She sat on the couch with her resignation letter in hand. She waited nervously for Fitz to return from his meeting. She briefly thought about just placing the letter on his desk and leaving but she knew he'd want answers.

After some time, she heard Fitz's voice in the hallway, outside of the office. Within seconds he strode into the office, completely surprised by her presence.

"Livie? What are you doing here?" he didn't seem to harbor any malice from their encounter last night.

"I have something I need to give you something, well...actually I thought about just leaving it on your desk but I feel like you deserved better than that so I wanted to give you in person."

She walked over to him and handed him her resignation letter.

She saw a few different expressions cross his face as he read the letter.

"So much for two weeks' notice huh?"

"I think it's for the best, I love you, and being here every day is jeopardizing your presidency. I don't want anyone to have any reason to say you were anything other than an absolutely perfect president."

He walked over to the window, his back turned to her.

"What will you do after this?"

"I don't know, I think I'm gonna move back to New York, maybe take a break for a little while before I get another job. Maybe I'll go back to my old firm, they told me I could come back whenever I was ready."

He didn't reply.

"Fitz, are you gonna be okay?" she asked softly.

After a while, he answered.

"Am I gonna be okay?" he repeated as if it was a ridiculous thing to ask. "Of course not but I'm sure that's not going to stop you from leaving."

"You know I have to. Fitz look at me-"

He wouldn't, he stood unmoving towards the window with his back firmly faced towards her. She walked over to him and tugged on his arm to try to get him to face her.

"Fitz, look at me-"

He didn't budge. "I'm not interested in having a heart-to-heart right now, if you're gonna fucking rip my heart out then just do it and leave."

"Fitz, that's not fair, you know this is the right decision-" she tried to get him to face her but he refused. "you look at me right now!"

He refused to face her and Olivia stood for a while, trying to figure out how to get a response from him. In her frustration, she began to cry. "If this is how you want to leave things then fine."

She walked out slowly sensing that was about as much of a goodbye she was going to get.

A week later…

Fitz stood on the White House press podium, preparing to field questions from reporters and as he dreaded the very first question was about Olivia. He waited a few days to announce it.

"Mr. President, your communications director Olivia Pope resigned after just 6 short weeks on the job. Do you care to comment on the reason?"

Fitz leaned into the mic, "not really." The room laughed.

"Was she fired or did she resign sir?"

"She resigned," Fitz said, "she might be the only person in D.C that's resigned on their own accord."

"So she wasn't fired?"

"How do you fire someone with that much talent? I'd have to be crazy." the room chuckled and Fitz continued, "no. Cyrus and I begged Ms. Pope to stay through the transition and at least the early months of my presidency so we can hit the ground running on our agenda and she did just that. She did amazing work on the campaign and while she was here in the white house. We wish her the best and whenever she'd like to return, I'll have a place for her in my administration. Next question."

Olivia had watched the clip a few times, parsing every word and pausing to try to read his true feelings. It was hard when he was putting on a performance.

She took a few days to herself before she began planning her next move. She was trying her best not to wallow in sadness.

She wanted to be her own boss and that desire was driving her thoughts about where she wanted to go next. She'd been thinking about opening her own firm for some time…since the transition. Abby had already agreed to work with her and so the first thing they did when Abby came to D.C., was to go apartment hunting. She'd been living out of a hotel for months and needed something more permanent. After a week of looking for apartments, they found the perfect one. A gorgeous 2-bedroom in a high-rise luxury rental. Within a week Olivia and Abby had flown from D.C. to New York 2 times, to successfully pack and ship all the items from her New York apartment to D.C., cancel her New York lease, and complete all the paperwork required with moving. Once she had settled in the apartment, she made calls to Harrison and Stephen about her intentions to open her own firm and they were in.

The hunt for office space began, once that was done, she got to the paperwork, there was a lot of paperwork to be done. Luckily she had the help of Harrison and Abby, who were both jobless before she called them. Stephen was working at a firm and she advised him not to leave until she got everything in order on her end. Abby was prepared to live with her but Olivia decided against it and instead paid the deposit and the 1st three months' rent for both her and Harrison, so they could each have their own space.

