A/N: Hey y'all! Thanks for the reviews, you guys have no idea how much they mean to me. Keep 'em up and keep telling me what you want and hope to see in future chapters. When you tell me what you want, it makes me update more frequently because I don't get writer's block. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's based off of a suggestion I got recently. :)
When Teddy came into his mother's room, half asleep, he hadn't noticed that his father was sleeping in the bed with Mellie until he had jumped on top of him. He looked at him with confusion and frowned as he pushed on Fitz's shoulder. "Daddy?"
"What, buddy?" Fitz asked as he slowly opened his eyes, looking at his son, who was sitting on his chest.
"Why you here?"
He ruffled Teddy's hair, yawning as he sat up and pulled him into his lap. "Because I spent the night with mommy." He answered, and that was clearly a good enough answer for Teddy, considering that the little boy just snuggled close to his father. Within minutes of him opening his eyes, his phone started to ring, and he couldn't help but to let out a loud groan as he answered it.
"Yes, Elizabeth? No, I'm with Mellie. Yes, in Blair House." He gently rubbed Teddy's back, rolling his eyes as he listened to his new chief of staff complain. "I have no reason to talk to her, tell her to go home. Elizabeth, I don't want to talk to her." He let out a sigh, shaking his head slightly. "You know what, I'll be up there in a few. Thank you for ruining my morning." He hung up the phone and looked at Teddy. "Will you tell mommy that daddy had to go to work? I don't want to wake her up."
Teddy just nodded, sitting up and climbing off of his father. Mellie rolled over on her side and looked at Fitz, frowning slightly. "No need, I heard. Who don't you want to talk to?"
He didn't want to tell her, because he didn't want her to worry that something would happen. But he also remembered their full-disclosure agreement, and he knew that he had to tell her. "Olivia. She's in my office and refuses to leave until she speaks to me in person." He rolled his eyes. "I understand that we had something. I understand that she doesn't want to believe that I picked you over her. But that does not give her the right to show up here and be so damn pushy."
"Language, Fitz." Mellie reminded him as she nodded toward Teddy. Fitz just nodded, frowning as he looked at his wife.
"I'm sorry, it just really gets on my nerves."
"I know that it does, honey, but look at it this way; after you go speak to her and figure out what she wants and tell her face to face that you've made your decision, then you never have to speak to her again. And believe me, I know that seems weird considering your life practically revolved around her for years, but it'll be good. You'll never have to worry about it after this."
Fitz looked at Teddy who was playing with his feet before looking back to Mellie. "Are you saying that more to me or to yourself, Mels?"
She frowned. He knew her too well. Somehow she forgot that they had been married for over twenty years, that even through everything, he knew her like the back of his hand. "I guess it's a little bit of both..." She admitted, a bit ashamed that even after Fitz had made it absolutely clear to her that he chose her over Olivia, she was still jealous.
"It's okay, Mel." He moved closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "I promise, it's okay. Nothing is going to happen. Don't you worry about a thing." Fitz softly pecked her lips before getting out of bed and pulling his shirt and jeans on. He still had to go up to the Residence and change, and he wanted nothing more than to get this over with, so he figured he might as well hurry.
"I love you both. I'll see you soon."
"Bye, Fitz." Mellie said, her voice soft and almost inaudible. "I love you too."
"What do you want?" Fitz asked as he walked into the Oval and spotted Olivia sitting on the couch. There were plenty of times where he had been frustrated and impatient with her, but it was obvious that he was beyond frustrated and impatient at this point.
"I want to hear you say it." Olivia responded simply, sitting up straight as she looked at her former-lover. "I want to hear it come from your mouth. I want you to say that you choose her over me. I saw the text. It's just not enough from me. I want to hear it."
Fitz sighed loudly, shaking his head. "I don't have time for this, Olivia. I have work to do."
"You weren't even in here, you were at Blair House with your wife. Don't use that work excuse with me because you and I both know you don't have work to do. You and I both know that you just want to avoid having this conversation. I know you better than that, Fitz." Olivia stared at him, and Fitz refused to meet her gaze. He didn't want to look at her right now. "And I know you're avoiding this conversation because you can't say it. You can't say that you chose her over me because that's not true. I don't know what's behind all of this, but I know you, and I know you've been promising me that you hated her and that your life with her was over and that you were divorcing her. And you've been promising me a life in Vermont and a family and all of that. So I know you're not choosing her because you love her."
Fitz slammed his fist down on the desk. "Damn it, Olivia! You don't have a clue, do you?" He growled, starting to take a few deep breaths as he remembered what him and Mellie had said about him controlling his anger. "You don't have any idea. I choose her. I choose Mellie. And I'm sorry that you don't like my choice and you can feel free to justify it however you need to in order to make you feel like it wasn't you. You can tell yourself whatever you want. But I love my wife. I love Mellie. And I get that I treated her badly, I get that I lost my head for a long time. But we're fixing things. And I choose her. Because she's stood by my side every single day for over twenty years. Because I made a vow to her. Because I promised her forever, and I'm not going back on the promise."
