Any doubts that Olivia had about Fitz liking his truck were gone before they even got a mile away from the dealership. He kept alternating between shifting gears excitedly and rubbing her thighs, arms, whatever he could get his hands on. Olivia was watching his smile the whole time, thankful that after everything he had done for her, she was finally able to reciprocate. Neither had really looked at the clock, but Olivia finally peered at her phone to send Abby a quick thank you and realized they would be almost an hour early for the appointment with the realtor.

"Bee, we should grab breakfast or go back home we don't have to be there until twelve thirty." Olivia told him, not wanting to ruin his excitement.

"Do you mind if we just drive around?" He smiled at her and he looked like a little kid, there was no way she could say no to that face.

"If we are going to drive we need tunes." He laughed as she grabbed his iPod and plugged it in. Usually she barely put on her seatbelt before she started fiddling with the radio. A few seconds later, Reverse by SomeKindaWonderful started blaring through the speakers and Fitz took the exit onto the highway.

Fitz was tapping along to the beat on the steering wheel and Olivia was singing the lyrics. Olivia looked over at him, curls bouncing along with his hands, she couldn't imagine doing the same thing with anyone else or being happier than she was at that moment. He caught her eye and pulled her across the bench seat so that he could throw his arm around her.

They drove aimlessly singing and bopping along to whatever songs Olivia put on while she was cuddled into his side. The time passed quickly and Olivia suddenly got a case of nerves as he headed towards the first house for them to look at. The enormity of the responsibility hit her and the carefree moment they were having disappeared. Fitz felt her tense and pulled over the truck when he entered the neighborhood.

"I think the house is a few blocks in… Fitz what are you doing?" He turned off the car and turned to face her. "Is something wrong with the truck? Dammit I should have had Michael call that chauvinist mechanic!"

"Livvie the truck is perfect. It runs amazing and I'm enjoying the bench seat immensely." He motioned towards her and how closely they were seated.

"Then why did you stop? We are going to be late." He scooted away so he could see her face.

"We can be late if we need to be. You're nervous about this I need to know why. I don't want you to feel like I pushed you into this."

"It's a big responsibility and a big change, I am nervous." Fitz immediately looked dejected, he thought Claudia was right. He thought she wanted this.

"I can re do my lease Liv, I wont force this on you."

"Don't you dare!" She told him grabbing his hand and pulling him back into her side. "I am allowed to be nervous Fitz! I'm not nervous about living with you, for God's sake when was the last night you didn't spend at my apartment. I'm nervous about the rest of it! I don't know how to manage a house! How to trick Russian mobsters and beat a man with a tire iron sure I'm your girl, but maintaining a household… that's not me."

He laughed at her outburst, "I'm sorry, you're right. You're just so fearless I don't expect you to be nervous by anything and as soon as it does I get worried. And I don't know how to 'maintain a household' either, before you I hadn't had a home in over ten years and even then we had maids, nannies and gardeners. We can figure it out together, because I want to make a home for you Livvie, I want us to have a home." She didn't respond, he managed to assuage nearly all her fears with a few words. Curling her fingers in his hair she pulled his face down to meet her and she brushed her lips across his, as she started to let go he pulled her closer so that she was almost on his lap. Placing her hands on his chest she pushed back a little harder so that he would know to let go. Breathlessly she said,

"We can be late because we are having important conversations, we can't be late because you want to christen your truck." He laughed as she scooted away further and allowed him to start the truck back up and get them to the house.

"I promise that was not my plan, not yet at least I have several ideas about how we can do that." He added and she groaned wishing they had more time.

Two hours later Olivia and Fitz walked back to his truck both dejected. Not only had they not found a house, they didn't have a chance to even look. They spent the first half an hour with the woman harassing Olivia about her age. She refused to believe Olivia was over eighteen, which in all fairness is a legitimate question. When Olivia doesn't have makeup or heels on she could easily pass for a teenage, however the woman was overly rude. When her concern for Olivia's age passed she insisted on calling her sweetie and passing comments about how mature Fitz looked compared to her.

As if she was on a roll to make Olivia jump across the table and backhand her she started in on Fitz. Asking him all sorts of suggestive questions even going so far as to say she loved a Navy man. Despite Fitz best efforts to seem disinterested and shutting her down she continued abashed. When she finally got around to showing them places they were small houses, duplexes, and apartment complexes. Nothing that they requested, when Fitz and Olivia pointed this out she assured them that these were more desirable options for "kids in their position." After a few attempts to dissuade her of that Fitz finally gave up and at Olivia's urging they left.

