Chapter 21 - The Game of Life

Jake sat in his car and watched as Olivia walked out of school. He had parked so he wouldn't easily be spotted, hoping he would be able to go unnoticed.

Abby wasn't walking with her so he thought that he may have an opening, that was until he saw who was waiting at the entrance for her. He wasn't surprised really but he wasn't happy about it, at all. This was supposed to be his moment. His moment alone.

Reluctantly, he decided that he would just have to wait a little bit longer. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't going to be that long.

"Hey, you okay?" Fitz asked as Olivia walked towards him. She walked straight into his arms which couldn't have been a good sign.

She nodded her head against his chest. "I'm perfect. Today was great. I never knew I could miss school as much as I did."

"Wow..." Fitz said looking at her. That wasn't what he was expecting. Plus, that may have been the only positive thing that he'd ever heard about school from her. He wasn't expecting that either.

"What?"

"Nothing." He smiled at her.

She moved her arms from around his waist and brought her hands up to his face. She gently pulled his face lower and connected their lips, taking her time to kiss him slowly.

He allowed her to kiss him, after a few seconds and getting over the shock, of the very public kiss initiated by her, he joined in. He lowered his hands to her hips and gently moved her closer to him.

After a minute or so, they broke apart, both of them needing some air. Not only that, but Fitz knew that he had to stop before they started getting too carried away with each other.

"I love you." She mumbled as she rested her body against him again and snuggling in, in an attempt to keep herself warm.

"I love you too, Olivia Pope." He said, smiling down at her happily, kissing the top of her forehead.

After a few moments he felt her shiver in his arms. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms and back in an attempt to warm her up a little.

"Where's Abby?" He asked as he looked around at the emptying school, they hadn't been waiting more than 5 minutes but, he wanted to leave. To get them both out of the cold.

"She had to speak with Sammy about something. I don't know." She shrugged. Not entirely missing her absence. Without sounding or seeming too harsh about it, she liked having some time without Abby, that way she could be with Fitz.

Fitz unwrapped Olivia from his body and started to walk forward, placing his hand in hers and leading her away from the street. If they were going to be waiting for Abby they may as well sit down. He didn't know how long she was going to be. He walked them into the school courtyard and under a small covered area. It wasn't the same as being inside but, it would help to keep the cold breeze off them. There was a half wall which he helped Olivia sit on, whilst he stood between her legs, with his hands on her thighs looking at her.

"So how was your meeting with Dr Kipling?" He asked genuinely wanting to know what kind of day she'd had.

"I told him why I wasn't at school." She said without hesitation and as if it was the most obvious thing to do.

"You told him? How much?" He asked surprised that she had actually told him.

"Enough." She replied vaguely, looking away from him. She was going to tell him, she just needed to figure out what to say.

"Liv?" He urged moving one of his hands to turn her head, so she was looking directly at him. She wasn't getting out of this one.

"Okay... So basically, well all of it." She tried to read his expression but couldn't so she carried on. "But, seeing as I am technically still a child. His words. He couldn't promise that he wouldn't tell my Father. Something about he couldn't promise confidentiality, just in case what I was going to tell him, made him concerned for my safety."

"And you told him anyway? You know he is going to have to tell you Father, don't you?" Fitz asked confused.

In the past, she wouldn't have bothered. She knew that, she would have made some excuse about it being unfair and that there was no point. In reality though, that's life. You're not always going to get what you want.

You usually get further if you play by the rules. Life is really just a big game, the better you play - the easier it is and generally, the further you go.

But, it wasn't just that. She knew she had some growing up to do. To her, this was taking some responsibility. Plus, she trusted Dr Kipling. So that helped. A lot.

"Yeah, I know. We made a deal."

"A deal?" Now he was amused, not many people could make a deal with their Headmaster, especially with something like this. He moved his hand back to her thigh and slowly started to move his hands backwards and forwards in an attempt to keep her warm.

"Yeah, I have until the end of Wednesday to tell my Dad, or Sammy will."

Fitz nodded his head, understanding what she needed to do and whether she would. He was proud that she wanted to do it this way though. He knew she needed to speak to her Father but he wouldn't force the issue, if it was only going to cause problems.

"It will be better if I told him, right?" She questioned, looking down at his hands on her thighs and placing her hands over his.

As Jake sat there watching how carefree Olivia was with Fitz, the angrier he became. She was always so uptight around him. Never had she laughed at anything he said, like she was now. What was her problem?

He watched as Fitz took his scarf off and wrapped it around Olivia's neck, before removing his gloves and helping her get her own hands in. He couldn't believe it. She actually took his...

