Hi Everyone! I've been toying around with this idea for a while and decided to finally put it down on paper. Not sure how long this will turn out to be but it'll be mainly real life scenarios with a bit of fluff and angst thrown in for good measure. I DO NOT own Scandal, any of their characters nor do I secretly live in any of the writers' heads (though I sometimes wish I did). Please review and let me know your thoughts!

-B

Intro…

The storm had come and seemingly passed as Olivia and Fitz weathered the remaining remnants of what had been the most explosive two years of their professional and political lives respectively. The decision to forge ahead with Olivia's well crafted, albeit incredibly ambitious and risky plan to divorce Mellie and get him elected to a second term and have her become his first lady seemed like something out of a best-selling thriller novel. The stakes were high and with little room for error, everyone at OPA and most especially in the White House was on pins and needles for two years watching it all unfold.

There was never a guarantee that this plan would work, hell, there wasn't even one that it would even get off the ground. With Cyrus on a near daily verge of ordering hits on both of them for acting so childishly and threatening to potentially implode the very epicenter of what he'd given up so much to attain, it was damn near impossible to get him onboard but alas, he finally was. Mellie on the other hand, only agreed to go along with the charade (at least that's what it was in her eyes) when she realized that she was in a losing battle. She would never measure up to Olivia in Fitz's eyes. "Mother of his children" be damned, she was not the love of his life. For the 20 years that they had been together that had always been the one undeniable fact. He cared for her but he didn't love her, at least not the way that a husband should love his wife and the mother of his offspring. The burning, passionate, die-for-you love he reserved for one person and one person only – the one she could never stack up against or hold a candle to, at least in his eyes. When that lonely day came and it dawned on her that no amount of lying, scheming, begging or cheating would get him to change his mind, she decided to fold. She folded for her dignity. She folded for self-preservation. She folded for the promise of a future that she realized she could still have if she could only figure out a way to get back to being that ambitious, powerhouse of a woman that Fitz once knew and "fell in love" with. Twenty years after you've sold your soul for someone who never truly wanted it, you realize that you just need to do what's best for you. Why bother continuing to make them a priority when you were only always a far away option?

With the storm clearing and the White House seeing happier days in the horizon, no one was more surprised than Fitz himself that this plan had actually worked. Not that he ever doubted that Olivia had come up with one of her most brilliant plans yet but rather, he was surprised that the public, namely his Republican party, had weathered the upheaval as "well" as they had. Sure his approval rating plummeted for a while and his party threatened to raise holy hell on him come the primaries but at the end of the day any backlash that he received over being in love with Olivia only served to boost him up in the eyes of the Democratic party and their constituents because they viewed him as a leader that was willing to take a stand. Take a stand for love and what he believed in, majority party opinion be damned. "The Republican party does NOT own me. I serve the people of this country, not the Republican right or the Democratic left."

Two years, a profound discourse on race and class that had raged within the far reaches of this country and to the depths of political parties where no one dared to speak about publicly and here they were. Not completely unscathed but certainly in love, in sync and very much in control of what their narrative was going to be moving forward. The Grants (Fitz and Olivia) were the updated and revived definition of a modern American family and dream. They lived their lives in a way that they wanted to live it, no excuses, no hesitations and no regrets. After enduring so much scrutiny and press there were truly no secrets left between them and honestly, after all that, what couldn't they tell each other?

Walking briskly down the White House corridor dressed impeccably in one of her crème Prada suites and signature Jimmy Choo heels, the clicking of her designer shoes signaled to everyone that Olivia Pope-Grant was up and running on this very early morning.

Quickly running to catch up with her, her assistant Jennifer greeted her with a smile, handed Olivia her daily event itinerary and wasted no time in downloading the very busy woman on what was on her plate for today. "Good morning Mrs. Grant, here's your itinerary and your list of scheduled conference calls for the day."

"As always so on top of it Jen, I appreciate it and good morning by the way" Olivia replied with a quick smile as she rounded a corner in record time. "I'll need you to move the call with the Prime Minister to 3pm so I can squeeze in a lunch meeting with Ms. Hamilton at 1pm. She's been calling incessantly to get time on my calendar and if I don't do it today, it won't happen. Move up the fundraising meeting to 3:30pm and have them meet me in the main residence. I don't expect to speak with the Prime Minister for longer than 20 minutes so that should give me enough time to finish my lunch meeting, jump in my car, take the call on the way and be back here in time to meet with everyone at 3:30pm."

Noticing that Jennifer was furiously jotting down notes as they raced down the White House hallways, Olivia stopped for a beat with a bit of a smirk "You got all that?"

"Of course, consider it handled"

"Love it!" she said over her shoulder as she knocked on Cyrus' door while already having one hand on the doorknob not bothering to wait for official permission to enter.

"WHAT?!"

Walking in with a small smile on her face, she greeted him cheerily as she walked to sit at the edge of his desk, "already in such a great mood today I see"

"Oh don't start with me Liv, not today. NOT today!" he told her as he let out an exasperated breath, clasped his hands behind his head and closed his eyes momentarily.

"What'd he do now?"

"I swear to all that is holy and pure in this world that man will drive me to an early grave!" he bellowed his blood pressure rising and face turning red

Not taking the bait and instead deciding to be the voice of reason, per her usual when it came to his rants about James, she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him "before you go picking out your coffin color, mind telling me what role you played in this latest debacle?"

