The Girl in the White Dress

by BritishObsessed

Their journey began as strangers on vacation and after being separated, they met again when he became her teacher and she was his student and from there their relationship flourished into something beautiful. Now it's 12 years later and they're not speaking to each other but through a little literary creation they may be able to find the love again and become stronger than ever.

6. The Weekend Pt 1

Chapter 6: The Weekend Pt. 1

I'm just going to say that this was a heavy chapter for me to write and that's probably why it's also longer than usual, so brace yourselves. I was contemplating leaving a certain part in here because I thought it might be too much (you'll know what it is) but it ended up fitting well in here. I start off kind of nicely, so enjoy that while you can ; )

If you're feeling small
I'll love your shadow
And when the lights go dark
I will stand right beside you
If you're feeling small
I'll love your shadow

— Shadow by Bleachers

Present—2026

"Olivia? Is that you?" She turns around at the sound of her name to see a familiar face looking back at her. Her heart aches as she remembers just how long it's been since she's seen this person who used to be one of her closest friends. "Cy?"

He hasn't gone completely bald yet, but his remaining hair has grayed out. His physique is the same with that same little pot belly and his simple sweater-vest-and-slacks way of dressing remains. Overall, he's aged pretty well.

He walks over to her with wonder in his eyes as he stumbles over his words, "I—when—I didn't think I'd ever see you again. Wha—where have you been all this time?"

She smiles slightly. "Boston. I just moved back here about a year ago. I'm sorry that I never came by and said 'hi', I wasn't sure if you still worked here."

He nods understandingly and smiles back at her. "Oh, well, you know me. Books are my life."

"I know. With your dedication, you should own Barnes & Noble by now," she says with a chuckle.

He laughs in that shy way of his, shaking his head. "I'm fine where I am. I'm getting to do what I love with enough money to keep me breathing and that's enough for me. So, what've you got there?"

Olivia looks down at what he's gesturing to and reluctantly shows the book to him. "Aah, our most popular seller. The traffic in this store has gone up ten times just because of it. I admit it's a great story, definitely makes me want to be more idealistic about love, but the story strikes me as all too familiar—in the best way possible, though. It reminds me of some people I used to know," he says with a knowing smile, winking at her and telling her that he not only realized that the story was about her but also that Fitz had written it.

"You know."

He nods. "I may not have recognized the middle name 'Thomas' but he's done several interviews for the book so I eventually saw that he was the author. How romantic! How is he, by the way? He hasn't been by here for almost as long as you. You guys moved to Boston together?"

She looks away and shakes her head. "No, we didn't. I don't know how he's doing, either. I haven't spoken to him in…a while," she says quietly, remembering their last encounter.

Cyrus opens his mouth in surprise as a pained expression comes over his face. "Oh, wow. But you guys…you guys were inseparable. You two actually gave me some hope that true love might exist—I'm sorry."

She simply shrugs, not wanting to get into it with him. Now she's not even sure she wants to buy the book like she intended to. "I don't even know why I'm buying this really…" She had already spent three hours there, reading the book and stopping every few minutes to reminisce about the events being mentioned, and now the store would be closing soon but she didn't want to put the book down. As much as she hated to admit, she was actually enjoying the story and some of the memories that it was bringing back to her.

"Well, it's a good read. He wrote some powerful, poignant things in there. It's not like he uses your name or his so if you want, you can treat it strictly as just another love story and nothing more. Just read it, Liv," he tells her, walking behind the counter so that he can ring her up before she changes her mind.

She reluctantly hands him the book and pays for it. After saying goodbye to Cyrus and promising to come by for a lunch date some time later, she sets out again into the humid, rainy, summer day. As she's driving on her way home, her phone starts ringing and the caller id tells her that's her father.

"Hi, Dad," she answers.

"It's not grandpa, it's me, Danny. Hi, mommy," the little voice of her 4 year old son responds.

Olivia smiles at the sound of his happy tone. "Hi, Dannyboy. What are you up to?"

"I'm talking to you, silly goose! What are you up to?" He says, mimicking her other nickname for him.

She laughs. "Mommy just got off of work and now I'm heading home. What did you do today?"