His thoughts were cut off suddenly by the car door slamming shut. He stared at the person getting in, not saying anything as he looked back towards Olivia and Fitz.

"What's wrong with you?" Mellie asked, seeing how frustrated Jake looked.

"Them!" He spat, pointing at Olivia and Fitz.

"Ughh! I have a few choice words about her." Mellie whined as she put her hands near to the heater, attempting to regain some feeling in them.

In all truthfulness, Olivia hadn't actually got round to dishing out her revenge just yet, she had other more important things to be doing. Mellie was just jealous that Olivia was with Fitz and he didn't even know who she was.

"If I could just talk to her, she'd see sense. I know it. I just need her away from him." Jake schemed. He actually believes the stuff he was coming out with.

"Her and Abigail." Mellie was still complaining. "The two of them just... Ughh. They annoy me so much."

It was like her and Jake were having two different conversations about the same person. Neither of them really listening to what the other was saying, just content to carry on complaning.

No sooner had the ranting began, it stopped. They saw Abby walking out of the school and knew what they had to do. Well Jake knew what he was doing and Mellie was in the dark. Originally they were going to try to talk to Olivia but Jake had changed his mind.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, an opportunity was about to present itself. One that Jake was going to take to the extreme.

"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to leave you here." Fitz said, as he watched Olivia's face fall. He didn't want her to be upset about it, it was the only way though if he was going to go through with his plan.

"What?" She questioned, waiting to hear him out.

"I know I should have said something but, I honestly didn't know about it until this afternoon." It was a lie.

"Know about what?"

"My Mum and Dad are flying in, I need to go pick them up from the airport. They land at four. So I really do need to go soon, if I'm going to make it there on time. Once Abby's here though, I'll wait until she's here. I don't want you waiting alone."

He waited to see if she would say anything.

"Liv?"

"Yeah, no... Go Fitz, you need to pick your parents up. I'll be okay for a few minutes."

"No, I'll wait for Abby to get here first."

"Okay."

"Trying to get rid of me?" He smiled cheekily at her.

"No..." She laughed at him, pushing her hand into his chest playfully.

"You sure?" He questioned as he began tickling her sides.

"Yeah, yeah." She giggled as she squirmed around.

They were so caught up in each other that they hadn't noticed Abby walking towards them.

"Eww. Guys can you not be so happy. It's still Monday." Abby groaned, and then groaned more when they both grinned at her.

"Right time to go." Fitz said, helping Olivia down from the wall, she was somehow still sat on. "I'll leave you in the safe hands of chuckles over there." Fitz said loud enough for Abby to hear, who was walking in front of them.

"Ha! So funny Fitz." Abby replied sarcastically as she turned around and glared at him.

"Will I see you later?" Olivia asked as they linked their hands and followed Abby to the waiting car.

"Yeah, of course. I'll get my parents then meet you at ours. Okay?" He saw a look of confusion on her face. "They want to see you Liv. For some strange reason they seem to like you." He was really pushing his luck.

"Hey!" Olivia smiled as she swatted his arm.

"My place then?" He questioned with a smirk.

"Fine." She couldn't help but smile at him.

"I'll see you in a little bit," he smiled before lightly kissing her on the lips but not breaking apart instantly.

"Oh my god!" Abby said after making retching sounds. "I think you should leave before I'm actually sick." She smirked at Fitz pushing him away from Olivia. "Come on Liv."

"Bye Livvie..." He smiled before turning, getting into his car and pulling away, waving at Olivia in the process.

"Wait!"

They were about to drive away from the school but Olivia shouted, causing Agent Wells to stop the car.

"Is everything okay?" Parker asked as he turned to face her.

"I left something in my locker." Olivia replied opening the car door to get out.

Parker also got out of the car and followed her back into the school. 15 minutes later they re-emerged.

They had only been driving for just over 5 minutes but, Wells had noticed that they were being followed, and not too subtly either. He couldn't clearly see the faces of the people in the car but he did get the details of the car. He discretely indicated for Parker to write them down, he didn't want to alarm the girls but something didn't feel right.

He turned off several times to see if his theory was correct.

Unknown to them was the rate at which Jake was becoming annoyed. All he wanted was to talk to Olivia but, they seemed to be purposely not stopping. He was just going to follow her home and talk to her there but he was very quickly getting tired of whatever game he thought they were playing.

Jake was irate. How could she do this? He began weaving in and out of the traffic. If she wasn't going to notice him, he would make it impossible for Olivia not to. He drove as close to the back of them as he could get, and then put his foot on the accelerator more, gently bumping their car from behind. He had truly lost it.

