A/N: Again, this is your hands readers. Let me know what you think? I plan on five chapters, hoping for some positive reviews. This is just a story for the season of Autumn, however with an Olitz endgame. Happy reading.
"Baby, at some point you have to let him go and live your life. He wouldn't want you like this." Maya Pope was caressing her daughter's cheek, wiping away the tears coming down.
Her father stood up against the wall in Liv's small NYC apartment. "Sweetheart, you need to stop blaming yourself. There was nothing you could have done. It's been two years, and we are concerned you're spiraling into a depression." Dr. Eli Pope, retired, looked lovingly at his daughter, who nodded her head in agreement.
"That's why I am going away for a month. I am going to Vermont. I am going to paint, bring myself back to life. It's the only thing I can think of doing." Olivia Pope, gifted painter and career nurse practitioner handed her mother a brochure. "This is a place in a town called Stowe, Vermont. It has the best fall foliage and it's where I want to create my perfect painting. I will stay there until Autumn leaves."
"Baby, by yourself, in a strange state? Why don't you bring Abby?'
"No, mom, I need to do this on my own. It's the only way I will find closure. We were planning to go here one Autumn anyway. He knew, just as much as you and dad know how much I love the fall, the colors that go with it, and how I have always wanted to make it stand still in the perfect painting."
Her father left and came back in. "Well, if you promise this is going to help you with your closure, then we have something for you for when you come back. We expect, no we would like for you to get back on with your life."
He handed Olivia a medical bag. "It's stocked with everything you need, including a prescription pad. I pulled a few strings, and you are back, whenever you're ready. Back to being a nurse practitioner."
Olivia pulled the bag down. "Wow, thank you." It's all Olivia could say. She didn't think she would ever practice medicine again, but for her to move on in life it was a reality she had to face, that she would have to go back to it.
"Baby, you have to. You still have your wedding dress hanging in your closet." Maya picked up Liv's left ring finger, "and this, your engagement ring, take it off. This isn't healthy. You've lived a life of seclusion, fear, and darkness the passed 18 months. It's time to come back."
Liv pulled her hand away and covered her ring. "I know, mom, just give me this time alone, no phone calls, no Abby, nothing. Just give me time with my canvasses and my paints, I'll be back, I promise."
She looked up at her father. "I will even take this." She held up the medical bag. "I'll keep this with me as a reminder of what I am coming home to." She smiled.
Dr. Pope clapped his hands in delight. "That's my girl. You call once, when you get there, and check in with a text every week, ok." He held his daughter's cheeks as he gave her a gentle kiss on one.
"I promise I will do that. I'll even send you pictures of the paintings." Olivia promised.
She walked her parents towards the door, gave them both big hugs and told Maya to keep the brochure so they would know exactly where she'd be.
"This place has a tourist's hotel, but way in the back, in the secluded woods, there are small houses to rent. That's what I have. I will have the perfect view of all the fall foliage at different angles. It's going to be great."
"Just be careful, and you know we are a phone call away. We love you baby girl."
After her parents left, Olivia began to do the last of her packing. She looked up to the heavens having faith everything would work out.
Everything she had ever been through, everything she was destined to discover, and everything she had ever loved or will love she wanted to be described in one piece of art. She chose this fall season, 2 years after her life change to do this. She needed quiet, no distractions, and a place secluded enough that she could be one with the foliage.
She wanted to sit amongst the gorgeous fall colors. As a painter, it was something she had always dreamed of, the stillness of the fall season mixed with the silent sound of falling leaves. The sights of the waving leaf as it fell peacefully to the ground below.
She dreamed of it because she wanted to capture it. There was no describing, in words the beauty of the fall season. It was her favorite, especially in mid-October when the leaves realized they would loosen from their home in the tree. The clinging no longer strong enough and the light carry and fall to the coldness below. It described her life in a nutshell.
If you google the best fall foliage in America, the first state to always come up is Vermont. Olivia felt a strange connection to Vermont. She had never visited the state. No matter what, though, every time she used any source to find the perfect foliage to paint, the state of Vermont was on the top of the list.
Olivia Pope, age 30, was beautiful, talented, and depressed. She lived a life of seclusion beginning 2 years ago, when tragedy struck. She halted her nursing career, halted her social life, and just shut down. Her only source of closeness was with her parents, Eli and Maya. They had raised her well, letting her explore her dreams and sending her to art school and helped her through nursing school.
She was one step shy of being a doctor and decided against more years of rigorous work, so she stopped just with enough education to become a licensed nurse practitioner in general medicine.
So, Olivia went about her life in her small apartment in a New York City brick building. She lived a subway stop away from the hospital she used to work in. She never went back there, not even to tell them in person that she quit.
