Crossed Wires
Fitz was pacing restlessly in his office. He had been at it ever since the meeting in the conference room with Huck had ended about a half hour ago. That meeting had taken up a good part of the morning as they discussed where they were on all of their open cases.
Huck explained in detail to Fitz how things had gone with Henry Easterwood. Fitz congratulated him on a job well done and showed him the hefty check that the boy's parents had happily given as payment. It seemed that Henry had been scared on the straight and narrow path after his visit with Huck and had even reached out to the headmaster at the school he had been expelled from and apologized. Huck could be a real scary dude when he wanted to be.
The woman who was allegedly pregnant by Will Swann had been located. Huck had paid her a visit a few days ago. He told her who he was and what he knew, and then he offered her two million dollars and a non-disclosure and all but demanded that she comply with the terms. She had been all too eager to do what was required in order to keep the money. She wasn't interested in becoming a mother and she wasn't interested in being in D.C. anymore either. She thought Will Swann was an asshole.
Once she had completed her part and signed the non-disclosure, she immediately left town. Will was informed that everything had been taken care of, that it had only cost him two million instead of three, and that the woman was gone for good. Both Huck and Fitz hoped it was the last time the First Gentleman ever graced their place of business.
"That just leaves us with one last item to discuss."
"I didn't see anything else on the schedule." Huck said in confusion.
"You actually looked at the schedule?" Fitz was impressed. "Awww."
"Just tell me what it is so we can get on with this day." Huck grumbled.
"We have a new client. The President of the United States."
Huck's eyebrows sunk. "What are we doing for her?"
"We have been asked to look into her husband's past. That should be a piece of cake for an intelligent guy like you." Fitz explained. He was pouring on the praise in hopes that Huck's swollen head would be too full of confidence to put two and two together.
"It is a piece of cake, but why are we helping her? Other than the obvious; that she's the President, that her husband is an asshole, that we both hate him, and that..."
"Hate is a strong word, Huck." Fitz tried. It was a strong word. Fitz needed something much stronger to describe how he felt about William Swann.
"I get it. You and Will are besties. Whatever. It would help if I knew what I was supposed to be looking for." Huck said.
This is where it was bound to get hard to explain. Fitz knew he would have to tread softly. "The president has recently discovered that her husband has been unfaithful to her."
There's a shocker, Huck thought. He knew exactly how she had recently discovered that information. Fitz trying to tiptoe around the issue was comical at best. He silently waited for more information and his marching orders.
"She would like for us to see exactly how far back his extramarital activities go.
"How old is the internet?" Huck joked. When Fitz just stared at him, Huck shrugged. "Tough crowd."
"I'm sure whatever you find out about him will go back a long way. I need every scrap of information you unearth to be irrefutable. The president is going to confront her husband with whatever you find and begin divorce proceedings."
"Wow. It sounds like she's pretty sick of his shit. Good for her." There was no way that Olivia came up with that information or that plan on her own. Huck knew that Fitz must have told her all about her husband's confession and the situation he had gotten himself into. There was no other reason why she suddenly wanted to know about all of his previous dalliances. The timing was just too convenient.
Huck would happily do the work that was asked of him. Hell, he'd enjoy it this time. Huck would do it partly because he loathed William Swann so much and wanted to see him go down. The other part was because Huck knew that Fitz was all the way head over heels in love with Olivia and would do anything to make her happy. Huck wanted Fitz to be happy, and this might just be the way those two crazy kids got their happily ever after started, so he'd do his part. He looked up at Fitz and said, "Fine. But it's gonna cost ya big bucks."
"Shut up, Huck. You get paid more than the Secret Service for the work you do here and it's not life threatening. This is your top priority now. You'll get a rather large bonus if you can come up with everything she needs within a week." Fitz was baiting him. Whatever it took to get Liv away from that idiot as fast as humanly possible.
"Whatever the bonus is, double it and I'll have everything you need by the end of the day tomorrow." Huck said with a smug look.
