Thanks for all the reviews of the last chapter. As a reward, here is another one. FYI, Luis the agent is named for Luis Alberto Aracena, who actually plays one of Fitz's secret service agents (pre and post presidency) and has been awesome about tweeting from the set on Instagram.
DAY 51 - EVENING
"Luis, one of my new agents, tried to explain to me how to bill the Secret Service every time we go somewhere on my plane. Apparently I'm entitled to charge the agency for their seats," Fitz explains to Liv over the phone.
"You are," Liv says cautiously. "But from an optics perspective, it might not be the best move."
"I don't care about the optics. I find it offensive. They're putting their lives on the line to protect me and I'm supposed to charge them for doing their jobs? If anyone asks your press secretary, you can tell her that I'm waiving any right to payment for riding on my plane."
"Okay, I will," Liv says with a smile. Fitz's attitude about this is yet another reminder of why she loves him so much.
"So I finally talked to Abby yesterday, well, sort of. I was calling to see if I could hire your old firm to do some PR work for the Foundation, but we didn't get that far because Abby's still mad at me and I guess I can't blame her."
"I'm sorry," Liv says regretfully.
"For what? How is it your fault that Abby doesn't want to talk to me? You're the one who told me I should have the tough conversation with her instead of blowing her off the way I did."
"No, that's not what I meant. You want to hire my old firm because you're frustrated that every time you've tried to do an interview and talk about the foundation, all they want to talk about is me, right?"
"Liv, stop," Fitz scolds. "The way you kissed me before I got on Marine One...I meant what I said in the last interview. I wouldn't change that for the world."
Liv smiles.
"So everything's okay with you and Abby?" Fitz asks.
"Yeah, as far as I know. Why?"
"She said you don't talk anymore. Did you have a falling out?"
"No, I've just been busy and I assumed she had too."
"What about the rest of your old team?"
Liv sighs, not wanting to talk about this. "I've talked to Huck a few times. But we mostly...we just run in different circles now."
Fitz looks concerned. "Are you okay with me hiring them? I guess I should have asked you first."
"Of course. Do you want Quinn's number? I'm pretty sure she won't hang up on you."
"No, I don't want to cause tension. If Abby doesn't want to work with me then I'm not going to go around her. Hey, can you do me a favor?"
"What do you need?"
"Politico called for comment about a story that I changed the FAA definition of "small plane" from 12,500 pounds to 15,000 pounds to enable myself to fly my plane without a co-pilot. It's not true. I did have the FAA change the definition of small plane because manufacturers were skimping on safety equipment to make faster planes while staying under the 12,500 threshold, but I already had an exemption to fly the plane single pilot under the old standard. I explained that to the reporter."
"Did you tell her you installed a flight simulator in the White House basement so you could keep up with the recurrent training requirements while you were president?"
"Yes. I just want to be able to show that I complied with all the requirements like any other person would have to do. Maybe I'm being silly, but I don't want people to think I got special treatment. The problem is, most of my flight records are either in Santa Barbara or in the GPO archives office where they're still going through all my papers to determine which are public record. I hate to ask, but do you think you could help expedite the process of getting my file from the FAA so I can nip this nonsense in the bud?"
"Of course," Liv agrees.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" he asks.
"I'm sure I don't mind," she insists. "Consider it handled."
DAY 52
"How did it go yesterday?" Abby asks eagerly. "With Liv? How did it go?" she prompts.
"Oh, I...couldn't get in to see her," Quinn says. "They said her schedule was jam packed. I'm going to try again today. Plus, since I had the extra time I decided to make her this as a peace offering," she says, holding up a little keychain with a gladiator action figure, to which Quinn added a peplum suit made out of felt.
"Cute," Abby says with a smile. "Look, I was thinking. You don't have to pay me until we get more clients. In fact, I can pay everyone until then."
"Thanks, but no thanks. Look, I know you're trying to help, but nobody wants to be paid with blood money that almost got Huck killed. Besides, we're okay for now."
"How are we okay for now? We have less than $200 left in the firm account."
"I realized we had a couple jobs from before that never got invoiced," she says hastily.
Abby looks suspicious but doesn't push the issue.
"I just have a bad feeling," Liv explains to Jake as they walk through the halls of the White House.
