Here is a new chapter . . . updates might be coming more rapidly during the next few weeks because I have time during the holidays to write and I been very inspired to write more rapidly (recently re-watched season 1 & 2 of scandal).

Disclaimer: Don't own Scandal or its character. Please excuse any typos. Happy Reading and as always reviews are greatly appreciated and encouraged.

Fitz looked at Cyrus's phone and saw the headline of a news report: Is First Lady Mellie Grant confirming a possible presidential divorce by showing up to a local California beach without her wedding ring.

Fitz shrugged his shoulder. "Is this what got you all upset, one story from a non-major newspaper?"

Cyrus shook his head, "Sir, pull out your laptop."

Fitz pulled out his laptop and saw this story is being covered by every major news outlet. TMZ even has video of Mellie with Teddy at the beach without her ring. TMZ showed coverage of Mellie without her ring for the last month showing the beach incident was not an isolated time where she forgot to wear her ring.

Mellie complied with the agreement she has with Fitz by making no non-preapproved announcements about their relationship, but her actions of being frequently out in public without her ring was a very loud statement in itself.

Fitz slammed his fist into his desk and muttered, "Damn you . . . Mellie . . . going out in public without her ring knowing the press will take your picture."

Lily looked over at Fitz with a shocked look on her face.

Fitz covered his mouth "Oh I am so sorry Lily; daddy did not mean to say a bad word and slam his fist in anger."

Olivia walked into the Oval Office to retrieve Lily being off her business call. She noticed everyone in the room is tense. She goes over and picked up Lily.

Lily attempted to whisper to her mommy but it come out much louder than she intended, "Dadda said a bad word . . . don't be mad at him mommy . . . he said sorry."

Olivia raised an eyebrow at her daughter's confession and at Fitz truly sorry facial expression. "Don't worry my sweet girl your dadda is not in trouble." Olivia could tell there was something more going on than Fitz swearing in front of their daughter.

Lily smiled and clapped her hands, unfazed by the tension in the room, "Dadda not in trouble, be happy Dadda."

Fitz put a smile on his face to appease his youngest.

Olivia smiled at her daughter, "How would you like to color with Ms. Anna." Olivia referred to Lily's nanny that works part-time in the residence to help with the kids.

Lily clapped her hands again excited to color with her nanny, "Dadda we continue our meeting later."

Olivia chuckled, "Oh did I interrupt your briefing with senior advisor Lily again Fitz."

Fitz just nodded his head, "Yes, but we will continue it another time, I want to hear her perspective on an environmental bill."

Cyrus just rolled his eyes at Fitz and Olivia playing along with their two year old daughter roleplay. "Uhm sir we have important things to talk about." Cyrus muttered to him reminding him they have a Mellie problem.

Fitz noticed Cyrus eye roll while he was talking to Olivia and Lily, "I am aware Cyrus and we will discuss it when Olivia gets back from the residence, I believe she would be a great help with this problem."

Cyrus shook his head, "I don't think we should invite her in this Mr. President."

Olivia read between the lines and knew this must somehow involve her, "You heard your President, he thinks I should be involved, so I am going to be involved Mr. Beene." Olivia decided to address him formally to remind him that while he has a personal relationship with Fitz, at the end of the day Fitz is the President of the United States and as such Cyrus serves him.

The corners of Fitz's lips turned up slightly at Olivia's total shutdown of Cyrus's attempt at trying to exclude her from the team.

Olivia quickly took Lily to the residence and return to the Oval office.

Fitz showed her the coverage of the story about Mellie to catch her up to speed. "Uhm Fitz I think it's time you said something about this situation, you are giving Mellie way too much power with your silence."

Cyrus throw up his hands in frustration, "I been saying that for months now, I said we should say something when Liv told the world she was having a sexual relationship with you . . . I said we should say something when you decided to divorce your wife . . . I said we should say something when you kicked said wife out of the White House."

Fitz shook his head, "Then you should be happy we are now going to say something Cyrus, we are doing what you suggested."

Cyrus huffed, "Like a million years later and only after Liv suggested you do so." Cyrus shook his head in frustration that he would always be second to Olivia when it came to advising Fitz despite being his Chief of Staff.

Olivia shook her head as she turned to face Cyrus. "Look Cyrus I know I am not your favorite person, in your mind I corrupted your perfect president, and you want nothing more to banish me to a deserted island far away from him, I get it."

She paused for a minute. "Cyrus we have not agreed on much recently, but there has always been one thing we have agreed on beyond a shadow of a doubt, that is that Fitz should be president and we have a responsibility to ensure he stays in this office, Mellie is threating that and we all need to unite and make this problem go away, everything else between us does not matter."

Cyrus face took on a more relaxed state, as he realized Olivia was right. Everything else can be dealt with later; right now they need to formulate a plan to eliminate the Mellie problem. "Fitz needs to address the public and announce he has divorced Mellie, once the public knows they are divorced, any power she thinks she has will vanish, she will no longer be First Lady . . . taking her importance away."

Olivia nodded her head, "I agree with Cyrus, it's time to tell the world you are divorce but with minor change to his suggested plan, I don't think it should be a press conference . . . press conferences should only be given for important presidential announcement not personal matters . . . I think this situation would be better handled with a personal interview in the White House." She paused and bit her lip, "I think you should do it with Mellie by yourself."

