"You almost died… don't do it again."
Olivia Pope – 2x11: "A Criminal, a Whore, an Idiot and a Liar"
Anchor
Powerless.
It's not a feeling that he's accustomed to but it's how he feels.
He's the leader of the free world and yet all he can do is sit on his hands and wait. He can't yell at Cyrus or one of his aides to come up with a solution. He can't bring his advisors or his cabinet members in to give him suggestions or draw up plans for how to fix this. All he can do is wait.
Wait for her to come back to him.
He walks gingerly around the hospital room, unable to sit still for another second but careful not to wake the sleeping little girl in his arms.
Sophie.
She hadn't wanted to sleep, fussing at him for the first hours of her life, but he finally got his way and she fell victim to slumber. He manages to smile for the first time in hours.
Just as stubborn as her mother.
He turns, facing the bed where she lies, and then he's right back in his despair. He's back to being angry at himself for wasting so much time without her, for the callousness that he inflicted on her while he licked his wounds from the fallout over Defiance. All of it just seems insignificant now. He sets Sophie down in her bassinet and sits down beside her, pressing his forehead to hers.
This wasn't how their story was supposed to end.
"Livvie… Livvie, I need you to come back to me. You are not allowed to die... do you understand me? You, Karen, Jerry, Teddy and now Sophie… you guys are my anchor to this world. So, you can't leave me, Liv… not when I just got you back—"
His voice breaks before he can finish and he shuts his eyes, willing himself not to break down again. He had a momentary lapse in composure in front of Olivia's team, who had all come down as soon as Cyrus had let them know that there had been some complications during the delivery. At least they could channel their anxiety to keeping the press at bay but he had no other choice but to just wait for her to wake.
"Fitz..."
She barely even has time to open her eyes before he presses his lips to hers. He then places Sophie into her arms and watches her as tears come to her eyes as she gazes at their beautiful daughter.
And to think that he almost lost this.
"Don't you ever do that to me again, Livvie."
She looks up at him and smiles.
"Ok."