Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long. I'm working on the next chapter now and hopefully it won't take as long as this one did. Any who enjoy.

Chapter 24

Olivia sat down going over everything that happened with Fitz and Cyrus the next day.

"So he will turn himself over in exchange for those involved in the original case?" Fitz said.

"Yes." Olivia gave a deep sigh.

"This is ridiculous." Cyrus said.

"And Dangerous." Fitz said. He was freaked out that somebody was in Olivia's house last night. Thankfully she wasn't harmed.

"Olivia I know I asked but now I'm demanding you come here to the white house. They know where you live and probably where you work. They broke into your house and by the grace of God nothing happened this time." Fitz said.

"He won't kill me. He's bluffing." Olivia said.

"He said he would and in my knowledge this man has kept his word for the most part. For God sakes he'll kill children!" Fitz said.

"No…he knows I'm his only source to all the information about the case outside the CIA and the ones involved. He gets rid of me he can forget about it. He just wants to scare me." Olivia said.

"Olivia please…" Fitz said trying to get her to listen to good reason.

"Fitz I'm not a child I don't need to be looked after like one either. I can take care of myself. They're not going to run me out my own house." She said.

"Liv…" Fitz said.

"I'll just put some Guards, change my system and I'll be okay…" Olivia said.

"Just stop it Olivia!" Fitz said finally having it up to here with her surprising Olivia and Cyrus both. When he saw he had both their attention he continued.

"Yes I'm aware you're a grown woman. You can take care of things by yourself I get that. I'm telling you right now to just stop it! Stop thinking you have to be by yourself and do everything alone, you don't! You can trust me if you can't trust anybody else. You can cut the Super woman crap I know this is scaring the hell out of you. Stop internalizing every damn thing because you have to put on this damn front for everybody.

"I made a promise to YOUR husband and I'm keeping it even if I have to make the Secret Service keep you here I'm not going to let you go back alone to that house or wherever so they can make you their next victim. Look I've buried enough people I care about already I sure as hell don't want to do that again anytime soon!" Fitz said

Olivia was prepared to give a remark when she looked at him. She could see the fear and worry as plain as day in his face. He had already lost so much he wasn't going to lose her too. She realized he needed her here too to help guide him again as well.

"You can trust me Liv. You can…I won't hurt you and I won't let you down." Fitz said with pleading eyes. Olivia saw this wasn't going to go anywhere. He was determined to make sure she stayed here.

"If it's okay with Cyrus then I guess I'll stay here…" She said.

"It's alright with him right?" Fitz said giving Cyrus a look that he better say yes. Cyrus looked back and forth at them then gave a deep sigh.

"Well it's not like you're married so why the hell not." Cyrus said.

"Thank you Cyrus." He turned to Olivia.

"I'll have a room prepared for you. I'll send men over to help you get your things together. You can be moved in today." Fitz said.

"So fast?" Olivia said raised an eyebrow.

"Sure why not? We have like eleven bedrooms in this place. We could get your room ready in no time." Fitz said. He had them start preparing her room yesterday just in case so it would be ready when she decided to stay here.

"Okay…" Olivia said. She thought it would be weird living here. She got lonely sure but at least she would have some peace and quiet. Also she wasn't so close to Fitz.

"So it doesn't seem too strange, Olivia will not only be officially put down as one of your advisers also she will be the temporary white house hostess." Cyrus said.

"Excellent." Fitz said.

"I guess I'll get my things together then." Olivia said not looking forward to this. She got ready to leave out when Fitz called her.

"Olivia…if you would like to you can get your son and bring him here as well." Fitz said. As tempting as that sounded to her Olivia shook her head.

"I better not considering what they are capable of. I want these guys put away before I can think of bringing my son back to DC." Knowing that the Sons of Liberation could hack into planes was scary. She didn't want them to know which one her son was on and he meet the same fate as Fitz's children.

"I understand." Fitz said. That's when Olivia got a bit of a thought.

"If they can hack into a plane system that means they can hack into the CIA/FBI database possibly." Olivia said.

"That means they're tracing our every move in the investigation." Cyrus said.

"You know what I'm tired of waiting get the CIA director to come here ASAP." Fitz said.

"We'll worry about Graham later."

"Alright." Cyrus said getting his cell phone out.

"You gone ahead and get your stuff Olivia." Fitz said. Olivia nodded and left out the white house. She was escorted by some secret servicemen. She arrived home and went upstairs to pack her bags. She didn't think she would be there too long. As Olivia grabbed her things she looked over at the picture of Edgar and Nathan. She grabbed it and packed it in her bag quickly. She went over to her safe and got all the documents out from the Sons of Liberation case and secured them in her brief case. She left out the house after making sure everything was secured and was returned to the white house when she called her staff.