"Grandma and grandpa took us all to Disneyland! I met Mickey Mouse and Goofy and we had a lot of pizza and ice cream and we went on a bunch of fun rides and it was really, really fun. I wish you were there, though…"

Her heart falls in her chest at the sadness in his voice with his last sentence. She had sent Danny to her parents because she knew that she wouldn't get to spend too much time with him with everything going on with work and she knew that he had fun with them since they spoiled him rotten and he got to be with his cousins so he wasn't as lonely as he sometimes was with her. But she knew that he missed her terribly and also loved doing fun things with just the two of them whenever there was time. "I know, sweetie, and I'm sorry that I can't be there with you but maybe next time."

"Okay, and could Uncle Kenny and David come, too? I like it when they visit."

"I'll ask Uncle Kenny about it. Maybe when I pick you up next week, you and David can have a playdate. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah!"

She smiles. "Okay. I love you, honey. Can you hand the phone over to grandpa so that I can talk to him?"

"Mmhmm. I love you, too, mommy." Olivia talks to her father for a little while about Danny, work, and how things are going in general and then they say goodbye after Olivia agrees to pick up Danny on the following Monday.

She arrives home, pondering why her house feels especially empty and wondering about why she even has such a huge house when only two people live in it. She thinks of moving into a nice one-story with two bedrooms for her and Danny, another for his playroom, and another for her home office. As soon as she puts her purse down on the kitchen counter, she realizes that she forgot to pick up some food on her way home like she had intended to, but luckily she's able to find some cans of soup in the pantry.

She goes to her bedroom with her bowl of chicken noodle soup and the book she just bought and snuggles herself comfortably into bed where she has a perfect view of the raindrops falling down outside, just like she liked it. After taking a few sips of soup, she opens the book and starts reading from where she left off.

2014

Fitz had had a long week and couldn't wait for his weekend to begin, even though he didn't really have any plans. He sits at his desk as his students pack up their stuff and flood out the door, but his eyes are really only focused on one in particular. He watches as Abby tells Olivia a story and the sweetest sound flows out of her mouth as she bursts into laughter. He could listen to her laugh and look at that gorgeous smile of hers all day if he had the opportunity. They hadn't spent too much time together outside of school—basically just their morning runs had been about it, but he cherished every moment and that hour before school had easily become the highlight of these past three days for him. He looks down, grabbing his pen and continues grading papers like he hadn't been gazing at her for the past minute as she says bye to Abby.

She turns to him once everyone's out of the room and grins at him. "Hey."

"Hey, Olivia," he greets back, smiling politely up at her, trying to act like he isn't as excited to talk to her as he really is.

"So, do you have any plans for the weekend?" She asks.

"No, not really. After I finish grading these papers, I'm just going to head home and relax, I guess."

She gives him a skeptical look. "Boo! That's boring. What, you're just going to sit at home all weekend and read Dracula?"

He smirks at this. "You make it sound like a bad thing. Dracula is very good so far."

"I'm sure it is." She pauses briefly before saying, "Why don't you come to the football game tonight?"

"Football game?"

"Yeah, it starts at about 6, though, I would come around 5:30 to get a seat on the bleachers."

He nods. "We'll see."

"If you come, I might even let you sit by me. I'm pretty positive the other girls wouldn't mind either, but I can't promise anything for the boys," she jokes.

He laughs at this. "You know, I'm not a total loser. I have other friends besides you."

She grins at him. "Mmhmm…have fun with Count Dracula."

"That's it, I am officially throwing you out of my classroom," Fitz says, using faux firmness and pointing at the door.

She raises her eyebrows at him. "Using your authoritarian side—you know, the textbook probably didn't say this but I'm pretty sure that makes your students hate you even more."

"But you don't hate me," he says knowingly.

"Oh, no, I despise you—there's a big difference," she says, winking at him.

He laughs, shaking his head at her. She always managed to brighten up his day.

"Alright, I'm leaving now," she says, starting towards the door and taking a little bit of his happiness with her, even though he had told her to leave. Though, she turns around and faces him one last time, saying, "Try to at least have a little fun."

"I'll do my best," he says back.

She smiles at him and exits the classroom, leaving him unable to focus on his work for the next twenty minutes.

