Recap: In an attempt to run away from their Mum and Dad, the two youngest Grant children crossed the lake in the middle of the night. Everything was fine until Evie fell into the water and disappeared.

I am so sorry, by the way, for the delay. I haven't had a free moment in weeks and I am terribly sorry. I won't make you wait this long again, Scout's honor.

Here it is, part two of "Nocturne" so called "Nightswimming"

Nightswimming

"You, I thought you knew me, this one laughing quietly/Underneath my breath, Nightswimming" - REM

Half an hour later, the sullen boy dripped quietly into the master bedroom. He flickered on the lamp at the bedside table.

"Teddy? What's wrong?" Fitz said groggily, too sleepy to notice his son's current state of shivering dampness.

"Something terrible's happened."

"What's wrong, son?" Fitz repeated. Awkwardly, he shifted upright on the bed, throwing back the covers. He tried not to wake his wife who was a notorious light sleeper. Taking a better look at him, Fit could see now that his youngest son was fully dressed down to his socks and shoes, but also soaking wet. The way the water pooled down around his feet, dark and thick, he could have mistaken it for blood that drenched him. Water dripped everywhere, though. Teddy smelled sour. He look to be in a catatonic state, and it was then that Fitz knew that whatever Teddy had roused him for was something horribly, painfully wrong. He had had this ill-feeling, or something like it, years ago. He repeated the question.

"Evie, she's out there, Dad," Teddy stuttered, his voice losing traction. The words came out sounding hollow and whispy.

"What do you mean? Out where?"

Mellie was slowly waking, thinking she had heard voices at her bedside, "Fitz," she groaned in a thick, sleepy voice. "Teddy, what's the matter?"

"Where is Evie. You said she's out there. What do you mean?"

"It was dark, Dad. I only turned my back for a second. . . It was so dark. I couldn't see?" His eyes fell to the puddle he was making.

"Look at me, son. Where is Evie?" Fitz put his steady hands on Teddy's shoulders. Teddy wasn't making any sense. He was talking jibberish and shaking violently.

"Teddy, honey, are you alright?" Mellie asked

His head bobbed up and down rapidly, but she couldn't find this as confirmation.

she circled around to the other side of the room, reached into the closet and put a thick blanket around his shoulders. Looking at his disheveled face, she began to get that same feeling that her husband was. Anticipation sinking into the depths of her stomach like a stone.

"Dad, I'm sorry. She can't swim. I tried to go in after her, but it was so dark and I couldn't. I kept going under, Dad. I tried." He sighed, "I should never have. . . I was going to-t-to-to. . ." he trailed off. He was tremoring so intensely, and so pale, he looked downright morose.

A sharp wave of panic shot through Fitz, mingled with frustration, exhaustion and anger. His heart thumping faster, pupils dilated, the veins in his forehead and neck swelling. He squeezed his son's shoulders in a death-grip, "Where is Evie?"

"Fitz, stop it." She tried prying his hands off of him with no use. "Stop it!"

"No! You tell me where she is!" he shouted. "YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY DAUGHTER-"

"-I tried to save her. I couldn't do it. I tried!"

"Stop it, Fitzgerald, please. You're hurting him. Let go."

Fitz sunk his nails in and rattled him, shook him something awful, his head and neck dancing around on his shoulders. Mellie was afraid it might snap. "No, NO! WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER? WHERE IS SHE?"

"PLEASE, STOP IT, FITZ!" She herself between them as her husband still raged.

"Tell. Me. Where. She. Is." He shouted.

"SHE"S OUT THERE!" Teddy screamed, pointing to the black lake outside of their bedroom window.

A series of things occurred next:

Mellie turned to Teddy in shock. Mouth agape.

Fitz only took a step back and closed his eyes. He tried not to let the confession wash over him. He cried to stay focused. To stay in the moment. Stay in the moment. But when he closed his eyes, the filled up with water and his senses were overcome with blinding fear. How could it be that after all of this time, fate could trouble the waters once more and steal from him. It wasn't fair.

Mellie bolted out of the room, dressed in a silky lavender nightgown. Locks of hair met her rouged cheeks. She rushed down the stairs, through the house and out onto the deck. She balled her fists in tight and heaved over and over again, Evie.

Not Evie. No, not my daughter. Not the baby. Me instead. The water can take me instead. Over and over she bellowed out to the darkness.

Karen and Gerry with their respective guests woke to the sound. Gerry made it out onto the deck first, barefoot. "Mom," he whispered, trying to hold onto his mother as she wailed.

