Chapter 6

***Summer 2019***

Raya finished spending her morning shopping with Stephen. She had a lot of fun with him. What started as a plan to pick up toothpaste and soap turned into an all out shopping spree at a record store. Raya and Stephen discussed their favorite types of music. She was surprised to learn he was a fan of 1970s rock bands, quite like herself. He allowed her to introduce him to some newer artists like her favorite: Lizzo. Raya learned about Stephen's career as a music journalist, and he told her stories of crazy interviews he conducted with rock stars and their managers. After a while they both got hungry and decided to get lunch together before going back to the resort.

Once at the resort, Stephen went back to his cottage to put his items away. Raya went to the beach to find something to do. She saw Fitz sitting alone at the beach bar, and decided to walk over.

"Pina colada please," she told the bartender. "How's it going, Fitz?"

Fitz looked up and smiled at Olivia's daughter, she was truly the spitting image of her mother.

"I'm doing well," he said, taking a swig of his drink.

"Scotch is an interesting choice for the beach at only 1 o'clock in the afternoon," she observed. Fitz just simply shrugged.

"Just trying to find some way to kill the time, I suppose."

Raya's head perked up hearing Fitz had a lot of time to kill. Yesterday may not have worked out when she asked him to paddleboard with her and Jake, but maybe now that he didn't have too much going on, she could spend time with him.

"Hey, have you ever gone snorkeling?" She asked eagerly.

Fitz put down his drink and shook his head no.

"Well, do you want to? There's a shed that has rental equipment for masks and fins. It's really fun, and there's a shallow reef that's not too far from the beach that has some amazing views! My fiancé Ezekiel and I found it. It's a short swimming dist-"

"Your fiancé? You're engaged?" Fitz asked, interrupting her. Liv's daughter was getting married? He wondered if that was the wedding that Olivia was referring to earlier as some local girl.

"Uh yeah…soon to be married…" Raya quickly skipped over Fitz's and left the details to be vague. She didn't want it somehow getting out that his invitation to the resort was actuality an invite to her wedding. "Anyway it's a short swimming distance away, if you're looking for some time to kill."

Fitz put down his drink. He didn't really have that much going on. Any plans he could have made with Olivia were gone. And maybe if he spent some time with her daughter, he could get some information on how Liv has been doing. Ultimately that was what he cared about most. He just wanted to make sure she was okay and happy and he foolishly broke her heart all those years ago.

"Sure, I'm in."

Fitz gave Raya his card to use for the equipment. She went to the shed to the pick up the gear, while Fitz waited. Still sitting at the bar, Fitz noticed Jake from a distance setting up his beach towel on a lounge chair. He decided to walk over and greet him.

"Hey, man."

"Hey, Fitz. How was your night?" Jake asked sincerely.

"It was fine," he lied not wanting to go into the details of his poor night's sleep with Jake.

"Cool, man. Aw hey, I just realized I left my sunglasses in my room. Do you mind just standing here and watching my stuff?"

"Of course, man. It's no problem."

Fitz watched Jake walk away to get his sunglasses. He suddenly got a great idea to pull a prank on that smug bastard. Jake was like an annoying little brother to Fitz, and while Jake may have viewed their relationship as cute and brotherly, Fitz didn't reciprocate. After Jake's cockiness during their time serving together, not to mention how he treated Olivia during their time together, the man had a way of getting on Fitz's nerves. Returning to his idea for some revenge, Fitz quickly sprinted toward the bar again and approached the bartender.

"Hey, do you happen to have any moisturizer or lotion I could use?"

The bartender looked at him extremely confused on the random question.

"Please," he pushed.

"I have a bottle of hand lotion in my bag," she responded.

"Great!" Fitz exclaimed. "Can I take the whole bottle and an empty glass, and you can charge twenty dollars to my tab."

"Twenty?" The bartender was confused.

"Just do however much you need," Fitz begged. The bartender opened her bag and pulled out a hefty bottle of hand lotion she kept with her and an empty glass. With her time as a bar tender at a holiday resort, she had encountered many strange requests, but this one was near the top. Fitz took the supplies and sprinted back to Jake's spot.

He took Jake's sunscreen bottle and twisted opened the cap, pouring out all of the cream into the glass. Fitz then opened the hand lotion, pouring the moisturizer into and replacing what had previously been sunscreen. Fitz twisted the cap shut again, and searched around for a place to hide his evidence of the crime. He saw a table some distance away and sprinted, placing down the glass full of sunscreen and the empty hand lotion bottle down. He then returned to Jake's spot, laughing and admiring his work of the sunscreen bottle that was really just full of lotion.

He knew it was ridiculous and childish of him to be pulling a prank this low, but then again so was Jake. He saw Raya approach him with masks and fins in her hands.

"Hey are you ready?"

