Disclaimer: I do not own Scandal
Chapter Twelve: Counting Stars Part III
Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But, baby I've been, I've been praying hard
Said no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars
Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But, baby I've been, I've been praying hard
Said no more counting dollars, we'll be, we'll be counting stars
"Counting Stars" OneRepublic
"It's been eight hours. Our time is almost up." Charlie paced the room, eyeing the other former spies in the room as he did so, "I suggest we find out on our own."
Paul Gray tipped his chair back, "Well who would want to expose us? Who would gain" he stopped speaking, "Other than Crosby, no one else knew about our team. So it has to be one of us." He concluded quickly.
Betsy Ray, who used to enjoy setting things on fire and now owned a B&B in Vermont, stood up slowly, "So if it's one of us, then"
Mother of three, Maggie, drew her gun first. It didn't even take a full second for Melvin, Betsy, Paul, Charlie and Huck to draw theirs as well.
Harrison, Stephen and David, who were standing in the hallway drinking coffee with a few of the SSAs while Olivia was back at her office at the White House with Abby and Quinn, stopped speaking. "It got really quiet in there." Stephen observed.
Harrison backed up a few steps, turning slightly. His coffee mug slipped from his hands, "Damn it."
"What?" Stephen asked.
"They didn't give up all of their guns." He muttered, pushing the door open, "What's going on guys?"
It only took a second before the SSAs who were there were armed and directing their guns in the doorway. "Drop them." One ordered.
Harrison held up his hands, "Okay, okay, I want everyone to calm down." Harrison placed a hand on of the SSAs guns, "Lower them." He ordered softly.
"But"
"Lower them." He ordered again. Reluctantly, both SSAs lowered their guns, "Now, you all think you have a problem, but you don't." He said confidently, "You see, Olivia Grant is working on this. She's promised to figure it out, and she will. Because she's the best." He chuckled, "You see, right now she's figuring out who wants to take you out of your lives. And she'll find out and whoever it is will be stopped. So let's just hand over your guns and whoa" he stepped back when all guns except for Huck's turned to him, "okay, you guys keep those, but that doesn't mean we have to be pointing them at each other. So on the count of three, lower your weapons." He kept still, "One, Huck be a leader, two, come on Huck, three." Huck's gun dropped to his side and slowly everyone else followed suit.
When Harrison stepped back into the hallway, Stephen was shaking his head, "You can have my office if you want it."
Harrison was shaking as he laughed, pushing his way past Stephen and David and into his own office. "Please tell me Olivia has a plan."
"Of course she has a plan. She's Olivia Grant. At least I think she kind of has a plan." Stephen answered.
"Kind of? She needs to get back here with her plan because this suit is way to nice to have bullet holes in it."
It was another twenty minutes before Olivia was back, "Harrison, David, Huck wired video and sound from the conference room to his office. Go, listen to every conversation, take notes." She ordered. "Stephen, you're meeting Abby and Quinn at the archives. I want you to go through old news stories, see if anything could've made one of those people in there want to expose one another." She ordered. She glanced down at her watch, "Damn, I'm late for Jer's pick up. I've got to go. Call me with any updates. I'll be back as soon as I can." She promised.
SCANDAL
Harrison and David spent the next three hours writing down every word that came out of the conference room. Everything from the Paul Gray's students he wanted to sleep with, to Betsy's client who skipped out without paying to the stats of Maggie's daughter's soccer game.
"This is pointless." David grumbled as he jotted down a prescription Melvin was ticking off over the phone.
Harrison sighed as he listened to Huck leave a very sweet, seemingly uncharacteristic, voicemail for Quinn. "Yeah, it's beginning to feel that way." He agreed.
SCANDAL
"This is definitely a waste of time." Quinn grumbled. "These guys are professionals, there isn't going to be anything here for us to find."
"I've got to agree with you on that." Abby conceded.
"I guess we've just got to cover all of our basis." Stephen turned the knob, "You'd think with all that tax payer money we send them we'd be able to scan this stuff and work with equipment that didn't have knobs." He muttered. The two women just chuckled.
