A/N: Enjoy this new update!

An hour after lunch, they arrived back at their Manhattan home. Olivia and the kids took to the kitchen, heating up the homemade Mexican chicken soup that Janet had prepared for them but wasn't able to eat because of an impatient Fitz, who was ready to go. All morning he was behaving out of character and it caused Olivia to worry by his aloofness. She'd asked him on their way home, if he was ok and his exact words were, "everything is great," which was accompanied by a forced smile.

"Mom, is dad coming for lunch?" Iya asked as she watched her mother pour soup into three bowls.

"You can go ask him, I don't think so though." She replied.

"Ok." Iya sprinted out of the room to go ask her father about lunch; he'd been confined to his home office ever since he'd walked through the door fifteen minutes ago. As she got closer to the room, she can hear him yelling on the phone. She audibly gasped when she heard him say the F word. Still determine to ask him about lunch, she knocks timidly on the office door before opening it. A habit that her parents instilled in her.

"WHAT!" Fitz bellowed at the interruption without seeing who's at the door. He was in the middle of talking with Huck who was going over his father's financial information, only to find out that every month $10,000 goes into another account, religiously for the past 5 months. His only thought was, his father was supporting a mistress and possible love child on the side. He knew that going behind his father's back like this was wrong but he needed answers; and if he'd gone straight to him, he would've been told "it's none of his business."

Iya was stunned at her father's harsh tone. Never had he spoken to her like that even when she did something that she wasn't supposed to do. The harshness caused her eyes to spring water but instead of letting it fall, she bites the inside of her cheeks.

"Mom, wants to know if you want lunch?" She finally gets out to her father's back.

Fitz pinches his nose when he realized that he'd yelled at his daughter. He was so engrossed in the call that he didn't stop to properly address his visitor. He turns around and sees his little girl looking frightened at the entrance of his office, twirling the bottom of her sweater nervously.

Sighing, he replies, "tell her I'll eat later."

"Ok," she mumbles before quickly retreating through the door.

"Iy—" she was already gone before he was able to strum up an apology.

He sighs loudly before resuming his phone call with Huck.

Olivia observes her daughter's despondent disposition when she'd returned from her father's home office.

"Dad, doesn't want anything to eat," she relayed before reoccupying her seat.

"Ok. Is everything ok?" Her mother asked as she places the bowl of soup in front of her.

"Thanks," Iya mutters, grabbing onto a spoon to dip inside of her soup.

"This is good, Mommy," Tommy interrupts his eating to say.

"I told you," Olivia gives him a wide smile and a thumb up. He's not a big fan of soup but she'd convinced him that it would be good.

"Yum yum," he grunts before recommencing his eating.

Olivia too starts to eat but soon stops when she realizes that Iya was playing with her food. The soup couldn't be too hot because she'd ensured that it wasn't heated up for too long.

"Iya, are you going to eat or you're going to keep playing with your food?"

Iya slowly brings a full spoon to her mouth and takes in the rich taste of the soup.

"Is everything ok, sweetheart?" Olivia asked again; knowing her daughter, she knows that she's more animated compared to her sullen expression she was currently wearing.

Her mother's question tipped her over the edge and caused the tears to flow. In one breath she says, "Daddy, yelled at me for no reason." She couldn't shake how mean he sounded to her.

Olivia looked at her confused before gesturing for her to come sit on her lap, which she eagerly did.

"It's ok, sweet cheeks. What happened?" She inquired, wanting to make sure that Iya wasn't in the wrong.

"I... I...knocked on the door before entering like I always do and he shouts WHAT at me in a mean voice." Her voice hiccupped as she relayed what happened.

"I'm sorry baby. I'll talk to him."

"And he said the F word too but not to me."

Tommy's interest piqued at that statement and he quickly sings, "Oooooo, he's going to be in trouble." He even shook one of his hands to emphasize his point.

What the hell is wrong with Fitz? Olivia thinks to herself. He was definitely not behaving like himself.

She kisses her daughter's forehead and tells her, "don't cry sweetheart, he didn't mean to be harsh. I'll talk to him. Ok?"

"Ok."

