A/N: At the beginning of each chapter, I'm going to start sharing the song/songs that inspired the chapter or I listened to while I was writing. This chapter's song was Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay. (Chapter titles are typically the title of the song or a lyric from the song I listened to.)

Downfall

Chapter Ten:

Adventure of a Lifetime

Mid-August; San Francisco Marathon

"Come on, old man," Olivia panted, her feet slapping against the blacktop and her ponytail swaying from side to side. There was a noticeable sheen to her skin – the light mist wasn't doing much to cool her down.

"Trust me, I'm trying," Fitz barely managed to croak. While Olivia made running a marathon look nearly effortless and indeed she had slowed her pace to stay with Fitz for the whole race, Fitz was barely managing putting one foot in front of the other at this point. His shirt was soaked and he was sure there was more sweat than rain running into his eyes. Glancing back at him, Olivia allowed a small smile to grace her lips – he was exhausted, but still pushing himself.

"Just around this bend and we're finished. About another couple hundred feet." Talking was easier when she wasn't having to fully exert herself. She slowed just enough to be running beside Fitz, urging him on.

Fitz took a deep breath, his lungs burning, as he pushed himself to keep going. Around the bend, he could see the finish line and nearly sighed in relief – a few more seconds and he could stop running. He didn't know why he had allowed Olivia to sign him up for this. As they crossed the finish line, Fitz swore under his breath when he noticed a journalist running toward him. He needed at least a good five minutes to catch his breath.

"Representative Grant!" He grimaced at the loud call of his name and looked in Olivia's direction. She looked better than him – there was a nice sheen on her skin and she was breathing a little faster than normal, but she didn't look anywhere near as exhausted as he felt. She was returning from the table that sat off to the side in the grass, two medals and two bottles of water in her hands. She hadn't mentioned anything to him about the press, although he supposed that he had known there was a high chance that they would be present at the race – Olivia had chosen it for press exposure.

"Yes?" He turned and faced the reporter, a young man with floppy brown hair wearing a suit that looked a tad too warm for August weather. His knuckles were white as he held on to the corded microphone in his hand, a cameraman trailing behind him. It took the duo a matter of minutes to set up and face Fitz, the reporter wearing a nervous smile.

"Congratulations on finishing the race, representative," The reporter started off, a slight stutter at the beginning of his sentence that faded as he continued.

"Thank you," Fitz acknowledged, watching Olivia out of the corner of his eye. She stood slightly to the side, waiting for him to finish.

"What charity were you running for, representative?" The reporter questioned, that nervous glint ever present in his eyes. No doubt he was excited that he had been the first to approach Fitz and, undoubtedly, be the only exclusive interview of the day.

"I was running for the National Brain Tumor Society," Fitz answered, going over the responses that Olivia had spent relentless hours coaching him on prior to the race – she had anticipated the media presence and interest in his run.

"Is there any particular reason you chose this particular charity?" That was a question whose answer he and Olivia had spent nearly an hour arguing over the previous night when he had explained to her why he had chosen the charity. She thought he should give the answer that he had given her, but he had a hard enough time keeping his emotions in check while speaking to her about it, let alone in front of a reporter. He knew Olivia was right, though – giving the real reason would garner plenty of votes, even if they were pity votes. He took a deep breath and answered the question, willing his emotions to stay in check:

"My mother passed a few years back from brain cancer. I would do anything to prevent another family from feeling that form of loss."

"I'm sorry to hear of your loss. I'm sure she was with you today – once again, that was a fantastic run. Good luck with the election in November." The man ended the interview abruptly, his eyes slightly waterier than they had been before their conversation. He grasped Fitz's hand, giving a firm shake before following his cameraman to the news van parked near the sidewalk.

"Did I say something wrong?" Fitz wondered aloud, turning to look at Olivia as she handed him his bottle of water. He quickly unscrewed the cap, taking a deep drink of the cool liquid.

