Chapter 11 - A Slice of Life

After Fitz had been discharged from the hospital, Olivia had decided not to go back to New York - much to Fitz' delight. His mind was still trying to process her revelation, surely that isn't how it happened and as much as it bugged him, he wasn't going to contradict her. Plus, he had other problems to deal with that would be front and centre very shortly.

He had heard what Olivia was saying, he truly had, and he could understand why she thought his parents didn't like her. In Fitz' mind they didn't usually behave like they did. Yeah okay, his Mother may have been concerned about him, but he was an adult, not a little child anymore and seeing as he would, one day, inherit her company he thought that it was time for things to change.

As for his Father, well he was the type of person to let things play out, he was generally a calm, laid back person. So the vibe she picked up from him was more than likely misinterpreted as him being rude or ignorant, more than anything else.

All things said though, with Olivia choosing to stay at the house with his parents there, he wouldn't have her feeling uncomfortable.

Fitz' Father had sent a driver to pick them up from the hospital, so there they were, on their way back to the house. They were now only about ten minutes away, Olivia had been staring out of the window for most of the journey back. Fitz didn't know what she wanted, did she want to be left alone or was she waiting for him to do something, he didn't know. Biting the bullet, Fitz decided to just ask.

"Are you okay Olivia?"

Oh, and that was another thing. They had a small disagreement over what he should call her. Although, he was happy with calling her Livvie and he knew she was happy with it too, for some reason she suddenly changed her mind. It took a while but he finally got to the bottom of it, and that was what his parents would think. Everyone else called her either Olivia or Liv, she didn't let anyone call her Livvie and rationally she knew that Fitz wasn't just anyone but how was she going to explain that.

So here they were, Fitz only agreeing with her because he didn't want to upset her or to make her feel anxious. This wasn't going to last though, not if he had anything to really say about it.

"Yeah..."

"It's going to be alright, you know."

"Okay." He couldn't understand her, he was doing what she wanted but now she wasn't even looking at him.

"Livvie," he started. That made her look at him.

"Fitz..."

"My parents aren't here. It's just us." He said as he reached into the centre and placed his hand over hers.

"Fitz, I..." he cut her off before she could say anything else; he really didn't want to hear her make up an excuse.

"No, look. You've barely spoken to me today and I don't know why. I'm not mad or angry or upset. I'm just confused. Did I do something? Since you agreed to stay the weekend you've acted like I'm a complete stranger to you. Do you want to go home, back to New York?"

"In a way..."

"What does that even mean?" He said looking into her eyes.

"In a way, I do want to go home,"

"Livvie," He said before she could finish but he was soon given a taste of his own medicine.

"Fitz, let me finish. In a way, I do want to go home but I also want to stay. This weekend was supposed to be just us. All of this now, with your parents being here, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do, how am I supposed to act."

"Livvie, you're not supposed to act, just be yourself. Just pretend that it is just us, just me, you, Abby and Stevie. I'm not saying completely ignore them but just be yourself."

"Abby..." Lily called wondering through the house taking everything in. "Abigail!" She shouted when she got no response.

"What's all the racket about?" Gerry asked not appreciating his wife shouting like that.

"I'm looking for Abby,"

"No you're shouting at Abby. There's a difference Lily. Have you looked in one of the bedrooms?"

Lily gave Gerry a gentle kiss before walking away. She found her in Stephens' bedroom, sitting with her legs crossed on his bed, writing or possibly drawing in a book.

"There you are Abby. Why didn't you answer?"

"I must've not heard you." She said sarcastically. Of course she heard her, the whole street probably heard her.

"Well anyway, I wanted to talk to you about some things."

"Yeah, like what?" She answered, not even looking up at her.

"About Olivia. Do you know her?"

Abby scoffed and looked up at her Mother, to begin with she thought that she must have been joking nut, the longer she looked at her the more she realised it. She was being completely serious. Seriously! She couldn't believe it.

"Do you not listen to anything I say?"

"What?" Her Mother asked completely oblivious.

"Liv has been my best friend since you moved us to this country. How do you not even recognise her name? She is probably one of the most famous kids in the world and you couldn't put two and two together and actually get four. So when I came home on my first day and mentioned the name Olivia Pope did you even listen? Better yet, when you called me on my birthday and I said I was with Liv, did you not wonder who that was or did you simply not care!?" She shouted angrily

"That's enough Abby!" She heard her Father say.

