A/N: I hope you enjoy this little one-shot which is my version of what happened at the Vermont house. Some is taken from/inspired by the episode and the rest is my imagination playing it out. Shonda owns the characters, I can just dream about them.

~o0o~

"Where are you going?"

"We haven't asked each other that question in years. Why start now?" Fitz's reply to his wife, Mellie, was nothing short of an order to keep walking. She ignored it, as she tended to do lately.

"Where are you having Olivia this time, Fitz?" she uttered his namely harshly through her gritted teeth and her perfect First Lady red lipstick. Even at two in the morning she looked flawless, "Her apartment? Her office? A hotel?"

He wanted to tell her that every guess was wrong. "Why are you up?" She was clearly not going to let him pass until she got what she wanted from him.

"Teddy can't sleep. The little brat just keeps wailing so I thought I'd come see if you could help settle him down." Mellie had perfected lying on the spot. She could do it so quickly now that sometimes she believed her stories for half a minute. She really was on her way to see Cyrus, knowing there was not a chance he had left his office after the day they both had. "But your whore takes precedence. We both know that."

"Yes, actually, she does." Fitz gave her a wan smile and pushed past with Hal and Tom flanking him. He didn't need to subject his security detail to anymore unnecessary awkwardness considering where they were taking him. He couldn't hear her heels against the floor and therefore knew she was stopped, staring agape at his back, because he normally would never actually admit to her face that Olivia Pope was the most important person in his life. But her utterly dismal mothering skills pushed him over the edge. Olivia would love our children.

Fitz tried not to dwell on Mellie as he headed to Marine One. Tom got off the phone and said that two secret service agents had picked Olivia up. She was on her way as well. When he stepped into the chopper, he immediately wished he could speed up time. At best, after the flight, they'd only have a few hours to spend together until mid-morning. But a few hours would have to do. He needed her to see this.

~o0o~

The house was a sight for sore eyes. It made Fitz instantly forget that he was the leader of the free world, that he had a sham of a marriage, and that he was miserably lonely. He was instantly lost in the daydreams that had prompted him to purchase this land in the first place.

So long ago that it seemed like a different life, he had married Mellie and started forging his path toward the White House, sometimes against his will. This house, this little side project he drew up plans for late at night and sent to builders and tucked away into the corner of his mind, was now a reality. This is what life would have looked like for him if he had just waited. Waited for Olivia and this house in Vermont.

Tom and Hal took their places on the perimeter of the house, which was finished and just waiting for warm bodies as Fitz explored the inside. It was cozy and inviting. Agents had swept the place before they had arrived and lit a fire and candles as he had asked. The living room had touches of blue, her favorite color. The kitchen was large and airy and begging for their children to be running around. How many would they have had by now? Two? Three? All boys with his wavy hair and her high cheekbones or a little girl with his blue eyes and her honeyed skin? They would play games in this room and drink hot cocoa and Liv would curl up under a blanket with a bowl of popcorn and her glass of wine. And they would be normal.

Fitz sat down on the couch, waiting for her. Tom had promised she was coming and his heart started to race the moment he heard the front door open.

"It is almost four in the morning! Are you insane? You have people just pull me out of bed and not tell me where I am supposed to go and suddenly I'm walking across some field to this house with you sitting here like this is normal?"

Oh how he loved her. The way she ranted. The way she walked in to see him like she was walking into her office with the most powerful client in D.C. How she looked so incredibly beautiful every single time he saw her.

"Fitz!"

It snapped him out of his thoughts and he stood up to move toward her. He needed to feel her body against his. "Olivia. This was a surprise. We are in Vermont. In our house."

"Our house?" It wasn't often that Olivia Pope looked confused, but he took a second to commit to memory the slight furrowing of her brow as she looked up at him.

"Well, it will soon be someone else's. I'm putting it on the market but I wanted you to see it before I did." Every day his fantasy of living here with her was slipping farther and farther away. Holding onto this house just made him sad.

"I'm not understanding." Olivia laughed a bit, which she did when she was nervous or unsure of herself. A little scoff to shake off the doubts and seem in control. Fitz put his hands on her waist.

"Last year, when I really thought there could be a chance from a life away from this, I bought this piece of land and built a house that I thought you would like. A place we could start over in." He watched her face carefully. This house meant everything to him and he wanted to see if it mattered to her. He was disappointed, but not entirely surprised, when she recoiled from his touch and shook her head.

"We can't. With Mellie…and the baby and…Fitz, no. There is no life away from this. There is no world where you are not the President and I am not…" She struggled with the words and he put one hand on her cheek.

"The most incredible woman I've ever met?" He finished for her, smiling. "In my mind, there is. There is a world where I am a mayor of some small town here, and you are a teacher. And we have a whole brood of children and you make jam."

"Jam?"

"Yes, strawberry. The kitchen was built with you making jam in mind." He teased with her and saw the same sparkle in her eye. He hadn't seen it in so long and he kissed her to freeze that moment in time forever. It had been months since he had tasted her and it was like he was finally taking a drink of cold water after walking through a desert. Just her lips pressed against his, opening slightly to invite him in, revived him.

"Is there a bedroom?" Olivia whispered her question against his neck after she pulled away from the kiss. She could smell his day on him—the scotch he had to calm his nerves before this, his aftershave, the softener used on the sweater he had changed into.

