Falling Slowly: Snapshots 1

Olivia Grant sat down on the remaining piece of furniture in her living room and took a deep breath. She didn't want to become emotional but it was already too late. Tears hadn't come yet because she didn't want to be made fun of. She doubted that the movers would've said anything out loud but she knew they'd talk about her amongst themselves and she didn't want that. The only saving grace she had was that they had cleared everything out and Fitz and Harrison agreed to move the final piece of furniture from their home.

Their first home.

Olivia turned her head at the sound of the back door closing and let her bottoming poke out after realizing it was her husband.

"Oh no. No pouting. You promised Livvie."

"But I.."

"Nope. No buts. I said you could stay if you swore not to cry! We don't have time baby, we need to meet the movers at the new..."

"Fitzgerald Thomas Grant sit your ass down with me and let me have my moment!"

Fitz sighed and cursed at himself. He'd set her off for the third time today and knew she'd really let him have it if he didn't listen to her.

He plopped down on the couch next to her and she immediately threw herself against his chest, bringing his arm around her waist. She was crying but hadn't had the first set of tears fall just yet.

"This was our first home. The place we got married and brought three of our babies home to. The first place Madison called home. Why are you acting as though this isn't huge? It's kind of pissing me off."

"Liv, I know that this home holds nearly all of our memories and trust me, it will always be special to me."

Olivia looked up at him, smiling at his words.

"What's some of your favorite memories in this house?"

"Well I'm pretty certain we had sex in every square inch of this house.." he glanced around the room, eyes squinting. "Several times I would say. At least two of our kids were conceived on this very couch."

"FJ and Camryn at least." Olivia said laughing and blushing. This couch had definitely had its share of excitement.

"But other than that, I had a bunch of favorite memories. Most of which we have on video."

Olivia cuddled more into his side and brought her hand to his waist, softly gripping his shirt.

"Like what? I wanna hear em'. We've got time."

"Well there's the first time we made love in our bed, the first time I made donieswith Mads. My first day home with FJ was pretty great. We had guy time for the first time and it was great."

Flashback

Fitz walked into bedroom holding a longneck cold bottle and a plate lined with potato skins.

"Alright buddy, Daddy's back. Time to start our guys day. I've got my food, and you've got yours sponsored by Momma's boobs."

He placed the plate on the bed and used the coaster on the nightstand for his drink and climbed atop the bed next to his son. The three week old baby was asleep, wrapped in his sleep sack and curled into the boppy strategically placed facing him.

"Momma said I couldn't let you face the screen buddy, so sorry, no Myth Busters for you. She said you can't have screentime and I know it's weird but I finally got her to give us some guys time so we gotta follow the rules okay?"

Fitz smiled at the peaceful baby before gently touching his balled up fist to his body.

"Pound it buddy. When you get bigger you get to eat all the really good stuff. Momma's milk is great for now but just you wait. Potato Skins are God's gift to man. Just trust me on this."

Fitz began to dig into his food and it only took ten minute before things became disastrous. Fitz trying to hold his beer in one hand and lift his food to his mouth, his hand hit the bottle, knocking it out of his hand and directly on Elijah. The cold drink instantly alarmed the infant and his cries pierced Fitz's ears. It was so loud Fitz looked around the room for a second half expecting Olivia to have heard it and instantly appear in her Supermom fashion.

"Oh buddy I'm sorry. Daddy's gonna get you out of this I promise."

Fitz stuffed the rest of the food in his mouth before scooping the baby in his arms and headed straight into their bathroom. He pulled the baby bath out and started the water before evening out the temperature. Singing on the edge of the tub, Fitz laid Elijah on his lap and began to unzip him before stripping the soaked sack and sleeper off his body.

"Shit! Your mother is going to kill me…." He looked around the room for a few seconds before coming up with a plan. "Hold on buddy, I'll get you warm in just a second, I gotta hide this."

He grabbed one of their large towels to warm the baby up before he went to his small hamper in this bedroom and stuffed the sack and clothes to the bottom of the bin.

"This is one of those moments when we have to keep the truth from your Momma but you can't lie to her when you learn to talk buddy, okay? She sees through it all I swear!"

Fitz moved back to the tub and checked the temperature one last time before lowering the baby inside. He still wasn't too fond of them and Fitz figured he was probably wondering why he was having another bath.

"I know buddy I'll be quick. You're probably wondering what the hell you're doing back in here again today huh? Momma already gave you a bath but daddy blew it so we gotta fix it before Momma never leaves you alone with me again."

