"So from the sounds of it your relationship got off a little shakily?" asked Barbra, with a smile.

"You could say that," said Fitz.

"How did it progress from there? How, Mr. President, did you find yourself falling for Ms. Pope despite all the, shall we say, odds?"

"Well, she agreed to the job after that first day, and we just started seeing each other all the time. I would tell her my ideas, what I was running on, the logistics of my platform, and she got my ideas out there, planned the events et cetera. She ran my campaign, and she did it well. We were an unstoppable team," Fitz said, turning to her. "We still are." Liv gave him a smile for the cameras to catch. "I can say honestly that I couldn't of won the election without her help. But it wasn't just her brilliance that had me falling for her. There were a lot of other brilliant people on my campaign. It was her confidence, she always knew that what she was doing was the right thing. It was the way she presented herself, Olivia Pope is always on time and ready to go." Fitz laughed and continued on. "And… it was her beauty. Not just on the outside, but on the inside too. Olivia Pope is a wonderful person. I saw that the second I got to know her, and Barbra, I guess you could say that's why I fell for her." Olivia bowed her head, bashfully. The tears that had been threatening to fall the entire day started to fall. She wiped her eyes and looked back up.

"And I just want to say one more thing," continued Fitz. "What we did was completely and utterly wrong. My love for Olivia doesn't justify what we did at all. There is no excuse. Over the years of my presidency there have been many questions and many answers about many affairs. I have even admitted to an affair with another woman, because of the press of the situation. But the only woman I have ever had an affair with was Olivia. I want the American people to understand that. I'm truly sorry for all the lies and secrets kept. There is nothing I can do now but try to regain your trust again. And though that may never happen," Fitz turned to face the camera. "I'm going to live out the rest of my term doing the best I can to serve you as your President and putting my American people first. My marriage with my previous wife was messy and was long finished before Olivia came along. But that still doesn't make what we did right, in any way. I love Olivia, and that's why we started the affair, but my focus isn't going to be on her in these last few months, it is going to be on the American people. That I can guarantee. There have been a lot of questions raised about my relationship with Olivia, weather it is even legitimate. I can confirm that it is, but the focus of my job is not on her, but on you, and I'm sorry if other views have been put out there by the press. So I don't want there to be any awkwardness with this interview, Barbra. I love Olivia, and I love the American people, and those are what I can say for myself right now," Fitz concluded.

Cyrus looked at Abby. "That was good," he said.

"Yeah, but he's going to get criticism for it. It's not the press room. It's an interview with his girlfriend. People are going to think that he took advantage of the on-air time to talk about other issues," said Abby.

"Oh, Red, you worry to much. When it comes to these two, it's like spoon feeding a baby. The people gobble it up without actually paying attention to what is going into their mouths. They could care less that he had an affair, because they love Olivia. That stunt that she pulled with Karen? It was genius!"

"It wasn't a stunt. Liv actually wanted to be there for Karen," put in Abby.

"Well, stunt or not stunt, I don't care. They love her. Somehow, the American people fell in love with Olivia Pope and now they could care less what she says or does, because she is the genius yet badass chick that had an affair with our married President. They love her," Cyrus said.

Abby smiled. "That they do."

"Thank you, Mr. President, for those words." Barbra said, and paused for a silence. "And Ms. Pope—"

"Please, call me Olivia," she interrupted Barbra.

"Olivia then," Barbra said with a smile. "You've already given an interview where you told everyone how you fell for the President, and what that meant for you. Could you perhaps share your favorite memory or two with him?"

Olivia sighed on the inside, grateful for an easier question.

"Wow, um, that's hard," Olivia commented. She thought, until a genuine smile creeped on her face, remembering that one afternoon. "Well, there was this one time when we were having this giant fundraiser tennis match. Fitz had to play tennis with, like everybody, a bunch of other politicians were there too. So they were all playing and Fitz was winning almost all of his matches." Fitz laughed, remember.

"Almost? More like every single one," he put in. Olivia rolled her eyes.

"So the benefit was over, but Fitz was needed to be put in his place, because he was all excited about winning these tennis matches against these other guys. So I changed into some athletic clothes and we played." Olivia started grinning. "All of the guests had left, so it was just the campaign people watching, but we were a big group and everybody crowded around and they all started placing bets on who would win. Well, I won right away."

"She absolutely butchered me. I lost that match so bad," Fitz said with a laugh, shaking his head.

"Yeah, so I just loved that day. We played tennis all afternoon—"

"Liv was winning every time, of course," Fitz put in.

"There are a lot of fun memories, so that might not be number one, but that was a really fun day. And I must admit that I did enjoy beating Fitz," she said, laughing along with Fitz and Barbra.