"Not so fast. You don't want to puke," Olivia warned, hanging the medal from Fitz's neck as he withdrew the bottle from his lips, looking forlornly at the liquid. "You said all the right things. He ended the interview so quickly because he was trying not to cry."

"Me and him both," Fitz murmured.

"She's proud of you, Fitz."

Raising his water bottle, Fitz gave her a mock toast at her statement, not trusting his voice if he attempted to speak. Olivia's small smile acknowledged his need for quiet at the moment. The two turned, standing shoulder to shoulder as they watched the next few runners cross the finish line. Olivia had been amazed to discover that she and Fitz hadn't been dead last – that there were in fact several hundred more runners yet to cross the finish line. She was proud of him; a sentiment she would share later when they were in private. He had been skeptical when she had first mentioned that she had signed him up for a marathon – even if it was just the 5k portion. He hadn't slacked on any of their early morning trainings. Most of the time he beat her to the gym and was always ready to run, pushing himself to go farther every day.

"How much longer are we staying?" Fitz wondered aloud, giving his now empty water bottle a longing look.

"The last runner is about twenty minutes out. You're supposed to give the winner their medal and trophy," Olivia answered, handing over her half-full bottle and taking Fitz's empty one.

"At least I can always count on you to come through for me," Fitz chuckled, taking a gulp of water.

"You'd think I tried to kill you out there today," Olivia laughed, twisting the plastic in her hands, "I'm sure Mellie would have given you her water, too."

"Mellie would have drank it even if she weren't thirsty and then laughed at me as she did so."

"You talk about her as if she were the devil reincarnate."

"You've met Mellie. You can't tell me you didn't think the same."

"I think she acts like a spoiled little girl who has yet to learn that she doesn't always get her way," Olivia mumbled, marching off toward the recycling bin with the empty bottle. Fitz smirked as he watched her toss the empty bottle in the blue bin.

"You really don't like, Mellie," Fitz stated, watching out the window as Olivia drove toward the office. The medal ceremony for the winner had gone off with only a minor hitch – Fitz had mispronounced the Hispanic winner's name to the amusement of the crowd and the winner. Any potential anger at the mispronunciation didn't last for long once Fitz announced that he would be making a monetary donation to the winner's chosen charity – one that benefited disadvantaged Hispanic immigrants. Olivia called it a win for the Hispanic vote.

"She calls me your play thing," Olivia remarked, hitting the off button on the radio.

"Wait. What?" Fitz shook his head, looking at Olivia in shock.

"You honestly haven't heard the things that she says in front of the rest of the staff?"

"No, I haven't. Now that I know though, I will take care of it."

"Don't bother with it, Fitz. Karma's a bitch and I have my ways of getting even – ones that aren't obvious and out in the open for everyone," Olivia winked, moving her hand back to the radio screen and turning it on.

"I was left to my own devices

Many days fell away with nothing to show

And the walls kept tumbling down

In the city that we love."

"What the hell is that?" Fitz questioned, reaching forward to turn the radio down, interrupting Olivia's rendition of the song.

"You've never heard Pompeii?"

"Like the city?"

"It's a good song."

"About Pompeii?"

"Sort of. It's a metaphor."

"How about we don't listen to music?"

"What would you rather do, then?"

"Play I Spy?"

"Seriously?"

"Well, no, but I never want to hear that song again, even if you are the one singing it."

Olivia glanced sideways at Fitz as she gently pumped her brakes, slowly coming to a halt at the stoplight before them. His sly compliments still caught her off guard sometimes. She smiled to herself as he dug his phone from his pocket, seemingly oblivious as to what he had done to her with that one simple comment – or unaware of what he had insinuated in the first place. She shook her head, easing her foot back to the gas pedal once the light had turned green. The slight buzzing sound of her phone had her turning her eyes from the highway moments later.

"Hey, eyes on the road," Fitz admonished, grabbing her phone from its resting place in the cup holder and reading her text. "Can you believe the news is already saying McDreamy is going to win the election?"

"I'm going to kill Chloe."