"Hey I've been asked by the white house to become a part of the investigation." Olivia said.

"Don't tell me they're the ones who did the crash." Harrison said.

"You bet. They hacked the plane computer's system." Olivia said.

"If they can hack that, they can hack into other things." Abby said.

"Exactly. So we're going to have be very careful. Tell Huck beef up his security system and everything else we'll do by hand. All of you PLEASE be careful. If you notice anything suspicious get in contact with the authorizes at once."

"You got it." They said. Olivia returned to the white house and was immediately escorted to her new room. She looked around seeing Fitz wasn't kidding about not wasting time. It was already decorated with fresh sheets on the bed and everything else. She still felt some type of way about her room being on the same wing as Fitz's.

"Just put those down on the bed please." Olivia told the Secret servicemen who carried in her luggage. After they left out she unpacked a few of her things. First thing she did was put her picture case on her nightstand. It was a triple picture frame. One picture it was just her and Edgar, another it was her and her Nathan. In the middle it was the picture from Nathan's birthday party. The last Family Portrait they took before Edgar passed away. She couldn't help but wondering what she would be doing right now if Edgar was still alive. Her life pretty much was on hold right now thanks to the sons of liberation.

"Well…looks I'm going to be here for a while." She said placing the frame down. She walked back down to the Oval office after getting herself together.

She opened the door and Saw the CIA director was in there.

"Hello Director Nielson." Olivia said.

"Mrs. Braxton." Nielson said giving a polite nod.

"We need to discuss something with the Sons of Liberation."

"What about them?" He said.

"They are the ones responsible for killing my husband who approved the measure to have the members that you guys were tracking tortured. This was all by your recommendation."

"Ma'am…" Nielson said. Olivia saw he was prepared to give her that "It's classified" speech.

"Answers her questions. I don't want any bull today." Fitz said. The director saw the President was not the best of moods now.

"Yes I recommended the measure because it was a technique we had used before in the past and it had shown to be successful. We were running out of time."

"My husband was against it correct?"

"Yes Senator Braxton was the only hold up at the time."

"Okay…now tell me why is he dead and you're still walking around along with everyone else?"

"That's because everybody else left it alone. He kept digging even after everything had been said and done. He was going to dig his own grave."

"So you guys just ignored the fact that you didn't get everybody in the group to save your own necks."

"The others didn't seem to show any major threat beside we had already gotten the leader. There was no need to continue."

"Yeah about that…you didn't because the leader called me last night." Nielson raised an eyebrow at that.

"That can't be he was executed." Nielson said.

"It was a General that was executed not the Leader." Olivia said.

"The hell…" The director tried to go over everything in his mind.

"Director…do you know where Former President Graham even is?"

"He got out of DC so fast when President Grant was inaugurated. He just upped and disappeared. We don't even know where he is but we've been trying to locate him. No doubt in my mind he's on the target list."

"Do you think he knew that the Sons of Liberation would be after him too?"

"Probably so." The director said.

"The leader said that if we turned in all the information to them about the case, he will turn himself in as well as the ones involved in First Family's plane crash. You had the documents special marked I'm assuming." Nielson sat back thinking of this.

"Yes I did. We were afraid of a mole being in the agency so I made the Files Special marked so only certain personnel had access to them. If the information got out…it would be a huge firestorm. A lot of high ranked officials in DC would be implemented and their lives would also be in danger. We don't want to alarm the public about all this."

"Well let me give you some information Director…if this gets out somehow I will defend my husband's legacy. I will not let ANY of you destroy it to save your own necks. So don't even THINK for a second you guys are going to team up and put it all on my husband since he's dead now." Olivia said.

"Also I want an end to this measure at once." Fitz said.

"President Grant…"

"We are NOT torturing US Citizens!" Fitz said.

"Not under my administration and if you don't like it I can see about getting another Director who will end it." He said.

"Very well President Grant." Nielson got up to leave out the office.

"Well that went well." Cyrus said.

"He's hiding something." Olivia said.

"You think?" Cyrus said.

"Of course. You saw his movements he knows something else." Olivia said.

"Well then let me get him back here." Fitz said going to call the Secret service to stop him.

"No don't." Olivia said stopping Fitz.

"We won't get it out of him. We have to be careful in this situation. Did anybody know he was coming here to meet with you?"

"We kept it as discreet as possible." Cyrus said.

"Okay good. I don't want the mole to be alarmed. We have to find out who is pulling the strings on the inside of the CIA and that will help lead us to them." Olivia said.

"So we need set up a special unit outside of basic CIA functions?" Fitz said.

