A/N: I would like to say thank you for all of you for reading and reviewing. That being said I would like to explain myself a little bit. Yes. We all know that Olivia is 100% capable of handling Mellie. However they are still trying to navigate the whole step-mother/mother dynamic of their relationship. I am planning something for them so just hang on for that.
Chapter Eleven
With 24 hours left to go on the clock the room was tense. Fitz's approval ratings had been on a steady decline ever since the video footage surfaced. Olivia, Cyrus and Fitz sat in the Oval trying to think of ways to bring the soldiers home safe before the clock ticked down. "I'm just going to say what we are all thinking. You are the president of the United States, if anyone has the authority to release anyone from Guantanamo Bay it is you. If you do that this will all be over." Cyrus said. "We don't know that." Olivia spoke up. "They never said anything about letting our prisoners go if we released their leader from Gitmo." She finished. "That and we do not negotiate with terrorists." Fitz added. "You of all people know we do not put just anyone in Guantanamo Bay. We are NOT releasing him, especially since we have no assurances that doing so will result in a safe homecoming for our soldiers." Fitz said firmly.
"Then Sir, I highly suggest we do something to boost your favorables. All do respect but it looks like we are just sitting on our hands while American lives hang in the balance. I'm pretty sure Charles Manson has higher approval ratings than you do at this point." Cyrus told him. "I don't care if my approval ratings sink below that of the Bubonic Plague I'm not negotiating with terrorists." Fitz reaffirmed. "We have our best SEAL team on this. We have DoD, the State Department and our allies in Turkey doing everything they can to ensure the safety of these young men." Fitz said. "I'm afraid if we did anything to try and boost Fitz's favorables right now it would only have the opposite effect." Olivia chimed in. "We need him here working on the crisis in Turkey if we send him off to a rally somewhere or have him focusing on anything other than the problem at hand it will make him look distant and uncaring. As if he doesn't stay up all night trying to figure out ways to bring these soldiers home." Olivia said.
Cyrus's eyes lit up after Olivia got done speaking. "Maybe he can't go off to garner goodwill from the American people but his wife can. After all, his wife is not the one who has 3 innocent lives resting in the palm of her hands." He said. "No, Cyrus. I will not have my wife shamelessly pander to the masses on my behalf." Fitz said. "Who said anything about shamelessly pandering to the masses?" Cyrus asked innocently. "I was thinking about something more along the lines of the new baby." He added. "You find out the sex soon right?" He asked. "Next week, but by then it'll be too late." Olivia told him. "No. I told Mellie this when she was pregnant with Teddy and I will tell you this now Cyrus, America is not having a baby. Olivia and I are. I will not use this baby as a political stunt to boost my favorables." Fitz told Cyrus. "That baby in there is political gold Liv, but if you're not going to spend that gold you could at least let it slip 'accidentally' to a White House press reporter how difficult this hostage situation has been on Fitz. How most nights he doesn't come to bed until well past midnight only to be gone before breakfast the next day." Cyrus told her. "I'm not using this child to garner political points for my husband and nobody wants to hear 'how difficult this hostage situation has been on Fitz'. He quite literally signed up for this job." Olivia responded. "He is quite literally right here. You don't have to talk about him like he isn't." Fitz said. "It's getting late Cy. You should head home. You have a husband and daughter to get back to." Fitz said, relieving Cyrus for the evening. "Goodnight Sir, Liv." He said as he walked out the door.
Fitz walked over to the couch where Olivia was sitting. As he sat down Olivia put her head on Fitz's shoulder. "I know you are doing everything you can." Olivia told him. "I just wish it were more. I want these soldiers back home safely, and in one piece. I want these family members to know that I do stay up late at night thinking of new ways to make sure that happens." Fitz told her as he rested his hand on her stomach. "My children are the most important people in my world. I thought watching my son die was bad enough, but this seems worse somehow. With Jerry I could touch him. I could hold his hand and tell him that I loved him. These family members can't do that. They have to watch from thousands of miles away while horribly atrocious things happen to their loved ones. The youngest soldier to have been kidnapped is 19. He just graduated high school last May. His mother said he wants to be an engineer, but they don't have the money for him to go to college so he joined the military so that he could go to college after his service was up." Fitz told her. "Fitz we are going to bring these men home. I have faith in you and in your people. You are going to bring these soldiers home before anything else happens to them I know it." Olivia reassured him.