Damn. Fitz wasn't expecting that. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Done! Where the hell has this work ethic been lately?"
"Shut up. I do what's asked of me on time. It's why you keep me here. I'm a results kinda guy."
"You're a pain in the ass kinda guy too." Fitz shot back as he headed for his own office. He called out over his shoulder, "get busy."
Huck wondered what kind of money he would have gotten if he had told Fitz he already had everything on the First Gentleman? He looked into Will the second Fitz, Will, Miranda, and those creepy Secret Service guys left the office a few weeks ago. Huck didn't need more money. Hate was driving him now, and that's why he'd kept quiet.
Will had been a bad boy. A stupid one too. He'd used cash to pay for the many hotel rooms, which had been smart, but his personal credit card had been used for incidentals at each hotel, making his movements easy to track. Huck also hacked into the bank the credit card company used. The whole thing was child's play to Huck. Maybe that wasn't the right word choice.
His movements were tracked as far back as the campaign trail. And that's where Huck had stopped looking two weeks ago. But now, now he wondered if Olivia's husband had been cheating on her much longer than the campaign trail. He decided to investigate that today and add anything he found to the thick file he already had on Will.
While Huck did whatever the hell it was that Huck did, Fitz paced in his office and thought about Liv. It had been two weeks since their rendezvous in the Oval Office that had turned into the most serious and meaningful conversation Fitz and Olivia had ever had. It had been difficult for him to remain professional and keep his distance from her these last two weeks. Waiting to find out if their time together had resulted in an unplanned pregnancy was the hardest of all, but he kept his distance.
Fitz assumed that Olivia hadn't reached out to him for one of two reasons. Either there was no news to share, or she was busy doing her part to keep up the marital pretenses with her husband as well as running the country and couldn't break away. Still, he hated not being able to talk to her or be around her.
He stopped pacing, looked out his window, and thought back to the first time he had met Olivia. It had been a crisp winter day, much like the one they were having today. Fitz rolled his eyes as he recalled that Will of all people had been there. Cyrus too. But Cy had been the one to do the introductions. Like him or loathe him, he served his purposes.
"Olivia...Will...This is Fitzgerald Grant. He's the best fixer in the game. Fitz, this is William Swann and..."
"Olivia Pope" Fitz stated, and crossed the room to shake her hand. She was even more beautiful in person.
Fitz had seen her for the first time on television the spring before when her home state of Ohio had been hit by a freak blizzard. It had happened in April and as the governor there, she had declared a state of emergency. Olivia had a fantastic television presence. The moment she began to speak Olivia had sucked him in and Fitz remembered feeling compelled to help somehow. He had made a sizeable anonymous donation to help Ohioans affected by the storm. Fitz had kept up with her career ever since. When Cyrus had called him asking if Fitz was interested in running Olivia's presidential campaign, he had accepted with indifference. Now that he was in her presence, Fitz was finding it harder to control his excitement.
He cleared his throat and reigned it in as she took a step closer, craned her head back, and looked him in the eye. Fitz felt no shame in inspecting her just as closely. She was a beautiful woman. Almost distractingly so. That would work to her benefit. Her hair hung bone straight halfway down her back. She would have to get it cut. Three or four inches at least. She would also need some loose waves styled into it. She looked a bit too tightly wound. To connect with the average American, she'd have to loosen up some.
A glance at her feet showed that she was wearing heels. That meant Olivia Pope was a lot shorter than she appeared right now. It could be a problem. Most presidential candidates were...
"I'm short. I know." Her voice broke through his mental summation of her physical appearance. She had to say something to break up the heat she was feeling from his quiet yet intense inspection of her. Olivia was thankful for his careful scrutiny of her outer self. It meant he was much too preoccupied to notice that she was getting a delicious eyeful of him.