Within a couple months, and after many sleepless nights her firm was up and running, Olivia used her contacts to get her a few articles in some of D.C.'s top newspapers, and with that the clients started trickling in. She had a few large corporations on retainer and within 4 months, she saw a return on her investment. Abby, Harrison, and Stephen worked flawlessly but she felt like something was missing, then she remembered Huck and brought him unto O.P.A. as well.

She stayed far away from the white house, she hadn't seen or spoken to Fitz since she resigned but based on what she saw in the media, he seemed to be doing fine. She tried to go on a few dates when she realized it had been 8 months since she broke things off with Fitz and that if she kept on comparing every man she came in contact with to Fitz, she'd be alone forever but the dates didn't work out. She spoke with Cyrus every once in a while although their relationship had been severely strained since the election.

It had been almost 10 months since she resigned when Cyrus called her, she was busy so she didn't answer, she assumed it was for their regular dose of awkward small talk. When she finished with her meeting and checked her phone, she saw 5 missed calls from Cyrus which was strange, it must have been an emergency because Cyrus never called more than once no matter how important it was if you didn't pick up then he would figure out how to do it himself unless it was an emergency.

She dialed his number as she walked back to her office and closed the door.

"Cyrus, why have you called me 5 times, what could possibly be that important?" she asked calmly, even though she was anxious.

"We are in a little trouble over here and we need your help."

"When you say 'a little trouble' what do you mean?"

"I mean I can't talk about it over the phone."

"Whatever it is that you've gotten yourself in, I'm not getting involved nor do I want to hear about it Cy, not after last time."

"It's not like that Liv please, he needs you."

Those were the magic words, they were all she needed to hear.

"Fine, meet me at our spot in 20 minutes."

She hung up and headed out. When she got to the bench, Cyrus was there waiting.

"You're early? This must be serious."

Cyrus started blathering before she could even sit down.

"This intern from the office is saying she's sleeping with him, you have to shut her up, I would do it but I'm linked to the white house, you on the other hand as a private citizen, can do or say whatever you want."

Olivia could feel the anger slowly building inside of her.

"So you want me to go bully the girl he's fucking, is that it? That's why you called me here? Are you insane?"

"Olivia he's not sleeping with her, he denies it."

Olivia huffed."He's a liar."

Cyrus put his hands up defensively. "Woah, woah, how do you know that?"

She took a deep breath.

"Because I used to be the one who was fucking him, only I was smart enough to keep it to myself and you wanna know what else? This sounds like your problem, not mine!"

Olivia got up and stormed off.

Cyrus ran back to the white house, he burst into the oval, wild-eyed.

"Everybody out!" he ordered.

Fitz was in the middle of a staff meeting and he looked up at Cyrus confused but when he saw how angry Cyrus was he became intrigued as to why.

"Let's take a break, we can resume in an hour," he announced.

All the staff members quickly scurried away.

When they were all out, Cyrus closed the door.

"You and Olivia, really Fitz," Cyrus said through clenched teeth. He really wanted to scream but he couldn't have anyone eavesdropping on their conversation.

"What are you talking about?"

"Guess who I just finished speaking with?"

Cyrus didn't give him a chance to answer even though Fitz didn't plan to.

"Olivia, I told her about the girl-"

Immediately Fitz's whole demeanor changed

"You did what? I told you not to say anything to her," Fitz yelled, not caring if anyone heard.

"Well I did, she runs a crisis management firm, we have a crisis on our hands. When I explained to her what was going on she didn't believe for one moment that you didn't touch that girl, do you wanna know why even though I'm sure you already do."

"Calm down Cyrus."

"Calm down? Calm down? I did not bring her on the campaign so you could fuck her," Cyrus said in an angry whisper.

"This conversation is over, you can show yourself out," Fitz commanded.

"This is not over, Olivia will not help us and this girl is a ticking time bomb-"

"I said GET OUT!" Fitz yelled so loud the sound echoed through the room.

With that, Cyrus stormed out angrily.

Cyrus tried calling Olivia a few times, but she wasn't picking up. He went to O.P.A to look for her but she wasn't there so he went back to the white house to figure out another way to deal with the situation without Olivia's help.

Fitz was irate, the last thing he wanted was for Olivia to find out. He couldn't imagine what she thought of him and although he knew where she lived and had known for months, he couldn't bring himself to go there and face her.

