Author's Note: Good afternoon, everyone. 50 chapters, already! And it's SCANDAL-ous Thursday and I had to force myself to go to bed at 2AM so I could do useful things for my family during the day so they'll leave me the hell alone from 8-9 and 10-11 tonight. I have laundry to do and I'm gonna cook a big ass pot of spaghetti and…SCANDAL is back, finally! Even if some of my worst fears come true (and you guys already know what they are…), the fact that we've got an at least 20 episode season to watch, cheer and bitch about, and play around with via gifs and fanfic makes me very, very happy.

Disclaimer: "Honestly, it's not mine!"

The Duties and Responsibilities of the First Lady pt. 5

The first shot of her is of her mid dance with her son. Gerry is smiling and laughing in his gray and blue school uniform and neon yellow ankle socks, his hair falling in sparkling cerulean slate eyes. The same yellow is on her camisole and the polka dots on her purple pajama pants. Her hair is up in large multicolored rollers and her feet are bare, her toes painted a matte snakeskin silvery green. Large deep chocolate doe eyes are lined with black, her own smile brilliant and radiating warmth.

"I've been reading this magazine since I was 5. I made my first fashinonista scrapbooks out of the pictures and I get a lot of my hair and makeup tips from the articles and now, I get to be in it. I get to be on it! This is awesome!"

The second shot of her has her lounging on a settee, a copy of a newspaper open. Her waved hair was piled up with small white pearl barrettes throughout it. Her maxi dress is a deep royal purple that left her shoulders bare and hugged her in all the right places. Her eyes were made up in a classic smoky look, her lips tinted in the red she was now known for. A pair of shocking pink and white zebra stripe 4 inch heels are on her feet that are causally draped over the back of the couch. Other than a treble clef shaped pendant resting against her clavicle, Nadia Reacher-Grant's wedding set is her only jewelry.

"Being the first African-American First Lady is a great honor and very scary. I'm helping to usher in a new era at the White House and in America in general and sometimes, it's overwhelming, especially with all the other projects that I've got going on. If it wasn't for my Boys and my loved ones and the grace of God, I would've gone off the rails ages ago. Well, further off the rails, anyway…"

The third shot is her in action, Olivia leaning over her tablet and with her Bluetooth piece in her ear. On the upper right corner desk is a small plant, the pot black except for a map of the 5 boroughs of NYC. There are books and Velcro folders stacked neatly on either side of her, pictures of her son and husband in front of them. Her hair is down and teased wild, a small American flag bow on the left side. She has on a pair of black square frames, liquid gold eye makeup brightening her eyes and a soft bubblegum pink tint on her lips. A black cardigan pullover is layered over a crisp white Oxford and the steel gray pencil skirt stops just past her knees. Her left foot is 'popped' off the floor, showing the red sole of her canary yellow classic heels.

"There's a story from Greek Mythology. Originally, humans were a singular entity with two heads and eight limbs. Zeus being…Zeus decided one day to split everyone apart and scatter them to the four winds, cursing them to a quest to find their other halves. Some didn't find them at all and died alone. Some found someone close enough and made it work. And a very lucky few, found their other halves. When it comes to my relationship with Fitz, it's definitely the 3rd ending. He's my best friend in the world and my Rock. We build each other up, we slay dragons together, and there's just so much love between us and…he's It. I don't want to be with anyone else and honestly, I don't think I'd be able to."

The last picture is of her being held tenderly by President Grant bridal style, her looking directly into the camera. His suit jacket is draped over her shoulders and his sleeves rolled up, showing muscular arms and the matching tattoo. Her feet are bare and her toes pointed upward. His eyes are shut in sheer rapture and his smiling lips are against her flushed pink cheek. Her smile this time is near achingly tender and a deep mauve, her eyes only lined with black. Her snow white dress is strapless with lace embroidery on the bodice and her hair cascades in long soft waterfall curls, the American flag bow nearly matching the antique pin on his jacket. He holds her securely and like the most precious treasure.

Because in his eyes, she is.


