"We've talked about that before," Liv said as she grew irritated. "You know why."
"I want to hear it again. Everything. No hold backs tonight. Please Olivia," Fitz begged.
"Mellie found out. She was upset that I went with you to see the Declaration and not her. She had your pin I gave you before the Inauguration and that's when she knew for sure that we were together. I thought it would be better if I left. And not just that, my job at the White House was done; there wasn't a reason for me to stay longer. I got you elected into being President and then helped you write the SOTU address. I finished it. It just would have been harder if we continued and then Mellie confronted one of us head on. You just got elected; we didn't need a problem to start at the first year."
Fitz had heard this same explanation from her many times on this topic and he still never liked a word of it. "You could have come to me and said that. Not leave me a three sentence professional letter and the pin on my desk while I was giving the speech. Do you know how hurt I was at that? That we meant that little that you would do that."
"What was I supposed to do? Come into the Oval 'by the way, your wife knows and I quit'? How well would that have gone over? I made it the easiest way for us."
"No, you made it the easiest way for you. So that you didn't have to have a confrontation with me about it. You know that I wouldn't give up that easily."
"Exactly! You never would have let me leave that office."
Fitz knew that subject was now closed and it was time to move to the next. He stalled as long as he could. "Fine. It's in the past now; there's nothing more to say on that topic."
"Fitz, please don't go on to the next. I am asking you, begging if needed that we not go over that again," Liv pleaded.
He turned towards her and took her hand in his. "We have to. All cards on the table. We already agreed to yell or scream in this. Livie, we have to talk about it. Then we can move on towards the end."
"Please, I can't think about that anymore. I forgave you then; it's over."
"I know, you said you forgave me. You took care of the situation and covered all of it but you didn't get a real say in it. Now's the time to Liv. You knew how hurt I was when you left and that Amanda wasn't anything to me."
"But she was! You slept with her! It may have only been one time but you still did. And I know I left and that you were hurting but it was nearly an entire year later that Cyrus called me in to clean up the mess. You should have been over me by then. Moved on, tried to be happy with Mellie. You can't just sleep with some aid to fill the void."
Fitz sat there on the couch, not moving, listening to her shout at him about it. He could hear the hurt in her voice about it. "I'm sorry. I didn't want Cyrus to call you in. To be honest…"
"All honesty, all truth tonight. No holding back."
"I didn't want you to know. I was ashamed that I did. That I actually slept with someone who wasn't you. I thought of every possible way to protect you from that information. Cyrus knew that you would be the best to take care of it. But he didn't know about us."
Olivia moved to the edge of the couch, elbows on her knees, head in her hands. "You wouldn't have told me? If Cyrus didn't bring me back to clean it, you never would have told me?"
"I knew it would hurt you, and it's the last thing I ever want to do."
"Even if by some other way, we were back together, would you have told me?"
"Liv, that's a hypothetical."
"Truth."
"No, probably not," he said low as he stared at the ceiling.
"Okay," Olivia shook her head ridding her mind of the thought. "Next?"
"Liv, I know there's more that you want to say on that. About Amanda. You took her as a client and tried to destroy my administration."
"And then my client was killed. What do you want me to say? You cheated on your wife with your mistress and you cheated on your mistress with your girlfriend."
Fitz curled his hand into a fist, trying to control his anger with the word. "How can you even say that word? Mistress! You are talking about yourself. You aren't and never have been that. Doesn't it hurt to hear that word directed at you?"
"I've grown used to it. Cyrus has called me that for nearly four years. And Mellie, well we can't forget about that or her other favorite. I'm a whore who seduced a married man and made him love me. I've grown numb to them. It doesn't affect me anymore."
"It affects me. Is that all you have to say about Amanda?"
"Yes, we've said all there is to say about it. Both now and then. We're done with her and we've moved past. Next?"
Fitz held her hand and in the most calm voice, "Mellie's conspiracy to get pregnant."
"I had nothing to do with her idea of that. She came up with that all on her own. America loves babies. If she got pregnant then her ratings would go up and yours would too. I told her it was a bad idea and that you wouldn't want any part of it. She pushed a bit further and I realized that she had every right to be pregnant with Teddy. She's your wife."