Chapter 7 - Memories
"Sir! Move back now!"
Fitz took a step back, pulling Stephens arm forcing him to move too.
"We live here, my sister and her friend are inside. Probably the person you are after." Fitz deduced, looking at the two men again. "Look I have my key right here."
The younger of the two men took the key from him and looked at it, then looked at them again.
"Open it." Fitz said nodding his head towards the door.
After the door had been opened, Stephen moved forwards again, agitated at not being allowed into his own house. Once again he was stopped by the older man.
"You cannot be serious right now. I'm sorry. It's late, I'm tired and I'm cold can we please just sort this out inside. There's clearly been some kind of misunderstanding."
The younger agent appeared back at the side of his partner and nodded his head. With that, the older one stepped aside motioning for Fitz and Stephen to go inside.
"Thank you." Stephen said as he was walking past.
"Abs!" Fitz shouted up the stairs, once they got inside. "Come down... And bring Olivia. There's some men here for her."
"Some men?" Abby repeated as if she'd heard him wrong.
"Let me guess, new agents."
"Seriously Liv. Surely not again, you only had them other two for a week. There can't be many agents left you haven't had."
"I'll make you a bet. 2 men, black suits, ear pieces and that all too familiar expressionless look on their faces."
"What are the terms?" Abby questioned her.
"I have no idea," she replied laughing.
"Deal..." Abby said holding out her little finger for a pinkie promise. "Race you downstairs, last one down has to buy the next lot of ice-cream."
"Deal," Olivia said as she took off running.
"Cheater!" Abby shouted as she chased after her.
Fitz and Stephen had moved into the living room, followed closely by the two agents.
After a few minutes loud noises could be heard coming from upstairs.
"That's probably them..."
As they reached the bottom of the stairs, they grappled with each other, each trying to get to the living room first. Olivia managed to get in front just as they were turning into the room but Abby had other ideas. She jumped on her back, effectively knocking them both into the room together and knocking over a side table in the process.
"Jesus Abs, slow down, you're like a bull in a china shop." Fitz said as he and Stephen stood up, moving towards them. Fitz reached for Olivia to help her off the floor and Stephen picked the unit and its contents back up.
"Are you okay?" Fitz asked giving Olivia a once over, before making eye contact with her. Olivia didn't have a chance to respond.
"Yeah... I'm totally fine Fitz. Don't worry about me." Abby said still on the floor. Which gained a chuckle from Stephen as he ungraciously pulled her up off the floor.
Fitz didn't realise that he was still holding on to Olivia's hands until she slowly pulled them from his grip. Quickly looking down and then back up, looking at Fitz again, she replied.
"I'm fine. Thank you."
"Are you sure, you landed pretty hard on your arm." Fitz asked reaching for her left arm to look at.
As Fitz and Olivia were staring at each other, Stephen looked to Abby with a knowing look on his face. For the time being, the two relative strangers in the house were completely forgotten about.
"Miss Pope." One of the agents spoke, breaking her from the trance she seemed to be in.
She looked down and blushed hoping it wasn't noticed by anyone before separating herself from Fitz once again.
"It really is fine." She assured him, smiling slightly as she stepped backwards, looking at the two men in suits. She turned her back to the two agents to find Abby staring at her. "Two things. One you owe me ice-cream and two, I told you so."
"That is so not fair Liv, I call a tie on the ice-cream."
Olivia just shook her head and turned back round, studying the men in front of her.
"Miss Pope. I am agent Wells and this is agent Parker." He said pointing to the younger man.
"That's lovely, but I have agents."
"You had agents, Miss Pope. They have been reassigned. We are your new agents, your Father personally asked us to be your protection detail."
"Why? I didn't need a new detail."
"That's something you'll have to ask your Father."
"Fine... Is that all? I wanted to enjoy my evening if you don't mind."
"We just need to check the house and talk to your friends first."
Half an hour later the two agents made their way back to the front of the house and stood outside. The older one of the two, Agent Wells, pulled out his phone and dialled a number. He quickly glanced around, waiting for the call to connect.
"Hello?"
"Sit it's Agent Wells. We have made contact with your daughter. She is currently staying with her friend; Abigail Grant, her brother Fitzgerald and a young man called Stephen Finch."
"Have you checked them out?"
"Yes Sir, we have looked into them, they came back clear. The Grants are a well respected family. The Mother, Lily Grant is a former supermodel now running her own modelling company. Their Father, Dr. Fitzgerald 'Gerry' Grant, is a world renowned and very well respected paediatrician. The two of them are rarely in the country nowadays, due to travelling with Mrs. Grant's business."
