The first call happens the early morning after she signs the divorce papers. It's three AM and something inside of her breaks when she hears the shrill ring of her phone. The fear that something has happened to Teddy (even though he's asleep right down the hall) settles in the pit of her stomach, followed by the very real fear that something terrible has happened to Karen.
She scrambles to grab her phone at the quickest pace possible and doesn't even bother looking at the number. No one calls a single, recently divorced mother of thre-two at three in the morning unless something is wrong with her kids.
"Hello?"
Her voice is urgent and a word that is usually two syllables turns into one somehow. After you watch your son die in front of you, it's hard to be anything but afraid when it comes to the kids you have left. And that is probably why her heart rate increases due to anger when she hears the voice on the other line.
"Mellie?"
There's a mixture of rage and relief combining in her system. She thanks whatever god may exist, because while Fitz isn't decent most of the time, he would be decent enough to call if something was wrong with one of their kids. However, rage settles the moment later. How dare the woman who is filling Mellie's side of the presidential bed (she figures no one even bothered changing the sheets gross) (and even if they did, the shape of her body would still be embedded into the mattress-she'd slept in the bed more than Fitz had) wake her.
"What do you want, Olivia?"
They both hear it, the way her whole body seethes when she says her name. Olivia lets out a sharp breath, she's not surprised but it still hurts. They were friends once, colleagues too. They had each other's backs, until Olivia laid on hers in order to bed Mellie's husband. She remembers Mellie's voice after one particular argument. "I may have never had a best friend before, but I'm certain they don't sleep with their best friend's husband." She had been eerily calm, her voice low, cold even. Then Olivia went a month without seeing her or talking to her, a month without knowing if she was okay- it was a bad thirty days.
"I wanted to make sure you were okay."
She knows how ridiculous she sounds. Mellie wouldn't be okay because of her and she thought she had learned to live with it, until Fitz came back from his meeting with Mellie and said she had completely lost it on him. She sounds ridiculous and she doesn't care, because she needs to know Mellie is okay in her new house five point five miles away (yes she had looked it up on Google maps and she wasn't sorry).
"I'm doing just swimmingly, Liv."
"What's my first rule?"
The fixer's (former fixer? Was she going to still do that?) voice is light and Mellie picks up on it, even appreciates it slightly.
"I think it would be a breech of ethics if I asked you to fix me."
Liv hears the hidden meaning behind that. I don't trust you to fix me anymore.
"You're probably right."
The hint of sadness is easily detectable. She did it on purpose. I don't belong here, you do. Everything you said was right.
"He said you were the only one he ever loved."
Her voice is quiet even though her thoughts are so loud. How could he never love me after everything that's happened?
"You know that's not true."
"Yeah."
The silence between them becomes deafening.
"Look, my kid is going to be up in two and half hours so unless you're going to come make him breakfast I really need to go back to sleep."
For a split second they are on the same wavelength. Teddy was alive partially due to Olivia. It was their half-cocked idea for Mellie to get pregnant. Liv wonders if Mellie will ever let her see him or if he's off limits just like she is.
"Yeah, right, goodnight."
"Bye."
Liv wants to say more but the call is already dead, leaving her with just a dial tone and unsaid words that wouldn't give Mellie any comfort anyways. If you need anything, call me (please).
The second call goes out the night Mellie dares to tell Liv she owes her. Mellie has been pacing her bedroom for the past five hours since she got Teddy to go to sleep at nine (an hour past his bedtime) (making her feel like she has failed as a mother twice in one night). She freed Rowan…Eli…Damascus whatever his name was. Her head was spinning and even though she held her phone tightly in her hand, she had no one to call- no one that would understand. She was alone.
A name rings in her mind. Liv.
She knows it's crazy that she's hitting the phone icon next to Liv's name hoping and praying she answers. It's crazy that when she was on the inside of the White House, these phone calls were between Fitz and Liv and now they were happening between her and Liv. Oh how times have changed.
"Mellie?"
Olivia's tone is always so gentle on the phone, it's strange to Mellie, who is always abrasive and angry especially when it comes to Liv.
