A/N: Final chapter! Please review, and let me know what you think, and also what you would like to see in the sequel! I know I haven't kept up with updating consistently, so please feel free to bug me via reviews, or via Twitter ( _Marissahhh).
Mellie woke up early in the morning, before the sun had even begun to creep into the room through the slightly-opened curtains. She looked around the room, frowning as she remembered that today was their last day in the White House. In about twelve hours, they would be walking out of the doors for the last time, leaving behind nearly every aspect of the last eight years of their life. In a way, that would be great. There were many things that happened in this house that she wished hadn't. There were many things that had happened while Fitz was president that she would do pretty much anything to go back and change. On the other hand, there were also many things that she was grateful had happened while they lived in this house; Fitz had ended his relationship with Olivia Pope, they had welcomed four children into their lives, and Fitz had beaten the hell out of Big Jerry. But they had also lost their son. Fitz had tried very hard to divorce her. They had had countless arguments and he had said plenty of hurtful things that he couldn't ever take back. It was funny, even in the heat of an argument, Mellie was always careful to choose her words wisely; she couldn't dare say anything that would hurt Fitz. She wasn't looking out for him when she refused to say anything truly hurtful to her husband, but she was looking out for herself. She loved him so much, she couldn't possibly hurt him, regardless of how much he hurt her.
She wasn't exactly sure of whether she was looking forward to leaving, or whether she was dreading it. There was always that possibility that they would be back; she did still have her aspiration to become president herself, even after seeing Fitz struggle with it for the past eight years. She would never admit it, but politically, she had begun to see herself as stronger than Fitz. When Olivia Pope was involved, Fitz would crumble politically, and seem to realize that anything but her existed. Of course, that was years ago, and he hadn't done that recently. But he was still capable of it, and she still found herself stronger than him in that aspect. She believed that she could indefinitely succeed as president, and she wanted to at least attempt it.
"Mel?" The sudden voice in the room shocked Mellie, and she jumped slightly when she heard it. She hadn't realized that her husband was awake. "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't mean to shock you." He sat up slightly, leaning over and kissing his wife's temple. "What are you doing up so early?" Fitz questioned, turning his body slightly so that he was facing her.
She shrugged slightly, unsure of exactly how to answer his question. Why was she awake? She couldn't exactly put her finger on it. There were plenty of reasons running through her head, but she wasn't sure of which one it really was. "Just thinking." She decided to use thinking as her answer, since that was mainly what she was doing. She was thinking about leaving, she was thinking about coming back. She was thinking about Jerry, she was thinking about Olivia Pope. She was thinking about whether or not she wanted to live in DC for the rest of her life, and she was thinking about how she really didn't have a choice.
Fitz yawned, giving his eyes a few seconds to adjust to being open before becoming all-ears for his wife. "Thinking about what?"
"Oh, just about everything under the sun." She let out a small chuckle, shaking her head. "I don't think it really hit me until now that we're leaving today…We've spent the last eight years of our lives here and it just seems like yesterday we were walking in here for the first time…It really doesn't seem like it's been eight years." Mellie sighed quietly. "So much has happened since we've been here, and it's just weird imagining that tomorrow morning, we won't be waking up in this bed. We won't be walking down the halls to go check on the kids, we won't have to check ourselves in the mirror to make sure we're presentable before we leave our bedroom. I've just gotten so used to this in the past eight years, that doing anything different will be strange to me. It won't feel real. This feels real, this feels right. I don't want to leave."
Fitz wrapped his arm around Mellie, pulling her body closer to him. "We knew when we moved in here eight years ago that this wasn't going to last forever. We knew that we were going to have to leave at some point, sweetheart."
"I know." Mellie wiped a tear that had somehow escaped from her eye. "I just didn't know it would come so soon."
"Oh, Mel…" Fitz shook his head slightly, kissing the top of her head. "If you're serious about running for president, about running this country the way that I struggled to over the last eight years, then I'll make damn sure that you're back in this house in four years. I'll make sure that you win the next election and I'll make sure that it's your ass sitting in that big chair in the Oval in four years from now. I promise you that. We won't be gone for long. Just think of it as a long vacation. In four years from now, the Grants will take over this house again for at least four more years."
Mellie smiled as she listened to her husband. He never failed to make her smile, to make her feel better. "I am serious, Fitz."
"Then we better start planning pretty damn soon." He placed his hands on her cheeks, turning her head to him so that he could kiss her. "And we better make sure that we leave this room with a bang." Fitz's hands ran down her body, stopping when he reached her ass. "If you know what I mean…"
"Oh, I think I know what you mean, Mr. President." Mellie smirked, crawling on top of her husband, ready to be intimate with him in this bed for the last time. Or, at least the last time for the next four years.
"Do you three have everything? Anything you leave here, we can't get back. So make sure you've got your blankies and stuffed animals, okay?" Fitz ruffled his youngest son's hair, smiling as Ben giggled and nodded. The three children told Fitz that they had everything, and he walked over to Mellie, who had their thirteen-month-old daughter on her lap. "Do you have everything, Mel? We all know you're the most forgetful person in this family." He teased, running his hand up and down her back.
"I do. I double and triple-checked." She stood up from where she was sitting, making sure that she had a good grip on Danika. "Are we ready?" Mellie questioned, looking at her children and her husband. They all nodded, and they found their way out onto the White House lawn, where they took family photos for the press. After all of the pictures were taken, and Fitz and Mellie had spoken to a few reporters, they headed to the garage, where they all piled into a car and headed to their new home. The kids hadn't seen it yet, only Mellie and Fitz had. They had had all of their things moved over to the new house and the rooms were decorated already so that the house was ready to live in.
As they drove, Mellie looked out the window, watching as they drove past the place that she had called home for the past eight years. It was as if everything was in slow-motion. She rolled down the window, something that she hadn't been able to do since Fitz had become president, and stared at the house. She took in the beauty, the scent, and everything about the place that she had called "home" for the past eight years. And as she intently gazed, she came to a conclusion that she had been trying to come to all day; despite all of the terribly horrible things that she had gone through, that their family had gone through, she wouldn't trade the last eight years for anything in the world.