"Exactly. I already know an agent that can help us. I'll get in contact with them in a little while to see if they can do it. I need you make sure their job is secured however just in case the Agency tries to get on them."

"Sure thing who is it?" Fitz said.

"Well I have to ask them first before I let you all know that. I was asked to not go into detail about their identity to be on the safe side." Olivia said.

"Fair enough." Cyrus said.

"Well I guess that's it for right now. I'm going back to finish unpacking." Olivia said.

"We redid your office for you. Also here's the memo of what you need to be looking at from the meeting this morning. Fitz's schedule for tomorrow is included as well." Cyrus said giving it to her.

"Thank you Cyrus." Olivia said taking it.

"Olivia…" Fitz said.

"Yes?" she looked at him.

"Dinner is at 6." He said simply.

"Okay thanks." Olivia said leaving out the room. After Olivia was out of range Cyrus looked back over at Fitz.

"What are you planning?" Cyrus said.

"Oh don't start with me." Fitz said sitting down on the sofa.

"I'm just asking." Cyrus said. He had to prepare himself for anything popping up between those two.

"Why does everybody think my main goal is to get Olivia to sleep with me right now?" Fitz said ticked off.

"Didn't say it was Sir." Cyrus said.

"You sure as hell are acting like it and so is she. I just want her safe that's all nothing else. Everybody thinks I have alternative motives. Well I don't!"

"Fitz this is Olivia Pope we are talking about and you know when it comes to her you sometimes don't think straight. I will ask you this, when this is over what do you expect her to do?"

"When this is over she's free to do whatever the hell she wants." Fitz said. Meanwhile Olivia finished unpacking all her things. Once the room was set up how she liked it she started reading over her memos for tomorrow. It wouldn't be too bad getting back into the swing of things right now. She remembered doing this before when she used to work at the white house. She had to be careful however, she didn't want her work for the White house interfering with her investigation into the Sons of Liberation. The longer that went on the longer it would be before she got to see her son again and move on with her life finally.

She heard a knock at the door and told them to come in without a second thought.

"Hey there." She looked up to see Fitz. He had changed out his suit into something more comfortable.

"Hi is it dinner time?" Olivia said.

"Not yet I just wanted to make sure you were settled in. That's all." He said.

"I'm fine just going over the memo you guys did this morning." Olivia said.

"Okay…" Fitz said. Olivia looked backed at him still at the door way. She could see he didn't know whether to say anymore or leave.

"You can sit down if you want." Olivia said.

"Thank you." Fitz said as he sat down in the seat across from her. The two sat in silence as Fitz watched her go about her work. He remembered their first few days at the white house when they would be discussing these things in big detail. He was so happy to be by her side and she seemed happy to be with him as well. Now Olivia was basically giving him a China wall. She couldn't even look at him right now let alone speak.

"Is everything okay?" He asked after a few minutes of dead silence.

"Nah the notes are fine. I see you're going to have to do a bit of catch up though since you were out a week. It shouldn't be too much with Cyrus and me though." Olivia said.

"Yeah…" Fitz said. She was hiding something. He just knew it.

"Olivia if there is anything bothering you please let me know." He said.

"Well the president is threatening to have the secret service keep me on lock down other than that I'm fine." She said.

"You damn right I did." Fitz said. He should have known Olivia wasn't the least bit happy having to stay here. She probably would have been jumping at the chance before…or would she?

"I told you I can take care of myself. There's no need to keep me in here like I'm a Prisoner. Also forgive me I'm not too comfortable staying so close to my EX who just the other week was trying to grope me in my own house." Olivia said laying it out on the table since that's what he wanted.

"Olivia…you can cuss at me what have you….you're not going back to that house till every sons of liberation member has been put away. I made a promise to your husband that I would keep you safe and that's what I'm doing. I wish you and Cyrus would stop thinking I'm trying to use this time to rekindle our romance. That's the least of my problems right now. Again I apologize greatly for making you feel that way. If I make you feel uncomfortable in a situation feel free to knock me upside my head or whatever you need to do."

"Thank you I'll keep that mind." Olivia said going back to her reading.

"Come on Spill it. What else is bothering you?" Fitz knew Olivia. She was trying to internalize her feelings. It's something he used to get on her about when she was obviously ill at ease. He just wanted her to open up so she wouldn't have that weighing down on her. Olivia kept quiet staring off into space.

"I'm all ears." He said.

"Okay…last night did scare me. There I said it. I thought I was really going to die then. I have never felt that way before. All I could think about is that…I wouldn't get to hold my son again. Then I thought…what would he do if I didn't make it? All these years I didn't care if I lived or died but last night…I was scared out my mind and that frightens me. I just don't know who I am anymore."

