As tired as he might be physically, mentally, Fitz's mind was wide awake, buzzing with the conversations he'd just had with General Ramos that had been followed up with several of his own generals in the Sit Room directly afterward.

So many delicate threads woven and to be rewoven, held against the ever shifting pattern that was the needs of both the government of San Collondias and his own and all the factions in between.

Stepping out of the elevator and into the Residence, he nodded an absentminded goodnight to Tom as he took up his post just outside its doors.

Fitz reached up and as his fingers began loosening his tie, another wave of tiredness washing over him - but it was a good tiredness, one full of a sense of accomplishment.

A quick hot shower first, he thought to himself - and then, a quick phone call, because if he were lucky - Olivia would still be awake.

He hoped that she was - if he couldn't have her here, then the idea of lying in bed and listening to her voice was the very best way he could think of to end the night.

Well, maybe not the best. Fitz smiled at the thought. Maybe, but he was willing to make do with whatever moments that they could snatch. After all, the holidays were coming and he had hopes and plans that he and Olivia were going to have the opportunity to celebrate them as well as make some new memories to take into the new year.

Now there was a thought that made his smile even wider - and he couldn't wait to share that with his Livvie as well.

And as it turned out, he didn't have too long to wait. Fitz opened his bedroom door - and was happily surprised. "Hi."

Olivia looked up from the center of his bed, surrounded by pens and pads and folders and dressed in little more than one of his Navy t-shirts and a smile. "Hi."

"You're here." Fitz barely managed to breathe the words.

"I'm here." It was Olivia's turn to smile, clearly delighted by Fitz's reaction. "Surprise."

"I am." Fitz said. "And I thought you said this was a work night - that you had a lot on your plate and so did I."

Her eyes sparkled up at him. "Was I wrong? And am I not working?"

"No, you weren't - but what changed?"

"Well, you did ask me to stay so nicely that I found it hard to resist." She gestured at the evidence scattered all around her. "This seemed to be the best compromise for us to both get some work done."

Fitz's senses flooded with a heady mix of heat and pleasure as his eyes dropped down to the smooth twin curves of her bare legs then traveled slowly and appreciatively upwards to her freshly scrubbed face and the enticing curls of her hair piled messily on top of her head.

It didn't matter whether she was sheathed in the highest fashion couture, or business woman chic, or even as she was right now, she was still - and would forever be - the most beautiful woman he has ever seen in his life.

With that in mind, Fitz crossed the room in a few steps. He sank down on the edge of the bed, his eyes never leaving hers. "Remind me to ask nicely more often."

"I'll be more than happy to remind you any time you want." Olivia reached for his tie, finishing the job he'd begun, pulling it free and tossing it aside. Both hands then busied themselves at his throat, deftly undoing the top buttons on his shirt just before pulling him forward into a much needed kiss.

It hadn't taken too much persuasion for Fitz to change her mind concerning their need for each of them to tend to their own separate business, not when the memory of his mouth had lingered against her own after she'd left him, not when the memory of so many lovely moments that they've shared rose up to follow….

So now she indulged herself in this rare departure from her usual discipline and her reward is a series of tender kisses, each one sweeter than the next.

"You can remind me like this any time you want." Fitz said, when he managed to finally pull himself out of the kiss. "But I think work time is over - unless there's something urgent that I need to know."

"There is one thing…" Olivia said.

"What one thing would that be?"

Olivia didn't answer him right away. Instead she let her hands slide down in a slow caress over his shoulders, to slip her hands into his before she answered him. "Karen called."

As she knew that she would, she felt the tension that flooded through Fitz as her words registered. She felt him instinctively start to pull away and tightened her hold on him.

"She's okay." Olivia rushed to reassure him, even as she held on to him, keeping him seated by her side. "Listen to me, Fitz - she's okay. Karen made me promise to tell you specifically not to worry, that she will call you first thing in the morning - and specifically for you to not call her back tonight."

"She's okay…?" a part of Fitz was still a little numb from his first reaction.

"She's okay." Olivia knew she was repeating herself but she'd happily say it all as many times as Fitz needed to hear it.

His eyes strayed to the phone beside the bed. "I know it's late, but maybe I should call her anyway…"

"No." Olivia reached out, laying gentle fingers against his cheek, turned him back towards her.

She shook her head. "Didn't you hear me? Karen made me promise to specifically not let you call her back tonight."

Olivia's voice was warm and calm and sure - and exactly what Fitz needed. Almost before his mind could settle on any single question, she was already answering them; yes, Karen had called while he'd been down in the Sit Room, but after finding herself unable to reach him, Karen had reached out and had called Olivia instead.

His first rush of worry ratcheted down a notch. "Not let me?"

"Yes, not let you."

Fitz exhaled slowly as Olivia's words continued to work their way through him - and when they finally made it into the core of him, their meaning went off like a series of soft explosions in his heart.

