How many times had she not cursed herself because of the view from her office window? Probably just as many as she had praised herself for it, if not more. The white building stood tall and graceful in the distance across town and she found herself looking over at it every five minutes.

It had been five weeks now since she said goodbye to the one thing she had ever really wanted for herself. The one person that made her entire body tingle with just one look across a crowded room. The one person who made her feel like the only person in the room and made her feel wanted and cherished. But being Olivia Pope came with a price. You had to be tough, strong and selfless. Your one and only concern was your client, to wear the white hat and make things right for them. Being the mistress of the most powerful man in the country, one of the most powerful men in the world, did not make you those things. It made you selfish and weak, you stood hidden in a corner and waited for some kind of acknowledgement. Olivia was never those things if she weren't alone and locked within the walls of her apartment. So she had taken a step back and let everyone else walk ahead of her into the future without her. The minute it became clear, the minute it became official that the only man who had ever gotten so deep into her heart was the new President of the United States, she had packed up her things into a cardboard box and walked out of the iron gates, leaving her clearance card behind. It hurt. It felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest. But she did it, head held high and her killer heels walking intimidatingly fast down the hallways.

And now she was sitting here in her new office, trying not to think about it or him. But she was constantly reminded by the view through her window and her phone. He had not stopped calling her these past five weeks. Even though he must have a million more important things to do. Like running the country for once. She had even tried to change her number, hoping that would help. But who was she kidding? He was the President of the United States, he could get a hold of her phone number anytime he wanted no matter how many times she changed it. So she just gave up instead and tried to ignore his calls every time he rang.

Most days it worked. She threw herself into her work and was more of a machine than she normally was. The results of her efforts were remarkable and she became more and more desired by the rich and powerful in the capital. Her co-workers might have raised an eyebrow a time or two but she managed to keep up a good front so they did not think twice about it and let it go. Everyone but Stephen.

"Liv?" Came Stephen's gentle voice through the open door to her office. "Abby has got something."

Quickly rising from her chair, she walked out of her office and into the conference room next door where her team stood facing "the wall". Pictures were on display and lines were drawn between different papers to their connection. They had been working on this case for the last two days. It was a blackmail attempt on one of the wealthiest families in the city. Someone had some very incriminating pictures of the eldest son with a woman who was not his fiancé. The son was to take over the family company in a few weeks and pictures like those in the papers would not look good. But the problem was that the son couldn't recall ever meeting the girl and denied having ever invited her into his bedroom. They had been in a standstill for the entire day, but it seemed as if they might get somewhere now.

Two seconds later the red head came running through the doors, laughing and screaming. "She is a whore. His fiancé is a whore!"

She slammed up a couple of photographs and papers onto the wall and started firing off. Apparently the fiancé became a high classed call-girl during her years at college to pay her wages. The old police surveillance photos that Abby had managed to dig out clearly showed the fiancé standing next to the girl who was caught on film with the target. The fiancé knew the "mistress". It was the perfect connection.

"Let's get proof!" Olivia spun around on her heel back to her office again and left her team to it. But not the whole team. Stephen followed her and snuck into the office with her before closing the door.

Stephen sat down on one of the sofas in the centre of the room and watched her as she sat down by her desk. He did not say anything, he just sat there and starred at her. It was like he was waiting for her to crack under the pressure. But she was Olivia Pope and she did not crack under pressure. Instead of acknowledging him, she bluntly ignored him and busied herself with the things on her desk. And just to make things worse and more difficult, her phone had to go off and they both knew who it was on the other end. Stephen had been around before when it had happened and in a brief moment of weakness she might have revealed more than she had intended to.

But what Stephen did not know was how many times she had been so close to pick up the phone when he called her late at night when she was in bed. It was the time of the day she was the weakest. It was the time she let herself go and think back at those small moments that had made her so happy. And whenever he would call, it was so tempting to just pick up the phone and hear that deep voice of his as it spoke sweet nothings.

"Maybe you should consider answering it. This isn't good for you Liv." Stephen said before getting up and walking out of the room.

Considering his words, Olivia looked down at the phone lying next to her and watched the display turn dark again. But it was like he knew that she had been talking about him and was on the verge of answering, because two seconds after the display went dark it lit up again with his name. She let two seconds go by before she snatched up the phone and pressed answer before she could change her mind. Bringing the phone up to her ear, she curled her legs under her in the chair and looked at the view through her window. She knew it was silly, but just the sight of the white building in the distance made her feel immensely closer to him even though he was all the way across town. She didn't speak, she just held the phone to her ear and waited with abated breath to hear him speak.

"Liv?" Just that one word made her choke up and let out a soft whimper. "You finally picked up!" He breathed out.

She still didn't speak. She just sat there and listened to his slightly uneven breaths through the phone. It was like they were both enjoying the soft sound of the other's presence, it was enough for them. Words had never really been their strong suit. The few words they would use meant so much more than an entire declaration ever could. Their silence and their actions spoke what their mouths could not.