"And the boy?"
"Fitzgerald Grant III, goes by Fitz. Works for his Mothers firm, he is set to inherit the company. Currently at Harvard - looking to go to Law school, despite his Father wanting him to go into medicine. Seems to be hard working, always has good grades. He spends most of his time living in his home not too far from his school, although he travels back to New York every so often to check in with his sister, when their parents are out of the country."
Although the secret service had previously looked into anyone that was around Olivia, for her own safety, they had never been asked directly by the President about these people. Most of Olivia's friends, her mother knew about, of course her Father knew that she had friends but he trusted his wife's judgment when it came to them.
"Okay... Keep me updated, I want to know everything. Where she goes, who she talks to, what she does. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir,"
"I mean it. If she so much as sneezes, I want to know whether she caught it. If you need to, use Parker, he'll blend in with the kids."
"Yes Sir."
2 Weeks Later
"Abby! Abby!" Olivia shouted looking for her friend. "Abby your phone's ringing!" She shouted passing the phone to her.
"Oh no," she sighed once she saw the caller id. "Liv I'm going out the front."
She quickly made her way through the house to the front door. "Hello" she answered when she thought she was far enough from the house.
"Happy Birthday sweetie," she heard through the phone.
"Thank you Mum..."
"I'm so sorry we got delayed, we tried everything to get back but a storm has blown over and the flights have either been delayed or cancelled."
Her parents had gone to Switzerland for a short skiing break. They had planned to be back in time for her birthday but nature had other ideas.
"Listen Abby, when we get back we'll go out and celebrate. How does..."
"Woohoo!" Her mother was cut off by a drunk teenager running down the driveway.
"Abby what's that?" Her mother questioned.
"Oh... That was, that was nothing."
"Abigail you best not have people at the house. You know the rules, when we're not there."
"I haven't. That was the TV. I'm with Liv just having a quiet night in."
"Well turn the television down then. It's far too loud. Oh Abby by the way Fitz should be there tonight, if he's not already."
"Okay Mum, thanks for calling. I'll see you when you get back." Abby abruptly cut her mother off, she was now starting to panic, she had told Fitz that she wasn't planning to go out. It wasn't a complete lie, she didn't plan it but she was out.
Abby made her way back towards the house when she saw Harrison in the doorway.
"Hey Harry! Harrison! Where's Liv? We need to leave. Like now!" She hurried out, she knew she would have heard from Fitz if he was home and she wasn't. It was now a race to beat him there.
"Liv? I thought she was with you. What's going on? Why are you being such a party pooper?"
"We need to get home. Just help me find her."
"Ok, don't panic. We'll find her."
After about ten minutes of looking for her they found her in a bathroom, propped up against the bathtub, with a mostly empty cup at her side. She didn't look to be conscious. Abby and Harry rushed to her side, kneeling on the floor next to her.
"Liv!" Abby shouted. "Oh my God, what happened?"
"Olivia, come on Olivia... Wake up."
"Harry look, the cup." Abby had noticed the cup at her side and assumed it was hers. This was an extreme even for Olivia. Abby had only been separated from her for 15 minutes, there was no way she got into the state she was in, in that amount of time.
"Do you think it was spiked?" He asked.
"Liv..." She tried again, gently shaking her. "Please, Liv. I don't know Harry, maybe."
Abby and Harrison turned round when they heard the door opening. Harrison was up instantly ready to tell whoever it was to find a different bathroom, until he saw who it was.
"Parker? Where the hell have you been. Did you forget that you have a job to do?" Abby berated the secret service agent.
"I was looking for Olivia."
"Looking for her..."
"Do you know how many people are here?"
"Abby?"
Abby spun around to see Olivia trying to keep her eyes open.
"What happened... Where are we? I'm not feeling so good." Reaching for the toilet and throwing up in it.
"Oh God... Parker! What do we do?"
"I think... Sleep. Yeah... Sl, sl, sleepy." Olivia said closing her eyes.
"No, hey. Liv no... No sleeping, not yet." Harrison said trying to keep her awake. "Guys we need to get her home."
Whilst Parker and Harrison were arguing about what was best for Olivia and whether or not to call an ambulance, Abby had left the room. She was pacing outside the door, before she even realised what she was doing she had the phone to her ear.
"Hey Abs, I'm almost home... I'm only about 10 minutes away, probably not even that."
He didn't get any sort of response, so he took a quick glance at his phone to make sure he hadn't accidentally ended the call. When he saw that the call was still connected he tried again.
