Chapter 24

Licking her dry lips, trying to wake up, Liv reached over to the right of the bed expecting to feel Fitz's warm body. Instead, she felt the empty pillow, and she moved her hand over a bit more, still not opening her eyes, but again all she felt was more emptiness.

Trying to get enough saliva in her mouth to swallow, she tasted some remnants of the wine she had all morning and afternoon. Taking a deep breath, she took in his scent from the pillow and fully opened her eyes now.

Fitz was not in the bed, that was certain now. Liv felt the blanket around her, realizing he must have covered her before going downstairs. Looking over at the clock on the nightstand it was still a very early 8 in the evening. From what she could recall, she had been asleep now for three hours.

She rubbed her head into the pillow, face down, trying to wake herself up, remembering she was a bit drunk when she fell asleep after their amazing love making. Even though the blanket was still snuggled around her, Liv gave herself chills thinking of what Fitz does to her body.

Finally, fully awake, she sat up and noticed her bathrobe hanging on the hook behind the door. Figuring Fitz was downstairs, she wrapped the bathrobe around her body. Looking out the window, the snow had stopped, but the accumulation was significant. She began to slowly walk down the stairs.

"Ok, Princess, you get some sleep. Don't give Meggy a hard time, ok. You promise?"

"Yes daddy, I promise. Ovivia sleep?" Noelle was on the facetime call with her father. Liv stood on the stairs listening to the whole interaction smiling. How she missed that little girl.

"Olivia is sleeping. She was tired. We took down some Christmas decorations." Fitz said.

"Boo. I love Christmas." Noelle said back. "I miss you, daddy."

"I miss you too, we will see you tomorrow. We'll pick you up in the morning."

"Snow surprise?" Noelle asked.

Fitz tapped his chin. "Hmm, maybe, snow surprise or maybe NO surprise." He laughed but Noelle didn't. "I was being silly Noelle, two L's."

"Ok. I love you daddy. Good night Ovivia, love you too."

"I will tell her sweetheart, ok." He told Meggy he would call her in the morning and ended the facetime call.

Fitz put his laptop down for the moment and took a deep breath, his buried in his hands. He poured himself a glass of scotch and downed it in one sip. Pouring himself another one, he did the same. Liv never saw him drink like this. Thank goodness she was sobering up, because he was going to be drunk in a bit.

Liv went up behind him and rubbed his shoulders.

"You feel tense." She kissed his cheek as he took her hands. "Everything ok?"

He twisted the empty glass in his hand, staring at it for a moment. Fitz shook his head. He turned and faced her. "The property in the Bahamas burned down. A deliberate fire was started and all the construction that was started is turned into ashes." He blew a deep breath out. "Fucking Jenkings." He poured one more glass of scotch but let it sit for the moment.

Taking his hand in hers, Liv sat next to Fitz now at the kitchen island. "Can you prove it was him?" Liv continued rubbed his hand.

Boris is trying to get more information from the firefighters, may be hard to do. I may have to swallow this as a loss, but Jenkings will get his, I guarantee it." His teeth grinding when he said it, then he calmed down. He never wanted Liv to see him this way.

He rubbed her hand, back. "How about you, are you ok?" He smirked. "Are you still drunk? Jealous? Maybe still drunk and jealous." He was full blown smiling now.

Liv had to laugh a bit. "Well it looks like someone is trying to get there also." She nodded as Fitz downed his third glass of scotch in five minutes. "No, I am not, to both." She put her face in her hands. "Was I really all that?"

Fitz put his lips to her neck. "Oh, yeah, you were, but I am not complaining." He stayed like that, his face buried in her neck and took a deep breath. He was really missing Noelle. He just wanted the three of them together as a family. He put his arms around Liv, pulling her close to his body. She was right, the scotch was getting to him. He should pause for a bit.

"Fitz, what is it?" She rubbed his curls down to his back. "The fire?"

He took her hand and led her to the couch. He sat down first, and she joined him resting her head first on his shoulder as they both looked at the glowing, blinking firelight coming from the fireplace.

Liv's arms slipped now around his waist, and she rested her head on his chest. "Talk to me Fitz." She felt him rest his head on hers.