"Alright, go eat your soup before it gets too cold."

Iya gingerly climbs off her mother's lap and returns to her seat.

The trio eats in comfortable silence for a few minutes, until Tommy asks.

"When is the baby coming?"

Olivia smiles and pats her baby bump before replying, "July. Why?"

He thinks to himself before mutter an, "oh," he continues eating. "Is it going to be a boy like me and dad?"

Iya turns up her nose, "it's going to be a girl like me and mom. Right mom?"

Olivia laughs at them, "I don't know what the baby is going to be. After the baby is born we'll know."

"Oh," Tommy frowned.

"So how you'll know which color to paint the room in or what color clothes to buy. This is not how it's supposed to go." Iya clearly appalled by the fact that there was so much delisions to make based on knowing the gender of the baby.

Olivia laughs at their antics, one was bummed while the other was having a meltdown.

"We'll be fine," She assures them. "Know what you guys can help me with?"

"What's that?" They asked in unison.

"Baby names. You can come up with either a boy or girl name for your little brother or sister."

Both of their faces lights up like the already decorated Christmas tree in their living room.

"Any names in the whole wide world?" Tommy gleefully inquires.

Olivia ponders his question for a minute before saying, "I guess so. The best name wins."

"I'm so gonna win," Iya boasts ever the competitor.

"Nope," her brother counters with a head shake.

Before the verbal battled intensified, Olivia interrupts. "Let me hear your picks?"

Iya first starts, "Iya the 2nd."

Tommy tilts his head back, bringing both of his hands to palm his face, and exasperatedly says, "Please don't name the baby after her mom."

They all laughed at his dramatization.

When her laughter diminished, Olivia says, "There's one rule to this competition. The baby cannot be named after anyone in the family. It has to be their own name. Comprende?"

"Sí" Iya confirms her understanding.

"Yesssssss," Tommy hisses.

"Good, let's get the ball rolling."

Iya starts again, "How about Sunshine?"

Olivia gives her an, are you crazy look.

"What? It's a nice name," she defends with a laugh. "She can be our Sunshine, just like the song that daddy sings."

Olivia understands where she's come from but that didn't mean she liked it. "We'll hold off on that one for now, sweet cheeks," she teased her with a pinch. Turning her attention to her son, she asks, "what do you have, Tommy?"

"Mmm," he thinks for a moment. "Jonathan. One of my friend's name is Jonathan but we call him Johnny."

Olivia nods her head as she replies, "Not bad."

Not wanting to be outshone, Iya suggests, "Brea and we can call her Bri for short."

Tommy counters, "Or if it's a boy, Jack or Huck."

"Or Amber Snow."

"Chris, oh no, we already have that name," Tommy hits his forehead with an open palm.

It wasn't lost on Olivia that Tommy came up with only boys' names while Iya catered to girls' names.

So far they'd made some ok suggestions.

They spent a few more minutes suggesting random names, Olivia made a mental note of the ones she liked. When they were finished, she sent them to watch TV while she cleared the dishes.

After she'd finished loading the dishwasher, Olivia makes her way to her husband's office – where she's eager to have some choice words with him.

Entering the room, the first thing that hits her, is the scent of scotch. Fully entered the room, she notice Fitz reclining in his chair with his legs on the desk and glass tumbler in hand.

"Fitz, why are you drinking in bright daylight?" Olivia asked coolly as she approached his desk.

"What? Can a man not drink when he feels like?"

Olivia rolls her eyes at the brashness he spoke with. "Were you drinking when Iya was in here earlier? Is that the reason why you yelled at her?" Her voice volume turned up a little.

He sighs, "I'm sorry about that and I'll apologize later but right now I don't want to talk to anyone. So, can you please leave me alone?" His voice was even and clipped.

Her eyes widen at his behavior, this was not her Fitz operating before her.

Softening her approach, she walks around the desk to stand behind him; bringing her hands to his shoulders to massage away the tension. Her soft but firm touches immediately releases some of the aches there, causing him to moan in relief. "Honey, what's wrong? Talk to me," she urges as she continued to work on his tensions.