"Yep, almost. I just have to wait for Jake to get back. I said I would watch his stuff." Almost as if on cue, Jake came running back to the beach with his sunglasses in hand.

Jake walked over to the two.

"Hey Raya, how are you doing?"

"Pretty good, Fitz and I were going to go snorkeling."

"Sounds like fun. Let me know when you guys get back. I need to get my tan on." Jake said, putting on his sunglasses. Fitz rolled his eyes, god he could act like such a douche sometimes.

"Yep, well we better go," Fitz said wanting to get out of there asap.

"Right, have fun, you two. And Fitz, thanks for watching my stuff," Jake replied.

"It's no problem. Have fun tanning…and hey, remember to put on sunscreen, it's going to be a hot one." Fitz spoke smugly, inwardly snickering to himself.

"Of course, thanks man," Jake responded, picking up the sunscreen bottle.

Fitz chuckled to himself as he and Raya walked toward the ocean.

Fitz and Raya spent the next 45 minutes snorkeling near the reef she had mentioned. It was a terrific day. The bright sun illuminated the water, making all the colors of the reef pop through the crystal clear water. They had gotten close to a colorful school of parrotfish and even saw a small turtles swimming out of the reef when they got close. Fitz was amazed at how beautiful the ocean could be. The beaches he had gone to in California were nowhere near as fresh and as pure as this. He made a note to himself to look into some marine conservation projects in the area when he got home.

Fitz and Raya swam back to shore, laughing and making small talk, and laid along the lounge chairs close to the sand's edge. After a little while of small talk about the amazing reef, Fitz cleared his throat, wanting to get more personal.

"So Raya, uh how is your mother?" he finally worked up the nerve to ask.

"She's good," she said, but also wanted to get more information out of Fitz about his relationship with her mother, "she said that you two knew each other a long time ago."

"She did?!" Fitz's head sprang up from the chair. He was surprised to hear that Olivia had spoken about him. He thought she had completely shut him out.

"Does she- or has she – I mean…does she talk about me?" he asked nervously.

"Um, not much, she just said that you two knew each other from the summer she spent in LA, but she doesn't talk much about that time," Raya answered, thinking it would be best to be honest and see if Fitz could give her some more information about that summer.

"I see," Fitz swallowed, his voice taking a heavy, sadder tone. "And your mom, has she…is she married?"

Fitz heard his voice crack when asking the question and could feel his palms get clammy while he waited only a mere two seconds for Raya to respond.

"No, my mom has never been married. Honestly, she's never even really seriously dated anyone for as long as I can remember."

"Anyone?"

"For as long as I can remember it's always just been me and my mom."

"Oh," Fitz replied. After a few moments a question sprang up on him. "Raya, how old are you?"

"I turned 22 a couple of months ago, why?"

Fitz quickly did the math in his head and felt his chest tighten. He stared at Raya with staggered, heavy breathing.

"Just…wondering…" he finally breathed out. Fitz closed his eyes. Fitz wondered if this was why Olivia had left, and why she had gone so off the grid. Could Raya be a product of the love they once shared?

***Summer 1996***

After their first date, Olivia had been seeing Fitz almost everyday for the last six weeks. She began seeing Jake far less frequently, only going to his place on the days that Fitz was busy and couldn't meet for a date. Her and Fitz hadn't officially become "exclusive," the two hadn't even gotten intimate yet after six weeks of dating. Fitz told her he wanted to wait until the moment was right. He didn't just want to have sex with her; he wanted to make love. Her visits to Jake though were becoming rarer and rarer, and ultimately less satisfying than when they had started.

Olivia sat in the living room, and looked at her watch. In a few minutes she would have to start getting ready for her date tonight with Fitz. He had promised to take her to this arcade bar they drove past one night, and she was looking forward to seeing him since he was busy yesterday.

"OH LIIIIVVVV!" Stephen charged into the room with a sing-songy voice.

"Stephen?"

"Do I have something exciting with you to share…" he gleamed, teasing Liv and waiting.

"Proceed."

"Well first let me ask you this, who is the best roommate in the world?"

"Come on now," Olivia sighed sarcastically, "you can't make me go against my best friend, Abby."

Stephen paused. Olivia had told him all about Abby. Though he had yet to meet her, she seemed really nice and cool, and any friend of Liv's would be a friend of his. He knew the two had a connection equivalent to sisters, so he decided to back off and give Liv that one.

"Ok fine," he said and corrected himself, "who is the best roommate in this apartment?"

"That would be Huck," she teased.

Stephen gave her a blank face and shook his head side to side.

"Such a shame. I was going to tell you the good news that I got Billboard to agree to do a cover on you, but now that you've hurt my feelings…"

"Stephen shut up!" Olivia screamed, jumping off the couch. "Billboard wants to do a story on me?!"

