"…yes Tom, we are still looking into the story that broke last night six hours after an absolutely surprising arrest was made. CEO and founder of Doyle Energy, Hollis Doyle, was taken into custody mid-afternoon on his way out of the Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse on I Street…"
"…autopsy record for Senator Edison Davis, among other information, was anonymously dropped at FBI headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building approximately two hours before the arrest was…"
"…details concerning the arrest are not yet clear but sources are suggesting that Doyle is a prime suspect in the death of Senator Edison Davis, which has officially been ruled as homicidal after…"
"…there has been no word yet from the Capitol, but…"
Since yesterday evening, hours after Huck left Edison's autopsy and Hollis's purchase records at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the news was playing a ceaseless loop of information.Hollis Doyle's arrest and its possible connection to Edison Davis's murder was inundating headlines, and Olivia, with the help of all at Pope & Associates, had spent all morning closely following the breaking story and making sure that no extraneous and incriminating details found their way back into existence. By the late afternoon, everything seemed in the clear, and Olivia excused herself from the conference room and walked into her office. Once she had closed the door behind her, she opened up her laptop and stared at the phone number on her open browser. With a deep breath, she boldly grabbed her cell phone on her desk and dialed before she had a chance to rethink. A receptionist answered.
"Office of Dr. Sehrawat?" Her voice was silky and practiced.
Olivia opened her mouth to speak, but she found that her voice was caught in her throat.
"Hello?" the receptionist asked.
"I'm calling to schedule an appointment with Dr. Sehrawat," Olivia rushed, jumbling her words together nervously.
"Okay. Reason for your visit?"
Olivia paused – what do I say? I'm pregnant? I just found out that I have a baby? I can make murder scenes look like the aftermath of an innocent book club meeting, but now I'm carrying the child of the President of the United States and I have no idea what to do?
"It's my first prenatal appointment," she said finally.
"Okay, and with whom am I speaking?"
"Olivia Pope," Olivia said.
"Ms. Pope, how far along are you?"
"About two weeks."
"And is this your first prenatal appointment? Have you seen an obstetrician since you found out you were pregnant?"
"No," Olivia murmured, feeling embarrassed for some reason.
"Ok…how does Tuesday the fifth at two o' clock sound?"
"That sounds good," Olivia agreed, feeling the all too familiar quickening pace of her heart.
"Good. I have you down for two on the fifth, and just make sure to arrive fifteen minutes before your appointment to fill out new patient paperwork, and bring your insurance card with you."
Olivia hung up the phone and leaned into the back of her chair. She looked down at her stomach, covered in a gray silk chiffon blouse and closed her eyes. This is real, she thought to herself, you just made an appointment with a doctor – this is real. You're doing this and you don't know why; you're doing this and you don't know what's going to happen but you're still doing this. For some reason, she was smiling as her mind traveled down the road months from now – how long would it take until she started showing? How long before people noticed? Would other mothers be able to tell before anyone else?
A knock on Olivia's door stirred her out of her thoughts, and Harrison poked his head inside.
"Olivia?" he said cautiously.
"Yes?"
"Your client is here – it's The First Lady."
Olivia closed her laptop and sat up, "What?"
She stepped outside of her office and sure enough – flanked by three Secret Service agents she did not recognize – stood Mellie.
"Thank you Harrison," Olivia said, escorting Mellie inside her office.
Mellie closed the door behind her and turned to Olivia.
"You arrested him," she said quietly.
"I did," Olivia confirmed.
"And what makes you so sure he won't bring us down with him? Defiance happened, unless you're telling me you somehow gave him amnesia."
"There are no memory cards, there are no rigged machines – so I really don't what you're talking about Mellie – Defiance never happened. He's gone."
Mellie paused with a raised eyebrow and looked around Olivia's office.
"So this is where you work? It's…it's not like what I expected."
"Did you come here for something Mellie? You're endangering yourself by being here, not to mention everyone in this building, even with –"
"I'm owning it. I won't deny it," Mellie announced.
Shocked, Olivia looked at Mellie, whose face was serious and unblinking. She sat down in her chair and Mellie followed suit – sitting in the couch across from her, her eyes never leaving Olivia's face.
"You're really going to do this?" Olivia questioned.
Mellie nodded matter-of-factly.
"Mellie – are you sure? Are you absolutely positive that you want this?"
Mellie let out a small laugh and played with the large white diamond wedding ring on her finger. She exhaled tiredly and clasped her hands together.
"He had a rash a couple of days ago – right on his cheek, his left one. At first it was just kind of red, but then there were these tiny bumps by the next morning…and you'd think that with two children in experience, I wouldn't be so freaked out. And people get rashes all the time, right? But I almost lost it. I made a zillion appointments with pediatric dermatologists…I called Dr. Drysdale every hour for a new referral. I mean...it must have been leftover 'pregnancy brain' or something playing tricks on me because I felt like I was going crazy. It turned out…it was normal," Mellie finished lamely.
Her eyes fell on Olivia's desk and Olivia studied her nervously, taken aback by the Mellie who was sitting before her – somber and unnaturally unguarded.