He was tall. Easily over the six foot mark. He had a head full of healthy looking well tamed curls that made her fingers itch to touch them. He was tan, and Olivia knew he came from the warm and sunny state of California and that he liked being outdoors a lot. She had done her research on him too.
His eyes were blue. Not just any shade of blue either. They were gray blue. Fitz's eyes were inquisitive, calming, and confident, with a touch of playfulness in them all at the same time. Olivia wondered how so much depth could be conveyed by someone's eyes. He had a great smile too. The kind that didn't make it feel like he was looking down at you. It was very affectionate. He had beautiful straight white teeth, and Olivia figured that was part of the reason he frequently smiled.
Fitz's head snapped up from her well toned legs to her beautiful face. He never missed a beat, even though he felt like she had just read his mind somehow and stated the obvious. "You are. It could be a problem, so we'll focus on your media presence to begin with. It's strong enough to take the focus off your height. Once that's accomplished, no one will care where you fall on a height chart."
Olivia arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. "Well, that's a relief. How could you possibly know anything about my media presence?"
Shit. He walked right into that one. Now he had to get himself out of it. He went with the truth and explained it to her calmly, even though he wanted to fidget under her quizzical stare. "I caught your television announcement last spring about the blizzard."
"Oh? Were you in our fair state for business or pleasure?" she asked. He wasn't the only one who could make a person feel fidgety.
He couldn't help the smile that covered his face. Fitz wondered what her expression would be like if he answered with pleasure. The curiosity was strong enough that the word was on the tip of his tongue, much like he imagined it being on parts of her body. At the last second, however, he said, "business." But he added, "I'd love to enjoy the sights there from strictly a tourist point of view one day. It seems like a fun place."
Olivia was a little relieved at his admission of being in Ohio for work. She pretended she didn't know why and tried to keep up with the conversation. "It definitely is. Maybe I'll be able to show you around once I'm elected President? Doesn't the new leader get to gloat in his or her home state?"
"Confident. I like that." Fitz stated. And fun, sexy, and a powerful presence. "When I get you into that White House, I'll hold you to that tour."
Will had been sitting there watching their interaction. He was tired of sitting on the sidelines. Stepping beside his wife, Will put his hand on her shoulder and asked, "so, you're really going to try to get Ollie elected president?"
Fitz smiled politely and tried not to cringe at the ridiculous nickname for Olivia. He didn't know her. Not really. But Fitz could tell she wasn't a fan of the pet name either. He'd seen her shift ever so slightly away from her husband when it was mentioned. He begrudgingly dragged his eyes from the enchanting woman standing in front of him to her sad excuse for the other half. Extending his right arm, Fitz simply replied. "I am. Good to meet you, Mr. Swann."
"Call me Will. Everyone does." he told Fitz.
"Alright, Will." The two of them firmly shook hands and pretended not to size the other one up.
The four of them spent the next few hours discussing the early plans to kick off Olivia's campaign. They talked about everything from where she would make her announcement to publicly run for president to the states she needed to focus more heavily on for votes, and everything in between.
Before long they had a decent early itinerary hammered out. Fitz learned quickly how to read his candidate's body language and what her sounds meant. She sighed when he mentioned the changes that needed to be made to her hair. Fitz could tell that she wasn't really a fan of changing her appearance. She seemed to understand that it was for the greater good, even if she didn't like it.
Fitz smiled from where he stood as thoughts of that first meeting with Olivia came to mind. She hadn't changed from that initial meeting. She had taken his advice about her hair and the public speaking, but Olivia as a person hadn't changed. She was still the strong, independent, fiercely loving people person that she had been back then.
Back on the campaign trail, Olivia stayed in simple hotel rooms. Nothing fancy or elaborate. No penthouse suites while she was campaigning. She wanted to be seen as a regular person. Fitz knew she and Will had the money to stay anywhere they wanted to, so he respected her decision to keep it simple. Of course, a regular hotel room made for tight working conditions for she and her team. It had been a challenge in the beginning, but turned out to be the perfect way for her and Fitz to end a long day of giving speeches and meeting the locals in whatever town they found themselves in. Lying in each other's arms and discussing everything or nothing had been bliss.
