THE NEXT MORNING

Olivia woke to the feeling of Teddy Grant on her face. Literally. He was crawling all over her, screaming her name; "Lib! Lib!"

"Teddy?" she mumbled confusedly, forgetting where she was.

"Ugghhhh," moaned Karen, who to Olivia's shock was in her arms. Then the previous days events all came back.

"Lib! You are here! Get up!" Teddy cried. Olivia groggily sat up, and couldn't help but grin; she hadn't seen Teddy in months and he was getting even cuter.

"Hi Teddy!" she said.

"Ugghh go away," Karen sighed.

"What time is it? Do you have a clock in here? Shit! I have work!" realized Olivia.

"Hey, language," a voice said. Olivia turned quickly to see Fitz curled up in one of Karen's chairs. She realized that he must have slept in the room.

"Dad?" Karen said, nervously.

"Don't worry, I've heard the whole story. Kayla has been safely delivered back to her family where they will be going through some extensive therapy. Olivia, Quinn called and said that she would be coming in late. All of your people crashed at her place, along with Abby if you want to go see them," Fitz explained.

"Nooooo!" wailed Teddy. "Lib just got here! She can't go!" Teddy wrapped his arms around Olivia's neck.

"Teddy stop screaming," said Karen. The little boy stuck out his tongue at his older sister. She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Teddy. I'll eat breakfast with you, how about that?" asked Olivia, tying her hair back into a ponytail and fully sitting up. The little boy clapped his hands wildly and grinned a toothy smile, clearly pleased with the compromise.

"Okay, I'll let you two talk," she said, picking up the little boy and giving Karen a wink. She and Fitz made brief eye-contact, giving each other awkward smiles before Olivia and Teddy left the room.

"What do you want to eat?" she asked Teddy, who was sitting comfortably in her arms. She was walking down the hall of the White House.

"I don't know," he said, shrugging.

"Okay, well, I'm going to change, I think I left some of my clothes here from last time…" she said, walking into to Fitz's room. She made sure not to spend a lot of time in case memories came back, so she just went into the closet and found the first article of clothing that was her's that she could find. Olivia came out in jeans and a comfortable t-shirt that had Georgetown written on the front. She grabbed Teddy's hand.

"Up!" he cried, holding his hands up in the air. She shook her head, smiling, and once again Teddy was in her arms.

"Do you know what you want now?" she asked. He shrugged again, still grinning, as the pair took the elevator down to the kitchens.

Olivia never ceased to be amazed by the size, and briefly remembered the night Fitz and her had spent down there. She pushed the thoughts aside, and said hi to the Chef.

"We're just going to make some breakfast, if you don't mind," she explained.

"Oh of course! We've missed you. I'm sure that will make Teddy happy," the Chef said with a warm smile.

"How about I make you french toast. I know that always has been your favorite," she said, setting him on the counter and poking him in the stomach.

The little boy giggled, and nodded his head. Olivia got out the bread and eggs, and started whipping the breakfast together.

UPSTAIRS

"Karen, I'm sure your mother is going to want to have your turn at bitching at you, and because I don't want to make you go through that twice I'll wait till she gets here," Fitz said.

Karen sighed. "Dad, Liv has already told me what a bad idea it was—"

"I know you want her to be, but Olivia isn't your mom. Yes, I agree with her that it was a bad idea, but you can't only listen to Liv. You have parents who, you know, have to discipline you?"

"Yeah, and what a great job you've been doing at that," muttered Karen.

"What?"

"Never mind, forget it. We'll wait till mom gets here—"

"No say, it," said Fitz. "I want you hear you say it. Because that's your excuse right? Your parenting? Say it."

"Dad, I don't—"

"Say it!" cried Fitz.

"You were a bad father!" yelled Karen, throwing her hands up in the air. "You were horrible. Complete and utter shit. From birth it was politics, always the job, running for governor, running for President, running for the second term. And now mom is running, and she'll probably win, God knows she'll find her way into this fucking place again. But Gerry was all I had. And then he died because of your stupid job, and I…" Karen ran her hands through her hair, distraught. "Ger was all I had," she whispered. "And maybe sometimes when we were at our worst we had you guys, but then I caught mom screwing Uncle Andrew, and then it comes out that you were having an affair with Olivia Pope, who was the only person on your team that would ever even sit down and have a conversation with me, so she was out too. I have no one left. Teddy—and don't try and lie about this— was conceived to make it look like you weren't having an affair. America's fucking baby, remember? Oh yeah, pardon my language. I didn't mean to offend the President. I don't—I don't have an excuse for what I did. I ran away. I left you. But the thing is, you left me too. And Gerry left me, and I don't even know why. How did he die, dad? It wasn't just a coincidence. I don't have anything left anymore. I have no reason to fight. I just… I'm done, dad. I needed to get out. I thought that coming back here was a good thing, and I appreciate you making an effort, but you shouldn't have to in the first place. It should just be a normal thing. You, ya know, being a dad. And I love Liv, she's the only sane one here, but you messed her up bad. You and mom. This whole place is corrupt."

There was a pause. Then, "Eli Pope," came out of Fitz's mouth.

"What?"

"Liv's dad. His name was Eli Pope. He killed Gerry. Well, he had one of his agents do it. Tom, our ex-security guard, actually. Eli Pope runs a secret spy organization that I, the President of the United States, shouldn't even know about. You don't want to know the things he's done. I didn't mess Liv up. Her dad did, and then because of that I got messed up. That's why Gerry died. I'm sorry Karen. For everything. I'll never be able to fix it, but… and you're right, Teddy wouldn't be here if it were't for my alleged affair, but that doesn't make me love him any less, and neither should you. He's the only brother you have."

"Don't remind me," whispered Karen. "Liv's dad?" she barely got the words out.

Fitz gave a cold laugh. "You think you have daddy problems?"

"You knew this entire time, you didn't put him in jail… or have him put to death for what he did? YOU KNEW AND—"

"I didn't know. None of us. Not Liv, not me, not your mother, no one, not until a while after. And even when we did… a guy who runs a spy agency that is able to kill the President's son in a blink of an eye isn't that easy to catch. And we did, but… he got out. I think sharing time is over for today. You wanted to be close to me, Karen? I wanted you to, too. And I know I've been horrible, but it's so that you don't have to know these things. So that you can go to sleep at night without having nightmares. I'm sorry," he said, softly. "I did what I could to protect you and Gerry. I did—" his voice broke. "I did what I could."