"Why did you ask this of me? Why?"
Her voice shakes.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have, it was terrible. I'm sorry."
Olivia does feel terrible, awful, horrible and yet she feels so relieved to not be the second Mrs. Fitzgerald Grant III. She hears Mellie take in a shallow breath, almost like she's not breathing because the weight of what she's done is suffocating her. If I could get your son back I would.
"He killed my son, because of you and Fitz. To punish you both. But Jerry paid, I paid. My baby is gone because of you two."
Somehow her tone is not condescending, it is not meant to be a harmful statement, instead it's just meant to be the truth.
"I know."
"He was only fifteen."
Mellie is still pacing, wearing out the carpet underneath her feet.
The line is silent for so long, all they hear is the other breathing. It's oddly comforting to both of them.
"You don't owe me anything."
Her admittance is a whisper, but Olivia hears her. But we both feel like I do.
"I don't know how you want me to respond to that, Mellie."
"You don't have to, I shouldn't have called."
Mellie sighs, she really shouldn't have called. We used to be a team, whatever happened to that?
"I'm glad you did, I shouldn't have…today... I didn't know…"
"You don't have to say anything-I married him, I know. I'm gonna go now."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Translation: I'm not ready to hang up yet.
"Yeah, I'll see you around Liv."
Mellie presses the end button before Olivia can even respond. She doesn't know why she even felt the need to call her ex-husband's sidepiece turned main piece. Maybe because that wasn't how she saw Olivia, maybe it was because Olivia was always more than that to her.
The next call comes on Christmas Eve at four in the morning when Teddy is cuddled into her side. She grabs the phone, silences it, makes sure Teddy is still asleep and then runs to her bathroom where she can talk without waking him. These calls have almost become regular, a comfort. They won't admit it to the other (because it's strange) but they wait for each other's names to pop up sometimes.
"Liv?"
"I broke up with him."
Olivia's speech is slightly slurred and Mellie wonders how much wine she's consumed among other things. We went through all of this for nothing? She has a lot doubts though.
"You have broken up with him more times than I can count."
They both laugh at how they sound like friends even though they aren't or at least neither one of them will ever admit it. The optics of that sort of friendship would be bad for both of them.
"That's a little harsh don't you think?"
"Can you blame me?"
Truth is she can't blame Mellie. Olivia is hyperaware now that every time something affected her and Fitz, it also affected Mellie. She had never thought of it before, she never had to. She never thought of what it was like being trapped in that house with no one. At least at times Fitz would listen to her, but he never listened to Mellie (mainly out of spite) and she couldn't imagine living in that prison then.
"No."
"Are you okay, Liv?"
"Yeah."
She can practically see the younger woman smiling. She can hear the happiness in her voice.
"How'd you get used to sleeping in an empty bed?"
The question isn't that surprising. I haven't yet. She doesn't want to say that though and she doesn't want to tell her that she's been secretly thankful for Teddy wanting to sleep in her room. Even though Fitz hadn't always slept in her bed, she had always known he was close by and that was enough.
"You just adapt, by next week you'll be so happy you have a bed all to yourself."
"I'm sorry Mellie. This is crap I should be talking to Abby about, not my ex-boyfriend's ex-wife."
They both laugh. But Mellie is struck by the reality of this all. We aren't really friends, we aren't really anything at all.
"Yeah, I think this is called a drunk dial."
Olivia scoffs.
"I am not drunk!"
"Sure you're not."
"I'm not cause I can tell you that I'm really proud of what you did-filibustering the bill. I knew you had it in you."
"I wouldn't have been able to do it if it weren't for you sending Susan in."
"Well, I mean, I owed you one."
Neither of them laughs even though it's meant to be a joke. We could have avoided so much pain if I had been a better friend to you. The thought hangs on Olivia's mind constantly. There would've been no heartbroken Fitz or Mellie or Grant children or Olivia. There would be no dead Grant child. There certainly wouldn't have been an abortion. But it's all water under the bridge now.
