This chapter has some violence and unpleasant moments. So if those types of things bother you, then I might suggest you don't read the flashback part of this chapter.

Chapter Nine: Old Skeletons

Three years ago...

Olivia rode in nervous silence in the back of the cab. She had gone out the night before, with a friend for her birthday. She drunk a little more than she meant too, slept it off at her friend's house. But she forgot to call Michael and tell him where she was, and the next morning she overslept, and now she was in a panic trying to get home. She knew she was gonna catch hell when she got home, she just hoped that Michael had went to work already. So she'd have time to get her story straight. Olivia really didn't mean to stay out all night. She'd just been drinking way passed her limit and after her fifth drink, the rest of the night was a blur. Although she couldn't honestly say that she regretted anything. Last night had been one of the best nights she had in a long time. For once she could be free, without having Michael looking over her shoulder the entire night. And she didn't have to watch what she said or what she did, out of fear of Michael getting mad.

The cab pulled into the driveway and she didn't see Michael's car. Olivia headed in the house feeling a little better that she had the house to herself. She dropped her purse on the couch and went to the kitchen for some aspirin and water. Olivia poured her a glass of water and sat in silence on top of the bar. She was staring out the patio doors when she heard a noise, she turned to see Michael standing in the doorway. She froze looking at him, she could move. He was standing in the doorway, looking like he'd been through hell. His clothes were hanging off his body, and he had sweat stains in every visible place.

"Michael…" Was all Olivia could manage, before he raced across the kitchen. He swung at Olivia with all his might, knocking her off the bar. Her glass of water shattered on the ground, and she fell on top of the broken cup, getting glass in her chest and face. Before she could react, Michael grabbed a hand full of her hair, and slammed her head against the base of the bar. Olivia started coughing because she couldn't catch her breath. She looked down and saw a pool of blood on the floor. She screamed when Michael grabbed her by the arm and swung her on her back. She tried to fight him off, and managed to hit him once across the face which only made him angrier. She was still swinging, when he grabbed her by her wrist with one hand and pinned them above her head. He wrapped his other hand around Olivia's neck, and squeezed slowly. She was stuck on the ground, with Michael on top of her, she couldn't move. The only thing she could do was kick her legs, and that wasn't helping anything. As Michael's grip got tighter and tighter, she could feel her life slowly slipping away. Olivia's head was pounding, her vision was blurred and she felt as if her eyes were going to pop out of her head.

"Michael." She manage to get out in a force whisper. "Please."

Michael hadn't spoken a word, just grunting as he hit Olivia over and over. She had stopped kicking, and Michael could feel her going limp under him. He tightened his grip once more, while he screamed in her face. Then he reluctantly let her go and stood above her, with her still in between his legs. Olivia flopped like a fish out of water, gasping for air. She was crying and couldn't control her coughing, making herself choke even more. Michael noticed that she was slowly trying to crawl away, and put his foot on her back and pushed her back down to the ground. She tumbled back to the floor, and her face fell into a mix of her blood and spit on the floor.

"Talk." Michael demanded. And when Olivia didn't start talking at his desired speed, he kicked her in her side. Knocking her up against the bottom of the fridge. "Talk!"

Olivia held up her hand in surrender, as she gasped for air to answer Michael.

"I- I'm sorry." Olivia finally managed.

"Oh you're sorry. Oh well then by all means I forgive you." Michael kicked Olivia in the side again. "It's okay because you're sorry. It doesn't even matter that its nine thirty in the fucking morning and my wife is just coming home. It doesn't matter that I drove around this entire fucking city looking for her. And it certainly doesn't matter that I've been calling her over and over since yesterday fucking afternoon!"

"My phone died!" Olivia yelled, after Michael kicked her yet again in her side.

"Well isn't that convenient."

"It did." Olivia defended herself. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry."

"Yes, I'm sorry." Olivia repeated.

"Oh you're sorry alright." Michael began to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his jeans. "I'm gonna show you sorry." Michael unzipped his jeans and pulled his pants and boxers down to his ankles. He walked over to Olivia who had already seen him coming. And was trying to crawl away, when he caught her and bent to his knees. Michael grabbed her by her feet, and pulled her back towards him.