IiIiIiIiIiIiI

After swim practice, Olivia showers and changes into something comfortable and stylish. This night would be along one, with a probable 3-hour game and an after party that would most likely last well into the next day, but she was ready to let loose for the weekend. She meets with Abby and the rest of her friends at their cars and they walk to the football field together after buying some snacks. They're able to find some good seats up in the front of the bleachers and watch as some of the football players stretch and do other pre-game rituals. She spots Edison Davis, the quarterback and captain of the team, throwing a ball back and forth with another player on the team. He catches her staring at him and smiles suavely, winking at her before he throws the ball again. She returns the gesture but her smile tightens slightly as she thinks of their relationship. She had been secretly hooking up with Edison every now and then since the year before. After their first time sleeping together, she had thought that they were kind of a thing but he had told her that he wanted them to just be hook-up buddies and nothing more. She was disappointed at first since he had been so nice to her and gentle during their first time and she thought that she would finally have a boyfriend and a guy that would care about her and look out for her, but after a while she became fine with their arrangement. He was a good lay and he made her feel better even if it was temporary happiness.

"Hey, Olivia." She's taken out of her thoughts as Kenny takes a seat next to her with a bag of popcorn and a soda in his hands. "I didn't miss anything, did I?"

She shakes her head. "No, they're going to start soon," she tells him as the pep band starts to play.

"Oh, good. I didn't want to be late for my first live game of American football. Popcorn?"

She smiles at him and takes a few kernels. "Thanks."

"You are very welcome." Olivia had been getting used to Kenny's eccentric personality over the past few days and had gotten to know him a little better now that he was on the swim team, too. At first she had thought that his overly polite behavior was his way of flirting but she had come to realize that he really was just polite. Maybe there actually were some good guys still out there and chivalry really wasn't dead—Kenny and Fitz served as examples.

Abby leans over to her and whispers, eyeing Kenny, "Who's that?"

"You seriously haven't noticed him sitting two seats down from you all week?" Olivia asks disbelievingly.

"No, I haven't. Who is he?"

"My name is Kenny," he says, reaching out his hand to Abby, which she shakes awkwardly and shrinks at how not-secretive she was with her whispering. "You must be Abby, the feisty redhead. Olivia's told me a lot about you."

Olivia gives him a look telling him to watch what he says, while Abby raises her eyebrow at Olivia. "And what exactly has she said?"

"Oh, nothing bad at all. She said that you're one of her best friends and that you're always sweet and selfless and supportive and a good person in general," Kenny says with a hint of a smile.

Abby glares at him as Olivia chips in, "Yeah, and a very good influence."

"So, I'm basically Mother Theresa? You guys are both full of crap—as soon as I heard that I was a good influence, I knew you guys were BS-ing me."

Olivia and Kenny laugh together and Abby cracks a smile at them, saying, "Fine, I'll give you a shot Mr. Smart-ass."

He winks at her and Olivia is almost positive that she sees Abby blush.

After the game, Olivia rides with Abby to the after party with Huck and the rest of their friends and Kenny following behind. The party takes place at the house of some kid they hardly know, but they had been going to the same party for three years now and since the kid was kind of rich and known for having the best parties, they were never disappointed.

Once they all arrive, they socialize with some people they vaguely know and then hit the dance floor. For the first fifteen minutes they all start off dancing together, except for Huck because it's really never been his thing, but Olivia soon finds herself alone in the crowd when Abby runs off with the guy she's currently sleeping with, Quinn leaves to go talk to Huck, and Kenny just disappears.

She starts to feel a little uncomfortable in the middle of the crowd of sweaty bodies and is ready to go join Huck and Quinn when she feels a pair of hands take hold of her hips and a familiar voice say in her ear, "Miss me?" and flick his tongue against her earlobe. She turns around to see Edison and smiles at him. She tries to wrap her arms around his neck but he spins her back around, gripping her hips harder, and continues to grind his erection into her. After a few more songs and them basically screwing each other on the dance floor, he leans down and says something in her ear but she can't hear him with all the loud music and people around them.

"What?" she yells back.

He takes her hand and guides them out of the crowd, roughly pushing a few people in his way and not apologizing, even cussing a few of them out. She knew that he could get irritable when he was drunk and she suspected that he must be pretty drunk since she had smelt liquor on him while they were dancing. He takes them towards the front of the house, saying hi and winking at a girl on the way, who returns the gesture to him but gives Olivia a dirty look. Once they get to the front of the house, where only about twenty people are hanging out, he turns to her and says, "I want to get out of here and go back to my place. It'll be just us."

"I'm not sure we should." She was a little turned off by the way he had acted back in the crowd and even though they weren't even a thing, she hadn't liked how he had looked that girl they passed by. "Why don't we stay here until you sober up a little?"