Both sat in the truck, neither bothering to start it up or discuss what just happened. After a few minutes of silence Olivia finally spoke,

"We probably could have been late to that." Fitz laughed relieved that she wasn't mad at him or discouraged by their afternoon. He started up the truck and pointed them home.

"I'll talk to Cyrus on Monday, I'm sure he knows someone less…"

"Bitchy, slutty, obnoxious, stupid…"

"Yeah."

"Incompetent, foolish, obvious…"

"I'm agreeing with you Liv."

"I know but I've been holding that in for two hours." She sassed at him.

"Continue." He told her laughing.

"Old," she released a big breath. "okay, I'm done now."

"Hopefully Cyrus can give us someone, I was hoping we could have a big huge house for a big huge Christmas tree this year." He looked disappointed and Olivia's heart broke for him. She knew how important the holidays were for him. This would be the first year he wasn't alone.

"We will have the biggest Christmas tree we can find no matter where we live, I promise." She unhooked her seatbelt and scooted over until she was right next to him. He smiled down at her and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"So you're agreeing to have Christmas here instead of some sandy beach?" While they were in Kansas Claudia and Olivia had been discussing where they would spend the holidays this year. It was a tradition since Olivia turned sixteen for their Grandma to take them to an island to celebrate the holidays, mostly to get away from their parents. It was a tradition that they had kept up after she died, but Olivia knew that Fitz wanted a traditional Christmas in their home, she promised to think about it.

"I'll cook, but I'm not cleaning!" The goal of leaving town was to avoid the silent overly formal dinner that her parents would host for her fathers 'associates' with that being out of the equation a traditional Christmas where she made everything her Grams used to cook didn't sound so bad.

"Thank you! Thank you! I'll clean everything! I love you so much Livvie!" This time he placed a kiss firmly on her mouth. She smiled at him, happy that at least they would have something to look forward to, something told her house hunting wouldn't get any less stressful.

It was still early in the afternoon when they made it back to Olivia's. Fitz proudly parked his truck in the guest spot next to her Mustang. Looking at the two next to each other he couldn't help but laugh. Liv's car so tiny next to his, but under the hood its fast and powerful, and his truck large and classic, but could easily be dominated by the Mustang. It reflected their relationship.

"I have to be out of my apartment in two weeks, you wanna go box some stuff up before we get settled inside?"

"I can think of a few other things I'd rather do." She told him letting her voice drop. It didn't take Fitz long to catch on as he allowed her to pull him inside.

"You better not be talking about watching Game of Thrones Livvie." He warned her, only kidding a little. She had a bad habit of using that tone of voice when she wanted something and it made him wary.

"After, right now you need to show me how grateful you are for that truck." By time they got into the elevator Olivia was teasing him, working her hands up and down his chest and nipping at his neck and chin. She had him pressed against the back wall of the elevator and his knees were about to collapse out from underneath him.

His hands were making their way from her hips to her ass in an attempt to bring her even closer to him when the elevator opened to her floor and they both heard a somewhat frantic voice calling for Softie, really such an obnoxious name, Olivia hated the girl for naming Zorro that even before she realized he was being neglected.

"Have you seen a black and gray cat with some stripes on his face?" She asked them both, when they both shrugged and said, "No," she continued her rant. "I always let him roam around because otherwise he just meows around my apartment driving me crazy, but I haven't seen him in a few days." She didn't sound worried so much as unconvinced. Fitz could tell Olivia was trying not to tell her off.

"I'm sorry about your cat, we will keep an eye out." Fitz told her,

"Ugh honestly my ex boyfriend got me that cat, I was thinking about bringing it to the pound anyway. My name is Rebecca, I'm over in 406 if you see him." She stormed off back into her door, leaving Olivia fuming. Fitz knew it would take a few hours for her to cool off maybe longer before she would be back in the mood she was in when they got home.

"Come on, let's go see your cat." He pulled out his keys and Olivia followed him in, however reluctantly. Olivia's mood immediately brightened when her furry little buddy greeted her as soon as she walked in the door. He immediately came over to her and started rubbing himself around her ankles. She reached down to pick him up and smothered him with kisses. Fitz watched with a huge grin on his face.