"No." Olivia protested as Michael started ripping off her clothes. "No...Stop!" Olivia smacked, kicked and clawed at Michael but he still continued to rip of her shirt, then her bra. He was working on her jeans, when Olivia kicked him in the face. He fell back against the kitchen bar stools, with blood dripping from his nose. He felt his nose, and couldn't figure out if he was more angry that he was bleeding or at the fact that Olivia had kicked him.

"You bitch!" Michael went back at Olivia with more force and anger than before.

"Stop!" Olivia pleaded.

"Shut up!" He demanded after getting Olivia's jeans off. She screamed out for help as Michael of ripped of her underwear. "Shut up! Shut the fuck up." Michael flipped Olivia over on her stomach, and pulled her up to her knees.

"Michael no please. Stop-" Olivia's pleading was silenced by Michael's forceful entry. She screamed out, still trying to fight Michael off behind her. The he grabbed her hands in one hand, and pinned them behind her back while holding her in place with his other hand. Causing Olivia to fall face first into the floor.

"Stop…please!" Olivia yelled into the floor. Michael only ignored her screams and tightened his grip on her hands. Continuing to pump and thrust in and out of her, each time harder than the last. Eventually Olivia stopped trying to fight. She figured he'd stop sooner if she just kept still and didn't put up a fight. Olivia squeezed her eyes shut, and could feel Michael's knee's buckling causing him to shake. As soon as he was finished, he let go of Olivia's hands and pushed her forward.

"You know." Michael spoke as he got up. "I watched on animal planet one time, that wolves in the wild mark their territory with their piss. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm gonna mark my territory." Michael took a couple steps forward, and began to pee all over Olivia. He swayed from side to side laughing, as she laid on the floor curled into a ball trying to hide her face.

"And I expect for you to be here when I get back." Michael pulled up his pants. "Don't fuck with me Olivia. I'm gonna lose my temper if you're not in this house."

Present...

Olivia raced in her apartment, locking the doors behind her. She was on auto ever since she got out the cab, and raced to the elevator. All she wanted was to be behind closed locked doors where at the moment was the only place she felt safe. After locking the doors, Olivia ran straight to her room, thankful that she didn't go pick up McKenzie form her parents. Because right now, she needed to be alone, plus she didn't want McKenzie seeing her like this. She was sure to be afraid. Olivia closed her bedroom door, and went straight for her closet. It was the only place that was dark, and her back was against the wall.

Once she was safely inside, she began to cry all over again. She had managed to hold it together in the car ride over, only letting a few tears fall. By the time she was walking through the lobby of her building, it was more than a few tears falling and she still didn't make a sound. But now that she was alone, she couldn't control it anymore. She was shaking in fear, her head was pounding, and she felt as if someone had kicked her in the gut. She hadn't been feeling good for the past two weeks, but she thought it was all because of the break with Fitz. But now, the pain was more severe. Clutching her stomach, Olivia curled on her side on the floor. She wanted Fitz, she didn't him to just hold her, but that would mean she would have to tell him what was wrong with her, and right now that was out of the question.

She remembered the last time she got like this, it was right when her dreams first started years ago. And just like the times before, Olivia knew that the only thing that would help her right now was time. So that's what she did, she gave it time. She lay curled in a ball for what felt like hours cry and cry, until she couldn't cry anymore. Now she just laid on the floor, staring into the black space of the closet. She could hear her cell phone ringing in the bedroom, then her house phone ringing in the living room, but she couldn't bring herself to get up and answer it. Whoever it was, was just going to have to wait.

X

Fitz dialed Olivia's number yet again, and got her voice mail for the fifth time in the past ten minutes. He had finished his paper work, and went outside for a smoke break, when he saw Olivia's car in the parking lot. At first, he had thought Olivia had come back to surprise him, he was happy, until he noticed that she wasn't in the car. And he knew she wasn't in the restaurant, because he would have seen her. He first checked, the make sure that it was Olivia's parents car, and after confirming that it was, he went back in the restaurant to see if anyone knew where she was, and to see if she was maybe in the bathroom. He checked the bathroom first, and she wasn't there. He then walked over to Austin, who was setting up the tables.

