Disclaimer: I do now own Scandal
Chapter Six: Shakin' Hands
Far too pretty to be giving it cheap
That's why she's making six figures
Working three days a week
Yeah she'd even break a promise in the Promise Lad
She didn't make it this far by just shaking hands
- "Shakin' Hands" Nickelback
"So while you were out I had a brilliant idea," Stephen grabbed Olivia the moment she walked into the office, "come and see." He guided her into his office where he had the television playing.
"What did you do?" She asked.
"I had the Nystroms go on television with the picture of Jenny. The most innocent picture they could find. The media is blowing up about her. There are like three million people looking for her now." He grinned.
"Until the media finds out she's the Beltway Unbuckled girl. Then they'll demonize her." Olivia pointed out. "Do her parents know who she is?"
Before Stephen could reply, Abby stuck her head in the room, "I tried to tell him that. He wouldn't listen." She was out of the room before Stephen could find something appropriate to throw at her.
"Her parents have no idea. Why hurt them more when they're already going through this?" Stephen pointed out.
"It doesn't matter anyhow, Stephen." Olivia placed an arm on his shoulder and guided him to his desk chair.
"Why now? Liv, why are you using that tone of voice with me?"
"What tone?"
"The tone you use when you have to give a client devastating news. What happened?"
Olivia took a steadying breath, "Jenny is dead. She was in what looked like a car accident. We need to connect her to Lavich now."
"She's what?" Stephen didn't even hear the rest of her comment.
Olivia looked down at Stephen with sad eyes, "I'm so sorry, Stephen."
Stephen just looked at his hands and then up at her, "What do we do?" He finally asked.
Olivia sighed, "That's your call. This is your case, Stephen." She opened the office door, "Let us know when you have a game plan." She shut the door behind her.
"What happened?" Abby was on her in a moment, "What did you find out?"
"Stephen will let us know when he has the next step." Olivia walked into her office and took of her blazer and set her purse on a chair.
"Conference room. Now." Stephen ordered as he slammed his office door shut.
"What's going on?" Quinn asked as they took a seat, "I have another hospital lead. I feel really good about it."
"Don't bother." Stephen shut the door behind them, "Jenny Nystrom is dead. We have confirmation from the coroner's office."
"What?" Harrison stood up quickly.
"Her body was found in the woods off the highway. I'm going to go down and get the report from the coroner, then call the Nystroms to let them know." He left the room.
Olivia put her head in her hands and willed the tears to go away. They didn't want to, "We need to confirm who she was last seen with. Was it Lavich or someone else?" Olivia shrugged, "Let's keep digging."
SCANDAL
"Thank you, Olivia." Edison stood up, "It's not the news we want, of course, but it's better than nothing at all. We asked for an answer. Thank you for giving it to them. And congrats, I hope Fitz wins the nomination." He ducked his head and followed the Nystroms out of her office.
Stephen appeared a moment later, "I give up." He said.
She quirked an eyebrow at him, "I don't want to do what you do. I want to do what I do. I quit."
Olivia sighed, "Fine, I'll take it from here." She stormed past him, "Conference room, now!" When everyone was assembled, Olivia leaned forward, "We need to find a way to nail Lavich for this. I want a confession. I want something. I want his ass nailed to the wall. Let's get David, Fitz and Mellie here. Mellie has a lot of high profile clients who may be able to pull some strings and get his immunity revoked."
Twenty minutes later the team was fully gathered around the conference room table. "Stephen, autopsy results?"
Stephen stood up, "According to the coroner, Jenny would've survived her internal injuries if she'd been taken to a hospital."
"She was alive when she went through the windshield?" Olivia asked. She felt the nausea creep up on her again.
"The dirt in her lungs matched the dirt where she was found." Stephen continued.
"She died, face down in a pile of dirt?" Mellie looked down at the papers in front of her before looking up, "How do we nail the son of bitch?"
"We can't nail him." Harrison swiveled around in his chair, "He has diplomatic immunity, we can't do anything to him. We can't have him arrested, we can't have him questioned, we can't have any of his property searched. Nothing."
"Unless Kurkistan revokes his diplomatic immunity." Fitz spoke up.
"We have to get the President to ask that though." David replied.
"And he never will." Mellie sighed, "Not when he needs the airspace to possibly invade East Sudan."
"We need to get with some of your clients," Olivia pointed to Mellie, "we need their support on this. And some of your contacts." She pointed to Fitz and David.
"Olivia," Fitz looked at David who nodded, "this is clearly a tragedy, but we're talking about messing with foreign policy."
"We're talking about the death of a young girl. The murder of a young girl." Olivia snapped.
"And she was seen getting into a Spider and he was the only one at the embassy party with a Spider. And his car was in an accident right by the body dump site." Huck spoke up, "We have enough proof if he didn't have immunity."
"East Sudan,"
"Will always be a problem." Mellie snapped, "You're talking about a high ranking goat farmer who lives in a country where women are treated as cattle and sold off as children into marriage to bear children before being raped and beaten by their husbands. They have no say in anything, no educational possibilities. Nothing. He should die just for being from there." She snapped.
"Point taken." Fitz held up his hands in surrender. "Let's start working our contacts." He relented.
SCANDAL
"Edison, I'm sorry, but the President won't budge. And I don't have any clout with him anyhow." Olivia apologized.
"Maybe I can," Edison started.
"What? You don't think I've asked every congressman and senator and mover and shaker I've helped to try to change the President's mind? We're talking about foreign policy and East Sudan. We're," she motioned between the two of them, "not in any position to do anything about this." She paused and barely heard Edison's response before replying, "But two grieving parents are."
"What?" Edison turned to see that Olivia was staring at the Nystroms through the open doorway. "You want to use them?"
"I want to camp them out on the White House lawn and I want the news there and I want the nation feeling for them." Olivia's lips curled into a smile, "It's political gold."
"Liv," Harrison tapped on the doorframe, "the media knows she's the blogger. They've started demonizing her."
"Damn it." Olivia muttered, "Great job, by the way, Edison. That was a curve ball we weren't ready for." She snapped.
"It's all over every news channel." Stephen whispered.
"We need to change their focus. We need to get them to focus on Lavich and diplomatic immunity and how it doesn't protect our citizens. It doesn't protect our children."
"I can leak that." Abby piped up.
"Do it." Olivia turned to the Nystroms, "Don't watch the news, don't do anything. Just sit tight and we're going to handle this. We're the best, we can do it." She promised.
SCANDAL
XOXO
MAS