AN: Later in the season 7 part of this, Olivia is Command and Chief of Staff but she runs B613 in a more balanced way with Jake as NSA Director.
Olivia Pope had been special her whole life. Her private school education, her mother that left her when she was much too young, her focus on becoming the best as she had something to prove- all of them culminated to her uniqueness. So when those words finally appeared on her wrist on her 18th birthday and they were so, well, boring, she was a little disappointed.
Sorry about that.
There were so many possibilities and ways that could've been taken, but more importantly it gave her no clues into who it could be. There were probably 1 million people saying that sentence at any given moment and there were a few close calls when she thought she'd finally found the one- the blonde guy who bumped the back of car while backing out, the annoying redhead in law school who sarcastically apologized when he saw he got a higher grade on the test in class, the guy who jammed up the printer right before she needed it, but all of them had been a dead end. Law school and making a name for herself took over her brain and Olivia stopped worrying about finding the one who would apologize to her.
When she met Edison, she knew he wasn't her soulmate, but if she was being honest, she wouldn't have needed her tattoo to tell her that. The car crash her father seemed to have a hand in only added to her rejection of his proposal, but he wasn't what she was looking for. At the time, of course, her daddy issues and dead mother only added to her convoluted emotions, but why should she stay in a relationship when she knew he wasn't the one?
Fitz, however, was a different story. There was instant chemistry when she met him and the nights with him were long and passionate. The words on her wrist became something she ignored, the way he ignored his wife. Not everyone had a soulmate, she never saw words on her father or on Fitz, which only convinced Olivia that the words on her wrist were wrong. She had her "One Minute", and her all-consuming love for Fitz, so much so that she rigged an election for him, so who cares about someone apologizing to her. If anything, it was just another obstacle in their painful, difficult, devastating, life-changing, extraordinary love story they had.
Now, Olivia Pope had become THE Olivia Pope, campaign manager who turned around the failing Grant campaign, then communications director to the White House and now running Olivia Pope and Associates, so there had been quite a few people who had apologized to her for doing something wrong before she'd even said anything, so they could avoid the wrath of Olivia Pope, but none of them lit her fire like Fitz did. When he left her sitting in the church, mourning her friend Verna and the death of the relationship Olivia thought was supposed to be meant to be, just hours after she ended her relationship with Edison for the second time, Olivia vowed to never again bare her heart, not to Fitz, not to Edison, not to any "soulmate".
Easier said than done, with the conversation she had in the church with the President playing continuously on a loop in her head and Cyrus constantly calling her. She longed for him, but he was in his fortress on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, so all she could do was push herself entirely into work. Olivia was just getting the day started, checking her email and messages, when she walked into a coffee shop to get her daily dose of caffeine, before her phone was knocked out of her hand.
"Sorry about that," the man expressed, "Is it ok? Did I short circuit your life?"
If anything, the mystery man seemed to spark up her life as Olivia couldn't help but match his sarcasm as she laughed and responded, "My life is still intact. Thank you."
She went through an entire conversation with the man with the brightest green eyes she had seen, peppered in with some flirtation, left the cafe, and was making her way up the elevator to OPA as she played the conversation back in her head- this one bringing a smile instead of heartache- before she realized what the mystery man had said.
It's not possible. Olivia, don't go there, you're still involved with Fitz and he could've found out about Defiance you don't have time to go on a wild goose chase for a "soulmate", she thought. Another part of her wondered what if? What if it was possible and she does get love that she felt passionate about which goes beyond closets and hotel rooms?
He made a mistake taking this mission. Command made a mistake assigning him this mission. Actually Jake made a number of mistakes on his own, but if he had just given him the Bora-Bora mission, because who doesn't want to spend 3 months on the beach, only going out and getting intel half the time, they wouldn't be in this situation.
Jake was supposed to learn about his assignment inside and out, while getting close to the President again. He had plans for drinks with Fitz again on Saturday, but his assignment that he had received from Command and his Commander-in-Chief was more of a conundrum. How could he not notice the tattoo that wrapped around her wrist, small enough to look like a smudge on the screen?
