It was the day before the first day of Luna's treatment. Olivia arrived at the hospital hours early, she hadn't slept the entire night. She packed everything she could think of that Luna might need, she also packed for Lana and herself. She found a hotel a couple blocks away that she had planned to use as a place for showers because a couple blocks away is as far away as she felt like she could be from Luna. Fitz called in a team of renowned cancer specialists to take a look at Luna, they would be arriving later in the day but for now, they were making final preparations to start Luna's induction therapy in the morning.

Olivia followed all of the doctor's instructions carefully in the days leading up to Luna's admission to the hospital.

They started by doing all the mandatory procedures like taking her vitals, height, weight, complete blood count and other tests. After all the tests, they took her to the surgery room to insert the Hickman catheter in the subclavian vein in her upper chest. Seeing the tube protruding from Luna's chest was hard for Olivia to see, harder than she expected but she held on to her tiny hand all throughout the process.

After the insertion, they performed an X-ray to make sure the tube was inserted into the correct vein and when it was, they brought her back to her hospital room to rest. Fitz stayed with her the entire time and as much as she tried to get him to leave, she was glad he wouldn't. Abby, Cyrus and Huck were there as well, so she just made sure they were all in the same room together all the time as a precaution. To say the staff was shocked to see Fitz might be the understatement of the century.

Fitz being there had its complications, firstly they had to get a special secluded suite, secondly, all the workers that had to interact with Luna had to sign an NDA just to be safe and there were more guards than she could count. In the evening when the specialists came to see Luna, they added some changes to Lana's treatment but agreed that Dr. Porpentine had a sound plan for her, in the end they would act as consultants to Dr. Porpentine throughout Luna's treatment.

After a long day of running around the hospital, Olivia was emotionally and physically tired. FItz went home in the night to be with Karen, he planned to come back early in the morning to be there when Luna officially started her first day of chemo. Olivia stayed at the hospital overnight and Abby took Lana home.

Luna's first day of treatment.

Saturday.

Fitz arrived at the hospital before dawn. When he walked in the room Olivia was sleeping on the chair by Luna's bedside. He didn't want to wake her, so he sat quietly on the couch and went over his briefings. He had his agent pick up breakfast for everyone because he was sure Abby would be coming by with Lana as well as the other members of her team. He had an agent accompany Abby and Lana. He also had one assigned to Olivia whenever she traveled.

After about an hour, Olivia was up. He saw her rubbing her neck.

"Yeah, sleeping sitting up isn't exactly great for your neck."

She turned around a little surprised that he was there so early.

"Fitz, I didn't know you would be here so early."

"Yea, I couldn't really sleep and I also wanted to be here when you guys woke up. I bought breakfast if you're hungry."

"I'm not really hungry."

"Livie please, you have to eat something."

"I just don't have an appetite, I'm not hungry."

"Okay."

Fitz decided not to push her.

"How did she sleep?" he asked, changing the conversation.

"She slept like a baby," Olivia smiled but it didn't reach her eyes.

She got up and gave Luna a tender kiss on the forehead.

"You know, when they were born, they didn't open their eyes right away. I had to wait and I remember being so nervous because I dreaded them having your eyes. I thought that maybe if they didn't it would be easier but then they opened them and they were sparkling blue just like yours. I felt the exact opposite of how I thought I would feel, I don't know, I guess I was sort of relieved because I thought well, if I can't have you, at least I'll have them, I'd see you every time I looked at them and that wasn't so bad. I thought they'd have your hair color too but somehow, they have this golden-brownish-blonde color and I can't figure out where they got it from."

"My mom," Fitz said softly.

"Well, there you go," she chuckled.

Fitz sighed, he had the urge to apologize but he felt like at that moment it wouldn't have helped.

"I don't know what's going on with us? I've never felt so out of sync with you when we're supposed to be on good terms-"

"It's my fault-"

"-No, I know you're not happy about what I said and I know it's not fair but I can't think of anything worse than having the world go crazy while we're in here trying to take care of them."

"You're right Livie and I know you're right but it's also hard for me. I've missed 5 months of their lives and all of your pregnancy. Luna needs us all and the last thing I want to do when she's sick is to keep my distance from her because of what other people might think."