Olivia was in complete disbelief. She felt tears coming over the edges of her eyes. She jumped off the couch and ran to Stephen embracing him in a hug with such force he thought he was about to take a tumble. After minutes of crying into his shoulder Olivia looked up.

"Stephen, thank you! Thank you! I don't even know how I can ever repay you-"

Stephen unwrapped Olivia arms from around him and put them down at her sides. He did not want to start getting his hopes up. As the weeks went on, he was beginning to realize and accept that their relationship would remain platonic.

"It's my pleasure, Liv. I just want to see you succeed."

He gave her a bright smile.

"I'm sorry Stephen, but I have to go start getting ready."

"Hot date with Gatsby Jr?" he asked.

"Yeah."

In the car Olivia told Fitz that she had exciting news to share, but made him wait until they were seated at the bar to share it.

"Okay, you've got me now. I'm dying to know. What is it Livvie?" He was growing frustrated with Liv's waiting game.

"Guess who is going to featured as an upcoming artist to watch in a future issue of Billboard magazine?"

"No way!" Fitz sprang out of his seat and lifted Olivia up onto his hips, twirling her.

"Livvie, I am so proud of you!" He shouted, kissing her. He deepened the kiss, and Olivia welcomed his very public display of affection. Soon the two were making out with Olivia remaining wrapped around him.

"Mmmm my girlfriend….the famous….superstar…." he moaned whenever he could get a breath of air in. Olivia stopped and broke out of their kiss.

"Did you say 'girlfriend?'"

"Is that a problem?" Fitz got extremely worried. He was aware that she was still seeing Jake occasionally. He had heard from the grapevine of the other guys he knew in the Navy. But things were turning serious between he and Liv, and he really wanted to make things official now that he was out of the Navy and could start settling down with a real life ahead of him.

"No, it's not a problem. It's just I didn't know that we…I mean we haven't…" Olivia was trying to find the proper way to express the frustration she was having of waiting for him.

"I wasn't quite sure what we were," she settled for that phrase, and looked at Fitz for an answer and sat back down.

Fitz let out a breath.

"I know I haven't really been the most clear when it comes to our relationship," Fitz sat down in the booth next to Olivia. "But Olivia Pope, I want you."

He leaned in and kissed her again.

"Livvie, I want you more than I want anything in the world."

Olivia didn't know how to respond to this man who had just put his heart on the line. She had tears glistening in her eyes. She wanted him more than anything also. She had never wanted anything so much than to love him and be loved by him. But with her tricky relationship with Jake, and her encounter with "other" Grant men, she was worried to seriously start a relationship.

"Fitz…" she said.

"What are you doing this weekend?" he asked before she could compose another thought.

"What?"

"What are you doing this weekend? You've just gotten the opportunity of a lifetime, and I think we need to celebrate, don't you?"

She nodded.

"My family has a house up in Santa Barbara, right on the water. I was thinking maybe we could have a little weekend vacation there to celebrate. Just the two of us…" he spoke seductively, filling Liv with want and craving.

"Okay. I'll clear my weekend."

She reached up and ran her hand through the curls on the side of his scalp. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in to kiss her, eagerly awaiting the full Fitzgerald Thomas Grant experience.

They drove along the coast in Fitz's corvette. Olivia was feeling butterflies in her stomach like she was in high school again reliving her first time. She was ready for a weekend that she would never forget.

As they got closer to the house she reached across to Fitz, resting her hand on his thigh. He looked down at her hand as it traced up and down his inner thigh, her nails lightly scratching the fabric along his skin.

"Livvie," he moaned, "just a few more minutes, then I'm all yours."

They pulled into the driveway of the house, although house probably wasn't the best word to describe it. Olivia looked in astonishment at the mansion.

"You call this your house?"

Fitz got out of the car and ran around to open her door for her.

"I can give you a tour right now, if you'd like," he winked, knowing full well that a tour was not on the top of their to-do list.

"Maybe later," she rubbed her hand up and down his chest, feeling herself already getting turned on from just feeling his muscles. He bent down to kiss her, and she graciously accepted letting her mouth welcome his tongue.

Before even getting their bags out of the car, they made their way up the steps into the house, never breaking their kiss like a couple of young teenagers discovering passion for the first time. They reached the front door and Fitz finally had to let go of Olivia's lips to look for his keys.

"Hurry up," she hissed.

"Hang on, hang on," he hissed back and pulled out his keys He twisted it into the door, hearing it unlock. He looked at Liv and smiled and she smiled right back.

No more than a second later she pounced onto him, wrapping her legs around his waist as Fitz shuffled into the house, kissing her for dear life. Fitz knew she was eager and would have to act quickly, Olivia was already grinding her hips against him as he brought her into the kitchen. He could feel his dick starting to strain against his jeans. He placed her down on top of the kitchen counter. He had never felt so sure of wanting to be with someone than the woman with him right now.