"Do whatever you want for dinner tonight, I'm going to be here late again. You should get some sleep. I noticed you're still not sleeping well." He told her. "You know eventually you and I are going to have to talk about what's keeping you awake right?" He asked. "I know, we will. Right now you have so much on your plate and I don't want to add my problems to that list." She told him. "You're my wife Olivia. Your problems ARE my problems and vice versa. That's what for better or for worse means you know." Fitz told her. "I know." She told him. "And I promise you that we will talk, but right now you need to focus on bringing those missing soldiers home." Olivia told him. "Our SEALs raided a compound yesterday that our allies in Turkey thought might have our soldiers, but the intel was faulty." Fitz told her. "Fitz… I'm so sorry to hear that. How come you didn't tell me earlier?" She asked him. "I haven't exactly seen much of you these past couple of days." He told her.
"How is it going with Huck and Quinn?" He asked. "Are you any closer to figuring out who sent you that note? Or what the note even means?" Fitz asked. "Well in the footage that was archived on the day I received the note there was a 15-minute time gap in the footage." Olivia told him. "Do I need to question the Secret Service agents on your detail about that?" Fitz asked. "No. The footage was accessed externally." Olivia told him. "You mean someone hacked the security footage? How? This system is supposed to be fool-proof." Fitz demanded. "I don't know, but I've tasked Huck with hacking into the system again, so that we know exactly how this person got in and so we know what measures we need to take to ensure this won't happen again." Olivia finished. "What about Quinn?" Fitz asked. "Quinn is going over those tapes again. Hoping that there is something else on those tapes that will lead us to whoever did this." She told him.
"I was talking to Abby last week. She mentioned a gender reveal but I dismissed her. Gender reveals are just so tired and overplayed but it got me thinking, what do you want to do?" She asked him. "I don't care about the sex of our baby. I don't care if it's a boy or girl. I only care that the two of you are happy and healthy. Everything else after that is just icing on the cake." Fitz told her. "I'm not too keen on the whole interview thing either, but people will be asking. There will be speculation." She told him. "So how do you want to handle it?" Fitz asked her. "It would do wonders for your approval ratings but I don't know if I'm comfortable using my baby as a prop." Olivia told him. "So you want to keep the media out of this?" He asked her. "Yes, I do. I know you have been doing this for years but this is still new to me. I'm used to working behind the shadows. Besides, this is our baby not theirs." Olivia told him. "Okay then. They will just have to wait until August to find out. You know how hard it will be to keep this secret right? Hell, we can barely go to the bathroom in this place without anyone knowing about it." Fitz told her. "Well then I guess we will just have to be extra careful then won't we?" She asked playfully. "For the nursery I was thinking we could do a book theme." She told him. "Books?" He asked. "Yes Fitz, books. I was thinking the Velveteen Rabbit. It was the first book that I ever read all by myself. I want to share that with our child." Olivia told him. "That takes care of the nursery, but what about laundry service? Surely they will notice if we have more pink sleepers than blue sleepers." Fitz pointed out. "Yes, which is why we buy gender neutral clothing." She countered. "Well you've just thought of everything haven't you?" He teased, kissing her on the lips. "I have, now if you don't mind. I am going to grab some dinner before heading off to bed." She said, returning his kiss. "Okay, I love you. I'll try not to wake you when I come in tonight." Fitz told her as he walked her to the door.
"Hey guys, how about you call it a night and come have dinner with me? I'm getting hungry." Olivia told Huck and Quinn when she made her way back to the East Wing after saying goodbye to Fitz. "I could eat." Quinn told her as she closed her laptop and put it in her computer bag. "Huck?" Olivia asked. "Yeah, sure. Dinner sounds good." Huck replied. "Are you two settling in okay?" Olivia asked Huck and Quinn as they made their way to the dining room. "We're good Liv." Quinn told her as they entered the elevator. "If you two need anything while you are working here just let me know. You are my guests and my staff would be happy to accommodate you in any way." Olivia let told her friends as they entered the dining room.