"Austin, you know that black SUV outside. Did you happen to see the person driving that car?" Fitz asked him.

"Was it a woman?" Austin asked, and Fitz nodded in response. "It might have been the woman I saw when I came in. She was kneeled beside her car, it looked like she had just thrown up, and she had been crying." Fitz eyes grew twice as big, now worried for Olivia, especially now that he didn't know where she was. "I asked her if she was alright, and she kept insisting that she was. I helped her up, and she just got in her car."

"Do you know where she went?" Fitz asked, with worry in his voice.

"Sorry, I went inside to start my shift. I assumed she left."

Fitz thanked Austin, then walked away pulling out his phone to call Olivia again, and got her voice-mail. He had just then thought to check the security cameras, unfortunately they only had cameras in the restaurant, and the front of the parking lot. They hadn't installed the ones towards the back end of the restaurant and off to the side, so he Fitz wasn't able to see Olivia on any of the camera angles. He was about to call her again, when Cyrus walked over to him. "Fitz I need to talk to you about the numbers for last month."

"Not now Cy, I have to leave."

"What do you mean leave? You can't leave, we have too much to do around here. Plus we have that meeting this afternoon, I need you to be here." Cy protested, although he knew that he could handle the meeting without Fitz being there, but he just didn't want too.

"I know Cy, but I can always do paper work, and you don't really need me for the meeting tonight." Fitz was already heading out the door, when Cy stopped him.

"Where are you going, you can't just leave."

"I need to go check on Olivia, something's not right. I don't know what it is, but something's wrong." Fitz explained, as he walked outside to his car, with Cyrus still hot on his trail.

"Fitz-" Cyrus tried to convince him to stay again, but Fitz cut him off.

"Cy, I know you mean well. But right now I'm not asking you for permission to leave, I'm telling you I'm going. Okay, something is wrong with Olivia and I am going to check on her. If you want you can reschedule the meeting, but I'm leaving." Fitz got in his car, and drove off, leaving an aggravated Cyrus to fend for himself.

On the way to Olivia's, Fitz ran into traffic. There was a bad wreck on his normal route that he took to go to Olivia's, and it seemed like traffic was backed up for miles. As he was turning around, he remembered that Quinn was supposed to go by Olivia's tonight. Fitz connected his Bluetooth with car, and called Quinn.

"Hello?" Quinn answered on the fifth ring.

"Hey Quinn its Fitz, I was wondering if you had made it to Liv's yet."

"Uh no, I'm not gonna be able to make it. I called her to cancel, but I got her voice-mail." Quinn heard Fitz sigh through the phone. "Everything okay?"

"I have no clue. Liv was at the restaurant earlier today, and when she left I thought she went home. But I came downstairs and saw her car was still in the parking lot. Then one of my employee's said they saw her throwing up and crying next to her car. I've been calling and calling here, to check on her but she hasn't been answering. So now I'm going over there, but I got detoured. Would you mind going by to check on her?"

"Yeah no problem, I'll go check on her."

"Thanks Quinn. I'm not too far away, I should be there soon." Fitz assured her, before he hung up the phone. On his way to Liv's he couldn't help but think that something was wrong, and she wasn't just sleeping through all his calls. He couldn't help but wonder what in the world happened in the short time between her leaving his office and getting to her car, that got her so upset that she vomiting and crying. Whatever the reason was, he wasn't gonna be able to calm down until he got to Olivia.

X

"Olivia?" Quinn called out. She had left her place, as soon as she hung up with Fitz, and it took her no time to get to Olivia's apartment. When she got there, she let herself in with the spare key Olivia gave her, and was now calling out to Olivia. She checked the living room and the kitchen, before heading down the hall to her Liv's bedroom. "Liv are you in here?" Quinn knocked on the door, before opening it. She was about to call out to Olivia again, when she heard a sniffle coming from the closet. Quinn walked over to the closet, and slid the door back. Quinn remembered the last time she had found Olivia in the similar position. It was when she found out she was pregnant, and McKenzie's father had left. Olivia had had a dream that night, and called Quinn to console her. When Quinn got to her house, Olivia was in the fetal position in the back of her closet gasping for air, because she was having a panic attack. Luckily this time around, she was just scared, although it was still a heartbreaking scene to see Olivia curled up in the corner of her closet. It was better than seeing her gasping and clutching her chest trying to breath.