"Maybe eventually we can get a drink to celebrate being Fitz free."
Olivia smiles.
"I don't hate that idea in the least."
"Okay, well it's late or early or whatever. You gonna be okay?"
"Better than okay for sure. Goodnight, Mellie."
"Night Liv."
And for once the conversation ends on a good note.
Another call doesn't happen for another six and a half months. It's the night after Mellie and Olivia leak a chapter of the book and everything is silent in Olivia's apartment until the ringtone she assigned specifically to Mellie fills the air.
"Mellie?"
She could almost laugh. She had gone from vehemently denying Mellie any help to this. You didn't talk to me for six months, you didn't even try. She had been angry. She had broken up with one Grant and the other had broken up with her. But then she saw her sitting in her office, book in hand, like not talking for six months and only seeing her on TV was normal. But wasn't it? She didn't know anymore.
"Manage my campaign."
It's not a question, it's a statement, like the majority of their late night conversations. They speak only in absolutes when they can't see the other's face. It's safe.
"Mellie, the optics alone…"
She trails off. It would be messy. But isn't everything with them?
"Fix the optics. You're the fixer, the best you say, and I know that to be true. I want the best."
She sighs.
"I slept with your husband, he divorced you to be with me, I'm the reason you went through hell. The American people won't understand, I don't know if I even understand."
She can practically hear Mellie steel herself, get herself ready for battle. Mellie had never made herself Liv's victim, not on purpose anyways. She had always had more self-loathing than loathing towards others; it's why she self-destructed so much, because in her mind, it was always her fault.
"What does it matter Olivia? I think we can make it work and you wanna be back in the White House just as much as I do. I want to make changes, be effectual, and I can do that if you help me. Please?"
"Fine, but we're not announcing it, we're just gonna let it happen. Got it?"
"Got it."
Four plus calls ago, silence falling between the two was awkward at best and usually grounds to end the conversation, but now it's comfortable. They just like knowing the other is there.
"Liv?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad for whatever this is."
"Me too, Mellie, me too."
The phone calls become more regular when the two become more comfortable with the other. On this particular night, Olivia's call comes as no surprise to Mellie who has been lying awake in her bed for the past six hours thinking about the debate.
"Hey Liv."
"You don't sound like you've gone to sleep yet."
Sometimes they're both struck by the idea that they are too close. That they are crossing some imaginary line. That they are angering some unknown being by being friends, by somehow coming out of the rubble of an affair stronger than ever. They never speak these fears out loud, too afraid that speaking it will mean it's over. It's scary how much they've come to need each other. It's scary to think that it all could end.
"I haven't."
"Mellie, you need sleep."
"I know."
"It was one debate."
She knows that is the only thing that could be hanging on her candidate's mind. The debate that had started off so strong and finished with Mellie being a defeated lump sitting in a chair, spouting how the American people hate her.
"Yeah."
"They don't hate you."
Olivia wants to go further, say more, do more, be more for her. I'll make sure they love you like I do by the end. But she doesn't. They're friendship isn't stable enough for that yet.
"If you say so."
She doesn't sound sassy, she sounds defeated and Olivia hates it.
"You trust me, right?"
Mellie practically snorts. Irony is still not lost on her.
"Of course."
"I'm getting you the Oval, believe me. Now go to bed. A tired candidate is no fun, especially a tired you."
They both laugh. They get extra bitchy when they're tired, it's usually not pretty.
"Night, Liv."
"Night."
Mellie's phone rings just as she is about to drift off to sleep after being up for nearly twenty-four hours. She knows it's Olivia because her overbearing campaign manager is the only one who dares call her at this time.
"What Liv?"
She hears a shaky breath on the other end of the call and something in her runs cold. She turns on a lamp light and sits up in bed. She's still in her clothes from the day, she had been too tired to change, but now she's ready.
"Liv? Are you okay?"
Andrew had made a miraculous recovery and was ready to talk. For some reason, Liv had still wanted to handle him. Mellie had wanted every thing to go through her. I have to protect her.