If his wife wasn't going to stop her, he sure was. Abby brushed past them leaving them standing in Stephens' room. How did it get to this she thought to herself? When did it start to go downhill? In the moment Lily made a decision that she thought was best, she would speak to Gerry about it later but for down she pushed it to the back of her mind.

As they pulled up outside, they could see Stephen sitting outside on the steps. Olivia got out of the car first and waved at him offering a small smile before Fitz got out.

"Hey, why are you out here?" Fitz questioned slowly walking towards him.

"I forgot what Mum was like, I need more than an hours' notice that she is coming."

Now Olivia was confused, she knew that Fitz and Abby were close to Stephen but why was he calling Lily Mum. She made a mental note to ask Fitz about it later on.

"Oh no, Stevie..."

"Hence why I am out here, I think Abby is hiding in your room."

Fitz didn't know exactly what he would be walking into and he didn't know if he should take Olivia in with him straight away. He knew all too well what his Mother was like, it was just her being her, and being a former model and now having her own company, he could understand why. Everything had to be perfect. All the time. So she had probably gone into the house and found one tiny speck of dirt and is now most likely giving the whole house a deep clean. There was no way he was going to be caught up in that. Not today.

"Don't go in... Stay here, in the safe zone." Stephen jokingly pleaded, as Fitz started to walk past him. As Olivia moved to go past him, he held on to her hand. "Don't go you're too young for this."

This made Olivia laugh for the first time that day.

Fitz turned to see her laughing and he instantly smiled at the exchange. He was glad that her and Stephen were getting on because he honestly didn't know what he'd do if they didn't.

"Stevie, let go of her. C'mon Liv." He said holding gout his hand for her to take.

As they walked away from Stephen and towards the door, they didn't notice that he got up to follow them in. He must have been feeling brave. Fitz opened the front door, but as they walked into the house he felt Olivia pull her hand from his grasp. He turned to face her but she wouldn't meet his eyes. Stephen saw the whole exchange and was now wondering what had happened. They seemed so happy a couple of minutes ago.

The first thing that Fitz noticed as they walked in was that, everything just seemed cleaner. Walking through the house he found his Dad sitting on the couch as it nothing was happening. Over the years he had learnt to just leave his wife to it.

"Dad... Where's Mum?"

"I have no idea, the last time I heard her she was in the kitchen."

Then they all heard her.

"Oh my God! GERRY! The boys are disgusting, how do they live like this?"

Gerry and Fitz exchanged a look before following the sound of her voice. As it turns out she was still in the kitchen and she had just opened the fridge. They all stood in the doorway not wanting to make the first move.

"Hi Mum," Fitz said walking up behind her.

"Fitzgerald! I'm very disappointed, look at this food."

Fitz looked in and honestly couldn't see anything wrong. The food, if not in the original packaging was all covered.

"How long has this pizza been here? This could make you ill."

"It's fine Mum."

Fitz was already tired of his Mothers obsessive cleaning. He saw Stephen and Gerry go back into the living room which left, Olivia standing in the doorway by herself, looking incredibly anxious. He reached around his Mother, shutting the fridge door before walking towards Olivia.

"Abby is in my room," he said as he ran his hand up and down her upper arm, offering a reassuring smile.

His Mother turned to see his hand on her arm. Now she certainly had questions for her son. After watching Olivia walk away she approached Fitz.

"How does she know where you room is?"

"Not now Mother. Look lets' just go out and do something. It's a nice day, what the point in being holed up at home?"

A short while later, Fitz and Stephen were sat in the living room with Lily and Gerry. Abby and Olivia appeared and announced that they were going to do some shopping as neither of them had a change of clothes with them. Just as they were leaving Fitz jumped up out of his seat and walked towards them.

"Livvie!" He said loudly to get her attention, he didn't even realise what he had called her until she glared at him.

"Fitz... Stop,"

"What?"

"My name, you said it again," she whispered seeing his parents watching them.

"Oh sorry. I just... Never mind. Just be safe and take your agents with you. No ditching them. Not today please."

"Okay," she said looking up at him. "I promise, no ditching."

"Thank you" he said walking towards and opening the front door for her. "Oh and Abs, don't even think of doing anything to encourage her."