He looked down at his wrist often, whether to cover it up with makeup as agents can't have noticeable marks like tattoos -involuntary or not- that could get them caught, or to give himself a break for one split second and let himself believe there could be more to life than just B613.
When he turned 18, the only thing on his mind was getting to the closest Navy recruitment center and getting the hell out of Indiana, but as the words encircled his wrist that special birthday evening, he dreamt of a life different from his family's.
My life is still intact.
Yes, it was strange, but it did mean that he had a soulmate, they were out there, possibly looking for him. Unfortunately, the Navy led to B613, which led to the idea of a soulmate being something for the movies and Jake letting himself sleep with women- other agents, tourists, or locals- all around the world, pretending it filled the hole in his heart.
He received this mission and got instruction that it was time to make contact with Miss Pope, so Jake was his charming self as he walked into the coffee shop he knew she fancied every morning. His plan was to order, maybe take a seat by the window, and strike up a conversation after she walked in, but apparently she was early and stood behind him in line, listening to him ramble on about donuts. Jake didn't even mean to knock her phone out of her hand, that was the universe's doing, but continued on his charming self.
What he wasn't expecting was for her to reciprocate and then he heard it- "My life is still intact. Thank you."
God, he had the worst luck. Not only was this a mission from the President which he suspected was more personal than Fitz was letting on, but Command also asked him to keep an eye on this woman, and now she could possibly be his soulmate? Where does he go from here? Command knew Jake had a soulmate tattoo, Rowan knew everything, but if he had known the specifics and imagined a scenario that his daughter and his work son's tattoos matched up- Jake would've been on the first flight to Bora Bora, far far away from Olivia. But he wasn't. Jake was right here in D.C. staring at the Olivia Pope. Perhaps, the tattoo was wrong and there was nothing there, but it was like something sparked in him and he had the inspiration to see where this went, no matter what was going on in the world around him
They know about each other's tattoos; it was hard to miss once they spent the night together, but things moved so quickly and complications with Fitz and Rowan caused them to avoid communicating about it. That being said, every night in bed together, no matter their relationship status, long after the masks fell and the truth came out, no matter how upset or in love they were as Olivia or Jake looked down at the others tattoo it was a small dose of hope. Or maybe belief that something was going right.
As her relationship -friendship- with Jake developed, with him playing her beard to cover up her affair with Fitz and him becoming Command, the soulmate bond developed more. The other's wants and needs became an underlying feeling. These feelings only made it easier to bare their soul to one another, to be honest and admit their fears, hopes and dreams, but it didn't make the world around them easy.
Going to the island made them believe this was endgame. For a moment, it felt meant to be; the universe was right about this soulmate thing, and Olivia and Jake would live happily ever after, but when they had to return to the shadow of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, they realized they was wrong and soulmates meant more than just being in a relationship.
Being "soulmates" doesn't necessarily mean being in love- they have a connection that lasts beyond dating. Some days Olivia wished she had someone to turn to, like a normal non-terrorist mother so she could figure out her soulmate bond and her conflicting feeling with Fitz and Jake with the dark cloud of her father always looming about.
Soulmates could sense future trouble- that was constant, since it seemed like Olivia or Jake were always in danger but it provoked them often and had them always protecting each other. When Olivia suddenly awoke one night, she thought it was because of the recurring nightmare she had since being kidnapped, and the conversation she had with her father earlier about going against up him to take down B613, so she went back to sleep but next morning after she got the call from Quinn and found Jake lying on conference room table, nearly dead, and knew that she not only had to trust her gut, but also her soulmate bond.
Their dreams connected, too. It reminded Jake to check in on Liv after the kidnapping despite her saying she's fine because she'll never admit her pain- the few times she had, was usually with Jake. It also got a little sinful when they were both dating other people but were having quite sexual dreams about people they were not sharing the bed with. There were nights both of them felt the connection in their dreams, Jake's fingers and lips dancing down Olivia's body, before moving lower and doing that thing she likes. This left Olivia moaning and abruptly waking up, so close to finishing, to find- not Jake next to her- but the President, ashamed at herself and knowing that she was hurting both Fitz and Jake. Jake was only a few miles away staring at the ceiling with Elise lying next to him, unsure of what to do with this knowledge as he didn't start it, a little angry at Olivia for still having feelings for him despite being the one to send her to Fitz and breaking up with her- although a bond like thiers can never really be broken- but also a little hopeful, before crushing that feeling when he reminded himself that he just reconnected with Elise and Olivia exposed herself to the world as Fitz's girlfriend by choice and moved in to the White House.