"I'm fine, Liv." He pauses, looking at her closely before saying, "I thought you wanted to be alone with me as soon as possible. I could see it in your face earlier."

"I do, just not right now. I want to spend a little more time with my friends and dance."

He shakes his head, letting out a spiteful laugh that somewhat creeps her out. "It's alright. If you're suddenly too good for me then maybe we don't need to do this anymore."

She watches as he stumbles towards the street and knows that he won't be able to make it home alone. Besides, they were just going to go to his house and have sex—she didn't see it being any different from their previous times. There was no harm in going with him just for that reason. "Fine, I'll go with you—but I'm driving."

He smiles lazily at her and then digs his keys out of his pocket and tosses them to her.

They find his car down the street and head to his house with him giving her minimal instructions since she already kind of knows the way.

She parks in the driveway of his miniature mansion and Olivia sees that he was telling the truth about it just being them, because it seems as if no one is home at all with all the lights in the house off. Edison unlocks the front door, letting them in but Olivia isn't even able to turn on a light before Edison's hands are back on her hips as he forcefully presses his lips to hers. He pushes her against a wall and she continues to kiss him back until she feels his hands going for the zipper of her jeans.

"Edison—"

"What?" He yells, pushing his tongue into her mouth.

"Edison," she tries again and winces in pain as he forces her jeans down and feels under her panties for her wetness but it's not there. A few hours earlier she had been looking forward to getting laid by him but now she was getting a bad feeling about him like this. He had never been this rough with her, even during their wildest endeavors together. He was definitely too drunk.

She finally tries to push him away but it only makes him come at her even more as he lifts her up by the backs of her thighs and takes them to what she thinks is his bedroom. He throws her onto the bed and quickly unbuckles and unzips his pants. "I hope you're ready for me, Liv, because when I'm done with you, you're gonna be sore for days."

"Edison, I don't want to do this right now. Maybe later," she says, trying to get out of this without angering him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He says with that same uncanny laugh. "I thought you wanted this," he says, pointing down to his junk.

She cringes at him and shakes her head, trying to push him off by he places his knee on her stomach and holds her down with one hand on her chest.

"Edison, stop."

"Come on, Liv, stop playing around," he says as he reaches aimlessly for something on the side of the bed.

"No! Stop it!" She yells, beginning to really freak out because she can hardly push his weight off of her. He slips her panties off and peels his boxers off as he fiddles with what she thinks is a condom.

"Damn it, hold still!" He yells at her as he fiddles with the condom and tries to put it on while trying to keep her pinned down. Olivia feels some of the pressure lift off of her as he does this and takes this as her best chance to get out from under him. She's able to kick at his knee, making him stumble a little and lessen his hold on her, allowing her to push him further off of her.

She gets up and grabs her panties, slipping them back on, ready to bolt away from him but he grabs her at the waist and throws her to the ground.

"You bitch!" He yells as she feels his hand make contact with the side of her face.

"Let me go!" She screams, her heart beating out of her chest in fear, and much to her surprise, he does. She gets off the floor, dizzily making her way out of the bedroom, her eyes watering at the pain consuming her face.

"Fine, get the fuck out of my house and don't ever come back, you stupid slut!" He calls after her, as she grabs her jeans and shoes, rushing out of the front door. Once she's a considerable distance from the house, she stops and puts on her pants and her shoes. As she stands in the middle of the sidewalk, breathing heavily, she begins to shake uncontrollably now that her mind is out of fleeing mode and falls down onto her knees, burying her face in her hands as she bursts into tears.

IiIiIiIiIiIiI

He had just finished an hour of exercise at the gym but Fitz was craving junk food like his life depended on it. So, he decided to give into his cravings and stop by the nearby convenience store and gas station on his way home to buy a cheap hotdog and soda, just this once. He decides to buy some gas while he's at it since his tank is almost on empty, even though he probably won't be going anywhere for the weekend, but he was already at the gas station, so why not?

As he waits for his tank to fill up, Fitz sees a huddle figure, shivering on a nearby bench. This doesn't really strike him as too out of place since people were always waiting around or just chilling at this gas station, but for some reason, Fitz feels drawn to whoever it is and can't tear his eyes away. After he's done getting gas, he heads inside the convenient store but as he approaches the entrance, he can't help but feel like the person huddled on the bench looks familiar. He's about to go inside but then he stops right in front of the doors as he recognizes the person, or is at least 80 percent sure it's who he thinks it is, but he wonders why they're there, seemingly all alone. He tentatively walks up to the person, not wanting to get too close in case he was in fact mistaken but as soon as he gets within five feet of the person, he knows he's right.

