As a part of their plan to not appear together for too long of a time, Fitz watched as Olivia allowed herself to be drawn into a conversation at the other end of the table with Will and Gayle, along with others, leaving him with a few moments to himself.

He noticed that there were several faces that he recognized among the many groups of people here; most of them were still a little skittish at having the president in their midst, especially with all of the security protocols that came with it, but - and maybe it was because he wasn't in the formal attire they were used to seeing him in - his casual outfit was slowly loosening their caution. As for himself, maybe it was the same; Fitz felt the tension in him easing as more and more people passed by him with smiles and brief greetings.

That's something that very few people understood - how isolated life in the White House is - how the lack of such simple human contact is absent from his everyday life and how something as simple as a cookout had brought that all back to him. If nothing else, he could thank Nathaniel for that.

"I saw that." A voice broke into his thoughts. Fitz turned to see Jocelyn settling down in the seat next to him.

"Saw what?"

"You frowned." Jocelyn said. "Why are you frowning?"

"I didn't know that I was frowning." Fitz said truthfully. "I was actually appreciating all of this." He lifted a hand and gestured to their surroundings.

"Glad to hear it." Jocelyn said, looking around. "This is nice. Restful."

Fitz was glad to share a smile with her. Jocelyn was a beautiful, intelligent woman with a gentle heart and brave soul. She'd proved that in both action and words I the time he'd come to know her. Once again he was reminded of the fact that she was a valued part of his senior staff - but more importantly - over time, she had become his friend.

He realized that he was glad of her presence for both reasons. There were things that he could say to her that Fitz believed he couldn't bring himself to say to anyone else.

It was slow in coming, but he felt Jocelyn was coming to feel the same way. They were discussing Jocelyn's recent trip but Fitz couldn't help notice the relief that came over Jocelyn's face as Harrison reappeared with Shireen and the two of them headed for one of the grilling stations. Fitz and Jocelyn both fell silent as they watched the pair, watched as something Harrison said to Shireen made her laugh.

Fitz turned to Jocelyn and saw her eyes went a little sad in their expression. She turned away a little and realized Fitz was watching her.

"Shireen laughing - that's something I can't get enough of these days." She admitted. "My daughter has grown into a new, more serious side of her. She doesn't laugh as much as she used to - and can I blame her?"

"It's always hard to watch them grow into their own persons." Fitz said. He knew that her daughter had had a rough year. "Just don't blame yourself."

"It's hard not to. I don't have to tell you that the things that I've done played a big part in the change in her." Jocelyn admitted. "The lies I've told and the secrets I kept - I told myself that they were all about protecting her - but has she truly forgiven me?"

"I know the feeling." Fitz said, trying to reassure her because he knew just how much her past actions were worrying her. He'd made mistakes with his kids too - after all, what parent hasn't? And he still worried about what's ahead of him once he let them know about Olivia and began to introduce her into the rest of his life - and that meant theirs.

Her thoughts gave Fitz food for thought, but he told himself that was for a later time and he gave himself permission to push those thoughts away before his own guilt found a way to kick in. "I know my kids are growing up and that's a part of the change, but I have to wonder how much my choices have affected theirs."

They both were silent for a minute. Jocelyn was watching her daughter, and for a time, Fitz couldn't help but watch her. One reason why their friendship had grown was that they had so much in common.

He sighed silently to himself and turned his attention to their surroundings. Not too far from where they were sitting, Fitz's gaze noticed there was a band on a stage tuning up their instruments. There were wood tiles laid down in front of them and all of it was bracketed by posts that were strung with lights, waiting for nightfall.

Her eyes had obviously followed his. "Dance with me."

"What?"

She stood up. The expression on her face said very clearly that "Dance with me; I need some laughter and sunlight - and I don't doubt that you could use some of the same."

Friends - Fitz reminded himself - friends had permission to tell you about yourself, whether you agreed with them or not.

He didn't know if he did or didn't agree with her opinion, but he did stand up, automatically offering Jocelyn his arm. The two of them walked onto the dance floor. He could feel the eyes following them. One look at Jocelyn and he could see that she just as aware of them as he was.

"So, is this you joining my campaign and being helpful to my image?" He asked as she stepped into his arms easily and they began a simple two-step together.

"This is helpful to you." She corrected him with a grin. "And that's more important - although I'm sure this will do all kinds of beneficial things to your campaign." Jocelyn grinned again - and the sudden mischief in it made him quirk an eyebrow at her.

Jocelyn leaned closer. "… and now would be a good time to spin me - for the optics, of course."

"Of course." Fitz took the unsubtle hint, took her by the hand spun her out and by the time he spun her back again, his grin matched hers and he was glad of it. Good food, good company - Fitz couldn't remember the last time he'd had a good time quite like this. Maybe not since he'd been governor of California. And maybe not even then.

When, he asked himself, had he allowed to let politics take over his life to such an extent that he'd forgotten how to live? How did he get here?