As soon as Quinn slid the closet door open, she rushed to Olivia. "Olivia what happened?" She reached out, to move Olivia's hair from her face, so she could see hear. Olivia flinched at the sudden contact, she hadn't really realized Quinn was there, because she was so zoned out. She had been sitting in the corner for what felt like hours, and since then she had called down considerably. She was no longer cry, but she was still a little jumpy. "Hey it's okay, It's just me. Fitz was worried about you, he asked me to come check on you." Quinn watched, as Olivia sat up and sat with her knees in her chest, and her head resting on top. Quinn put a gentle hand on Olivia's knee, to calm her shaking. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

"I... I saw him." Olivia spoke in a quiet tone, not able to say Michael's name.

"You- you mean Michael?" Quinn was trying to keep calm for Olivia's sake, but on the inside she was freaking out! She knew it wasn't good that Olivia saw him today. And more importantly she was wondering what he was doing here. Had he followed her yet again, and found her? What did he want? Was he gonna confront her? Quinn knew by the look on her face, that Olivia was thinking the same things. "Did he say anything to you?"

"No." Olivia sniffed, and wiped her nose. "No I don't think he saw me, at least I hope. I ran out of the restaurant, before he saw me. I couldn't even drive home, because I was so upset."

"What do you think he's doing here?" Quinn asked.

Olivia shrugged, and wiped a tear that had fallen. "I don't know. He use to travel here for business, so I'm hoping that's what's he's doing here, and that he doesn't know I'm here. I mean he knows my parents still live here, but I don't think he knows I came back."

"What are you going to do?" Quinn asked, feeling a little bad that she couldn't offer a little more comfort. Little did she know, that all Olivia needed was just someone to talk to, and not someone to try and fix her problem.

"Nothing. I'm not gonna let him do this to me again. When he found me the first time, I was too scared to even leave my house, that's why I came back to DC. But I'm not gonna let him run me off, I can't keep running form him my entire life. Besides, there's nothing to worry about at the moment. i saw him, but he didn't see me. As far as I know he's here on business, and isn't thinking about me. He could have moved on for all we know." Quinn knew that Olivia wasn't as fine as she said she was. And she also knew, that yes it could have been just a coincidence that Michael was at that restaurant. But she also knew, that Michael did not and would never just forget about Olivia. She knew that he would never move on and he would never leave Olivia alone. He put it in his head a long time ago, that Olivia was his and would forever be his.

"You need to tell Fitz when he gets here." Quinn told Olivia, getting ready for the protest she was about to make.

"No. No he doesn't need to know about this, I'm fine."

"The hell you are. You were curled into a ball in your closet, Olivia. I don't even know how long you've been here, but it was long enough to make your boyfriend start to worry about you. He called me in a panic, and I could tell he was trying to keep it together. It was different when you were just having dreams, although you needed to tell him then too. But now, now you've seen him. Michael is back, and you need to tell Fitz."

"No I'm fine. That was the past. My marriage, everything that happened, Michael- It's all in the past. And there's no need to bring up the past."

"Well apparently Michael didn't get that memo, because he's here in the present. And you keep playing loose with Fitz feelings, and he'll soon be in the past."

Olivia was about to respond, when she heard he front door open and Fitz call out for her. "Olivia?" He called out from the living room.

"Tell him." Quinn repeated, before Fitz came into the room and over to the closet. "I'm gonna let you two talk. Call me if you need anything Olivia." Quinn hugged Olivia and kissed her cheek, as she left, she gave Fitz a comforting pat on the shoulder and made her way out.

"Livvie?" Fitz called to her, once Quinn was gone. He could tell she had been crying hard for some time now. Her eyes were swollen, puffy and bloodshot red. She looked a little pale, and so small sitting in the corner of her closet. "Liv are you alright?" Fitz asked, as he walked into the closet.

"Hi." Olivia spoke softly.