"I was so nervous. I had to fire Bonnie because I didn't want anyone around him; I made all my staff carry hand sanitizer with them; I changed my clothes at least four times a day. You know when they talk about 'helicopter parents'? I was like the 'drone parent', the 'military aircraft parent', I swear," Mellie rolled her eyes. "Sometimes Fitz will walk right past him and he won't say anything and I just think…how awful. How awful it must be for him not to get to enjoy this with me. I guess that's my fault, obviously, but he would have loved it. He and I were…we were parents of two babies, we were overly-involved PTA members…we were partners."
Olivia sat motionless and quiet at her desk. Mellie was still not looking at her, but she still couldn't help but feel an uncomfortable shame wash over her, as though she had intruded onto something of which she was never meant to be privy. But Mellie did not seem to want an answer, because she took a deep, quivering breath and continued.
"When we were living in Santa Barbara, we lived in this really spectacular Spanish colonial. It had these beautiful windows, and a sunroom that was definitely to-die-for. And then one day, we were out in the backyard and he said to me, 'I'm going to run for President' – and I thought he was kidding," she laughed.
Mellie looked up at the ceiling with a small smile playing at her lips, clearly lost in reminiscence.
"I thought he was just coming off this political Governor high. But then five months later we were campaigning and I could see it – I could see us in The White House. We brainstormed late into the night together, we worked together; we designed T-shirts together. I was there for the whole thing, I was there when he decided he wanted to be Commander-in-Chief, I was there at the primaries, the caucuses…I was there to change his jacket and get him a glass of water…I was there to call him out on his awful ideas. Fitz has always been somewhat of a dreamer, and somewhere down the road, he thought I was a bit more ambitious than he liked. And then one day, it stopped and he started telling me that I was 'interfering'. And then you came."
Mellie paused and looked at Olivia, who mustered every ounce of strength to not look away. The atmosphere of the room had dug up long-dismissed guilt, but she kept her eyes on Mellie, whose expression was puzzlingly curious.
"You came straight on the heels of Cyrus Beene, and you were the encourager and the fixer. You told him to keep his chin up and you practically built the road to victory – well nearly. So I should have seen it coming, right?He always wanted your opinion, he always needed to hear what you thought about this and about that…bills could not be passed and shirts could not be worn if Olivia Pope didn't bestow her approval," Mellie said quietly."So I should have seen it coming. I should have seen that he was gone before Cyrus even hired you. You were just the final nail in the coffin of Fitzgerald and Millicent Grant. Thankfully I had already secured my seat in The White House as The First Lady, but I won't lie to you Olivia – it stung. It stung to know that I was essentially a figure, an image. And you might think that the worst was that he was lying in bed next to me but it was like I wasn't even there. Or you might think that the worst was that he had to fight tooth and nail to keep his eyes off of you whenever you entered a room."
As raw and forthright as Mellie's words were, it was her tone that struck Olivia the most. Absent was the jeering and accusatory note so characteristic of their interactions, and instead, in its place was a hint of resignation.Olivia looked down at her fingers, awkwardly.
"Mellie…" she started, not knowing what she could even say.
"That wasn't the worst. The worst was that I had nothing left to offer. I was a lawyer, and a damn good one and now, I'm just…how did he put it? Oh right…ornamental. But I got over it. I wanted to be here and that's what I got. I wanted what I got and in a sense – everyone was getting what they wanted too. It was a win-win-win, no? And then Chris came along and I won't bother you with the details but he thinks this is a bad idea; he thinks I should just keep it quiet. It will ruin him of course, and me, and it will ruin Fitz too, you know? It will be the ugly mark on his squeaky clean Republican family values image. A love child in The White House? What terrible, unfortunate, and sinful circumstances. People will question the clearness of his judgment, his emotional state…and I know how hard you work to keep his halo shining, Olivia."
Olivia bit her bottom lip as Mellie's words brazenly spoke the very thoughts she was afraid to truly acknowledge…a love child in The White House? Mellie took a deep breath and patted at the immaculate French twist at the back of her head. When she spoke again, her voice was steady and bold.
"But while it has taken me a minimum of three hours to plan a state dinner, I spent a total of thirty-four hours this week alone on rash-duty. I spent six hours hovering over the shoulder of the carpenter to make sure that he finished Isaac's second crib to perfection. And I spent two hours replacing everything he owns with its hypoallergenic alternative. Fitz has you and you have him, I know that; I have known that. But neither of you know what this is like, neither of you know what it feels like to start to actually like the smell of formula the way I do, neither of you know what it feels like to spend nine months waiting to meet someone you already know, and neither of you know what it's like to imagine that there is a potential soccer star or football punter or whatever inside you. So you might be afraid to stain Fitzgerald's amazing legacy with a newborn, and you might be afraid to take the risk but when you ask me if I'm absolutely sure, that answer will always be yes. So don't ask me again."
Mellie pursed her lips and regarded Olivia coolly. For some reason, even amidst the haughtiness and contempt, Olivia wanted to tell her. She wanted to tell Mellie that she was wrong – Olivia would know what she was talking about. I have one now, she thought sadly to herself, a little pink Pea; she felt terribly alone and conflicted. But bizarrely, as The First Lady sat defiantly and expectantly in front of her, Olivia felt that though she had no idea, they were more alike in this room than they had ever been.
Olivia straightened up and nodded, "Okay, let's get started then."
