AN: So this is my first Scandal fanfic so go easy on me. I am in love with the show and I wanted to write a fic for Mellie and Olivia. I might write more, if anyone wants me to but this is just a test chapter to see how it goes. I hope you like it! :)
Summary: Every secret that Olivia had, she couldn't keep them anymore. Especially not from Mellie, no matter how much it hurt. Everything would come out sooner or later. Takes place during the elevator scene flashback in 2x11
She should have known better than that. After all the years she had spent - correction; wasted - with Fitzgerald Grant: Mellie should have known that bringing his Father into the campaign couldn't be helpful. Far from it. Still, if she wanted him to win the campaign, then she was supposed to exhaust all the resources that might help their campaign and bring in the final prize. And Gerry was their final solution and at the time, Mellie believed that it was worth bringing him in. She couldn't have been more wrong than that.
As the wall clock continued to tick, Mellie felt herself grow uneasy with the silence that settled over the remaining guests at the table after Fitz's and Olivia's departure and headed toward the staircase; technically running up the stairs despite the fact that the heels on her feet weren't helpful at all. Still, she needed to get to the campaign's floor; the one that The Grants and Olivia long with Cyrus shared. Which was Cyrus' idea that the four of them should have their rooms on the same floor. Once in front of the elevator, Mellie caught sight of the doors opening and a silent gasp leaked from her lips at the sight of her husband trying to take advantage of Olivia.
After chiding him out of the elevator, apologies started to fall from between her pale lips before she pulled the shorter woman into a tight embrace. Through her embrace, Mellie tried to comfort the other woman and reassure her that everything was fine and that she was extremely sorry for her Husband's behavior despite the fact that it wasn't her fault.
When Fitz left the elevator, Olivia was felt with immediate guilt when she was left alone with Mellie. What made it worse was that she was apologizing for her husband's behavior. She couldn't keep hiding this, it might wreck Fitz's career but she knew that they had to stop. How Mellie was treating her with so much respect, she deserved the same. Olivia just shook her head at the apologies, she didn't deserve any of them but Mellie pulled her into a hug. It changed everything.
Hugs with other people never seemed to mean anything, but she could feel the care and concern in this one. It made Olivia feel even worse as she returned the hug, she was strong but her exterior was breaking at how guilty she felt at the moment. She pulled back and shook her head. "Mellie, this wasn't the first time something like this has happened." She took a deep breath as she finally faced her, seeing hurt written all over her face.
"Olivia..." She began, clearly wanting to stop the other woman from speaking more; to tell her that it wasn't her fault that her Husband had tried to get her into his bed. But the other's words continued and Mellie felt a hard swallow fall down her throat at what was about to come.
When she saw the look on Mellie's face she had to continue, she couldn't keep all of this hidden. When the taller woman said her name, she looked up at her with sympathy in her eyes. It would tear her apart if Mellie never knew the truth, she deserved at least that much. "You deserve to know the truth - which is why I will resign from the campaign. I am so sorry that we did this to you." Her eyes finally met Mellie's with sincerity. "I wasn't thinking when we started. I didn't realize how much you would be hurt but - he needed me and I needed him." Her eyes darted downward, she couldn't stand to see the damage her and Fitz had caused on Mellie. She didn't deserve any of this, especially not from Olivia. "I'm sorry, I should go." She stepped towards the doors of the elevator and waited for them to open.
Taking a deep breath as she waited for Mellie's reaction, she knew that she shouldn't have revealed all that she had but it needed to come out, sooner or later she would find out. Olivia didn't know any way to apologize to someone when she wrecked their marriage. She was supposed to be a crisis solver and right know she had no solutions to the problem at hand right now. Nothing she could say, would be able to take back her actions. Her intention was sleeping with Fitz but in the heat of the moment, she didn't realize all the other damage she would do - destroying their marriage. She noticed Mellie's expression drop after she was done speaking. Everything was out in the open air, but it didn't make her feel better.
Something was wrong; she could feel that as soon she stepped into the elevator and caught sight of Olivia's guilty expression. However, she hadn't expected the confession that was about to follow. Of course, Mellie wasn't that naive as people believed her to be. She noticed that her Husband was attracted to Olivia ever since the first moment she set a food in the campaign trail, but she never expected the other woman to fall for his charms. Especially not when the two of them got along so perfectly.
"I-..." Her words died down in her throat as she remained frozen in the middle of the elevator; her lips parted as if she wanted to speak, but she couldn't due to the shock that overtook her. Olivia slept with her Husband? Mellie found that detail hard to believe. "Why?" She found herself ask as she watched the other woman step out of the elevator and her right hand shot out to rest on the elevator's door's edge in order to keep it from closing. "Why did you do that? ...Why did-..." Her words died in her throat as she stared ahead; her bright blue irises clouded with a veil of tears that settled over them.
There was no way to explain how she could betray the woman in front of her, there was no good reason for their mistakes. They didn't just do it once, or twice. It was more. Olivia had even began to develop feelings for Fitz, but she wouldn't reveal them because once that secret was revealed he would leave. He would've called the fling off. The problem was, she wanted to believe that it was more than sex but she knew that it was nothing more than just that. She felt guilty every time she looked at Mellie. Thinking back to the nights that they had spent together she was starting to wonder if it was worth all the hurt that they had caused Mellie, accompanied with the guilt Olivia felt.
