Disclaimer: I do not own Scandal

Chapter Eleven: I Won't Give Up

When I look into your eyes it's like watching the night sky

Or a beautiful sunrise well there's so much they hold

And just like them old stars I see that you've come so far

To be right where you are how old is your soul

Well I won't give up on us even if the skies get rough

I'm giving you all my love I'm still looking up

And when you're needing your space

To do some navigating

I'll be here patiently waiting to see what you find

Cause even the stars they burn

Some even fall to the earth

We've got a lot to learn, God knows we're worth it

No I won't give up

- "I Won't Give Up" Jason Mraz

Cyrus pulled an envelope out, "I want you to find out who the First Lady is sleeping with."

"Seriously?" Charlie, a hit man for hire, looked skeptically at Cyrus, "That's what you want? You know I kill people for a living, I don't stalk them. Why don't you just check her Facebook status?"

Cyrus grunted, "Look I'm paying you. I hired you. Do it." He paused, "And do it thoroughly."

Charlie rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say boss." He saluted Cyrus and walked away, leaving the Chief of Staff alone in the park.

SCANDAL

Billy stuck a copy of the West Wing logs in an envelope. He had to do a little editing since Amanda could only convince the President to sleep with him once. The idiot. It's not like he was sleeping with the First Lady. He slipped the envelope into a mailbox far from his apartment and the White House.

SCANDAL

Olivia sighed and answered her phone, "What?"

"Olivia Pope?"

"Speaking." Olivia sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes.

"This is Nancy Drake, I need your help right away."

Olivia recognized her name immediately, her husband was a pastor who was a leader in the 1960s civil rights movement and continued that work to this day. He'd married the first gay couple in DC on the steps of the Capitol. "Where are you?"

SCANDAL

Olivia waited outside of the house until Stephen, Abby, Huck, Quinn and Harrison were all with her, "I want to be perfectly clear about something," she began, "there will be no side comments or snide remarks about this. We are to be respectful. Mrs. Drake is now our client. Her husband was a very important man. We are trying to preserve and respect his reputation." When everyone nodded she opened the front door and led the up to the bedroom.

Nancy Drake was standing in the corner of the room, "I don't understand how this happened or why you called me." Olivia, Huck, Harrison, Abby, Quinn and Stephen heard her say as they approached.

They heard a muffled, "I didn't know what to do. I knew you wouldn't want this to get out. I didn't know who to call." They heard a muffled reply.

Harrison leaned over to Stephen, "Is there a woman underneath Pastor Drake?" He whispered.

Stephen whispered back, "Is Pastor Drake handcuffed to the bed?"

Olivia smacked them both on the arms, "Remember what I said. Okay, let's get him off so Ms. Gordon can stand up."

Abby, Olivia and Nancy Drake watched as Huck unlocked the cuffs and the boys rolled him off of Anna Gordon, Pastor Drake's girlfriend. The naked woman grabbed the sheets and wrapped them around her body as she stood and darted to the bathroom.

"I need some air." Nancy sighed as she moved into the hallway. She looked around at the pictures on the walls, feeling them close in on her, "He helped pay for all of this."

Olivia sat down next to her, "What do you want us to do? You're our client, not Anna. Whatever you want."

"I don't want people to know about him." She paused, "About her."

"So we move the body to your house?" Olivia suggested.

"Yes please, everyone can think he had a heart attack or a stroke in bed."

Olivia nodded, "Okay," I want the body wrapped up and put in the trunk. We're taking him home. Harrison, stay and inform Ms. Gordon of what we expect from her. Keep her calm." She paused, "And don't sleep with her." She whispered.

SCANDAL

Cyrus and the President sat in the dark room off of the Oval Office, "What do you have?" Fitz asked.

Cyrus pushed an envelope towards him. "It's Hollis."

"Doyle? Mellie is sleeping with Hollis Doyle?" Fitz picked up the envelope and slipped pictures out of it. Pictures of Mellie straddling Hollis in the back of Hollis's car were the most innocent of all of them. "So what do we do?"

"We have lots of options," Cyrus began.

"We include Olivia in this discussion." He glanced down at his phone, "She must be working if she didn't answer, I'll try her again."

SCANDAL

"What?" Olivia didn't even look at the caller id on her phone as she answered, "Stephen, Huck, in there." She pointed to the master bedroom in the Drake household.

"Livie?"

Olivia stopped, "Hi, is everything okay?"

"Hi," Fitz breathed out, "Mellie is having an affair with Hollis, we have proof."

"I'm so sorry." Olivia murmured, "You want to use this as the catalyst don't you?"

"Yeah, is it possible?"

"I'm sure we can figure something out, but I'm in the middle of working with a client right now." She looked over at Nancy who had moved on from the anger phase to tears, "And I have to go." She hung up.

"Nancy," Olivia got down on her knees next to the woman, "it's going to be okay, let's get you in pajamas and him in pajamas and put you two in bed. Abby's going to coach you on what to say to the police when you call them."

SCANDAL

Gideon Wallace pulled papers out of an envelope with no return address. A flash drive fell out as well. Flipping through them the wheels in his mind started spinning. They were West Wing logs. He glanced through them. It looked like the President and a woman named Amanda Tanner were having an affair.

Grabbing the flash drive he slid it into his computer. He pushed his chair back when he clearly heard President Grant say "Take off your clothes." Gideon stared at the envelope. Someone just handed him a national story.

SCANDAL

Cyrus barged into the Oval Office, "We have so many problems today."

"There are no problems, only solutions." Fitz informed him.

"I just got a call from the DA's office, Pastor Drake is dead."

"What?" Fitz set the paper he was reading down.

