The town hall meeting went off without a hitch. The smaller venue allowed for Fitz to take many audience questions and allowed him to really get the chance to explain his views or certain things, such as the war on terrorism, the increasing deficit, and the like. The smaller scale venues really allowed Fitz to show his true self, something he preferred more than the grand-standing and posturing required for the larger crowds.

Mellie was there, wearing what Fitz assumed was the outfit that Liv picked out for her. And, Mellie was wearing her usual public façade, that of the dedicated First Lady of California, ready to listen to the plight of her constituents. If Fitz didn't have the requisite control over his facial expressions at that very second, he would have certainly rolled his eyes or given what his kids refer to as a "side-eye", which he assumed was some new slang term for looking at people as if they were crazy.

Once the speech and question & answer session were done, Fitz mingled amongst the crowd. During his walk through amongst the crowd, Fitz saw Cyrus out of the corner of his eye and overhead his campaign manager singing his praises about Fitz's accomplishments as Governor and California and noting how Fitz could bring the same economic resurgence to the country at large if elected President. Mellie continued to make her rounds, of course. Given that Fitz knew his wife of many years, he knew that Mellie was already laying the groundwork for her own future political campaign.

Fitz tried to subtly search the crowd for Olivia, though it was hard to look for the petite woman while in the middle of a conversation regarding deficit. But, find her he did. He was always able to find Olivia in a room, no matter how crowded it was. It was as if he had an internal homing beacon that was tuned to her. Luckily, it wasn't until the older gentleman who had Fitz's ear and who was ranting about the current Democratic President's stance on spending and the deficit walked away that Fitz's internal beacon sounded the alarm. Fitz turned his head and saw Olivia at the drink table, making herself a cup of tea. Fitz just stared at her for a few seconds longer than what would pass for appropriate. He looked over her body, enjoying the way she looked tonight in black tapered pants that hugged her rear very nicely and an off white silk blouse that had just the right amount of buttons undone to be alluring but not inappropriate. And, of course, Olivia wore her customary 5 inch platform heels. He didn't understand how Olivia could walk so fast in those things without breaking a leg. But, Fitz would be lying to himself if he said that he didn't enjoy watching her stride in those shoes, as they made her already great looking legs and ass look even better.

Olivia stood at the drink table and added some creamer to her tea. It wasn't until she reached over for a red stirrer that she felt as if she were being watched. Olivia looked over her shoulder and saw Fitz watching her. Olivia couldn't help it, she felt her face begin to heat and knew she was blushing. Fitz smiled at her, one of his gorgeous smiles, and she saw him begin to move toward her. When he was a mere two feet away from her, though, Fitz was once again sidetracked by an eager audience member who wanted the chance to converse Fitz. Olivia, disappointed about not being able to steal a few moments with Fitz, just looked at Fitz with a small smile and slight shrug of her shoulders. She turned her focus back her tea, stirred it, and went off to talk to other prospective voters.

It was getting late and Fitz was more than ready to call it a night. He wasn't the only one, as most of the town hall participants and audience members had already gone. Fitz found Cyrus and gave him a curt nod, letting him know that he was ready to go, and Cyrus gave a nod of his own, signaling his agreement and understanding and Fitz watched Cyrus walk over to Mellie to let her know that the night was over. Fitz happily took it upon himself to seek out Olivia, who he found talking with one of the younger male audience members. As Fitz walked over, he saw Olivia throw her head back in a hearty laugh and light touch the guy's arm. At that moment Fitz felt a surge of jealousy. It was irrational, he knew, as he had no claim on Olivia. But, when is jealousy ever really rational? Fitz continued walking toward the pair and sidled up to Olivia.

"Governor Grant!" Olivia exclaimed. "Meet Jacob."

Fitz extended his hand to shake Jacobs, and perhaps but a little more strength in the handshake than was absolutely necessary. Fitz thought he saw a slight wince on Jacob's face, but that could have been his imagination.

"Hello Governor Grant. I really enjoyed what you had to say tonight. You really fleshed out your position and platform. I really think you convinced a few undecideds tonight."

"Well, that's great news! It's nice to know my message is being heard and understood. I thank you for coming," Fitz said, meaning it though he was annoyed at how personal this Jacob person was getting with Olivia. Fitz looked at Olivia expectantly and said, "Liv, we're heading out now."

"Ok." Olivia said. She looked at Jacob and shook his hand. "It was great meeting you tonight Jacob! Thank you for coming, we all appreciate your support."

"It's no problem at all. Governor Grant, you have my vote. Olivia, it was nice to meet you. If you come back around these parts, feel free to give me a ring." Jacob said. He shook Olivia's hand and walked away.

Olivia looked at Fitz. "He was nice, right?" she said, as they began walking toward the exit, Fitz shortening his stride to match hers so that they could walk side by side.

"He seemed nice from the two sentences we exchanged. I'm sure you got to know him much better. You looked like you were having a good time when I walked up." Fitz said, in what he hoped was an indifferent voice instead of having his slight annoyance manifest itself in his tone.

Olivia kept up her stride, but looked at Fitz. Internally, she smiled. Was he jealous?

"Well, he was nice. And, Governor, it's great that we had a good amount of young audience members. As you know, the young adult vote is becoming more and more important this days, and your party hasn't had the best luck with attracting them." Olivia said, trying to infuse both levity and a strategy session in her comment. She reached the door to the lobby exit and before she could push the door open, Fitz opened and held the door for her.

"Thank you. You did a great job tonight, by the way," said Olivia as she and Fitz walked toward the two black Lincoln Towncars that were waiting for the four of them. When they reached the first, Olivia reached up and fingered the tie around Fitz's neck. Touching his tie or lapel were innocuous ways to indulge her urge to touch him "The tie looks good on you." She said, with her head titled up toward him and a big smile on her face.

