This is my first Scandal story and my first fanfic in aaaaaages. I hope you enjoy the journey. Huge thanks to my beta! You are the shiz. Oh and for legal purposes, I don't own anything all hail the Shonda! Enjoy!

When Cyrus Beene was a child he'd dreamed of growing up to be many things. A fireman, an architect, a spy, but what intrigued him most of all was a job that involved power. He wanted a job with the kind of power that could change the world-presidential power. Alas, early on Cyrus realized he would never be King, but he could sure as hell make one and sit right next to Power. He could affect change, when he spoke his words would carry the weight of the President with them. carried the weight of the President with it. So, why was Cyrus Beene, king maker extraordinaire, fighting to keep his head from exploding?

Two simple words seemed to be the cause of all of his problems. Olivia Pope. Cyrus loved her in his own special way. He had taken her under his wing after she had efficiently cut down an obnoxious upperclassman in his Torts class at Georgetown. How could you not be enthralled with her? She was brilliant, beautiful, passionate-and missing. Olivia Pope had been missing for seventy-two hours according to her associate, Harrison Wright. At first, when Cyrus heard the news, he had dismissed it as a case of overprotective friends. Olivia probably just needed space. After all, it had been a rough month. But Harrison had remained diligent.

"Do you think I want to be on the phone with you right now?" Harrison hissed. "I know Liv. Something has happened to her. If there was any other way to find her I'd take it, believe me, but this just got serious. Liv is gone."

Cyrus sighed and proceeded to go through a group of unread emails. "Look, Harrison, is it?"

"I figured this was a mistake," Harrison cut Cyrus off. "But for some reason Olivia cares about you and I thought maybe, just maybe, you felt the same way about her and you'd give a damn. Guess I was wrong."

"Wait!" Cyrus shouted before Harrison could hang up, positive he would live to regret it." Tell me what you know."

Forty-five minutes later Lauren Smalls watched Cyrus pace quietly in front of her. In the year that she'd been working at the White House she'd seen him scream, yell, make people cry, and even smile twice, to be exact, but she had never seen him unsure of himself. As a matter of fact, he almost looked afraid.

Lauren cleared her throat.

"Mr. Beene, you can go in, he's only meeting with Ed and Larry."

"No, I'm fine waiting." Cyrus replied, and then, almost as an afterthought. "Lauren, can you-"

"Cyrus!"

He flinched at the voice calling him. "Mellie, I thought I felt the temperature drop 20 degrees."

The first lady breezed into the outer office, giving Cyrus a snide smile. "Why are you avoiding Fitz?"

"I'm not avoiding him," Cyrus snapped indignantly. "If you haven't noticed I'm standing right outside of his office."

Mellie rolled her eyes. "Yes, you're standing outside, instead of barreling in like the bull in a China shop that you are." She smiled as he stiffened. "What are you afraid of?"

Cyrus mulled over his options. He could lie, but Mellie could sense when something was off and it would only lead her to start digging. On the other hand, if he clued her in maybe she could run interference. His mind made up he grabbed her arm and led her out into the hallway. "Olivia Pope is apparently missing."

"What do you mean 'apparently missing'?" Mellie glanced around her to make sure no one could hear. "She either is or she isn't."

"Right now, it's looking like 'is.'" Cyrus explained. "One of her employees called me and said no one has heard from or seen her in three days. Her credit cards haven't been used in four and not one phone call or text message has been returned in that time either." Cyrus stopped, the severity of the circumstances seemingly hitting him at that moment. "So rejoice."

"What are you planning on doing with this information?" Mellie inquired, her curiosity piqued. There was finally something happening around her that didn't involve China patterns. Her husband had all but shut her out of his reelection plans and she was bored stiff.

"I'm going to tell the President." Cyrus replied.

"You are going to do no such thing, Cyrus Beene." Mellie snapped.

Cyrus sighed. "I know you hate her, it's justifiable. Your husband wants to run away with her, but-"

"You cannot tell Fitz that Olivia is missing." She cut him off. "He will cease to function and you know it."