"Olivia?" He asks. Her head whips up at his voice and by the look of her puffy eyes, he can see that she's been crying.

"Fitz…What're you doing here?" She says, trying her best to mask the sadness in her voice but he doesn't fall for it one bit.

He ignores her question as something on the side of her face sticks out to him but he can hardly see anything with the dim light above them. He moves in closer to get a better look and gasps at what he sees— a huge bruise along with swelling and what looks like blood along the left side of her face. "Oh, my gosh, Olivia, you're bleeding and your face is starting to swell even worse than when I hit you with the volleyball. What happened?"

She shakes her head strongly, avoiding eye contact with him. "Nothing."

"I don't think that 'nothing' happened. How did you wind up at this gas station? Most residential places are at least a mile from here. Were you dropped off? Why?"

"Just stop, Fitz, I'm fine. Just let it go."

"Let it go? Olivia, you're sitting here at some random-ass gas station with a bruised and bloody cheek and you're telling me to just let it go? Well, I'm not. Look at me."

She shakes her head. He looks back at her, wondering why she's being so elusive but then an idea hits him. He swallows hard before asking, "Did…did someone do this to you?"

All she does is continue to look at the ground and shake her head. "Olivia…"

"Stop," she mutters.

"Olivia, look at me." He finally tilts her head up towards him, trying his best to ignore her wound and focus on her eyes, and as soon as he looks into them, he knows the truth.

"Liv…" he says, kneeling down in front of her as he delicately wipes away the tears that are trickling now down her face with his thumb.

"Don't," she tells him firmly, her voice getting slightly caught up in her throat. He pulls her up by her hands, ignoring her protests as he sees that she's going to break down soon.

"Livvie, it's okay." He takes her in his arms, holding her tightly as she fully succumbs to him. He shushes her, stroking her hair as she tries to speak while sobbing uncontrollably. His heart was breaking piece by piece at seeing her this way. What had happened to the Liv that was smiling brightly and beautifully and cracking jokes in the few hours they had been apart? Who had hurt her to the point of making her into crying, bruised mess? As soon as he found out, he would make sure that this person went through a world of pain for what they did.

Once she stops, he faces her and says, "Let's get out of here. We can go back to my house, if you're fine with that."

She nods, wiping away her tears. Forgetting about his original reason for being there, Fitz helps Olivia into the passenger seat of his car, gets in himself and they leave the gas station. As he drives, he gives her occasional side glances, watching her as she looks out the window with an occasional sniffle. He wishes that he could pull over and just hold her until every all her tears were gone but he knows that needs to tend to her cheek before it got worse, so he instead focuses on driving faster to get to his house.

Fitz rushes to open her door for her and holds her hand as they walk into the house. He guides her to his couch and tells her to wait for a second while he gets his first aid kit. He hurries back to her, frowning at how broken she looks and wanting to rip out the guts of whoever did this. Once she calmed down a little, he would ask her and get down to the bottom of it.

He sits back down next to her, saying, "Okay, Liv, I'm going to take a look and try to fix you up, okay?" She nods so he gently tilts her head so he can get a better look and examines her wound. A large chunk of her cheek is blackening and swelling but she seems to have stopped bleeding. He uses the antiseptic to wipe off the dry blood and clean the area, making her cry out at the sting.

"Sorry," he quickly apologizes. "Um, do you feel any numbness or any kind of fracture?"

She shakes her head. "Okay, that's good. It's not too bad. It should take a week to a week and a half for the bruising to disappear," he says, slipping a band aid on the flesh wound. "I'm going to go get you some ice."

He goes to his kitchen and puts some ice in a small plastic bag then goes back to the living room, handing the bag to her. She presses it to her cheek and winces at the pain but slowly adjusts. After a while of sitting there in silence, he's about to ask her if she needs anything else when she says in a low voice, "You seem to be good at fixing people up. Why didn't you become a doctor?"

He smiles, glad that she's talking. "Uh, I guess I just never saw it in the cards for me. I didn't want to go to school for that long and I also didn't want to be drowning in debt. Besides, I learned most of this stuff from the internet when I had to treat myself and my brother, Harrison. We had a knack for getting into trouble when we were younger."

