Author's Note:
Warning: I used a cliché gimmicky plot device to bring our lovebirds back together. Just chuck it up as a desperate measure on the part of this broken hearted Olitz shipper.
In regards to Andrew Nichols's death, need to remember that Fitz doesn't know Olivia is suffering from PTSD.
When Fitz probed Mellie for more details as to what was going with Olivia, Mellie maintained her stance and said she couldn't talk about it over the phone but he was needed in Boulder. When he heard Mellie say "please" again, he knew the situation was serious. Mellie was never one for niceties and saying "please" wasn't her style.
As soon Fitz ended the call with Mellie, he hung up and picked the handset again and asked the on-flight communications officer to connect him to Abby at the White House. Since it was daytime in the US, Abby should be at her office. A few minutes later his call was went through.
"Hi, Fitz. What's up?" asked Abby. Abby knew something happened since Fitz called already called her on his cell phone right before he boarded on Air Force One for the trip back to DC.
"Abby, can you reach out to Olivia's team to find out what has happened to Olivia? I got a call from Karen telling me that I need to go to Boulder because something happened to Olivia. Even Mellie asked me to come and she used the word "please" with her request. They say they can't tell me over the phone."
"Sure thing. Are you going to go? If you are, we are going to need a cover story for it unless you want the press to know that you are visiting Olivia out of concern."
"I'm going but this shrouded mystery has me worried. The fact Mellie said "please" makes it even more alarming. Yes, we are going to need a cover story. I'm not taking the press corps with me to Boulder."
"I'll call Andrews to have another plane ready for you to take you to Boulder once you land at Andrews." Air Force One was the name designated to a plane that POTUS was flying on and there were two designated planes for POTUS to fly on. Abby then added, "I'll call someone on Olivia's team to find out what's happening. You don't have anything pressing on your schedule and either Susan or I can cover for you."
"Thanks. How's Susan doing?"
"She's fine. Now that we know the truth, she's carrying on and being the best Vice President she can be with her time remaining in office."
"Good. She'll keep me honest and I'll be the best President I can be with the remaining time," responded Fitz. The sting of Mellie's tirade still lingered with him.
"Good. And with the two of you keeping me honest, I'll be the best Chief of Staff while you are still President, Fitz. I'll call you back as soon as I can," said Abby before she hung up her office phone.
After Fitz placed the handset back on the cradle, he wondered what the hell was going on with Olivia in Boulder. Thirty minutes later, Fitz got a call from Abby on the study/office phone.
"You are set for the flight to Boulder. I didn't make any accommodation arrangements for you, though. If you need to spend the night, we'll need to make the proper arrangements for you," said Abby in her Chief of Staff persona. "I got a hold of Quinn but she gave me the same the line that you got from Karen and Mellie. Something has happened but she couldn't tell me over the phone. She did ask if you were coming and when I said yes, she gave thanks and praise to God and whatever divine forces existed. As per Mellie's instructions, there will be a car waiting for you at Buckley Air Force Base to take you to the hospital where Olivia is."
"None of this sounds good. Have you come up with a cover story for the trip to Boulder?"
"What Ethan and I came up with over the phone is that you want to see your children. The press corps won't question about not being be able to tag along."
"I can live with that. I do want to see them."
"However, should you get into a situation where you are campaigning for Mellie while you are out there, then that might cause problems."
"Not going to happen. Mellie and Olivia haven't asked me to campaign for them and I'm not volunteering myself to do it. Should they ask, we'll deal with it when we cross that bridge."
As soon as Germany flight Air Force One landed at Andrews, Fitz and the White House staffers, the Treasury Secretary and his staffers, and the White House press corps got off the plane. With the exception of Fitz and his Secret Service detail, everyone else got into cars that were waiting on the tarmac to pick up their passengers. As everyone was driving off, Fitz and the Secret Service agents who came to relieve the Germany trip team agents got onto another plane that was now designated as Air Force One headed to Boulder. Ethan gave a short briefing to the press corps to tell them the President was headed to Boulder to see his children who were with their mother on her presidential campaign trail. He successfully managed to deflect any questions as to whether Fitz was actually going to Boulder to see Olivia or whether he will be campaigning for Mellie.
After the ground crew located Fitz's luggage on the Germany flight plane and transferred it over to the Boulder bound flight, the new Boulder trip Air Force One underwent its standard pre-flight check before taking off into the air. Since Fitz had been flying for more than 8 hours from the Germany to Andrews trip and adding on another 4 hours to Boulder, he had spent half a day flying. He walked around the plane to keep his circulation going as advised the White House medical team to avoid the problem of blood clots forming from sitting too long while flying.
When Air Force One landed at Buckley in Aurora which was the closest Air Force base to Boulder, there was an unmarked black SUV waiting on the tarmac for Fitz and his agents. As soon they settled into the car, the car made its 40 minute ride to Boulder and the car stopped at the hospital where Olivia was in. As soon as Fitz and his agents got out the car, the agents from Mellie's detail coordinated with Fitz's detail to bring him into the hospital privately. Fitz guessed Mellie and/or Olivia's team made the arrangements to have this happen. Whatever was happening, Mellie and Olivia's team were keeping it as secret as possible and somehow his presence was needed which also had to be kept a secret for obvious reasons.