Fitz shook his head, "Absolutely not Liv, I am fine with doing an interview, but bringing Mellie here and having her sit next to me like I don't hate her, I will not do."

Cyrus chimed in, "Fitz, Liv has a point, you can do the interview alone but for optics you need Mellie by yourself, you two came into the White House together, it's only fitting when you end things its done together . . . plus if Mellie is absence that will only result in them wanting her to do a separate interview to get her side of the divorce, if you do it together, there are no sides, just one mutual agreed upon divorce announcement."

Olivia leaned against Fitz's desk slightly, "He has a point Fitz, and you have to think about re-election, having a mutually agreed upon divorce because you two grow apart is a better narrative then you leaving your wife high and dry after having a sexual relationship with a former employee." Olivia intentionally talked about herself in the third person to take emotions out of this conversation.

Fitz was quiet thinking over Cyrus and Olivia suggestion about bring Mellie back for the interview.

Cyrus saw Fitz was beginning to accept the idea of bring Mellie back, "While we are talking about your affair, we will have to address that in the interview, no way to avoid it, you cannot remain silence about Liv's confession while announcing you are divorcing your wife, people will have question about that . . . we have a file of things we could . . ."

Fitz cut him off knowing he is about to bring up his Olivia Pope's kill file, "I will not throw Liv under the bus during this interview, that is not an option for me . . . so if you are going to bring up the kill file, you can save your breath."

Cyrus looked over at Olivia for an assist with this matter.

Olivia bit her bottom lip as she thought of a way to get Fitz to do something he was adamantly against doing. "Fitz, I can handle anything in the kill file, my past as party girl, and my record of dating older successful men . . . I will not take you discredited me personal . . . it just something you have to do to ensure you remain in this office for this term and another."

Fitz shook his head as he stood and walked over to the window out of view of the Oval Office camera.

Olivia followed him into that corner of the room.

Cyrus remained near the desk knowing they needed to have this moment together in order for Olivia to convince him to do what he needed to do.

Fitz looked into Olivia's dark brown eyes, "I will not discredit you for your past Liv, I cannot and will not do it, there is nothing you can say that will make me do it, so you two will have to come up with a different way to deal with the affair . . . the means will not justify the ends in this situation."

Olivia sighed as she closed her eyes for a moment. She internally prayed for something to spark an idea in her and then an idea came flooding through her mind. "How about you tell the public the truth about us?"

Cyrus nearly choked, "What . . . What the hell Olivia?!"

Fitz was equally confused by Olivia's suggestion of the truth. Olivia has always been adamant about keeping their relationship secret in the past.

Olivia smirked at both men's confusion, "Yes, the truth, disclosed that you had a brief relationship in the past with me, it ended and we maintain an only professional relationship after, and the affair was not a factor in your divorce that happened substantially later . . . all true statements . . . it's a statement that does not focus on the affair per se or me as person."

After Cyrus registered what Olivia just suggested a smile spread across his face. "That is genius Liv . . . pure genius . . . it deals with your earlier statement . . . and has the added bonus of being true."

Fitz shook his head "Is it really true . . . we dated and it ended . . . Liv you know we are more complicated than that . . . we share a daughter."

Olivia nodded her head. "I am aware we share a child Fitz . . . that truth is not relevant for this interview . . . the focus of the interview is just you and Mellie . . . and the divorce . . . it does not involve me or my child."

It did not go unnoticed by Fitz that Olivia referred to Lily as her child or that Olivia was distance herself from their former relationship. "It just feels . . . "

Olivia could tell he was pondering something but for once she could not read him. "Fitz, you asked for a way to not discredit me, here it is."

Cyrus nodded his head, "Its genius and might actually clean up this mess and not complete destroy our chance at re-election"

Fitz sighed feeling ganged up on by his two chief advisors, "Fine, I'll do it . . . set the interview up for two days from now and arrange for Mellie to return tomorrow to prep her . . . have them set her up in the Blair house . . . I don't want her in my living space."

Olivia's cellphone began to ring and she looked at it and saw its Huck, "I have to take this."

She walked out of the Oval Office leaving Fitz and Cyrus to discuss the interview further. "Hello Huck?"

Huck responded "Hello Liv." He paused before he delivered the message he called to deliver, "Liv . . . you were approved to move into Hollowbrook over a week ago, they need an answer on your move-in date for security purposes . . . have you changed your mind about moving out of the White House."

Olivia paused before responding to Huck. When she first asked Huck to look into a home for her and Lily, things were awkward in the White House, but thing had gotten much better after Fitz talked to his children about the divorce. At the same time, she knew after Fitz gave the interview and told the American people he and his wife had divorced the backlash against her and media coverage would intensity. She thought to herself maybe this was the perfect time to remove herself and her daughter from the chaos. "Huck tell them I will be moving-in tomorrow afternoon."

Recap: Oh Mellie making trouble all the way across the country . . . Fitz owe the swear jar money . . . isn't Senior Advisor Lily the cutest . . . what do you think of the plan the reestablished team grant (Cyrus, Fitz, Olivia) came up with? . . . We have a move-out date for Olivia and Lily, How do you think Fitz going to take the news?

Preview: Olivia and Lily Moving out of the White House

As always review, whether negative or positive, I really like hearing everyone's thoughts! LM1.