He recalled the night it all started between them.
"Liv?" Fitz had poked his head into her hotel room as he had done dozens of times before. She looked up at him, sending him a smile and he felt invincible. He stepped into the room and the door closed behind him.
"Yea?"
"Will's plane just left the airport for Florida. He'll be there for the next two days stumping on your behalf. From there he's heading to Alabama to speak at a public event." Fitz told her. It was six o'clock and the two of them still had a lot of work to do. It was going to be a late night.
"He was super anxious to get going. I didn't know he cared so much about politics, but he's turning into a real asset to the team." Olivia picked up a stack of papers and set them on the small round table in her room. She hoped her voice sounded chipper. She was feeling anything but right now. She and Will had had a big fight before he left their hotel room for the airport. She wanted to talk about the two of them having a baby. He had put her off again, and Olivia didn't think Will realized how much it hurt every time he did that.
Olivia looked at Fitz and wondered what his stance was on having babies of his own. God, she wondered what the practicing would be like with him. She would bet that his large eager hands could have her trembling in no time at all. She just knew that his mouth, as skilled as it was with words, was even more skilled on a naked female body. It wasn't like she hadn't pictured it a thousand times already. She needed to stop thinking like this.
Fitz wondered in what realm was William Swann an asset. He was an idiot with a big mouth who was constantly shooting it off to whoever would listen. Truth be told, Fitz was glad Olivia's husband had left. They could get a lot more accomplished with the team of volunteers and staffers without him constantly interrupting.
Of course, having Will gone also meant that the buffer between him and Liv was gone too. He'd have to be a lot more careful when he was alone with her like this. It was all too easy for him to slide into a personal conversation with her from a strictly professional one. She was so easy to talk to and be around, that Fitz made up reasons to ask her opinion on mundane things. Just so he could breathe in her perfume or stare at her perfect little body that he would love to get his hands on.
"What do you want to do about dinner?"
He had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't hear Olivia talking to him.
"Fitz? Fiiiiiiiiiiitz?" she called out.
"I'm sorry, what?" He looked at her.
She smiled at him. He was preoccupied with something on his mind. This fixer always had something on his mind. She supposed it was usually her and the campaign, but every so often she wished he would think of her in another way altogether. Like the way she sometimes found herself thinking of him. It was difficult not to think of him the way she did after the two of them spent every day in close proximity to each other. She looked at his hands and wondered what they would feel like on her skin. She wondered what his lips tasted like. What his...
"Liv?" Fitz said gently. It seemed they were both taking turns checking out of the conversation.
What the hell had she just asked him, Olivia wondered to herself. Dinner! In a confident voice, she said, "I asked what your thoughts were concerning dinner? Do you have any ideas?"
"I'll eat anything." He shouldn't have said that. It sounded sexual to his own ears. She probably wished he had left the state instead of her husband. "Truth be told, I could eat a steak."
"This is where I tell you I'll have a salad while I miserably sit here and watch you consume my favorite part of a cow." She pointed a finger sternly in his direction. "If that gets back to PETA, I will firmly deny it!"
"It's good to have leverage on my candidate." Fitz said grinning down at her.
"To hell with being proper, a steak for dinner sounds heavenly!" She said, returning the grin.
"Salads are for rabbits."
"You sure know how to make a girl feel good." She bit the inside of her cheek. That sounded like a sexual harassment case waiting to happen. She was an idiot.
"I don't have time for girls."
"Oh...I didn't mean...I'm sorry." Olivia started, clearly flustered. "I didn't know that you..."
"Women are a different story." He clenched his jaw, took another step closer, and stared down at her. "Lately, there's only one woman I go out of my way to make time for."
