Engaged

Chapter 8

"It's you, Iain."

Iain had just opened his front door at Elizabeth's knock, and hadn't even had time to say hi before she'd blurted it out.

It was two weeks after she'd given him her initial decision, and she'd finally bit the bullet and made up her mind for real the morning before. It had been really difficult not to say anything all of that day or today when she'd been around him all of both days with read-throughs and on set practicing before actual filming, but she'd wanted to give herself at least one full day after she made her final decision to make sure she didn't suddenly completely regret it, and then she'd known she would see him at their date this evening, and so decided it best to wait until now to tell him, and not risk anyone overhearing them around set. Anyway, date nights were their set time to talk about these things, so who was she to mess with tradition. But now that she was at his apartment and date night had officially begun, she couldn't hold it in any longer.

As soon as Elizabeth said he was her choice, Iain couldn't help himself. Without even taking the extra second to close the door behind them, he engulfed Elizabeth in the tightest hug he thought he'd probably ever given her, kissing her on the top of the head. He was completely aware that she was still in fact an engaged woman, that picking him hadn't done anything to change that, and he refused to be the cause of her cheating on, or even allow her to cheat on her still fiancé with him, but as it certainly wasn't the first time he'd ever kissed the top of her head, he thought that was safe enough to do to let her know just how happy he was, while still feeling okay about himself.

Elizabeth hugged him back tightly, having just enough awareness still about her to kick the open door shut with her foot.

Breaking apart, Iain said as casually as he could (and knowing he failed miserably), "As you can probably tell, I'm rather happy about your decision."

"Oh, please," teased Elizabeth, rolling her eyes playfully. "You want to run around and scream like a girl in your ecstaticness."

"Not exactly the words I would have used, but yeah," replied Iain with a grin. "I'm certainly not going to deny that I am very happy you picked me."

"I'm happy, too," said Elizabeth softly. "Don't hate me, but I actually made my decision yesterday morning. But I wanted a full day to make sure I didn't suddenly regret it for some reason after I'd made it, and then I forced myself to hold out today until our date. But my certainty that I've made the right decision has only increased since I made it, so I am really happy about everything, too. And if I wasn't still engaged, I would absolutely snog you senseless right now — just so you know."

"And just so you know, I would absolutely do exactly the same if it weren't for that," answered Iain with a grin. "But since I can't, how about I show you how much I want snog you with my absolutely splendid homemade shepherd's pie?"

"You do make a mean shepherd's pie," chuckled Elizabeth. "And while I can't say it will be as good as being snogged senseless by you, I guess it will have to do until we can snog on set tomorrow."

~AoS~

The following afternoon, Elizabeth and Iain were standing on set, about to film.

The director, who happened to be the same director they'd had the very first week they'd decided to start testing on set the possibility of a relationship between them, walked over to them.

"Okay — since this scene is your characters' passionate reunion after being separated by the Chronicoms at the end of last episode and the first half of this episode, and it is the final episode of the show, let loose if you still want to. There's the tamer kissing scene nearer the end when Simmons tells Fitz she's pregnant that you'll need to be more composed on, but for this one kiss, I will leave it up to you two how passionate you want to make it, so long as it's believable and convincing."

It was everything Elizabeth and Iain could do to keep from grinning like idiots at their good luck. But they just barely managed to hold it inside, and simply nod back at the director, Elizabeth saying, "Yes, Sir."

They lined up on their marks, awaiting the director's 'Action!'. As soon as he gave it, they pounced on each other like any madly in love and separated by enemy forces couple would, or like a couple who'd recently agreed to date one another but hadn't been able to kiss at the time would.

As soon as the director yelled "Cut!" they broke apart, both more than slightly breathless. They'd kissed fairly passionately the first time they'd kissed under this director nearly three-quarters of the season earlier, and had kissed acceptably passionate in a few scenes that allowed for it since then, but nothing had come close to the intensity they had on this kiss. Despite the director's permission that they could do whatever they liked on this scene, they both in sync looked over at the director, worried that they'd still gone too far and were going to get in trouble again.

But the director merely gave them brief smile, before saying to everyone there, "That can't be improved on. This scene's a wrap."

Turning and smiling brightly at each other, Elizabeth and Iain walked off set together, just to have Chloe join in step with them as they headed to the break room until it was time to film their later scenes.

The younger girl was practically bouncing up and down as she said in an undertone so no one passing by them could hear, "I thought from the radiance of Iain's face as you two walked in together this morning and the fact that last night was your weekly night to eat together, that you had given him a final answer and he liked it, but that kiss just proved it beyond all doubt. You two have kissed passionately before, but holy cow! I could feel the intensity all the way from over where I was standing!"

"You were standing two feet off set, and the director and cameramen were glaring at you for being so close and potentially risking their shot," replied Elizabeth with a roll of her eyes. "Not exactly the same as saying you could feel it from your normal hiding spot in the shadows. But to answer your statement — yes. This is the choice I've made. I now just have to actually make it official on my side after filming ends, and then once it's been long enough that the press won't have a complete field day with it, season three and four FitzSimmons will become a little less purely fictional."

"I want to squeal with happiness!" replied Chloe giddily. "I know you two are going to be amazing together — you're absolutely perfect for each other."

"We're both happy with my decision, and I haven't had any doubts about whether I made the right decision or not, so we're pretty confident at the moment," said Elizabeth. "But enough of that right now, or we'll risk someone overhearing."

"Of course, of course," replied Chloe. "But you have to tell me everything soon. Both of you."

Elizabeth and Iain both nodded their agreement, before Chloe drifted off to talk with Clark about a scene the two of them had coming up shortly, while Elizabeth and Iain sat down at a table to read over their scripts together for their own final scenes later that afternoon.