"How did you get Olivia's phone?"

Fitz sat up in the hotel bed in Detroit when he heard Cyrus's voice. He'd only been gone since the morning, and she was fine when he left. Fitz started to panic a bit. "Is she okay? Where's she at? Where's Liv?" Fitz started shouting questions at him.

"Fitz? I thought Jerry was calling," Cyrus told them.

"Three-way call. Verna got us all connected," Jerry told him. "Where's Livia?"

Cyrus looked at the sleeping form beside him and smiled. "She's asleep, guys. Don't worry, everything is fine. I managed to pry her out of the office a bit ago and get her some food. She's laying in bed with me, off in her own dream world."

"She flew down to you?" Jerry asked very surprised. "She didn't tell me she was leaving the city."

"No, no, I'm in D.C. When you said neither your or Huck could be with her for a few days, and Fitz being out of town, I thought I'd come up and spend some time with her. I had a few days off anyway."

Jerry was relieved to know someone was with her and she'd be getting some sleep. "Any chance you can wake her up? Fitz has something he needs to tell her."

"I don't think Sleeping Beauty should be woken up right now. It's not something that could wait until morning?"

"Cyrus, I just need to tell her I love her, please wake her up," Fitz started to plead with him.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Cyrus asked him, keeping his voice low so he wouldn't wake her up. If it was anyone else, he would have taken the call into another room. But with Liv, someone had to be in the bed with her for her to sleep, giving him no option to get up. "That's a lot of meaning in a phone call. Especially to Liv. It might be better to wait until you get home to tell her. And it would give you some time to make sure that's really what you want to say."

Getting irritated with him, Fitz was ready to yell but was doing his best to keep calm. "Look Cyrus, I get you are protective of her. I am too. This isn't just a casual thing to say, even under a normal circumstance. She said it to me this morning at the airport and I didn't tell her the same. She's not picking up or replying to my texts. Verna says she's inverting. The last thing I want is for her to think that she's just some random lay that means nothing to me. Livie is my girlfriend, she's everything. So, I need you to wake her up and give her the damn phone so I can tell her. I can't wait until I get home at the end of the week, or risk her not answering me for four days. Could you please wake her up?"

Jerry looked over across to table to Verna, listening to what Fitz was telling them. "Cyrus, you'll need to wake Olivia. With all that I know about her, she'll need to hear it straight from Fitz, but I don't think a phone call is going to do. Fitz, you'll have a better chance if you video chat her. She'll be more inclined to believe you if she can see your face," Verna told them.

Seeing Olivia sound asleep, he really did not want to wake her up, but this was too important to wait. "She's going to kill me for waking her," he sighed. "You better make this damn good." Hanging up the line, Cyrus got into her phone and to facetime Fitz.

Clicking accept and bringing the phone out so he would see them, Fitz looked at the phone waiting for her to appear. "Thank you, Cyrus, I owe you one."

"Remember that," he scolded him and turned to phone so he could see Liv. "We got some dinner and came back here. I'll get up and make myself scarce." Putting the phone on the nightstand, Cyrus moved towards the edge and rubbed Olivia's back as he stood up. Seeing her eyes open immediately at look at him, he gave her a small smile.

"Did I kick you again?"

"Someone wants to talk to you," Cyrus told her and pointed at the phone. "I'll leave you two alone."

Olivia looked over and saw Fitz's face on the screen of her phone and shook her head. Laying on her belly, she heard the bedroom door close before giving Fitz her full attention. "Is everything okay? Detroit what you hoped it would be?"

"It's fine here. Detroit is what it is. Never my favorite place to be," Fitz told her. He kept his eyes on her waiting for her to say something. "So," he sighed and sat against the headboard, "you're dodging me now?"

"I'm not dodging you. We're talking now, aren't we?"

"Only because Cyrus answered your phone. You didn't tell me he was coming in."

"I didn't know he was. He just showed up at the office today. Thank you for the flowers, by the way, they're lovely."

"I'm glad you like them. And the card is very true. Five days away from you is too much time away. I miss you."

"I miss you too. But I'm going to see you in four days. We'll be fine."

"How awake are you?"

"Very awake, wide awake. Why? You need something for work? I'll grab my laptop, give me a second."

Seeing her start to get off the bed, he called her name to stop her. "No, Livie, nothing for work."

"Okay, what is it?"

"We need to talk about this morning. About what happened then."

"Fitz, I just had a lot of work to do. There was a Mellie situation that they needed me to handle. I wasn't dodging you; I was working!"

