That night Fitz headed up to the residence early. He had cleared his schedule in the hopes of seeing Olivia, but that was off the table now. His feet drug along the red carpet of the stairs as he walked up them, dreading what was to come. She was right, he had to talk to Mellie. He couldn't put it off any longer. Olivia was giving him the push he needed, just as he had been pushing her these last few weeks.
As he turned the handle to the double glass doors to head into the residence, he took a deep breath. He stepped inside and set off to find Mellie. The residence was large, with too many rooms that nobody ever used. Lately, he had been thankful of it's size, as it seemed him and Mellie were hardly ever crossing paths. While Fitz felt privileged to live in the historic building, he never felt at home here. It wasn't his ranch in California, and it certainly wasn't the house in Vermont.
He finally found her in one of the sitting rooms. She was surrounded by paperwork of polls and data. Mellie was taking her Senate run extremely seriously. If Fitz thought she would do anything to be First Lady, he hadn't seen anything yet.
He knocked softly on the open door. "Mel, do you have a minute?" He asked, his words clearly startling her. She was so engrossed in her work, she hadn't heard Fitz approaching.
Mellie smiled brightly and looked around her. "I'm really just in the middle of all of this FItz. The latest polls suggest that I have a lead, but I'm not polling well with the lower class." Mellie's tone was pleased and upbeat. In all honesty, Fitz had never seen her this excited. She she was thrilled when he was inaugurated, but this was a whole other level for her. She was loving this.
Mellie looked up at FItz, and noticed his serious expression. She dropped the data in her hands to her lap and conceded. "Ok, we can talk," she said as she patted the couch next to her.
Fitz walked across the room and sat down, he didn't really know where to begin.
"Is this about Olivia?" Mellie asked, sensing the tension in the room.
"Yes, and no," Fitz mumbled looking down into his hands. His posture was terrible, as he sat hunched over rubbing his hands together. He was going to need to get a backbone to talk to her about this. He would have to tell Mellie clearly and concisely what his plans were, and he would have to stick to them. He wasn't letting Olivia push him away this time, and he wasn't going to let Mellie push him around. He was a determined man, and he needed to act like it.
He sat up straight, looked her in the eyes, and changed his tone. "Mellie, I appreciate everything you've done for me. I know you've dealt with a lot over the years, and it isn't that I'm not grateful."
Mellie was fully aware he was softening her up. "Get to it, Fitz. I really have a lot of work to do." She clearly was not pleased with where the conversation was headed, but sounded more annoyed than anything. She just wanted to get back to her campagin.
"I can't do this anymore, Mel," he told her honestly. He felt terrible saying it, but that was the truth. Olivia or not, this marriage had taken a toll on both of them. It had become one of political convenience, and it had made him feel trapped. He needed out.
"Fitz, you know I don't care if you see her, it's fine. I just didn't want you going to her apartment, and I didn't want you to lie to me about it. Go to Camp David, or the Blair House. Bring her here if you have to, I'm sure the secret service will make sure she isn't seen." Mellie answered casually.
The way Mellie spoke, gave Fitz chills. She was so matter of fact about it, she really didn't care. But it was also so screwed up. His wife was telling him to bring the woman he was in love with into their home. Despite their arrangement, it felt wrong. "It's not just seeing her, Mellie. I want to be with her. And even if I didn't..." Fitz trailed off. He needed to adjust his words, to think very carefully about how to present all of this to his wife.
He didn't want to make this about Olivia. As much as he wanted to be with her, to be married to her, to live in Vermont and have babies with her, that wasn't why he needed to divorce Mellie. He needed to do it because they had no business being married, Olivia or not. Their marriage was cold, distant, dead, just like Olivia had noted years ago, and that hadn't changed.
"We can't stay like this, Mellie. We need to finally end this. People weren't meant to be married to advance each other's careers. I don't know how we ended up here, but we haven't been married for love in over a decade, Mellie. If we ever were." He cringed at his words. Perhaps he should have stopped while he was ahead.
Mellie rolled her eyes. "Are we really having this conversation again?" She asked sarcastically.
"It's the last time we're having it," Fitz said with a steady voice, looking her directly in the eyes. He wasn't trying to be mean, he was just standing his ground.
He cleared his throat. "I will stay by you for this Senate Race. I don't want to ruin this for you. But once you win, I am going to file for divorce." Fitz was clear, this was happening.
Mellie stood up, and stormed across the room and then began pacing back and forth. Fitz felt like he could see steam coming out of her ears. She was clearly angry. "That'll derail my whole career, Fitzgerald! Are you kidding me with this right now? I have stood by you, I have done EVERYTHING to make you who you are, and just when it's my turn, you're going to bail for that whore?" Mellie was fuming. Her words were sharp, and her eyes were wild.
Fitz felt rage, and the second she referred to Olivia as a whore, he wanted to yell and argue. He wanted to tell Mellie she may have been there, but she didn't make him. He made himself, and she was there for the ride. She wanted to be FIrst Lady, and she got it. But, Fitz needed to control the situation. Yelling and arguing his perception of their life together was not going to make anything better.
"Can we please just sit down, and talk about this?" Fitz asked calmly. Mellie, shocked by his composure, pouted and sat down next to him without saying another word.
"We will get you elected to the Senate, Mellie. But then we have to file the paperwork," he reiterated.
