A/N: I've been wanting to do a collection of post canon one shots for a while now, not necessarily in order but all in the same universe. Here's the first installment! Hope you enjoy. Huge thanks to Anna for helping me through this one and to Giulia for her constant emotional support.

His smile is somehow shy, still. He hasn't had to hide his love for her for a while now, but it remains his first instinct. He still finds himself grappling to tamper down the grin that overtakes his features at the mere mention of her name, before remembering that's not necessary anymore.

Doing press for his new book has been challenging. The early starts, the travelling, the relentless interviewers, it all took its toll, and he was ready to be finished. His final interview on This Morning with Amber Nielson has been insightful and enjoyable but he's glad it's almost over. But when Amber brings up the fact that she especially enjoyed reading about his often tumultuous relationship with Olivia Pope, he can't help it. He is a speaker first, his way with words a lot of the reason he is where he is today, and so he doesn't really think about it before he opens his mouth.

"Olivia is… really amazing. This time we've had together since I've left the office, I think, has been so healing for us. We've been through a lot, you know, some of it very publicly but mostly in private and I think it's a testament to our relationship that we've managed to come out the side stronger than ever. I'm just… I'm ridiculously in love with her, and I wake up every morning extremely grateful that I get to spend the rest of my life with my favorite person, and that she loves me, too."

"Woah, I wish my husband spoke about me that way," the interviewer jokes, and the audience laughs along with her.

Fitz smiles along, holding back from telling her she should find someone that does.

.

There is banging coming from the kitchen when he arrives home. Metal on metal, and the faint sound of Olivia cursing, and his first thought is that she must be cooking, but that's ridiculous. Olivia doesn't cook. Olivia doesn't cook for good reason, so the noise has to be due to something else. He's proven wrong when he enters the kitchen and Liv is scrambling to clean up the mess of— he thinks it's supposed to be roasted vegetables and lamb— on the floor. He pauses for a moment to take in the scene before announcing his presence.

"Umm, Liv," he begins. "I – what's going on?"

His voice startles her, so caught up in her task that she hadn't heard him come in, and she jumps slightly, clutching her hand to her chest.

"I'm – I was – making dinner," she explains on a huff. "I wanted to make us dinner, and I had the whole evening planned, but now it's ruined, and you're home so I don't have time to fix it." The whine in her tone was so unlike her that Fitz couldn't stop the laugh escaping his mouth, the scowl she gives him for it not helping matters.

"It's not funny," she insists, "I really wanted this to work out."

He closes the distance between them, then, pulling her towards him by the shoulders and pressing his lips to the top of her head. She leans into him, letting him take her weight and that's how he knows she was really serious about this, that something more than a failed attempt at a meal she should have known she couldn't make was getting to her.

"Hey, what's going on?" he murmurs into her hair.

She sighs, tightening her hold on him for a second before pulling back to answer. "I don't really know what got into me," she admits. "I wanted to do something special because of what day it is, and I promise I haven't suddenly forgotten that cooking is the one thing I cannot do, but honestly, how hard can it be to follow a recipe?"

He glances down to the mess of vegetables and burned meat still on the ground, and nudges her playfully with his nose.

"Pretty hard, by the looks of it," he jokes and she giggles despite herself. Playing the conversation over again in his head, an adorably confused expression forms on his face. "Wait, because of what day it is? Is this because of what I said about you in that interview? Because you already know all of that, Livvie, you don't need to thank me."

"I do already know all of that, but I wanted to cook because it's our anniversary," she explains.

If he wasn't confused before, he is now, because they don't really have an anniversary. As far as he's concerned, they've been together forever, but she could be talking about their first night together, the night she came to him at the White House, the day they finally started their life together properly… any number of occasions really. She can see him try to do the maths in his head and puts him out of his misery.

"The anniversary of the day we met. We've known each other for eleven years, Mister, that seems worth celebrating to me."

"Eleven years, huh?"

"Mmhmm."

"Sounds like something we should celebrate with takeout and wine and a movie of your choice."

"You're only letting me choose because technology still confuses you, old man, but I'll take it," she grins. "I'll finish cleaning this up, you order for us."

Fitz still gets a kick out of the inevitably hilarious reaction from whoever asks for his name when placing an order, so she usually leaves him in charge of that task.

.

She swirls the wine around in its glass, deep in thought and yet to take a sip. He's noticed that she's not paying any attention to the movie even though Casablanca is her favorite, but he waits her out, knowing she needs time to come to terms with whatever is on her mind herself first, before sharing with him.

It's almost another ten minutes before she speaks up, and what she says knocks the air right out of his chest.

"I think I might be pregnant." It's barely a whisper, so quiet he would've thought he'd heard her wrong if she hadn't clamped a hand over her mouth as soon as the words escaped, squeezing her eyes shut for a second before glancing over to gauge his reaction.

"You think you what?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I wanted to… well really, I wanted to tell you over dinner, but clearly that got ruined. But I… Fitz, I think I might be pregnant."

The tears that were already threatening upon her initial statement spill over now, and he takes the wine glass from her hand, setting it on the coffee table in front of them before hauling her into his lap, hugging her close to him.

"I'm scared, Fitz," she tells him before he manages to formulate any of the thousand questions running through his mind. She does that now, lets him in on a feeling almost as soon as she's feeling it. It's how he knows that they're going to make it this time.