Fitz was escorted into an underground elevator which took them up. Once Fitz and the agents got off the designated floor, they took another elevator. When the elevator door opened, Fitz saw a hospital floor that was looked empty for the most part. Mellie's agents lead Fitz and his agents down a wing where Fitz saw Karen standing there waiting for him.
"Dad, you're finally here. I'm so happy to see you," she said as she gave Fitz a hug. Fitz hugged her back. He missed his princess.
"I'm happy to see you, too, sweetheart. What's going on? Where's your mother?"
"Mom is having a freak out moment and one of Olivia's team members is trying to calm her down. Think of me as your advance team, Dad," said Karen with an air of maturity. Karen then directed her father to a private empty room where the two of them sat down on couple of empty chairs next to each other.
"Dad, Mom and Olivia's team haven't been forthcoming about Olivia's medical condition."
"Is the head injury more serious? Is she is a coma?" asked Fitz while trying to maintain his panic.
"No. It's nothing like that. When Olivia was brought into the hospital, she had to have scans done to see how serious the head injury was. When the doctors were doing the scans, in addition to finding the blood clot that formed from her hitting her head on the stair landing, they also found a brain tumor."
Fitz was stunned silence with the news that his Livie had a brain tumor. As Fitz remained silent, Karen continued on talking. "When the doctors told us about the brain tumor, they said they didn't know if they could remove it during the surgery to take care of the blood clot. The first priority was taking care of the clot and if Olivia was stable enough, they would take care of the tumor. If she wasn't stable enough, they would leave the tumor in and if she got better, they would biopsy it to find out if it was cancerous or not."
"If she got better? What's that supposed to mean?"
"The doctors didn't know how serious the blood clot injury would be until they did the surgery. There was the possibility the head injury from the fall was more likely to kill her than the tumor," said Karen while trying to maintain a calm voice. Despite all the crazy publicity attention that her dad and Olivia got for their affair and the embarrassment it caused for her at school, Karen liked and cared about Olivia. She was still dealing with the trauma of reliving the image of watching Olivia tumbled down the flight of stairs and hearing her body land with a hard thump.
"Were the doctors able to remove tumor during the same surgery or is she going to need to have another operation to have the tumor removed?"
"Luckily, Olivia came through the blood clot removal surgery fine so the doctors were able to focus on the tumor afterwards."
Given the all the privacy and information security measures that Mellie and Olivia's team put in place, Fitz had a horrible feeling the news wasn't going to be good about the brain tumor surgery. A presidential campaign manager diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor would be devastating for the campaign and the candidate.
Despite all that has happened between him and Olivia, Fitz would be there for her assuming she wanted him to be there for her. He wanted to know how aggressive the tumor was and what treatment options were available. "How bad it is, Karen?"
"Well, the good news is that the tumor wasn't cancerous. The doctors think the tumor has been growing slowly. They say that non-cancerous tumors grow more slowly because they are less aggressive."
Fitz was relieved to hear the news that Olivia didn't have cancer. After thinking for a moment, if Olivia didn't have cancer and she got through her surgery for the blood clot in her brain, Fitz couldn't figure out why all the secrecy and more importantly, why was he needed to be here. "If Olivia is going to be ok, why I am here? Why is there all this secrecy about Olivia's medical condition?"
"The doctors said when people have brain tumors, they have different types of symptoms. The most common one is headaches. However, another symptom is personality changes and cognitive changes, you know, making decisions, judgment, that sort of stuff."
"I understand. How does this relate to Olivia?"
"Dad, have you noticed any changes in Olivia's behavior? The types of decisions she was making? Did anything seem off to you?"
When Fitz heard Karen's questions, he reflected the time they were living together in the White House. She made the decision to conspire with Mellie to let Rowan out of prison. She said she did it save him and his presidency. He assumed she did it because she didn't want to marry him. There was her decision to have the abortion which he just accepted as her right to choose and it hadn't been the right time for them to think about children, or the more heart breaking reason for her doing it was she didn't want have children with him, if truth be told.
Olivia had demonstrated aggressive, or to which he referred to as "top dog" behavior while living in the White House. There was also her passive-aggressive behavior when she took on the White House ornamental role. The Olivia Pope he knew would have told him off and said she was a person if she felt she wasn't being treated right or being disrespected. Their epic breakup fight resulted in them trading mean and hurtful barbs to each other.
There was the situation of Andrew Nichols. Olivia had said killing him would be wrong but then only to beat him to death with a chair in the bunker. He had found her in a catatonic state and as he held her, he told her everything was to be ok and she just clung to him. However, when Abby came into the room, Olivia's demeanor completely switched with her telling Abby to never cross her again and giving Abby instructions on how to "handle" Andrew's death with the media and Lillian in a manner that was cold and detached.
"Dad, did you ever wonder why Olivia decided to help Mom run her presidential campaign? Especially since she was the one who helped Susan get elected as Senator and has been a cheerleader for Susan when everyone else has dismissed her."
Fitz was then thinking about the past few months during the campaign for the Republican ticket candidate. He had to be brought in to rein in Olivia from unleashing a destructive force against Susan when she discovered Susan had an affair and Casey's father wasn't Susan's husband. She had been so aggressive in her campaign for Mellie. He just presumed Olivia wanted to win just as he wanted win for Susan.
"Dad, now that she has the tumor removed, Olivia is starting to realize that she had made some not so good decisions during past several months. One of them is being Mom's campaign manager. The reason why Mom is freaking out is because Olivia doesn't want to be her campaign manager anymore."