"Good morning, Mr. Grant."

"That depends on who you speak to, Ms. Pope. For me, not one of them."

Fitzgerald Grant stepped off the elevator to see his secretary Olivia Pope standing at the entrance with his morning coffee in hand as she did every morning for the past six months since she started. Though he walked into work in a very unpleasant mood, Olivia was always able to cheer him up within a few minutes. His past secretaries always irritated him and never worked out for long. But with Olivia, she knew exactly what he needed sometimes before he even knew himself.

"Work or wife?" she asked as she handed him his coffee and followed in step behind him as always.

"Both. Did you happen to…"

"Yes, your dry cleaning is hanging in your office."

"And you made…"

"Yes, lunch reservations are confirmed."

"And you called…"

"Yes, Mr. Nichols will be here this afternoon to sign paperwork."

Walking into his office, Olivia helped him take his coat off and hung it on the back of the door. Fitz smiled at her before taking a drink of his coffee. Exactly the way he loved it. Taking a seat in his high back executive chair behind the large wood desk, the grief he put up with when he got out of bed this morning washed away.

"How did I manage to work this long without you?"

"Beats me," she smirked and took the seat in front of his desk. "Mrs. Grant wasn't happy this morning?" Seeing Fitz hang his head and shaking no at her, she knew she hit the spot of his issues today.

"Not at all. She's beyond furious about something about a clothing designer not doing something. I'm not sure what that's about. I drowned her out after the first ten minutes on Saturday. So, she spent all weekend drinking and complaining that I'm not a good husband. And that I should care about her issues. After she started in on the complaining on Saturday morning I went out for the day. Apparently, I cannot do anything right for that woman."

Olivia wasn't surprised at Mrs. Grant's behavior. His wife, Mellie, had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She got whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and no one questioned why. Olivia had seen her throw a tantrum before. Having only seen her in person a handful of times, Liv felt very sorry for Fitz and wondered why he had not left her yet. They'd been married for almost ten years and anything he'd ever done was never good enough for her. She belittled him at every turn and didn't care if anyone was there to witness it or not. Lately, her drinking had become more of an issue than Fitz wanted to admit. But getting her help was out of the question.

"I'm really sorry you have to put up with her. If you ever want to get a divorce or something, I do know a few terrific attorneys that would help," Liv laughed.

Fitz had been working as a criminal defense lawyer in D.C. for thirty years and knew every attorney in every field. Working for the largest law firm didn't hurt either. He'd hired Olivia almost the second he saw her resume. She'd just finished paralegal school and interned at the courts. Liv was perfect for the position. And when she came in for the interview, he almost couldn't believe she was real. Six months ago, he got the best secretary he could have ever asked for.

"Right, like that would ever happen. How was your weekend anyway?"

"Same as always," she put on her best fake smile she could and pulled out her calendar of his day. "You have a ten o'clock phone call, lunch at twelve with Judge Richards, Mr. Nichols is coming in at three, and a four o'clock phone call."

"You did it again."

"Told you what's on your agenda for the day?"

"You changed the subject when I asked about you."

This was common for her. Olivia didn't want to talk about herself to him, or to anyone. She had gotten very good at separating her personal life from her work life. And no matter what it was, Fitz always seemed to notice it. Even during her interview in the most normal question, 'tell me about yourself' she listed exactly what he was able to read on her resume and nothing more. Fitz found himself wanting to know more about her and kill the secrecy of her life that she kept from him.

"I'm better at my job when I just keep it simple."

"Come on, Liv. You know everything about me. You know all about my life, personal and work, you know what food I like and what I like to drink depending on my mood. And all I know about you is that you've graduated as a paralegal and you worked for judges. We could work a lot better together if you told me a bit more about you."

"That's not true. You also know I am very good at my job."

"Well that was a given." Fitz smiled at her seeing if his winning smile would lighten her a bit. "Tell me one thing. Just one thing."

"Fine," she stood up and smoothed out her skirt from the chair. "I'm black."

"No. Way." Fitz laughed looking at her. "That's really all you're going to give me."

"I have a job to do and you have emails to read before ten. How about you get to it?"

Walking out to her office just outside his, Fitz watched her trying to come up with some way to get her to open to him a little. But she was right, he did have a lot of emails he needed to get through before his first phone call.