For the rest of the day, his focus was taken with Olivia. He had to reschedule meetings so he could just sit in the oval and gather himself.

It was just after noon when Cyrus' daily mail was delivered. He went through them one by one as he brainstormed ways to deal with the situation. One package stood out to him particularly, it was a huge legal-sized envelope but something odd was in it. He opened it and found a small cassette tape and a recorder in it. It had a piece of tape stuck to it with the words 'give it to your boss.' scribbled on it.

He played the recording and about a minute in, he sprinted to the oval.

"Fitz, you have to hear this."

"Cyrus not now."

"No, right now, you need to hear this."

Cyrus was quickly beside him playing the recording.

"What's this supposed to be?" Fitz asked.

"The girl must've sent me this. Listen."

Halfway through the recording, Fitz threw his head back in frustration.

"Sir there are no demands?" Cyrus asked, confused.

"There are no demands because she plans to release it or she wants us to reach out to her with an offer."

Cyrus threw his hands up. "We are sitting ducks here without Olivia, I'm gonna go and call her."

"Cyrus I made it clear that I did not want her involved."

"Given what you just heard I don't think that applies anymore."

"Cyrus, she will not be involved in this. Just find the girl and pay her whatever she wants."

Cyrus huffed. "Fine!" and then he about-face and stormed out.

Fitz had Charlotte cancel the rest of his day, what little meetings he had left after he moved most of the rest of his meetings and went to the residence.

Olivia went back to her apartment and locked herself up. She wasn't as angry, as she was hurt. The thought of Fitz with someone else made her insides mangle. She knew she left him to be with Mellie but she didn't actually believe he would do anything with her. The only thing that hurt more than knowing he slept with someone else was the fact that she had absolutely no right to be upset, after all, he wasn't hers.

She showered and wrapped in a silk robe then laid for hours, consumed by her thoughts when she heard a knock on the door. She decided not to answer because it was 11pm in the night and she wasn't expecting anyone.

The knocking continued and continued and continued…

She jumped up and stormed to the door. She stopped and checked the peephole and saw Tom.

She opened the door.

"Tom, what are you doing here?"

Tom didn't reply, he just stepped aside to reveal Fitz. They stood staring intensely for a moment. She looked absolutely stunning and the enormous feeling of longing he'd had for her in the past ten months hit him like a punch in the gut. He quickly tried to regain his composure.

"Can I come in?"

She was too shocked to respond. Instead, she stepped aside so he could enter and then closed the door behind him.

They stood in silence for a while. He couldn't read her expression as she stood with the blanket wrapped around her.

"Livie, I'm sorry."

She was quiet for a few moments then she responded."Don't apologize to me I'm not your wife."

He sighed."Olivia-"

"Why did you come here?" she murmured.

"I wanted to give you a heads up, there is a tape of me and the girl."

He saw the tears well up in her eyes and spill down her cheeks.

"Livie-" he tried to comfort her but she wouldn't let him.

"I'm fine," she said as she wiped her eyes and cheeks.

"So you came here because you need my help, I already told Cyrus no, he wants me to go and bully her into shutting up..like I'm your attack dog or something...I'm not going to do it."

"I told Cyrus not to involve you but he went ahead and did it anyway."

She walked over to the couch and sat with her arms wrapped around her legs.

"Is it audio or video?"

"Audio," he said as he walked over to the couch and sat on the other end.

"Is your voice recognizable?"

"Barely and I never actually said anything."

"And the girl?"

She could see that he was hesitant."The whole world is gonna hear it, Fitz."

"She was mostly moaning, I guess, she said a few things but it wasn't very intelligible."

"So it could be anyone?"

"Sure."

"What else do you remember?"

"I don't remember anything, everything that I just told you was from what I heard when I played the tape."

"Why don't you remember anything?"

Fitz sighed."Because I was very drunk."

"Why?"

"It was a bad day," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"So what are you going to do about this?"

"Cyrus is trying to figure something out."

"Cyrus will shoot that girl in the face himself if that's what it takes to shut her up."

"Cyrus isn't that crazy."

"He is that crazy."

She took a deep breath and scooted closer to him. "I'll help you."

"Olivia I don't want you to get involved in this, it's embarrassing enough that you know already."

"I wasn't asking," She scolded lightly.

