Disclaimer: I do not own Scandal

AN: I'm hosting a bridal shower out of town this weekend, so this will be the last update until Monday. Monday's chapter is already written, though, so the next update will be out bright and early then! Have a great weekend! ~ XOXO MAF

Chapter Twelve


I said remember this feeling


"Is Liv okay?" Maya broke the silence. No ne responded and Maya opened her mouth to panic when Fitz entered the waiting room.

"Great! Everyone's here. Liv wants everyone to come back. We've still got a long ways to go." He motioned for them to follow him.

The grouped followed Fitz down the hall to Olivia's private room, guarded by Tom and Hal who nodded in greeting to them.

"Baby!" Maya was by Olivia's side in an instant, wrapping her arms around her baby girl's shoulders. "I'm so excited to meet my granddaughter. How do you feel?"

Ruffling Jerry's hair, Eli asked. "Are you officially a big brother now?"

Through tired eyes, Jerry beamed up at him. "Mhm, Peanut is finally here, but Momma and Daddy haven't told me her name yet. Grandpa, do you know her name?"

Eli shook his head and scooped Jerry up, grinning as the little boy squealed happily at him. "Nope, Momma and Daddy are being pretty mean about that." Very maturely Eli stuck his tongue out at them, nudging Jerry until he did the same.

With a fond shake of her head, Maya replied, "Very mature, Grandpa. You're going to make a monster out of him yet."

"I want to be just like Grandpa!" Jerry announced, now wide awake and bouncing on his grandfather's lap. "If he's a grrrr monster, then I want to be a grrrr monster too!" In response, Eli let out his own growl, tickling Jerry as he did so.

From across the room, David looked down at Abby. "And you think that man growling over there like a damn cartoon character is a nefarious spy?"

Before Abby could respond, Stephen cut in. "We saw what we saw. And they may be happy go lucky with Jer, but something is definitely up with all three of them. And whatever it is, it's not on the up and up if they're doing it in the dead of night with a guy who has no solid identity."

When Maya fake attacked Jerry and Eli, Cyrus snorted. "Yeah, now there are some hardened criminals." He spat out sarcastically.

"What about Huck?" Quinn asked suddenly. "You all dismiss Eli and Maya easily, but what about Huck?" She noted no one came to his defense and their discussions were about all of them.

"I couldn't find anything on him." Kim's voice dropped even more. So much to the point that everyone in the discussion had to lean in to hear her. "It's almost as if he didn't exist long before Olivia met him." She murmured. "I mean there's no one with his social security number before about two months before Olivia met him. I don't understand how that even happens, how no one notes that."

"The government can't keep track of it all. There's too many people." Stephen explained. "So you're saying Huck isn't who he says he is. That he made up an identity?"

"Maybe he did." Quinn agreed. "I mean, what do we know about him? He's a computer genius. Maybe he forged or stole someone's identity."

Rolling his eyes, Harrison sighed. "Damn it, woman. You're enough to drive a man mad. This is Huck. He's part of our family. He's not some crazed murderer who has a new identity."

"Everything okay over here?" Cyrus, Stephen, Kim, Harrison, Quinn, David and Abby looked like seven deer caught in headlights in the back corner of the room. Olivia arched her brow at their silence. "Why do you all look guilty? What have you done that I'm not going to like? You didn't burn the office down did you?" When they didn't respond, she groaned, "Please tell me we still have an office to call home."

Abby let out a dramatic sigh. "Yes, we're guilty!" She moaned. "Guilty of being so excited to meet Peanut." She paused when no one jumped in to help her. "And we're arguing over who Peanut's godparents should be."

Fitz chuckled at Abby as she threw herself in a vacant chair. Some days he thought she should've gone into the theatre rather than politics. "And here I was thinking it was our decision who her godparents should be." He shook his head as if he were an idiot. "Liv, we really should've just asked Abby." He turned towards their friend. "So what are we naming her? Is she our last child? If not, when should we have the next one? Where should Jerry go to school? Are there any other big decisions you'd like to make for us?" He teased lightly.