The woman that Olivia always knew as strong and cold was breaking because of the confession. She could see her eyes tear up and she didn't know what to do. She couldn't make the situation any better. Mellie deserved answers. "We didn't do it to hurt you. I shouldn't have been so selfish. I thought - maybe it would be more than sex. The way he looked at me - I just thought if someone like him would want me, I should go for him." She looked at Mellie and took her hand, "Mellie, I-" She couldn't get the words to spill from her mouth. "I know you're angry, if you want me to leave, I will. Just say the word." Olivia looked at the taller woman, she had no idea what to do at the moment so she pulled her into an embrace. "Nothing can take it back, but if my leaving helps you I will."
Betrayal was something that Mellie had faced more than once in her life. It didn't surprise her anymore that the people around her aimed to hurt her. Although, part of her, was aware that some of them didn't gave a second thought over the things that could hurt her. Because they didn't care. Plain and simple. Something that she hadn't expected from Olivia. She trusted the shorter woman wholeheartedly and even confessed in her when something went wrong or when she found something displeasing. But now, whatever trust Mellie managed to gather and use on Olivia faded away and the only thing that remained behind was the shell of the previous fate that she had in the shorter woman.
Excuses. She didn't need them. She never did. Mellie rarely ever asked for excuses or apologies on her side. She didn't care about them. In her mind, what was done was good done and not a thousand apologies could repair what was broken. In this case, her trust. Granted, there were moments in her life where she forced people to apologize, but it was because she deserved an apology. Even if they were only empty words hanging in the air.
The other woman's confession cracked Mellie's armor; leaving her vulnerable to the situation although she tried to mask it by holding her chin up and avoiding the other's gaze. It wasn't the fact that her Husband cheated on her that broke her. She didn't give that much of a second thought to that fact. It wasn't that she cared about him as much as to even shed a tear if he was being a cheater. She didn't love him in the way a married couple was supposed to be in love.
The fact that hurt her was that Olivia was the woman that he slept with. The woman that smiled in her face only to go and sleep with her Husband in a darkened corner. That thought shattered her; destroyed her even if she tried to hide it.
"You didn't care," Mellie began and blinked twice before she settled her eyes on the woman in front of her. "You didn't gave a damn that I trusted you. That I believed in you. You went behind my back." Her gaze was steel cold as she glared at the shorter woman and wiggled her hand out of her grasp. "You don't have the right to-" She was cut off when the shorter woman pulled her into another hug and a heavy and slightly shaky sigh leaked from her parted lips. "Why would you trust him? Why would you give up your dignity to sleep with him? You thought that he wanted you? That he would ruin his campaign to be with you? This is ridiculous. I can't believe that you fell for that cheap 'I don't get along with my wife anymore' trick of his." At some point during her speech, Mellie pulled back and straightened her posture; her blue irises remaining on the shorter woman although a hint of sympathy mixed with anger and hurt appeared in them.
Every word that came out of Mellie's mouth was true, and Olivia hate that she fell for all of his charms. She thought she might actually have meant something, the way he was starting to mean to her. The truth was, Olivia wasn't allowed to be upset and if she was she couldn't show it in front of her lover's wife. There were no words that she could use to fix any of this, or even make Mellie felt slightly better. She had betrayed the woman before her, she felt so terrible about it but there was no way she could show how badly it had been tearing her apart.
The words from earlier kept running through her head, 'I don't know what he'd do without you. I don't know what I'd do without you.' She took a deep breath and tried to stop those words from continuing to invade her thoughts, it was completely useless. Olivia didn't have a choice except to leave so Mellie and Fitz could be happy, so they could try and forget that she was the one that had wrecked their marriage. There was nothing else she could do, she couldn't fix their marriage and all her apologies were out there. For the first time in her life, Olivia felt weak because all the control she had once held was now in Mellie's hands. Being forgiven was out of the question, but staying here for them wasn't.
A sigh escaped her lips as she tried to find something to say, but nothing would be able to gain Mellie's trust or friendship back. She wouldn't be able to make her feel any better with words or a hug, there was nothing that could make any of this any better. Mellie trusted her and she just betrayed her - without thinking about it. She slept with her husband, in the process Mellie was hurt, but what she didn't know was that Olivia also was.
Up until this moment, she had not realized how important the woman's friendship was to her as Mellie pulled away from her. Olivia shook her head at Mellie's words, there was one thing she did have wrong. Looking up at the taller woman, "I do care about you Mellie."
There was nothing she could say to make her believe her but the truth was she did care. "If I didn't care, I wouldn't have told you that it happened, you deserved to know that I betrayed you and in the process - I lost your friendship." The realization set upon her - she never realized how important the woman in front of her was to her, a look of hurt took over her expression at the thought. She wasn't allowed to be upset, Mellie was. The woman who was betrayed didn't have to care, she shouldn't care that Olivia was crumbling at what she had done to her.
"I should have told you before but I knew it would only hurt -" She shook her head. Everything that came out of her mouth sounded so ridiculous, Mellie wouldn't care about any of it, because nothing would help the situation. "I don't know why I fell for it - that anything could come from it. The look he gave me, it just seemed so sincere that maybe he would care, but he didn't. He never did" Olivia looked down to the ground as the tough exterior, she took so much pride in building, was starting to break down. She couldn't let herself break down in front of Mellie, not now. Not after everything she had just told her, she wouldn't let her comfort Olivia about her husband tricking her. Her vision was starting to cloud with tears when she looked back up at Mellie, "I don't know why I could have thought that he wanted me." She shook her head as she felt her eyes start to water more agressively. "I'm sorry I was naive -"
Looking at Mellie was painful so she knew what she had to do. "I'll be gone by tomorrow, don't worry. I'm sorry for all the pain I caused you." She moved and started to walk towards her room again. Losing her self-control was something that she couldn't do in front of people, she just had. In front of Mellie, she let her guard down and now Mellie was exposing to her that no one with that much power would ever want her for anything more than her body. The part that upset her was that it was the truth.