I love reading your reviews and predictions. Hopefully this is interesting enough. Resolves one issue
Olivia went home that night. Fitz didn't fight her either. They both knew that Karen needed space.
The next day Olivia was a wreck. Was she going to go to diner like normal? What she had said shouldn't change anything, but she felt like it did. Coming up to the afternoon when she hadn't heard anything from Fitz or the kids she decided to call Fitz.
"Hello" he answered cheerfully. She was quiet.
"Livvie?" his cheerful disposition dissolved quickly.
"Have you seen Karen?" she asked.
"No. She is avoiding me." He stated.
"I don't think I should come over tonight." She said.
"Liv. I cant go up for dinner tonight and I don't want them eating alone, especially with Karen like this."
"I want to show Karen that this doesn't change anything, but I don't want her to think how she feels doesn't matter." She said with confusion. Fitz was quiet, contemplating what she had said.
"Perhaps you need to talk to her one on one? You know, girl to girl." he suggested. Olivia huffed and sat in her chair.
"I'm not sure that will help." She said running her hand through her hair.
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6pm rolled over and Olivia was pacing. Should she go, shouldn't she? She really wanted to see Teddy, but she didn't know if she had given Karen enough space. She paced for another 10 minutes before deciding that she just needed to be consistent, so she was going to dinner.
She visited Teddy quickly before she knew the chef would have dinner ready. He had cooked just a simple spaghetti bolognaise. Karen and Jerry were already there when she arrived at the dining table which she thought was probably for the best. Karen avoided eye contact the whole meal and as soon as she was done she asked to be excused.
"Karen. Can we talk please?" Olivia asked.
"May I please be excused?" Karen asked again. Olivia hesitated.
"Certainly" and Karen walked out. Olivia put down her knife and fork as soon as Karen left. She moved to get up.
"Liv. I'll go." Said Jerry. Olivia nodded.
Jerry followed Karen into her room.
"Hey Kare, wanna talk about it." Karen was laying on her bed with her face in her pillow. He saw her shake her head no.
"Well too bad" he said as he dived onto her bed next to her. Karen removed her face from the pillow to get Jerry to leave, but before she could yell at him he said "Talk to me. Im the only one who understand what your going through." He said.
"You know?" she asked. Jerry nodded.
"I kinda figured it out." He said. Karen frowned, was it that obvious? She thought to herself. Sensing her question he clarified.
"I forgot my jumper at the hospital one day and when I went back I saw Liv crying next to Dad. When I asked him, he told me straight out." He said.
"Did he say she is the love of his life blah, blah, blah?" she asked.
"Karen." He sat up "the night I walked in on Liv and Dad she was begging him to come back to her. That was the day before he woke up, then he woke up right after she came in that day. And you remember how she was the only one who could calm him down when he first woke up? I think they might actually be soul mates." He said, shaking his head. While he had gotten over it and accepted it, it was the first time he really put everything together to come to that realization. Karen hugged her pillow and looked at Jerry.
She was thinking back to the day he woke up trying to come to the same conclusion in her own mind. But the one thing that she kept coming back to was "What about mum?" she asked Jerry out loud.
"We both know things weren't perfect. Dad said that he loved mum, she was his best friend but I think that was it. Do you remember how they used to fight?" he asked. Karen nodded.
"Do you think Liv feels the same?" she asked.
"She gave up her life when dad was shot, so that we didn't have to change schools and go live with Granma and Grandpa, and to be there for Dad. You don't do that for just anyone. But, I don't know. Maybe you should talk to her about it." He shrugged.
"You were the one that said you wanted her to be happy when she asked if we wanted her to stay. What if Dad makes her happy?" he said on his way out the door.
Karen leaned against her headboard still hugging her pillow. She should talk to Liv, but maybe not tonight.
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Jerry returned to the dinning room. He smiled at Liv before he sat down and resumed his meal. She didn't start eating. When Jerry noticed he looked up to see her looking at him. "She is ok, just give her time. Took me a while to come around" he said with a smile. Her face dropped at that. She wasn't sure she could handle another Jerry situation. Jerry saw her face drop and laughed slightly.
"I don't think it will take her as long as me. She loves you Liv." Olivia smiled and resumed her meal. They cleared the table together and before Olivia left, Jerry put his hand on her shoulder and said "Thanks for coming Liv." And went to his room.
Olivia went down to the Oval to debrief with Fitz. She entered and he smiled. She smiled weakly before sitting on the chair next to his desk. She slumped down with a huff and closed her eyes.
"Karen?" Fitz asked. Olivia nodded her head not opening her eyes. He waited till she did open her eyes before he patted his lap. She eyed him suspiciously. He pushed his chair all the way back to the wall and he patted his lap again looking at her with sympathetic eyes. She thought for a moment before she stood up, walked over to him and collapsed in his arms. Her legs were over one arm of the chair and her head on one shoulder with her arms wrapped around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her.
He rubbed her back up and down and moved one arm down and around her leg with big sweeping movements from her bottom to the pit of her knee. Not She relaxed completely in his arms. That was until she felt his erection pressing against her leg. She looked at him and shook her head before removing herself from his lap. He pouted. She leaned down and placed a kiss on his pouting lips before walking out of the Oval.
He laughed as she left. No other words were exchanged, they weren't needed.
