A/N: This is way old, like a year at least, but it's been finished for a while and I'm struggling with my updates. God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll have the YAINTGB update ready by the end of the week, but I wanted to give y'all something to read while you wait.
Olivia smiled at Lauren as she approached her desk. "Good morning Lauren."
"Good morning Ms. Pope," Lauren replied, with a genuine smile. Olivia was one of the few people who spoke to her like they were speaking to a person and not just greeting some faceless drone as they moved on to someone more important. "He's already in."
"Thank you Lauren," Olivia replied. She headed for the door to the Oval then turned back to Fitz's secretary. "I like your haircut."
Lauren blushed. No one else had noticed her haircut. "Thank you."
Olivia entered the Oval and stopped in her tracks. Fitz sat on the floor surrounded by soft toys. Teddy stood between his legs, quacking like a duck as he held a stuffed duck up for his father to see. Olivia had only gotten the briefest glimpses of the tot when a nanny was carrying him away from his mother. She had never really seen him, never noticed how much he looked like Fitz. She stared at the little boy, so lost in his wide clear blue eyes that she didn't immediately hear Fitz talking to her.
"I'm sorry. What did you say?" she asked, finally looking away from the little boy who was now standing, looking at her with interest, the little ducky falling from his hand.
"I asked you to come in," he answered as Teddy clambered over his leg, intent on getting to Olivia. She stepped inside the office and smiled down at Teddy as he toddled over to her. He grabbed hold of her silk gray pants, looking up at her with a little drool-laced grin.
"Hi," she said, smiling down at him.
"Hi," he parroted back. He let go of his pants and stretched his arms up to her. "Up."
Olivia's hands shook slightly as she lifted him into her arms. He smelled like Fitz. She stared at him as he smiled at her, grabbing at the draped neck of her sleeveless soft green blouse. She leaned her head down to breathe in his perfect baby scent. He looked up at her, stretching up to rub her nose with his own.
"He's trying to give you an Eskimo kiss," Fitz said as he watched them. He couldn't help but feel a little bittersweet about the moment. If Olivia had had a little more faith in them the previous year, Teddy would have been their little boy. Olivia smiled as she rubbed his little nose with her own. She carried him back to Fitz and sat down unsurely on the carper, leaving space between them. She never was one for being close, and this time—more than all the others—she needed distance. Teddy scrambled off her lap and retrieved a stuffed cow, bringing it back to her.
"Moooo," he said as he held the cow up to her eyes.
"Cow," she replied.
"Cow!" he whooped. "Cow! Moooo!"
Olivia was surprised to find herself laughing at the little boy as he set the cow down. He picked up a stuffed clownfish and held it up to her. "Nemo!"
Olivia looked at Fitz in confusion. Fitz explained, "It's a kids' movie. This little clownfish named Nemo gets lost and his dad goes looking for him."
"Oh," she replied before looking back at Teddy and nodding as she agreed, "Nemo."
Fitz scooted closer to her, his hip brushing against hers and took the stuffed fish from his son. He pointed at Olivia. "Teddy-bear, this is Liv. Can you say Liv?"
Teddy pointed to Olivia's face. "LiB!" He stepped closer and took hold of her face, smiling at her. "Lib! Lib! Lib!"
"Liv," Olivia said back, smiling at him. She grinned at him as she took hold of his face the way he held hers. "Teddy-bear."
He let her go and placed his hands on the floor, walking away from the adults as he roared. Olivia looked at Fitz quizzically. With a grin, he explained, "He's being a bear."
Olivia looked back at the little boy, still tottering around and roaring, and laughed. She had never thought of herself as a baby person, but the little boy staring back at her was so much like Fitz that he worked his way into her heart immediately. It wasn't lost on her that Teddy could have been hers—theirs—if she'd believed in his plan not so long before. Now they were against the shoreline, not quite swimming, not quite drowning. She couldn't believe she was doing this, spending time with him and the baby that she had orchestrated to drive a wedge between them because she couldn't believe just yet. She should have turned and run away when she first saw them. But she didn't. It seemed she could never hurt herself enough with him.