"Jealous?" She asked when she caught him watching them.

"I can only hope that one day you'll greet me like that when you walk through the door," he told her feigning seriousness. She placed Zorro down gently and made her way back over to Fitz. She pressed him up against the wall letting her hands rest on his chest and began teasing his mouth with her tongue. After he started breathing heavy she pulled away a bit only to have him pull her back.

"You mean something like that?" She asked him letting her voice drop, knowing that tone would drive him crazy. He broke out of his haze just long enough to pull her into their room. He brought her to the bed, closed and locked the door.

"You know the cat doesn't have thumbs or the height required to get through a closed door right?" She stood up to help him peel off his sweater.

"I'm not taking any chances, I've been thinking about this all day."

Later they laid in their bed wrapped up in each other dozing on and off, Olivia told Fitz about how she managed to get the truck and how pretty much everyone helped her, they spoke more seriously about what they were looking for in a house, and about what she was going to cook for the holidays.

"Grams always made seven different types of fish dishes, its tradition so I have to do that and…" her sentence was cut short when she heard noise in the living room. Both moved together as one unit, Fitz reaching under her bed to grab the bat he knew was there and Olivia tossing him a pair of sweats that were on top of the laundry. She pulled on one of his t-shirts and motioned that she was going to the bathroom. His stomach turned when he realized what she was going to get. When she entered the room again she quietly handed over the gun in exchange for the bat, he gave her a nervous but relieved smile.

After they returned home, Olivia was still worried that they might be in danger so she and Fitz made a plan. It was a practice in her family to wrap a gun in a Ziploc bag and place it in the toilet tank, it was a homage to the first Godfather movie. She always kept a bat under her bed too, she was so used to people coming in and out of her house she was a deep sleeper so she wanted to always be prepared, but also didn't want to live with a gun on her night stand. It would be a last resort.

The plan was that Olivia would stand behind the door, poised and ready to attack, after Fitz opened it and aimed the gun at whoever was on the other side. Fitz being the one holding the gun scared her more than anything, but he wouldn't allow any other options and threatened to hide the gun from her if he had to. She finally allowed it knowing that he was as good a shot as she was; really they both were out of practice. She would have to find a range for them if this was going to be an ongoing concern.

Fitz met her terrified eyes and she gave him the nod signaling that it was time to open the door. He swung the door open quickly and took a stance pointing the gun directly at the intruder.

"What the actual fuck Fitz! Are you crazy! Where did you even get a gun! I thought you were a liberal!"

When Olivia heard Abby shouting she saw Fitz visibly relax and came out from behind the door.

"What are you doing here Abby and haven't you heard of calling first?" Olivia snapped at her, normally she didn't care you popped in. Honestly Abby had caught her and Fitz in several compromising positions several times, and while it annoyed her she never really got mad. Thankfully Abby wasn't one to be easily offended.

"I called, twice. I figured you two would be doing the horizontal mambo for most of the afternoon, but I wanted to hear how the house hunting went. Although now I feel like there might be a more interesting story, like why Fitz was pointing a nine millimeter at me and why you're white knuckling a Louisville slugger. I could have sworn the tire iron was more your weapon of choice. Unless things have gotten that kinky between you two in which case maybe I should leave my key." Unfazed Abby moved into the kitchen and began pouring herself a glass of wine.

Fitz looked at Olivia unclear what to say or do. She too was at a loss, they had one of their wordless conversations, allowing their eyes to communicate what they couldn't say in front of anyone else.

"I'm going to go get dressed." Fitz told Abby. He walked up to Olivia and gently got her to release the bat into his hands. Giving her a quick kiss he told her that he would put the gun away and the bat. He gave her hand one last squeeze and went back into the room giving her the chance to tell Abby the truth or explain it away. Either way it was her choice.

"You going to talk?" Abby asked her with a hint of curiosity in her normally apathetic tone.

"I'm going to need a glass, or five." Olivia sat down in the kitchen with Abby and finally decided it was time to tell her the truth. Keeping her and Fitz in the dark only left them unprepared. Hopefully Abby would take it as well as Fitz had.

"I need you to promise that this stays in this room. No David, no anyone, ever. It's a matter of life and death. Can you do that?" Olivia took a big sip and waited for Abby to understand the gravity of the situation.

"Over a cliff Liv." Abby was completely serious this time.