The next day.

Olivia and Fitz woke up at their usual time and got ready for their day, only now, they had Maxime running around and playing while they did it, it was a welcomed changed. Surprisingly, a little before Olivia left for work, a group of house aides delivered about 50 different gifts to their bedroom. All gifts sent to the White House for Olivia from different designers, brands and a beauty lines, wishing her a happy birthday. She was dumbfounded. She didn't get to go through all the bags but in one bag From Stuart Weitzman, she received two thigh high boots. She found another bag from Chanel with a tweed jacket and matching mini skirt with earrings, a necklace, a pink velvet purse and flats, she didn't even know how they got her size.

Fitz stood watching her go through some of the gifts and then she turned to him.

"Did you do this?"

"No, you told me not to get you anything crazy."

"These people really sent me all of this?"

"Yes but relax, it's mostly because they want you to wear it publicly so other people can see you wearing and wanna buy it."

Olivia's mouth fell open and curved into a smile.

"I'm totally okay with that, oh my god, this is a lot of stuff."

She heaped all the bags in one corner of the huge bedroom.

"I'll look through them later. Is it possible to get one of the aides to help me with the thank you cards, I can't possibly do all of these."

"Yeah, sure, I'll have Lauren send one of them over during the days and she can begin."

"Thank you," Olivia said with a smile.

They left shortly after.

She promised him she'd be back from the lab by 3pm so they could prep for their first interview together.

She was beyond nervous for their interview and when she walked into residence a little after 3:15 in the afternoon, she immediately went to find Maxime because on her way home, she stopped at the dog store to buy him some accessories and she couldn't wait to see how they would look on him. She found him in the Kennedy garden with his sitter, Molly.

"Hey Maxime, mommy's home."

She walked over to him and picked him up and spun him around like you would a child. He barked delightfully, he was still getting used to her as she was getting used to him.

Olivia stooped to the ground and pulled out his new, blue, personalized jeweled collar she got from the store. She clasped it around his neck and picked him up.

"So cute. Do you like it Molly?"

"Yes, it's adorable," Molly said with a smile.

Moments later, Fitz's chief of staff Esme, walked down the corridor towards them.

"Olivia, sorry to bother you but hair and makeup wanted to know if you wanted to get touch ups for the interview."

"Yeah, where are they?"

"Their in the powder room."

"Okay, I'll be there in a sec."

Olivia was going to give Max back to Molly but decided to bring him. As she followed Esme to the powder room, Olivia decided to pry.

"So Esme, how are you liking the new gig?"

"I love it, I'm doing real work in great administration."

"How does your family feel about you working crazy hours?"

That was Olivia's way of asking if she had a husband.

"Well, my mom and dad watch my kids and they haven't complained yet. I'm divorced so, you know the parents help out."

"Oh, well you have great parents then."

Esme smiled.

"Yes, I'm very thankful."

They reached the powder room, shortly after.

"President Grant will be meeting you shortly."

"Yeah, I know, he texted me."

Esme nodded.

"Of course, I'll be out here getting some things in order, just called if you need me."

Olivia smiled.

"Thanks."

She headed over to hair and makeup and sat in the chair with Max as they did her up. She had in a white Chloe skinny pantsuit, she thought she looked killer so she didn't change it.

Half hour later, Fitz arrived into the Lincoln sit room to meet Olivia.

He quickly walked over and kissed her cheek.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, something came up."

"It's okay."

Hair and makeup quickly gathered around him, fixing his hair, face and suit to make sure he ready for the camera. As he was getting ready, their interviewer arrived. Megan Martin, a log time nightly news host.

"Good evening, Mr. President, Dr. Pope. Thank you so much for allowing us to conduct your first interview as a couple."

Fitz walked over and shook Megan's hand, so did Olivia.

"Thanks for having us."

Fitz and Olivia sat down on the couch, Megan sat on the chair opposite from them.

"Okay, Megan, recording in three- two- one."