"She calls me McDreamy?" Fitz waited just long enough for Olivia to nervously nod her head, "That's awkward and weird."

"You've known Chloe long enough to know that pretty much sums her up."

"At least she keeps us updated on your projected approval rating."

"You don't know what the latest numbers results are?"

"I was kind of pushing your butt in a race all morning. Didn't have time to check in with our numbers guy."

"Sometimes I feel like sarcasm is your only language."

"It makes your day go by faster."

"Huh?"

"I'm just saying that I entertain you."

"No disagreeing there, but you could tone back on Chloe interactions."

"You don't like Chloe?"

"She scares me."

"That marathon idea was genius," Toby announced, passing papers with printed figures on them around the meeting table. Cyrus's eye roll didn't go unnoticed by Olivia at Toby's praise. He certainly hadn't been praised by the rest of Fitz's campaign staff during his tenure as campaign manager.

"It really bolstered our numbers this much?" Olivia questioned, staring intently at the paper before her.

"You're surprised? It was your idea."

"And I fully anticipated it to be successful, but not to this extent."

"With these numbers, we're a shoo-in for the governorship."

"And with Cyrus's newfound knack for raising funds, we can start rolling out some killer ads. Any ideas for those?" Cyrus looked up in surprise at Olivia's mention of his name. She rarely brought him up in these meetings and the previous times she had, had all been to publicly shame him. Praise from her was a new thing. Resting his elbow on the tabletop, Cyrus cupped his chin, his beady eyes darting from each occupant of the room as he tried to decipher Olivia's motives.

"I know Fitz isn't going to like this, but an interview, ad, charity function, something showcasing his support for brain cancer and getting him to open up about his mother would really seal the election for us. The media and voters ate up every last word he mentioned in that brief interview he gave after the marathon," Toby suggested.

"That's –" Olivia began.

"A great idea. Olivia, how about you speak to Fitz about it?" Cyrus smirked, leaning forward and eagerly watching Olivia's reaction – he wanted to see her try to wrangle herself from this situation while keeping the 'nothing more' than a campaign manager façade.

"I think we need to come up with some more ideas. The representative made it quite clear in that interview that he wasn't comfortable speaking about his mother. I'm not completely ruling it out, but we need something to fall back on if he does refuse to do that." Olivia raised her brow in Cyrus's direction, giving a cheeky look as she silently dared him to try and corner her again.

"What did you learn?" Cyrus sighed as he stepped into his much smaller office, Olivia had recently been granted his original space, to find Mellie sitting in his desk chair.

"It was a meeting about ad ideas – nothing to get excited about, Mellie." Cyrus dumped his papers on his desk and collapsed in the chair across from his desk, his hands moving toward his tie and undoing the knot there.

"This is getting old, Cyrus! Week after week, you come back empty handed. It's like you're too afraid to confront her."

"You haven't gone up against her yet, Mellie. She's smarter than she looks – and she has a sharp tongue."

"I'm done waiting, Cyrus. I'll find a way to get rid of her myself," Mellie huffed, standing and heading toward the office door, yanking it open and flouncing into the hallway. Cyrus shook his head at her retreating back – she was in for a battle of wits that he wasn't confident she could win.

Mellie stomped down the hall, her heels thumping against the carpeted floor. She stopped at the intersection of two hallways, glancing down both as she tried to make her decision – one direction would take her to Fitz's office and the other would take her to Olivia's office. She tried to see down the hall toward Olivia's office, but couldn't make out if there was a light on or not. She decided on the safest course – Fitz's office.

The door to Fitz's office was slightly ajar, the warm glow light flooding the dark carpeting in the hall. Mellie slowed her steps as she neared the door, trying to quietly slide along the wall. She would be willing to bet that Olivia was in that room with her husband. She leaned against the wall, tilting her head toward the door and holding her breath as she listened.

"I told Toby you wouldn't like the idea…"

"It's a terrible fucking idea." Fitz sounded mad. Mellie smiled. So it was possible for him to be upset with Olivia.

