"We were actually starting to talk." Fitz rubbed his hand over his face, flopping back into his desk chair. The chair rolled back a few inches, hitting the wall behind the desk. Allowing his head to fall back against the cushioned chair, he groaned in frustration.
"Did she say anything before you left?" Eddie questioned from across the room. Fitz sighed, allowing his hands to fall to the armrests of his chair, and looked toward his friend. Eddie was leaning against the closed door, a can of Red Bull in his hand.
"We were both avoiding what had happened," Fitz admitted.
"So you quit talking...again." Eddie shook his head, bringing his Red Bull to his mouth and drinking slowly. Swallowing, he dropped the hand holding his energy drink to his side and continued with his observation. "That's...healthy."
"We have therapy this evening. We'll talk about it there. With a neutral party." Fitz frowned, using his feet to pull his chair closer to his desk. Placing his hands on his keyboard, he typed his password and watched as his home screen slowly came into focus.
"You're still going to go? Is she still going to go?" Eddie asked, crossing the room and plopping into the chair across from Fitz's desk, sitting his drink on the edge of the wooden desk.
"This isn't the time for either one of us to skip a session."
"That's good," Eddie agreed, "You two need to talk about this because holy shit."
"Is that your official response to the amount of fuck up we managed?" Fitz tilted his head, peeking his head around the monitor and raising a brow in his friend's direction. Eddie snorted, saved from responding by the sound of the radio in the corner of the room.
"10-00."
Fitz and Eddie shared a look for a moment before both were springing out of their seats and heading for the door. Eddie, reaching the door before Fitz, turned the knob and slung the door open. Fitz was hot on Eddie's heels out the door and down the hallway toward the front of the building. The lobby was a bustling hub of activity - deputies were moving about in a blur in all different directions.
"Sheriff?" Stephen questioned, appearing at Fitz's side.
"Where are they?" Fitz demanded, digging in his pocket for the keys to his patrol car.
"Up on Swamp. Do you want me to -"
"We'll assess when we get there," Fitz shot his deputy down. He knew what Stephen was most likely suggesting - calling in the SWAT team.
"Want me to come?"
"If you want to, Eddie." Fitz was heading toward the door, keys in hand, when Eddie responded:
"Yeah. I do."
"I'm sorry...you what?" Sadie tossed her blonde locks over her shoulder, her blue eyes widening with shock.
"I just...I don't know, Sadie," Olivia exhaled, holding her head in her hands. "We've actually been doing good these last two months. Haven't missed any sessions. There's considerably less yelling -"
"And you seem to be doing a lot better now that you're going to therapy and taking your medication," Sadie acknowledged, "But this…"
"Seems like a setback? I agree."
"Maybe not if you two talk it through. Acknowledge what happened and work past it."
"I'm bringing it up tonight at therapy," Olivia stated, dropping her hands onto the counter and wrapping them around her sweating glass of iced, sweet-tea, "I don't know if he will want to talk about it, but we need to."
"See? That's growth, sis!" Mercedes reached across the island, slapping Olivia's shoulder playfully. "I'm proud of you."
"That makes one of us…"
"Hey! No self-deprecation when I'm here."
"Sadie?"
"Yeah?"
"You self-deprecate all the time."
"Yeah, but I'm not serious when I do it," Mercedes winked, sipping her tea. "Or am I?"
Olivia rolled her eyes, chuckling. "How are things with you? I feel like I'm constantly unloading on you and -"
"Hey, you need to talk and that's okay," Mercedes shrugged. "I'm good. Everything's great. How about you? How have your classes been?"
"Crazy. I feel like I'm always going. But in a good way," Olivia was quick to explain, holding her hands out in front of her to quell the look Mercedes had thrown her way. "Athena even asked me to help her with a history paper."
"Is she doing better? I spoke to her a few nights ago about going to therapy with the two of you."
"Yeah," Olivia smiled, "She is. She's -"
The sound of the phone interrupted the two, prompting Olivia to hold a single finger in the air.
"Hold that thought," she chuckled, turning her back to Mercedes and reaching for her phone on the counter.
"Hey, Jerry," Olivia greeted, her smile instantly turning to a frown as she spoke, briefly, with her ex-father-in-law. Hanging up the phone, she turned to face Mercedes.
"Can you get the kids from school?"
"What's going on?"
"I don't know," Olivia admitted. "Something with Fitz...I just. Your dad asked me to meet him at the hospital."
"What?" Mercedes's eyes widened and and she shoved away from the counter.
"I don't know, Sadie. I'll call you."
"Yeah. Yeah. I'll pick up the kids and then I'll meet you there."
"Olivia!" Ellie's voice was full of panic when Olivia entered the large, clean hospital waiting room. Accepting the hug from the older woman, Olivia asked:
"What's going on?"
"We responded to a call this morning for back-up."
Olivia twisted her head at the sound of Eddie's voice. It was then that she noticed the various deputies filling the room - and a handful of town cops as well. Raising a hand to her mouth, she shook her head - her chest tightening as she anticipated what was to come.
"Some kid had barricaded himself in his apartment. One of my officers was down. When we got there, Fitz and Stephen tried to get my officer to a place where the paramedics could work on him. That's when both Fitz and Stephen were shot."
"He's in surgery, but the doctors are hopeful," Jerry informed her.
"What about Stephen?" Olivia wondered, thinking of the younger deputy who had become Fitz's friend over the years he had been in office.
