"Keep running," Olivia told herself. "Don't stop. Don't look back. Just keep running. You're almost there. Just a bit further."
She could see the door coming closer but it never seemed close enough. She hit the men holding her captive with the gun she stole from them. Anything to get away from them, to get home.
"Olivia…Olivia…Olivia..."
Screaming and out of breath she shot up in bed and grabbed the gun next to her on the night stand.
"Don't shoot! It's just me!" Abby yelled standing at the foot of the bed.
Olivia immediately dropped the gun back to the stand pulling the comforter around her chest for safety.
"You were screaming again. Another nightmare?" Abby asked her slowly sitting on the foot of the bed.
"It's nothing," Olivia played.
"It's been two weeks, Liv. Maybe you should see someone about the nightmares. I think it would be good for you."
"Like go to therapy? You must be crazy. It's nothing, I'm fine."
"You have post-traumatic stress. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of people have it. Therapy helps. Talk to someone, talk to me, about it, about what happened. I think it will be beneficial to you."
"Abby, I'm not going to talk to someone about anything. It happened, it's over, and it's done. That's all there is to it. I have work to be done. And so do you. And I don't need you babysitting me every night. Go home."
Abby gathered her things from the guest bedroom and headed to work. After putting together the daily briefing for Fitz she headed to the Oval.
Once the meeting was over, Cyrus left the room leaving Fitz and Abby together.
"You haven't said anything about her since she got back. I'm starting to think that's a bad thing," Fitz stated. "How is she holding up?"
Dropping the files on the table, she looked straight at him. "Don't you have someone watching her who can inform you on her every move?" Fitz stayed silent for several minutes. "I'll take that as a yes. But you're asking me because I've been closer to her."
"I'd put an agent on her and not let him leave ten feet away from her if she'd let me, don't get me wrong. She's just… she's not really answering the phone anymore. I want to make sure that she's alright. I know you've been at her apartment since she returned. Thank you, by the way, for taking care of her."
"Liv did the same for me. Over a cliff," she said more to herself than to him.
"How is she really? When she does answer all I get is the simple 'I'm fine'. The typical Olivia Pope answer."
Abby was unsure of what to tell him. Her loyalties, as always, would be to Olivia. But Fitz was her boss and her best friends… soul mate. He could help her. "The answer Liv would tell me to tell you would be that she's fine and doing well. That she's heading back to work and everything is going good."
"That sounds like what she'd say."
"But the truth would be that she is so far lost she might not come back to the same Olivia Pope that we know."
"Which would mean?"
"I think you can help her. I'm not sure how but I think you can. There's something between the two of you that no one can actually explain."
Fitz sat forward putting his forearms on his knees. "Give me an idea of how I can help her. I need to know what's going on to figure out how."
"She wakes up screaming. When she does sleep, she wakes up screaming and out of breath, night sweats. Olivia has PTSD and won't admit it. She has nightmares about whatever happened. She locks all the windows and the door the second she gets into the apartment."
"It seems like normal PTSD from what I understand of it."
"Liv's headed back in the right direction I suppose. She sits on the couch and watches the news and eats popcorn and drinks her wine."
"Except? You're leaving something out, I can tell by your tone."
"Except when she's in the apartment she doesn't move a mussel without holding the gun."
"What gun?"
"I think maybe Huck gave it to her for protection or something. But she doesn't move without it. Even just to pick up the wine glass, it's in her hand."
Leaning back, Fitz ran his hands over his face. Whatever was happening with Olivia, whether she would admit anything was or not, he had to help her.
"Thank you Abby, I'll see what I can do. I'll go over tonight and try to help her."
Fitz finished his work later than he would have liked. By the time that he was ready to leave it was already 10:30. Figuring that he'd make it to her apartment just before the 11 o'clock news, he headed out.
Once secret service swept the floor, Fitz knocked on the door. With no answer, he knocked again. After trying again for several minutes, Fitz used his key to get in. Going in, Fitz looked around but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked straight. There was no wine glass or popcorn on the coffee table, the lights were off; it looked as if she hadn't come home from work yet. Going to the bedroom, he saw the bed was made.
"David, John, we're going to the office."
Within a few minutes, Fitz arrived at OPA's door. He tried to call Olivia's phone to get ahold of her. Trying the handle it was locked. Fitz had David unlock the door using his pocket knife.
"Liv?" Fitz shouted for her as he walked through the office, but found no one.
By now, Fitz was worried about her. Sitting down in her office, Fitz pulled out his phone.
"Hello," she yawned answering her phone.
"Abby, is Olivia with you?"
"Mr. President?"
"No, Abby, the damn man on the moon. Is Olivia with you?"
Abby sat up in bed and turned on the light. "No she isn't here. She's not at home?"
"If she was home do you think I'd be calling you?"
"Maybe she's at the office. I haven't heard from her since this morning."
"I'm sitting in her office, there's no one here. Any idea on where she may be?"
"I'll call you right back." Abby called Huck, Quinn, and Cyrus before calling Fitz back. "Sir, I haven't seen her since this morning. I haven't heard from her and neither has anyone else. What happened to the agents you had on her?"
"They haven't seen her in a while."
"Check back with them."
"I left John at her apartment. I'll call him."
