Author's Note: I hope you all enjoy this. If you have any confusions about hockey please let me know I would be happy to clear any confusions. I promise more olitz and present day Fitz in later chapters but for right now I want to provide the foundation of the story.

September 2007

It was now the end of the first month of school and Fitz had been through the wringer. First his law professor hated him so he pretty much made Fitz's life a living hell. If Fitz so much as sneezed in class, his professor would snap at him. He even graded Fitz's assignments harshly. If a comma was in the wrong place he took off points. If his title was too boring, his professor would take off points. But what really pissed Fitz off was that the professor had the nerve to assign a group project and match him to work with Olivia.

Fitz wasn't one of those guys who slept around. He only ever had sex with two women, Melanie Foster and Amanda Tanner. Melanie or Mellie was the woman his father wanted him to marry but Fitz didn't want to do that. Mellie was ok but she complained all the time and constantly berated him on the littlest things. One day he found out that Mellie was cheating on him with his then best friend Andrew which angered Fitz. It was also another reason why Fitz didn't have many friends. You can't trust people. So instead of dumping Mellie he cheated on her with Amanda Tanner. Amanda was a no commitment type of girl. Whenever he felt stressed or needed some revenge he would call Amanda and she would come to his house and give him head. But that was in high school.

In college, Olivia freaking Pope was a handful. When she wasn't insulting Fitz's intelligence she was insulting his appearance. Fitz felt that since it was college he shouldn't have to dress like a model every day. Some days he literally came to class with jogging pants and a dingy shirt. He didn't care but Olivia certainly did and she made her opinion known every damn day. But that's not even the worst that happened between them. One day Fitz had to check out a book from the library for pre-law. Just as he grabbed the book Olivia grabbed it as well.

"Are sure you can read this book?"- Olivia chided.

"Are sure you can reach this book. The shorty section is around the corner." – Fitz responded.

"Let go of the book Grant or so help me God-"

"You'll what? You can't do shit."- Fitz said.

Olivia glared at him before kicking him in the shins. Fitz lost his grip on the book but just as Olivia was about to take it, Fitz pulled her down by her legs to the carpet. They wrestled quietly with each other until Fitz was able to pin Olivia to the carpet. But not before she kicked Fitz in the balls, grabbed the book, and left. Leaving a pained Fitz curled into a ball on the ground.

"That bitch."

But Olivia wasn't the only one bothering Fitz. Since becoming a varsity player Fitz was constantly hazed by his fellow varsity mates, especially Jake. Fitz had experienced hazing before but this was worse. They would set his clothes on fire. Soak his uniform gloves with lubricants and spray paint his hockey stick pink. One time they rubbed butter on his skates which caused Fitz to slip and slide all over the ice. Fitz thought that the hazing would end after the first week but apparently not. Because it was now the last week of September and Fitz's practice jersey was covered in glitter and stickers.

And they say that high school is hard.

It was now Friday, the first day of October and the day of the first game of the hockey season. Fitz couldn't wait to get out on the ice and faceoff against his opponent. But first he had to get through pre-law with professor dick and Olivia freaking Pope. But Fitz couldn't blame his troubles on anyone but himself. He could have easily asked to transfer to a different pre-law class but professor dick was the best. And he could have chosen to sit next to someone else other then Olivia freaking Pope but even though Fitz hated her, he kind of enjoyed their disagreements; they turned him on.

"Ok class. Our next project will be a case on athletes. You and a partner that I assigned will pretend to be lawyers that are given a sexual assault case surrounding a professional athlete. Your job is to prepare a case file of the athlete as well as statement that proves the innocence of that athlete. I will allow you all the rest of the class to do research in the library and whatever else you need to do for this assignment. It will be due at the end of next week."

The professor calls out the groups. Fitz is paired with Olivia.

"I believe you owe me an apology." Fitz says

"Aww did I hurt your precious dick. Aww poor Fitz can no longer whore around."

"I don't whore around and even if I did, why would you care?"

"I don't care. Look can we just get started your voice is giving me migraines."

So the pair looks over the instructions of the assignment. Or at least one of them does. Olivia doesn't know what has gotten in to her. She literally despised Fitz a month ago. But now she couldn't stop thinking about him especially after their wrestling session. It was kind of like sex, both of them battling for dominance, sweaty, trying to accomplish one goal…. Olivia shakes her head of her thoughts. She should not be thinking like that especially since she had a boyfriend, Jake Ballard. God she felt like such a hypocrite. She spent all her time berating Fitz for being an athlete even though she was dating one. But what Fitz didn't know wouldn't kill him right?

The pair continues to work on their project until the end of class.

"You should come to my game tonight"

"And why would I do that?" Olivia asks.

"Because we are doing a case on athletes. You know what just forget it." And Fitz hurries away unbeknownst to him that Olivia was going to the game anyway. Her boyfriend was Fitz's teammate.

Olivia Pope was always a force to be reckoned with even as a young child. She excelled in everything she did and was popular where ever she went. College was no exception. So even though Olivia was a freshman, she was already the talk of campus. It was something about her confidence and how she carried herself that caught the attention of others. Jake was no exception. When he first spotted Olivia walking around the campus he knew that she was the one for him. So he spent weeks wooing her and impressing her with his charm. At first Olivia wasn't swayed but Jake's persistence eventually broke down her wall of defenses and next thing she knew she was the girlfriend of Jake Ballard.

It was now four hours before the game. Fitz always prepared for his games with the same ritual. He would wear a beanie and his black beats headphones. He would blast hip hop and rap music into his ear. This way he would be pumped for the game.