Olivia's eyes narrowed in on Abby throughout Fitz's rant. Red was lying. She was sure of it. Still, Olivia decided to play along for the moment. Whatever it was could wait until after Peanut was born. There was no way it was so dire it couldn't keep for another day or so. "Do you always have to be so opinionated, Red?" She winked up at Fitz as Abby huffed and her cheeks turned a tinge of pink that meant she was slightly riled up.

Straightening, Abby nodded. "Of course! It would be entirely boring without me!"

Opening her mouth to respond, Olivia stopped when she felt the beginnings of a contraction. "Good lord!" She groaned. "I forgot how horrible those can be."

Staring at the monitor she was hooked up to, Harrison whistled. "Wow, that hurt?" He asked. "It wasn't even a bad one!" He motioned to the screen, grinning as another one popped up. "Now this one is going to be bad."

With a slight shriek, Olivia shouted. "Out! Get out! No uterus, no opinion!"

Dropping a kiss on Olivia's forehead, Quinn tugged on Harrison's sleeve. "I'm going to get him food and set him up in the waiting room. Far away from you and your contraction machine." When Harrison opened his mouth to tell Olivia about the next one, Quinn pinched him so hard he let out a high-pitched scream of his own. "I'll be back to check on you later. Love you, sweetie."

"Food?" Jerry, no wide awake, shot up. "Can I come, Aunt Quinn? I'm so hungry!"

Scooping him up, Quinn murmured, "But of course! Someone has to keep your Uncle Harrison out of trouble. We know how hard he is to handle."

Saluting Quinn, Jerry nodded seriously. "He'll behave. Promise. Or no dessert."

"Actually," Olivia interrupted before Harrison could embarrass himself by arguing with a four-year old, "do you guys mind if I have some time alone with the girls?"

"Of course, sweet baby." Fitz took Jerry from Quinn, ushering the Popes and the guys out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

"Okay," Olivia crossed her arms, letting them rest on her belly, "seriously, what the fuck is going on with guys?"

Abby put on her best innocent face, one Olivia didn't buy for even a quarter of a second. "What?"

"I was going to wait, but I can't. I'm too damn curious. What you three up to? And why does it look like Stephen is involved but everyone else disagrees with you? For real, what's going on now?" Olivia snapped.

Moving to sit next to Olivia on the bed, Kim decided to give Olivia a half-truth for the moment. Fitz could tell her everything once they were all home from the hospital. "How much do you know about Huck?"

SCANDAL

Olivia couldn't stop thinking about Kim's question. The discussion had come to a screeching halt when Dr. Kimball came into the room to check on her and had yet to resume. The moment they could all three of her girlfriends fled the room, only coming back with Fitz in tow so they wouldn't have to continue the conversation. Now, as she munched on ice chips alone, Olivia thought over Kim's question.

What did they really know about Huck?

Nothing.

The answer was: nothing. He was quiet, barely there and never offered up personal information about his life outside of them or his past. IT was entirely possible he knew Jake Ballard. What wasn't possible was that he was somehow involved in her kidnapping. Whatever, or whoever, he may be, he was family. And that meant something to Olivia. Nothing else mattered at the moment.

As if on cue another contraction tore through her body. Gripping her ice chips in one hand and soothing her other palm over her belly, she murmured, "Well of course you matter, Peanut. Any time now, baby girl."

SCANDAL

"At 1:12am, after nearly twenty-four hours of labor, the First Family welcomed their newest addition: Karen Michelle Grant. Social media has been blowing up since the first tweet regarding the newborn, along with a picture of her with her family."

Hollis Doyle muted the morning news. Sipping on his Irish coffee from his home just outside of Houston, Texas, he watched as pictures of the First Family, their friends, their family, and White House staff with the new baby floated across the screen.

Picking up his phone, he dialed da number. "Clarissa, get me a flight to DC and a hotel room. And call Vice President Langston's chief of staff. Get me a meeting."

Yes, now was the perfect time to make a trip to DC.

SCANDAL

XOXO

MAF