"Whatever Fitzgerald." She sniggered, "haven't you got some cleaning to do?"

Fitz was worried, he wasn't sure why but he was. He knew that between what had happened at the school and then the news reporting that Olivia was in hospital, something else was bound to happen. It had been a couple of eventful days and he didn't want anything else to go wrong for her.

Whilst the girls were out shopping, Fitz had dragged his Mother out of the house, figuratively not literally, they didn't do anything in particular but it beat having her in the house.

They had decided that they wanted to go out for a meal that evening, so he quickly dropped Abby a message to let her know, just in case they decided to eat or be out for much longer. Fitz had been pestering his Mother for the name of the restaurant that she wanted to go to but she hadn't decided, he knew that Olivia's agents would want one though. It was a case of the earlier the better.

Stephen and Gerry were left in the house and were able to have a good catch up. Although Gerry was intrigued by Olivia he didn't want to ask questions and put Stephen in that position, so he decided to keep the conversation away from her.

It was approaching 5pm when Abby and Olivia returned, they headed straight for Fitz' room without even greeting anyone. As Olivia was pulled along be Abby she turned her head to look for Fitz but she wasn't able to see him.

Not long after the girls came in, Fitz and Lily came back. They had dinner reservations for 7 and Lily decided she needed to go get ready. She greeted Stephen and then excused herself, signalling for Gerry to follow her.

"You better start getting ready," Lily said to Stephen and Fitz. "We don't want to be waiting for you."

Fitz and Stephen nodded their heads and then just stood there, waiting for Lily to go.

"Are Abby and Liv back yet?" Fitz asked sitting down on the couch next to Stephen.

"Yeah, they got in just before you did. Have you told Abby where we are eating tonight?" He asked not wanting to be the one to do it.

Fitz just turned, got up and walked away, he could hear Stephen laughing as he knocked on his bedroom door.

"Hi..." Olivia said as she opened the door. She must have showered because her hair was wet and she had changed her clothes. She was wearing slim black Adidas joggers and a simple long-sleeved white t-shirt. She had her hair up in a messy bun and he couldn't take his eyes of her.

"Hi," He said as she moved back allowing him to walk into his room. He was about to compliment her appearance when Abby appeared.

Abby jumped slightly walking into the room, she hadn't heard Fitz knock, so didn't expect him to be stood there. She looked between the two of them and felt like she had interrupted something. She was grabbing some clothes to change into when Fitz decided to tell her where they were going tonight.

"Abs..." He stopped, she was now looking at him impatiently. "I just thought you should know, we are eating at Slice of Life."

"What?! Fitz why?"

"That wasn't my choice."

"Argghh! Where's Mum."

Slice of Life, wasn't a bad place to eat in the grand scheme of things, the problem that Abby had with it was that the portions sizes were extra tiny. If Fitz was being honest, he'd agree with her about that. He knew Stephen did but for some strange reason, every time their Mother visited she would insist on eating there.

Abby went into the bathroom only to re-emerge a few minutes later fully dressed, she walked past both Olivia and Fitz without saying anything and left the room, most likely in search for Lily.

"What's wrong with it?" Olivia asked not understanding why it upset Abby so much.

"Nothing, not really. Well... Abby thinks the meals are too small. On several occasions we've actually stopped on the way home to get more food."

"Oh,"

It was just before six and Lily was panicking that they would be late if the spent anymore time in the house. As always, she jokingly blamed the men for holding them up, when they had all been waiting for her to finish.

Olivia didn't know what to wear to go out in, Abby had told her that she wouldn't need anything extra fancy for the place they were going to, before she left her alone in the room, but she was still unsure. She knew that Fitz and Stephen were also in the process of getting ready so she decided to send him a quick text. Not even a few minutes after the message she heard a knock on the door.

"Help..." She said opening the door to him.

"Livvie, you look incredible." He said his mouth hanging open.

"Fitz..." She said after she saw his Mother walk past. She grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him into the room.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing..."

When he gave her a knowing look she signed.

"Do you think this is okay to go out in? Abby said its fine and I believe her, but I don't know."

Olivia stood there, watching him looking at her. She was wearing black skinny jeans, a mint green to white ombre t-shirt, she was also wearing a fleece lined denim jacket although she wasn't sure whether to wear it.