"He had a heart attack in his sleep, Mrs. Drake called it in this morning when he didn't wake up." Cyrus sat on the sofa across from him.

"That's terrible, but not a problem, what's the problem?"

Cyrus held up a CD, "I got this tape in my personal mail today. Is it still called a tape even though it's technically as CD?"

"Cyrus, you're starting to ramble, you don't ramble and now I'm nervous, what's going on?"

Cyrus slipped the tape into the computer on Fitz's desktop. Together, Fitz and Cyrus listened to the moans, the crashing of something and then Fitz very clearly saying, "Take off your clothes." Cyrus stopped the tape.

"It came with this," he slipped another CD into the computer, "this freaked me out even more." A clip of Nixon sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office appeared on the screen. It only took a moment for Fitz to realize it was his resignation speech.

Fitz paused the clip, "Who sent this?"

Cyrus sighed, "I have no idea, but sir, this is telling you to resign before your affair with Olivia goes public."

SCANDAL

Olivia stood off to the side as she watched Mellie interact with Nancy Drake. The press wanted an interview with the widow and Cyrus wanted the President involved. Something had happened, she hadn't had time to find out the details, that scared Cyrus into thinking Fitz needed good coverage.

Mellie and Nancy spoke quietly to each other while photographers snapped pictures, "Can I tell you something Mellie?"

Mellie nodded and took a sip of her coffee, "Of course Nancy, what's wrong?"

"My husband, I'm not sure how to honor him when I didn't find him dead in our bed." Mellie sent her a questioning look, "His girlfriend called me. She was trapped underneath him."

Mellie's eyes traveled the room until they landed on Olivia, "Despite everything he is still a good man. And he gave you a family you love. You honor that memory. You honor the man you fell in love with, not the man who died."

Nancy narrowed her eyes, "Your husband is having an affair too, isn't he?"

Mellie nodded, "Not anymore, but he was."

"It's despicable." Nancy sighed, "But you managed to find forgiveness."

"He came back to me, he knew he was wrong." Mellie stated, "Your husband would've come back to you too." She patted Nancy's hand.

"I hope so."

Fitz came up behind Olivia, "Livie," he looked down at her, "Cyrus got something in the mail yesterday."

"What?"

"A tape of us. The first night we ever." He looked down at her, "And a tape of Nixon resigning from office." He whispered.

"Is it from Mellie or Hollis?" Olivia asked quietly.

Fitz shrugged, "Cy can't figure anything out."

"Confront Mellie about the affair. Not about the tapes, about the affair. See what falls out of her mouth." Olivia stepped away from Fitz and moved in Cyrus's direction to fill him in on her idea.

SCANDAL

"He was having an affair." Mellie stated as she slipped her pearl earrings in her ears. She and Fitz were getting ready for Pastor Drake's funeral. "She hates him."

Fitz tied his shoes and didn't respond to that, "He did a lot for this country."

"I understand her hatred, I know what it's like to be betrayed like that." Mellie commented, "I told her to remember the man she married. That's what I do."

Fitz stood up and growled, "Really? That's all you do?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mellie put her hands on her hips and turned to face him.

"Well I figured you also screwed Hollis Doyle." Fitz crossed his arms, "Tell me Mel, how long has that been going on?"

Mellie scoffed, "Right Fitz, like I'd sleep with Hollis Doyle."

"Why not? You're not sleeping with me. And you've known him a lot longer than you let on. Your daddy and his daddy were friends. He's older than me, but still." Fitz leaned against the bedpost. "You know lying doesn't become you."

"I have never lied to you Fitzgerald." Mellie stood firm.

"Really? Does the town Defiance, Ohio ring a bell?"

Mellie paled, "What about Defiance?"

"I know what you did. I know what you, Verna, Hollis, Cyrus and Liv did. Liv told me."

"Of course Olivia did. She's the Great Olivia Pope! She can do no wrong."

"Oh she did wrong. And she actually feels guilty about it. But I did wrong too."

"And what did you do wrong besides screw your whore?" Mellie shot back.

"I waited until now to tell you that I want a divorce." Mellie stepped back at his words, "This marriage is over. If I can't run a second term, I can't run a second term, I'd rather spend the rest of my life with Olivia and not be President, than spend anymore of my life with you." He paused, "Now, I have proof of your affair with Hollis. Deny it all you want, I don't really care anymore."

"Fine, yes I'm sleeping with Hollis. He actually loves me. He actually treats me like a human being. He touches me." She waved her arms around, "He is everything that you aren't."

"He kills people." Fitz shot back, "He's a monster." He paused, "But then again, so are you." Fitz grabbed his coat and slammed the door on his way out.

SCANDAL

Fitz saw her at the front standing near Nancy Drake. He weaved through the crowd of people at the church to mourn the passing of Pastor Drake. He felt in his pockets for his notecards as he walked, confident in his words about the pastor. He stopped behind her. "She's rattled," he whispered. Olivia stilled as Fitz continued to speak, "Cyrus told me to drop the divorce bomb. I did."

Olivia turned and smiled, "We'll get through this." She paused. "Cyrus is going to give me the tapes. Do you trust Huck?"

"With my life." Fitz answered.

Olivia nodded, "Good, then I'm going to have Huck look into them. Cyrus trusts Huck too. He trusts all my people."

"Your people are the best Livie." Fitz whispered. "Oh, and I know this wasn't part of the plan, but I told Mellie I knew about Defiance."

Olivia stepped back, "You hadn't told her already?"

Fitz shook his head, "There's nothing to say to her. I just don't care."

Olivia smiled, "We'll get through this. You'll see."

SCANDAL

XOXO

MAS