"So what have you guys found?" Olivia asked Huck and Quinn when they all sat down for dinner. "Since you asked us three hours ago?" Quinn asked her. "Not much on the video front. We might have to go a different route." Quinn advised. "What about you Huck?" Olivia asked. "I'm working on an algorithm that will allow me access to the backdoor of the security system. I'm not sure how long it will take me." He told her. "Okay well keep on it. Quinn, I want you to forget the security tapes for now. Instead, I want you to run background checks of everyone who would have had access to those tapes." Olivia told her. "Okay, how deep do you want me to dig?" Quinn asked. "I want bank statements, phone records, anything that looks suspicious. Go back at least 3 months, that's how long I've been here." Olivia said. "Is there anyone I should pay special attention to?" Quinn asked. "Start off with anyone in the East Wing, that would have easy access to my office. Move on to the West Wing if need be." Olivia said.
Olivia laid in bed when a memory popped into her head. Tell me Olivia, did he marry you because he loves you or did he only marry you to shut you up so that he could remain president? Could this be the truth the note was talking about? The truth about West Angola. She didn't know why it never occurred to her before now. Then it hit her like a flash, Andrew Nichols is awake. Her mind raced. Was it possible her father was behind this? Was Andrew Nichols trying to reach out to her? She glanced over at the clock by the side of her bed. 10:35. She wondered when Fitz would be back that night. She wondered if her father would still be awake at this hour. She laid in bed for a few minutes later when she finally got up out of bed and got redressed. She picked up her phone and pushed a button. "Please have a car ready for me as soon as possible." She said before hanging up the phone.
Her secret service agents opened the door for her and proceeded to walk ahead of her. The lights in the downstairs were off, but the upstairs lights were still on. She knocked. At first there was no answer. A few minutes later the door opened. "Jake?" Olivia asked, somewhat surprised to see him. "Is my father awake? I need to speak with him." As soon as Olivia said that she could see her father descend down the stairs. "What are you doing Jake? The First Lady is standing at the door in the freezing cold in the middle of the night, let her in." Her father chastised. Jake opened the door wider so Olivia could make her way inside. "Ma'am." He said as she made her way inside. "Jake, what are you doing here?" Olivia asked him. "Your brother has dropped by to see me. Apparently, this is the night that both of my children decided to come home." Her father said offering to take her coat.
"Olivia, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Her father asked. "Can I offer something to drink, some tea maybe?" He asked making his way into the kitchen. "You look well. How is pregnancy treating you?" Her father asked. "Fine Dad. Look can we skip the small talk and get straight to the point?" Olivia asked. "It's not small talk, I'm genuinely interested in hearing about my daughter." He told her. "The baby is fine. I'm fine, but I'm not here on a social call." She said. "When you were still at the White House you said you had someone keeping an eye on Andrew Nichols. Is that still the case?" Olivia asked him. "Yes, Olivia I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask what this is about." Eli told her as he poured her a drink. "Milk?" She asked him.
"Calcium, for my grandchild. To keep him healthy." He said as he poured himself a glass of wine. "Or her." Olivia told him. He chuckled. "Or her.1988 Dom Perignon. Just had delivered. Perhaps in a few months you could share a glass with me." Her father told her as he took a sip. "`88? That's a little young for your taste isn't it?" She asked, rolling her eyes. He chuckled. "It was a fine year." Her father replied. "Dad, can we get back to the topic at hand? Do you still have someone watching out for Andrew Nichols?" She asked. "Once again Olivia, I'm going to need you to tell me what this is about." He said again. "I got a note. Last week, I've been searching my brain trying to come up with an answer as to who might have sent me that note or what it could possibly mean then it hit me..." Olivia began. "What hit you Olivia? What did this note say?" He asked. "I know the truth. It wasn't an outright threat, but it's nothing that needs to be taken lightly." She told him. He laughed again. "Olivia, you should have kept your old chief of staff. I told you not to remove my person on the inside. They could have dealt with this. You waited a week to tell me that someone is threatening you? Why not bring it up when we had dinner on Sunday?" He asked.
