Election Day – Chapter I

Tuesday, November 4th

3:06am

The hotel room was cold.

Olivia ran a hand down her arm, shivering under the thin fabric of her white sweater as she sat at the end of the bed.

She had told everyone she was going off to get a few hours sleep before the polls opened on the east coast, but there would be no sleep for her tonight.

The storm that had raged within her, the overwhelming swell of confusion and conflict that had threatened to drown her had now finally crashed, leaving her alone in its silent wake, utterly spent.

And so she sat, alone and in the dark.

There was no more conjecture, there was no more contention: there was just this.

A sharp beep brought her from her thoughts as a burst of blue light shone from her blackberry, illuminating the room with a pale glow.

Letting out a tired sigh, she glanced at her cell as it lay beside her, then pushed herself up from the bed and padded to the bathroom. Switching on the light with a flicker, she stared into the face that looked back at her from the mirror.

The face of a thief.

The face of a woman in love.

She shut her eyes.

This was it. This is was her now. There was nothing left to do but deal with it.

Taking in a slow breath, she quickly opened her eyes, grabbed her lipstick and masked her dull lips with its smooth colour. Pulling back from the mirror, she took one final look at herself, brushed her fringe into position, and turned away.

It was time to elect a President.

3:34am

"It's raining in Florida!" An intern called out from the phone.

"When will it stop?" Olivia strode towards him through the temporary election base.

"What?" The young man looked confused.

"The rain. When will it not be raining?"

"Ah…" The intern darted his eyes down from hers and brought the phone back to his mouth. "Do you know when it will stop?" He muttered into the phone, lightly tapping the desk as he listened to the answer, then looked back up. "He ah, says it will clear up in the afternoon…"

"Good." Olivia gave a satisfied smile. "Democrats vote early. But I still want teams on the ground with umbrellas in case there's any over enthusiastic Republicans – got it?"

The young man nodded his head obediently as Liv turned away to a waiting intern.

The hotel conference room was buzzing with a nervous energy. She watched as the exhausted staff hurried around the large office, devouring statistics and making calls; empty gestures they clung to in order to have some semblance of control. One year of campaigning and it was now all out of their hands. One year of campaigning and now all they had to do was wait.

Liv swallowed down a shaky breath and looked back at the intern, who held out two colored markers in her hand. Forcing a smile, Liv picked up the markers and walked over to the large dry erase board that loomed over the campaign room, its bare outline of the United States lying in wait. Quickly, she brought up the blue pen and wrote 'RESTON' in clear letters on the left side of the board, then moved on to the red pen.

Her fingers started to tremble slightly as she brought the marker up to the right side. Gripping the pen tighter, she pressed it down to the white board to write 'GRANT'.

As she dropped the markers on the bottom tray, she was about to turn away when a familiar gruff voice appeared from beside her.

"It's raining in Florida." Cyrus Beene grumbled, hugging a giant coffee cup.

"So I've heard." Liv faced him with a weak smile.

"No chance our army of AARP members will forget their hatred of dampness and come out to do their patriotic duty, is there?" He sipped on his coffee with a grimace.

"Meterologist says it will clear in the afternoon." She replied simply.

"Good." Cyrus nodded, yet his expression remained unchanged. "At least they can use their Bingo punching skills in the booth."

Olivia gave a small smile of acknowledgment but looked back at the board as Cyrus darted his eyes warily around the room then stepped closer to her.

"Hollis called…" He murmured carefully in her ear.

"Can we not talk about him?" Liv snapped back to him. "Please?" She tried again in a more composed tone. "Just… not today, ok? Can we not talk about him today?"

Cyrus furrowed his brow as he studied her carefully, then gave a small simple nod. "Ok." He said quietly.

"Thank you." She replied shortly when she glimpsed a group of staffers congregating by the door, with a distinctive lock of brown curls emerging out from the crowd.

A flush of nerves ran though Olivia as she quickly turned to Cyrus. "What's the Governor doing here?"

"Rallying the troops." He looked at her, puzzled. "What do you think?"

Liv shifted her body to block her view, leaving the crowd behind her. "I thought he was going to spend the day watching the results with his family on the ranch."

"And so did Mellie." He shrugged. "But you know our boy, he'd snatch at any chance to be sentimental quicker than a drunk grandmother."

Olivia glared at Cyrus, who raised his hands in concession. The sound of chatter rose from behind her then broke out into clapping as she slowly turned back around to see the crowd of staffers spread out, revealing the tall figure of Fitzgerald Grant, shirt rolled casually up his arms, hands in pockets, smiling humbly at his reception.

His pale blue eyes looked around the room when they finally fell on Liv's, causing a shiver to run up her spine. No matter how many times he had looked at her, it still shocked her how his eyes seemed to pierce her. How they seemed to look straight through her, effortlessly. A stab of guilt hit her stomach.

Fitz raised his hand to quieten the gathering as the clapping faded down and the staff began to settle onto chairs and tables.