"Yes. Definitely, like I said you look incredible."

"Are you sure, I mean..." She was cut off.

"Look, you're just nervous. Relax okay, you look magnificent, you have nothing to worry about. Okay?" He repeated as he stepped towards her and cupped her face with his uninjured hand.

She pressed her face into his hand as she reached out with her right hand to grab his left. Just as she began to relax the door flew open and before they could separate properly they saw Gerry stood in the doorway. He just smiled at them before he spoke.

"Are you two ready, your Mother is insisting that we leave right now." He said before disappearing as quickly as he appeared.

Fitz could already tell that Olivia was becoming anxious again, probably because she didn't want to give the wrong impression and, just being caught by Gerry probably wasn't the impression she was hoping to set.

"Relax Livvie," Fitz said before kissing her forehead then taking her hand to lead her out of the room.

As they were getting ready to leave, they were trying to sort out who would go in what car. What a polava that was. It was eventually decided that Lily and Gerry would take Fitz' Audi and the others would go in Stephens' Mercedes, as it could fit the four of them. Stephen had suggested the idea in case Abby wanted to make a stop for food on the way back.

It only took 25 minutes to get to the restaurant, Olivia and Abby sat in the back, Stephen drove and Fitz sat in the front. Olivia had eventually decided to take Abby's advice and decided to wear what she had shown Fitz. She had taken her jacket after all.

It was a fairly nice evening and seeing as they couldn't get parked outside the restaurant, they decided to park a little way away and walk back. They hadn't heard from either Gerry or Lily yet, so they assumed that they weren't at the restaurant yet.

Stepping out of the car and walking to the restaurant, Olivia couldn't help but notice people watching them. It may have had something to do with the fact that they all looked like they should be models on a catwalk. Of course Fitz actually was, but that was neither here nor there. They were all dressed impeccably and although they weren't particularly dressed up they still looked good.

Abby had gone for a similar look to Olivia but she was wearing pale blue ripped skinny jeans, a plain white t-shirt and a burgundy cardigan. Fitz as always looked effortlessly stunning. He had decided to wear a light brown tweed blazer, slim fitting navy chinos and a navy blue shirt. Stephen had also chosen to wear navy chinos with a cream cable knit jumper.

It didn't take long to make it back to the restaurant; Stephen walked in first with Abby following him, Fitz then grabbed the door to hold open for Olivia. As she started to walk past he heard her take a deep breath, without even thinking about what he was doing he placed his hand on her elbow and gently guided her back outside.

"Fitz, what are you doing? We need to be inside if we are going to eat tonight."

"I know, I know... I can tell you're nervous, just take a second to relax. I promise tonight will be fine."

"We're going to be late... I don't want to be late Fitz."

"We're not going to be late, don't worry, just relax... Okay?"

She didn't know how he knew but he did, and she was thankful. He was right she was feeling a bit nervous and having him here was helping. A lot. She definitely needed a second or two before going in.

After a few seconds she nodded her head and Fitz reached for the door again, placing his hand on the small of her back, guiding her inside.

"Good evening," the hostess greeted them, looking Fitz up and down and then smiling.

"Hi, we have a reservation under Grant." Fitz spoke confidently.

"Yes, here we are, the rest of your party has already arrived."

He heard a small noise escape from Olivia at the mention of everyone else already being there. In an attempt to stop her worrying, he took hold of her hand as the followed the hostess through the restaurant. She led them all the way through the restaurant towards the private rooms. Of course, Fitz thought, he didn't know whose idea this was either Olivia's agents or his Mothers'.

Fitz and Olivia entered the room, as they greeted his parents Olivia noticed that there were two seats left, they were next to each other but one of them was next to his Mother and the other next to Stephen. Without even looking in her direction, Fitz walked to the seat next to Stephen and pulled it out for her to sit in, effectively taking the seat next to his Mother. She sat down mumbling a 'thank you' to him. She looked at him as he sat down and she was met with him smiling back at her.

After looking through their menus and general chit-chat, they were ready to order. It was only once they had ordered that conversation changed.

"So Olivia," Lily began, taking a sip of her drink "where do you go to school?"

"I am at school with Abby."

Abby was furious, she had already had this discussion with her; she didn't care if she was trying to be polite. Fitz shot Abby a glare when he heard her scoff at his Mother. He didn't particularly want an argument tonight.