"You left me." He stated. It was not an accusation and there was no blame. It was just a simple statement of fact. She had indeed left him. Not that she had much of a choice. But she still left him all the same.

"Fitz!" She said softly in her shaking voice, trying her hardest not to let her tears fall.

"How are you?"

"I've been busy." She said, sounding so much more confident.

"So I've heard. The demand of Olivia Pope has increased considerably. Mine included." His comment hit right at home, but she did not know how to respond so she just ignored it instead.

"How does it feel to rule the world, Mr President?"

"Everything I could possibly want is within my reach with just one phone call. Everything except you."

Olivia bit her lip to prevent her from saying something stupid and leaned back into her chair. Of course he managed to turn things around when she was trying to be evasive, he always did. Every time she would change the subject when he tried to call her out, he managed to turn it back around to her again. He was the only one who could confront her and get away with it, he would not let her run away from her issues like she wanted to.

"Fitz…"

"I miss you, Liv!" He said like it was the simplest thing in the world and justified everything.

Deep down Olivia knew that it didn't justify what they had done, if things got out everything would be ruined. The beauty of what they had would be stained by all the dirt they would have thrown their way. People would not see it in their favour and honestly, had she been in their position, if it had been someone else in her shoes, she would not have seen the beauty or romance in it either. What they had done was wrong and hurtful, no matter how right it felt they had betrayed someone despite the history behind it. But there was just one problem. It felt so right. No matter how many times she had told herself it was wrong and that it had to stop, it all went out the window the minute they would meet again. His touch erased any doubt she could possibly have and the look in his eyes hit her straight in the heart and made her throw caution into the wind. Even know just the sound of his voice made her want to cave.

"I want to see you!" His voice sounded again.

"Fitz-" She started protesting but he cut her off.

"You know, I have never seen your place. You have seen mine, hell you can google it and see it whenever you want. But I have yet to see the inside of you door. That just doesn't seem fair to me."

"Life isn't fair, deal with it! We all have to deal with it all the time." It was the longest sentence she had managed to scramble together since she picked up the phone. The sarcastic defence helped quite a bit.

"I want to see your place, Liv. I was thinking I would come over tonight and get a personal tour."

Liv could picture the scenario in front her. Most people could probably not even begin to imagine the President of the United States standing in their humble home. But he was Fitz and he had a natural part in her life, and that included her home. She smiled at the image of Fitz dressed in his light blue shirt and navy-blue tailored pants standing in the middle of her living room. It was a precious sight that she had imagined many times before at her weakest moments when all she could think about was him, when all she wanted was for him to come around and hold her in his arms and make her feel all warm and safe, when all she wanted was to bury her nose in his neck and breath in his comforting scent.

But that wasn't going to happen and she couldn't keep listening to his voice and imagine things that were never going to happen. So instead Olivia hang up the phone without saying another word. It was probably one of the most painful things she had ever had to do.

Five hours later she arrived home to an apartment covered in darkness, almost fourteen hours after she left it in the same state this morning. Before she had quite enjoyed coming home to an empty apartment with no noise, no unnecessary small talk about how her day had been. But as of late that was something she had begun to long for. It was no longer fun going to bed and waking up alone. She wanted someone there to hold her at the end of the day and be there to greet her when she woke up. Or more accurately she told herself, she wanted Fitz to be there and hold her at the end of the day and be there to greet her in the morning. And that was something Olivia Pope, miss independence, never thought she would ever hear herself say.

She dumped her keys in the glass bowl by the door and her purse at the floor before she switched on the lights. She held her breath as she flipped the switch, letting her traitorous thoughts from before come forward again, and thought that maybe he would be standing there in her living room, gazing out the window dressed in his blue shirt and pants and waiting for her. But who was she kidding? Of course he wasn't there.

Swallowing her disappointment of finding her apartment empty, despite knowing already that it would be, she forgone turning on the news and just went straight into her bedroom where she shredded all of her clothes and crawled into bed.

The mattress dipped beside her and Olivia almost jumped out of bed, but two strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back down.

"Hush baby, it's just me."

Fitz! She spun around so she was facing him and she could hardly believe her eyes. What was he doing here? How had he gotten into her apartment? So many questions formed in her head but she could not even utter one. Olivia was exhausted, she had run herself to the ground the last couple of weeks to keep her busy and it seemed like one touch from him and her body allowed itself to relax and catch up with time. Her eyelids grew heavier and when she tried to speak he stopped her, either by pressing a gentle kiss to her lips or pulling her closer and stroking her hair to sooth her.

"Sleep Liv. I'll be here when you wake up."

And true to his words. When she opened her eyes the next morning he was sitting in the edge of her bed, fully dressed, and looking at her with that intense stare of his. Going to bed and waking up with someone really wasn't bad at all.