A/N: Wow everyone thank you so much for all the love and comments. I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this story. The good news is my move went pretty well, and I'm starting to settle in, so it hopefully won't be too long until the tenth chapter. For now though, enjoy this 9th installment.

Chapter 9: Study Buddies

September 27, 1976

A month of law school passed for Olivia, and as the days went, she found it easier and easier to adjust to the course load and the New York style of living. As it would turn out, Olivia and Fitz would end up having two classes together, one of which Quinn was in as well. In those classes they always sat next to each other, making small talk on what they were up to in the week and discussing some of the readings that they had to do.

It was a Monday, and Olivia took her usual seat next to Fitz in the front of the room.

"How was your weekend?" he asked her.

"It was good. A lot of reading, but I also did a little bit of shopping with Abby. And how was yours?"

"Same old same old," he uttered, taking out a pen and notebook.

The short and stocky professor came into the room at nine o'clock on the dot as usual. After announcing to the class that he just finished grading their first paper, he began walking around the room, handing out the graded papers to each individual student.

Olivia felt her stomach coil up into a knot. She had felt like this paper had gone alright, but it was still her first assignment of law school. This was her first exposure to see just how hard the grading scale here was, and how she would amount to it. The professor started at the back and slowly worked his way to the front, finally coming up to Olivia and Fitz.

"Ms. Pope," he said, handing her the document. Olivia noticed the big bright "A" at the top. "Nice job, highest in the class. I look forward to reading what you have in store for future assignments.

Olivia beamed a smile of pride. Only a month into school, and she was already receiving praise from the professor, that was something to be proud of. She turned to face Fitz, wondering if, and somewhat hoping, he'd give her some kind of snarky sarcastic comment about her grade. She briefly caught eye of Fitz scouring to put his paper away in a folder. She didn't mean to, but the big bright letter stuck out like a sore thumb, and unintentionally she saw the "D+" on his paper.

She saw Fitz sit up straighter and square his jaw. She could tell his mood had soured, and he was quiet for the rest of class. Class dismissed, and Olivia and Fitz grabbed their bags to head out the door.

"Oh, Mr. Grant, before you go I would like to have a word with you," the professor called out. Fitz cringed, and furrowed his brow in frustration before pivoting around to go to the professor's desk.

Olivia stood outside of the classroom, waiting for Fitz to come back out. She couldn't make out the details of their conversation, but she could pick up that it was on his paper, and that he would have to improve his writing if he wanted pass this class, all while Fitz mumbled a series of "mhmms" and "yeses."

Olivia watched Fitz come out of the classroom looking more defeated than ever, making her heart ache. He had helped her so much in the past that seeing him like this just…she couldn't let herself. She wanted help him, if he'd let her.

"Fitz?" she called out going after him.

"Liv, I'm not exactly in the best mood for talking right now," he spoke honestly, though it came out a littler colder than he wanted.

"I know," Olivia confessed. "I sort of heard that conversation."

Fitz let out a sigh, "of course you did...How much did you hear?"

"A lot," Fitz pivoted away from her looking ever so pissed. "But if you need help writing, I can tutor you."

Fitz turned back around and looked at Olivia, "tu-tutor me?"

"I mean…I can help you with your writing for our next paper, and look over it. I want to help you, if you'll let me."

"Liv," he said, thinking of how he could say no to spending more time with her – after all that was what he wanted after getting drinks with her that one evening. He wanted that, but the circumstances just seemed too embarrassing for him.

"Consider it payback for when you helped me in French," she said trying to lessen the blow to his ego that she assumed he was feeling.

"Liv, that was in junior high."

"Shouldn't make a difference. Like you said, the ivy leagues would have never let me in if I had a poor gpa, and if they didn't let me in for undergrad, do you think I would have made it to Columbia Law School. Consider it me paying back a debt."

Fitz bit his lip contemplating Olivia's offer more, "ok, fine."

"Cool!" Liv said feeling satisfied with the small answer. "L'étudiant est devenu le maître."

"Nope," Fitz shook his head, laughing and smiling a little bit. "You might one up me in writing Livvie, but don't ever pretend that you're better in French than me."

October 8, 1976

It was eleven at night on a Friday, and while most young twenty-something-year-olds in the city would spend that night going out to clubs and bars, Olivia and Fitz sat in the law library, working on their drafts for their next assignment. Well Olivia had finished her rough draft a little while ago, and she was going to go over it sometime this weekend before the final draft was due. But Fitz was still working on his, so she stuck around in order to help him. She watched him as he fiddled with his pencil in hand, bouncing his knee up and down.

"You're jittering."

Fitz looked down at his leg and made a conscious effort to stop, "oh sorry."