"It's handled. Andrew is handled. Abby wanted him to only talk about you. She threw you under the bus for Fitz."
She doesn't sound upset anymore, she sounds angry and she was angry. How dare Abby do that and for what purpose? To protect a two-term president who was almost done in office? Just to see her fail? She didn't want to care about the motives, instead she reminded herself that her gladiators and Mellie were the only ones she could concern herself with. They had to be protected. And she would protect them at all costs…especially Mellie.
"Why didn't you call me? You know I didn't want you anywhere near him. After what he… No, you shouldn't… You could've let her do it, I would've been okay."
"I wasn't going to let him win, not against us. We deserve this."
Somewhere along the way they had become a collective "we". Neither one of them had fought it. Where Mellie was, Olivia wasn't far behind and vice versa. They were a team like they never were with Fitz.
"Do you need me to come over there? Do you wanna come over here? What do you need?"
Even though Olivia sounds relieved, Mellie bets that if she could see her, she would see the sadness in her eyes. They both know the meaning of the questions. Do you need me? (it's okay to say yes).
"I'm at my father's-"
"Liv-"
"No, it's okay, Marcus and Quinn and Huck will take care of you for a little, I have stuff I have to take care of, but you'll be okay."
"But Liv-"
"You trust me, I don't even have to ask anymore, so trust me that you'll be okay."
"Okay. Liv?"
"Mhmm?"
I'll miss you, please call, please don't shut me out, please.
"Just be careful. See you soon?"
"Yeah, bye."
And the line goes dead.
The call comes at a relatively reasonable hour- midnight. Mellie's head hadn't even landed on her pillow and she's almost grateful that Liv is calling. She almost couldn't bear to leave her when they had landed back in DC. She had killed Andrew. Mellie didn't even know she was capable of it and yet here they were.
"Liv, you okay?"
The worry in her voice is obvious, easily detectable, and it makes Olivia slightly mad. She wants to snap at her, but she bites her tongue.
"I'm fine. I wish he wouldn't have told you. He had no right to tell you. I wish you wouldn't have gone out on that tarmac."
"I had a right to know and you know it."
"If I thought that was true, I would've told you myself."
I didn't want you to look at me differently.
"It doesn't change my opinion of you. It doesn't change how I feel about you. I know he pushed you to it, he was a terrible man in his reincarnated form…even before then."
She hears a small laugh from the other side. Mellie and Andrew had imploded because of her. Because Fitz was too jealous to bear Mellie possibly loving another man. She had given Andrew the option of Mellie or the country and he had picked the country- Olivia knew how that felt. She should have never done it. But it was too late to apologize for that.
"That he was."
Silence. And then…
"Are you and Marcus…?"
Mellie feels herself blush. The truth was that her and Marcus weren't really anything…yet. She thought he was cute and he didn't sugarcoat anything for her, which was endearing after being lied to for so long.
"We're not anything right now."
"Well he is the new Mellie whisperer, so, I mean…."
The hint of jealousy in Liv's voice is obvious to anyone who knows her and now that includes Mellie. It's almost laughable.
"Oh come on. Who told me to be nice to him? Who said, 'Mellie, I need you not to scare him and he scares very easily'? Who told me that she thought he had promise and therefore I had to at least slightly kind?"
She hears Liv groan.
"I did."
But I'm the only one who is supposed to be fluent in Mellie whispering.
"Besides, would rumors that I'm dating Marcus be the worst thing for us right now?"
They both sigh. Rumors that they were dating had come out recently and of course Sally Langston had been more than happy to report on them. Fitz has been fielding questions for weeks on the podium and they had both put out a statement that the accusations were really just boldfaced lies. Things had calmed down, until their phone records had come out. Late night calls occurring when Liv was still in the White House hadn't boded well for them.
"I don't want the press to make a big deal of your attention being focused anywhere but on the country. These are just rumors that will settle, they aren't even hurting your numbers at the moment. We just have to let things happen."
Mellie nods.
"I know and I trust you. It just bothers me that…"
"That no one can accept we're best friends, I know."