"Olivia, I really don't feel like talking to anyone," he stiffens his shoulders, indicating that he no longer welcomes her touch.

"Fine, so you're just going to throw me out of your office, Fitz?" She was angry and spat her words at him. Moving from behind him, she returned to the spot in front of his desk.

He sighs and knocks back his drink.

She was getting really worried by his behavior. Changing the topic, she asks, "Are you still taking the kids ice skating?"

Fitz groans, "Shit! That's today? We'll have to do it some other time."

Olivia's emotion switched from anger to worry, "Fitz what's going on? This is not you to dismiss plans with the kids and drinking during the day. Talk to me," she pleads. This wasn't her husband and she refuse to leave him without finding out what's wrong. He can try to dismiss her with words all he wanted, but she knows him and she knows that he's not ok. So here she stood, pride aside, asking, no pleading with him, to find out what's wrong.

He says nothing for a few minutes but stares at his empty glass.

Feeling her frustration climaxed, she yells, "Talk to me dammit!"

He finally looks up to his wife's face, it was contorted with so much emotions. Anger, frustration, worry, sadness.

He didn't mean to cause her worry, especially when she's pregnant and he most definitely didn't meant to yell at his daughter. But the information he received from Huck earlier caused him to emotionally shutdown from his family. He felt like he was in the middle of an ocean, waves upon waves of water kept covering him. He was drowning in his feelings of rage.

After a while, his voice barely above a whisper says, "My dad is cheating on my mom."

Olivia felt like the air had been knocked out of her body. "What?" She asks in disbelief.

"The bastard is fucking cheating on my mom. Close to fifty fucking years of marriage and he decides that now is a good time to cheat on my mother."

Olivia saw the rage in his eyes and heard it when he slammed his glass onto the mahogany desk.

"Fitz, are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Look at all of this," he turns his laptop around for her to view the screen, on it was a list of transactions on what she presumes was his father's financial account.

"Once every two weeks there's a charge on there for a hotel room. Keep looking," he tells her as she skims the screen.

Olivia couldn't believe this, her gut tells her not to jump to rash conclusions. She has known Big Jerry for over ten years now and within that time, he did nothing but love and respect his wife. She always looked up to the two as a modal for what her and Fitz' relationship would be like once they reached their age. Besides, what cheating can he possibly do at 72?

"How did you even come to such conclusions, Fitz? And why are you snooping through your father's bank account?"

"I heard him on the phone last night. Talking about..." And he retells her what he heard verbatim.

Olivia looks at her husband really long and hard when he'd finished speaking.

Fitz was unsettled under her gaze, "why are you looking at me like that? Aren't you mad?" He'd expected her to be fuming at this point but clearly she wasn't.

Olivia fought her urge to smile, she knows that Big Jerry won't cheat on his wife. It may be too risky to put her head on a block for him but she's willing to take that risk.

In a soothing tone she speaks, "Honey, your father did not sound like he was cheating on your mother. To me it sounds like he's in financial troubles and I suggest that you speak to him directly instead of looking through his private information. Nothing good comes from snooping. You know that it's not only rude to do so but also illegal. So please stop worrying your pretty little mother's boy head and go talk to him," the last sentence was spoken to ease the tensions in the room.

"Call him up now and please talk to your father. Stop this foolish behavior now, because today you've behaved worse than our 5 years old son." One thing that they've learned in their almost ten years of marriage was, that you speak the truth in love even if it hurts.

"But, Liv, look at the hotel statements."

Olivia laughed at that part because little did he know - the real mastermind behind their occasional hotel rooms tryst, was from his mother's confession. One evening a year ago over cocktails, it had slipped out of her mouth about booking hotel rooms to keep her relationship spiced. Olivia was stunned that not only were they still having sex at that age but also kept it hot. She made the decision then and there to step her game up. One day Fitz came home to an assortment of sex toys. Nothing too kinky but fun enough to ensure that both parties were utterly pleased in the bedroom.

Stepping out of memory lane, she replied, "Some things are better left unknown."

Fitz arches a questioning eyebrow.