Olivia sat at her desk and looked at her laptop. She needed to finish several projects before she could go to lunch. Her office was quiet since she closed her door to the rest of the office. Liv took her job as Fitz's secretary seriously. To get to Fitz a person had to go into Olivia's office first which meant she could block someone from seeing him if he was busy or it was someone he did not want to see. The glass wall between them had the curtains drawn on his side to give him privacy when he needed it. Her office was always kept orderly, everything in the exact place it should be in filing cabinets when it wasn't needed or on her desk if it was. Liv didn't keep any personal pictures or mementos around as that would show into her personal side.

"Mr. Grant's office," she answered at ten when the client called. Giving a simple greeting was her normal professional tone then she transferred it on to Fitz.

Fitz stayed on the phone for a while going over the details he needed to discuss and hung up before going to Olivia to hand her the notes from the call and going back to his office.

Just before noon, Olivia made her call downstairs and went into Fitz's office.

"Your driver is pulling the car around," she told him as she went to his closet and pulled out a tie.

"Perfect," he smiled and stood up as she came over to him.

"Tie off."

"What?"

"You've spilled coffee again. I swear you need an entire closet of clothes here."

Looking down, Fitz saw the stain on his red tie and undid it, taking it off and setting it down on his desk while Olivia put the new one on. "How do you always seem to know?"

"ESP," she smirked as she tied it the new blue one on. "Besides, blue looks much better on you. It matches your eyes."

No matter how many times she had said it, Fitz still felt the shiver down his spine when the words left her lips.

"It's startling to know you know so much about me including what color my eyes are."

"As if you don't know what color mine are."

"Chocolate brown," he said without hesitating or looking down at them.

"Exactly. Though I've never heard chocolate about it."

"Well now you have."

Olivia straightened his tie making sure he looked perfect enough to walk out of the office to have lunch with a judge and nodded. "Henry is driving you from now on."

"Henry? What happened to Brad?"

"DUI. He got fired this weekend. So, Henry will be taking his place and will take you over to Fiola's. Make sure to also pay for Judge Richards' lunch with the company card. And I need the receipt brought back to me so I can put it in expenses. Please don't forget this time." Liv walked over to get his coat and assisted him to put it on. "And please don't drink. The last time the two of you had lunch I couldn't get you to do anything for the rest of the day. And you have clients this afternoon, so you have to be back before 2:30."

Listening to every word she said, Fitz mentally made notes hoping he wouldn't forget. "You know I am able to do things without your assistance."

"I'm sure you are."

Fitz left her office and headed down to his waiting town car, greeting Henry as he opened the door. Though he liked Henry, he did prefer Brad. Brad would talk to him on the rides to wherever they were heading. But Henry stayed silent. Looking out the window the entire ride over gave him time to think. And all he could think about lately was Olivia. The little questions popped into his mind first. What does she do in the office when I'm not there? What does she do on the weekends? Why doesn't she want to talk about herself to me? Then as he got to work with her more, more questions came in. Is she married? Does she have kids? Does she have a boyfriend? Where's her family? Does she have any family? Even when he wasn't around her, Fitz wanted to know where she was and what she was doing. Though Mellie was his wife, he didn't care about her that way. She was more of a roommate that shared his bed and all her problems with him. Damn, he wanted to get out of that room and move on. But why bother? He worked all the time any way and was barely ever home so what difference did it make?

Olivia worked through her lunch, again. Even if she didn't have work to do, she would forget to eat. It was never high on her priority list. She went through Fitz's schedule for the rest of the week and looked to the next. The schedule said he would be in California. Opening her calendar on her laptop she saw her notes and realized this is the conference that she would have to attend with him and would have to fly. That was the worst part of it. Getting on a plane to fly across the country. Liv tried to figure out a way that she could either get there a different way or not go at all. Looking through her options she tried to find something until she saw him walk in.

"How'd that go, Mr. Grant?" she asked looking away from her screen as he took the chair in front of her.

"Judge Richards said hello," he smiled.

"Lovely. Any luck on the insights with the Nichols case?"

"He clamed up. I don't think he knows much about it anyway."

"Alright, well you have a few more emails to go through before your call. And I've made your reservations for next week in California." Fitz looked a little confused at her. "You are speaking on criminal reform at the conference in San Diego."

"Oh yes, I forgot about that."

Getting up, Fitz headed towards his office but paused when she spoke. "Mr. Grant? Are you sure this is something you need me for? I'd be much more useful here while you are in California."

"Liv, I need you there. There's a lot going on for this conference and I need your help. It's only three days. Do you have something better to do here?"

"Of course not," she let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair.

"Good, then you are going too. And will you do one thing for me please?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Stop saying Mr. Grant. Call me Fitz."

"That would be inappropriate."

"Then let's be inappropriate."