Fitz found that he couldn't answer the question, but he knew that there was a lesson there, right along with everything else he'd lived through in these last four years of his presidency - or he should say - the first four years of his presidency and for the next four years, Fitz promised himself that he wasn't going to waste a minute of it.

"You do know that people are going to talk, don't you?" Fitz said.

"Mr. President, it's a well-documented fact that I am a very happily married woman. But people are going to stare and people are going to talk - so why not give them something to talk about?" She didn't hide her laughter and neither did he.

As other people stepped onto the dance floor, Fitz felt their eyes on him and the curiosity behind the looks, but he felt no hostility in them. Jocelyn knew what she was doing; no doubt people would be wondering and asking themselves questions about the possible relationship between he and Jocelyn, but they were also seeing their president at ease and welcoming and that, Fitz realized, was a good thing.

After a decent enough interval, Fitz took his turn dancing with Susan and then Will's fiance, Gayle - and soon enough it was Olivia's turn.

"Hello, Mr. President."

He loved the way her eyes lit up as she smiled up at him. As careful as he knew that they were supposed to be, how could he even begin to care about any of that when the woman he loved with everything in him was in his arms.

"Hello, Ms. Pope." Fitz said; careful, his mind said. His heart, well, when had it ever cared for anything except that he was here and she was here and that they were together. It was everything to feel her hand in his, the other resting lightly on his shoulder. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"I am." Olivia smiled up at him. "Especially right now. And you?"

"Same. Especially right now."

For a moment the look in her eyes went soft and warm like molten honey and for a moment, Fitz allowed himself to forget about everyone around them. For a moment all he wanted to do was lose himself in Olivia's sweet, deep dark brown eyes.

As if she could read his thoughts - and maybe a part of her could - Olivia found the intensity in his eyes a little too much. It made her want him, right here and right now, even though she knew that she couldn't - that they shouldn't…

She dropped her eyes from his in an effort to break the magic connection in the air between them - the magic that always happened between them whenever they were in each other's space.

Olivia's face warmed with a blush; it generated a heat that spread like a wildfire through her entire body.

"Stop that." She murmured.

"Stop what?" His voice was deliberately teasing. Of course he knew exactly what she wanted. That didn't mean that he would give it to her.

Fitz tried not to smile too widely; he knew that he shouldn't do what he was doing, but his senses overrode his common good sense.

His voice fanned the embers of desire that had started smoldering inside her from the moment Fitz he'd taken her into his arms. Right now, Olivia knew that she didn't dare to even look at Fitz; he knew damned well what he was doing to her. His closeness was one thing, but adding his deliberately provocative words spoken in his deliberately provocative baritone and what was she supposed to do?

"Stop looking at me like that."

She felt his gaze shift away from him and dared a glance up at him, watching Fitz as he appeared to look over the crowd and at the same time knew that his attention was still one hundred percent focused on her. He might pretend that his eyes were wandering idly but the intensity that shivered its way through her body left Olivia in no doubt that the focus of his attention hadn't shifted.

"Like what?"

His innocent tone didn't fool her for a second and the warmth of his voice made it almost impossible for Olivia to not to want to just close her eyes and lose herself in it. "If you don't stop looking at me the way you are right now, then the plan will fail."

"Why is that?" Fitz was being deliberately, charmingly obtuse.

"Because everybody will know."

"You know I don't care if they do, right?"

"You've made your views on the plan crystal clear, Fitz." Olivia tried to scold him, but her heart really wasn't in it and worse still, she didn't need the twitching of the corners of his mouth to tell her that he knew it. "Now behave."

Despite her words, while her head knew better, in this moment, her heart didn't care. Her heart wanted him just as he was right now, holding her in his arms in the cool November sunshine. It came dangerously close to melting both her heart and her resolve.

"Give me a reason why."

"Because we're here to work, remember?"

"True, but as far as I'm concerned, we're on a break." Fitz surprised her by spinning her out and back again, just like he'd done with Jocelyn, only this time, when he spun Olivia back into his arms, he was holding her a little closer that he'd done before.

"Fitz… didn't I just ask you to behave?" Olivia couldn't help the breathlessness that filled her. It wasn't all from his unexpected dance move.

"Give me a reason to." He smiled down at her.

"If you behave now, I'll make it up to you - later."

"Define making it up to me."

"That's for me to know and you to find out." Olivia dared another glance at him. "But if you behave now, it will be worth it to you later."

Fitz lifted an eyebrow at that. "Promise?"

"Promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

Apparently his foolishness was contagious because a little bit of deviltry suddenly rose up from somewhere inside her which probably explained why her next words slipped out before she had a chance to give them much thought. "If I have my way, I'll be doing some holding of my own, thank you very much."

His startled laugh flew out over the dance floor and Olivia found that she couldn't stop herself from laughing with him.

"Promises, promises, Livvie." His smile was a challenge.

She didn't dare look at him, but her smile did the job for her. "Promise to be a good boy, and see what happens."