Olivia sighed frustrated, "you're right too. I want you to be their dad and love them and give them everything they need."

"Can we just try to play it by ear? I tried to get all the staff to sign the NDAs, we're in a private wing. There are guards covering the floor and Cyrus is working on a cover story in case it leaks that I'm here. I'm trying everything."

"I know-" Olivia said, only to be interrupted by Luna's cooing.

Luna woke up, she was still drowsy from the medication they gave her the day before but she was alright.

"Hey Lulu, are you up sweet girl ?"

Luna wore only a diaper in the bed. She yawned and the pacifier fell out of her mouth. Olivia put it back in. Luna was obsessed with her pacifier and preferred it to actually eating.

"Look who's here?"

Olivia motioned to Fitz, who walked over quickly.

"Hi Luna, how's it going sweetie."

He kissed her hand and he could feel her squeeze his finger and it made the biggest smile burst across his face.

He kissed her forehead and as Olivia watched them interact she realized that keeping their secret was going to be harder than she thought. Of course the doctor would know, she wasn't worried about that because on top of doctor patient confidentiality law, he signed a Nondisclosure. She was worried about anyone else that saw something and wanted to make a quick buck. She watched him as he kissed Luna and spoke playfully to her. The way he looked at her was not the way a friend would look at another friend's baby so the friend story wasn't going to work with anyone who was close enough to see him with them. He was oozing fatherhood, he had the protective aura about him, it couldn't be hidden, not around his children and not around her. She remembered when they first made love, after that she always found herself scolding him for staring at her and making it obvious that they were intimate, half of her thought he was doing it on purpose but then she realized that that was just him. His feelings were a part of him, he couldn't hide it, that's why it was so obvious to everyone that he and Mellie were having issues. He couldn't fake it, not on his own, she realized the only reason he got good at it was probably because he was doing it for her.

Fitz loved her wildly and recklessly and he didn't care that it consumed him, he didn't care that it put him at risk to lose everything that he's ever worked for. She never realized or appreciated that until that very moment when she saw him playing with Luna.

"Fitz-"

He snapped his head up.

"Did I do something?" He asked innocently.

"No, you're perfect."

He grinned and chuckled. Olivia walked around the small hospital bed to Fitz and hugged him tightly. She squeezed him and closed her eyes and Fitz hugged her back then he tipped her head back gently and kissed her lips softly. Olivia nestled into his side and held him tighter, trying to prolong the moment as much as possible.

"It's gonna be a tough day," Fitz whispered as he broke the kiss and caressed her cheek.

Olivia nodded and then Luna gargled out a loud coo, breaking them from the conversation. She turned to her and smiled, "you want mommy and daddy's attention all to yourself don't you," Olivia said.

After a few hours alone, Abby arrived with Richard and Lana.

"Good morning guys. It's a good day and were gonna be positive."

Olivia raised her eyebrow because Abby's tone was unusually perky.

"You're in a good mood Abbs."

"Well it's a good day, Lulu's first day of treatment, she's gonna be a gladiator and kick chemo's ass and everything's gonna be good."

Olivia walked over and took Lana out of Abby's arms.

"How was she?" Olivia asked.

"She was great, she slept great and drank more than a bottle this morning, girl can eat," Abby chuckled.

"She did! She's been eating a lot, I can tell that she's gaining weight."

Richard greeted Fitz and they all waited for the doctor to arrive. A short time later, Dr. Porpentine arrived with two other nurses.

"Good morning everyone - Mr. President, you are here! It's great to see you again."

The doctor briskly walked over and shook Fitz's hand a little too long.

Once he let go he greeted Olivia and then walked over to Luna.

"Hello there Luna, today is the day huh sweetie. You're gonna be a good girl and be strong for mommy."

He inspected her briefly and then walked back over to Olivia.

"Olivia can I speak with you in my office."

"Sure."

She got up and motioned for Fitz to follow her. His office was in the same hospital wing and only a few suites down the hall as Luna. Once they arrived, Olivia asked for privacy so Dr, porpentine asked the nurses to leave.