"Abs?" This time he heard something but couldn't quite make it out. Then he heard it again. Was she crying. It's what it sounded like.
"Fitz..." Abby sobbed into the phone.
"Abby what's wrong? What's happened?"
"I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened... I swear. Oh my God, what have I done?" She cried.
"Abby, hey... Abby. What's happened?" He tried again, she could hear the urgency in his voice.
"It's Liv. Something's wrong with her. I think someone did something. I don't know Fitz. I'm so sorry."
"Where are you?"
"I'm stood outside the bathroom."
"Where abouts Abby? At home?"
"No..."
"Give me an address."
As soon as Fitz had the address, he sped up, waking up Stephen in the process. In less than 5 minutes they had arrived at the address Abby had given him, they raced up the stairs to where she had told they were and pushed open the bathroom door.
Once he was in the bathroom he saw the state Olivia was in. She was awake, just about, mumbling incoherently. He scanned the others in the room. He recognised Parker one of her agents and the other he assumed to be Harrison.
"Harrison right... this is your house?" He waited until he nodded. "What's the quickest and easiest way out?"
"Erm... Probably through my Fathers office. He has big patio doors, they go out to the side of the house. We just have to get Liv downstairs though."
"We can do that. Stevie, take Harrison and move the car round. Harrison, come back in so we can move Liv."
Harrison and Stephen took off, in a matter of minutes Harrison was back. Fitz picked up Liv and carried her in his arms. No matter which way Fitz turned there were people staring at Olivia, some had their phones out. He tried to shield her as best he could but he knew that people had still seen her.
"Thanks Harry." Abby said hugging him as they made it to the car. "Sorry for ruining your birthday."
"Let me know how she is, I'll try to find out what happened. I'm sorry for ruining your birthday too." He smiled at her.
"Parker we're going to ours." Fitz said still holding Olivia.
Abby and Harrison had been celebrating their birthdays together since they met and found that they shared a birthday. After she said her goodbyes, she climbed into the front of the car with Stephen driving. Whilst Fitz climbed in the back with Olivia.
It was about 10 minutes from Harrison's house to theirs, in that short space of time Olivia had curled up against Fitz. She was still disoriented and confused, which had Abby still worrying. What made it worse was the fact that both Stephen and Fitz didn't seem too concerned.
"I like you..." Olivia mumbled sitting up a little to look at Fitz, reaching up to touch his face.
Stephen had been watching in his rear view mirror and smiled at what was happening.
"That's good to know." Fitz replied looking at her. After a few minutes, she still hadn't moved her hand off his face, so he reached up took hold of her hand and moved it from his face.
"Oh..." She said, her mouth making an almost perfect 'o' shape. "Hands, look." She lifted their still joined hands in front of her face. "Wow..."
She said mesmerised by them. Fitz just chuckled as she fell back into his side, dropping their hands to his lap.
Stephen pulled up directly outside the house not long after that. He and Abby got out, as Fitz moved to get out. Just as he was about to stand up Olivia grabbed hold of his hand.
"Don't leave me. Please." She pleaded, a lot clearer than she had been talking.
"I won't... But we have to get out of the car and go inside the house." He said looking back into the car.
"No... Stay,"
"Liv..." Fitz tried again, crouching down and reaching out to cup her face with his other hand. "Livvie," he waited until she looked at him. "We can't stay out here all night. Let's go inside." When she said nothing he picked her up out of the car and carried her into the house.
A few hours had passed, Fitz was sat on the couch with Olivia still clinging to his side. Stephen had gone to bed pretty much as soon as they got in and Abby had only just gone to bed.
"You still awake Livvie?" Fitz questioned she had been unusually quiet, seeming just content with cuddling into him.
"Yeah... Just thinking"
"What about?"
"My Mom... She called me that. Livvie."
"I'm sorry Liv," he said turning slightly to look at her. Her speech had become clearer but she was still out of it a little.
"No, I like it. Yeah... I. I remember her."
"We don't have to talk about this."
"But... I do remember. All of it. I do. I don't want to forget. I remember when it happened. I could see it all in front of me. Us. Everything. I remembered moments at the beginning, then in the middle... And the end. I can't forget that part. I want to, but I can't."
"Liv,"
"I just don't understand."
"Livvie... Maybe you're not supposed to. Memory is a strange thing, perhaps you're holding onto it and you just haven't figure out why yet."
"I don't like it. It hurts and makes me sad."
"It may always be like that, you've lost a huge part of your life but try to remember the happy times. Try to outweigh the sad memories with the happy ones and maybe, with time, it won't be so painful anymore."