"You want me to abuse the resources of my office, again, to figure out who Fitz's new agents are and vet them because you have a bad feeling?" Jake asks.
"Just look up all the agents who are licensed pilots qualified to fly a small jet. That should narrow it down a lot."
Jake sighs, exasperated.
"Jake, you know as well as I do that when my father ran B613, he had people embedded in the Secret Service."
"So what? He's not in charge anymore. You are."
"Which is why I want to know if either of the new agents has any B613 ties or any other suspicious ties. And it's not an abuse of your office. Can you honestly rule out the possibility of my father or someone else embedding someone in Fitz's detail as a way of trying to control me?"
Jake shakes his head, annoyed. "No, I guess I can't. You made sure of that by making that big scene the day he left. And now you continue to make him a target by calling him every night, increasing the chances that he's going to find out more than he should. To what end, I don't know, because you're not going to walk away from all of this and move to Vermont. Maybe you're hoping he'll get bored up there and move back to DC, but then what? Are you going to let him in on everything you've done since he left? Are you going to lead a double life to keep him in the dark? Come on, Liv. For his sake and yours, you've got to let go."
Olivia is visibly agitated. "Just do what I say, now!" she snaps at him.
"Whatever you say, boss," Jake snarls.
DAY 54
Liv is sitting in her office reading the texts she just got from Fitz.
"Is everyone ok?"
"Sorry, meant everything. Is everything ok? I didn't hear from you last night."
As she contemplates how to respond, someone knocks on her door.
"Come in!"
She is surprised to see Quinn.
"I come in peace," Quinn says quickly. "In fact, I came to apologize."
"For what?"
"For picking a fight the day after the inauguration..." Quinn says incredulously.
"Oh, right. Don't worry about it," Liv says nonchalantly.
"So, you're not mad? You haven't been freezing us out because you're mad?"
"No. I've just been busy."
Quinn looks surprised. "Okay, well, I brought you a gift, well, two little gifts, that were supposed to be a congratulations/send off gift. I made it a while ago and I was going to give it to you your first day here, but I was mad over something that I realize now I blew way out of proportion."
Liv opens the gift bag and smiles when she opens the first present, a picture of the original OPA team, with Marcus and Charlie superimposed so the picture reflects the whole team, past and present. She laughs when she sees the second gift, a keychain with a mini gladiator action figure, which Quinn outfitted with a miniature peplum suit.
"It's kind of cheesy, but I thought it might inspire you," Quinn says.
Liv smiles. "I like it," she says, attaching it to her keychain. "Thank you. And congratulations to you too. How far along are you?"
"About four months," she tells Liv. "And thanks. How did you know? I didn't think I was showing yet under my suit."
"You're not. I figured it out and Abby confirmed it. I've been meaning to call to congratulate you, but I've..."
"Been really busy, I get it."
"Ms. Pope, you asked me to remind you about that two o'clock meeting..." her secretary says through the door.
"Sorry, I have to get back to work," Liv says hastily. "Let me see if I can get you and the rest of the team an invitation to the state dinner tomorrow night. It'll give us a chance to catch up," Liv says.
"I'd like that, thanks," Quinn says. The encounter went much better than she expected, and suddenly she looks conflicted. She sneaks back towards Liv's office after Liv walks out and considers going in, but backs away when she hears someone coming.
When she gets to her car, she calls Rowan. "It's done," she tells him.
DAY 55
"Come on, it's time to go," Quinn urges Abby. The whole team is dressed up for the state dinner.
"You guys go ahead, I'll be along," Abby says.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I have a potential lead I want to follow up on."
"Okay, just don't be too late. You're the only one of us who most people there know."
Abby waits for them to leave, then takes another look at the invoices she had on her screen. They are addressed to a Damascus Bainbridge under the title "Operation Seneca." Most of the entries on the invoice are from January 17-20, but contrary to what Quinn said, it looks like those invoices were already paid. Abby keeps clicking through and notices another entry, billed to Operation Seneca, dated the day before today, that appears to have already been paid.
Now sure that Quinn is hiding something from her, she goes into her office and sits down at her computer, but Quinn logged out before leaving. But as Abby gets up she notices packaging for some sort of electronic device in Quinn's trash. She looks closer and is shocked to discover that the packaging is for some sort of micro recording device. Under the packaging, she sees the extra felt from the little peplum suit Quinn was making.