"Okay got it. Yeah I reviewed the latest report. I'll see you later. Bye."

Olivia wakes up to the sounds of someone's footsteps pacing back and forth in her room. She opens her eyes and sees Fitz getting off the phone with Marcus she presumes. With a quick glance at her bedside clock, she sees that it's about ten to six in the morning but Fitz was almost finished getting dressed to the clothes that he was wearing the night before and appears to be heading out of her place soon.

"Hi"

Fitz snaps his head to the timid voice directed at him and sees Olivia slowly propping herself up in bed. He can't help but be taken back at her beauty as he let his eyes linger for a short second at the vision in front of him before quickly looking away. Almost a decade since they met and she still takes his breath away every single time.

"Hi"

"Leaving soon?"

"Yeah Marcus called to inform me that our meeting has been moved up to 8:30 because the donor had a sudden change in schedule and requested for a breakfast meeting instead. I'm sorry for waking you up but I'll be out in a minute so you can go back to sleep, " Fitz said as he finishes tying up his black Hugo Boss oxfords.

With sleep no longer in her mind Olivia remains seated against the headboard as she observes Fitz finish dressing up. "Busy day?" she asked gently while wrapping the sheets around her as she waits for his reply.

"Yeah sort of. Back to back meetings with the donors and then updates with the team on the current string of cases."

With his phone at hand and his black suit jacket loop on his arm, he starts to head out of her room. "I'll get going now as I still have to stop by the hotel to take a shower before going to the institute." Fitz walks out and proceeds to her front door while Olivia puts on her black Natori kimono and trails behind him. Before exiting he pauses for a short second and turns around.

"Liv you didn't have to get up and walk me out. I'm sorry again for disturbing your sleep."

"It's fine I'm already awake and with the sun rising I guess it's better to get an early start," Olivia replied back. Fitz then leans down to give her a quick kiss goodbye before stepping out of her apartment with his agents in tow.

It's been almost two months since she exposed B613 and the events that resulted out of it from David's unfortunate death to her declining Mellie's offer to work back at the White House. Things seem to have settled down since then for most of them and some changes have also taken place. Quinn came to a conclusion to close QPA for good which didn't come out as a surprise to Huck and Abby given that it never really got off the ground in the first place. Together with Charlie, they both decided to purchase a townhouse in Fairfax as Quinn focuses on being a hands-on mother and partner. At the same time the newly wedded couple together with Huck are now working on their new business venture of opening a recognized and ethical hacking service business. Although both ladies have come to an understanding after the incident with her father, Olivia knows that her relationship with Quinn will never be the same again. She's glad that they are at least cordial and that she's free to always pay a visit to her goddaughter when she's in the neighborhood. After David's passing, Olivia tried her hardest then to be there for Abby. For all the times that Abby showed up for her, it's time for her to return the favor. Occasionally Fitz joins them over dinner as long as it's okay with Abby which has happened twice and he would bring along with him some of Abby's favorites from the White House kitchen. During the past two months someone from Abby's past paid a visit to town and it was none other than Leo. After offering his condolences and support, he mentioned that Sally Langston called his help for the network is looking for someone to head the communications department of her show. Leo thought Abby would be the perfect fit and pitch it to her. She agreed right away with no hesitation and is now the proclaimed "Chief of Staff" of Lovers and Liberty. It seemed like everyone is moving forward and finding their own footing post White House and B613.

Then there's her, and Fitz, and whatever this thing is going on between the two of them.

It's been about ten minutes since Fitz left her apartment and Olivia finds herself still rooted in the same spot and staring at her closed front door. A couple of questions were starting to form in her mind – the same questions that keeps on invading her brain. Usually it starts with planning her schedule for the day. Now that she's no longer tethered to any work commitment Olivia fills her day with whatever hobby that fancies her from pilates to indoor cycling or sometimes dealing with more important matters such as what she plans to do with the OPA office. Does she recruit a new team and open a new firm? Have the place be rented out? She's also been receiving a high volume of various work offers from a teaching post in Georgetown to speaking invites. Eventually though her mind always ends with questions surrounding Fitz: will he join her tonight for dinner? Will he sleepover at her place or does she go to the hotel?

What exactly is next for the two of them?

