The Aftermath
Fitz is in the bathroom of the residence suite, fresh out of the shower. As he finishes with his hair, he grimaces a tad at the tightness of his left hand. Although there's no significant bruising. There's some redness and slight swelling around the knuckles of his ring finger and middle finger on his left hand.
While he's not necessarily proud of how things unfolded in that interrogation room with Jake. He's not exactly ashamed about it either. Despite Jake getting off one right hand to his jaw, and a few body shots to his ribs. It ended up being not much of a fight by the end of it all. While knocking him out wasn't part of the plan; he'd be lying if he said it wasn't satisfying.
In retrospect he knows that he took the bait, but he doesn't care. Nobody threatens Olivia in his presence without him taking serious offense to it. As he replays the moment in his head, he finishes dressing. He has a teleconference in an hour, and while his face is fine and he can keep his hand out of view of the camera; he also needs to ice his hand to reduce the swelling before Olivia sees it later tonight.
He then recalls seeing a message from her in response to his, and knows he needs to check in with her to ease her mind. He quickly sends her a text just advising all is well; he can't talk right now. But he will see her later. After sending her the text he does feel some guilt, because he didn't disclose to her what actually happened during their meeting. But he figures it's something he needs to tell her in person. He then makes it a point to advise Abby to allow him to talk to Olivia about his hand. He wants to be the person to tell her.
As he looks in the mirror, now fully dressed except for his shoes he again looks at his left hand. He takes a breath as he replays the series of events that led to bruising that seems to be increasing by the second. Despite knowing there are no broken bones, according to the White house physician. The tightness of his hand and the redness is annoying.
FLASHBACK
When he entered the interrogation room Jake was chained to the table. The moment they laid eyes on one another the tension shot up. The initial silence was deafening. Secret service agents and Cyrus watched the interaction from the observation room, through the double glass, as he walked toward the table and stood for several minutes.
Jake and Fitz's gaze was one of awkwardness and it gave both men the opportunity to size one another up. The silence broke as Jake said, "So you couldn't dress the part to come see me." His reference to Fitz's casual appearance caused him to say, "You're not worth the trouble of wearing a suit and tie." He responded, "Ouch. Is that supposed to hurt my feelings?" Fitz replied, "I don't care about your feelings. I'm just telling the truth."
Jake laughed as he asked, "Why don't you have a seat? And tell me more about this alleged truth you think you're spilling." Fitz replied, "While it's evident you have nothing but time to kill, given your predicament. My time is valuable. So if there's anybody who needs to spill anything it's you. You requested this meeting not me. Either talk, or I can go. Take your pick."
He saw that Fitz wasn't willing to entertain him completely; but he was still enjoying the fact that just being in his presence was annoying him. So he continued on his path of aggravating him, as he asked, "Is that a way to talk to an old Navy buddy?" Fitz sighed as he replied, "You can't seriously think I'm here to talk to you about old times. If that's the case you're clearly not thinking about the truth behind why that's not even remotely possible. Nothing you've ever told me about you is the truth. Not even your fucking name. So please spare me with the, we were friends bull shit. Too much has happened between us to go back now anyway, and besides that, friends don't lie to one another about who they are. Friends tell each other the truth Peter, or whoever the hell you are. So just tell me why the hell I'm here so we can get through with this, and i can get on with my life."
Jake realized he'd found out some details about him he didn't plan on. But regardless of that fact. He was irritated at what he felt was Fitz being standoffish, dismissive, and judgmental toward him. So he quickly said, "Truth. Are you fucking kidding me? You're trying to chastise me about being truthful, after the shit you've done. That's a fucking laugh. Let's clear the air right here, and right now. That's why I called you here. The truth Mr. President, is that I fought beside you and protected you having your back when it mattered. Only for you to thank me by turning your back on me like a bitch, when your daddy came calling to save your privileged ass. And I was left all alone among others, to take the fall for shit I didn't have a damn thing to do with. I took those consequences because I am a soldier. Not somebody pretending to be a military man to escape daddy's reign, or pad my resume for a political future!"
