Chapter Seven

She expected to be ushered in the the Oval or a bunker, but when she was marched into the situation room, her level of anxiety both spiked and reduced at the same time. The possibility of something being wrong with Fitz dropped, but the possibility of something being wrong with the country rose. She began to wonder what she had to offer, since this was clearly not her level of expertise.

She took a deep breath before the door was opened by a marine stationed outside. The room was dimly lit to allow the video on the screen to be shown clearly. Olivia quickly glanced around the room, she expected more people to be there but in fact only five other people were in the room. The National Security Advisor, the Homeland Security Advisor, a short balding black man slumped in his seat, Abby and Fitz. She briefly met Fitz's stare, he offered a grim smile before turning back to the screen causing her gaze returned to there as well.

She realized pretty quickly that it was a video about ten seconds long playing on repeat, a group of people in what appeared to be a jungle, some of them chained to trees, they looked like they were snarling. The people who were unchained begging to be set free, but the focus of the video a man in the fore ground holding a syringe and injecting it into the ear of a little boy. The odd part of the entire video was it wasn't a group of people of one particular ethnicity, the young boy was a white, the women in the background looked Asian, and Indian and some men chained to the tree were black. The focus of the video however was a black man speaking in some native language.

The video stopped and the lights were turned on, Olivia walked closer to were Abby was sitting next to Fitz not understanding what was happening.

"This video was taken two hours ago by a young American volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was sent to his girl friend via snap chat but our cyber intelligence team managed to divert it before she could see it. Now we have been looking into this for months, rumors heard by doctors in the country of the work of this man. We kept track of it and this is so far the only concrete evidence we have of this. The have been similar cases, in surrounding nations, people exhibiting symptoms much like the one of the people chained in the back ground. Mr President, it appeared in the beginning that this particular man had in his possession a deadly concoction that he is using as a chemical weapon against foreigners in his country. However following a trend of what appeared to be a spike rabies cases in neighboring countries we thought it would be best to pay attention. We discovered sir that not only were they not rabies cases but this operation is being run in five other countries across the globe. One of them being us Mr President."

Olivia watched as Fitz took a deep breath and looked down at the evidence in front of him.

"You have been following this for two years and I'm just finding out about it now." The Homeland Security Advisor nodded, "Sir we thought it'd be best to keep it under wraps but there are new developments on the front. It appears that this concoction is not only deadly but it's also viral. Our men happen to find the base of the U.S. operations but upon coming within a mile of the site they were all struck down with similar symptoms. We have barricaded the site to keep the perpetrators in, but areal heat based shots reveal that their numbers are growing drastically and we have no idea how. There is seemingly no way into that site."

"Do we have any of our allies in the know of this situation? Is there someone who has access to this information?" Fitz asked running his finger through his hair, the HSA nodded and turned her dark gaze on Olivia, "Actually, sir, we do." Fitz looked at Olivia astonished yet confused, as did Abby before turning back to the HSA, "Olivia?" He asked with his brows raised.

"Not exactly sir, we happen to spot one of our tracking signals placed on someone who was in our data base on the site. It was register to Maya Pope, sir, and we thought it was odd that Olivia's mother would be on said, site. Do you happen to know anything about it Ms Pope?"

Olivia looked around the room in astonishment, "I don't." She said simply.

"Okay we thought so but we were just cross checking, there is however the potential that Ms Pope can get us more information on these operations. Sir it seems that the Russian, it seems juvenile to use this word but, it seems the Russian Mafia know more about this situation and have been monitoring it for longer. When we first contacted them they were eager to negotiate with us some information trading agreement but those channels closed once their government got in the know. I have to mention sir that Ukraine is another site for these operations. We happen to know from Ms Pope's kidnapping that she has some friends in that part of the world that may be useful in this venture."

Olivia shared a look with Abby and started to shake her head but stopped when she felt Abby nudge her foot.

"I'm not even sure how I'd go about doing that. Abby contacted them the last time. I think she'd be a better channel to move this forward." She started to say but she was cut off by Fitz, "We tried, well they tried, but Abby is firmly know to be part of the Whitehouse now, she was cut off as well. I'm guessing because I just found out about this two hours ago. This is about more than just this threat" He pushed away from the table and stood and started pacing the room.

"Everyone here is aware I presume about what is going to happen in the next couple of months. There is a threat to the security of the population of this planet, there are only fifteen people at most in the know about it who are in the power to prevent it. I have six more months left in my term. No new president is going to be able to change much about the situation because they haven't had eight years of experience and relationships. You brought me here tonight to tell me it's time to Blanket the world." He chuckled and looked at everyone else in the room pointedly. "I'm not done being president for at least another two years. Is it safe to assume that everything has been put in place with Congress and the Judiciary?"

""Yes Mr President." The two Advisors responded. He swallowed and nodded, "Okay so what are our plans, I just found out but you have been planning this for a while." He sounded like normal Fitz but Olivia could help but tune out, she noticed his temple start to tick as he sat back in his seat to listen to the plan.

Almost a eight months ago she was listening to him lay out his plans for after his presidency, to be a better father to Teddy and Karen. Vermont, California, DC, the places he wanted to be so he could still have an impact but be a father.

"Liv, it's gonna be so good, we can spend time together and there won't be a press corp so you won't have to leave in the morning." She giggled at his drunken rambling, she herself was half way to being totally non functional, but they'd both had a rough day at work. He didn't have any early meetings the next day so they had lit a fire and camped out by it, naked and indulging in several rounds of drunken sex.

"We can have our babies Livvy, we can finally have our two babies", she laughed as he tackled her sitting form onto the pile of pillows behind her and started tickling her stomach.

"It can be right there." She didn't want to stop laughing but sobered quickly when he laid his head on her flat stomach and kissed her under her rib cage. "We can make our family away from all this mess. We can be normal. Well as normal as possible." She ran her fingers through is ruffled curls before speaking to quell the anxiety that came with his words. "I think that can work." She managed to get out into the nearly silent world. He hummed a sound before pressing a kiss to her belly button. His greatest wish, to live his life, everything postponed, and she could see it in the dejected slump of his shoulders.

"Ms Pope?" She finally came to when she heard her name being called.

"I'm sorry."

"Ms Pope, we know you have the means to make connections with these people, so we won't boggle you with details we will however assist you in whatever way, and we insist you make all connections through our front." Olivia nodded distractedly as she thought about how Stephen would receive her, her gaze landed on the one man who hadn't spoken. He was still slumped in his seat, his beady eyes drifting quickly across the room never landing on anyone. He gut immediately questioned his presence, he didn't speak and he didn't look like he knew what was going on. Two deadly combinations in her book.

"Okay, I believe that's all we can do for now, Ms Pope we ask that you do this as early as possible, we will have a room set up for your use in the Pentagon." Fitz stood and they all did along with him, he nodded at each of them individually and smiled at Olivia, "Can you stay for a while. I know it's late." She nodded, taken aback by his smile, but she steeled the butterflies that fluttered up in her stomach.

"Ladies, gentlemen, thank you, we will set a date for a later meeting. Have a good night." Fitz filed out the room with Abby and Olivia trailing behind him along with his secret service agents.

"We can't talk about that outside here right?" Abby asked looking to Fitz for guidance, she nodded his head and kept walking.

"Okay, can we talk about the other piece that has to do with you sir." Fitz chuckled and shook his head again.
"Okay, I'm going home. I might as well spend as much time out side of this place before I can't anymore." Olivia wish she would stay and be a buffer between her and Fitz but she was a big girl and she could handle it. Right?