The last question is where she always finds herself stuck and feeling uneasy. After the threat of imprisonment no longer looming over them and ending ties with the White House, things between her and Fitz basically remained the same. They meet up at her place or his hotel room and spend the night with each other a few times in a week or when he's not working overtime in the institute. Aside from that there's really nothing else going on for them. When you put it that way it almost sound like they're in a friends with benefits situation. Or more like exes with benefits rather, Olivia thinks. At first she didn't give much thought about it because everything seemed fine but over time (and now that she has a lot of time in her hands) her mind would go overdrive and things start to become hazy. Do they just go with the flow then with whatever this is? With the sun now fully up, Olivia decides to put all of these thoughts aside and proceeds with her day.


After two donors meetings and an update meeting with his team that ended up taking the entire afternoon, Fitz was mentally drained. It was a quarter past six and he and Marcus were going through what they accomplished for the day in his office. They were currently discussing one of the institute's main projects which is its expansion in the west coast area. With the DC office serving as the headquarters, they plan over the next few years to partner and open local organizations throughout the country. It is his dream for the foundation since its conceptualization to eventually have a solid network that bridges all of these organizations and hopefully even have members outside of the country.

"Well it's almost time for me to get going soon. After my call tomorrow with the DA we will have more details for us to proceed on this," Marcus said as he starts packing his things upon seeing that it's a little past seven in his watch.

"Dinner date with Mellie?" Fitz inquired.

"Well it's date night and Mellie makes sure that we do it 3x a week or otherwise she'll start complaining about the crown jewel of the American prison system as you fondly call it."

Fitz wasn't surprise to find out that Mellie and Marcus are back together and giving their relationship another go. In fact he's happy about it especially for Mellie even after their disastrous marriage plus Marcus is good for her. A small part of him though sometimes wishes that in seeing how smooth it is for Marcus and Mellie in rekindling their relationship that he can say the same about his.

"Marcus…can I ask you something if it's alright"

"Okay shoot"

"You and Mellie are officially back together so you're both in a relationship right like as in boyfriend and girlfriend."

Marcus then starts to skeptically look at Fitz, "Do you happen to have a problem with it?"

"No of course not! It's just…what I'm trying to say is you both know what your relationship is and where it stands."

"Yeah obviously. Is this about you and Liv? Look man we don't often talk about our personal relations but it seems to me that you are trying to asses yours with mine and Mellie's relationship. First off the two are incomparable and honestly thank God for that, no offence by the way, and secondly what seems to be the matter that's really bothering you. Did you and Olivia break up again?" Marcus then takes a look at him and sees his clearly troubled face. It reminded him of those nights when they were out in the front porch of his Vermont house.

"Can't really break up when you two aren't really in a relationship," Fitz mumbled and started looking down at the papers he's holding. Suddenly he thinks it's never really a good idea to dive into talking about something that's personal for it leaves him vulnerable.

"Wait what? I thought you two are on again for a while now. If you two are not back together then what do you guys do then when you're with each other? Wait, forget that I even asked about that as I clearly do not want to know the obvious answer."

Fitz is now starting to feel self-conscious by their conversation and wishes that Marcus moves quickly and heads off to his dinner date with Mellie instead. Before Marcus he never really had anyone to talk to about his thoughts on his relationship with Liv and it's something that he was used to keeping to himself.

"Post-Breakup Grey Area" Marcus stated while Fitz looks up at him with a clearly confused expression.

"That's what they call this thing is. The two of you are not really together but also not completely broken up due to…well let's say intimate relations with one another."

"So it's basically friends with benefits."

"No it's definitely not. This one is more complicated than that. Both parties know what they're getting into in a friends with benefits situation and there are boundaries. Look I have to cut this pow wow of sorts short as I'm running late to my date. So good night and see you tom."

After Marcus departure, Fitz decides to stay for a little longer and do some paperwork to avoid internalizing the conversation that just took place. It's very easy for him to lose sight of things and especially himself whenever it comes to Olivia. The moment he starts thinking about her, it's not too long before he finds himself in a black hole strained with his fears and insecurities along with flashes of painful memories from the past. Truthfully it's an everyday battle to keep his emotions at bay and not let his monster-sized insecurities take control over him.