He gave her a silent cue and almost instantly Maxime ran through the opened door with Molly chasing him. He made a beeline towards Olivia, barking as he went. Molly froze when Maxime reached her feet and she picked him.

"Maxime, how did you get in here?" She said as she rubbed his back.

"I'm sorry," Molly said, "he ran off searching or you and I wasn't quick enough to catch him."

Molly saw everyone except for Fitz and Olivia staring at her as if she had 10 heads.

"It's okay, we're not live," Megan said, "we can edit it out."

Fitz saw the blinged out collar around Maxime's neck and immediately started laughing.

"Olivia what is he wearing?"

Olivia chuckled.

"That's his bling."

"You're putting girl jewelry on a boy dog, you're gonna give him self esteem issues."

"Leave him alone, he's handsome and you're just jealous, you wish you were as icy as him, isn't that right Maxime," Olivia said to Max.

Fitz laughed.

"What does icy even mean?"

"I heard it in a song somewhere, it means you're really cool."

Megan turned to her crew, "are you getting this," she mouthed.

Her chief producer nodded.

Molly ran over and took Max then left the room quickly.

"Sorry about that," Fitz said to Megan.

"No worries, Mr. President, no worries."

Megan adjusted herself to begin again.

"Can I first ask you the question that's been on everyone's mind for the past, actually more than a month, I think it's obvious given the ring on your finger but I have to ask, are you two engaged?"

Fitz looked to Olivia and waited for her to answer, "yes we are," she said.

"Congratulations to you both."

"Thank you," they said in unison.

Olivia and Fitz watched Cyrus sneak into the room and stand beside Esme.

"How did he pop the question?"

"He flew me up to Nova Scotia to watch the northern lights and he proposed, that's the simple version, if I were to go into detail, I'd never shut up because it was just the most romantic thing I've ever experienced, in life."

Fitz chuckled.

"Look at him, he's totally congratulating himself right now, the thing about him is, he's not very subtle," Olivia said playfully.

Megan chuckled.

"I am subtle… Sometimes."

Olivia laughed.

"When's the wedding?" Megan asked.

"Whenever Olivia says it is," Fitz said with a chuckle.

"Yes, I wield all the power," she said playfully.

"Can you describe your first encounter with the president, when you first met?"

"Our first encounter and when we actually met are in two separate occasions so I suppose I'll describe both."

Megan nodded.

"I was visiting James Madison hospital to help a friend of mine perform a difficult surgery on a patient. As I was getting ready to leave, (thankfully because I had gone just around 25 hours without sleep) one of the nurses ran up to me, she was frantic, she said they had a 45 years old male, suffering from three gunshot wounds, he was two minutes away. Initially I thought it was weird that they wanted my help for what I would consider a regular ER case, gunshot wounds aren't uncommon in the ER and after all, I technically didn't work at that hospital and I'm a neurosurgeon, not a trauma specialist, regardless, I ran to go get my surgical apron and wash my hands to prepare for whatever surgery I needed to perform. As I was heading to the operation room I bumped into my friend and I asked him: why do you need me for this, I felt like gunshot wounds were his specialty, you know, he could operate on it in his sleep and he said 'the patient is the president and he has a bullet in his head, we need you'. Moments later, the paramedics burst into operation room frantically, carrying Fitz on a stretcher and he's a bloodied and his blood pressure is really low, his chest cavity is filled with blood, he's going into hypovolemic shock from all the blood loss and then he flatlined seconds later from in front of me."

"Wow," Megan said slightly dumbfounded, "what did you do."

"Well he brought him back and I immediately removed the bullet and small bone fragments my from his head wound, which was a priority because I wanted to contain swelling and preserve brain function then I went to work on his chest wounds. It was a long night for him but he fought through it and I mean he's strong, I don't think people know how strong he is, how hard it is to come back from an assault of that magnitude but he did. Two weeks later he woke up from his coma and I guess that brings us to the first time he met me. I'd been periodically checking on him because I expected him to be awake within the day, it was just before noon when I did my third check on him, I found him laying in bed quietly and I asked him why he didn't call a nurse when he woke up and he said: 'I just woke up from the best sleep I've gotten in 20 years, I just wanted to take a while to enjoy it.' And well yes, that was our first meeting."