She looks back at him wordlessly urging him to go on, so he does. "Like this one time, I think it was when I was a freshman in high school and Harrison was about 10 or so. We were playing a basketball game two-on-two with these other kids that lived in the same neighborhood as us, but for whatever reason, Harrison just kept harassing the crap out of one of them, he's always had such a smartass attitude, even back then. Anyway, these guys were around the same age us but they were huge and back then, you should've seen me, I was just a little shrimp—no muscle at all." She smiles slightly at this and he does as well. "So, the one Harrison keeps harassing gets fed up and pushes Harry down and like the stupid, heroic older brother I was, I get in the guy's face, which ends up being a huge mistake."

"What happened?" She asks.

"Well, for one, we ended up getting pummeled, not to the point that we couldn't walk home but when our mom saw us she started crying hysterically and rushed us to the hospital." Fitz laughs as he remembers and Olivia actually chuckles along with him. "It wasn't as bad as we thought—a few bumps and scrapes but things like that happened all the time so after a while I became the 'family doctor' if you could call it that."

She smiles at him and he does the same, happy to see her happy again but he knows that he's about to ruin it with his next question. It was best for her to talk about what happened earlier that night and sort things out now than keep it all bottled in—he knew that well.

"Liv, I know that this is going to be difficult to talk about but I need you to tell me who did this to you. If you tell me, I can make sure that they are held fully responsible for what they did and can't do it to anyone else."

She shakes her head. "No, it's okay."

"It's not okay. Some asshole hit you so hard that you had a flesh wound and ditched you at a gas station—that is never going to be okay."

"Why do you even care? Why do you want to help me?"

"Because…"

"Because what?"

"Because I care about you and I want to look out for you."

"You don't even know me…"

He sighs and admits, "Maybe I don't but I would like to. We agreed to be friends, remember? And this is what friends do—friends look out for each other. Please, Liv, let me be here for you, let me help you."

He watches her as her eyes start to water again and her bottom lip quivers as she quietly says, "I just…I don't want anyone to know. If I tell you then I don't want you to tell my parents or the police or anyone."

"But how else am I supposed to make sure that this person gets in trouble for what they did—"

"No, Fitz! As much as I hate this son of a bitch for what he did to me—I don't need it being broadcast to the entire school, I don't need people looking at me because they feel sorry for me."

"But the bruise…"

"I'll just lie and say that I hurt myself when I hit a pole or got into a minor car accident."

Fitz sighs and nods his head reluctantly agreeing, for now.

She takes a deep breath, focusing her gaze on the carpet below them as she says, "It was Edison Davis. My friends and I went to a party after the game and…he was there and we danced for a while but then he wanted to go back to his place so I went along with it and…" She starts crying for real now. "We were going to…but I didn't want to and then he pinned me down…" Fitz's blood starts boiling at this as he balls up his fists. This jackass raped her?! He would have to convince her to talk to the feds because there was no way in hell he would let this son of a bitch get away with what he did to her.

"So, while he was sort of distracted I was able to get out from under him and when I was trying to get away he—he hit me and told me to get out…"

"Livvie…"

Her tears start falling like waterfalls as she cries, "I was so stupid. I knew that I shouldn't have gone with him but I did and now this happened. It's so humiliating and it's my fault for being a stupid idiot and a whore."

Fitz's heart is breaking at hearing her say all this stuff about herself. He can't hold back any longer and takes her in his arms. At this point, she doesn't even try to push him away and instead clings onto him for dear life, soaking his shirt with her tears. "That is not true, Olivia, and what happened will never be your fault, no matter what you did to provoke him. He had no right at all to hit you, do you hear me?"

She doesn't reply so he asks again, "Olivia, I need you to tell me that you believe that. It wasn't your fault. Say it."

She quiets down, blinking away some tears and sighs before saying quietly, "Fine, maybe it wasn't my fault but he was still right in a sense. That's all he ever saw me as—just some stupid slut that he could use whenever he felt like it. And that's all I ever showed him—that I was easy, so maybe he was right."

