"Olivia Carolyn Pope you did not make this mess with your mother coming over in half an hour!" Claudia shouts as soon as she sees the giant tent of blankets in the middle of the living room. She can't see who's underneath it at the moment, but she knows its Olivia. She used to love to make forts to read in on rainy days when she was little. The first one to pop their head out from the tent is Scarlett and Claudia is now convinced that they did that on purpose because there's no way anyone could yell at that kid. She's a miniature Fitz with Olivia's personality. There is no way people will ever question who raised this child. It's a good thing she's well behaved because not a single one of them could dare yell at her.
"You send the kid out first, that's low Liv!" Soon Scarlett's head is gone and she can hear her giggling. Next Fitz's head pops out and he says,
"What's the password?" Now it's Olivia's turn to giggle. And Claudia rolls her eyes as she hears Cammie shush her.
"Swordfish!" Claudia replies knowing that if she doesn't follow along with the bit Olivia will get mad.
"CeeCee you cheated!" Olivia's head comes out next to Fitz, who is now laughing at her childlike tone. He loves seeing Olivia around her family, normally she is so reserved and focused, even though around him it relaxes, but nothing close to how silly and hyper she gets around Cammie and Claudia.
"If I go along with it, will you clean this up?" Claudia asks in her most faux stern voice, Olivia rapidly nods her head.
"Uhm I don't know." Claudia shrugs in response to Fitz's earlier question and they're off!
"It's the name of a fish."
"Uh Mary."
"That's no fish!"
"Well she sure drinks like one! Is it a sturgeon?"
"No you crazy that's a doctor who cuts you open when your sick!" They cant even finish the bit because Fitz is nearly rolling on the floor laughing as Olivia perfectly nails Chico's accent and Claudia perfectly does Groucho's timing. Olivia told him stories of all of them watching the Marx brothers with their Grandmother on rainy days, they had even watched some together, but he had never heard her do impressions.
Olivia is now staring at him wide eyed, she's never seen him laugh this hard and its causing her to laugh hysterically, everyone else has clamed down and is now giving them a look that clearly indicates they are concerned for their sanity.
"I'm going to take her to get changed before Aunt Maya gets her and loses her mind." Cammie says motioning towards Scarlett who's in her pajamas, well pajama bottoms that are covered in one of the princesses from Frozen and one of Olivia's Brown t-shirts. It's as oversized on Scarlett as one of Fitz's shirts are on Olivia. Claudia shakes her head and glares at Olivia and Fitz until they stop laughing, which they don't. After a minute they're trying to catch their breath and still breaking into spontaneous giggles.
"Is it weird that even talking like Chico, I'm still incredibly attracted to you?" Fitz ask now holding on to Olivia around the waist so that she won't fall over. Forgetting that Claudia was in the room Olivia just nods in the affirmative and throws her arms around him and presses her lips to his fiercely. Her tongues begins to tease his lips and he's laying her down and making an effort to pull her on top of him while she giggles and kisses him back.
"Oh my god seriously you two I will get a hose!" Claudia tells them half amused half grossed out. "Clean this up you horn dogs!" She stomps upstairs to the guest room she had taken over.
Sooner than they would have liked its time for Maya to come and everyone is sitting in the living room waiting except for Huck and Harrison who have taken it upon themselves to set up the electronics in all the rooms of the house. Harrison avoided Claudia's glare as he wandered off behind Huck.
"Claudia please wait until at least after we eat to ask him if he's your real daddy."
"Got it Olivia." Claudia replies, for the last time minutes Olivia has been lecturing Claudia about what to say and what not to say to their mothers… boyfriend?
"And Claudia don't ask…" Claudia cut her off before she got to finish.
"Okay Mrs. Manners maybe you should write a book of things to say and not to say to your mothers fuck buddy but until you do drop it!" The two sisters glared at each other with Fitz and Michael looking back and forth between them like a tennis match as they each dared the other to speak. Finally Michael broke the silence. In an uncharacteristically childish tone he asked,
"Are we supposed to get him a Christmas gift?" After pausing briefly to consider the question they all burst out laughing except for Cammie, who was way too interested in her phone lately, and Scarlett who didn't really get the joke. She was currently sitting on the floor between Fitz's legs playing a game on the iPad mini Huck had tricked out for her.