Two hours before the game people began to head to Mariucci stadium. Olivia and her best friend Abby were also headed to stadium. Homecoming games were always exciting but this one was different for Olivia. She would never admit it but she was anxious to see how Fitz would do on his first game.

An hour before the game Fitz heads to the locker room and slowly puts on his hockey gear, mentally and physically preparing himself for the game. The other guys in the locker room are giddy and anxious but not Fitz. He is calm and patiently waiting to unleash the beast as soon as his skates touch the ice.

Thirty minutes before the game the stadium is packed to max capacity with both golden gopher fans and their opponents, the air force falcons.

Ten minutes before the game Fitz is now suited up and waiting with his fellow teammates to hear their names be called for the opening faceoff.

Five minutes before the game the falcon players skate out onto the ice and sit in the bench to await the entrance of the gophers. The stadium lights are dimmed as the announcers call out the names of the gophers. Fitz is the second to last called,

"And now we would like to present a freshman number sixty-two, Fitzgerald Grant!" the crowd erupts into cheers as Fitz skates out on the ice to stand in line next to his fellow teammates. Jake is the last one called because he is the captain.

And the game is off. The way hockey is set up is simple. There are three periods in every game. Each period is twenty minutes and following each period excluding the third one, there is 15-20 minute intermission. This game is no different.

The first period of the game is rough for Fitz. Hockey is a little different from other sports because hockey has different offensive and defensive lines that play in one game. Usually there are four offensive lines with three people on each line, three defensive pairs, and one defense pair for each offensive line. Fitz was placed on the first offensive line with Jake and Edison. However Jake, Edison, and the two defensemen on Fitz's line were keeping the puck away from Fitz. However this plan caused them to lose the first period and by the end of the first period the falcons, their opponents, were winning the game 3-0.

Fitz was getting frustrated and wanted to know why he wasn't given the puck. During the last minute of intermission as the players headed back out to the ice, Fitz overheard Jake whispering to the team.

"Keep Fitz away from the puck so that I can score. This game is mine."

Fitz became very anger, so angry that he was seeing red.

The second period was about to begin. The gopher fans were frustrated with the performance of their team. Jake however was very confident that he could give his team the win even though they were down 3 points. He was wrong. As soon as the referee placed down the puck the opponents pushed Jake down to the ice and carried the puck across the ice to try and score. But then Fitz stole the puck off of the opponents stick and ran the puck down the ice toward the opponent's goal.

"It's a breakaway!" the announcers shouted and everyone in the audience stood up as Fitz neared the goal. The goalie rose up his arm but by then Fitz had already shot the puck into the back of the net. The crowd went into an uproar. Olivia who was also in the audience at this time cheered loudly for Fitz.

"I thought you're supposed to cheer for your boyfriend" Abby chided.

"Is he scoring goals?" Olivia retorted.

Fitz scored another goal and by the end of the second period the score read 3-2. Falcons had three points while the gophers trailed by two.

It was now the third period. The audience was in awe of Fitz who was the main reason the Gophers were even on the scoreboard. Jake was now seething because he wanted to be the center of attention. But he could only blame himself. So when Fitz tried to score a third time an opponent checked him. Checking was a term used in hockey to mean a defensive shove that kept the offense from getting the puck. When Fitz lost the puck Jake grabbed it with his stick and shot it into the net. The crowd cheered because now the score was tied. The game continued with each team trying to score but failing. Before they knew it the buzzer was sounding signaling the end of the game and the beginning of the overtime period. Overtime was a five minute death match that involved both teams choosing five players to go head to head until one of them scored. Whoever scored won the game. The gophers coach called out Jake, Fitz, Edison and two other players to play overtime.

And so the game continued but after 3 minutes neither team had scored. The crowd was on the edge of their seats. The referee placed the puck on the ice and the game was off again. The falcons had the puck and raced to score but missed the net terribly and caused the puck to land right in front of Fitz. Fitz took off with the puck. The crowd rose up and started chanting Grant, Grant, Grant, Grant as Fitz neared the goal but he was tripped by an opponent. But the crowd cheered anyway because tripping is a penalty in hockey and Fitz was tripped in the breakaway which gave the gophers a penalty shot. A penalty shot in hockey is given to a player that loses a clear scoring opportunity on a breakaway because of a foul committed by the opposing team. Therefore Fitz was allotted the opportunity to shoot without any defenders other then the goalie. The crowd grew silent and stood up in their seats.

"There is no way he is going to make that goal" whispered Jake. His other teammates agreed. It was rare that a freshman scored a penalty shot because they usually panicked.

Fitz skated out to center ice with the entire audience watching his every move. Typically that made people nervous, but not Fitz. He zoned everyone out. It was just him and the goalie. He heard the referee blow his whistle. Fitz moved the puck right, left, right, left. The goalie wasn't budging but that didn't stop Fitz who moved the puck to the far left of him before blasting the puck. There was moment of silence and then the gopher's buzzer sounded signaling that Fitz scored the goal. The crowd went nuts screaming in excitement the victory of their team. They replayed the shot on the jumbotron above the ice so everyone could see what happened. When Fitz moved the puck to the far left the goalie moved with it and in that split movement Fitz shot the puck in between the legs of the goalie to the back of the net.

While everyone cheered Fitz looked up into the audience and saw brown doe yes staring back at him. Olivia had come to the game after all. He smiled at her. She smiled back.

He had won the first game of the season for his team and Olivia had witnessed it all. They continued to stare at each other before Fitz's teammates grabbed him and hugged him for the victory.