"I just miss her. I just, I... I want my Mom back." She choked out with tears running down her face. With her face still on his chest, he could feel the moisture pooling on his shirt.
"I know, I know... Shh, I'm so sorry." He said wrapping his arm around her and pulling her in closer. She soon fell asleep, seemingly comfortable and content where she was.
The following morning, Fitz was woken when he could hear people speaking. As he opened his eyes he realised he was still on the couch, he racked his brain trying to remember when he fell asleep. He looked down to his side and saw Liv still sleeping peacefully, using him as a human pillow. She was still holding one of his hands, with his other still wrapped round her. When he finally looked he saw Abby and Stephen in front of him now whispering to each other.
"Morning... Have a good nights sleep, did you?" Stephen questioned, grinning, no longer whispering.
"Shh!" Fitz hissed looking down to see if she had been woken up by his thoughtless friend.
Abby hadn't said anything but she was grinning. Fitz knew it was the type of grin that meant she was up to something and he just hadn't figured it out yet.
"What?" he questioned as if it was completely natural that they had fallen asleep together.
"Nothing..." She said still smiling.
"Breakfast's ready." Stephen said turning Abby around and pushing her out of the room. He stopped before he completely left, turning again and smiling at Fitz.
Fitz looked over to the clock and saw that it was almost 10.30am, after a few more minutes he decided to try and wriggle out from underneath Olivia. That didn't go as well as planned. As soon as he started to move, she started to grumble. After a few more unsuccessful attempts of trying to move he decided just to wake her up.
"Liv..." He tried, gently running his hand down her arm.
"Mmnhhmm... No." Was her response, cuddling in closer to him, to which he smiled.
"Liv, c'mon. Breakfast is ready." He tried again, moving some of her hair from her face.
As Olivia slowly came around, she replayed the words she had heard. That voice. She recognised it but couldn't place in her sleepy state.
"Livvie..."
Livvie. She vaguely remembered something but it all seemed a bit hazy. Livvie. Yep, it started to come back. The memories of the night before, although not all of them, were unclear. Like looking through frosted glass. As her eyes began to open she took in her surroundings, she instantly became embarrassed when she realised she was practically on top of Fitz.
"Hey... Good morning." She heard. "How are you feeling?"
"Good. Thank you," she did as she pulled away from him, moving further along the couch. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to,"
She was cut off when Fitz reached for her hands. She looked down at their joined hands, wondering what exactly had happened last night. It seemed she had some blanks that needed to be filled in.
"No. No, it's fine. You're absolutely fine."
"Fitz, would you hurry up." Abby called walking into the room. Olivia tried to pull her hands back towards herself but Abby had already seen them entwined with her brothers'.
Olivia looked down, not wanting to make eye contact with her best friend. She didn't if she had seen or not and what she thought, if she did.
After having breakfast and getting over the initial awkwardness of being around Fitz, Olivia decide she would take them up on the offer to spend the day with them.
Fitz had been given a thorough telling off by Agent Wells, about nit taking Olivia home, not that he really listened. The secret service was there to protect Olivia from harm, after already failing at their job that evening, he wasn't going to let her go home by with them, where they would have left her alone.
As it started to get later, Fitz and Stephen were getting ready to go back to Harvard. Fitz knew he couldn't leave without talking to Olivia first. He walked through the house in search for her. He eventually found her curled up with Abby in her bedroom, watching TV.
"Hey Abs. Liv... Can I talk to you for a second... Please."
Abby looked at her then her brother and practically jumped from her bed. "I'm just going to go grab some popcorn I think." Patting Fitz' chest on her way last him.
"Liv..." Fitz said moving towards the bed where she was still sitting, wrapped in the blankets. "Soo, about last night,"
"I don't really want to talk about it. Not yet. It's not that I... Well... Just. Thank you for everything though."
"Liv..." He tried again.
"No, Fitz. Please. Not yet. I just need some time to think."
"Okay... Okay. I should get going but," he reached out towards her "if you do want to talk... Just give me a call. Whenever you want." He said picking up the closest thing to write with, scribbling his phone number on a scrap piece of paper before handing it to her then getting up to leave.
"Bye Livvie..."
AN
Okies... So I noticed on the last chapter that the split between different parts didn't actually show. Sorry, I think I've fixed that now. Moving on... so Olivia opened up a little about her Mother, whether she meant to or not. Do you think that this will help her at all? We are going to find out what happened with her pretty soon. I hope you like it, let me know what you think.