"Hi." Fitz responded, a little confused about how seemingly calm Olivia was being. He could tell just by looking at her that it was a facade. "Baby what are you doing on the floor in your closet?" Olivia didn't answer him. She only put up her arms the way McKenzie did when she wanted to be picked up. Fitz smiled, and reached down putting an arm behind her back, and another under her knees, picking her up with ease. He carried her out of the closet, and over to the bed. Fitz pulled back the covers, and put Olivia on the bed, and covered her up to her neck in the covers. He had no idea why, but he had learned that's the way she liked to go to sleep. Although she never woke up like that, she couldn't go to sleep without some sort of blanket on her.

"Olivia?"

"Hmm?" Olivia knew what he was getting to, she just didn't want to talk right now. But she knew Quinn was right, and soon or later, she was going to have to stop avoiding the inevitable.

"Are we not gonna talk about what happened today?" Fitz asked, as he got in the bed beside Olivia.

"What do you mean?"

"Olivia, don't be cute. Okay this isn't funny. Now you were fine when you left my office, then I find out you were puking and crying at your car. Then you don't answer my calls,I'm thinking the worst. Then I get here, and you're curled in a ball in the back of the closet. Now what happened from the time you walked out of my off to when you got to your car? I know you don't like to talk about certain things, but enough is enough. You're allowed to keep some things to yourself, but this isn't one of them. So start talking."

If this was any other time, Olivia would have found his tone and demanding attitude sexy as hell. But this wasn't the time, she could tell he was truly worried about her, and it made her feel a little guilty that she had ignored all his calls and had him thinking something horrible happened to her. So Olivia finally put on her big girl panties and decided to talk to Fitz.

Olivia sighed, and sat up in the bed, so she could face Fitz. She took a deep breathe before she spoke. "Well um... I guess I have to tell you from the beginning. I was married once before." Olivia paused, but kept her head down. She couldn't look at Fitz, as she spoke or else she would've stopped. She could just imagine the look he had on his face, when she said she was married once before.

"I was young, naive, and dumb and I thought I was in love. I was barely legal when we eloped. I didn't tell anyone, because my parents barely knew him; they had only met a couple of times. They didn't like Michael because he was much older than me. Anyway, we got married and for the first few months everything was fine. We had moved, bought a new house, his business was starting off, and I had plans to start nursing school. Everything was fine, until he started drinking." Olivia paused again, to keep it together. She could feel her emotions starting to get the best of her. "He started to change. I guess he was always the same man, but he only choose to show me who he really was, after he had made me dependent on him. He- he got violent. He became this very possessive, and jealous man, who had to know my whereabouts every minute of everyday. He constantly checked up on me. I could do anything without consulting him first, he even chose my clothes. And whenever I didn't do something to his satisfactory, or if he even thought I was flirting with someone, he would become enraged, and just start hitting on me-"

Fitz didn't know what to do, as Olivia was confessing all this to him. He wanted to hold her, he wanted to tell her to stop, but he knew that she needed to get this off her chest. But most off all, he wanted to beat the shit out of this Michael.

"-It got to the point where he would hit me just about every day, for no reason. Just to scare me into submission to never leave him. And I was scared. I was scared everyday that I was with him, I always thought, that this was the day that he would go too far and I would end up dead. I thought about leaving constantly, but I had nowhere to go. He alienated me from everyone I knew when we moved. I had no money because he wouldn't let me work. I had little friends, but most of them were friends of Michael's. I was completely alone-" Olivia's tears were now in full stream, but she just wiped her eyes and nose and continued on. Still not having the courage to look at Fitz yet.

"-Until one day, I had gone out the night before with a friend that I met though Michael, it was her birthday. We went to this bar, and I had too much to drink, more than I meant to. I decided to sleep it off at the friends house, and I fell asleep, without calling Michael to let him know where I was. I went home the next morning, and was gonna explain, but it was too late. he had already worked himself into a frenzy the night before, when I didn't come home. He didn't even give me a chance to say anything, when he hit me. I tried to explain I said I was sorry! But he just kept kicking me and kicking me! Then he pulled down his pants and ripped off my clothes-" Olivia couldn't bring herself to finish. She was starting to get hysterical, and was surprised she had made it this far into the retailing of that day.