"I shouldn't have agreed for Noelle to go to with Meggy. We should be here together as a family. We should be snowed in together making hot chocolate, sitting by the fire and playing silly games." He shrugged, "just missing our little girl."

Hugging him a bit tighter now she closed her eyes. Noelle wasn't as close to her as she was to Fitz, and even she was missing her too. She wanted them together also but with the snow accumulation outside, looks like they would have to wait until morning to go get her.

Trying to change the subject Liv looked up at him. "You're not at all upset about the fire?"

"Oh, I am upset about it. I am upset that it's going to put a wait on what we were planning to do with the property. This is a dirty game played in the stock market world. Jenkings is a known slime, he only made things three times worse for himself."

Liv nodded, burying her head back on to his chest. "Will you take back his stocks?" Liv was curious.

"Not a chance, I'm going to watch him sink. I am usually the opposite, I'm not a bloodsucker in this business, but he crossed the wrong line. He 's not getting out of this in a good way."

Closing her eyes again, she felt a wave of fear come over her. "Just be careful in this game with him."

"Don't worry about that." He smiled, she was worried about him, a sign of love. "I've dealt with worse, just in a different suit. Speaking of suits."

Taking a deep breath, she looked back at him. "Yeah, I'm going to email Walters back. We'll do the shoot next Wednesday. How does that sound?" Liv sounded as reluctant as she could.

"I'll clear my schedule." He felt her hand go up his shirt, rubbing his chest and he helped her some by taking it completely off. Watching her look at him while she bit her bottom lip, Fitz knew she was thinking about other women seeing that chest.

As if to claim it as hers, her lips went right to his abs as she kissed her way up and stopped at his lips. She could smell the strong scent of scotch and it brought chills to her body. "I can understand the want for you to be in a magazine. If men think they will look as good as you in a Liam Stevens suit, sales will be up." Her lips fell to his as they kissed in the heat of the fireplace.

Their kissing brought them to a laying position on the couch and Liv, being on the inside, just rested her head on him. Staring above the fireplace she looked at the pictures of Jay and Fitz with Noelle.

"Where were those taken?" Fitz looked at the pictures with Olivia.

"One weekend last year when Jay was in the city we hired a photographer. Those were taken in Union Square Park. I have a bunch of other pictures from that day and the weekend actually. That weekend we came up here. Noelle was so sick with a fever. I almost took her to the ER."

"I called her doctor in the city, and she recommended some Tylenol and alternating it with Children's Advil. Grape, Noelle would only take the grape flavored one. Her fever was so high. Shot up to 103 at one point, but by Monday it broke. Took her to her doctor as a precaution. Turned out it was just viral. It's scary when you're a first time parent and all alone. She wouldn't stop clinging to me. The heat coming off her body was crazy." Fitz realized he was talking quite a bit.

Liv just listened. His words were a bit slurred, the scotch seemed to be getting the best of him. "Was there anything you did to soothe her? Any father/daughter curing methods?" Liv was circling his chest with her finger.

"Her and her UNI, as much as Noelle would cling to me, UNI would cling to her. I told her a story about a doctor who was a unicorn, and the unicorn doctor would make her feel better if she just thought of it. I had nothing else. Seemed to have worked. After 8 straight hours of being up and sobbing because she was so miserable, she fell asleep. I just watched her for most of the night." He kissed the top of Liv's head. "She spent the whole night asleep on my chest."

"Do you have picture albums of Noelle? You have pictures of her everywhere. The ones hanging at the condo, the ones here, in your office, and in Noelle's room."

"You have some in your office too now." Fitz smiled at her.

"I do, and I absolutely love it."

"I have a few albums. Some have pictures from our trips here. The albums are at the condo. When I get pictures developed, I have to give the credit to Tiffany, she organizes them for me and puts them into the albums. She's great like that."

"Tiffany is so efficient and so good with Noelle." Liv put her hand in her face. "I still can't believe I thought she was Noelle's mom when I first met them. Tiffany is a natural with her."

"Lauren raised her well. Next year she's going to finish college. I'll be enrolling Noelle in full time pre school. I'm sure Tiffany will get a full time job teaching, which is what she wants to do." Fitz shook his head. "Not something I'm looking forward to doing, letting Tiffany go and enrolling Noelle in school."