"Cammie!" Claudia shouted for the teenager's attention. Her head shot up bewildered.
"What?" She said casually ignoring her cousin's irritated tone causing Liv to give her a proud smirk.
"Who are you so busy talking to over there?" Claudia asked annoyed at being ignored.
"No one." She replied looking guilty, Cammie was the worst liar of the bunch, especially around her older cousins and brother. Claudia looked over to get help from Olivia, but she and Fitz were smiling at each other dreamily and whispering to each other ignoring everyone else in the room.
"Scarlett do you know who she's talking to?" Claudia asked with an evil smirk, finally seeing her opportunity. Cammie had been watching Scarlett almost the entire time Olivia was at the hospital, and this mini Olivia Pope would most definitely know everything that's going on.
Scarlett looked up like a deer in headlights and looked to Cammie for help who shook her head indicating she shouldn't say anything.
"Scar?" Claudia probed again, getting Olivia's attention.
"CeeCee leave her alone, come here sweets." Scarlett climbed up and curled into Olivia's side, Fitz laughed as Scarlett made herself comfortable with a smug look on her face.
"Soooo who are you talking to Camille?" Olivia asked breaking out the full name, knowing she couldn't lie to both of them.
"Seriously Liv, you're double teaming me now?" Cammie tried to change the subject.
"Should I go get Huck?" Claudia threatened, pulling out the big guns.
"No!" Cammie shot back defensively, she shot a look to Michael, clearly hoping he would put an end to her torment, but he was consumed with something on his phone as Abby sat next to him stiffly. "Just give me a break guys." Fitz thought that would get them to back off she really sounded earnest, instead of dropping the subject Olivia and Claudia exchanged a look and immediately got up and charged at Cammie who barely had time to react before they pounced. Fitz busted out laughing as a wide-eyed Abby and Scarlett looked on. He looked at Michael wondering if they should intervene but after he looked up he went back to his phone, clearly he had seen this before.
Before he could do anything he heard the doorbell ring, the girls didn't react at all, but Michaels head shot up. They made eye contact and Fitz expected him to get the door, but Michael sat back and said,
"Your house." With a groan Fitz got up and went to answer the door. When he left the girls were still climbing on each other, it appeared someone had pulled someone's hair by the bellow he heard from Olivia. He answered the door to find Maya and Dominick, once again his arm was wrapped around her waist and they were each holding several bags of food.
"Good to see you again, come in." Fitz said formally still wary of Maya, and Dominick as he was a stranger. Michael came around the corner, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Dominick, who quickly dropped his arms to his side.
"Mom." He went over and greeted her with a kiss on the cheek before picked up the bags and awkwardly backing away towards the kitchen.
"Chatty fellow." Dominick said, earning a dirty look from Fitz and a noncommittal shrug from Maya.
"The girls are in here." Fitz led them to the living room, hoping that they had wrapped up the throw down. Unfortunately they hadn't, somehow the tide had turned and Cammie was holding Claudia down as Scarlett and Olivia tickled her and pinched her cheeks. All three were laughing hysterically.
"Liv." Fitz said earning not reply. "Guys!" He said a little louder, getting Abby's attention, she simply turned paler and shrunk down in her chair.
Maya cleared her throat and all four girls immediately stopped and turned their heads towards the sound. They quickly fumbled to straighten their hair and clothes, it looked like Claudia had gotten back at Olivia for pulling her hair because her formerly perfectly straight hair now looked thoroughly tussled. He briefly thought how sexy she looked, breathing heavy, sitting on the ground, with messy hair she was amazing. He heard Maya's voice and it brought him to the present.
"Are you finished behaving like children?" Maya asked causing Olivia to go from sexy to feral in a heartbeat. This is her house no one would speak to her in that way.
"Excuse me?" Olivia said in her Gladiator voice. Before they could get into a fight Claudia elbowed Olivia and pushed Scarlett towards her calming her down.
"Mother, this is Fitz's little sister Scarlett, Scarlett this is my mom, Mrs. Pope." Olivia added the Mrs. Pope as a shot to her mother, but if the reminder of the woman's husband had any effect on her no one in the room could see it. They all held their breath waiting to see how Maya would react to the child, that was so much like her own.