Mellie laughs. Of course you knew what I was thinking. She had been saying it a lot though, especially as the campaign was heating up. Mellie needed her. Not just in a professional, run her campaign type of way, but in a Olivia was Mellie's biggest supporter way. It went the other way as well. They clung to each other in a way most people judged, but they just didn't care anymore.
"Yeah…And how they got our phone records."
"I have Huck on that, we'll find out what happened. People have easily bought that we talk about work on our nightly, hour long calls."
Mellie chuckles.
"That's true."
"Are you in bed?"
Mellie smirks. Liv had been keeping her on a strict regimen of sleep and healthy eating while on the trail and sometimes when they were back in DC it made her anxious that she couldn't be watching her girl like a hawk.
"Yes, mom."
"Oh hush, Mel, you know you love it when I dote over you."
I could dote on you forever, don't you get how much I love you.
She can hear the playfulness in Olivia's tone and it makes her heart soar. She just wanted her to be okay.
Olivia calls her Mel because it's the one thing she knows Fitz barely called her even in the beginning of their relationship. Mellie had been just Mellie to everyone else so Olivia had made sure that when she further shortened her already shortened name that it wasn't something that would make Mellie remember the man she married.
"I totally love it, Liv, it's my favorite thing."
"Good, now seriously go to bed. We've got a long few months ahead of us and tonight is our last break."
"I know, I know. I'll see you in the morning br-"
"Bright and early."
They both laugh before hanging up. Because finishing each other's sentences as much as they did was totally normal.
For over three months they don't need to call each other late at night, because they are there with each other at every possible moment. Olivia watches proudly as her candidate, her little Republican who believes love is love and that women deserve to have a say in what happens to their bodies and that they should be paid just as much as men (who is she kidding? Mellie is the most un-Republican Republican there is and she loves it) is named the nominee for the party. After months and months of planning and years of her girl dreaming- it is finally a reality. They have finally made it. But making it means there is a break, making it means that for three days Mellie gets to go back to her house and Olivia gets to go back to her apartment and they will be separated.
It's no surprise that Olivia calls first. On the trail, she had experienced Mellie's night terrors firsthand. Fitz had told her about them one night when he wasn't pissed at Mellie (translation: the world). He had told her in vivid detail how Mellie would just start shaking with enough force to rattle the entire bed, soon there was pained moaning, followed by screaming if she wasn't woken by someone. He had been concerned, just for that night, that she was alone in a big house and big bed and there would be no one to quell the terrible thoughts buried inside of her. He was afraid she would be trapped.
"I miss you."
Mellie is first to break the silence. They had been in close quarters for so long she was unsure how to function without Olivia by her side. (secretly, she wondered if it would be this difficult when Olivia would leave the White House at night to go home.)
"I miss you too. Who knew we would rather sleep in hotels on a campaign trail then sleep in our beds."
After Olivia had heard Mellie screaming one night from two rooms over, she had requested conjoined rooms under the guise that Mellie was always ready for work before she was and therefore needed someone to spur her to get ready. (it made her look slightly incompetent, but she was willing to risk her reputation over Mellie any day).
"Yeah."
"Did the drop off with Teddy go okay, Mel?"
"Oh yeah, he was so happy to see me in person and not on a screen. He's grown so much. He asked about you, I said you might come over tomorrow, if you want?"
"I definitely want, I gotta see my little man and my best friend- 16 hours is far too long."
The conjoining rooms had led to Liv being able to wake Mellie before her screams of anguish and terror began. When she woke up, she was more vulnerable than Olivia had ever seen her. It was worse than drunk on hooch Mellie and that's why when she asked what the nightmares were Mellie would tell her. Mellie recounted to her in vivid detail that the dreams rotated. One was all about catching the full weight of her dying son's body as Fitz spoke to the American people. She spoke about how powerless she felt as she covered his body with her own and felt him seize. The night Big Jerry raped her also played heavily in these dreams. His hot breath on her ear, the way his dirty hands grabbed her, the way no matter how much she scrubbed herself in the shower she would never remove him from her. The lesser played moment was the night Fitz got shot. She recounted how she could still feel his blood splatter on her face, the impact of her abdomen hitting the ground when her agents pushed her down in order to protect her. She thought she had lost two of her boys in that moment. One of the other nights later on, she told Liv part of the reason she wanted to win was so they wouldn't have to clean out Jerry's room- the only piece of him she had left.