One month later…

"It's out and you look absolutely gorgeous, Liv!", Quinn declared while putting a stack of the issue in the center of the conference room table.

"Damn…get it, Liv.", Harrison crooned with a playful nudge to her side.

"I can already hear the dirty old men on the Hill reaching for tissues…"

"Ab-by!", they scolded in stereo.

"What? Look at her! She looks like a friggin' Goddess!"

Huck stepped forward and a very small, very soft smile curved his lips as he nodded in approval. Smiling, Olivia picked up the magazine and looked. The cover was a soft shade of blue with white lettering. She was standing up and her arms were raised in jubilation, her smile holding deep laughter. The white dress from the last photo did give her a Goddess like look and the 2 inch American flag heels from Election Night had made a return. A thin pink headband gave a hint of structure to her loose wavy coils (that were beginning to show hints of silver? When did that happen?) and her trademark red lips were on point, as was her cat like eyeliner.

"Meet your First Lady: Olivia Pope-Grant speaks about balancing the job, the family, and love in an Era of Change. Snappy. I like it. Wow…Fitz is gonna die when he sees this!"

"More like you're gonna die. Your headboard's gonna be begging for…"

Abby's description was cut off by the ringing of Olivia's cell phone and she answered it with a warm, "Good morning, Mr. President."

"You are absolutely gorgeous."

"You've seen it?"

"Cyrus brought me a copy. Cyrus brought everyone a copy. He's like a proud Papa passing out cigars."

"That image is very sweet and very disturbing. Can you imagine Cyrus as a daddy with a big smushy baby?"

His laughter was deep and warm, giving her all the answer she needed. Flipping to the article, she nodded in approval at the collage of photos next to the settee picture. Their wedding photo, shots of Ger as a baby, shots from Verdant and the Trail…and their First Dance!

"'If President Grant's choice of wife is any indication, then I'd say that America is in good hands…and in for a wild ride.' I don't see any lies, there."

"You're biased."

"Only a little. I have to go but I just wanted to say that I love you and I'm proud of you. I'll see you later."

"Okay. Love you, too. Bye, Baby."

"Bye."

/

The magazine was unceremoniously dumped in the garbage can under his desk and Billy resisted the urge to sweep everything off of it in annoyed rage. It was not supposed to be like this. It truly wasn't. He still couldn't believe that America had been so easily swept into the Grant hoopla and now this latest stunt from the First Lady would have his approval ratings go ever so higher.

Dry swallowing two Excedrin, Chambers stood up and went to his office window. Sally had fallen into her role of Vice President with grace and class, giving the Conservatives a strong voice to a point. It wasn't enough. It would never be enough until Grant was out of the Oval Office. 2012 was almost 4 years away and barring a large blowout of a crisis or scandal, the country would be just stupid enough to keep Grant right where he was. 2016 was unacceptable and while Sally and the others were willing to wait and roll the dice against someone new, he wasn't.

But, what could he do? The original Plan was done and dead. As far as he knew, Amanda could be as well. Olivia Pope-Grant and her minions hadn't gotten any good leads yet nor had anyone around her hometown seen her since she left to join the Langston campaign. She had lied to him, lied to everyone and disappeared her Jezebel self into the night. It would be just his luck for her to show up with a baby, simpering in front of the media about how he 'took advantage' of her and leaving him scrambling to cover his tracks before the truth came out.

Sally was very strict in her ways and a child out of wedlock, a child out of wedlock with a barely legal little aide would see him ruined in the movement and out on his ass if the almighty Grants figured out the Plan. America was a cesspool of moral decay and anarchy disguised as 'innovation'. They were a prime example of everything wrong with the country and had no business representing it! Chambers knew that it was his fault. He should've made sure that Sally's remarks had been truly 'off the record', he should've put her out there towards the youth, he should've goaded her into fighting hard to be the President on a joint campaign. But, he hadn't. He had dropped the ball where it mattered, focusing only on the works of his flesh, and now…

He had to fix his mistakes and if he couldn't do that with the usual methods, then he'd have to do some…innovating...of his own.