Teddy made his way back to them and plopped on her lap. Though he had only just met her, he seemed comfortable. Most children his age shrunk away from strangers, but of course this baby had to be different. Fate had to slap her in the face with his friendly little grin. He reached for her necklace, a simple strand of pearls, and rolled the smooth jewels in his tiny hand. He let them go after a moment, again grabbing the neck of her shirt, cooing, "Green," to himself as he rubbed the silk. Olivia looked up at Fitz and tears stung the back of her throat as her eyes met his.
A brisk knock preceded the nanny's entrance and Olivia slipped her hand away, moving it to Teddy's back as she smiled at him.
"Who's here?" she asked as he grinned at the nanny, his near constant companion.
He laughed, clapping as the nanny collected his toys in a blue wooden box. "Nanny Deb!"
"Hello precious," she cooed in an English accent. She was a tall woman with graying dark hair and clear blue eyes. She wore khaki pants and a pink blouse. Teddy smiled as he watched her collect his toys.
"Story!" he whooped. Olivia and Fitz looked at each other curiously but Nanny Deb only smiled.
"I've been telling him about my mother and father. They met during the second world war. He doesn't understand much, mind you, but he likes the tale all the same. S'pose it's just the talking." Olivia and Fitz nodded. Nanny Deb smiled at Teddy, still moving to collect his blocks. "Well, Teddy bear, things weren't looking up. It was a fortnight before my mother heard from my father again. His platoon was ambushed and he was one of the only to survive. But he was stuck in Germany and she was all the way in California. That's on the other side of the country, cherub. Well, he wrote to her and told her that he'd walk all the way to the states to get her if he had to. And she wrote that she would do the same if need be. In the end, they met halfway in Cambridge, where I was born a twenty years later. My father limped off the plane. He'd lost a leg to gangrene, you see, but there was my mother all smiles waiting for him at the airport. Six boys before me, and nearly all of my mother's sanity gone before I got here, but they didn't stop trying until they had the little girl they'd always wanted. I didn't believe the story when they told me, of course. Mind you, by the time I came around I only had four brothers so the facts seemed a bit wonky, but sure enough it's true. Just goes to show you that love will find a way. It's my personal belief that it always does."
"Again!" Teddy whooped.
"He likes the beginning of the story. There's more sound effects in that part," Nanny explained as she collected the last of his toys. Teddy scrambled to his feet, toddling to the older woman, and stuck out his hand for her to take. She settled the box on her hip and took his little hand in hers. "Say bye bye, angel."
"Buh bye Daddy! Buh bye Lib!" He blew kisses at them both.
"Bye," they both replied.
He waved until he reached the door then looked up at Nanny Deb, expecting her to restart her story. She smiled. "Well, it was 1943 and the war was in full swing…"
The door shut softly with their exit. Olivia turned to Fitz. She admitted, "I forgot why I came."
"I forgot you were coming. If I'd remembered, I would have…" He didn't finish his confession but she knew what he meant.
"It's okay." He could tell from her voice that it wasn't, that she'd have been anywhere else if she could have managed, but that she was there because he was there. He felt buoyed then, knowing that all wasn't lost. Defiance had pushed them to the brink and they'd only just begun making their way back when she and Mellie had teamed up for the second time with him on the outside. There were times when he thought the way she did, that there was nothing but hurt lying in wait in the future for them, but then he would look at her, just as he was then at that moment, and his heart ached with the heaviness of love. There was nothing that could break them, because her heart believed just the way his did. She looked away for the briefest moment, closed her eyes and counted to three, then returned his stare, a glimmer of a smile in her coffee-colored orbs. She knew it too, that theirs was a love etched in stone and forged by fire. She looked down her lap and her eyes clouded with tears at the sight of a stuffed duck left behind. She blinked again and looked back at Fitz. "It is, really."
"I know." He checked his own watch, his other hand inching to hers. He looped his pinky around hers and she did the same.
A/N: Don't forget to review! XOXO