"No, no! Let go of me! NO!" she screamed, trying to claw out from his embrace, "No, no, she's out there. . . she's. . ." she began to trail off. She panted, falling to her knees, tears cascading down her cheeks, "She's all alone."

"Gerry." Siobhan had followed him out back.

"Call 911."

Mellie rushed up from the ground and back upstairs. Not Evie, she thought, not the baby. There was something in her that would not admit. She, herself, would sooner die if she thought it meant saving one of her own. Sacrifice.

She busted through the bedroom door, "Get up, Fitzgerald." Mellie demanded. She was puling on her clothes on and directing him to do the same.

This was where Mellie shined. This was who she was. The go-getter, the hero. She could think and then act later. She could be cold. She could calculate. She could lie. But, when it came down to it, all that she did, and all that she was, was for her family. Of that work she would never tire.

Fitz, Mellie, Gerry and Michael took the big boat out onto the lake, armed with flashlights.

Teddy tried to stop them before they could leave. "Mom, please. I'm sorry." Teddy begged.

"Stay inside with your sister," she replied sharply, still clearly upset with him.

"Dad, let me go with you. I can help." he urged. There was no chance, no chance that she was alive, he knew, but the way they looked at him with such hatred. He couldn't stand it.

"Stay here with Karen and Siobhan. We'll be back."

"Dad-"

"Do it, son. You've done enough for one night.""She's gone. She can't swim." he said softly.

So inside they waited, waited for a whisper, a sound of hope when all along he knew, there would come none.

June 11, 2012 1:39 am

It was as if everything, time, space, matter, ceased to exist. How was it that in the midst of such chaos and pain, could there be life? How was it that she was here?

When he saw her for the first time, something ignited inside him, burned warm, lingered. And died quite suddenly.

He sat on the edge of a bed. It was a quiet room in a blocked of sector of the neo-natal unit at James Madison Hospital. He had been left alone with the little baby that didn't yet have a name.

She was fragile. She was lonely. And she had no idea. She was as light as he was, with a head full of hair, and a little nose.

The door opened suddenly. He was both surprised, and not, to see her. He was conflicted, relieved. His eyes never left the child face.

"She's beautiful." she said unexpectedly, without a hint of jealousy or malice. "And healthy?"

Fitz nodded gently, his eyes still downcast. He couldn't speak, not yet. If he stayed silent for long enough, maybe his wife would dissolve and this whole night would dissolve and the dead people would dissolve, and it would just be him. And the baby. Safe and sound.

"Wow," she marveled. That couldn't have happened often, a child delivered post-mortem. It sang like a modern day miracle.

Fitzgerald didn't respond.

"Fitz, I know there are probably a storm of thoughts lolling around in that head of yours right now," she struggled to get out. Why was this so hard? "But, don't go there. Just stay away from that dark place, honey. Everybody that loves you, everybody that cares for you, they're all thinking about you. Don't forget about them, Fitz. Don't forget about me."

The curtains of the room were drawn. Surely, a thousand noises whirred and buzzed and hummed outside. The lights were still on, something down there was still moving and breathing. DC was still alive outside of that little hospital room. But he couldn't feel any of it. He couldn't penetrate his own grief to recognize that the whole world was still alive. Because all he felt was death, sinking him like a stone.

"Olivia- she's. . . they found her, de-"

"I know, Fitz. I know," she said sympathetically. "What will happen to the baby?"

"I have to be smart, Mellie. I have to think about her, what's best for her," he asserted.

". . . And that means?"

"Giving her up, of course." he said, finally looking into her eyes.

"Can I hold her?" Mellie asked tentatively, not sure of what his answer would be. He seemed so attached, he ever let this go? She held her breath for a look of hatred and suspicion, but none came. He only shrugged the newborn off, shifting a mound of tension from one body to the other.

She was so small and helpless. Mellie couldn't help but think about her conscience was telling her. She didn't pretend to be an angel. She wasn't going to win any Mother of the Year award, surely. Her ambition, her drive, her instinct for self-preservation was a part of who she was. She had, however, somehow managed to convince herself that her duty to her country was the most important thing. That the pursuit of the crown, of the title, would make everything good untouchable and everything bad disappear.

There was something that Mellie had forgotten, in between her husband's many indiscretions, and the games of her own that she had played. She had forgotten what she had had in the beginning. What was worth dying for to preserve. Family. Not just names and heirs to the throne, but the love and the blood that brought her to her, and her children into her arms. Because as much as Mellie Grant could lie and manipulate, Mellie could love somebody just as fiercely. She could change. Amend. Save.

As she gazed down at that small, round bundle, as she held it close and kissed the soft, brown downs on her head, something like longing stirred inside of her.