Was she sweating? It sure did get hot in here suddenly! Olivia looked up into his blue eyes, searching for the butt of the joke or an explanation. His mother was in town, or his aunt had asked him to come visit. Anything like that. Fitz said nothing. He just kept looking down at her intently.
Holy fuck! How did he make that sentence seem so sexy and full of sexual innuendos? She wanted him more than anything in the world. What was she supposed to say in reply to that? There wasn't anything! Instead, she smiled at him and grabbed a random piece of paper, saying, "I've got to get copies of this made so that everyone has it in the morning meeting."
Fitz answered on auto pilot, but his thoughts were still on her body. "I'll order the food to be brought up and let you know when it's here."
"Thanks" she replied and watched him walk through the door that adjoined their rooms. When it closed behind him, she sank back against the wall with a loud sigh. Looking down at the paper she held, Olivia saw that it was the menu for the Chinese place they had eaten for lunch. She had to get herself together!
Dinner was delivered to Fitz's room, and once it was set up, he tipped the young man and knocked on the adjoining door between his room and Olivia's. He got no answer, so he knocked again, and called out, "Liiiiv?"
Still no answer. Not wanting to catch her in a compromising position, he went to the phone in his room and called her room. She answered on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Liv? Hey. I was knocking on the adjoining door but got no answer. I was getting worried. Are you okay?"
Was she okay? Olivia thought about that for a moment. She was, but she wasn't. Before she lost her nerve, she heard herself say, "come on over."
"But the food is..."
"Just come to my room, Fitz." She hung up the phone and stared at it. What the hell had she just done? He was going to think she had lost her mind when he opened the door. Maybe she had. She took in a shaky breath and let it out as a knock sounded and Fitz opened the door.
"I was just..." The rest of the sentence died on his lips. Olivia stood there, in the middle of her room, wearing nothing but a very sheer light pink silky nightie. His eyes slowly traveled up her body. He could see her painted toenails, her perfectly toned legs, her flat stomach, and her dark nipples underneath the thin material. His eyes roamed back down. She was gorgeous.
Shit! He shouldn't be looking at her like that! He turned around quickly but committed to memory everything he had just seen.
She was gorgeous. And married. And running for president. And a client. And completely off limits.
"Uhhh, I'm sorry. I think we got our wires crossed on the phone. I should have waited until you..."
Olivia went to stand boldly in front of him and put her finger against his lips. "Don't be sorry. I'm not." She got up on her tiptoes and put her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. God, he smelled good. Like man and musk and sex. Just like he did every day.
After a moment, she realized that he wasn't kissing her back. He wasn't even touching her. Falling flat on her feet again, she looked up at him and said, "this isn't an accident. I...planned this."
"You did? Why?" he asked.
"I've been thinking about you in ways I know that I shouldn't. But I can't help it either. Those thoughts are always in my head and I'm tired of fighting them. It's a constant battle, and I'm at the point where I don't want to fight it anymore."
"B...But we can't! You're running for president! All it takes is for one person to see us or hear us or suspect they heard or saw something. And your career would be over before it really got going. You have a real shot at becoming president, Olivia. It's not worth ruining for a one night stand. You are destined to be an amazing president."
She arched one eyebrow at him. "I'm GOING to become the next president. I have no doubts, and neither should you. This...thing between us isn't going to go away. It's going to become stronger and the pull towards you will become stronger too. I can't help it, and neither can you. I just...Hell with it. I'm not going to say that I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't say these things out loud, but I want you. And I think deep down you want..."
Fitz pulled her into his arms and ravished her mouth. He should have been sweet and tender with her, but he didn't think she wanted that from him. Not tonight. She had laid out her emotions open and raw for him to see. He assumed she wanted raw passion as well. So, he gave it to her. He lifted her up and her legs wrapped around his waist possessively.
All thoughts of how wrong it was being pressed intimately against a presidential candidate and client evaporated from his mind for now. Fitz concentrated on her and meeting her needs from purely a male point of view.