It took everything inside of Fitz not to just lean down and kiss her. "Well, my benefactor has great tastes, apparently better than my own taste in ties." Fitz said with a smile of his own. The pair continued to stare at each other until they heard Cyrus' and Mellie's voices becoming louder, indicating that they were walking toward them.

Olivia took a subtle step back away from Fitz, her hand dropping away from his chest. "Good night, Mellie, Governor Grant. We will see you both bright and early tomorrow on the bus. Georgia awaits us." Olivia and Cyrus walked to the second car. Olivia opened the door to the backseat. Before getting it she looked at Fitz, who was ushering Mellie into the car. He gave her a nod at her mouthed "Good night" and she got into the car.


The senior members of the Grant campaign, including Fitz and Mellie, and the press corps were on the bus the next morning on their way to a campaign event. Olivia, Cyrus, Fitz and Mellie were seated near the back of the bus. Olivia had her laptop and various polling papers spread on a table in front of her, her bottle of Poland Springs water nearby. Fitz sat in front of her, seemingly relaxed until Olivia and Cyrus began to lament the fact that Fitz was still down in the polls amongst women.

"I crushed her that debate, the whole country saw it!" exclaimed Fitz, a look of exasperation on his face.

"It's hard to win over women when there's a viable female candidate in the race. They've been waiting a long time," answered Olivia. Then Olivia had to nip Cyrus's plan to expose Langston's previous college fueled drug use by pointing out that the fact that Sally found God pretty much absolved her of "youthful indiscretions." Cyrus could only state that they couldn't win without women.

"No!" Fitz, began, "you take the opposition research and you put it in the garbage. We're playing the rest of the game above board, win or lose."

Olivia could only look at Fitz with admiration. She knew he wanted to win badly, but appreciated the fact that he wanted to do things his way, in a way that he could be proud of.

Once at the Georgia bakery, after having one of the best pieces of pie in his life, Fitz could do nothing to hide the look of incredulity on his face upon listening to Mellie tell a crowd of Georgia women that she'd recently suffered a miscarriage. In his mind Fitz could only think to himself that Mellie had actually gone off of the deep end in her never ending quest to become First Lady. He couldn't believe that she would lie to a group of woman about something so painful as having a miscarriage just to endear him to female voters. Despite his years in politics, Fitz wasn't a complete cynic and would never have imagined doing something like this. But, there was nothing he could do except hug his wife in front the crowd.

Olivia stood in the back of the bakery and watch the whole exchange and telling of the story with a certain measure of sorrow. No family should have to go through that, and from what she knew, Fitz was a great dad who actually enjoyed the role of being a father. She didn't know if she could say the same about Mellie, but she felt for the woman as well.


"I was sorry to hear about your loss," Olivia began, after she sat down in the empty seat next to Fitz near the back of the bus. "Are you…is Mellie ok? If she needs to take a break from the campaign I'm sure we could—"

"Mellie's fine. She flew to Alabama. She's doing twelve campaign stops in two days. She's thrilled. Nothing keeps that woman down, not even a fake miscarriage."

Olivia looked at him, her face of mixture of shock and confusion.

"She's a real catch, my wife. I'm a lucky man."

"I'm sorry…" Olivia didn't know what to say after that. What could she say?

"Oh, God. Please don't. Don't be nice to me." said Fitz, turning his head to face the window. "I'm sitting here complaining to you about my wife, which is sleazy and low and not fair to you and the oldest trick in the book." Fitz gave a slight chuckle and leaned his head back against the headrest and looked up at the bus's ceiling. "Suddenly I'm looking down at myself and I'm…How did I get here? Why didn't I meet you sooner?" Fitz turned to look at Olivia. "What kind of a coward was I to marry her and not wait for you to show up?"

Olivia didn't know how to reply to Fitz's confession. She was more than flattered. This man just told her that he wished he'd waited for her to come into his life. She didn't even know where to begin.

"Governor Grant…" Olivia began.

"Oh, for God sake. We are so beyond the "Governor Grant" crap." Fitz said and Olivia smiled. "Just say my name," Fitz implored her.

"That's crossing a line, it would be inappropriate."

"Then let's be inappropriate." And there it was. Fitz gave her that grin that just made her melt. To say Fitzgerald Grant had charm would be one of the biggest understatements ever. "Say my name." Fitz asked her again, staring at her.

Olivia looked ahead at the seat in front of her then looked down at her lap. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fitz turn his face away from her and begin to stare out of the window. Olivia sat there, wanting to say his name but not being able to. It was as if her mouth was working against her, and wouldn't do what her brain was telling it to do. She swallowed and parted her lips. Then she turned her head to face him.

"Fitz." Olivia said softly and smiled after she said it. It felt good to say it out loud instead of merely thinking it.

To Fitz, his name coming from Olivia's mouth sounded like a prayer. Fitz moved his right hand off of his lap and rested in the in center between his and Olivia's thigh. Olivia understood, and intertwined her left hand with his, their fingers linking, and resting on the chair so that no one would be the wiser. Fitz flexed his fingers as a way to rub against Olivia's fingers. At one point Olivia extracted her linked fingers from Fitz's, and used her fingers to lightly skim Fitz's hand. It felt like a whisper on Fitz's flesh. Then Olivia began to draw fingers and letters on Fitz's hand which made him grin. That sat like that, hand in hand or hand playing with hand, for the entire bus ride back to the hotel.


A/N: Y'all already know what the next chapter is going to be about! Just a warning—story rating will be changed to M with the release of the next chapter. Yep. :-)