Olivia was to set out on her mission early tomorrow. An October morning, it was the first thing she was looking forward to in 2 years.
She placed her bags in the back of her car. She grabbed the bag her father had just given her and put it in the back. She never practiced medicine after that dreadful night, but she accepted this gift to tell herself she had to move on.
The next morning, she woke up early. She took a look around her apartment, having packed everything she would need, and headed out the door for her lonely, yet life changing adventure.
She put her tea in the cup holder and put her picture of Derek above her on the sun visor. Derek, her fiancé, the man she vowed to spend her life with. Derek, her high school sweetheart and coworker at the hospital. Derek, her one and only, would always look over her now as her angel.
Four long years ago he had taken her to Lake George. He found the farthest cabin to stay at, far away from the hustle of the summer crowd, and brought her out to the moonlit lake. He got down on one knee and with the glow of the moon, he asked her to be his wife.
Derek, one step away from being a doctor of neurology wanted Olivia by his side forever. Although their marriage wouldn't be for two more years, he was grateful she said yes, and they could plan without rush.
Olivia was overjoyed. She had never opened to anyone like she had to Derek. They spent all their days together, he would be a doctor, she a nurse practitioner at the same hospital. They were perfect for one another, and when Olivia said yes on that summer night, she couldn't remember a time she was happier in her life.
They had plans to buy a small home, raise a family, and grow old together. A single gunshot put that dream to an end. Olivia never stopped blaming herself for Derek's death, and hence why she chose from now on in life, she would be alone.
They had both just worked a double at the hospital. It was a beautiful fall morning when they left hand in hand, looking forward to several hours of sleep and togetherness. Derek took the longer way back, letting Liv take in the fall colors.
Liv was a painter by memory. Everything she saw, she would store in her head, and paint it from memory. Derek was pointing out the trees that had already changed colors. He wanted this one painted, that one painted.
"Slow down there guy. I'll be painting until December if you keep this up." Liv laughed.
"Sorry, Babe, I just want our house decorated wall to wall with your beautiful art as we raise our children surrounded by its beauty." He smiled; he knew how much she loved to paint.
As they pulled up a block away from Liv's place, she asked Derek to stop for some wine. She needed the wine to unwind from the long hours she just worked and hadn't a chance to pick any up.
Derek happily obliged, leaned over and kissed her. "Anything for you baby." Those were the last words he ever said to her, and oh how Liv regretted ever needing wine in the first place. She never could drink wine again.
The liquor store, was the place of an early gang initiation. The mission was to rob the store. Derek wouldn't have been the target had he not tried to grab the gun from the young teenager.
After Derek entered the store, he was in the wine aisle when he heard the commotion. He saw two teenage boys look through the aisles. One screamed, "We have a person down here."
Derek tossed a bottle in the kid's direction, causing the kid to move and giving Derek a path to the front of the store. He saw another young boy pointing a gun at the clerk, demanding the money. The boy turned the gun to Derek who put his hands up.
Derek noticed the other two kids coming at him, and he lunged quickly for the gun. It was just instinct, and it cost him his life. He grabbed the young boy's gun toting arm.
His arm bent with the robber, as Derek tried to play the hero, the gun went off, hitting Derek in the heart, killing him instantly. With one pull of the trigger, Olivia's life was shattered, and her dreams were put on hold. They were two months shy of their wedding.
Olivia had heard the gunshot and commotion being so close. She noticed approaching cop cars. She saw the group of teens running from the store and the owner behind them screaming. He was on the phone with 911 and Olivia ran in the store with a very bad feeling.
Derek was lying in a pool of blood, dead eyes staring at the ceiling, and Olivia fell into the blood and tried to bring him back to life. She knew he was gone, saw the bullet hole in his chest, but tried nonetheless.
It took fifteen minutes for the officers to pry Olivia off Derek's body. She was soaked now in his blood and was sobbing as the owner of store tried desperately to comfort her.
This is what Liv was thinking about on her drive up to Vermont. Her mother was right. She hadn't taken off her engagement ring, still had the wedding rings secured in her house, and refused to return the wedding dress. Olivia couldn't let go and it was becoming unhealthy for her.
She needed this get away. She had dozens of canvasses, and when her vehicle entered the state of Vermont, Liv's mind took over already remembering all the beautiful fall foliage she was seeing.
The party began early. Marcus Walker was promoted by Fitzgerald Grant to run his enterprise in Japan. He would be leaving in shortly to begin his new career path, and Marcus was looking forward to it.
Fitz was locking things up for two weeks, having come to Vermont to close out some open accounts, then he was taking a private vacation. He was going somewhere in the Caribbean, to be alone with the sea and beautiful women.