"Noelle is one smart little cookie; she will have no problem adjusting. Maybe you'll pay Tiffany better as a full time tutor also, so she won't have to get a job with a school district." Liv kissed his cheek.

Looking in her eyes now he realized she was feeling it too. "You miss her, don't you?"

"Yes, probably not as much as you, but yes, I miss her terribly."

Fitz brought his lips down to hers. Holding her in place, he kissed her, feeling the scotch getting to him now. His tongue went into her mouth, and he felt her hand go around her waist as she was moaning into the kiss. He wanted her so much right now. She pulled back, breathing heavily, and took a deep swallow.

"Can we eat first? Mind if we finish up the soup?"

"We can do that." He scooped her up kissing her all the way to the chair he placed her down in at the kitchen island.

It didn't go unnoticed that he poured another glass of scotch and took a few sips before he finished and turned the burner on to heat the soup. Turning back towards Liv he began talking again. "I do have a few pictures here. They're upstairs. I have some of Noelle with Sal and Estelle when we decided to buy the Inn." He grew quiet and he licked his lips. He pushed the bottle of scotch away. "I should stop this."

"Fitz you're a grown man, if you want to drink, you can drink, it's not like you're doing anything irresponsible." Liv couldn't stop the words before they came out and she immediately regretted it. She looked at him take a deep breath. "I didn't mean…"

"No, you're right. The last time I was drunk I had sex with my best friend's sister who kept a pregnancy from me." He closed his eyes, rubbing them. "I don't know with the news of the fire, the week to come when I get back to work, and missing Noelle, I just…"

Liv reached over and cupped his face. "Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me, ok. A few hours ago, I let the wine get the best of me." She kissed him softly. "Then I got the best of you." He kissed her back, now it was his turn to moan.

"Let's make this bowl of soup disappear fast. Then we can head upstairs and look at those pictures." He winked as he grabbed two bowls and put the soup into them.

As they were finishing up, Liv looked around. Looking at the blinking lights Fitz left up, she turned to him. "I heard you on facetime with Noelle. She seemed disappointed we took Christmas down."

"Yeah, she'll be happy to still see the lights and the village up." Fitz poured his final glass of scotch. "May as well finish the bottle," he dripped the final drop in and downed it. He looked at Liv who could only smile back.

"Why do I think I may enjoy this a bit too much?" Liv said as Fitz walked around to her chair and lifted her out of it. Their lips locked immediately as Fitz made his way towards the stairs. This time he grabbed his phone for him to have upstairs.

"Oh, trust me you will enjoy this Livvie, two v's." He put his phone on the nightstand, and he looked at Liv lying on the bed, as he untied her bathrobe.

"You know something, you have a tendency during our love making to rub my curls." He now had the strap from the bath robe in his hand. He placed it down next to him, while straddling Liv and opened her robe to expose her bare chest.

"I do, best feeling ever to feel those curls in my hands." Liv giggled.

"Sometimes though, you pull me back and I don't get to finish tasting everything." He pulled the robe out from under her now, and she was completely naked under him, very vulnerable now, and he was loving it all.

Noticing the way he was looking at her body, Liv began to squirm a bit. "I grow so weak, I have to pull you back, my body can't take it sometimes. It's intense. So intense." She felt her words coming out in breaths.

Freeing himself from his boxers, he came down kissing her stomach and his hand grabbing the wrap from the bathrobe. His mouth directly over hers, she could almost taste the scotch now and it was turning on her in such an erotic way. His wet, warm lips engulfed hers in a deep seductive kiss that had Liv's body arch up from under him.

"Easy girl." He went back to the kiss and his other hand, took both her hands in it. He put them above her head. His cock was beginning to throb now knowing what he was going to do to her. "Liv, can I tie your hands with this? I don't want any interruptions of hair rubbing when I'm tasting you. If you say no, that's fine." He began to breath heavily as well.

Her teeth bit the corner of her outer lip. Her hands were still above her head. She closed her eyes. "Tie them, Fitz, go for it."