"Are you in Abby's class then?"

"Yes,"

"Oh, so you must be almost 18 then?"

"Well..."

"Mum," Abby interrupted.

"Actually I just turned 17 not to long ago."

"17?"

"Mum," this time it was Fitz who interrupted. Why did she want to know how old Olivia was? It was time to change the subject he thought. "Dad, have you planned Christmas yet?"

"Well, actually we were going to ask you guys about this. We were thinking of spending the holidays in Switzerland. What do you guys think? Your Mother and I would probably go out during the first week of December, then you guys could fly out once school has finished."

"That sounds like a plan to me." Stephen said, looking at Gerry.

"Yeah, sounds good" Abby also responded, not looking at her Mother.

As their food came, the conversation changed, it flowed smoothly from one topic to the next. Lily and Gerry both spoke to and asked Olivia some more questions, this time without being cut off.

Over the course of dinner, and then dessert, Lily came to the realisation that she may have been wrong about Olivia. Whilst she initially believed what she had read in the papers about Olivia, she was now embarrassed that she had, the Olivia that was sat in front of her was nothing like the Olivia always in the papers. She had warned Fitz to be wary of her and for the life of her she didn't know why. She was a mature young girl, who looked absolutely beautiful and she seemed to have captured Fitz' heart. The only thing that she was still a bit concerned about was her age, she had only just turned 17, essentially she was still a child and not just any child. The child of the current President, if something happened, it wouldn't be good for anyone.

It was fast approaching 10pm; they had been in the restaurant for almost 3 hours. Gerry had asked for the bill and was in the process of paying for dinner, whilst the others made their way outside.

Stepping outside, it was a lot cooler than it had been earlier on in the evening and foolishly Olivia had left her jacket in the car. Once Fitz noticed that she had started to shiver he instantly took his jacket off and wrapped it round her.

"I'm fine Fitz, really"

"You're shaking, Liv. Just take it."

"Thanks..." she said smiling up at him.

Lily stood and looked at the four of them. Fitz was by Olivia, he had her tucked into his side with his arm wrapped round her in attempt to keep her warm. Abby was stood next to next to and talking to Olivia, something about school on Monday. Stephen was stood opposite Fitz and they too were talking about school. In that moment Lily couldn't be more proud of them.

"Where did you get parked?" Gerry asked.

"Not too far that way," Stephen said pointing in the direction that they were parked.

"Okay, well we will see you in a bit then."

Fitz and Olivia sat in the back of the car on the way home and as expected Abby wanted to stop for more food. Fitz could tell Olivia was tired and she started to nod off in the car. Before long she had fallen asleep leaning on Fitz.

By time they made it home it was almost 11pm. Waking Olivia, they made their way into the house. They were met with Lily and Gerry discussing where people would be sleeping as Gerry was inflating a double air bed. They hadn't even thought about that.

"Why don't you guys take my room," Stephen said motioning towards Lily and Gerry. He thought that Fitz and Olivia may go into Fitz' room again.

"Liv, you and Abby can have my room." Fitz said, "I'll sleep out here with Stevie."

"Erm, Liv you might have to share that room with Fitz..." Stephen said looking at Abby passed out on the inflatable bed.

"No there's no need. Fitz you have your bed, I'll share with Abby." Olivia said worried about what his parents might think.

"Liv..."

"It's fine Fitz. Go on."

"If you'll excuse us, we are going to head to bed. Goodnight." Gerry announced.

"Goodnight," "Night", they said together.

"Livvie..."

"Fitz, no. You go sleep in your own bed."

"Well, I'm going to hit the hay." Stephen said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Olivia and Fitz stood staring at each other. Sometimes he couldn't keep up with her, they were fine and now she seems to be distancing herself again and he can't get his head round it. She was fine sharing with him last time, so what changed? Was it his parents? Quite possibly but he wasn't sure. Conceding defeat he said goodnight and walked away.

"Well..." Stephen started,

"I don't want to talk Stevie..." Olivia said, she liked Stephen, she really did but he had a tendency to talk too much and she wasn't in the mood tonight.

"What do you think that was between Fitz and Olivia?" Lily asked as they were getting ready for bed.

"He was just being a gentleman." Gerry replied.

"No... It was more than that."