"I'm guessing you would like to see it." Fitz pulled her closer so she could feel just how urgent he was to show her. His hands cupped her ass in the skirt she was wearing. Even in the middle of the night she was all dressed up for him. Her response was just a nod and his hand melted into hers as he pulled her down the hallway, past a few other doors before opening the very last one to the master bedroom.

"I want you to make love to me." Olivia looked at the bed, covered in white sheets and pillows and realized she couldn't remember the last time they made love, let alone in a bed. If they even caught a stolen moment lately it either turned into an argument or a fuck. Things had started to mean less and less, but she didn't want it to be like that. "In this bed. Not against a wall or in a closet. There."

Fitz understood her. Everything from the pain in her eyes to the lust for him that was right besides it. This house was his apology and he hoped she understood that. He did not waste another second before he kissed her again, slower and more gentle than before. Neither did he. He would cherish her tonight. "Let's pretend Olivia."

Pretend he wasn't the President and that she wasn't his mistress. Pretend that they were married. Pretend that they had hours to lazily make love. Pretend.

He picked her up easily and laid her out on the bed and looked down at the woman he loved more than his own life. He helped her heels off of her feet before he unbuttoned his shirt as he stood at the foot of the bed. The way she looked at him made him feel alive and made him forget everything else. She made him feel like he was twenty-five again and carefree. A patriot who wanted to serve his country. Before the campaign trails and the biggest mistake of his life.

As she watched Fitz undress with a half-smirk on his face, she tugged her skirt down far enough until she could kick it off onto the floor. Olivia desperately wanted this to move slowly, but she didn't know how much more she could take. They didn't do things slowly, they never had. When you only had one minute with someone, you didn't waste it. So then there went her blouse.

When he saw her lace covered black bra and matching panties, his bulge pressed even more uncomfortably against the front of his trousers because he knew that even though she had been startled awake to come here she had still put on lingerie for him and that meant something. He took off his belt; the clang of the buckle echoed in the dark room with the force he pulled it off with. He needed to touch himself if he couldn't touch her. And with her spread out on this bed for him, he wasn't going to ruin the moment by losing himself too soon.

Her hooded eyes begged him to get onto the bed with her, but he was enjoying the view too much. He let his trousers fall to the ground and stepped out of them as he rubbed his cock that was tenting in his boxers. It brushed against her calf as he crawled over her and kissed her thighs. He could feel her heat and smell how aroused she was as his nose nudged against her lips underneath her panties. They hadn't had nearly enough time together to explore everything about each other but he knew he couldn't leave without tasting her. Just his hot breath against her had her squirming underneath him. Fitz guided her panties down and over her hips until his lips brushed against her mound and he heard the sweet sounds of his Olivia gasping. His hands grabbed and rubbed and kneaded her thighs and ass and legs as he kissed her.

"Fitz, now. Need you now…" Olivia said but the words blended together and were punctuated by her soft moans.

"Don't tell me what to do, Liv. Don't give me orders." She couldn't see Fitz' smirk but she heard it in his voice. He almost came back at her with something about how she wanted to take things slow tonight. But he knew better. They were soul mates and they couldn't stay away from each other for too long.

She laughed as she wrapped her hand around his forearm and pulled him up to kiss her. They couldn't get any closer to happiness than their lips pressed against one another's. Fitz tugged his boxers down with the hand not gently twined in her hair and pushed her panties down just enough for him to tease her for a moment before he entered her. They fit perfectly and she nuzzled her head in the crook of his neck and kissed his tender skin there as he kept his promise and made love to her.

It wasn't frantic or rough this time. They enjoyed the feeling of one another and he made sure she reached her peak of pleasure twice before he spilled inside of her and held her close so he could hear her racing heart. "I love you, Liv."

She smiled at his sweet, vulnerable words. If they were on the phone she would have said "I have to go." Or "I'm going to hang up now." But this time she let herself say exactly what she felt: "I love you too, Fitz."

~o0o~

"There is no food here but it's fine, I can grab something on the way into the office."

Fitz rubbed his eyes and groggily stared up at Olivia, who had all of her clothes on and was standing beside the bed. If he hadn't been lying under the sheets naked he would have thought last night had just been a dream. "What do you mean? Stay."

"It's almost eight. You need to get back and so do I." There was a softness in her eyes that made him smile and he reluctantly sat up, not even hiding his attempt to get her back in bed by showing her exactly what she was missing.

"Fitz! Come on." Liv laughed again. He hadn't seen her this happy in months. Every risk he took and rule he broke to make last night happened was entirely worth it to see her glowing face. He'd do anything for her, so he got dressed and started to prepare himself mentally to go back to the White House and face Mellie and God only knew what else in store for him. Olivia watched him and tried to take in everything about that bedroom and him in it. She could live on last night for a while. It would get her through.

Fitz left the room for a moment to talk to his secret service and when he returned, the sound of Marine One outside could not be missed. "You'll be leaving first."

It wasn't an order, just the way it had to be. Olivia nodded and grabbed her bag before she walked toward him and gave him a soft kiss. There was no sense in dragging their goodbye out.

"Can you do me one favor?" She asked him when she began to walk out of the bedroom and down the hall to the door where she would be whisked away.

"Anything."

"Don't sell this house just yet."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Would love to hear your feedback!