She moves to sit on his lap and cups his face. "Please just call your father, honey. Stop worrying yourself into the ground about your father's fidelity."

Rationality for the first time in 15 hours seeps into his senses. Out of love and protection for his mother, he acted rashly against a potential hurt. As her son he went in defense mode but thankfully his wife leveled him before he did something more drastically.

Seeing his hesitance, Olivia orders, "Now. Call him now."

Slowly he picks up the landline and dials his father mobile number, letting out a long sigh in the process.

A minute later his father answered the phone.

"Dad, can we talk for a second?" And there he laid everything out.

Olivia listens to his end of the conversation.

She watches as he leans his head on the back of the chair before raising the most uncomfortable topic to a man. His financial crisis.

The conversation went on and Olivia could see Fitz becoming stressed again, she resumes her position behind him and starts massaging his shoulder. From standing up high she could hear Big Jerry's voice booming, especially at parts when Fitz confessed that he'd let his security guy investigate him.

She could hear the older man shout statements like, crossing boundaries, no respect of my privacy, I could whoop your ass right now.

Ten minutes later, the men were able to hang up the phones with curt, "I love you's." At least they were amicable to each other, Olivia thought, because certain times it sounded rough. There was a point where Fitz sat mute while Big Jerry went in on him and also a point when Fitz spoke to him about his betting days being over.

Olivia resumes her position on his lap to inquire about the phone call. "And?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

"You were right. He's not cheating on mom. Thank God because I would've had to castrate him. But he's in a pickle. He owes some guy 1 million dollars. "

"1 million dollars!" She exclaimed. "For what?"

"Gambling."

"What? Big Jerry, gambles? Is it a problem?"

Fitz smiles for the first time that day - he would take gambling over cheating, he kisses her neck before replying, "No it's not a problem. Apparently during one of his golf outings with his 'friends'" Fitz uses air quotes to emphasize how phony he thinks his father's associates were. "They placed stakes on the New York derby. He would always place bets, to be honest it was from some of those dealings that a lot of our money came from when I was growing up. Anyways, so he prided himself in knowing the right jockey and horse combination. This year he'd gotten an inside tip about a particular horse and rider, but apparently it was no good because he lost. He waged a million dollars on that race and lost."

Olivia was stunned. A million dollars was all her mind could think about.

"He was paying the guy small amounts but now the guy he'd lost to no longer wants the small $10,000 payments; he wants all $950,000 before the week's out. My dad don't have that kind of cash sitting around. He's been frantically trying to cash in some stocks."

"Wow, Fitz we have to help him," there was no hesitancy in her voice.

"You don't mind?" He wasn't sure that she would want them to use up that amount of money, even though they were more than well off.

Olivia looked at him like he's crazy. "Are you nuts? Of course I don't mind, family helps family out and I'm confident that Big Jerry won't be going down this road again."

"Thanks, Livvie. You're the best." He kisses her temple. "I'll call our banker in the morning."

With her arms around his waist and her head against his shoulder, she replies, "good. Now I need you to do two things for me."

"Oh yea? What's that?" His voice dropped an octave or two.

She looks into his eyes before replying, "1. Go apologize to your daughter and 2. Sober up because you promised your kids ice skating for weeks now and you're going to deliver on your promise."

"Yes, ma'am," he gives her his biggest goofy smile, the one that she absolutely loves and adores.

She smiles back at him, happy that her Fitz was back.

After taking a cold shower to sober up, Fitz made his way into the family room to see his kids' eyes glue to the TV screen.

"Iya, can I talk to you for a second?" He pats the seat beside him for her to take.

She begrudgingly gets up and walks over to him, purposely sitting away from him on the couch.

I deserve that, Fitz thought.

He turns his body to face her, he smiles at how much she reminds him of Olivia when mad. Her eyes looked straight ahead in defiance, her mouth in a tight pout and her shoulders square, ready for battle.

"Sweet cheeks, daddy is sorry for shouting at you earlier. I had no right to do so even if I was upset. It was unacceptable and please know that it's not ok for anyone to verbally lash out on you. Can you please forgive me?"