"Why do you want to help?"

"Because… I don't want people to judge you for this."

"But they should judge me for this because I did it. I'm a cheater, I cheated with you and I cheated with her. "

"Why are you doing that?" She asked, annoyed.

"I just don't want you making any excuses for me."

"I'm not making excuses for you, you said it was a mistake and I believe you. I've gotten drunk and had bad sex before. It happens."

Fitz chuckled humorlessly and shook his head, "thanks for the pep talk."

She shook her head, "I can see that you're still hurt by me leaving and I just want you to know that I want the best for you even if it means that I can't be a part of your life."

"Yeah because I've been doing so well since you left," he retorted sarcastically.

"You know I needed to leave-"

"-Please don't go there-we can talk about everything except that."

"I just feel like I never got closure," Olivia murmured. "You didn't want to talk about it then and you don't want to talk about it now."

"I know but sitting here and listening to you try to convince me how great it is for us that you left me is not something I can handle right now so let's just not talk about it," he murmured.

Olivia rolled her eyes and wiped away the tears that fell.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make you cry- I just think this is the best way," Fitz said softly.

"No, I get it," she said through sniffles.

They were both quiet for a while until Fitz spoke."I have something for you."

"Fitz no gifts, I told you I don't want you buying anything for me."

"I didn't buy it, it's a family heirloom. This can be our closure."

Fitz took the small ring out of his pocket.

"I wanted to give it to you the morning you resigned but obviously I couldn't. Then I thought I could give it to you at Cyrus' wedding but when you didn't show up I surmised it had everything to do with avoiding me. I've been walking around with it in my pocket ever since."

Olivia looked at him skeptically.

"And you didn't buy it, you say?"

"No, my great, great-great-grandfather bought it for his wife and when she passed, he gave it to his son to give to the woman he loved and it's been passed down ever since. Gerry gave it to my mom and when she died, he told me to give it to the woman I love. I obviously couldn't give it to Mellie."

Olivia rolled her eyes and laughed.

"So Livie, what do you think?"

"I think I love it."

The smile that spread across his face made her blush.

She held out the index finger of her manicured hand so he could slip the ring on. She noticed something as she inspected the ring on her finger.

"There's an inscription here, what is this?... French?"

"Yeah, it means-"

"Sweet baby- I know french Fitz," she chuckled.

"It's a funny thing to write on a ring but I think it gives it character - I just wanted to give you something special because I really have missed you and not seeing you for this past year has been hard-"

"Fitz I-"

"No, I'm not telling you this for you to come back or feel guilt- and I know we're not supposed to be talking about this. I don't know… I guess I just really want you to know how much and how deeply I love you and I've had almost a year to think about how selfish I've been. I never considered your feelings in this and I'm sorry for that. I understand why you left."

Olivia mused at him as he spoke, she didn't notice the tears that rolled down her cheeks until she felt Fitz's hand on her cheeks wiping them away.

When she looked up, his eyes met hers and before she knew it she was kissing him, softly, over and over again.

Fitz was taken off guard by the kiss as delighted as he was to finally feel her lips after almost a year but he wanted to make sure she was okay. He broke the kiss.

"Livie-"

"I'm sure," she murmured softly.

She had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she straddled him. The kiss was passionate and intense as their tongues danced together slowly. It felt like no matter how much she deepened the kiss, no matter how far inside him her tongue reached or how much of him she tasted she couldn't get enough.

She could feel his erection stiffen as she braced herself on top of him.

She pulled his jacket off his shoulders and when he got it down his arms, she threw it on the floor then she undid his button-down shirt and threw that on the floor as well. She took her time to run her hands over his rigid torso and when she was convinced she'd felt every part of him he untied her silk robe and let it fall down her shoulders revealing her breasts and pink lace cheeky panties. Fitz began kissing and sucking on her neck, eliciting a moan from her. It felt good. He inched his way down making small love bites on and around her breasts and sucking her nipples so hard that she pressed her hand against her crotch to try to tame her throbbing clit. He kicked his shoes off as she undid his pants and pulled them down his legs and then he kicked those off too. Once she could see that he was completely naked, she stood so he could pull her panties down her legs and when she was completely naked, he pulled her on top of him.

"Are you ready?" he whispered breathless as he gripped her ass, ready to sit her down on his cock.