"And just like that my dream for the presidency is gone?" her tone was still very argumentative.
Fitz couldn't take it anymore. Yes, maybe she wouldn't be president because of this, but maybe she wouldn't be president anyway. It annoyed him how easy she seemed to think getting elected to the presidency was. She acted like it was a forgone conclusion that if he stayed with her, they could get back in the White House. When in reality, the chances of that we're so slim. Then, what would they even be staying together for? It would all be a waste. Of course he couldn't tell Mellie that. He would have to frame it another way.
"Look Mellie, we need to be realistic about this. You will probably win the Senate seat, and that's great, it's amazing. It's a huge accomplishment," he told her not wanting to downplay her accomplishment and trying to soften her attitude.
"But the presidency isn't going to come so easy. You can't run when I'm done, not if you want to win. You just won't have the political resume for it. A couple of years in the Senate is not enough." Someone had to be honest with her. But her eyes were shooting daggers at FItz, and he knew she was not pleased with the direction of this conversation.
"I am not saying it can't ever happen, but you have to have patience," he finished.
"Patience?! I've sat by for years and watched Fitzgerald Grant, the golden boy get everything, while I've gotten nothing. It's my turn!" She argued again. Her childish behavior about the situation, coupled with her stubbornness was testing FItz's restraint. He got up and began to pace the room. He couldn't sit anymore. He needed some distance from Mellie.
"It doesn't work like the, Mellie. You don't just get to be president because it's your damn turn. You work for it, you earn it. And you haven't earned it yet," he told her point blank.
She sat back in her seat, slouched with her arms crossed, and looked up at him with hate in her eyes. "Because you earned it?" She spat.
The insinuation of Defiance nearly sent him over the edge. But he knew she was doing that to push his buttons. He knew she was trying to worm her way out of what this conversation was really about and get him angry enough to storm out in order to end the whole thing. He wasn't going to do that.
Instead he ignored her comment, and continued. "Someday you might earn it, and I will support you, and I will endorse you. I will go on the trail for you, I will never speak ill of you. But, I will not be married to you, Mellie."
Fitz was crystal clear with his statement. She could tell he wasn't going to let this go. Her wheels were turning though, and Fitz could tell the plotting had begun by the simultaneous look of panic and deep thought on her face.
He decided to address it head on. "There's no plotting, Mellie. This is happening. You can fight it, and things will get messy and ugly. We will both come out looking terrible, you know how that works. It won't matter to me, because I'm not the one who needs the public behind me anymore. But it will derail any chance you have of becoming president."
Mellie knew he was right about that part. She had already gone on TV once before to air their dirty laundry and had to deal with the backlash. Victim or not, she was attacked. If he was really determined to do this, and she fought it, they'd both become tabloid jokes, and it would kill her career. There was a reason she told Fitz to make sure he wasn't seen at Olivia's, and it wasn't for his approval ratings, or Olivia's privacy.
All her threats of ruining him, of spilling his secrets, were empty now. She knew it, and Fitz knew it. Ruining him would bring her down too, and she wasn't prepared to do that. Her hatred for Olivia and Fitz was oversshadowed by her desire for power, her desire to be President.
She was angry at him for putting her in this position. It didn't seem fair, or right, but Mellie was quickly realizing over the years she had lost her leverage, her worth to him. She had helped him get here, but this was it, the top of the mountain. There was no where else to take him. Nothing more for her to achieve. She might have big dreams and aspirattions, but his had already been achieved. The worst she could do to him was put a small stain, a footnote on his legacy, but her career would be over before it began. Mellie knew she was powerless to stop this.
"So that's it then, you're just screwing me over?" All she had left was to play on his guilt.
But Fitz was not having it. "I will do what I can for your political aspirations Mellie, and I will always be the father of your kids. But, this marriage has to be over. Doesn't it concern you that your reasoning for refusing a divorce is for your career? Not that we love each other, not that we should try and work on things, but because you have political dreams?" Fitz almost felt sorry for her. She didn't have a love like he had in Olivia. She didn't know how it felt to want to be with someone so bad your heart ached for them.
Mellie didn't answer. He could tell she was still thinking of ways to get out of this whole ordeal, but that she was coming up empty. He could tell she was going to come to the conclusion she had no options, and would have to agree to an amicable divorce.
"You can stay in the White House," Fitz told her.
"What?" She responded clearly confused.
"After the divorce, during it, whenever. I'm not going to kick you out. This place is plenty big enough. But if you'd feel more comfortable one of us can stay in the Blair house," he was getting into the logistics.
It was too much for Mellie to process. "Ok," she said looking back down at her polls. She just wanted this conversation to be over. She wasn't completly giving up, but she didn't feel like she had any other option but to agree with Fitz right now.
"Ok what, Mellie?" Fitz asked. He wanted clarification.
"Ok, I'll sign whatever papers you need me to." She was dejected and defeated. Fitz felt bad, but her tone wasn't a result of the end of her marriage, instead it was at the prospect of her political career being over before it began.
"Now, can I get back to work?" She said, her voice returning to normal.
Fitz said nothing else, crossed the room and walked out of the door, closing it behind him.
As he walked down the hall, He let out a sigh of relief. He knew it wouldn't be the end of this, but it was a start. One step closer, he thought to himself.