He spun into action, "Fuck, I need to talk to Cyrus, I need to get out there, I have to," He stopped abruptly, holding the door halfway open. "Mellie? You coming?"

A small, sad smile curled on Mellie's face. "She's so beautiful. And you said it yourself, Fitz we have to do what's best for her." She sniffled, tears running from her flushed face, and looked up at him."I can't let go of her just yet. Can you?"

He took a small footstep back into the room, and gingerly shut the door.

When Cyrus heard their plan, their plan to keep Olivia Pope's bastard child, Cyrus' heart stopped beating for just a second or two. Eyes wild, he listened to them detail their plan word for word. The first couple would recovering from the death of their close personal friend, usher her olny child into their loving home. No expense would be spared to see after her. Crowds would cheer. People would rejoice at their selflessness and fall at their feet. And Fitz, if he hadn't been already, would be immortalized as doting father, and loving husband. It could win them a second term. It could mean everything.

If only it weren't so complicated. Cyrus could handle complicated. He, like Mellie, was very much capable of telling a lie and living such a lie. But every person alive had their limits, and sitting in that cramped, artificially-lit hospital waiting room, Cy was wondering if this would be it. The secret he could not keep, the lie he couldn't tell. Dirty little secrets, after all, always have a way of coming out. She'd once told her. The irony was just, spectacular.

But, instead, he only smiled and said with confidence, "Consider it done, Mr. President. The world will never know.

A life was exchanged that night like some black market good.

Mouths shut.

Eyes bright.

Look alive. Look ahead.

Smile.

Tell no one.

2022, 12:30 am

When Evie arrived back at the lakehouse. It was nearly an hour after falling into the water. She was completely deflated, completely devoid. She was shivering and dripping wet and she thought she was going to collapse right onto the deck. She felt like a ghost, like everything that had just happened was some kind of bad dream, some cruel trick sent from the universe.

When she had fallen into the water, Evie was so disoriented, she didn't know how to resurface right away. And when she did, she couldn't see because of the darkness. Figuring that Teddy had headed for their clearing, Evie haphazardly doggie paddled her way to the nearest deck of another house. Many of the homes on the lake only had people in them for a few months out of the year. Evie walked to two more houses before she could find an older woman who promised to call her parents, but Evie couldn't remember the lake house number or their cells. The woman considered police who probably wouldn't get there for another hour because the station was so far away. Evie was so tired so debilitated, all she wanted was to get home. So the woman through a blanket over Evie's shoulders and the two set out to cross the lake. The woman was so incredibly shocked by the whole ordeal, she managed to forget to ask for Evie's last name.

She encroached upon the sliding glass doors when she noticed something odd. All of the lights in the house were on and she could clearly see into the living room from where she stood. It was late, she was certain. Who would be awake at this hour? Then it came to her, "They know"

She thought about turning around, maybe she could try to run away again to keep from getting into trouble. The were probably looking for Teddy and not her, she thought.

Looking into the living room from the sliding glass doors of the back porch, Evie saw, to her relief, brother and Karen on the couch. Both with uneasy was wrapped up into a blanket, staring at the tv mindlessly. Karen was watching Teddy from the corners of her eyes. They both sat completely upright at the edge of the cushions.

Evelyn crossed the threshold. Karen saw her first and gasped, beginning to tremble. Teddy saw her then, and just stared for a minute, uncertain or unsure. His face fell into his hands, and solemnly, he shuffled over to her. He took his sister into a tight embrace and tears poured down his cheeks.

"Why did you leave me out there all by myself?" she asked in a soft, tired voice.

The lump in his throat wouldn't let him speak.

/

The forye bustled with jangling keys and heavy footsteps. First came Gerry and Michael, folowed by Fitz who had one arm wrapped around Mellie's shoulders. Hair clung to their sweating faces, their posture was only that of defeat.

Siobhan came rushing down the stairs, hoping for good news.

"We looked everywhere, we couldn't-" Gerry whispered, defeatedly.

"Mom?" said that little voice from another room.

Mellie ran to it, at first seeing only Karen looking bewildered, then her youngest. And seeing her standing there, soggy but alive, Mellie collapsed her knees and held out her arms. Evie rushed to her.

"I'm sorry, Mom."

"Baby," Mellie squeezed, and held onto her fiercely. "You came back." she croaked. "You came back to me."

I sincerely hope it was worth the wait. I had been planning that hospital scene since before this story was even a thing, and I am quite proud of that. Please rate, comment, pour out your souls. Whatever you feel. I love you all, and thank you for reading!