Months later, after Olitz had effectively broken up, this time because of only Olivia and Fitz, not because of anyone around them, the tattoos were still on. Jake starts dating Vanessa, even proposes to her, who asks about it. She obviously didn't know specifics of his first conversation with Olivia, and still assumed that she was just family- "like a sister", but Vanessa did know that she didn't say "My life is still intact". Jake so vehemently denies believing in the soulmate bond and the tattoo that came with it and even considers for a moment covering it up, that he convinces Vanessa there was nothing to worry about and convinces himself too, but then he sees Olivia and decides to let it be and just ignore it like he did the 2 decades before he ever met her. They hadn't brought it up before and it seems like Olivia only ignored it, so Jake was tired of longing for her and was trying to move on.
They can feel the other's pain- not just physical but wordless, agonizing, emotional pain. Jake held her and was there for her through the drama with her mother, the nights on the island when the sins of her past which ultimately led to an innocent boy's death came rushing back to her and silent tears of just lying in bed together, entangled and letting her get it all out, trying to take the pain away. Even during his wedding Jake could feel nothing but pain as he watched Olivia's retreating figure, but it wasn't all his. There was a lingering feeling of distant heartbreak from the woman hundreds of miles away as he honeymooned. It worked both ways which is probably why Jake was able to relay his pain from all his missions as an agent and the trauma he faced before he stepped foot on the Navy recruitment center.
It was why one evening on the campaign trail when Olivia was in Cincinnati, Ohio and Jake was away in Indianapolis with Quinn and Vanessa- who hadn't yet caught on to the dreams instigated by both Olivia and occasionally Jake- and was one second discussing talking points with Mellie for the rally coming up and the next, in the car on a 3 hour drive to Bloomington, Indiana. With the help of the pull of the bond and FindMyFriends app, Olivia pulled up to a graveyard and slowly walked over to Jake, knelt down, staring at the tombstones in front of him- Emily Marie Harris and next to that, Margaret Anne Cooper.
Nothing was said between the two as Olivia sat next to him and reached out and knew to hold Jake so tight as to never let him go. It didn't matter how annoyed they were at each other, or that if anyone saw the tabloids would have a field day and would basically hand Vargas and Cyrus the Oval, this is what was needed. Olivia pulled back and looked Jake in the eye, lightly tracing his face. She felt his wet face as sadness that had building up for years finally came out and his breaths dragged out, opposing leaving his lungs. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes too, thinking, How can I help? The response she got wasn't verbal but Olivia understood. She held the Admiral tightly against herself, humming and hushing vibrating against her chest in an attempt to soothe him.
"I noticed the money I was sending wasn't being cashed out and then I found out that she just- she died. She died alone. How could I- What do I do-", he choked out.
His raw voice pulled at Olivia's heart, but she was at a loss for words. She tightened her grip to remind him she's there and counter the pressure that came from leaving his mother for so long. She wanted to fix this for him, give him the family and explanation that he deserves, but what could she say here to make him feel better. Jake continued, "I'm proud of her," he said with a small smile. "She changed her name back to her maiden name after my father died. I think she was working at a library." His eyes suddenly turned cold as he looked back at the graves in front of him, "But I wonder… would she be proud of me? Of who I've become?"
Avoiding the topic of B613, Olivia responded, "You've done good work for this nation, protecting and defending it, and now look at you on the ballot on all 50 states-"
"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about work or my 'legacy'. I am talking about me being stuck in a false marriage, pretending like everything is fine." He looked up at Olivia, deep into her eyes and she knew what he was trying to say. They had found each other, they had found their soulmate, but it's never that easy for them. Jake leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, a soft reminder of who they once were, as Olivia held him. Unexpected perhaps, after weeks of avoiding or being short with each other, but not entirely unwelcome. She knew this was partially grief, but she did drive down here based on a feeling and what he was saying was true, so she gave in for just a moment, holding his face and pressing her forehead against his, before leaning back and stating- "We need to get you back."