"It certainly sounds like the two of you know how to have fun," Barbra said.

"Yep, it's always a fun spending time with this one," Fitz said smiling, nudging Liv on the shoulder. They were still holding hands, and Olivia was doing everything she could to ignore the shocks being sent up her arm from it. Liv smiled.

"And it seems that you are not the only one filling up her schedule, only a couple of days ago the press caught you and Karen Grant on a girls day out. What was that like?" asked Barbra.

"I though you said only past events were being allowed as discussion topics for them?" hissed Abby to Cyrus.

"Yeah, well, I let this one fly," he said, absentmindedly.

But this question wasn't a problem for Olivia.

"Well, Karen and I hadn't ever had a chance to really talk about all that happened and get to know each other, so we went out to lunch, and had a really great time…"

—

FOURTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER (THE INTERVIEW ENDED)

Olivia closed her eyes and sighed, the feeling of cool air on her face. She was leaning over the balcony off of Fitz's bedroom. She had left the interview, unnoticed, and instead of going home she went to the only place in the White House that she had every felt good in; the balcony. She leaned over the railing, closing her eyes. She ran her hand over her ring, twisting in on her ring finger.

Fitz walked into his bedroom, not noticing Olivia. He took off his jacket, and sat down his couch, running his hands through his hair.

Olivia heard him walk into the room, but did nothing.

With his jacket off, Fitz started to notice the breeze coming in. He turned around and saw the door open to his balcony.

"What the hell?" he muttered, getting up to close the door. "Who left this—" He stopped mid-sentence, seeing her back.

"Sorry. I just needed some air," Olivia said, not turning around and not opening her eyes.

"It's okay, I though that you had left. There was a car that went to your house…"

"Abby took it, she's been staying at my place," said Olivia.

"Oh, okay…" Fitz said, not really sure what to do.

"I'm not Mellie," Olivia said.

"What?" he said, caught off guard.

"You heard me. I'm not turning into your ex wife, am I? Cause that's exactly what this—"

"You are not Mellie. You're Liv."

"You don't know that."

"I know you," he said simply.

"Sure you do," she muttered, still hanging on the balcony's railing, her eyes closed.

"I do. Your name is Olivia Pope. You are a crisis manager, a political fixer. You're not a lawyer. You started your own firm, OPA. You're a genius. You have very few friends, only your associates and Abby. Your father was Command. You had an affair with the President of the United States yet America still loves you. You're talented, and smart. You trust your gut, and you love red wine. You're not Mellie. Whatever falsities that you have in your mind are completely wrong. You're Liv, and that's the only person you'll ever be. That interview was completely true. Neither of us told lies, which was what my interviews with Mellie were centered around. You're not First Lady, that's not your speciality, and it was Mellie's. And I've always loved you, and never her." Fitz paused. "You're Olivia Pope. Don't start thinking, or acting, like you're not."

Olivia sighed, and tilted her head up, and stayed like that for a couple more seconds before opening her eyes and turning around. She took two steps forward and stopped, with about five feet in between each other. She finally focused her icy gaze on his blue eyes.

"Hi," she said finally.

"Hi," he said softly. There was a long silence.

"It wasn't that bad," the both said at the same time. That caused them both to smile.

"Thanks for doing that," he said.

"That's the second time you've said that to me today," Olivia said

"Oh, sorry," he grinned again. Olivia held in the smile that tried to burst out from within her at the sight of his happy face, the worry lines disappearing for a moment.

"You don't need to apologize. For anything," she said.

"So, uh, Abby's staying at your place?" he asked, trying for conversation. Olivia laughed at his efforts.

"Yeah, she was living with Leo… you know Leo Burgens."

"How could I forget?"

"Yeah, so they are going through a rough patch, I don't know, Abby is just staying with me. It's apparently really complicated." Olivia rolled her eyes. Fitz nodded, awkwardly. Olivia could tell that he didn't really care what was going on in Abby's life.

"I should go," Olivia said.

"You should go," he said nodding. "Abby's probably waiting for you," he said with a small smile.

Olivia sighed. She glanced up, willing the tears not to come.

"You okay?" he softly asked.

"I'm fine," she said hurriedly. "Bye Fitz," she said. She walked passed him, and he grabbed her hand as she did so.

"Fitz, I—" but she stopped as she looked at him, the hurt showing in his eyes.

"Okay," she whispered, walking into him. He wrapped his arms around her. In that moment, they both were channeling their pain, caused by one another, with each other. After one minute he let her go.

"Bye Liv," he said, letting go of her. She walked away.

"Liv?" he called. "Really, thank you for tonight."

"No," she said softly, turning around. "Thank you."

And she left.