"Because I don't feel comfortable having someone report my every move to you. I'm not a child and I don't need your misguided attempts at keeping me safe." Olivia told him. "Clearly, that's why you're at my house in the middle of the night. Because you don't need my help." He scoffed. "I need to know what you know about Andrew Nichols. Can you help me with that or am I just wasting my time?" Olivia asked impatiently. "What exactly am I doing for you Olivia?" her father asked. "For starters, what is his condition? Has he made any improvements? Is he the one who had that note sent to me?" Olivia asked. "I'll reach out to my contacts, and see what they can tell me. In the mean time take care of yourself, and I will see you on Sunday night." Her father told her. "8 o'clock. Don't be late." She told him. "Watch out for yourself Olivia. Stick tight to your agents. I will see what I can find out." Eli said, walking her to the door and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight sweetheart. Let me know when you make it home." He said opening the door for her. "Goodnight Dad." Olivia said as her agents escorted her back to her car.
When Olivia got back to the White House, she made her way back to the dressing room to change back into her pajamas. "You mind telling me what drew you out of the White House at 11:30 at night?" She heard a voice ask. She turned around to see Fitz changing out of his clothes for the evening. "I had somewhere I needed to be." She told him. "Have you made any headway in Turkey?" Olivia asked him. "Some new intel has come to light. I'm hoping that by the morning we can have the whole thing settled and rescue our soldiers." Fitz told her as he wrapped his arms around her. "I went to go see my father." Olivia confessed. "Oh? At 11 o'clock on a Thursday night?" Fitz asked her. "Yeah, it occurred to me that he has someone watching Andrew Nichols. I think he is behind that note that I got last week. He's going to check on Andrew's condition for me." Olivia confided in him. "Do you think you can trust him?" Fitz asked. "I think so." She told him as she made her way into their bedroom.
"I wish you would have come to me with this." Fitz told her. "You've been preoccupied with other things." Olivia told him. "Please Liv. If Andrew Nichols is doing this then it is not just your problem anymore it's ours!" Fitz said raising his voice. "My father has someone watching him. He is going to reach out to his contact and then we will know what we are dealing with." Olivia said. "Since when do you have all this blind faith in him? If Andrew Nichols exposed the truth I would be crucified. Nothing would make your father happier." Fitz said as he followed her to bed. "He is going to have his contact check up on Andrew Nichols for us. If he is behind that note we will know. From there we can decide how we want to deal with him. Until then, I have Quinn looking into the staff in the East Wing looking for anything suspicious." Olivia told him. "You think somebody in your camp is working with Andrew?" Fitz asked. "It wouldn't be the first time Andrew had someone inside the First Lady's camp." Olivia reasoned. "That still doesn't explain why you would go to your father. Liv, this is the man who didn't even lift a finger to help you when you got taken." Fitz tried to reason with her.
"What other choice do we have Fitz? He already has a person on the inside what's the harm in finding out what he knows?" Olivia asked him. "Olivia do you hear yourself? This man that you call your father is dangerous. Just because he doesn't hold the power that he used to hold doesn't mean that he is not still dangerous." Fitz said. "I suppose he is just helping you out of the goodness of his heart? What does he want in return Olivia, he must want something." He pointed out. "Nothing. He said nothing about wanting anything in return. He will be here for Sunday dinner after Teddy goes home. We will talk about it then. Until then, it's getting late and we are both exhausted. Goodnight." She told him as she turned out the lamp on her side of the bed. "I love you." He told her as he turned over to go to bed.
That night Olivia struggled to get to sleep. Her mind wandered back to her conversation with her father. Was it possible that he was only helping her in exchange for a favor later on down the road? Or was he, for once in his life, trying to help her simply because she was his daughter? Eventually she drifted off into an uneasy sleep. The florescent lighting of the corridors hurt her eyes. The concrete floors hard and cold against her bare feet. Her hair was unruly and unkempt given that she had been held hostage for a week. The leaky pipes gave the room a dank, humid atmosphere making the entire place smell rotten. The door lay before her. The red door that she had seen dozens of times before on her way to and from the bathroom was waiting there just fifty feet away from where she was standing. She knew she had to escape now. If she waited she would miss her opportunity forever. That's when she heard it. At first it was nothing more than a faint whimper. The closer she got to the door however the crying got louder. She couldn't pinpoint an exact location. It was echoing all over the place and she could not figure out where it was coming from. She ran from room to room, growing increasingly worried after not finding the source of the crying in any of the rooms she checked. As she turned and rounded another corner she ran into one of her captors. She tried to get away from him but in the end, he caught her. She struggled and fought against him but she couldn't move. "Livvie!" He said as he struggled against her.