"Okay so I've monitoring Luna's behavior and because of her lack of appetite once her treatment starts she is only going to lose more weight so I'm going to give her a feeding tube. It's the only to keep her at a healthy weight because she won't want to eat on her own."

"Are you sure you have to do that?" Olivia asked.

"Positive. I doesn't hurt and she can still drink from the bottle if she'd like it's just a way to get more nutrients in her body because she will need it."

"Okay," Olivia said sadly.

"That brings me to the second issue. If her treatment is successful, we will need a stem cell transplant. We have unrelated donor matches but as I had mentioned before, bone marrow from a related donor isn't ideal for infants. The procedure is risky enough as it is and completely foreign tissue in their body can set of a horrible rejection process that unfortunately is really hard to come back from if it does happen, so I would like to start testing all eligible willing donors, as soon as possible. I will give you the list of criterias that need to be met."

Fitz looked at Olivia.

"Doctor, I need to tell you something and I hope you will hold our confidence."

The doctor nodded.

"Fitz is Luna's biological father and I'm sure he'd like to also be tested to see if he's a match."

His mouth fell open slight but then he caught himself and returned to his usual professional demeanor.

"Absolutely, we will add him to the pool and don't worry, I will keep your confidence. In addition to the non-disclosure I signed, I am a doctor you know, it would be unethical," He said with a chuckle to lighten the mood.

"Thank you doctor," Fitz responded.

"No worries Mr. president. Also I scheduled her chemo for 12 noon, so you have about an hour but the nurses will begin setting up the instrument s and medicines. The main drug we will be administering will be cytarabine along with two others. As I said before, expect vomiting and drowsiness. The chemo today will last for several hours and after we've finished her treatment, she will rest for one week and then we will continue on that schedule. After the first cycle I will give her a bone marrow biopsy and based on that reading we will determine how well she's responding to treatment and if we should move forward as planned."

They both nodded.

"Okay thank you doctor."

They went back to the suite and waited for treatment to begin. They stayed by Luna's side. Olivia whispered words of comfort in her ear she she kissed her all over. She was sure she couldn't understand them but it felt good to say it to her.

She watched as the nurses set up their instruments and got everything in order. Then when Dr. Porpentine came back she knew it was time.

He could see the worry on Olivia's face.

"Don't worry mommy, it's gonna be alright."

He hooked up the chemo drugs to Luna's catheter. She fussed at first then after a while she calmed down.

Olivia and Fitz watched her keenly, Fitz knew how fast things could go south so he mentally prepared himself.

The first couple hours were fine but then Luna began to get clammy and pale and began to fuss.

"Fitz, does she look okay to you, you know, it this normal?"

"Unfortunately yes, she'll probably throw up pretty soon then she'll feel better."

In half hour just as Fitz said, she threw up. Once she was able to throw up she stopped fussing as much. Olivia gave her, her pacifier and she was quiet again. The nurses stayed in the room, monitoring her and after the first hour, the doctor came in 20 minute intervals to check on her.

Abby and Richard, took Lana for a walk hours ago and never came back. Olivia knew Abby did it on purpose so she could focus on Luna.

The hours dragged on until Luna finished treatment. When Dr. porpentine came back for his final visit of the day, he examined Luna, who had thrown up small amounts a couple more times and then fell asleep.

"Have you decided if you want to shave her head as yet?" he asked.

The nurses had all left, Abby and Richard called to let them know that they had gone back to her apartment.

"What do you think Fitz?"

"I think you should."

"Okay, we'll shave it."

"Alright, I'll have a nurse to the honors tomorrow. So now we begin one week rest, we'll be observing her all week and watching her behavior and symptoms. I think she did pretty good today though."

He said his goodbye and then headed out.

During that week Luna had all the regular symptoms the doctor said she would, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite. They shaved her head which was a little difficult because Luna fussed and cried so much. Luna was never a fussy baby but in the past week, there was non stop crying and the only time she wasn't crying was when she was asleep. Olivia didn't blame her, she couldn't imagine how uncomfortable she must feel.

Fitz was there every evening and stayed the night then worked the next day and continued that routine throughout. Sometimes, he would have Karen stop by for a few hours.

