"Seeing someone after you've wanted them so badly is such a relief." – anonymous.
They stood there looking at each other, the coldness of the bunker setting in as their eyes connected. Emotions swirling between them; the love forever present but also the severity of the situation settling in. They were in the bunker, Olivia had used her card, it may not have been a national emergency, but this was the biggest thing that had happened in their relationship. Would they survive this? So many things were going through their minds but that was the most present thought.
"My name is out there, my name is out there Fitz. What are we suppose to do? We need a plan." Olivia said her arms crossed over her chest as she walked over placing her bag on the table in the middle of the room.
"Liv." Fitz said.
"Don't Liv me. My name is everywhere Fitz, they know we slept together. They called me your mistress." She said, her head falling down to her chest in shame.
"Livvie, you are not my mistress. You know you're more than that. I love you and I want to be with you." Fitz said walking towards her slowly, testing her reaction.
"Fitz. Your wife, the first lady of the United States of America went on national television and told the world you cheated on her, somehow, someone has leaked my name and I am at the front of this." She said.
"I leaked your name." Fitz said, their eyes connecting immediately as Olivia's head shot up.
"What?" She breathed out.
"It was me. I did it Liv. We had a plan, you and I. We had a plan. But than you left, you left me for your gladiators. So I went through with it. I finished our plan." Fitz answered holding his breath.
"You finished the plan." Olivia couldn't breathe; she was feeling thousands of emotions all at once, the most pressing one however was how much she loved this man.
"I finished the plan Livvie." Fitz said smiling ever so softly as he thought about the night that they had run out the clock together and made a plan.
"Leak my name." Olivia said kissing Fitz's chest as she snuggled herself further into his arms, throwing her leg over his waist.
"What?" Fitz said kissing his lover's forehead, rubbing a hand tenderly over her bare back.
"Leak my name, when the time is right. We leak my name, we get Mellie to deny it, you run for re-election and than 6 months in, you divorce Mellie and officially date me." Olivia said looking up, meeting her lovers eye.
"Leak your name?" Fitz asked.
"So that when we get together, we can say we were always friends and always close. Laugh about how funny it was that all this happened now that we are together. Say we should have seen it as foreshadowing." Olivia said leaning up and running a hand through Fitz's hair, testing his reaction to her idea.
"So we can get together sooner, say that the feelings were always there but we didn't act on them until I am divorced." Fitz said confirming the plan before leaning down.
"Livvie, you're brilliant." He said sealing their plan with a kiss. "I love you." He said softly as he pulled away.
"I love you too." She said before kissing him again, just in case he didn't believe her.
"Does Mellie know? Cyrus?" Olivia asked.
"No, they think the plan I told them at the hospital is the only plan we had. They don't know the real plan, I mean it was bits of it but not all of it. We are the only two who know the whole plan." Fitz said crossing his arms over his chest.
"Good, good. Nobody can know Fitz, if we want to end up together, we need to do it like this." Olivia said looking around the bunker, trying to avoid Fitz's gaze.
"I know Liv, I'm just sorry we had to do this. I'm sorry your name was leaked. I'm sorry I had to do it." Fitz said moving closer to Olivia.
"Fitz." She warned softly, god she wanted to be in his arms more than anything.
"Liv." He said taking off his jacket, now in arms reach of her.
"Don't." and just with that, he pulled her into his arms and immediately she was in tears. The feeling of being in the arms of the man she loved was overwhelming, all she wanted was to be with him, it sucked that it had to be like this, sucked. There was no other word for it.
"I'm sorry for the horrible things they are saying." Fitz said with a soft kiss to her temple.
"Thank you." She sniffled out, barely audible.
"I wish I could have been with you, when the news broke. I wish I could have held you last night, called you." Fitz spoke into her hair as Olivia's final tears fell onto his shirt as she dug her head further into his neck.