"It was...it was instant, Liv. Someone's informing Lisa and the boys now."
"Where's mom?" Athena questioned, opening the door and sliding into the front seat of Mercedes's car. Dropping her backpack in the floor at her feet, she snapped her seatbelt into place before glancing over her shoulder at her brother and sister.
"Aunt Sadie won't say," Seph complained, her gaze fixated on the screen of Mercedes's phone.
Taking a deep breath, Mercedes turned her head to glance at Athena. "She's at the hospital. With your dad."
"Has their therapy not been going as well as they say it is? Did they try to kill each other?" Athena smirked, reaching for the dial on the radio.
"No," Mercedes shook her head, covering the dial with her own hand. "We're not listening to the radio."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't need to hear the speculations and inaccurate details that they're giving out."
"What are you talking about?" Athena questioned, pushing her elbow into the seat as she turned sideways toward her aunt. "You're freaking me out, Sadie."
"Your dad was...injured when he responded to a call this morning. We're going to go to the hospital now."
"Injured? He was shot?" Athena's mouth fell open, panic crossing her face.
"Ath," Mercedes attempted to appeal to the girl. "Can we save the freaking out until your brother and sister aren't with us? When it's just the two of us, you can yell and cry all you want. I really need you to be strong right now."
Swallowing hard, Athena nodded her head.
"Let's...let's go."
"We didn't even talk this morning," Olivia stated, falling into the seat by Jerry. Her eyes wandered to Ellie across the room - standing at the vending machine and staring at her choices. She'd been there for a while now. Long enough that Olivia was beginning to wonder if one of them should check on her. It didn't take that long to pick something to drink.
"I know that's a stupid comment. We've gone three years without really speaking. That was starting to change though and then…"
"Why didn't you talk?" Jerry questioned, his gaze focused on his wife.
"It's a long story," Olivia admitted, glancing down at her hands.
"We have the time," Jerry pointed out, turning his head to look at her. Sensing his stare, Olivia lifted her gaze from her lap and met his.
"We did something pretty stupid. I think you'd agree."
"Try me."
"I warned you…"
The sound of chirping birds floated through the open window on the cool, spring breeze. Early April sunlight bathed the bed, combatting the chill breeze cooling Olivia's exposed back. The pillow was soft against her cheek, sheets warm around her body. Olivia yawned, licking her dry lips, and rolled onto her back. Tossing her hand to the side, she frowned when she didn't connect with the round nightstand she typically left her phone on at night.
Bringing a fist to her eye, Olivia rubbed at the sleep still heavy in her eyes. Her mouth was uncomfortably dry - tongue heavy, and her head hurt. Game night with the Grant clan had been fun, but those tequila shots were coming back to haunt her. Yawning once more, she slowly opened her eyes and winced as the sunlight greeted her. Turning her head to the side, she frowned.
"What happened to the nightstand?" she wondered. "And where's my phone?"
"I think you left it on the couch."
The gravelly, sleep-filled voice had both occupants bolting upright in the bed. Olivia hurriedly reached for the sheets before they could fall from her body and clutched them to her chest. Taking deep, heaving breaths, Olivia turned her head to find Fitz staring at her. Under different circumstances, she could have lost herself in the sight of his unruly curls and muscled chest - apparently he hadn't given up on working out. These were not normal circumstances, though.
"We…" Fitz looked like a deer caught in the headlights, his hand slapping against his forehead as Olivia answered:
"We did. We…we…" Olivia shook her head, the memories of the night before rushing back. The tequila, the thinly veiled flirting that had been occurring over the last two months since they had stared therapy, saying goodbye to Ellie and Jerry before Sadie and Athena disappeared to Ath's room for their sleepover, and the midnight soak in the hot tub that had led to more shots. And those shots…those shots had led to kissing and then…this.
"Liv, I…" Fitz floundered, opening and closing his mouth without any sound.
"Yeah, I…I'm just going to go."
Carefully, Olivia tossed her legs over the bed - keeping the bottom sheet wrapped tightly around her body. Standing from the bed, she stopped for a moment when her foot landed on the still-damp bikini bottoms she had been wearing the previous night. Shaking her head and rolling her shoulders, she continued toward the door.
"I'll see you at therapy?" Fitz questioned.
"Definitely," Olivia agreed before slipping through the door and practically running away.
"We all mess up, Olivia. It's in our nature."
"I think 'messing up' is an understatement," Olivia sighed.
"You did something stupid. You both did something stupid. But that doesn't take away from the fact that you've been working hard to repair your relationship and I would even say that the two of you have slowly become friends."
"Yeah," Olivia smiled, "I would say so, too."
"Life's short, Liv. Don't forget that. The two of you will talk this through, with your therapist, and you will move forward. In the meantime, don't overthink it. Please."
Olivia nodded, biting her lip, and patted Jerry's knee. Standing from her seat, she said: "I'll try not to overthink. I'm going to check on, Ellie."
A/N - I rewrote and deleted this chapter so many times I lost count. First, I wanted to say what had happened in the first few lines, then I didn't. Then, I wasn't going to put that in this chapter at all. But then it would have been a very short chapter. So it made the cut. And next chapter explains the fallout and situation a little better. Also, my deadline for the next chapter is this weekend so feel free to hold me responsible to that deadline.
Until next time,
Gabi