"Okay, Lil. You're right, but just leave it be. I'm tired and ready for some much needed sleep."

"Do you think they are sleeping together?"

"Lily!" Gerry said shocked. Yes they were very touchy feely with each other but that was it. Fitz would have said something if not. Wouldn't he?

"What? I see the way he looks at her. Have you ever seen him look at anyone else like that?"

"No, I haven't but... she's young Lil, and obviously she's special to him. They're not okay."

Lily took in what he had said and he was right, Olivia was special to Fitz. Everybody could see it. You'd have to be blind not to.

Just a Gerry thought that he would be able sleep, Lily started to talk again.

"Do you think we spend too much time away from them?"

"Who?"

"The kids."

"Why do you ask?" Gerry said looking at her.

"It's just, when I was arguing with Abby I realised something. She was right. She had probably spoken to me a dozen times about Olivia, and I didn't even know who she was. Well of course I knew, but I didn't know that she was Abby's friend."

"Lil,"

"I just feel bad. I just, it feels like we aren't or I'm not invested in their lives anymore. I know it sounds bad but that how I feel. I didn't even know that her and Olivia were friends, or that Fitz and Stephen knew her too, much less that her and Fitz were that close. That he was so smitten with her."

"Lily... What do you what; you have your business... I have my practice."

"I know, I know... We need to find time though Gerry. I don't want to be a stranger in my children's lives."

Olivia woke up, she didn't know what exactly had woken her but she was sweating profusely. She couldn't remember her dream but she felt scared. It was an odd feeling, it was like she didn't feel safe where she was.

She rolled off the bed, being careful not to wake Abby in the process, she knew where she wanted to be but she wasn't sure if she should. Deciding to throw caution to the wind and just do it. Walking through the house, she made her way to Fitz' door. She opened the door slowly and made her way inside, she saw Fitz asleep in the bed and that's when she noticed the time. 3.29am. He was going to be so grumpy when he found out.

"Fitz..." she whispered but got no response. "Fitz," she said a bit louder, gently pushing his shoulder.

She could see his eyes begin to flutter and then struggle to open.

"Livvie? What's wrong?" He said as he started to make space for her on the bed. She was stood there in her pyjamas, sweating and looking upset, he assumed that she'd had another nightmare. "Come on..." He said, patting the bed next to him.

She climbed into bed without saying anything, once she was settled against him he pulled the covers over her and then waited to see if she wanted to talk. When she did talk, what she said wasn't what he had expected.

"Why does Stephen call your Mom, Mom but not your Dad, Dad?"

"What?"

"Stephen, your Mom."

"That's kind of a long story,"

"Okay..."

He glanced at the clock and saw the time. He wanted to be angry or at least annoyed that he was awoken so early again but he wasn't. She needed him and she trusted him, he wasn't going to destroy that trust by ignoring her.

"Well it's really mostly Stevie's story. Are you sure you're not tired? Don't you want to sleep?"

"No, I can't sleep..."

"Okay well... Mum and Dad were both working in London a lot not long after I was born, so they decided that it would be easier to live there. We lived about an hour outside of London in a little village called Ripley in Surrey."

"How old were you?"

"Erm... I wasn't one before we moved. Maybe about 9 or 10 months old."

"When did you meet Stephen then?"

"I met Stephen when we started school. We were 4 and pretty much joint at the hip from day one. He would come over to stay at the house whenever he could. We did everything together and to us we were more like brothers than friends. We went through school together and all of the ups and downs that come along with it. When Abby came along it was like he was also getting a younger sister and growing up with him, she always saw him as her big brother. You see, although Mum and Dad were always busy they made sure that they were at home as much as they could be... Stevie's parents weren't quite the same."

"Is that why he was always at yours?"

"Partly..."

"What did his parents do?"

"His Dad was in the military and his Mum didn't work, she had a lot of family money and didn't see the need to. He and his Dad were really close but he never really got on well with his Mother, she never seemed too interested in him."

"Oh..."

"We didn't live too far from each other and one summer Stevie's parents had started to argue lot so he spent more time at our house than he did at his own. We were just about start year 4 at school, so we would have been 8 going on 9, and his Dad got deployed. His parents were still in the process of arguing about any and everything. Stevie begged his Dad not to go, he pleaded with him not to leave him with his Mum, but his Dad didn't have a choice, he had to go. As it turns out that was the last time he would see his Dad."