"Yes," she moaned against his lip.

He slid his tip up and down her slit over and over to tantalize her. He heard her breath quiver as she held on to his neck to balance herself.

He slowly eased her down on him, he was greeted by warm liquid gathered in her core, and immediately he could feel it seep down on him. The sensation made him throw his head back in ecstasy. Olivia had her forehead pressed against his as she took a breath and gave herself a minute to adjust to his enormous cock.

"You feel so fucking good," Fitz whispered.

She worked her hip back and forth on him, riding his cock and slowly building speed as she grew wetter and wetter.

"Oh..yessss," she cried out breathless.

Fitz spanked her on the ass and caused Olivia to fall against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and took a moment to slow down the pace. He was still inside her and the intimacy and the sensuality of being inside her while doing nothing at all was palpable.

He slowly and gently pulled her into a kiss and after a few moments, he began to thrust slow, sweet circles into her wet hole. "Fuck-fuck-" she moaned as she grabbed him. He began to feel running liquid seep down on him. Olivia was close and so was he. He was careful to not quicken his pace even though that was his instinct when his orgasm was close.

They came in rapture together. Fitz slowly didn't pull out after cumming inside her, instead, they stayed wrapped up together kissing slowly and deeply.

As they lay there, Fitz couldn't hold back anymore. He was very careful about what he said to Olivia and any promises he made but this was it. He was at his limit.

"If I leave Mellie, would you be with me?" he asked.

"Fitz-" Olivia began but he cut her off.

"Don't think about anything else- don't think about the media or the presidency or anything else. Just think about us. If I left her, would you be with me?"

"Yes," Olivia whispered. "I'd want that more than anything."

Fitz stroked her hair and kissed her head, "okay." was all he said.

He pulled out shortly after.

Olivia sat up slowly and gazed down at him. He leaned up until they were at each other's eye level and gazed back. His eyes washed over her round, large breasts then trailed down her torso to her crotch. He found his way back to her brown eyes and for a while time seemed to stop as they gazed at each other. When he finally broke their gaze and looked down he was erect once again. He pulled her against him and turned her around and reached up and fondled her breasts and squished them together from behind. Once she was seated perfectly against his lap, he entered her slowly, Olivia arched her back perfectly for him and he held on to her hips and thrust into her deep and slow and welcomed the sound of Olivia's ear-piercing moans in his ear. It was clear that she couldn't help herself. He pulled her close and turned her head to him, so he could kiss her, and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

She began to feel waves rippling through her body. She tried to fight it off as long as possible until she couldn't hold it off anymore and came hard. Fitz came right after and held her tightly as she whimpered in exhaustion.

She could feel him smiling as he tried to catch his breath and when she turned around he showered her with kisses all over her shoulders and neck while he was still inside her.

He finally pulled out after and stood and lifted her off the couch.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To the bedroom," Fitz answered.

"Down the hall," Olivia instructed.

Fitz walked down the hall to her bedroom. Once they were in the room, he laid her on the bed and joined her. She screamed excitedly as he pulled her towards him and spread her legs open. He kissed down the inside of her thigh, giving her a few hickeys as he made his way down to her core. Olivia curled her toes and stiffened in anticipation and when she finally felt his tongue against her clit she sucked in a deep breath.

Fitz sucked and licked fiercely as Olivia tried to squirm her way out from under him. She felt overwhelmed, he kept sucking directly on her clit.

"Fitz-"

And before she could finish her sentence her orgasm took her. It left her quivering as Fitz hovered on top of her and kissed her as she tried to catch her breath. She grabbed his cheeks and joined in on the kiss. She wrapped her legs tightly around him as she felt him enter her. He thrusted his hips back and forth, he could hear her moaning softly in between kisses. She held on to his waist and guided him deeper and deeper into her. She could feel her orgasm coming but it was too soon, she wanted to make sure Fitz came too.

"Baby…I need you to cum with me," she moaned. "Cum with me…"

She pulled his lips down on hers and held them there. She could feel his muscles tensing and she knew he was close.

"Fuck-" he moaned breathlessly. "I'm cumming."

She felt her insides tighten up as her orgasm rippled through her body and Fitz threw his head back as his orgasm took him fiercely as well. When he pulled out, his cum seeped down her legs and onto the sheets and then Fitz dropped beside her, they both panted loudly. He was utterly sated.