"Open your hands." When she did, he put the strap inside both. "Now close down, holding it in place." She did that as well. Then he tied around her wrists as her wrists rested on her head.

Fitz was on his knees now between her legs and looked down at her. Her full naked body was screaming for him, he could hear it. He watched as her tied hands holding the terrycloth strap rested on her head.

Liv was about to scream in pure heat, her body feeling his eyes wanting her, but he wouldn't take her. She lifted her bottom up and whispered, "Fitz please." She didn't even care about her hands being tied. She saw how hard he was, and she just wanted him, no needed him, inside her. "These orgasms are going to be mind blowing."

"Ahh, plural, orgasms. You are anticipating more than one." He smiled, rubbing her inside thigh.

"I'm about to have one right now." She closed her thigh a bit, feeling her wetness. "God, Fitz." His finger grazed her clit, up slowly and stopped. The moan she let out was beautiful and for a second, Fitz thought she did come, but she didn't.

Not sure if it was the scotch, his need for her, or just the sight of her waiting with hands tied, but his hands rubbed her from stomach to breasts at the same moment his tongue tasted her clit.

He felt her wetness, how wet she was for him, and her legs came up on his back as the top of her body stretched up, hands still positioned and tied in one spot. He circled her clit with the tip of his tongue as her bottom pushed forward, causing Fitz to grasp her hips and hold her there.

Her body began to go in rhythm with her breathing, her head tilted on her shoulder, and she climaxed, hard, moaning as Fitz kept right on with his mouth, not letting up for a moment. Liv's legs began to quiver a bit and she had no strength to get the words out.

One thing, he was right, she felt her hands come down and she was going to pull him back to let her body go through the orgasm, but she couldn't. Her heart began to pound, and her eyes closed tight, as she rode out the orgasm while he continued to lick his way up from her clit, to her breast.

Feeling the tip of his cock where his tongue once was a few seconds ago, she heard herself moan again. He lifted her body up, she put her tied hands around him, resting them on his shoulder blades. He hugged her close, just rocking with her for a few moments. "Thank you," he whispered. "I love you so much, Olivia."

Pulling her arms out from over him, he untied her hands. "Did I hurt you at all?"

"No." she said, looking in his eyes. The dark grey signaling the lust that was still in his body. "You could never hurt me Fitz." She kissed him, tasting now herself and the scotch. "That was very different, hot, but different."

Fitz smiled at her, face to face. He pecked her nose with a kiss and then turned her, so she was on her knees. "Here's another way your hands can't stop me." His hand rubbed her smooth back as he watched her hands fall to the side, her knees keeping her body upright.

Not being able to hold back any longer, that rock hard erection greeted her wet entrance and slid right into her. Liv's head went down, her forehead hitting the pillow, and she felt the strap that once tied her hands. She grabbed it now and bit down on it to avoid the scream about to come out.

Fitz's hand was on her shoulder, and she could hear their bodies slapping together. The sound, the beautiful pain he was causing, and her weakness all came together at once. His hand that was not holding her shoulder reaching under and took her breast.

He used his thumb and forefinger to squeeze the nipple. His body went down, and he whispered in her ear, "I'm waiting for that orgasm, come for me Livvie, make it plural." His tongue licked her neck on the way back up.

Liv's body felt like rubber as the second orgasm hit her hard, and she pounded her hand on the bed, but Fitz kept the rhythm, not seeming to let up and he pulled her body up with his, continuing to be deep in her.

His arm went across her chest now, his hand holding tight onto her breast, he could feel the sweat overtaking his hair, beads on his forehead. This position was too much for Liv, and she moaned again. "Fitz, I'm…Fuck…" Her body was in pure weakness, as he held on tight to her.

He finally couldn't take holding in his climax, and he emptied himself into her, bringing her gently back down to the bed. He climbed off her and came back momentarily. Feeling the effects of the scotch, he was lying belly down with her facing her.

"You are so amazing, Olivia. The things you do for me."

Her hand was rubbing his back now, up to his curls. "You do more for me than you can imagine. I love you too, Fitz." She caressed her cheek. "Are you feeling a bit better?"

"I still miss our baby girl." His eyes were getting heavy. "So much for some reason." His words became a slurring whisper as his eyes completely closed.