"No! Don't you ever say that about yourself. Edison's opinion and however he sees you is bullcrap. He's just some stupid teenage boy whose main goal is to see how many girls he can get in his pants. He's the idiot and he's not worth your time. You don't need guys like that in your life and you don't need to stoop to their level. The mistakes you've made in the past don't change the fact that you are amazing, Olivia. In the short time that I've gotten to know you, I see you as one of best people that I've ever met. You're smart and funny and in my opinion beautiful on the inside and out. And anyone who can't see that can go and screw themselves. You were not responsible for what happened and if you don't want anyone to know about it, then I won't say anything, but he needs to be held accountable in some way. I'm going to make sure of it. You're never going to have to worry about him hurting you ever again," he says, gently kissing her temple. He feels her tense up for a second but she quickly snuggles into him. They sit in silence as she slowly stops crying, but Fitz never lets her go and she never lessens her hold on him. He looks at the clock on the mantle above his fireplace and sees that about half an hour has gone by since they've been there but he had lost track of time as he thinks about how good it feels to hold her and how perfectly she fit in his arms. He was glad that he was there to comfort her and wipe her tears away and make her feel whole again.

"Are you hungry?" he asks after a while, but she doesn't reply. "Liv?"

"Mmm," she whimpers, fidgeting on him but then she suddenly shoots up. "Where am I?"

"It's okay, Liv, you're okay. We're at my house," he tells her, trying to calm her nerves.

She relaxes as she remembers and sighs. "Oh…" She yawns, asking groggily, "What did you say before?"

He smiles at her sleepy hair. "I was asking if you wanted something to eat, but if not, I can take you home if you're tired."

"Oh, we can eat. What do you have?" she asks, bringing her knees up to her chest and curling up to the arm of the other side of the couch.

"I still have to go to the grocery store tomorrow but I do have chips and lemonade, or water if you prefer that."

She nods. "That sounds good. I'll take water."

He goes to the kitchen and prepares a bowl and gets their drinks. He puts a bowl of Doritos in the between them and hands her a bottle of water. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he says, taking a sip of his lemonade. They drink and munch for a while but Fitz notices her shivering a little. He gets up and goes to the hallway closet, getting one of his mom's homemade knitted blankets then comes back to the living room and lays it softly on her.

"Thanks again," she says, smiling timidly at him and spreading the blanket over her body.

"Do you want to watch something?" He asks, reaching for the remote and offering it to her but she shakes her head at this.

"You find something. I don't care what it is, but preferably something funny or stupid to take my mind off of things."

He nods and starts flipping through channels for a while before stopping on one that's showing a re-run of Seinfeld, one of his favorite comedy shows. "Is this alright?" he asks her.

She nods and smiles slightly. "Yeah, I love this show."

They watch and laugh together at all the right times and during the two episodes showing he notices her absentmindedly inching closer to him until she's curled into his chest where he hears her sigh and relax into him and it doesn't take him long to wrap his arms around her. After a while he notices that he's the only one laughing and once the show ends he sees that she fell asleep again. She looks so peaceful as she sleeps, so much that he can hardly tell that she had been upset earlier. He hopes that he never has to see her that distraught ever again.

He carefully lifts her up, not wanting to disturb her and carries her to his bedroom, pulling aside his sheets and laying her down. He watches her relax into his soft pillows and blankets and tucks her in, making sure she's comfortable, but when he turns to head back to the couch, he hears her softly call out, "Fitz."

He turns around. "Yeah, Liv?"

She reaches out her hands to him. "Stay with me."

He looks back at her with uncertainty and she seems to sense this so she says, "Please."

"I don't know, Liv…"

"Please, Fitz, I don't want to be alone. I just need someone to be here with me, I want you to be here."

He's about to tell her that he will be there, just in the other room but he knows that that's not what she means. After silently deliberating about for several more seconds, he slips off his shoes and climbs onto the bed, lying on top of the covers. She moves towards him, putting her arm around his torso and pulling herself closer to him, quickly falling asleep soon after. He knew that what happened to her would be tough getting over and would most likely come with a few nightmares along the way, but he would be there every step to hold her hand and get her through it. From this moment on, he would always be there for her and he would never let anyone hurt her like that again. He puts his arms back around her, feeling completely comfortable and content in this moment with her safe in his arms and dozes off.

Well, that was a heavy chapter. I know this one was hard to really enjoy but tell me what you thought. Do you think that Liv will get through this with Fitz at her side? Do you think that she should tell her parents or the police? How do you feel about Edison and what should happen to him? Don't worry too much about that, I have plans for him *evil laugh*. Do you think that this experience will help Olitz's relationship grow? Also, I tell me what you thought of the 2026 flash forward. Other thoughts? Thanks for reading!