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For the next four days Karen was distant. She ate the meal at the dinner table, responded to any questions she was asked by Olivia or her Dad but leaving soon after. It was slowly tearing Olivia down.
It was the fourth day of that when Karen had received her marks for one of her major projects and had done really well. Olivia went down to the local engraver and had an award engraved with her name and "Expert on American History". Karen was particularly concerned with the project because she had struggled with it a bit at first. Olivia had snuck into her room when she was called for dinner and left it on her desk in her bedroom.
The next afternoon she got a call fromm Fitz while at the office. "What?" she asked not checking the caller id.
"Hi" he said.
"Hi" she responded.
"How is your day?" he asked genuinely interested.
"Just finished a big case, so relieved. How is your day?" she asked.
"You, no work. I should come over." She could tell he was smirking.
"I said we finished a big case, not that I had no work. Don't you get your hopes up" she smiled as she said it.
He laughed "Do you have plans?" he queried.
"Yes" she replied adamantly.
"Oh yeah. Like what?" he asked.
"Like…washing my hair" they both laughed.
"Dinner tonight?" she confirmed.
"Actually no. Me, Jerry and Teddy are having a boys night" he said. Olivia raised her eyebrows.
"A boys night. And what about Karen?"
"She is going to a friends house tonight."
"Oh." Is all she said.
"Disappointed?"
"No. I told you, I am washing my hair. You boys have fun, make sure you don't mess up Teddy's routine too much"
"We wont Liv"
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Truthfully she was a little disappointed and she was almost certain Fitz could tell. She really didn't have that much she needed to do at the office and when she was done she solemnly headed off to her apartment. Abby had asked if she wanted to hang out but she felt a little dejected that Fitz was hanging out with Teddy and Jerry so she kindly declined.
She had text Fitz as she left the office saying "Heading home. Kiss Teddy for me"
She hopped in the shower when she got home and literally washed her hair. She put on some comfortable clothes and set up on the couch to watch the news when she heard a knock at the door. She was a little intrigued by who it might be. Her first instinct was Fitz, but she didn't think he would pretend to be spending time with Jerry and Teddy. When she peeked through her peephole she saw Tom and Hal, but no Fitz. She opened the door a little confused.
Her frown quickly dissipated as she saw Karen standing in front of her door in her pajamas holding a dvd.
"Karen! Is everything ok? I thought you were staying at a friends house tonight?"
"I am" she beamed up at Olivia. Olivia smiled back as Karen walked past her. Hal handed her some form of take away in bag. She took it to the kitchen and set it out on the table. Chinese, something Fitz enjoyed thoroughly.
"Like Daddy, like daughter" she said and Karen smiled as she came back into the kitchen after putting the dvd in the dvd player. The pilled their plates and walked over to the couch.
"What are we watching?" Olivia asked.
"The Princess and the Frog." Olivia had never seen it before which she thought was probably ridiculous.
"Tiana is my favorite Disney princess."
They ate their food and watched the movie. It was probably the first time since Olivia was 10 years old that she had watched a kids movie. It was fantastic. She loved that Tiana wasn't born a princess and that she was prepared to work for everything she wanted. She even cried when the firefly died and the second star appeared in the sky.
The credits rolled and Karen looked up at Liv who had let her hair out since Karen had arrived and it had dried. Olivia looked over at Karen to see her eyes bulging out of her head.
"What's wrong?" she asked concerned.
"Your hair" Karen replied slowly in awe. Olivia had totally forgotten that she had washed her hair and it was in its natural state. Karen's hand had involuntarily began moving towards her hair.
"You can touch it" she confirmed.
"Woah" was all she said. Olivia laughed. Olivia then went to put it up as it was clearly distracting her but Karen protested. "No! I like it. It is just different." She smiled.
They then began debriefing on the movie. "Do you think that Tiana and Prince Naveen were soul mates?" Karen asked.
Olivia contemplated this question. "Hmmm. I don't think so, but maybe." She said non-committaly.
"What do you mean?"
"I think that love can be made, but some love just is." She said thinkin.
"Like you and Dad?" she asked probingly. Olivia's eyes shot back to Karen. She considered her response for a second before she nodded slowly and said "Yeah"
"What does it feel like?" she asked, truly interested. Olivia exhaled deeply.
"You know when you are swimming in a pool and you have a competition to see who can hold their breath the longest?" Karen nodded "And you get to a point where your almost out of breath but you can just see the other end of the pool, it is so close and your head starts pounding and you don't think you can hold your breath any longer and you come up and gulp down air?" Karen nodded again. "That's what it feels like." Karen's blank face told her that she may have used a terrible analogy, but she knew exactly that feeling of being in the water and that was the closest thing she could think of.
"When I am not with your Dad it hurts, the longer the time, the worse the pain. But when I see him it is the best feeling in the world even if some of the pain is still there for a little while." Karen looked up at the roof and was taking that in.
"Is everything ok" Olivia asked when Karen was silent for what she thought was a long time.
"Yeah. I just wanted to check that you love Dad. You passed the test" she said with a smile.
They watched another movie and Karen fell asleep half way through. Olivia managed to escort her to her bed. She tucked her in but she was about to walk away when Karen mumbled "Stay". She almost burst out laughing. It really was like Daddy like daughter.
So Olivia climbed into bed and watched Karen sleep. She mumbled once again before rolling over and falling asleep "Sorry for being a brat Liv".
Olivia smiled before falling asleep herself.
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