All throughout the week the doctor also had both Olivia and Fitz HLA blood tests to see if there was a match for the stem cell transplant. Karen found out and insisted on taking the test as well and they allowed her just for good had been waiting on the result for days. They doctor said three days but four days had passed. She was nervous, she really wanted to be a match. The doctor explain what would happen if they used an unrelated donor and Luna's body rejected transplant and it wasn't pretty.

It was the day of Luna's 2nd chemo session. It was a hard week for Luna, she didn't expect for the after effects to be so bad. She was really weak and slept for very long periods of time where Olivia would get nervous and wake her just to see if she was alright.

Doctor Porpentine came early to set up the medicine, when he made no mention of the test results she decided to ask.

"Doctor, did you get the test results yet?"

Fitz, who was playing with Lana stopped to hear the doctor's response.

"Actually I did, I was waiting to compile a list of all the possible donor we found through the database as well."

Olivia didn't like the sound of that.

He didn't want to discuss the results in front of Abby and Huck.

"Okay, here, why don't we chat in my office."

Olivia and Fitz headed to the doctor's office and took a seat. He entered the room, shortly after.

He sat down and took a deep breath before beginning.

"Unfortunately, neither of you are matches."

Immediately tears sprung out of Olivia's eyes, Fitz held onto her hands tightly.

"But Karen is a match."

"What?" Fitz asked, he couldn't hide his shock, he hadn't considered Karen to be a match.

"A perfect match actually, 8 out of 8 antigens."

Olivia wiped her eyes.

"What does that mean for us, didn't you say people under 18 can't donate?"

"They can't donate to strangers or through a database but they can donate to siblings. With the consent of whoever has legal custody over them."

"And shared custody?" Fitz asked.

"We would need consent of both parents."

Fitz sighed.

"We found a few matches in the system but none as optimal as Karen. She seems eager but she might not be so eager when she knows what the process entails. Talk with her and inform her an the details of the procedure. Discuss it as a family and then let me know your decision."

"What if Karen can't do the procedure?" Olivia asked.

"The only way we can fully flush the cancer out of her body is with the transplant, without it, it's likely that the cancer would come back within a few months. If you use a donor from the system - let's just put it this way, I wouldn't want to use someone from the system. Karen is your best chance for Luna."

The doctor was paged over the intercom and excused himself and left them in the office together.

"Livie talk to me. What are you thinking?"

She sniffled and wiped her eyes again. She was looking down at her lap, Fitz still held on to her hands.

"What if she doesn't want to it?"

"She will, I know Karen, she will. If I ask her to."

She looked up at him.

"Mellie won't let her do it."

"Let me worry about Mellie okay."

He kissed her hand.

"Come on Livie, Luna starts chemo soon, let's go check on our baby."

Later in the evening, Fitz had one of his agents drop Karen at the hospital after she finished drama practice. She ran into the hospital room with her usual high energy. After she greeted everyone she gave Luna a kiss and then immediately started playing with Lana. She didn't linger around Luna, She looked so fragile that Karen barely touched her, Lana on the other hand was an entirely different story.

"Karen can Olivia and I speak to you."

"Sure dad, what's up."

She was barely giving them her attention, she was so busy blowing bubbles into Lana's stomach.

"Do you remember when they took your blood to test it to see if you could use it to help Luna get better?"

"Yeah daddy, I remember."

"Well they got the results back and you're the only one that can help Luna, you are the only match."

"That's good right?"

"Yes sweetheart but do you want to help her?"

"Of course daddy, she's my baby sister."

"You know you will have to do surgery in order to give her what she needs, you'll have to be in the hospital for a couple days afterwards."

"Will it hurt?" Asked Karen.

"The doctor will make sure it won't, we'll have the doctor explain the surgery to you and we'll talk it through to make sure you're comfortable with everything."

"Will there be a needle?"

Karen was afraid of needles, she closed her eyes and bit Lana's pillow in order to calm herself enough to give the HLA blood to to Dr. Porpentine, Fitz tried to stop her but she insisted on doing it for Luna.

"Yes, there will be."

"It's okay daddy, I'll do it for Luna, she's my baby sister, I have to take care of her," Karen said with a smile.

"Come here kare."