He looked at Olivia, who looked like she was ready to argue with him. "Save it. Save it and get the hell out of my office. We're done. For good." She didn't budge, and it took everything that he had in him to keep him from screaming at her. "I said get out." Fitz told her through clenched teeth, and after a few seconds of staring him down, Olivia finally got up and glared at him.
"Don't call me in two weeks when things get bad. I've told you multiple times that I'm not your call girl and that you don't get to summon me when you're bored or lonely or horny."
Fitz looked her dead in the eye this time. "Then why have you showed up every single time I called you? Why are you here now?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes before walking out of his office, slamming the door behind her.
Fitz looked down at his phone, noticing that he had a text message. He smiled when he realized that it was Mellie. That woman had the best timing. "Can I move back in today?"
He read the text over and over again, wondering why she felt the need to ask that question. It was obvious that she still had all four of her walls up, that she was still nervous and that she still felt the need to tip-toe around him. He knew that he needed to break down those walls and that he needed to make her really trust him again, but he knew that that was going to take a long time. So for now, he decided that he would take things at her pace. "Of course you can. I'll help you move you and Teddy's things back up here after my meeting."
"Don't worry about it. We only have a few bags. Meet you for lunch?"
"Lunch it is, my love."
When Fitz came up to the Residence, Mellie was sitting on the couch, Teddy in her lap. The little boy was screaming at the top of his lungs, tears streaming down his red face as he pushed his fists into Mellie's chest. "What's going on?"
Mellie shrugged and shook her head, bouncing Teddy up and down. "He doesn't feel good...When I ask him what's wrong, he tells me everything and points to almost every part of his body." She was almost in tears as she spoke over her son's loud sobs. She hated seeing him like this. It killed her to see him like this.
"Aw, poor boy..." Fitz frowned and watched the two of them. He wasn't sure what to do, or how he could help, but he didn't want to just stand there. "Should I go get him some juice or something?" He questioned, and Mellie nodded quickly as she tried to get Teddy to stop screaming. Fitz ran off to get him some juice, and when he came back, Mellie had finally calmed him down.
Teddy was laying in Mellie's lap, his face in her neck and her hair in his mouth. He wasn't sobbing anymore, but was whining quietly. Fitz couldn't help but chuckle when he saw his son chewing on Mellie's hair, but when he looked at Mellie's face, his smile faded. The poor woman looked absolutely exhausted, like every bit of energy had been drained from her. He wondered how long Teddy had been like that before he got up to the Residence, but by the look of it, it had been quite a while.
"What's going on, buddy?" Fitz asked his son, frowning as he sat down on the couch next to them. Teddy just shook his head and whined even louder. He had a tight grip on Mellie's chest, and he squeezed her when he whined, causing Mellie to jump slightly.
"I don't know what's wrong with him. Every single thing hurts him; his stomach, his head, his chest, everything." She sighed. "He keeps trying to breastfeed too, which I don't understand considering that I think I might have breastfed him until he was 3 months old...How does he even know what that is?" She was freaking out, and Fitz could tell. He took her hand and gently squeezed it as he tried to think of the best thing to say to her.
"Well we'll get him to the doctor in a few. Just try to relax, sweetheart. You being stressed out and panicking isn't helping you or him." He rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb. "And breastfeeding is an instinct. Children know. Just like it's mother's instinct to panic when their child is sick and crying, it's their instinct to want to breastfeed. You might as well try it...It won't hurt."
Mellie looked up at him with thankful eyes. She was glad that he was here, that he was calming her down and telling her to breathe. "Do you think it'll do any good?"
"I think in the very least, it'll make him feel a little bit better."
She looked down at Teddy and carefully moved him, which caused the little boy to scream. Mellie flinched at the piercing noise and she tried to get her shirt off as quickly as she possibly could so that she could make it stop. She hated hearing him scream like that, it brought tears to her eyes. When she had finally managed to unclip her bra with one hand, she didn't have to do anything else; Teddy immediately lunged for her breast, latching on and pulling his legs up under his stomach, exactly like he had when he was an infant.
"I'm gonna go call the doctor, Mels. Yell for me if you need anything." He stood up and kissed her head, leaving the room so that he could call and tell the doctor that they were coming. Before he dialed the number, he said a little prayer and prayed to God that their son was okay.
A/N: So what did y'all think? Olivia will be a discussion between Mellie and Fitz in the next few chapters, so don't worry about that. Let me know what you think and make suggestions on what you want to see!