"You do know that he's a grown man, President even?" Cyrus defended, head tilted to the side. He was becoming tired of Mellie's put downs of his boss.

Mellie gave a mirthless laugh. "He's a hopeless romantic who falls to pieces when Olivia Pope is involved, and I am not going to let the idea of his whore never being heard from again keep him from being the President." She reasoned, but Cyrus still looked unconvinced. "You know how he's been since she turned down the offer to run his campaign." Mellie waved her hand. "He's going through the motions, but he is clearly not invested." She went in for the kill. "Cyrus, if you tell him that Olivia is missing he will step down and go look for that woman himself. Are you ready to stop being a puppet master?" she goaded him. "I hear Harvard is looking for a new President."

Lauren popped her head out into the hallway. "The President is available now."

Cyrus nodded but kept his eyes on Mellie.

"Thank you Lauren." Cyrus responded, he then addressed the woman in front of him. "When you exited from the gates of Hell, were there plumes of smoke or just thunder and lightning."

"I am a patriot." She scoffed, one eyebrow cocked.

Cyrus started for the Oval office, passing the two men who were exiting. "Hi Larry, Ed."

Ed pointed to the man behind him. "That's Larry, I'm Ed."

"I don't care." Cyrus responded and entered the Oval, shutting the door behind him.

Fitzgerald Grant looked up from the papers on his desk "Cy, do you know if my remarks for the Rose Garden have been finalized? I think I should have some idea of what I'm going to say before I stroll out there in," He looked at his watch. "Forty-five minutes."

"Tina should have them shortly sir."

"Cy."

"Yes."

"Why are you standing by the door, come in." Fitz examined him with some concern. "Are you feeling okay?" The last thing he wanted was Cyrus having another heart attack.

The older man shrugged and gingerly walked over to the couch and sat down. "To be honest sir, I've had better days."

Fitz nodded. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Why?"

"Okay." Fitz stood up and walked over to where Cyrus now sat. "You came in to talk to me about..." He trailed off hoping Cyrus would finish the statement. Fitz was aware that his patience with those around him had been short lately, he just hadn't been in the mood to make anyone feel... at peace. Not when he was far from it.

Cyrus gave a heavy sigh. Just a minute ago he'd been dreading the news that he was going to deliver, now he wasn't sure if he was going to say anything at all. He looked at an expectant Fitz. "The remarks for the Rose Garden. I just wanted to let you know that they're just about ready."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"You know we have a whole communications department that could have told me that."

Cyrus nodded. "Yes sir, but this is your first time since the whole Jeannine Locke incident that you'll be in front of reporters. Just wanted to make sure that your head was in the game."

"I'm fine Cy." Fitz was clearly exasperated with his chief of staff. "I can handle a little speech."

"You're right," Cyrus acquesed. He knew better than to push and their relationship was still on soft ground. They were better than they had been a year ago, but Cyrus doubted he'd ever again have the younger man's complete trust. He stood to leave. "Sir," He stopped at the door, it was now or never. "Have you, uh, spoken to Olivia lately?" Cyrus saw the younger man's face darken for a flash only to be replaced by a mask of neutrality.

"No, Olivia and I have nothing to say to each other at the moment." There was an air of finality to his statement and Cyrus sighed before leaving, his decision made.

"Thank you, Mr. President." Cyrus closed the door behind him.

An hour later Cyrus was preparing for a meeting on the Hill when he heard the TV in the outer office. "Mary," He bellowed. "Could that possibly be louder?"

"I'm sorry sir, the President is taking questions now and I wanted to hear."

Cyrus walked over and leaned against the desk, his interest now piqued. The camera panned to the pool of reporters raising their hands and then to a confident Fitz who pointed to a woman in the front.

"Yes, Rachel."

"Mr. President, what is your response to the report that former White House Communications Director, Olivia Pope has gone missing?" Rachel asked with genuine interest.

The camera zoomed in on a stricken Fitz and Cyrus felt his heart stop. Cyrus Beene was having a very bad day.