This is your fault Liv.

No...

It's your fault I'm not here.

No...

It's your fault my parent's marriage is screwed up!

Jerry it's not like that-

Shut up! You don't get to talk, you don't get to spew your false apologies. Your father had me killed Liv, your father! Why didn't you show up Liv? You save any and everyone else! Why wasn't the namesake of the man you claim to love important enough for you to save! What? Because I'm not a liar, a criminal, an idiot or a whore working on the hill? Because I'm just another teenaged boy?

No Jerry!

Why didn't you show up for me Liv?! Why!? Why did you try to run? I died and you ran! You aren't worthy of my father.

Jer, I'm sorry...

"Livvie wake up!"

Fitz awoke when he heard Liv first call out Jerry's name. He had no idea what she had been dreaming about, but his heart sank that she was having nightmares about his son. Had she been having them all this time?

Liv startled halfway out of her sleep, already bolting towards the door. Fitz jumped up and wrapped his arms around her, willing her to come back to full consciousness.

"Come on Liv, wake up baby. Wake up." Fitz whispered soothingly against her ear. Liv's eyes shot open as she took in her surroundings.

"That's it baby, wake up. It's ok, it was just a bad dream. I'm here."

Liv's eyes locked with Fitz's and what he saw chilled him to the bone. The emptiness, the fear, the guilt, the desperation was almost more than he could take. He had no idea what the dream was about, but he knew he had to make them go away... Somehow.

Fitz picked Liv up and carried her back to bed. He ran out to the kitchen and grabbed her some water which she refused. Liv wasn't a plain water drinker and no nightmare was going to make her start. Fitz sighed and went into the dining room, and returned with a bottle of red and two wine glasses. Knowing Liv, Fitz filled her glass to the rim and handed it to her. The glass was empty before he had his filled even half way.

This is bad...

Fitz sat and watched as Liv filled her glass to the rim again and downed it like she was dying of dehydration. Did she always drink like this?

"Livvie..."

Liv held up one finger, silencing Fitz as she set the glass down and began chugging from the bottle. The more she drank the more he worried. Finally deciding enough was enough Fitz ripped the bottle from her hands.

"Livvie, getting drunk at 3 am isn't going to help anything. Talk to me baby."

Liv stared at Fitz with tears in her eyes as her lower lip began to quiver.

"When I went to see my father in the hospital, I was so... I wasn't able to accept the fact that I had failed you a second time. I cried on my father's shoulder about losing the election, about failing yet again. He said he'd want nothing more than to help me but he couldn't. 8 hrs. later Jerry is dead under what I find out later was his orders and you won the election. It's my fault. I.. I killed them Fitz. I killed them."

"Killed who Liv? Who is "them"?"

Liv sat quietly for a moment before responding.

"Jerry, James, Verna, the people in the Cytron building, Giddeon Wallace, Vanesa Chandler... I killed them. If I had just said no to Defiance..."

Fitz's heart broke as he watched the tears fall from her eyes. She blamed herself. Whenever something went wrong, she always blamed herself. She would give others the credit for the good, and take all of the responsibility for the bad. Even if it truly wasn't on her. Fitz pulled Liv into him and held her tightly. She fought for a moment, but eventually relaxed.

"Liv, none of those deaths are on you. You didn't kill anyone. You feel guilty over something that has been settled forever. It's not on you Liv, none of this is on you. Defiance is over."

"Fitz, Defiance isn't ever going to be over. Jerry is proof of that. Any blood shed during your presidency, because of your presidency directly links back to Defiance."

"I'm giving it up Liv. The presidency, I'm giving it up."

Fitz looked into Liv's eyes and watched as the anger overpowered all other emotions.

"No Fitz! YOU WILL NOT GIVE UP THIS PRESIDENCY, because if you do... Their deaths will be in vain. Jerry and James, the others... They would have died for nothing. You cannot give up this presidency. I will stick by you and be there for you every step of the way, but you can't do this. You need to make your son and the father of our goddaughter proud." Fitz listened as Liv spoke with fire and passion coursing through her veins. As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point.

"Ok, if you want me to stay in office I will. But don't think this gets you out of a relationship with me. This time next year, you will be my first lady."

"Fine..."

"Good. Now that that's settled, let's get some sleep." Fitz laid down and pulled Liv into his arms. She caught him completely off guard as she pushed him on his back and straddled him.

"Make love to me Fitz. I need to feel you... Make love to me..."

Fitz could hear the desperation in her voice. This wasn't an ordinary request. Liv needed Fitz to silence her worries, her fears, her insecurities. She needed him to show how much he loved her in the most intimate of ways. Fitz flipped them over and spent the entire evening professing his undying love for Liv.

Liv woke up the next morning and performed her morning stretching before climbing out of bed and heading into the bathroom. After she straightened herself up, Liv moved towards the kitchen where she noticed a pile of newspapers she seemed to have neglected over the past week. If she were being honest with herself, she'd deliberately gone out of her way to avoid all forms of news.