"LIVVIE!" Fitz said as he struggled to wake her up. Olivia's eyes snapped open and she saw Fitz hovering over her. Her breathing was labored and she felt sticky. She had been sweating. "Sshh Livvie. It was just a dream." He said pulling her into his embrace. "Talk to me. Tell me what's going on." He said gently. "I could hear the baby crying, but I couldn't find him. I ran from room to room looking for the baby but I couldn't find him anywhere. Then when I turned the corner to go look in another room that's when he found me." Olivia said in a hurried voice. "He? Who Liv?" Fitz asked. "One of the kidnappers." She told him. His face sunk. "That's what I have been dreaming about. Being held hostage." Olivia told him. "Livvie, hey. You're okay now. You're safe. That won't ever happen to you again. It's over. Is this what you've been dreaming about?" Fitz asked. Olivia didn't answer.
"They showed me their faces. I knew in that moment they planned on killing me. I knew that I would never see you again. When they took me I was in my apartment. Jake was with me. He left the living room for no longer than 90 seconds. In that time they broke into my apartment and kidnapped me. They took me into my neighbor's apartment and I watched as Jake went crazy trying to find me. They murdered my neighbor and placed her dead body in a body bag on top of mine, then took us out of the apartment into an ambulance." This was the first time Olivia had opened up to anybody about the atrocities that happened to her when she was taken. She hadn't meant to unload on him, but she couldn't stop the words from pouring out of her mouth. "I saw their faces and all I could think of was I wasn't going to make it out of there alive. They had told me their plan was to keep me there until you were out of office. After that they were going to kill me." Olivia told him. "That's when I knew I had to run. I had to do whatever it took to get out of there."
Olivia looked up at Fitz and saw the horror and shock written on his face. His eyes were soft and vulnerable. In that moment all she wanted to do was comfort him. "This is what you dream of?" He asked. "Yes." She told him. "For how long?" Fitz asked. "Every night at first. Eventually they occurred less and less often. Not sleeping alone helps." She admitted. "What's different now?" Fitz asked. "Andrew Nichols is awake." She told him. "The baby. I'm guessing that's new?" He asked her. "Yes, that's new." She told him. Fitz held her for what seemed like an eternity before speaking. "You should have told me." Fitz told her. "It's normal for expectant mothers to dream about their babies. Have nightmares even, that part is perfectly normal and natural, but Liv… The trauma that you endured at the hands of your captors is not something that you should hide. Ever. I don't care what else is happening in our lives, I am always going to put you first." She rested her head on his chest.
"I dreamt of us while I was there." She began. "We were living in Vermont. You were the mayor and I made jam. We had a dog. A golden retriever. You were complaining about having to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game." She said with a faint laugh. "Are we talking major or minor league baseball?" He asked curiously, causing her to laugh. "I'm serious." He said. "You were being asked to throw out the first pitch at a Capitol's game." She told him. "Well yeah, you screw up a pitch like that you get mocked relentlessly." He laughed. This caused her to smile. "You said 'he'." Fitz told her. "What?" She asked him. "You called the baby a 'he'." He said again. "Yeah, I guess I did. It just doesn't seem right to call the baby 'it.'." Olivia told him. "I guess you're right. We'll find out in a few days. Even then, we are keeping it a secret from everyone else remember?" Fitz told her. "I remember. Are you going to be able to make it to this appointment? I know you said you wanted to, but things are so crazy around here now. I would understand if you couldn't make it." She told him. "I'm going Livvie. I missed all of Teddy's appointments. I hated that, not being able to see him until he was born. Not being able to hear his heartbeat the same way I heard Jerry's and Karen's. I missed the last appointment, I am not going to miss this one." He reassured her. "Good. I'm going to lie back down. I'm starting to get tired again." She told him. "Okay. I love you." He told her. He laid down and wrapped an arm around her while she drifted off to sleep. "Livvie." He said. "Yeah?" She answered. "Thank you for telling me about the nightmares. I'm sorry that you had to go through that." He told her. "I know you are. It's done now though. We have to stop Andrew Nichols." She told him before falling into a more peaceful relaxing sleep than the one before.