"S'okay. I'm okay." She said pulling away, shaking her tears away letting out a deep breath. "I'm not crying over that, well I am, but I just wish you could have been with me. I wish I knew you were going through with it, I thought someone had caught onto us." Olivia said the tears still in eyes.
"Livvie." He said softly, his heart breaking for her, running his hands down her arms.
"Mellie needs to rebuke, she needs to rebuke her statement now. Today. We need this to be settled immediately Fitz." She said wiping away her tears, she didn't cry, gladiators didn't cry.
"I know, I have the statement you prepared in my desk. I'll make her do it." Fitz said.
"How Fitz? You have to be forceful with that woman Fitz. She'll try to overpower you but you're the god dam President Fitz. Make her listen." Olivia said, they needed to make sure Mellie played along.
"I'll do it Livvie. 7pm news. She'll be there. Trust me. Leave it with me." He said lifting his hand and running it across her cheek softly, he wouldn't let her down.
"Fitz please. We can't. We can't be us right now, not yet. We just need to get Mellie to rebuke." Olivia said not making eye contact.
"Liv, leave it with me. Trust me." And with a soft kiss to her cheek, he grabbed his jacket and left the bunker.
Olivia had trusted Fitz and once again, he had proved her right. The 7pm news and there was Mellie, rebuking her statement. Claiming she had been given false information, that Fitz hadn't cheated on her, that they were looking into the accusations that had been made, that they were happier than ever and ready to run for re-election. Fitz had done it, he had tamed the dragon. Her 2nd viewing of the speech was interrupted when her phone rang, tearing her away from her popcorn and wine dinner.
"How'd you do it?" She asked not letting him speak; she was so surprised that he had actually made Mellie do it.
"She owes me." He answered before taking a sip of his celebratory bourbon.
"For what?" Olivia said curiously.
"Making her first lady for starters." Fitz said showing that he wasn't going to let Olivia in on what he had on Mellie.
"I can't believe she rebuked." Olivia said smiling, finally something was going right for them.
"I know, we need her to run. As much as I hate it, we need her." Fitz said leaning back in his chair, throwing his feet up on the desk.
"Fitzgerald Grant, take your feet off the resolute desk!" Olivia said immediately knowing what he was doing.
"Livvvv." He whined. "Dirtier things have been on here." He said holding back a chuckle.
"Excuse me? I am not dirty!" Olivia said smiling at the man over the phone, he always knew how to bring a smile to her face.
"Well the things we did were pretty dirty." He said chuckling softly at the memory of the inauguration night.
"You're so lucky this phone isn't being tracked Mr President." Olivia said, he had managed to make her laugh after the worst 24 hours of her life.
"Why do you think I got it?" He said rhetorically, their conversation halting as they listened to each other breathe, their breaths in complete and utter sync.
"I saw my dad." Olivia said breaking the silence after a few minutes.
"I thought that's who it was." Fitz said, he knew about Olivia's relationship with her dad and also that he was the leader of B613, she had told him one weekend at Camp David. "When I saw on the news, you getting into a limo, I knew it was him."
"He wanted me to leave, he wanted me to run away, he knows about us Fitz." She said softly.
"I'm not surprised Liv, he knows a lot. I'm sorry you had to see him baby." Fitz said and her heart melted, he hadn't called her baby for awhile.
"It's okay, I'm sorry I didn't tell you today, I needed to process." She said, she was being open and he was grateful.
"It's okay Liv. No secrets we promised, thank you for telling me." Fitz said softly. "I should let you go." She didn't want him too, but she knew he was busy.
"Okay, you should go." Once again she was hit with the overwhelming desire to tell him she loved him, but it wasn't the right time or place so she settled with something else. "I wish you were here with me." She said softly.
"Me too Livvie. I love you, goodnight." Fitz said smiling at her words.
"Goodnight." She said hanging up the phone, they were okay.
A/N – hi guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter, more to come soon because up next – we're back on the campaign!