She hadn't turned a news station on her television since leaving Karen's party, and she made Fitz and Cyrus promise not to say anything about what may have been published after Karen's party. It wasn't that she was worried about the optics completely, she just had more pressing things to worry about. Deciding this had gone on long enough, Liv reached for the paper at the bottom of the pile and pulled it out.

Liv looked down and sure enough, there she was , her arms wrapped around Cyrus with Fitz closing him in from the front. The headline read "Grant Administration Gets Sweet On Olivia Pope At Karen Grant's Birthday Bash" Liv looked at the headline that was displayed front page above the fold. She chuckled to herself as she recalled how excited James was when his exposé on Hollis was displayed on the front page above the fold. Liv unfolded the paper and gasped. Not only was the picture dead center, they had taken up the entire front page. Liv quickly opened to A12 where the story was marked to continue.

Inside there were pictures of Liv and Fitz fighting in the chocolate fountain, and pictures of the children enjoying themselves in the food fight as well. There were however calmer pictures as the cutting of Karen's cake as well as the dance off between Liv and Mellie and Andrew and Fitz graced the page as well.

The one picture that caught Liv's eye was from when Fitz had pulled Liv's back flush against him and was clearly whispering something in her ear as her face had taken on a look of pure arousal. Liv set the paper down as she picked up her phone and went on twitter.

The party was still being tweeted about nationwide. Liv decided to search her name instead of going thru her mentions. One tweet in particular immediately caught her eye. Fitz was actually tagged in it.

" POTUS, how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of an Olivia Tootsie POPe?"

Liv had to chuckle at the kids creativity, but quickly became mortified when she realized Fitz had actually responded to that tweet.

I've never made it without biting, ask Mr. Owl. RT " SBBYOlitz: POTUS, how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of an Olivia Tootsie POPe?"

The tweet had gotten over a million favorites. Liv knew that the response was in reference to the tootsie roll pop commercial, but she still couldn't help but wonder when someone would take that out of context. Her face grew even redder as she noticed that Edison Davis had jumped on the tweet as well.

"Let's find out... Ah one, ah two-hooo, ah three... Three. Seriously, the world may never know..." was Edison's response which opened a whole slew of questioning. Thankfully he didn't respond any further. Liv went to her home page and realized she had gained almost a million followers in less than a week... Nope, as her page updated, she realized she had gone over the 1M mark, gaining over 10,000 followers in a matter of minutes.

Liv shut down Twitter and decided to completely ignore Facebook and Tumblr for the time being. Facebook would have awkward posts, and the lovelies on Tumblr tend to get a little crazy at times... Ok they got a lot crazy, all the time. People had even began shipping her and Fitz on Tumblr, referring to them as Olitz. Liv shook her head as apparently it was beginning to spread to twitter as well. Liv immediately wondered how many of those new followers were a part of the voting demographic.

If they only knew.

As soon as Liv set her phone down it rang. Of course it was Cyrus calling to let her know that he wouldn't bother them all weekend as long as a war wasn't about to break out.

"So you bothered me just to tell me you weren't going to bother me Cy?"

"Well, not just that. Fitz is double booked the day of the Time Magazine photo-shoot. So, being the ever so less than humble servant that I am, I called Time and had them reschedule... For tomorrow."

Shit...

"I've also sent them some pictures of the both of you to go along with your personal bios, as well as pics of you two on both trails."

SHITFUCK!

"Liv, are you still there?" Cyrus asked as Liv had been extremely quiet.

"Yea, I'm here. I'll let Fitz know. I'll send him back later today so he can prepare for tomorrow." with that Liv hung up and began pacing the floor in circles. Immediately her mind flew into fixer mode.

What pics did he send?

Where were we?

Do we look too cozy together?

Can anything be deemed inappropriate in those pictures?

"Livvie! All of your thinking woke me up." Fitz whined as he stumbled his way into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Good morning sleepy head."

"Good morning, why weren't you in bed?... So, the photo shoot is tomorrow?" Fitz asked as he placed a tender kiss on Liv's forehead. Liv had a rule about not kissing until they brushed their teeth and Fitz had yet to brush his so her forehead was the next best thing.

"Fitz, I didn't say anything about it yet. How did you know?"

"I told you all of your thinking woke me up." When Liv gave him a look that said she was calling his bull, he continued. "That and Cyrus texted me." He finished with a smirk.

"Ok well go get washed up while I start breakfast. You still owe me a kiss." Liv said with a faux pout.

Fitz rushed off to get cleaned up as Liv prepared a feast for her man. So far it looked like her wish was coming true.

"This is absolutely fucking gold! Hey Jessie, do you see these pictures of Olivia Pope and the POTUS? $50 says he's nailing her and quite well I might add by the looks she's giving him in every single picture."

"Dude, that's a sucker bet. Preston there is no way he's not blowing her back out. My guess is she's giving as good as she gets. Look at how he's looking at her."

"Jess, I think I know exactly what angle I'm going to use for the photo shoot tomorrow. By the time all is said and done, America will be talking about way more than the two of them winning any election."

"Hey man, if any photographer out there can do it, you definitely can."