"Did you hit a roadblock?" Olivia asked to which Fitz nodded.

"What's the word where…" he trailed off, looking thwarted in trying to voice his thoughts at the moment. "That part in the Constitution that lists all of what Congress can do…"

"Enumerated Powers?"

"Right, yes! That sounds much better than 'the list of congress' jobs,'" Fitz replied sheepishly. Fitz quickly glanced up at Liv and saw her doodling. "Are you done? You can go if you're done."

"No, it's ok Fitz. I said I was here to help."

"But I don't want to keep you for so long."

"It's fine. Don't worry about me," Olivia said, turning to a new page in her notebook to start doodling some more. "I am more than capable of keeping myself entertained."

"What're you sketching?" Fitz asked looking over to get a better look.

"Just doodling," Olivia whistled.

"Well, it looks good. Do you still draw like you used to?" he looked at her with interested eyes.

"Not as much as I used to."

"Why not?" Fitz asked curiously. He remembered that Liv used to draw a lot, and there was some nostalgia in seeing her sketch in her notebook.

"Because being an artist won't pay the bills," she explained, putting her pen down. "But being a lawyer will."

"I beg to differ," Fitz smirked when all of a sudden a brilliant idea came to mind. "In fact, I'd like to hire you. Are you free tomorrow?"

"What?" Olivia asked in shock.

"It would just be for a couple of hours. It's my friend Stephen. You met him back in Central Park a few months ago."

"Yeah?" Olivia recalled remembering Fitz's friend who he was pushing in a wheelchair when she reunited with Fitz.

"He just...he hasn't exactly been the same since he got back from the war. And he seems a little…depressed," Fitz frowned. "I can't blame him. I-I would be too if I had to adjust to a wheelchair. I imagine it's not easy… but – uh I was thinking maybe you could draw a portrait of him or something to cheer his spirits."

Olivia smiled at Fitz's invitation, "you're a good man, Fitzgerald Grant. Sure thing I'll do it."

They stayed at the library for another hour and a half until Fitz wrapped up his rough draft, and Olivia did a quick read of it, making some mental notes of things she would bring up to him when she saw him again tomorrow. They packed up and left the library, walking next to each other down the street.

"Don't you have to take the subway to get to your place?" Olivia asked as they passed one of the subway stations.

"Yes, but I'm just walking you home," he answered politely.

"You don't have to do that."

"Of course I do. It's dark out. And if something were to happen to you I couldn't – E-Edison would kill me." Fitz said, quickly changing the subject. "How is he anyways? Edison?"

"He's good," Olivia replied simply, finding it odd that Fitz was wondering since he had only met him the one time on her birthday. "He's liking his marketing job."

"That's good," Fitz muttered awkwardly.

Olivia and Fitz reached the outside of her apartment building.

"Well this is me. Thank you, Fitz. I should probably get some rest, but I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow. Oh wait!" Fitz quickly threw his backpack down and took out a pen and paper scribbling onto it and handing it to her. "My address."

"Thanks," she said taking hold of it.

Fitz stood awkwardly for a moment, scratching behind his neck, "Um, I'm going to go."

"Yep, yeah. I'm going to go inside too," Olivia replied in the same awkward tone. "Goodnight Fitz."

"Goodnight Livvie."

ooo

The next day Olivia showed up at Fitz's apartment in the early afternoon. It was in an extremely nice area, and the lobby of the building alone was enough to amaze her. Olivia wasn't all that surprised. She had known that the Grants had money, and being their only kid, Fitz had inherited a lot of wealth. She made her way to the elevator, realizing that Fitz's apartment was on the top floor, because of course he would be on the top floor…

She walked up to his door and knocked, waiting a second before he finally opened the door.

"Hi," he greeted her.

"Hi," she said back. He scooted to the side, allowing her to step in. If the building's lobby impressed Olivia, then Fitz's apartment was just about to blow her mind. His living room alone was about the size of Olivia and Abby's entire apartment.

"Wow, this is a real nice place," she mused.

"Uh thanks. Stephen should be out here soon. I told him that you were coming. Stephen!" Fitz hollered out.

"Jesus, chill out. I'm here. Let's get this dumb shit over with," Stephen wheeled himself out of his room wearing his navy uniform and smoking a cigar. He looked dumbstruck seeing that Olivia was already in the living room waiting for him. "Oh…hey Liv, I didn't see you there."

"Hey Stephen," she smirked. "Don't worry this dumb shit won't take too long. It'll be over in no time, and you can get back to your busy day of smoking cigars and complaining."

"I like her. Just give me a sec," Stephen said, wheeling himself into a bathroom.