He sees her trying to keep up her resistance. Ok, this isn't going to be easy. He reaches out a hand to gently grab one of hers. "Can you look at me please?"

A few seconds passes before he was able to see her gray eyes.

"I'm so sorry and I'll try my best to never do it again. Ok?"

She finally gives him a smile, "Ok."

"Hugs?"

She grins and nods her head before launching herself into his capable arms.

He kisses her curls over and over. "I love you, I love you so much, sweet cheeks."

"I love you too, dad."

The two reconnected their hearts with each other. Fitz knows that he cannot slip up like that again; he'll try his best to portray what a loving respectable relationship between a man and woman looks like. So that one day when she gets older and starts dating, she will be able to weed out the bad ones from the good. He was adamant in setting a good example, after all he's her first male love.

Olivia smiles when she reenters the living room to see father and daughter hugging on the couch. She was eternally grateful for the man that fathers her children, she couldn't have asked for a better one. He's not perfect but he tries each and every day to be the man that takes care of his family's emotional, financial, social and spiritual needs. She was proud to say that so far he does a fantastic job.

"Ok folks. Who's ready to go to the skating rink?" she asks and immediately her kids jumps to their feet in excitement.

The family were enjoying an afternoon of ice skating at the Rockefeller center. Olivia took the sidelines with Tom while Fitz, the kids and Huck were on the ice.

She took candid shots of her family as they ice skated with each other, she even got one with Tommy on his butt when he fell. He was adamant with not wanting to use the walker and relied mostly on his father's hands to steady him. Iya on the other hand operated like she was casually walking, skating circles around them.

Olivia smiles at her family, taking in the joy present on their faces as she sips on hot chocolate to keep warm. Her cellphone rings, breaking her reverie; she smiles when she sees that it's her mother.

"Hi, mama," she greets with a beam.

"Hi, baby girl. How are you?"

"I'm good. Standing in the cold right now, watching the other Grants ice skate."

"Awww, poor baby. You'll be in the sunny state in 10 days."

"Mom, are you counting down the time?" She laughs.

"Of course I am, I miss my baby, and my baby's babies, and my baby's baby daddy."

Olivia threw her head back in rapture, laughing heartily. Leave it to Alexis to say something like that.

Sobering up she replies, "I miss you too mom. Can't wait to come and relax in the sun. I may need some new swimsuits though, can't fit the ones I have. Anyways, how's Ricardo?"

"He's a little down right now, today his great aunt died but he'll pull through."

"Oh no. Please give him my condolences."

"I will. So how was Raye's wedding? I feel so bad that I didn't go."

"Please don't feel bad, mom. Janet and Raye didn't expect you to leave your work to come. We all understand and it's no big deal."

"I know," she sighs. "But..."

"But nothing. The wedding was really beautiful, Raye looked beautiful. She and her husband were so smitten with each other all night. Your grandson was a huge ladies magnet, I literally had to pry hands off my son. You know how he gets when there's too much attention on him."

Janet's laughs, "Hopefully he'll grow out of his shyness." It was well known that Tommy didn't like to be center attention at all, sometimes too much of it causes him to revert into himself. He could be very reticent amongst strangers.

"And my granddaughter?"

"You mean the princess of the ball? Because that was who she thought she was. All night she twirled and took pictures. Don't worry, when we come down you'll have an entire album to see."

Janet laughed heartily because she can clearly envision her brazen granddaughter doing exactly what her mother said.

"I can't wait."

"Too bad they won't be much pictures of me," Olivia comments when the laughing had subsided.

"And whys that?"

Her voice stresses each word as she replies, "Mom, I looked like a cow. My dress was so tight, I barely could've breathe."

"Oh my goodness," Alexis says before bursting into another fit of laughter.

"I swear my boobs were like two loaves of bread floating at the top of my dress." The more she continued to describe her attire the more Alexis laughed.

Olivia couldn't help but join in with her mother's infectious laughter.

Her eyes closed in bliss, unaware of her surroundings and subsequently not seeing her husband approaching.

"What's going on here?" his rich baritone voice asked, already filled with humor from the sight of her laughing.

Olivia's eyes snaps open and she mouths mom between laugh.