Standing up and beginning to pace around his office, he loosened his tie as he strode towards the window "he wants a baby. A BABY! What in the hell am I supposed to do with a baby? Change diapers, clean up spit and pretend that I'm Mary friggin Poppins?! Who the hell does he think he married? I am Cyrus Rutherford Beene for fuck's sake, not some cheap, gay knock off from the damn Brady Bunch!"

Following him with her eyes as he continued to pace, it took everything in her to not smile when she realized how incredibly riled up he always became.

"It's a baby Cyrus, not a two-headed alien creature from an unknown planet."

"You know what? Don't talk to me. I can't talk to you if you're going to be reasonable" he told her with a dismissive wave of his hand as he continued to pace around his office.

Just then there was a soft knock on the door before it swung open. Quickly noticing a red faced Cyrus by the window, it didn't take long for Fitz to see Olivia sitting at the edge of his desk, looking at Cyrus with an amused smile on her face. Quickly walking over to her, he leaned in for a quick kiss on the lips "there you are, I've been looking for you everywhere" he told her as he laid a hand on her knee.

"Well, now you found me" she told him with a small smile.

"Who knew this damn house was so freaking big?" he muttered under his breath

"I did" Cyrus and Olivia deadpanned simultaneously causing Fitz to roll his eyes.

"So I take it this is session number 257 of Cyrus handling James" Fitz told him as he strode to sit on the couch and plopped down in quite the unceremonious manner.

"What? No, sir, this is not session 500 of Cyrus handling James" he told him as he turned towards him a bit confused

"Oh no? Then why is my wife in your office at 7:30 in the morning talking you off yet another ledge about being married to your husband?" he asked with the slightest bit of sarcasm.

"Sir, it's early, you're an insomniac so you don't tend to sleep much. You're imagining things."

"Cyrus, I could hear you going ballistic all the way down the hallway" he told him as he raised his eyebrow daring him to dispute the claim.

"Whaaat?" he said with a dismissive wave of his hand towards the President and Olivia as he walked back around to his desk, "that's how I like to start my mornings, a little drama to get the heart pumping, a bit of cursing to get the adrenaline just right and then finally some ridiculousness to remind me that it's not me but the rest of the world that is actually dumb and quite stupid. All in a day's work sir!" he finished with a satisfied smile as he kicked his feet up on his desk being careful to miss Olivia and her crème colored suit.

Slapping his knees as he got up from the couch Fitz simply shook his head "Whatever you say old man but I'm telling you, if you keep this up and give yourself a stroke, I better not get a call from Tom telling me to go get your ass from the hospital" he told him as he pointed a finger in his direction and grabbed Olivia's hand with the other.

Shooing them both out of his office he told them as they exited "don't worry sir, I've got my ailing mother as my emergency contact. She loves me, she'll come get me."

Walking towards the Oval, Fitz dropped Olivia's hand as they left the threshold of Cyrus' office door. Though everyone in the White House knew that they were married and clearly deeply in love, they didn't find it necessary to act like newlyweds 24/7. More than anything, after their marriage had become legal, they simply reverted back to how it had always been with them: Olivia pushes and encourages, Fitz fights back and is stubborn but eventually sees the land of compromise. Opening the door to his office, he walked to his desk and leaned in front of it holding out his hand for his wife.

"C'mere" he said to her with the softest smile she knew he reserved only for her

"Fitz" she said warningly

"What? I promise I'll be good and on my best behavior. I just haven't seen you in a couple days and I miss you" he told her as he was finally able to cajole her into his arms. Unable to ever resist this man, who was now her husband, she wrapped her arms around him and allowed him to breathe her in for a moment as he buried his face in her neck. "Hi, hello, how are you?" he muttered.

Letting out a small chuckle as she ran her fingers through the back of his head and heard his soft moan of pleasure, she replied "Cyrus much?"

"No, Cyrus keeps taking you away from me. I'm about to have a conversation with him"

"You have enough conversations with him, leave him alone" she told him as she leaned back and took his face in her hands as he dropped his to encircle her tiny waist.

"He is not taking me away from you, he's just having a hard time with James and I empathize with him. Lord knows we owe that poor man about a million favors after everything he's done for us over the past 2 years. You have me, you ALWAYS have me" she told him with a wink which cause him to give her his legendary Fitz smile.

"I know, I just like hearing you say it" he said leaning in as he let out a small growl as he neared her lips. Opening her mouth with no hesitation under his gentle probing, they savored each other for a few minutes as she fell comfortably between his legs. As he hands traveled up her back and hers got entangled in his hair, she leaned back and broke off their kiss before things went too far.

"Fitz"

"No" he told her as he tried to lean in again

"Fitzgerald" she said more sternly

"Ouch" he said mockingly wincing at the mention of his full first name. Leaning in to kiss him quickly to let him know she was only half-serious she pulled back and straightened his tie.

"As much as I 'd love for this to be the highlight of my day, I unfortunately have a meeting to run to and then a very busy day ahead of me as do you. We'll pick this up tonight, I promise" she told him as she placed her hands on his chest and pushed back gently breaking the hold he had on her waist.

With a resigned sigh he let her go and walked around to his desk "You're a mean, cruel woman Olivia Pope-Grant!" he mockingly bellowed as she clicked her heels and walked towards the door leaving him shaking his head as he rifled through papers on his desk.

"I love you too" she threw back at him with a wink as the door closed behind her.

Please review and let me know your thoughts. Should I continue? : )