"Stephen…you learn to love him," Fitz scoffed nervously.

"Ok now how long is this going to take?" Stephen asked coming out of the bathroom after putting the cigar out.

"Depends on how easy you make this for me. Are you going to be talking back to me the entire time?" Olivia questioned.

"Nonsense, I can be as silent as a mouse if you want me to."

"I'd rather you talk back. I don't know if I could handle hours of silence," Olivia laughed.

"Liv, are giving me permission to be sassy?" Stephen asked jokingly, putting his hands over his heart as though he was fond this allowance.

"I guess so, but don't make me regret it."

"Don't worry. Grant is usually my main target anyways," Stephen laughed pointing to Fitz who was standing on the side.

"Hey!" Fitz snapped back.

"So, where should we do this? Is right here good?" Stephen asked, looking down at his place in the living room.

"That should be just fine," Olivia said. "The place doesn't so much matter. I just need to be able to see your face and uniform."

"Alright, you guys get started. I'm going to go do some work," Fitz said walking off into the direction of his bedroom.

"No, you don't Grant!" Stephen halted Fitz before he could go any farther. "You're going to stay here and put up with my attitude. You arranged this whole thing, so you're going to stay for it."

"He's got a point," Olivia agreed.

"But Liv, he's just going to be teasing me the entire time," Fitz whined.

"Too bad, mate. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime," Stephen said in a mocking tone.

Fitz rolled his eyes and took a seat on the sofa next to Olivia who opened up her old sketchbook that she had since she was a kid. Fitz recognized the cover of it instantly and could tell that it was the same one. For about an hour Fitz sat there in silence, watching Olivia and Stephen mingle as she drew. He spoke up occasionally only whenever Stephen said something that was poking fun at him, but for the most part he just sat amazed looking at Olivia's skilled drawing abilities.

"Almost done…" Olivia said as she finished her last few stroked with the colored pencils. "…And there!"

Olivia held up the sketch for Stephen whose jaw immediately fell agape. His breath got caught in his own throat looking at the portrait. Never mind the fact of how professional it looked. Olivia had drawn him not as wheelchair-bound veteran, but he was standing. He was in a heroic pose on top of a rock with a jungle in the background. He looked like how he used to, full of vigor and energy, Stephen thought as he looked at the portrait of himself.

"That's-that's amazing!" he stuttered. "Fitz, take a look at this. It's incredible."

Fitz looked at it in pure amazement as well. It looked stunning, and like the outgoing Stephen he remembered when they first met.

"Thank you, Liv!" Stephen cheered. "Wow, am I glad that you guys became friends again. This is the greatest gift."

"Of course, Stephen. I'm glad you like it."

"Alright, you're up, buddy," Stephen said, wheeling his way to Fitz and nudging him.

"Wh-what?" Fitz asked confused, stumbling forward a bit from Stephen's force.

"Do you want one too, Fitz? I have the time if you want." Olivia asked, stopping herself from putting her colored pencils away.

"No that's not necessary," Fitz muttered.

"Oh come on, Fitz!" Stephen pleaded. "Just think we can get them framed and hang them up right there for everyone to see and know how badass we are."

"It's-It's really fine," Fitz insisted.

"Nope, too bad. You're doing it," Stephen insisted. "I want mine framed and hung up, and I can't have my picture up without yours. Otherwise when people visit and see one of me without you, they're going to think I'm narcissistic or selfish."

"Isn't forcing me to do something I don't want to do selfish also?" Fitz countered. Stephen simply shrugged a response.

"It's really no trouble, Fitz," Olivia spoke up, looking at him in full sincerity. Truth be told, Olivia had quite a bit of experience drawing Fitz in her younger childhood days, sketching him in her junior high notebooks. So she figured with her previous experience she would be able to work on Fitz's portrait much faster. Of course she wasn't going share that out loud though. So instead she simply tried to persuade Fitz to agree. "I'd like to draw you."

"Uhh…" Fitz held out thinking in his head for a while. "Ok fine, give me five minutes to change. I'll be right back."

Fitz left the room to go change, leaving Olivia and Stephen alone to make uncomfortable small talk the best they could.

"So…um…" Stephen began, trying to think of something to talk about. "Do you uh…like music?"

"Um yes…" Olivia paused. There was another awkward silence that Olivia felt needed to be filled with more conversation. "And what about you?...Do you uh…like music too?"

"Um…yes, yes. It's good. Some of it…"

"Yep…"

"…sometimes it's uh…not good."

"…yeah agreed."

"…cool…"

"…cool…"

Thankfully they did not have to resort the conversation for too long. Fitz strode back into the living room dawning his Navy uniform for the first time in years.