Olivia and Abby were jolted forwards in their seats, their seatbelts locking preventing them from serious harm. They were completely unaware as to what was going on at this point.

"Whoa! Welly!" Olivia shouted at him, looking around in an attempt to see what was going on.

"I'm sorry Miss Pope. Have you and Miss Grant both got your seat belts on?" He replied calmly not letting on what had happened.

"Yeah." Olivia replied looking across at Abby, checking that she did.

They were hit again, this time from the side.

"Welly!" Olivia shouted again, slightly scared this time.

She looked out of her window but couldn't see much if anything.

Agent Wells was trying not to panic them but it didn't seem to be working. He tried to move, attempting to use the traffic to his advantage. Just as he thought they were in the clear, the car was hit a lot harder than before. The first thing that Agent Wells noticed was the sound of cars colliding, everything after that was a blur.

The force of the hit caused him to lose control of the car, and it spun out across the road, only stopping when they hit a post at the side of the road. The screeching of the tyres indicated how fast they were skidding across the road and the only thing that was as haunting as that sound was, the sounds coming from the back. The screams and cries of Olivia and Abby in pain.

Then it stopped. It all stopped and that was the scariest moment. When there was no sound at all. The silence scared her agents and as they feared the worst, they hoped and prayed that they would be proven wrong.

"Jake! Are you crazy?" Mellie screamed in a panic, wanting to know what was going on. Why was he hitting them?

Jake was furious, out of nowhere this rage quickly came over him. That and with Jake being Jake made for a dangerous combination.

"Shut up Mellie!" He shouted at her. He couldn't focus with her wailing beside him. He was going to make Olivia see him somehow. He didn't really care how and he certainly hadn't thought it through.

"Stop!" She shrieked as Jake swerved and collided with the side of Olivia's car again.

After hitting the car, Jake must have panicked. He saw an oncoming car and he stupidly snatched the wheel the opposite way to avoid hitting it. Before either of them knew what was happening and, considering the speed they travelling and the sharpness of the turn, the car flipped.

The car rolled crashing into things and other cars, eventually coming to a stop, resting upside down, and landing on its roof.

As Abby came round, she slowly opened her eyes and then quickly closed her eyes again. She opened her eyes again but then squinted because of the pain coming from her head. She moved her hand, to the side of her head, trying to alleviate some of the pain. She could feel what she assumed was blood there and, it was rapidly running down the side of her face, she didn't want to know what her head looked like.

She looked at Olivia to find her seemingly unconscious, slumped over in her seat, being held up by her seatbelt. She gently moved her back so she was sitting upright again and then she heard something. Trying to focus her eyes again, she looked forward. Both of Olivia's agents were conscious and talking. Agent Wells was on the phone and Agent Parker was then turning around in his seat.

"Miss Grant. Is Miss Pope awake?" Parker asked her, she could tell that he was shaken up a little.

"No." Abby replied groggily.

"Christ." He mumbled.

Abby heard the panic in his voice.

"Welly she unconscious." He said turning to his partner. Hoping he didn't sound as scared as he felt. "From what I can see there is blood coming from her head or face and her arm."

"There's an ambulance coming." Wells said not to anyone in particular.

"Liv?" Abby turned to face her. She didn't want to move her anymore than she had. Just in case.

"Liv come on." Abby tried again. She had to be okay.

Wells and Parker just looked on at Abby with pity. They hadn't had a chance to do anything, not that they could. Wells had been instructed not to move her, unless she wasn't breathing.

"Liv!" She shouted as the tears began to fall. "Liv..." She cried.

There was this noise. A white noise and a ringing noise that wouldn't stop. What on Earth had happened she wondered?

It took a minute before it started to come back to her. She remembers the car coming and she hoped that they had avoided it. She was struggling to open her eyes but she forced them open. Once they were open and back in focus, she took in her surroundings.

On the seat next to Mellie, Jake sat completely still. That wasn't what caused her to slip back into unconsciousness though. He was covered in blood and not moving. To her that signalled one thing. He was dead. She didn't know how or why, she knew it or even felt it but she did. He would need nothing short of a miracle to come back from this.

"Fitz?" His Mother questioned, watching him freeze, the colour drain from his face and his phone drop from his hand, clattering against the floor.

Gerry picked the phone off the floor, and as he placed it against his ear he heard something he would never forget.

"Lil, we need to go. Fitz. Fitz!" His Father shouted snapping him back to the present, taking his car keys from him. "Get in the car. Now!"

AN

Okies here's another one. I hope you like it, let me know what you think.