"Wow, so I mean I guess, my next question is: a few months ago, when your relationship first became public, ex-First Lady Mellie Grant did an interview where she made some pretty explosive and I might also add; unproven claims, among those she said you would ask her to leave the room whenever you ran test on the president and she felt like you used that time to take advantage of the president. First can I ask you how you felt when you heard that interview and what is your response to her claim?"

Olivia smile and shook her head.

"It definitely hurt, I mean I didn't know her well enough to expect her to speak about me in glowing terms but I also didn't know her well enough to expect her to slander me. Honestly, we never asked her to leave the room, she was just never there, I don't say that maliciously, she just wasn't there, she didn't ask to be present for any of the test or exercises we did and I wasn't the only doctor that ran test, she might have been present for those but as far as I'm concerned she was never present at the hospital for any test I ran."

"So do you think she lied?"

"I don't want to defame anyone national television, I'm just stating what I know to be true, she might have felt left out, I don't know that but I'm just saying I've never asked her to leave the room."

"Mr. President, what was the nature of your relationship with Dr. Pope when you left the hospital."

"She was like my personal webmd."

Olivia chuckled.

"If anything strange happened, I'd call her and ask her what the heck was going on with my body, whether is was a headache or weird chest pains, at one point Gerry got a concussion and because she was in D.C. she visited the white house and gave him a check up, wrote him a slip so he didn't have to do homework, which he loved."

"What is your relationship with Gerry like?" Megan directed to Olivia, "after his back injury earlier this year, I'd assume it's good."

"Oh Gerry's the best. He's such a great kid. We have a great relationship, after his surgery earlier this year he became interested in science, especially in my field of science and so now he helps out at my lab after school. I keep our break room fridge fully stocked because just like me, he knows how to eat."

Fitz laughed, "yes and if you look at both of them, they're absolute sticks, I don't know where the food goes."

"I can relate, my teenage son swallows food whole I think, sometimes I don't see him chew," Megan laughed and then brought to topic back to their relationship, "mr. President, you filed for divorce, late October, did Dr. Pope have anything to do with that?"

"No, Megan, Mellie and I had been going over our options for months before, Dr. Pope and I were not in a romantic relationship at the time of my divorce. I want to make that clear, we don't appreciate anyone suggesting otherwise."

It was a lie Fitz had to tell, he didn't want anyone going after Olivia's character.

"When did your relationship with Dr. Pope become for than platonic, actually no, can I first ask you how or maybe what was going through your mind when you heard the village that Dr. Pope was stationed at had been attacked, many doctors were killed but she was taken?"

Fitz looked to Olivia briefly, she seemed okay. They'd been prepping for questions like that for two weeks and they agreed not to go into detail. Fitz would vaguely answer the basic questions and if they wanted details they'd deflect.

"To put it lightly, I was shocked, and that doesn't happen often."

"Dr. Pope, since your return, you haven't made any public comments about your return home. No one knows what happened except that when you returned to the states, you were kept in the hospital for over a week in critical condition. We know that almost a month later, you attempted suicide, obviously you went through a very hard time. Can you tell us what happened to you?"

"No."

Megan was slightly taken aback by Olivia's plain 'no' but she shook it off and moved on but before she could form her next question, Olivia began speaking again.

"Uhm," she began softly, "I-"

Fitz leaned in, not caring if the cameras were recording, "you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he whispered in her ear.

"I know," she said softly in response.

She turned back to Megan, she pondered for a few seconds, wondering if she was making the right choice but she was tired of running from it, they would only keep asking.