"Aw, look at you, Navy man!" Stephen teased.

Olivia scanned him up and down in his uniform. He looked good. She knew he obviously had gained more muscle through the military, but the uniform really did a good job at highlighting it. Olivia stopped herself from looking, realizing that she was staring for too long.

"Um, stand right there where Stephen stood," she quickly ordered.

"Is this good?" he asked for verification.

"Perfect!"

"Hey, make sure that his doesn't look as good as mine," Stephen piped in, making Fitz roll his eyes.

Fitz followed her instructions and spent the next forty minutes standing still for her sketch.

"Ta da!" Olivia said, turning the sketch around to show him. Unlike Stephen's, Fiz's portrait had him standing on a carrier out at sea, looking over the horizon.

"Wow, that's-that's really good. Thank you, Livvie," Fitz said sincerely.

"Well if you folks need me, I'm going to go quickly change out of this uniform, and then I'll be taking these to the store to get them framed," Stephen announced, taking the two pictures with him and leaving Olivia and Fitz alone.

"Thank you for that, really. He might not show it underneath all that sarcasm, but I don't think you know how much that portrait means to Stephen- and uh..f-for me also, thank you."

"You're welcome, Fitz. It was nice to get back to my drawing roots anyways."

Fitz sauntered over to the an end table where he grabbed his wallet, "so how much?"

"Fitz, please tell me you're kidding," Olivia asked in shock. "Free of charge."

"Livvie, I insist."

"And I insist that it's free," she urged, not wanting to continue this conversation.

"Livvie, you came all the way out here. Please."

"If I said one penny, would that get you to be quiet?" Olivia asked sarcastically. Fitz nodded and proceeded to take a penny out of his wallet.

Stephen wheeled past them now dressed in casual clothes with the two pictures in hand, "I'm heading out! I'll be back soon. Liv, I don't know if you'll still be here when I come back, but if not it was great to see you, and please come back at anytime!"

Stephen raced out the door faster than either of them had ever seen. Fitz and Olivia stood in silence.

"Um before I go, I have a few suggestions for your paper," Olivia quickly mentioned.

"Yeah?" Fitz looked at her, thankful that she was going to be staying for longer and wasn't in a rush to leave. "Um, can you just give me a few minutes to change out of this uniform, and then we can go over it?"

"Sure," Olivia replied.

When Fitz returned he saw Olivia looking through her sketchbook.

"What are you doing?" he asked quizzically.

"Just looking at some old drawings…man I haven't used this thing in a long time."

"Can I see?" he asked, and Olivia handed the book to him.

Fitz scanned through the pages, seeing pictures of memories from his own past. He saw drawings of the tree house, drawings of Louie, even a drawing of his old house. He swallowed loudly at that one, wondering about who lived there now, but was to afraid to asked. He then went to the next one and stopped at a sketch of him and Mellie in the car. By the look of his face it looked like he was either yelling, or terrified, possibly both.

"When was this?" he asked, holding up the picture for her to see.

"Mellie's 16th birthday, when you taught her how to drive," Olivia said without skipping a beat.

"That's right," he uttered, memories came flying back to him. He lightly chuckled, "Is she still as bad of a driver as before?"

"Believe it or not, I think she might have actually gotten worse over time," Olivia laughed.

"Fitz?" Olivia cleared her throat, signaling that she wanted to change the subject to something more serious. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm just a little curious as to how someone like Stephen ended up in Vietnam?"

"You're wondering what a Scottish man was doing in the US military?" Fitz summed up the actual question at hand.

"Yes," Olivia nodded.

"He was looking to move to America for work," Fitz began, "he had all of his papers in line, got his green card and everything. Even if you're not a US citizen, having a green card makes you eligible, and about a month after receiving his card, he got drafted."

Olivia grew very solemn and quiet, "that's really terrible."

"Extremely unlucky," Fitz added. "That's why I can't really blame him for having such a cynical attitude. I would too."

"What was it like over there?"

Fitz's eyes went wider. He had encountered this question many times since returning home, yet it still didn't make it pleasant to talk about. He got used to just saying the simplest thing he could to get a laugh and move on.

"Uh…it was really hot, and it rained most of the time," he stated.

"I wasn't talking about the weather," Olivia replied. "But it's ok. I'm sorry if I shouldn't have brought it up. I shouldn't have asked."

Olivia felt immediate regret for asking such a personal question. She and Fitz used to talk about everything together, but that was years ago, they were different people now. And surely the experience he had was nothing like the things they were used to talking about.

