Title: All this Space and Time Between Us

Pairing: Mellie Grant/Olivia Pope

Rating: G

Summary: "Where do we start/How about right here where we are/You've been carrying this weight around/Walk in the door and lay it down/Life goes fast/It's been a while, I have to ask/Where have you been, how did that feel/Where are we now/Cause that's what's real/All this space and the time between us/Man, you should have seen us/This ain't no mystery/Our future is our history" - Sugarland, 'Still the Same' / (Post Series Finale) A change of heart brings Olivia back to the White House.

Fitz never had to do a damn thing on his own; he always had someone who loved him beside him, propping him up, doing all the dirty work so he could go on believing he was the greatest thing to ever walk these hallowed halls. But, really, he was no different - no better - than any man that came before him.

But Mellie? Mellie is different. Mellie is better. Mellie walks these halls every day, deserving of this House, of this Presidency, truly committed to the American people. She's a fighter, constantly running head-first into battle. Mellie shoots for the Moon and gets there. She delivers.

So, why, then, is she the one doing it all on her own? Why, then, has everyone abandoned her?

Well. Mellie plasters on a smile and runs her hands over her dress. It's no matter now. It's her against the world - the way it was always meant to be.

Olivia is in the Oval when Mellie returns from her final interview of the day. Mellie pauses, staring, hand still on the doorknob. Olivia Pope. Here. In the Oval. Mellie closes the door and crosses over to her desk. She takes a seat, steepling her hands in front of her.

Olivia hasn't moved from her spot in the middle of the room. She makes no move to now, even though every cell in her body is itching to reach out to Mellie, to grab her hand, to run her fingers through her hair. She looks tired in the same way Fitz looked tired: bone deep, impossible to fix even with a good night's sleep - it suits her.

Mellie doesn't want to be the first one to break, doesn't want to cave and ask Olivia why she's here, doesn't really even want Olivia to speak; there was a time not too long ago where they could just sit in silence and neither of them felt the need to fill it, but apparently those days are long gone.

Olivia breaks first. "Madam President-"

Mellie holds her hand up, stopping Olivia in her tracks. "We don't have to do this, Liv."

Olivia twists the handles of her purse reflexively. "I'm sorry?"

"Chief of Staff is yours," Mellie says, "if you want it. We'll have to deal with the optics, of course, and I'm sure they'll be a nightmare, but we've dealt with far worse." She circles around the desk and leans against the front of it, arms folded over her chest, but her smile is wide and hopeful. "What do you say?"

"That's not why I'm here, Madam President."

"Oh." Mellie frowns. "Then why are you here, Miss Pope?"

"I left Fitz," Olivia all but yells. She laughs self-deprecatingly and runs her hand through her hair. "I left Fitz in Vermont. He asked me to marry him and I just walked out the door. I left him, Mellie, and I came here, and-" She flounders for a minute, mouth opening and closing like she's trying to force out words that just aren't there. "I left him and I came to see you."

Mellie swallows hard, her hands finding purchase on the lip of the desk. "Why?"

Olivia takes a few steps forward, brazen. She's within arm's reach of Mellie now. It would be so easy for her to just reach out and take her hand, but she doesn't. Not yet. "I miss you."

"I've been here the whole time, Liv. I wanted you to stay, remember? But you wanted to leave."

"I'm sorry," Olivia says, finally reaching out to take Mellie's hand. Mellie doesn't pull away. "Mellie-"

Mellie shakes her head. "Don't," she says. "Don't make any life-changing confessions or grand, romantic gestures. Save them. Take them back to Vermont, to Fitz. I'm sure he'll be happy to take you back."

Olivia drops her purse on the ground and reaches up to cup Mellie's chin. "Look at me." She waits a moment for Mellie to do just that. "I'm not going back to Fitz. I'm staying right here with you for as long as you'll have me. And not as your Chief of Staff."

"Don't say anything you don't mean," Mellie whispers.

"Good thing I mean it then," Olivia says, pushing up on her toes and pressing her lips to Mellie's.