"I love you," she said as she turned to face him.

Fitz puckered his lips and she leaned in and kissed him. "I love you too," he whispered, and then they both lay staring at the ceiling.

Some time passed.

"Do you want to take a bath with me?" Olivia asked.

He got up and helped her up. It was a yes. She walked lazily behind him as they went into the bathroom together. She flipped the bath stopper and turned on the faucet to fill up the tub then added soap and waited for the tub to fill up.

She walked over to the mirror. Fitz leaned against the wall waiting for her to react to the trail of hickeys he left on her shoulders and breasts but she didn't, she pulled her hair up in a ponytail and stared into the mirror. Fitz moved behind her and clasped his hands around hers.

"You have the most perfect breasts I've ever seen," he said as he kissed the blade of her shoulder. He moved her hand up and ran both their fingers over her nipples and moved her other hand down between her legs so both their hands were pressed against her wet vagina. He wasn't erect but he pressed her ass against his groin just to feel the curve of it.

He was in a constant state of hyper-arousal around her and even though he's just had three orgasms, he knew he'd be forming another erection soon.

Olivia turned and leaned her head up to him for a kiss as Fitz moved both their fingers between her legs, arousing her even more and teasing her to an orgasm. Her nipples stiffened as Fitz ground against her back and sucked her lips. She moaned as she got closer and closer until she finally came and squirted on both their fingers. He broke the kiss after she came and smiled against her lips.

"You're my fucking soul mate," Olivia whispered to him.

Fitz smiled even wider and was about to respond when the tub overflowed and splashed water on both their feet.

"Shit-" Olivia yelped as she quickly turned off the faucet and let out some of the water.

Fitz laughed as he watched her. Once she let enough of the water she stood and slapped his arm playfully, "you're no help." She glanced at her appearance in the mirror and gasped.

"And look at what you did to my lips. They're swollen."

He wrapped her hands around her. "Your lips are perfect."

She rolled her eyes and smiled, "get in the fucking tub."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, then walked over and stepped in.

She laid on top of him with her head on his chest, surrounded by bath bubbles. He wrapped his hands around her as silence surrounded them.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked curiously after a while.

She looked up at him."Nothing, I'm just listening to your heartbeat, it's slow. What are you thinking about?"

"You."

Olivia smiled but said nothing. They sat in the tub a while longer until they finally washed off. When they were finished she tied a towel around her body and Fitz tied one around his waist as well, they walked into the kitchen to search for food since he mentioned he was hungry.

"I think Abby stocked the fridge up the other day… let's see what she bought."

"How's Abby been?"

"Good she works with me now."

She opened the fridge. "Abby made me roast chicken and potatoes last night. Would you eat that?"

"I will literally eat anything you give me right now. I'm starving."

"Okay," she said, "let me heat it up for you."

Fitz watched as she heated the food then she transferred to a plate and placed it in front of him then handed him a fork. He dug in.

"Did you have dinner?" she asked.

He shook his head. She opened the fridge again and took a glass bottle of sparkling water and placed it in front of him and sat across from him at the bar. She watched amused as he devoured the food in front of him and then gulped down the sparkling water. When he was finished, she placed the dishes in her dishwasher.

"So there was something I wanted to tell you," Olivia said when she finished loading the plate and walked back to him at the table.

"What?"

"Gerry knew about us- he saw us when we spoke at the party and that is why he came to me. It was to tell me to stop whatever was going on with you."

Fitz took a moment before he responded, "I'm sorry-"

"No," Olivia said, "I don't want you to be sorry. I was just telling you because he's not the only one who knows."

"I know Cyrus knows, " Fitz said.

"Not Cyrus- and I'm sorry I told Cyrus."

Fitz smiled, "it's okay."

"I meant Mellie knows. She approached me after our fight in the Rose Garden. She says that if you divorce her, she'll tell everyone about us. I just wanted to let you know."

"I know," Fitz said.

"You know?"

He nodded, "she's been using you to threaten me into shutting up for a while now, you but mostly Karen, and it's been working because I don't want to drag you in the middle of our shit and I don't want to lose or split custody of Karen."

"I didn't know about Karen," Olivia said softly.