SCANDAL
"Olivia," Huck paced just outside the conference room, "if you can't find something soon I'm not sure we're going to be able to keep them here." He admitted.
Olivia cursed as she looked in the room at the bickering former spies. "David!" She called out, "Get me another meeting with Barry. Tonight."
Within two hours, Olivia was once again stalking into the same warehouse, "Okay, we're going to have to have a change in plans." She told Barry and Nigel.
"Mrs. Grant," Nigel began from his spot on the laptop, "I realize that you're angry, but"
"Let me be very clear, Nigel, if you don't tell me who you're getting your information from, your attorney over here, Barry, he's dead." She threatened.
"What?" Barry nearly screeched.
"If you release that information, there are going to be six very pissed off former agents who come looking for you. You may be protected, but they'll find Barry and they'll kill him." She reminded him.
"Mrs. Grant, I do believe you're overreacting. Now, you have two more hours before I release this information to the public. The G-8 Summit will have wrapped up by then and your husband will be on a flight back home." Nigel stated in a calm and condescending voice.
Olivia reacted on instinct. She picked up the laptop and threw it across the room before turning on Barry. "I need a name Barry."
"I don't have a name." Barry held up his hands and backed away, "I don't know anything, I just know where I'm supposed to transfer the money to and"
"The account number Barry. I want the account number now." She held out a pen an paper, "Write it down. Write it down now."
When Olivia was back in the car she was rattling off the account number to Huck. "What can you do with that?"
"It's a Swiss bank account, I can't hack a Swiss account, especially in 22 hours." he paused.
"What Huck?" Olivia asked.
"I have to go."
"No, Huck do not hang up the phone." She protested as the dial tone sounded in her ear. "Shit, drive faster." She ordered.
SCANDAL
Huck opened the door, "Everyone needs to leave now." He told Harrison.
Harrison was shaking his head, "Huck we have orders from Olivia"
"Go. Wait downstairs and get in the car with Olivia and leave." Huck ordered before turning and slamming the door.
"What's going on, Spin?" Maggie asked.
"Olivia found a bank account number." Huck replied slowly, "She knows where the money was going to." He paused, "CH002301151198" he began.
"22 pills," Betsy interrupted.
"350 milligrams each." Charlie finished as Maggie stood with her gun drawn.
Huck stepped in front of Maggie, "Look, we don't need to kill him." He stated calmly, "We've all worked really hard to get where we are today. We lost a lot, they took a lot from us, but we're happy now." He paused, "There's this girl, and she loves me and I love her and we're starting a family her name is," he paused again, "no I'm not telling you her name because you'll use it, but the point is that they broke us. Melvin, he just wants to be heard. He just wants the world to know what they did to us and to pay." He stepped around Maggie so he could see the rest of them, "I understand that he wants to be heard, that he wants everyone to know and to understand what they took from us, but we've moved on. We're not those people in anymore, we don't have to be those people anymore and"
A shot rang through the air.
Huck cringed as Melvin's body slumped forward. Slowly, Maggie lowered her gun, "It was a nice speech, Spin." She said softly, "But now he can't threaten us anymore."
Betsy sighed, "We should get started on the clean up."
SCANDAL
An hour later, Huck was locking up the office. "Olivia asked me to wait for you." Tom said, "She said you may want to see Quinn, or you may just want to walk. She wasn't sure."
Huck sighed, "Is she at the White House?" Tom nodded, "Can you drive me?" The SSA nodded again. "Okay."
Forty-five minutes later he was stepping into Olivia's office. "Oh thank God." Quinn was up, moving as quickly as she could to Huck. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"It was Melvin." He said quietly. "And they shot him."
Quinn rubbed her hands up and down his arms, "I'm sorry, Huck." He shrugged, "Do you want to go home?" She asked quietly.
He nodded, "We'll see you guys tomorrow."
Olivia was quiet until they reached the door of her office, "No, we're closed tomorrow. I think we could all use a day off."
Huck gave her a small smile, "Thanks, Liv."
When the door shut, she slumped back, "Well, hell."
"There's the understatement of the century." Harrison grumbled.
SCANDAL
XOXO
MAS