"It's okay, Liv," Fitz said taking a seat next to her. For some reason he felt the need to talk to her about it. If he were being honest with himself, there were many times where he wished he could have talked to her immediately after he got back. "I don't mind talking about it with you."

Fitz cleared his throat, contemplating how to start, "it was pretty scary a lot of the time. It was absolutely nothing like what my father told me about his time in World War II. There weren't any armies, or enemy uniforms. We were basically fighting people that looked like regular street citizens, and it just made it all worse. Luckily enough, I didn't do much of the fighting on the ground, so I never really dealt with the intense paranoid feeling. I was stationed out on a carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin. I was a Navy pilot, and my job mainly consisted of picking up and dropping off supplies to various regiments that were scattered throughout."

Olivia watched Fitz drag his knees up to his chest like a ball and tense up, but he continued on.

"There was one time I got assigned on a dangerous mission. It was in March 1972. It was becoming pretty clear that there was no winning in this. Stephen and I were assigned to an important mission. We had to fly down to Long Binh to pick up supplies and drop it off to a group that was waiting in A Shau Valley, right along the border of North and South Vietnam. I um…" he struggled, trailing off. He felt Olivia grab his hand in support and he took a few deep breaths for himself.

"We completed the mission, just fine," he delicately smiled. "The supplies got delivered…but on our way back, we were flying a little too close to the border, and we got shot down."

"I somehow crash landed the plane. I don't really remember too much; it gets a little blurry and I was knocked out from the impact. I remember Stephen shaking me awake and telling me we had to go and keep moving. Otherwise we would just be sitting ducks. I busted up my leg real bad, and I tried getting out of the plane, but my leg was in so much pain, and I couldn't walk. Stephen helped me though and pulled me out of the wreck. And for the next two days we searched for help and hid from enemies. But Stephen…he basically carried me most of the way. I told him to go on, and leave me to find help, because I was only slowing him down, but he refused..." Fitz quickly turned away from Liv, trying to keep himself composed for her.

"And then on the third day, we encountered members of the National Liberation Front…I don't remember anything about what they looked like or what-I just remember seeing a man raise his rifle…and then I felt Stephen throw me onto the ground…and I felt him jump on top of me, shielding me…and then everything just went black after that…the next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital with a concussion, a broken leg, and broken back…"

Olivia caressed his arm consolingly, seeing how frightened and distraught he became.

"H-He saved my life, Livvie…"

"I know," she said. She moved her arm to rub circles on his back to try and soothe him. "Remind me to thank him when I see him again."

Fitz nodded, "then I got sent home, and I recovered."

"Fitz, I'm so sorry you went through all that."

"Don't be," he scoffed. "I signed up for it, remember?"

"That doesn't matter. You have every right to be proud-"

"I think the protestors I was greeted with when I came home would say otherwise," he said trying to be sarcastic, but coming off in a rather pained voice.

Olivia could see the hurt in her eyes, and tried desperately to cheer him up, "I think what you did on that mission though was brave. Think of all the soldiers you helped who otherwise wouldn't have gotten supplies. Your dad would be proud."

"Really?" he asked with a beam of light in his eye.

"Really."

A thought suddenly dawned on Olivia, "Fitz, is that why you didn't play football?"

Fitz nodded, "Yeah…my leg is fine, but my back will act up from time to time if I'm not careful…made me give up my football career too."

"Fitz, I'm so sorry. If I had known, I wouldn't have brought it up at the bar. That was so dumb of me," Olivia apologized.

"Hey, don't feel bad. You didn't know. You couldn't have known. That's on me. I never told you this stuff."

"Why?" Olivia spontaneously asked before she could stop herself from saying the word out loud.

"Why what?"

"Why did you not contact me at all once you got back? I didn't even know if you were in the country, and you were for years. Why didn't you call or write when you got back?" Olivia's eyes filled with tears that she quickly blinked away. She wasn't going to let him see that this still upset her all these years later. It was childish of her to turn this into a tantrum, she thought.

"I-I-I," Fitz stuttered, worried on how to phrase his next sentence. "I was a different person right after I got back. You would've hated me then."

"I don't think I could ever hate you," Olivia gazed into his sorrowful eyes. She was overwhelmed with emotions after hearing his story. She wasn't sure what she would have done next had she not felt Fitz shift in his seat and slowly back away, making distance on the couch.

"So about the edits to my paper?"

"Right," Olivia said, opening up the notebook she brought with her where she wrote down some of her notes.

A/N: I love the little role reversal of Olivia tutoring Fitz now, and I love how Fitz is getting her back into drawing. Fitz is clearly starting to catch feels, and Olivia still has her old feels with her from all those years, though she won't admit it. How long will it be until these two finally come clean to themselves and each other?