A/N:

Reader575: Thank you so much for your words of encouragement.

Dear readers: If you haven't read 'Desert Princess', you need to drop this and read it!

Seriously. It's one of my favorite Scandal fics.

hmm...so there you are. You're still reading this? Okay! Cool!

Well, I tell you, hold on to your hats! from this point forward things are going to get intense...

Chapter 33

Olivia was up early the next morning at the crack of dawn. She showered and got dressed before Fitz woke up.

From walk-in closet located inside the sitting room that led to the bathroom, Olivia selected a pair of black slacks, black tank top and a heather grey shawl-collar cardigan from Neiman Marcus.

She dressed quickly and strolled back into the bedroom, preoccupied with keeping a mental list of things to do. This morning, she didn't even have time to bother logging into her Google calendar and setting up electronic reminders.

Fitz was still asleep.

For a few moments, she slowed down to watch him sleep. The expression on his face reflected peaceful contentment. He was gorgeous...and he was hers, for now at least. Whatever 'now' meant.

She sat on the edge of the bed. "Time to wake up, sleepy head," she murmured softly, leaning in closer to his ear.

Initially, Fitz was disoriented. For a moment he thought that somehow he had not heard the alarm and over-slept.

She hated having to spring this on him so early in the morning, but this was really their first opportunity to discuss this. Last night she had found him already asleep...and then, well, they had made love and then...

"I know it's rather sudden...but they will be here soon. I left a note for Maria to fix breakfast for everyone. Lunch would not have worked out with everyone's schedule... " and then there is the press conference scheduled for 5:00 in the afternoon, she added this mental note herself.

Fitz shook his head in disbelief. Was this for real?

Right then they heard Aaron's sudden call from the nursery.

At once, she excused herself after giving Fitz a peck on the lips.

When Olivia came back into their bedroom twenty minutes later, she found him dressed in a business suit, standing in front of a large freestanding mirror.

"I can't stay. I have a meeting with a new client this morning..." Fitz began, while straightening the tie.

"Let me," Olivia tugged the tie and smiled. "There."

For a moment, she looked so lovely that he almost forgot his annoyance. "You can't spring this on me at the last minute..."

Olivia heaved a large sigh. "I'm sorry but this is important." It had been really hard to schedule a meeting with the rest of the survivors. Everyone had their own schedule. Sun and Jin were leaving for Korea. It was imperative that they meet before the Oceanic press conference."

Fitz shook his head. "And lie? Sorry, I'm having trouble with that."

"Fitz...I wish there was some other way," she met his gaze with determination. "But it's the only way." There was no way around it. Her father had been right. The only way they would ever be allowed to keep Aaron was to lie.

"Listen to me Olivia," the intensity of his gaze was mesmerizing. "I changed my mind...I can't really stand in front of the whole world and lie...sooner or later the truth will come out."

"I can't...we will lose him, " her voice cracked. "Fitz. I can't lose him, I just can't..." she added with tears pooling in her eyes. There wasn't a thing she wasn't willing to do in order to keep Aaron. Moreover, the only thing she knew for certain was that her father had been right to advise her to claim Aaron as hers and say that she had given birth on the island.

"And I can't let your father get away with whatever..." he hissed as though he had not heard her. "Whatever that happens to be," he paused for effect, "we need to expose him. Everything needs to come out in the open...the press conference is the perfect opportunity... including your father's ties to the island," he cocked his head just so and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you want to know what he was doing on the island back in the 70's?"

Olivia took a step back. She couldn't believe this. For one, if it weren't for her father they would still be lost on that damned island. Secondly, he seemed to be missing the point. "Did you hear me Fitz? we're talking about Aaron!"

He frowned. "Yes, I heard you, all right," he raised his voice, feeling the strong urge to physically shake some sense into her. He didn't want to take any part of a possible cover-up. "The question is, did you hear me? " There was no question in his mind that she was completely invalidating his arguments. "Your father needs to come clean."

Olivia took a deep breath and bit back and angry response. There was simply too much at stake to let emotions run amok. She moved closer to the bed and ran her hand across the wooden foot-board.

A look of fierce determination became firmly etched across her features. "I will take care of my father myself, when the time is right. " Why couldn't Fitz see that this was the time to stand by her? "Right now we need to get through this damn press conference. "

"And keep Aaron?" he asked in a rhetorical fashion. "So to you, all of this is just about keeping Aaron...you don't really care about anything else, do you?" his voice escalated to the point of making her involuntarily wince. At this point he was so angry he could hardly see straight. "So we're just gonna let your father get away with murder, then?

"Fitz!" she cut in.

"You and I know he's hiding something... there is no way..."

"I'll take care of my father myself," she reiterated enunciating every word. "Exposing him now will accomplish nothing." She took a step closer. Her eyes suddenly adopted a pleading look as it became utterly clear that Fitz' demeanor and body language reflected a boundary that had not been there before. He was so determined to NOT see things her way. "Fitz, I promise you...I will find out what's going on as soon as the conference is over, I promise."

Olivia's eyes widened as they rested on Karen who had been standing in the doorway for who knows how long-the door wide open.

"Someone's at the door, " Karen said with a shrug of the shoulders. "A couple...I think she said her name is Sun...wouldn't it be funny if her husband was named Moon? She chuckled.

For a second, Olivia gave Karen a small smile. So they were here. They didn't have much time now. Soon everyone else would be arriving...they were rapidly running out of time. They needed to present an united front for the world to see.

Fitz made no effort to hide his irritation. "Okay, go play. " He gave his daughter a dismissive look, annoyed at the interruption.

Karen gave her father a hurt look before running out of the room.

At this point Olivia couldn't help but focus on the strong beat of her heart. She'd never seen Fitz this way and it felt as though she was navigating uncharted waters. This was their first major disagreement. And the worst part is that they didn't have much time to smooth out their differences. She had to do something NOW. There was no time to lose.

"I can't stay. I gotta go. " He moved to the door. But before he walked out, she called his name and he turned around. His gaze was cold and nothing about him reminded her of the man who had made love to her the night before.

When she spoke again, her tone was soft yet firm. "I need you, Fitz. I need to know you're with me on this."

A/N:

For the most part, my stories are not heavy on relationship angst as I usually rely on external issues to keep a story going. But you know, if you like this, I can certainly do more ;)

Tell me what you think. What should Fitz do? How about Olivia?