He carried her to the sofa in her room and sat down with her straddling his lap. He pulled away from her mouth long enough to say, "if you want to stop at any point, just tell me and we'll stop."
"Stop talking and take off your shirt." she ordered and fused her lips to his once again.
Fitz took his hands off her and leaned back on the sofa. If she wanted his shirt off, she could do it herself. Olivia picked up on his cues and leaned back in his lap. She pulled his white dress shirt from the waist of his black dress pants and began unbuttoning it. When she had it open, she slowly pushed it off his shoulders and put her splayed fingers on his chest. "I caught you running in the hotel gym the other day. Your shirt was wet and clinging to your chest as you ran on the treadmill. I was on my way to get breakfast in the lobby but immediately became hungry for you as I watched. The longer I stayed, the harder it was for me to leave."
"You like to watch? Is that what you're saying?" Fitz asked in a challenging voice. He set her down on the sofa and got to his feet.
"No. I...That's not what I meant. I just...Come sit back down." She grabbed at him, but Fitz evaded her.
"I don't think so. You like to watch, so I'll give you something to look at." Keeping his eyes on Olivia, Fitz shrugged out of the blue dress shirt that was hanging off his shoulders. He stood there bare chested and saw her lust filled eyes take it all in. Reaching for his belt, he quickly unbuckled it, and then unzipped his pants and let them fall to the floor.
Olivia's eyes followed his pants and then quickly darted back up to his crotch. She bit her lip and bored her eyes intently into his. She needed to get some of this tension out of her body. Now! An idea popped into her head and she went with it. Gripping the shoulder strap of her nightie between her index and middle fingers, Olivia slid the thin material down over her shoulder until her breast was fully displayed. Fitz was now the watcher, and his two blue eyes became laser focused on her as she began to massage the soft skin with a stiff bud.
Her other hand slid down her side, over her hip, and around to her center. Just as she was about to begin a sensual massage there, Fitz dove to his knees in front of her. He gripped the thin pink material and quickly shoved it out of the way before his tongue began to flick repeatedly over her soft pink center. Fitz whipped her body up to almost hit its peak and then slowed things down, only to do it all over again. Olivia was begging for him to keep going when he started building her up again. Just as she was teetering on the brink of insanity, she grabbed the back of his head and held him in place until his mouth drove her into sweet hysteria. She cried out loudly and panted heavily through parched lips. "Oh, Oh, Oh god...so good! I want more!"
He shut out the part of his brain that screamed, "I can't believe that you are going to fuck this up! You're an idiot!"
When he was as naked as the day he was born, he went to Olivia and possessively picked her up in his arms as if he had done it thousands of times before. He went to her bed and laid her down on it. Grabbing her ankles and holding them up in the air, he thrust his hips quickly, burying himself deep inside of her.
Olivia screamed and covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the sound. He was huge and felt heavenly inside of her. While he took a moment to adjust to their joining, she took a breath and began to settle herself. She had just exhaled when Fitz began to hammer in and out of her repeatedly. She couldn't even complain because it felt so damn good. She grabbed the sheet and held on held on for dear life as her fixer worked her body in the most delicious way, just like she knew he could.
He brought her to orgasm twice more before he followed after her and fell face down on top of the bed. It was a thousand degrees in her hotel room, and he needed air. He didn't see himself moving anytime soon, but once he got himself together Fitz knew he should get dressed and leave. He sighed loudly and started to get to his feet.
"Where do you think you're going?" Olivia asked.
"To my room. I assumed you'd want some time to yourself. I can bring your dinner over here."
"I'm not done with you yet, Mr. Grant. I'm not sure what gave you the idea that I was?"
His eyebrows rose high on his forehead. She was trying to kill him. He was sure of it. If this was how he went out, Fitz considered himself a lucky man. He picked her up, flung her over his shoulder, and slapped her ass as she giggled. "Round two is in the shower."