microwave that Walter tried to make. I’m trying to get it to work.” Peter explained. Of course, it had to do with food.
Suddenly the silence of the lab is broken as Walter comes waltzing in through the door singing something from Pippin, and Peter curses himself for actually giving into taking him to that last week in New York.
Olivia’s amused, and a tad bit disturbed, and she steals a glance at Peter just to show it. He rolls his eyes in turn. But what he’s really thinking is any woman who could not only put up with Walter, but actually be glad to be in his company was one he should hang on to. Once Walter’s wandered off to feed Gene, Peter decides he should just ask her now. The ring is right there in his pocket.
“Hey, I wanted to ask you something,” he begins.
But then her phone rings, and as her face turns serious and she finishes the conversation with a curt nod, he knows that his own conversation with her is over before it even started.
“We’ve got a case,” she said a bit apologetically. He’s going to grab his coat when she realizes that he never asked her what he wanted to ask her. “What was it that you wanted to say?”
“Oh, I was just wondering if I could take apart that old laptop of yours for parts for this project. I think it might help,” he lies convincingly, but she still hasn’t completely bought it.
“Sure,” she says, eyeing Peter curiously.
The moment hadn’t been completely right anyway.
***
III.
He was going to ask her tonight. He’d made a dinner reservation at a fancy restaurant. She thought it was a good idea. They hadn’t gone out in awhile, and they very rarely went out to do anything that didn’t involve a bar.
But then they’d gotten wrapped up in this case, a pretty nasty one, and Peter had ended up in the hospital. He’d been in pursuit of a suspect; he hadn’t known there was a gun. The man might have been a good shot, but he was running when he turned around to pull the trigger, so Peter was only grazed on his side. The pain was enough to make him stop running. He sat down heavily on the ground, and as Olivia went past he told her to go after the man. She didn’t. He knew she wouldn’t.
She seemed calm, but Peter could see the worry in her eyes as she checked his wound, and then everything just got a little bit hazy, and finally he just passed out.
He woke up in the hospital. She was there sitting next to him, soft smile on her lips. He winced as he took in a breath, and she had to explain to him that he needed to take it easy since the bullet had cracked some ribs as well as caused some substantial blood loss. Peter guessed he was pretty lucky, but he certainly didn’t feel like it at the moment.
Walter came in excitedly about a minute later, Peter’s jacket over his arm. “Peter, I’m so glad you’re okay! They said you would be, but they wouldn’t let me examine you myself.”
Peter just smiled at that. It hurt enough to breath, let alone talk. Then Walter handed Peter the jacket, a knowing look in his eye. “They say it’s ruined, but I wouldn’t let them throw it away.” Walter winked, and Peter could only think “oh shit!” before Walter had backed out the door, talking about something needing to be done in the lab. That man was anything but subtle. And now that he knew about the ring, it seemed like Peter was on a deadline.
“Hey, I’m sorry we didn’t get to go to dinner,” Olivia said, placing a hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and noticed a large grocery bag in her lap. “But I brought dinner to us.”
That night they dined on crackers, cheese, and apple juice. Peter was pretty sure it was the best dinner he had ever had.
It was only the next morning when he woke up that he realized it was a good thing they never made it to that restaurant. That wasn’t the way he wanted to ask her, and she definitely wasn’t that type of girl.
***
IV.
He was staying at her place about two weeks later, mostly healed by that point, but it was almost three in the morning and neither one of them was sleeping. Peter knew for a fact that Olivia hadn’t been sleeping at all much lately, and when he asked her about it, she said truthfully that she’d been having some nightmares.
Peter often wished he could stay over more. He loved wrapping his arms around her and waking up with the feel of her breath on his neck. They hadn’t moved in together simply because someone had to take care of Walter, and Peter felt like it really was his responsibility. But now, Peter was beginning to think more and more about that little predicament. If they really did get married, would she move in with them? Peter was positively sure that he did not like that idea. This little thought process was the exact reason why he was dead awake, and possibly the same reason why he hadn’t noticed Olivia was awake as well.
She rolled over slowly, conscientious of the fact that Peter was most likely sleeping, but she was surprised to find that he was just as awake as she was.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked, brushing her hair back from her face. She nodded.
“Turn around,” he murmured, and she rolled to the other side once again. He scooted closer to her, wrapping one arm around her, and using the hand on the other arm to play with her long golden hair.
She signed contently at that, and as he ran his fingers through her strands, he thought anything would be worth this little slice of bliss. He couldn’t think of a more perfect time to ask her then right here and now as she lay in his arms in the precious calm of the night.
“Hey Olivia…” he whispered.
“Uh, huh…” she said sleepily.
“Do you want to get married?”
But she had already fallen asleep.
***
V.
It wasn’t the moment he had planned or the moment he had expected.
They’d broken down on the way back to Boston from upstate New York. Normally Peter would have been able to fix it, but they didn’t have any tools. He was a genius, especially with mechanics, but he wasn’t Macgyver.
They called Triple A, but since they were in the middle of nowhere, they knew it would be awhile. Peter crawled up onto the hood of the car, and reclined against the window, looking up at the stars. They were so clear here without the city lights.
It wasn’t long before Olivia followed suit. They sat silently, side by side. It was amazing how comfortable they could be without even having to say anything at all.
After about 15 minutes, Peter stopped looking at the sky, and fixed his eyes on her instead. He hadn’t really realized it until now, but he’d been playing with the ring in his jacket pocket the whole time. And suddenly he knew that this was the moment.
“What do you think about getting married?”
“What? You and me?” Olivia asked. It wasn’t really the reaction he was expecting, but it wasn’t necessarily negative, so he went with it. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”
“I thought you were the card-carrying cynic,” she looked at him sideways. She was clearly amused.
“Ah, but remember behind every cynic is a frustrated romantic,” he countered. She laughed and then lapsed back into silence.
So that was definitely not the way he had expected it to go. “So you’re not going to answer?”
She completely turned towards him then. “Are you being serious?”
He pulled the box from his pocket and opened it, showing her the ring. Olivia was never one to betray many emotions, but he could tell she was shocked. She was smiling though, so that definitely wasn’t a bad thing.
“The thing is, I’ve never wanted to settle down or stay in one place. Not until I met you. And now I can’t imagine going anywhere. So, will you marry me?”
He thought maybe she was about to cry, but then she said, “Are you going to have to wear the purple tux?”
He laughed. “Is that a yes?” She pulled him in for a kiss. “Yes, of course,” she whispered against his lips.
Twenty minutes later, the Triple A truck showed up. Peter and Olivia were still making out on the hood.