Autumn, when the weather starts taking the warmth of the sun away, was not for Fitz. He liked warmth, having grown up in California and this east coast gig wasn't working out for him. Now, here he was in one of his owned resorts, having a party for his understudy.
In just a few hours, he would head towards his private jet, fly it himself, and get settled in the warmest climate he could find. But first, he needed to bid farewell to his good friend and kick the rest of the guys out of the resort before he could go.
It was late afternoon but the party had to be early. Marcus was leaving on a midnight flight to Japan, and Fitz was scheduled to fly to the Caribbean at 6. He needed these drunk bastards to go unwind somewhere else.
Jake came over to Fitz. Jake was the CEO of his Chicago and Minneapolis divisions. He put his arm around Fitz. "You send any hot Jamaican, Bahaman, Virgin Island, whatever babes that don't want you my way."
Fitz shook his head. "Stop being so disgusting. You're never going to get a woman if you don't learn to respect women."
"Says the man who has a different girl every week." Jake patted Fitz on his shoulder and they both turned as the door to the lobby opened.
Fitz was frozen, and Jake was cut loose. In walked the most beautiful woman Fitz had ever seen. He almost picked up his phone to cancel the fueling of his plane. He just wanted to be in her presence. She stood on the step of the lobby entrance and looked around. Having noticed the check in counter she walked towards it.
Blocking her path was Jake, and Olivia stopped short of bumping into his chest. She didn't even look up at him and took a step to the right to get around him, but he followed. "Hey, beautiful, look at me, my name is Jake, and I am here to teach you the meaning of love."
Olivia scrunched her face and again, without looking up, tried to make her way around this fool. She didn't even look at the guy, had no desire to even see what he looked like. She just wanted her key to the house to be on her way.
"Jake, why don't you go and gather the guys for a speech. Marcus wants to say a few words before he heads out." Fitz had come over before any problems began.
Jake nodded, never stopped looking at Olivia. "You'll look up pretty lady, you'll look and see how much love you have for me."
Liv turned her head to the side. She was anxious to look up after hearing Fitz's voice, because that voice caught her attention. It was calm, yet seductive, demanding, yet intriguing.
She saw asshole guy walk away and felt the presence of the voice man in front of her. "Sorry about Jake, he can be an ass, especially when he's drinking. I am Fitz, do you need help with something?"
Olivia finally looked up. She saw Fitz looking down at her with comforting eyes. They were gorgeous blue eyes and for the first time in a long time, Olivia had a feeling run through her stomach that she didn't quite recognize. She had to look away before she became hypnotized.
"I am just here for my key. Is there someone here to help?"
"I can help, I own the place, the worker is cleaning up some things for me. What's the number of the house?"
Liv looked back up at him, hesitant to tell him. He noticed her hesitation and he called over a young man. "Adam, could you take care of this beautiful woman please, she is looking to check in."
"Sure thing, Mr. Grant." Adam went behind the counter. Liv thanked Fitz with a nod of her head, unable to get caught up in his eyes and headed to the counter.
"I am sorry, I didn't catch your name." Fitz said as Olivia walked away.
"That's right," Olivia said, "you didn't." She turned to the clerk and gave the number to the house.
Adam looked at her. "How long are you staying? I see you have a running bill on the house."
"Yes, I do. I would appreciate you don't give those two men my information. I know one is the owner, but I would like some privacy." She grabbed the key. "I will be staying until Autumn leaves." With that she exited the lobby.
Fitz never took her eyes off her, and when she left, he of course went to find out more from Adam. He couldn't let the image of those sad beautiful brown eyes leave his mind.
In her car just before walking in the house, she was finally able to breathe. What just happened? Not with the first guy, she's dealt with them her whole life, the second guy, Fitz. He had her heart stopping in intervals.
She quickly grabbed a canvass and a paint set and jumped out of her car. She turned the lights on in the house, found the room she would be painting from, and set her canvass down. Before she let her thoughts cloud her senses, she opened the fresh set of paints and painted quickly for ten minutes.
She had to get the sight out of her mind and onto the canvass. When she finished, she looked at the painting and brought her hands up to her flushed cheeks. What's going on Olivia?
She stared at the variety of trees she painted, the ones she saw on her drive in. They had red, gold, and orange leaves, however, the road she painted them on was empty. Gigantic, in the middle of the canvass, in between the lines of trees were a pair of ocean blue eyes. Olivia just stared at them, they were the eyes she just saw, Fitzgerald Grant's eyes had clouded her thoughts of the fall foliage and had now become part of her painting.
She slid down to the floor against the wall and began to cry. She was holding her face in her paint stained hands. Maybe this get away wasn't such a good idea at all.