"It's okay because I can't stay married to her anymore and I can't fucking function when you're not with me so I'm gonna do it and I can't promise you that she won't go in front of a camera and scream your name out to the media but I can promise that I'll do everything I can to protect you."

Olivia nodded and fought back the tears. So far she had been successful.

"Mellie's not innocent. She's had her own affairs and she has her own shit going on. Besides, I don't want Karen growing up with two parents that fucking hate each other and she's beginning to be more aware of us so I'm doing it."

Olivia walked to his side of the table and wrapped her arms around him and felt Fitz lift her on his lap where he sat. "Why didn't you tell me about Karen?"

He chuckled and kissed her against the cheek, "I try not to tell you anything that will manipulate you or make you feel like you need to stay with me while I'm married. I was only interested in telling you when I was finally divorced or even filed, not all the details leading up to it."

He stood and carried her in his arms back to the bedroom and they lay together in bed. Olivia fell asleep but Fitz stayed awake until the light from the sunrise began to peek through the window. He knew time was up. He gently stroked his finger against her arm until she opened her eyes.

"Baby, I have to leave."

Olivia looked to the window and saw the sunlight."One more minute." They laid together in silence for another minute until finally they both rose and she helped him get dressed, she could see he was in no rush. When he was fully dressed, she walked him to the door.

"I'll come by around 10 to talk with you and Cy."

He nodded."I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered. "so fucking much."

Fitz grabbed her and kissed her and hugged her tightly, "stop being so perfect so I can leave."

Olivia smiled, "okay, get out."

Fitz nodded and kissed her again and allowed her to let him out.

Fitz walked into his bedroom only to see Mellie sitting on the couch, with her arms folded and legs crossed. They lived in separate bedrooms in the white house.

He ignored her and continued to eat his apple.

"I take it you've been out with your whore all night."

"That would mean I was out with you last night and I wasn't."

Mellie gasped.

"Look Mellie I'm in a great mood. I didn't get an ounce of sleep last night but oddly I feel more energized than ever."

"I don't need details, Fitz."

"You couldn't handle the details."

He paused. "When did you find out about Olivia?"

"I knew from the start Fitz."

"Okay."

Mellie raised her eyebrows.

"Is that all you have to say?" she asked angrily.

"Yep."

Fitz walked off to his closet to get dressed.

Olivia arrived at the white house at 10:30 that morning. As she made her way down the halls to the oval office, out of nowhere, Mellie stopped her from behind and pulled her into one of the empty office rooms.

"You need to stop seeing my husband," Mellie said through gritted teeth. "I've put up with you and him long enough. It's over now, I want him back."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mellie, are you drunk?" Olivia said with a slight smile.

"Don't you dare act like-"

Olivia heard Fitz's voice in the hallway and then quickly rushed out leaving Mellie alone. When she saw him she walked toward him, Mellie walked out after, and he looked confused by the fact that they were both together.

"Olivia, are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded, and he looked at Mellie behind her. "Cyrus is in the oval office, can you meet him, I'll be right there with you in a minute."

Olivia nodded and headed there. Fitz approached Mellie the moment she walked off.

"Stay away from her," he said.

Mellie groaned and strutted away. Fitz headed toward Tom and a few of the other guards to where he'd been called and after speaking with them he headed back to the oval office.

"-If the tape is as inconclusive as you said, obviously I'd have to listen to it to be sure but when it comes out, Mellie could come forward and say it's her on the tape," she said hesitantly.

"That could work, we-"

Fitz walked in, interrupting both Olivia and Cyrus' conversation. "The girl killed herself last night."

"What?" Cyrus said.

"I just found out," Fitz said.

Cyrus stood and smiled, "that's great."

"It's not fucking great, Cyrus, someone is dead. We could have figured this out without her being dead."

"Sir, she had one job, to bring you your briefing papers at the end of the evening. She used that one job to plot against you, wait till you were drunk, sleep with you, and try to blackmail you. She's dead, boohoo. I'm sad." Cyrus headed to the door, "I have work to do. I'll see you at our conference call with the Mexican president."

Fitz shrugged, "ugh."

Olivia stood, "I'm going to head to my office."

Fitz took her hand and squeezed it, "thanks for coming. I'm sorry you had to get involved in this."