"You're Olivia Pope-Braxton. That's who you are." Fitz said.

"Also if I told you once, I told you a thousand times, PLEASE drop the tough act. It's okay to be scared. These are scary guys but you're also very brave Olivia. You're probably the only woman I know who would go after an entire terrorist organization by herself without so much of a thought. I know you hate feeling vulnerable but…it happens to everybody."

"I guess…" Olivia said.

"I just…I hate having to depend on people for things like this. I don't want to be a burden and I sure as hell don't like feeling like I'm some weak damsel in distress."

"You're not a burden Olivia. If anybody was a burden it was me this past week."

"Fitz you were mourning your family…" Olivia said.

"And you took of care me." Fitz held her hand.

"While I was sitting around feeling sorry for myself you were taking care of everything on top of taking care of me. I owe you the world and more for that cause lord knows you didn't have to do any of it."

"Okay…thank you." Olivia said. Fitz gave her a gentle hug. It wasn't the embrace of a lover but more so an old friend, which is what she needed right now more than anything. Fitz knew Olivia had the weight of the world on her shoulders and he was more than happy to take some if not all of it off her.

"You're welcome. Now stop being so damn hardheaded." Fitz said making Olivia chuckle.

"Alright, I'll try." Olivia said. He was glad her mood seemed to have gotten a bit brighter.

"By the way I have a request."

"Go ahead." Fitz said.

"While I'm staying here, you or anybody else is not allowed in my room unless I say so. When I want to be left alone, you will respect that. So, no barging in here for things or dragging me one place or another."

"Fair enough. I don't want you to think you can't have any privacy." Fitz said.

"Good."

"Now may I say some things?"

"Go ahead." Olivia said.

"I want you to have some secret service with you when you go out and about just to be on the safe side."

"I can do that." Olivia said.

"Great. Now then Dinner is at 6 but if you get hungry afterwards or whatever you can go down to the kitchen, they'll make you whatever you want. We have housekeeping but you probably want to be in the room with them."

"I sure do." Olivia said. She didn't want them going through her things and she was unaware.

"Alright, then. Let's go to dinner." He got up and the two walked down to the dining room.

"You know it's weird."

"What is?" Fitz said.

"I don't think I ever ate in the President's dining room." Olivia said.

"Well you're in for a little treat." Fitz said as they walked inside.

Fitz pulled out her chair for her being a gentleman and took his place at head. Everything seemed fine at first when Olivia notice he had started staring into space.

"You okay?" Olivia said tapping him.

"Jason used to sit right there." He nodded to the empty seat.

"Well there or in my lap. That was our routine. He always ate with me if I was here." He said remember the little boy's ramblings about any and everything. He missed them so much right now. Olivia rubbed his shoulder feeling a bit guilty. Fitz was still dealing with losing his son and his other son being in the hospital. He had a lot more to worry about right now on top of running the country.

"I'm sorry I had a moment." Fitz said getting his thoughts together.

"No it's okay. I totally understand." Olivia said as the waiter brought their dinner out.

"Now try to eat something okay?" She said.

"Right." Fitz said. They talked about Fitz getting back officially on the job as a distraction. After dinner was over they went to their separate rooms. Olivia called her staff to see if they had anymore leads.

"So no Prints were found by the police?" Olivia said.

"No the person who did it was clean. Except for the tampered door there is no evidence somebody snuck into your house." Huck informed her.

"Interesting…"

"Liv these guys are good. I don't know what kind of training they been through it's almost like…their professionals."

"I see…" Olivia said. That freaked her out and in the same hint pissed her off. The Guardian really was playing with her. He was probably having a good laugh right now that she moved out her house because he sent one of his men to scare her.

"Alright thank you so much Huck and you guys let me know anything else comes up." Olivia said. She called Agent Fare next to discuss things with him.

"I don't know ma'am…" Fare said hesitant about this.

"Fare you have the protection of the President if something happens. Don't worry you will not lose your job over this."

"That's one thing Mrs. Braxton but the way agency is…I doubt I'll be trusted among my supervisors and peers again if word got out."

"They will try to blackball you even though you are on a special assignment by the President himself?" Olivia said.

"Funny thing about the Agency ma'am, it's like its own little world separated from everybody else. Your loyalty to the CIA is like your loyalty to your country. You break that you are considered an enemy. So yeah I might not lose my job but I sure as hell will be reduced to the point they'll try to make me quit on my own. "

"Well Fare you're the only person there I trust right now. Please consider it."

"I will Mrs. Braxton and I'll let you know." He said.

"Thank you so much." Olivia said hanging up with him giving a deep sigh. This was going to be very complicated. After doing some reading Olivia got ready for bed and went off to sleep.