Fitz angrily replied, "That's how you choose to see it. But that's not how it was! Not even remotely close, and if you'd take your head out of your ass you'd see the truth. Nobody ran like a bitch, as you put it. It's more like I was able to escape a situation that was a set up from the start to take me down; because of who my father was. Which prevented me from getting punked into a life of being somebody else's bitch, fighting their fight for their cause. Instead of actually serving my country, like i intended. While the person barking out orders sits on their ass, and reap the benefits of my efforts like you did for the past twenty years! So from where I'm standing, you're the bitch! Not me!"
Jake immediately filled with anger and resentment, as Fitz's words hung in the air. Unable to contain himself, he lunged toward Fitz yelling, "Fuck you! I've got your bitch! Remove these cuffs and I'll show you what's up!" Surprisingly to Jake Fitz stood pat. he didn't flinch when he lunged at him. Jake thought his lack of reactionary movement was due to him knowing that he was cuffed. The lack of reaction angered him more, and made him feel tormented; so he screamed, "Take these cuffs off you son of a bitch! If I weren't cuffed. I'd show you better than I can tell you how much of a bitch you are! Talk to me man to man, if you're bold enough."
Fitz was raging inside despite showing himself to be completely calm on the outside. He watched as Jake was foaming at the mouth mad, and the longer he saw him twisting and struggling to break free. The more he felt the need to call his bluff. It was time to lay all of their cards on the table; no more pretense and no more bull shit. It was do or die time.
As Secret service and Cyrus still looked on from the observation area. Cyrus got nervous. He could see the tenseness involved and he didn't know how much more of this he could take. He was unclear of what exactly would, or could come of this discussion. His paranoia began to creep in as he thought to himself, does Jake know about his connection to Rowan? Could that be what is revealed in this conversation? His anxiety level spiked as thought of various things that could come out as long as the two men spoke.
His mind was racing and he had to do or say something to make this stop. Instantly said, "Get him out of there!" Two guards rushed to the door, and were about to go inside. But they stopped because they saw Fitz wasn't calling for them, and he wasn't in any immediate danger due to Jake still being cuffed.
Cyrus got frustrated with their lack of action and turned to Mark, the head agent as he demanded, "He needs to be pulled out of there! Remove him!" Mark faced Cyrus, as he replied, "Mr. Bean. The president gave me personal instructions on how he wants this interaction to go. Based on his instruction we will not enter the room unless he calls for us to do so."
Cyrus was aggravated by being the last to know about Fitz's plan. But with his own reasons for wanting the session to end. He persisted as he responded, "Are you not seeing what I'm seeing. This isn't going to end well. He's the president of the united states. Not some random guy that's allowed to settle a score. Use common sense here, and remove him right now!" Mark was annoyed by Cyrus' insistence, as he replied, "As long as he stays cuffed we're fine. He's not breaking those restraints. And for the record, the commander in chief is the one who gives me my orders. Not you. So with that in mind. We will be standing down until further notice!"
Cyrus was intensely angered by Mark's refusal to do as he was requesting as he said, "I'm going to have your ass reassigned for this! You'll be doing baby duty when I'm done talking to the head of Secret Service." Mark fired back, "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it Mr. Bean. But for now I'm on Presidential detail. Now either you relax and let me do my job. Or you can leave! There's a car waiting outside that will escort you to the White house."
Cyrus quickly said, "I'm not going anywhere! I demand you get him out of there right, fucking now! Or else!" Mark was fed up with Cyrus' disrespect and complete disregard for him trying to do his job. So he made the move that would fix the situation. He responded, "That's where you're wrong. Goodbye Cyrus." Cyrus responded, "Excuse me. I'm the chief of staff." Mark replied, "Yes, and back at the White-house you'll still be chief of staff. But right now you're a hindrance. And I'm asking you nicely to leave. President Grant gave me such power to dismiss you if need be. And per my discretion, that's what I'm doing. So good bye! Take him gentlemen."