"No, I'm talking about before that. At the airport. Wait, what? Mellie? What does she have to… never mind, we can discuss that later. I'm talking about at the airport. When I was getting on the flight, you yelled out to me."

Shaking her head, Liv didn't want to think about that time. "It was nothing. I just said something."

"Livie, will you please look at me?" Staring off across the room, she heard him ask and slowly turned her attention to him. "I love you too."

"Oh. You heard that?"

"Was I not supposed to? You said it so loud I think everyone heard it. Did you not want to say it? Because no matter if you didn't or you don't, I love you."

"Fitz, you don't love me," she laughed trying to hold back from crying. "Whatever it is you feel for me, it's not love. Don't get whatever you're feeling mixed up."

"I wish I was with you right now, in person. If I was, I'd be able to kiss you and show you that I love you. I know you're more actions over words. But babe, this is the best that I can do right now. I would fly home in a heartbeat if I could, you know I would." Olivia held the camera away from her, pointing it elsewhere so she could rub her eyes, keeping him from seeing her almost cry. "Livie, I didn't mean to make you cry."

A bit surprised he could tell, she quickly wiped her eyes and put the camera back to her. "Fitz, this is just a rebound. I'm a rebound for you. You're confusing love with lust. You do not love me."

"Don't tell me how I feel, Olivia," Fitz told her in a stern tone. "Don't diminish what you and I have. You're not a rebound. I'm pretty sure I'm not a rebound for you. And it hurts that you could even say something like that after what we've done. I love you. No matter what anyone else has said, I do. You are everything to me. You have been pretty much since the moment you were hired. Professional and personal. We aren't just a fling that happened when I was getting a divorce. I'm not just some guy you picked up after your fiancé was murdered. You know everything about me. How could you even think that you would be a rebound for me?" Giving her a minute to respond, Fitz was only able to stare at her. It didn't matter what anyone else said about them, he knew he loved her. After another minute of her not responding, Fitz took a breath ready to go again. "Verna says you're inverting again. And I think she's right. You're setting yourself on offense to push me away and thinking you're protecting me. Dad told me you would be this way. That you are going to withdraw from me and think you're protecting me. Livie, I don't need protection. Nothing is going to happen."

"He wants me back, Fitz. I won't put your life in jeopardy like I did Stephen's. That's not fair to you."

"Sweetheart, Edison is in prison. He's not able to get out. He'll never be able to hurt you. There's no way in hell that he would ever be able to get out of that cell and come after you."

"It's not me he's coming after. It'll be you!"

"Livie, I promise you, nothing is going to happen to me. Edison will never be able to come after me."

Not wanting to think about him, Olivia shook her head erasing the image of Edison from her mind. "It's not just about him, Fitz. I'm so messed up! Whether you want to see it or not, I'm beyond messed up. I can't sleep alone, I throw myself into my work just because I have nothing else to do in the middle of the night, and so, so many other things. I'm damaged beyond repair," she laughed. "No one can fix me."

"I don't want anyone to fix you. You don't need to be fixed. I love you just the way you are, Livie. I don't care that you can't sleep alone. I love sleeping beside you. I don't care that you throw yourself into work in the middle of the night. Just don't do it when you have someone able to be with you. No one is damaged beyond repair. You've been working with Verna, and she's been able to help you, right?" Seeing her nod her head yes, he caught sight of her eyes looking like she was going to cry again. "You are trying, baby. That's all anyone can ask you for. And for me, I'm not asking. I'm also not telling you that you need help. For more than the reason that you'd probably start yelling at me," he smiled when she started to laugh. "There's my girl."

"Oh, now I'm your girl, mister?"

"You have been for two months, officially."

Olivia started to believe what Fitz was telling her. Maybe she wasn't as damaged as she thought. Or maybe he's just as messed up as I am. Perhaps she was able to be loved without fear of anything bad happening. I love him too much for anything to happen to him.

"I can see the wheels turning in you head, Ms. Pope. What are you thinking about?"

"You are probably right."

"I'm going to need you to say that again when I get home. That's going to be my new notification tone," he smiled. "But what exactly am I right about?"

"Edison will never get out of prison. There's no way they would let him out even if he had a chance at parole. I'm probably standing in my own way of being happy. Fitz, I don't want to be miserable and have to protect myself from him. Or protect you from him. I just want to live my life how I want. Verna's right too. She knows me too well. I withdrew from everyone to protect you. I hate when she uses clinical terms on me."

Fitz laughed as she rolled her eyes. "She's a psychiatrist; I don't think she remembers normal terms. Can we try this again?" Seeing her smile at him, he went on. "I love you, Olivia."

"I love you too, Fitz."