First and foremost was the fact that Karen knew that he would worry, but that she was okay - and by extension, so were her brothers.

But the second was just as important as the first - Karen had reached out to Olivia and that realization overwhelmed everything else his senses were telling him, relief replaced instantly with joy…

Watching his worries drop away was like watching sunshine emerging from storm clouds. Olivia finally allowed herself to smile at him. "She also made me promise to take care of you until then."

"She made you promise to…?" It was his turn to tighten his grip on her. The words she spoke were so simple and plain, and yet they filled Fitz with so much emotion.

"Yes, Fitz. She told me to take care of you." Olivia saw it in his face, heard the touch of wonderment in his voice, and because her heart was so in tune with his in the moment, she even caught the sense of a dream longed for and fulfilled in Fitz's voice, as quiet as it was.

Just as quiet, but no less intense was what she saw in his eyes, the depth of his feelings that always left her feeling more than a little in awe of Fitz's heart as he revealed unknowing not only the love for his children but also how much room there was for her there in his heart, how very much she herself meant to him.

It was a realization that brought a tight knot of emotion into her throat and for a moment, she couldn't find any words that could make it past it. Olivia just let her fingers intertwine themselves with Fitz's, letting her touch speak for her instead, hoping that it was enough.

It was; her touch, her very presence was always more than enough. Fitz lifts her hands to his lips in a gentle caress and then the two of them were leaning into one another, until they were touching, forehead to forehead, eyes closing, breathing one another's air.

One minute. It's all they've ever needed - one minute to reset their world and their place in it, in that place where no one else existed but the two of them.

Eventually, they pulled themselves back to reality, just enough so that they can gaze into one another's eyes, anchoring themselves in the moment.

Fitz was the first to speak. "I'm glad Karen called you, that she reached out to you."

"I know." Olivia smiled at him.

Fitz's voice was soft, gentle. And immeasurably happy. "Do you have any idea of what that means to me?"

I think that I have some idea."

The sense of contentment hovering in the air between them shifted; words were not enough - now they were being irresistibly drawn to one another. She leaned forward and he met her half-way, her lips sweetly tasting his again and again.

Olivia continued to kiss him, again and again even as she spoke. "Not that she needed to, but I was glad that she asked me to look after you until tomorrow - that's something that you know that I have no problem with."

"Good to know." Fitz smiled against her mouth. "Of course, that leads me to another question…"

"Ask me anything." Olivia smiled back, taking full advantage of his continued closeness letting her hands slide up and over his broad shoulders, fingers playing lightly over the curves of his ears before finding their way into his hair.

Fitz made a sound that was close to a growl, a sound of pure pleasure. "Just this - how do you propose to take care of me, Ms. Pope?"

"That's for me to know…" she starts to say, her voice already teasing and playful, because she's here and she's happy and she can tell so is he - but then Fitz is kissing her again, deeper this time and Olivia loses her ability to think. And for a long, long moment, so does he.

"What do you need?" she asks lightly when she can breath again, think again.

"You." His answer came less than a heartbeat later.

A giggle escaped her."I was thinking in terms of …sustenance, Fitz. And I'm serious, don't argue with me about this."

Olivia tried to hold the tone of scolding in her voice, but it was proving to be pretty much impossible. The heat of his eyes on her, the intent in Fitz's voice has rendered her weak while the smile that follows his words reminds her that it's a good thing that she's not standing.

"I'm not arguing with you - I have no intentions of arguing with you." He told her. "Look at me not arguing."

Fitz put action to his words, brushing all of her paperwork aside and onto the floor. "First things first." He told her.

"Fitz!" she shook her head at him, an action he ignored as he stood up and swept her up into his arms.

She said his name again, this time Olivia's response was part startled laughter and part half-hearted protest, both of which dissolved deliciously into a heated moan as he kissed her again, this time his tongue delving into her mouth, hot and needy.

Still kissing her - deeply, thoroughly - Fitz carried her from the bathroom into his private bath. He set her down with deliberate slowness onto the expanse of the double sink counter-top. The sudden coolness against her thighs only accentuated the heat of his hardness against her as he pressed himself intimately against her, sending her senses reeling from the sensation.

"Fitz…" she says his name again and now her voice has gone husky, wanting, filling them both with need.

Fitz's hands settle on her hips, pulling her possessively to him, rocking himself against her. He gives her a wicked look. "You were saying something about… sustenance?"

"I did. It's late, Fitz - and I really think you need to think of other needs…"

"I have everything I need right in front of me." Fitz told her. As if to prove it, his hands slide from her hips upwards, lifting her t-shirt as they glided upwards, thumbs purposefully teasing her nipples as he went, continuing until he was pulling it over her head and tossing it aside.

Fitz made an appreciative sound that something very like a growl and was rewarded by the sight of her eyes darkening with a mix of love and lust.