Olivia raised her arms allowing Fitz to take off her shirt. She took his hand and guided it to her breast, massaging it with one hand, while his other hand traced up and down Olivia's spine. Olivia's hands rushed through his hair encouraging him to go further. He moved his lip down her neck onto her collarbone, simultaneously unclasping her bra from behind and letting her breasts free. She threw her head back in pleasure.

"Please," she moaned.

Fitz didn't need her to specify. He gladly kissed lower and lower until his mouth was on her chest between them. He placed kisses on her sensitive nipples, alternating between the two as his hand lowered past her hips and into her panties.

"Fitz, oh god," she felt his fingers going in and out of her core. His rhythm was steady, while his thumb made circular motions against her nub, driving her wild.

"Oh, wait, wait, wait," Fitz immediately halted; afraid that he had done something wrong that they were moving at a pace she was not comfortable with.

"Are you ok?"

Olivia hopped off onto the floor.

"Not on the kitchen counter," she pressed her body to him again and they continued as they were, but standing. Fitz continued his motions with his hand, making Olivia melt while she shimmied out of her underwear.

She knew she was close, she felt a fire burning low in her stomach. He was bringing her over like no one had ever done before.

"Mmmm Fitz, I'm so close…ohhh!"

She slipped her hands under Fitz's shirt where he purposely flexed his muscles under her touch. The feeling of his muscles along with his hands and mouth on her brought her over the edge.

She let out a gasp, shuddering as her juices flowed onto Fitz's hand, making him groan with fresh desire. She was beyond pleased by her orgasm, but pouted slightly.

"What's wrong?" Fitz ask, taking his head up from her chest and taking hold of her lip. She leaned back.

"You're still fully clothed."

Fitz looked down and let out a chuckle realizing that he hadn't taken anything off yet.

"That can be fixed," he smirked, and grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head. "Better?"

"Much," Olivia responded. He let out a soft groan as she stopped in front of him and grazed her hands over his abdomen down to his zipper. She undid his pants and roughly pulled his jeans and boxer brief to the floor; they pooled around his ankles. He carefully stepped out the mess of clothes and grabbed Olivia firmly by her butt, kissing her with their two bodies now solely pressed against each other, skin to skin.

Olivia felt Fitz's erection poking against her, causing her to look down. He was impressive to say the least. She lowered one hand down, grabbing the shaft, rubbing him up and down.

"Livvie!" He cried out, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. She used this moment of his distracted to get down onto her knees.

She pressed her thumb against the tip, while her other hand cradled his warm sac. She rolled his balls in her hands making his hip involuntarily buck forward when she kept cradling and used her thumb to tickle the underside. Beads of precum began shining deliciously. She had found his on-switch.

She used her tongue to lick them away and drew a cold breath over all areas her tongue had been, sending a chill down Fitz's spine that made his shaft begin to pulse. He could feel himself starting to lose control, and knew he would explode soon if she didn't stop.

"Livvie," he moaned, "need to be in you." He struggled to get the bare minimum of words out.

"I haven't even sucked you yet," she said seductively. She used her tongue to lick the underside. She felt his sac tighten in her hand, and she squeezed encouragingly.

"Mmmmmm. No. Can't. Need you," he groaned, practically shaking. Olivia could tell it was taking all his willpower not to cum right there.

"Oh god," Fitz sighed when she released. His knees buckled, bringing him to the floor next to Liv, deeply panting. He looked up at her with a hunger in his eyes.

"Better?" she mimicked smiling at him. Fitz shook his head and leaned over her, capturing her top lip in his mouth. Fitz placed his hand on either side of Olivia and lined himself against her entryway, starting by teasing her nub with his shaft. Olivia gave out a low whimper at the tease, wanting him in full.

Fitz dove himself into her gently, and began thrusting, picking up his rhythm faster and faster each time. She felt so good, and so warm. He opened his eyes that had closed from the tremendous feeling and saw a look of wonder on Olivia's face. He felt perfect inside of her. The sensation drove her wild. He knew he has hit the right spot as she began to let out loud pleasurable gasps with each thrust of his hips.

"Keep going," she ordered and Fitz followed. With one last thrust, he saw her jaw drop and felt her walls pulse and roll around him. Her orgasm finished him and he spilled his seed deep within her.

They remained connected until they both came down from their high and regulated their breathing. Fitz turned over and went down next to her, their perspiration all over each other.

"So the kitchen floor?" Olivia laughed.

"I at least thought we would have made it to the couch," Fitz replied.

"Should we relocate?" Olivia asked.

"Can't," Fitz whined, draping an arm over Olivia and burying his face into her neck, "too tired to move." She had managed to take the life out of him with his orgasm.

"I love you, Livvie," He mumbled. He kissed her down the side of her neck, as he felt himself drift off to sleep.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. There's still more to come, and a lot more flashbacks to tell the whole story.