Authentic

TygTag

Olivia never agreed to election rigging but the rest of the team took the plunge anyway without her agreement. Spoilers for up to 2x13

This is my very first Scandal story, I have a million ideas floating around in my head but this is a major one that I have just not been able to get rid of. Any and all mistakes are my own. Currently a one shot but if it gets enough interest I just may expand on it.

-a-u-t-h-e-n-t-i-c-

"You know… Verna; of course – a deathbed confession, did she happen to give you the whole story!? Did she happen to mention that despite the fact that I knew, my answer was ALWAYS emphatically no!?" She whispered viciously.

This caused a very noticeable and momentary pause and the expression of barely concealed anger and betrayal to drop from his face.

"No, of course not… why would she?"

Without a thought to appearances a large hand shot out and grabbed her arm before hustling her out of the church and through a side door into a deserted hallway.

"Explain," he said simply.

She inhaled sharply before a snarl left her lips.

"You want to know what happened. Hollis Doyle happened. It was all his grand idea. He approached Verna, Cyrus, Mellie and I, he said he had a guy. Needless to say your beloved wife was one of the first ones to have her eyes light up like god damn Christmas tree lights at the thought of the White House being locked down and basically in the damn bag. Verna and Cyrus were more hesitant but they two could see what would be in their very bright futures if you won. Me… I freaked the fuck out and removed myself from the conversation. It didn't stop there though, for weeks… weeks they pressured me to say yes. It was always this "you jump I jump jack bull" – meaning they wouldn't go through with it unless we ALL said yes."

A ragged breath escaped his lungs at what he was hearing; a wave of nausea caused him to sway slightly.

"Yeah that sick feeling you have on your face now, that's how I felt for weeks! My answer whenever it was brought up was always emphatically no! I believed… I believed in you, always! You had it, you have it! I could see you, for you. I knew the race would be close, so close there was real potential you could lose but I believed you would get the votes needed to win. So even at zero hour when Cyrus told me that I was a political monster and that because I worshiped at your altar – which god help me I do – that I needed to do this for you, for the country I still held true and said no!" She finished brokenly.

"So… how, I mean Verna said it was done." He asked quietly, his eyes red rimmed.

A shuddered and shaky breath later, large brown eyes welled with tears.

"I don't know, and that is the truth. I had had enough of it all and was coming to confide in you but it was on the plane when you had just found out your father had died. So I made a decision to never tell you, in my mind at the time it didn't matter. You would never need to know because I was never going to say yes. However, when the numbers started to roll in for Ohio – I just knew. I knew they had gone ahead anyway without my agreement. I confronted Verna, she basically told me that because I knew and didn't do anything about it I could still go down with them for it and I had best just keep my mouth shut. That everyone was getting what they wanted and what they deserved. So I stupidly kept my mouth shut because at the end of the day the only thing I wanted was for you to get your dream and to be President." She finished with a whisper.

"Livie," he whispered as he quickly tried to move forward and step into her personal space.

"No! You don't get to touch me." She bit out and jerked out of his reach.

"Liv,"

"Never call myself a mistress, I mean more than that to you. If I learned anything the last five minutes it's that everything… everything you've ever said to me is a lie."

He began to shake his head and tried to desperately reach for her again.

"You get a half assed death bed confession from a corrupt Supreme Court justice and me, the woman you claim to love – well you can't even give me five minutes of your time to find out my side of the story, the full story, the true authentic version of events. What was it you said? "Political Suicide" right!? Well you can go to hell Fitzgerald!"

"Olivia, please!" he sighed out brokenly as he once again tried to reach for her.

"I hope you enjoy keeping company with the lot of them, those who didn't actually believe in you. Not the way I did."

"Livie," he whispered as a few tears began to slip down his cheeks.

"I was going to wait for you, fool that I am. I thought you were the real deal, that you were it."

"We can-"

"No! We can't… don't forget screwing your mistress is one thing but marrying her is political suicide, I'm sure you can come up with some other fun derogatory adjectives to go along with that."

"Olivia!"

"Goodbye Mister President" She said softly, before turning on heel and abruptly making her way down the long corridor and out of the church proper.

With a broken sob, Fitz collapsed against the nearest wall and slid to the floor. He then let one leg sprawl out in front of him before pulling the other to his chest. That was exactly how Cyrus Beene found him exactly ten minutes later.

"Mister President, are you alright?" he asked cautiously.

End

Or is it just a beginning? Let me know!