End of Flashback

"Oh my god! How did I not know about this? You spilled your beer all over him, Fitz!?"

Olivia looked horrified yet amused so Fitz wasn't nearly as anxious as he would've been if she had found out the day it happened.

"It was a complete accident and I fixed everything."

"Yea, by covering it all up. I can't believe you never told me that."

Fitz laughed at the pout that once again appeared on her face.

"I'm sure you have some interesting moments here you've never shared with me, Livvie. Spill it."

Olivia thought for a few minutes, honestly trying to search through all the times she and Abby were left to their own devices while Fitz had Madison. She suddenly brought her hands to her mouth and looked at him with sorrowful eyes.

"You're really not gonna like this…"

Flashback

"Abby I can't! No. Fitz will be sooooo pissed!"

"Of course he is but that's only if he finds out. Hurry up before he gets hungry. You know you want to!"

Olivia sighed before stripping the blue and red onesie off Elijah and laying him down on the bed in front of her.

"Baby of you somehow remember what's about to happen, please don't tell your Daddy, okay? I don't think he would forgive me and he would forbid your Auntie from ever seeing you again."

The nine month old smiled widely at his mother's words and did his best at reaching for her hair and trying to pull it. Abby smiled over st the two of them and gestured for Olivia to pick from the two items of clothes she was holding up.

"I should do blue…"

"But you want to do the yellow. Go for it. It's my choice too."

Olivia groaned loudly before taking the yellow frilly dress from Abby and stretching the top of it over Elijah's head, the eased his arms into it. She took a few moments and straightened the dress out before standing him on the bed and letting him hold on to two of her fingers.

"Oh my Gerber Baby! Look at him. I told you he could be a girl. He's gorgeous! Yes you are my little pretend lady."

"Abs, stop! Don't call him that. Ugh yes he's gorgeous still and totally looks like a girl but I could never… Fitz could walk through that door right now and he'd probably file for divorce for doing this to his son."

"Oh don't have a cow, put this on him."

Abby reached out and secured one of Madison's headbands around his head and Olivia's heart exploded. She pulled the little boy into a smothering hug, earning giggles from his as she bit at his cheeks and neck.

"Baby Lohan I'm gonna have to let your Daddy give you a sister! Would you like that?"

"I would." Abby spoke, raising her hand before reaching over and kissing Elijah's cheek.

"Tell your Auntie to stop it. That's not happening anytime soon Abs."

"Suurree, whatever you say Liv. Hold him up! Let me get a picture."

"No! No, Fitz will find out and he'll be so pissed."

"He won't I promise I won't tell him or show him but we can't not take a picture Liv! Look at this butterball. It's like looking at a future niece of mine. Come on, live a little. He's your kid too."

Olivia groaned before agreeing and standing the small boy up in front of her. He didn't know any better and hammed it up in front of the camera for his Auntie.

"You my angel, are kinda perfect you know? Kiss? Can Mommy have a kiss? Kisses?"

Elijah smiled recognizing the words and leaned in until his open mouth was on Olivia's lips, the both of them laughing when he'd done it.

"Thank you baby boy. Your Daddy is gonna be really upset with me so we won't tell him okay? Okay good. Thank you for keeping Mommy's secret."

End of Flashback

Fitz look shocked and so confused.

"Wait! So you and Abby would dress him up in Madison's old dresses when I was gone? You dress my son up like a girl?"

Olivia grimaced in embarrassment before nodding.

"Guilty. But it was fun babe. And don't act like he hasn't dressed himself up in a dress and played with her before."

"To play and he did it himself and it's okay and developmentally appropriate and whatever else you're gonna say, but to dress him up as a baby… that's just wrong, Livvie."

"Hey he was cute! He didn't even know any better and I'll do it again if this one is a boy."

Her hand covered his on her stomach and he tapped his fingers on the left side, knowing he got most responses from there.

"I'm pretty sure this little bean will be tortured by not only you but its siblings. Poor kid won't stand a chance. Wait until AJ realizes there is another person coming to take away his attention. He's going to flip his shit. Bedtime is going to be like Madison 2.0"

"Ugh, you're so right. Maybe we can get a lock for the door or maybe we'll really luck out and he'll be so jealous he won't want anything to do with us and will sleep with his sisters. If we weren't moving it would be perfect; we'd need that room."

"Well that's the reason we're moving. We can blame it all on this little one here."

She patted her stomach a few times just before a thought entered her mind and a loud cackle escaped her mouth.

"Remember the last fight we had?"

"The one that made us forgo plans to move into a perfectly good house, and buy land to build a house?"