"I was kidnapped, starved, tortured, I also got beat up quite a few times by people who thought that they could force me to help them commit atrocities because I was smart and I knew how to build things. I refused and you can imagine how happy they were about that. I almost died, luckily I didn't, thanks to this brilliant man right here and some really brave soldiers who took on a lot of really bad guys just to save my life. When I got back, I had a really hard time adjusting and at my lowest point I did try to take my own life, I'm not proud about and I have gotten help since then. It doesn't help when you try to throw gotcha questions at me about a really difficult chapter of my life or try to make a headline out of it. I'm a real person, with real feelings, so is he," she pointed a thumb at Fitz, "and I just hope that now that I've sort of laid everything out there, people won't care so much about it and reporters can stop staking out at my lab everyday, asking me the same question that you asked me just now."

Megan cleared her throat, she couldn't possibly respond to Olivia in anything even close to astute.

"Well, thank you both for taking the time to speak with me today."

"Our pleasure," Fitz said with a smile.

The producer signaled that the cameras were off and Fitz and Olivia stood up. Megan took a few steps forward and stopped in front of them.

"I'm really sorry, if you felt like I threw a gotcha question at you, you're right, sometimes as journalist we get so caught up in trying to chase the story that we forget that real people are behind them, I meant no harm."

Olivia nodded and shook Megan's hand.

"Thank you, I really appreciate your apology."

Megan nodded and bid them goodbye, moments later her and the camera crew was gone.

Fitz wrapped his arms around Olivia's waist and lifted her in the air.

"I am so proud of you, that took a lot of courage" he said as he kissed her softly on the lips.

"I don't know what came over me, I was just so tired of them always throwing what happened in my face that I just wanted to lay it all out there so there can stop asking me, which I know they still will but at least now they can stop speculating."

Cyrus and Esme had made their way over, before they could start conversing, Fitz stopped them.

"I'm sorry, we're gonna run, I'll see you in a little bit."

Fitz took Olivia's arm and they hurried out.

Cyrus chuckled and shook his head.

"Why do they keep doing that?" Esme asked, it wasn't the first time Fitz and Olivia ran out on her.

"Hopefully, you'll never have to find out," Cyrus said with a smile, "come on, you have work to do. The Italian prime minister is coming in a few days."

Later in the night, as Olivia and Fitz laid in bed waiting for the interview to air, Olivia's phone chimed signaling she got an email. She grabbed her phone and opened the email, she read through the content and then smiled.

"What's going on?" Fitz asked.

"Clay Math Institute just announced the I correctly solved all the millennium problem I submitted, they published the answers online and they nominated me for a Nobel physics prize."

"Seriously?"

"Yes," she said with a chuckle, "it's right here in the email. They wanted to give me a heads up, they're doing a press release tomorrow."

Fitz took the phone and read through the email.

"And they're also awarding you six million dollars for all six problems, wow, congratulations. By the way, if this wasn't obvious, can I be your date to the awards ceremony?"

"Of course, who else would I bring?"

"I don't know, chef Gustav or your best friend Daniel."

She slapped his arm.

"I might have to bring one of them if you don't act right."

Fitz gasped as if he was hurt by her words then he chuckled and dug his face into her neck. Olivia laughed and squealed when she felt his fingers roaming up her side, tickling her. As they fooled around in bed, they heard the nightly news jingle, signaling the start of the interview. Olivia was pleasantly surprised that they kept the bit in where Maxime ran into the room, now that she watched her and Fitz banter on TV, she thought it was hilarious. They watched the entire interview and then sat listening to the pundits talk about it afterwards.

"So what are your thoughts on the interview?" Megan asked one of the guests.

"I- I think they're a beautiful couple but obviously the breaking news here is what Dr. Pope said, I mean that was just explosive and I don't think anyone was expecting that, I mean just think about it, that entire exchange, I mean she was kidnapped because someone wanted to force her to help them commit atrocities, I don't know about you but I wanna to know more and I mean the other explosive thing she said was that she didn't help them, that makes her a patriot-"

"How do you know she's telling the truth," another man interjected.