"That's why I told him to come up with some other ideas, because I didn't see you agreeing to it."

"Then why even bring it up?"

"As your campaign manager, I'm obligated to bring all ideas to your attention, Fitz…and Cyrus cornered me. I don't think he thought I would."

"Always so professional." Mellie frowned – in less than a minute Fitz had gone from sounding upset to making jokes. What was it about Olivia?

"In this setting? Yes."

"Then how about we go somewhere that isn't this setting?" Mellie narrowed her eyes. Was he asking Olivia out?

"Fitz…" Olivia's voice had taken a warning tone that caused Mellie to roll her eyes. She had had an inkling from the moment Olivia had been introduced to Fitz's team that there was more to their relationship than meets the eye and she didn't believe for one moment that Olivia was an innocent party.

"Just out for dinner, Olivia. We can invite someone else if you'd like. How about Chloe?" Mellie shook her head, this was getting too weird and confusing for her. Who was Chloe? Pushing herself back from the wall, Mellie grabbed the doorknob and threw the door open, smiling in satisfaction at the shocked expressions on Fitz and Olivia's faces. Fitz was relaxing at his desk and Olivia…Olivia was perched on the corner of his desk. Mellie raised a brow at that sight, her smile growing wider at the look of embarrassment that crossed Olivia's face.

"Mrs. Grant," Olivia greeted, hoping from the desk and turning to face Mellie, "How are you?"

"What are you doing in here, Mellie?" Fitz demanded. He sounded more tired than anything. Mellie pursed her lips – maybe Olivia could serve a purpose after all. It had been a while since Fitz's anger toward her had been curbed.

"Is there something wrong with me visiting my husband?" Mellie tilted her head to the side.

"Get ou-"

"We were just about to go to dinner. We have some campaign ads to discuss. Care to join us, Mrs. Grant?" That didn't bode well with Mellie. Olivia was better at appearances than she had thought she would be.

"Mellie doesn't like the work part of campaigns." Fitz was staring her down, daring her to accept Olivia's offer. Mellie had to laugh at that one – he should have known better by now. She would do anything to prove him wrong.

"I love the idea of getting to work with the famous Olivia Pope." Her smile was sickly sweet. Fitz sighed, standing from his chair and yanking his suit jacket from the nearby coat rack. Stuffing his arms in the holes of his jacket, he refused to look at Mellie's gloating expression – undoubtedly a combination of nabbing herself a dinner invitation and Fitz wearing a suit jacket. He knew that if he so much as mentioned Olivia having picked the outfit out for him for a press conference earlier that day, Mellie's expression would quickly be wiped clean.

"Let's get this over with," Fitz grumbled, leaving his office.

"I know you said no to our original idea so…we do have an option to leak information regarding Governor Ryan's mistress," Olivia suggested, reaching for her glass of wine. Mellie watched Fitz, waiting to see his reaction to that suggestion.

"I thought we had a big enough lead that we wouldn't need to resort to that." Mellie's brows furrowed – he knew that was an option all along? She leaned back and crossed her arms. What kind of game are you playing, Miss Pope?

"Right now, we do. But there are still two months between now and the election. Anything can happen during that time. This guarantees that we keep the lead."

"His wife doesn't know, Olivia."

"I know how you feel about that, Fitz. Which is why I am glad that Mrs. Grant could join us tonight."

Mellie snapped to attention, her eyes wide and innocent as she watched Olivia. Just what could she possibly want her to do?

"You and Mrs. Ryan tend to get along quite well at all political functions you have attended together," Olivia began, leveling Mellie with her stare, "We need you to go to her and offer our information before it's released to the press."

"You don't think she will turn around and release the information herself?" Mellie shook her head – she hadn't counted on Olivia being so calculating, either.

"She won't have a chance."

"Hmph," Mellie breathed as she turned her head to look at Fitz. Fitz shrugged his shoulders in response to her questioning gaze.

"Whatever Olivia decides."