"Yea, the one where you yelled at me." She smiled brightly at him, knowing he felt bad about the entire thing.

"How could I forget it."

Flashback

"I change my mind."

"About what?" Fitz looked up at her from his spot on the opposite end of the couch. He was rubbing her feet that she claimed were hurting her and he could tell something had been on her mind the entire time.

"The house. I hate it. We aren't moving there."

"What? Olivia we sign tomorrow! We can't just back out. Where is this coming from?"

"This isn't the time to yell at me Fitz. I'm serious though, I can't live there. We haven't signed anything yet so it's not official."

Fitz sat up and turned to face her, muting the tv that was already being ignored.

"Okay. So where do you suggest we live? Because we've barely got months to be out of here, Livvie."

"I want us to build our own home. I want to have land for the kids."

"You're kidding me right?"

She sat up and rolled her eyes at the shocked look on his face.

"We've talked about this before and agreed on it. We want a place the kids can come back to and all fit and a place for us to grow old together. Why are you acting like this is the worst idea? I don't want to move into one house only to pick up in a year or two and finally move into our forever home. Why can't we move into our forever home now?"

"Olivia, it takes a hell of a lot more than months to move into a completely built house. We haven't even looked for land! This is a shitty idea. If we had the time yes, or if you would've mentioned it to me before we looked at a billion houses, then yes, but we're literally less than twenty-four hours away from closing on a new house and you bring it up?"

She could tell he was frustrated. The vein right in the middle of his forehead was throbbing and he had got up and stood over her.

"Hey," both Olivia and Fitz turned at the sound of their eldest's daughters voice and felt bad. "AJ's in my bed and he can hear you guys so you might wanna tone it down. Whatever is wrong, just talk it out and move the making out into your room please. We sit on that couch too you know." She was gone just as quick and Olivia sat up and thrusts the ipad she had under her into his hands.

"Here's the land we can purchase tomorrow. The original buyers bought it a year ago and it's about seven months away from being completed. I spoke to the wife yesterday after seeing the listing and they've had an unexpected transfer and can't stay in the city and need to sell as soon as possible. Their builders will have everything ready by the time originally planned and it's in the next county technically but the school district is the same and the kids won't have to change schools. It's closer to your parents, Abby, a little further from Harrison but we could move in as long as we get an extension on the moving date and if not, we'll make it work. I want this home Fitz, and I know you'll love it."

Fitz eyed the location, the model, the pictures of the work that had already been done and did the calculations in his head when he saw the price. Olivia knew she had him exactly where she wanted him. He felt like shit for yelling at her and loved the house but didn't want to admit it right away.

"You're welcome baby."

End of Flashback

"You're such a smart ass." Fitz pulled her up from the couch and into his arms, shaking his head slowly at her.

"And you love it."

She grinned at him and all he could do was agree and lean in to kiss her.

"Come on man! This is what ya'll have been in here doing while I went to get rope? That's why you need to move now. You won't stop touching each other and getting knocked up."

Harrison grimaced at their display of affection and began lifting one end of the couch.

"Come on Grant. I told yall, Lanell is insisting I take the kid to this birthday party today and she's gonna kill me if I come home smelling like ass with no time to shower."

Fitz shook his head before bending down and lifting the other end of the couch, walking slowly as the two of them loaded it onto the truck. Minutes later, they worked on making sure it was tied tight enough to where the part that was hanging off the edge wouldn't move. When it was secure enough, Fitz walked back in the home, and stopped at Olivia's frame. She was standing in front of the backdoor, one hand on her hip, the other rubbing soothing circles on her stomach.

"Soaking it all in Livvie?" Fitz moved gently behind her, wrapping his arms firmly around her body, kissing her neck.

"I don't feel ready to say goodbye to it. We've had so many memories here."

"All great ones."

"Well not all were great."

Somehow they both thought to the trials they'd faced while living in their first home.

Olivia's miscarriage, Elijah's first time getting sick, Wally dying.

"But it all brought us to this moment and I'm' pretty grateful for all that we've got and all that we're going to have."

Olivia nodded at his words and leaned her head up, letting him know she wanted to be kissed. She savored his tongue in her mouth, the feeling of needing to kiss him just as strong as it was the day they signed the papers to this home.

"To memories in our new home."

She smiled and took a hold of his hand, leading them out of the garage.

"There's already one memory we'll get to experience in our new home… in about three weeks."

"Oh yea, what's that?" Fitz asked helping her into the high truck.

"Your recovery."

"From what?" he asked confused.

"Your vasectomy."