He stepped backwards for a moment to better enjoy the view.

"Stay." He ordered her, a wicked grin emphasizing his words.

Fitz stepped away only long enough to set the shower to a steamy temperature. As he turned back to Olivia, the room was already filing up with heat and steam and now the heat is no longer just from the shower - it's reflected in Olivia's eyes, in the softness of her lips. His eyes fell to her breasts and Fitz was sure that he saw her nipples tighten even harder in response.

Whether it's true or not, his own body responds, everything in him tensing in a pleasurable aching instant. His eyes never leaving hers, he slowly strips the clothes from his body as the familiar slow burn between them smolders and then catch fire between them.

He smiles. And so does she. He licks his lips, unconsciously - and she's undone.

"Get over here." Her body shifts on the counter-top, her thighs parting, inviting him in, her voice a little more than a whisper, laced with desire.

Fitz wasted no time in obeying her soft command. As he moved closer, his hands found their place on her thighs, palms ghosting over Olivia's warm and willing flesh, leaving trails of goosebumps in their wake.

In between soft kisses and softer whispers they were still smiling. It's been too long since they've allowed themselves the luxury of spending any extensive time together and now that they have the night, neither of them want to rush anything.

"Future generations of presidents will thank me for this bathroom redesign." Fitz joked.

"I'm sure they'll appreciate it -but you get to use it first - now and for the next four years." Olivia told him.

"That's the plan, isn't it?"

"Without a doubt, mister."

Fitz dipped his head to hers, swooping in for another long and deep kiss.

"Enough work talk." Fitz said at the end of it. "Weren't we discussing something about my having something to eat?"

"I think we were agreeing not to argue about it, weren't we?"

"That's right - because I have something much better to do with my mouth than to argue with it."

Before she could answer, Fitz was sinking down, his mouth and hands hot and greedy against her body, swiftly finding her most intimate places, tracing them with lips and tongue, from that intriguing spot behind one ear, down along one curve of her collarbone before sinking lower and lower pausing to taste her hardened nipples, enjoying their stiffness against his mouth.

And then he went lower still…

The mysteries found within the creases of her inner thighs beckon him deeper and Fitz buries his senses in the taste and textures that he finds and he doesn't stop until Olivia is trembling beneath his touch, he doesn't stop until she is quivering with love and heat and desire and only then, when she is on the very edge of ecstasy does he lift her up and carry her into the shower, where the hot water pours over them both.

What follows next was all sweet and slow heat, all soapy and slippery foreplay, the kind that they both love best, the kind that Olivia has come to know that it was the kind of love making that she'd always dreamed of - and so had he.

She was absolutely boneless with desire by the time they made it back to the bed, every inch of skin on fire, molten, melting with desire everywhere his lips touched her body and his lips were everywhere at once, until she was crying out his name and then his body was surging into hers, thick and hard and hot and good.

Sex. Three little letters - a single vowel. One would think that it was such a simple word, a simple deed. But with them sex has always been anything but simple, from their very first moment of intimacy and it never failed to amaze her that somehow it was even better, every time after that.

It's always been beyond simple - it's intimacy that she has learned that Fitz has craves - that he's always craved. It was there in a moment of shared and whispered laughter, in the way his eyes darkened when he would pause and look down into hers, in the little gasp that he always gave when her fingers caress the curve of his ears…

The part of his mind that is still able to think - barely though - is filled with a sense of …gratitude? Fitz had never known what had been missing in his life until Olivia had come crashing into it. He had never known this level of intimacy had even existed, this feeling of belonging to another with such utter completeness, of being moved by the look on her face, the expression in her eyes, knowing that he belonged to her and she to him - forever.

The feeling of Olivia's fingers curling into his hair and the base of his neck as she controls the direction of his mouth against hers never fails to bring that home to him. Her kisses are everything in this moment, her body, warm and wet and wonderfully pliant beneath him, around him, is taking him to places where the pleasure is almost unbearable. Fitz finds himself wanting to drown himself in the sensations that fill him, overwhelm him and never, never never come up for air…

But all good things must at last come to an end, and when they were done, lying breathless and satiated, back in reality Fitz gathers her in his arms and holds her close, hearts and minds and souls in sync.

"I exist - for you." Those are the last words that cross his consciousness before he allows himself to drift off into sleep.

a/n Apologies for the long hiatus; real life has just been way too real these last few months. Among many other life issues - including the acts of the current infestation in the White House - I lost my father to the Covid virus in May and the hits just keep on coming. On the brighter side of things, my handicapped son who [for those who remember suffered a series of strokes last year] has been making amazing progress; he is off of his feeding tube and walking - no more wheelchair or even a walker at this point! Still working with his speech, but he's happy watching BET and Dr. Who and otherwise healthy!

That all being said, I am happy to finally have an update and hope everyone enjoys it xoxo