"I'm sorry... What happened?" Olivia didn't know if she should have asked but she couldn't stop herself. It had slipped out of her mouth before she even realised.

"I'm not really sure, about a month into his tour there was some sort of explosion. His Dad survived the initial blast and was taken to hospital but then there were later complications and he didn't pull through. As you can imagine when an 8 year old Stephen found out he was devastated."

"That must have been hard on him and his Mom."

"Well that's the thing. His Mother was treating it as if she had a new lease on life, she didn't seem to care about what had happened. For a while we all thought it was just shock but it slowly began to get worse. By that Christmas Stephen had his own room at our house, Mum and Dad took care of him and everything he needed as if he were their own."

Fitz hadn't spoken about this stuff in so long, but it all still felt fresh. Like it had only just happened recently and not almost 12 years ago now. He decided to carry on anyway.

"It had got to the stage where his Mum didn't even care where he was. I mean, he was only eight and she just didn't care. That's when Mum and Dad got their lawyers involved to see what they could do. Eventually Stephen was taken away from his Mother and he was put into foster care, Mum and Dad did everything they could to try and get him to stay with us."

"I'm assuming they managed to, seeing as Stephens here." She said hesitantly, she had a feeling that there was more to it though.

"Not a first. Stephen was placed somewhere else, he was gone for a few months and we could all feel it. Part of all of us was taken the day Stephen was. Mum and Dad sat us down to tell us, they wanted to be the one to tell Stephen. I remember I ran to my room and sat and cried. Stephen eventually came up to talk to me but I couldn't stop the tears, so we both just sat there crying together until it was time for him to go. I had a plan and a back-up plan and a back-up for the back-up, I thought that I had thought of everything, so they wouldn't be able to take him."

"I'm so sorry Fitz... I didn't mean to upset you, I didn't know." Olivia said, she could hear the emotion in his voice.

"It's okay..." He said, running his hand up and down her arm, she was still cuddled in against his side.

"We don't... I don't need to know anymore, you can stop."

Ignoring her, he continued. "For days, I didn't want to go to school because Stephen wouldn't be there. My life basically stopped, I couldn't manage it. I went from seeing him every day, sharing a house with him to not seeing him whatsoever. Mum and Dad carried on with their lawyers, going down every route, trying every option. It must have taken them almost two months but eventually they had good news for us."

"Stephen?"

"Yeah... They had forced me into the car for school that morning, kicking and screaming. When we got there... I remember it so clearly. We got there and there he was, just standing there in his uniform, smiling at me. I ran towards him and forgot to stop so we ended up on the floor, we were both in tears. It took us a while to calm down as it turns out Stephen wasn't doing any better than I was, if anything he was worse. He'd essentially lost both of his parents on the same day and then he was torn from the only people who he could call family."

"So they managed to get Stephen back?"

"Yeah, after a while he started to also call Mum, Mum but he never really calls Dad, Dad unless he's really upset or hurt, he will more often say Father than Dad. He once told us that he never had anyone that he wanted to call Mum and asked if she would mind if he called her Mum, as for his Dad, he always said that he wouldn't want to upset his real Dad but he also didn't want to upset his second Dad."

"I didn't know, that a lot to go through Fitz... I feel,"

"Don't... You didn't know and that's okay. Stephen doesn't really like to talk about it that much, so we never do. There are only a handful of people that know about all this, and you're now one of them."

"Are you okay Fitz? It must have been hard on you too."

"It was, but not as much as it was for Stephen." He said looking down at her. He'd never shared that with anyone before. The truth, that is. With most people, if they even noticed, they would change the topic or make something up but he couldn't do that. Not to Olivia, she wasn't just anyone. Not to him anyway. She had told him the truth about so much, it was only fair he did the same with her.

"We should get some sleep Livvie, it's late." He said seeing that they had been talking for almost an hour.

He felt her head shift so he looked down at her. That when he was met with a nice surprise. She tentatively reached up and kissed his cheek. Although it was an innocent kiss, and he had kissed her several times, that was the first time she had kissed him. She moved her head back so it was resting against his chest again.

"Goodnight Fitz,"

"Goodnight Livvie," he said kissing the top of her head.

AN

Here's another I hope you like it... Please let me know what you think.