The first night Liv experienced Mellie after her terrors was the night she decided that Mellie wouldn't be alone. They shared the bed every night, Mellie burying her face into Liv's abdomen on particularly hard nights. Liv played with her loose curls constantly, it seemed to be the only thing that soothed her. That was when she began to understand the Mellie who wore robes and ate fried chicken and didn't want to go to the State of Union mere months after her son died. The weight was still so heavily pressing on to her even when she seemed to be okay.
"I wish you were here."
Mellie's voice is a whisper, but Liv knows. She knows how scared Mellie is to close her eyes sometimes because the weight of what has happened to her is too much. Olivia squeezes her eyes closed, waiting for the desire to hop in her car and drive to her girl passes.
"I do too, I'd much rather be there, you know that."
There's silence.
"Liv?"
"Yeah Mel?"
"Don't hang up? Can you just stay on the line?"
"I can. Close your eyes, pretend I'm right there."
They both fall asleep fairly quickly, not because of exhaustion, but because knowing the other is close makes them feel safe.
The election is two days away, forty-eight hours and America will be voting for its next president. Campaigning is done. The last speeches have been made. And now there is nothing to do but wait (and celebrate if you're Olivia and Mellie because Mellie is up big in the polls and every single numbers' person and news analyst is sure Mellie Grant will be the first woman president). On one of Mellie's last nights as a normal person, she heads over to Liv's instead of just calling her, because she can and no one can stop her.
And so they decide to end their campaign ride just as they started it- with a lot of hooch.
After about an hour, common sense and good judgment is gone and all that's left is Olivia Pope and Mellie Grant using a wall and each other as support so they don't lay on the ground. Their giggles fill the air even though they're not even sure what's so funny.
"You know what my daddy told me when I said I wanted to be president one day? That I needed to aim lower so I wouldn't be disappointed, he said First Lady was as good as it would get for me. Well look at me now and it's all thanks to you, Liv."
"Oh, come on, Mel. You dragged me into this. This- the presidency- it's all you."
Mellie's face nuzzles into the nape of her best friend's neck and Olivia laughs at the sensation. Mellie wants to cuddle constantly when she's drunk, not that Liv ever complains.
"We make a good team."
Olivia looks down at her best friend and rests her forehead against Mellie's. She never realized how close they could be. And she hadn't realized how much she was going to miss drinking on the floor of her apartment with her best friend until that very moment. Everything was changing and she felt unsure. The White House was known for changing things and she feared it would change them, but just for tonight she wouldn't let Mellie know about that creeping doubt. Just for tonight she would allow them to be closer than ever. Just for tonight she would pretend that if she held on to Mellie long enough, she wouldn't leave.
"The best damn team in the business."
Mellie does, in fact, win the election. The days leading up to the inauguration are filled with packing and stressing and Olivia spending the night because somehow her being close to Mellie keeps Mellie sane. However, the night before the inauguration, Liv is forced to go home and let the secret service watch over Mellie- she kind of hates it. Not even kind of hates it. She is pissed that she can't spend Mellie's last night of normalcy with her. But then again, she wants to spend every night with her. It puts her in a bad mood until Mellie calls and her ringtone floods the air.
"Well hey there stranger."
"I'm already pissed at them for making you leave."
Olivia laughs at her tone. Her president would have to get used to it.
"Cut them a little slack for doing their jobs."
"But Liv…"
"We have to get accustomed to this new normal, it'll be okay Mel."
I'm lying, I don't know if it will be, I'm afraid every thing will be different.
"Yeah I guess, so I wanted to ask you something."
She sounds so unsure of herself, and Olivia knows it's not like Mellie to be like that.
"What's up?"
"Will you stand up there with us tomorrow?"
