My hand brushes across the sheet beside me and stills. I'm expecting warmth but instead feel coolness, emptiness. I open my eyes slowly to adjust to the darkness. I'm alone.

I sit up and quickly peek beneath the sheet wrapped around me. I'm naked. But I'm still alone.

This can't be a dream. Please tell me this wasn't a dream.

Suddenly, I hear the toilet flush and water running in the sink. Fitz's shadow emerges from the bathroom and he pads softly across the room. The bed sighs under his weight. I inhale and exhale in relief. It's warm again now, complete again now.

"Did I wake you?" he whispers.

I shake my head slowly. I'm sitting in the middle of the bed facing him, the sheet twisted around me, my shoulders bare.

"Well, something woke you. You were asleep when I got up." He rests his head on the pillow and inclines it towards me. "Weren't you?"

I nod. "Yes, I was asleep. I…" How do I explain?

"Livvie?" Fitz's voice is even softer now, and I can tell he's concerned.

When I start to speak, it's more to myself. I don't look at him. "You know I never thought this would happen. There were so many times when I hoped…and then I thought I was stupid for hoping…there were so many times I dreamt you were here with me, only to wake up and find the other side of the bed empty. I reached over just now and you weren't—"

"Here." He caresses my cheek with his fingertips. "Liv, I know. But that's over now. You have to believe me. I'm—not—going—anywhere. This is where I belong. Where I've always belonged. With you. Nowhere else."

"How can you say that?" I wanted to ask this earlier, when he was sitting on the couch and determined to let the clock run out. But I couldn't. I was in such shock. Fitz was in my living room, telling me his whole world was about to be blown to pieces and he simply didn't give a damn; telling me he was choosing me. It was too much to comprehend. "How can you say that when you're the President and you're giving it all up? Everything you've worked so hard for you're just giving up."

"It's not what I'm giving up, Liv. It's what I'm gaining. Being president doesn't mean anything if I'm not with you. You think you're the only one who's hoped, who's had dreams? I can't tell you how many nights I've wished I was coming home to you; how many nights I've wished you were lying beside me and we were talking face to face, not on the damn phone; how many nights I've wished I could watch you fall asleep. I don't want to waste any more time wishing. I want what we have tonight—every night. I want us to be real, not some fantasy."

I hear the conviction in his voice and I know he's serious. He hasn't wavered since he came through the door. This is really happening.

"I didn't think choosing me was an option," I continue. "Especially after…especially after you found out about Defiance—"

Fitz presses his fingers to my lips to silence me. "That's over now. I know you did what you did because you wanted me to be president. When I got past the anger and the hurt, I realized that. You did what you did because you loved me. And I'm doing what I'm doing now because I love you."

"Are you sure?" I need him to say yes. Even though he's said it several different ways already, I need him to be absolutely sure. Despite the impracticality of it all, despite the foolishness of it all, I have loved Fitz and waited for him for the last four plus years of my life. I know that I chose this, to be on the outside looking in, to settle for a few hours together here or a few hours together there, to suffer through birthdays and holidays alone because I didn't want to be with anyone else. But I can't go through that again. I just can't. Now that tonight has happened and I'm so close to having what I've always wanted.

"Yes, I'm sure." He answers simply, powerfully. He pulls me toward him and enfolds me in his arms.

"Okay," I say. "Okay." I'm warm again now, complete again now.