"Thanks everyone." He gave a charming smile as his deep voice rang out. "Listen, I'm going to keep this short because I'm sure you're all sick of by voice by now." A scattering of laughter went through the room as he paused for a moment. "It was less than a year ago I was considered a political lightweight. I was struggling with the polls, struggling to get my message out there – no one thought I had it in me. And yet here we stand, on election day. On a day that pollsters have predicted will be one of the closest in history. So a heads up - if you're looking forward to some much needed sleep, don't expect to get it anytime soon." The tired staff laughed wryly.

"Less than a year ago I was considered to be a political lightweight – but you guys stuck with me. You believed in me, you pushed me, and you made me better. You are the reason I am standing here today."

His flicked to Liv's as her heart began to race faster.

"You are the reason. And I can't repay you for that. There is nothing I can do to fully make up for your hard work and your sacrifice, except to promise you - and this is a real promise – to promise you that I will do my best, from the bottom of my heart, to live up to your belief in me and to make real changes. To be the President you deserve. To be the President America deserves."

"In about ten minutes, the polls are going to open on the east coast, leaving our fate in the hands of the people. Whatever they decide, win or loose, I want you to know how grateful I am for everything that you've done for this campaign. I want to thank you because without you all we would never have gotten this far. Because without you all –" His gaze turned back to Liv, fixing his blue eyes on hers. "Without you I am nothing."

The staff broke out in cheer. Olivia's breath stopped in her throat.

She quickly tore herself from his sight and turned around, feigning a smile as the room gradually filled back up with its anticipatory activity. Picking up a tome of polling data, she flicked through the pages while snaking through the maze of people, trying to keep away from Fitz, who she could sense was still watching her from the doorway.

He wasn't supposed to be here today. He was supposed to be at the ranch. But there he was. There he was making her stomach flutter when he looked at her, her fingertips tingle when he talked. There he was, and he was making things… complicated.

Olivia let out a sigh as she reached the coffee cart and put down the poll data, giving a small shake of her head to clear her thoughts as she reached over to pick up a tea bag when suddenly an all too familiar feeling ran through her.

"Morning." A baritone voice appeared behind her, soothing her nerves.

Slowly, she turned around to meet Fitz' gaze, her lip uncontrollably moving into a small smile as he beamed down at her.

"Morning." She replied softly.

"So…" He began awkwardly, a nervousness suddenly rising on his face. "Big day."

Liv sighed as she watched him, wanting so much to reach out and hold his hand, to cup his cheek, but she couldn't. She had to stay away. So instead, she smiled, hoping she could convey with a look all she couldn't do in reality.

"Big day." She echoed reassuringly.

His face brightened up again as he silently breathed her in. "Cyrus tells me it's raining in Florida." He spoke out after a moment.

"Ah." Olivia rolled her eyes slightly.

"I reminded him that Democrats vote in the morning, so if it dries up in the afternoon we've got nothing to worry about."

She couldn't help but smile inwardly as she gazed up into his cloudy eyes.

"Exactly."

A mischievous glean suddenly took Fitz' eye. "Are you a morning voter?"

"As apposed to what?" Liv simply raised a cool eyebrow.

"Afternoon, evening…" He shrugged playfully. "… late night." His voice dropped lower as a sly grin tugged at his lips.

She tried to stifle down a smile as she quickly glanced around the busy room then back at him. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just trying to uncover who you'll be voting for today." Fitz answered with a subtle smirk.

A small pang of pain shot up from her gut that she quickly tried to shake. "Who says I'll be voting at all?" She countered.

"I do."

"Do you?"

"Hmhmm…" Fitz nodded as his low hum sent a shiver up her spine. "I know you."

"I don't know though," She tried to brush off the guilt in the back of her throat with a sigh. "I'm not really impressed with the field this year…"

"Oh, I think I may have earned your vote." Fitz moved slightly closer to her.

"Really?"

"Well there's my support for the Equal Pay for Women act, and for other women's rights… if you want we could discuss this further in private?" He smirked.

"I'd like that." Liv found herself agreeing softly, carried away by his warm smile.

Suddenly a loud thump echoed through the room, snapping them back to reality as Cyrus dropped a large file on a table to get everyone's attention, then stood up on a chair, above the fray.

"Ladies and gentlemen," His weary voice called out. "We are finally reaching the finish line." With an awkward jolt he brought his arm up to his face and read his watch. "The east coast polls officially open in 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2…1."

A audible intake of breath flowed through the room as Olivia stood alone, her hands clenched at he sides.

This was it.

NB:

Greetings! I am Kronos, King of the Monkey People, and this is my first ever Scandal fanfic, so here's hoping I can get these characters right.

But yes, I tried to stay away from writing fanfic but when you're going through this tough a hiatus you gonna need everything you can to get though. So here's my drug of choice!

But yeah, if you haven't guessed this is sort of a continuation of that Good-god-their-flirting-is-off-the-scale tie scene in The Trail, so we'll see how that turns out.

I originally intended for this to be a one-shot but then it just seemed to go on it's own tangent so I just let it run free. Free like a naked cowboy. So methinks it'll be a two-shot. If you want it to be. Cause that's where you come in. I am a slower writer than a stoned sloth, so if you're interested or tickled or just morbidly fascinated in seeing another chapter, please review! Any feedback will get my dormant mind kicked into gear, so thanks!

Now to carry on plodding through this hiatus! *smacks head repeatedly against a wall*