A/N: Hopefully this site won't eat this chapter like it was doing my other fic. Hoping everyone is having a Happy New Year so far. Thanks for the reviews as always.
He rarely left Mellie's side or let her out of his sights. As long as Andrew was out there she was unsafe. The White House made a statement regarding the fact that Andrew would no longer be VP, but they kept it vague. Fitz moved Karen back to the White House and she was attending a local school a complete overhaul of the Secret Service was conducted and he was confident that any rogue agents were disposed of, but that wasn't satisfying enough. He needed Andrew's head on a pole.
Fitz walked softly into the drawing room where Mellie spent most of her time these days. She was sullen and withdrawn and there was nothing he could do to pull her out of it. He'd seen her interacting with Karen and Teddy and she seemed her old self, but he figured she didn't feel the need to put on appearances for his sake like she did for the kids.
"Mels." She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes a cold steely blue that made him inadvertently shiver.
"What?" Her tone was flat and dry.
"I was thinking that maybe we could go to Santa Barbra for awhile being away from D.C. might help."
"I'm not crazy Fitz, I'm just trying to recover because you know I was kidnapped."
"I know you aren't crazy Mellie. I just thought you might need a change of scenery."
"Fine."
"Great I'll get the details together." He sat down expecting to have a conversation with her, but she went back to staring at the fire. "Do you want to talk about it?" Mellie closed her eyes tightly.
"What do you care?" Fitz bucked his eyes.
"What do I care? What's that supposed to mean?" Mellie took a deep breath and turned towards him.
"Who realized Andrew kidnapped me? Cyrus? Teddy? Hal?"
"I realized it Mellie!" He couldn't believe what she was insinuating.
"Sure Fitz, sure."
"What type of shit did he fill your head with Mellie?"
"He didn't need to fill my head with anything. As soon as I called you to tell you I was going off with Andrew you had Olivia here, you probably fucked her in our bed." It all suddenly made sense to Fitz. Andrew was playing mind games with her he'd convinced her that he didn't care and wouldn't notice she was gone. Fitz realized that when he started inquiring about her whereabouts that threw Andrew's plan off. He under estimated Fitz's connection with his wife.
"I brought Olivia here after you called because I felt something wasn't right and I had OPA investigate it. Olivia and her team are the ones that found you, but I asked her to do that, to find you and bring you back to me." Mellie looked over at him surprised. She wasn't sure what to believe. Maybe Andrew had gotten into her head more than she realized. Mellie shook her head and looked away.
"I don't know who or what to believe or think anymore." She said softly and Fitz's heart broke.
"Mels you need to talk to someone. You can't be expected to manage the trauma by yourself."
"I'll think about it Fitz." Seeing her so unsure and broken made him even angrier. He wanted Andrew found and brought to him alive so that he could strangle the life out of him. Mellie wasn't sure why he was still sitting here she thought he'd gone back to whatever he was doing. She tried to clear her head of those types of thoughts knowing that Andrew was still in her head.
"I was thinking of having the chef make you pasta cabonara tonight." Mellie's eyes went wide and then glazed over. She sat unmoving and Fitz jumped from his seat and went to her. Tears started to stream down her face. "Mellie?" He said laying a gentle hand on her arm. Mellie suddenly tried to hit him, but he grabbed her hand.
"Please take me back. Please don't do this." He realized that she was having a memory.
"Baby it's me Fitz you are safe. You are safe." He said softly to her as he gathered her in his arms and stroked her hair. Mellie snapped out of her trance . She was embarrassed when she realized that she was in Fitz's arms and she tried to push him away, but he wouldn't let her. "No you don't, let me take care of you." He said softly into her hair. Mellie relaxed in his embrace. After awhile he felt her head heavy on his chest and he knew she'd fallen asleep. Fitz pulled away from her slightly so that he could pick her up and carry her to their bedroom. He gently removed her shoes after he laid her on the bed, he did the same for himself and climbed into bed beside her. He pulled Mellie against his chest and held her tightly.
All the emotions he'd been holding in spilled forth as hot tears streamed down his face. He fought to control his strangled sobs he didn't want to wake or upset her further. He rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head thankful that she was back with him.
