God, was it possible to miss tobacco so much? Olivia wondered as she took a drag of her Marlboro. She had not smoked in years, stopping after getting really bad bronchitis while landing a major client at Cables Jones. But tonight was a night worth pulling out her emergency stash over. She had been so swamped, she had no time to engage in her first and foremost stress -reliever. Not to mention, she would have no time to go to the White House. Every time she went, there was chaos and pandemonium, the media harping on if she was staying the night. She had not been back since he state dinner and had not had the time to call Fitzgerald at all. The whole thing sucked.

She had spent hours courting stupid Congressmen on the phone, stuck in her office overnight. Her throat was scratchy, with sleep and exhaustion. And she was beginning to suspect that she had carpal tunnel. She also kind of felt bad because her assistant could not leave until she did. The poor little girl…

"Ms. Pope, you have a visitor." Alice said, sticking her long neck into the doorway of her office. Olivia let out a cloud of smoke and rolled her eyes. Who the hell would be stopping over at 12:37am in the morning? Olivia was so tempted to just yell out, "Fuck them and tell them to leave." However, the proximity from her office to the sitting room that was probably harboring this mysterious visitor was far too great, so it would probably just be best to cut her loses and just invite this person in to her office.

"Send them in." Olivia said as she shrugged her shoulders. But before she could take another hit of her cigarette, Stephen Finch appeared; handsome, tall and very well dressed in the doorway. What the hell?

"What is this Mad Men, Liv? What's with the cigarette? You are not supposed to be smoking in your office." He said smiling. Olivia smiled uneasy, immediately putting the cigarette out by pulling out her secret ash tray in her top drawer.

"Ha! That's funny. What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to smooth down her frizzing hair. From the reflection in her Mac book, her make-up was holding up pretty well. Liv, why do you even care?

Well, it may have a lot to do with how their relationship ended all those years ago. The fact that they had been forced to work together a week ago to win over Thump. It was the only relationship from her past that had ended on a bad note. Most of the others (the very few) had run their course, or she had no longer had particularly strong feelings. But Stephen was a different story…

They had been professional, and in the heat of working, she had barely even thought to dwell on this aspect. But he standing in front of her, in her office at this hour, was bringing all of the memories, flooding back.

He walked slowly toward her glass desk, hands in his pocket and shrugged. "Well, you never returned my phone call, so I figured I'd come and check on you." He said politely. What a liar! Olivia thought as she motioned for him to sit in the cushiony black chair across from her. His brooding eyes said different.

"Well, that's awfully nice of you. Thanks for doing that, but there is not much to check on. You know me, busy, busy and busier." Olivia said brightly leaning back in her chair. She could feel it in her gut. She knew Stephen. Sure, they may have lost touch, but that part of him would never change. She was pretty sure, like anyone who was not living under a rock knew about her relationship. In fact, he had been front and center when it was thrown in her face…

He sighed deeply and leaned in, the lines in his handsome face, seemed more etched in than ever.

"Olivia, I'm worried." He said softly. She could not help but smile and shake her head. She folded her arms and squared her shoulders. This was not going to be easy.

"Worried about what exactly?" She smirked. She knew he would get irritated, if past was any prologue. But like clockwork, the side of his face twitched with anger. A decade does not change much does it?

"You know what! Do you know how hard it was for me to sit through that the other night? Liv? Thump, undermining you every step of the way, while you just sat there playing the consummate the professional?" Olivia was not going to do this with him. The part of her worried about any awkwardness that would ensue because they had left their relationship so unresolved, she was afraid of what would happen with them alone. But if anything, it made that warm and fuzzy feeling bubble more. The one that she felt when she was in Fitz's arms…

"I am the consummate professional." Olivia sneered.

"Really, but that does not explain Grant does it? So I guess you really are sleeping with him, because according to the papers, you left that White House at dawn again!" The vein in his neck was throbbing, despite how calm his voice seemed, but the edge was unmistakable.

Olivia was outraged; her mouth fell open with shock. How dare he?

"What does it matter if I slept with him or did not, it is none of your business!"

"It is my business."

"Says who?"

"Says the papers, the media and the shit storm swirling around over you. When it's the President of the United States you're sleeping with, it is everyone's business, especially mine." He stood up, looking down on her with eyes shiny with disappointment. She had seen that look before. Ten years ago the night she walked out of his dorm, the night she had chosen interning for Tom Lorry over spending the summer with him. The night he had accused her of being a modern day "Sally Hemmings" for interning for a Republican…

Olivia closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Think happy thoughts. Think you and Fitz lying in bed, wrapped in one another. Think about what makes everything worthwhile.

"You have yet to explain to me why it is your business!" She accused hurt.

"Because, newsflash, I work for the Environmental Protection Agency. And a lot of my colleagues, who are rooting for the EEI, hate the fact that the one woman who was supposed to be capable of being a warrior for the environment is getting her credibility dragged through the mud. This firm, Sterling is a serious one and when they hired you as a top dog, they hired a pit bull, not a prom queen!" Stephen's voice was getting a little louder with each word, almost reaching that inevitable point.

Olivia walked around the desk and toward him seething. Her blood was boiling with indignation and anger. For the first time, she was happy. Why was everyone trying to take that away from her?

Maybe because he has a point. Maybe because you can't leave your house without being followed, maybe because the editorial pages of every major newspaper cannot stop speculating on my love life?

"Oh, go to hell, Finch! I don't need your self-righteous routine! You think I expect any sympathy and understanding from the guy who called me Sally Hemmings for having conservative views." She said through gritted teeth. But Stephen rolled his eyes.

"Look, this is not about us, what happened with us or any of that. This is about me, as a man who cares about you still, as a professional who needs to get this bill passed, and a American who cares about the economic future of this country." He was calming down, breathing a little easier. Olivia did not want to hear any part of it. She was too pissed off, stressed and overwork.

"Look, I understand what you are talking about. And I get it-"

"No, Liv you don't. This isn't New York. This is Washington. And the time you go from being a cover girl to a cocktail party joke can be clocked with an egg timer." He said quietly.

Olivia searched his dark eyes with her own brown ones. She knew he was right. Behind the clouds and niceties of being in a relationship and enjoying the President's company, she knew she would have to deal with things sooner or later.

She tried to calm herself, but it did not work particularly well. "Look, don't worry about me. I will take care of this. I'm a big girl. And things could always be worse. I'm about seven votes down for the bill, so despite it all, it's not looking that bad." She said shakingly. Stephen smiled, and gave her a warm hug

They would proceed to talk, catching up, sharing a cigarette or two with her ex. They had a lot in common still. The obsession with work, the lack of a social life. Although, he was seeing a lawyer. He was bashful about revealing too much about her, but she apparently went to Georgetown as well and had a really vibrant personality.

They had such a good time that they did not leave her office until about 2:15 am. In the parking lot, they exchanged a warm hug, promising to keep in touch and work side by side with regarding the EEI. Their hug, from the outsider looked a little too friendly. A little too long.

But it was just what the freelance photographer who had been secretly camped out of The Sterling Group's K Street building office had needed. He had been there all night, waiting for his shot of the action. To get his piece of the Olivia-The President affair. Thanks to the blonde tramp working for that Sunday morning talk show, he had received a nice cushy advance to stake out Olivia Pope and find any evidence. He had been expecting a shot of her taking out the trash, looking haggard from a long days work. But now, the story was going to get juicy….

It was one thing for the President to be sleeping with a lobbyist. It was another for the lobbyist in question to be cheating on him with an unidentifiable man.