Olivia drove him back to his hotel in Indianapolis, still unsure if he should be driving as he grieved, and also not ready to let this connection go, as Jake silently held her hand in his, needing all the intimacy he could get, the entire way back. She pulled up to the hotel and put the car in park before turning to Jake. His eyes were dry and no longer red from crying, and let out a deep sigh before telling his true soulmate, but not wife, "Thank you. For everything." and exited, ready to play the part again. Olivia watched as he walked away before looking down at her wrist- Sorry about that- she was sorry, about everything she had put him through these last 5 years.
Not many people knew of the connection between Olivia and Jake; soulmate tattoos were common enough- Quinn even shared one with Charlie- but unless you were there to see the first meeting, it was assumed that you were in a relationship with them or you just hadn't met them.
Soon after Jake's wedding, Abby approached Olivia and reminded her of how lucky she was, "Not everyone has a soulmate, but those who do, it should be easier for them," avoiding talking about her first husband and the pain she could've avoided if she had known he wasn't the one.
Olivia's only response was, "He's married, Abby," wanting to move on from this conversation.
"And? That doesn't matter if you're-"
Olivia sharply interrupted her, "Please don't say soulmates." If the past few years have taught her anything about relationships, it was soulmates aren't bulletproof and if her father makes a threat, he intents to follow through on it.
For Olivia and Jake it didn't seem to matter what was written on their wrists- external circumstances and personal pride, seemed to get in the way.
The divorce papers were signed. Maybe Vanessa realized the bond wasn't just something you could ignore or maybe she found a soulmate of her own, but Jake was single. Olivia was too, it seemed she'd been perpetually single since becoming Chief of Staff, and with Mellie's reelection campaign on the horizon she wasn't exactly looking around.
It wasn't till a few weeks later when a twinge, almost a feeling of warmth or enchantment came through her as she was walking towards the Oval, this one was different than the other ones. She walked with her head held high in charge of the White House and seemingly, the world.
She saw Jake approaching her from the other side of the hallway after he wrapped up a meeting with Mellie-"Hey, I just got off the phone with Senator Van. How'd the meeting go?"
"Good. I reviewed the plan with Mellie, everything I told you yesterday and I'll contact General Maston today."
"Alright," deciding she had nothing to lose, Olivia went for it. She vaguely referenced their bond when she asked, "What were you just thinking about?"
"Me? Oh, just Gettysburger."
Olivia's face fell for a second, thinking, Food? Of course, I don't know why I expected anything different.
"Yeah, I was thinking if you wanted to grab lunch?"
When they got to Gettysburger, Olivia stood in line intently staring up at the menu and heard a snort behind her. She turned around and questioned, "Something funny, Ballard?"
Jake laughed out loud before responding, "Not really, just the way you were debating what to get as if you don't get the same thing every time."
"That's not true, maybe this time I wanted to switch things up!"
At that moment, Jake walked forward to the cashier to order, "I'll get a Double Lincoln meal with Spicy Freedom Fries… and one Underground Railroad, extra sauce, wedge-cut Freedom Fries?" he said turning to Olivia for confirmation.
She rolled her eyes and nodded- she was a creature of habit- before smiling. Olivia stared at Jake as he took their drinks and sat down at a booth, Olivia following as she slid in up close and next to him. She couldn't stop staring as he casually rambled on jumping from a meeting at the Pentagon to some latest sporting event. She took a leap of faith and leaned forward to kissed him, interrupting him, and testing to see if it was still there- the spark she felt when she first met him. It was.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"Don't be." He responded smiling at her with his eyes lighting up, "I've been wanting to do that since I saw you in the hallway. Actually, maybe longer"
She laughed, "Yeah, I felt that," and leaned in to him, capturing his lips with hers as they sat waiting for their burgers, finally with the one they were meant to be with.