She got up and went over to Fitz. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"How did I raise such a brave girl huh?"

Karen giggled wildly and shrugged. Olivia hugged her as well, she was glad that Karen agreed, she worried that as she found out more details about the procedure that she might want to back out but she decided not to dwell on what might be.

"Thanks kare," Olivia said with a smile.

Three weeks later.

Mellie walked into the Fitz's office wondering what Fitz could possibly want with her after not having seen her for a year. She stopped mid step when she saw Olivia and Fitz sitting on the couch.

Her defenses immediately went up. She had thought that when she told Fitz about the rigging that he would have permanently gotten rid of her but that was just hopeful thinking, she felt in her heart that he wouldn't.

"Of course you forgive her. Olivia pope can do no wrong for you," she said with disdain.

"Please have a seat Mellie, let's be civil."

"Now you wanna be, you weren't civil when you threw me out on my ass for your mistress, were you?"

Fitz sighed.

Mellie smiled, glad she's gotten under his skin as she intended. "Olivia, you look terrible," she said with a grin.

"Mellie you've blown about 10 of the 20 million I've given you, if you keep it up, you'll be broke by next year. I think you'll like what we're offering you, please sit."

Mellie straightened up and sat opposite from them on the couch. It burned her to her core to see Fitz and Olivia sitting together, holding hands as if they were some united front against her.

"You have 50% legal custody of Karen, we need her to undergo a medical procedure and I need your consent."

Mellie looked at her nails.

"What kind of procedure."

"Bone marrow transfer."

Mellie looked up, he could see the spark in her eyes, the spark that came about when Mellie saw an opportunity to be Mellie. "Well I know Karen's not sick, so who needs bone marrow?" She paused and smiled."Is it Olivia because there is no way in hell I'm letting Karen give you anything."

"It's not me," Olivia said flatly.

"Don't tell me it's you, Fitz, because I kinda wanna see you suffer too," She chuckled.

"Olivia and I have two daughters, twins over 6 months old."

Mellie's mouth fell open but no words came out. She was shocked to her core and even more shocked that they were able to keep it secret.

Fitz continued. "One of them has leukemia, she's in chemo right now but once she's finished she'll need a bone marrow transplant. Karen is her only match."

Fitz waited for Mellie to respond.

"How much?"

"Another 20 mill and you'll sign over your legal custody."

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" Fitz asked.

"You destroyed our marriage for Olivia-"

"Our marriage was dead long before Olivia came in the picture-" Fitz retorted.

"Who killed it? You did. You stopped caring, you decided I wasn't what you wanted anymore and you completely checked out."

"I didn't ask you to come here to argue about our marriage."

"No, now that you and her are here, I'm gonna talk and you're gonna listen."

"Fine, empty your heart out-"

Mellie gritted her teeth, "there's no conversation I can't have with you. You knock your whore up and your bastard gets cancer, your mother had the same cancer, I don't think that's a coincidence. I won't let Karen give that baby anything. I want your little bastard to die. I've heard that losing a child is probably the hardest thing anyone can go through. I'm counting on you to tell me if that's true." She chuckled sardonically and got up from the couch.

"Is that what this is about? Punishing us because if it is then you've already done that. Your lie broke us up for more than a year." Olivia stood up as well.

"It was supposed to break you up forever but I guess I was wrong because here you two are with two little mongrels as proof." Mellie shrugged nonchalantly. "Send me an invite to the funeral. I'll wear my best black dress."

That was it for Olivia, she was seething. "Don't fucking talk about my daughters," she barked.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Fitz pull something out of his pocket and place it on the table. He pressed the play button.

"You knock your whore up and your bastard gets cancer, your mother had the same cancer, I don't think that's a coincidence. I won't let Karen give that baby anything. I've heard that losing a child is probably the hardest thing anyone can go through. I'm counting on you to tell me if that's true."

Mellie gasped and so did Olivia."You recorded me?"

Olivia sat back on the couch, all the anger she was feeling a few seconds prior had disappeared. She intertwined her fingers with Fitz's once again. The weeks since Luna began her treatment had brought them closer together than ever before. They hadn't slept together but it didn't matter because she'd never felt more connected to him.

