Abby took a deep breath in and slowly let it out the next morning standing in front of the Oval Office door. As per her usual day, she would need to deliver Fitz's communications briefing to him personally. She was worrying herself all night about whether or not she'd be able to keep it a secret of Olivia's departure.
She slowly knocked on the door waiting for the approval to come in. When it did, she opened the door and went in.
"Your briefings, Sir."
"Thank you, Abby." Fitz held his hand out for her to place the file in. Abby turned to go out of the office but his voice stopped her. "How is she?"
Abby froze, keeping her back to him, knowing that if she looked at him, she would tell him everything. "She's fine. She's Olivia Pope."
"In other words, she's not showing any emotions and has buried herself in her work, right?"
"I'm not sure Mr. President; I'll look in to it for you."
Abby rushed out of the office down to hers getting herself arranged for the day when Cyrus came in.
"Under the radar, I had a couple people look into where she went last night. She had definitely left the city and has not been seen since 7 last night. All we know is Huck and Quinn are with her. Wherever she is, she's gone. And for future reference, you need to be a better liar. I saw everything you said to him," Cyrus told her.
"I'm not good at lying. And he's the President. It's very hard to lie to him. I'm not Olivia, God knows that, and there are times that I can channel her and use everything she has done but this is not one of those times."
"Then you can't be around him. Find an excuse to not sit in on meetings. Give him a reason to fire you or just quit. Because as soon as he finds out that she's gone, this country is going to hit rock bottom. We need to hold that off for as long as possible."
"I won't quit; gladiators don't quit and that's what I have to be right now."
Abby walked past Cyrus heading down to the briefing room awaiting the daily meeting. She would have to confront the press about several situations in a few hours and needed all the details that anyone had.
A week had gone by since Olivia had left. Fitz called each number he had for her multiple times a day dying for her to answer just so he knew she was alive. He asked Abby about her every morning and she gave the same response each time: she's fine.
"I just find it very odd that in a week, she hasn't answered any phone," Fitz told Abby and Cyrus one morning.
"As I've heard, OPA is handling that hookers for senators dilemma and it's taking up a lot of their time. Liv's probably busy yelling at senators who can't keep it in their pants," Cyrus informed him, lying each step.
"Still, she would have answered at least one of my phone calls. Maybe I'll go over to her apartment tonight. She can't refuse me in person."
"NO!" Abby yelled causing both of them to stare at her. "What I mean is that you have a night full of meetings tonight. There's no chance of you leaving this office until way after midnight. By then, Liv will be asleep. You know how grouchy she is when she gets woken up. She can be frightening."
Fitz nodded remembering one time that he did wake her up after a hard day of work. She nearly bit his head off through the phone. "I'll have a detail go over and check on her, just to be sure."
"Sir, I'm not sure that's a good idea," Abby added.
"Why am I getting the feeling that neither of you want me to see her? Is she that hurt that she won't see me?" Fitz demanded to know.
Before either of them could answer, Lauren opened the door. "Sir, the press is ready for you."
"Thank you, Lauren," Fitz said putting on his jacket.
Abby and Cyrus followed Fitz to the Press Room. They stood together in the corner of the room listening to his speech as the press took notes and recorded him.
"Any questions?" Fitz asked finishing. He picked the first one, "Dave?"
"West Angola isn't attacking us, but do you think they will?"
"It's possible, but doubtful. Linda?"
"Would you be sending troops to West Angola?"
"Only if needed. Ryan?"
"Crisis manager and your former communications director, Olivia Pope, hasn't been seen or heard from in ten days. Do you think it's possible that she is working on the Angola issue herself? Perhaps she can make things better over there?"
Fitz stood stunned losing track of Ryan's question. "I'm sorry, Ryan, I missed that, can you say that again?"
"Could Ms. Pope be working on the Angola…"
"No, the first part."
"No one has seen or heard from Ms. Pope in ten days. Do you think…"
"That's all we have time for today, folks," Cyrus jumped in. Questions flew across the room wanting answers before they left. Cyrus was able to pull Fitz out of the room and closed the door behind him with Abby. "Sir, let's go to the Oval…"
"What the hell does he mean that no one has seen or heard from her in ten days? He's got to be joking right? Abby, you've talked to her," Fitz said staring at her. Abby looked away from his face unable to stand the look he was giving her. "You've said she was fine all week that she was working."
"I lied," she said looking at her shoes.
"My God, she taught you to lie like her, how to lie to me. Cyrus, you've spoke to her, right?"
Cyrus let out a loud sigh, "no, sir."
"Then where the hell is she! How is it possible that no one has seen this woman in ten days? She's a high profile crisis manager and a campaign fixer with clients all over the city and no one has seen her? I'm going to her apartment right now."
"You can't," Abby yelled as he walked away.
Fitz turned back to face her staring in her eyes. "I can and I am. Unless there is some reason for me not to go."
"She's not there," she told him. "She's gone."
"Olivia Pope is not gone, she's probably just home ignoring everyone in the world. She'll answer for me."
"Mr. President," Cyrus stepped in, "let's go to your office." Before Fitz could protest, Cyrus nudged him further down the hall to the Oval with Abby following behind him. "Olivia is not in the apartment, she's not in the city."
"Cyrus, I told you we should have told him," Abby whispered to him a bit too loud.
"The two of you have known that she was gone? For how long?"
"Ten days," Abby muttered. "She made me swear not to tell you. She said that she was going to tell me some way that she was ok. She told me I could go with her if I wanted."
"But you didn't, obviously. So where is she?"
Abby sat down on the couch as Fitz moved to sit on the table in front of her. "I don't know."
"Abby, don't you think it's important to know where she is? She's high profile. Someone could have hurt her and we'd never know. I can't help her if I don't have an idea of where she went," Fitz told her sweetly, trying to calm down and make her tell him the information he desperately wanted.
"I honestly don't know where she went. She said she could tell me if I went with her, I can't tell you because I don't know. She took Huck and Quinn with her. There's no way to find her with those two with Liv. Wherever she went, she's most likely not coming back."
Cyrus sent Abby out of the room knowing he was next to be yelled at. He's had ten days to prepare himself for this match and now he had to face it.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Fitz demanded.
"So you could do what? Chase after her? She went away for a reason, Fitz. Whatever her reason was, she did. I can't read her mind. It's possible that her leaving had absolutely nothing to do with you," Cyrus said, knowing that was far from the truth.
"She left and didn't say a word; this has everything to do with me. I need her to be found. I need you to pull her back here or just find her so I can talk to her. Use whatever sources necessary. Just find her, Cyrus."
"Yes, Mr. President."