Fitz hugs her from behind, pressing his face close to where the phone was, "hi, mom," he greets from the background.

"Is that my, son? Let me talk to him," Alexis quickly say after hearing his voice.

"Gheesh, I guess I'll never be enough for you, mother." Olivia quips, feigning jealousy. "Look, the phone is for you" she hands over her iPhone to him.

Fitz collects the phone and laughs when he heard her mumbled, "I always get push aside for her son."

"Hi, mom," he greets his mother-in-law.

"Doesn't your wife know that she must learn to share you?"

Olivia heard her and shouts from the background, "when it comes to him, I don't share," which caused everyone to laugh even a normally uptight Tom chuckled.

By the time the phone call had ended, the kids and Huck came up to them.

Tommy launches himself tiredly into his mother's arms. "I'm hungry, mommy."

"Me too," Iya quipped from the bench as she starts undoing her ice skates.

"Chinese?" Fitz asked.

"Sounds good to me." Olivia confirmed.

"Me too," Iya repeated.

"Me three," Tommy added with his missing tooth smile. "Oh but can I get fried dumplings?"

"Can I get fried dumplings?" Fitz jeered him.

"Dad..." Tommy giggled.

Olivia laughs and ruffles her little boy's freshly cut curls.

"Alright, the usual it is." Fitz moved to the side and calls up their favorite Chinese restaurant that was located not too far from them; he uses their alias, Olitz, as the name on the order. One night, Olivia had come up with the cheesy name and now that's all they use for takeout orders.

When he was finished, he returned to his family and together they walked towards the SUV. Huck was walking with them, warding off any person who'd recognized III Legend and was getting too close, Fitz smiled and waved as they walked towards their destination. Tom was already behind the wheel of the running vehicle when they arrived in the parking area.

On their way to pick up their order, the kids spoke animatedly about their adventures at the skating rink and already pleading with their parents to bring them back another time, in which they happily agreed to.

Once they were home, they ate dinner together before showering off the day's grime. When they were all in pajamas, they watched one of the new Christmas movie showing on the kids' channel. By the time the movie had ended, Fitz laughed when he noticed he was the only one awake. The kids and their mother all asleep in various positions on the couch. One by one he carried them to their beds.

Finally retired in bed, Fitz cuddles into his half asleep wife.

"Thank you for today. You always keep me levelheaded. " he whispers into her ear.

"Don't mention it," she mumbles.

"I love you so much, Livvie."

She smiles into the semi dark room, even partially asleep his words made her feel good. She would never grow tired of him saying that he loves her – especially when she knows he means it with his whole heart.

"I love you too, baby."

Fitz nuzzles her neck, the coconut scent of her hair wafts through the silk scarf and relaxes him. Every worry and weight from the day, he lets go. Tomorrow was a new day and he will start it fresh, carrying no burdens from the previous day on his shoulders. He lets it all go… In order to start fresh.

A/N: Hope you enjoy this update. I have the smartest readers, you gals all guessed that he was having a financial crisis. Everyone guessed that but Fitz. Lol. Well he's a mother's boy and was just trying to look out for her even if that means invading his father's privacy. Smh Thankfully, his wife was able to talk some sense into his head. After being married for so long, these two knows each other like the back of their hands.

Also, Iya got wrongfully yelled at but her father apologize. So many parents never apologies to their kids even when they're wrong but he did. I love that he wants her to know that it's not ok for anyone to treat her like that.

Honestly, I can't wait to write when the kids gets older. I have so many storylines with teenaged Iya and Tommy and also baby#3. Would you guys prefer that after the baby born that I do a time jump? Let me know if you prefer that or you rather we slowly work our way up there. Either way is cool with me, like I said, I plan to write this story until the wheels fall off.

Mama Alexis made an appearance. I love that woman. Lol

Anyways, thank you all for still reading this story. Thanks to the lovely readers who review each chapters, I truly appreciate that you do that, it keeps me inspired and motivated. Some of your reviews literally makes my heart glad.

Let me know your thoughts on this new update.

Until next time,

Xoxo

PS: Go read my other story. Fighting Hearts