"Anyway, I blacked out. I don't even know how long I had been there on the floor in our kitchen, but then I heard Quinn's voice." Olivia smiled through her pain, "I heard her voice. And I opened my eyes and there she was running towards me. It was just my luck that she just came all that way to surprise me. Quinn saved my life that day. If she hadn't come when she did, I would have died."

"Livvie-" Fitz scooted over to Olivia, and tried to console her. But she pushed him back slightly. Not that she didn't appreciate him trying to console her, she just knew that is she stopped and broke down now, then she would never finish the story.

"No, not right now. I have to finish, I have to finish or I'll never finish telling you." Fitz nodded, but kept his hand on her leg, as she finished. "That was the last time I saw Michael. I wouldn't let Quinn take me to a hospital, because I was afraid Michael would show up. So she me a train ticket home, and we went to the hospital when we got there. I had a broken jaw, a busted eye socket, four cracked ribs, my right leg was broken in two places, and I had a compound fracture on my left arm." Olivia let out a weird laugh, something she sometimes did when she was embarrassed or nervous. "Bastard really worked me over. I was in physical therapy for five months, before I could walk on my own."

Fitz saw the tear streaming down Olivia's face, even with her head down. Without waiting for her approval, Fitz quickly pulled her into his lap and held her for dear life. He was afraid to let her go, he felt he needed to protect her from something that happened years ago. "I wish you had told me Livvie."

"I wanted to, but I don't like talking about it. It's bad enough I has dreams about those years, I don't want to talk about them." Olivia buried her face in Fitz chest. Inhaling his scent was calming her down unsurprisingly. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

"Shh, you have nothing to be sorry about. I understand why you didn't want to tell me, I just wish you had." Fitz kissed the top of her head, "So is this what happened today? You were thinking about what happened?

It took close to forty minutes, for Olivia to talk Fitz out of going back to the restaurant and looking through the security tapes of the bar. Just so he could hunt down that Michael fuck and beat his ass. He was furious after Olivia told him that she had seen Michael, and that's what had her so upset. He couldn't believe that that ass hole was in his restaurant. And that he had possibly followed Olivia all the way to DC. It pissed Fitz off even more, that he didn't know what Michael wanted. He didn't know if he was trying to hurt Olivia or if he was truly here on a business trip.

Olivia had to plead with him to calm down. She loved that he was trying to come to her rescue, but right now, all she wanted was to lay in bed and cuddle for the rest of the day. After finally getting him to calm down, Fitz stripped down to his boxers and sweatpants, and Olivia in just her underwear and one of Fitz's shirts that he left. And they climbed into the bed, with Olivia's head on Fitz's chest, as he held her as tight as he could without hurting her. Neither of them ever wanting to let go.

A couple of hours later, Fitz woke up to the doorbell and someone knocking on the door. He groaned, not wanting to get up. After another round of knocking, Fitz reluctantly rolled a still sleeping Olivia off him, and headed to the door. He was too tired to think about the fact that he was just in his sweatpants. Fitz finally reached the door, and swung it open, to be met by a short, slender woman with black hair, and big brown eyes. Fitz knew those eyes, he knew only one person could have those eyes besides Olivia and McKenzie. This had to be Olivia's mother.

So I was originally gonna put this int he last chapter, but thought it would be too long , and just made it into two. Okay so I know the beginning was a little much, but I really wanted to show how much of an evil ass, hole Michael really was. And with the help of mu twisted mind, I think I captured that. So I hope you enjoyed the chapter, even if you didn't enjoy the flashback. I know most if not all of you are glad Olivia finally told Fitz about Michael. About time right? I know I'm the one writing this shit, but she was getting on my nerves too!

Also I meant to put it on the last chapter, but who all watch the mid-season premiere of Scandal? Can we just give Kerry all the awards for her performance?! That bitch slayed! And I don't care what anyone has to say about it, she carried that entire episode and I was blown away. But was like damn, when she broke through the red door, and thought she was free. I was like damn! They did not have to do her like that. And then they messed with my emotions, showing those clips of Vermont! My poor little heart couldn't take it after eyeing that big ass rock on Liv's finger. Anyway, i could talk about that episode all night, so I'm gonna start the rambling. So as always tell me what you think ab out the chapter.

Until next time...