"I know. I know you are, but – let's take this one step at a time okay? Have you taken a test?"

He feels her shake her head against his chest.

"Didn't wanna do it without you. Knew you'd want to be there."

Oh, he loves her so much.

"Okay, well, let's start with that then. You might not even have anything to be scared about.

"Okay," she agrees, "in the morning? I want to just stay here for now, with you."

He brushes a strand of hair behind her ear before rearranging them so they can both see the screen easily.

The movie plays on in the background. Ilsa and Rick are saying goodbye and it hits him in the stomach hard this time, that sometimes soulmates don't end up together. It serves as a painful reminder of all of their missteps in the past, that for a time he thought that would be their story, and squeezes her tighter, thanking whoever is listening that it isn't.

.

It's five thirty and she can't sleep. Waiting until the morning seemed like a great idea last night, but the more she tosses and turns, the more she remembers that she hates the unknown. She's restless and becoming more irritable by the second and he looks annoyingly peaceful beside her. She shouldn't wake him up. He's been doing so much press and he's exhausted, and she really shouldn't wake him up but — she pokes his side gently. He doesn't stir. Nudging him again not so gently, she whispers a, "Fitz," and watches as he scrunches his face against the pillow. She waits him out a minute as he comes to and opens his eyes.

"Hi," she says softly.

"Hi. 'Srong? Why'd you wake me?" his slurred speech from being only half awake is adorable but she's just about out of patience, so she grabs his arm in attempt to pull him out of the bed.

"I want to take the test now. Can't wait any longer."

"Woah, wait. Livvie, I don't really think you need me for the first part. Why don't you go to the bathroom, and then you can come back here while we wait for the results?"

"Right. Yes. Okay. I'll go do that."

When he said it, it seemed like the obvious option but she isn't processing this concept as she usually does. If she thought about it for a second, she would realise it's because this is too big, and has the potential to be too scary, so she doesn't want to deal with it until she actually has to, but she doesn't think about it because it's too big and has the potential to be too scary. They haven't been trying. They had barely even spoken about babies beyond hypotheticals, and fantasies and someday. If this is someday, she's not sure she's ready. Still, she goes through the motions, reading the instructions on the back of the pack and taking the test before padding back out to the bedroom where Fitz is waiting.

It's the slowest three minutes of her entire life but when the timer on her phone finally indicates that it's time, she suddenly can't move. She had been sitting beside Fitz on the bed and she grabs his arm, frozen.

"Wait," she breathes and he looks at her curiously. "One minute?"

His gaze softens at that and he nods, pulling her close so that their sides are pressed together, her head leaning on his shoulder. This minute is different than the previous three. The atmosphere changes, the air in the room somehow becoming clearer as they take the time to sync their breaths, to focus on each other and block out the rest of the world. This time, when the minute ends she feels ready and she gives Fitz a look as she detangles herself from his arms that silently lets him know that she wants him to check the result for her.

She holds her breath and watches with eyes unwavering as he picks up the blue, plastic stick and turns it over. His back is to her but she knows the result before he turns around. She can see it in the way his muscles tense imperceptibly, in the catch of his breath. She's pregnant. They're having a baby. If she needed confirmation, she would have gotten it in his glassy eyes as he turns around. They're having a baby. The initial euphoria fades to nothing as she realises that means she's going to be a mother, and she can't be a mother. With the exception of Fitz's kids, she has never been around children. She wouldn't know what to do with a baby, and the thought causes her breathing to intensify, her mind spiralling before she gets a chance to stop it. Fitz notices, of course. Even if he wasn't as in tune with her every facial expression, he was actively waiting for her reaction and this was not what he expected.

"Liv," he whispers gently, cradling her cheek with one hand, "hey, what's wrong?"

The worry in his voice is her undoing and she gasps out a sob, her tears overflowing and running down her cheeks.

"I can't be a mom, Fitz," she manages. "I'm too broken. I'll ruin this poor kid before they even have a chance."

"Oh, Livvie," he soothes. "You're not broken. You are the kindest, most generous person I know. And hey, I've helped raise a kid or three, and I'll be with you every step of the way, okay?"

She knew all of this already, she really did, but sometimes she needed to hear the words from his mouth in order to fully believe them. She looks at him properly then, really takes him in, and the happiness he's trying his best to contain makes her heart melt. He really believes they can do this, start a family, and that's enough for her to believe it too, so she nods pressing her lips to his in a chaste kiss, before pulling back to reach for the test, wanting to see it for herself.

Two lines. Pregnant. Woah.

When she eventually manages to tear her eyes away from it, he's still looking at her. That's not surprising because he's always looking at her, even now, eleven years in. His gaze still makes her stomach flutter, too, because it's reserved for her and as cliché as it is, it makes her feel like the most special person in the world. He makes her feel so special.

"We're really here," she says eventually. "We wake up together every morning. We go for walks and we talk about our day. You're my date to dinner parties and weddings and you're the last thing I see every night before I close my eyes. And now we're going to be a family, Fitz. This was the dream. It's a lot." She says it lightly but her eyes are watering, truly overcome with emotions as the enormity of the moment settles over her.

"I think it's going to be perfect," he tells her. "More perfect than it already is."

"Me, too."