"Let's make a deal Mellie because if this recording were to get out I don't think the public would be very appreciative of you wishing death on an infant with cancer, let alone reveling in it. They won't care about me and Olivia's relationship not after they hear this, they'll be asking why I didn't divorce you sooner. Sign the consent form and give up your legal custody, I'll wire you 2 million tomorrow morning."

"It was 10," Mellie said angrily.

"Yeah that was before you opened your mouth about my daughter. Now you get 2 million, you sign over legal custody of Karen (who you haven't seen in months) and when Olivia and I make our relationship public, you'll be ecstatic that I found such an amazing woman and you'll wish us nothing but the best."

Fitz handed her a pen and waited for her to sign. Mellie signed and stormed out.

Fitz gathered the papers and stood up.

"I'm sorry for letting her go on that long, I just needed to get it on tape."

"Why didn't you tell me? Olivia asked.

"I don't know, I figured you too would have a showdown and I didn't want it to seem staged on your part."

She stood up and punched his arm."You should've told me, I can't believe you did that. I don't want to be on the other side of the negotiating table with you."

He chuckled, "Mellie is Mellie. It happens every time. I make her a generous offer. She thinks because I'm offering so much that I'm desperate and so she tries to twist the knife and it usually pisses me off and she ends up with significantly less than what I planned to give her. When I gave her divorce papers the first time, I offered her 60 million and some assets. She got a big head, told me about the election and ended up with 20."

Olivia shook her head,"Would you have really released that tape?"

"If I had too, yes. I wouldn't want to, that Karen's mom and I feel guilty enough that she doesn't see her. Karen will never have from her mother what you give to Lana and Luna, eventually she'll notice and eventually she'll start to resent Mellie and I."

"She won't resent you. She loves you and you're an amazing father to her."

"I hope she won't but realistically Liv, she'll wonder why the twins have you and she has Mellie and I'll have to explain that. Mellie didn't want a child and I did. She agreed to one in our prenup and even then it took 5 years of begging for her to conceive Karen." He sighed frustrated.

"You're stressing yourself but Karen isn't at the point yet and who knows maybe she never will be," Olivia said.

They were both quiet as they contemplated different things. Fitz realized and decided to change the subject.

"This is the longest you've been away from Luna, I'm sure you're having withdrawal, let's get back to the hospital."

"Thanks."

"For what?" He asked.

"Everything, you've been my life boat throughout this whole thing, I don't know what I would've done if I didn't have your support."

Fitz wrapped her in a tight hug. They held on to each other for some time until they reluctantly broke the hug and headed back to the hospital.

Karen, Abby and Harrison were in Luna's room. Fitz had one of his agents pick up takeout on their way back. As he walked into the room, Karen jumped up.

"Daddy what did she say?" She asked nervously.

"She said yes."

"Yay," Karen said as she jumped up and down excitedly.

She gave both Olivia and Fitz a hug and then she ran over to Luna and hugged her as well. After they all ate, Olivia was in such a good mood she decided to question Abby about Richard, she had meant to do it for weeks but was always so occupied with Luna, she never got to it.

"So Abby, you and Richard, are a thing now?" She said as Lana played on her lap.

Abby blushed.

"Why yes, we are."

"Congrats, I'm happy for you," Olivia said with a smile.

"Thanks. I'm flying out to New York to spend some time with him next weekend. I might come back pregnant, pray for me Liv."

"Eww," Karen screamed.

Olivia laughed.

"Sorry Kare, you have young ears, you shouldn't be hearing stuff like this," Abby laughed.

Dr. Porpentine entered the room.

"I have the results of the biopsy," He announced.

Olivia stood up quickly, so did Fitz.

"So the leukemic cells are at 2%, which is lower than I expected."

"That's good right?" Olivia could see the excitement on Fitz's face but she still had to ask.

"That's great. It's better than I anticipated. We will do one round of consolidation chemotherapy and then stem cell transplant. Speaking of the transplant, I can't take anymore tests on Karen without the consent form."

Fitz handed him the papers.

"We got them today."

"Perfect," Dr. Porpentine exclaimed.

"Things are looking up people. Few more hurdles and you guys will be out of here," he said as he exited the room.