From the corner of his eye he noticed his phone screen lit up. He grabbed it to read the message and to find out from who it was. It was from her. Hi. I'm thinking of getting Gettysburger for dinner. Do you want anything from there too? Have you had dinner? Fitz stared at it for a while thinking of what to respond back. It's usually Olivia who initiates their "meet ups" to put it lightly that typically ends with them hooking up either at her place or his hotel suite. Ever since that night around Christmas, he only initiates contact with her only when it's necessary and for professional matters. With this whole stop and restart thing that they're doing, he still doesn't attempt to make any first moves.

After Olivia's tearful admission of feeling that she's the problem, he thought he would get to hear more from her about it and hoped that they are on the path to moving on once the threat of imprisonment was lifted. Instead they never revisited it and carried on with their elusive and complicated setup. He thought that maybe Liv wasn't ready to talk about it or maybe she has gotten over it. After learning things the hard way, Fitz never brought it up as well. He let things be instead of facing the most likely painful outcome to occur had he urged her to talk more about it.

Post breakup grey area. Fitz opened his laptop and started looking up over what Marcus said. He thought perhaps it would clear his mind after knowing more about it.

He was wrong.

About twenty minutes into his research he feels that his mind is starting to spin. None of the articles he read had anything good to say about it.

"Welcome to the Grey Area.

The Grey Area is much worse than being friend zoned, much more than friends with benefits, and much more complex than fuck buddies. To be in the Grey Area is to be in an undefined relationship limbo that inevitably leads to having your heart ripped apart time and time again…but you keep going back because there is no closure …When you hit the gray area and one of you is more in love than the other, the one with the greatest need will suffer the most"

The last line definitely spoke to him. He wanted to quickly close the browser and shut down his laptop but somehow he finds himself searching for more articles and reading what he can find until he was back in a puddle of questions that always lingered in his mind: is she really back or is he just involved in "a long goodbye" and delaying the inevitable?

"In a nutshell, the grey area means both people are holding on to the relationship without the title and, most importantly, since the relationship is "finished," the rules and boundaries that applied while in the relationship no longer apply…Being in this not-dating-but-basically-still-dating situation carries with it huge potential of making both people hate each other.

Since your ex is still very much in the picture, you don't want to officially add someone else to your roster. The grey area gives you hope things could get better between you two. You have a desire to see things through with your ex, and since history is in his or her favor, it's hard for a new person to come in and sweep you off your feet.

The grey area muddies the water to the point of both parties feeling confused, hurt and angry. There are no clear expectations and rules, which is a perfect setup for disappointment. You start to play games and manipulate the situation to see how much the other party cares, which is damaging to both of you. Your initial breakup was bad enough, but now you both have driven what's left of the relationship to a complicated wreck that neither of you know how to fix. Breakups seem so final and terrifying, which is why so many of us stay in this grey area for as long as possible so as to ease our pain. While in the grey area, we don't realize we are beating a dead horse."

Feeling tired and confused, Fitz shuts down his laptop and decides to call it a day. Right now he was definitely in need of a drink or two to ease his mind. With that he grabs his phone and went to his personal stash to pour himself a glass of whiskey.


It's been a while now and Olivia still hasn't gotten any reply back from Fitz. Her nerves were starting to kick in as the minute increases. She tells herself that he must be busy given today's series of meetings and most likely hasn't been paying attention to his phone. Suddenly she feels her phone vibrate on the coffee table and she quickly grabs it to read his reply.

Thanks for asking Liv but it looks like I'll be working overtime tonight. I'm sorry that I can't join you.

Olivia puts her phone back on the table and suddenly feels that she no longer has the appetite to order from her favorite fast food joint. She shuts down her tv and sat in silence for a minute before heading to the kitchen to acquaint herself with her regular go to nightly companions: a huge bowl of popcorn and a bottle of red.


A/N: Hi everyone this is my very first fanfic attempt (ever!) and it's something that I've been meaning to do for awhile especially after the series finale. I've been wanting to write my take on Olivia and Fitz story in a post scandal world and one that I feel is close to their canon characterization. I would love to know what you guys think and feel free to comment just remember to always keep it constructive. Thanks for reading and I'm excited to take on this ride with you guys!

ps. The articles about the post breakup grey area are from elitedaily and though catalog. They were helpful to me when I was trying to figure out olitz when watching the show back then.