Olivia tightly shuts her eyes.
"Mellie only your family is supposed to be up there. We have all the kinks worked out. Karen is holding the Bible you're being sworn in on and everything. Optically speaking, it's perfect."
"But Liv, you're my family too and if I have to deal with Fitz sitting close by in case Teddy can't stand still, everyone else can deal with you standing up there for me."
"Mel, the op-"
"I know, the optics alone would be terrible, maybe, but maybe I don't care and I know we would have to organize it so it works, but I want you up there. You're my family."
"Mel…"
"I was looking at the pictures from Fitz's inaugurations. Well the first one, not the second one, because we both look so grief stricken it hurts, but the first one. You're in the background, you're smiling, but you're back there. You were his dirty little secret, Liv, but you're not mine. You're my best friend, I couldn't live without you, you're not a background person in my life. You get all of me and I get all of you. That's how we work, we are a team- a real team, Liv."
Olivia knows it's true. They had always believed that they were (separately of course) a team with Fitz. But he was only in it for himself. He was only ever in it for himself. But with them- it was different.
"Just say you'll stand up there please? I need you, Liv, that isn't going to change."
"How'd you even…"
"Oh, come on, I spend twenty out of twenty-four hours with you daily, I know you're worried, I am too. Please?"
"Okay, I'll stand up there with you, but I'm blaming you if your approval rating is down."
"I'm okay with that."
Olivia knows she's smiling and she can't help but laugh.
"You always get your way with me, I should probably say no more often."
"Nahh."
"Go to sleep, Madam President, I'll see you in morning."
Mellie whispers an "okay" before hanging up and going to sleep.
Her first night in the White House is quiet. Karen has gone back to school because "mom it's really cool that you're president now, but I have calculus at eight AM" and Teddy is asleep and will be for some time. She tosses and turns and tries her best to fall asleep, but she can't. She goes to Jerry's room for a while, sits on his bed, hoping that somehow the sheets still smell like him- they don't. It's been four years and everything smells like dust and sadness. She wants to go find some hooch, drinking until there's no tomorrow, but tomorrow is her first real day as president and she can't be hung over for that.
Finally she picks up her phone and calls Liv. It only rings once.
"Are you okay?"
Liv sounds worried.
"I can't sleep."
"Well why?"
They both laugh a little.
"I don't know. I'm excited? But... I'm used to him being here. Not even here necessarily, but in the House, in the oval, talking to you. It feels weird. I haven't missed him in so long, but tonight…I don't miss him, but maybe I wasn't ready, maybe I should've waited. Maybe he was right all along and I'm ornamental not functional. Liv, I shouldn't have done this, I was wrong. I don't belong here, in this big house, all alone with all these ghosts. I can't settle, but I can't leave the room. Do you know how many people have to wake up if I leave this room at two o'clock in the morning? So many. I can't…"
"But you can."
Her bedroom doors open and in walks Liv with two suitcases in hand. Mellie presses the end button on her phone and grins. Liv is a sight for sore eyes after barely seeing her for most of the day. Liv drops her suitcases and jumps into the bed next to Mellie.
"What are you doing here?"
Her eyes drift back to her best friend's suitcases.
"Well, I mean I don't have to stay in here if that's too weird, but I was thinking I could stay for a while. I mean I'm your chief of staff and I need to be able to be with you when you need me or whenever I need you- which is often."
"I'd like that, a lot, actually. You can stay in here. I'm sorry I brought him up like that."
Olivia twirls a piece of Mellie's hair around her finger.
"It's okay, I know, it's weird. But I'm here now and you're here and we're better together."
Mellie rests her head on Liv's shoulder as they both get under the comforter.
"Hey, this bed is really comfortable."
"I had them change it before I got here. I'm thinking of burning the other one."
They both can't help to laugh for a while before falling asleep with Liv's suitcases on the floor and the room itself being a mess. And maybe (probably) there will be more rumors of the President sleeping with her Chief of Staff, but neither of them care. Instead, they will wake up each morning and run the country without having to worry about a man getting in their way.