Liv went over him, lying now belly down on his back. She was caressing his hair, her hand interlocked with his as she felt his body calm down a bit and fall asleep. Lying on him, she was realizing he never had someone to talk to the way he talked to her downstairs.

If ever she was so sure of something it was spending her life with him and Noelle. She looked at him, his head to the side, just relaxing, falling asleep to her touch, her caress of his hair and she took a deep breath.

Although she was naked, she felt so warm with his body under hers, she didn't want to leave this position at all. Suddenly, she heard a familiar sound and she turned towards the nightstand.

Fitz's phone was buzzing, and when Liv looked at the display it said "MEGGY". Liv looked at Fitz who was out cold, more so from the scotch and she grew concerned at the phone call.

Reaching over for the phone and slowly rolling off Fitz, who didn't budge, Liv answered the call.

"Hey Meggy, it's Olivia, is everything alright?" Liv was at a whisper heading towards the doorway.

"Olivia, I'm sorry to bother you, Noelle is not feeling well at all. She's been up for the last hour, just crying in my arms repeating she wants daddy over again. She's also quite warm, but I didn't want to give her anything without checking with Fitz first. I checked her temperature, right now it's 100.1."

"Fitz just fell asleep. He hasn't slept in almost two nights. There's some stuff going on at work, and well, he has honestly passed out. Is your place far from here? I don't mind coming to get her."

"Not really, but with the snow, do you want to chance it?"

"He's got one of the best snow vehicles in the market, I think I can get there, since it's four blocks away. It's in the garage here so it's not like I have to clean it. I'll be there in about a half hour."

Liv took a deep breath, getting dressed and watching Fitz sleep it off. Even if he was awake, he was in no condition to drive and get Noelle. Liv just hoped it wouldn't make Noelle more upset that she was getting her and not Fitz. She stopped by the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and found the grape flavored Tylenol which Liv took with her. Before leaving, she went back to the bedroom and looked at him. Nothing was waking him up and he needed this rest.

Much like he did for her, Liv took the blanket and covered his body. She gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving the room and the Inn to go get Noelle. Before she left, she wrote a note and left it on the island of the kitchen. Just in case Fitz woke up, Liv didn't want him thinking she took off on him on account of him tying her up for sex.

The roads weren't as bad as she thought they would be and Liv made it to Meggy's in less than 20 minutes. Upon entering the beautiful little house, Noelle picked her head up from Meggy's shoulder and saw Olivia.

Noelle peered over Liv's shoulder looking for something, or someone else. "Ovivia, where daddy?"

Meggy just grew tight lipped rubbing Noelle's back. "Daddy is sleeping honey, Olivia came to get you."

Noelle nodded and with one arm holding UNI close to her body, the other arm went out for Olivia. Before Olivia could take her, she pulled out the medicine. "Noelle, can we take some medicine before we head out into the cold?"

"Grape?"

"Yes, I have the grape medicine, see." Olivia pointed to the box that showed the bunch of grapes next to the purple in the cup.

Noelle sipped the cup until it was empty and then took the water bottle from Liv, sipping that until she was satisfied. Once Liv got her in her arms, Noelle began to cry, a bit hard. "I just want daddy." Her body going up in sobs. "Where daddy?"

Sitting now with Meggy on the couch, Liv leaned Noelle against her chest, rubbing her hair. Meggy was right, she felt very warm to the touch. "Hey, Noelle, you know what? One time when I was little like you I got sick too, but I had to go to a special doctor."

Noelle nodded letting Liv know she was listening. "This doctor, he was a unicorn. Have you ever heard of a doctor unicorn?" Liv saw Noelle's blue eyes, all teary, look at her in surprise.

"I know unicorn doctor." The whole time her hand was tight around her UNI.

"Unicorn doctor gave me medicine. I think it was magic medicine because I felt better the next day. I think it was purple medicine like this one."

Liv looked over at Meggy who was smiling. She saw the story that Liv was telling Noelle had her calming down and her crying came to a stop.

Noelle turned her body to face Liv. "I see daddy now?" Noelle hugged Olivia and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Yes, we'll go see daddy, but he is sleeping. He is very tired. He would have come to get you, but he was so tired. Remember, like the night when we got Jilly and Kelly."