"She's sitting beside the president of the United States, and also who lies about something like that, now is not the time to be a partisan hack because your angry president Grant is running as an independent for elections next year now is the time to be a patriot, I think she's an American hero."

"Please, you don't know enough about what happened to say that."

Another guest began, "can I jump in for a little here guys," she said, "I think you guys are missing the entire point of Dr. Pope's revelation, I agree with you that she's telling the truth but I also think she said it because she wanted closure, it seemed like a necessary catharsis. She obviously wants to stop being badgered by the media about what happened, you have conservative pundits out there saying she's mentally unstable and not fit to be First Lady because of a past suicide attempt that I might add was a gross invasion of privacy to have been reported on in the first place. It's just horrid what people say about her for politics just because she's a black woman who's young and smart and beautiful and so happened to be engaged to a rich white president, they can't handle that. All I'm saying is probably wants to put this behind her. I think we should too."

"How can we put this behind us, we're talking about an American scientist being kidnapped by terrorists and tortured to help them do God knows what, that American is about to be our future First Lady, that is a big story and by the way, I'm wondering what president Grant did about this, I don't imagine he took this lightly."

"Yes and the bigger story here is that she resisted, she didn't help them. That makes her a hero, I mean, she came back in bad shape, you wanna talk about men being heroes, let's talk about her. This tiny, 100 pound woman resisting torture for almost three months, that's strength."

"I agree with you there, and you know, she is brilliant, she studied everything from thermonuclear astrophysics to mechanics to chemistry, who knows what she could've helped them build or what they wanted her to build for that matter, I think there's a lot more to be learned."

Megan jumped in, "yes and I also wanted to add, you know separate from the big story here, you know, I mean, I guess this is a big story as well, it's just so much breaking news tonight, we have to pace ourselves, the whole reason for the interview was so that people could get a look at them as a couple and you know being in the room with them, you can feel the intimacy between them, it's electric and that is in stark contrast to his previous relationship with Mellie Grant, I've interviewed them as a couple as well and I can say that I didn't experience that side of them and I'm also anxious to see what Mellie Grant has to say after this anyways, stick around, more of the breaking news when we get back."

Olivia heard Max barking at the side of her bed and leaned over and picked him up.

"Hey buddy, I thought you were asleep."

She took the remote and changed the channel to cartoons and watched as he got comfortable on her lab and watched tv.

"So, after everything we just heard, how are you feeling?"

"Not much different, I thought it'd be much worse."

"They are right, you are a hero," Fitz smiled, "can I give you a hero medal?"

"No," she said with a chuckle.

He was glad they were at a place where Olivia could be so open with him, he was sure he had Savannah to thank for it.

"I have to ask, why did you say it?"

"I've been talking with Savannah, especially after I found out you saw the tapes and I was basically complaining about how humiliated I was."

"You shouldn't be, you didn't do anything wrong, all I saw was a really strong woman standing up for what she thought was right."

Olivia smiled.

"Savannah said the same thing and I don't feel that way anymore. I think I'd was more terrified of people seeing it than people just knowing about it, you know. Like with you, if I had told you about it, I don't think you would have imagined it was that bad, no matter what I said, so with the tapes being gone and no one being able to see it, I guess I'm just more at peace, I know with what I said journalists might go digging to try and find out more but nothing they find will be worse than what they would have seen on that tape. I know they'll talk about it on tv for a few days but I think by the end of the year, it'll be history."

Fitz kissed her temple.

"I really love you know that right."

Fitz chuckled,

"I love you too."

They laid together talking and watching cartoons with Max until they both fell asleep.

A/N- Okay so don't kill me. I really wanted Olivia to control how her story came out, I didn't want her to be blindsided, I wanted her to be ready for it and by revealing it herself, she shows just that. Enjoy the next chapter of this double upload but before you do that let me know your thoughts below.