The next morning she woke up to find that Fitz was already gone. She looked over at the clock on her bedside table and panicked when she saw the time. 9:15. She hurried to the bathroom and found a note. "Livvie, I wanted to leave this somewhere you would find it. You looked so peaceful this morning when I woke up. I figured you needed your rest so I had your chief of staff take care of your morning schedule, and I have asked that Quinn and Huck report any of their findings to me in an effort to let you get your rest. Come find me when you wake up." Olivia smiled reading Fitz's note as she continued getting ready.
When Olivia got done with her hair and makeup she walked into the bedroom and turned the TV on to see what was going on in the news. Her attention was captured when she saw Fitz standing at the podium in the briefing room. She missed the press briefing, but luckily BNC was playing it on a loop. "My fellow Americans," his speech began. "At 7:52 am Eastern Standard Time, our soldiers in Turkey were rescued safely by a team of our best Navy SEALs based on the intelligence of not only the FBI, CIA, the joint chiefs of staff, as well the Secretaries of State and Defense, but also our Turkish allies. Our troops are working tirelessly to bring those responsible for this atrocity to justice. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers, and God bless these United States of America." Soon after his speech the TV cut back to the BNC news anchor covering the press conference. Olivia shut off the television and continued getting ready for her day.
After getting dressed Olivia made her way to the elevator that lead to the Oval. She made her way to Charlotte's desk when she was told she could go in. Upon opening the door she met a dour looking Fitz. "Hi. I hear someone has had a productive morning. I'm glad the hostages were rescued safely…" Her voice trailed off when she saw that his demeanor had not changed nor did he even seem to be aware of her presence. "Fitz what's wrong?" Olivia asked him. Nothing. "FITZ!" She spoke up. He looked up. Unfazed by the fact that she just yelled at him. "What's wrong?" She asked again. "We got a package this morning. It's from the president of France and his wife. It's a bassinet for the baby. They left a card. It was very sweet of them we should send them a thank you note." Fitz told her. "Okay, that's why you're acting so weird? A gift?" Olivia asked. "We received another package in the mail today." Fitz said in the same somber tone. "What was it?" She asked him. He motioned for her to meet him at his desk. He handed her a set of headphones and pressed play on the video.
Olivia looked on in shock until Fitz hit the pause button. It was the video her captors recorded while she was in captivity. She felt nauseated. "Fitz, who sent this?" Olivia asked. "There was no note." He told her. "What are their demands?" She asked him. "They haven't made any." Fitz told her. "Well whoever sent this they must want something." She demanded. "They haven't said. For now, whoever this is just wants to torment us we should proceed with caution. I've made Huck and Quinn aware of the situation and they are working on trying to come up with answers. I've also got Jake on this. He is in the NSA and he has access to equipment and technology that your guys don't have but he also has a vested interest in finding whoever did this." After Fitz spoke Olivia looked up at Fitz and saw the same look of fear that she had seen last night when she told him about her dreams. "Who was this delivered to specifically? Was it me or you?" She asked. "Does it matter Liv? We need to stop things before they get even more out of control." Fitz told her. "I agree, but until whoever this is makes some sort of demand what else can we do?" Olivia asked him. "I say we go straight to the source. We find Andrew Nichols and we make him wish that he had never woken up." Fitz said, his voice seething with anger.
"Fitz, getting angry is not going to solve anything." Olivia said trying to calm him down. "Besides, need proof that tells us this is without a doubt Andrew Nichols." Olivia finished. "Liv, who else knows about this tape? Who else knows about this tape who is spiteful enough to try and take both of us down?" Fitz asked her. "Fine, I hear you. However, we cannot just act first and think later. We need to be methodical about this. My father is coming over for dinner on Sunday and he will share with us what he knows. We will decide how best to move forward after we hear what he has to say." Olivia told him. "Liv, I'm going to ask you again. Are you absolutely sure that you're ready to trust your father with this?" Fitz asked Olivia. "I just want to see what he knows. After that, well, it depends on what sort of information he gives us." Olivia told him.