I started writing this, my first foray into Scandal (I just fell head-over-heels for Olitz), as a collection of one-shots with the loose theme of 'Navy'. It's grown into a mini-universe, mainly in my head but a fair amount on my laptop, which begins at the end of season 2 and wanders happily off into AU territory. Here, Fitz first got elected in 2008.

I'd love to hear what you think. And please excuse any Brit-isms.

II

JANUARY 2013

She answers on the first ring.

"Mr President."

"Only for... thirty six more hours."

"Wow."

"I know."

Five years expands in the silence between them. Five years of loving each other in secret; of moments stolen from reality, from dreams. Kisses in the corner of the Oval, her back pressed into the window and her fingers curling into his hair. Whispers down the phone, smiles heard but not seen, love woven through every word. The color of her skin on white sheets - in hotels, in her bed. In his, once, at three in the morning when even the Secret Service weren't watching. The fights, the tears, the heartbreak; the making up, making love... making plans.

Plans which are happening now, at last.

"Do you regret not running for a second t-"

"No."

"Fitz..."

"Liv."

Her breathing changes and he can see the tears in her eyes before he hears them in her voice. "I can't believe you're almost mine."

"I was always yours, Livvie. Right from the moment I laid eyes on you: before I was President; before I was divorced. You've waited so long, sweet baby. We're almost there now."

"I hope you're worth it," she teases softly, and it fills his heart with joy.

"Oh I will be." His voice sounds husky to his own ears. "I will make sure of it every day for the rest of my life, starting the day after tomorrow."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"I'm counting on it."

They laugh, and he has never felt closer to freedom. He will miss his job, his staff, his home, but it's all relative. Compared to the life he is about to begin, there is nothing to miss and everything still to come.

"Are you settling into the house?" he asks. "I wish I was there with you."

"It's huge, and quiet, and beautiful. I still can't believe you built all of this for us, Fitz."

"It's Vermont; it's our dream," he tells her simply, because there is nothing else to say. "Where are you?"

"Sitting outside on the porch, wrapped up in blankets. It's freezing but it's such a clear night I had to come outside. The sky is navy blue and full of stars. It's so... vast. Frightening. You may be one of the most important men in the world but in the universe you and I, we're nothing. It's... breathtaking."

You're breathtaking, he wants to say but doesn't, because it's cheesy and she will probably laugh at him. Even though it's true. Even though everything she is, and does, and says, takes his breath away. Her eyes and her mouth and her smile; the way she giggles when he kisses her neck and, later, how she sighs and whimpers and digs in her fingernails.

How she fixes problems with so much style, so much grace. How she fixed him. He cannot bear to think of the man he might be right now if Olivia Pope had not saved him from his cold, loveless marriage to a woman a thousand times her inferior.

"I love you so much," he says with an urgency that surprises him. "You are my universe, Livvie. And here, you are everything."

"Fitz," she breathes and he can picture her beautiful face, the tears on her eyelashes, and exactly where he would kiss her if only he was there. "I love you too. So much."

"I'll see you in thirty six hours, baby."

"I'll be here, waiting."

There is a pause, both of them smiling into the phone.

"Goodnight, Mr President." She laughs softly. "I'm going to miss saying that."

"Feel free to use it any time you like," he says suggestively, making her laugh some more. "You know what happens when you do..."

"Goodnight Fitz," she says more firmly, though it's laced with amusement. "No teasing your poor, lonely girlfriend."

"I'm poor and lonely too."

"And I'm hanging up now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight beautiful," he says, and then she's gone.

Thirty six hours has never felt like such a long time.

II

Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you
~ Sara Bareilles