Noelle nodded. She put her coat on that Meggy had brought out with her bag of things. "Jilly and Kelly are in the bag. Kayla had so much fun with them and with you Noelle." Meggy gave her a kiss as Liv stood with her. "I'll help you to the car."

Once Liv had secured Noelle in the car seat she turned to Meggy. "You did great, Olivia, that little girl loves you so much."

"Thank you Meggy and thank you for calling. I hope the medicine kicks in soon and she is able to sleep it off until morning. What time is it anyway?" Liv had lost total track of everything.

"11:30. Just text me when you get in with her, just to let me know you both are safe."

"Will do, thanks so much Meggy." Liv drove slowly off toward the inn. She looked in the rearview mirror to see Noelle still holding on to UNI for dear life. Her frown was making her face look so sad.

"I see daddy." She said over again in between sobs as her one mitten covered hand wiped her tears.

"He's right in there." Liv pointed to the Inn as the garage door was opening and she pulled the car in and took Noelle into her arms.

Finally, in only her pajamas that she was wearing at Meggy's Liv picked Noelle up and took her to the room. Fitz had not moved from the position Liv had left him in. "See, Noelle, daddy is sleeping, he's just very tired. He is going to be so excited to see that you're here already in the morning." Liv turned to bring Noelle to her room.

Noelle tightened up closer to Liv's body. "Ovivia I stay." She pointed to the bed her father was sleeping in. "Please." Her face fell into the crook of Liv's neck and how in the world could Liv say no.

Liv put Noelle into the bed first. Having on one Fitz's dress shirts as a nightshirt with her sweats, Liv climbed in after her. Noelle, Liv swore had not moved UNI at all as the stuffed animal still was attached to her body. Using her free hand, she pulled Liv's hand over her and Noelle's back was against Liv's chest, as they both faced Fitz, who was still quietly sleeping.

Liv rubbed Noelle's forehead, noticed it may have cooled down a bit, and she felt Noelle begin to breathe in a rhythm of sleep. Resting her forehead on the back of Noelle's head, Liv finally fell asleep in the darkness of the room.

Fitz knew immediately something was different. It's as if he could sense his child in the room. He blinked, his eyes opened, the darkness still in the room. He reached over for his phone and noticed the time to be 530. His mouth was dry, tasting scotch, and he looked at his phone display one more time.

As he hit recent history, he noticed Meggy had called, a text from Liv to Meggy they had arrived safely, and he jumped to the sitting position. He looked over to his left to see Liv cradling Noelle in her arms and Fitz dropped the phone and took a deep breath.

There was his world. The two people he loved the most huddled together. Of course, UNI was in the equation, but he did love UNI too as one of his own. He reached over and rubbed Liv's shoulder.

Using his phone now for a flashlight to put some light in the room, he saw Liv open her eyes. "Liv, what's going on?"

Noelle sat up, looked at her father and dove into his arms. "Daddy." She began to cry. "I not feel good." She hugged him close. "Ovivia medicine and Unicorn doctor." She fell back asleep on his shoulder.

"Meggy called right after you fell asleep. Noelle was crying for an hour straight. I went to get her, giving her grape flavored Tylenol, and telling her the unicorn doctor would take care of her." Liv leaned up against the headboard.

"She cried for you for a bit, then when she came back here, she didn't' want to go her room, so she fell asleep here."

"In your arms." Fitz smiled at her. "Thank you." He leaned in and kissed her. "She's still a bit warm."

"Yeah, it may get worse before it gets better." Liv watched as Fitz laid back down with Noelle on his chest. He raised his other arm. "Come here, there's room for you too." Liv rested her head on his other shoulder.

He rubbed Noelle's hair from her face and rubbed Liv's shoulder. "Tomorrow, movies, fluids for Noelle, and just resting, that's the plan."

"Sounds amazing." Liv said as her eyes closed again.

Fitz watched as both his girls fell peacefully asleep in his arms. This is where his heart was truly full. With all that would be going on in his world next week, he closed those thoughts out for now. For this morning, and for the next few days, he had time to spend with the ones he loves the most.